Forever Mine

by April Zyon

  “But why? That I know of, I haven’t done anything wrong. I haven’t made any enemies.” She didn’t think so. Then again, she was a strong supporter of women’s and children’s rights, too.

  “Athena, sweetheart, you have the mob watching you because of the shit your dad pulled. You have a very large following of enemies right now. I’m not taking a chance with you, not given what I’ve seen over the last few years when it comes to anything to do with the mob. They do not fucking mess around.” Tugging on her hand, he led her out of the house and toward his Mustang.

  She grinned. “What I wouldn’t have given when we were in school for you to pick me up in Eris, and now you are walking me out there to get your bag. Mercy.” Heavens, she would have loved that.

  “We could go for a drive later if you’re interested. Hell, I’ll even let you drive her. And for the record, no, I’ve never let anyone drive her besides myself. Not even my father was ever behind that wheel.”

  “What, seriously?” she asked with wide eyes. Once they were at Eris, she leaned against her and looked up at him. “You do know the whole saying that they had in school, right? That if you got a girl into the Mustang, she was going to get seriously lucky? So does this mean that I would get lucky with you?” God, she wanted to get lucky with him. “And I forgot all about the mob, gosh bless it.”

  “I do know the saying. Joshua was the one that started it. Fucker,” he muttered. Unlocking the door, he grabbed out a large duffel bag, and then leaned against the door once he’d shut it. “Not a single female, besides my mother and sisters, has ever been in this car. Used to really piss off the cheerleaders when they didn’t get rides home. They were way too desperate for my taste. But yes, if you are lucky enough to get into Eris, you will be getting very lucky.” Martin leaned in and lowered his voice.

  “Good,” she said. “I’m glad.” She didn’t speak until he was there at her side again, then added, “Although you should know one thing first. I’ve never… I mean…” She could feel the heat of her blush staining her cheeks. “I never had anyone that I wanted to do that with other than you.” There, she said it. Plain and simple.

  Chapter Five

  He was staring at her. Dropping his bag, he moved so he could brace his hands on the car on either side of her, bracketing her effectively. “For clarity’s sake here, I’m going to have to ask you to repeat that, Athena. If you wouldn’t mind, please.”

  Athena looked at his neck, the thump of his pulse as he spoke to her. “I.” She licked her lips that were suddenly very dry. “I’ve never…not once have I…no one was you,” she muttered, her words a rapid jumble. “I’ve never had sex, made love, none of that. I’ve never wanted to have that without there being feeling, and the only feelings that I ever had for someone were with you.” She knew he was the one and only man she had ever loved.

  His lips were moving, but no sound was coming out. And he had a slightly glazed look on his face. She’d obviously shocked him. “Holy shit,” he finally got out. Blinking, he pinned her with a serious look. “What if I’d never come home?” he asked quietly, leaning in closer to her.

  “Then I never would have.” She shrugged. “I know that it’s an oddity, to be sure, but my mom told me before she died that one day I would know who the one meant for me was. She told me this, but I had already known it was you. I know that’s very unlike the scientific being that I am, but I believe fully that there is only one person that’s meant to be with you. Some people are lucky enough to find that person. Some people have to go many lifetimes to find that person. I found you. I’ve known you since that rattlesnake scared my horse when I was five and riding with your sisters. I knew then that you would be the most important person ever in my life. Why would I go and do something with someone else when you were the only person that I had ever wanted?” Hell, he had even been her first kiss. God, she was a weirdo.

  “Holy shit,” he said again. He pulled her into his arms suddenly, hugging her close to him, and she could feel him shaking his head. “That is amazing, sobering, and downright humbling. You are way, way too good for me, Athena. Which obviously means I need to seriously step up my game if I’m ever going to be good enough for you.”

  “You are the man that I need. You are the man that I’ve always needed. You are who you were supposed to be. You’ve always been good enough for me. You’ve always been incredible to me, for me. So please don’t think that you aren’t good enough because then I might have to hit you.” She instead hugged him, holding onto him tightly.

  “Athena Rhodes! You don’t have a violent bone in your body. Where is this sudden streak of hostility coming from?” he asked. Pulling back slightly, she could see the teasing grin on his face.

  “It’s coming from you saying you aren’t good enough for me.” She grinned up at him as well. “You’ve always been more than good enough for me. You are an amazing and incredible man.” Same word, same meaning, but she needed him to see it.

  “I know what you’re doing, sweetheart. I’ll let you have this one because you’re too beautiful to argue with.” Pressing a kiss to her lips, he drew back a moment later. “Let’s get inside so I can call the family. Then I’ll check your kitchen, clear it, and you can make some drinks. It’ll be a while before we can settle in for the night, unfortunately.”

  “Crap, okay.” She sighed. “Your family will want to come out here and help you install the new security system, won’t they? If so, I should likely put on something more than just coffee or tea, huh?”

  “They won’t be coming out tonight. It’s easier to do that sort of work in the daylight, especially since we’ll need to turn off the power so we don’t fry ourselves in the process. Frank will definitely come out, since he’ll be the one getting the gear. Even for him, it’ll be a stretch to have it by morning. Brant will likely tag along as soon as he realizes Frank’s up to something. But yes, when they descend upon your house, having snacks would be a good idea.”

  “I will put on one of my breakfast casseroles then for the morning. That way I don’t have to worry about it. Thank you. For everything. For coming home, for telling me that I wasn’t the only one who was feeling these things. For making me see that we could have a life together?”

  “That last part sounded like a question,” he commented. Bending, he grabbed his bag, and then tugged her toward the house once more. “I don’t know what the future will bring, sweetheart. But I’d definitely like to have a future, a life, with you. It might not be perfect, might be a little stressful to start, but I think we can figure it out if we try hard enough. First things first, though, we need to get your dad somewhere safe, and get the mob off your back.”

  Crap, that fast she had forgotten about the trouble she was in. Taking a deep breath, she nodded. “You are right. Do I need to give you the information on where he is so that you can maybe send someone for him? Who can we send to put him somewhere safe? Should I go?”

  “Yes, don’t you worry about that, and definitely no. You are staying here where I can keep you safe, where they expect you to be, and where we need them to keep their focus.” Inside once more, he locked the door and carried his bag to the kitchen. Setting it on the table, he dug inside, pulling out a pair of latex gloves that he slipped on. “Now, look around and tell me what is out of place, what has been tampered with, and what you saw in here when you initially walked into the room.”

  Athena took a deep breath and looked around. She began to point out the areas where there was something moved. She began to tell him about the door, how she kept the curtains, how she ensured that everything was even and how it no longer was. After that was all done, they both had hot drinks in hand. Her tea, Martin coffee. “And then of course the cat food bowl.”

  Nodding, he took a sip of the coffee as he began to check the items she’d pointed out. He hadn’t let her use any of the tea that had been out and obvious. Martin had made her get one of the new boxes still sealed from the pantry, had even checked the kettle bef
ore letting her use it. He’d pulled a little kit from his bag. It looked like a shaving kit until he unzipped it and she saw vials, baggies, and a number of other items. He was dropping things into the baggies, adding things from the vials, and then would frown at whatever he was seeing. Eventually, he tugged the gloves off. “They definitely did something to your tea. No clue what it is for sure, but at a guess, I’m going to say it was a sleep agent since it’s not reacting to anything I’ve got with me. The cat was fed, nothing done to the dish or the food. Whoever was in here likely gave the animal something to eat to keep it occupied while he or she did their work. These, though, will give us a bunch of clues.” He was holding up another bag with a bunch of little bits of electronics in it. “They definitely weren’t pros. They didn’t even activate the damn things. That and leaving items out of place and feeding the cat tell me they were likely local area hires for a specific task. Why the drugs, I don’t know, and won’t until I have it tested properly to figure out what they were trying to feed you.”

  “That makes no sense, but…” She paused and then looked around. “My prescription pads.” She turned on her heel after putting her tea down and headed to her office. She unlocked a small cabinet and frowned. “Shit.” She looked at the empty interior. “My prescription pads that I keep here and some of my high profile files are gone. The files are all in code so they can’t tell who they are about, but they are out there all the same. Why didn’t I look here first?”

  “Hey,” he said from behind her. His hand came to rest on her back, rubbing lightly as she straightened up. “You had a right to worry about other things. Besides, the longer you were focused on what you could easily see, the longer they had to do whatever they wanted with what they took. You need to call the pharmacies around here and let them know the prescription pads were stolen. That you’ll be getting new ones, but until further notice, they need to call you about anything that comes in on one of your sheets. Or that you’ll be calling them with the prescriptions. Hell, I don’t know what to tell you on this one, Athena.”

  “I also need to file reports with the police department so that they understand that I’m not doing something illegal. I think that I should have a standing call before filling order. It would likely be best.” She hated that because it meant that she would be called at all hours of the day and night, but that was better than having someone out there writing prescriptions for God only knew what and doing whatever they wanted with the drugs.

  “Whatever you need to do, sweetheart. Though I’d put a cap on the hours,” he suggested. “They can call you up to a certain time. Anything beyond that, have them fill the order the following day if they’ve gotten your okay. No sense getting some pharmacy calling you in the wee hours of the night. Because those would be the ones I’d target if I had a prescription pad in hand—the all-nighters where the pharmacist on staff is exhausted and just wants to go home.”

  “That’s a very good point. Plus, I don’t want to be disturbed in the middle of the night because I’m ever so hopeful that I will have someone with me that will keep me all kinds of occupied and sleepy during that time. Think that will be possible? Certain someone?” She grinned.

  “Who, me?” he asked, playing innocent. “How bold of you, my dear. I’d be honored to keep you occupied in the middle of the night. I can’t promise you’ll get a lot of sleep. We have a lot of time to make up for, after all. I will let you get a couple of naps in here and there, though.”

  “I’m perfectly fine with not getting a great deal of sleep. I wouldn’t mind going for years without sleep if it meant that you would be the one keeping me up.” She was putting herself right out there for him. It was like a driving need in her that he knew exactly how she felt about this.

  “I doubt I could keep going that long without at least a nap myself. I promise to try my damnedest, though. Will that work for you?” Tugging her into his arms, Martin pressed a kiss to her temple. “You should call the police now, sweetheart. While you do that, I really, really need to call my mother. As it is, I fully expect some sort of ass-kicking in verbal form.”

  “Crap, yes, you need to do that.” Parting from him, she gave him one more look, then went off and placed her phone call to the local police department. She was suddenly very happy that the police chief had been changed when Eli Carver took over as mayor.

  She could hear Martin on the phone, and she was pretty sure she could hear Mrs. Carver tearing him a new one. “Mama, yes ma’am. Listen, Mama. Mama. Mama. For the love of God, Mama, will you put Frank on the phone, please?” He sounded absolutely exasperated, and when she looked over at him, he was running his fingers through his hair roughly.

  Athena moved to Martin and placed a hand on his arm. Giving him a squeeze, she nodded, smiled, and winked at him. “Tell your mama we will come over for dinner tomorrow? That way she will know that you are okay?”

  “Yeah, you heard that right, Mama. Yes, ma’am. Yes, ma’am. Put Frank on the phone already, would you please?” He rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath. Hooking an arm around her neck, Martin pulled her in close to him. “Hey, what? Yes, she was telling you the truth. Listen, I need you to do me a favor and get me a top of the line security system. I also need the best locks you can lay hands on by tomorrow, noon at the latest. The system, too. Yes, she’ll feed you while you’re here,” he said. Shaking his head, he looked down at her with a smile. “Not before noon. She’ll be calling in to work in the morning if I have any say in the matter.” He talked to his brother for a couple more minutes before hanging up.

  “I’m all for calling in and playing hooky, but I have a patient that I have to see at one. She’s a fourteen-year-old that’s been abused heavily by her father. Her mom moved her here and she’s in my care. I have to be there for her. I care for you like whoa, but she needs me too.”

  “Okay,” he said. “I have no problem with that at all, Athena. The rest, though, if you can, of course, push to other times. Now, what time do you need to be at your office to see the young lady in question?”

  “Her appointment is at one so I need to be there by twelve-twenty. I will call Bonita and have her reschedule everyone. She will be able to get in without me there, so that’s not an issue. She will take care of all of that. I will go in for my young patient and then won’t need to go back for a few days. Thankfully, most of my patients can be rescheduled without any trouble at all.”

  “Good,” he said with a nod. “We’ll get you there with plenty of time to spare. You might be a little ruffled, but I’m sure the young lady in question won’t mind. All right, I’m going to do a walk-through of the house and check all your doors and windows. Why don’t you go and jump into a hot bath so you can relax yourself a bit?”

  “Sounds good.” She looked at him once more and nodded. “Thank you. My home is yours. Feel free to poke wherever you want. And when you are done, you can come and join me?” she asked hopefully.

  “As long as you’re not into those weird girly bubbles, I will. I have a serious phobia about girly-smelling bubbles. It’s actually all Helena’s fault. Scarred me for life really. She was a truly evil sister,” he muttered. Making a face, he sighed and gave her a kiss. “Go bathe. I will be along as soon as I can. Where is your bedroom, by the way? Not that I wouldn’t find it eventually, but I like having a vague clue as to where I’m going when it’s as important as this.”

  “I don’t do bubbles. I don’t like strong smells. Our bedroom,” she said with a grin, “last door on the right.” There were two doors on the right—one was the linen closet and the other was her bedroom, a massive master suite that she had created as her retreat.

  Nodding, he squeezed her hand before letting her loose. “See you in a few.”

  Chapter Six

  Once the tub was full and she was settled in, Athena relaxed back. She could hear Martin up on the second floor rattling windows as he checked everything. When he got closer, she began to tense, and nearly leapt out of her skin when sh
e heard the bedroom door shut.

  Her breathing picked up pace when she didn’t hear anything else. He was in the bedroom, but not anywhere she could see him through the gap she’d left in the door. Then he was there, naked. Holy shit was he naked. Slowly, he came toward her, pausing at the side of the tub to crouch down and reach over to brush some of her hair back behind her ear. She was holding her breath as his eyes met hers.

  “Scoot forward,” he told her. Trailing his fingers slowly down her cheek, he squeezed her shoulder lightly.

  Athena scooted forward in the tub and watched him as he slid into the water at her back. Holy Jesus, the man was fit and beautiful. He was—good lord, he was hard all over that she could see. Once he was in the tub, he pulled her in closer to him. Her back was to his front and she relaxed. She let out a sound of appreciation while his hands moved up and down her arms.

  “I could become accustomed to this, Martin,” she told him honestly. “Having you holding me like this, sharing your baths with me, and so on. I like this, a lot.”

  “I think this is your bath you’re sharing with me,” he said softly. Pressing a kiss to her cheek, he squeezed her. “For which I’d like to thank you. I’m rather impressed you have something beyond the basic tub in here. I hate those things. They really aren’t good for anything.”

  “Well, considering I’ve always loved long, hot baths, I knew that I needed to have a large tub. When I saw this one, I had to have it.” The massive claw foot tub had been destined for the junk yard when she found it and had it restored. “Now it’s a very good thing to have since its large enough for both of us, right?”