by Brook Wilder
“We can’t stay here,” he said suddenly.
Melody turned to him with a wide-eyed questioning look.
“Where can we go? Bianca’s house…”
“Isn’t the only safe house that the Devil’s Martyrs have,” Christian interrupted, finishing her statement as he shook his head, his thoughts flying a million miles a minute. “There’s one that is never used. Hasn’t been for the past five years or so. Many of the crew members don’t even knows it exists. It’s only for emergencies.”
“Well, I think this qualifies,” Melody said with a wry smile.
He melted all over again for her. Christian still couldn’t believe how strong his woman was, how resilient, when she looked so delicate.
She deserved to feel safe, and he knew she won’t feel safe there anymore. Not when Enrique knew where he lived.
“I’ll have someone check in here in a few days,” Christian said as he jumped to his feet.
It felt good to be moving. Good to have a plan instead of just the empty restlessness that had filled him.
“Pack up what you need to, but keep it light okay? We can get what we need after we get there,” Christian told her as he moved around the small house, making sure the animals would be set for a few days on their own, and grabbing a few small things for them, mostly clothes and some food.
“Christian, I can’t find my phone anywhere,” Melody said as he walked back into the living room.
She had a small backpack already packed and ready to go.
“Don’t worry about it. We can get another one for you after we get out of here.”
He didn’t want her to have to be there a minute longer than they had to.
“Come on, sweetheart. Let’s get out of here,” Christian said, holding out a hand to Melody, and he was eternally grateful when she took it without hesitating.
They both climbed onto his motorcycle, Christian’s mind still working furiously. He’d have to call Hub when they got to the safehouse and let him know what happened. Hell, his father was still probably unaware that the altercation had even happened, or that Craig was in the hospital.
Christian felt another pang of guilt at the thought of leaving his friend, but it was just a drop in the bucket compared to what he already felt. He knew that Craig would be alright. It was Melody and the baby he was far more worried about.
His thoughts and emotions remained in a state of chaos as they drove. One hour turned into two, and they were nearing the third when Christian finally turned down the long, overgrown drive that led to the safe house.
It was a farmhouse much like Bianca’s, except it really was abandoned. As far as Christian knew, no one had been here in years, and as he parked the bike and stared up at the place he could see that the rumors were true.
The house looked like it was on its last legs, but there was no one around for miles and miles, and he knew they would be safe there, if only for a few days, while they got everything in order.
He helped Melody off the bike and went up to the front door. He pulled out the key ring his father had given him years ago, that had all the safehouse keys on it, and it only took him a few tries to find the right one.
Christian got the door unlocked, waving for Melody to walk in ahead of him before following her. But he only made it a step before running into her. She’d stopped dead still just past the threshold.
“Mel? What is it?” Christian asked in concern, but all it took was one look at the place for Christian to have his answer.
The place was a complete dump.
There wasn’t much there to begin with, but it looked like the place had been burglarized at some point over the past few years. It must have been some time ago because a fine layer of dust covered everything, but it still sent his heart racing in his chest.
“Just, stay here for a minute. I’m going to check it out and make sure everything is safe.”
“Hold on, Christian,” Melody said, slipping her hand into his. “I’m coming with you.”
Chapter 8
Melody clasped her hand tightly around Christian’s before he could take even a single step away from her. She was not about to be left behind in the creepy old house, standing there all by herself while he went and looked for… whatever it was he thought he might find.
No thank you. She’d had more than enough surprises for one day. She honestly thought that, if she had to deal with any more, she’d probably just crumble to pieces right then and there.
But she made sure to keep her face straight, not revealing any of that to Christian, as he set off to explore the old farmhouse.
When Melody had first walked inside, she’d been shocked by the state of the place. Chairs and tables were overturned, boxes had been knocked over and lights broken. Hell, even some of the furniture, though there wasn’t much of that, had been slashed as if by a box-cutter, leaving ragged tears in the dated, dusty fabric.
They walked through the house together, as Christian checked and double checked all the locks on every door and window, before they made their way back downstairs.
“Well, the good news is that it looks like no one has been here for a long time. A few years at least. The bad news is…”
Christian trailed off, grimacing as he glanced around the place and Melody could see the guilt flare once more in his bright blue eyes.
She tugged him around to face her, not stopping until he finally looked over at her.
“Hey, this isn’t your fault,” Melody reminded him gently. “There was no way you could have known the state this place was in or that we would have to come here on such short notice.”
Melody drew in a deep, steadying breath as she took in everything around her.
“Well, while we’re here we might as well do something about it,” she said, sending a small, stiff grin towards Christian.
She made her way into the kitchen, trying not to look too closely at anything. She opened the cabinet beneath the sink, shooing away cobwebs. Just as she thought. Whoever had broken into the house, more than likely teenagers looking for a good time and a way to ease the boredom of living out in the country, hadn’t been too concerned with messing with the cleaning supplies.
Melody grabbed the rubber gloves and various bottles of spray and cleaner and finally a few scrubbers that were tucked in the back. She pulled them all out and smiled up at Christian, the first time all day that she’d felt even a glimmer of humor.
“You feel like getting dirty?” Melody asked through her grin, surprising a bark of a laugh from Christian.
God, how she’d missed that sound!
He waggled his eyebrows at her.
“With you? Any time. Any place.”
“Well, how about right now, and… the bathroom?”
Melody’s grin grew wider as he grimaced but good naturedly took the cleaners and the extra pair of gloves as she handed the supplies over to him.
“You go ahead. I’ll get started in here,” Melody said, with a grimace of her own as she took in the sorry state of the kitchen. “No way am I cooking in here while it’s like this.”
Christian still hesitated, and Melody knew it was because he was afraid to let her down. He was worried because he wasn’t by her side when the attack happened, and he was afraid that if he wasn’t by her side now, something else would happen to her.
Although, what he thought would happen to her in that dusty old house she couldn’t begin to get, unless it involved inhaling a mouthful of dust and choking.
Warmth filled her at the look of concern on his handsome face, and before she could stop herself she was back up on her feet and walking towards him. She melted into his embrace as if they’d been doing just this for decades instead of just a few short months.
Melody kissed him. Soft and sweet at first, but then it grew into something so much more that it stole her breath completely away. He consumed her, had heat flaying her entire body with whips of pleasure, as his hands dug into her hips, pulling her even closer.
They were both breathing fast and ragged when Melody finally pulled away, her lips swollen and tingling with his kiss, as if she had stolen a part of her and kept it with her. He would always part of her now. She knew that.
“I’ll be fine,” Melody said after she’d had a chance to regain her breath and slow her racing heart. She shooed him on his way before he could act on the furious heat that she could see burning in his sapphire gaze. “I promise you. I’ll scream for help if something happens.”
“You better,” Christian said gruffly, taking a reluctant step back. He gave her one last smoldering, protective look before dutifully heading for the bathroom.
Melody just stood there for a moment, still rocked by the storm his kiss had kicked up inside her. She waited as he walked down the short hall, opened the door to the bathroom, and walked in, armed with industrial strength cleaner and a scrubber brush.
“Oh my god. This is disgusting.”
Christian’s words were muffled by the bathroom door, but his horror wasn’t at all. Melody shook her head, biting back a laugh and marveling that he could lift her spirits with just a few words.
And a soul searing kiss. Don’t forget about that.
Melody swallowed hard, sobering as she turned back to the kitchen and the mess that was waiting for her inside. The counters were coated with a thick layer of dust that had been caked with grease, and she was more than a little terrified to open up the refrigerator and see what was going on in there.
She decided to start with the easiest bit, wiping and sanitizing all the surfaces first, the worn kitchen table, and the island that sat in the middle of the room.
Melody threw herself into cleaning, grateful that the action was holding her thoughts at bay. And when memories of Enrique’s men storming into Christian’s house or pulling a gun on her, started to surface, she scrubbed that much harder until it went away again.
It became a pattern of sorts, almost a game. As soon as her thoughts started to tip back to what had happened, or her emotions started to freeze with that old familiar fear, Melody would roll up her sleeves and find another spot to scour until it shone, all the while imagining it was her own memories she was washing clean, her own terror that she was scouring away.
Melody lost track of time as she cleaned, just glad to have something to distract herself. To have something keep her mind and body occupied. But as the day wore on it became harder and harder to keep the memories and emotions at bay.
Each time they came, it was more of a struggle to get them back in the dark corners of her mind, where she could lock them away, but she continued to fight throughout the day.
Melody finished cleaning the kitchen but was still full of a restless energy that pushed her to keep moving, not to stop. Because she knew that, if she stopped, it would all crash down on her, overwhelming her completely.
She finished up the kitchen and moved on the living room, attacking it with so much gusto that she had dust bunnies and bits of fluff and stuffing flying up in to the air. She righted all the furniture, wiped down all the surfaces, and vacuumed every single thing that she could, filling up the garbage can twice over with all the trash and debris.
Christian was still tackling the bathroom as Melody made her way up the stairs to the single bedroom and attacked that with just as much anger and determination as the downstairs. Sheets and blankets and pillows all went into the washing machine as she wrestled with the mattress, flipping it over and sweeping it clean.
She replaced the mattress pad and all the sheets on top with the freshly cleaned ones. She even shook out the curtains before vacuuming the carpet as thoroughly as she could.
Melody threw open the closet doors and a scream erupted from her throat before she could stop herself.
Before she even had a chance to take a breath to let Christian know it was a false alarm he came bursting into the room, a broom held threateningly in front of him.
“What is it, Mel? What happened? Did you see someone?”
“Not someone,” she said, barely holding back a bubble of laughter. “Something.” She finished, pointing into the corner of the closet, right at the dust bunny that she’d mistaken for a mouse. “Sorry for the scream. I thought it was a mouse.”
Melody shrugged, embarrassed by her reaction.
“Don’t worry, I can vanquish anyone or anything that scares you, including dust bunnies,” Christian said, his mouth ticking up on one side into a lop-sided grin. He brushed out the ball of dust and cobwebs for her before looking so proud of himself that Melody couldn’t help but burst into laughter again.
But with each hitching laugh that broke free, it grew sharper and sharper, and before she could do a damned thing about it her laughter had turned into tears.
Christian’s expression grew concerned as he held her close and she sobbed against him. She had fought so hard to keep the memories away. To keep the fear and the terror and the taste of remembered pain far back into the dark corners of her mind where they couldn’t reach her.
But now they were all flooding back, every single one, and she couldn’t do a damn thing about it except hold Christian even closer as the storm raged inside her.
Shock still held her frozen after everything that had happened, and the only thing that could thaw her was Christian. Melody didn’t care about anything else.
She just needed him. Now.
Chapter 9
Melody fell into his arms, clinging to him as if her life depended on it. And in a very real way, it did. She was a storm, churning and tumultuous, drowning in the emotions that she’d fought so hard to hold at bay.
Christian was her only calm anchor in the ocean that was raging inside her, threatening to tear her apart. She knew that if she gave in to the fear and despair, she would never be able to put herself back together again. She would never be the same.
She kissed him then, her eyes squeezed tight to hold back the tears that tried to fall. She didn’t want to cry. She especially didn’t want to cry in front of Christian, who was always so calm, so in control of himself all the time.
And there she was, sobbing all over him. Melody forced the tears away, drowning them out with need and desire and a fire that Christian ignited inside her with every touch of his lips.
She angled her head, drawing the kiss deeper as she tore at his clothes, a sudden wild lust whipping her into a frenzy. Anything to hold back the fear, the panic and the pain. She would cling to anything that she could.
But, just as suddenly, Christian was stopping her. He held her wrists with his hands, pulling away from her touch. They stood there, locked just like that, for a long, tense moment. Finally, Christian eased his hold on her, gentling his expression as he reached towards her, wiping the tears away from the tracks they’d made down her cheeks.
Christian took her hand in his, moving slowly, gently, as if he was afraid to startle her, that she would just flit away like a tiny fragile bird. Melody almost snorted out loud at the image of her as a bird held in Christian’s hand, but if she was being honest with herself, she felt more than fragile. She felt brittle. As if one good push would have her cracking all the way down the middle.
She didn’t resist him as he led her down the stairs and towards the kitchen, all the while her hand clutched in his. Christian sat her down at the kitchen table first before he moved around, poking into various cabinets before he found two mismatched mugs, washing them, and filling them with hot water.
He came back a few minutes later with two cups of hot tea, and Melody couldn’t help but look at it dubiously.
“Where did you find this?”
“Don’t worry. I brought it with me,” Christian said with a small snort and then shrugged. “I wasn’t sure if there would be a coffee pot or not, but I figured this would be the next best thing. Sorry I don’t have honey or anything to put in it.”
“It’s perfect, Christian. Thank you.”
Melody blinked eyelashes that were still heavy with tear drops as she
breathed in the calming scent of the tea. She couldn’t make herself look up at Christian as she began to speak.
“I’m sorry for breaking down like that,” she said, still embarrassed about the whole thing.
Melody gasped. Christian was suddenly right in front of her. He grasped her chin in one of his big hands and gently turned her face towards her.
Nose to nose, Melody had no choice but to meet Christian’s eyes, and she could read the seriousness in them. At that moment, they looked as deep as the ocean and just as vast, just as mysterious.
“You don’t ever have to apologize for how you feel, Mel. You never have to be embarrassed with me. Not about anything.”
