by Cee Bowerman
I had heard the venom spew out of her mouth that day in the bookstore, and luckily the video that Lena had taken that day was part of the evidence in this trial. The young defense attorney had called it into evidence in the hopes that Lena’s laughter and words while she recorded the video would sway the jury to his client’s side. He talked about Lena’s anger and bitterness toward Nellie and tried to make the jury see that with the video.
I had been watching the juror’s faces when they saw the video though, and I could tell that the defense attorney’s plan had backfired. Not even one of them had cared about Lena’s words, but every single one of them winced when Nellie slapped the shit out of the police officer she had just crashed into.
The same had happened when the prosecutor showed the jury the crumbled bundle of papers Nellie had wanted Lena to sign, giving Nellie the house and all of her money. Those papers had blood smeared on them. Lena’s blood. The jury seemed to focus on that more than they did the plan for Nellie to get the money and house.
The bailiff called for all of us to rise before the judge came into the room, and I took that chance to glance behind me. I nodded my head at Clem and his brothers who were all a few rows back. Sam, Zeke, Kari, and Jace Duke were seated just down from them, and Kari shot me a small smile and a wave when she saw me glance at her. I smiled back, hoping beyond all hope that we had something to smile about when this day was done.
Of course, I had Lena, so my smile was there permanently. A little black corner of my soul, one that Lena’s light and laughter couldn’t quite reach, wanted to see Nellie pay for her crimes. I wanted her to pay with her life, but unfortunately, the death penalty didn’t apply to the shit Nellie had done. A life sentence was on the table though, and I wanted her to get that. And then, I wanted to become acquainted with a few inmates in whatever prison they stuffed her into, and I wanted to make sure that they had whatever they needed in exchange for making Nellie’s fucking life hell. Kale Forrester had assured me that could be done and told me he would take care of it. I’d known Kale for years and knew a little of what he was capable of. I had seen that dead look in his eyes when I told him of all of Nellie’s sins and words against Lena. Kale would take care of Nellie, that was for damn sure. If I had an ounce of sympathy for that woman, I would have cringed at the thought of what Kale could come up with.
But I didn’t have sympathy for Nellie. She had tried to have my Lena killed, had cut her leg so bad she might never be able to walk without crutches again. Nellie had watched Lena’s blood flow out of her body, and I really wanted to see that happen to Nellie. I would have to trust Kale to make sure that the punishment fit the crime.
As my gaze moved back over Kale, I saw a slight grin take over his face, and I nodded at him. Yeah. Kale was on it, and he was going to enjoy it.
There was a flurry of activity, and the judge walked into the room. After just a few seconds, he called for all of us to sit down. He flipped through papers and then spoke quietly to his bailiff for a minute, before he announced that the jury had come to a decision about Nellie’s fate.
I glanced over and saw Nellie wipe daintily at the corner of her eye with a Kleenex, and I rolled my eyes in disgust.
The jurors walked in, and I noticed that not even one of them glanced toward Nellie. I hoped that was a good sign. Once the judge asked for the verdict, the bailiff walked toward them and took a paper out of the foreman’s hand. He delivered it to the judge, and I saw the judge’s eyebrows raise as he looked over to Nellie and her lawyer. He nodded his head and then started to speak.
When the judge read the sentence, the crowd behind me went wild. My brothers, along with our friends who were there in the courtroom, were laughing and high fiving each other, happy with the sentence the jury handed out. The judge banged his gavel over and over again, calling for quiet, and after just a little bit, everything was back to normal in the courtroom.
Well, everything but the smiles on our faces, and the whispering I could hear around me. Nellie turned her head to look at me, and I smiled at her right before I blew that bitch a kiss.
✽✽✽
“Dadadadada!” I could hear Dylan yelling as I walked into the house.
“Dill Pickle, can you just say my name one time? Just once. I feed you, I bathe you, I have been awake with you damn near every night of your life, but do you call out to me? No. It’s all about your Daddy.” Lena huffed at our little boy who was sitting in his highchair, baby food all over his face. I watched her turn toward Bellamy and give her a sweet smile. “My Bella Boo, you’re going to say my name first, right? Say ‘Mama’, baby. Come on. You can do it.”
I saw Bellamy’s eyes move to the side, and the minute she saw me there she squealed, “Dadadada!” just like her brother had.
Lena turned around and glared at me.
“What can I say? They love me.”
“Well, then you take care of them! I’ve got to start dinner.” Lena growled as she used the kitchen table to push herself up out of the chair. I saw her wince, and I hurried across the room to sweep her up in my arms. “Put me down, Finn Conner. You have to let me walk some time.”
“I will. But I’d rather hold you close to me.” I tilted my head down to kiss my girl. When I pulled away, I smiled when I noticed that her frown was gone. “Let’s go out to dinner. Come on.”
Lena turned her head to look at the groceries she had already set out to start cooking. I could see her wavering.
“You know you want to go. Just say yes.”
“Yes. Put that stuff away while I clean up the kids?”
“Of course.” I sat Lena down in the chair she had just left and walked into the kitchen to pull out a clean washrag from the drawer. Once it was wet with warm water, I walked back over to hand it to Lena. “Let’s take them to see Aunt Shirley.”
“Yes!” I could hear the excitement in Lena’s voice at the chance to visit with her friend. “I need some peach cobbler. I worked hard today.”
“Good work out?” I asked her.
“My physical therapist is a demon who was spawned from the loins of Satan himself, but my hatred of her encourages me to get my workout done, so I won’t curse her too badly.”
“Is she coming over for wine and craft night tomorrow?”
“Yeah.” Lena grumbled. “She’ll be here.”
Lena’s physical therapist was a tiny little woman named Reba. In the seven months since Lena’s kidnapping, Reba had become a fixture in our lives. She saw Lena three times a week, and teased, cajoled and sometimes even yelled like a little drill instructor to get Lena to push her body through the pain, making more progress than the doctors had thought possible in the short amount of time Lena had been back on her feet.
Reba had become one of Lena’s closest friends. Well, except on days when Lena had an appointment. On those days Lena referred to her friend as all sorts of horrible things. Last week she had called her a swamp thing, and the week before that she was a scumbag. Reba took it all in stride though, and the two women were able to separate their friendship from their time at the gym.
“You know you love her.”
“Fuck that bitch.” Lena growled. “She told me to move my fat ass along today.”
I made sure Lena didn’t see even a hint of humor on my face, or I’d be just as much the devil as Reba was right now. I quickly turned around to the cabinet, picking up the perishables and putting them in the refrigerator for tomorrow’s dinner.
“Can I carry you to the truck, baby?” I whispered as I moved up behind her, leaning down to put my arms around her shoulders. I glanced up and saw the twins staring at us, both of them drooling and gnawing on their little fists.
“No. I’m fucking walking.” Lena said as she let out a big breath. “But, can you grab me some Tylenol?”
I kissed her on top of her head before I walked over to the cabinet above the sink. I shook out some pain relievers and then took them back to my girl. Damn, that woman was strong. After a raging in
fection that went all the way down into her bone, my girl had endured three surgeries and months of pain. But she still had her leg. That’s all she had begged of the doctor from day one.
“I love you, My Lena.”
“Love you too, Finn.” Lena tilted her head back and smiled up at me. “Did they give her the chair?”
“I wondered if you were going to ask.”
“Well, did they?”
“Nope. She got a total of thirty-five years, a mandatory sentence with no chance of parole.”
Lena smiled and nodded her head.
“Hell yeah.”
✽✽✽
“Maybe we should just pick up some food and head home. It looks like Shirley’s is packed, she won’t be able to even sit and chat with us.”
“Let’s just go in there anyway, maybe she’ll have a few minutes to come over and kiss the babies at least.”
I let Lena get out of the truck on her own while I put the babies into their little carriage. When Lena had mentioned it, I thought she was crazy. She had called it a pram and said it used to be the thing to have with an infant, and it would be perfect for the babies so they could snuggle up close together.
I wasn’t surprised that she was right. The twins loved it. Now that they were a little bigger and more wiggly, it wouldn’t be long before we had to switch to a regular stroller, but for now, sitting them down in the little rolling bed made them happy as clams.
By the time I finished with the kids, Lena was at my side, adjusting their little clothes so that they looked ‘just right’ when they went in to see their Aunt Shirley. Lena and I chatted as we slowly made our way to the door of the restaurant, and I was happy that she had been too busy walking to pay attention to the cars in the parking lot or the customers just on the other side of the glass inside.
I held the door open for Lena and she walked through and turned to make sure I got the pram through okay. Once she saw that we were inside, she turned around to look for Shirley and realized that the restaurant was filled with our family and close friends. I saw the smile on Lena’s face as I dropped down to one knee. She turned to look at me, and then looked down at my face when she realized I was on the floor.
“What …?”
“Milena Sullivan, My Lena, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
“Fuck yeah!” Lena shouted, grabbing my hand to pull me back up for a kiss. She threw her arms around me and sobbed into my neck. “Oh, yes, I want to be your wife, Finn. So much.”
I pulled back from Lena and held the ring at the end of her finger.
“This is my sister’s wedding band. They took it off her when she came into the hospital and I carried it around in my pocket. After I met you, I went to the jewelers and asked them to change a few things, to make it ours, but keep Bellamy’s spirit too. I wanted to propose to you with this ring. I think it’s only fitting that I ask you to wear it. You’ll be the woman I’m closest to, the one to share my secrets with and the one to help me raise Bellamy’s babies.” Finn reached up and wiped a tear from my cheek as he huffed out a breath. “I love you. Will you marry me, Lena?”
“Oh, Finn! Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you and be part of your family. I’ll be your best friend, the one you can talk to and never spend a night away from, and I’ll help you raise the kids and love them like they grew in my body.”
Finn slipped the ring on my finger and then I threw my arms around his neck. He kissed me passionately then pulled me in for a tight hug.
“I love you, My Lena.”
“I love you too, baby.” I whispered. “So much.”
The restaurant full of people clapped and whistled at her reaction, and I looked over to see tears in Shirley and Lily’s eyes.
“I went from having no family to having all of you, Finn. You helped give me this. Thank you.”
“No baby, you gave it all back to me. Me and my brothers and now the babies. You’re the sunshine in our life, the bright spot we gravitate towards. I love you more than my next breath.”
“I love you too.”
The End
Follow Cee on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter by finding @ceebowerman. Keep up with the latest character developments, teasers, discussions and book release dates.
You can find her other work in the series, Texas Knights MC and the series, Texas Kings MC.
All of Cee’s books so far are set in the fictional town of Rojo, TX, and any similarities to real people, places and events were unintentional.
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