The Second Time Around: a Hope Valley novel

by Prince, Jessica

  “You don’t need to worry about that. You’re not going anywhere, I promise. Now do what I said, okay? In the room, door locked, cops on the phone.” She hesitated for a moment before running into the room.

  I waited until I heard the lock click before pulling in a shaky breath and starting for the stairs.

  * * *

  Bryce

  I’d just stepped into the ratty, pay-by-the-night motel where I was crashing until I finished the job in D.C. when my phone started going off like crazy.

  Pulling it out of my pocket, I checked the screen and felt my stomach bottom out at the notification. Whenever the alarm I’d installed at the house was breached, a call automatically went out to the police and the guys at Alpha Omega, but I also set it up to send an alert to my phone. It was barely after two in the morning, and something—or someone—had shattered the back window into the living room.

  Turning on my heels, I headed straight to my truck and jumped in, gunning it out of the parking lot.

  I hit the button on my phone to ring Tessa’s, getting voicemail only a second later. “Goddamn it,” I cursed, disconnecting and trying again. I got the same thing three more times, and each time Tessa’s voice came over the line with that recorded message, my skin tightened.

  I’d just hit the highway when the phone in my hand began to ring. “Tessa, baby?”

  “You got Hunt,” I heard in my ear. “Just got the call your alarm’s goin’ off. You got any clue what’s goin’ on?”

  “Fuck. No. I can’t get Tessa on the phone. I’m in my truck now, but I’m two and a half goddamn hours out. I need you to get to my place as fast as you can.”

  “On it, brother. I’m five minutes away.”

  “Make it two, Hunt,” I said on a croak. “I can’t . . .”

  “Nothin’s gonna happen,” he stated, his voice full of determination. “I’ll call you as soon as I know what’s happenin’.”

  With that, he hung up. And I pressed the accelerator all the way to the floor.

  * * *

  Tessa

  Rounding the corner to the living room, the first thing I saw was that one of the big picture windows on the back wall had been shattered.

  “Charity! Come down here, girl!” Ava continued to shout as I made my way closer.

  “She’s not here,” I said calmly as I stepped into the living room. Ava was standing by the couch, a twitchy, scraggly-looking man I could only assume was her boyfriend was just inside, shifting from foot to foot by the balcony door.

  Both of their heads shot around to me. “Bitch, you’re lyin’!” Ava snapped. As I moved closer it became obvious the woman had gotten high before deciding to give breaking and entering a whirl.

  “I’m not lying. She isn’t here. The cops are on the way, so I suggest you leave now.”

  “Ava, we gotta go,” her strung-out boyfriend insisted, becoming increasingly manic.

  “I’m not leavin’ without my kid!” she shouted at him before whipping back around to me, her stringy hair slapping her in the face. “I know she’s here. Me and my man been followin’ you for days.” Shit. “Now, you just take your stuck-up ass back up them stairs and get my girl.”

  I lifted my chin and stared the woman down. “No.”

  “Fuck,” Strung-Out Boyfriend clipped. “Ava, come on. We gotta move!”

  “Not without my Charity!”

  “Fuck this,” he spit back. “I ain’t goin’ to prison for your sorry ass.”

  “That’s smart,” I told him. “You should probably go now to avoid a felony.”

  He turned and darted out the door, leaving his girlfriend behind like the piece of trash he was.

  “What the fuck ever,” Ava barked. “I don’t need him. I can take care ’a you all by myself.”

  I curled my lips in disgust. “Somehow, I doubt that.”

  “You think you’re so special, don’t you, bitch? Livin’ in this fancy house, drivin’ that fancy car. You think you’re better than me? Think you can take my daughter away from me? Make her love you more?” With each sentence she became more and more wired. “She loves me!”

  “I’m sure she does,” I told her, inching a little closer. “But you’ve taken that love for granted. You’ve abandoned her and mistreated her over and over again, and I’m not going to let you keep hurting her.”

  “She’s my kid!” she screamed, her whole body beginning to shake.

  “And you don’t deserve her,” I shouted back. “It’s my job to protect her, and I’ll do that any way I have to. So, you’re taking her out of here over my cold, dead body.”

  A chilling, evil smile suddenly stretched across her face as she reached behind her back. The gun in her hand glinted in the dim lights of the living room as she lifted it, pointing it right at my chest.

  “Works for me.”

  * * *

  Bryce

  I’d been on the road for five minutes, five of the longest, most agonizing minutes of my life, trying Tessa’s phone over and over again before one of the calls finally connected and I heard, “B-Bryce?” followed by a broken sob.

  “Charity? Sweetheart, what’s goin’ on? Where are you?”

  “I-I’m in your room. The a-alarm started going off. Tessa m-made me come in here and l-lock the door. Sh-she gave me her phone to call the p-police.”

  “Good. That’s good, honey. Is Tessa with you?”

  The sobbing got harder. “N-no. She went d-downstairs.”

  My heart stopped beating. “What?”

  “I-I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. It’s m-my m-mom. She broke in. I-I’m sorry, Bryce.”

  Keeping my eyes on the road, I worked to steady my breathing as a cold, clammy sweat broke out across my skin. It felt like the world had fallen out from beneath my feet. Fear worse than anything I’d ever experienced clutched my chest in a vice grip, making it impossible to breathe. Each mile between Tessa and me was a special form of torture. But I had a terrified girl on the other end of the phone. There was nothing I could do to get to them faster, but I could try to calm her fears.

  “Listen to me, Charity. It’s okay. It’s all gonna be okay, all right? I need you to try to relax, for me. This is not your fault.”

  “But—”

  “No, sweetheart. Don’t argue. None of this is on you. But I need to know if you’ve called the cops or not, because if you haven’t, I need you to hang up and do that now.”

  “I-I called them.”

  “All right, darlin’. You’re doin’ so good. They’ll be there before you know it, okay? I need you to hang tight a little while longer. And do not come out of that room, no matter what. You understand?”

  “O-okay, Bryce.”

  “No matter what, honey. Say it for me.”

  “N-no matter what.”

  She still sounded scared out of her mind, but at least she wasn’t crying as hard. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. I promise.”

  “All right, Bryce.”

  “And Charity?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re gonna be okay. You’ll both be okay.”

  And I prayed to God to make that true.

  * * *

  Tessa

  I wasn’t thinking. The moment I saw the gun, my body went into action, launching myself the rest of the distance between us, crashing into Ava and taking us both to the ground.

  She let out a startled shriek, losing purchase of the gun in the fall. It skidded across the floor as we rolled around, fighting for the upper hand. I managed to shove her off, and as I crawled for it, she grabbed a chunk of my hair and yanked my head back at an awkward angle.

  “I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you!”

  I let out a pained cry but didn’t stop fighting, not for a second. My whole body had been shot with adrenaline, drowning out the fear that was coursing through my veins as we both struggled to get to the gun.

  I reached out, kicking my legs to get her back as my fingers wrapped around the handle of the wea
pon, but before I could pull it back, she dragged her nails down my arm hard enough to draw blood.

  I screamed as fire raked up my arm, losing my grip as she grabbed my shoulder and jerked me around to my back.

  Her weight came down on my chest, forcing all the air from my lungs. Everything began to move in slow motion. Wide, glassy eyes stared down at me. Her arm moved, bringing the gun she was holding back into view.

  “Told you I’d make you pay,” she snarled as the sound of the gun cocking rang through the air.

  Wrapping my hands around her wrists, I fought to keep her from taking aim as I struggled to breath. I was suddenly back in that car with the rain beating down on the crunched metal as lightning arced through the sky and thunder made the ground rumble. But this time I was all alone, and it was me pulling in final breaths.

  I pushed the horrible images from my mind, concentrating on picturing Bryce’s face. If this was it, I wanted him to be the last thing I saw.

  The gun went off, the shot louder than anything I’d ever heard. A piercing scream filled the room, but it wasn’t mine.

  A moment later, Ava’s weight fell off my chest, and I sucked in the air I’d been so desperate for.

  I felt hands pulling at me a second later and began to struggle anew, flailing and yelling as I battled against the hold.

  “Calm, darlin’. It’s okay. You’re okay.”

  The fight drained out of me at the sound of Hunter’s voice, and time started moving at normal speed again.

  Police poured into the living room, coming from all directions, as Hunter tucked a gun into the holster at his side and helped me off the floor.

  “W-what just happened?” My wide eyes bounced around the space. Ava lay on the floor, shouting and writhing in pain as police huddled around her. I couldn’t make sense of the organized chaos. I looked back at Hunter. “Did you shoot her?”

  “It was either that or let her shoot you. I stand by my choice,” he answered unapologetically.

  “Is she . . .?”

  “Just a shoulder wound, darlin’,” he said, answering my unasked question. “She’ll survive, but once her ass is in prison . . . I can’t promise she’ll be grateful about that.”

  The adrenaline seeped from my body, the crash so hard I panted, my chest rising and falling with each rapid breath as my body began to shake. I felt like I’d run a damn marathon, on an empty stomach, no less.

  “Come on, Tessa, you need to sit, take a minute to calm your nerves.”

  He began leading me toward the couch. Then it hit me. “Oh, God. Charity!” I bolted for the stairs with Hunter on my heels. I wrapped my knuckles on the bedroom door as soon as I reached it. “Charity, it’s Tessa. Open the door, sweetie. Everything’s all right. It’s safe.”

  The door was thrown open, and the wind was knocked out of me with the force of a thirteen-year-old girl barreling into my arms.

  She instantly broke down, her body wracked with uncontrollable sobs. And right there in the hall, I took us both to the floor and held on tight until she cried herself out.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Bryce

  It felt like a decade had been shaved off my life by the time I slammed my truck to a stop outside my house.

  Leaving the door hanging open, I ran at a full sprint toward the house. “Tessa!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Tessa!”

  “Back here.”

  That was her voice. Christ, I could have broken down in tears at the sound of it. Rushing toward the living room, I skidded to a stop at the sight of my woman and her girl curled up on the couch, holding on to each other.

  She looked up, giving me a sweet, serene smile. “We’re okay, baby.”

  I didn’t trust my eyes or ears at that point, so I bolted to the couch, going down on my knees so I could wrap my arms around the two of them. Only then did I truly believe they were all right.

  “Christ,” I grunted, squeezing them even tighter and burying my face in Tessa’s hair. “I thought I lost you.”

  “You didn’t, honey. I’m right here. Everything’s okay.”

  I pulled back, cupping Tessa’s cheeks, my eyes darting between both of hers just to make certain. She was fine. In fact, she looked so relaxed she might as well have been curled up with a book in her lap. My woman, so goddamn strong.

  Once I knew she was good, I let her go and shifted to Charity, taking hold of her the same way I had Tessa. Her blue eyes grew round at my touch. “You okay, darlin’?”

  “I—” She stopped, tears leaking from her eyes as she nodded. I brushed them away with my thumbs and let out a sigh of relief. “Thank God.”

  “Y-you’re not mad at me?”

  I let her go and rested back on my haunches. “Sweetheart, why would I be mad at you?”

  “It . . .” Her throat worked on a swallow. “It was my mom—”

  “Yeah, your mom, Charity. Not you. You did absolutely nothin’ wrong.”

  With that, she threw herself off the couch, colliding with my chest, her tiny arms squeezing so tight my ribs creaked.

  I held her close, stroking her hair as she drew comfort from me, content to stay like that all night if necessary.

  When I lifted my gaze to Tessa, she was beaming past the tears running down her beautiful face. “I love you,” she mouthed, pressing her hand with my ring on it against her heart.

  And just like that, everything in my world was right once again.

  * * *

  “You sure you want to do this, brother?” Hunter asked as he moved beside me through the hospital corridors. “This shit’s still fresh. You think you can see her without doin’ anything stupid?”

  I didn’t bother answering. It had been two days since Tessa was attacked, and I still couldn’t close my eyes without the worst-case scenario running through my head.

  I had to do this. I had to look that bitch in the eyes myself to confirm my woman was safe.

  Stopping in front of the hospital room, I looked to Fred Duncan, the officer standing guard at the door, and tilted my chin up.

  Silently, he gave me a nod before moving to the side to grant me access.

  Stepping into the room, I slammed the door closed behind me and flipped on the lights. The waif-thin woman in the bed shot awake and jerked up, hissing in pain and grabbing her injured shoulder.

  It took a second for her eyes to adjust to the light, but once they did, she narrowed her furious gaze on me. “What the fuck are you doin’ here? You aren’t supposed to be in here.”

  I moved quick, closing in on the bed and ripping the call button out of her hand before she could push it.

  Ava Winslow looked like death warmed over. Her skin was sallow, her cheeks were sunken, and it looked like she hadn’t bathed in days. Whatever she’d been on when she’d decided to break into my house and terrorize my woman and girl had long since worn off, and by the shakiness in her limbs, I knew she was going through withdrawl.

  “You’re fucked,” I hissed, bending at the waist to get in the woman’s face.

  Her eyes bugged, and I could see the fear clear as day. Good. I wanted her to be scared.

  “Talked to the DA this mornin’. You’re goin’ in for attempted murder, child endangerment, and a whole hell of a lot of other shit that’s gonna make goddamn sure you don’t get out for a long fuckin’ time.”

  “Fuck you,” she snarled, bravado pasted on her face, but I saw right through it.

  “I’m gonna call in every favor I can, collect on every marker owed to me, to make sure every single day you’re inside is more miserable than the last. You won’t be safe anywhere, you hear me?”

  “Y-you can’t do that,” she whispered.

  “Already did, bitch. No matter what you do, you’ll be lookin’ over your shoulder for the rest of your pathetic life. And you’ll do it knowin’ me and my woman are givin’ Charity a life you could never give her.”

  She began to rant and yell as I stood tall and turned on my boots. The door closed on
her screams of rage, and when I looked over at Hunter, his lips were twitching with humor. “You feel better now?”

  “Fuck yeah,” I grunted. With that task done, we headed back down the hall and out of the hospital. “Haven’t said it yet, but thank you. What you did the other night . . . I’ll never be able to pay you back.”

  Because of him, Tessa and Charity were safe. Not only had he gotten there in time to stop Ava, but he’d also caught her tweeker boyfriend running from the scene and incapacitated him before he could escape. Now they were both going down on serious felonies.

  “Nothin’ to pay back, brother, you know that. I’ll always have your back, no matter what.”

  Stopping at the side of my truck, I looked across the bed and studied my best friend closely, seeing the sincerity shining in his eyes. “Still, doesn’t mean I’m not gonna try.”

  Hunter shook his head on a laugh. “Fine, if you’re dead set on payin’ me back, there’s a forty-year-old bottle of Scotch I’ve had my eye on for a while. You can start there.”

  “Deal.”

  With that, we climbed in my truck, pulled out of the parking lot, and started for home.

  Where my wife was waiting for me.

  Epilogue

  Tessa

  Thanksgiving

  It was straight up pandemonium at Hope House. And I was loving every second of it.

  Diana, Lily, Briar, and I, with the help of several other volunteers, had prepared a full-on Thanksgiving feast with enough turkey, stuffing, and sides to feed everybody—including the huge Dixon men.

  Everyone was sitting down, loading their plates. We’d lined up all the tables, making one long one so everyone could eat together, and there were so many different conversations happening that it was hard to hear a word being said. But I didn’t care one bit. I’d always wanted a family; I just never in a million years thought it would be one this big.