Embracing Everly (29 page)

“I know the feeling. I’m so sorry, Ev, about everything. I wanted to tell you so many times, but I couldn’t.”

“So, I was a job?”

“Yeah, at first. Everly, I told you the truth when I said I slept around. I did until you. Dawson told me to stay away, but I couldn’t. Night after night watching you, spending time with you, listening to you sing. I think I fell in love with you all those times at midnight when you’d play, and I’d listen through my wall. I have never been in love before, and when you came home with those busted up knuckles, I panicked. I remember thinking holy shit, this worrying feels awful and if this is what love is well I don’t think I want it.” My hands slid down resting on her waist. “But, that’s the thing, love scared me enough to stay away, but I’m not scared anymore, Angel. As long as I love you, and you love me that’s enough to make me stay.” She popped up, using her hands to cage me in, hovering over me.

“I do love you and I understand why now. Dawson and I spoke. I’d like to think I would’ve been fine with you telling me the truth earlier, but who knows? I just want to forget it all happened and start over.”

“You’ve got a deal. Now give me those lips.” I smacked her ass gently. “I’m ready for another round.”

“What was that?” she asked, pulling away from my kiss.

“Probably Fuzz or Dawson, Ev. Don’t worry about it, we’ll be quiet this time.” I singed my lips to hers with a passionate kiss that had me ready for another round when a loud sound like glass shattering caused us to pull away from one another. “Angel,” I grabbed her robe, tossing it to her. “Get in that closet and don’t come out until I tell you to.” My head started pounding with fear, as I practically shoved her inside to keep her as safe as I could. “Don’t fucking come out, Ev. No matter what baby, okay? Here,” I told her, grabbing one of the guns from the dresser. “Take this.” I handed it over to her carefully not knowing if we could get out of this mess. “You use that if you need to,” I mumbled as softly as I could into her ear. I also shot off a quick text to Dawson with an SOS and grabbed my second gun.

She nodded her understanding. She was as pale as a ghost, and I hated frightening her, but Dawson or Fuzz would’ve made themselves known by now. “I’m going to sneak out the bathroom door and see what’s up. I’ll be back in less than five minutes.”

Damn it! Where the hell were Dawson and Fuzz when you really needed them? I took one last look as Everly shut the door, hopefully keeping her from harm.

FIVE MINUTES.
GET
a grip, Ev. Get a damn grip, girl.

Trying to shake the feeling that danger was lurking and fast approaching I placed the gun down on a shelf and rubbed my arms feeling scared and cold all of a sudden. I paced the small space, shaking my head, thinking about Mick and who the hell could be out there.

I waited, counting in my head. Sixty, Ninety, One Hundred and Twenty seconds had gone by and nothing. No noise. No Mick. No nothing. As quietly as I could I turned the knob and nudged the door open a smidgen to see. My heart dropped as an unknown man came into view, his diabolical sinister eyes stared into mine with a smug grin on his face.

“Forgot the window,” he sneered. “Don’t worry someone already has your boy. He should’ve pulled his gun first.”

Terror rattled my core knowing Mick was in trouble and possibly dead or kidnapped. So many things rushed through my thoughts.
Did I hear a shot? No, I didn’t.
I was in deep trouble as I read the black leather jacket. It wasn’t hard to tell who he was since his name tag read, Tank and Grim Reapers, telling me why they were here. My father.
Damn his job. If we get out of here, I am making him quit.

“What do you want?” I asked him trying to bide my time to think of a way out of this mess.

“Since Plan A failed, we had to come clean it up. We want you, pretty girl. We need to use that sweet little body of yours as bait for your old man. You see, he pissed a lot of people off—the wrong kind. So, your stupid fucking NARC of a dad made a lot of enemies in his line of work. I’m here to make it right. It’s payback time.”

“I’ll go,” I offered. I moved to the side to conceal the gun I had placed on the shelf. The tips of my fingers grazed it for a second unable to totally reach it without causing suspicion. A noise erupted from the other room gaining his attention long enough for me to grab it and tuck it under the waistband of my shorts. “If you leave him alone I’ll go. Just don’t hurt him.”

“Sugar,” he grinned a smile that showed he only had half of his teeth at the most. “You’re coming either way. And your boyfriend won’t be joining you.” His hand, which was smeared with what looked like grease reached out for me, as I backed up into the hangers, yanking my gun out and pointing it straight at his chest.

“Don’t move, or I’ll shoot you,” I warned praying to God I’d be able to do it.

“Now, you know as well as I do that you ain’t gonna shoot me.” He inched forward, his one hand slowly reaching behind him.

“You should take your own advice,” I quipped, pushing all my fear aside.

His smug grin reappeared as his hand moved faster.

“You should’ve pulled first.” The loud bang sounded a beat after I pulled the trigger. Tank clutched his chest as red blood seeped through his shirt. His shell-shocked face inched closer to me. The slight movement of his hand barely registered in time, but I saw it.

I fired again. He slumped to the floor, eyes wide open, and dead at my precision aim to his forehead.

“Everly!” I heard Mick screaming my name. Fuzz and Dawson burst into my room a few seconds before Mick, all three came to an alarming stop.

My gaze went back to Tank lying on the floor, blood pooling all around his dead body, then back to Mick, who was regarding me cautiously, stripping away rope from his wrists. “I had to kill him.”

Mick stepped forward, his hands held up in surrender. “It’s okay, baby, give me the gun.” He peeled the gun from my tight grip, tearful sobs ripped out of me as I ran to the bathroom.

I flung the seat back just to make it in time as I wretched and heaved into the toilet. Mick’s hands gripped my hair into one of his, keeping it from falling in my face. “Angel, you had to do it. He would’ve killed you.”

Once I was able to stop getting sick, Mick spun me around into arms and held me tightly in his. “Where the hell did he come from? How the hell did he get in?”

“The window. We forgot the window.” I shook trying to calm my nerves and slow my tears down.

“I shouldn’t have left you. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking, I just acted and ran out there.”

Fuzz and Dawson came in a few seconds later. Fuzz took one look at me, shook his head feeling sorry for me and left the room. “I’ll do clean up.”

“Sweetheart, you okay?” Dawson asked, pulling me into his arms. I nodded into his chest.

“I am now.”

“The cops will be here any minute. I feel horrible we weren’t here for you when you needed us.”

“Was there someone else?”

Mick ran his hand briskly up and down my arm. “Yeah, I didn’t even see him coming. Knocked me out and tied me up. Dawson got my SOS and made it here just in time.”

“In time?”

“I killed the other man, Everly. I had to do it, too. I thought he killed Mick.” Dawson was the one that answered.

I turned to leave the bathroom, but Mick held me steady. “Not yet. Let the cops take their pictures and Fuzz will clean the blood up as best he can.”

“Sit down, Ev.” Dawson kicked the seat down on the toilet. I sat, my head in my hands going over the events trying to keep my wits about me.

“My dad?” I asked.

Dawson smiled for the first time today. “This should be able to bring him home. I just need confirmation on the names of the Reapers that were left gunning for him.”

“Okay,” I breathed in and out steadily taking my heart rate to a normal beat.

“Mick? Will you stay in here with me?”

He bent down at his knees, tucking my long hair behind me. “Where else would I be, Angel? Where else would I be?”

4 weeks later…

EVERLY HAD BEEN
busying herself with ordering all new flooring throughout the bungalow. She swore she could still see remnants of blood, so I didn’t argue I just paid for it all.

“Mick, which color do you like better the ash or the Brazilian teak?”

“Babe,” I wrapped my arms around her waist, kissing her neck when she tilted it to the side for me. “I love whatever you want. Get whatever you think you can live with for a long damn time because we are never leaving paradise.”

As soon as the shooting happened we got word her father was free to come out of hiding. The two that came back were prospects that had got patched in at the last minute that we didn’t know about. Their names were never brought up, and that was how they slipped past us. But it didn’t matter since they were both dead.

We also decided that Everly could write from anywhere, and I could do the same as long as we were together. I never wanted to touch the family money, but I needed a job since I resigned from Dawson’s company and wanted to open a place of my own down in the Keys. Since there wasn’t much calling for a bounty hunter down here, I decided to open a small bar/café where my soon-to-be wife would be able to sing whenever her beautiful heart wanted to.

Yes, I said wife. I asked Everly to marry me one week after all hell broke loose. My love was so strong for her that I knew without a doubt that she was the one for me. My soul mate, as she liked to call me. We have a little beach wedding coming up next week, once everyone could get their asses down here to celebrate with us. Her father gifted us this house as soon as he saw how happy she was when he finally got to see her. I offered to pay for it, but he flat out refused me. And for once, he gave Everly his full approval on her choice in men.

Everly’s dad retired early from the DEA and took a job with Dawson in order to settle down and get his bearings. He was tired of running and wanted some place to call home. Dawson was thrilled to have his best friend back as his partner in crime. You couldn’t wipe that smile off his face even if the world were coming to an end. And Everly was happy to have her dad back, period.

We found out more about Billy’s older sister, Faith, the one I saw him nailing at the strip club was the pharmacist, local in North Carolina and our little Charlie had been very convincing of his love for her to get her to steal for him. She was able to manipulate the computer system. Since she had a stellar work record, they never suspected her until Charlie got busted, and then they realized who their villain was. She came clean with the hopes that turning herself in when Billy called to warn her that Charlie would be going down. Poor thing believed the police and thought she’d get a smack on the wrist if she gave up the dealer. She’s been sentenced to one year in jail, three years probation and over $2,000 dollars in restitution. She’d probably be out in under a year. Charlie pretty much got the same deal, but one extra year in jail, only he wouldn’t be making it out. We had seen to it that he’d meet his maker during a bad timed fight in the food hall sometime this year. As for Billy, no one would be able to recognize him. Dawson, and I made sure of that when we beat the shit out of him and dumped his ass and left him for dead. Who knows? Maybe he was.

Since I moved down here, well never left, but that one time to take care of Billy, I had woken every day the same as before, embracing Everly. But, today was our wedding, and I was oddly calm. I always thought if this thing called love ever caught up with me and I married someone I’d be nervous, scared of the future, but I wasn’t. I was the opposite of it all. I was content, happy, calm, excited, and anxious to make her mine. To fill that spare room up with a baby even though we agreed to wait a year before trying. After a big debate, we thought it best to spend one year alone, unwilling to share our love with anyone else. Maybe it was selfish, but we lost too many months and too many things that could’ve gone wrong, but thankfully didn’t. So, we were waiting.

Sara, my new neighbor, who if I was being honest was a bit of a pain in the ass, but my Angel loved her, so I loved her. She was helping Everly with everything; the cake, the flowers, her dress and the ultimate beach setting. I was standing on the beach, no shoes, dressed all in white linen. Sara and Everly strung lights from one palm tree to another, and Tiki torches lit up the night. A few rows of chairs, a white carpet made from crepe paper ran through the middle. The smell of flowers mixed with the scent of the ocean was something I didn’t think I’d ever forget.