Home for Christmas: New Adult Holiday Dark Suspense Romance (11 page)

“She’s gonna be dead in a minute.” Brody was smiling. She could hear it in his voice.

“You’re going to jail, you motherfucker.” Nick yelled down the hallway. “No matter what happens, you’re going to fry!”

“Oh I don’t think so.” Brody’s gun was drawn and up. “Not me, boy. This is an easy fix. A drug deal gone bad.”

Two shots rang out in succession and Ginny stared in horror as both Tim and Steve dropped to their knees on the dirty tile. Tim’s face was a mask of shock as he fell backward, staring up at the ceiling with wide, dead eyes.
He shot him. He shot them both!

Steve Santos fell sideways, not backwards. Ginny couldn’t see his face, only the bloody mess of the man’s head. Part of her was floating away. She could almost see herself, dressed in panties and a bra, choker chain around her own neck, at Brody’s feet like some human pet. It would have been kind of comical, really, if it wasn’t so awful. She was up on her knees like a dog begging for a bone.

She heard Nick cry out. Had he been shot too? Ginny felt herself go cold at the thought. She couldn’t let anything happen to him. It would be all her fault if it did, and even if she died her tonight, living with that thought, even for a moment, was too painful to bear.

Ginny threw her head back with as much force as she could, letting out a scream she hoped everyone in a five mile radius could hear. The back of her skull connected with Brody’s crotch and he screamed too. It was the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard in her life, even if her head was exploding with stars.

“Nick! Nick!” Her voice was hoarse but she got the words out as Brody went to his knees behind her, groaning. It gave him just enough time, just enough of an opportunity.

Nick acted so fast it was a blur. Ginny’s vision was fading, the lack of oxygen to her brain finally catching up to her. She gasped on her hands and knees as the men wrestled, but when she glanced over, she saw it was Brody on the ground. Brody was the one on his back on the dirty kitchen floor, with a gun pointed at his head.

Then she heard the sirens. Nick really had called in backup.

“Sounds like the calvary is here, Boy Scout.” Brody gave him a slow, spreading smile.

“Yeah.” Nick glanced over at Ginny. She was on her side on the floor, two dead men behind her. Her throat hurt and it was hard to breathe. Things were fading in and out. “But it’s too late for you.”

She saw the flash of the Nick’s gun before she was gone, floating again between the stars.

“It’s over, Ginny. It’s all over.” It was Nick’s voice, his arms around her, that brought her back. She looked up at him in wonder, disbelief.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. Her voice was really gone now. “I promised I wouldn’t leave…”

“You’re not going anywhere else without me.” Nick kissed the tears on her cheeks. She hadn’t even known she was crying. “Not ever again. You hear me?”

She couldn’t do anything but give him a faint, fading smile and a nod.

That was perfectly okay with her.

“Merry Christmas.”

She felt a delicious shiver run through her at the sound of Nick’s voice, his breath in her ear. She opened her eyes in a slant of morning light, squinting, stretching and yawning. She turned and saw he was lying next to her.

“Merry Christmas,” she murmured—her voice was back—sitting up. The covers fell to her waist and she pulled them back up, giving him a little smile.

“I think Santa was here.” He was admiring the curve of her hip, she noticed. “But let’s get some breakfast first.”

“What time is it?”

“About ten,” he said. “Eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage?”

“Yes,” she replied without hesitation, and he laughed. “It’s really ten?”

She found the shirt she’d been wearing the night before and pulled it over her head.

“Do you have somewhere to go?”

She stood, heading toward the door. “Actually, yes.”

He raised his eyebrows at her but she just smiled and shut the bathroom door, starting the shower. Once she was clean and dressed she looked at her face in the mirror. Her wounds had healed somewhat, her face no longer full black and blue. The bruises had faded to a streaky sort of sunset. 

She made her way downstairs and found Nick in the living room in front of the lit fireplace, drinking coffee and staring at the Christmas tree.

“Pretty,” she remarked. It was a real tree. She loved the fresh pine scent as she passed and sat down opposite him on the couch.

“Yes,” he replied, looking at her and not at the tree. “Do you want to see what Santa left you?”

He smiled over the rim of his cup at her.

“Santa hasn’t left me gifts since I was six.” She laughed, and it was a bitter sound. “But I really would love breakfast.”

Her rarely appeased stomach was growling quietly.

“Come on, go look.”

“So I guess you’ve been busy,” she mumbled. “I didn’t get you anything, you know. Didn’t exactly know you were going to play knight errant to my damsel in distress.”

“Fat man. Red suit. Ho-ho-ho.” He grinned. “No worries. Just go ahead and look.”

“Nick...” she started, frowning.

“Just look,” he gently urged.

He encouraged her to retrieve her gifts from under the tree. She was like a fastidious child on Christmas morning, easing open the wrapped edges, folding the bright paper into careful squares. She relished every moment. He had bought her a drawing set, a book, pencils, several drawing pads, erasers, sharpeners, even a triangle and a blending stump. It was perfect.

“Thank you!” She leapt into his lap, straddling his long, thick thigh, and hugging him tight, feathering kisses over his cheek.

“Told ya. Santa left it.” He captured her lips with his. Her bruised mouth was still sore and she winced but managed to kiss him back.

“I’ve been waiting to do that for hours,” he whispered into her hair. “Your little mouth finally relaxes when you’re sleeping, did you know that? You look like an angel. Now, are you ready for breakfast?”

She didn’t respond, she couldn’t. Instead, she nodded, her arms going around him. She didn’t know if she could take any more kindness. There was a thick lump in her throat that she was trying to swallow. She followed him to the kitchen, finding exactly what he had offered on her plate—bacon, sausage, eggs, and pancakes.

“You saw me, didn’t you?” she asked after he had retrieved ketchup for her eggs. Less than a week of eating real food in a real kitchen and she was rediscovering a thing called preference. “You know I was sleeping at the video store?

They hadn’t talked about, not yet. There’d been lots of questions, from police officers in both towns, from doctors and nurses, but Nick hadn’t asked her. Not once. It was almost as if he thought, by asking, she might disappear. She’d talked to Maggie—she knew what had happened, but Ginny hadn’t let her come see her. She was afraid the boys would get too scared if they saw the bruises on her face.

“Well, I knew you were homeless, probably a runaway,” he explained logically, pouring syrup. “I knew you needed help. I also knew if I approached you too fast, you’d just run again, and I didn’t see how that was helping you.”

She listened, chewing thoughtfully.

“But when I saw you rummaging through the garbage for food... God, Ginny, I couldn’t stand it. So I started leaving you things.”

She nodded. “The Scrunchie?”

“Your hair is in your face all the time.” He smiled, looking sheepish.

They ate in silence for a while and Ginny sipped her orange juice like it was liquid sunshine.

“What I don’t understand...” he said, his voice changing a little bit as he mopped at his eggs with a piece of toast, “is what you did with the money?”

Her heart lurched in her chest and she covered it with her hand, sure it was going to leap out. Her face burned.

“You saw that too?” she whispered, although he had been clear, unmistakably clear. The look on his face was still pained, torn.

“I saw it all happen.”

The silence roared between them. Ginny thought she had forgotten how to breathe for a moment.

“When you didn’t come back, I thought you must have used the money to skip town. I was as surprised as I’ve ever been when I saw you there that night. I sat here, knowing I could make one phone call and do the ‘right’ thing...” He sighed, rubbing his fingers over his eyes. “I don’t know what the right thing is anymore.”

She didn’t know what to say. Despite the delicious meal she had just eaten, she had an awful taste in her mouth.

“I didn’t want it,” she confessed. “I didn’t know what to do with it. If I returned it, I was afraid I’d get caught. If I kept it, I was a thief.”

“Yeah.” He nodded.

“Do you really want to know where it went?” she asked him, her heart aching wide open.

“I don’t know... Do I?”

She reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “Will you take me somewhere?”

“As long as it isn’t a bus station,” he said, his heart in his eyes.

She shook her head and smiled.

* * * *

“Oh my God, your face! Is this Nick?” Maggie stood at the door in her nightgown, although it was almost noon, the boys chasing each other around inside the apartment behind her.

“Merry Christmas to you, too.” Ginny smiled. “Can we come in?”

Maggie frowned, then hugged her, pulling her into the apartment, away from Nick. He stood in the hallway, hesitating, waiting.

“Come on.” Ginny reached her hand out for him.

Maggie did her wide-eyed “What is this?” look behind Nick’s back.

Ginny called to the boys. “Hey, guys, I’d like you to meet my friend, Nick.”

A chorus of two screaming, “Aunt Ginny!” surrounded them in an instant. Ginny swept them both up, groaning under the weight.

“You guys need to stop getting so big. Sean, Michael, this is Nick.” She made brief introductions, because they were already asking their mother if they could now open their presents from Aunt Ginny.

“Let them.” Ginny smiled, pulling Nick over to the couch to sit.

The boys opened their respective packages with the same attitude they did everything, Sean tearing in without a second thought, Michael carefully lifting each taped edge.

“X-Men!” Sean exclaimed, flipping through the pages.

Maggie stared over his shoulder. “Oh my God, Ginny. Did you draw these?”

Ginny nodded, watching Michael’s face as he goggled at Sean’s book, and noticed he was edging his package open much faster now.

“You did?” Nick looked stunned. “Hey, buddy, can I see that?” he asked Sean, who reluctantly handed it over.

“I got Spiderman!” Michael exclaimed, delighted.

Nick glanced over at Michael’s booklet of drawings, too, shaking his head in wonder. “Man, these are really good,” he told her, leafing through them.

“That’s my sister, the artist.” Maggie smiled. “I keep telling her she needs to do something more practical, but she loves drawing so much. She should have used the money she gave me as the deposit on this place for school, but nooo...”

Maggie looked fondly at her anyway, and Ginny smiled back at her sister. Sean snatched his book back from Nick, going to compare his with his brother’s.

Nick turned to Ginny, his eyes softening.

“When did you move?” he asked Maggie, not taking his eyes off Ginny’s.

“It was such a gift, about a week ago, just in time for Christmas,” Maggie told him, gathering up the wrapping paper on the floor. “We didn’t have anything, we were living in a women’s shelter...”

Nick nodded, his gaze moving over Ginny’s face.

“We still don’t have very much, just what was donated to us. At least the boys are getting a real Christmas, in a real home...” Her voice trailed off as she looked affectionately at her sons huddled together on the floor. She still hadn’t told them about Tim, Ginny knew, and she didn’t think she would, not right away.

There were some secrets worth keeping, she thought. She knew there were things she’d never share with her sister about what had happened. Nick knew. That was enough.

Ginny flushed when Nick lifted her chin and kissed her fully on the mouth. Both boys noticed and whooped. Maggie stood there with wrapping paper in her hands, stunned.

“Did I do the right thing?” Her voice trembled.

“You
are
the right thing,” he whispered in her ear, and she felt something loosen in her chest, spreading like warm liquid through her middle.

They spent several hours with Maggie and the boys, Nick making numerous piggyback runs from their beds to the couch and back while Maggie listened across the kitchen table with growing horror to her sister’s quiet tale. She hugged both Nick and Ginny tearfully as they left.

It was midafternoon when they got back to Nick’s house. Ginny sat on the floor in front of the tree, looking into the fireplace. He settled himself behind her, pulling her close, and she snuggled back between his legs.

“Hey you never looked in your stocking,” Nick murmured, kissing her temple.

She tilted her head at him and then looked at the mantle. Yesterday, there was only one stocking there. Today, there were two.

“The red one,” he prompted.

Her heart was beating fast, but she retrieved it and sat back down beside him. It felt empty. Wouldn’t that just be too funny?

“What is this?” She reached into the bottom, all the way to the toe, and pulled out something very small. “Nick…”

“Open it.”

Ginny flipped open the lid, revealing a beautiful platinum ring. She couldn’t breathe.

“It was my mother’s.” He smiled when he said that. “I’ll buy you something else if you want, but I thought…”

“It’s beautiful. It’s… really?” She blinked at him, too shocked to say anything else.

“Well, I told you I didn’t want you going anywhere else without me.” He put his arms around her waist. “Ever again, remember?”

“I remember.” She stared at the ring in disbelief.

“You don’t have to say anything now.” His eyes searched hers. “I know it’s too soon. I know it’s actually kind of crazy. But I also know I love you, Ginny. I know it better than I know anything else.”

She felt a lump growing in her throat. “I love you too, Nick.”

“You do?” He brightened at this news, as if he’d actually wondered.

She searched his eyes for the truth and found it, searched her heart for her own, and found that as well. She knew there was nothing she wanted more than to be here in this man’s arms, feeling safe, protected, and for the first time in her life, truly loved.

“Yes,” she whispered. “More than anything. Yes.”

“That’s a yes?” he asked, sounding uncertain.

“If you’re proposing, I’m saying yes!”

“I’m definitely proposing!”

She flung her arms around him and kissed him hard, and the ring went flying.

“Shit!” Ginny swore and they spent half an hour looking for it.

Finally, Nick found it tucked down into the recesses the sofa and slipped it onto her finger. It was a little too big, so she put it on a different finger instead, too afraid to lose it until they could get it resized.

“Let’s start this day over again,” she said, tucking her head under his chin.

“Too much drama?” He smiled, teasing her.

“No,” she assured him, snuggling against him in the light of the fire. “I just want to feel like this, with you, forever. I bet we’ve got a whole lifetime of drama left to live.”

“I hope so,” he whispered against the softness of her mouth.

They found each other again and again that night while the snow fell heavily and the wind wailed outside and Ginny finally discovered what a real home really felt like in his arms.

The End

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