Chapter 13 #2
“Hey!” Sam exclaimed.
“We have the room here. In a house that I’m not decorating,” she said, and Aston rolled his eyes.
“Seriously. The kids each have their own room, and you get privacy with Bella back at her apartment.”
“My place is not this nice,” Bella added, and I rubbed the small of her back.
“You’ll remember that I’m a mechanic. I’d rather stay at your place than get oil somewhere here.”
“Dorian is here, you’ll be fine.”
“Hey,” Dorian said, and the twins and Lance burst out laughing.
Somehow everybody was getting along, and blending, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
This wasn’t my place. Isabella was a Cage now. Would this be how she lived? Yes she had that apartment, but she was staying in that huge fucking house in Cage Lake. And she had the ability to build one of her own. At least that’s how I thought the Cages worked.
I didn’t know, and everything just felt odd.
Bella gave me a look. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. It’s fine. I was just trying to figure out the plans for the day.”
“Well, you and Bella are going to go drop off your things, and then we’ll come and pick you up for our guys’ stag night thing.”
“Okay. That doesn’t sound ominous at all.”
“I’m just excited I can go out with the adults. No more kid table,” Lance said.
“Considering you’re older than a sum of our siblings, I would hope not,” Dorian said with a shake of his head. “Harper though, sorry hon, you’re with the twins.”
“Hey,” Harper said, and Joshua put his arm around his little sister’s shoulders. “See, I like that. Putting her in her place.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you,” Amy added, and I just stood back as everyone spoke at once, and suddenly I was in my car, driving toward Bella’s place.
“How did that happen so quickly?” I asked.
“I have no idea. Usually I’m the one that organizes things like this, but Blakely and Aston had this down.
” She was on her phone, doing a thousand things at once, and I didn’t know if it had to do with work, or the wedding that she was planning with Sophia.
I didn’t know how she could handle that and her job at the same time, and spend so much time with me, but I wasn’t going to complain.
Because for some reason it felt like time was quickly running out, and I didn’t want to think about that.
“We’re here, baby,” I whispered, and Bella looked up from her phone and blinked.
“Wow. That was quick.”
“I didn’t hit as much traffic as I thought.”
“You probably will when you guys are doing your thing tonight. We’re heading to a hotel that has a lovely bridal section so we can get ready and have a good time tonight. But I know that you guys should have fun.”
“You’re talking pretty quickly, why are you nervous?” I asked as I turned off the car.
“This is the first time you’re in my home. My real home.”
I reached over and slid my thumb over her lips. She let out a deep breath, and I smiled. “I’m glad I’m here, but if we don’t get inside your apartment right now, I’m going to fuck you in this car, and I have no idea what your neighbors are going to think.”
She blushed, then looked down at her phone. “We don’t have much time.”
“We have long enough.”
Laughing, we grabbed our bags and made our way into her apartment. It was a well-lit area, and I knew that her brothers had added security, as well as her family coming over to water the plants and just take care of it. I also knew that her lease was up soon.
What she was going to do after? I didn’t know.
I barely had a chance to look around the inside before the door was closed behind us, and I had my mouth on hers.
I growled, needing her taste, her touch, and when she slid her hands up my back underneath my shirt, I let out a deep breath.
“I’ve wanted you this entire fucking day. But our families are everywhere.”
“That’s what happens when you have big families.”
“Well, I’m glad it’s just the two of us right now then.”
“Same.”
I kissed her again and went to take a step, but when I did, something crinkled underneath my foot.
I froze as she looked down, her entire face paling.
“What the hell is that?” I asked as I leaned down and looked at the manila envelope.
“Don’t touch it,” Bella said, her voice high-pitched.
“What?” I asked, frozen in bending.
“I need—I need to call the cops.”
“What the hell, Bella?” I asked, then I stood up, staring down at her.
“I know that handwriting. That’s… That’s William’s.”
I cursed under my breath and cupped her face. “I’m not going to let him hurt you.”
“I know. I know.”
But it didn’t sound like she believed me.
“I don’t know what the hell this man is thinking, but your brothers and I are going to deal with this.”
“The cops can deal with it.”
“Like they dealt with it by letting him out early? No fuck that. We’re calling the cops, and we’re calling your brothers.”
“No. Don’t tell them tonight. I’m not going to ruin this wedding.”
“Are you fucking serious right now?”
“I’ll be with people the whole time. I promise. But I can’t ruin this wedding. Sophia’s been through so much. She deserves this happiness.”
“And you deserve to be safe.”
“We’ll deal with it. We’ll tell Aston or someone. But not anyone else, okay? I can’t be the center of this. I just need to be normal.”
I pulled away, pacing. “I don’t want to hide this from your brothers.”
“And then what are they going to do?”
“They can keep an eye on you.”
“You guys are going out tonight in a group. I’m staying at a hotel with the girls until we both come back here. And tomorrow night I’ll be at the hotel for the full night. I won’t be alone. We’ll call the cops, we’ll do everything we have to, but I’m not ruining this wedding.”
“You being in danger and being harassed is not going to ruin this wedding. Sophia will understand. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
I can’t lose you.
I fucking love you.
But I didn’t say the words. How could I say the words. Because I didn’t know what was going to happen next. I didn’t know where this thing between us would go.
And it scared me to death. But not as much as it scared me that something could happen to her because some asshole was obsessed with her.
“I’ll deal with it after the wedding. We’ll call the cops now, and we’ll deal with it. I don’t know what he’s playing at, but I’m not going to let him ruin this wedding. I’m not going to let him ruin my life,” she spat.
And there was the fire and anger I loved about her. Not the fearfulness that had been in her tone before.
And that was the only reason I nodded. “Fine. We tell Aston, and we tell Blakely.” She opened her mouth to object and I shook my head. “Someone else in your group needs to know.”
“There’s going to be a woman there named Daisy tonight, she’s connected to the family and owns a security company. We could tell her.”
“Damn straight we will,” I said, liking this idea slightly better. “I don’t want the world to touch you, Bella,” I said, my voice low, cupping her face.
“I don’t want anything to happen either. We’ll be safe. He’s not here. He’s in Wyoming.”
“I’d rather just keep you safe in Cage Lake forever,” I whispered, not meaning for the words to slip out.
She froze before she took a step back. “We should call them now. Get everything ready. We don’t have a lot of time.”
And with that she walked to her bag that she had dropped when we had first walked in, and I couldn’t help but notice she hadn’t remarked on Cage Lake.
And the fact that perhaps she didn’t want to stay forever.
And that meant nothing was set in stone, except the fact that somebody wanted to hurt her.
And I would do anything to stop that.
Even if it meant hurting us both in the end.