36. Dylan
Chapter 36
Dylan
I ’m prepared to shout at the top of whatever lung capacity I can find, when a door in the kitchen opens, drawing all of our attention as Jake and Martin Cosey step out from a staircase.
“You two have a lot of fucking explaining to do,” Jake whispers, shooting daggers at Cora and his father before striding to me and whispering my ear. “I told you to stay at the hospital.” Despite the current tension and present company in the room, Jake pulls me into his arms and gives me three quick kisses, his lips and tongue gently sucking my bottom lip each time before stepping in front of me as if to shield me from sight.
The front door remains open and somewhere in the distance, sirens wail.
Cora’s dad is the first to speak and I can honestly say I’m not prepared for the words that come out of his mouth as he directs them at Steve Ellington.
“How long have you been sleeping with my daughter?”
Exactly how much did I miss?
Steve runs a hand down his face, shaking his head.
“I’m not sleeping with her. Not anymore. It was a lapse in judgment. That’s all.”
Martin cocks the pistol he’s holding. “Everything is a fucking power play to you, isn’t it? Do you have a single real relationship in your life? Everyone is just a pawn to be used for your pleasure and I’m sick of it!”
Jake places his hand over the barrel of the gun, speaking gently.
“Martin, he isn’t worth giving up everything you’ve worked so hard for. You’ve done nothing wrong. Your hands are clean. Don’t ruin that.” Martin allows Jake to step closer to him and eventually lets him pull the gun from his hands. Jake immediately releases the clip and racks the slide to dispel the bullet in the chamber. There was a time in my life, not so long ago, when it would have shocked me that Jake knew how to do that…but nothing about Jake shocks me anymore.
“I love him,” Cora says out loud to no one in particular. At this point I’m not sure if she’s talking about Jake or Steve.
Ignoring her, Martin continues to advance on Steve Ellington and I swear I hear one of Martin’s molars cracking.
“What was your plan here, Steve?” Martin asks his former best friend. “Were you going to divorce Lorainne for a twenty-four-year-old girl? Or were you really just using her? Planning on passing her off to your son so that you could still have access to her whenever you wanted without having to implode your whole life?” When Jake’s father stays quiet, Martin laughs. “Un -fucking -believable.” He turns to look at Cora. “And you? Where the hell did I go wrong with you?”
Standing her ground, Cora steps forward. “You taught me to be independent, to think for myself and to go after what I wanted. You always told me if life wasn’t going my way, I should pivot instead of whining or complaining. Well, as soon as I realized something was going on between Jacob and Dylan, that’s exactly what I did. Steve seemed like my best option, considering Lorainne certainly isn’t keeping him fulfilled. I’d have access to their empire, the freedom to live my life how I want and while Jacob had his affairs,” she laces her fingers with Jake’s father’s, “we’d have ours. Everyone would be happy. I’d have secured your campaign funding, and Ellington Wealth Management would continue to grow. Isn’t that what you two have always wanted? How am I being painted as the bad guy when almost everyone in this room has used me for their own gain?”
Next to me, Jake stands stunned while Steve stays silent just shaking his head and trying to pull his hand from Cora’s grasp.
The sirens are blaring loudly now, and I can just see the first car turn the corner. Before we’re out of time, I ask the one question I want to know.
“Was it worth it? Was burning my family’s legacy to the ground and almost ending my life worth everything you’re about to face?”
Cora turns her gaze toward me as if she’s just now noticing I’m in the same room as her, her features completely devoid of emotion now that she isn’t playing a role, and shrugs a shoulder.
“As long as you were alive, Jacob would fight to be with you…and that ruined my whole future. I had to try.” The look is foreign on her and I believe it’s the first time I’ve ever witnessed the true face of a sociopath.
An officer approaches on the sidewalk to the house. He’s tall, athletically built, and is currently wearing a look that says fuck around and find out.
I squeeze Jake’s hand to stay tethered to the moment. I’m exhausted and I just want to lay in bed with him wrapped in my arms and lock the rest of the world out.
Before the officer gets to the door, Jake kicks the dispensed magazine from the gun under a chair in the foyer and drops the weapon behind the cushion, trying to protect Martin.
“I’m officer Patterson,” the imposing man says, coming across the threshold into the foyer where the rest of us are standing. “Jacob Ellington?” he asks the group.
Jake steps forward.
“Yeah, that’s me,” he rasps. “Could you please call Lieutenant Stewart and let him know Coraline Cosey is right here.” He points to her and she throws a sweet, innocent smile at the officer whose brows pinch in confusion and Jake continues talking. “While you make that call, could we have a minute? My fiancé and I need closure.”
My ears snag on one word.
So do Cora’s.
“ I was supposed to be your fiancée, Jacob!” she snarls.
The officer whips his head toward Cora and then back at Jake and I, stopping on where our hips are connected and his arm remains around my waist. His fingers have managed to find their way under the hem of my shirt and his fingertips are brushing back and forth along the top of my hip.
“Fine, but the door stays open and anyone who runs is getting tased.”
“Fair enough,” Jake agrees before turning to face everyone in the foyer of his childhood home.
“I want to make this very clear,” Jake starts, punctuating his words the best he can considering he still has very little voice. “I am gay. I am in love with Dylan and nothing, and no one will keep us apart. Money or no money, we will no longer be involved in any of your lives. I will be having restraining orders drawn up against Steve and Cora as soon as we leave here. Martin, you’ll continue to have my vote, but beyond that, I think our relationship is also over.”
A second later, Officer Patterson says yes, sir , slides his phone in his pocket, and pulls out his cuffs.
“Coraline Cosey, you’re under arrest for the attempted murder of Dylan Ryder. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say, can, and will, be used against you in a court of law.” He continues to recite her rights as he clicks the cuffs in place. Cora doesn’t argue, but her face has gone completely blank again.
It’s eerie. Like she’s no longer inside her own head.
On the other side of Jacob, I hear Martin sniffle and I know it kills Jake to not offer the man some kind of comfort. Instead, he squeezes me tighter.
As Officer Patterson walks Cora toward his police cruiser, Officer Graves steps inside and looks at Jake’s father. “You need to come down to the station for questioning as well. In fact, you probably all should.”
Hours later, we’re lying in bed and Jake sends an email to the fire chief, asking to be pulled off the volunteer rotation for the next month so he can fully recover and process the traumatic event. He’s unsure what he’s going to do with his role as CFO of Ellington Wealth Management. He might sell, he might be a silent shareholder, he might branch out on his own. Only the future knows what it holds, but one thing is certain, there will be no lawsuit from his father and if he still wants his job, Steve isn’t going to take it away now.
“What would you do instead?” I whisper.
He moves up onto his knees. Looking down at me he says, “I hear Ryder Automotive needs a new office manager.”
I quirk a brow. “If you work at an autobody shop, would that make you a blue-collar billionaire?”
He grins. “I guess it does. If you marry me does that make you a blue-collar billionaire as well?”
“Yeah,” I laugh. “I guess it does.”
He rolls to straddle me. His powerful thighs on either side of mine as he leans in and whispers against my lips. “Will you? Will you marry me, Dylan?”
“Y—”
I can’t even get the entire syllable out before his tongue cuts my answer off, his hands cup my face, and his hips roll into mine.
“Say it again,” he pants a few seconds later, making me laugh.
“I never even got to say it the first time!” I push at his chest playfully, but he catches my wrists in his hands and forces them over my head as he leans in again.
“My sincerest apologies. Try again.”
“Ye—”
Again, his mouth cuts off my answer. Delirious from exhaustion or happiness over being alive, together, and completely in love, we’re both laughing uncontrollably at this game. It still hurts like hell, but it’s well worth the pain.
Looks like Jake was right: sometimes you have to burn it down to make it the life you want.