Chapter 8 Everly
EVERLY
Gunfire was going off and people were screaming. Tires were screeching and men were calling out orders. Mothers were weeping and children were crying and I could hear an explosion in the distance.
I woke up with a start in the recliner. The television was on full blast and my heart was racing.
My eyes jerked open and landed on the NCIS episode running in the background and I searched for the remote.
Holy hell. I thought I was in another one of my nightmares.
Or worse, that something was happening outside.
I reached for the remote underneath my thigh and turned the television down as my hand began to shake.
Then I got out of the chair to stretch my legs.
“Grave?”
I looked around the room before my eyes fell onto the empty plastic bags on the counter. Grocery bags riddled the countertops and the floor. I walked over and began picking them up, shoving them all into one bag before hanging it up in the corner.
“Grave, you here?” I asked.
I walked down the hallway, peeking my head into every room.
But he was nowhere to be found. He’d obviously come in, since there were empty grocery bags everywhere.
But where was he? I opened the sliding door out back and peeked out, hoping I would find him sitting out there with a beer or something.
And still, there was nothing.
I shut the door and locked it before I closed the blinds.
Fuck. I was still here alone. I ran back down the hallway and locked the front door, then ran around and pulled all the curtains shut.
Where was Grave? Had something happened to him?
I must’ve been sleeping so hard I didn’t hear him come in.
Unless someone else had dropped off the groceries?
Holy shit. Had someone else been here?
I felt the hairs on my arms stand up. Panic was beginning to settle in my veins. I didn’t know Grave was going to be gone the entire day. And I had no way of contacting him. I leaned against the counter and put my head in my hands, trying to settle my already overstimulated nerves.
But when I opened my eyes, I found a piece of paper on the floor.
I bent over and picked it up, taking stock of the scribbled handwriting. The words were almost illegible, but I could clearly read the name at the bottom.
Grave.
He had left me a note.
Everly,
Dropped off the groceries, but had one last errand to run. Should be back before dinner. Here’s my number if you need me.
Grave
I ran my fingertip over Grave’s number as my heart began to settle back down.
Okay. So, he was simply out picking up something else.
He was serious about keeping us cooped up here until all this shit was settled.
I placed the note on the counter and grabbed myself a drink, then went and sat back down.
If television was my only source of entertainment, then I would make the best of it.
I woke up to the sound of Grave coming through the front door.
My eyes snapped open and my head twisted off to the side.
His massive form came through the door with a couple of other bags in his hands and our eyes met.
He shut the front door with his foot before he looked around the room, and I could see him clocking the closed curtains.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“I woke up and you weren’t here. Got a little paranoid until I found your note,” I said.
I watched him nod before he walked behind me and lost himself to his room.
I heard him rummaging around for a little while before he came back out.
He was in a pair of tight jeans and a white shirt, and I had to make sure I didn’t stare.
His massive form was outlined by the fabric screaming for mercy against his skin.
I kept my eyes glued to the television as much as I could, but I was painfully aware of how wide his legs were spread as he sat there on the couch.
“Anything good on?” he asked.
“Just a cop show. I like them for the character development,” I said.
“Not the explosions?”
“Nope. I watch The Expendables franchise for explosion.”
I watched Grave’s head turn towards me and a smile crept across my cheeks.
“What? A girl can’t like explosions?” I asked.
“Not pretty ones,” he said.
I whipped my head over to him and our eyes connected.
Did he just call me ‘pretty’?
“Monroe’s looking into a few things for us,” he said.
My eyes ran down Grave’s body before they fell to my lap.
“The lawyer?” I asked.
“Yeah. She’s looking into our options on how we can protect you better and keep you safe until trial,” he said.
“Did you tell the guys about Paco?” I asked.
I felt Grave’s eyes hard on my body but I didn’t have the courage to look up at him.
“It’s nothing you have to be concerned about. But your information did help us. Thank you, Everly.”
Fuck, my name sounded so good in his silken voice.
“So, I was going through my things earlier, and I forgot a few essentials,” I said.
“Like…?”
“Things a girl might need if she’s going to stay more than twenty-eight days anywhere,” I said.
I looked over at Grave and watched him nod in realization.
“I didn’t think about that.”
“Not your job to. But that does mean I’ll have to go back to my house,” I said.
“It’s not safe.”
“If you take me, it’ll be.”
“We can’t keep making trips to your place. Especially if it’s being staked out. If we go there and someone follows us back, that’s it. We’ll have to go somewhere else to keep you safe.”
“Well, the other option is letting me bleed all over your furniture and cry out in pain for five days. Your choice,” I said.
“I’m just letting you know what’s up if we get caught. I never said I wasn’t going to take you.”
I watched him get off the couch as it groaned underneath his weight. The thickness of his muscles shot a heat up my spine. I was staring at his crotch. At the bulge in his jeans. I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath, hoping to the high heavens he didn’t catch me staring.
“Ready when you are,” Grave said.
“Okay, let me… um… get some different clothes on.”
I went back into my room and was painfully aware of Grave’s eyes on my body.
I closed the door behind me and quickly got changed, but decided against taking my cell phone.
I knew enough about them to know someone could track me with it if they really wanted to find me, and I knew better than to underestimate my brother.
I grabbed my purse just in case and pulled a coat over my shoulders, then put my sunglasses on my face.
I was ready for the sandy ride ahead of us.
Grave mounted his bike and I slid behind him. My arms wrapped around his waist, digging into the muscles of his body. Rippling with strength and flexing with every movement he made, he struck up the engine of his bike before we rode off.
And I pressed my cheek into his back so I could feel all of him.
The wind raced around us as we trekked through the woods.
I dug my fingertips into him as my body scooted closer to his form.
His back expanded against my face and I could feel his heartbeat.
I could feel it beating inside his body against my skin.
I ran my hands down his torso, then along his legs.
I couldn’t stop my hands from caressing him.
From wanting to memorize every inch of him.
I felt him shift on his bike, and suddenly he was pressed deeper into me.
His ass was closer to my pussy than it was before and he was leaning back into my cheek.
My hands slid down his thighs, exploring uncharted territory as I studied the strength of his legs.
The throbbing muscles that controlled the roaring piece of metal underneath our bodies.
I gripped onto the little bit of excess fabric his jeans had.
I turned my lips into his back and mindlessly kissed his shirt.
I was lost in him. In his warmth and his protection and his strength.
It was as if my body was moving without permission.
Taking control of the situation and doing what I’d seen so many times in my dreams.
And by the growl that fell from Grave’s lips, I could tell he was enjoying it.
I leaned heavily into him and managed to wrap my arms around his form. I cradled myself into him and closed my eyes, imagining my body wrapped up in his arms. I was trembling. Shaking with fear the closer we got to my house. McAllen was no longer a source of comfort for me.
My home was no longer a source of safety.
The rough terrain of the woods gave way to the paved roads of the small town.
And soon, we were turning into my neighborhood.
The houses slowly crept by and the few trees managed to be planted were withering away.
I was seeing my neighborhood for the very first time, it seemed like.
Not for the childlike beauty it used to hold, but for the dying and decaying corpse it had become.
I didn’t know if I was ever going to be able to come back.
We pulled into my driveway and I could see my door still hanging open. Still splintered from the police busting in to take my brother away. Did they not automatically fix shit like that? Had my house been vulnerable for almost two entire days because of that shit?
But strangely enough, I didn’t care.
All I wanted to do was get my shit, get my medication, and get out.