Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Lynx
Standing at the door to the master bedroom, I watched Reagan sleep.
I had no idea how long I'd been standing there, observing the rise and fall of her chest beneath the blankets. I simply couldn’t look away.
Seeing her in my bed, healthy, strong … alive.
My damn heart jolted every fucking time I thought about what happened tonight.
How easily she could’ve been ripped from my life.
And every damn time I thought about it, I wanted to put my fist through the wall.
A lot of people accused me of being angry, always looking for a fight. Honestly, that wasn’t the case at all. In fact, I considered myself pretty happy-go-lucky most of the time.
Oh, sure, when my mother died, I had been pissed at the world.
Who could blame me, though? The most important woman in my life had been taken from my father and me long before she should have been.
My heart had been fractured that day. Over the years, as the minutes and the hours passed, the pain lessened, but my heart still had the fissures in it. Always would.
No one knew that Reagan Trevino was the main reason I had held on. Without knowing, I had fallen in love with that girl. Even back then.
Only she’d never been mine to have, and spending the past decade watching as she grew up, her life entwined with that son of a bitch had been too much to bear. Ultimately, I'd tried to repair myself with various women. It had never worked.
And now Reagan was right there in my bed.
Only she wasn’t mine for the taking now, either.
“Lynx?”
“What, darlin’?” I asked, not moving from my spot at the door.
“You okay?”
“Perfect,” I answered.
She rolled over, clutching the pillow. “Would you … maybe … hold me for a little while?”
“Sure.” I wasn’t sure that was the best idea in the world, but it wasn’t like I would tell her no, so trying to pretend otherwise was just a waste of time.
I walked around to the far side of the bed and climbed on top of the quilt. I was still fully dressed, except for my boots, and I was grateful for that. Even with the blanket between us, I wasn’t sure it would be enough.
Reagan rolled toward me and I froze. She quickly pushed the comforter down to her waist and snuggled up to my side, her hand resting on my chest, her head pressed against my shoulder.
I took a deep breath and closed my arm around her.
She smelled like my shampoo from when she’d taken a shower earlier.
I remembered standing in the kitchen, as far from the bathroom as I could possibly get and still be inside the house, not wanting to hear the shower run, not wanting to think about Reagan naked in my bathroom, the water sliding down her smooth, perfect…
Yeah. Still not helping to think about it.
“About yesterday mornin’,” she whispered softly, pulling me back from the brink.
“Don’t,” I warned, keeping my tone as gentle as I could.
“I’m sorry.”
“Reagan.”
“I never meant to hurt you,” she continued as though I hadn’t said a word.
Rather than lie and tell her she hadn’t hurt me, I kept my mouth shut and stared up at the ceiling. “Go to sleep.”
She sighed, moving closer to me. “It’s true, Lynx. I never meant—”
“Not tonight,” I said roughly. “We’ll talk about it … later.”
She sighed again and I waited for her rebuttal.
Thankfully, it never came.
My entire body had gone rock hard the instant she touched me. I should’ve stayed in the living room or gone to sleep in the guest room like I'd originally told her I would when I insisted that she take my king bed.
Instead, I was lying here with Reagan beside me, her body so fucking soft against me, her hair teasing my chin where it caught in the stubble on my jaw. And my dick was throbbing, making my damn jeans ridiculously uncomfortable.
Yet this was enough for me. Having Reagan here, knowing she was safe.
It was enough.
A few minutes passed before her breathing evened out.
I knew sleep would be a long time coming for me.
I'd been asleep when Rhys called, so I was good to go for a while. Plus, I was too fucking scared to close my eyes. I didn’t want to drift off, to dream about what had happened, for my stupid subconscious to come up with an alternate ending.
So, for now, I would hold Reagan, pretend that this was my life, that I had the pleasure of holding her every night when we went to sleep, to wake up to her beside me every morning.
After all, it wasn’t a far cry from the fantasies I'd had for the past decade.
In fact, it was the exact fantasy I'd had for the past decade.
Rhys
I stood in the parking lot of my sister’s bar.
Well, what used to be her bar. Now it was nothing more than charred remains in the middle of the parking lot.
Every single thing was gone, nothing salvageable with the exception of the fire-proof safe that had been in the wall in her office.
Sure, it had melted somewhat, but it was still intact.
“We need to bring Billy Watson in for questioning,” Dean said from beside me. “And this guy she said hit on her tonight.”
I knew that neither of those men was responsible for this.
Sure, Billy Watson was an asshole, but he wasn’t so much of one that he would try to kill three people.
As for the other guy … I didn’t know him, but I seriously doubted being turned down by a woman would have him rigging the propane tank to blow.
However, it wasn’t like I could tell Dean that the top suspect was the fucking Houston police chief. Kelly Jackson. A goddamn psychopath who was hell-bent on destroying Amy and anyone else who got in his way.
Turning to Dean, I nodded. “Do that. Bring them in first thing in the mornin’.”
While Dean questioned them, I would be checking in with Ryan Trexler and Zachariah Tavoularis. They’d be able to get me some real answers.
And if we were all lucky, we’d soon have Kelly Jackson’s head on a fucking platter.
Wolfe
“Where’s Rhys?” Amy asked as soon as I stepped into the bedroom.
“He’ll be here in a bit,” I told her. “I’ll wait up for him, I promise. But you need to sleep.”
I was pretty sure I'd said that at least a dozen times since we got back to the house.
“I can’t sleep,” she said, her tone soft.
She sounded exhausted and I imagined she was.
It had been a rather eventful night. My entire world had come crashing down when the bar exploded.
My only thought had been keeping Amy safe.
And I'd thought my world had ended when I found her crumpled on the floor unconscious.
Thank God Reagan had some sense to get that damn shotgun, because my brain had gone offline, a blinding rage having taken over, making it impossible to think when the only thing I wanted to do was kill that bastard with my bare fucking hands.
Knowing Amy wasn’t going to give in to sleep until Rhys was back, I shot him a quick text, stripped my clothes off, and crawled into bed with the woman I loved.
“Come here, darlin’,” I whispered, pulling her to me.
When she settled against my side, her head on my chest, I wrapped my arms tightly around her.
“I love you,” I whispered in the dark.
“I love you, too. So much. I’m so sorry th—”
“Shh, baby.” Pressing my lips to her forehead, I tightened my hold. “Don’t apologize for anything. We’ll stop him, I promise you that.”
“How?”
“Trust me.” I didn’t have a plan yet, but I'd already put in a call to my cousin. Travis told me to give him until morning and he’d have something set up. It was time to put a stop to this bullshit once and for all. And if Travis couldn’t help, then I would get Lynx and we’d come up with something.
“Do you think Reagan’s all right?” Amy asked.
“I texted Lynx earlier. He said she was sleepin’. I’m sure she’s fine.”
“But her bar…” Amy’s arm tightened across my chest.
“We’ll rebuild it,” I assured her. “That’s what we do.”
“I just can’t believe he would do that.” The pain in her voice was so powerful I wanted to erase it completely.
“He’s crazy,” I told her. That was the understatement of the fucking century.
“I want to talk to that reporter tomorrow,” she whispered, her words slurring with her exhaustion.
“We’ll talk about it in the mornin’.” I kissed her forehead again. “But right now I want you to sleep.”
Kelly
I sat at the small desk in my hotel room, my laptop in front of me. I searched the Internet for information on the fire. I knew the damn place had blown because I'd been there to see it.
Well, not right there, but I'd been a mile out and there had been no mistaking the solid boom that had shaken the earth and the fireball that had shot into the sky.
It had taken every ounce of my honed patience not to turn around so I could watch the place burn.
Instead, I'd had to imagine Amy burning to death inside, those stupid fucks she worked for going with her.
So far, I hadn’t found anything, but I knew it would come.
And this headache would be over once and for all.
Travis
I sat on the front porch, staring out at the darkness.
It was late, but I couldn’t sleep. We’d put the kids to bed hours ago and I probably would’ve been out like a light if Wolfe hadn’t called and given me the news about the explosion at the bar.
Now, my brain wouldn’t shut off. I was the take-charge kind and sitting on my ass wasn’t working for me.
Only I didn’t have many options at the moment.
The screen door squeaked behind me.
“Hey, you all right?” Kylie asked, coming closer.
I reached for my wife, pulling her into my lap. “Better now,” I said, pressing my face into her neck, breathing her in. She smelled like baby shampoo, probably from when she’d bathed the kids earlier. I loved that smell.
“Gage is still on the phone,” she said softly.
I nodded but didn’t lift my head. Gage was working his contacts, wanting to control any news reports that went out on the explosion that had burned that little bar to the ground.
Our goal was to buy ourselves a little time, to announce that there had been casualties, however, ensuring the reporters were told the bodies would take time to identify.
That would allow us the opportunity to put a plan in place.
Sure, that crazy fucker might know otherwise, but he wouldn’t know that no one had been killed in the blast. Thank the Lord.
As soon as the call had come in, as soon as I'd heard Wolfe’s voice, I knew the shit had finally hit the fan. Not long after that, more calls had come in. One from RT, another from one of the security agents who was working the case, both telling me the details of what had gone down.
The good news was, this guy was on a short timeline.
The bad news was that we weren’t doing enough to stop him.
No way should that bastard have been able to get close enough to set an explosive on a goddamn building in the middle of town.
It pissed me off that we’d let my cousin down, that some good people had nearly died tonight because we’d mistakenly believed we had some time.
The screen door squeaked again and Gage’s voice sounded.
“Yes, that’s right. And Reese, Travis, and I will be headed that way first thing in the mornin’.
I’ll need you to manage the resort while we’re out.
We’re gonna meet with Max’s sister…” Pause.
“Yeah, the one in law school… She’s on her way down as we speak.
” Pause. “No, I don’t know what his plan is, but it’s more than we’ve got, so we’re goin’ with it. ”
I lifted my head, staring up at my husband. Gage merely nodded when our eyes met.
“Yep, this bastard’s goin’ down,” Gage said gruffly. “Thanks. And let me know how things go.”
When Gage hung up the phone, I took a breath and I waited.
“Everything’s in place.” He sighed. “Not sure how happy I am that you’ve got mob ties, but … whatever.”
I smiled. It was good to have friends. Didn’t matter if they were in low places or not. It still helped.