Chapter 19
Chapter 19
Sebastian
“Y ou are an idiot.”
I looked up to see Noah glaring at me from the doorway.
There were clients with Tristan and Taryn, but the rest of us were cleaning up, getting ready to end our day.
“I don’t have time for this.”
“Fuck off,” Noah spat.
I blinked, surprised at the vehemence in his tone. “Excuse me?”
“You heard what I said. Fuck off.”
“Oh, this is going to be nice,” Nick said as he sat back, hands over his stomach.
Leo laughed. “Let me know how it goes, I’m headed out to go see my wife. But seriously, I want to know.”
I saw Leo salute us from the corner of my eye, but I just stood there, staring at Noah. “Did you just tell me to fuck off?”
“Pretty much. Because you are so in over your head, you don’t see what’s perfect for you.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, exhausted. “I’m going to need you to start at the beginning. And stop cussing at me.”
“You broke that girl’s heart over there, and I want to know why. Why you think what you did is okay?”
“Hell,” Nick muttered under his breath.
The rest of the crew settled in to watch, including the clients currently getting tattoos.
“I don’t see how whatever’s happening between me and Raven is any of your business.”
“You see, that’s where you’re wrong. Because whatever’s happening between you and Raven? Once you finally figure out what the hell you want, maybe you’ll stop hurting each other. And as we care for both of you, you need to figure this the fuck out.”
Nick snorted. “This is good. I should be taking notes.”
I flipped Nick off. “Again, none of your business.”
“It is, though, because I really like Raven. I like her for you, and how she fits in with the rest of us. So I don’t understand why you two just can’t talk it out and get over yourselves.”
“What happened?” Leif asked, and I realized that everyone was staring at me. Lake came out from the office and sat next to Nick, arms folded over her chest. My cousin just raised a brow at me, and it was hard to hide my feelings.
But they had always known everything about me. The people in this room were the first people I’d ever told that Marley was pregnant. And they had held me up, with glue and tacks and tape when Marley died.
“Nora asked me if Raven was going to be her new mommy.”
Everyone winced, and Lake came forward and cupped my cheek. “I’m sorry. That had to be tough for you. But she was so brave for even asking, don’t you think?”
“Nora isn’t the problem.” I cursed, and moved away so I could pace. “Or maybe that’s exactly the problem. She’s only five. And yet she was brave enough to actually ask when I’ve been doing my best not to think about it at all.”
“Do you know what you want?” Leif asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe? I liked how things were going.”
“You mean up in the air with no idea of what a future looked like, and possibly hurting everybody all at once?” Noah asked, and I flipped him off.
“It was working.”
“Working so well that your daughter wanted answers that you didn’t have, and in the end you hurt everybody.”
“She left me.”
“Did you ask her to stay?”
“I didn’t have time to ask her to stay. She said she didn’t want to hurt anyone and promptly left.”
“Probably because she was confused and hurting, just like you. You guys need to actually talk. To communicate. To say what you want.”
“Well, what do I want?”
“You’re the one that needs to answer that,” Nick put in.
“I don’t know. I like having her in my life. I love the way she is around Nora and all of you. It just seems like she fits. But then I remember the fact that we’ve been friends forever, and Marley was always there, and then it gets weird.”
“It could just be that you guys are finding your own way around this. Nothing’s going to be easy. It never has been. You lost Marley way too young.” Lake smiled softly at me. “But you don’t have to live in that pain. You were healing. You were smiling and laughing. It doesn’t hurt her memory to do that. Especially with someone that she loved too. Marley would be happy for you.” Lake winced. “And I hate being that person telling you what someone else would’ve felt. But it’s the truth, and you know it. Maybe that’s what scares you.”
I threw my hands up in the air, aware that everyone was staring at me.
“I don’t know what to do.”
“Get over yourself,” Nick and Leif said at the same time. They stared at one another and snorted.
“I’m sorry. That’s sort of what you told us to do back when we were fucking up with our women,” Leif answered.
Lake nodded. “And I do thank all of you for helping Nick and me figure out what we wanted.”
“Losing Marley was the worst moment of my life combined with the best moment. And I don’t want to feel that way again.”
“You have done so much, you’re doing so much. Pain is always going to come at us and we’re not going to know when it will hit us, but we have to feel that joy. And the thing is, you’re feeling like shit right now without her. So why not take a chance on happiness?”
I looked at my family, my friends, and cursed. “I’m an idiot.”
“There you go,” Noah put in. “Go over. Talk to her. She’s cleaning up and then going home. I can go pick up the munchkin if you want.”
Lake waved us off. “No, I’ll do it, and then have some auntie time. You guys go fix your love lives.”
“I’ll go with the love of my life so we can practice this whole family thing.” Nick wiggled his brows, and Lake laughed. I just stared at my family, wondering how I could be this lucky, and how I could fuck things up so quickly.
“Go. I’ll finish cleaning up your area,” Leif put in.
“And I’m going to go back to my office. I have paperwork to go through,” Noah said, as he saluted me and we headed out.
The door between the shop and the café was locked, and I knew that was on me, so I went to the front door, and what I saw had my blood freezing in my veins.
“Noah!” I screamed as I opened the door, knees shaking.
“What?” Noah asked, boots stomping. There was more shouting as Ford and a few others followed.
I stared at the ground, at the blood on the tile, at the knocked over table and chairs.
“What the fuck just happened?”
“She was just here. She was fine,” Noah cursed.
“Fuck. Do we have the tapes? Do we have the footage from security?” Nick asked, and Ford whipped up the tablet in his hand and began to search.
“Pulling it up now. Call the cops.”
“On it,” Noah whispered.
“What the hell?” I asked, moving forward.
“Don’t touch anything.”
I waved off Noah, needing to do something.
“Raven! Raven!”
But there was no answer, just blood on the floor and nobody here.
“What the fuck happened? You were just here.”
Noah looked at me with wide eyes, phone to his ear. Ford turned to the screen.
“It was Wyatt. Wyatt took her.”
I stood there, confused as hell, worried that I was too late.
Again.