44. Don’t Make It Smaller
Don’t Make It Smaller
Bree
‘H ey, can I borrow you for a minute?’
Arlo stands over me as I sit on a blanket on the lawn with my coven and the babies.
‘Jesus Christ, Arlo. What did your parents feed you? I’m getting a crick in my neck,’ Missy says as she leans back to look up at him, and he laughs, then squats down.
‘A diet of raw meat and supplements, plus they made me stand in horse shit for twelve hours a day.’ He smirks, and I can’t help but do the same. ‘I shot right up.’
‘I like you,’ Missy says seriously, nodding once, and Arlo laughs, then stands and holds out a hand for mine.
‘I like you too, Missy.’
Arlo leads me into the house, ignoring the jeers of my girls, who are convinced he’s taking me upstairs for a little afternoon delight… is he ?
‘Where are we going?’ I realize we are actually heading upstairs.
‘Thought you might need a minute.’ Oh, he’s saving me.
Releasing an exhale, I let him lead me up to the bedroom. The moment he closes the door, he pulls me back to him and picks me up, wrapping my legs around him as he crosses to the bed and sits with me in his lap.
‘How you doin’, pix?’
He pushes my hair back from my face and behind my ears as he waits for me to answer.
‘I don’t know.’ I curl into him as he wraps his arms around me. ‘I love my family. I love having them all here, but I let my guard drop, you know.’
He inhales against the top of my head, then presses a kiss there and lifts me, placing me on the bed like I’m a doll he can move around before he stands and crosses to the chest of drawers and pulls out a small box. My heart starts to race, and he grins.
‘Not yet.’ He hands me the box after assuring me there isn’t a ring inside it and sits beside me. ‘I meant to give these to you yesterday but with everything…' he trails off for a moment then shakes his head and meets my eye once more. 'Happy birthday, Bree.’
Opening the box, I gasp as I take in the sparkling stones set in bright shining silver metal. The small hoop earrings are beautiful, and I lift my gaze to his.
‘Arlo…’
‘I know you don’t like anything too flashy, so I chose these, thought they were pretty but practical, like you.’ He grins, and I laugh, shaking my head.
‘When did you get these?’ We have hardly been apart since he moved here, and I’m pretty sure he hasn’t left Forest Falls because he doesn’t want to be too far away in case I need him.
‘Before I came here.’ My lips part with surprise. He hated me then. ‘I knew it was going to be your birthday. I didn’t know if I’d still be here by today, but I saw them and thought they were nice.’
‘They’re more than nice, Arlo.’
Leaning in, I kiss him once, then again for good measure.
‘We should get back to the party,’ he says, standing, and I close the box in my hands but keep hold of it. ‘Come on.’
Taking Arlo’s hand, I let him lead me back to the party, to my family, to the blanket where my girls are still sitting, and I smile softly as I show them the earrings, listening to their excitement and Missy’s encouragement to put them on. Turning, I find Arlo laughing with Merv and Doug by the grill, and I feel it, my forever. That man there is my forever, and nobody is going to stop me from keeping him.
‘I love that I get to do this with you,’ Arlo breathes his words against my neck as his body covers mine, and I wrap my arms around his back.
We’re making out, kissing, touching, giving ourselves the freedom to take the time exploring each other’s body, and making up for so many lost years.
‘Baby,’ I sigh as his kisses flutter across my collarbone and start to move lower, and then we hear it.
A crash of glass and furniture from downstairs has us both alert, frozen, and wide-eyed.
‘Arlo.’ I need him to move so that I can get up, and he does, reaching for the door in nothing more than his boxers as I pull my gun from the side table drawer.
‘Stay here,’ he snaps as another loud crash comes from downstairs, accompanied by Beans furiously barking.
‘No, not happening.’ I pull on his t-shirt and try to follow when the look in his eyes makes me freeze. He looks terrifying. His eyes are cold and full of rage.
‘ Bree ,’ his voice is firm as he makes himself larger, and I take a step back as he reaches out and takes the weapon from my hand.
I exhale, terrified and resigned, as Arlo opens the door and heads out, closing it behind him, and I cover my mouth, refusing to cry as I swallow down the lump caught in my throat.
Shaking my head, I move over to my closet and pull out some sweatpants, dressing and shoving my feet into my running sneakers before stepping up onto the step stool to pull out another gun from the top shelf. Another loud crash, followed by the sound of shouting, has my heart racing, and I fight the urge to panic as I check the gun is loaded and head to the door. He told me to stay, but I don’t give a damn. I’m trained for this, for exactly this, and now I’m armed with more than a gun and my training. I have my love for that man and our dog spurring me on.
Pulling open the door, I lead with my weapon, treading carefully, slowly, wanting to make only the right moves. Heading down the stairs, I still when silence descends.
I reach the living room and take in the devastation. The place is trashed, the sofa shredded, the TV torn from the wall and smashed, broken glasses and crockery litter the floor, and I can’t fathom how this all happened so fast.
Beans starts in my direction, then lifts his paw, and I realize he’s hurt. Glass is probably in there, and I itch to fix it for him, but I need to get to Arlo first.
‘Beans, bed,’ I say firmly, sending him limping away so he doesn’t stand on any more of the glass as I turn to see the front door open and make my way out.
Sucking in a shocked breath as I step out onto the porch, my hands come up to cover my mouth. There on the porch are the flowers from the trash, the torn card taped together and laid on the wooden deck, and on the lawn, Arlo’s motorcycle is burning.
Arlo watches the flames engulf his bike in silence, and I try to steady my breath, then turn back to the house to grab the fire extinguisher from the kitchen.
I storm out onto the lawn, ignoring Arlo’s protests, and start to put out the fire. Arlo grabs another extinguisher from his truck and joins me, and I start to cry. Fat tears pour from my eyes, and as the flames die down, I drop to my knees.
‘Bree, everything okay?’ my neighbor, Artie, stands on his porch, shotgun in his hands, and I hold up my hand and steady my emotions.
‘Under control now, Artie.’
Under control, my ass. How the fuck do I even begin to explain any of this? The house is fucked. Beans has paws full of glass. Arlo’s bike is a burned-out wreck.
Artie takes my word for it and heads back inside, and I glance around to see if anyone else has come outside, but the quiet of the night has once more descended as if nothing happened.
‘Inside, Bree.’ Finally, Arlo speaks, but his voice is full of rage. Without argument, I turn back to the house.
Once we’re inside, Arlo pushes the door shut and takes in the devastation as I head over to Beans, and he gives me his paw willingly, knowing he needs my help. I can’t stop the tears that pour out of me as I pull out the large shard of glass and inspect him for more.
He got hurt. Arlo’s things got trashed—because of me.
‘I’m sorry,’ I say as I stand, and Arlo’s furious gaze meets mine. Then he storms toward me, the crunch of glass under his unlaced boots loud in the silence until he pulls me into his chest and wraps me up in his arms, his chin resting on the top of my head.
‘No, Bree. This isn’t on you, not one fucking bit of this is on you.’ He presses a kiss to the top of my head. ‘Pack a bag. We can’t stay here.’
‘Arlo, what a…’
‘Pack, Bree,’ he snaps, then storms away, back outside, and I do as he said.
Me : Jen, I need you to do me a favor and secure Arlo’s place. Please don’t ask any questions of me or anyone else because I can’t give you answers right now, so I’m asking as a friend. Please lock it down. We’re heading out of town for a couple of days.
I sent the text as Arlo drove us away from Forest Falls in the early hours of the morning, knowing that Jenna would go into a tailspin once she read it but also knowing I could trust her. She would have been called once the neighbors saw the state of the house in the morning anyway. Better I call her in myself.
‘My family are going to worry,’ I say as I run my hands over Beans. He’s sad. His head is resting on my lap, and there’s a bandage wrapped around his paw that Arlo put on while I was upstairs packing.
‘I know,’ he grumbles. ‘I don’t know what we should say to them, Bree. I have no fucking clue how to explain this to them.’
‘Where are we going? Shouldn’t we stay and let him come for us if we’re going to stop him.’
‘ I don’t know ,’ he yells, and Beans and I both flinch. I glance across to see him gripping the steering wheel so hard I think he might actually snap it. ‘I got distracted. I should have stayed focused.’ His quiet words, that I think he’s only really saying to himself, knot up my stomach. ‘Fucking idiot.’
‘Baby…’
‘No, Bree, just,’ he inhales deeply and blows it out, ‘I need to focus.’
My attention drops to Beans, and I drag my fingers over his velvety soft ears and sink my teeth into my bottom lip to keep from crying. I can’t help feeling like everything is about to fall apart.
We pull into a parking lot at just after four am, and I look up at the unlit sign above the locked-up garage. Harper’s Autos . This is his shop.
‘Come on.’
We get out of the truck, Arlo carrying our bags as Beans and I follow him around the side of the building to a door that he unlocks with a pin code. We make our way up a stairwell to a short corridor, and he unlocks another door, this time with a key.
Stepping inside the apartment, I take a deep breath. Beans immediately trots off, knowing he’s home, and Arlo disappears with our bags. I stand awkwardly, not knowing what I’m supposed to do until he comes back, heading straight toward me, and wordlessly wraps me up in his arms.
‘I’m sorry,’ he grumbles, and I start to cry. Jesus, I have never cried so much. ‘Tonight freaked me the fuck out, Bree because I wasn’t ready for him. I was ready for him every night until we started…’
‘Don’t make it smaller.’ I tip my head back to look up at him, and he frowns. ‘Don’t say until we started fucking or anything else that diminishes what this is because you feel guilty for being distracted.’ He nods just once. ‘I’m glad we were distracted, Arlo, because this past week has been amazing. I have loved every second of being with you the way we have.’
‘But…’
‘He was always going to come.’ I shrug. ‘We need to regroup and figure out what to do now, but you said it yourself. We want him pissed off so that he can’t help but show his ass, and tonight, he did just that.’
‘It wasn’t him.’
He releases me, and I take a step back, confused. ‘What do you mean?’
‘It wasn't him in the house, pix. When I got downstairs, somebody was still in the living room. I chased him, but he jumped on the back of a bike, and they took off, two of ‘em.’ I swallow hard as he grinds his teeth, his jaw tight. ‘They had on Bone Roses cuts, Bree. They were from the club.’