Chapter 27
Could the smell of a house change simply because it became inhabited?
The rooms of the house used to smell of cedar and fire, something raw and sturdy around me, yet tonight, it smelled like linen and the pork we ate for dinner.
There were bits and pieces of Frankie and the kids sprinkled around the vast home after we made a trip to her house to get the necessities they would need to stay the night and go to school in the morning.
And I couldn’t help but finally understand the difference between a house and a home, because of them.
All three of them.
The fireplace threw a low orange glow across the beams I’d set by hand, reflecting off the polished floorboards and the dark windows.
My house. My cabin. My damn sanctuary I’d spent years building plank by plank when I thought I’d be alone forever, leaving it untouched by the warmth of a family that it had deserved.
Yet now—Frankie was curled up on the couch like she’d always belonged there, the kids sat on pillows on the floor around the coffee table playing a board game, and Eli watched on from the chair next to the couch, a soft smile on his face.
I silently crossed the room and lifted Frankie’s shoulders from the cushion, sitting down and pulling her against me as the kids laughed at Eli’s impersonation of some reindeer from a movie they knew.
Frankie smiled up at me, and I kissed her forehead before she settled her cheek on my chest to watch them again.
My knuckles still ached from gripping the steering wheel when the brakes gave out in her car last night.
My chest burned from the seatbelt bruise I tried to ignore.
And my gut simmered with what should have been fear from the whole ordeal, but the truth was, the only thing that rattled me over the whole thing was the look on Frankie’s face when she ran to me afterward.
Her pure fear.
Not for me—but of losing me.
That shit hit me harder than the tree did.
I hadn’t been able to stop staring at her since. Every laugh she gave the kids. Every cautious glance she threw at me and Eli throughout the day, like she was daring herself not to collapse under the weight of what the hell this was all becoming.
Last night, Eli asked the hard question—if the kids were in danger. Her answer had chilled the blood in my veins, but she pushed it aside like she always did. Like she thought she had to carry it alone.
We just had to keep showing up for her until she realized we weren’t going anywhere. Then she’d finally let us in—all the way.
Into her heart.
The kids were passed out in one of the rooms upstairs on an air mattress, even though my gut screamed at me for not having proper beds for them.
Yet.
They acted like the whole thing was the best adventure of all though, chatting on about how fun it was to sleep over, and how they wished they could do it every night.
Little did they know, that was exactly what was going to happen. I wasn’t spending a night apart from them now that I had them here. It would feel like losing part of myself if I did.
Eli was leaving for his shift at the firehouse, and I was giving him and Frankie some privacy for their goodbye on the porch.
If I sat and thought about it long enough, I might start wondering why I didn’t get the least bit jealous when Frankie gave her attention to Eli, or why I wasn’t threatened when he made her the center of his world.
Maybe it was because we’d been best friends for decades, or maybe it was just because for the first time I genuinely cared for someone else’s needs and desires, leading me to not care how she fulfilled them, as long as she included me in the mix.
It was wild, but I was loving it.
Plus, I had her alone all night in my bed while he slept at the fire station. Clearly, I was winning.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, Lenny, the mechanic at the garage we had Frankie’s car towed to, was calling me.
“Yeah?” I muttered low, ducking into the privacy of what would one day be my office in case Frankie came back in.
“I got your girl’s SUV up on the lift,” Lenny said, voice clipped. “This wasn’t an accident, Travis. Her brake line was cut clean. It wasn’t frayed. It wasn’t rusted. It was cut with a blade or pliers. Whoever did it knew what they were doing.”
The blood roared in my ears as I forced words out, “You’re sure?”
“Dead sure. If she’d been going any faster, or if there’d been another car, well, you can figure out what would have happened.”
I swallowed hard, jaw locked tight. “Thanks Len. I’m not telling her yet. I’ll handle it with her when she’s ready to face it.”
“If the kids had been in the car, man—”
“I know.” I snapped and then took a deep breath. “We’re handling it.”
Hanging up, I shoved the phone back into my pocket as my chest felt like it would explode into little shards of broken glass if I didn’t find a way to soothe it. To calm the anger.
Frankie had almost died. Because of him—Danny. Because the sick bastard wanted to terrify her.
Without thinking, I stalked through the silent house to the front door and opened it.
I found Frankie sitting on the porch steps, staring out at the dark tree line like she could see something I couldn’t.
Her mug was empty of the tea Eli had made her as he got ready for work, but her fingers clenched tight around the porcelain.
She looked breakable, like she was teetering on the edge of something.
Something dark.
“Frankie.” I said, low as I sat down on the step next to her.
She didn’t look at me, just pulled the blanket tighter. “You okay?” She asked finally, looking over at me. I could only imagine what she saw when she did.
No, I wanted to say. Your stalker cut your brakes. You and the kids aren’t safe.
But she was already brittle, already teetering on the edge, and dropping that weight on her tonight would crush her.
So instead, I forced a deep breath into my lungs and slid closer to her. “Not really,” I admitted, because the truth had to leak out somewhere. “But I’ll be better if you talk to me. Tell me the whole story.”
Her breath hitched as she reared back slightly, as if my words physically affected her.
But then her lips parted, and then her words started coming.
“Once—after I had Toby, I broke. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat.
Someone—Danny—was already circling me, showing up when I was alone, leaving little things behind to tell me he’d been there.
I thought I was losing my mind. But that was what he wanted.
He wanted me to go insane so he could control me again. And it worked. I ended up—”
Her voice faded, and I slid my hand over the back of her neck, soothing her. “You ended up what?”
“Hospitalized.” She whispered. “He had me committed. At the time we were still married.”
The word hit me like a punch. Hospitalized. She kept going before she lost her urge.
“And he used it. Later. To try to prove that I was unfit. He threatened to take the kids away if I didn’t play nice. If I didn’t keep quiet.”
Her shoulders curled inward, and I couldn’t stand it another damn second. I cupped her face, turning her toward me, and her green eyes shimmered with unshed tears in the porch light.
But they were fierce and terrified all at the same time.
“Quiet about what?” I whispered.
“The abuse.” She admitted with a haunted gleam in her eyes. “The physical, emotional, and—” she shook her head, letting her eyes close as she tore herself open. “The sexual abuse.”
My chest felt like it was going to explode again as her tears fell.
“He does not get to break you twice.” I growled. “I won’t let him. Eli won’t let him. You’re not alone anymore, Frankie, you hear me?”
Her lips parted, trembling, and I kissed her.
Hard.
Messy.
Desperate.
Like I could press my promise into her bones. She whimpered against me, clutching my shirt, and that sound alone tore me in half.
The blanket slipped from her shoulders as my hands found the heat of her waist, her legs moving until she straddled me right there on the porch. It was raw, frantic, not careful in the slightest, like we both needed to prove she was here for good with our touch.
Her nails dug into the back of my neck as she rocked in my lap, deepening everything with her desperation, and I took it. I took every fucking drop of it until she was begging me to give her more.
And I did.
God, did I fucking give her everything. I always would.
Carrying her inside the home I built, I locked the door behind us and went straight to my bedroom.
Our bedroom.
We weren’t talking anymore.
We weren’t thinking anymore.
We were burning.
I stripped her out of the jersey she still wore for me, and undid the clasp of her bra as she ripped it off until the warmth of her skin filled my palms while I laid her out in the center of my bed.
She laughed shakily between gasps as I kneeled between her thighs and tore my shirt off over my head, staring down at her.
“Wait.” She whispered, running her fingertips down my abs. “Eli.”
I groaned, lying down flat against her and her sexy flesh.
“Don’t tell me I can’t have you if he’s not here.
” I growled, kissing the thin skin covering her collarbone and grinding my erection between her thighs that pulled me closer.
“I won’t if that’s what you want. But be prepared for me to pout. ”
She chuckled softly again and ran her nails over the back of my scalp. “You can have me. But we still have to share with him. So he doesn’t feel left out.”
“How?” I kissed down her chest, palming both of her lush tits before sucking on one nipple and then the other.
Quickly scraping my teeth over the hard nub of her flesh, she moaned and pushed her chest up toward my mouth again.
I repeated it, sucking and then biting each of her sensitive nipples until she was humping me from beneath.
“Video.” She panted, riding me, rubbing her hot little pussy against my body. “He wants a video of us. Of you fucking me.”