37. Sam
SAM
I had just finished my workout when the text came in.
We got him.
Relief rushed through me so hard and fast that I didn’t even bother to tear off the wraps on my hands before running out of the gym to the police station.
As soon as I walked through the door, I could feel the relief in the air.
Officers were laughing and joking, Bea was passing out donuts, and Mav was leaning against his office doorframe, talking with Parker.
Storming through the crowd, I nearly shoved one of the officers over to get to them. “You got him? Where is that son of a bitch?”
“Relax, Sam. State police picked him up,” Mav grinned.
“What about Knight? I thought he was tracking him.”
Parker tipped back on his heels, a smirk sliding over his face. “Not sure. When the police got the tip, they found Austin in an alley, beaten to a pulp and covered in piss.”
I would have preferred him dead, but I didn’t really get a say in any of this. And bringing it up would get me the same answers as always. They didn’t want the Parkers in the spotlight for anything. Drawing attention to them would only end in disaster.
“So, it’s over?”
“Well, charges will be brought against him and he’ll have to go to trial. But he’s in custody, and since he fled, it’s highly unlikely he’ll get out on bail.”
A laugh bubbled up in my chest as I realized it was finally over with. All the days I worried about leaving Cassidy alone at her shop, wondering if he would break in at night just to get his revenge…I could finally relax.
I didn’t have to stay there anymore.
“When are you gonna tell Cassidy?” Parker asked.
“What?”
“Well, I’m sure she’ll be glad to know she doesn’t have to look over her shoulder anymore,” Mav added. “Did you ever talk to her?”
I shook my head. “Never found the right time.”
“I don’t think I need to remind you that anything she can offer will only help keep him behind bars.”
But my gut churned at the thought of having her try to relive that night. I just wasn’t prepared for it.
“We’ve got him, Sam. Now we need to make the charges stick.”
“I know,” I snapped. “I’ll talk to her.”
“Make sure that you do.”
He tipped his hat as he walked away, leaving me alone with Parker.
“So, I guess now that it’s all over, you’ll be wanting your house back.”
I winced at the thought of staying in that house on wheels when I could be staying in bed with Cassidy every night.
“Are they still moving it around town?”
He snorted in amusement. “Are you kidding? One look from Knight and they all backed off.”
“Lucky him,” I muttered.
“Anyway, I gotta get back to work. Give Cassidy the good news for us.”
“Yeah.”
But as I walked out of the station, I couldn’t bring myself to be happy about any of it.
I mean, it was great that Austin was in custody and that he couldn’t threaten anyone.
That wasn’t the problem. It was knowing that with everything coming to a close, I no longer had a reason to stay at Cassidy’s house.
She really didn’t need me to take care of her anymore.
While she still struggled with some things, she mostly told me to leave her alone so she could figure it out for herself.
What would she say when I told her it was over?
As I opened the door to her shop and stepped inside, I was immediately reminded of that first day I met her. How she fell from the roof and landed in my arms, all tangled up in lights. That seemed like ages ago.
“Hey, Sam! Done already?” Cassidy asked, walking out on her crutches from the back room as a bag swung from her fingertips that balanced on her crutch.
“What are you doing?”
“Ah, new system,” she grinned. “It’s a little slower unpacking a shipment this way, but at least I can still work.”
“You put the books in a bag and carry them out here while balancing with your crutches?” I asked in disbelief.
“Hey, it works. Don’t knock it,” she said, moving across the room to her new release shelf. “So, what are you doing here so early? Shouldn’t you still be training?”
“Yeah, I uh…” Frowning, I tried to think of how to say this to her. “Mav texted. Austin was caught.”
Her fingers paused just as she was about to push a book onto the shelf. “Oh, well, that’s good.”
“Yeah. He wanted me to talk to you about something.”
“What’s that?”
I could hear the tension in her voice. This was all wrong. She didn’t want to think about any of this. She was finally moving on with her life again. It had been two weeks since Christmas, and that depression she had been in seemed to finally be lifting.
“Uh...”
She glanced over her shoulder, her teeth biting into her bottom lip with worry.
“He…he wanted to know if you’ve heard about when you’re getting your cast off.”
Her whole body sagged in relief as she smiled and went back to work. “Well, it’s only been a month. The doctor said at least six weeks. So, I guess I’ll find out when I go back for my appointment.”
I already knew all that, and she knew that I knew. We were both lying, both of us dancing around what really needed to be discussed. But I wasn’t ready to go there, and neither was she.
“Need some help?”
“I thought you were going back to the gym?”
I glanced down to where she pointed at my wrapped hands. “Oh, right. Yeah, I guess I should get back there.”
“I’ll see you at six?”
“Yeah, I’ll pick up dinner.”
That warm smile that got under my skin was back, shining bright as ever. There was no way I could bring it up now.
“Sounds good. Oh, and Blake stopped by earlier. She was saying something about Parker going in early to train with you?”
“Right, sorry, I forgot about that. It was something we planned before the accident, but never got a chance to do.”
“So, you’ll be leaving early tomorrow morning?”
“Yeah, but I’ll make sure I’m back in time to pick you up for work.”
“It’s fine. I’m sure Josie can pick me up on her way in.”
“No, I’ll be back to get you.”
Why was I offering more of my time to her? I was off the hook. Austin was in prison and I had literally no responsibilities to this woman. Yet, I couldn’t allow myself to just walk away.
“Okay, just let me know if you change your mind.”
I got out of there before I offered to do anything else for her. I was already on edge, wondering if I should go back to my own house or stay with her. If I stuck around too much longer, she’d start to get the idea that I wanted to stick around, that I wanted a relationship.
I’d move out by the weekend. That would give me enough time to find a new place to stay and make sure she was okay on her own. It was the only option at this point.
“Another! Give me another!” Deke shouted as I lifted the bar above my head. My muscles were straining and sweat was clinging to every inch of my body, but I pushed myself to the limit and gave him one more before he helped me place the bar on the rack.
“Ha! That’s more than you ever did back when you were fighting. I swear, you’re gonna come back stronger,” he laughed, slapping my sweaty back.
I snatched the towel from a nearby rack and glanced up at the time.
Fuck, I’d been here for hours and still had a lot more to go.
Deke was pushing me hard, but I could feel the difference in my muscles, in the way my body moved.
He was right. I was doing better than I was before my injury, and part of me attributed it to the lifestyle change that was thrust upon me.
“See? I told you getting laid would make all the difference in the world.”
I smirked at him, but it quickly faded as I remembered the promise I’d made just last night to Cassidy. “Fuck!”
I shot out of there, rushing to my car parked on the curb. My balls froze the minute the cold air hit me, but none of that mattered when I was supposed to take Cassidy to her doctor’s appointment this morning.
It was bad enough that I was late picking her up the day after I told her I would get her. She’d already made it to the shop, having called Josie to pick her up. And now I was going to make her late for an appointment that would determine if she needed to wear the cast for more than six weeks.
In the two weeks since I promised myself I would move out, I’d come up with every reason under the sun that I couldn’t leave just yet.
Most of them were ridiculous, and some were just because I wasn’t ready to leave her bed yet.
But I knew it was coming. This stalemate going on between us since the dreaded M conversation would only hold so long.
I cursed under my breath as the car slipped and slid all over the frozen road. Of all days to be late, this was not the one. With recent snow, the roads were terrible, and I fucking knew that last night, which was why I had set the damn alarm on my phone to leave early today.
Except my phone had been left in my locker.
As I pulled up to the house, I knew I was in trouble without even seeing her face. The curtain fell to the side, and she was out the door before I even got to the steps. The look on her face made my balls shrivel up further than they already had from the cold.
“Cassidy—”
“It’s fine. Let’s go.”
I was not fine. I’d been living with this woman long enough to know that when she said something was fine, that meant for me to shut my mouth and cease to exist in this world.
Not that I could do that, but I could shut my mouth.
I didn’t dare carry her to the car, but I did walk beside her, my hand outstretched just in case I needed to catch her.
She walked on her crutches with a determined stride, as if she was going to prove to me that if she weren’t in a full leg cast, there wasn’t a single reason in the world she would need me.
“I really am sorry,” I said as we drove to the hospital. “I just lost track of time.”
But she continued to stare out her window, ignoring me altogether.
“My phone was in the locker. I didn’t hear the alarm.”
“I said it’s fine,” she snapped. “Can we just drop it?”
So, I did. I kept my mouth shut the rest of the drive to the hospital. But what really fucking hurt was when she told me to stay in the waiting room. I’d been relegated to the sidelines like some nobody.
An hour passed, and I was still sitting in the damn chair, waiting to hear how she was doing. When Caroline walked out, I nearly jumped up in relief, hoping she had some news for me, or was coming to get me.
“Is she okay? Did she get the cast off?”
“She’s fine. They’re removing the cast, but she’ll need to wear a brace for a few weeks. It’ll help her get around more easily, but also provide the stability she needs for recovery.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, nodding to Caroline as I took a step back. For some reason, I felt like the whole world had been pressing down on my shoulders until this moment. Which didn’t make sense because Cassidy’s recovery had very little to do with me.
“So, what did you do?”
Still reeling from the news, I didn’t understand the question at first. “Huh?”
“Well, you’re out here instead of back there with her. So, what did you do?”
“Uh…I may have been late picking her up. Again.”
“Well, if you want to stay on her good side, may I recommend that you become a better, more attentive boyfriend?”
“Boyfriend?” I laughed. “That’s not what this is.”
“Oh, right. Just sleeping together,” she nodded. “And living with her. And doing everything together. But you’re just friends.”
“I’m only staying with her because she needed help, and because Austin was out there.”
“Right, but they caught Austin. So…”
The truth was, the lines were blurring. The more time I spent with her, the more I thought about what it would be like to stay with her, to build something real outside of boxing.
But making my brain get on board with this weird thumping sensation in my chest every time I was around her was a little more difficult.
“She still needed help.”
“Well, you’ll be happy to know that she is now mobile and can do things on her own. You’re off the hook. Must feel good, right?”
I nodded as she walked away, grinning at me. I was off the hook—able to get back to my own life. So, why did it feel like everything was crumbling at my feet?