Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
HAVEN
I’m standing outside my office at the funeral home, listening to Apex cry and grieve my cousin alone. The crashes and breaking noises have not stopped.
“He’s fucking up the office.” Corvin stands next to me with a frown while he taps his foot.
“He lost his wife and didn’t get to say goodbye. I can fix and replace the office.” I cringe when I hear glass break.
“That was the fucking window!” Corvin stomps over to the door and rips it open.
“ENOUGH!” He grabs Apex and puts him in a headlock.
They fumble through the doorway into the preparation area and knock into the table where Danica’s urn is sitting. It falls over and rolls ready to crash to the floor, but Loki snags it mid-air as Apex takes Corvin to the ground.
Wrong move.
Ten seconds later, Corvin has him in an armbar submission as they both huff.
“I wrestled all through high school and college fuckface. I love bringing men like you down to their knees, but I’m not gonna let you ruin a business that we have killed ourselves to build.
Now, either you calm the fuck down, or I’ll break this arm.
Make a move, big boy.” Corvin pulls harder to prove his point, and Apex growls.
“Fuck, fine!” Corvin lets him go with a shove.
“You’re fucking cleaning that and paying for repairs.” He walks past me and high-fives Loki.
“I wanna be him when I grow up,” I smirk as I watch Apex sitting on my floor, staring daggers at the urn.
“You loved her.”
His head swivels.
“More than my own life, but we were oil and water. Toxic on a level that was not healthy. It was easier not to be around each other all the time. We both respected each other in an open relationship. But she knew if she needed me, I had her back. Until…” He hiccups and grabs his head before he starts to rock.
“I get it. How much of her past do you know?” I hesitate to ask, but I need to know where I stand on handing out information that might be needed to make this switching of roles work.
He looks up at me, and I can see it in his eyes before he answers.
“All of it. We had no secrets.”
Well, that’s good.
“No Apex. You didn’t,” Loki says, and I curse.
“What?” He stands slowly on shaky legs.
“Her dad?” I ask tentatively.
His frown has me walking around him into my office. Fuck it’s wrecked. I see the envelope with Danica’s letter in it under a picture frame. I lift up carefully so I don’t cut myself and sigh.
It’s a photo of me with my parents.
I set it up against the overturned desk and turn to see Corvin handing Apex a broom. I walk out and hand him the letter, and then grab Corvin’s arm as he starts to read.
“Prep two milligrams of lorazepam,” I whisper in his ear, and he shakes his head.
“Nah, I got something better.” I raise an eyebrow, but before I can ask what, Apex explodes.
“HER FATHER DID WHAT!”
Corvin points at his chest.
“You got one chance to get your shit together or I’ll help, and this time you ain’t waking up until tomorrow.” Apex seems to have forgotten the English language, though, and when he grabs Loki by the shirt and lifts her off the ground, Corvin loses his shit.
“No, sir.” He swings his arm down and out to knock Loki out of the way before producing his taser and hitting Apex in the neck with ten thousand volts.
His body shakes as it freezes up and drops to the floor, but my bestie follows him down until he passes out cold on my floor.
“Worth every fucking penny.” He looks up at Loki.
“You good, sweetie?”
She nods as she rubs her shoulder and neck.
“He’s not a violent person. Normally.”
I snort cause the fuck he’s not.
“How’d he get the road name Apex then?” I mean, other than his sheer fucking size, but that seems obvious.
The man has to weigh three hundred plus pounds of pure muscle and stands at least six feet five inches tall. Corvin is no small man, but he looks slim next to Apex.
“His dick,” Loki says, and I giggle.
“I fuck like a predator.” He grins proudly at us.
Must have been awake for a while to contribute that tidbit. Funny how men never miss a conversation involving their cocks.
“Fucking figures. The ones with fatties always have this attitude about them.” Corvin sighs as he rolls the man in question over so he doesn’t choke on his own tongue.
He groans and then lets out a snore so loud we all laugh.
“You two need a comedy show,” Loki says after she recovers.
“Help me move him to the couch?” I ask Corvin.
“Babe, it’s broken. Besides, he needs to stay on the ground so when he pukes, he can lie in it until morning. Then he’s fixing that.” He points at my office.
“Right. I’m going home.” I’ve had enough of today.
I grab my shit, and Loki follows me home after we say goodbye and lock up the funeral home. Corvin lives upstairs, which is why he’s always there. It’s easier with me working and going to school at the moment.
I’m so lost in my head that I don’t notice the red and blue lights flashing on my street are from police cars at my own fucking house. I turn suddenly down a side street, not wanting to explain why I’m wearing my cousin’s cut and riding her bike to people I work with.
“Follow me,” Loki calls to me, and I nod.
Ten minutes later, we’re parked outside a small bungalow tucked back in the woods with a blind driveway. I take my helmet off and look around.
“Where are we?”