Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
I’m actually a very nice person once you feed me.
—Constance to Odin
Odin
I waited outside until she came out a half hour later, her shoulders a lot less tense than they’d been before she’d left to go eat lunch with Wendy.
I stepped out of the truck and whistled.
Her head whipped around and she froze when she saw me.
“You did not just whistle at me like a dog,” she growled.
I flicked my pointer finger at her, gesturing at her to come to me.
She crossed her arms and stomped her foot.
Knowing this was going to have to be the hard way instead of the easy way, I marched toward her and didn’t stop until I was directly in front of her.
When she started to raise her voice, ready to fight me, I bent down and picked her up, tossing her over my shoulder.
“Put me down right now, Odin!” she demanded.
“No thank you.”
“Odin!” she cried. “My car!”
“I’ll bring you back to it in time to pick her up,” I said. “Just look at it this way. You’ll be first in line to pick her up.”
“That’s not what I want to do!” she cried. “Put me down!”
“Hey, man,” I heard. “She said put her down.”
I looked to my side and saw Pendelton’s kid.
I rolled my eyes and kept walking.
“Put me down, Odin!”
I got to my truck and shoved her inside, strapping her in despite her being spitting mad.
What she was not doing was being too convincing.
Someone who didn’t want to be there would be kicking, punching, and scratching. Maybe even biting.
She was doing none of those things.
She was, however, giving me the silent treatment now.
I got the belt buckled, then flicked the lock on the door that would keep her from opening it from the inside.
The moment I got it closed and walked around the truck, she tried the door.
I grinned at her through the windshield.
She flipped me off.
“Hey, asshole,” Pendelton’s kid snarled. “I said let her go.”
I ignored him and rounded my truck.
Getting inside, I glanced at him one more time before pulling out.
I didn’t go far.
When I pulled up at my house half a minute later, she still hadn’t said a word.
Getting out once I was in my drive, I circled the hood and opened her door.
She sat stubbornly silent as she stared at the dashboard like it held state secrets.
I spotted her phone sticking out of her bag, and I snatched it up and put in the code I saw her typing in a few times.
When her phone opened, I blinked at the background that I saw.
The wake screen had been a photo of her and Wendy.
But the actual phone’s screen was a photo of…me.
I was straddling my bike at a light. It was taken from the back. My hands were on the handlebars, my face slightly turned to the left. And you could see me in profile.
But the best part was in my rearview mirror, you could see her in it flipping me off.
It was fucking hilarious.
I typed in my number and set it as “My everything.”
I dialed my number from her phone and called myself, then tucked the phone back into her purse.
Leaving her purse in the truck, I hefted Constance into my arms and took her inside.
“The code to get into my house is 102320.”
Her breath hissed in like I’d punched her.
“What?”
“That’s Wendy’s birthday,” she whispered. “And mine.”
I squeezed my hands around the backs of her thighs and said, “Kismet, wasn’t it?”
“What’s the significance to you?” she asked softly.
I punched in the code and walked inside, setting her on her feet right inside the door.
I looked her dead in the eyes and said, “That was the day that I went to prison. Which also happens to be my birthday.”
The worst day of my life.
She inhaled swiftly, shock crossing her face.
“You were in jail?”
I nodded. “Federal prison.”
“For what?” she balked.
“For murdering a governor.”
Her eyes widened, and she stepped back, her backside hitting the door.
Eyes wide, she said, “The man that was in prison for killing the Mississippi governor died during an escape attempt.”
I shook my head carefully. “Nope. I am very much alive.”
“But…how?”
“I can’t tell you everyone’s secrets, but there are seven of us here that escaped from prison with the help of another governor…or ex-governor.”
She blinked owlishly. “Was this like state-sanctioned?”
I shook my head. “Very much illegal.”
Her mouth opened and closed a comical amount before she said, “Why are you telling me this?”
I studied her face. “Why do you think?”
Her cheeks pinked.
“First of all, you need to know what kind of man I am before you let me more solidly into your life.”
She didn’t say anything.
“Second of all, before I get any deeper into this with you, I need to know if you can handle it,” I said. “Handle me. Everything that comes with me.”
She swallowed hard, her throat bobbing with the movement.
“You need to know what kind of man you’re letting around your kid,” I continued.
“The kind of man you’re inviting to be a part of your daughter’s life,” I leveled.
“I’m already halfway gone for that kid of yours.
I’m already gone for you. When I fall all the way, I won’t be letting either one of you go. Not without one hell of a fight.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I’m not a bad man,” I said. “I have morals that I won’t cross.
I don’t like the little guy losing. I don’t like a woman living in fear of a man.
I certainly don’t like when children get hurt.
Especially ones that are under my care and protection.
” I looked down at my hands. “I won’t ever be the guy that lets things like that go.
And if you can’t handle that, then I need to know now.
Before I let myself fall any further in love with you. ”
I was looking at my hands, so I wasn’t looking at the woman that was no longer plastered to the wall.
But my head jerked up quickly when her hands came down on top of mine.