Chapter 13
HAZE
Evelyn Marie Cromwell was fast becoming an obsession for me, and not just because her safety was a debt to be paid to her father. No, she was so much more than that, and I could recognize how intensely I’d become attached even before she reciprocated my interest.
Now that I’d kissed her, though? Shit.
It’d been a long time since I’d kissed anyone.
I’d had a very casual girlfriend as a teenager, but we’d never gone very far, and then I was captured and tortured for four months.
Since then, physical human touch had always sent me into the kind of blind, violent rage that had at times seen me waking up covered in blood.
It was that lack of experience, more than my touch aversion, that had me taking things so slowly with Evelyn now. I was scared how she might react, knowing she would be my first everything. It was a lot, and I didn’t want her feeling any kind of unnecessary pressure.
“Goddamn, dude.” Connor chuckled, jolting me out of my daydream so fast I nearly knocked my energy drink over.
I hadn’t even heard him come into my room, I’d been so lost in thought.
“Stalker, much?” He gestured to my wall of computer monitors showing every single room of Bluebell House, including his own.
I cleared my throat, quickly closing all the windows before he could ask any more questions about the footage I collected.
The footage I often watched and re-watched with my dick in hand.
Apparently, I was into that kind of thing.
Watching, I meant. I’d become particularly fond of the nights that Ethan and Brodie both joined Evelyn in bed.
The girl was flexible, and my camera was well positioned for a great view.
“What do you want, Con?” I asked as the screens all went dark and I spun in my chair to face him. “Did everything go all right at the self-defense class?”
“You already know how it went, lurker. If you’re so into her, why don’t you make a move?” He folded his arms across his chest, his chin tilted up slightly like he wanted me to back out. Less competition for him. Not that he’d ever admit he was interested too.
I clicked my tongue, slouching back in my chair with a smile. “Who says I haven’t?”
That surprised him enough that his eyes widened. They then narrowed with irritation, and I suspected this would turn into an argument if we kept posturing over my pretty little obsession.
“Did you need something, Connor? Or just coming to seek out the pleasure of my company?” I redirected his focus away from Evelyn to avoid needing to stake my claim like a caveman.
He sighed and nodded. “I wanted to talk about Evelyn.”
Huh. So much for that plan.
“What about her?” I asked carefully. I had a lot of favorite topics when it came to beautiful, fragile Evelyn Marie, but none of them I wanted to discuss with Connor Sullivan.
“Have you had any luck digging into the guy who tried to kill her? The city morgue has labeled him as a John Doe. Which gives us very few leads to chase down in figuring out who sent him or what his motivation was.”
I rocked side to side in my swivel chair as I stared up at him. “What makes you think I’ve been digging into it?”
Connor rolled his eyes and gave a long-suffering sigh. “Come on, bro. We both know you have.”
I grinned and shrugged. “Okay, maybe a little bit.” I spun back to my computer and turned one of the monitors back on, quickly minimizing the camera feed to pull up the file I’d been compiling on the man who’d terrorized and nearly killed our precious little jewel.
Connor let out a low whistle, pulling his phone from his pocket and shooting a message off into our group chat. “Drew will want to see this.”
Within minutes my bedroom was full. Not just Con and Drew, but Ethan and Brodie too. My skin prickled to have so many people within my private space, but this was the safest place to chat and I already knew Evelyn was dead asleep. Thanks, Brodie.
“Okay, here’s everything I’ve dug up so far,” I announced, projecting my dossier onto the largest monitor for everyone to see.
“Harold Rogan, thirty-four years old, born and raised in West Virginia, attended secondary school in his hometown of Chesapeake and never pursued tertiary education. Took a job as a mechanic in a chop shop and somehow wound up working muscle for hire under the Black Doves. Seems to have been doing low-level shit for them ever since. How he came to shoot up Tennessee Hallows University, or tracking Evelyn down here…it’s a mystery. ”
“What connection does Abraham have to the Black Doves?” Ethan asked, scowling at the screen. “Was this a hit on their payroll?”
I shook my head. “I’ve already looked into them. There’s no connection that I’m aware of. Rogan stopped receiving payments from them prior to the Tennessee shooting.”
“I’ll send someone to question them more thoroughly,” Connor muttered. “Just in case.”
“That’s not ominous at all,” Brodie scoffed.
Connor scowled. “You disagree? I thought you’d be willing to break as many eggs as necessary to crack this case, given your entanglement with our assignment.”
“Our assignment?” Brodie exclaimed, as amused as he was outraged. “Bro, who do you think you’re fooling?”
“Con, do whatever you need to do,” Andrew snapped, interrupting before Brodie could start an argument about whether Connor actually thought about Evelyn as nothing more than an assignment, which was so painfully bullshit. “Make sure the Black Doves aren’t mixed up in this.”
Ethan blew out a long, frustrated sigh, running his hand through his messy hair and drawing my attention to the bite mark on his neck. It wasn’t a hickey; there were very definite teeth indentations. Little Evie-Marie was a wildcat in bed, but I already knew that.
The older Sullivan brother steepled his hands thoughtfully.
“There’s something bigger at play here. I don’t believe for a second that Harold Rogan was doing this for a personal grudge or psychotic break.
Someone paid him. Drew, have you spoken with your mom at all?
Does she have any means to contact Abraham? ”
Andrew hadn’t sat down on my bed, one of the only members of our found family that instinctively understood my boundaries.
Instead, he stood stoically by the door with a deep scowl on his brow.
“I spoke with her, yes. But she was very little assistance. In fact, when she discovered that we’ are currently cohabitating with Abraham Cromwell’s only child, she tried to have Evie removed from the school entirely.
I do not think it is in our best interests to pursue Madam President for any more answers. ”
Alarm shot through me and I sat up straighter in my seat. “She what?”
Andrew rolled his eyes. “Calm down, Haze. I convinced her that it would be putting us all in danger to remove Evelyn from our protection, since I owe Abraham a debt. She won’t do anything, but I also don’t see her offering any tangible assistance in our search for whoever is trying to hurt Evie.
But she did mention that Abraham has been missing for several months.
Since roughly the same time as the Tennessee shooting. ”
“Because that’s not suspicious at all,” Brodie scoffed. “So Drew’s the last one to hear from Abraham?”
Andrew nodded. “Apparently so.”
Ethan tipped his head my way. “Can you look into it?”
“I already have,” I glowered. “And came up blank. He has literal governments and monarchies in his pocket. If the man doesn’t want to be found, he won’t be. It’s just a shame he didn’t afford the same protection to his daughter.”
A tense silence filled the room after I said that. My skin prickled with the glares of my friends.
“Is that what you’d want?” Ethan asked softly after a long pause. “Would you prefer Eve disappear from Bluebell House if it meant she was safe and out of harm’s way?” He didn’t ask it with any heavy judgment, almost like he wasn’t sure of his own answer if asked the same question.
I swallowed hard at the idea of potentially never seeing Evelyn Cromwell again. The girl who’d finally made me feel something when I’d all but given up on myself. The girl who’d given me a reason to heal myself.
“It’s not an option, so whether he’d want it or not is irrelevant,” Andrew snapped. “Eve’s not going anywhere.”
“Thank fuck for that,” Brodie muttered. “But just so we’re all perfectly fucking clear, I’m going to marry that girl one day, so you all better get cool with her sooner or later or you’re not invited to the wedding.”
Ethan smacked him in the back of the head, muttering something under his breath that I didn’t catch.
My focus was on Andrew, silently daring him to fess up about his little rendezvous with Evelyn in the hallway the other morning.
He just stared back at me, expressionless.
Apparently, he intended to hold on to that little secret for as long as he could.
I shrugged, slouching back in my chair. “Okay, well, then now is a good time to tell you that I kissed your future wife tonight. So I guess it’s a good thing you’re comfortable sharing her.”
Brodie’s eyes bugged out so hard I worried for his optic nerves, and Connor looked like I’d just sprouted a tail. Now that I’d said it out loud, though, I instantly regretted opening up. My palms started sweating.
“I have an idea to keep Evelyn safe in the short term,” I quickly continued on before anyone could ask for more information.
“Can one of you get her phone for me? I want to install a panic button and a GPS locator. If she does ever get in a sticky situation, I’d like for her to be able to contact us. ”
Ethan quickly offered to do it and returned less than a minute later with her phone in hand.
It took me no time at all to hack her passcode, then I set to work installing the software I’d already mostly built with this plan in mind.
Sure, it wasn’t totally finished, but now seemed as good a time as any to get it done.
“Just so we’re clear,” Brodie said after several minutes of silence, “I’m only okay sharing her affections with the four of you. Outside of this house, anyone lays a hand on her and I’ll cut their dick off and feed it to ducks.”
Andrew gave a strangled sound. “You intend to share her long term, then? Not just as entertainment while we’re all stuck in this house?”
“Like I said, I intend to marry her one day,” Brodie reiterated calmly. “She’s my person, just like you dickheads are my brothers. You can’t fight fate, Drew, so why bother acting like you even want to?”
“I’m with Brodes on this one,” Ethan said quietly.
Connor snorted a laugh. “Even if it costs you your career? The scandal if this gets out—”
“Fuck it. I hate teaching you snotty, entitled brats anyway.” Ethan said it with a lazy grin, but I knew him better. He loved teaching…but maybe he loved Evelyn more.
Connor shook his head. “You’re all idiots.
I’m helping keep her safe for all your sakes, but don’t go expecting me to whip my dick out and join the orgy.
She can’t stand me on a personal level, and honestly, the feeling is mutual.
” He snatched Evelyn’s phone from me as I disconnected it and stormed out of my room in a huff.
Drew and Ethan left a moment later, but Brodie lingered as I reactivated one of my video surveillance screens. The one in Evelyn’s bedroom.
“You dirty perv,” Brodie whispered with amusement as we watched Connor quietly tiptoe into Eve’s bedroom and place her phone beside her bed.
He paused a moment before plugging it into the charger, pulling her blankets up higher to cover her naked shoulders, then gently stroke her hair. “He’s such a liar.”
I sighed, shrugging. “Maybe. Or maybe he’s just not ready to accept his own feelings. Maybe he never will be.” Trauma could do some crazy shit…I should know.
“His loss,” Brodie huffed. “Thanks for all of this, Haze. You’re awesome, you know that? I don’t know what we’d do without you.”
I rolled my eyes and kicked him lightly. “Fuck off with your feelings, Brodie. Go cuddle your future wife.”
Brodie chuckled, already heading for the door. “Yes, sir. Don’t watch us, creeper. I plan to get naked.”
I laughed as he left, not pointing out that it sure as hell wouldn’t be the first time I’d seen him naked in Evie Marie’s bed. Nor would it be the last.