Chapter 9
CHAPTER
NINE
KODIAK
I’m almost to her apartment when my cell phone rings. I see it’s her number, and I don’t let her say anything when I answer.
“Sugar, I’m pissed. Your ass is red as soon as I see you.”
“Help me, Ry. Help. He’s in our apartment. I don’t know how he got in,” she cries into the phone, and I hear Oly sobbing in the background.
“I’m almost there.” I push the accelerator to the floor.
I look at Icarus in the passenger seat. He jumped in to help keep me calm when I found her. He pulls out his phone and sends a text, then gives me a nod. He’ll have all the guys there as soon as possible to hold me back.
“Who is in the apartment, Marnie?” I need to get information out of her, just in case they disappear before I get there.
I take the turn onto her road, the back end of my truck sliding out, and I power through it. With four-wheel drive engaged and my tires pointed where I want, I know the truck will go exactly where I need it to.
“It’s Jim. He was standing in my hallway from the bedroom. Oh my God! He said he wished he put a camera in my bathroom.” She starts to sob.
“Baby, I’m on your road.”
I pull into the complex parking lot and head for her building. In all these months, she hasn’t invited me to her place, and I’ve never been inside.
“How did he get past her?” Icarus asks. I know he’s been inside her apartment. “That hallway is past her living room. He had to come in through a window or some other way.”
Icarus opens the center console and pulls out my gun. He hands it to me, and I slip it into the back of my tuxedo pants. I’m so glad I listened to that voice telling me she was in danger and headed straight here.
“Open the fucking door.” I hear a male voice over the line.
Marnie and Oly scream.
I slam the truck into park and sprint up the stairs, two at a time. Planting my feet, I swing my leg and kick the door at the jam. It crumples, just like I knew it would. Chintzy ass locks and cheap doors.
I see the man banging on what must be a bedroom door. He spins around the moment I crash through.
“You’re a dead man.”
I raise my gun. He tries to take off down the hall. I pray the bullet doesn’t go through him as I fire a shot into his ass, giving it a lot of flesh to go through and his hip bone. He drops to the floor, screaming in pain.
“Shut him up,” I order Icarus as I move to the bedroom.
I push on the door, but it won’t budge.
“Sugar, it’s me.”
Something scrapes along the floor on the other side, then the door opens. I step in and take both my girls into my arms.
“I’m never letting you go again.”
Marnie clings to me, sobbing, and Oly holds on just as tight.
Icarus walks up to take Oly so I can get a full grip on my girl and calm her down. Jim, the creepy neighbor, moans from the floor, saying he’s going to press charges. I’m about to shoot him right then and there when Wing and Sparky walk in.
“PD is on their way. Heard it over the radio,” Wing says
“Fuck. I need to take care of him.”
I try to pull away from Marnie to put the fucker out of his misery, but she won’t let me go.
Every time I move, she presses against me tight.
I know she’s freaked out, but if I’m going to truly protect her, I need to get him gone.
The police can’t guarantee she’ll be safe from him, but I can.
Restraining orders don’t always help. Men like him don’t care about them.
“Baby, I need to let you go. Can Icarus stay with you?”
I don’t want him to hold her, but she takes that from my control when she starts shaking her head hard and crying even harder.
“Kodiak, let’s take him out of here. Tell the police he ran out and you saw him get in his car,” Sparky offers.
“Do we even know how he got in here?” Icarus asks the million-dollar question.
Her front door was deadbolted. So he was either in here before she got home, or he came in another way.
Wing walks out of a bedroom, reaches down, and throws him over his shoulder. “I’m taking him to the cabin. Fucker has a hidey hole and comes in through her closet. Looks like he’s been doing it for a while now. He’s got pictures of her all over the other apartment.”
I hand my gun to Sparky.
“H-H-He lives-downstairs,” Marnie sobs.
“Yeah, well, he’s taken over the apartment next door and is using it as his stash pad.”
Wing exits the apartment with Sparky trailing behind. I’m in shock. Together, Marnie and I walk to her bedroom. Sure enough, there’s a panel in the back of the closet that has been removed, creating a connection from her apartment to the one next door.
Icarus hands me Oly and steps through the hole.
“Motherfucker.” When he walks back through, his jaw is locked so tight I’m shocked he hasn’t broken a tooth. “Don’t go in there, Marnie. Might also be best if you didn’t go in there, Prez. It’s bad.”
“Fuck.”
“Wasilla Police. Hands up.”
We turn to see two officers standing in the living room.
“We are unarmed,” I say, gritting my teeth. I’m not a fan of this department, and they don’t like me either.
“We got reports of a gunshot fired from this address.”
“Maybe you should investigate this. My old lady just got surprised by a peeping Tom. She fought back, and I punched him out when I arrived. He escaped through his access while I checked on her. Fucker was frogging her. Check it out.” I point to the bedroom, and one of them goes and checks it out while the other keeps an eye on us.
When the cop returns, he’s shaking his head. “We’ve gotten calls for this apartment in the past. I saw pictures in there of the woman who lived here before. Where did he go?”
We all shrug, even Marnie.
“Don’t know. Probably knew I’d kill him if I got my hands on him.”
“What was the gunshot?” The other cop looks at me, and I shake my head.
“Didn’t shoot him. Kicked in the door and punched him good after my old lady beat the shit out of him. Probably didn’t want to admit a girl beat him up and fled like a pussy.”
It takes a couple more hours to get away from the apartment, but by the time we leave, I have GB and Juneau loading up Marnie’s and Oly’s stuff into the back of my truck. I didn’t confront Marnie about the fact that all their bags were already packed. Proof she was thinking of running from me.
After the cops leave, Vortex shows up and conducts his own investigation, lifting fingerprints and checking the scene. Marnie and I pile into my truck, Oly in the back seat with Icarus next to her, and we head to my place.
I drop Icarus off at his place, where one of the prospects brought his SUV. He climbs out, saying he’ll see us in the morning. By the time we reach my house, Marnie is doing the Jell-O neck head bob from the passenger seat, adrenaline finally crashing, making her drowsy.
I carry Oly inside and tuck her into bed, then come back for Marnie and carry her to my room.
Heading back out to the truck, I grab the overnight bags and those backpacks I’ve seen Marnie keep close by. I can’t help myself. I unzip one.
I’m not surprised by what I find. It’s a go-bag. A change of clothes. A passport with a new last name. Cash. A burner phone.
I’ll confront her about this in the morning. It’s time for all her secrets to come out in the open.
When I step into my room, the bed is empty. I spin around and storm to the bedroom where Oly is sleeping. Marnie is lying on the bed with her.
I don’t know if it’s fear from what happened, but I’m not letting her sleep away from me anymore. I was serious. She’s my old lady. I’m not giving her up, no matter how hard she pushes against me.
Lifting Marnie from the bed, I carry her back to my room and lie down with her fully clothed. I slip off my shoes, not willing to let her go yet. The fear of almost losing her is too close.
Marnie
Feeling Rylan’s warmth against my back calms me, and I settle in deeper until a scream rents the air, and we both jump up. Rylan is first through Oly’s door. She jumps up from the bed and straight into his arms. We stand there, all three of us, hugging and him soothing us as she cries.
He doesn’t think twice. He carries her back to his room and climbs into bed with her in the middle between us. Oly falls back to sleep, and I start to settle down as Rylan’s hand brushes my hair away from my face.
“I love you, Marnie. I will protect you.”
“But who will protect you?” I choke on a sob. “I can’t lose you.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
He reaches across Oly’s body and caresses his hand down the side of my face. I lean into it, needing the connection.
The next morning, I wake up feeling better and rested. I decide I need to tell him the whole truth.
After getting cleaned up and slipping on one of his flannels over my pajamas, I walk out into the great room. Oly is sitting at the counter with a stack of pancakes in front of her. She’s a sticky mess. I chuckle and shake my head at the scene.
Looking out the windows to the deck, I see the yard only has a fine dusting of snow.
The temperature has changed, and the snow has stopped.
The weather is one of the most unpredictable parts of living in Alaska.
The news can call for a cloudy day with no snow, then your car is covered in six inches of snow.
In the Valley, the wind is usually a constant.
But right now it’s calm. It’s as if it’s the calm before the storm.
I turn back to look at Rylan.
“Come here,” Rylan orders me, and I walk over to him.
He pulls me into his arms and kisses me long and deep. By the time he pulls away, I’m breathless and squeezing my legs together in order to stop the ache.
“I’ll take care of you later,” he whispers against my ear before kissing my neck.
A beeping sounds, then the front door opens. Aftershock and Harley walk in.
“What are you two doing here?” I ask. “I thought you went on your honeymoon.”
Quinn walks in next, with Gunny right behind her.
“Of course, I’m going to come here first and check on you. How are you? Did he hurt you?” Harley says.