25. Protect Those They Loved
PROTECT THOSE THEY LOVED
Skye’s feet halted when she walked into the living room and saw Gale on the couch with her fiancé.
“What’s wrong?” Ash asked her from behind. Almost whispering in her ear. Even a touch of humor with it.
“Nothing,” she said, moving in. Though the guy on the couch looked like someone she’d met before.
“Hi, Skye. I’m not sure if you remember me.”
She moved toward Ash’s sister who was only two years older than her. The same age as Sean. “I do, Gale. It’s nice to see you again.”
“This is my fiancé, Rory Connors.”
She shook Rory’s hand. She’d heard about him.
How could this area not?
She was a young teen herself when Rory’s sister had been killed and the murderer never caught.
Until months ago when Rory came to town and, between him and Gale investigating, another person in the area ended up being the killer.
Someone in construction.
People her brothers and father had talked to, worked with, even saw out all the time.
She was as stunned as everyone else to find out who had done it and how easily he confessed once he was caught.
Just like she knew the story behind everyone else in this room.
Ford saving his wife, Reenie. Clay the same with his wife, Meredith, who was Gale’s best friend in school.
Then more recently, a few months ago, an attempt made on Blaze’s girlfriend right at work.
He’d saved her too.
It was like these Ridgeway siblings sure knew how to protect those they loved.
Just like her adopted siblings were trying to do to her too.
Though there was no reason for everyone to get worked up.
“It’s nice to meet you,” she said to Rory. “I’m so sorry about your sister. I know it’s coming years later, but it seems like yesterday thinking of it now.”
“Thanks,” Rory said. “I don’t know if Rocco would have ever been caught if I hadn’t come into town and run into Gale.”
Gale rubbed her knuckles across her chest. “I do have that effect on things.”
“Put a lid on it,” Blaze said. “It’s good to see you again, though I’m not sure you remember me much.”
“A little,” she said. “My sister is a nurse at the hospital. She’s filled in in the ER before. Brenna Lancaster.”
“Yep,” Blaze said. “I remember her. And this is, Arden, and her daughter, Gracie.”
Skye shook everyone’s hands and then took a seat next to Ash.
This old farmhouse was big but not as big or open as her parents’ house, everyone almost squished in but still comfortable.
“Ash asked us not to talk about everything that is going on right now,” Gale said. “I’m going to start so we can get it out there and over with.”
Ash snorted. “Figures you’d do that.”
“You asked Rory a favor, I’m clearing the way.”
“What does that mean?” she asked.
“First,” Ford said. “I’m up to date on things, between Ash and Keegan letting me know. You know you can reach out to me just as easily as the GFPD. I mean that.”
“Thanks. I’m hoping not to have to reach out to anyone. This person has been quiet. Maybe he’s just going away.”
“They never go away,” Clay said.
Meredith’s foot kicked her husband’s boot. “That’s not nice.”
“Clay is never nice,” Ash said.
“I’m not trying to be nice, but realistic. Trying to pretend it’s going away won’t make it happen. Right, Meredith?”
Meredith put her head on her husband’s shoulder. “You had me, so I was good.”
“I’m not pretending,” Skye argued. “I just hope whoever it is makes a mistake and is caught and there isn’t any more damage.
I’m not sure I’ve got what it takes to keep running after news all the time.
I mean, geez, I could write a book on each one of your stories in this room for inspiration.
It’s not like I need it from doing what I was.
And I’m sure Ash told you all that, right? ”
He’d told her he’d explain why she was back in town and working two jobs when she didn’t need to.
Three if she counted the book she’d started, but it wasn’t like she was being paid for that.
“He did,” Gale said. “You know what all of us do, right?”
“Yeah, I think. Ash didn’t say what Arden does exactly, but she’s at the hospital and I don’t know about Rory.”
“Rory is a writer,” Ash said. “Crime fiction also.”
“Oh,” she said. “That’s great. I haven’t finished anything, well, that’s a lie.
I’ve got a few early drafts of things but nothing I was happy with.
It’s like I couldn’t get there. But now I almost feel like I can.
I’ve got an outline when I haven’t done that before.
I feel as if I’ve got this drive to do this now. Maybe it’s being home.”
Something she’d put more thought in.
That if she just hadn’t rushed to think she had to do it all.
That if she could prove she could be this person no one even expected that she’d find some happiness.
Some satisfaction in her life.
But in the over a month she’d been home, she realized, she didn’t need all the extras to take the next step.
She just needed time.
“I felt the same way,” Rory said. “I’ve been writing and publishing for years, but in the background I needed to find Rene’s killer before I could let everything out. When I came back here, writing wasn’t on my mind. It couldn’t be. But since then, it just exploded and hasn’t stopped.”
“Because you found the answers you needed,” she said, nodding her head.
“I think I’ve been doubting what was the truth all along.
I kind of still do, but everyone says I’m nuts and maybe I am.
I can’t go back in time and change anything.
I can’t look through a magic ball to see how the fire started either.
I just know it did and what the results were. ”
“That’s a very mature thing to say,” Ash said. “Do you feel it or are you just saying it?”
“That’s how you end up in trouble,” Brooke warned.
He shrugged. “I only wanted to know.”
“I mean it,” she said. “I’m in this now and I’ll stick it out to the end. But what I really need is to put my energy into something else.”
“Let your words speak for you,” Rory said. “Let them come out and if you have to go back and delete more than half, then you do.”
“I know. I hate doing it, but that’s how I write my articles. I get everything out, then chop more than half of it leaving only facts. Then tweak a third time. But that’s different from fiction.”
“It is,” Gale said, nudging Rory. “Right?”
“Yep. But I can’t tell you the number of times I get going and something doesn’t feel right. I’ve tried to push through and regretted it. It’s a hard call on when to stop and redirect or keep going and hope it catches. The good part is, I can kill someone off if they really annoy me.”
Skye laughed. “Even if it wasn’t your plan?”
“It’s better when it’s not my plan,” Rory said. “Maybe you’ve read some of my books and you can tell me which ones surprised you.”
“Now you just want pats on the back,” Ash said. “I told you she has read your books.”
Her eyes grew.
She found it odd that Ash asked her last week who her favorite authors were. She had a list of her go-tos and looking at the guy in front of her and knowing he looked familiar, had her turning to her boyfriend.
“Who did you tell him?”
“I think everyone should just stop with the cloak and dagger stuff,” Brooke said. “Though maybe that is what you all like to do. Rory Connors is Rory Rene.”
“Oh my God,” she said and shoved Ash’s arm so hard he almost fell off the loveseat. “Why didn’t you tell me that?”
“I thought it’d be a nice surprise. You know, to take your mind off of everything else going on. Now you’ve got something in common to talk to someone about.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “We have nothing in common. Rory is a New York Times bestseller. I haven’t even published one book.”
“But we all have to start somewhere,” Rory said. “So you know, ask me anything.”
“Anything?”
“Sure,” Rory said.
“How come you don’t give me that open invitation?” Gale asked.
“There goes my daughter again,” Brooke said. “Gale, you can come help me in the kitchen for that wisecrack.”
Gale stood. “It was worth a try.”
“I’m sure I’m going to have a ton of questions, but right now, I’m kind of fan-girling it.”
“Don’t worry,” Rory said. “I’ll give you my information and you can reach out when you want. Or bounce ideas off me.”
“What? Really?”
“Everyone starts somewhere and could use a helping hand,” Rory said.
Which she remembered a few hours later when they arrived at Ash’s.
That in her life, she’d been given a lot of helping hands. More than others had gotten.
There had been plenty of times in her life she’d felt sorry for her circumstances. Before and after the fire.
But now, now she was just grateful.
“Thank you for today,” she said when Ash unlocked the door to his apartment.
“I didn’t do much.”
“Yeah, you did. You tried to give me a day away from the mess I seem to be stuck in.”
“No mess,” he said, pulling her into his arms.
This right here. Something else she had done little in her life.
Let someone hold her.
Squeeze her tight and make her feel that even with all the craziness around her, it still might be okay.
“I don’t know about that,” she said, holding on a bit longer. “But it was a much better night than I thought.”
“You told me before you’ve never really been introduced to a big family like that all at once. We can be a lot.”
She laughed and leaned back. “You can be, but it’s no different from my house and what I’d witnessed with my other siblings.”
“But never you.” He leaned down to give her a kiss on the lips. “I’m assuming you never dated much?”
“What gave it away? The fact I hadn’t had sex in over three years before you came knocking on my door?”
He grinned. “That was part of it. The other is I might have had my ear to the ground for years trying to catch any bit of information on your life that I could.”
She smiled against his chest. “That’s kind of sweet. You really carried a torch for me, didn’t you?”
He picked her up, cradling her in his arms.
A nice, powerful guy lifting her as if she weighed nothing more than a feather.
Yes, please. Any day of the week.
“Don’t get cocky,” he said, walking toward his room.
“What happens to cocky women in your life?”
“This!” He dropped her on the bed to her laughter. Then he went right for her sneakers and pulled them off while she unzipped her jacket, yanked her arms through it and chucked it over her shoulder.
It wasn’t long before clothes were flying, and hands were reaching for naked skin.
She scooted out of his reach, inched down on the bed and went right for what was standing and pointing in her direction.
“I think I’m still hungry.” It was the only warning she gave before her lips closed over his tip, her tongue slid out and swirled around, her fist wrapping him up tight.
She stroked with her hand and her mouth at the same time.
She heard him let out a groan, which only fueled her to speed it up.
When she felt a slight pain on her ass, she realized he’d just slapped her.
She stopped and looked up. “Yes?”
“You’re going to get more than a mouthful in a second. You need to stop.”
“So arrogant to think it’s that much,” she said, shaking her head.
“Don’t be cute,” he said, pulling her up closer to him. “I mean it.”
“Maybe I want to keep doing that.”
“And maybe I want you to ride me. You know, getting those tits of yours bobbing up and down.”
She rolled her eyes. Maybe she thought that was pretty great the other night too.
“If you wish,” she said, huffing out a breath and swinging her legs over his hips.
He leaned closer toward the bedside table and opened a drawer, grabbed a condom and handed it over.
She didn’t hesitate to put a corner in her mouth to rip it open as if it was the last chocolate bar around and she hadn’t eaten in months.
To tease him a bit more, before she rolled it on, she gave him one more big lick and suck, her lips popping as she came off of him. Then she covered him up, adjusted her body, and sank down hard and fast.
“Like this?” she asked, her thighs pushing her up and down. Her tits jiggling just a little. Just enough for his eyes to pop toward them.
He gulped. “Yep. Just like that. Keep it up.”
She put her palms on her thighs while she rode him. Not super fast, but enough to work him up.
To drag it out.
“You need to do something for me too.”
His eyes lifted from her breasts. “Anything.”
“I like the sound of that.”
She’d never had a man say that to her before.
Tell her he’d give her anything.
It was a powerful feeling.
More erotic than what she was doing. What she was feeling.
“Touch me,” she said. “Like only you know how to do.”
His hand went between her legs, found her little magic spot like he always did and went to work.
“This is your button,” he said. He was working her over without even looking, more engrossed in sucking on her nipples in front of his face.
“Yes, it is.”
“And when I’m ready, I’m going to launch you.”
It was the only warning she got before his lips latched onto her fiercely, his teeth sinking into the hardened peak, sending her into sixth gear.
“Oh, God,” she said.
Her hands went to his head to keep him right there.
Right in that spot.
The sensations between his mouth, his fingers, his cock inside her.
She was rising and falling. Her thighs were burning and she was cresting and turning the corner at a speed faster than she’d ever felt before.
He was moaning right there with her, his hips lifting on the bed and almost sending her off, trying to get deeper inside her.
Then he bit down harder at the same time his thumb smashed her swollen bud and she screamed out his name.
She was coming so intensely that it actually hurt her chest.
Deep inside, touching a part of her heart.
Ash was still lifting inside her. Harder. Faster.
Then every part of her body just stilled.
Everything but the pounding of her heart as he pulled her down and held her tight.
“That’s what happens to cocky girls,” he mumbled.
“I’m cocky,” she said. “And I will be tomorrow and every day until I die if it feels this good.”
He kissed the top of her head, her eyes shut and she drifted to sleep with a smile on her face.