Chapter 51
Dotty arrived in a panic as the police officers were questioning them. She looked surprised to see Cash there, but didn’t say anything.
Shockingly for Dotty, she actually said very little as Addie and Monroe told the officers what happened, with Cash adding things in.
The police finally left after taking some photos. But they didn’t sound very hopeful about catching their intruder.
The door shut behind them, and Dotty turned to the three of them with a frown.
“So who wants to tell me what the fuck is going on and why you all just lied to the police?”
Monroe grimaced and gestured toward her bedroom. They all walked in and then she opened the closet door.
Her closet had this little hidey hole. It was a small cupboard that was obviously meant for extra storage or something. Not that you could fit much in there. Not much more than two bodies anyway.
“Thank fuck,” Ralen said as he crawled out of the hole. “I thought I was going to die in there. Do you know how small that space is? Does it even get fresh air? And I don’t think that asshole has had a shower in the last five years.”
“You hid Ralen from the cops?” Dotty asked. “Why? What did he do?”
Ralen frowned. “I didn’t do anything.” Reaching back, he roughly dragged Limpy out, who was trying to make noise behind the tape they’d put over his mouth. Monroe had circled it right round the back of his head, not wanting to risk him saying anything and giving them away.
He seemed to have a black eye that he didn’t have before. She saw Cash give Ralen a questioning look. The other man just shrugged.
“I got mad remembering what he did to the girls.”
“Oh, holy fuck. Who the hell is he?” Dotty asked.
“That’s Limpy,” Addie said. “I saw someone out the window earlier, peering in, and I ran to get Monroe who was in the shower. She got dressed and grabbed the toilet paper holder. I grabbed some hairspray and shaving foam, and we snuck out of the bathroom. Only he was already in the house.”
“He attacked me first,” Monroe said. “Shoved me against the wall and put his hands around my neck. He didn’t even say anything. We didn’t know who he was or what he wanted.”
“I ran at him, shoving him off her,” Addie said. “But then he turned to me, slamming me onto the floor. He had . . . he had a knife and I knew he was going to stab me.”
“Fucking bastard,” Cash snarled down at Limpy who grew even more pale.
“I suddenly remembered the hair spray and sprayed it into his eyes. Then while he was down, I stomped on his balls and then we ran.”
“You stomped on his balls?” Dotty asked, looking shocked.
“That’s my girl,” Cash praised, making her feel a hundred feet tall.
“Then we ran out the door and straight into Ralen and Cash,” Monroe finished the story.
Dotty turned to the guys, “You just happened to be there at the right time?”
Addie winced at the accusation in her voice.
“What are you trying to say? That we came here with him?” Ralen said.
“No, I didn’t think that. It’s just a weird coincidence. Why are you guys here?”
“I’ve come for Addie,” Cash said as he drew her into his chest.
He’d said that before, but she still didn’t understand what he meant, and she wasn’t sure now was the time to ask, with a man bound and gagged on the floor of Monroe’s closet.
“You’ve come for Addie? Why? What do you plan to do with her?” Dotty asked.
“Spend the rest of my life with her.”
Okay. It seemed now that he was here in person with Addie, Cash wasn’t struggling at all to tell her how he felt. He knew that he still had to explain himself. But for the moment, they had something more pressing to do.
Dotty rubbed her head and looked puzzled and pale. She sat down on Monroe’s bed while Addie just stared up at him in shock, with her mouth open.
“I think we can get to that part later,” Ralen said, giving him an incredulous look. “Right now, we need to decide what to do with Limpy here.”
“Do with him?” Dotty asked.
“Yeah, we need to get some answers from him,” Ralen said in a dark voice.
“Answers?” Dotty asked, sounding shocked.
“It’s best if you three don’t know about this next part,” Cash told them. He looked out the window. “It’s fully dark now, but I don’t think we should transport him out of here just yet. We’ve got to sort out a place to take him. I don’t really know anybody in Las Vegas.”
Ralen groaned. “I know who might. Just don’t wanna ask him.”
“Who?” Monroe asked.
“Butch,” Ralen said with a sigh.
Cash didn’t want to ask that asshole either. But he remembered now that Butch had lived in Las Vegas for a couple of years.
“Let’s call the bastard then,” Ralen said with a groan.
He glared down at Limpy. “You know, this was supposed to be a fun trip to Las Vegas for me. I thought I might even get to a casino and make a few bets, but nooo, you had to ruin it. Now I’ve got to deal with Butch and ask him a favor.
Do you know how much I want to ask him a favor?
I don’t. And if the girls weren’t in here, I’d smack you around a bit. ”
“Ralen,” Dotty said in shock. “You can’t do that.”
“We need answers, Dotty,” Monroe said, looking surprisingly resolute. “We need answers, and he might have them. How do you think the guys are going to get them?”
Cash waited for Addie to stiffen, to move away, to stare up at him with fear in her face. Instead, she leaned into him, hugging him tight.
“Are you all right, baby?” he asked her.
“I am if you are,” she said back.
“I’m always all right with you in my arms. I know I have to explain why I’m here, but just know I’m here for you, Addie. I’m here because I want you, and I hope you feel the same. If you don’t, well, I’m going to kidnap you anyway, take you back home until you do want me.”
There was silence.
“Jesus, man, there’s such a thing as sharing too much. You’ve gone from having no words to having crazy words,” Ralen told him in a mock whisper.
“Did you just threaten to kidnap my sister?” Dotty asked. “In front of us? Are you insane?”
“Insane for her? Yep. Insanely in love? Definitely.”
All right, maybe he had lost his mind. But he didn’t really care.
“Okay.” Ralen walked over to him, placing the back of his hand over Cash’s forehead as though he was searching for a fever. “Something is wrong with you. Is there a switch? Is there some sort of reset button? Because you have lost your fucking mind.”
“I don’t understand what’s happening here,” Addie said. “Did he really just say that he was insanely in love with me?”
“I didn’t think he had it in him to make big declarations like that,” Monroe said.
“In love with Addie?” Dotty asked. “How can you be in love with Addie?”
Now they all turned to stare at Dotty, and she waved her hands in the air.
“You know I didn’t mean it like that. Not that Addie isn’t lovable.
Of course she is. I think Addie is amazing.
She’s wonderful, kind, beautiful, caring.
But you’ve known her for what? Eight or nine days?
And some of those days you haven’t even been around! How can you love her?”
When she said it like that, it did sound insane.
However, Cash knew how he felt about her. Now it was clear that he hadn’t been able to find the words to reply to her text before because he’d known that he had to say them to her.
“I just do,” Cash said. He turned to Addie and placed his hands on her shoulders. “And I’m sorry I didn’t reply to your text. I didn’t know what to say. Or how to say it. Seems I just had to say it in front of you in person.”
“Apparently, in front of all of us,” Ralen said dryly.
“You know, when I said you had to open up a bit about how you felt, I didn’t think you were going to go the full hog.
Now the hog’s been hog-tied, it’s got an apple in its mouth, and it’s about to be set on the fire. Shit, I hope you don’t burn.”
He had no idea what Ralen was talking about. He only had eyes for Addie, and she was still staring up at him in shock.
Limpy let out some noises, but they all ignored him. That could wait.
“It’s all right if you can’t say anything back, Addie. Just know that’s how I feel about you, and I’m not walking away, and I’m not giving you up. Maybe I won’t kidnap you, but I need you to know that this is real.”
To be honest, he still hadn’t ruled out the kidnapping thing. He didn’t think that he could return to Billings without her.
“I . . . I . . .”
Cash could handle anything she had to say, except that she hated him, that she didn’t want him. That was something he couldn’t deal with.
“Addie, don’t feel that you have to answer him,” Dotty said.
“Yeah, babes, you can take some time to think about all this,”
Monroe added. “It’s a lot. Don’t get all stressed out, okay? We can help you get through this.”
Shit, was he pushing that hard? Was she nearing a panic attack?
Addie shook her head, and she smiled at both of her sisters. “I love the two of you.”
“We love you too,” Monroe said. Dotty nodded.
“I know I’ve always been the little sister who needed help.
I’ve always had so many issues, so many things that stopped me from living a full life, and had the two of you taking care of me all the time.
I probably held you back from doing things that you would have done otherwise, if it wasn’t for the crazy sister who rarely left the house, who barely talked to other people. ”
Both of her sisters frowned.
“You’re talking crazy now, Addie. You haven’t stopped us from doing anything,” Dotty told her.
“Of course not, babes. We’re the cutie-teers, remember?” Monroe said.
What the fuck was a cutie-teer?
“I know,” she said with a smile. “But the thing is, what I learned over this last week is that I’m actually stronger than I thought.
There are more things I can do than I believed I could.
And I know it’s fast, and I know it’s crazy, but I love him as well.
” She turned to him. “I love you, Cash Savage. You bossy, protective, insane man.”
Cash smiled down at her, this light, bubbling feeling filling him.
Shit. Was this what happiness felt like?