Book 20 Yours After Dark #9
“Mom is the winner!” Janey says. “Mac was first again!”
Blaine shuts off the music, and the stunned silence that follows gets the attention of the women who hadn’t noticed the men had arrived.
Maddie speaks first. “Uh. Oh.”
“Show’s over, boys.” Blaine flashes his badge. “Get out. Right now.”
“The show is not over, boys.” With her eyes flashing with anger, Tiffany goes to her husband, places her hand on his chest and walks him backward. “Move it, buster. Don’t you dare come in here flashing that badge when we are having innocent fun.”
For a long, charged moment, no one moves or even seems to breathe.
Until Blaine blinks and the fight goes out of him. “Tiffany…”
“Leave, Blaine. Right now.”
“I’m not leaving,” Mac says. “I live here.”
“You won’t live here anymore if you don’t get the hell out of my party,” Maddie says.
Linda snorts and then quickly tries to cover up her laughter.
“This is awesome,” Deacon says. “And here I thought Gansett would be so boring.”
“Shut up and get out,” Blaine says to his brother. “We’re staying outside until they’re gone.”
“Knock yourselves out.” Tiffany flips the switch on the wireless speaker that the strippers brought. “Now, where were we, ladies?”
The men are gathered outside when Finn hears his name and sees Missy standing in the yard.
He goes over to tell her they have nothing to talk about.
She flashes a switchblade and tells him he’ll keep his promises to her, or someone will get hurt.
Chloe, having had enough of the strippers, had come outside to look for Finn.
She sees Riley go running into the yard and hears a woman scream.
Missy is pointing a blade at Finn. Chloe runs toward them, prepared to throw herself between Missy and Finn.
She and Riley don’t reach them in time, and Missy stabs Finn.
Chloe jumps on Missy’s back, pulling her off Finn.
Missy rears back, trying to dislodge Chloe, causing them both to fall backward.
Chloe lands hard, and Missy comes down on top of her.
Chloe’s side burns, and her vision swims as Riley pulls Missy off her. She can hear Riley screaming but can’t hear what he’s saying.
And then Blaine is there to cuff Missy.
Riley’s words finally permeate the fog. “She fucking stabbed my brother!”
Finn!
Oh, God, Finn has been stabbed.
Chloe tries to get up, to get to him, but her legs won’t hold her. She collapses onto the grass.
Riley’s screams grow more frantic. “She got Chloe, too! Somebody call the rescue. Hurry!”
Chloe notices a huge red stain on the front of Finn’s shirt before everything fades to black.
Finn wakes up in the clinic, confused about what’s happening. He lost blood and ended up with forty-two stitches, but thankfully, nothing important was hit. When he learns Missy also stabbed Chloe, he jumps up and rushes to her side.
“Where are you hurt?”
“My side. It’s just a flesh wound. Ten stitches and a tetanus shot, which was the worst part of it.”
Finn had never been so angry. He turns to Riley. “Where is she?”
“Blaine carted her off to jail.”
“Call him. Tell him I want her charged with everything. No leniency.”
“I’m on it, bro. Why don’t you sit before you fall over?”
“Move over,” Finn says to Chloe.
She shifts to the left, wincing, and makes room for him.
Her wince makes him feel like he’s been stabbed in the heart. Seeing her hurt breaks something in him, especially when she’s hurt because of him.
“You should’ve seen her,” Riley says to Finn. “Chloe was like Wonder Woman taking Missy down.”
“I was not,” Chloe says. “I just did what anyone would do.”
“You were incredible,” Riley says. “You might’ve saved his life. David said if she’d hit him an inch to the left, he could’ve bled out before they got him here.”
“His life has become very important to me,” Chloe says.
He puts his arms around her, grimacing when the laceration to his chest makes its presence known. “Don’t ever, ever do that again. You’re the most precious thing in the world to me, and I can’t bear the idea of you getting hurt because of me.”
“It wasn’t because of you. It was because of her, and I’d do it again in a hot second. Because you’re every bit as precious to me, and I’d rather get hurt than let anyone try to take you from me.”
The moment is interrupted when Kevin appears in the doorway, his eyes wild. “She stabbed you?”
“Both of us, actually.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me. What the hell was she hoping to accomplish?”
“Who knows? Who cares? Blaine tossed her in jail, where I hope she’ll stay for the foreseeable future.”
Kevin runs a trembling hand through his hair. “Jesus, Finn. You scared the hell out of me.”
“Sorry.”
“Not your fault.”
“Take a breath, Dad. Everyone’s fine.”
Kevin takes a deep breath and releases it. “The entire town is in the waiting room, along with eight mostly naked cowboy strippers.”
Chloe glances at Finn, and when their eyes meet, they lose it laughing. The knot of fear that had settled in his chest when he heard she was hurt finally eases. They’re both okay, and they have each other. Forever.