Chapter 31
Elijah
The world kept turning each time I left her.
So much has happened since my final deployment.
Eve has a boyfriend. Definitely not thrilled about that update.
He’s a possessive psycho of a thing I’m expected to call Adam, even though I really know he’s the embodiment of Satan. Dude’s allergic to a smile.
Eve Mason moved in with Vaughn and I before my last deployment.
We knew immediately that she was the one.
So kind and genuine. She needed us, and we needed her.
Still do. She’s like the little sister Vaughn never had.
I, of course, used my connections to find out what I could about her, and it was clear right away that things weren’t as they seemed with Eve.
First, there were the scars. Some on her face.
Others, rarely visible, are on her body in various places.
Then, there was absolutely no record of Eve prior to a car accident at the age of fourteen.
Even her age was assumed at the time since no one came to claim her, and she had no memory of her life before the accident.
My deployment came way too soon, so Vaughn and I couldn’t dig into Eve’s past as deeply as we wanted.
Fortunately, she and Grizzly were able to continue the search with hair she got from Eve.
My clever little devil. Grizzly ran the hair for a DNA analysis that eventually linked Eve to a family in Colorado.
After things settled, Vaughn and I flew North to track our new lead.
We had decided it would be best to track the family down and find out more about them before telling Eve.
Unfortunately, we had only just settled into our hotel when we got the call to rush back.
My blood hasn’t boiled like that since the now scalp-less rotting piece of shit Paul Walker took Vaughn and my boys.
Now that was an artful event. Some of my best work.
Too bad my sweet little Evie tortured dear old wannabe dad to death, because I had really wanted the opportunity to show him some things I learned in Kazakhstan during my third year in the Navy. Endless possibilities.
Eve’s self-proclaimed father attempted to take her and the psycho boyfriend’s sister back with him to star in the ultimate snuff film.
Sick fuck. That gutless son of a bitch raised my sweet Eve in his fucking basement.
He manipulated her and lied to her, forcing her to fight and kill.
What I wouldn’t give to bring that mother fucker back for just one day.
Somehow, I know that what I would do to him couldn’t compare to what Adam would do.
Guy’s a damn nightmare, but he’s obsessed with Eve.
With Eve’s captor dead, Vaughn and I decided to pivot on our way back to Texas and find out more about the dipshit who had attacked Eve on the street. Something just doesn’t add up about all of this. The timing. Everything.
By the time we finished at the police station, and a whole day had passed at home with Eve barely speaking a word, we learned some very interesting things. No one has been able to locate her attacker.
We know this from the detective on Eve’s case but it’s not just the police who can’t find him.
There are several known associates of Paul who have been quietly looking for him through other criminal channels.
He was bailed out of jail by an anonymous source in cash.
Very strange. It’ been assumed by police that this was done by friends who’ve helped him out of trouble in the past. We know that this isn’t true, although we haven’t been able to verify who it was.
His home led authorities to believe he left town to escape charges.
That scene was just a little too perfect.
No record of him can be found anywhere. He has money in his bank account still untouched.
A house in his name left vacant, and no activity on his phone.
Guys like this don’t just disappear. They mess with the wrong people, and they get put down.
I do find it funny that at least two of the bad guys are named Paul, even though I do realize only one of said bad guys was actually born with the moniker.
We should probably just use all future Pauls we encounter for target practice.
So, it turned out that not Paul Walker, Paul also had some big-time friends in unsavory circles.
These friends continue to quietly search some dark places looking for him.
He was apparently quite good at whatever he did for them.
We’re still working to uncover what his particular skill was.
All of this and nothing. Absolutely no sign of Paul. Now, I have zero proof and only a gut feeling to operate on, but I know down in the depths of my soul that Adam is what happened to Paul.
He’s way too up Eve’s ass to let something like that go unchecked, yet he knew she was safe.
He was calm after that first day when Paul was bailed out of jail, and, from what Vaughn tells me, calm is not his default setting since meeting Eve.
Conveniently, he had me on Eve duty while he was suspiciously missing until much later that night.
It is my firm belief that Adam made sure Paul wouldn’t get a single night’s sleep outside of jail after he assaulted Eve, and for that, I have no choice but to give him my blessing.
He’ll keep our Evie safe. Well, to be fair, with what we know about Eve now, she doesn’t need anyone to keep her safe, but Adam would lay down his life for her, and that’s what matters.
I don’t have to like him, but I do respect a man with no limits, and I can see now that there are no lines this man won’t cross to protect and keep Eve.
That’s why, just now, when Vaughn was about to employ the many skills she possesses to assault Adam and free Eve from his grasp, I grab her hips and pull her into me. Whispering in her ear, I tell her “Roles reversed, that’s you on my shoulder. She’s his Vaughn.”
The tension slowly leaves her body as she soaks in my words, soberly taking in the scene before us. Finally, she moves to the door and opens it for Adam so that he can start putting all the broken pieces of our little Evie back together again.
Vaughn’s head falls to the door as we hear Evie continue to verbally flay Adam, although more quietly now that they’re outside of the apartment.
Vaughns shoulders rise and fall with her heavy sigh.
“So...what? We trust him to take care of her now?”
Her forehead is still pressed to the door when I come up behind her, wrapping her up in my arms. The feel of this woman still makes my heart race and stirs my cock to attention.
“She’s still our family. She’ll always be our family. Now she just has more people looking out for her. You know...Adam wasn’t the only member of that group who was unaccounted for the day Paul Hastings went missing.”
Vaughn stills for a moment. “Ada?”
“No. Big and Bigger. The football bros. Pretty sure they helped him, which means they care enough about our girl to risk those fancy scholarships and life in prison.”
Another heavy sigh before she leans back into me. “I guess it was inevitable that the rest of the world would eventually see in her what we’ve known since we met her.”
“Yeah. She’s too special to keep hidden. Besides, this isn’t the end of anything. We’re just having to expand our circle a little more than we planned.”
“Ugh. Fucking, Ada. I knew that girl would worm her way into my life sooner or later. Wait until you see this girl. She looks like she’s been airbrushed.”
My laugh gets away from me before I can stop it. This woman.
“You think she’s prettier than YOU?”
“She is! Just wait. She’s infuriatingly perky and just...ugh, gorgeous.”
A full bellied laugh starts low and has the dimples at peak performance now.
She has no idea. Well, she knows she’s sexy.
She’s always known, and she wields her sex appeal like a hammer, but she clearly underestimates her beauty if she thinks there’s another female on this planet anywhere near as attractive as she is.
“No one can compare to you, Little Devil. You’re so far out of everyone else’s league that you’re not even playing the same sport.”
This earns me a kiss...several kisses, which earn her a private escort. Grasping her round, perky ass in both hands, I lift her up, and she wraps those thick, beautiful thighs around me.
“Do we need to worry about all of this? I mean, they have the bodies. From what that Cotton guy said, the dastardly dad really got what’s been coming to him via Eve Badass Mason.”
“Grizzly got in the Austin PD system. He looked around and, from what I can tell, Cotton is a pretty convincing guy. It seems that he also has some friends in the department who vouched for his story. He took the heat for the main psycho and put the other guy off on Adam. An accident in a scuffle. He protected her. He protected them all.”
“Ugh. Fine. Fine. We like them. I get it.”
Her dramatics bring out the best in me. It really is a shame that I didn’t get to see her unleash on Adam again, since I had to miss it the first time, but the boy was already limping when he came in.
Then he was doing everything he could to keep firecracker Evie in place on his shoulder.
No way he could’ve taken on another one, and I’m not about to get in Vaughn’s way once she’s already started swinging. This face is too pretty for that shit.
“We can like them and still make them earn it.”
“Yeah, well I’ve basically already started that with the Davenport siblings, I guess.
He loves her...or he’s obsessed with her.
Both, I guess, and Ada...well, she’s trying.
She knows she messed up and she’s working pretty hard to fix it.
Although, I guess with all that we now know about their first meeting, it makes much more sense that Ada treated Eve so badly.
Really it’s a testament to Ada’s character that she still trusts her now that everything is out. ”
“Let’s go for a ride.”
“Now?” Her face is scrunched in confusion.
She thinks this just came out of nowhere when really, I’ve been dreaming of what we’re about to do for months.
My first night home, Eve was attacked, then little Abel got sick, and the twins freaked the hell out, refusing to leave the house until he was better.
In between all of that, we’ve been tracking down leads on Eve and planned the trip to Colorado.
There’s just been too much going on to take the time I want to on this.
Eve is where she belongs, Abel is better, and the rest can wait until I’ve done what I need to do.
“Yes. Now.”
She smiles at me, and it’s like someone turned on all the lights in the room.
This is what they’re talking about. When they say, ‘she lit up a room’.
This is what they mean. Vaughn does this.
She lights up….not just the room. She lights up my life.
Each smile is better than the one before it.
Rainbow smiles that get prettier each time it rains.
“Okay. Are we taking both bikes? Or are you going to ride bitch?”
“Neither. Don’t push me, Devil. One bike. You’re in the position of honor, wrapped around me where you belong.”