Chapter 21
KYRA
JANUARY
The holidays have come and gone, and life is starting to feel like it is getting back to normal. Well, as normal as it can be when you’ve been kidnapped and now living in the guest house of your best friend’s boyfriend’s, well, I guess Fiancés house now.
Christmas was magical. Dee proposed to Nyx in front of all of us, and it was just perfect. I am so excited for her. Those two men make her so fucking happy. Sometimes I’m a touch jealous, but I would never be mad at her for finding her happiness.
Things with Cal have been nice. Nothing has happened in a while, but he is always there.
Always willing to help, to be a friend, to keep me company, or drive me places.
He takes me to work most days now. I still haven’t been able to purchase a new car.
I didn’t bother to try to fight Mike for the money in the bank, so I am starting from scratch.
I went back to work after the holidays, and they were so understanding of everything. They allow me to have days when my anxiety gets the best of me, or let me take long lunches to have calls with my therapist. Doctor Sherman was someone that Cal found for me. She is absolutely fantastic.
Tonight I am hosting a girls’ night in the guest house.
Nyx, of course, will be here, Aly, and our new friend Molly is coming.
Molly is a spicy little southern belle. She has bright red curly hair, and when she’s not trying to hide her accent, it is the cutest damn thing I have ever heard.
The group of us is all a little broken in some way, shape, or form, but I think it’s bonded us together.
“Knock, Knock.” I hear called from the living room before they burst out into a fit of giggles.
“Be right there.” I hurry and throw on my bright pink fuzzy sweatshirt and run to the living room to find my best friends all standing there.
All three of them have lingering snowflakes melting in their hair.
Outside, the cute aesthetic lights that Graham hung for Nyx highlight the snowstorm hitting us.
I can barely make out the sliding glass door that is only about twenty feet from the window.
Nyx has a stack of three pizzas and some breadsticks in her hands from our favorite place. All of them with overnight bags slung over their shoulders.
“Did you invite the boys and didn’t tell me?” I ask with a laugh.
“Fuck no! I need a break from Blue and Demon. Not that they have done absolutely anything to me, but I missed my girl time!” Nyx explains.
“She thinks we need snacks for later, and what’s better than cold pizza and wine?” Molly’s adorable drawl is out to play tonight, and I love it.
“We are going to get two glasses of wine into Kyra, and she’s going to pass out cold.” Alyra laughs as she speaks.
She isn’t exactly wrong, but I wouldn’t fall asleep because I am a lightweight; it’s more that I am not a night person. Once the sun goes down, I am ready for bed, even if that’s at like five at night during the winter.
“Ha, ha. So funny, Aly,” I laugh and take the pizza boxes out of Nyx’s hands and walk them over to the small island that splits off the kitchen from the living room.
Nyx, Aly, and Molly pull out the barstools on the other side of the island while I grab some paper plates and wine glasses out of the cupboard. Placing them on the island before I snatch the first bottle of wine out of the fridge.
“Mmmm, Sweet Revenge.” Nyx practically moans.
Sweet Revenge is a sweet red wine from a Michigan-based winery, and we buy stock in it. One of the nights we had a book release, Nyx and I bought like five bottles of the wine to help us through the heartbreak that was that book.
Molly grabs the bottle opener and pours out four glasses of wine before she holds hers up in the middle and says, “To the best girls a runaway could ask for.” We all clink our glasses together before taking a sip.
While I never imagined that I would be friends with a marine vet and a southern belle on the run from her family and crazy ex-husband, here we are. I could never have survived all that the last few months have brought us without them. Nyx is always by my side, even when it comes to being kidnapped.
Stuffed full of pizza and wine, everyone is starting to feel a little buzzed. The next thing I know, Nyx is pulling her black bikini out of the overnight bag she brought over from the house, yelling.
“Alright, ladies! I made sure Dee cranked up the hot tub before I came over, and I texted Aly and Molly to make sure they brought bathing suits. So the only person left would be you, Miss Sunshine.” She says with a drunken giggle.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Nyx?” I look at her with a cocked eyebrow.
“Go change, babe. Time for the hot tub.” Nyx shimmies in front of me while she starts to strip down right in my living room. Lord knows that it's nothing I haven’t seen before, but I’m not so sure the other two want to see her butt naked.
I leave the room with a laugh to pull out my bathing suit. Fuck, I don’t think I have anything but my bikini from when I wasn’t so soft. I start to have a small panic attack, but then remember, it is just going to be my girls that are going to see me naked.
It’s fine.
Throwing on my mermaid printed bikini, tying back my short blonde hair, and grabbing a towel before heading back out to the living room with my girls. Aly and Molly have taken turns in the bathroom to change quickly as well.
Thank goodness for my polka-dotted robe, which I wrap around my body before we open the front door to the winter wonderland outside. The snow has slowed down; now it looks more like we live in a snow globe. The snow is falling softly around us. It sparkles in the lights hanging around the porch.
Nyx carries out the remaining bottle of wine and our wine glasses with a towel slung around her neck.
Aly helps Molly across the snow-covered porch.
All of us have our snow boots on, but Molly’s are more of a fashion choice than provide any grip against the snow.
We ensure that she gets climbed into the hot tub before we strip out of our robes and boots and climb in behind Molly.
“So I have somethin’ I need to tell y’all.” Molly looks worried as she speaks.
“Darling, you know you can tell us anything.” I reach across the water to brush my fingers along her hand that is running gently back and forth along the top.
“Remember, shortly after Nyx and Kyra were rescued, and y’all came in, and I asked about Devil Dog?
” Her voice is still pretty quiet, but we just confirm we remember, and she continues.
“Well, I wasn’t askin’ because of any of your guys.
” Her eyes dart between Nyx and me. “I may have had just a tiny one-night stand with David.” She blurts out so quickly I can’t be sure I heard her correctly.
“I’m sorry, did you say David? Like the broody old man who works with me?” Alyra exclaims.
“That’s the one.” Molly shrugs her.
“When did this happen?” I ask her while Aly and Nyx’s brains explode.
“The night you guys were rescued, I believe it was.” She answers.
“That explains his attitude lately. He mentioned the girl of his dreams sneaking out of his bed in the middle of the night…Oh, you sly little girl.” Aly pretends to punch her in the arm, and Molly’s face turns so red it matches her hair.
“I can’t risk his safety if Travis comes looking for me.”
“Babe, we can’t change your mind, but just know that the Devil Dogs will protect what is theirs.
If David claims you, you are part of our family now.
Just like Nyx…and well, despite Kyra not wanting to be claimed by Cal yet, she is part of the family too.
” Alyra states so matter-of-factly that I want to sink into the hot tub, if it wouldn’t cook me from the inside out.
“Well, duh, I claimed her and my men claimed me, therefore by proxy she has their protections too.” Nyx tries to deflect a little after noticing my face.
For a little while longer, we sit in the hot tub and just gossip about life, the guys, and anything and everything you can think of.
My eyes start to drift closed, my blinks taking longer and longer to perform.
Nyx notices I am about to fall into the hot tub, and she rounds up everyone, and we head back into the house to make a nest on the living room floor, and they pick a movie to put on.
I am not even sure what movie they decide on before my eyes fall closed and I am asleep.