Chapter 34
thirty-four
AVA
“All right! You guys are closing up, right?” Quinn asks as she marches through the doors of Falls Book Haven a week later. Emily right behind her, shaking her head in exasperation.
“I told her we should have given you a heads up, but she was adamant about doing it her way.”
“What are you talking about?” I laugh as I grab the trash from behind the counter.
“We’re having a ladies’ night,” Quinn declares. Since moving in with my brother, she’s become more carefree and open with everyone in her life, and I couldn’t love it more.
“You’ve been hiding out at Gage’s and the Anderson Farm. Which is totally valid.” She throws her hands up in the air to stop any arguments. “I know you’re trying to avoid your parents and Brian, and Gage is being very protective of you, but I think it would be good for you to get out for a bit. And you”—she points at Abbey behind the register—“I know we were too far apart in school to hang out before, but these two don’t shut up about you, and I feel like I’m missing out. So you have to join us as well.”
I’ve been working the evening shift with Abbey for the last week. While I’m not likely to work this shift often, Abbey thought it would be a good idea for me to know the ropes in case they needed me to fill in. And while she’s used to Gage coming in near the end of my shifts to hang out before heading home, this is out of the blue.
“Oh, um…”
“What if we already have plans?” I jump in, trying to give Abbey a second to catch up with Quinn.
“I already talked to Gage; you don’t have any plans.”
“Invasive much,” I tease.
“Only because I love you,” she returns instantly.
Abbey shifts behind the counter, pulling our attention to her. “Where were you thinking?”
“Oh, we figured we’d go to Murphy’s. This one has a soft spot for Walt.” Emily throws her thumb over her shoulder at me.
“How can you not like that man? He’s so kind and warmhearted.”
“I’m not judging. He’s the quintessential bar owner, and I love everything about it.”
“So you’ll join us?” Quinn asks Abbey.
“You know what”—Abbey closes the register drawer, avoiding eye contact with all of us—“I think I should just head home.”
“What? No! Come! It’ll be fun. I promise.” Emily reaches across the counter, placing her hand on Abbey’s arm. “Besides, we haven’t hung out in a while, and I miss our book talks.”
“I just?—”
“We’re not taking no for an answer,” Quinn interrupts. “How can we help you guys close up?”
I see the tension coursing through Abbey’s body and jump in to help the best I can. “We’re almost done actually. Why don’t you go over and get us a table? We’ll join you in just a few minutes.”
“Sounds like a plan. See you in a few.” Emily turns and grabs Quinn’s arm before heading out the door. I watch them walk past the window toward Murphy’s next door before turning to Abbey.
“If you really don’t want to go, I’ll tell them something came up and you couldn’t make it.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to hang out with you all. I just…” Her words trail off as her eyes move to where we saw Emily and Quinn disappear from view. “I haven’t seen Walt in sixteen years.” She says it so softly I wonder if I’m supposed to hear her.
“I’m sorry. How do you live in this town, work next door to each other, and not see him for sixteen years?” I’m genuinely bewildered. “Better yet, why do you avoid Walt, of all people, for sixteen years?”
She offers me a gentle smile. “I think that’s a story for another day.” She reaches into her pocket, pulling out a set of keys to lock the register drawer. “Let’s go.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.” She steps around the counter, moves to the front door, locking it, and flipping the sign to Closed . “We can drop that out back and walk around to the front.”
I don’t know what changed her mind, but I see the determination in her eyes. So, without pushing more, I follow her as she shuts off the lights and heads out the back door, holding it open for me.
We drop the trash in the dumpster out back and make our way around the side of the bookstore, walking in front of the darkened windows on our way to Murphy’s.
Abbey pauses outside the door, staring for a few minutes before she takes a deep breath and pulls the door open. A burst of noise hits us the second the door opens, and the feeling of home instantly overcomes me as we walk through the doors and my eyes catch Walt’s.
Murphy’s has become one of my favorite places, and I couldn’t imagine walking through the doors and not seeing Walt behind the counter—a welcoming smile on his face. That smile I’m so used to falls the second he sees Abbey at my side.
It’s like he sees a ghost.
I see his lips form a word, but I don’t hear it from where we are by the door. It takes him a second, but he shakes himself from whatever stupor he’s in and makes his way from behind the bar. Without stopping, he walks right up to Abbey and pulls her into a fierce hug.
“Mo stór.” His voice is so soft I almost miss it. I have no idea what it means, but when Walt pulls away from Abbey, there are tears in both of their eyes.
“Hi, Walt.”
He reaches to wipe a tear from her cheek, his eyes filled with so much pain. “It’s been far too long.”
“I know. I just…I couldn’t be here.”
“Neither can he,” Walt whispers.
“If I could take it all back, I would,” she chokes out.
“No. Never wish to take any of it back,” he tells her sternly. He reaches to cup her cheek, offering comfort in the way a father might. “Just come in every once in a while. I miss your beautiful spirit just as much as I miss him.”
More tears fall down her cheeks as she nods. “Okay. I can do that.”
“Good.” Walt glances at me briefly before wiping at Abbey’s cheeks one more time. “I’ll let you both enjoy your evening then.” He quickly kisses her forehead before squeezing my shoulder and moving back behind the bar.
“Is that part of that story you mentioned earlier?” I ask a few moments later, trying to lighten the mood but failing miserably.
“Yeah.” Her eyes follow Walt as he moves behind the bar, getting drinks and chatting with customers. “He looks different.”
“Well, sixteen years will do that to a person.”
“No.” She studies him a few moments longer before she speaks again. “He looks sick.”
I look at Walt, watching him for a bit, and realize that Abbey isn’t wrong. I may have only known Walt for a little over two months, but he looks thinner than he did when I first met him. And the bags under his eyes are far more pronounced than I’ve ever seen them.
“It’s probably stress.” My brows draw in, concern for Walt running through me. “He was supposed to see his son around Christmas, but something happened, and they couldn’t make it work.”
Abbey makes a non-committal sound, her eyes never leaving Walt.
The sound of Quinn calling our names pulls our attention from the bar. Linking my arm with Abbey’s, we go to the table for some quality girl time—something I didn’t realize I was missing until taking my seat.
“I’ll be right back.” I laugh as I push myself from the booth we’ve been sitting in for the last few hours.
“Where are you going?” Emily asks, barely catching her breath from the story Quinn just told.
“Bathroom.”
“You want someone to come with you?”
“No, I’m good. You stay and enjoy some more laughs at my brother’s expense.”
I make my way to the bathroom, a smile plastered on my face. I may not have thought of the idea for a ladies’ night, but it was exactly what I needed.
As I step out of the bathroom and into the back hallway of Murphy’s, I pull my phone out of my back pocket. I’m surprised I haven’t felt it go off more than a few times since Quinn and Emily showed up at the bookstore.
Gage
Have fun tonight. I love you.
All right, I know it was supposed to be ladies’ night, but Declan and Caleb have convinced me it’s okay that we crash the last hour of your night.
Please don’t be mad at me!
I can’t stop the chuckle that falls from my lips. I check the time of his last text and see that he sent it ten minutes ago, meaning he’s probably already here.
I’m slipping my phone into my back pocket when a body presses against my back. A hand comes up to cover my mouth and the other grabs one of my wrists as the person pushes me against the wall opposite the bathroom door.
It’s such a cliché, the bathroom being at the end of a dark hallway, but it’s a cliché because it’s true—even at Murphy's, there's no one around.
“I told you this wasn’t over.” A shiver runs up my spine at the anger in Brian’s voice.
My head falls forward against the wall in front of me in defeat for only a moment before my entire body stiffens. I won’t make this easy for him, and I’ll fight with everything I have.
“Scream, and I’ll make this so much worse for you,” he seethes in my ear. The grip he has on my wrist tightens to the point of searing pain as he roughly moves it to be sandwiched between my body and the wall, exactly where my other arm is.
“Let me make something very clear for you; if you don’t come back to Boston with me and your parents tonight, I’ll hurt everyone you care about.” His body shifts just enough for him to fit his hand between me and the wall before he uses his weight to hold me in place again. “Your brother.” His hand snakes down my stomach to the button on my jeans. “Your boyfriend.” He slips the button free and roughly pulls at the zipper. “Everyone in the Marks family.”
His hand is still over my mouth, but I manage to turn my head and look toward the end of the hallway. It’s a Friday night, and the bar is plenty crowded. Someone will be coming this way; they have to.
Gage is here and has to be wondering where I am. There’s no way he didn’t ask where I was the second he saw me missing from the table. I just need to make it a few more minutes.
“You know how powerful my family is, how wealthy we are. I don’t have an issue spending my wealth to make their lives more than miserable.” His hand slips to the top of my panties.
“Please,” I beg from behind his hand, tears welling in my eyes. I hate that he can see these tears, but I can’t stop them.
“What was that?” he taunts, his hand on my mouth shifting slightly.
“I’ll do whatever you want. Just please let me go,” I plead. The words might be false, but the fear in my voice isn’t.
“Oh, babydoll. If only it were that easy.” His hand covers my mouth again, and he presses even closer, his breath fanning my cheek. “You’ve embarrassed me one too many times for it to be that easy now.”
His hips press into my ass, shifting to make sure I feel his hard length against me. I try to hold in the whimper that slips free, but I can’t, especially when I feel the tips of his fingers slip beneath the tops of my panties.
“Get your hands off her!” a voice booms seconds before Brian’s heat at my back is ripped away.
A sob falls from my lips as I collapse against the wall, holding myself there as I try to regain just the slightest bit of composure. It takes me a second to register the sound of a flesh hitting flesh, but when it does, I turn to find Gage repeatedly slamming his fist into Brian’s face.
“Gage!” I yell, trying to break whatever spell he’s under. “Gage, stop!” I stumble forward, reaching for him, but I don’t make it to him before Declan and Caleb pull him off Brian.
“He’s out, man. You can stop.” Declan struggles to hold Gage back but doesn’t let him go until Gage’s eyes come to me, and he instantly stops moving.
Gage raises his arms in surrender. “All right. I’m good. Let me go.”
Declan releases him, and he’s instantly in my space. He doesn’t touch me, but his eyes roam over my entire body, and I see the devastation in his eyes.
“Rebel,” he chokes.
“I’m okay,” I whisper, reaching for him.
He shakes his head, pulling me into his arms. “No, you’re not.”
The second his arms are around me, I break. My body crashes into his, and the tears pour down my cheeks. I hold onto Gage so tightly my knuckles start to ache, but I can’t let him go, and I can’t stop crying.
“I’ve got you. You’re safe now.”
“Don’t let me go.”
“Never going to happen.”