Chapter 28
Phoenix
Elyna insisted on going back to work today, even though I asked her to come to Montreal with me, since I needed to see a supplier to upgrade the patio furniture at the restaurant.
She said she was low on money and got offended when I offered her some.
I wasn’t in a position to press any buttons, so I gave her space, with the knowledge Cooper was just as big a guy as me and would have her back, and so would Dominic.
I also knew Dad was going to drop in at some point to check on her because that’s who he was.
And I knew Becket was making his rounds close to Birch Street to ensure Riley Jansen wasn’t hanging around there.
I hit the Maple Valley turnoff a little too fast, gravel hissing under the tires as I took the bend toward the loft. The late afternoon had that flat, pewter light Val-Du-Lys gets before rain. My phone sat face up in the cup holder, Elyna’s forwarded message still open:
It had been delayed, and I was grateful. There was no company name or tracking number and no “tap to manage.” Just text that was neat, precise, and wrong.
I pulled up to Maple Valley by four, relief washing over me that I’d made it back in time.
She was on her way to pick up Braden from daycare.
She said Cooper was being annoying and came along for the ride.
My best friend had my back since the day I met him, and I was grateful for that.
I made a pit stop at my house to grab some extra tools from the garage in order to reinforce the security measures I already implemented, a second camera, pry-proof window locks, a motion light, and a good drill.
If there was a “package” coming to our damn stairwell in that window, I wanted a camera on every angle.
My screen blinked with a new motion alert from the deck cam I’d installed last night.
Just a cat, thin and gray. I breathed once and let the air out slow.
I carried the tools over to the loft, walking past her car.
She must’ve had an alert on her phone because the loft door opened before I reached the top of the stairs.
She stood there with Braden at her hip, his chubby fist bunched in her sweater, and that look on her face, a mix of relief and apology, of trying to smile through a storm.
“Hey,” I said, dropping a kiss to Braden’s hair first, then to her temple. “You okay?”
“I am now.” Her mouth trembled, then held.
“Good. I got a few extra security measures to install. Let me work,” I said with a playful wink to try to make this hard situation a little lighter.
I got to work adding a second deadbolt and a second camera at knee height angled to catch shoes and plates, even if somebody decided to tilt their head away.
I tuned the sensitivity down so moths wouldn’t set off her phone, and walked the perimeter to make sure everything was working as it should be.
Elyna busied herself taking care of Braden, but every once in a while I stole a glance her way and caught her looking at me. That look in her eyes just about undid me. It was full of gratitude and reverence, like she couldn’t look away. That did something to my insides I didn’t know how to name.
“I need the Wi-Fi password again,” I said, making my way over to the router.
“It’s still the ridiculous string on the fridge,” she said, managing a tiny smile. “I never changed it.”
“Good.” I keyed it in, paired everything, and pulled the live feeds on my phone. Stairs. Deck. Entry. Front windows. The bedroom angle caught the top rail of the crib and a slice of sky beyond. I dropped my screen brightness a notch and turned the phone toward her. “We’re covered.”
She looked once, then again, her breathing evening out as the real-time picture sank in. “Thank you. I know you have every inch of this place covered and it means a lot.”
“You don’t have to thank me. I thought we already agreed on that,” I said, but it pressed something warm into my ribs anyway.
She looked at her watch. “It’s after five and no delivery.”
“Could be a scam that’s unrelated to what’s going on with Riley. Regardless, we’ll keep our eyes wide open,” I said.
As if on cue, Braden let out a soft squeak.
Elyna shifted him to her other hip. We slipped into the evening routine without talking about it because routine is a kind of courage too.
I reheated the roasted chicken and potatoes Dominic had sent home, and we ate standing at the counter while Braden held on to his teething toy.
When his lids got heavy, I ran the bath and sat on the floor with my forearms on my knees while she washed him, steam fogging the mirror, the scent of baby shampoo filling the bathroom.
I held the towel. She lifted him out and wrapped him up.
My chest ached with a kind of hunger I didn’t have words for.
When she came out of the bedroom, I was on the futon with my phone, scrolling through security feeds and messages from Becket.
“Dad had the tech team look into the texts,” I told her quietly. “They’re analyzing the data now. Becket thinks the number’s been masked through a relay. It might not even be Riley sending them.”
Her brow furrowed. “So it could be someone else entirely?”
“Maybe,” I admitted. “Or maybe he’s using someone else’s phone. Either way, the pattern’s different. The phrasing. The time of day. Even the punctuation doesn’t line up with his previous messages. Becket says whoever it is knows what they’re doing.”
Elyna sank onto the couch beside me, close but not touching. “If it’s not Riley… then who is it?”
I shook my head. “Could be anyone tied to him. Maybe those same guys he said were after him in Montreal. It’s too soon to tell. But we’re not taking chances. Dad’s monitoring all activity from the lane. If anyone shows up, he’ll know before we do.”
She exhaled, shoulders drooping like she’d been holding that breath for days. “You’re sure he’s not just saying that to make me feel better?”
“Dad doesn’t sugarcoat anything. Trust me, if he thought we were screwed, he’d tell us.”
That earned me a small, grateful laugh. She rubbed her hands over her knees, gaze drifting toward the window where the motion light glowed faintly through the glass.
“I don’t know how you stay so calm,” she said.
“Practice,” I said. “And a lot of pretending.”
She smiled faintly. “It’s working.”
I set my phone aside and studied her, the soft fall of her hair, the way exhaustion lived in her shoulders but never reached her eyes. “You should get some rest,” I murmured. “You’ve been running on fumes.”
“I will. Just… stay here a while?”
I nodded, though I wasn’t sure who needed the reassurance more.
She shifted closer, her voice low. “Phoenix.”
“Yeah?”
“Come here.”
It wasn’t a question. She turned on her knees, caging mine with her thighs, and kissed me like she’d decided to stop apologizing for wanting this.
Wanting me. There wasn’t anything polite in the way she claimed my lips.
Her mouth was warm and certain, her hands sliding up my shoulders to the back of my neck when I pulled her closer.
I’d promised myself I’d be patient tonight, that I’d be steady so she didn’t have to be.
But the second she opened to me; I was gone.
Every ounce of restraint unraveled like ivy pulling down an old fence.
My fingers found the hem of her sweater.
“I want to take my time with you,” I rasped.
“Then take it,” she breathed, arching into my hands.
I peeled the top over her head and she helped, tossing it blindly toward the chair.
Underneath, soft cotton clung to her in all the ways that destroy a man.
I let my palms relearn the map of her shoulders, the curve of her waist, the dip above her hip bone I’d been thinking about since the stockroom.
She made a sound in her throat that detonated somewhere low in my spine.
“Tell me if you want me to stop,” I said against her mouth.
Her nails scraped lightly at my nape. “Don’t you dare.”
We laughed, right there in the middle of the fear, we laughed.
I kissed the curve of her jaw, the hollow under her ear, the notch of her collarbone.
Her head fell back. I took her in my mouth, slow and hungry, the way you taste something you know you’re never giving up.
She rocked against me, and I braced my hands under her thighs, lifting, settling her astride me so we could take our time and still be desperate.
“Phoenix,” she said again, my name was like a thread pulling me closer to her.
I slid a hand into the back of her leggings and gripped, the other splayed on her spine.
She wriggled out of them with a breathless laugh, and I helped tugging the material free and dropping them somewhere that wasn’t my problem.
She reached for my shirt with impatient fingers; I dragged it over my head, and her palms were on my chest, tracing the lines like she was trying to memorize me and claim me all at once.
“Look at you,” she whispered, flushed, reverent and wrecking me. “You’re…”
“I’m yours,” I said, rougher than I meant to.
Heat flashed in her eyes like I’d said something important without knowing how important it was.
She kissed me hard then softer, then settled her weight against me, rubbing her center along my cock, which made my vision go white at the edges.
We stayed like that for a long time rocking, tasting, breathing in each other’s sounds.
“Condom,” I muttered, my brain catching up to my body by the sheer force of will.
“I’m on the pill. I always take it. If you’re clean, I am too,” she said and my world stopped.
I had never gone bareback before. Never wanted to, but my heart was all in with Elyna, it always had been.
Despite our past, I trusted her. Knew she wasn’t the broken girl I remembered from high school, even if she carried a chip on her shoulder now for her past mistakes.
“I’m clean,” I said, and that bought me a warm smile that made my heart unravel more.
“So we’re doing this?” she asked.
“I’m all in, Elyna. I’ve been trying to get you to see that,” I said to her.
“When I got pregnant, Riley was wearing a condom. I had been sick the week before and I was on antibiotics. I didn’t know I was at risk of. . .”
“Hush, it doesn’t matter the circumstances of how your boy came into this world. He’s here and he’s a blessing.”
Her lower lip quivered.
“Take me, put my cock inside you,” I urged.
She was already guiding me, the blunt press of me against slick heat, the both of us swearing softly at the same time when I pushed inside.
We didn’t rush. We couldn’t have if we tried.
Everything tonight felt like it needed to be learned and savored, like going fast would mean we’d miss a step and fall.
I set my hands at her hips and let her ride me, slow, deep, controlled.
“I’ve never had sex without a condom,” I confessed.
“Me neither, it feels so good. So raw.” She rolled her hips.
The world was narrowing to the slide and pull of her around me and the way her eyes held mine when she started to tremble.
“I’ve got you,” I said, because I needed her to have that in her head when she closed her eyes.
“Don’t. . .” she gasped, clutching my shoulders. “Don’t stop talking.”
“You’re so damn beautiful,” I said, and it felt like truth and prayer. “So strong, Wildflower. I’ve got you. I’m not going anywhere.”
She broke with a sound that hit me like lightning, shuddering in my hands, and I followed, groaning into her mouth, holding her through it so we fell together.
We sat there after, breathing like we’d run, foreheads tipped, sweat cooling, the cameras a quiet, watchful hum around us. Her heartbeat slowed under my palms.
When she finally rolled to the side, I went with her, pulling the throw over both of us, letting the futon be a bed because we’d decided it was and that was enough.
“Stay,” she whispered, eyes half-closed, cheek on my shoulder.
“I’m not going anywhere.” I kissed her hair.
“Thanks, Phoenix,” she said.
“No, thank you, Elyna,” I replied. “I told you I wouldn’t leave you and Braden alone as long as Riley is a threat.”
“And after, when he’s no longer a threat?” she asked. I watched how hard it was for her to ask that question, her vulnerability was bleeding from her and it made me want her more.
“Even after, I’ll still be here,” I assured.
She blinked. I smiled into the dark and held her tighter.
The deck light flashed once and clicked off.
My phone purred with the motion alert. I didn’t look.
I waited for Elyna’s breaths to even out, felt the last of the tension leave her spine as her weight settled into me like trust. After a while, I eased out from under her and tucked the blanket up to her shoulder. She made a small sound but didn’t wake.
I checked my phone. Another motion alert. A moth, big as a coin, fluttering near the light. I exhaled. Somewhere out in the rows a coyote barked, quick and high.
I set the phone where I could see it without it glowing in her face and folded an arm under my head.
People thought protectors are made. Maybe some were.
Me? I think life circumstance brought me to this point.
I wasn’t like Dad or Becket. I didn’t want to be a cop.
Business was more my jam but the cold part of me, the part I kept off-limits, met a woman who was all warmth.
She was warm enough to thaw bone. Then there was her baby and the sounds of her voice saying please like a prayer.
Now I found myself in the loft I didn’t design for anyone that fits them like they were meant to be here. Like I was meant to be here with them.
No one would touch what had come under my roof. Not a fake delivery. Not a message typed in the dark. Not a man who played at danger until it bit him back.
“Tu n’es plus seule,” I whispered into the dim.
You’re not alone anymore.
This time the words just didn’t feel like a promise to Elyna and her son, but they felt like a promise to me too. And for the first time since this started, the night felt like it belonged to us.