While I was dog-tired, my nerves were so ramped up, I wasn’t able to shut my eyes. I was so worried that someone was following us or they would do something on the road as we traveled back to our place.
We had to talk to the fireman and police, as well as hotel security and then we waited for the guys to get there. Once they arrived, Paxton had gone to get all our stuff and pack it into his vehicle.
There wasn’t a lot I could tell the police about the guy since I hadn’t seen his face. I knew he was big and had only spoken one time, but that piece of information about recognizing his voice was not something I disclosed. Not that I’d kept it from Paxton or the guys. They knew but they told me to not say anything about that as it would have to then be explained about my parents' murders and they were not taking any chances with that yet.
One thing that did shock the crap out of me when the guys had walked into the hotel was that Brinley was with them. I could tell by the look on Rowan’s face, he wasn’t all too pleased, but I doubt he could have managed to keep her stubborn ass at home. And as much as I wished she was home safe too, I was also secretly glad to see her.
She and I had gotten closer after she started her business next to mine. Having her support meant the world to me. Also, the laughter that sprung from me when she planted her hands on her hips and laid into her husband about not telling her what she could and couldn’t do, let some tension out of my body. The woman put Rowan in his place.
“I wasn’t about to let Rowan and Gyth leave me at home. I wanted to see for myself you were okay,” Brinley had said to me, touching a piece of my heart.
They had left the kids with Summer who insisted she was fine. I could tell by Gyth’s expression he didn’t love that she was alone as nobody probably knew if they were watching everyone I was friends with, but I guess Lyric called in favors and had a cop buddy of his watching the place.
When Paxton hesitated about leaving me to go to the room to grab our stuff, Gyth looked at him and then me with a huge smile on his face. “Dude, let’s get this done, your girl is in good hands with Rowan and Brinley while we get everything.”
Just before they walked off, Gyth looked back at me and said, “The guy is over the moon for you.”
My eyes widened and then my heart leaped with happiness when I heard Paxton add, “You got that right.”
Gyth and Rowan chuckled, Brinley made a sweet gushing sound of some sort, and I said, “I feel the same.”
Pax heard me and yelled out again causing a ruckus of laughter. “You better!”
It wasn’t long before they’d grabbed our stuff and we were all settled in the two cars. Paxton and I, then the other three in Gyth’s truck.
We made it home safely without any trouble and once we got inside, the others went to their places. But not before Brinley hugged me fiercely and told me she would always have my back, followed by a hug from Gyth and Rowan both saying how glad they were I was okay.
I managed to make it inside but once there, it wasn’t long before I was done for. Paxton and I took a quick shower, where no hanky-panky was present. We didn’t have the energy but I knew he also could tell that wasn’t what I needed right then.
Lying in bed, my wet hair splayed out over his chest, he just held me.
“I’m so fucking proud of you, baby. You fought like I asked you to and I know it made all the difference in the world.”
His words washed over me, but I knew it wasn’t just me that made it so the outcome hadn’t ended differently.
“You fought too. For me,” I whispered.
Running his hand back and forth over my back, he replied, “I’ll always fight for you, darlin’.”
And those words were the last I heard before I crashed in his arms.
ChapterTwenty
PAXTON
There wasno doubt when I said I thought I’d lost ten years off my life that it was true.
When Capri’s hands slipped from the doorway and I couldn’t see her any longer, life without her flashed before my eyes. Determination, fear and fury fueled me forward to get her back.
Because life without the woman I loved was unacceptable.
ChapterTwenty-One
CAPRI
I feltlike I was dying.
It wasn’t fair that I was sick again when I had been ill only six weeks prior. Maybe it was all the stress of everything going on, but it seemed like I was spilling my guts out in the toilet at the crack of dawn.
