Which meant I was now stuck without backup.
“Posey! I know you’re in there.”
I dropped my head to the door.
“Who the fuck are you?” a deep, gruff voice demanded.
“I’m her boyfriend.”
“Bullshit.”
I peeked through the peephole and saw Shutter herding Carl away from my door.
“Who are you?” Carl demanded, still backing away.
I bit my lip and watched as the bigger man moved Carl further and further down the hall.
“I’m the bodyguard,” he retorted, and I let out a quiet snort.
Shutter was built like a freaking bodyguard. Taller even than Shadow and muscles upon muscles, he was built like a brick house.
“Where’s Posey?” Carl asked.
“She’s busy.”
“Are you… are you sleeping with her?”
Carl didn’t get a chance to ask anything else because Shutter clocked him square in the jaw, and Carl went down with a bang.
I yanked open the door and squeaked, “What did you do?”
“I pulled the fuckin’ punch, Posey. Now, get the fuck outta here and go meet Shadow. I’ll take care of this asshole.”
“Did you… did you kill him?”
“Jesus, woman. No, I didn’t kill him.”
As if to confirm that statement, Carl started to moan.
“Get the fuck out of here, Posey,” Shutter demanded, and I grabbed my purse and took off.
Just like that.
Ran away like a pussy.
With a gigantic smile of relief on my face.
I sped to my new home, my heart racing like crazy, where I parked in my new spot and rushed inside, slamming into Shadow as my feet crossed the threshold.
“Hey, baby, excited to be home?”
I wrapped my arms around him and burst into tears.
“Jesus, what the fuck?”
Through hiccupping sobs, I gave him a blow-by-blow of everything that had happened in the last twenty minutes, the adrenaline wearing off and fear setting in with each word.
“And I think Shutter killed him.”
“I thought you said he was groaning,” Shadow pointed out.
“They were probably death groans.”
He chuckled, holding me tighter. “Shutter said he pulled his punch, right?”
I nodded into Shadow’s chest.
“Then he definitely didn’t kill him.”
I sniffed. “Can you find out?”
“Shutter’ll call me when he’s dealt with it.”
I heard male voices yelling and pulled away to meet his eyes. “Is everyone here?”
“Out back,” Shadow said. “Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded, wiping my tears in an attempt to put myself back together. “Oh my god, I’m a mess.”
“Baby, you’re good.”
“I have to unpack.”
“Everything’s done.”
“What?” I squeaked. “What do you mean? We have to put the bed together, unpack the kitchen stuff.”
“Done. Well, except for the kitchen stuff. It’s all currently on the counters so that you can decide where you want shit to go. But the bed’s together and Shiloh made it for you. The women took care of the bathroom and closet. Your suitcases with your personal stuff haven’t been touched, but anything that wasn’t in those bags was unpacked and put wherever it was at your old place.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Yeah,” he countered.
“Are you serious?” I whispered.
“Are you mad or happy?”
“Oh my god, I’m so happy,” I breathed out. “I’m so, so tired. I couldn’t imagine having to do all of that before getting up at seven tomorrow to teach a class.”
“You’re off on Thursday, though, right?”
“Yes.”
“Come and see what’s been done and then you can tell me if you want anything moved.” He stroked my cheek. “If you do, I’ll take care of that tomorrow.”
“Let me clean up a bit.”
“Okay, honey, I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”
I nodded and made my way into the bathroom from the hallway, then moved into the bedroom. It was perfect.
Okay, I’d have to move some of the throw pillows around, but it was as close to perfect as anyone could get and I almost burst into tears again.
I took a deep breath and stepped back into the bathroom, finding most of my things where I’d had them in my old bathroom, so I cleaned up a little, brushed my teeth, then walked out to the kitchen. Shadow wasn’t there, but I saw him out the back slider, laughing at something Doom was saying as they stood by the grill filled with all sorts of different meat choices.
With him distracted, I took a minute to check out the carnage in my kitchen and had set some plates in the cupboard above the microwave when I heard the slider open.
“Posey?” a feminine voice called.
“Kitchen,” I called.
I turned and came face-to-face with Quin… and Jasmine, Willow, Shiloh, and Lyric.
“Oh, hi,” I said. “Shadow said y’all helped put everything away.”
“Hopefully we didn’t fuck it up,” Jasmine said.
“Oh my god, are you kidding me? It’s amazing. Thank you.”
“Parker and Kennedy are on kid watching duty, otherwise they’d be here as well.”
“They watched all your kids so you could do this for me?”
“Yeah,” Willow said.
I waved my hands in front of my face to keep the tears at bay. “Oh my word, I don’t know what to say.”
“I have wine,” a voice called out and I heard the slider again.
“About time,” Jasmine retorted. “Did you bring more than one bottle?”
“Am I a monster?” Olivia responded, holding up two.
“I have glasses,” I said. “I think.” I turned once, then twice, finding them sitting in the corner of the counter. “Aha!”
Jasmine grabbed the bottle opener from its current place on the counter, handing it to Olivia who promptly opened the wine while I handed everyone a glass.
“You’ve started celebrating without me?” Shadow growled, pushing his way through the ladies to get to me, and wrapping his arms around me, kissing me gently as I held my wine up in an effort not to spill.
I grinned up at him once he’d removed his mouth from mine. “The ladies brought my favorite wine.”
“Did they?” he asked, mocking innocence.
“Did you have something to do with that?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Hm-mm, sure.”
He grinned, kissing me again before addressing the women. “If you’re done with my woman, can we eat?”
A shiver rushed through my body when he said, ‘my woman,’ and I couldn’t stop a stupid grin.
“Willow made her potato salad,” Jasmine said. “Hell, yeah, we can eat.”
“We’ll meet you out there,” Shadow said.
Olivia grabbed the full wine bottle and the rest of the ladies followed her out.
“You okay?” Shadow asked.
“I’m amazing, honey. Thank you for everything.”