He gave me a squeeze. “Okay.”
“But I know you need to be there.” I met his eyes again. “So, you should go. But I need you to come back here, and soon, okay?”
He stroked the apple of my cheek. “As soon as I can.”
I nodded. “I love you, Nolan Grant. Keep that fact in your heart and your brain and don’t do anything stupid.”
Shadow smiled slightly. “Love you, too, Chernobyl.”
He kissed me, then walked out the door, locking up behind him.
* * *
Shadow
I pulled up to the barn and immediately headed around the back to the basement entrance. Punching in the code next to the door, it buzzed open and I stepped inside. I could hear Alamo and Doc arguing as I made my way to them.
“We gotta call Dalton in,” Alamo said.
“He’s in Scotland, brother.”
“Fuck.”
I saw Doom standing close-by with his arms crossed, but saying nothing.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“That depends on you,” Doom said.
I sighed. “Is the asshole in there?” I nodded to the soundproof room we used to have ‘conversations’ with folks that needed a little discipline.
Doom nodded.
“But you gotta be smart about this, brother,” Doc warned. “We’ve got your back, you know that, but this asshole murdered his mother and her body’s still in his house. The cops are gonna be in this whether we like it or not. It’d be prudent to get in front of this.”
“I can call Dalt and see if he can put in a word with his office,” Doom said.
“I need ten minutes with him first,” I said.
Doom nodded. “I’ll call while you have your time.”
I stepped inside the room and closed the door.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Posey
MOM WOULDN’T STOP hovering and by the time the sun went down, I was ready to scream with frustration. I just wanted to be alone. No. I wanted to be alone with Shadow. Jane tried her best to wrangle the helicopter that was my parent, but in the end, I’d had to lie and say I was exhausted, just so I could escape to my room.
Even Sharon had tapped out and headed back to Otter and Shiloh’s to rest. I hadn’t heard from Shadow in three hours and the worry was gnawing at my insides. I was also sore from head to toe, and desperately wanted to soak in a bath.
If only my place had one.
I compromised and took a long, hot shower, then crawled into bed. I hadn’t realized how tired I actually was, and didn’t wake up until I felt Shadow’s arms wrap gently around me from behind.
“Hi,” I said, rolling to face him.
“Sorry, baby, didn’t mean to wake you.”
I laid my hand on his cheek. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? What happened?”
“I’m fine, no I’m not hurt, Fred was delivered into the hands of the authorities about an hour ago, but not until after I had a few minutes alone with him.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, that’s the end of story time,” he said, kissing me gently. “I sent your mom home, and she invited Jane to go with her so you could rest. Go back to sleep.”
“Promise you didn’t do anything illegal?”
“Go back to sleep.”
“That means you did something illegal,” I cried, sitting up.
He sighed, leaning up on his arms. “It means, you need to sleep and not worry because it’s fucking done.”
“Nolan—”
“Posey, I’m fuckin’ wrecked. Can I just hold my woman and sleep for a few hours?” he begged, flopping back onto the pillows, and holding his hand out to me. “We can fight about this in the morning.”
I wrinkled my nose and studied him for a few seconds, before stretching out beside him. He wrapped his arm around me and carefully pulled me to him, gentle with my bruises.
“Promise me you’re not in trouble,” I whispered.
“I’m not in trouble, honey.” He gave me a squeeze. “Sleep.”
“Did you beat Freddie into oblivion.”
He sighed. “You’re not gonna sleep, are you?”
“Please tell me you at least broke his nose.”
“I’m not telling you anything until tomorrow.”
“You broke his nose,” I said, and smiled.
“You have a violent imagination.”
“Maybe so,” I admitted and snuggled closer. “I’m gonna sleep now.”
“Good idea,” he said, kissing me gently.
I closed my eyes and let sleep take me, safe in the arms of my savior.
* * *
I awakened and rolled over to find the bed empty. I sat up and called out, “Shadow?”
“Kitchen,” he returned.
I threw the covers back and slid off the mattress, my legs sore at the movement. “Are we alone?”
“Yeah, baby. I closed the drapes, too.”
I padded out to the kitchen and smiled. Shadow was standing at the stove wearing a pair of running shorts and a black T-shirt, frying up bacon. It appeared he’d also started a pot of coffee. I made my way to him and slid my arms around him from behind, kissing his back. “Hi.”
“How’d you sleep?”
“Good. You?”
“Good.” I gave him a squeeze. “Are you going to answer my questions now?”
He sighed. “Was hoping you’d forget.”
“Oh, I know you were,” I said, pulling away and grabbing coffee mugs from the cabinet. “How badly did you hurt him?” I poured a cup of coffee. “And Carl?”
He sighed, turning off the stove, draining the bacon fat, then facing me. “I’m gonna give you what I’m gonna give you and that’s it, Posey. Understand?”
I nodded.
“I worked Carl over pretty good, Doc says he’s probably got a busted jaw, but considering the fact he’d violated his restraining order, I doubt he’s going to say anything, wired jaw or not.”
I frowned. “What restraining order?”
“The one Rabbit backdated and slid into the county records.”
“Oh my god,” I breathed out, my stomach roiling. I didn’t know how I felt about someone having that much power to bring another person down. I tried to remind myself that Carl had stalked me, put a tracker on my phone, and threatened me multiple times, but I still felt the law should deal with him.
“I don’t think he would have ever hurt me,” I said.
“He put a goddamn tracker on your car, Posey. That’s not the action of a sane person.”
“But to go so far as to backdate a restraining order?”
“This is why I didn’t want to tell you.”
“We shouldn’t have that kind of power,” I said. “I would never want someone to go after another just because they hurt my feelings or something.”
“Jesus,” he hissed. “Carl didn’t hurt your feelings, Posey. He stalked you. That’s illegal. And quite frankly, we should have filed a real restraining order the second we found the tracker.”
“We didn’t have time.”
“Exactly.” He settled his hands on my arms. “I promise you that none of us will ever fuck with someone to this level if they hurt your feelings. This is bigger than that. Understand?”