Page 31 of Craving Consequences

VAN

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The last bin gets strapped down and Lachlan slams the tailgate shut. He dusts his hands on his jeans and turns to Everly.

“Where to next?”

She hasn’t said much in the last hour. Her silence hangs heavy in the heat. It weighs on my chest. It’s not that she’s usually a chatterbox but seeing her so lost breaks something in me I can’t explain.

“My place, please.”

Lachlan hesitates and I think he’s going to man up and tell her he’s changed his mind about putting Jefferson and Bron before her. But he only nods and turns his head away.

“Are you hungry?”

Everly shakes her head and I can’t take it anymore.

“Did you eat this morning?”

Her big eyes jump to my face, startled like she hadn’t expected anyone to push, and that’s the damn problem, I think.

It’s like she said yesterday, no one ever asks her how she actually is.

Everyone sees the smiles and moves on with their own lives.

But the person who is supposed to be looking after her, the man she let into her life, is a man child with no love for her.

That’s going to change. I don’t care what she’s used to. She’s my responsibility now.

“I’ll eat when I get home,” she murmurs.

Not good enough.

I glance past her to my best friend and I’m partially relieved to see the same look of displeasure on his face.

I know Lachlan isn’t an asshole. He is, but not to Everly.

I know he can be rigid and set in his ways, with everyone but her.

I have known his feelings towards her from the second I saw them in the same room for the first time.

It may have eluded the people around us enjoying the winter festival, but no one knows Lachlan Shaw the way I do.

And he watched her walk into that dance like a man prepared to sign his soul to the devil for just a kiss.

She was single then. Her parents alive. Her smiles were real and blinding and full of hope. She’d been wearing a pretty, silver dress with sleeves that fell off the shoulders and matching, strappy sandals. She’d been breathtaking. A Christmas present I ached to pull into a dark corner and unwrap.

But so did my best friend. The other man had all but stopped breathing. He watched her the entire night. I know because I did, too. But I realized in that moment that he was as in love with her as I was .

Pissed me right off initially. Of all the women in Jefferson, why her? But the annoyance became less and less as time went by. It vanished entirely when Bron got his hands on her. Lachlan having her would have been preferable to that rancid pile of trash touching her.

Now, I learned my lesson. I lost her once to the wrong guy because I let Jefferson dictate my feelings for her. I’m not letting them take her from me again. If that means sharing her with Lachlan ... I don’t hate that idea. I don’t love it, but if I have to share her, I’d rather it be him.

If he’d just get his head out of Jefferson’s ass.

“I’m hungry,” I decide, not entirely a lie.

I haven’t eaten and it’s so late in the afternoon.

I woke up this morning and reached for the soft warmth I’d been snuggled into all night to find her gone.

The Everly-sized space between me and Lachlan jerked me straight out of the dream I’d been having of me and Everly in a remote home deep in the woods.

Splayed across a picnic blanket with her knees around my head.

I woke up needing to taste her only to find her place empty.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so panicked and infuriated in my life. I even rolled off the bed and went searching for her in case she was in the bathroom or in the kitchen.

That is a feeling I refuse to experience again. Everly stays in my bed, in my arms. I don’t give a shit about anything else .

“I can ask Bryan to drive me back if you want to go eat—”

“No!” Lachlan and I snap in unison; Lachlan’s right, that little turd stain needs to stay the hell away from her.

She blinks, startled. “It’s not necessary to drive me all the way home and then—”

“You’re coming with us,” I cut in, taking a step towards her. Just one because I do not trust myself any closer. “After your disappearing act this morning, you’re not leaving my sight.”

Her pouty little mouth parts, then thins to match the furrow of her brows. “You can’t stay with me all the time.”

She has no idea how wrong she is. I will handcuff myself to her if necessary. But baby steps. Don’t want to scare her until after I have her tied to my bed.

“Van’s right.” Lach shifts like he’s bracing himself. His hands plant on his hips in the most defensive pose I’ve ever seen on the man. “We should get food.”

She nibbles on her bottom lip, a hesitant gesture I get. Her gaze darts to the truck then somewhere past it in the direction of the path leading out.

I’m wondering if she’s thinking about running. If she thinks she can make it before I catch her, but she relents — much to my disappointment — and nods.

“Breakfast sounds nice,” she murmurs .

Is it a win? Maybe. It can definitely be considered one, I think, but I don’t gloat because I’m bigger than that.

Instead, I move to the passenger’s side of the truck and yank it open for her.

I don’t miss her reluctance, but she moves forward and past me.

Her shoulder brushes my chest as she reaches for the handlebars to hoist herself up, but my hands are already at her waist. Holding her.

Pulling her until her back is at my chest.

Her face tips up, surprise and something unmistakable in her eyes when they meet mine. “Van?”

I love the sound of my name on her tongue. I love hearing it moaned as she’s breaking, her walls rippling around my fingers.

My hold reflexively tightens. My fingers press a little too hard.

I hear her breath catch in her chest. A beautiful sound of need I feel to my cock. Beneath my palms, her ribs expand, mirroring the tremor in her spine, melting in my hold.

She’s not fighting, though I can see it in the anxious nibbling of her teeth at her lip. She’s not running, but I know she wants to. It’s all a tangled mess of desire coming hot off her skin.

I lean in. Not for a kiss but still grin a little inside when her lips part willingly.

“Still love us, baby? ”

Her sharp, shaky inhale snags in my chest. Soft pink colors her cheeks, highlighting the yearning in her gaze.

“Yes,” she whispers so low it’s no more than just a movement of her lips.

My fingers lift to her chin. Thumb brushes over her bottom lip.

I kiss her because she fucking loves me and she’s mine.

“Good.”

Her lashes flutter open when I pull back. Her throat works around a tight swallow. But she says nothing when I lift her into the truck.

On the opposite end of the bench, the other side of the car, standing in the open door of the driver’s side, Lachlan stares at me. The hurt and pain in the razor’s edge of his jaw isn’t aimed at me, but the quiet confession he must have heard.

I want to tell him it doesn’t have to be this hard.

We can figure it out. We’re grown ass men fully capable of making shit happen.

But I’m silenced by the scream of tires and the roar of an engine shatters the moment.

A bright red flash rounds the corner at a speed that makes me think it’s being chased by zombies.

Bron’s Escalade jerks to a violent stop directly in front of us. The door flies open with a crack that makes me think assholes like him don’t deserve pretty things. The shithole himself hops down and storms towards the truck, his expression the dark smear of shit on sheets .

I hear Everly suck in a breath and it’s like something triggers in my head. Something I haven’t felt since leaving the army. A vicious humming between my ears that vibrates through the very marrow of my soul. A feral surge of protective energy that coils around the fingers I ball into fists.

Bron stops at the hood of the truck, looks Everly dead in the eyes through the windshield and bares his teeth.

“Out. Now!”

I shut my door, sealing her in. Keeping him out. He’ll have to kill me to get to her.

“Bron, calm down.” Lachlan closes his own door and moves to face his worthless son.

“I’ve been calling her all fucking day,” he roars, rounding on his father. “I have to hear from Bryan Markley that she’s here with you two?” His dark gaze sweeps over the storage units, lips curled back over clenched teeth. “What the fuck is this place?”

We all know he knows where we are even if he’s a broken crayon in a box of marbles.

“We’ve been getting things for the party this weekend. I told you she’d call you back,” Lachlan says.

Bron motions at Everly like she’s some errant dog he’s come to collect. “Well, you’re done. Let’s go.”

My knuckles pop at my sides, itching to beat all five points of rage into the fucker’s face, but I don’t. I let Lachlan take the lead. Let him deal with his mistake .

Everly’s right, he should have been swallowed.

“We still have other errands to run, unless you’re willing to take over.”

Bron’s eyes narrow like he’s being asked to shovel horse shit. “I don’t have time to run around. I have things to do and I need her to—”

“Go home. We’re nearly done. You can talk to her later.”

That is simply unacceptable in Bron’s world as he shakes his head. “Why is she being like this?” He faces the window and raises his voice. “Get the fuck out.”

“Hey.” Lachlan gets in front of him, blocking him from Everly. “Enough. You’re acting crazy. Go home.”

He doesn’t wait for Bron to respond. He barely looks at him when turning back to the truck.

Bron stays standing in the way and I hope Lachlan will run him over but know that’s wishful thinking.

Instead, I follow my friend and climb in next to Everly.

Lachlan does the same on the other side and we watch the piece of shit simply stare at us through the window like he just can’t figure it out.

His little rat brain is scrambling and it would have been comical, but I am not oblivious to the tension in Everly’s frame.