Page 73 of Craving Consequences

LACHLAN

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I should be pissed.

Running off when Bron is still somewhere at large has all the warning bells going off in my head. It fuels my desperation, my gut deep anxiety to press the gas to the floor.

But I’m not driving, and while Van is over every speeding limit, it’s not fast enough.

“What if she’s not there?” I blurt as he bypasses a Honda with an angry woman behind the wheel who flips him off.

“She is,” he says, changing lanes and speeding up to pass a truck. “It’s the only place she has left to go.”

He’s not wrong, I suppose.

“What if she doesn’t want to see me?” I blurt without thinking.

“You don’t believe that,” he counters without taking his eyes off the road.

I do ... and I don’t. I don’t want to believe it, but how can I expect her to still love me after what happened to her? How is she going to look at me without seeing Bron ?

“What’s the plan?” I ask, needing a distraction from the spiraling whirlpool of my thoughts.

“We make sure she’s okay and then I strangle her.”

Despite the tightening in my chest, I chuckle. “I mean after. Let’s say it all goes well and she’s happy to see us, what then? Do we leave her there and return to Jefferson?”

Van snorts a derisive laugh. “I am not leaving her. In fact, she is never leaving my sights again. Her ass is getting cuffed to me. I will go full Human Centipede if necessary.”

I peek at him, horrified and disgusted. “Jesus.”

Unperturbed, my friend shrugs. “I warned her. I told her she better be in bed when I woke up. She promised she wouldn’t leave again. She broke that promise and my trust. The consequences are her fault.”

I’m not touching that. That’s a conversation between them, although restraining her to the bed between us, open and accessible to use, does sound tempting.

“I think we need a plan before we have this conversation with her,” I shift in my seat as Van stomps on the brakes, swerves around a transport and changes lanes all without a single signal.

“What exactly are we planning to do if she decides she doesn’t want to go back? What are we prepared to do?” I correct.

“I’m moving into her yard,” he states without hesitation. “I have a tent.”

“I’m being serious.” I sigh .

“So am I.” He spares me a fleeting side glance. “I’ll travel to Jefferson for work when I need to. I’ll rent out the house. Lauren knows about me and Everly, so I don’t have to hide anything.”

“Jesus, you really thought this out.” I try not to show my envy, but who am I kidding? I’m jealous as fuck.

“I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to be with her. While I’m pissed about how she went about it, this decision works out great because there’s nothing stopping us from being with her now. We can chase her butt-ass naked through the woods and not a soul will know about it.”

I chuckle. “Red Hollow is still part of Jefferson,” I remind him. “We’d still have to go into Jefferson for—”

“That is a problem for later. Let’s find Everly. We’ll work out the what ifs after I’ve tanned her backside.”

He makes it all sound so simple.

And maybe it is.

Maybe I am overcomplicating things by overthinking it like I always do. Since the carpet was pulled out from under me at sixteen, there isn’t a moment where I’m not second guessing everything I do. No action that isn’t carefully overanalyzed.

Spontaneity never worked out well in my favor.

I can’t pretend that’s changed. I’m still stressed that Everly will tell us to leave.

That she deliberately left to avoid us because the last few days hadn’t meant anything to her, except sex.

That made the most sense given that she left without a word.

You can love someone and still not actually want to be with them.

What if she doesn’t want to be with us? What if Van is wrong and we commit to this and something terrible happens?

“Stop it.”

I jump at the sharp command. My head pivots to the man behind the wheel. He’s not looking at me, but his annoyance is palpable.

“I wasn’t—”

“But you were ... loudly.” He takes a breath and loosens his shoulders.

“She loves you, Lach. Despite whatever you’re thinking up in your head right now, that’s the only thing that matters.

Everything else, all the other noises, fuck it.

Fuck Jefferson. What are you clinging to?

Other people’s approval and validation? For what?

So, you can be miserable for the rest of your life?

” He darts me a glance. “If being with Everly makes you happy, who gives a shit about everything else?”

“They’ll hurt her,” I whisper without thinking.

“And I’ll kill them.” He moves smoothly around another transport. “I will burn the entire town to the ground. I will cut off all connecting roads so not a single soul leaves that place as it goes up in flames.”

“Jesus Christ,” I exclaim, staring at my friend like I’ve never seen him before .

“She’s mine to protect.” He gives a nonchalant bump of his shoulder. “I take my duty seriously.”

I should be horrified by his easy proclamation. Sane people don’t simply declare war on a town, but I agree. I would be next to him, holding the matches. There isn’t an atrocity I wouldn’t commit for Everly.

But I’m more nervous that he’s making sense. That he’s making me think this can happen. I’m nervous that I can see it, see us together. The three of us. I’m terrified by how badly I want it.

If she’ll have me. If she’s not absolutely disgusted by my presence.

“Besides, we have a much bigger problem.” I turn my face to him, mind scrambling to catch up. “That Teddy guy. What do you know about him? He seems shady.”

Maybe it’s because I’m already twisted up, tense with all the possibilities and variables I can’t predict, but I laugh.

“Are you seriously worried about Teddy? The kid is one breath away from sainthood. I think the most shocking thing I’ve ever seen him do was jaywalk.”

His mouth thins. “There was nothing saintly about the way he was looking at Lauren. He definitely has some fucked up ideas in his head and Lauren is in a vulnerable place right now.”

I roll my eyes. “I think if Teddy’s the worst Lauren can do, you should count your blessings. ”

A grunt is all I get back, but I can see him calculating all the ways he could make poor Teddy disappear.

It’s hilarious because Lauren’s had boyfriends.

She’s dated. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Van worked up over a guy before.

Still, I don’t push or ask questions. I’m not the father of a daughter.

Maybe they come with a different set of feelers.

Lord knows I ignored all mine where Bron was concerned.

I clearly can’t be trusted to make the right observations.

We drive the remaining distance to the cabin in silence. It’s dark as we make the bend and locate the building.

And Everly’s car.

I exhale at the sight of it and glance to the house where only a single light glows in the top window.

Everly’s room.

“Okay, what’s the plan?” I ask once more, nervous all over.

Van unsnaps his belt and kicks open his door. “Going in.”

I hate him sometimes. I really do.

“Aren’t you supposed to be better at this tactical stuff?” I snap.

He pauses, his face awash with the dim glow of the cabin light. He looks me dead in the eye. “Want me to march up and kick the door down?”

I frown. “Not what I meant. ”

“Get out of the car, Shaw. Stop being a little bitch.”

Smirking at the finger I flip him, he slams the door shut and stalks off into the murky dusk.

It takes me a second longer to suck in a breath and follow.

The combined crunch of our boots echo through the silence.

Without the rain, it’s a soft sigh of the wind in the trees and the gentle slosh of waves against the shore.

It’s the kind of calm I can easily lose myself in.

Can easily see myself building a home in.

With Everly ... and Van.

It dawns on me that maybe Van’s right. Maybe we can do this. Maybe we’re far enough away from Jefferson’s reach that we’ll be left alone.

Van’s boots stomp up the front steps and onto the porch. I follow. Lighter. Treading carefully.

He knocks without warning. The sound reverberates with violence through the night. Through my system. I jump and nearly hit him.

“Not so hard,” I snap. “You’ll scare her.”

It’s hard to see his expression, but I think he shoots me a raised eyebrow.

“I barely touched it,” he mutters, and I definitely hear the eyeroll.

I open my mouth to respond when we hear the light patter of feet .

“I have a rifle, and I will blow your brains out if you don’t get off my porch,” comes Everly’s firm, but pissed voice through the wood.

While immensely proud, I have to bite back my grin because I know she doesn’t.

“Open the door, baby,” Van says softly.

Silence.

It may have only lasted a heartbeat before we hear the click and clatter of bolts and chains coming undone, but it strains through me for what feels like an eternity before the door swings wide and she’s peering at us from the opening.

Her hair is down, a wild tangle of auburn floating like candy floss around her soft, bruised face.

The single lit lamp glowing behind her casts a faint halo around her, painting her in shadows, but I don’t miss the sling strapped across her chest. The scrapes across her knees. The surprise in her eyes.

“How...?”

“I think we’ve proven you can’t run from us, little doe,” Van murmurs gently. “Let us in.”

She shuffles back without complaint and Van steps over the threshold. I follow, never taking my eyes off her face.

In the light, the swelling at her temple is unmistakable. The thick, black spot at her jaw pronounced. She’s wearing a long T-shirt, but I can only imagine all the other marks we can’t see .

“Are you okay?” I ask, my throat working extra hard around the dry patch.

She shifts and lowers her gaze. “Why are you here?”