Page 7 of Ever After Between the Lines (Montgomery Ink Legacy)

Chapter Six

SARINA

My hands kept shaking as I made coffee. That wasn’t the best thing for someone who worked at a café as a barista. But I needed to focus. I needed to work, make money, and maybe find a way for Stone and me to leave again.

It was so odd to think how quickly the two of us had become a pair again. As if no time at all had passed between us, and yet all the time had passed.

I let out a deep breath, opened and closed my hands, and did my best to focus.

Hailey was next door with her husband, delivering drinks to the tattoo artists while I was left operating the espresso maker, working on a latte for an order.

The rest of the staff was friendly, welcoming and didn’t ask too many prying questions.

I had always found that slightly odd since they tended to ask and pry with everyone else.

But maybe it was because they knew I couldn’t answer.

Or at least give the answers that they wanted.

The Kingdom was watching. In the back of my mind, I had always known that.

It was why I took the precautions that I could and why I always felt as if I needed to be two steps ahead.

The fact that the Rook and the Knight had been here, had come all the way from Desolation, New York, worried me.

I didn’t know if they had truly gone back.

What if they hadn’t? What if they were waiting for us to make a mistake again?

I didn’t know what I would do if I lost Stone. Or if I lost myself.

I had been honest with Stone before. Falling into a relationship might have been the worst mistake of my life, but walking away from him hurt just as much. Because I loved him. I loved who he was and how he made me feel.

So somehow, not being able to find a future, or at least look into seeing who we could be, pained me.

This wasn’t what I had signed up for. This wasn’t what I thought I could be, but now here we were, there was no going back. I had taken Stone into my bed and had brought him into my heart long before he had come to Denver to find me.

“Are you okay?” Hailey asked as she moved forward, her hand on my wrist.

I looked up at her and blinked, and gave her a watery smile. “I think I didn’t get enough sleep.”

She met my gaze, and I wasn’t sure she believed me. It was the truth, but not why I felt like this.

“Okay, well, if you need anything, you let me know. I’m here.”

I swallowed hard. “Thanks for everything.”

“Why does that sound like a goodbye?” Hailey asked, her voice soft.

“It’s not.”

I swallowed hard. At least, I don’t think so.

“Your shift was over twenty minutes ago, Sarina. Why don’t you head home? Take the afternoon off from the bar.”

I shook my head. “That would be nice, but I don’t have the option of doing that.”

“No, I don’t think you do. You work so hard, Sarina. But I hope you know we think of you like family here. You and Stone.”

I frowned. “Really?”

“Of course. Stone works for the other Montgomerys, just like we’re family with these Montgomerys. I know this is probably invasive even to mention, but I heard about what happened.”

I froze. “What did you hear?”

Hailey winced, and it was such an odd expression on a beautiful face. “I heard that Stone was hurt. That Wes and Storm found him. I’m glad that they found him. And while I don’t know all the details, my husband said that things are being taken care of.”

I shook my head. “I can’t talk about it, Hailey.”

“I know. I just want you to know that we love you, and we’re here for you. Don’t run, okay? We’ll help keep you safe.”

I met her gaze. “I don’t think you know who you’d be fighting to try to keep me safe.”

“No, I don’t. It’s completely out of my wheelhouse. I’m here if you need me. And if you do need to go, know that you can always come back. This will always be your home.”

She squeezed my hands and then she walked away. I sighed, knowing I needed to leave. Maybe I needed to leave town. It might be safer for those that I had come to care for. But where would Stone and I go? And would I even go with him?

He had been back for two months, we had been together for only a month of that time, and he had already been hurt.

The Kingdom had already come to Denver after so long of leaving me alone.

Was it because Stone was the last straw? Or had they just been waiting until I had been lulled into complacency?

I wasn’t sure, but I needed to make a decision.

I grabbed my bag and walked out of the back alley, heading towards Ink on Tap.

My senses were on alert since I was afraid that he would find me any moment.

The King hadn’t wanted me in ages. Maybe this wasn’t about me.

Maybe it was because Stone had left without permission.

Hopefully, the King would forget Stone eventually, and someone else would make a mistake.

Or another club or group would anger him, and he’d focus all of his attentions on them.

That was what had happened with me, and it had given me over four years of relative peace.

I might have been constantly on edge, but that was the path I had been set on from birth. The path I couldn’t walk away from.

“Sarina?”

I turned, my hands outstretched, my taser in my right hand, and I looked up at Stone.

He held both hands up and cursed under his breath. “Fuck. Sorry, the bus was late, and I came here to walk you to the bar.”

Relief speared through me, and I threw my arms around him, careful not to accidentally tackle him. “You scared the crap out of me.”

“I can see that. I’m glad you have your taser.”

“Who knows if it’ll ever be enough,” I whispered, and I kissed him softly.

“I hate that you’re so on edge, that you’re so afraid.”

I shook my head. “You’re in the same boat.”

“Maybe. You were safe before I came here.”

“Was I? Or was I just led to believe that?”

“I don’t know, baby. Let’s get you to work. Maybe Rebel will hire me too.” He winked at me, and I grinned.

“He’s always looking for a bouncer. It is a gay bar.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know I will protect anybody in that bar. As long as you’re safe.”

“I missed you,” I whispered as I leaned into him.

“I missed you, too.”

And I knew we both weren’t talking about the afternoon and morning that we hadn’t seen each other. No, it had been a long four years, four years in which we’d had to stay apart to keep each other safe, and it had taken me a while to realize exactly why.

We turned the corner, and Stone let out a shout. I hit the ground as he pushed me down, covering my body. Gunshots rained above us, and I screamed, trying to cover Stone as well, but there was no use, nowhere to hide.

We were slightly behind a dumpster, but it wasn’t enough.

“As I said, the King wants you back. You don’t get to decide to leave.”

Stone growled, pulled me back from the ground, and I ignored the sting in my palms from where I had hit the gravel and now bled.

“Stay here.”

“No,” I shouted, my throat tight. I gripped his wrist. “Don’t go.”

Stay safe.

“They’re going to kill you.”

“No, they’re going to kill you,” I spat.

And then we were surrounded. They had guns, knives, and they came at us.

“You really shouldn’t have left. And to think, you had had everything. A home, food in your belly, protection. And then you left.” The Knight looked over Stone’s shoulder. “Left to find her. The little bitch the King doesn’t even want anymore.”

I should have felt relief at that, but I couldn’t, not when this could be the end.

The Knight came forward, glaring at Stone.

“You always were a little bitch, just like her.”

I moved without thinking, aware that only the Knight had a gun in his hand. Everyone else seemed to just have knives. Not that there was anything just about that.

I moved forward, my taser out, and I got him in the belly. The Knight let out a shocked scream and hit the ground.

Stone cursed under his breath, pulled me back, and kicked the gun underneath the dumpster.

“Run,” he yelled at me as the others moved forward, shock in their gazes that I would be the one to do that.

The Rook came at us, knife out, and Stone moved quickly, faster than I had ever seen him move before. He gripped the Rook’s wrist, twisted. The other man let out a shout. The knife fell to the ground with a clang, and then Stone punched him hard in the face.

Another man came at us, and I kicked out, using the training that I had had from self-defense, and kicked the other man in the balls.

I tugged at Stone, knowing we needed to get away, but there were too many of them.

They couldn’t get the gun, but they had knives, and I wasn’t sure a taser was going to be able to get all of them.

I looked at Stone, so afraid I had made the wrong choice, that he would die and it was going to be my fault.

The Rook came at us again, the Knight still twitching on the ground, and then the most sacred sound in the world came.

Sirens hit my ears, and Stone and I froze, hands up in the air as the police came, then their words shouting at us to freeze, to not move. The alley filled with the authorities, and Stone and I went to our knees, trying to explain what happened.

Considering the way that it looked and the fact that Rebel and Hailey came out, her husband and the other tattoo artists with her to give their explanations as well, I knew that we would be okay.

The King was going to lose some of his inner circle, at least for the moment, but we weren’t going to die right then.

Somehow.

I looked at Stone, my eyes wide, and prayed that this could be the end. Or at least an end.

It would be too much trouble. That anyone the King sent from the Ruin towards us would be sent right back, worse off. That Stone was out.

That I was out.

My father had lied. And then he had died. My brother had done much the same.

Stone was here. And he had protected me, and he had let me protect him.

I had to hope that this would be it. That this could be the start of our future.

The sounds of bullets, of shouts, of screams would echo in my mind until the end of my days, but maybe this could be the end. Or an end.

And finally, a beginning.