Page 47 of Ly to Me (Devils of Alliston Springs #1)

Lyra

The Sanctuary

T he blood smeared over Jamie’s face, dripping from his nose and covering his shirt, hadn’t gone unnoticed.

The words that caused Carver to feel the need to do that to him hadn’t, either.

As much of a monster Carver appeared to be sometimes, I knew who he truly was.

He was the ‘all-in’ kind of person, and didn’t believe in doing anything half-assed.

He was the kind of person who’d defend anyone he cared about with everything he had.

Having Carver Roland in your corner was about as good as you could get it.

It felt like years had gone by since I’d come back to town, saw the man he had become, and hoped he’d keep to himself.

But I was wrong. As he opened the truck door for me and helped me up into the seat, a wave of guilt hurdled through me.

When the goin’ got tough, I got goin’, and he…

didn’t. And I’d never been more thankful for that attribute that made him unable to stop loving me for all those years.

Because I hadn’t, either. We both just had real stupid, funny ways of showing it.

Carver got into the seat and fumbled for his phone, then pressed it to his ear, eyes glued to the Oak Heart Farms shirt I’d picked out.

I didn’t know where we were going, so I started pulling the shirt down, stretching it to cover my thighs.

He waved a hand, gesturing for me to stop as a male's voice cut through the phone.

“Leo. Back in today?” Carver paused as the guy spoke, then he said, “Yeah, got it. Clear Warehouse One for the next hour.” He started the truck, keeping the phone pressed to his shoulder, but spared me a glance that was more heated than the first, sweeping from the hem of my shirt down to my thighs.

I snapped them shut, and he chuckled. “Make that the rest of the day,” he corrected, nodding his head against his shoulder as Leo finished talking. “Sounds great. Thanks.”

He pulled the phone from his ear and set it down in the space between us as he slowly steered the truck toward a path cut into the woods.

The mossy oaks and tall pines blended together as we drove through.

When we came up to a wooden bridge, he slowed and rolled the windows down.

As the sounds of a steady stream filled the silence, my cheeks heated. That had to be the same stream, right?

“Wouldn’t mind chasin’ you again,” Carver murmured, his fingers tapping lightly on the steering wheel as he stared straight ahead, maneuvering the truck over the wooden planks slowly.

“In your dreams,” I snapped back, but couldn’t fight the smile his words put on my face, just like I couldn’t hide the way my thighs clenched together more at the thought.

“It definitely has been.” His hand fell to my thigh, thumb stroking over my skin, causing goosebumps to erupt.

“Why’re you taking me to the facility?”

“I promised you a tour, and I hate to think I’m keepin’ you cooped up in the house all the time.” His voice lowered as he said, “I wasn’t trying to keep you with me by tying you up, I just wanted you to listen.”

“I know.” I stared out the window, watching the trees sway above us.

His fingers made tapping sounds on the steering wheel as he added, “I also told you I’d be showing you what I do with the bar funds.”

“Does the facility not make enough to stay afloat? You didn’t have to show me that to prove it. I would’ve believed you just fine.”

He squeezed my thigh. “The facility makes more than enough to float itself, and nearly one-hundred employees, sweetheart.”

I swallowed. “Alright. So, what’s there?”

“Patience, wife .”

I sighed and propped my elbow on the door, resting my head in my hand. “How much lon—hey, why’re we stopping?”

He said nothing as he put the truck in park and hopped out, then ran around the front to open my door. His hand jutted out, begging me to take it. “C’mon. I wanna show you somethin’ else, first.”

Carver pulled a cap from his back pocket and fit it backward on his head while his other hand swayed back and forth, waiting for me to take it.

When I finally did, his hand closed around mine softly, like it’d scare me away if he showed any roughness, though my body seemed to love how rough he’d become.

Wanted more of it, actually.

He helped me down from the truck, then adjusted our fingers so they were twined, warming my chest instantaneously. I could see bits and pieces of large, grey buildings between the trees, but where we were heading wasn’t toward them.

“Close your eyes.”

“Car, where are you takin’ me, now?”

“Just close ’em, please.” I shut my eyes and stumbled. He steadied me with his hands on my hips, then continued moving me forward. “Almost there,” he whispered in my ear.

“This feels familiar.”

“In what ways?”

“You used to surprise me a lot. Not that you don’t now, but your surprises now are more…”

“Carnal?” he finished, chuckling a little on the word. “Stop here, but don’t open yet.”

I tapped my foot, leaves crunching beneath my boot. “I’m not good with waiting. You know that.”

He shifted my hips, angling my body to the left. His breath was warm and as sultry as his voice as he said, “Open.”

I blinked at the tree in front of me, then narrowed my eyes.

I flattened my hand above my forehead, covering the rays of sunlight piercing through the treetops while looking around as that familiar pit formed in my chest. That pit intensified as I snapped my attention to Carver, who was leaning against the same tree.

“Say something,” he begged, lips turned down while his eyes softened.

“I…I’m…”

“Speechless?”

I looked around the woods again, like it’d have evidence of that night from ten years ago. “This…you bought the land?”

“Couldn’t let them cut down this tree.” He tapped on the bark with his knuckle, right where the initials ‘C’ and ‘L’ were carved into it. Surrounding the letters was a heart, my contribution from that night—the night we first slept together in the very truck that was behind me.

“They were going to clear it for some new-build homes. I protested with signs, got half the town in on it, saying it would ruin Alliston Springs, but really, I just didn’t want this tree to go.

A few months in, the builders gave up, and when I turned twenty and got my inheritance, I used a chunk of it to buy the land from them. ”

I glanced down at my shirt, the name of his facility now making a whole lot more sense. The smile he gave when I met his eyes again was as sincere as ever. I wrapped my arms around myself. “All over a tree?” I whispered.

He stepped up to me and brushed his knuckles over the curve of my jaw.

“It’s more than a tree, Ly.” He angled my head up, and our eyes locked.

“It’s us. This tree was the only thing I had left of you besides your collection, and I wasn’t about to let anything you’d left behind slip through my fingers. ”

“I tried to take your hoodie with me. Before I left, I mean.”

His jaw flexed, and I grew painfully aware of his silence. Of the words I knew he wanted to say, but had forced himself not to. He ended up threading his fingers through mine and pulling me back to the truck without a single word.

But the silence was killing me as we drove up to the facility, eating away so slowly that each second that passed felt like hours.

“Sophia wanted me to steal some bud from you before I…well, she wanted some.” My fingers twisted in my lap, unsure why I was blurting this out, but continued anyway.

“I’m glad I didn’t try. Not sure how I would’ve gotten past”—I waved a hand at the barbed wire that spanned the top of each gate—two, in total, that required a pin and a thumbprint to open—“all this.”

“You don’t need to steal a thing from me. All you have to do is ask. Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you.” I made to open my mouth, but snapped it shut as he added, “And no, it has nothin’ to do with the Agreement.”

He reached his hand through the open car window and pressed his thumb to a pad, then repeated the process at the next one before driving closer to the first large building right at the front.

“You need some of this kind of security for those coyotes,” I muttered, looking around at what I imagined could pass for a penitentiary from a plane’s view as he parked.

“I got a donkey coming.” He scratched the back of his neck. “Hayes was giving me shit about it and said I was a dumbass for not knowing they’d help with that issue.”

I snorted a laugh. “I mean, I don’t know anything about farming or owning an animal that isn’t dead already. Just ’cause we’re from the South doesn’t mean we have to know all that.”

He grinned as he pulled the key from the ignition. “That’s what I said. But Hayes is an uptight asshole and thinks he knows best.”

I shrugged. “I dunno. I didn’t think he was all that bad. Kind of interesting in a mysterious guy kind of way.”

Carver glared. “Now I really don’t like him.”

“Kidding. Kind of.” I giggled and unbuckled my seatbelt. “Is that what you were talking to him about earlier?” I tried to remember what they’d said, but struggled because I’d been too focused on what Car was going to do to me whenever we got home. Something about a time?

“No. Don’t mind that.” He sighed. “Look, him and Grant are all I have left.” His eyes turned sad and distant until he added, “Leo is fine, too, but he’s a bit too young.”

I arched my brow, trying hard not to ask what happened to Jared. “Why don’t they come around much? Don’t you do poker night once a week like your dad?”

“Hold that thought.” He got out from the truck and rounded it again to let me out, then as we walked up to the building, he answered, “I put poker night on hold until you got comfortable, or…ya know.” He flipped his cap forward then back again, almost like he was nervous.

“Grant is supposed to come by tomorrow, but I told him I had to clear it with you first.”

“It’s your house, Car. Do what you want.”