Page 35 of Mine (The Possession #3)

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Hunter

R o climbed into bed, with a small smile on his face. He kissed Valencia on the head before wrapping his arms around her. My body sagged in exhaustion and relief because I didn’t know what the hell could’ve happened at Ro’s home.

The next morning, I woke up early, leaving them to sleep in because I needed to get up and move. I made some coffee and I put some bacon on a baking sheet, putting it in the oven. Uneasiness was making me feel anxious. How could I fix this?

“Hey.” Ro’s voice startled me.

“Hey,” I said, stirring my coffee.

“You're up early,” he said, grabbing a mug and pouring himself coffee.

“I was feeling restless,” I said, but I didn’t want to talk about me. “How did it go last night?”

“My mom took my side and told my dad if he wanted to come back to her, he needed to have the story pulled,” he smirked into his coffee, before taking a sip.

My eyebrows went up. Ro had talked about her before, and he said she was always distant.

“Wow,” I said, glad she finally pulled her head out of her ass.

“Yeah, even Tomás walked out with us. I think that will make him worry,” he said, looking proud.

I could see how much their support had helped him.

“If there was time that I needed support, it was now, and to actually feel it, was incredible.” He blushed as he looked at me. “I wish it had always been like this, but better late than never, right?”

“I’m so happy for you,” I said, setting my coffee down and pulling him in for a hug.

“Thanks, I feel better… like… not alone,” he said, leaning his head on my shoulder.

“Ro,” I said, pulling away. “You will never be alone if I have anything to say about it. I lo?—”

“Can we have this conversation when she wakes up,” he said, kissing me softly. “I have a lot to say to both of you and I… I really want you to hear it together.”

I nodded. “Of course.” I pulled him in for a kiss that said what I couldn’t say.

“I’m glad you came back,” he said, bumping our noses.

“I might lose my way, but I’ll always find you guys,” I said, kissing him before going to the fridge.

“There is one person we need to find. I have his address, and I think he needs us to pay him a little visit,” he said, sitting at the bar.

I glanced back at him; he was serious.

“I’ll go,” I said, thinking this was a bad idea.

“He needs to know there is not one of us, but two. I also have something else if he decides to get cheeky,” he said confidently.

“Please don’t say you want to beat him up,” I growled. “That is a horrible idea and I'll be damned if one of you gets hurt again because of him.”

“Oh sir, I love it when you are like this,” he smirked. “But all jokes aside, no ass kicking, but he does need to know we will kick his ass, if need be.”

“I agree,” I said, hoping I wasn’t going to regret it.

“Morning,” Valencia said, walking into the kitchen in nothing but my shirt, rubbing her eyes.

“Hey, Mamacita,” Ro said, pulling her in for a hug.

She snuggled against him. “My boss emailed me, asking to meet me today.”

“They better not fire you,” Ro said, kissing her head. “Maybe we can talk to Vincent.”

“Oh god, no,” she said, pulling away. “I knew what I was getting into when I signed the contract. I knew that I could get fired and if I’m getting fired, I need to take it in stride.”

“I know it’s in your contract, but it’s not fair,” I said, walking to them.

“I—”

“I have faith it will work out,” I interrupted her, hugging them as Ro and I gave each other a look. “The story is still vague and all they have is speculation. They have no proof.”

“If you do lose your job, we will figure something out,” Ro said.

“You aren’t alone,” I said, kissing her head. “We are here and if you need to, you can move in with me.”

“I can’t move in with you,” she sniffled. “This a contr?—”

The doorbell rang, cutting her off and I wanted to ignore the person, but I also knew it could be her phone. Sure enough, it was and when I handed her the bag, she hesitantly looked inside of it. Her lip quivered.

“Boss man,” she said, throwing her hands around me. “You didn’t have to.”

“It’s for selfish reasons because I need you to be able to call if you need us,” I said, cupping her face. “Any time of day, you can call and one of us will come for you.”

I leaned down to kiss her when she pulled away.

“What are we doing?” She walked back until she hit the sofa. “Just last week we weren’t talking, things were happening that we were all happy to ignore.”

“That was my fault,” I said, running my hand over my face and beard. “The way our relationship changed scared me. When I realized I cared for you guys, I reacted stupidly. Instead of talking about it, I let all my worst thoughts fester and let them rule over me.”

“What thoughts?” Ro asked.

“This was supposed to be easy and fun. I don’t know how to be a boyfriend or whatever we are without rules,” I sighed. “I like contracts because I like knowing once I leave your bed or vice versa, I’m not required to do anything. Hockey takes up so much of my time, I never wanted to juggle that and a relationship. What I didn’t realize was, if I wanted to, I could. And with you guys, it was so easy to be more and want more.”

Valencia turned away and Ro stared at me with so much emotion.

“Do you want more?” he asked.

“Yes, without a shadow of doubt. Living without you isn’t an option, but I’m still scared. It’s not because of you, but because I want this to work so bad.”

Ro gave me a big smile while Valencia looked wary.

“I knew you were pulling away and I was scared to tell you to stay. I was scared to push us to talk because what if that pushed you away. I didn’t want to face the truth if neither of you wanted to stay together,” Ro said with a smirk. “I didn’t want to be that guy just because I’m young, but I want this to work out. Anytime I am thinking of the future, it’s with you and Valencia.”

I smiled and felt a piece of our fractured relationship piece itself together.

“Shit,” Valencia said, walking away from us. “I have to go.”

The abrupt change left me reeling. I was so worried about my own feelings I didn’t realize what if she didn’t feel the same? Ro looked confused and I took a deep breath. This was just another obstacle we needed to overcome. She was still dealing with a lot of things and maybe right now wasn’t the time to confess our feelings.

“This gives us time for our other visit,” I said. “She’s dealing with a lot, ok?”

He nodded, taking a deep breath. I kissed his forehead and walked to my room grabbing the phone bag so I could switch out her sim card.

Ro stayed out of her way as I helped her get ready. Valencia didn’t meet my eye much as she put her makeup on and got ready. I wanted to know what was going on in that head of hers. I called a car for her since she insisted on just taking an Uber, but like hell I was going to let her get into some random dude’s car.

“Thank you,” she said, when I handed her the phone. “I’ll call you when I finish.”

“Hey,” I said, grabbing her good hand, pulling her to me. “I didn’t mean to scare you, but I just wanted you to know how I felt.”

She opened her mouth to say something, and I shook my head.

“Don’t say anything now,” I said, pushing a stray curl behind her ear, admiring that she had covered almost all the bruises. “I know this is a lot for you, and while you may want to run away now, please don’t. I promise we can work through this, and we will do whatever it takes to make sure you and your job won’t be at jeopardy.”

“Hunter, what do you?—”

I kissed her softly, knowing what she was going to ask, and she didn’t need to know anything quite yet.

“I hope we see you at the game,” I said, kissing her again, showing her I wanted her with everything I had.

She sighed when I tried pulling her close as she tugged me closer, stroking my tongue with her own and controlling the kiss. Her hands threaded through my hair, tugging at it towards the nape of my neck. A thrill of pleasure shot through me, my cock grew with every swipe of her tongue and when she tried to climb onto my lap, I stopped her.

“Lenny,” I said against her lips.

“I need you,” she whimpered. “I need you and Ro. I?—”

She abruptly pulled away, taking a few steps back.

“Valencia,” I said calmly. “We will take this one day at a time.”

“I’ll see you later, ok?” She walked up to me, kissed my cheek, grabbed her phone and her purse. “Whatever happens right now might change everything and I wish that I could be as optimistic as you guys but I don’t have that luxury.”

I watched her leave the room and I took a deep breath as anxiety overwhelmed me once again. She was just dealing with a lot, and we would be there for her no matter how long it took. I got up from the bed, walking out to the living room when I heard them speak.

“I’m sorry, Ro,” she said. “I’m so overwhelmed. I?—”

“Take your time, let’s get through this and we will be here when you need us,” he said.

I peeked around the corner to see his hands cupping her face.

“We will always be here,” he said, kissing her forehead and stepping away from her. “You're not alone.”

“I’m scared?—”

“You don’t have to be scared, Mamacita.” He raised her chin to look at him. “We won’t let anything happen to you. We will do everything we can for you. You have to know we care for you.”

She nodded before looking down at her phone.

“I know, but it's just not that simple,” she said, walking away, leaving the condo.

Ro stared at the door as I studied his profile.

“Let’s go now,” he said, knowing I was there. “I want to ease her fears and the only way we can do that is if we take care of this problem.”

“Agreed,” I said, walking back to my room to get dressed.

We pulled up to the address Ro’s hacker friend had given us. It was a modest home in a suburban area. His car was in the driveway and we scoped out the area for a moment.

“I think you should stay in the car,” I said, unbuckling my seat belt. “That way you can let me know if anyone is coming.”

“Fuck no, Hunt.” He unbuckled his seat belt. “There is no reason to leave me.”

“Ro, if this goes south, I don’t want you taking the heat,” I said, turning to him. “You could ruin your career and well… my years are numbered. If I have to retire, I’m ok with that.”

“I would give up my entire career just to make sure both of you are safe,” he said immediately. “I love hockey, but if it means your safety and my peace of mind, then I would let my career go up in flames without flinching.”

Dammit, why was Ro so fucking romantic.

“That's the thing, you don’t have to,” I said, touching his cheek softly. “I’m willing to let it burn if it means you and her are safe. I’ve thought about retiring anyway.”

“No, we do this together. We are going to win tonight’s game, and then we will go home to her and make sure she knows how much she means to us,” he said, getting out of the car with a folder I hadn’t noticed before.

Stubborn little shit.

I got out of the car, quickly following him to the house.

“Dammit, Ro, you can’t be reckless,” I growled.

“This isn’t reckless, this is me protecting what is mine ,” he growled back, knocking on the door.

The door immediately opened, and Joshua Nott stood there in a suit looking irritated.

“Joshua Nott?” Ro smiled.

“Uh… I think you have the wrong address,” he snapped

“Nope we have the right address,” I said. “We need to talk.”

“I’m a busy man and?—”

“We will make it quick,” Ro said, walking through the door, making him back up. He was shorter than us by a few inches so he had to look up at us.

“You need to leave before I call the cops,” he said, faking confidence.

“No need because if you call them, I will show them this,” Ro said, pulling out a photo of a woman.

His face paled when he saw it.

“This will only take a few minutes of your time; I promise you want to hear everything we need to say,” I said, crossing my arms against my chest.

“We are only asking a few things from you,” Ro said, leaning forward. “If the Jule calls about Valencia, I expect you to say they have their facts wrong or make up something that makes this go away.”

“So, you’re the hockey guys she’s dating?” His eyes glittered with triumph. “Pretty stupid?—”

“Nope, you don’t get to speak,” I said, crowding him so he was backed up against the wall.

“Remember these girls?” Ro took out a few pictures of women. “You have a lot of pictures and videos that I’m sure were taken without their consent. There are also bribes you gave to officers and my favorite, tax evasion.”

The more Ro talked, the paler he grew.

“How… how…”

“That doesn’t matter, does it,” I growled, pushing my forearm against his throat. “This is how it’s going to go. You will follow everything we say or else my friend at the station will get a copy of everything we have. His wife also works for the IRS so it will be easy to hand over these things to her too.”

“I also have copies of your offshore accounts that have a lot of money in them,” Ro said, pulling out more paperwork.

How the hell he had managed to print all this out was beyond me, but I was glad he had it with him.

“Ok… ok… what do you want?” he panicked.

“Leave Valencia alone and if you see her or run into her, you better run in the opposite direction because I will release everything incriminating we have on you,” I growled.

“You need to retract your statement or whatever you gave the magazine and my father,” Ro smiled manically. “If you go to the police about this, I already have a failsafe that will send the documents to the people we just talked about and if any article runs on her, I’ll be releasing them too.”

“I know the editor, I will p-personally make sure it doesn’t run,” he stammered, his tough facade crumbling.

“And that asshole pressing charges on her better disappear too,” Ro snarled. “I heard he is a friend of yours.”

He nodded looking between us. “He wasn’t supposed to touch her, just scare?—”

“I don’t give a shit. Do you understand everything we just said?” I pushed my forearm a little harder into his neck, he nodded immediately.

“We will be watching you very closely,” Ro said, pushing the folder in his hands. “Keep that just in case you need to be reminded of what could happen if you mess up.”

We stepped back, giving him room to breathe.

“How do I know you won’t release this anyway,” he said, desperately trying to sound confident as he fixed his tie.

“You won’t, and don’t make me come back here, you won’t like what happens,” I said, making a last-minute decision.

I pulled back my arm punching him in the face. A sickening crack made me smile even though my hand hurt.

“What the fuck?” he howled.

“That's for fucking touching her at the club,” I clipped.

“We better not see you there anymore either,” Ro said, turning and walking out of the house.

“Make sure you do the right thing. I'd hate for you to do something stupid because I have no problem taking the fall and taking you down with me.” I leaned forward. “So, stay the fuck away from her and get on the phone now and do what needs to be done.”

He nodded frantically as I glared at him.

I walked out of the house seeing Ro waiting for me by the car. He reached for me and kissed me, not caring who saw. I was tired of hiding what we had. We hopped in the car and headed to one more stop before we went to our game. I felt lighter as we drove away and when Ro took my hand and held it, I felt hopeful that everything would be ok. This was just the beginning for us.