Page 27 of Nave (Henchmen MC: Next Generation #14)

Lolly

I didn’t sleep alone again for several days.

We found a sort of rhythm.

I would sleep over and spend the morning with Nave, usually with Edith, though occasionally she wanted to stay with her doggy friends. Then I would head back to the homestead for the afternoon—helping the girls with the garden, the animals, or learning fun new skills.

At the hottest part of the day, I’d move into the motorhome, thumbing through pregnancy, parenting, or baby name books.

Then, without fail, Nave would show up and take me back to the clubhouse.

Until, finally, there was a night when I couldn’t visit because of the weekly meeting known as “church.”

Nave insisted I could come afterward, but it would be late and I knew the party would just be getting started. It made more sense to just stay at the motorhome.

Even if, oddly, it suddenly felt very wrong to be alone.

Which was ridiculous, of course.

And I wasn’t alone, not really.

I had Edith.

And I had Kit and Ariah something like fifty feet from my front door.

“It’ll be good for us to have a night alone,” I told Edith as she worked on the chew that Kit had baked for all the dogs, something with yogurt and pumpkin that Edith thought was the best thing she’d ever eaten.

I felt like I was forever telling the girls that they could ‘make a fortune’ with all their little experiments around the homestead: dog treats, honey, tea, infused oils, breads, desserts, woodworking projects.

They were in the process of building a farm stand but weren’t keen on the idea of keeping it near the homestead driveway.

“We don’t want anyone knowing where to find us, you know?”

The girls, I found, were fiercely protective of their security. I didn’t want to pry, but I felt like they always shared a look when talking about stuff like that. Like there was something they’d been through, or something they were worried about.

“Luckily, we know almost everyone in town,” Kit said, quick to change the topic. “We won’t have any trouble finding someone who would let us put a stand up.”

I had to admit, the more time I spent with them, watching them love every moment of their days—even the hard stuff—it made me a little jealous.

I didn’t have that.

I never had that.

The closest I got to it was how I felt about Nave. And I wasn’t sure that counted.

I wanted to eventually find the thing that lit me up, that got me out of bed in the morning, that had me rambling on endlessly about my plans for the future.

“Aside from you,” I said, putting a hand to my stomach.

I knew his or her conception stemmed from the worst period of my life. But leaving that situation was what led me to the best.

I had no doubt that my baby was going to light me up. It was going to, quite literally, be the reason I got out of bed in the morning. And judging by how the women of the club discussed their kids, I would also ramble on endlessly about them and our future.

That said, I wanted to find something I loved and found fulfilling that I could use to make a career out of.

None of the hobbies I’d tried out since coming to Navesink Bank seemed like they were going to be passions of mine. Especially not art (even my stick figures were a total mess) or knitting (I had to undo and redo the one project I’d worked on no fewer than eight times).

I was making a little progress on a sweet little baby announcement piece. But it took forever, and if I wanted to actually make a living doing it, I’d have to charge like five hundred bucks a piece.

So, yeah, that was definitely not going to be my new career.

I knew the girls and Nave claimed that I didn’t have to pay, that it was no big deal. But I didn’t want to be reliant on other people, no matter how much I loved him.

My belly tightened at that word.

Love.

Some part of me wanted to fight it, object to it, say it wasn’t possible, that it was too soon.

But I knew my heart.

And I knew these people.

Kit and Ariah and their stories of the road, their love of the land, their self-sufficiency, their adoration of their animals and their people, their kind and generous souls.

I loved them.

And if it was okay to claim that kind of platonic love so quickly, there was no reason I couldn’t admit the truth about Nave.

That I loved him.

That he had quickly gone from my savior to a friend, a partner, a lover, someone I could see a future with. Someone who was clearly envisioning the same with me.

Was the traumatized part of me still waiting for the other shoe to drop, over-analyzing things, questioning things? Sure. Again, I was not only looking out for myself anymore.

But I wasn’t going to let the fears rooted in my past prevent me from growing in the present and blooming in the future.

“Right?” I asked Edith, who’d walked up to me, looking all cute with her head tilt. “Oh, don’t you try to charm me, missy. You’re not getting another one until tomorrow.”

To that, I got a sniff. It was Edith’s way of saying she was incredibly disappointed in me.

“How about we take a little walk?” I suggested. The sun was just about set, but I knew the homestead well enough to walk it blindfolded at this point.

Edith turned herself in two quick circles and made a mad dash toward the door.

In general, we didn’t take as many traditional walks anymore. She got so much exercise from running around after the big dogs that she really didn’t need it. She was usually out cold on her bed right after dinner, resting up for the next day’s adventure.

But I was as restless as she was for some reason. I was never going to get to sleep if I didn’t burn off some of the energy dancing around my system.

“I know, you’re a good girl,” I told her as she watched me reach for her leash. “It’s not about you wandering off. It’s that you’re just a little lady, and there are predators out at night.”

The girls were always worried about the coyotes they heard howling off in the distance. Even though the farm animals were locked up at night.

“No one is getting their hands on my girl,” I told her as we moved down the steps and through our little gated yard.

The lights were off at Kit’s house. She’d been busting her ass trying to plant a winter cover crop to replenish the soil, and she’d given herself a little heat headache. I wasn’t surprised she’d gone to bed early.

Ariah’s house had one light on in the living room. Likely so the dogs weren’t in the dark since she was out for the night. She had a dinner planned with her parents and sister. I even offered to let the dogs out if I didn’t see her come home by ten.

“It’s nice out, huh?” I asked.

The air had taken on hints of fall, the wind crisp when it blew, heavy with the scent of turned dirt and a hint of moldering leaves from the underbrush in the woods.

I couldn’t wait to see the area ablaze in shades of red, yellow, and orange; to pick pumpkins and winter squashes to make soup and pies with. To take walks with Nave through the park again, warm drinks in our hands.

There was so much to look forward to.

We’d moved past the gardens and the animal enclosures and were walking through the orchard, the air smelling a little sweeter here. Like apples and beaches, likely from ones fallen and busted open on the ground.

Kit or Ria would collect them and feed them to the animals.

Just because we wouldn’t eat them doesn’t mean they won’t.

I was just about to head back, figuring that Edith’s little legs must have been getting tired.

When something, I don’t know, pricked at me.

It was the silence.

Like the crickets and cicadas and even the wind that had been blowing a moment ago were all suddenly holding their breaths.

My fingers tightened on Edith’s leash, not sure what felt wrong, but wanting to be ready to grab her and run if I needed to.

The girls had mentioned bears in the area.

Could there be one lurking? Looking to raid the gardens or the bird feeders?

Was it just a little deer family, and I was letting my imagination run away with me?

One beat, another.

My free hand slipped lower, instinctively covering my stomach. Three months only, give or take. There wasn’t much to show for it. But everything in me screamed to protect the baby.

Edith had frozen in front of me, sniffing the air, her body language looking suddenly stiffer, more anxious.

It wasn’t just me .

A twig snapped. My heart stopped.

My gaze scanned the trees, expecting a large snout, big yellow eyes.

My reptile brain screamed.

Predator.

Run.

But you couldn’t outrun a bear. You didn’t want to try, to potentially make yourself look like prey.

A shadow moved. My belly flipped.

It was a predator who stepped out from between the trees.

Just a very different one from what I’d been expecting.

For just a moment, my mind refused to accept what I was seeing. Who I was seeing.

But a couple of blinks confirmed I wasn’t just imagining things.

He was there. Just a few yards away.

The same features.

The same hair.

The same cold eyes.

The same pristine white clothes. Too clean for this place. But there he was regardless. In my woods. On my homestead. My safe haven.

The air thinned, vanished.

I couldn’t breathe.

And all I could hear was the blood roaring in my ears.

Edith yipped, jerking me back from my shock.

My hand released her leash instinctively. If I couldn’t save myself, I could at least save her.

Edith had a solid sense of self-preservation, taking off at a dead run back toward the front of the property. She was completely out of sight within a few yards.

“Lolly,” Ben called.

I staggered back a step.

“How did you find me?” I asked, my strangled voice foreign to my own ears.

He smiled, tight.

“Did you think you could hide from me? You were cleverer than the others, I will give you that. But you had help, didn’t you?”

He stepped forward.

I moved back.

My foot wobbled on something round. An apple, probably.

“You’ve had your fun. Now it’s time to come home.”

He was so calm, so confident, so sure that he would take me again.

He was expecting compliance.