Page 33 of One (The Towns Syndicate #2)

King

“ S he’s going to kill me,” Roman groaned as he let us into Christmas Town.

“Seriously, man?” Winchester said, coming out of the compound in sweats and an assault rifle.

“It’s Christmas,” I said, walking past them, with Boogie trailing me.

“She’s going to castrate us,” Winchester whined, rubbing his face.

“Get the fuck off the property.” Maverick came out in a red robe and a grenade launcher.

I stopped walking, wondering how the hell we were going to get past this crazy-ass woman.

Who the fuck walks outside with a grenade launcher?

“Goddammit guys really?!” Maverick rolled her eyes. “Can she not have peace for two fuckingseconds?”

“We just wanted to bring her a present,” Boogie said behind me.

His voice was soft and unsure, like a kicked puppy, nothing like the man who was supposed to instill fear.

“Is that a dog?” Maverick asked, looking around me and sure enough, the puppy we got for Ally was poking its head out of the box.

“Zero, get your ass back in the box,” I sighed, frustrated because this dog wasn’t listening.

“He’s tired of being in the box,” Boogie said.

“No one likes to be locked away,” Maverick said, as she cooed at the dog.

Boogie and I flinched from her dig.

“Can we please leave this for her?” I asked, rubbing my chest.

I had a constant ache for her that felt worse than the infection I was getting over.

“It’s Christmas, Mav,” Boogie said.

“Ugh, fine,” she huffed. “I’m going to my room and say you broke in.”

“Great idea,” Roman said, walking away from us.

We walked into the compound, and it smelled like Christmas.

We were left alone as we walked to Ally’s room, and her whimpers pushed me to enter her room more quickly.

She was thrashing in her bed, the sheets wrapped around her silk red pajamas.

I wanted to go to her, I needed to go to her, every fiber of my being demanded I go to her, but I stayed frozen in fear.

Boogie didn’t have that fear. He passed the box to me and took his jacket off.

He slipped off his boots, then his pants and crawled into bed with her.

She yelled as tears streamed down her face, and that finally pushed me into motion.

Boogie grabbed her arms saying something to her softly as she cried, and I didn’t know if she had woken up yet.

I quickly put the dog down, ripping my jacket and boots off, keeping my sweats on in case she kicked us out.

“No!” Ally sobbed.

“Shhhh,” Boogie cooed. “I’ve got you.”

She struggled against him as I came behind her, spooning her.

“You’re safe,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around her.

Her body grew stiff. I was sure she had woken up.

Neither of us could see her since she was pressed up against Boogie’s chest. He looked at me, worried like he was bracing himself for her wrath.

No one said anything as we all either pretended she was asleep, or we didn’t want to disturb the peace.

Ally eventually relaxed in our arms and as much as I wanted to think this was a blessing, I braced for wrath.

It never came and for the first time in days I fell asleep easily.

“What is a dog doing in my bed?”

“His name is Zero,” Boogie said, as I woke up, still holding onto Ally.

“He’s your Christmas present,” I mumbled into her shoulder.

Zero took that moment to leap up onto her shoulder and lick her face. She squealed and I could see a hint of a smile on her face..

“What use do I have for this slobbery creature?” She tried pushing him away, but he made it his mission to lick her

It seemed Zero was also obsessed with Ally.

Same, little dude.

“He’s a good breed for protection,” Boogie said, leaning away from her. “We can ship him to Shepard in a few weeks and get him trained. Make him a killer.”

“Seriously?” Ally asked warily, as she petted the dog. “I should just get an army of you, so you don’t let in two back-stabbing assholes into my bed.”

“Ally,” Boogie sighed.

“Not today,” she whispered. “I was going to give you a call today to come and visit, but that's all this is. A visit. Nothing is happening from this.”

I clenched my jaw in anger. “Why invite us if nothing is going to happen?”

“It’s Christmas,” she stated, like that was a reasonable answer. “No one should be alone for Christmas.”

“I thought if I hid you away and fought all your wars for you, then I could keep you safe,” Boogie said softly.

“Boog—”

“I thought as long as you were alive then I could live with your anger because at least that meant you were still breathing,” he continued. “Losing you wasn't an option, and you were so hellbent on running into the fire that maybe saving you from yourself was the best course of action.”

“Boogie,” Ally snapped.

“I never in a million years thought you would walk away from us.” He kept talking as Ally’s wrath grew and I could practically feel her anger vibrating off of her.

“It never occurred to me you would actually do it until you didn’t open that door, or snuck out of Doc’s or kept us out of Christmas town. ”

“You locked me in a room, what the fuck did you expect Boogie? That I just roll over and open my legs for you?" She sat up.

“No, I just didn’t think you would shut us out completely,” he snapped, sitting up too. “I know I fucked up.”

“We fucked up, Ally,” I said, sitting up, wincing, my body still feeling like shit.

“Goddammit, King, please don’t tell me you rode your bikes here,” Ally sighed, pushing me on to my back.

I shook my head. “I might be an idiot, but no, Boogie drove us here.”

“You should be resting,” Ally scowled as she looked me over.

If I looked anything like how I looked this morning, then I know it wasn’t pretty. I still looked a little gauntly like I needed to sleep for a few weeks.

“Rest with us.” I pulled her back with me.

“Sounds like a great idea,” Boogie said, laying down too. “You can yell at us afterwards.”

“Guys,” Ally huffed, but didn’t resist us as we held her down to get comfortable.

“Consider this truce our Christmas gift,” Boogie mumbled.

“Too late, I've had your Christmas gift for weeks,” she huffed. “It was a red negligee with a bow on my ass and nipple clamps.”

I groaned into her shoulder. “Are you fucking with us?”

“No, it's in the top drawer over there,” she said, pointing towards the dresser as she laid her hand on the arm I had wrapped around hers. “I had a great Christmas Eve planned out. I would finish my drop, we would have a great dinner, open presents and fuck until Christmas morning. I contemplated buying you Santa outfits, but I didn’t get that far into my planning before I was incarcerated.”

“Ouch. Is that your kink, Ally, getting fucked by Santa?” Boogie asked.

“I mean Saint is pretty fucking hot and he gives off Daddy Santa Vibes,” Ally said, as Boogie growled.

I expected him to say something possessive, to make a scene, or do something incredibly stupid, but he didn’t. He looked over her shoulder and pulled all of us closer.

“Maybe next year, when we’ve groveled enough, we can make your dreams come true.” Boogie kissed her forehead.

“Or we could always have Christmas in July.” I kissed her shoulder. “Make you scream loud enough when Saint comes back that he knows who you belong to.”

Ally didn’t say anything. Probably content to ignore us.

“If I can’t trust you, there is no us,” she whispered.

I clenched my jaw as her truth hit me hard.

What if she never trusted us?

“Mom! Dads! Can we open presents now!” Winchester pounded on the door.

“We’ve waited long enough, it’s fucking noon!” Maverick knocked harder.

“Can we hide a little longer? Boogie asked softly. “I’m not ready for this to be over.”

Ally sighed.

“I wasn’t ready for us to be over either,” she said, removing herself from us, stopping at the end of the bed.

“I hate that you did this to us. But you broke us, and you broke me. I don’t need you to burn the world for me.

How about you pour the gasoline and let me light the match.

Now I can’t even look at you without missing you so goddamn much, but I'll always wonder what's going to happen next time I’m targeted, and I don’t want to live in fear.

I killed Kris and Nic for my freedom, don’t make me kill you too. ”

Boogie and I watched her open the door. Maverick and Winchester wished her a Merry Christmas, whisking her out of the room with Zero following them, leaving Boogie and I alone in her room. We sat in silence as we digested what she had just said.

“I never thought I’d hate the triplets,” Boogie sighed.

“Now you know how I felt with those shitheads.” I rubbed my face.

“Though it makes me happy they are there for her. I felt better knowing that the triplets and Roman are here with her. She always had someone there for her. Maybe it would have been better if we were here for her, protecting her under her orders.”

“What if we were? Who would ever fuck with her if we were here?” Boogie asked the question I had been asking myself since we had locked her away. “She’d get to run the show and tell us what she wanted.”

“We can’t just leave Halloween Town,” I said, getting off the bed.

“Who says we can’t?” He looked over at me with his brow raised.

“You really want to give up Halloween Town for her?” I asked.

I didn’t know if I was willing to do that.

“What better way to show her that we want this to work,” he said, walking around the bed. “Something needs to change, King. She needs to trust us.”

“And what better way than to pledge our allegiance to her?” I asked, but I already knew the answer.

“Exactly.” He finally had some light in his eyes.

“What happens if she turns us away, and who the hell is going to run Halloween Town? The Mayor isn’t going to let us leave,” I said, thinking of everything he wasn’t.

“The triplets.” He grinned. “They leave and we swoop in.”

I narrowed my eyes. “How long have you been thinking about this?”

“I thought about it a lot in the beginning, before we got to our cabin.” He shrugged.

“Are you ready to leave all that behind?” I ran my hand through my hair.

“For her, yes,” he said immediately.

I nodded, not knowing what to say.

“You wouldn’t?” he asked.

I would be giving up everything for her, everything I built, years of hard work would be gone.

“Fuck, King, I thought you of all people would be ok with this,” Boogie growled.

“Well, sorry I don’t jump into shit headfirst without thinking about the consequences, which is how we got into this situation," I snapped. “We would be giving up years of fucking hard work and time we took to build Halloween Town.”

“For the woman we love,” he said calmly.

“Do you really want to know what it feels like not having her in our life? What we are feeling now is a fraction of what we will be feeling in a week and even months from now because I can guarantee if we don’t think of something now, she will never look back. ”

“We made it work before?—”

“If you think that was us making it work, you are delusional, King,” he chuckled. “We shouldn’t even be here, and you know the Mayor is going to find out we've been helping her and what happens then?”

I clenched my jaw, walking away from him.

Boogie was right, but Halloween Town had become like a security blanket for me.

It was the one constant in my life. I knew it was always going to be there no matter how shitty my life was, and I hated big changes, but for Ally, for her I would walk through hell and back.

“Set up a meeting with the Mayor,” I said. “This entire plan rides on her and you know she’s not going to just let us go.”

“No, but we will make her an offer she can’t resist.” Boogie grinned.

Boogie's offer was always death, and I just hoped his insane plan didn't include that, but that might solve a lot of our problems. I would kill the Mayor for Ally if I had to.