Page 21

Chapter

Twenty-One

ADON

Something changes in that moment. It’s huge, and the shift is palpable between the two of us.

“I can’t wait to see what you do with this place,” I tell her as she sniffles against my neck. My handkerchief has gotten a good workout from her tears, but I dab at her cheeks with it again, then hand it over to her. “I gotta get home for Avery and Odin soon.”

She glances up at me under her wet eyelashes and looks hesitant.

“Ask for what you want, Piper.”

“Can we stop by my place first, then go over to yours for dinner? I want to make them something.”

God, my heart swells, filling up with even more love for this woman than I had before. “You want to make my kids dinner?”

“Yes. Well, all of us.”

“Fuck, yeah. Let’s go.”

I hold out my arm to help her off the counter, and she hops down, then we walk out of the dusty building hand-in-hand. With my free one, I pull out my phone and call the realtor to let him know we’ve finished seeing the place. “Yep. I want to officially place that offer.”

“Fantastic! I’ll email you the documents to sign this evening.”

“Thanks, Tim.”

Piper practically skips next to me, her pink hair waving in the spring breeze. “What?” she asks.

“What do you mean ‘what’?”

She laughs, making the freckles on her nose bounce. “You have a huge, goofy smile on your face.”

“I’m fucking happy, Piper. Real fucking happy.”

Her cheeks get even pinker as she takes a deep breath and clings to my arm. “Me, too.”

“Happy enough to move in with me?”

With a slow blink, she gives me another warm smile. “What about Freckles? He may hate it there and piss on everything.”

“Then we’ll eat him for dinner.”

She mocks a gasp and slaps my chest, then unlocks her apartment building door for us when we reach it. “He wouldn’t be very tasty. All he eats is smelly cat food.”

“True, but I’ll start slipping him some fish or something.”

Piper’s joyous chuckle bounces off the empty walls before she races ahead of me up the steps. But I take them two at a time and almost beat her, pulling her back into my body. Both of us almost trip over each other until we get to her door, and I pause.

“Piper, stop.”

She’s still smiling up at me, but my heart races. With a swift movement, I toss her behind my back and slowly approach the open doorway.

“Oh my god!” she whispers. “Someone’s been here!”

“Shh! They may still be here.” Placing her against the wall in the hallway, I hold up a finger to let her know to be quiet, then creep inside.

Freckles mewls, then runs out the open door, but Piper grabs him before he takes off. Everything is a mess inside. Her kitchen drawers have been overturned, the sofa torn apart, all her records thrown onto the floor. Potted plants have been smashed, the soil spread over her rugs.

No one is in the bathroom when I check, but it was mainly left untouched. That’s weird. When I get back into the main room, Piper’s happiness is gone, and her tears return as she strokes her cat dejectedly. I hustle to her and grab her in my arms. “It’s okay. Stuff can be replaced. We’ll get it taken care of.”

Freckles hugs me just as much as she does, and I hold the two of them in a tight squeeze. She lifts her chin and says, “Adon?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I move in with you?”

I snort a laugh. “Of course, Rosy.”

By the time the police arrive and take a report, it’s very late, and I have to call Rhodes to watch the kids until we can get there. Once they leave, she sets the cat down, then looks around with her hands on her hips.

“Anything missing?” I ask, though the police already tried to get an answer a few times from her.

“It’s hard to tell.” She wanders around, and then grabs an overnight bag, spreading it open on the sofa. As she stuffs it with clothes and toiletries, I try to sweep up some of the mess with her broom while Freckles keeps getting it out of the dustpan and marching through it, leaving paw prints behind.

“Oh! My laptop!”

I glance at where she’s pointing on the ground. There’s nothing there. “They took your laptop?”

“Yeah! I mean, it was an old clunker that barely worked, but yes. I only used it to watch streaming shows.”

Standing, I scratch my chin and contemplate the room. “Why would a thief break in for a shitty laptop?”

“Desperate for drug money?” she asks, gathering up Freckles’s things in a plastic bag.

“Maybe.” I’m not convinced, but I encourage her to let the detective know.

Despite them taking photographs of a boot mark in the dirt, there weren’t any fingerprints or other clues. The work was sloppy, but obviously directed at Piper. No one else in the building had a break-in, according to the landlord.

After loading up all I can into the back of my truck, we head to our house, where Rhodes and the kids are eating pizza and playing Monopoly. Well, screaming at each other about Monopoly.

“No, you cheated !” Odin screams.

I scratch my head, trying to get rid of the headache setting in. “I thought I said we’re never to play that game again.”

“Piper!” Avery jumps up from her chair and rushes at my girlfriend, who’s holding on to a squirming Freckles. “I’ve always wanted a cat! Who is this? Dad, can we keep him?”

“This is Freckles. How do you feel about cats, Odin?”

Odin runs at the cat like he just found a toy at the top of his wish list. “Can I hold him?”

“He’s an asshole and probably won’t want you to, but let’s try.” Piper kneels and hands the orange tabby to my son, and for some reason, the cat calms in his hold.

“Be gentle, Odin,” I say.

“I am.”

Avery and Odin battle over who can hold the little guy and he seems to enjoy the attention for once. “He never lets me do that,” I tell Piper.

Rhodes points to the open boxes of pizza. “You all want some?”

“Yeah, we’re starving,” I say. “But can you help me unload the truck? Uh, Piper brought her stuff.”

“She did!” Avery jumps up excitedly.

“How would you two feel about her moving in with us?” I glance over at her, making sure she’s not about to back out of this. Her response is a solid head nod with a knowing smile.

The kids start hopping in circles around my girlfriend, yelling excitedly. “Yeah!”

Piper’s relieved smile is the best thing I’ve seen all day.

Rhodes slaps a hand on my back and squeezes my shoulder. “Well done, man.” Grabbing Piper, he pulls her in for a side hug. “Did you agree to this without seeing his tyrant Thursdays first?”

Odin groans loudly.

“What’s that?” she asks.

Avery rolls her eyes. “That’s where he makes us all do cleaning drills .”

Piper laughs. “Oh…that sounds super fun.”

“Better get used to it, young lady,” I tell her.

Rhodes helps me bring stuff in from the truck while Piper gets Freckles situated with the kids and shows him where his stuff will be. It’s difficult to get Avery and Odin to go to sleep after they found out how spastic the cat gets with a laser pointer, but eventually they head to their rooms and Rhodes heads out to his car.

“Just a sec,” I tell him before he leaves, then turn to Piper. “I’ll be back inside in a minute.”

She gives me a nod and returns to the kitchen to heat our pizza.

Rushing over to Rhodes’s driver side window, I lean in and thank him for helping so much. “Can I ask one more favor of you?”

“What is it?” he asks wearily.

“I’m going to tell Piper I was with you a couple of nights from now. We’re going to the NU hockey game for the finals to grab a beer, and it’s just the two of us.”

One of his dark eyebrows raises. “You want to go to a hockey game?”

“No. But you go. Say I was there.”

“And you’ll be…”

“Not there.”

“Do I need to worry about you and Piper already?”

“Not at all.” I stand and slap the side of his car.

“Fine. Don’t tell me, but you better not be a cheating asshole.”

Smirking, I shake my head. “Never.”

“Okay, I’ll do it. Good luck.”

“Love you, bro. Thanks.”

“Love you, too, Adon!”

He drives off while I head back inside. Seeing Piper at home re-heating food in the oven makes me smile. She seems so relaxed here, even after tonight’s events, that it makes me feel that things are almost right in the world.

Except someone is coming after her…and I think I know who it is.

When I slip an arm around her waist, she jumps, but then quickly settles against me. “Oh, hey. Pizza’s ready. Stand back.”

She pulls it out of the oven and slides a few slices on a plate for us.

“Thanks. Want some wine?” I ask.

“No, I’ll just have some water,” she says, and I pause. I wonder if it’s something new she’s trying, and I keep quiet about it, grabbing her a glass of filtered water.

“How does it feel to be here?” I ask as we munch on our dinner.

“I think I’ll enjoy it. You have a better oven than mine, that’s for sure. But I need to pay you some rent. How will we handle that?”

“We’ll figure that out. Maybe tomorrow. Oh, speaking of this week, Rhodes and I are going to a Nighthawks hockey game on Thursday night. It’s the finals.”

“I didn’t know you liked hockey.”

“He wanted to go, so I said I’d go with him. I’ll see if I can cut out early to come back to you, though. I’ll have the kids stay at Em’s so you can have the house to yourself.”

She chews a bite. “That’s not necessary. They can stay with me.”

“Only if you want that. Otherwise, they can go to Em’s.”

The corners of her mouth tip up in a smile as she swallows. “We can play Monopoly.”

I chuckle. “Anything but that.”

After an evening routine where we both brush our teeth, eyeing each other in the mirror over the main bathroom sink, it feels so nice to have her resting on my chest as she falls asleep in our bed. But I’m wide awake.

Waiting until her breathing is fully evened out, I slip downstairs to my study. Maeve’s social media isn’t hard to find. In fact, she has multiple accounts on several platforms, and all are quite professional looking. Fake. Overly flashy. And pink.

When I finally get all the way back to her high school days, it’s not a surprise to me that she still has a picture of him . Her high school “sweetheart,” as she called him.

Noah Bradley.

The guy is obviously a fucking asshole. His face just screams it. Thinks he’s much more good looking than he actually is. Just the fact that he’s able to walk around makes acid pour into my belly.

His profiles are also as I had expected. He lives two hours away, attending medical school at a moderate-sized university, paid for by his wealthy physician parents. Hopes to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. That’s useful to know.

By three in the morning, I’ve done as much recon as I can do and formulated my plan. Sneaking back into bed, I slide my arms underneath my woman and fall into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Two nights later, I kiss Piper goodbye and jump in my truck, going to the “hockey game.” Am I sorry for lying to her? A little, but not for protecting her. She doesn’t need to know about this.

In two hours, I land in the parking lot I previously scoped out and wait with a hot coffee in hand behind the wheel of a deserted car from the shop, not my own.

That’s when I see him.

The little twerp waves goodbye to some other students as they exit the library, then heads down a dark side path on campus. One where the lights are low and the bushes are thick. That’s when I make my move.

I pull down my mask and jump out of the car, strolling straight for him. He doesn’t even notice my approach, his earbuds firmly inserted in his head. Music is so loud even I can hear it as I grasp his backpack, then thrust my gun into his side. He freezes, then pops one of the little white buds from his ear.

“What?” he asks with a whiny, annoying voice. Obviously, he doesn’t know what’s pressing against him right now.

“Move with me. Let’s go.”

“Oh shit.”

“Don’t speak or I’ll shoot you here, you waste of fucking life.” We spin, and I lead him toward the car, then open the passenger door. “Get in.”

“I don’t?—”

With a chopping motion, I hit the back of his head hard enough to knock him out, then shove him inside. In a few steps, I’m back behind the wheel and take off to my second spot, hoping it’s as abandoned as it looked from the satellite maps. His body slumps over toward me, but I shove him back into his seat and fix his seatbelt. The child lock is down on his door, so he shouldn’t be able to jump out. But I’ll just pistol whip him again if he so much as looks at me.

It’s about half an hour until we reach the destination, and he awakens enough that I slap some duct tape over his mouth and his eyes, then bind his hands with it, too. Then I force him out of the car as he wails, tears and snot streaming down his face.

“You seem scared to have someone force you to do something you don’t want to,” I say, holding him by the back of his collar. His backpack is still hanging on, so I use it to shove him toward the trunk of the car where I grab what I need.

He stumbles and whimpers as I shove a broomstick in his back, leading him to the collapsing barn over some old gravel driveway. The place is miles from anyone else, and it’ll take a long time before anyone finds him here.

When he finally trips across the concrete threshold that once must have held barn doors, I smile at my luck. Gripping his waist, I tug down his pants, then hoist up his hips and shove the end of the broomstick in his tight asshole. The gag muffles his horrific screams, but the sound brings me some pleasure. The dirt doesn’t help him gain any footing as he attempts to scramble away on his knees.

“I’ve probably torn something there by now,” I say, thrusting the stick in deeper. “Do you think this is how Piper felt when you raped her?”

His sobs turn into words, and I rip the tape from his mouth to hear him. “This is about Piper? Piper Hendricks? She-she was a slut , man! She wanted it!”

“You were, what, nineteen when you did that to a thirteen-year-old girl?”

“I’m sorry, okay. I-I’m sorry! Want me to apologize to her? I’m sorry! Just, please , don’t kill me, man. Please…”

“She tried to kill herself because of what you did. You think an apology and begging for your life will save you?”

Through huffed breaths, he gives up, slumping onto the stone floor. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“Get up.”

“No. I-I won’t say anything. I’ll disappear. Please !”

Using the end of the stick, I shove in until he squirms away on his knees, gets up and runs forward, bashing his face into an old post. He screams from the pain. With a hand on his backpack, I hold him to the post as he shuffles his feet, still unaware of his surroundings.

“You don’t get a choice on what you see or hear. You don’t get any autonomy here.” I take more duct tape and bind his arms and legs to the post as he tries to kick and squirm out of my hold, but I’m overwhelmingly much stronger. “The only thing you’ll know is the smell of your flesh burning as you die.”

“No! Please! No!” His shrieks are the last thing I hear before I slap another piece of tape over his mouth.

I grab the can of gasoline and spread it around.

As I walk out of the old shed, I take a deep inhale of the crisp night air.

Then, I light the match.