Page 20 of What I Should Have Felt (Anchors and Eagles #4)

COLETTE

“ D id you brush your teeth?” I yelled down the hall.

“What am I, five?” Azelie sassed back and poked her head out of the bathroom with a toothbrush hanging between her teeth.

I shook my head with a smile and leaned back against the headboard as she disappeared back inside the bathroom. My mind was reeling, and had been for over a week. Where was Ford? I hadn’t seen him since he willingly offered to go pick up Azelie. The silence was slowly killing me.

Glancing to my right, I smiled at the vase of flowers. At least there was some evidence that he’d been thinking about me. Though it was slightly stalkerish because I kept finding them everywhere. Which made me a little suspicious that they weren’t from Ford. He wasn’t possessive like that… Was he ?

Closing my eyes, I laid the book I’d been attempting to read for the past hour in my lap.

I’d been wrong about Ford before, and everything that was happening now scared me.

Part of me felt guilty. I’d been in love with Ford before Liam, and then he suddenly showed back up, and I was gushing like a teenager all over again?

Was that fair to Liam? To the love I shared with him?

And what right did I have for a second chance with Ford?

He’d hurt me when he left, yes, but I’d kept a massive secret from him, one that I feared he’d never forgive me for.

The best thing that could happen would be for him to leave without finding out.

But deep down, I’d always wanted him to find out.

I’d always begged for some excuse to reach out to him, and there it had been.

Or rather, there she had been. I was tired.

I was so tired of being alone. Not just because Ford was back, but because for the first time since Liam had passed, part of me felt…

safe again. Part of me finally let go of the shield that I clung to.

“Mom?” Azelie’s voice pierced my thoughts as a light flicked on.

Opening my eyes, I glanced at my door frame, and there she stood, dressed in pajamas with her hip cocked and an innocent but worried look forming a crease between her brows.

“What’s up, baby?” I asked and patted the sage green quilt beside me.

She wandered into the room, pushing the door shut behind her as she padded quietly across the cream carpet.

My curtains hanging over the open window to my right billowed in the gentle breeze as she climbed onto the bed and crossed her legs.

I glanced out at the night sky as the full moon rose high.

A silver blanket settled over the yard as if offering a small comfort amidst the secrets that I held.

“I’ve been wanting to ask you something for a week now, but I’m worried you’ll get upset,” Azelie muttered. I glanced back at her as she twisted a loose thread between her fingers .

“I promise I won’t get mad. Does this have to do with a boy?” I tipped my head, and her cheeks turned a smidge pink, but she shook her head.

“Not this time. Well.” She furrowed her brows and met my gaze. “Yes, but not one for me.”

“What boy, then, are we going to be talking about?”

“A man, technically. Like a man, man. Macy won’t stop gushing about him.” She quickly tore her eyes away from mine and stared at the quilt once more.

Closing the book in my lap, I laid it down on the bleached oak nightstand beside me.

My gaze lingered for half a second on the spider lilies blooming so brightly.

He’s always said my hair was the same color as them…

Like cherry wine on a hot summer night, even though we’d only snuck alcohol from my parents that one time.

It was also the first time he’d kissed me—truly and passionately kissed me.

Ford kissed me as if I would be the one and only girl he’d ever kiss in his life.

“Mom?” Azelie questioned, and I ripped my gaze away from the flowers.

“Sorry, baby. All right, what man has Macy been unable to stop gushing about?” I asked.

She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “Uh, Ford,” she stated, grabbing at one of her curls.

My heart twisted. But not out of dread, and my brows rose as I slapped a hand against my chest. No, hearing his name, just the mere mention of him, had me immediately terrified of the absolute and undeniable desire coursing through my veins.

“What—” I clacked my teeth together once. “ What about Ford?”

“Why’d you send him? Aren’t we supposed to hate the Thibodeauxs? But I know you wouldn’t have sent somebody you didn’t trust to get me, especially considering this bad dude that’s in town.” She raised her brows, and I studied her two different-colored eyes.

A hazel one, just like him. A green one, just like me.

So much of him was in her. Her dreamer spirit was him.

I honestly wasn’t really that upset that I was still here; the biggest reason I’d talked so much about leaving town was because he wanted to.

And going with him had been more important to me than getting out of this place.

Reaching forward, I placed a palm against her cheek. “Is that what you think? That we hate the Thibodeauxs?”

She nodded. “Grammy and Pop Pop have always kept me away from them. I’m fifteen and didn’t actually meet face to face with one of the Thibodeauxs until a week ago. Isn’t that exactly what is going on?”

Shame rolled my shoulders forward, and I dropped my hand back into my lap. “Oh, baby. I’ve failed you. No. We don’t hate the Thibodeauxs.”

But she had a point. My parents had never once spoken kindly about them, even when they brought over some ingredients when a restaurant order had been delayed.

Even when our air conditioner broke down and Ford’s father came and helped fix it when my dad was out of town, they hadn’t even voiced a thank you.

In fact, they’d said some pretty awful things to Azelie before, some lies about how they were unkind, and had stolen things from us before. I’d brushed it off as petty excuses for the rivalry, but …

I lifted my gaze back to hers. “I don’t hate them, Azelie. They are good people who run a business that is in competition with ours. Plain and simple.”

Slowly, she nodded. “But—”

Glass shattered all over my bedroom floor. A brick crashed against the side of my mattress, and I dove on top of Azelie. She dug her fingers into my sides as I sheltered her beneath me. Screams from the living room muffled her shriek, and I ripped my head up from Azelie’s shoulder.

What was going on? Were we being attacked? I glanced at the shattered window. Whoever had thrown this glass brick aimed for the half that wasn’t open. They had purposefully targeted the panes of glass to add to the shock.

More shrieks and screams echoed into the room, along with wood splintering. Ceramic crashed against a solid surface, and a few grunts rose.

Mom. Dad. Were they okay?

“Stay by me,” I instructed, knowing we needed to get out of here, and dove for the drawer on my nightstand.

Azelie slid off the bed as I ripped it open. “Shit,” I cursed, remembering that my knives were stolen.

My daughter’s eyes widened. “Shit? Why shit?” she gasped.

Shoving the drawer closed, I snatched my cell phone off the nightstand, stuffed it in my pajama shorts pockets, and grabbed her hand.

“Don’t say that word.” We quickly ran to the door of my bedroom. The lights went out just as I pulled it open and peered out into the dark hallway.

“Stop, please!” my mom shouted. A grunt followed her plea as the brittle explosion of glass shattering echoed again. Wood splintered. Fabric shredded as Azelie and I crept along the hallway.

“Boo,” a man snarled, his face whipping around the corner of the hallway. I could barely make out his features as my foot caught on the rug and I stumbled forward, involuntarily letting go of Azelie’s hand.

“Mom!” she screamed, and I glanced behind me as another man ripped open a bedroom door and lunged at her. She swung a fist, connecting with his arm. I dove toward her as a hand clamped around my ankle, and my chin slammed into the carpet.

Stars spun in my vision, blurring my surroundings as whoever held me dragged me away from her.

The skin on my stomach turned raw with heat as I clawed at everything around me.

Broken wood, picture frames, and torn books flew around me.

Glass shards pierced my skin, but I ignored the agonizing sting.

With a glance behind me, I aimed the heel of my foot at the hand holding my ankle.

I kicked. Hard. With a thud, it landed against my attempted captor’s wrist.

“Mom!” Azelie shouted again as my captor released my ankle.

“Azelie!” I shoved myself upright. An arm was wrapped around her midsection, carrying her back to my bedroom that we’d just vacated. Tears of fury clouded my eyes.

And fear.

As I sprinted down the corridor after her, the weaselly man carrying her spun around and shot me a malicious grin just as he passed through the door frame. And he slammed the bedroom door shut in my face. My forehead rammed the wood .

“MAMA!” she cried out.

“FIGHT, BABY!” I screamed and ripped at the door handle. It wouldn’t turn. He’d locked it.

Fear coursed through me as hot and sharp as the glass embedded in my arms. Pounding on the frame, the wood rattled, but it did nothing to get me any closer to Azelie.

Suddenly, a hand clamped down on my shoulder and shoved me aside. Off balance, I crashed against the wall as a hooded figure spun around and kicked backward against the door. It flew open with a cascade of shattered wood. Red eyes briefly connected with mine.

And the Rougarou raced past me into the bedroom.

“Azelie!” I screamed again and darted in after the creature. In a flurry of shadows, the creature dove at the monster holding Azelie pinned to the bed. They both crashed to the far side of the mattress and out of view.

“Come on!” I waved at my daughter as she scrambled off the bed, and we raced into the hallway.

Rounding a corner, we both dug in our heels at the same time and screeched to a stop.

Six men groaned on the ground, while a couple of others weren’t moving at all.

Azelie’s eyes widened, and her chest rose with panting breaths.

She raised a shaking finger and pointed at a body lying still on the floor.

With his neck at an odd angle. An angle that I knew indicated that he was dead.

“Let’s go,” I whispered and grabbed her hand, intertwining my fingers with hers. Guiding her through the rubble and broken chaos of wood and metal that used to be furniture, I shoved our front door open .

And froze. Five more men waited for us. My mom and dad were each held by one of them with a knife at their throats. My knives. And while you couldn’t kill someone by stabbing them, if you sliced their jugular…

“You fucked this up,” one man called out, any distinguishing features hidden behind a hood and black balaclava.

“How so?” I replied, swallowing the nerves that had nearly made me stutter. I gently pushed Azelie behind me. She tucked her face against my back.

“Who’d you call? That… That thing has shown up every time,” he asked.

I slowly shook my head. “I didn’t call anyone.”

“ALL WE WERE SUPPOSED TO DO WAS TRASH YOUR PLACE!” he shouted, and then a crack pierced the air.

My eyes widened, and the assailant crumpled to the ground.

Dead. With a bullet hole in the back of his head.