IT’S LATE, WELL AFTER LAST call, but just like any other night I close, Rhett’s here to either walk me home or take me to his place. But most importantly, he’s here to spin me around on the old, beat-up wooden floors. To hold me close, sing off-key in my ear, and make me feel more cherished and adored than ever.
These few moments we steal most nights, just the two of us slow dancing to the soft beats of some of my favorite songs, mean more to me than anything else he could ever do. Him taking this time, wanting to hold me close, needing it as much as me, just makes my heart melt more and more each and every time.
It’s enough to erase all the doubt and make me wonder how it ever existed in the first place. Our fight from the other day long forgotten when I’m in his arms. Making me feel foolish for ever thinking he could be anything other than faithful and all in with me. Because that’s all he’s ever been. Completely. One hundred percent. And he’s never been afraid to tell me. Or show me.
Pulling me close and from my thoughts, Rhett’s hands move along my back before dropping down to my behind.
“What are you doing?” I practically purr.
He squeezes. “Been thinking of you all day, angel. Wanting to have you in my arms for this dance, then get you back to my place. Sprawled out on my king-sized bed, legs wide. Panting and drenched. Haven’t been able to stop thinking about the taste of you on my tongue. The feel of you wrapped around my cock. Been thinking and wanting nothing but you all day, baby.”
Full lips caress every word as he breathes them into my ear. Goosebumps rise and ripple across my skin.
My heart rate picks up, frantically beating in my chest at the vision he’s creating. At the thought of what he’s going to do to me. At what I want him to do to me.
Before I can respond, the front door suddenly bangs open, ricocheting off the wall. Shattering our moment and breaking through our lust-laden haze.
I jump and clutch onto Rhett’s waist. He spins on his heel, taking me with him, so his back’s to the door. Once I’m behind him, he releases me to turn back around. One hand reached back to clasp my hip, meant to both comfort and keep me in place.
From behind Rhett, I hear the blonde slam the door, then the clicking of the lock. Locking us all in.
My heart’s rattling and pounding for a whole new reason now. Fear, it’s mounting and growing.
“Step away from her!” a raspy voice yells out.
Peering around Rhett, I watch her step farther into the room, one of her arms flying out. “Now.”
Jumping again, I watch her tears fall as her hand shakes. The gun she’s holding trembling as a finger rests near the trigger.
Pointed right at us.
Rhett’s hands are raised, out in front of him—us. “Whoa. There’s no need for that. Put the gun down; let’s figure out what’s going on.” He tries to reason with her.
“Shut the fuck up and move. Now! Or I’ll fill you both with bullets.” She shoves her hand out and steps closer as if to prove her point.
I take a good look at her. She looks strung out. Her eyes red and wild, curly blond hair a tangled mess. Her clothes baggy and tattered. Like she hasn’t cleansed or eaten in days….
“Ma-Mallory?” I stutter out in question, though I know it’s her. I’d recognize her anywhere. The devastation from that night still painted all over her face.
I try to step around Rhett, but he won’t let me. I get as far as his side before one of his bulky arms moves swiftly to extend across my stomach to keep me from moving any farther.
“Don’t say my name!” she shrills. “Don’t even fucking speak!” Thrusting the shaking gun closer, making me wince and causing Rhett to tense at my side. I can feel him edge closer still, ready to protect me.
I nod and keep silent, honoring her manic demand, as thoughts run rampant through my mind. With the most prominent and frequent being how the heck am I going to get Rhett out of this?
My heart races and pulse thrums full of fear.
After all is said and done, I need Rhett safe. I can’t let my past and the decisions I made destroy the most important thing in my life. Him.
Mallory starts pacing then, muttering to herself. Running her free hand through her hair. Her arm still pointed right at us. “I won’t say it again. Move away from her now!”
Taking advantage of her distraction, Rhett uses his arm to move me slightly behind him, right against his side. My hands clutch at his arm that’s now wrapped around my hip.
I can feel the rage and anger and worry emanating from him. It’s practically rippling off of his skin—palpable.
“Mallory, is it?” His deep voice slides across the room. Not one trace of a tremble or shake as he moves to stand in front of me now.
I fist the back of his shirt. My tears soaking the cotton as I lean my forehead to his back. Praying beyond reason that if I can’t make it out of this, that he will.
Peeking around Rhett’s shoulder, I can see him lift his hands out in front of him again in a placating gesture. To show he means no harm.
“This doesn’t need to happen. We can all walk away from this right now if you stop what you’re doing and let us leave.”
Suddenly her head snaps up. The fingers of her left hand pulling at her bottom lip while her right is still extended towards us. Shaking.
“You ruined everything. Everything! Clark was my world, and you stole that from me!”
I want to yell that it was him, that he was the one pursuing me, lying and persuading and tricking me into falling into his bed and, foolishly thinking, into his heart.
But I don’t. Because I can’t take that chance.
And she keeps going.
“We were going to start a family. Finally, after so many years of me wanting and begging, he finally agreed. Until he didn’t anymore. Until he stopped talking about it, stopped touching me, stopped everything. I knew something must have caused his sudden change. And it was all because of you!” Her body visibly shakes due to her sobs, her face soaked with tears.
Oh God. I lift a trembling hand to cover my mouth, feeling more tears wet my own cheeks.
“That’s why I came home that night,” she shouts frantically. “That’s why I lied and told him I was away with girlfriends when really I was tracking every single step he made that entire day. And each one he took led him straight to you!”
Nausea swirls and pools in my belly, bile rising with every word she speaks. Shame takes hold of my entire being, momentarily replacing the fear, because she’s laying bare my breaking point, the weakest and lowest time of my life.
Shame rises like a tidal wave and takes me under. Not only for the decisions I made and actions I took part in, even if I had no clue Clark was married, it’s mainly for the fact that Rhett has a front row seat to my past and the mess I helped create.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes, that my Clark would ever do such a thing, but his entire day was revolved around you. At first I thought you were a client, then maybe a friend, but when I saw the way he looked right before he kissed you—like he had never kissed me before, ever—I knew you were the reason for it all. His distance. His disinterest. His erratic behavior and abrupt change.”
Fear takes over every inch of my body yet again because I can’t keep quiet anymore. “God, please, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, but please stop! I didn’t know! I had no clue. If I ever knew he was marr—”
“Just shut up, shut up! It doesn’t matter that you didn’t know. It doesn’t matter because it was still you! He still chose you and risked it all FOR YOU!” Without warning, she shoots off three rounds right past our heads, hitting the liquor bottles behind us.
Glass shatters as bottles explode. I scream in terror. Rhett pulls me close and spins, hunching over me, keeping me safe.
“It didn’t matter that I loved him.” She continues, her words muffled from Rhett’s hold on me. “That I wanted to start a family with him and spend forever with him. He didn’t care, all he wanted was you! So I made sure he’d never be able to have anyone but me ever again!” Her voice turns dark and menacing before grief steals her breath and sobs retch from her chest. “Oh, Clark!”
Shock ricochets off the walls with my gasp of horror. “What are you saying? You…did you kill him?” That’s the only plausible answer from the look on her face—the anger and the anguish—and the words she just spoke.
Frantically she shakes the gun. “I had to! It was the only way to keep him as mine and only mine! To keep him away from you. He promised me forever, ‘til death do us part!”
“Stay right here, and no matter what happens don’t move,” Rhett whispers into my ear right before he kisses my head, then turns from me.
He moves slowly toward Mallory. My heart bottoms out to my stomach. Terrified.
“You know none of what happened was Kennedy’s fault, just like we know it isn’t yours. You loved Clark, we know that. Just drop the gun and let us out of here. No one will have to even know you were here.” He tries to reason with her again.
Instead of answering, Mallory lowers a hand to her pocket just as she fires off another couple rounds toward the bar.
“Get down!” Rhett roars and crouches to the ground. I do the same, arms over my head. My lungs and throat burning from screaming.
Bringing her hand back up, she flicks her wrist, I flinch, and a flame sparks. Both hands shaking.
When Rhett sees the lighter, I see him tense from his low spot on the floor. “You don’t want to do this,” he stresses in a deep, low voice. Menacing and authoritative.
He slowly starts to rise. Posed to strike.
“You have no idea what I want,” she suddenly screams out. Spit flying from her mouth as tears continue to race down her face. “What I wanted isn’t an option anymore. She took it from me!” Her empty hand reaching out to point a finger at me. Sobs rip from her chest. “You took it all from me, gave me no reason to live! You ruined my entire life. Now it’s time I ruin yours.”
Then, before I know it, Rhett’s launching himself at Mallory just as she throws the still-lit zippo over the bar.
Whoosh.
In the blink of an eye, the room explodes into a frenzy of fire and terror and chaos.
Rhett tackles Mallory to the ground on a roar, and the gun dislodges from her hand, clattering to the floor.
I clamber to my feet, rushing for the gun as it slides toward me.
It only takes seconds before the heat becomes almost unbearable and smoke fills the room, becoming dense and thick. My eyes burn and sting.
Just as I get the gun in my trembling hand, voices erupt behind me.
“Freeze! Hands where I can see them!” Four officers rush in at my sides, a fifth at my back.
“Ma’am, give him the gun slowly and raise your hands!” he yells again as another officer to my right reaches for the gun.
Doing as he says, I release it and immediately lift my hands into the air.
“We need fire on scene STAT!” another one yells into his shoulder.
Mallory screeches and screams obscenities and nonsense as officers rush and take over for Rhett. “Get the fuck off of me, you fucking cunt! I need to get to Clark. He needs me! He loves me and only me!”
“We need to get them out of here, now!”
Then, before I know it, Rhett’s rushing forward with two officers, the other two hauling Mallory to her feet and following suit. I’m grabbed and brought through the back hallway in front of them all.
“Stay low!” an officer shouts out.
Coughing and sputtering, I stick as low as I can as we run out of the building. Bursting into the fresh air, we inhale lungfuls as fast as we can. Heaving and coughing and panting.
Rhett immediately pulls me into his arms, wrapping me up tight when we’re safe. His clothes smell of smoke and ash, but I don’t care—I know I must, too—but I need him close. Holding me, comforting me, loving me.
“Fucking Christ, angel,” he growls. His hands roam my back, down my arms, before pulling me away only enough to clasp my face. Looking me over head to toe and back again, I see tears tracking down his soot-covered face. “Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
Unable to speak, I shake my head, crying along with him.
“Thank fuck,” he swears, pulling me in tight again. His heart beating an impossible beat below my ear. “Seeing her point that gun at you. Watching her pull that trigger… then the fire…Jesus Christ. My only thought was to keep you safe, angel.” His words spoken into the hair at the top of my head.
“No!” We hear roared. Looking to see Mallory being cuffed, then hauled toward a cruiser. “I need Clark! Where is he? Clark! No, please! It’s her fault, all her fault! She did this, not me!”
I sob out an “Oh God” as one of Rhett’s hands pulls my head to his chest, covering my ears. Trying to shelter me from everything she’s yelling.
“Ma’am? Sir?” a male voice interrupts. “We need you to let the EMTs check you over for any injuries, smoke inhalation.”
As he speaks, it’s then I notice and hear the rest of the commotion around us. The sirens blaring. The shouted orders and demands. The fire hose blasting water through door and busted front windows, putting out the flames that started to spread to the front of the room.
“Just…give us a second,” Rhett answers in a deep tone of relief that we’re both okay. Physically anyway.
We’re left alone again, taking another moment before having to go to the ambulance. “I’ve never been more scared than I was in that moment,” I admit on a whisper against smoke-covered cotton. Anxiety and fear still swirling and spiraling through me.
I hear and feel him breathe deeply, tensing before releasing the breath. “I’ll risk my life for you, Kennedy. Always. I’ll give it all to you, for you. You never have to worry about that. You’ll never have to question it. All in.”
Taking in his words, burying them deep in my heart and soul, I say the only words I can. “I love you.”
Then we stand there, wrapped up in the other, watching the smoke billow from the place we met.