CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Blaze
Two Months Later
I enter The Café with a huge smile on my face. Today’s been a great day. In what’s become our regular booth, I see Trevor waiting for me, wearing his hot as fuck white t-shirt with his bullet proof vest over the top. It’s too hot for them to wear their button-down shirts and this is what most of the guys look like around these parts right now.
“I’ll be right with ya, Blaze. He already ordered your drink,” Leighton tells me as she gives me a grin.
Not long ago she started waitressing here, and she seems to have acclimated well. “Sounds good.”
As I approach the booth, Trevor stands up, grabbing hold of my hand and bringing me in for a kiss. “Hey, hot stuff,” he whistles between his teeth as he sees the dress I wear with my Louboutins. “Look at you, how did your meeting go?”
“Hey, handsome,” I kiss him, gripping him around the waist as he motions for me to sit in the booth. We’re same-side sitters and everybody makes fun of us, but I love being pressed up against his hard body. I curl my hand around his bicep, grabbing for my drink. “It went well, they approved me!”
“I’m so damn proud of you, and I know Annabelle is, too.”
He hugs me to him with his arm around my neck, and I revel in the scent of his cologne. Nothing makes me feel more at home than that smell and the scratch of his beard on my forehead. “I’m proud of myself,” I admit. “I wasn’t sure if the bank would go for it, if they’d be willing to release my trust fund to me. Ya know so I could turn around and basically give it away.”
“You’re gonna change people’s lives, Blaze. I mean completely change them. People who weren’t sure if they were ever going to have a chance will have one now, because of you.”
I duck my head because it’s embarrassing to get this much praise. All I want, more than anything, is for someone besides me to have a memory of my sister, and I know the Annabelle Coleman Foundation will do just that for so many people. My goal is to give anyone with a mental illness the chance to get help, regardless of age, race, or creed. I want to make it readily available in our community. “I’m talking to the attorney tomorrow about finishing up the paperwork to make everything legal, and I’m looking at the building down the street from the EMS station for a possible office space. I’m excited Trevor, more excited about this than I have been for anything in a long time – I feel like I’m making a difference. We should be able to start talking to groups next month!”
“You are, babe, you’re changing the world, one day at a time. Hell, you changed mine just by being in it, imagine what you’re going to do when you set your mind to it.”
His unwavering faith is all I need, and it’s everything I’ll ever want in this life. No matter the trials I’ve gone through, I’m damn lucky to be where I am now.
Tank
I head back to work with a smile on my face, I’m so damn proud of Blaze. She’s taken a situation many people wouldn’t have been able to understand and is turning it into a platform to help others in the same situation. Not many people in this world would give away their money like this, but the woman I love? She’s amazing like that.
As I head up the steps to the station, Holden comes barreling out the door. “You okay?” His face is a mask of anger and what appears to be frustration.
He motions for me to follow him behind the building. “We got a threat at the house last night and I’m trying to track who’s doing it without Leighton finding out.”
“Gotta be her family, man. They’re scared to death she’s going to give them up.”
Holden turns around, putting his hands on his hips and looking up at the sky. “The shitty part about this whole situation? She’s not giving them up, she refuses to talk about it, but you and I both know her family won’t believe that, ever. The only way I’ll get them away from her is to either arrest them all, or beat the shit out of them,” he shakes his head, chuckling darkly. “That’s somethin’, ain’t it? A man who’s sworn to uphold the law, looking to beat the shit out of another human being.”
“No,” I answer quickly. “It’s not. Sometimes it’s the only thing you can do.” Immediately my mind goes back to the night I confronted my sister’s ex-husband, Stephen.
“I saw her face, you motherfucker. I saw what you did to her. Did you think I’d let that shit go? You think I’d not listen to her?”
I advance on him, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt, lifting him off his feet, and shoving him into the nearest wall.
“Trevor, aren’t you sworn to uphold the law, not break it?” he taunts me.
“I’d give it all up for her, and you know it. You think it’s fun to beat on someone smaller than you? Does it make you feel like a man? How about you beat on someone closer to your own size. You get one free shot, and then I’m going to tear your ass up.”
A part of me half expects him to not do it, he’s a lot of all talk and not much action. I’m surprised when I feel his fist connect with my cheek. When it does, I feel my rage explode and I go to town on him. As I feel his skin break and his bones crack, I think of my sister’s black eye, the wounded look on her face, and the way she’s changed since she married him.
I know this asshole is to blame and he’s going to pay tonight. Luckily not with his life, but maybe by the time I’m done, he’ll wish he had. For once I’m going to let the control I normally have over my anger and emotions go, and he’ll wish he’d never met my family.
“So what do you suggest?” Holden’s voice brings me back from my memory.
“You protect her,” it’s as easy as that for me. “Anyway you can, whatever you have to do, you protect her. If there’s anything I’ve learned in the past few months, it’s that we as humans are capable of amazing things, especially when we’re pushed to the edge. Ask yourself what you’re willing to do for her, because I know exactly what I’m willing to do for Blaze.”
“You love Blaze,” he reminds me.
I lean in close, because I respect the man in front of me. He’s my boss, but he’s also my friend. “Holden, don’t kid yourself. You’d do whatever it takes to keep her safe. You and I both know that.”
I give him a wave as I go into the office, ready to finish out my shift and get home to the love of my life.