Chapter 21

Sometimes I wrestle my demons, and sometimes we just cuddle.

-T-shirt

Freya

I rolled out of bed, my back suddenly cold as Ridley bolted from the bed and disappeared into the hallway without a sound.

I slipped on some sleep pants, ones I’d gotten myself at the store on the way home from Ridley’s office, and padded barefoot to the door.

Since I heard low voices in the living room and saw the door to Core and Kitt’s room open, I peered inside, checking on Kitt.

She was sprawled out on her back, her eyes closed and the only thing covered up was her left foot.

I wanted to laugh, but instead went inside, picked up the blanket, and repositioned it to cover her entire body sans her head.

She didn’t stir, but her breathing was strong and steady, giving me the peace of mind to leave the room despite knowing she’d had a seizure earlier.

Instead of heading to the living room to the left, I cut through the back hallway that led to the kitchen.

Two hallways and a laundry room later I arrived at my destination.

Grabbing a glass from the cleaning rack next to the sink, I walked to the fridge and got some ice out of the freezer, then grabbed a Dr. Pepper from the fridge before walking to the kitchen.

Before I could get there, though, a knock sounded from the front door, diverting my attention.

Before I could even get it all the way open, Ridley was at my back, his hand going around my belly to pull me to the side and out from in front of him.

It was a protective action, and one that made me want to smile.

I didn’t, however. I only moved slightly with the gentle push and came to a stop directly next to the wall, hugged in tight between the front hallway closet and Ridley’s hard arm.

Ridley gave me a look, then opened up the door without another word.

“What are you doing here?” Ridley asked whomever was there.

I strained to hear the stranger’s reply, but then Ridley moved back and waved his hand out to the side of him.

His free side, not my side, allowing Ridley’s body to block mine as the man entered through what little space Ridley allowed him.

“What are you doing here?” Ridley repeated.

Movement at the mouth of the hall had me looking up into the worried eyes of Core before he disappeared behind the wall that led to the rooms.

My guess was that he was putting Emily back into bed before he also joined whatever was going on here.

Core, I’d noticed, was extremely protective of Ridley, just as Ridley was protective of Core.

Although their relationship had started out being rather rocky, seeing as Core had knocked Kitt up, any bad blood between the two of them was now gone.

They both had common interests, Emily and Kitt being at the top of that list.

“We need to talk,” the familiar voice of a man I’d only met twice, said.

Once, at the prison, and the other time only this afternoon or actually yesterday since it was so late.

Ridley had explained to me that Kelly was a part of an organization that specialized in black ops.

I’d wanted him to expound on that explanation, but Ridley had declined, and I’d been too tired to argue at the time.

Now, though, I really wished I knew a bit more about the man.

“Okay,” Ridley said, pushing me further into the corner, telling me with his body that he wanted me to stay where I was. “Let’s go to the kitchen.”

The two of them left, Kelly completely missing me hidden behind Ridley’s large body.

I waited until they were in the kitchen with the door closed before I went up to the door and stuck my head against it.

“What are you doing?” Core’s deep voice asked from behind me.

I jumped, turning to look at him guiltily.

“Nothing,” I lied. “What do you want?”

He ignored me and tugged on my hand, leading me around the kitchen, through the laundry room, inside the pantry, before coming to a stop at the door.

We both stopped and listened, each of us reluctant to announce our presence as we stopped in startled disbelief as we listened to the man tell us that he purposefully left Ridley’s brother out to dry. Encouraged him to do stuff that he wouldn’t have normally done all because he wanted vengeance for his wife.

“He deserved it,” Kelly said tightly.

Nothing.

Not a curse. Not a sound.

“I…” Kelly hissed in a breath. “Your brother raped my wife.”

Pin drops.

You could hear the sound of silence as we all digested that news.

“Your brother and Coller,” Kelly continued. “She’s…she’s not doing good. She tried to kill herself last night…and I just…snapped.”

It was then that Ridley’s voice finally sounded in the silence of that announcement.

“I won’t say anything to anybody but my president. He needs to know, but I won’t pursue this, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Ridley responded gruffly.

“No,” Kelly cleared his throat. “No. That’s not why I came over here. I just felt like you needed to know. So that you could have closure,” he hesitated. “I’m not even asking that you keep this to yourself. I just…couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t fix it.”

Ridley stayed quiet for so long I thought they’d left, so I peeked out from around the doorway, and then immediately jumped back when I saw Ridley staring directly at the small room where I was standing.

My eyes got wide as I looked at Core.

“He saw me!” I whispered frantically.

He started to chuckle under his breath, then pushed me out of the way so he could come into the kitchen, dropping the bottle he still had clutched in his hand in the sink.

“Kelly,” I heard him say.

I peeked around the corner again, this time waving at Ridley.

“Can I come in?” I mouthed.

He shook his head once, his brown eyes clearly saying leave before I spank your ass.

I scrunched my nose up at him, but did what I was told.

Instead of staying where I was to witness a man’s defeat, I walked into the living room.

My eyes caught on the lacy curtains that were in a box on the floor next to the backdoor, and I sat on top of the brick that extended from the fireplace to have a better look at the contents.

That’s when I saw all the knick knacks.

Heart in my throat, I started to pull everything out, my eyes catching on all the clothes. The pillows. The jewelry box. Everything that was in the box spoke of a man finally letting go, and my heart hurt as I got my first good look at Aerie.

Although he never spoke much of her, I still felt like I kind of knew her because of my connection with Ridley.

My mind continued to spin as I looked through the contents, stopping when I found all of the jewelry at the bottom of the box that’d spilled from the jewelry box Ridley must’ve carelessly tossed inside.

I replaced each item, this time being sure to place it all in there nicely. After each piece of jewelry was back inside the velvet folds of the jewelry box where it belonged, I shut the lid.

Lastly, I placed the jewelry box directly in the cardboard box with the rest of the contents and stood.

Then I dragged the box down the hall to the room where Ridley had joined me that night, shoving it into the closet and quietly closing the door.

I promised myself, though, that that wouldn’t be the last time I saw Aerie.

I swore that I would find a way to make Ridley talk about Aerie.

I would bring her out of the closet once Ridley broke through the final barriers that he put Aerie behind once she died.

I also made a silent promise to Aerie, knowing that wherever she was, she heard me.

I’ll take care of him. I’ll love him forever. I promise.

Once I finished, I sat back down on my bed and studied my hands, wondering just what I could do to help Ridley.

Then I heard Emily stir.

She was in the room in between the one Ridley put me in and the one Kitt and Core shared.

Almost without a thought, I got up to check on her, and came face to face with someone’s body.

“Shit,” I hissed, taking an involuntary step back.

The grip on my arm had me staying where I was, though.

“Someone’s in the house!” Kitt hissed.

She looked ready to drop, and the only thing holding her up was the grip on my arm and the wall.

“I know,” I said, patting her hand. “Let’s get you back to bed.”

“I’m not talking about the man in the kitchen,” she hissed. “I’m talking about the man that came in through my window.”

My heart froze.

“Where is he now?” I asked.

“Kitchen,” she whispered. “I followed him until I knew where he was going. He grabbed everyone’s phones, though. I saw him grab mine off the nightstand as he passed, then he locked me inside.”

“How’d you get out?” I asked, confused.

“There’s a secret passage that connects my room to Emily’s. It’s right there,” she pointed to the bookcase next to Emily’s bed.

I nodded and we walked into my room.

Dismay filled me as I saw that my phone wasn’t there.

I’d left it in my purse in the kitchen after all the excitement at the department had gone down.

Leaving me with nothing as well.

“Y’all don’t have a landline?” I asked in alarm.

She shook her head.

Her body started to tilt to the side, and I caught her by the shoulders and helped her to sit on the bed.

“Sit here,” I ordered, going over to the crib and grabbing Emily, who was now very much awake and cooing due to hearing her mother’s voice.

I smiled at the baby, placing her in the car seat that was on the floor next to her crib.

Once I had her strapped in, I dug around in her crib for the pacifier that I knew was in there, coming up twenty seconds later with ten of them.

I dumped them all in the seat and placed one in the baby’s mouth.

She latched onto it like an attack dog after a piece of meat, sucking so fiercely that Ridley could probably hear the sounds all the way in the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” Kitt asked, her voice quivering as fear radiated out of her.

It was scary when she couldn’t do anything to help herself or her child, and I could practically see the condemnation in her eyes.

“I’m putting you in the secret passage,” I said, knowing that would be a good hiding spot. “Then I’m going to go help your brother and husband.”

Her eyes looked worried, but I ignored her and grabbed the blanket off Emily’s bed, throwing it into the passage.

Once I had it spread out, I helped Kitt into the passage, then placed Emily’s car seat in beside her.

The final add was the Gloworm from Emily’s bed.

Turning it on by pressing the belly, a soft warm glow filled my hands.

“Here,” I said softly. “I’m going to close the doors now.”

She nodded and I shut it, breathing a sigh of relief once I had it completely closed.

“Dammit,” I said under my breath, walking out of Emily’s room with a quick glance out into the hallway before I left.

My destination was my gun case in the corner of the living room closet.

I’d put it there because it was so big and bulky, and I wasn’t sure where else it might fit.

Now I was glad I’d done so, or the man surely would’ve seen it in the living room as he passed. It was hard to miss.

Once I had my weapon in my hands, I checked the chamber, loaded it, and then carried it into the laundry room, coming to a halt once I was in my same position as earlier.

The voice that I heard was familiar, but I couldn’t place it exactly. The man the voice belonged to was too emotional, too…something.

“You’re such a stupid fucking joke,” the unknown gunman growled, his gun pointed at Ridley’s chest. “I can’t believe you’re still fucking here.”

“What are you talking about?” Ridley asked, eyes hard and voice tight.

“I’m talking about the fact that I sent two fucking brothers to kill you, and neither one accomplished what I asked them to do.” He started to pace, but the entire time he kept his gun pointed at him. “Then I sent your brother to do it, and he didn’t even get it done.”

“Why?” he asked. “Why my brother? Why any of this? I thought you were fucking slow.”

I wanted to slap my palm against my head.

Ridley was most assuredly eloquent…not. But, at least I now knew who the voice belonged to...the reclusive slow brother – Brice Coller

The man didn’t look offended, though.

In fact, he looked almost…gleeful.

Happy that he’d been able to pull off the big deception he had.

“It’s easier when people think I’m slow. Then they don’t expect as much from me,” he answered without a thought. “People’s expectations become really low, meaning I can slide my habit by them without them thinking it might be me.”

“So you’re a sick fuck,” Kelly said through clenched teeth.

Brice turned his eyes to Kelly.

“Yes,” he answered. “Had to watch my brother do it for me,” he pointed at his bandaged leg where the lower half of his leg was wrapped and placed in a walking boot. “I get off on watching. Which is what I was doing the night this happened.”

“Watching what?” Ridley countered.

“Well, that night in particular, I was waiting for your woman to come back and start her nightly ritual of masturbating,” he smiled a dirty smile, thoughts filtering through his brain that only he could see. “Your brother was the one to bring your girl to my attention…and your wife.”

That statement was directed at Kelly, and Kelly launched himself at Brice.

Brice moved his gun to point at Kelly’s chest instead, halting him before he could get more than a foot from the chair he’d been told to sit down into.

Kelly fell back into it and stared mutinously at Brice as if he was the lowest piece of shit on the Earth.

My finger twitched, itching to pull the trigger.

But I didn’t.

Couldn’t.

The only thing that I had on me was the gun I’d gotten from James hours before when he heard about my near accident at the sheriff’s department.

He’d drove it nearly an hour and a half away just so I could have it.

I’d taken it, of course.

Now I was extremely happy that I had.

Ridley had a gun safe and I didn’t know the combination.

He also had his service revolver that he kept on him, but I didn’t think I could get to it without the movement being witnessed from the kitchen since it was currently sitting on the dining room table.

Leaving me with one option.

The sniper rifle.

And the bullet for it would go through Brice, the wall, and possibly keep traveling all the way down the street.

What I needed to do was get to the front

“How do you even know my woman?” Ridley asked, a fight in his words.

“You. Everything you do interests me. Which is why I found this little pecker head and his lovely blonde piece of ass,” Brice continued pointing towards Kelly, unaware of just what kind of pot he was stirring.

I took aim through the scope at his head, wondering if the brick wall behind him would be enough to stop the bullet.

No, probably not.

I’d have to come at it from a different angle.

Dropping the scope from my eye, I took a look around the room, my eyes finally settling on the fireplace at the back of the kitchen.

It was a shared fireplace in between the kitchen and the living room, and I smiled, my eyes going up to the loft that overlooked both the kitchen and the living room.

If I shot Brice from up there, the bullet would be lodged into the thick rocks of the fireplace, with no possibility of it going all the way through.

It was too thick.

Knowing what I had to do, I made my way back into the hallway, down the hall to the stairs, and into Ridley’s room.

I’d not been in here yet, but I could see nothing of the man that I knew I loved.

All that was in there was blank.

I could tell where he’d taken all the things off the wall.

It was like he’d erased everything that was Aerie from his life, and that made my heart hurt for him.

I hadn’t asked him to do that.

But there was no time to worry about it now.

I had too much to do…and men to save.

My feet practically hovered over the floor as I walked purposefully to the landing that would let me peer over the side.

I could hear the voices, and I idly wondered how Ridley was able to sleep with all the noise that would be produced from downstairs if someone happened to be in the kitchen.

That thought fled as soon as I saw the new state of things.

The man was pointing his gun at Ridley’s chest, and he had another gun pointed at Kelly.

Core stood frozen in the corner of the room, his eyes watchful as he took everything in at once.

His eyes flickered once at the movement on the landing.

He chanced a quick look up then moved his eyes back down before anyone became the wiser.

I settled down in near silence, my eyes studying the man as I moved my eye up to the scope’s front.

“I fucked her. I fucked her even though she asked me to stop. I would’ve fucked your woman, too, but that fucking gator tried to eat my foot. If that stupid brother of mine hadn’t been there, I would’ve died.” He smiled then. “Then that sweet piece of ass was the one to take care of me. Do you know what it feels like to have her hands on you?”

Vomit rose in my throat, but I swallowed convulsively and tried to concentrate.

Ridley was getting more and more upset, and he was to the point that I’d actually guess he would take matters into his own hands if I didn’t do something soon.

And I most certainly didn’t want him to do that.

I valued his body just the way it was, no holes required.

Unless they were nipple rings, then I could handle that.

Bullet holes, though, weren’t on my list of things that I liked in my man.

“Your brother’s a fucking cunt, trying to pull one over on me. Needed him to carry a few messages to my man Tasty, and he did it nicely. Playing on both sides really helped me out. I knew where you were, and what you were doing, when y’all had no clue about me,” the man said.

He was about to die.

My finger reached up, flicking the safety off in a quick, efficient move.

The sound was like a lightning bolt straight in the middle of the room.

However, the only two to catch it were the two that I didn’t mind knowing what I was about to do.

Ridley’s eyes met mine for a short second, and I saw understanding, approval, and sadness in them.

Core’s met mine as well, and I saw him take a step back until the wall was at his back.

His hands even lifted to his ears, causing me to almost laugh.

Almost.

Aiming at his center, I squeezed the trigger.