“You need to get home to Dee. Let us worry about the shit we can do here.” Maddox pushes off the wall after giving me my marching orders and slams the newly replaced door against the wall in his haste to leave the room.
Greg leans forward from the seat in front of my desk, resting his elbows on his knees. “He’s right. We’ll handle shit here, and if anything new comes up, we’ll call. Just go make sure she’s okay. If you decide to come in tomorrow, then she comes with you.”
“You didn’t really think I was going to stay here today? Fuck you very much, Greg. All I had planned was filling you assholes in before I went home to my woman.” I start packing up my laptop and anything else I think I’ll need should I decide to start working out of my house until this shit is over. There’s only ten more days in the month, so regardless of what we figure out, there’s only a short amount of time before the deadline we’re working against runs out.
Greg goes to open his mouth, but I stop him as I round the desk to leave. “Don’t, okay? I get where you’re coming from and that’s fine, but don’t mistake my making sure you all knew what is going on as me not putting her first. Everything I do is to make sure that her happiness and wellbeing come before anything else.”
“Got it.”
I leave him still sitting in front of my desk and head out to the truck. I offer Sway a quick wave as I walk down the golden glitter filled sidewalk and pass by the salon. He smiles and waves in his usual flamboyant way, and as per normal with him, there is no way you can’t smile back. One thing with Sway, when things are starting to press in around you and your mood is as close to shit as it can get, Sway always makes the world a little bit brighter.
I throw my bags in the passenger seat and peel out of the lot, heading home to Dee as quickly as I can.
****
Dee throws the garage door open the second my truck shuts off. When I see her standing in the doorway with a small smile on her face, I let out the breath that I have been holding the whole drive home. I knew from her phone call that she is holding it together better than I would have imagined, but I’ve worried that with the time it took me to get home, she might have started to freak out. Seeing her now, and seeing that she really is fine, helps me untangle a little of the knot that’s settled in my gut.
“Hey, you,” she whispers when I walk up the two steps leading into the house. She brings her arms up, and wraps them around my neck, hugging me tightly.
“Hey you, back. Are you okay?”
She pulls back and nods. “I’m fine, just worried about Chelcie but I’m okay.”
“She’s a smart girl. What time did she say she’d get here?” When she lets go of my neck and takes my bag from me, my body instantly misses the contact. I follow her through the mudroom and into the kitchen. She sets the bag down and grabs me a beer from the fridge. As I sit down at the table, I reach over and pull her into my lap. I don’t want her more than a foot away from me right now, not until I can calm myself down a little more.
“She’s going to leave soon. I talked to her about fifteen minutes ago and she had just finished loading her car. It’s going to take her anywhere from six to eight hours to get here, so I would guess sometime in the middle of the night. She’s got directions to the house. She knows to call at any time, and we’ll be waiting for her.”
“How is she holding together?” I’m a little worried about her making that drive by herself, but I know she’s much safer here than she’ll be up there where no one can protect her.
“I think she’s okay. I mean, as okay as she can be when a death threat basically just landed in her lap. What are we going to do, Beck? Unless we find Adam and have him shed a little light on this, I don’t see what else can be done.”
I study her for a second while I take another pull from the beer. She really does seem completely fine. Maybe a little rattled, but that’s to be expected. There isn’t any darkness in her eyes that makes me think she could be having a setback. Nope, my wildcat is front and center, ready to fight for it.
“Let’s try and focus on the positive here, okay? You’re safe, Chelcie is safe, and there is no way in hell some sick fuck is getting close to either of you. When Chelcie gets here, we can take a look at things and see just what he sent to her. For now, let me enjoy your sweet ass in my lap.”
She smacks my arm playfully and smiles.
“Pig.” She laughs and I savor every second of it.
****
“Beck. Beck, wake up.”
When Dee’s soft breath and low whispers wake me up from one of the hottest dreams ever, I immediately reach over and pull her closer. Her naked body rubbing against mine further ignites the desire burning inside of me.
“Beck! We can’t start anything right now.”