Page 72 of Alec’s Dream

Alec shuffled Joss, making room for my son’s not-so-small body to wrap around his front and without delay Alec quickly moved us through the kitchen toward the side door leading to the garage. He opened the door, gave me a gentle shove, and the first thing I noticed was the sunlight streaming through holes in my garage door.

“Hurry, babe.”

Then suddenly I wasn’t staring at the bullet holes I was moving to my car. Alec opened the back door. I got in and situated Rory on my lap. Alec placed Caleb on the seat, and with a quick shuffle, Rory’s bottom was next to me and I held a screaming Jocelyn in my arms.

Alec closed us in and jogged around to the front of the car and into the driver’s seat.

“I want all of you to get down as low as you can,” he instructed and turned the ignition.

“Seat belts,” I ordered. “Shh, baby. I got you.”

Jocelyn ignored my shushing and continued to cry. I glanced at Rory and Caleb who were both pale, and by my guess, in shock. But they managed to get their belts buckled.

The garage door went up, my arm went around my kids as best I could, and I pushed us all forward, the kid’s heads resting on their knees while I cradled Jocelyn.

“Everything’s gonna be okay,” I whispered.

Rory whimpered.

Caleb grunted.

Jocelyn sobbed.

The affirmation sounded ridiculous even to my own ears and I wasn’t sure I believed it either. Not a damn thing was okay and I didn’t think it ever would be again—not as long as Josh roamed the streets and Doug was in our lives.

Alec slammed down on the accelerator and the car jerked back, taking us out of my garage. Next thing I knew, he skidded to a halt and we shot forward.

I didn’t bother asking where we were going. I didn’t care, as long as it was someplace safe and away from my house. I didn’t even care that he’d left my garage wide open and my house unlocked. Not that it mattered. My front window was shattered and all my living room furniture was ruined—shot to shit.

Shot to shit!

Oh my god.

Now was not the time for me to have a nervous breakdown so I settled in on coming up with ways to kill Doug. That was after I tortured him, of course.

“Shots fired at Macy’s.” I heard Alec’s deep rumbly voice announce. “We’re en route to my house. Jonny can meet us there but no uniforms. The kids are freaked-out enough. Send someone to Macy’s to secure the premises.”

No uniforms. His daughter had just been caught in a hail of gunfire and he was thinking about my kids. Well, he was thinking about Jocelyn, but Rory and Caleb were part of that.

Alec had paused for a moment and when he spoke again, shivers ran down my spine. “I’m fucking done with this, Nixon. You better warn Jonny. We played it his way and now my woman and her kids have the added trauma of a goddamn drive-by. Their home is in ruins. And I’ll repeat, they’re freaking out. Wanna know how I know? Because two of the three kids in the back seat are shocked into silence. This shit ends. Today. Now. It’s done for them. Put that out far and wide, brother—they are mine. Anyone even looks in Macy’s direction will answer to me.”

Alec was wrong about something—there were three people in the back of the car stunned into silence. Something good, something I’d never felt before started to bloom, something I’d been fighting. But right then, in the back seat of my car with Alec driving like a bat out of hell, taking us farther away from a place I never wanted to go back to, I knew I’d lost the battle.

I’d lost my will to fight. But somehow, I think I just found something better.

Way better.

Alec.

“Shh. Mama’s got you.” I tightened my arm around all three kids and I did this knowing that Alec would take care of the rest.

22

Alec paced. Then he paced some more. But nothing would calm the fury in his gut.

Motherfucking Malone.

He was a dead man walking. Unless Jonny pulled out a miracle and somehow locked Malone up before Alec went hunting—Malone was dust.