AllFreeNovel
Share Us
SAVANNAH
The hours and days that followed were crazy, but also necessary. And they were smooth, too. Much smoother than I could’ve possibly anticipated.
Then again, trust went a long way.
The police showed up, and our stories lined up nicely. We’d been assaulted… by my crazy ex-boyfriend. Louden had been harassing me for a year now, chasing me from Georgia, following me all the way to Massachusetts. He’d dragged his crazy friend with him. It was really that simple.
The story made sense, because of where we were. I was a local now, with a local business. Louden was the outsider. The wounds on Zane and Erik had come from his bloodstained weapon, and Jarrett had roughed me up pretty good. Zane had fought Jarrett off. Erik had defended himself with a chunk of cobblestone. We’d knocked our assailants out in self-defense, then called the police ourselves. Case closed.
But things went a step further.
The police found a small fortune in uncut emeralds in Louden’s pocket. From the address on his driver’s license, it didn’t take more than a day to link both him and Jarrett to an unsolved armed robbery… of exactly the same kinds of emeralds, in exactly the same leather pouch.
My biggest worry was that they’d drag me into it. Rat me out as their getaway driver, who’d crashed the stolen car. Only as Erik pointed out, there was no evidence. The car had burned. I’d gotten off without being seen, without leaving a trace of evidence I’d ever been there.
It was their word against mine. The word of two brutal assailants — with a pocketful of stolen emeralds — against a poor, frightened ex-girlfriend covered in bruises. I didn’t have to play up how afraid of Louden I was, because that part was true. And the very fact I’d been stalked all the way up the eastern seaboard, seven states away, didn’t look too good for him either.
Then Louden’s rap sheet came back, that pretty much sealed the deal. Jarrett’s was even worse. They were both career criminals, with unanswered charges as far south as the Florida Keys. I learned things I never even knew about the man I’d dated for two years, but somehow, I wasn’t all that surprised.
We were questioned at length, both together and alone. This was after our ambulance rides, of course. Each of us spent a night in the hospital, with Zane staying two. Roman showed up to take care of us. In the wee hours of the morning, huddled around our hospital beds, we brought him up to speed on everything.
We made statements down at the police station. Signed eyewitness reports that were, as per Erik, factual yet vague. And then suddenly, hours and hours later… that was it. We were wandering outside again. Set loose, on the streets of Salem…
With the weight of an aircraft carrier lifted from my shoulders.
It was inconceivable to me, that I was finally and completely done. There would be no more hiding. No more omissions of truth. No more Louden, or fear of Louden, or worry about being caught with a pouch of stolen jewels linked to a serious armed robbery.
There was only me. My shop…
And the three men who loved me.
For the first time in years, I was totally free. I could enjoy everything life had to offer, and revel in my success. And I could love. I could return the affections of these amazing, incredible men, who’d so selflessly given so much of themselves.
And now they could have all of me.
As far as I was concerned, that was the best of all. The giving. Trusting them enough to open myself again, and letting them have those last missing pieces they’d always sought, when it came to our relationship.
We slept for almost a full day, the four of us together. Then, we celebrated. During the days we went out. At night we stayed in. And nothing beat those times, lying in bed between them. Holding them as I kissed them, one by one by one. Telling them I loved them, and that I’d fallen in love with them. And being able to really, truly mean it.
In the end we let totally loose, and even left Salem for a few days. We got a suite at the Godfrey, in Boston. Spent an incredible weekend exploring the city… and then exploring other things afterward, as well.
I was beyond excited. Thrilled, to the point where I felt everything was going too well. We went back to work, and Roman to school. Every day I woke up deliriously happy, waiting for the other shoe to drop. For that exact reason I was more nervous than ever, when Erik called us together for a ‘family meeting’.
“We’re still looking for a house,” he’d told me, all of us seated around the kitchen table. “That hasn’t changed. Only now, we were wondering one thing.”
I noticed right then the guys were looking at me — all of them.
“What?”
They stared at me a moment longer, before finally glancing at each other. Volumes of information passed wordlessly between them.
“We want you too,” said Roman, folding his arms.
I squinted back at them, still unsure. “Wait, what?”
“Oh holy Moses,” chuckled Zane. “Really?” He shook his head with a smile. “We’re asking you to move in with us.”
Fifty-Seven
