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“Well, wrap it up; we need to be talking to him down at the station now,” one of the cops said.
“Of course, officer,” Varg said, leading Ragnar back to the van.
“Meet me at my place,” Seth said, as I started up the engine
We watched in the side-view mirror as Keith was cuffed and put into the back of one of the cars.
I was so glad we had gotten here when we did, and thwarted whatever plan he had to hurt Holly yet again.
I could only hope that this would finally deter him for good.
Chapter Fourteen – Holly
The suspense and the waiting were like torture, flipping back and forth between feelings of love and hate. Love for Stig and wanting to see him soon. Hate for Keith, for being such a vicious goon.
I had two men in my life, one by choice and the other by force. One I wanted in my bed, and the other I wanted in the clink or the morgue. Anything to not have to be afraid anymore.
“Calm down, they’ll be here any time now,” Jonna told me, likely sensing my anxiety from my pacing, even though I hadn’t said anything.
“How soon is that?” I asked her.
Jonna just rolled her eyes, little Magnus going to town on his bottle.
I tried not to focus on him, avoiding the thought of my own growing baby inside me until I knew everything was okay.
“Would you like to hold him?” she asked me, forcing me to think about him, anyway.
He was so damn cute that I couldn’t resist.
“Yes.”
Jonna showed me how to hold Magnus, my own experience scanty at best, and I held the bottle as he continued to suck away, his eyes closed in concentration.
“He likes you,” she remarked. That’s the same way he looks at Seth.”
I thought that it was more that he liked the milk and didn’t seem to care who was helping him drink it. I didn’t say that, though. My maternal instincts were next to nil, but I could learn. With Stig helping me, it felt like I could do anything.
“Speak of the devil.”
“Hey, I’m no devil,” Seth objected.
“How did it go?” Jonna asked.
“Keith’s been arrested, so you don’t have to worry anymore, Holly. He’s gone.”
“Hey,” Jonna said, hugging me as my stained white tears fell on Magnus’s onesie.
“They’re happy tears,” I said, “I promise.”
“I haven’t even told you the other news,” Seth said.
“Other news?”
Could it be that Stig was back?
No, it could be anything like that, I told myself. Life was never so perfect, least of all for me. No way would Keith be arrested the same day that Stig was returned to me. Yet there he was, walking in with a sheepish grin on his handsome face.
Jonna took Magnus back as Stig approached. Words were only a distraction from what needed to be done. Holding out a hand, he helped me to my feet, and we kissed for what felt like forever.
Seth and Jonna vanished deeper into the house, leaving us to our reunion. It wasn’t any easier for Stig than it was for me, by the looks of things.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, pulling me close and hugging me tightly to his chest. “I had to take off. Back to Norway for a bit.”
“Why?”
“My brother, he needed me.”
“Was he dying?”
“No. But remember when I told you they locked him up for something he didn’t do? I knew he hadn’t done it because he was with me when it happened. They wouldn’t listen to me then, but there was a break in his case, and they had to listen to me now. It was an emergency appeal, so I had to rush there in time to testify.”
“Did it work?”
“Yes.”
“Good. That’s a relief.”
“I’m sorry about Keith,” he said. “I should have been here, should have protected you.”
“What could you have done, and what would it have accomplished? I thought I’d lost you, and I never want to feel that again. No matter what happens.”
“Understood. I won’t have to do anything, anyway. The cops are really on him now and, well, Varg and Ragnar made themselves quite clear as well.”
“The whole band defended my honor?”
“Of course. They were there when I went to see you and Keith was at the front door. They’d confronted him when Seth showed up with the cops. He has some friends in high places.”
I’d never felt so loved. Everyone was coming to my defense. The cops had to, of course, but Seth and Stig’s bandmates didn’t. Just like Jonna and Stephanie didn’t have to help me.
Keith was wrong. He wasn’t the only one who cared about me.
“Want to go home?” Stig asked me.
My spine stiffened. I had a vision of Keith at my door, which was too clear in my mind, even with him gone. He’d played that trick before.
“To my place,” Stig clarified.
