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That moment in time has the same feeling as this one. Being surrounded by the people I love most in this world, laughing and feeling like the weight of the world is so far away it almost doesn’t exist. It makes me want to freeze time, even just for a little bit, so I can memorize every single detail. I can’t tell you who else was in the house that night with my parents. I can’t even tell you the occasion for the party. I want more from this moment. I want to remember all of it, forever.
Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I lean back against the couch and snuggle into Riggs beside me. Shifting my gaze up to him, I release a deep breath and lay my head against his shoulder.
“You okay?” He brushes a piece of hair behind my ear and cups my chin softly. “You went somewhere in your head there.”
“Yeah, I’m okay. I just got a little lost wanting to hold onto this moment a little longer,” I confess, looking around the room at everyone talking. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a family quite like this, and I wanted to make sure that I remember every second of it.”
Riggs smiles at me, his love for me written plainly across his face. “I’ll make sure you remember it. Besides, our family is only going to grow from here.”
Looking down at my stomach, I place a soft hand over my growing bump then look back up at one of the men that owns my heart. “Yeah, it is. These babies are going to be pretty deeply loved, aren’t they?”
Riggs places a hand over mine, his face overwhelmed with affection. “They’re going to have so much love around them from the moment they’re born. They won’t know a single moment without it. Not when they have a strong, kind, loving mom like you and three crazy, protective, devoted dads always on their case.”
“These poor babies,” I joke, laughing to hide the tears of joy filling my eyes. “They’re going to suffocate under all that affection.”
Riggs sees my watery eyes despite my best efforts to hide them. Tilting my head back with a finger under my chin, he kisses me deeply. I sigh against his lips, soaking in the warmth radiating from him.
Pulling away from him, I turn my attention back to the room and notice it’s just Kate and Hayley at the TV now. Adam and Rhys seem to have disappeared somewhere into the house while I was focused on Hudson. Dot and Poppy have also not come back yet from their book browsing.
Checking the time, I realize it’s already after ten o’clock. The time really flew by tonight between the talking, eating, gaming, and that trip down memory lane. It’s no wonder my eyelids are starting to feel like cement.
“I’m going to run to the bathroom,” I tell Hudson, pulling away as I yawn obnoxiously. “Can you find the other two and see if they’re almost ready to go?”
“Of course, love. I’ll wrangle their asses and meet you at the front door,” he answers, drawing a smile out of me. “I love you, Lay.”
“I love you too, Big Guy.”
Riggs kisses my forehead and ushers me towards the bathroom before turning to head to the basement. My bladder is screaming at me by the time I get inside, giving me barely enough time to get my pants down before releasing itself.
My phone falls out of my sweater pocket as I wiggle back into my leggings, scarcely missing the unflushed toilet by an inch. Groaning, I flush the toilet and wash my hands then head back over to pick it up. My screen lights up before I get to it, a number I don’t recognize flashing across the screen.
My body reacts to the unknown caller, my palms going clammy and my breathing accelerating. Kevin is locked up, that part of my life is over. There’s no reason to fear my phone ringing anymore. I repeat the words in my head like I do every time I get a call I don’t know. It’s always something to do with the bar or a doctor’s appointment. Judging by the time, the former is far more plausible.
Answering the phone, I put on my confident, boss voice. “Hello?”
The other end of the phone is silent for a moment, the sound of passing cars in the background all I can hear. Repeatinghello, I wait a little bit longer for an answer. It’s probably a wrong number or a drunken miss dial.
Chuckling, I move my phone away from my ear to hang up, nearly dropping it when the person on the other end finally speaks.
“Alayna, Alayna, Alayna,” Kevin’s voice rasps through the speaker. “Did you really think you could get rid of me? ‘Cause you can’t. This isn’t over, little Layna. Oh no, it’s only begun. I’m coming for you. I’m coming for those fuckers you call your boyfriends. You will suffer,bitch! You’ll all fucking suffer before I gut you and use your insides as my fuck toy.”
The call ends after that, yet my hand doesn’t move to put down my phone. My body is paralyzed in fear. Tears fall silently down my cheeks for who knows how long. I need to tell someone, I need to tell my guys, but all I can do is stand here and break down.
A knock at the bathroom door jolts me out of my frozen state. I scream at the sudden loud noise, causing whoever is on the other side to burst through. Rhys runs into the room, his eyes immediately fixating on me and the phone I still have pressed to my ear.
“Baby, what’s going on?” he asks cautiously, walking towards me with slow, steady steps. “Are you okay? Who’s on the phone?”
Shaking my head no, I struggle to find the words to tell him. The moment I say the words aloud is the moment I shake our entire lives up again. This will destroy all of them like it’s slowly destroying me right now. I have to do it, though. Rhys, Riggs, and Adam need to know that the nightmare we fought so hard to get away from is back, and now, we have two innocent babies that could be stuck in the crossfire.
“It was Kevin,” I whisper, my voice shaking with every word. “He’s out. And he’s coming for us.”
Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Rhys
Ittakeseverythinginme not to lash out at the nearest inanimate object. Every call to Jarrod that goes straight to voicemail drives my anger higher and higher until I’m practically vibrating with anger. When I figure out where the fuck he is, I’m going to wring his fucking neck.
