Page 87 of Slow Burn


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He was on me in an instant, falling down to his knees and scooping me into his lap. “Shh, it’s okay,” he crooned as my body drained completely. I started shaking uncontrollably, a sob ripping from my chest as I clung to him with all the strength I had left and buried my face in his neck. It was over. He’d found me. “I’ve got you, baby. You’re safe now.”

The knowledge of that seemed to make my tears worse, and as I hiccupped and sobbed against him, I heard him tell someone, “Okay,nowyou can call in law enforcement.”

Laeth

Holton stoodin the middle of the cabin, hands braced on his hips, head shaking back and forth. “Jesus Christ,” he drew out slowly. “You really know how to make a fuckin’ mess, Harker.”

I remained in the threshold, the perfect position to see inside the cabin as well as outside at where Deva sat in the opened back of an ambulance as paramedics checked her over, a blanket wrapped tightly around her. It had taken her a few minutes to compose herself, but once she stopped crying and shaking, I’d lifted her in my arms and carried her back to the cabin so we could wait for the sheriff’s department to arrive.

She hadn’t said much as we waited, she simply leaned into me, giving me all her weight and trusting me to keep her safe.

Now the forest was filled with blue and red lights from the cruisers that dotted the property around us.

“Wasn’t me,” I said with no small hint of pride in my voice. “We found it like this when we arrived. She got herself out.”

Holton’s eyes shot to mine, surprise flashing in them. “Well, I’ll be damned.” He turned to watch a battered Sherman Oakes being carted out on a gurney, his wrist cuffed to the railing. The body of Agnes Oakes had already been bagged and hauled out. “Well good for her.”

“Now, the body of Mathias Oakes in the woods about five-hundred yards from here, thatwasme,” I confessed, not the least bit repentant. His wasn’t the first life I’d taken, but unlike all the rest, I wasn’t going to lose a moment of sleep over that sick, twisted motherfucker. He could rot in hell for all I cared.

Holton let out a sigh as he turned his head to the door, looking outside. “She gonna be okay?”

I nodded once. “She will be.” Because she was the strongest person I knew. And because I’d make goddamn sure of it.

“All right. Go ahead and get her the hell out of here. I’ll take her statement tomorrow. Let her get some rest today.”

I didn’t have to be told twice. I turned and stomped down the porch steps, moving straight to my woman, knowing in my heart that as soon as I could get her home with me and our boy, she’d begin to heal.

Chapter

Thirty-Five

DEVA

I sat curledin the corner of the couch as the commotion of everyone buzzed all around me, but I didn’t care about any of it. All I cared about was the little boy asleep in my lap. I stared at Cash’s serene face as I sifted my fingers through his dark hair. He was keeping me grounded through all the chaos.

I’d been held by the Oakes’s for five hours. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t much time at all, but it had felt like an eternity. As soon as we’d returned home, I’d stripped naked, throwing my clothes in the bathroom wastebasket instead of the hamper, and climbed into the shower.

I’d been standing under the scalding spray long enough for the tips of my fingers to prune when the glass door to the shower stall opened and Laeth stepped in behind me. He hadn’t said a word as he grabbed my loofa, squeezed a generous amount of bodywash onto it, and began to gently scrub the nightmares of the day off my body.

A few tears leaked from my eyes, getting lost in the water, as he moved onto my hair next, taking time and great care to massage the shampoo into my scalp, making sure to wash away every leaf and stick and piece of dirt from the forest floor.

Neither of us said a word the whole time, but I fell more in love with him when he shut off the water and carried me out of the shower, depositing me on the bathmat so he could tenderly dry my body.

Only then did he break the silence. “I love you,” he said in that deep, raspy voice that made everything better. “I love you more than words can describe, and I’m going to make sure you get through this.”

That was all I needed to hear. I’d smiled up at him, feeling all the frayed pieces of myself slowly knitting back together. “I know you will,” I’d said in a barely-there voice. “Just like I knew you’d find me. I never doubted it for a second.” He kissed me, pouring every ounce of passion and love he felt for me into it.

We’d been forced out of the bathroom by my friends and loved ones demanding they see for themselves that I was all right. That had been two hours ago. Now I sat on my couch, safe behind the door of my home, with my boy sleeping peacefully against me. And I knew I was going to be just fine.

“You gave us quite the scare today.”

I looked up from Cash, giving Myra a gentle smile as she lowered herself onto the cushion beside me. “I’d apologize, but it was kind of out of my control.”

She laughed, reaching over to take my hand in hers. “Well, it turned out all right in the end, so no worries, I suppose.”

“I love you.” The words fell from my lips. “If today taught me anything, it was that I shouldn’t waste a single moment before telling the people in my life how I feel about them, and that’s how I feel about you.” I shrugged a single shoulder. “I love you. I spent all my life wishing I had a mother, then some higher power put me in your path so I could have one. Laeth saved me today, but you saved me first. This beautiful life I have is because of you, Myra, and there won’t be a single moment in my life when I don’t remember that.”

A single tear broke free and slid down her cheek. She brushed it away with a sniffle, her grip on my hand strong and sure. “Well, darlin’, that’s what family does,” she said simply before rising to her feet. Then she leaned over me and placed a kiss on the crown of my head. “I love you too,” she said on a whisper. “And I thank that same higher power every single day for bringing my girl into my life.”

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