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“We can’t leave until Detective Anderson clears us.”
“I… I don’t want to go until after the funeral, I owe that to… her.”
“Weowe that to her, baby.” A tear escapes and slides down her cheek. “She saved our boy, we’ll be there to pay our respects.”
“Thank you.”
“Try get some sleep. We have a long ass day ahead of us and we need to be up in three hours.”
She reaches up and pulls my hand off her cheek and brings it to her lips placing a kiss on each knuckle before meeting my gaze again. “I love you with all my heart, Beckett Dawson.”
A grin spreads across my face. “I love you too, Valance Karver.” Love shines in her eyes at my words. “I think while we’re in Alaska we need to rectify the problem of your name.”
“Huh?”
Shooting her a wink as I say. “It’s about time you had the same last name as me and our son.” Her eyes widen to the size of dinner plates.
“D-did you just ask me to marry you?” she squeaks out, earning a laugh from me.
“Baby I’m not asking you shit, I’m telling you that youwillbe Mrs. Valance Dawson by the end of the year, you best believe that.”
Beckett
Three weeks later
“Where the fuck is he?” Darius shouts from across the penthouse. I come out of the spare room and growl in frustration.
“He isn’t fucking here!” I snap.
Crue and Saint both race down the stairs and shake their heads. “He isn’t up there,” Saint says.
“Fuck!” I growl out as I scrub a hand down my face. “Darius, you Saint and Crue head to the church.”
“Where the fuck are you going?” Crue asks as I grab my suit jacket off the back of the couch where mine, Val and Dawson’s bags are all lined up for our flight in the morning. The guys and the girls were shocked by the news when I told them three weeks ago, but they all understood our reasoning and supported our choice, as long as we don’t elope and invited them all to the wedding. We got the all-clear from Anderson four days ago and I booked our tickets that night. All we waited on was today, the day we lay Cody Sutton to rest.
“I’m going to pick your girl up so she can track his fucking phone,” I answer.
“Wait, I’m coming with you,” D calls out as we make our way toward the elevator of the penthouse. We’ve been given the all-clear to return to our house, but none of us wants to go back there. Corvin can’t even spend a day sober so we all know he isn’t ready to go back and face that shitshow. He’s been spiraling for weeks and won’t let any of us help him, he’s not going to practice or even keeping up with school. He’s just checked out completely.
* * *
Darius and I swing by the dorm to pick Katie up, she already has the location up on her phone and rattles off where to go. I white knuckle the steering wheel, frustrated. I knew this would be hard for him but sneaking out the night before the funeral was just reckless. Everyone has been taking Cody’s loss fucking hard. Leah and Katie both have been withdrawn and chosen to take their classes online for the remainder of the semester. Katie moved back to the dorm she shared with Cody much to Saint and Crue’s dismay. Darius is even considering taking Leah to Chicago for a couple months so he can get a head start in learning the ropes at HQ, he’s supposed to head there at the end of the year. He and I both dropped out of the football team last week. Coach was fucking livid but given the news of what happened, he couldn’t really argue.
“Remind me again why the hell we are driving around trying to find the man-child?” Katie snarks from the backseat, it’s no secret she isn’t Corvin’s biggest fan after breaking her best friend’s heart.
“Because he needs to be there to say goodbye to her,” I answer. Katie scoffs.
“Take a right then the first left, it says he’s at some motel.” I cringe, I don’t even want to think about what or who he is doing at the motel. We pull into the carpark and I scrunch my face. It’s a fucking dive alright, it looks like one of those motels you pay by the hour for. Katie tells me which room he’s in and sure enough, his car is parked out front of room 203. I park the car and step out, Darius following my lead toward the room. I bang on the door loud enough to cause a disturbance.
“Corvin!” I shout as I continue to pound on the door. I’m about to give up and kick it in when it flies open and a tiny, raven-haired girl with bright blue eyes stands before me with a worried look on her face.
“Alexa?” I turn to see Katie behind us with a horrified look on her face as she stares at the girl.
“Fuck,” the girl grits out as she shoulders past me and stops a step in front of Katie. “Not a fucking word, I made her a promise and I don’t plan on breaking it. He’ll fucking pay for what he did.” Katie stands there stunned and says nothing as the girl races across the lot and climbs into a beaten-up Honda and speeds away. I duck my head back into the room to see Corvin sitting on the edge of the bed with his face clasped between his hands. I shake off the odd encounter with Katie and the random, just nod to Darius to help me get Corvin’s up and in the shower.
* * *
We make it to the church with minutes to spare. Corv grumbles as I drag his ass out of the car, luckily Darius thought to bring his suit with us or else he’d be attending this funeral in flip flops and his vomit-covered shirt from last night. Katie shoots Corv a disgusted look before she stomps away from us to take her place inside. I drag Corvin’s still, drunk ass into the church. It’s packed, the three of us have no choice but to stand in the back. I spot the top of Val’s auburn hair up at the front, and my shoulders sag in relief. Each time she is out of my sight I get fucking anxiety and worry myself sick. Our flight tomorrow can’t come soon enough.
