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“Lyric!” Holton bellowed, fear raspy in his voice. “I’m okay!” I shouted in return, then started in that direction, only to pull up short and spin back around. Avoiding the gun, I yanked Ms. Gates into a sideways hug, squeezing her tightly.
“Thank you,” I whispered, fresh tears making my voice watery. “I don’t know why you did it, but thank you for everything.” I sniffled and continued to hold her for another few seconds. “I know you’ll probably hate this, but I don’t care. We’re very good friends now.”
She snorted and rolled her eyes, that haughty attitude still firmly in place, but I could see the cracks forming and the smile she was struggling to hide behind it. “I guess I’ll have to live with that. Just as long as you keep your word from earlier.”
I’d expected nothing less.
With a smile, I turned and started jogging toward the doors, pausing to look over my shoulder when she called my name. What I saw stole my breath. Her expression was soft, almost sad as she told me, “I did it because I recognize a monster when I see one. But also, because I recognize a survivor as well.”
This woman had more layers than I knew. There were sides of her no one in town saw, but I felt a kinship to her that I knew was never going to go away. We were bonded. If she wanted to continue to battle over books, I’d be the opponent she needed, but at the end of the day, I was determined to be her friend as well. She’d just have to deal.
I threw the lock and yanked the door open to Holt and Hernandez. Both had their guns drawn and were braced as though they were about to kick the door in.
As soon as he saw me, Holt’s shoulders drooped in relief. He shoved his gun back into his holster and snatched me up, burying his face in my neck as Hernandez moved past us into the library. He held me so tight it was difficult to breathe, but I didn’t say anything. I let him have this moment, holding him back to reassure him I was still here and I was okay.
“Christ, Dove. I was so fucking scared.”
“It’s over.” I whispered. “My father’s inside. Knocked out cold.”
He pulled back to look down at me with a bemused frown. “What the hell happened in there?”
“It’s a long story, but you aren’t going tobelievewho saved me.”
A voice rang out loudly just then. “Don’t you speak to me in that tone, Deputy Hernandez. I’m not a child. And I’ll have you know, I’ve known how to use a gun since before you were born.”
Holton’s eyes bugged out as I began to giggle uncontrollably. “Fuck me. Was that Janine Gates?”
I nodded gleefully. “Sure was. And you’re going to lose it when I tell you what she did.”
But that could wait until later, because all I wanted to do at that very second was stand in my man’s arms and kiss him like there was no tomorrow.
Even though I already knew there would be. Because as long as we had each other, we could make it through anything.
Epilogue
HOLTON
Three WeeksLater
I leanedagainst the side of my truck, arms folded over my chest, my boots crossed at the ankles, as I watched the doors to the library, waiting for Lyric’s book club to come to an end.
I wasn’t picking her up to keep her safe, now that the threat was gone, but because it was family dinner at my parents’ place, and we were heading there right after this.
She’d been right when she told me I wasn’t going to believe what had gone down during those minutes when I hadn’t been able to get hold of her. Those minutes had managed to shave a good decade off the end of my life, but in the end, everything had worked out.
I still struggled to believe cantankerous old Janine Gates had beaten a hardened criminal unconscious with abook, but Lyric swore that was exactly what had happened. When Boyd Jackson finally regained consciousness, he’d done so with his hands cuffed behind his back and bars obstructing his view. His parole officer had beenpissedwhen he found out everything that had gone down, so it went without saying that by the time he got out of prison after this go-round—if that day ever came, that was—he’d be too goddamn old to pull this kind of shit again.
With the question of who had trashed her house answered and the threat neutralized, Lyric bounced back instantly. I’d asked if she wanted to reach out to her mother for some type of closure, but she insisted it wasn’t necessary, that she’d made her own closure with her and had no desire to revisit the past.
I, on the other hand, was far too curious. I looked into things from a distance, just enough to discover that she’d drained her bank account to pay for the PI her husband had ordered her to hire to track Lyric down. Her house was in foreclosure and her car had been repossessed. She literally had nothing, and as hard as I searched, I couldn’t find a single piece of me that felt bad for her. She’d made her choices, as wrong as they were, and she had to live with the consequences.
The door opened then and a steady stream of women came trickling out, half of them wobbly and leaning on one another.
I chuckled, not surprised in the least. Lyric’s book club took their drinking very seriously.
Churro let out a happy little yap when she spotted Lyric skipping down the front steps, and danced in place, staring out from the window I’d rolled down for her.
My girl spotted me and waved, smiling and picking up the pace like she hadn’t seen me in a week. The second she was close enough, she gave a little hop, and I caught her midair, gripping her delicious ass in my hands as she wrapped her legs around my waist and planted a hard, smacking kiss to my lips.
