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I wasn’t letting him go. “I love that you didn’t play with my mind when we first met. You asked me out. You told me you were interested in me. You laid it all out between us. I love you because you crashed two of my dates. I love you because you know how I love being pressed against things and being trapped, but how I only love it because it’s you who’s doing it. I love that you like sleeping under the stars, because it’s one of my favorite things to do too. I love that you drove me around to see Halloween decorations. That you took me to goat yoga. That we slow danced in the middle of a group of bikers.”
Some vehicles were approaching, then slowing down to park.
Doors opened and closed. Heavy footsteps thudded on the pavement.
I touched his cheek, pulling his head back so he could see me, only me. “I love how much you love your nieces and nephews, and now that you’ve met Will’s children, you love them just as much. How you’ve kept tabs on your family members. How you continue to support them even though they have no idea about it.”
There were voices talking.
I ignored them all because I hadn’t gotten all of my Brett back. There was a feeling, a warmth that wasn’t full blast yet. I didn’t have my sunshine in my hand, not all of it.
He was close. So close.
He tensed, fighting against himself. His hands were rock hard. His stomach was a cement wall. He was breathing harshly. His hand moved to grab onto me, curling around my back, half splayed down over my ass.
“I overheard your phone call the other day. I know you’re setting up a scholarship so Stevie can go to some rich private high school. I didn’t mean to overhear, but I was walking past and your office door was open. And your voice carries.” I readjusted my arms around him, moving higher around his neck, and I pressed my forehead to his chest, speaking, “I know that’s not the first scholarship you’ve set up and it won’t be the last. You seem to have absolutely no idea, but you are a good person. Present day. Now. Today. You are not who you were back then. You might’ve almost slipped tonight, but I’m here and I am not letting you go. You got that? I’m not letting you go. You had one job back then and it was to survive. Which you did. Congratulations, but you’re not that person anymore. Your twin isn’t here. You got out and Stevie will too, but not at the expense of me losing you. Are you getting what I’m saying? You do something stupid and I’m doing it with you. I’m right there with you. Where you go, I go.”
“Billie,” he murmured.
That was my Brett. He was back.
Relief started to trickle in.
My hands remained on his arms. His slid to my hips, as he straightened.
“You want the ugly truth?” I asked, studying him. At his brief nod, I said it, “I don’t give one fuck what you’ve done in the past. I. Don’t. Care. The only thing I care about is what you’re planning on doing or not doing right now because you’re mine. You’re my future. Nothing and no one is going to take that away, including you. So get that shit out of your head because I need you.”
He flinched, and he started to step all the way back.
I held onto him. “No one in your family could scare me.” One day I’d have to tell him why that was the case. Today wasn’t that day.
He stared down at me, his eyes darkening and deep emotion showed as he cupped the side of my face, so gently. “Thank you.”
I clasped his hand, one last time, before I let him go.
It was time to handle his sister.
63
BILLIE
We flew back to Texas two days later. Brett missed an extra day of practice and he’d be fined. He’d pay the fine. Nothing and no one would’ve and could’ve pulled him from California with his family. After Brett stepped back from me that night on the picnic table, the exchange had been heated between his sister and him.
The guy too.
But Brett hadn’t used that baseball bat he brought with him. Whether that was because of what I said, because those extra vehicles that showed up had been other bounty hunters coming in as backup, or because two police squad cars showed up not long after, I didn’t know.
He just hadn’t picked up that baseball bat and that’s what I cared about.
They parked in the middle of the street. We were on one side of the street and Shannon and her boyfriend were on the other. We found out later that not only Will and Harmony spent the entire day with a counselor, but she called in a detective she trusted. With Stevie’s accounts, her own testimony, and with enough other evidence and testimony that came together fast, they were able to move fast in bringing charges against Shannon and against her boyfriend.
Shannon thought the cops were there to protect them, so when the cuffs were pulled out, I pulled my phone out to record it all. I never wanted to forget the look on her face when they started reciting their Miranda rights.
They were taken away, one in each squad car, but more cops showed up because when they went through their house, they found another kid inside. A little boy, the son of Shannon’s boyfriend. Shannon was charged with being a part of the drug dealing business since it happened under her roof, but there were more charges.
A lot more.
I didn’t even understand them all.
