Page 44 of Vengeance (Ruthless MC 4)
I am, however, grateful that she packed up all of B2’s things in anticipation of this being his last day. But then, instead of just letting me go with a good-bye, the slightly taller witch gathers me into her arms.
“I want you to know that B2 has my protection spell over him, just like Olivia. That means, whatever happened between you and Olivia, it happened for a good reason. And whatever happens next on your fated path, everything’s going to be all right, wherever life takes the two of you.”
“I know that,” I assure her. Not because I believe in her witchcraft or anything like that, but because…“I’ll make sure of it,” I tell her with a confident smile.
Yes, I’ll make a new five-year plan, and everything will be all right, I promise myself as I head with B2 in the back seat toward our apartment in Louisville.
Doctors are in high demand right now. And no, I don’t really want to work at a big hospital or another city-based clinic. But maybe I can find a smaller practice.
See, I have choices. This—this is why it was so important for me to stay debt-free and only depend on myself. And you know, refuse to be crazy.
The phone buzzes with a new call, interrupting my mental pep talk. And I curse when I see it’s Dennis.
I totally forgot that he was supposed to be picking B2 and me up for a date—I glance at the Camry’s dash clock—fifteen minutes ago. Crap! Crap! Crap!
“I’m so, so sorry,” I say as soon as I accept the call.
“It’s okay. I didn’t know your situation before I stopped by your place.” He sounds weird. Like he’s low-key freaking out but trying and failing to keep it from showing in his voice. “I get it, though. I totally understand. I mean, it’s a little unorthodox, but like you were telling me about Morehouse, morals are a fluid and subjective thing that have to change with the times. I’m not going to judge.”
I scrunch my brow. Okay, quitting without notice isn’t necessarily nice, but immoral?
Whatever. I need to focus on making a new plan for my career life anyway, so I just tell him, “I’ll give you a call when I’ve got this all figured out.”
“No need, sis. No need at all,” he says. “You do you. I’m not looking for any drama. I’m just a simple guy, you know, so…have a nice life. I wish you the best.”
“Thank you?” I have no idea how else to respond to him suddenly recasting me as dramatic because I quit.
“Well, I called off the date,” he says loudly. “So, bye.”
“Bye, Dennis, and I’m sorry fo—”
He hangs up before I can finish.
Okay, that was weird and borderline rude. But it’s probably for the best I decide ten minutes later when I pull up in front of the attached brick condo I bought outright with the money I made from selling my house in Tennessee. I’ll have to scuttle that Possible Husband? section until I’m settled into a new job anyway. I climb out of the car and open the door to get B2 out of his car seat.
But instead of trying to help me unlatch his buckle, as he so often does, B2 points over my shoulder and toddler screams, “Bic mahn!”
I screw up my face as I run his syllables through my toddlerese translator. It sounds like he’s trying to say big man? But why would he?
For the second time that day, the penny drops. Along with my stomach. And I suddenly know why Dennis was acting so strange on the phone.
Even before I straighten out of my car seat hunch and turn around.
Sure enough, I come face to chest with someone wearing a Reaper's vest with a SGT. AT ARMS patch over a white T-shirt.
“Bic mahn!” B2 cries excitedly again behind me as I look up, way up, to see his father.
CHAPTER 21
HYENA
She wakes up the same way she did two and a half years ago. Inside the largest room of our two-story cabin, on top of its widest bed. There are some notable differences this time around, though.
She’s wearing the scrubs, not a pair of Rydell sweats. Since it’s summer, she’s lying underneath a thin blanket, not a down comforter. And there’s no view. Blackout curtains have been pulled across the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Also, we didn’t have to chloroform her. Des-E was fully prepared to do that if she fought him. But according to him, she just did exactly as he told her—climbed into the back seat next to our kid and let him drive them in her car to meet us on the tarmac of the small field where Vampire and me were waiting with Griff’s plane.
Other than, “He needs to eat dinner,” she said absolutely nothing on the plane ride north and west.
