What if, what if, what if.
Hell, there were a thousand what-ifs, but only one came back to my mind time and time again.
What if something else happened, and I was taken away? Or she was?
Needless to say, I wanted to officially ask her to marry me again.
I wanted to move in together.
I wanted to do a lot of things with her, the majority of those making sure that she was at my side a hundred percent of the way.
So, first thing first, I would ask her to marry me again.
Second, I needed to tell my parents that I was alive.
Third, I needed to figure out my job situation.
I was no longer who I thought I was, so all of my paperwork would have to be redone.
I’d also need to figure out my living situation, make sure to pay back all of the money that I’d been using off of Malachi’s accounts, and a few other important things where it came to my friend.
When that was done, I’d like to continue the job that I was doing.
I enjoyed it.
Lastly… I needed to stop being a bitch and make sure that I stopped living my life in the shadows.
I had nothing to be embarrassed about, and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t pull Frankie into those shadows with me.
With my mind so occupied on what I needed to do and get done, I wasn’t paying attention to how close I was to the house until the steps were almost directly in front of me.
Shaking my head at my scattered thoughts, I took the steps two at a time and made my way to the bedroom where I took a quick shower.
It was as I was stepping into my underwear in the middle of the bedroom where Frankie was still sleeping that I heard it.
A pounding, insistent knock.
Glass crashed and I went from curious to very alert in about three seconds flat.
Frankie was lifting her head groggily from the pillow when I stood up straight, gun in my hand, and found myself facing six black-clad figures with their guns trained directly at me.
“Police, drop your weapon!”
***
I didn’t know what to do.
I had no allies here.
No friends. No nothing.
What I had was a damning murder, a terrified fiancée, and the possibility of actually seeing jail time.
I needed someone in my corner. In Frankie’s corner.
Now.Chapter 19When your day is going really well and you don’t trust it.
-The Fuckening
Frankie
I went to sleep with the house empty, and my heart feeling ravaged.
The entire day had been filled with confusion, threats, and runarounds.
I woke up with it still feeling ravaged, but my house no longer empty.
I’d been racking my brain the night before, trying to figure out just how in the hell I was going to be able to hack staying in town. The vacation house, I’d found out, was rented out for the next week, so I couldn’t even pay to stay there. In fact, everywhere that I’d called the night before had no vacancies.
Damn the summer’s popularity.
I’d never once thought to call my father—or even Luca’s parents, though.
My mind had just been in a whirlwind of chaos as I tried to process everything that had gone on.
The voice, though?
They were much different from the ones I’d woken up to yesterday morning.
Heart in my throat, I threw on some shorts and hurried into the other room.
The first person that I saw when I made my way out to the kitchen was my dad.
The second was Gabe.
I wiped my eyes as I stared at all of them staring at me.
Surprisingly, it was Ember that came up to me and pulled me into a hug.
“It’s okay, baby,” Ember said, pulling me in so tight that I couldn’t help but burst into tears.
“I’m sorry,” I cried.
Ember was pressing her face to mine and saying, “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Over and over again.
I sniffled and pulled back.
“I didn’t… I didn’t even think to call you yesterday,” I whispered. “And I’m sorry for not telling you…”
She was shaking her head as she wiped away my tears.
“Let’s not worry about that now,” she said. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk about it later.”
We would.
Hopefully.
I licked my lips and looked at Gabe.
He didn’t look upset with me either.
Even though they had every right to be.
“We already have Janie, Jack, and Winter working on this,” Gabe said from his spot at the table. Papers were spread out in front of him as he absently tapped a pencil against the table, allowing his finger to run over the mouse pad of the computer. “Janie got back to me a few minutes ago with a basic background check on the two men. Tober—Toby—Cromwell, your teacher, has been lying to everyone for a while. That ‘brother’ of his isn’t actually his brother. It’s his son.”
I blinked.