I sighed and stood up, hating myself for a second when every muscle in my body seemed to protest the move.
“I’m getting too old for gunfights,” I mumbled as I creaked my way to standing.
Turner wrapped her arms around my belly and squeezed lightly.
“You scare the hell out of me sometimes, Castiel.”
I squeezed her back as I said, “I don’t try to, baby.”
She let me go and started to tug me to the room that Liner had stowed my family in but stopped when I felt something buzz in between us.
Her phone.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” she sighed as she showed me her phone. “Bud is calling me. He must’ve heard.”
I nodded once, then leaned forward to drop a kiss onto her mouth.
“Love you.”
Her eyes lit up all over again.
“I love you, too.”
Leaving her there was hard, but as she urgently tried to reassure Bud that she was okay, I realized that she needed a few minutes to convince him, otherwise we’d have a pissed off special operations military member on our doorstep seeking retribution.
“Make sure you tell him the guy’s dead as a doornail,” I called out as I left the room.
I heard her laughter as she said, “Yes, Bud. He’s really dead. As fuck.”
I had a grin on my face that fell away quickly when I got a load of the roomful of family that had taken up Liner’s couch and loveseat.
I looked over to find no Liner in sight, but I could hear him talking to someone in the other room.
Thinking he was on the phone, I didn’t bother to look into the kitchen as I made my way to the front room where he’d stowed my family.
I found them all sitting on various couches and stopped, waiting.
“We’re assholes!” my sister declared. “Big, fat, ugly assholes!”
I looked over at my sister and shook my head.
“For once in my life, I’m going to agree with you.”
It took another hour of not just me, but Turner as well, convincing them that we were okay for them to finally leave.
And when I looked over at Turner, who was now smiling, I realized that she’d forgiven them for their assholery.
“I like them,” she sighed. “I’m not sure what happened the other day…but I’m willing to forgive and forget.”
I shook my head and caught her hand.
“Come on,” I said as I led her to the kitchen. “I need a glass of water. My mouth tastes like I’ve been sucking on cotton.”
She followed closely by my side as we made our way into the kitchen.
But when we breached the entranceway, everything in me froze.
I looked up to find a woman that never should’ve been in his house in the first place sitting at Liner’s bar, looking like a scared little bird.
“Tara,” I gasped.
“Not Tara,” Liner said instantly. “Her sister, Theodora.”
I looked over at the woman, trying to see the difference, and couldn’t.
But when she opened her mouth and then her eyes, and I got my first good look at her eyes—which were the only thing different about this girl from Tara—I realized that he was telling the truth.
“What in the actual fuck, Liner?”
Liner shook his head. “Long fucking story, bro. Long fucking story.”EpilogueShuh. Duh. Fuh. Cup.
-Coffee Cup
Turner
6 months later
Jubilee looked at me like I was crazy.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“We’re going to break into someone’s house,” I said.
“What?” Her voice rose in pitch. “Why?”
“Because that woman is a fucking psycho, and I need to do something about it before it gets out of hand.”
“And what are you going to do to fix her psycho?” she questioned.
“We’re going to get on her computer and block me. Block him. Block you. Block the hospital so she doesn’t know when he visits.” I paused. “Hopefully she doesn’t figure it out.”
Because my man was now known as the ‘Hot Cop of Bear Bottom’ and was known everywhere he went.
And his ex-wife, who was a slutty whore McAssbag, loved the attention. She’d take it anywhere she could get it, even going as far as to allow him to the hospital to see his nephew any time he wanted. As long as she could be there.
And a lot of times she was.
At least, she was once she got wind of it.
And she was never mad to see him there, either.
It sucked. I hated it. And I hated her.
So it needed to stop.
She blinked, then shook her head. “That won’t work.”
I didn’t care.
“We can’t break into the governor’s daughter’s mansion,” she insisted.
I looked at her over my shoulder.
“It’s happening whether you want to do it or not,” I informed her. “It seriously needs to be fixed. I can’t marry this man and have her in my life making it a living hell. She literally found out that we were getting married, and all of a sudden, she’s popped up again, asking him to go with her to pull the plug on the nephew. Let’s not forget that she showed up the moment she found out about my stalker and how Castiel saved me. I’m just…over it. I want her to go away.”