“I do know, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to keep you safe. Be mad about it all you want, but you bring out all of my caveman protective instincts.”
“As long as you know that I’ll protect you too.”
“I look forward to it, sweetheart and I mean that.” A lightness spread across my shoulders, and I smiled. It felt good to stop fighting with myself, to own who I was.
As soon as we got to Ashby Manor, Vanessa disappeared with Maisie and Kat, while I debriefed Jasper, Sadie and Terry on what went down.
“It’s a good thing you called the Reckless Bastards or else we’d be dead right now.”
Sadie grinned. “Good friends are hard to find.”
“Fucking Brendan Rhymer and those bullshit bikers. It’s time to end this. To end him.”
Jasper looked furious and I knew he meant what he said. Brendan had come to Vanessa’s home, scared her, and he’d killed Fiona. He had to pay.
“I’m here,” I told him. “Whatever you need, man, I’m here.”
My words shocked them all but no one said a thing. They just smiled. Glad I was finally owning up to being the man I realized I was always meant to be.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Vanessa
Ever since those bikers chased us down the highway, Jasper and Sadie had put extra security everywhere. Sadie stationed more men with guns at the gates to enter Ashby Manor, which I expected. The card games still happened every Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, only now each player had an escort into the room by an armed guard and then the same guard made sure they arrived safely at their waiting vehicles. It was crazy since most of these people arrived with their own security detail that waited outside the building until the game was over. But Jasper wasn’t taking any chances with anyone but his own people.
Never in my life had I been surrounded by so many guns, and I grew up in the Midwest where people collected guns for fun, hunted with them, and many had served in the military. It was a stressful time for everyone. The air crackled with anxiety as we waited to see what would happen next.
“You’re quiet tonight.” Evan glanced at me from the driver’s seat of his car as he drove me to Ashby Manor. Sadie had moved me back in more than a week ago, and this time I didn’t argue.
“Just thinking,” I told him honestly because it was hard to stop thinking when a girl had to look over her shoulder any time she stepped outdoors.
“About anything in particular? Or anyone?” Evan wiggled his dark brows suggestively. “You can tell me; I won’t tell anyone.”
A loud laugh erupted at his words. “You won’t tell anyone except Hulu, Mace and Provo?”
Evan shrugged. “Maybe Emmett, but I have a feeling he knows all about what’s on your mind. Hot and dirty monkey sex, perhaps?”
“What in the hell is monkey sex?”
“You know, wild. Primitive. The kind of sex that makes you do wickedly dirty things that you don’t even feel weird about the next day. It’s white hot and straight up animalistic.”
I shivered thinking about all the dirty things Emmett had done to me, had let me do to him. Primal was a good way to describe some of those things, so was animalistic. “Never heard it called monkey sex before, but I approve.”
Evan laughed. “That’s ‘cause you know the power of monkey sex. It’ll have you agreeing to crazy shit like antiquing and watching reality TV.”
He shook his head like he really just couldn’t believe he was doing that stuff, and for a woman, no less. “Crazy, right?”
“Totally. Those are the things we do for love. Or monkey sex.”
Evan nodded thoughtfully but said nothing more until we drove through the gates of the big compound that housed the Ashby family.
“If you need to make another trip to your place, let me know. We’ve been keeping an eye on it for you.”
“Thanks. Why are you being so nice to me? Is it because I was shot at and beat up?”
I laughed, but a small part of me wondered if that was the reason.
Evan turned to me with a skeptical grin. “Honestly? That’s part of it, sure. But it’s not your fault that Fiona is gone, and it was a dick move to treat you like it was.”
“It was,” I agreed easily, “but I understand. Grief can make you crazy in ways you never imagined.”
“Thanks.” His lips twisted in amusement.
“And thank you for the ride. Again.”
“No problem.” There was that twitch of his lips again.
The Ashby house was unusually quiet, even at this late hour. I hurried up to my room, well technically our room since Emmett and I had been sharing a bed for the past week. And it was pure bliss, falling asleep with his big arms around me, exhausted with pleasure. Waking up with his lips on my mouth or my body.