He walks in and Tristan takes a slow breath. “But seriously, don’t corner her and your best bet is to kind of work up to it. Little hints to let her know it’s coming, even if she doesn’t put the pieces together.”
“We will take care of her, Tristan,” I assure him.
“Oh, I know you will. I’ve never had to worry about someone wanting Valerie for the wrong reasons. She’s a whole lot of person.” He smiles gently. “You three might be the best possible people for her in the best way. I wish you luck.”
He shakes each of our hands and walks inside. We follow shortly after and I catch Valerie giving us suspicious looks. She doesn’t miss much. I’d be surprised if she doesn’t know what we’re up to already.
Once everyone leaves, she snuggles up with us, obviously exhausted. Chase strokes up her thigh and lifts her skirt. She kicks him lightly. “I’m too full right now, baby boy.”
“You just need to burn off a little. I can think of a few ways to do that.” He wiggles his eyebrows.
Valerie giggles and we spend the rest of the weekend distracting her. We go Christmas shopping together after black Friday, Hunter and Valerie talk about her paper, she practices presenting in front of us and gives Chase advice about how to push through some of his other ideas.
Pride radiates off her when she submits her paper.
One week later, she gets the news – She’s finally a doctor. Valerie squeals with delight, bouncing as Hunter tries to get her to stay in one place so he can safely hug her. I don’t know if we’ve ever seen her so excited.
Chase texts me, asking for the result. When I tell him, he says he’s on his way home, but I have a job tonight. Great.
I lavish Valerie with attention, making sure she knows how proud of her I am. Then deal with a mess and a half. Guns, knives, and even mace is involved. I take out everyone as quickly and quietly as possible, but find a gun pressed to my temple as I’m working on dragging the bodies out of the way and taking care of evidence.
“Move and it’s the last thing you do.”
I stand there obediently. Normally, I’d disarm, take the chance, and then move on with my life. Instead, my mind goes to Valerie. If something were to happen to me, anything life-threatening, she’d throw herself into the mess without hesitation. And I don’t want to take the chance of dying.
Not when I have a ring to give her, a ‘yes’ to hear, and a whole life to live with her. I’ve even considered retiring since Chase has assured me that would be an option and at least one of us should be out of the life once we marry her so she has some consistency. I’ll teach self-defense part-time and enjoy cooking for all of us.
“Good. Now, you’re going to be a good one and keep quiet. Come with me and explain all this shit or-”
“Sorry,” I say simply, grab the gun, hear it crack, but put a bullet where it belongs, which will ensure I have the future I want without police to worry about.
I check myself, don’t feel a bullet anywhere that’s bad, and head home after cleaning up any traces of my existence. While driving home, I feel a bit dizzy, but don’t worry about it. My random pattern home should shake any followers, but when I get out of the car, I notice I’m seeing red in one eye. I touch my head and hiss.
Maybe I can get inside before Valerie notices anything. The dizziness lingers, and gets worse. I bump in to the couch and stumble a bit. Just that gets Hunter’s attention. He curses. “Shit.”
“What?”
He leads me to the bathroom and shows me the long red streak from the temple back through my hair. I shrug. “Just a graze.”
“You’re lucky you have your eye, Lief.” Hunter huffs. He helps to bandage me, then has me strip. He looks at my thigh and motions to it. “What the hell? Are you losing your touch?”
“Five guys. I was warned about two. Saw three,” I say. “I’m alive.”
“And how many dead?”
Our eyes meet. “Six.”
“Six?”
“Last one was a surprise. Probably because of the mace.”
“Any idea who?”
“Angry businessmen hired someone they shouldn’t have,” Lief smirks. “they weren’t nearly good enough.”
“Chase is going to want answers when he and Valerie get back. I sent them off an hour ago when you weren’t back.”
“Why didn’t you go?”