Reveal (Wicked Ways #2)(105)

I laugh out loud at that. I can’t help myself.

“What’s going on in there? You’re laughing.” He pounds on the door, causing it to bow under his force. “Is someone else in there?”

Yep, he’s definitely losing it.

But I feel like I am too.

“No.” And then I moan loader.

Bang. Bang. Bang. “Open the door. I don’t care how sick you are.”

I grab hold of the top of the toilet tank cover and unlock the door seconds before hunching over with my back to Joey.

“Ooohhhhh,” I continue on, each time louder than the last.

He jiggles the door for the first time, probably thinking it has been open the whole time.

“Vaughn, are you okay?” I try not to jerk in repulsion at the feel of his hand on my back. At the sudden compassion in his deranged voice.

And then with a roar and with every ounce of effort I have left in my aching arms, I swing the lid of the toilet tank at Joey’s head.

There’s a huge sickening thud when I connect.

Joey crumples to the ground instantly.

I kick the gun from his hand and run down the hallway just as the police break through the front door.

And then I collapse on the floor.

The adrenaline gone.

The fight all fought out.





CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

Vaughn

“You’re a goddamn warrior is what you are.” Ryker’s smile is soft, his eyes still guarded as he turns me around and pulls me between his thighs so that my back is against his front.

The city’s lights are alive around us as we soak in his bathtub.

“A part of me is jealous that you got to take him out and I didn’t. I was having a pretty shitty day until then and could have used him to get my aggression out.”

“Mmm.” I lean my head back on his shoulder and close my eyes. “This has to be the oddest conversation ever had between a couple.”

“I told you we were far from the norm.” I can hear the smile in his voice when he says it.

“Very far.” I enjoy the feel of him and the total irony of how we are now versus how we spent our day. Almost as if it never happened. But I know. I’ll remember. And by the way his arms are wrapped around me, he does too.

“It was the shittiest of shitty days. Don’t you think?”

“Let’s see. You selling your business. A crazy senator. The deranged counselor. A meeting with the FBI to clear you of everything.” He shakes his head with a chuckle.

“Now we just need to find out what dirt Carter threatened me with, and we should be good.”

“It doesn’t matter what he had on you,” Ryker says, his lips pressed against the back of my head. “Your immunity deal has you protected from him saying anything.”

“I’d still like to know what he thought he—”

“It’s all taken care of.”

“What?” I startle and try to turn to look at him, but he just keeps me in place. “What do you—”

“There was some misfiled paperwork down at the Greenwich courthouse that Stuart found. Warrants for theft, I think.”

“It wasn’t—Sam took—”

“No explanations needed, Vaughn.” He presses a kiss to my bare shoulder. “None. It took a little finagling, but I was able to petition the prosecuting attorney to get the warrants dismissed. It’s nothing you need to worry about now.”

I close my eyes momentarily and wonder if this is what relief feels like. All my ghosts are gone. All my past protected against so I can have a future. And while a part of me wants to question Ryker on why he didn’t tell me any of this in the first place, I almost don’t care.

It’s done.

It’s over with.

It’s time to have and live a life for me now.

“Oh.” It’s all I can manage to say as the day hits me.

“Definitely the shittiest of shitty days,” he reiterates.

“But now we’re here,” I murmur.

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

“Lucy’s going to be heartbroken when Joey’s no longer at the facility,” I murmur, my mind on her.

“At least she’ll be with you soon. She won’t need him anyway.” He presses a kiss to the back of my head, his words a reminder that Lucy will officially be mine soon.

“The only non-shitty part of the day,” I murmur as my heart swells.

“Yes. Besides this, right now, of course.”

“Is it sad that a part of me was waiting for Brian to show up to profess his love for me too? I mean Carter, Joey . . . who else?”

“It’d be par for the course,” he murmurs.

“Not funny at all.” But there’s a smile on my lips. Who goes through the day I had and has a smile on their lips?

It’s because of Ryker.

“The only one allowed to profess their love for you, Vaughn Sanders, is me.”

I slide my fingers through his and cross both of our arms over my chest.

“I can agree to that.”

“You better.” Another press of a kiss to my shoulder. “Thank you for letting me take care of you.”

Those words are so softly spoken compared to the loud screams that filled the day. To Joey’s accusations when he came to. To the abusive words that Carter spewed. But Ryker’s words are the only ones I hear.