Flynn watched Carina from across the room. Something was wrong. Her eyes were pinched, and her back was abnormally rigid.
“Thank you, dear.” Patricia took the warm mug of tea from Carina’s hands. “I might go have this in the sunroom.”
Carina smiled at his mother, but the smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Good idea. You go. I’ll finish these bagels and join you.”
Patricia touched her arm before slipping from the room. The sunroom was at the back of the house. The entire place was alarmed today. But even if it wasn’t, he would hear if there was someone on the property.
The second the room was empty, he rose from the table, moved up behind Carina, and slipped his arms around her waist. There was a tiny jolt from her small frame. Another sign something wasn’t right. “What’s wrong, honey?”
Her hands stilled, cream cheese only half covering the bagel in front of her. There was a small pause before she answered. “I don’t know.”
He applied some pressure on her hips, turning her, but she didn’t immediately look at him. With a finger under her chin, he tilted her head until their eyes met.
“Try to explain it to me.”
She blew out a long breath. “I just woke up with this pit in my stomach. Then when we stopped by my place, I looked out the window in my room. I saw Eadie Brown, and she had this look on her face…”
When Carina stopped, he took a half step closer, the hand on her chin slipping into her hair, holding the side of her head. “What kind of look?”
“I don’t know how to explain it. When I was staying at my house…every day since the twins went missing, she looked at me like she wanted to beat me over the head with a hammer or something.” Flynn’s limbs iced at those words. “But this morning, she didn’t look so angry. It was strange. And it kind of scared me even more.”
“You’re safe, Carina.”
“It’s not me I’m worried about.”
God, this woman annihilated him. Her fear made his chest ache. “Nothing is going to happen to you or me.”
She smiled again. Still, it wasn’t as wide as it should be. And he hated that.
He lowered his head and pressed a kiss to her lips. The kiss was gentle. A swipe of mouth against mouth. But almost immediately, he felt some of her tight muscles loosen.
When his head finally lifted, her lips tugged up. That was the expression he wanted from her. “Okay. Your kiss makes me feel a bit better.”
“Good. Maybe I should kiss you more, then.”
“You need to go check on your mom.”
“Mm. I should, shouldn’t I?” Another kiss. “Need any help here before I go?”
She shook her head.
“Don’t be long.”
Finally, he released her. It was so easy to lose himself when he held the woman. She brought him to his knees. Made him weak while also stronger than he’d ever felt in his life. How the hell that was possible, he had no idea.
At the door to the sunroom, he stopped. His mother sat in her armchair, facing the large floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over the garden. There was an empty armchair beside her. His father’s armchair. The two of them used to sit there, side by side, every afternoon with their coffees. She’d never moved his seat. A part of Flynn wondered if she still felt his presence.
He stepped inside the room and settled in his father’s recliner. Patricia turned her head, smiling at him.
“How are you doing, son?”
“I should be asking you that.”
She reached across and placed her hand on his. “No. You shouldn’t. I’m getting old, but I’m still your mother, and I’ll always worry about you.”
“You don’t need to worry about me.”
Her eyes softened before turning sad. “I do. Because whether we like it or not, the day will come when I stop remembering altogether. When I forget who I am. Where I am. When I don’t recognize my own son’s face.” Tears glistened in her eyes. He leaned forward, turning their hands so that he was now covering hers.
He swallowed the lump in his throat, hating that any of that would come to fruition but knowing it would. “Mom—”
“I need to know that you’ll be okay, Flynny.”
“I’ll be okay,” he said quietly.
She studied his face. And for a moment, he felt like a kid again, looking at the mother who saw too much. “Good. And I want to tell you that I also know the time is coming when I’ll need to leave this house.”
“Mom—”
“And it’s okay, Flynny. You’ve done so much for me. Given me so much more time here than I would have had. But my episodes are getting worse and more frequent. And I don’t want you shouldering that, or worrying about me, any more than you have to.”
His voice softened. “I’ll always worry.”
There was the light sound of footsteps nearing the room.
His mother lifted his hand and pressed a kiss to the back. “I need you to do me a favor.”
“Anything.”
“I want you to remember me when I’m at my best, not my worst. I want you to remember me as the woman who cooked you apricot pies while you were outside playing in the dirt and wrote you handwritten letters while you were away fighting for this country. I want you to remember me as the wife and mother who held her family close to her heart.”
The footsteps outside the door retreated.
“Mom, you’ve filled my life with so many good memories. I’ll never be able to forget a single one of them.”
This time, she patted his hand. “Good. And one more thing.” She nodded her head toward the door. “Marry that woman. She loves you, and you love her. I can see it as well as you can. Don’t let her get away.”
There was no way he’d ever be letting Carina slip away from him. She was his, and he was hers. She was it, as far as he was concerned. “I plan on it.”
“Good.” She returned to watching the garden through the window. They sat there like that for a few long minutes in peaceful silence.
He was moments from getting up and searching for Carina when he heard the sound of motorcycles—several of them—from the street. Flynn frowned, waiting for them to pass.
Only, they didn’t. Instead of passing, they slowed.
He jumped to his feet, an uneasy dread filling his gut. “Mom, I need you to come into the linen closet.”
The linen closet was the only space in the house with no windows. And it was right off the sunroom.
His mother raised her brows but rose and followed him quickly.
He ushered her inside the small space. “Don’t open it or make a sound.” He pressed a kiss to her head before pulling the door closed. He’d only taken a single step away when he heard it.
The shattering of glass—followed by an explosion.
Carina lifted the plate of bagels and headed across the room.
God, what was this churning in her gut? It had eased for a second when Flynn kissed her, but the moment he left the room, it returned like a horrible cloud that wouldn’t leave her alone.
There was something about the way Eadie had looked at her this morning. Almost anticipatory. Like a promise of something to come. And now it was haunting her.
Carina was about to step into the sunroom but stopped when she saw Patricia lift Flynn’s hand and press a kiss to his skin. Then she spoke quiet words to him, and even though Carina couldn’t hear what was said, she knew it was personal.
They were having a private moment.
Quietly, she stepped away and moved back into the kitchen. On her way, she glanced out the window, almost expecting Eadie to be there.
Quickly, she shook her head. Stop it, Carina. You’re fine. You’re safe.
Maybe if she repeated those words in her head enough, she’d believe them. She placed the bagels on the kitchen counter and leaned against the sink for a moment. So much had happened in the last few weeks that her emotions were all over the place. That had to be it, right?
She just wanted it all to stop. The danger. The missing people. She tried to take her mind off everything as she cleaned the kitchen.
She was just rinsing the last dish when a light rumble from the street pierced her ears. A motorcycle engine, maybe? The noise got louder.
Frowning, she looked toward the front of the house—just in time to see a brick barrel through the window.
She cried out as glass shattered. She ducked behind the counter, throwing her hands over her head. Her heart pounded hard, even as her breath froze in her chest.
She was moments from rising when an explosion rocked the room, whipping her off her feet and throwing her back.
Pain rippled through her side. Her eyes were still closed as arms wrapped around her back and legs and lifted her off the floor. Then she was moving.
When the sound of gunshots peppered the air, Flynn swore under his breath, tucking her closer and moving faster. Once in his mother’s bedroom, he closed the door behind them and locked it before moving quickly into the walk-in closet, pushing hanging clothes aside, and opening a hidden wall safe that Carina had never seen before.
He came out with two guns and pressed one into her hand.
“I need to get out there and kill these bastards,” he said quietly. “I’d run us out of here before they could blink, but I can’t leave my mom unprotected.”
She gave a quick nod, her limbs shaking. “I understand.”
He took her face in his hands. “The alarm will have alerted my team. They’ll be here in minutes. If someone gets in, shoot first, ask questions later.”
His eyes breathed fire. His muscles were bunched and ready for action. He pressed one kiss to her lips before he moved back to the door, unlocked it, and slipped out.
Carina rushed forward, locking the door behind him. At the sound of more gunshots, she cried out.
Please, God, let him be okay.
She backed away from the door, her gun pointed straight at it when glass shattered in the bedroom window behind her.
She dove behind the bed, terror seizing her chest. Then there was another explosion. The impact threw the bed sideways, toward the wall, shoving her right along with it. She fell to her back, the gun slipping from her fingers and her head clashing with the bedside table.
She scrunched her eyes closed as pain sliced through her skull. Oh, God. When she opened them, it was to see a woman climbing through a hole in the wall, created by the explosion and the shattered window.
Eadie Brown. She wore a black jacket decorated with little skulls and a patch… An MC jacket?
Where had the gun fallen?
Eadie pointed a pistol at her. “I saw him carry you in here. Wanted to be the one to kill you. My guys will take care of your boyfriend. He may be fast and strong, but he’s no match for ten guns.”
Carina slowly pushed to her feet, hands raised, never taking her gaze from the woman. “It wasn’t us, Eadie. We didn’t hurt your boys!”
“Stop. Fucking. Lying to me! I know your boyfriend murdered them for you! And I’m sure you were there. Watching when they breathed their last breaths!”
She shook her head, ignoring the flickers of pain in her skull. “No.”
The woman’s smile returned. “I told you I had connections. My boyfriend’s a member of the Sun Corpse MC. My boys were going to be initiated into the club. It wasn’t hard to convince them to take you out. Then all I had to do was ask the right questions around town, and I found out where you disappear to every day.”
“Eadie, please, you need to believe me!”
“What I believe is you’re gonna die—just like my boys did.”
She was going to shoot her.
Carina dove behind the mattress a second before the gun in Eadie’s hands went off. Pain ripped through her side as she hit the floor. Her hand found the bullet wound, the sticky wetness of blood seeping through her fingers.
Her vision began to fade. She looked up as Eadie stepped around the bed, gun still drawn, smile still wide.
Carina’s breath stalled in her chest. Her vision was blackening.
She was seconds from passing out when another gun went off.
But not Eadie’s. It came from the window.
She barely recognized the outline of a big man climbing through the hole in the wall. He blurred before her eyes.
Carina groaned in pain when he lifted her. Then he carried her back through the hole. She was still groaning as he stopped at the side of the house and peeked around the corner to the street beyond.
“We’ll just wait for these last two assholes to step inside,” the guy whispered. And even though she was fading out of consciousness, she recognized his voice.
The man who’d attacked at Flynn’s house.
“Ah, there we go. I knew Flynn would draw them in eventually.”
The man jogged across the street and tossed her into the backseat of a car. Pain seared through her side at the rough drop.
Then she heard that familiar voice again, along with the rumble of the engine.
“I’ve got her. Couldn’t kill the guy, but there’s an MC doing the job for us. Where am I meeting you to pass her over?”
She tried to hear the voice on the other end, but blood roared between her ears. Her last thought before the world darkened was of Flynn. That she hoped he was okay. That she needed him to survive.
