Wayward, page 21
“Ah. Like a German shepherd maybe?” I teased, thinking of Gunther.
“Could be,” he said slyly.
“You just want a dog that people are scared of and don’t make kissy noises at.”
“What? I hadn’t even considered that.”
“Liar,” I said, laughing. “And really, as long as whatever you choose likes Misha and doesn’t try and eat him, I’m game.”
“Agreed,” he replied with a sigh. “And also, down the road, before I’m too much older, I want a life with you and a family that includes children. I think that’s important for you to know.”
“We haven’t even known each other a whole month yet.”
“But it’s close,” he countered quickly. “And I’m not saying I want to adopt kids tomorrow. I’m just telling you I want everything with you.”
“Everything? Are you sure?”
“Yep. And I’m telling you all this because I have a feeling about us. Period. I knew from the moment I saw your beautiful dark eyes on me and I nearly passed out.”
“Knock it off.”
“I swear it’s true. It was like being hit by lightning.”
“You’re a sap.”
He nodded vigorously. “True, but I don’t care.”
I couldn’t help smiling at him. I was crazy about him even though he was an idiot. But so was I.
“And I know something else.”
“What’s that?”
“That you’re going to make a great father.”
I stared up at him. “You have no idea what you’re saying.”
His smile was warm. “I’ve heard you, Maks. You know about love. It’s in every word you’ve ever said about your mother and brother when we’ve talked about them on the phone. And I know that your father’s a monster, you’ve told me that too, but I’m thinking that you not being anything like him sounds like a great first step to knowing the kind of father you don’t wanna be.”
He wasn’t wrong.
“I think you’re still holding on to the past to remind yourself that you’re not a good man or that things could go wrong at any second. But I think what we should both learn from this nightmare with Reid is that the only way to live in the present is to be present. No more uncertainty or hiding for either of us. We’re on the right track now.”
“I—”
“And conversely, wouldn’t growing up near an animal sanctuary be great for kids?”
Of course it would.
“Teach them responsibility and empathy,” he said, tilting my head up as he bent close. “Doesn’t that sound wonderful, my wayward man?”
I took a breath, and when he kissed me, I felt it—the connection, his hope, and my surrender to his ridiculous plan. I’d been looking for the North Star for so long and finally found one in him.
He broke the kiss when he heard Misha yelp, and we both leaned over the railing and looked down at him. I hadn’t even heard him go down the many steps to the backyard, but there he was, and he’d suddenly found himself cornered by a large white ceramic duck with a gingham bandanna around its neck.
“Really,” I called down to him as he growled and barked at the sculpture.
“That’s so embarrassing,” Gale assured him as Alvarez stepped out onto the back deck, closing the screen door behind her.
“Am I to understand that Ada Farley is an heiress?”
“Yeah,” Gale told her. “The Farleys are one of the families that made the railroads by selling steel. That’s old money. The family is originally from Pennsylvania.”
To me, she said, “And you’re Ada Farley’s new caretaker, and your name is with hers on all her accounts?”
“Yep.”
“Well, apparently, if anything happens to Ada, you’re also the executor of her estate, so you’ll be the one who delivers the news of who gets what.”
“Super,” I muttered, thinking of the Farleys I’d already met. “But the good news is, she’s in great health. She won’t be passing anytime soon.”
“And most of the family is far better off than Ada,” Gale chimed in. “Her small fortune is from a trust set up by her grandfather.”
“I’m sorry,” Alvarez said, “did you just call forty million dollars a small fortune?”
“It’s less than that,” I replied, but then thought I might be wrong. Without other people pulling money out, it could probably grow.
“Even if it is,” Gale explained, “in comparison to the rest of the family, it is small.”
I smiled at Alvarez. “We’re just fixing up the house and making a dog and cat sanctuary. No big deal.”
“And the sheep,” Gale reminded me.
“Yeah. The sheep.”
Alvarez looked at me as Misha came up the stairs, walked over to me, threw his head back, and howled.
“You could just use your words,” I told him, bending to pick him up. “You don’t have to be so dramatic all the time. And what happened with the duck? It’s not even real.”
He thunked his little head against my chest.
“Poor guy,” Gale said, “like he’s ever seen a ceramic duck before. Cut him some slack.”
“Maks, we’re going to have to revisit this situation of yours on an ongoing basis. There may come a time, if you become too recognizable, that we have to move you again.”
I nodded. “And at that time, you’ll have to move my family with me,” I told her.
“What family?”
“Me,” Gale said flatly. “And Misha, of course. There might be more by then as well. He’s not going to be alone anymore.”
No. I was not.
After breakfast, which Gale and I both drank in the form of protein shakes—anything heavier and we’d pass out—I got calls from all the people who couldn’t get onto the property because of the stupid gate.
“That gate,” Gale said, clearing his throat. “Whose idea was that?”
“Zip it,” I snapped at him, still on the phone with the gate guy.
Once he got there and opened the stupid thing, I told him to leave it like that until further notice. I was tired, so my patience was nonexistent, but I tried to be nice to everyone I spoke to as I answered questions. Byers, who had taken a nap in one of the bedrooms, suggested we both try and get some shut-eye. But sleeping during the day was a bad idea if I ever wanted my schedule to return to normal. Gale agreed with me. So while Ada woke up around noon, ready for lunch, appearing refreshed, he and I looked like extras from The Walking Dead.
“Just a small nap?” Ada suggested to us as she sliced apples.
I glared at her.
Gale shook his head and went back to watching TV next to the fireplace.
“You’re going to fall asleep over there,” I warned him.
“Mind your own business,” he retorted.
I couldn’t help laughing, and when he looked at me and saw me smiling, it only took him a second to smile back.
“I’m in a bad mood, Maks. Let me be in a bad mood.”
“You want some ice cream instead?”
He agreed to my terms.
Later, we were sitting at the table playing mahjong, which surprisingly, we all knew.
“Who taught you to play?” I asked Gale.
“My roommate in college.” He yawned.
“You?” I asked Ada.
“My grandmother. She learned when she traveled through China as a young woman. And you?”
“Head of one of the triads we did business with.”
“I find that very exciting,” she told me.
“Especially if you knew we played for people,” I said, waggling my eyebrows.
She shook her head at me. “I don’t believe you. You’re hardly a Bond villain, my darling.”
“I could be.”
Gale found our conversation hysterical.
“Isn’t it interesting,” she said as we were all picking tiles, “that had you not come to us, Maks, Gale might have been killed by the confused young man with the vendetta.”
Gale stopped moving and looked at her. “What do you mean?”
“Well, whether Maks was there or not, Mr. Wells was going to show up when he did. But because you, Gale, were in the bungalow, not in your home, you weren’t at the front of the property where he could have just picked you off.”
That was true.
“And Maks didn’t let you go get your gun when you wanted to, and surely Mr. Wells could have killed you when you left the house.”
Also true.
“Most importantly, Maks was the one who figured out very quickly that you were under attack, not him. And if he hadn’t been there, the FBI wouldn’t have been on hand to quickly determine who the shooter was.”
“Huh,” Gale said after a moment.
“So really,” she said, reaching for my hand and taking it gently in hers, “we’re so fortunate Maks was here to quickly get to the bottom of this.”
I looked at Gale. “I saved your life.”
He nodded. “Yeah. In more ways than one.”
Ada sighed. “What a terribly romantic thing to say.”
And it was.
That night, lying together in bed, I leaned in to kiss him, but he was already asleep. Somehow, though not romantic, it felt very normal. Yes, we were in a safe house because Wells was trying to kill Gale, but I could see us, in the future, just being together, living our lives, and being dead tired as well. My fantasies had never moved past the finding-someone stage because that was the only part I could imagine. Day-to-day life had never entered my mind, since how could that have ever happened? But now, suddenly, anything was possible, and I found myself ready.
Rolling onto my side, Gale was immediately there. Even comatose, he made sure to spoon me, his arm anchoring me close. I was going to turn my head and say something to him, but Misha took that moment to lick my chin and then curl into a ball in the hollow of my throat, so I had puppy hair up my nose.
“You’re a pain,” I whispered to him as he made his little getting-situated noises, part whimpers, part grunts. He rocked back and forth a few times, and then, once settled, sighed deeply. There was an answering sound from Gale. Apparently, I was what everyone needed to sleep.
It wasn’t such a bad deal.
THIRTEEN
Sergeant Dix, making good on his promise, apprehended Gale’s assailant the following day. Wells had driven back down the road toward the bungalow, thinking…I honestly had no idea what, but probably that the thunderstorm rolling in would somehow hide his movements from whoever might be out there looking for him. The Oregon State Troopers were in no way fooled. They chased him across the property and into Ada’s house, where he promptly went up the stairs to the second floor and fell through the hole there. He didn’t die, but since there was no bed there to catch people anymore, he did break his left ankle. The troopers took him into custody and then immediately to the county hospital in Seaside.
Alvarez came out to the safe house, where we were having breakfast on our second morning there, and gave us the news.
“We really should do something about that hole,” Ada told me.
“Yeah, I’m working on it,” I replied, squinting at her.
Her laughter was good to hear.
I called a car service to drive us home in a lavish limousine, and even though Gale said it wasn’t necessary, I didn’t want either of us driving with how little sleep we got. Being off our schedule meant we had basically been up a full twenty-four hours the day before. As predicted, we were all out in minutes once the drive began. I gave the man a large tip.
Gale went to the hospital in Seaside to talk to Reid, with Ramirez and Dix overseeing the visit, and the story was basically as my protectors, Deputy US Marshals Alvarez and Byers, had assumed. When Reid had thought about who to blame, one name popped up more than others. He immediately came after Gale with a vengeance. Nothing was going to miraculously be fixed, history could not be rewritten, but Gale left hoping that the time in prison Reid received would at least get him the help he needed.
“How long will he be incarcerated?” I asked Gale when he got home. Misha and I were waiting for him on the porch of the Craftsman, and I had to admit it felt like home.
“The maximum is normally nine years, but intent and premeditation have to be proven.”
I squinted at him.
“Okay, so yeah, he’s going to get the maximum with buying the gun, getting in his car, and driving all the way up here.”
“I’m sorry this happened, Gale, but I don’t want him out in the world where he can hurt you. And though I’m good with a gun, I’m better with a knife.”
His brows furrowed as he looked at me.
“Really. I’m very good with a knife.”
“Oh, I believe you,” he said, picking Misha up and walking toward the front door. “Just don’t be scary anymore, all right?”
“I don’t want you to get hurt, and if anyone tries to, I will be very displeased.”
He reached the door and opened it, then stepped inside and gave me a look before closing it behind him.
I ran to catch him and knocked on the door until he opened it, looking out at me through the narrow space that the chain lock allowed.
“That’s easy to just kick in, you know.”
He closed the door.
Laughing, I knocked again. Same scenario, he opened it just a crack, the chain still on.
“What are you doing?”
“I don’t know, scary person, but you’re freaking us both out.”
Misha was not concerned, as evidenced by his happy yips as he pawed the air.
“And no,” Gale added, “we’re not getting you a knife.”
“I’ll just use yours.”
“So scary,” he whispered to Misha as he closed the door slowly again.
When he looked at me out the window, my heart skipped a beat. There was no doubt about it, I was crazy about Gale Malloy. And so was my dog.
After dinner that night, Gale ran to his place to get clothes to sleep in, and Ada said she was retiring early.
“We’ll just be out here, watching TV, then,” I told her. “The great mahjong rematch will wait for another night.”
“There will be no rematch,” she informed me.
“Yes, there will be, because you cheat,” I informed her right back.
“You can’t cheat at mahjong, and besides, I want you to go to Gale’s.”
“What? No. You can’t be alone. You’ll be scared.”
“I will not be scared even a bit. I wasn’t scared that night, and I’m certainly not scared now,” she said emphatically. “I was far more terrified the night I found the alligator sleeping under my bed.”
I could give her that.
“You haven’t lived until you look into the darkness, upside down, and see eyes staring back at you.”
Jesus.
“But again, I’m not scared, and you need to go stay with Gale before he combusts into a flaming ball of desire.”
First, I was horrified. Then I was simply confused. “A flaming ball of what?”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake, Maks! Open your eyes. The man wants you terribly. Every time he looks at you, there’s so much naked yearning there that I start to get hot flashes again like when I was going through menopause. How are you missing that?”
“I—gross.”
She whacked me in the chest. “Oh, don’t be such a prude. Just take the man to bed already and let nature take its course.”
“This is the most unsexy conversation I’ve ever had in my life.”
Her glare should have killed me right there. “Get out of here now. Take your clothes, take whatever else you need—my brother had exotic oils he brought back from Borneo, but that was ages ago—and go have some fun.”
“Oils from where?”
“And take Misha because he’ll cry if you leave him, and I won’t be here all night trying to console him. Plus, Gale will think it odd if you show up without him.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Get. Out,” she ordered and then wheeled around and exited the room dramatically, leaving me stunned.
Gale, like me, had assumed that Ada would want us there with her the first night home. He was surprised when I walked through the front door.
“What’s going on?”
“Ada threw me out and told me to come over here and have my wicked way with you.”
His face was priceless. I had probably looked just as horrified. “What?”
“Don’t worry about it. Just get the dog settled. I need a shower.”
He waved a hand toward the bathroom. “Anything, just don’t ever say wicked way to me again as long as you live.”
“It’s a deal,” I assured him, heading for the shower.
I was standing in the bathroom after a very long, very hot shower, staring at myself in the mirror, wondering at the changes that had happened so quickly, when I saw Gale in the mirror. He was looking at me, and I could see what Ada meant. His eyes were utterly molten.
“Man, you always look so good in just a towel.”
“Always?” I teased him, even though watching him come near me in only sweats and a T-shirt was making my mouth dry. “You’ve only seen me like this once before.”
“And it’s burned into my brain,” he croaked out, reaching me and putting his hands on my hips, tracing the top of the towel. “Tell me you’re ready and that I can have you.”
“I was always ready,” I rasped, looking at him, loving the way he took firm hold of my ass before he kissed the side of my neck.
“Maybe your body, but not your heart. Not quite.”
“I am now,” I promised.
“That’s very good,” he whispered, stepping back, grabbing my hand and tugging me after him out of the bathroom, through the open door, to the king-size bed.
Yanking the covers down, he then tugged off the towel and shoved me down onto the bed. As he stripped out of his clothes, I got to see all the roping muscle, the long, beautiful lines of him, the miles of gorgeous golden skin.
“Gale,” I gasped as he dropped to his knees between my open legs and took my already hard cock down the back of his throat in one long, seamless swallow.
