Fix It Up: Torus Intercession Book Three, page 28
I smirked at him. “I can handle myself just fine, ya know.”
“No, I know, but I’m wondering how you would feel about wearing a really big gold chain with a medallion on it that has my name spelled out in sapphires or something.”
My scoff was loud.
“No?” He sounded disappointed. “Okay, what about––”
“Your sisters and their husbands came up here for the express purpose of getting you to pay off your father’s debts so everything can go back to normal in eighteen months when he gets out of jail.”
“What?” He looked at me, confused. “Mavis sent us that letter yesterday stating the intention of the county prosecutor.”
“Yeah, but they didn’t get it yet, so they have no idea that’s coming.”
“Which is why—oh, I see.”
“They still think it’s only a fraud and animal cruelty case.”
“Which I get, but still, because of the fraud and the conspiracy to commit fraud, my father wouldn’t have the horse farm anymore anyway.”
The sad part was that the animal cruelty was sort of par for the course in horse racing. Horses were drugged so they wouldn’t feel pain, were neglected, exploited, and treated like a commodity, not an animal to be treasured. A conviction on abusing his horses would have given Sterling Madison a fine, perhaps even a short stint in jail, as the charges were egregious, but it wasn’t why he was losing his farm and being banned from the sport of horse racing. That was because he’d defrauded other breeders, and for no other reason.
“Which is what you wanted, and what he deserves.”
Nick leaned into me then, arms wrapped around my waist as he sighed deeply. “And you’re so mad that they came out here to talk to me about this you’re out here pacing.”
“You realize that all these people see you hugging me now.”
“Well, so you know, I just announced up on stage that I was marrying you, and everyone cheered, so I’m not really worried about that being an issue.”
“Yeah, okay, good,” I agreed, deflating all at once, my anger rushing out of me like a balloon losing air as I enfolded Nick against me, crushing him to my chest.
“You were so mad,” he whispered, smiling as he nuzzled his face into the side of my neck. “And all for me. You’re so protective, do you know this about yourself?”
I grunted.
“Why, though? Why so protective?”
“Really? You need to hear it again?”
He chuckled, and it was low and seductive. “Yes, baby, tell me again.”
“You know I love you,” I groused at him.
“Why do I love that you’re annoyed?” he purred, inhaling deeply. “Come sit by the stage so I can see you. This whole Dez thing will make me homicidal.”
I was about to agree when I glanced back at Gene and Dez, saw that they were both closer to Danielle now, noted how hard Beth was crying, and saw Alan lift a gun at the same time and level it at Nick.
“No,” I roared, hurling the guy I loved down onto the grass and dropping down over him, shielding him with my body, making sure no part of his head or back was exposed.
“Loc!” Nick screamed under me, the sound muffled by the ground but still breaking me, filling me with terror and rage, because he’d been playful and teasing the moment before, but now his voice was a high-pitched wail.
Lifting my head, I saw one deputy hit Alan from behind, pile-driving him face-first into the grass and dirt as another wrestled the weapon from his hand. Teamwork was a beautiful thing, and I was impressed how fast they had Alan disarmed.
“Thank God,” I mumbled, rolling off of Nick and lying there for a moment, staring up at the stars.
“Loc!” Nick screamed. It was loud, as close as he was, and his hands were everywhere at once, fluttering over my head, chest, and abdomen before he took hold of my face.
“Nick,” I soothed him, my voice calm, coaxing. “Honey, I’m fine.”
“The fuck was that?” he yelled at me.
“Bodyguard mode,” I said dramatically, waggling my eyebrows at him. “It’s hot, right?”
He was trembling as he stared at me.
“No? Not hot?”
He started panting, and I realized instantly that he was on the verge of hyperventilating.
“Okay,” I whispered, sitting up and leaning in close to hug him.
I was aware that around us was bedlam, but it didn’t seem to matter; Nick and I were in our own little world. When others tried to move in, I waved them back. We were both unscathed and I could take care of Nick myself.
Leaning back, realizing comfort itself wasn’t enough, I gave him an order. “Close your mouth for me and breathe through your nose.”
But he was panicking and gasping for breath.
“Look at me,” I husked, and as his gaze met mine, I made him close his mouth again. “Now, slow in and slow out.”
He parted his lips just a bit, but I closed them again, stroking his hair back from his face, kissing his forehead.
“Slow in and slow out, c’mon, honey, you can do it.”
It took long minutes of me holding his jaw shut, closing off alternating nostrils, and then pressing my face into his hair and rubbing his back before he started breathing slowly on his own. It still sounded a bit shaky and labored, but his eyes weren’t glazed over with bone-deep fear.
“There you are,” I praised him, tucking him up against me. “It’s okay, you’re okay.”
“Who cares about me? You’re the one who…you…I could have lost you.”
“No,” I assured him, kissing his temple. “You were the one who was in danger. He wasn’t aiming at me.”
He lunged at me, arms around my neck, climbing into my lap, and I had to brace a hand behind me so I wasn’t shoved over onto the ground.
“Everything’s fine,” I promised, my hand on the back of his head, massaging gently. “We’re fine.”
His face was pressed to the side of my neck, and he was still trembling, holding so tight, his breath not quite evened out, stopping and starting.
“We should find out why he wanted to hurt you, don’t you think?”
Nothing.
I cleared my throat. “You know,” I said, trying another tactic, “I’ve been shot more than once and I’m still here.”
The choked cry, as he clutched even tighter, told me that was not the way to go about calming him down.
“When I’m in the field as a bodyguard, that’s the job, right? You trade your life for—”
“Oh, fuck no,” he barked, pulling back enough to look at my face. “You will never be a bodyguard again.”
“Honey, that might be the only kind of job I—”
“You’re full of crap,” he stated flatly. “We both know you’d make an amazing high school counselor or a substance abuse counselor or, even better, a social worker.”
“Social worker?” I squinted at him. “What did we say about the drugs?”
“You’re a knight,” he told me, and I saw him take a deep breath and exhale normally, letting go of the last of his panic. “You are. You can’t see the armor, but it’s there. You’re a champion, and you would make an amazing advocate for children.”
“I would scare the crap outta kids, are you kidding?”
“No,” he assured me, taking my face in his hands. “They would understand that you’re the guy standing between them and the world, just like me.”
“Yeah, but if I had a job like that, I wouldn’t be able to travel with you.”
“I can fly back from anywhere, you’ll have weekends, and you have to go back to school first anyway, though I bet having been a cop that you’ll get credit for some things. We’ll make an appointment at UC Santa Barbara when we get home.”
I scowled at him.
“What?”
“You’re just makin’ plans for my life,” I groused at him, even though the idea of helping kids before they became broken adults was very tempting.
“I know you’re about service,” he mollified me, pushing the hair back from my face. “It’s why you became a policeman to begin with. But I don’t think you could help everyone you wanted to that way, and so another path is the way to go.”
“That’s hard work, you know.”
“You’re not afraid of that.”
God. It was like he knew me.
“Taking care of others is your true calling,” he affirmed, his gaze steady. “It’s why you gravitated to being a fixer. But Loc, think of the difference you could make.”
“That’s ego talking.”
“Even saving one kid, putting one on a different path, wouldn’t that be worth it?”
I glared at him. “That’s a helluva lot of faith you have that I would be successful.”
“Yes,” he agreed, his smile brilliant. “Because I have every faith in you. All you’ve ever been for me is a rock. Others deserve to have you in their life too.”
I cleared my throat. “You know all of that, and me being how I am, I’m gonna drive you nuts,” I warned him.
“Yes, well, you drive me nuts now,” he admitted, launching himself at me again, this time slamming me into the soft ground.
“You know, you need to learn some finesse.”
Apparently, coming from me, that was funny as hell.
Seventeen
The Netflix crew was over the moon.
“Family drama, attempted murder, crime and punishment?” the producer gushed excitedly. “Are you kidding? We could get an Emmy.”
“I shouldn’t have worried,” I told her.
Gabriella Nuñez shook her head. “No, you shouldn’t have,” she assured me. “We’re calling the documentary, Redemption Road, and we’re going to coordinate with Nick to have it out a month before his album.”
“You don’t think Redemption Road is a bit heavy-handed?”
She shook her head. “No, it’s gold.”
As in Emmy gold. We were back to award nights.
“And may I say that you and Nick Madison make a gorgeous couple, and people all over the world are going to fall madly in love with the two of you together.”
I had no idea what to say to that, so I nodded and left her to film the deputies putting a handcuffed Alan Samson in the back of their patrol car.
The band was keeping the crowd entertained with their catalog, as well as some country hits, and it turned out that Meira had a lovely voice. Gene and Dez were on the porch trying to sort out their lives. Danielle and Beth were sitting in the chairs on the opposite end of the porch, Danielle on her phone and Beth with her face in her hands.
Nick and I walked up the stairs, and he stopped to look at them. After a moment, Danielle ended her call, and Beth lifted her head, mopped at her eyes with the tissues in her hand, and stared at her brother.
There was a resemblance between the three of them, but it was vague. Same hair color, same eyes, but interestingly enough, Nick had the most delicate features, chiseled and fine, the fullest lips, the longest lashes, and cheekbones that you could cut yourself on. There was also the life in him, the vitality you could feel rolling off him, that you wanted to touch, be near, soak up and savor.
“Nick.” Danielle managed to get out his name.
“You look so different, like Mom,” he told her.
She nodded.
“I didn’t come after your father to ruin your lives. It was just time,” he explained. “And I can’t have him hurt any more horses. Now, what he did to me is another—”
“Nick,” Beth began, her face crumpling, “you can’t expect Dad to have reacted any differently when he found out you were gay. The very idea that, being the kind of man he is, that he could have fathered a sodomite is—”
“I’m bisexual, actually,” he clarified for her. “Not that you care, but it is general knowledge. I am curious to know what kind of man he is, though.”
She looked confused. “He’s a man’s man, Nick. He hunts and fishes, he runs a farm, can fix his own car. I just mean manly and strong.”
“Which I’m not, of course,” Nick said flatly.
“You’re artistic.”
He looked over his shoulder at me, and I was going to say something, argue and rail, but honestly, it wasn’t going to make an iota of difference. People couldn’t say she was ignorant because she was raised on a horse farm, because so was Nick. And it wasn’t a Kentucky thing, because at least a hundred people had just clapped and whistled when Nick announced he was marrying me. It was the toxic house they grew up in. I had to wonder how different things would have been if his mother had lived.
“I’m going out to Mom’s grave tomorrow, if you wanted to come back and go with me.”
“Nick,” she said, voice shaking, “my husband has been taken to jail, my father is there awaiting sentencing, Dani’s life is exploding, and we came up here to get money from you! Why on earth would I be concerned with my mother’s gravesite?”
He nodded. “Absolutely.”
When I walked around him to the screen door, I held it open for him as he turned from her to head in.
“Wait!” she yelled at him. “I need to get the money from you for Dad so—”
“Oh no,” he told her, shaking his head. “We’re done, Beth, all three of us. It’s okay. I have Gwen and Efrem, and I’m about to get married, so instant family, you know? You take care now.”
As he walked by me, I followed him in and closed the door. When I heard the door open, there was throat clearing. Turning, I saw Efrem in the doorway, shaking his head.
“I think you should get on down to the jail now and arrange bail for your husband,” Efrem informed Beth.
“But Nick’s not going to press charges,” she told her uncle. “Why would he?”
“Your husband discharged a weapon,” he reminded her. “It’s still reckless endangerment, if he doesn’t get charged with attempted manslaughter.”
I could hear her shrieking from the kitchen, where I flopped down beside Nick at the table. Gwen was standing near the stove and turned to smile at us.
“It’s so exciting when you all visit,” she teased us.
Nick snorted out a laugh, and I groaned and put my head down at the table.
“Who wants a sandwich before the rest of the concert?”
“Oh yes, please,” Nick said happily, hand in my hair. “I think my baby needs a nap.”
“Don’t call me––”
“My boyfriend, how’s that?”
“Not any better.”
“Look at this ring on his finger, Gwen, doesn’t this look good?”
“It certainly does. It’s a glorious thing to find the person who belongs to you.”
“It is,” he murmured, moving my hair so he could kiss my cheek. “You have no idea how much I wanted him to be mine. I’m still amazed that all my dreams came true.”
“You should dream bigger,” I groused at him, secretly very pleased with him, smiling into the table.
“You’re not fooling anyone,” he whispered into my ear.
I yawned loudly.
“And he’s such a romantic.”
Gwen laughed so hard she started to wheeze.
Nick went back down to the makeshift stage area and sang his heart out, and I lay down under the stars on a blanket with Gwen and Efrem, who were thinking that maybe they would take their first-ever vacation. I was very happy for them.
After a while, I walked back up to the house to call Jared Colter and give him the news.
His sigh, when I explained, was a surprise. “You know, I think you’ll make an excellent social worker, Loc.”
“Really?”
“Yes,” he assured me with his deep rumble of a voice. “You were always trying to give your clients life lessons and advice. Now the people you talk to will have to listen.”
“Thanks a lot,” I said, and then took a breath. “Really. For everything.”
“You’re an excellent fixer, Loc. I enjoyed having you work for me.”
I was a thorn in his side, but I appreciated his words.
“It goes without saying, but if you need anything, you let me know.”
“I will, sir,” I said, smiling into the phone.
“Visit when you come to move your things.”
“Absolutely.”
I called Ella next.
“Oh, thank God,” she said in a rush when I told her she could have my apartment.
“You could at least pretend you’re gonna miss me,” I groused at her.
“That’s not how I mean it,” she said, chuckling. “I mean that I love your place so much, and I’ve been dying—and I mean dying—to decorate, somehow feeling like I should, and now I know why.”
My mother would be having a field day with all the different doors opening, like the universe was blessing my decision. I would have to tell her.
“I named all the fish too.”
Of course she had.
“I’m visiting soon, so prepare yourself. I want to be wined and dined and taken to all the best places.”
“Do you?”
“I mean, Nick Madison. Maybe he’ll buy me a phone covered in diamonds,” she teased me. “And make sure to tell him I’m the karaoke queen.”
I groaned and told her I would call my landlord.
“Thanks, Loc, really. I’ll miss you, but I really have felt right at home here the whole time. Stars in alignment and all that.”
“One might even say syzygy,” I quipped.
“Oh God,” she muttered, and I knew, without being told, that Jared had given her the speech he gave all of us.
“You have to do good, and create balance, and leave every situation––”
“Better than you found it,” I finished.
We were both quiet for a moment.
“You know, the man might just be brilliant.”
It was entirely possible.
Walking back out onto the porch, I came down the stairs and turned to walk around the side of the house, to return to the stage area where Nick and the band were taking last requests. There was a guy there, and before I could pass him, he turned and stepped directly into my path.
“Oh, look out,” I said good-naturedly, about to move around him when he shoved the muzzle of a gun into my abdomen.
