Sophie Oak - Found in Bliss

He hung up. He wasn’t so sure about that.

“Was it the cop again?” Nick asked.

“Yes. I need to go see her.”

“No, you don’t.”

Alexei shook his head. “It is not so simple.”

“It’s very simple. She wants you to go back into hiding. You can’t do that. You owe my mom. Don’t leave her.”

How did he make him understand? “Nick, I owe your mother safety, too. I don’t want to leave. I love her. I love the family we are to be building, but I can’t make her target.”

“I think the men of this town can handle it. I didn’t get more than a foot inside my bedroom before I had six guns aimed at my head. Some of the women are scary, too. Remind me never to cross Rachel Harper.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “If you walk out, I worry they’ll fall apart. You’re the glue that brought them together. Everything in life is a risk. I think my mom would rather take the risk than be safe and not have you.”

But how could he live with himself if anything happened to her?

“Nick, I don’t know what to be doing. I love your mother. I want to be marrying her and spending my life in Bliss, but I think all I offer is danger. I don’t even have job.”

“Uh, that’s where you’re wrong.” Nick grinned and looked deeply pleased with himself. “I talked to the big, superhot guy. Wait, that could be anyone here. Do you people know how to grow them ugly? Anyway, the big guy who runs the tavern.”

“Zane.”

“Yes, that’s him. Anyway, he was talking to his wife, the really pregnant one, and he said he needed to find a bartender to help out because he wants to spend more time at home once the kid shows up. I negotiated for you. He’s a cheap bastard, but I think you’ll find the salary works.”

“I have job?”

Nick nodded. “You have job. And we’re going to work on your use of articles in sentences. Naw, it’s actually kind of cute. Anyway, you start on Friday, and if Zane asks, you’ve worked at many functions. You graduated from the Bartending School of Eastern Moscow.”

Alexei laughed. “I think Zane knows my history. He will not believe, but he is man who will give points to you for creativity.”

“Hey, I’m a man who gets the job done. So you can’t leave.”

His heart hurt. He would love to work at Trio, talking to people and becoming part of the town. “I think it still might be best.”

Nick sighed. “Fine, then go and talk to this woman, but you take Mom and Caleb with you. You can’t cut them out of this decision. That’s not what family does. If you’re going to walk on them, they should have their say.”

Alexei looked at the door to the bedroom where his partner and woman lay sleeping. It would be easier to walk away. Simpler.

Family was not simple. With a heavy heart, he went to wake them.

Holly clutched Alexei’s hand in hers, threading their fingers together as Caleb drove the Benz out of their little valley toward the motel.

Caleb talked in rapid staccato bursts, betraying his anxiety. “After we talk to the Marshals, we need to meet with Nate. I want to see what they’ve come up with on this guy. If Nate can’t find anything out, I’ll sic big brother on them. I think he’s still friends with the head of the FBI. Eli can find out something.”

Holly wished they were still in bed. When Alexei had awakened her, she’d reached for him, hoping for a kiss. She’d immediately known something was wrong by his frown and the sad look in his eyes.

Alexei’s hand squeezed hers. “I am very appreciative that you would contact brother for me. I think we should to talk about this, though. I don’t want you or Holly hurt. I hate fact that we cannot leave Nick in house alone. Perhaps I should leave so you would be safe.”

Holly had asked Laura to watch Nick. Despite the fact that he was seventeen, she couldn’t leave him there alone when someone was stalking one of her men. The assassin didn’t seem to discriminate, either. Whoever this killer was, he didn’t mind who he hurt. He’d nearly killed them all at one point in time. She couldn’t risk her son. But she also couldn’t imagine her world without Alexei in it.

“No.” There was nothing anxious about Caleb’s pronouncement. There was a determined finality to his favorite word.

Alexei sighed. “You cannot be saying no. Caleb, no is not an argument. We need to be talking about this.”

“No.” Caleb’s eyes focused on the road ahead of him.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, she couldn’t help but smile. “I don’t think he’s going to relent on this one, babe. And I agree with him. And Alexei, you’re forgetting that the good doc there has some serious connections with the Justice Department. I don’t mind calling Eli Sommerville and telling him exactly what I think he should do. We can get these people to take threats to you seriously. And if we can’t find the proof, I bet Nicky can fabricate it.”

Her son was damn fine at manipulating situations to his liking.

“Holly, I need you to understand that I must be keeping you safe,” Alexei said.

“How exactly are you planning on doing that from some cheap motel room in the Midwest? Or will they just take you back to Florida, and you can go back to being Howard? Is that what you want?” Caleb asked, looking at them through the rearview mirror. His eyes were narrowed, and Holly could practically feel the frustration pouring off him. He’d been so peaceful before, as though something had finally fallen into place, and now he’d had it snatched from his grasp.

“I do not wish any of this. I thought this was over.” Alexei turned his head, looking out into the night.

“It is over,” Holly insisted. “We just have some cleanup to do.”

“And when the next person comes after me?” Alexei asked.

“We handle it,” Caleb insisted.

Holly was glad she and Caleb were presenting a united front. “We deal with it. But, Alexei, we don’t walk away. Anything could happen to any one of us. We stay vigilant, but we don’t let fear ruin our lives. I’m willing to talk to the Marshals. I’m even willing to leave town for a while, but we will all go.”

“We can go to Chicago if we have to,” Caleb offered. “My family’s compound is very well guarded. We’ll talk to the Marshals, and then we’ll pack up Nick and head up there for a while. Alexei, you can play referee for me and my brother. Holly, I know you don’t want to deal with my family, but this is better than breaking up.”

“I can handle your family.” She could. She wasn’t the same girl who had gotten torn apart by the Langs. She was sure of herself now. She’d built a life and a home and found love. She had more work to do, but she could handle anything the world threw at her. Anything except losing her men.

Alexei put a hand on Caleb’s shoulder. “You would do this for me?”

Caleb was silent for a moment. “I would. I know you think you owe me, but I owe you, too. I wouldn’t be here without you. I wouldn’t have Holly without you. I would have gone on the way I had been. If you leave, I’ll take care of Holly. I won’t go back to the man I was before, but we will be incomplete. You have to see that. And don’t give me a bunch of bullshit about how you don’t have a job and I’m smarter than you. I don’t want to hear that crap. You can go to school. I’ll take care of it. You can figure out what you want to do. And so can Holly.”

“Really?” She hadn’t thought about it. She’d lived paycheck to paycheck for so long that the idea of finishing college hadn’t even occurred to her. But she could. She could go back to school. She was forty years old, and she felt like the world was new again.

Caleb’s eyes were warm in the rearview mirror. “Yes. I would love it if you studied nursing, but I won’t tell you what to do.”

She might enjoy being a nurse. “Maybe I’ll be a doctor and give you a run for your money, Caleb Burke.”

Caleb’s whole face fell. “Oh, god, no. I don’t even want to think about that. My point is I don’t want to listen to Alexei whine about his lack of a job. It’s not an excuse to walk away.”

“I have job. I am to be tending the bars at Trio. But I can go to school at same time.” Alexei turned back to her, and there was a confidence in his eyes that hadn’t been there before.

“That’s great, babe.” Up ahead she could see the Movie Motel, its lights blinking, announcing a vacancy. The movie was apparently in full swing as Holly could see the light from the screen illuminating the night.

Caleb turned into the parking lot. Holly could see the Marshals’ SUV up ahead. “While we’re here, we can check you out of the motel. I think we should all stay at Holly’s until we’re ready to go to Chicago.” He pulled into the parking space and turned back to them. “Do you have your gun?”

Alexei nodded. “I go nowhere without.”

Caleb nodded. “I put the tranq gun in the back.”

“Do I get a gun?” Holly asked. Everyone else had a gun.

“No,” they said at the same time.

She really should have a gun. She’d talk to Laura about it.

There was a sharp knock on the window. Holly startled but then looked up. Logan stood there glaring down.

“I want to talk to you,” he said, staring at Alexei.

Alexei nodded slowly and stepped out of the car. “What do you be needing, Deputy?”

Logan’s eyes were hard. “I need you out of my town. I figure you owe me, Markov. I took a lot of pain so your ass could live.”

“Logan,” Holly started. She felt for Logan. She’d known him for years, since he was just a kid, but she wasn’t about to let him run Alexei out of town.

The deputy turned on her. “Stop. I don’t want to hear it from you. I’m sick and tired of everyone telling me to be tolerant. I don’t have to be tolerant. He doesn’t belong here. He’s the one who brought those mobsters here, and now he’s brought another killer along with him. You might like to fuck him, but I’m not going to let my town go to hell because Holly Lang needs to get some.”

Holly Lang had had just about enough of Logan Green. She knew he’d gone through hell, but it was time for him to start coming out of it. “Logan, you back off. You have no right to try to run him out of town. If it hadn’t been for Alexei, you would be dead. I would be dead. I can’t imagine what you went through, but you’re alive.”

“He doesn’t want to be.” Caleb’s eyes had softened as he looked at the deputy. He placed himself between Holly and Logan. “And I know what that feels like. You’re not just mad at Alexei. You’re mad at everyone who walks around like the world is the same place it was before you were taken into that room. You hate every one of those fuckers who don’t get what you know—that the world is a fucked-up place just waiting to tear you up.”

“They don’t even see it. They just expect me to get over it because the wounds scabbed over and the broken bones healed.” Logan’s face was drawn in pain, but his eyes still stared at Alexei. “They don’t get that it could all happen again. Which is precisely why assholes like this guy shouldn’t be allowed in our town. I’m going to get rid of you one way or another. If you won’t leave on your own, then I can make your life hell.”

Holly felt her blood start to boil. She heard everything he’d said, but he was pushing her too far. “You back off, and do it now. Everyone in this town has been putting up with your crap for months. Don’t pretend that everything will be fine if Alexei is gone. You were drinking and fighting and endangering everyone in this community before he came back. You need help and everyone has done their best to give it to you, but you just tell everyone you’re fine and go back to the bar. It can’t go on, Logan. You’re a cop. You can’t be out of control.”

Logan laughed, a bitter, nasty sound. “We’re all out of control, Holly. Don’t be stupid.”

“You will use nicer tone of voice when you speak to woman. And don’t ever call her stupid.” Alexei’s tone had deepened. Holly was getting worried that he’d had enough of Logan’s bile, too.

Instead of backing down, Logan’s lips turned up in a feral smile. “I’ll call her whatever I like, asshole. What are you going to do about it?”

Caleb’s hands came out. “We’re not doing this. Logan, back off.”

One of the motel doors came open, and Holly saw Jessie standing there. She wore jeans and a T-shirt, her shoulder holster on display. There was a shiny gun resting against her left side. She quickly closed the door behind her and surveyed the group. “What the hell is going on? Alexei? I thought we agreed you would come alone.”