Authors: Frances Stockton
Hazard moved in such a way that Avery was able to look over
his broad shoulder. Ryan stood motionless. John was eerily still. A painful
groan indicated he breathed.
“Alex, if you want him dead, I’ll dig the grave when I’m
done,” Ryan promised.
In that moment, Ryan wasn’t a surgeon known for his ability
to piece together broken warriors or athletes or ability to heal teenaged girls
stricken with bone cancer.
He was a husband defending the one he loved.
“We don’t need to bury anyone. Avery’s got Hazard taking
care of her. I need you.”
“Ethan?” Doc called out. “Do you have Grainger under
control?”
“Got him,” Ethan answered.
“Crying like a baby,” Phalen added. “Whichever one of you
fuckers was the hacker, you suck at it. Never leave a trail for a better hacker
to follow.”
Ryan backed away from the bloodied man on the floor, strode
to Alexander’s side and swallowed him up in his arms. The two stayed locked
together, whispering something between them, holding on to what mattered.
Once Alexander moved back, Ryan headed over to care for Mrs.
Albright. Off in the distance, sirens went off, getting louder with every
second that passed.
“This is not the way I imagined this night would go,” Avery
said in Hazard’s ear.
“You’re safe. Redman and Grainger can’t hurt anyone again,”
Hazard whispered. “That’s a miracle.”
“How did you know where I was?”
“Redman and Grainger hacked your computer. Phalen hacked
theirs and found you. Alex, Doc and I were pounding on doors looking for you
when Phalen came to warn us. Along with a sick obsession with Alex, the
evidence the PI discovered will put Redman away. No minimum security for him,
hardcore prison time.”
“He said he’d been spying…on us. We’d thought our settings
were private.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. Phalen made sure that
Redman can’t hurt you or obsess over Alex again.”
“I’ve never seen anything like what Doc just did for
Alexander. I was sure he’d kill John.”
“He would have if Alex hadn’t stopped him. Your brother’s a
remarkable man.”
Avery agreed. “He’s a hero.”
“Any way I can separate the two of you long enough to hug
Avery?” Alexander asked, standing right next to the bed.
Her brother didn’t focus on the ropes or the cameras or the
gaudy bed. His eyes were intent on her face before sweeping up and down to be
sure she wasn’t injured.
“He didn’t hurt me, Alexander.”
“Doesn’t matter what Redman didn’t do. His intent was
clear.” Alexander waited until Hazard shifted away.
“Not once did I think that you and Hazard wouldn’t find me,”
she admitted the moment her brother bear-hugged her.
“Did you hear that, Phalen?” Ethan complained. “Not one bit
of credit for our part in this.”
“Not to mention your wife’s,” Hazard added.
“That’s right. My partner should be here any second. Once
I’m given the all-clear, I’m outta here. Morgan needs her baby daddy.” Ethan’s
Bostonian accent made that sound corny as hell.
“You love being married to Morgan,” Phalen reminded his
brother.
“I love her,” Ethan admitted. “Marriage is an adventure I’ll
gladly do for the rest of our lives. Best thing? She loves me too.”
“Go care for your wife. We’ve got this,” Ryan ordered. “Tell
her to call me when she’s feeling better.”
Ryan remained with Mrs. Albright. He’d managed to find a
roll of paper towels and pressed a handful against the back of her head. He
spoke softly to her, gentling her when she started upon the arrival of the
EMTs.
Sam Riley came in, leading a handful of Danvers police
officers, who promptly took command of the scene. Ethan left soon after.
It seemed as if hours went by before Avery made her
statement and an EMT gave her the clearance to return to her own apartment. The
best news came just before she was told she could leave. A patrolman reported
he’d found her Honda in perfect condition. It would be processed for clues and
returned in a few days.
Hazard didn’t bother to wait much longer than that to pick
her right off her feet and carry her out of the wretched basement apartment and
to her own. She refused to measure the distance between her building and the
one residing directly across the parking lot.
Trusting the police and her brother to handle the
legalities, Avery was relieved to discover that her place was relatively
untouched. Not a candle had been displaced or a chair had been moved. Her
MacBook resided on the coffee table.
“Hazard, you can put me on my feet. I won’t collapse.”
“I’d rather carry you.”
Hazard kicked the apartment door closed, staying there to
look around. “Ethan must have taken Morgan home. She passed out cold, scared
the hell out of me. Had it been you, I’d have been on my knees.”
“He’s learned how to deal with Morgan’s headaches. I’ll call
her tomorrow to see if she’s feeling up to talking.”
“How about we put aside everything that’s happened and go to
bed? I need to hold you and remind myself that you’re safe.”
“I need the same thing. There was a big football game today
that we need to celebrate.”
“Let’s put football aside until Monday.”
Hazard didn’t put her down until they were in the bedroom.
Carefully, he sat her on the edge of the bed, immediately going to his knees
before her and gathered her hands in his, lifting them.
“They didn’t touch you?” he asked, kissing her palms.
“Only long enough to tie the ropes. It was as if I was an
afterthought. All John wanted from me was for some sort of revenge against
Alexander, whom he blamed for all that was wrong in his life.”
“All that equipment in their place was there for a purpose.
I can’t even think of what they intended.”
“We can’t think about what might have happened. You’re here
for me and Ryan championed my brother.”
“That’s something I wouldn’t mind seeing again.”
“It was kind of like watching a MMA fight live, with a lot
of wrestling moves thrown in.”
Hazard kissed her knuckles one at a time, then cupped her
face in his big hands. “I love you. If it wouldn’t be too much to ask, may I
make love to you? If you’re not up to it or you need me to sleep on the sofa,
I’ll do it.”
“If you slept anywhere other than beside me tonight, I’d be
heartbroken. If you don’t make love to me, I’ll jump you right there on the
floor.”
“We do have a special affinity for the floor.”
“Something tells me we’ll have years to fuck on the floor,
on the bed, in the shower and maybe outside. Have I told you I have this
fantasy about being zipped up with you in a sleeping bag on a Sierra Nevada
mountain?”
Hazard grinned broadly. “Why don’t you tell me about it?”
“Mind you, there must be a tent. I’m all for outdoorsy fun,
but I don’t want pine needles poking my ass or any place only your cock should
be.”
“Tent’s fine,” Hazard agreed, clearly distracted as he stood
up and stripped out of the very stylish business suit he’d been wearing.
Before she could compliment him on how fine he looked, he
began stripping her. Avery didn’t resist. The second they were naked, they
shimmied beneath the freshly cleaned sheets and took each other in their arms,
kissing as if there was no tomorrow.
“I do love you, Trevor,” she said, staring into his
lion-like eyes and running her hand down the mane of his gorgeous hair. “Thank
you for coming to my rescue.”
“It’s you who rescued me. If you hadn’t walked into the
Truth or Dare Club wearing that red dress and daring me to take you on, I might
have remained obtuse.”
“Obtuse? Wouldn’t say you were obtuse. I’d say you were
locked in the past. All I did was turn to my crush on you into love.”
“In that case, kiss me and don’t stop until morning.”
“And so it shall be,” she granted, touching her mouth to his
and kissing him like there was no tomorrow.
Fortunately, there would be plenty of tomorrows to come.
Three Weeks Later—Houston, Texas
On a Sunday night featuring gridiron excellence, Avery
watched the Alexandria Griffins become the Professional Football League World
Champions.
Their magic was nothing short of breathtaking because the
Griffins beat their biggest rival and nemesis, the Malibu Sharks. While the
Sharks did manage to score two TDs over the course of four quarters, the
Griffins’ offense pulverized the competition with a dual-MVP performance by
quarterback Ricky Weathers and wide receiver Dallas McKay.
The Griffins’ defense stopped the Sharks’ running game and
forced two turnovers in the fourth quarter. Hazard put a hit on the Sharks’ QB
that forced the second fumble in the last three minutes of the game.
It was the greatest game Avery had ever witnessed. Watching
her boyfriend celebrate with his teammates by hoisting up the championship
trophy while streamers, confetti and rockets were fired in victory made the
occasion even more extraordinary.
As fortune would have it, Avery had been allowed to fly to
BWI with Hazard the Monday after Redman and Grainger were arrested. Ryan had
commanded she recover with the man she loved and it’d been the best
prescription a doctor could suggest.
According to Ethan Maddox, Billy Grainger’s bullet wounds
were superficial and he was taken into custody. John Redman was arraigned on a
variety of charges. Due to his prior conviction, the likelihood that John would
get out of serving major prison time was slim to none.
It was a relief, mainly for Alexander. Phalen had done his
homework after John was taken into custody, discovering John Redman had
purposefully moved to wherever Alexander was living, first in Louisville, then
in Alexandria, where his intentions of ruining her brother were put on hold
because he’d been jailed.
It wasn’t until John Redman was free to leave Virginia that
he made plans to move to Danvers. Apparently, he didn’t fly to Kentucky at all.
It’d been a matter of buying the aid of a fellow porn star to use his credit
card and rent an apartment in Redman’s name.
And now here she was, witnessing Hazard’s big night and
grateful to know she’d been part of it. Their relationship was still new, still
growing and still getting stronger.
Yet the lover she’d found when she least expected to find
him became the man she wanted to spend her life with. It wasn’t that they
didn’t argue. It wasn’t that they were perfect that made their relationship
work.
It worked because they wanted it to. Being with him when he
wasn’t at mandatory practice and having Alexander arrange a private jet to fly
her out to Houston a few days before their friends arrived had been especially
rewarding because her brother flew with her.
Fortunately, Alexander agreed to be less bossy. While he’d
always do what was necessary to keep her or anyone in their family safe, he
gave her the benefit of the doubt regarding Hazard.
“Want to go down on the field with the players?” Alexander
asked her, waving a hand in front of her face.
“Can we do that?”
“We can.” Alexander said something to Doc and the two of
them flanked her.
The rest, including Ethan and Phalen, their wives, Remy and
Eve, Sam Riley and Taran Maddox, remained in the luxury skybox. Her parents and
Charlotte hadn’t been able to come to the game, but her dad rented out a pub in
Louisville to watch the big game with friends and family back in Kentucky.
Alexander had also contacted Hazard’s friends in Dare,
inviting them all to the championship game on his dime. All but Gabriel and
Jaxon had been able to join them. Gabriel had gone to Vegas to reopen his magic
show. Jaxon was secluded in the mountains, but he’d sent an invitation to Remy
and Eve to visit Dare for a ghost hunt.
“Come on, Avery, keep up,” Alexander teased, noticing she
lagged behind as she thought about the last couple of weeks.
“I’m coming.” She followed Alexander and Ryan out of the
skybox, through a few hallways and down some escalators. Her brother flashed
his credentials when asked by security, then pointed to the field passes
hanging around her and Ryan’s necks.
Out on the football field, the party continued. Alexander
wasn’t the tallest man on the crowd, but no one thought to stand in his way. He
exuded power and influence, maintaining a level of professionalism as he
slapped shoulders and shook hands.
This was her brother at his finest. She let him do his
thing. By the time they reached the players still gathered on the podium,
Alexander didn’t have to signal Hazard’s attention.
Hazard vaulted off the platform, rushed across the field and
straight into her arms.
“Congratulations, world-champion linebacker,” she said,
getting engulfed and hefted right off her feet.
“Thanks, still taking it all in. Know what I’m going to do
in the off-season?”
“What’s that?”
“Visit my doctor to see if I can’t correct that big mistake
I made,” he revealed.
“If it doesn’t work or can’t be done, it changes nothing. I
love you, Trevor Hazard Osbourne.”
“We’ll see what he says and go from there. How would you
feel if I moved up to Massachusetts during the off-season?”
“I would love it. What about Dare?”
“We’ll always have Dare, baby. There will be plenty of times
when we’ll need the escape. We can look into renting out my condo for
vacationers when we’re not going to be using it. I’d also like to perform at
the Truth or Dare Club whenever we’re in Nevada.”
“And football?”
“When practice resumes next summer, we’ll go to Virginia.
That is, if Doc doesn’t mind.”
“I’ll work something out with my boss. He’s a good man, you
know.”
“Yes, I do. I’ll need some help finding a place to live. Any
suggestions?”
Avery nodded, smiling. “You can stay with me in Danvers
until we find something we like better.”
“Avery Grant, are you suggesting that we live together?”
“It’s not a suggestion. It’s an open invitation.”
“An invitation I accept. I love you.”
“Then kiss me, Hazard, and don’t let go of me for a while.”
“How does a lifetime sound?”
“Like music to my ears,” she answered, happier than she’d
ever been in her whole life.
Hazard crushed her to him, kissing her deeply, passionately,
and not caring one little bit that the world was watching as confetti rained
down and fireworks crackled the sky in celebration.