29. Kitty

29

KITTY

T he police were here for hours. I had to repeat everything I knew about Anton at least five times before the woman I was talking to was satisfied. There was a moment when my connection to Anton aroused the suspicion that I was part of the terrible things that happened here tonight, but my parents were quick to stamp that out.

Through every question, every answer, and every detail squeezed out of me, Rook stayed by my side. He held my hand and refused to let go even when they started to interrogate him about how he got in here and how he knew there was a situation in the first place.

If it hadn’t been for Melanie, there was a chance none of us would have made it to Christmas in the first place.

And one of the most important revelations was that Paul was alive. He was tended to by the medics almost immediately and wheeled away with assurances that they would do everything they could to save him. It would be a tense wait, but knowing he had clung on this long gave me hope.

Finally, the last officer left, and a deep exhaustion settled into my bones. I was equally ready to sleep forever and at the same time, unwilling to be alone in this house. I knew all of the attackers had been apprehended, and Anton was in police custody at the hospital, but it still didn’t feel safe.

“Can you stay?” I softly asked Rook, running my thumb back and forth over his knuckles. “Please stay with me tonight.”

“Of course,” Rook said, looking deep into my eyes. “Nothing could tear me away, okay? Nothing.”

“Is that really wise?” My father finally spoke up after pouring his third drink from the trolley. “I think we need family time now.”

I was too tired to be angry, but it rose inside me anyway, like a swelling gust of air fighting to escape the confines of a balloon. To my surprise, though, my mom got there first.

“Samuel, stop being so ridiculous! I am tired of this. I am tired of you!” She sat near the fireplace, anxiously shredding a paper napkin into small pieces and tossing them into the fire. “How can you stand there and be so rotten after what happened here tonight?”

“I understand it,” Rook said.

My attention snapped to him, shocked. “What?”

Rook squeezed my hand. “I understand it… because Samuel, you feel like I betrayed you, don’t you? We were friends, good friends in college, and then I went off to war, and you came here to become mayor. We took different paths and fought different battles. Maybe it was hard for you. Maybe that’s why it was so easy for you to accept donations from shady shareholders and carve up the town you claim to love.”

“You don’t know anything,” Dad snapped, spinning to face us both.

“Don’t I?” Rook raised one brow. “It’s no different from my returning from overseas and taking the easy route of private security. I couldn’t face a normal life. Recovery. The mundane drag of shopping and bills and small talk with strangers who would judge me at a glance.”

I comfortingly squeezed his hand in return.

“We both took the easy route because we were tired, and you reached out to me in a time of need because you care about your daughter. And you think I betrayed you because I fell in love with her.”

My dad’s jaw tightened, and he drank so stiffly, it was a wonder he could get the alcohol past his lips.

“Tell me I’m wrong.” Rook’s voice remained calm. “Tell me that’s not the real reason you’re so against this. Kitty is an adult. Maybe if we had met in other circumstances, things would be different. But I think you look at me and you can’t shake how long we’ve been friends, and maybe you don’t really trust me because I’ve seen shit that would make your blood curdle. And in your own way, you want to protect Kitty from what I could be. Because all it takes is one bad night, one PTSD trigger, and this could fall apart.”

Listening to Rook speak so openly about himself was jarring, in a way. He was a closed book except when we were together, and now he was pouring himself out like an open wound.

“You’re dangerous,” Dad snapped. “Tonight even proved that.”

“He saved us,” Mom hissed. “After how we treated him, he saved us.”

There was regret in Mom’s tone, and my heart skipped a beat.

“You’re right,” Rook replied. “I am dangerous, and I did save you because like it or not, we are now family. I love Kitty with all my hear, and I am going to care for her and our baby until my last breath. So even though I ran from the mundane and the shopping and the bills and the small talk, I will embrace it because I love her. And I will take that life to be with her.”

Emotion stung warm behind my eyes, and I leaned against his shoulder, unable to take my eyes off him.

“And if I say no?” Dad asked stiffly, turning away to refill his empty glass.

“You don’t have a choice here, Dad,” I replied. “This is my life and my choice. Your threat about cutting me out of the will and removing my inheritance? You put value on money. I don’t. Rook is who I treasure. And this baby.” I placed one hand on my stomach. “This is what I choose to love and support. And if you have even a shred of your old self in you, you will feel the same.”

“Hugo?” Mom rose from her chair and moved close. “I am… sorry for the things I said and how I reacted. At the time, all I saw was an inappropriate relationship, but I see now that you truly do care for my daughter, and that is all I want for her, someone to love her and make her happy. You do that and I… I will support that as much as I can.”

“Oh, Mom.” It was impossible to hold back the tears after that. I rose quickly and threw my arms around her shoulders, pulling her close. She sank into my hold, and for a moment I was a kid again, hiding under her curls and breathing in her powdery perfume.

“I will take care of her,” Rook said quietly. “I swear it.”

“I know,” Mom replied as I stepped back and retook my seat. “I know you will.”

I was even more exhausted now, but Rook wasn’t finished.

“It would mean a lot,” he said, “if you could consider freeing me from my contract without any legal hassle.”

“Legal hassle?” Mom frowned. “In what way?”

“Fucking my daughter breaks the contract,” Dad replied. “I can sue him.”

“Oh, Samuel!” Mom spun around. “Don’t be so ridiculous. Are you trying to alienate this entire family? Did tonight do nothing to knock some sense into you? Your stubbornness knows no bounds, I swear. We almost lost our daughter tonight, our very lives over this stupid highway deal, and I’m telling you right now, it stops here. Are you listening to me?”

Dad, in his infinite wisdom, chose to leave the room with a glass in hand, but Mom followed hot on his heels, and we could hear her scolding him all the way down the hall.

“I don’t understand,” I murmured, wiping my tears. “Why is he so fucking stubborn?”

“He’s a man,” Rook replied gently, and he leaned in close. His lips brushed my damp cheek as he placed an arm around my shoulders. “We’re all stubborn.”

“He’s just pig-headed and mean and… and I don’t know what else, but it’s stupid and I hate it. He has no right to judge you now, not after you saved us.”

Rook kissed my cheek again, then nuzzled against me with the tip of his nose. “Not that I hope this happens again, but I’ll always come and save you, Kitty. You saved me and I didn’t even know it.”

I swiveled to face him and stared into his gorgeous eyes, drowning myself in the sparkle. “I did?”

“Of course you did.”

I melted as the back of his fingers caressed my cheek.

“I was stuck in a rut I was comfortable in, and then you came along, and suddenly, all I wanted to do was see you smile, hear you laugh, listen to you talk for hours about the town you loved. When I was coming here tonight and I found Paul in the kitchen, I—” His voice closed off suddenly and he swallowed thickly. “The fear I felt when I thought about finding you in the same way was unimaginable. It was so deep, I was sure if it became true, I would never recover.”

“You don’t have to worry,” I said softly, placing my hand over his and nuzzling into his palm. “Because I’m okay. I’m right here. And you’re right here. And we’re both okay. And this little nugget inside me is also okay.”

Rook slowly dropped his hand down my abdomen and smiled softly. “Indeed.”

“Come on.” I took his hand and threaded our fingers together. “Take me to bed.”