Chapter Twenty-Nine

Ever

“I ’m fine to carry on,” Cash predictably replies.

“Are you sure?” I ask, “I really don’t mind.”

He smiles, his hand reaching over so he can take mine in his as he says, “I’m sure. Why don’t you get some sleep? You didn’t get much last night.”

“Neither did you,” I reply with a soft smile. I know there is no point in arguing with him about this. However, I am not going to go to sleep, just in case he gets tired later on, and he wants to switch.

Of course, he doesn’t want to, and he ends up driving all the way back, although I can tell he is starting to struggle toward the end.

As we pull up outside Lyric and the guy’s place, I turn around in my seat and wake the guys up, they have obviously had enough sleep now though because they each wake up really easily. As much as I want to get home, I also want to see my bestie since it feels like it has been forever since I last saw her.

She is already coming out of the house, looking impossibly bigger than the last time I saw her, not that I am stupid enough to tell her that.

She quickly says hello to her men and then grins at me, “I know what you’re thinking; I resemble a beached whale.”

“I would never,” I reply and then smirked, “although you are looking rather round, my dear bestie.”

She bursts out laughing as she gives me a big hug and I rub her belly, “I am, I keep thinking surely I can't get any bigger and then boom, I do.”

I laugh, “Not long left now, and then I get to snuggle my niece or nephew while you get some much-needed rest, or better yet, you snuggle your gorgeous baby while I do whatever you need me to around the house and things like that. I'm telling you now, just in case you didn’t realize it, but I will be here whenever you need me to.”

She bursts out crying and pulls me into another hug, “God, I love you.”

“I love you too,” I reply. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get mushy and make you cry.”

She waves me off, “Don’t be ridiculous. I cry at everything these days.”

“You do,” I tease, and she grins.

“Well, my dearest bestie, you look shit,” she retorts, I burst out laughing, and she adds, “Seriously, you look shattered. Go home, cuddle your men, and get some rest.”

“Who am I to argue with a pregnant woman,” I reply.

“I wouldn’t risk it,” she chuckles, “come down for dinner soon?”

“Absolutely, I think we might have a couple of days while we try and sort out a meeting time for Liam, the guys will fill you in, but we should be able to work it out. I miss you.”

“I miss you too; just let me know when you’re free,” she says.

I nod, “Got it, I’ll call you tomorrow like normal.”

I try to call her most days even if I don’t manage to see her, just because I like to check in with her, and she’s my bestie.

She grins and waves as we pull away and finally head home.

“Shoot,” I mutter as we start to drive through town.

“What’s up?” Jensen asks.

“Nothing major, but Lyric inviting us down for dinner reminded me that we were invited to Zemi’s place. I had completely forgotten.”

Cash smiles, “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. They are all more than aware of what is going on at the moment with Hunt, and they know that things get pretty intense in our job because they do it too.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s just a big deal for them to invite us, and I don’t want any of them to think that we don’t want to come,” I reply.

“If you’re worried about it, Angel, why don’t you message her and let her know?” Jensen suggests.

“Good point, I don’t know why I didn’t think of that, I think I’m just tired,” I reply, as I pull out my phone.

“I told you to get some sleep,” Cash says with a slight frown.

“You did, but you also didn’t switch with me, and I was worried you’d get too tired to drive, so I wanted to make sure that I stayed awake just in case.”

“Thank you, Il Mio Cuore,” he replies with a soft smile, and I return it as I try to make my brain work well enough to send a message that makes sense to Zemi.

Me: Hey! I’m sorry we haven’t managed to make it to your place yet. Hunt has had us running in circles again.

Zemi: Honestly, you didn’t even need to message we get it. We will fit it somehow; we have actually been on a job so we wouldn’t have been able to do it anyway. We just got back.

Me: I hope all went well with your job. How’s Raiden handling his injuries?

Zemi: He is finally listening, and he has been resting; he is only a little bit grumpy now, but we can handle that; it is a hell of a lot better than he was.

Me: Thank fuck for that. I am hoping we get a chance to catch up soon, even if it is just at headquarters.

Zemi: Me too, it feels like it’s been ages since we hung out properly. I will message you next time we are there just in case you guys are as well.

Me: Sounds good.

“Is everything okay?” Jensen asks as soon as I put my phone down.

I nod and repress a yawn as I say, “Yeah, they have only just got back from a job; we are going to try and set something up when we are both free. If that ever happens.”

“I’m actually really curious about what their place is like,” Cash adds.

Jensen grins, “Me too.”

As soon as we turn up our road, that sense of home starts and I begin to relax, it's not until I actually step through the door, the guys all greeting me warmly wrapping me in cuddles and smothering me in kisses that I actually feel like I am home.

“Food first,” Rafe announces loudly before anyone can say anything. “All things to do with work can be discussed after we’ve all eaten.”

Everyone quickly agrees. I don’t think any of us would choose work over Rafe’s food, and it smells fucking amazing in here, so I bet the guys are even more hungry than I am.

Dinner is amazing. Rafe has made one of my favourites, chicken curry, lamb curry and multiple side dishes that I couldn’t name but that taste absolutely amazing. I only know how to make my Christmas leftover curry and Rafe’s two versions taste considerably different. I know he has his own spice mix that he puts in, whatever he does to it tastes amazing. Although, I think that about everything that he makes.

Dinner is finished and, of course, followed by dessert, which was absolutely delicious, a chocolate ganache tart with a raspberry sauce and homemade vanilla ice cream; yes, I am well aware of exactly how spoiled I am. Some people would probably call me selfish too since I never really have to share his gorgeous creations with anyone else but family. I am just very lucky, and in actual fact, I would be incredibly fucking proud to share what he makes with anyone and everyone. I hope one day he gets to own a restaurant and do just that, although I know it is still a one-day thing for him at the moment and not something that he wants to do right now. He loves what we do now.

I think Trick can tell that Cash and I are too tired for the debrief, and everyone is just enjoying being together. By the time we have finished eating, it is actually quite late, and I am running on empty; I’m not actually sure how I have managed to stay awake this long. It’s for all of those reasons that Trick says that we can do the proper debrief tomorrow. We are pretty much all caught up thanks to the phone call in the car anyway, and we are waiting for Alaric to get back to us after he has spoken to Liam, and they have hopefully come up with a foolproof plan that is going to stop Hunt once and for all.

After we have eaten, we stay sitting up at the table just enjoying each other's company for a while before I can’t keep my eyes open any longer and say goodnight.

Trick

“D o you think she’s alright?” Rage asks with a frown, his eyes following Ever out of the room.

Jensen and Cash both nod, and Jensen answers, “Yeah, I think it’s thrown her slightly hearing Hunt talk about Amelia like he did but she was okay with it.”

Cash nods and adds, “I think it’s most likely all going to come out over the next couple of days, and it’s more likely to be what she’s going to do about the funeral.”

“Yeah, she meant what she said when she told you guys, she would think about it later. She didn’t mention it at all,” Jensen adds.

Atlas nods, “Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me, she doesn’t really like talking about Amelia and the job was a good distraction.”

“Exactly,” Cash replies. “She’ll figure it out in her way like she usually does.”

“And all we need to do is just be there for her when she needs to voice everything that she’s got going on in her head,” Luc adds with a fond smile.

“It’ll be pretty obvious she’s thinking about it; she’ll most likely grab loads of snacks and tune everyone out,” Pete smirks.

“Yep,” I reply. Then I change the subject, “We will take it easy tomorrow unless Alaric calls at any point. There is no rush to get anything done, and we are pretty much in limbo until he calls anyway.”

Cash yawns, “Thank fuck for that. I need sleep, and a lot of it. For some reason, even though I was sleeping during the day, it didn’t really feel like sleep.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Rafe replies, “there’s no point in me trying to nap during the day because I end up just waking up and feeling more tired.”

Cash nods in agreement and then adds, “Speaking of tired, I’m going to bed, night guys.”

“Yeah, I’m heading up too,” Riot adds, “this one was more worrying than the others that you guys have been on. I didn’t like Ever being that close to Hunt.”

“Me neither,” Rage replies, “I think I probably slept less than you guys did.”

“I hate my brain; it keeps making me dream of Ever being taken and you guys being killed,” Luc frowns.

“Same,” I admit.

“We’re back now, we’re fine, and we don’t need to go back near Hunt until we’re ready to kill him,” Cash says, as he stands up and stretches.

“That’s true,” I reply. “Alright, let’s leave it for now; it can all be dealt with tomorrow. For now, let’s get some sleep.”

No one argues with me, and everyone quickly clears the table and makes sure that everything is clean, and the dishwashers are both on before making their way to their bedrooms.

Once I am in my room, I sit on my bed for a moment, taking a deep breath and centering myself. I hated that. I just kept thinking about when Blake took Ever and how Hunt is so much fucking worse than Blake, I think I have probably only managed to get an hour or so sleep each night. We usually handle splitting up much better, but knowing that Hunt was looking for Ever, even if he didn’t realize that she was who he was looking for, we definitely didn’t handle that very well at all.

The situation is just a bit too similar to what happened with Blake or at least it could be and none of us can live with that again. I get up, shaking off the bad thoughts, they are all home now and that is what we were worried about, time to get some proper sleep.

It’s not until I have showered and gotten into bed that I remember that I didn’t tell Jensen, Cash and Ever about the storm that we have been preparing for. It’s not supposed to hit for a couple of days though so I will be able to tell them about it tomorrow.

Sleep drags me under into the deep and restful sleep that I desperately need.

**********

Ever

T he house is quiet; everyone is still fast asleep, but I am awake. Mostly because I had enough sleep and this is when I woke up, but I'm also up because my mind is spinning in circles thinking about or rather trying to avoid thinking about my mother, the funeral and what Hunt said. I finally decide that I have had enough, and I really need to process all of this before I spiral. The best way that I know how to do that is to take Tank out. Something about the wind rushing past me or just gently meandering through the surrounding woods means that I can go through each emotion and thought process. It helps me work through it all, and Tank never judges. I can tell him, and he will listen intently.

Yeah, that is exactly what I need; I need to go out on Tank.

My room is empty; I know someone came in with me last night, but they are not here now, so I guess I was wrong about everyone still being asleep. I want to go without being asked questions or anything like that, but I also don’t want them to panic about where I have gone, so I will leave them a note and stick it to the fridge.

If I am being honest, they are most likely expecting me to do something like this; they have gotten very used to me and my coping mechanisms. Still, I would never just disappear on them. That would be a dick move, and if they did it to me, I would sure as hell have something to say about it. I push the covers off me and head to the window to see what the weather is like so I can dress accordingly.

Well, it’s not perfect weather, it’s overcast and windy, but it matches my mood perfectly, so I decide that I am still going to go. If it takes a turn, then I can come back. It's not a big deal and I will take my phone with me anyway. I'm not stupid.

Moving over to my closet I pull out some warm clothes, and quickly throw them on, my boots and jacket are by the door, so I can slip them on before I take the four-wheeler up to the stables to get Tank. Once that’s done, I quickly braid my hair since I hate having it whip around me while I am riding and then rummage through my desk to find a pen and paper, before scribbling a note to pin on the fridge.

Grabbing it, I start to walk across my bedroom before I realize that I have left my phone on my bedside table, and I spin back around to go and grab it. Of course, I'm a klutz, so as soon as I reach for it, instead of picking it up, I end up knocking it off, and it falls under the bed.

I roll my eyes at myself; I mean, how did I manage to only knock it off in the most awkward place possible? Couldn’t it have just fallen on the floor?

Put the note on my bedside table and then drop to the floor reaching under the bed and patting around like a looney, I can’t feel, and it can’t have gone that far under surely. Glancing underneath I spot it right in the middle of the bed, because of course it is. As I am pulling it out though my eyes catch on my memory box, it has been a long time since I’ve put something into it and I can’t help but reach for it too and bring it out.

I am more than aware that I am now stalling, but I'm going to allow myself that for a moment. I move so I’m sitting on my ass and carefully lift the lid of my box. It’s no longer the battered shoe box that I had hidden in the trailer when I was a teenager, my collection grew too big to be kept in that. Riot made me this box from scratch, and Trick did a beautiful design on it; it is now as special to me as the things inside.

I'm not really sure why I keep it under my bed still, I think it is just something that I have always done and for some reason it feels safer under there.

I smile as I pull out a photograph from our first Christmas up here, when I met Atlas. I have also got all of the labels that were on my presents because each one of them wrote something that made me smile. I have also got the map in here, the one that I kept after my father took me away from them and the one that I used to help me remember the way back when I could finally go home. That one is special on a lot of levels and for different reasons.

I have also got things like the first knife that Jensen let me borrow, the second one I still use on jobs, and it is one of my favorites, along with the knives that Atlas got me. There are also things like a note that Pete gave me when I was feeling sad, you would think it would say something sweet and meaningful, it doesn't it says, ‘Stop being sad, love you!’. That was it; strangely enough, it worked; it was so blunt and so Peter that it immediately brought a smile to my face, and he was super proud that he had managed to make me smile.

It's now become a running joke between us, and whenever one of us is sad, depending on the situation and things like that, we will give another one that says the exact same thing.