Sophie Oak - Found in Bliss

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.”