Anchor - M. Mabie Page 0,21

for the soothing rumble of his voice.

“Just hold off on anything. I’ll call the lawyer tomorrow and see what he thinks. The way he’s trying to spin it is full of holes. Reggie was there with me. He was holding a gun and didn’t put it down—even when the police told him to. Fuck. He was going to shoot me. Who knows what he would have done had he gotten you upstairs. Was he going to threaten you? Or worse?” He let out a huff of breath and the breeze blew my hair. “I can’t even think about that.”

“Well, what am I going to do? I can’t let him push me around. I can’t just accept him saying that.”

“Shh, I’ll take care of it. He’s not going to do anything. Okay, honeybee? He can’t do anything to us.”

I wanted to believe him. I didn’t know what Casey could do, other than go with me when I told my story, but I was confident he’d be by my side and I’d be by his. We’d figure out something. We always did.

We both lay there in silence. Thinking. Looking for an answer for a long time.

“Casey?” I finally said, drowsiness sweeping into me and swirling my thoughts to other things.

“Yeah,” he said, holding on to me as I rolled over and put my back to his chest.

“I really want some chocolate cheesecake.” Even as I heard the words come out of my mouth I knew they were random. Being tired sometimes does that to you.

“Then we’ll get you some tomorrow. You just sleep.”

Curled into his warm body, I fell off into a deep slumber. I’d told him what had happened, I trusted that together we’d be able to handle anything. Being in love might pack on twice as much trouble, but being in love with the right person—well, that’s when you never have to carry anything alone.

We made an unstoppable pair. A team. A force to be reckoned with. I fell asleep feeling better knowing he was there and I was in his strong arms.

I’d dare anyone to test our love. They wouldn’t stand a chance.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

I DON’T THINK HE quite understood who the fuck he was messing with. I wasn’t some chump who was going to let some bastard terrorize my girl. Terrorize me. Not when the biggest thing she should be worrying about was feeling better and trying to guess when I was going to put a ring on her pretty little finger. I wasn’t proud that I’d stolen his girl, but I sure as fuck had. And I’d fucking ruin everything else in his pathetic humdrum life if he didn’t back the fuck off.

Now.

No more was I wait-and-see Casey. The days of letting someone else determine any factor in how our future would go were over.

I called the shots.

I made the rules.

And it was time I told him how shit was going to go. Then enforce it.

With Blake soundly dreaming by my side, I lay in bed that night and plotted. I ran every possible scenario over and over in my mind constructing a plan. I wasn’t able to protect her from him that night. That would never happen again.

Around one in the morning, I knew what I was going to do.

“Yeah, I’ll tell her,” I promised Reggie as we talked the next morning. I called him to see if he had any more information, while Blake was making coffee for Troy and me. He pretty much confirmed everything Blake said. I told him Blake confided in me, and I was surprised when he didn’t ask for details—and I didn’t offer them. It wasn’t my story to tell. Besides, Reggie flying in to kill her ex-husband wouldn’t do any of us good. And it would fuck up my plan.

“Good. So I’ll see you guys this weekend. I’m coming in on Thursday to make my statement again, and I think Mom and Dad want to have an anniversary dinner since their party was postponed.”

“Okay, I’ll let you know how it goes. See you later.”

It was pretty early, and I hadn’t gotten the best sleep, but I was wired. My spine was full of steely determination. Even before coffee.

“You guys are going in so early.” She yawned, still wearing the clothes she’d slept in.

“Early bird gets the beer,” Troy joked as he zipped up his bag and set it by the door. “Hey, I still need to go pick up the car this morning. And not that your spare