Midnight Wreckage - Winter Travers Page 0,51
together and squealed. “Perfect. Just let me go get everyone. They don’t know the surprise, either.”
A few minutes later, everyone was gathered in the common room and Gunner and I were sitting in front of the camera again, but this time, Sledge was with us.
“What surprise do you have for us, Queenie?”
I smiled wide and practiced the little spiel I had worked out earlier. “Well, when Gunner was kidnapped, the thing that just took my breath away and made me realize what an amazing community Whitmore is was when I found out my good friend Petra had started a reward fund. We never did get any tips that helped with finding Gunner so that huge sum of money is just sitting there.”
“How much was raised again?” Deedra asked.
“Uh, the last I looked, we were at eighty-nine-thousand dollars.”
“Wow,” Deedra gasped. “That truly is amazing.”
“It is, and that’s why I want to use that money and start the GS Reward fund. Any money raised will now be used to help in any future missing person cases in the Whitmore area. Gunner unfortunately wasn’t the first missing person in the area, and I’m afraid he won’t be the last. I believe having the fund available for any tips on missing persons will be beneficial to everyone and hopefully help make everyone’s story end like Gunner’s. Safe and back home.”
“Wow, Queenie. That is amazing, and I know everyone will be glad to hear the money is going to something to benefit that local community.” Deedra smiled wide and her camera man yelled cut.
“Did I do okay?” I asked Sledge.
“Sounded good to me, sugar.” He leaned close and pressed a kiss to my lips. “Looked damn good to me, too.”
“You’re biased,” I laughed.
“Or in love with you.”
My jaw dropped, and Gunner squirmed in my arms. “Sledge,” I gasped, “take that back.”
He grabbed Gunner from my arms and held him to his chest. He quieted right down and fell asleep again. “Not taking it back because I meant it.”
“This is too fast.”
“That bullshit again?” he growled. “There ain’t no fucking timeline that says I can’t love you, Queenie. Stop acting like there is. If people don’t like that I love you, then they can go fuck themselves because the only person I’m fucking is you.” He pressed a kiss to my lips again. “Forever.”
“I fell in love with you the days you helped me pass out thousands of fliers and didn’t complain once. I really knew I was in love with you when you covered me with your body when that psycho tried to kill us. No one has ever done something for me without getting something for themselves out of it. You’re it. You’re the one who wants me for me and I love you.”
“Wow,” Kimber gasped. “Now that is what you call a proclamation of love.”
Sledge turned to Kimber and handed her Gunner. “Hold him for me for a second, would you?”
Kimber grabbed Gunner and took a step back. “You may now kiss this cutie’s mama.”
“Only if I get to kiss his daddy,” I whispered.
“Fuck Sledge. Now that is the best name I’ve ever been called in my life.”
*
Chapter Twenty-Three
Whoa…
Deedra
“I’ll get the rest of this, Pat. I’ll meet you in the van.”
“If you’re sure.” Pat grabbed the large bag filled with camera equipment and headed out the front door.
I was riding on a high from the awesome announcement Queenie had and then to watch firsthand that she found her happy ending was downright euphoric.
“You need some help?”
“Uh, Kimber, right?” I asked.
Kimber nodded. “That would be me. I can’t really help you since I’m holding Gun-gun while his parents get it on over there, but I can get one of the guys to help.”
“Oh, uh, no, it’s really okay.”
“Nonsense” she scoffed. “All of these beefcakes wandering around need a little something to do.”
I could use some help, but I didn’t absolutely need it. I crouched down to load the extra camera lenses into the bag and froze at the familiar but not common name she yelled.
“Yo, Point!” she shouted. “Come help.”
Nope. It couldn’t be him.
No way. No how.
It was not my Point.
I kept my head down and tried to cram everything into the bag quickly. Scuffed motorcycle boots stopped in front of me, and then, I was face to face with my past.
“Deedra?”
“Uh, Point,” I gasped. How?
“Uh, do you two know each other?” Kimber asked.
Point’s eyes connected with mine, and I was transported to another place and time. A place where the next words out