Page 54 of Fight for You
“This,” she said, voice thick. “This is what I need, Jamie. Passion. Children. Love. A home. Not just safety or protection.”
“Maybe I haven’t offered you all of that,” I said, voice tight, “but I thought I’d given you the start of it. I’m trying to get there.”
“I know.” She swiped a tear. “I respect who you are, Jamie. But I still feel like everything is a process with you. The toilet bowl. Your list. Maybe you’re not just coming at me as a way to help me with my trauma by making me wait to have all of you, Jamie. Maybe something else is there. Even besides marriage.”
“There’s nothing else I want more than having all of you too, Jordyn.” I took a step closer, the words burning in my chest. “I will give—” The declaration died in my throat. My eyes locked on the monitor across the room.Movement.
Movement was what kept me alive in the Marines. And a lack of movement now could be the death of?—
“Who’s that?” she groaned.
I jerked a shoulder and approached an inner door that led to a large garage. “Don’t intend to stick around and find out.”
Jordyn pushed the stroller through the door as I held it open. The air smelled of diesel and old rubber. Sensored fluorescent lights flicked on, casting a pale glow over rows of semis. Good thing the massive garage doors didn’t have windows. We strolled past a few empty spots, a couple of older model trucks, and then past a new Mack Anthem. On the opposite side of it sat a muscle car, with its white-striped center and big blue body. A Chevelle SS 1970.
“Drat. Leith’s gonna kill me.”
“Why?”
“First, his wife’s name is Chevelle. So, this vehicle is another member of their nuclear family. Second, he hid this car here to stop Mia from taking it to college with her. The little princess has access to the Ring camera, so he’s waiting for winter finals to sneak it back home.” Leith had griped about it to me as we drove down to Tarzana. I swung open the door, not a creak. Smoothly, as if Leith oiled the hinges every day. Jordyn tossed in the two backpacks as I gingerly lifted Rebel. “You can go back to sleep in a sec, Reb.”
Careful where my hands touched, I placed her in the backseat on the black leather. “The business trucks have their own garage opener. This one doesn’t. So, Jordyn,”—I put my hand on her shoulder—“I need you to press that button on the wall.” It was at least twenty feet away. “Run and get into the car. Duck down.”
A gray pallor replaced the usual glow of her brown skin. Could I bring myself to lie and tell her we’d survive this?No.
“Jordyn! Press the button.” I got into the driver’s seat and flipped down the visor for the keys.Thanks for being predictable, Leith. I cranked the engine, and the Chevelle roared to life. The wheel jittered softly beneath my hands while the garage door slowly swept up.
Jordyn sprang into the passenger seat, slamming the door behind her. I toggled the stick shift once the door cleared the top of the vehicle, Nike ready to punch the gas when two figures blocked the driveway, shotguns in hand.
“Run them over!” Jordyn ordered.
That was sort of the point until I realized they weren’t Chelomey’s men.
My older brother, Camdyn MacKenzie, stood next to the Bear.
“Get out. Now,” Brody ordered.
“Oh,” Jordyn seemed to realize they were family. “He’s your oldest brother, right? The one with the beard.”
“If that’s what you wanna call him.”
Having done this less than twenty-four hours ago, I knew the drill. First, I raised my hands out the window and used my left hand to pull the lever from outside.
“Both of ya,” Camdyn growled. Maybe they couldn’t make out our faces from the way the fluorescent lights hit the front window.
“Nae. Just me?—”
“Ja-Jamie.” Camdyn shifted his weapon from its justified position, barrel pointing to the ground.
I stood with one arm resting on the top of the vehicle and one foot still inside on the floorboard. The poster child for nonchalance. “Tell your brother I need to borrow his car.”
Brody sniffed. “That’s how you do us? After all this time?”
“What do you mean all this time? I saw you on Independence Day. You ambushed me at a barbecue joint!” I shot back, then flitted my hand for them to move.
“You saw him this summer?” Camdyn spun on our big brother, a vein protruding from his neck more prominent than the silly knife tattoo he got in high school. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We tried to do an intervention before everyone arrived on the Fourth, Cam!” Brody argued. “Now plug your pipe hole. Backup.”
