Page 117 of Pain in the Axe
With a nod, Julian nestled back into my shoulder.
“Let’s go to your rooms and pack some stuff,” I suggested, looking over to where Celine was talking to the police. My stomach knotted as I once again took in her battered face. She better be pressing charges.
“And then we can all go have a super fun sleepover.”
The girls bounced up, and I followed them to their room, where they packed their backpacks and directed me to Julian’s preferred blanket, pajamas, and stuffies.
Gus helped me load my car and took junk food orders from the kids. With every minute that passed, the sleepover plans got more extravagant. Gus was now making a list on his phone of their food requests, which included every type of sugary breakfast cereal for the morning, and the girls had launched into a debate about which movie we would watch.Encantowas the current front-runner.
When Celine finished with the police—with instructions to swing by the station in the morning to finalize her statement and process the paperwork—we had the kids loaded up and packed, all three excited for their wild night at my house.
“Thank you,” I said to Gus, looping an arm around his waist.
“Anything,” he said softly into my hair. “Just ask. I’ll do anything for you, Dragonfly.”
Chapter 35
Gus
Once Celine and the kids were settled, I’d kept my promise, completely cleaning out the grocery store in the process.
Back at Chloe’s, armed with every type of junk food imaginable, I made a huge fire out on the beach, and the kids, bundled up in several layers to protect against the cold, had roasted hot dogs and marshmallows
Chloe and Celine stayed inside, taking a call from Chloe’s lawyers and making plans. I wanted to round up my brothers, get in my truck, and pay Donny a visit. I still didn’t know the whole story, but from what I understood, Donny had tried to hit Julian, and Celine intervened.
I shuddered at the thought. I had written Chloe off when she’d waxed poetically about murdering him and leaving his body in the woods, but now the plan was looking pretty damn appealing.
Once the fire had died down, we’d started a movie, and it wasn’t long before all three kids were yawning. Julian had roped me into reading himPete the Cat, his favorite book, three timesbefore he started to nod off. The thought of anyone touching a single hair on his head made me twitch.
Now, Celine and the kids were asleep upstairs, all huddled together in a king-sized bed, and I was outside, letting Clementine out one last time. Chloe needed to sleep, but she was alternating between obsessively checking on Celine and the kids and making sure all the doors were locked.
“He won’t come here,” I said as Clem and I came back inside.
She tightened the blanket she had wrapped around herself. “They went to arrest him, but he wasn’t at his parents’ house. The police are hitting up bars in the area and asking around.”
I put an arm around her. “Good. He’ll be in custody by morning.”
“It’s not enough,” she gritted out. “I need to make sure he goes to jail forever.”
“You should call Parker,” I suggested
She straightened. “Who?”
“Parker. She’s married to Pascal Gagnon. She was a private investigator. Former FBI too. She could probably dig up all kinds of dirt on Donny.”
Chloe’s face lit up, and she pulled away. “Excellent. Let me get my phone.”
Grasping her arm, I pulled her back into my side. “It’s two a.m., Dragonfly. Let’s call her tomorrow.”
With a nod, she bent at the waist and rubbed Clementine’s ears.
“Did you name her?” she asked, focusing on the dog, who was currently basking in her attention.
My heart stuttered. “Yes.”
“Because of—”
“Yes,” I breathed. “Not only because we saw it on our first date. But because the message that love is always worth it, despite the pain, has always stuck with me.”
