Page 102 of Holding on to Chaos
“Figure it out.”
“What?” she asked, rubbing her cheek against his palm. It killed him just a little to pull his hand back.
“You made this mess. Figure out how to clean it up.”
He made a move for the door, but she stopped him. She gripped his wrist in both hands. “Wait. Do you still feel… do you think you still love me?”
He faced her, looked her square in the eyes. “Until the day I die, Evangelina. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be hurt and disappointed.”
She absorbed the words like the blow he’d meant them to be, closing her eyes against them.
“You can’t stay at your place tonight,” he told her. Back to business. “So, I’d make other arrangements if I were you.” And with those words, he turned and exited the shed.
He heard the barrage of fists on the bag as he crossed the yard. He just wanted to go back, to hold her and promise her he’d take care of everything. Vow that no one would ever hurt her again. That Agnes Merill would never get close to her for the rest of her life. But that wasn’t what Eva needed. She didn’t need blows softened or messes cleaned up. She needed the painful yet invaluable experience of solving her own problems and fixing her own mistakes.
At least he could handle the legal side of things. And nothing would give him a greater sense of satisfaction than locking that woman up. He poked his head into the cottage and shook his head at the destruction. Someone with the intent to do harm had gotten this close to the woman he loved. Mother or not, Agnes would pay.
“We were thinking—”
He spun around and found Gia and Emma standing on the grass, brooms and trash bags in hand. He was already shaking his head. “No. Absolutely not. You can help her clean up the messifshe asks you for help. Don’t offer, don’t do it for her, or I swear to fucking God I will throw you all in jail.”
“We just want to help,” Emma began.
“Listen to me. Eva’s spent her entire life thinking that you wanted to protect her from everything. She thinks she’s finally found a way to pay you back by keeping Agnes out of your lives and focused on her, and it blows up in her face. You don’t need to fix this for her.Sheneeds to fix this for her. She needs to understand that asking for help isn’t a weakness and being part of a team means being all in.”
Dejected, they muttered their agreement and started carting their cleaning supplies back into the house.
Beckett appeared on his back porch, cup of coffee in hand. “You got time for that talk now?”
“Yeah. Might as well get it over with now.” Donovan noticed Niko come out on the porch, but the man made no move to intervene.
Beckett put his mug down on the railing and crossed to Donovan.
Donovan’s fist caught him just under the eye, snapping his friend’s head back. “Fuck!” Beckett grimaced. “I knew it was going to hurt. But Jesus, do you have steel hands?”
“Don’t ever talk to Eva that way again,” Donovan said, shaking his hand out.
“Yeah. I know. I think this Uranus shit is getting to all of us. I’ll apologize to her. But I was pissed.”
“She put herself and your family at risk by keeping secrets,” Donovan said. “I get that.”
“And if you talked to Gia the way I talked to Eva, I’d be breaking your nose.”
“Settled?” Donovan asked, offering his hand.
“Settled.” Beckett agreed, shaking it. “Want some ice?”
“God, yes. Your face felt like a cinder block.”
“What the hell, Cardona?” Eva ran up, gaping at them.
Beckett, his eye rapidly swelling shut, looped an arm around Eva’s shoulders.
“I’m sorry for yelling at you and accusing you of being unconcerned for my family’s well-being. I know that’s not true and you were just doing your best even though your best sucked.”
She was shaking her head at him. “I deserve it. I made mistake after mistake, and I’m so sorry that Evan could have been hurt.”
“No one was hurt—besides me,” Beckett grinned. “Now maybe we can all team up and make sure this never fucking happens again.”
