Protecting Lyndley (16 page)

Lyndley

The rain tapped against the window as I stood staring aimlessly out into the night sky, and the home that we were once again being forced to leave. I wasn’t sure when my life would be mine again, and I found myself wanting to hunt these bastards down myself. A small groan escaped between my lips as a sharp pain radiated through my bandaged shoulder and down my arm. Just as I reached my hand over to rub the tight muscle, I felt another hand underneath mine.

Ky gently massaged my shoulder that was now housed in an uncomfortable sling. The moment the bullet hit me, I thought things had finally gotten to where they needed to be, but the shootout that just
occurred was when things drastically changed between him and I. We were no longer two people who were trying to fight our desire and attraction to one another. No, we were now back to U.S. Marshal Wakely and Lyndley Caverly, witness in protection.

“You know this is all we can be for now, don’t you?” His words were
like a dagger stabbing my fragile broken heart.

As much as it killed me to hear him say those words, it killed me even more knowing that the one man I had ever trusted in my life, was completely unattainable to me. So here we stood, me and my protective duty and our shambles of a life hanging in the balance. After a few more minutes of us standing in silence, I turned and made my way over to the bed. All I wanted to do was sleep the rest of this shitty day away.

~~~~~

I woke up sore a
nd feeling like I wanted to die as the sun shone brightly in my eyes. I quickly moved my arm up to shield me from its scorching rays, but was quickly reminded by the shooting pain in my shoulder that I couldn’t use that particular arm. I let out an aggravated sigh as I rolled over to face away from the window. I half expected Ky to be lying next to me, but to my surprise or lack thereof, he was nowhere to be found.

I quickly sat up in bed scanning the room for any sign of Ky. When I came up empty, I decided to get dressed and make my way downstairs. I reached the bottom of the steps just as a black sedan was pulling away from the house. I was utterly confused, and made my way around the house trying to find Ky, Ruger or Kristy. I all but threw my hands up in the air as I walked towards the fridge to grab something to drink.

I was startled when the phone on the wall began to ring. I set the glass I was holding in my hand on the counter and slowly made my way towards the phone. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be answering any phone, especially Ruger’s, but something inside of me told me to. My hand was shaking as fear raked through my body as I reached for the yellow house phone.

“He-hello?” My voice was trembling and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

“Lyndley? Oh my god, Lyndley is that you?”

I couldn’t believe the voice I was hearing on the other end. No, it wasn’t possible.
I watched the coroner take him away. I watched him die. I stood there shaking my head in disbelief, as he continued to try and get my attention.

“Lyndley, please answer me.”

“How…how…I don’t understand.” Tears began steadily rolling down my face as his voice echoed through my mind.

“It’s a long story, trust me. It was all to keep you safe. Are you safe?”

My hand flew up to my mouth trying to conceal the hysterical sobs that were taking over me. I nodded my head, but soon realized that there was no way he could see me. I tried to speak through the tears as much as I could, but I’m sure I was still hard to understand.

“Take a deep breath.” He whispered.

“Reese, I can’t believe it’s you. Where are you?”

“God, it is so good to hear your voice. Look, we don’t have long to talk. They’ll be back soon. Just know that I can’t wait to see you. Not being able to talk to you or see you for this long has been killing me.”

“Me too. How are you able to call me? How did you even know where I was? Reese, what’s going on?”

“Lyndley, slow down. I promise you’ll have answers soon. I have to go. Make sure they don’t know that you were on the phone.”

“Wait Reese, tell me what’s going on.” Before I could even finish my sentence the phone line went dead.

I stood there staring at the receiver in irritation, when Reese’s words came filtering back through my mind. I quickly slammed the receiver onto the cradle and went about what I was doing. I poured myself a tall glass of orange juice, and meandered around the living room. An unlikely smile formed on my face as I stood there staring out the front window. Just knowing that Reese was alive was all I needed on this dreary day. I may have lost the love of my life, but at least I knew I had my best friend to go home to eventually.

The longer I stood there, the more enraged I became. It dawned on me that Ky most likely knew that Reese was still alive, and that thought made me sick to my stomach. Before I could think about it any longer, I ran straight for the hall bathroom and emptied the entire contents of my stomach into the toilet. When there was nothing left inside of me to give, I sat back wiping the sweat from my brow.

“Lyndley
, are you in here?”

I could hear Ky’s voice echoing throughout the house, but I wasn’t in the mood to talk to him. Not after last night
, and most definitely not after the phone call I just got. I slid my foot across the floor and quietly closed the door before he could find me. Suddenly there was a knock at the door, and I jumped back afraid of who I might find on the other side.

“I’ll be out shortly.” I half shouted so I didn’t have to face whomever it was on the other side.

“Lyndley, we need to talk.” As soon as his voice hit my ears, something inside of me boiled over with rage.

I rinsed my mouth and pulled back the door as hard as I could until I was standing face to face with Ky. “Who the hell do you think you are?” I pushed my finger deep into his chest. “How dare you lie to me about my friend. I watched him die. Right there
in front of my eyes I watched as he was shot in cold blood. I watched the coroner take his body away like he was some piece of garbage, and you watched me suffer through it all, and never said a goddamn word. Do you know how many times I could’ve used the reassurance?”

Ky stood back with his mouth open not saying a word. I could tell by the look on his face, he wasn’t expecting me to ever find out. Just when I thought I couldn’t hate him anymore than I did when I woke up this morning, I found it inside of me to hate him a little more. He was no longer the man I thought he was. Instead of being my knight in
shining armor, now he was just a coward.

Ky

Before I could even formulate a logical response, my mouth was already doing the talking. “Why the hell are you answering the phone? You know you’re not supposed to be talking to anybody. What the hell am I going to do with you?”

“Don’t you dare chastise me,
Ky. I am not a child. Should I have answered the phone? Probably not, but I did and now here we are.”

I couldn’t believe the way she was talking to me.
After everything that we had been through, really? “Well
stop
acting like a child.” I knew the minute the words left my mouth that she was about to blow up on me.

“UGH!” she shouted as she pushed past me and up the stairs. I just stood there watching her walk away from me and completely confused. After last night, I thought everything was fine. We knew we couldn’t be what we wanted to be to one another and as much as it broke my heart, I knew it was what was best for her and her safety.
No matter how hard I tried I could never do right by her, or at least that’s how it appeared.

I almost started making my way upstairs to try and talk to her about everything that had happened this morning, but I quickly changed my mind as I heard her bedroom door slam shut. I heard Ruger on the phone in the next room, so I made my way to where he was. When I walked into the kitchen, Ruger was standing against the counter, the disappointment on his face evident.

“What’s going on?”

“Looks like your girl gets to go home.”

I couldn’t believe what he was saying. There was no way they had the trial already. “I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying to me. How is that possible?”

“Apparently someone inside found out about the Nelson brothers and had so
me unfinished business with Ray. They found
him
dead about an hour ago, and well you know where John is.”

“You’re fucking with me right?”

“No, man. Literally, there is nobody left to come after her. Kristy verified everything they were saying. That’s why they came and picked her up this morning.”

I sat on the bar stool at the breakfast counter and dropped my head into my hands. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to be feeling at the moment. Of course the selfish part of me didn’t want this thing to be over. I needed more time with Lyndley. But obviously I was happy for her that she could now go back to her life and not live in fear everyday.

“Look on the bright side, at least y’all can be together now. No?”

I sat there shaking my head at him. “I’m not sure that’s what she wants, and honestly I don’t know if she could handle all of my insecurities and my past. That’s a lot of bullshit for one person to deal with for the rest of their life.”

“The rest of her life, huh? I didn’t know y’all were that serious.”

“No, no we’re not.
I just meant”…Ah hell, who was I kidding? “Yeah, I see it that way, but after this morning, I would be surprised if she ever wanted to talk to me again.” I looked up at Ruger. “She knows that her friend is alive.” I muttered.

“And how the hell did she find that out?”

“She answered your phone this morning while we were getting Kristy squared away.”

“Shit.” He muttered.

“Yeah. Honest to god, I was going to tell her. I just had to wait and make sure everything was safe enough for her to know. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah, man. I get it. She’s
gonna have to understand that there are certain things you have to do in order to do your job correctly. She may not understand it now, but she’ll get it eventually. Cheer up, and go talk to her.” He nudged my arm and my hand slipped from holding my face up, causing me to almost face plant on the counter.

We both started laughing, and it felt good to not have to be so serious and cautious anymore. “Mind if I use your phone real quick?”

“Of course not, man. I’m gonna head out to the barn and tend to the horses for a bit. Give y’all some time to talk.”

“Thanks, Ruger.”

“Sure thing, Wakely.” He tipped his hat in my direction and then made his way outside.

I reached for the receiver on the wall next to me and quickly dialed Tom. If this thing was really over, then I needed to get instructions on how to proceed. I sat there rolling my eyes as his phone rang a million times.
Typical Tom, never picking up his phone when he should. I was about to hang up when he finally answered.

“Dunn here.”

“Hey Tom. It’s Wakely.”

“Ah Wakely, as I live and breathe. You boys get Kristy off okay?”

“Yeah, she’s on her way back to headquarters. I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes. The first place they are taking her is her father’s office. Ouch!”

“That’s what happens when you try to bat against the home team.”

I never understood his baseball references. They rarely, if ever made any sense in the situation. “So what’s the word?”

“Looks like you and your little lady get to come home. Well I guess I should say, you get to bring her home and then
you
can go home.” The thought of going back to my place in the city by myself seemed to depress me. “You did your job, Wakely. I thought you’d be ecstatic.”

“Yeah, yeah I am. It just all seems so easy. It’s hard to not question whether or not it is truly safe for her to go home.”

“Wakely, stop overthinking everything. They found their bodies this morning, the case has been dropped, and now there is no threat against her anymore. Do you want to bring her home, or should we have someone else do it?”

I sat there contemplating what he was asking me. As much as I wanted to be the one to watch her face light up when she got to see her family and friends who have thought of her dead, there was still the other part of me that knew that it would only prolong the inevitable. Not to mention that I didn’t quite fit into her ritzy world. Her family has money, they expect her to be with someone who has money also I’m sur
e, and I just wasn’t that guy. How was I supposed to know that this wasn’t her just slumming it until she got to go back to her normal life? I was beginning to think I was a person of convenience.

“Wakely, you still there?”

“Yeah. You should probably line up someone to take her home.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Alright, I’ll have Ruger take her home. You can leave whenever and head on home. I’ll expect to see you in my office before t
he weekend so we can wrap this thing up.”

“Sounds good, Tom. I’ll get a hold of you when I get back. Thanks.”

“Sure thing, Wakely. Safe travels.”

I hung up the phone and made my way upstairs to my room. As I passed by Lyndley’s door, I almost stopped and knocked. Instead, I just went straight into my room and began packing. Granted I didn’t have a ton of stuff to pack, but it was enough to keep me busy for a bit. Now if I could just turn my mind off, that would be great.

About an hour later, Lyndley still hadn’t emerged from her room and I couldn’t help but blame myself for all of this. I stood outside her door, bag in hand debating whether or not to even say good-bye. At this point it almost seemed as though it would be easier to just leave her life for good, and let her hate me enough to eventually get over me.