I scrunch up my face about to ask him what he means. However, Kelso starts screaming and running toward the accident. It takes me a second to understand what he’s shouting.
Ivy.
Wrenching Dom's hands away from my waist, not giving one thought or care for my own safety, I race down the porch and after Kelso. My brother's agonizing screams tearing apart my heart.
Reaching a mangled red sedan seconds after Kelso, Slater, Pacer and William, I search the driver seat, and there's Ivy, unconscious, blood dripping down her head. Kelso is trying to open her door, but it appears to be jammed.
Susie, one of our neighbors, comes running out in her waitress uniform with a phone to her ear. She yells out, “Paramedics are on the way!”
Kelso is still screaming Ivy’s name in a frenzied tone; I don’t think he heard Susie at all. He finally gets her door open and grasps her face, tears rolling down his face as he continues to call her name and beg her to wake up.
Covering my mouth with my hands, I try to muffle my cries. Dom turns me in to his body, and my shoulders shake as I can’t hold back the agony of what is unfolding right in front of me.
Hearing grunts and Kelso shouting to let him go, I look up quickly and find my brothers holding him back from the wreckage. “You need to leave her until the ambulance gets here, Kel. She shouldn’t be moved. You might hurt her more by trying to save her,” Slater pleads with our brother, trying to reason with him to see sense.
Mack and Lana appear beside Dom and me, their expressions confused at first and then Lana gasps, grabbing at her throat as a sob expels from her. Mack rushes over and tries to help Slater and Pacer control Kelso.
Sirens sound in the background, getting closer and closer until we can see the paramedics speeding toward us. They park and two people jump out, a woman and a man. William goes to them and explains there was a head-on collision with an SUV. They ask her name and William repeats what Kelso is screaming.
Kelso calms for a moment while they do numerous checks on Ivy, calling her name calmly, asking her questions, but she never moves or wakes. They get out a stretcher and after strapping her head to stop the bleeding, and wrapping Ivy’s neck in a brace, they pull her out of the car. It’s then we see her twisted right leg and the bone protruding out of her skin with blood covering both her legs.
Kelso, seeing what we’re seeing, falls to his knees, struggling to breathe and speak, my brothers go with him, try to offer whatever comfort they can.
The paramedics get Ivy into the ambulance and ask if someone would like to travel with her. Kelso stands on shaky legs and climbs into the back with her. He takes her bloody hand in his, pushes her hair off her face and kisses her forehead gently. The ambulance doors close and we’re all left standing in the middle of the road, staring at it as it speeds away, praying the doctors who are about to meet Ivy in only a few minutes will be able to save her life.
Epilogue
Della
Lifting the heavy suitcase down from my bed, I roll it to my door, waiting for Slater to arrive and take it down to Chevy. Tomorrow, Dom and I are off to Hastings, by plane this time, and my awesome and understanding big brother is driving us there. I may have or may not have guilted Slater into driving us. I know he secretly wants to anyway. The moment I told him I was getting on a plane and driving back from Hastings with Dom in his car, his eyes bugged out. I swear I was scared I was going to have to catch them in my hands.
Lying down on the bed, I pick up the map Dom and I drew on together, highlighting the routes we’d take coming home. We are staying far away from Aurora and Iowa City, too many raw memories to return to them so soon. We’re staying in Hastings for a week then heading to Abigail and Jared's for a week, before heading home to Portland. Dom is putting his house on the market while we’re in Hastings, and he’s been looking for a rental close by. I told him to move in with me, but he said that goes against our plan to go slow for my brothers.
I hate it when he’s right.
He’s been staying in the same hotel room William rented out while he was here. William gave Dom the hotel room for as long as he needs it as a gesture of thanks for taking care of me. I’ve stayed over more than I haven’t. Not waking up beside Dom is actually brutally hard, and I hate it.
William left two weeks ago, two days after Ivy’s crash. I said good-bye to him that terrible day as we all piled into our cars to meet Kelso at the hospital and be there for him. But William came back the next day letting us know that the plane explosion all over the news the night before was Lucini’s plane. Saying we were shocked was an understatement. William said they would do anything to protect me, but Lucini was never getting the drug road, and he was never going to live long enough to know he wasn’t getting it. William explained that The O’Connors don’t negotiate; they appear to, but they never do. They find a weak spot and annihilate the threat. He said they aren’t scared of anyone and that neither should I or my brothers anymore because we will always have The O’Connors at our back.
I thanked him and before leaving, he asked me to go to Mexico with him, to live as a family. I respectfully declined, and Will smiled and said he knew I would, but he had to ask. He wants me to come for a holiday, I said maybe, and he advised that if I didn’t soon, then my other two brothers, Alexander and Matthew, would be on a plane headed to Louisville. I quickly said I would see what I could do. We exchanged numbers, and I promised to keep in touch.
Ivy had surgery that day. She broke two bones in her right leg and had swelling on her brain. She was put in a medical induced coma for five days so her body and brain could recover. We’d been at the hospital the first day, but as soon as Ivy’s father, Sheriff Johnson, turned up, we were sent away. Well, kicked out of the hospital was more like it. Kelso has been back every day since, but hasn’t been able to get past the police security. We have no idea how Ivy is doing, and it’s driving Kelso crazy. He’s getting angrier each day he’s turned away.
There’s a knock on my door. ‘Come in,” I yell out.
“Wanted to let you know Dom just pulled up out the front.” Lana’s voice is high and when I look over, she’s wagging her eyebrows at me.
“Thank you,” I say with a laugh.
Lana closes my door softly and for some reason, the moment takes me back to the other day when she took me to Rex's grave. I’d decided it was time to see his final resting place. Lana said she didn’t like it, explaining it didn’t remind her of Rex when he was alive, only of his death. She told me that Mack bought her a star, and that’s where she looks when she wants to talk to Rex.
I had no idea my brother could be so romantic.
Even so, I went and placed a rose on his grave.
I forgive you. You will always hold a special place in my heart.
They were just a few of the words I spoke as I sat by the grave and talked to him. I promised myself I’d come back again. I didn’t want to hold on to any more anger from my past. I wanted to let it all go and move on. And if I didn’t have any anger for Rex, then all I had was love; love for the boy who taught me how to write and read the alphabet, love for the guy who helped me pass my GED so I could get into college. Love for the broken man who decided my life was worth saving that day on the train tracks.
Folding up the map and placing it in the front pocket of my suitcase, I grab my purse, sling it over my shoulder and race downstairs. Slater is already waiting for me at the front door with his arms crossed against his chest. “My suitcase is ready to go for tomorrow morning, when you load Chevy up.” I salute him and smile. Still, he doesn’t move from the front door to let me through.
“Tomorrow you’re going away for two weeks and tonight you’re staying with Dom?”
Warmth radiates through me. “No, he’s taking me out for a quick dinner and then we’re coming straight back here for
Game Of Thrones
, and he’s going to stay over.”
Slater presses his lips together firmly but moves aside from the door.
“I love you, too,” I say, practically skipping out the door.
***
Dom
After dinner, Della and I head back to her house to spend time with her family before we head off tomorrow for two weeks. I’m pumped to get home. I can’t wait to see my friends. I was hoping to see Nick's sister, Sarah, but Jake told me she’s gone off to Mexico with her best friend, Alexa, to live. Said she needed a new start. I can understand that. I told Della it’s just another reason for us to visit her brothers and she was excited at the prospect of us going together.
We’re sitting on the sectional, Della lying across me watching reruns of The Goldbergs. I’m tired, but Della has been laughing so hard the whole time that I haven’t wanted to move her. The rest of the family went to bed hours ago.
“Are you tired? I think I’m ready for bed.” Della interrupts my thoughts with exactly what I wanted to hear from her.
I nod and she stands, turning the television off. Stepping into her room, I close the door, and we’re encased in darkness, but we don’t turn the lights on. We both strip down to nothing and climb into her bed. We turn on our sides to face each other. It's become our bedtime habit.
Della cups my jaw with her left hand, rubbing her thumb across my cheek. The cool plaster against my face is something I’ve become used to.
After William left Portland, Della and I finally had a moment to ourselves, so I took her to the hospital. Knowing she’d been forced to use and strain her wrist during our dangerous road trip, I was worried it had been damaged, and her healing stalled. However, after having the plaster removed and tests performed, the doctor was happy with how Della’s wrist is healing. She had it cleaned, re-plastered, and it’s now a rainbow of color with pictures and jokes written on it by her brothers, Lana, Piper, and also myself. When we return from Hastings she has an appointment to have the cast removed. Della is counting down the days; she can’t wait to stop having to shove a ruler down her cast to scratch the itch where her stitches dissolved and left a scar.
My eyes adjust to the darkness, and I’m able to see Della’s beautiful blue irises searching my face.
“I need you like a heart needs a beat,” she whispers, her breath tingling my lips.
Heat radiates through my body and my heart drums against my chest as adrenalin and elation surge through my veins. An endless string of words sits on the end of my tongue, but none of them have the ability or strength to tell Della how truly happy she just made me feel.
Instead, I climb over her, gently pushing Della to her back and lift her knees. I stare into her eyes as I slide inside her. The warmth of her pussy causes my balls to grow tight, and my body automatically thrusts in and out. My gaze stays locked on hers the entire time I’m inside her. Not once do I look away and neither does Della. We don’t talk. We let our eyes and heavy breaths say it all.
When we both reach a state of ecstasy, it’s together. I lean down and whisper against her lips, “I love you.” And then I kiss Della with all the strength my love holds, free-falling off the cliff together, as it will always be, forever.
THE END
Would you like to read the next book in the Portland Street Kings series?
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You Loved Me
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You Loved Me At My Darkest
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Book one in the You Loved Me series.
PROLOGUE
Hopelessness wraps around my body like a tight cord. Alone and beaten, each breath comes quicker. My eyes are almost swollen shut, with only tiny slivers of light shining through to let me know it’s daytime. Thick, rough rope scrapes harshly against my wrists. A dirty white dress, held up on my shoulders by thin straps, covers my shaking body.
What have I done? I failed in my escape, caught in the grasp of evil again. Have I failed Lily too? Will I die down here—never being able to let my sister know how thankful I am that she did everything she possibly could do to save me? I would give up anything in this world to tell her how much I love her, and to tell her to keep fighting.
So many hits to the head has left it pounding like it never has before. I've vomited twice already. I dread more may be coming up. My lip quivers and my chest expands heavily. Tears squeeze through my swollen eyes and spill down my face.