Blaecleah Brothers 5: Cowboy Up (16 page)

Elijah pushed himself to his feet then reached for Ruben. The man came willingly into his arms, pressing his face against Elijah’s chest.

Elijah buried his face in Ruben’s hair, holding him as close as he possibly could.

“It’s all over now, baby. She can never hurt you again.”

“She was going to kill us all,” Ruben whispered with a quaky voice.

“I know, but we stopped her. She’ll go to prison for this, Ruben.” Ruben shuddered. “I just want her to go away.”

“Okay, listen to me.” Elijah grabbed Ruben’s shoulders and pushed him away a few inches. “I want you to go get Alani and Matty and go to our room. Stay away from the windows until I give you the all clear. I’m going to take Janice downstairs and tie her to a chair or something. If she moves, I’ll sic Ma on her.” Ruben chuckled, which was what Elijah was hoping for. The man was way too pale for his liking. He leaned in and placed a small kiss on Ruben’s lips then pushed him back down the hallway.

“Go on, Ru, go take care of our daughter.” Elijah watched until Ruben, Matty, and Alani were in the bedroom then reached down to lift Janice into his arms. He grabbed the two pillowcases with his hand then carried everything downstairs.

He just reached the bottom step when the front door flew open and Quaid came running inside. He looked worried out of his mind as his eyes scanned the room before coming to settle on Elijah. “Matty?”

“He’s upstairs in Ruben’s bedroom. He’s fine.” Quaid tossed him a grateful nod then raced up the stairs. Elijah heard the bedroom door crash open a moment later and Matty’s happy cry.

He carried Janice into the living room and dropped her on the couch. He set the guns down on the side table on the other side of the room. He didn’t want Janice anywhere near the guns, just in case.

Elijah grabbed some towels from the kitchen and wrapped them around the flesh wound in Janice’s shoulder. He might want her dead, but he suspected there was a part of both Ruben and Matty that didn’t, even if they did want her behind bars. She still gave birth to them.

“Is she still breathing?”

“Yes, Ma.”

“Damn.”

Shocked at Ma’s words, Elijah turned to see the woman standing in the archway leading to the dining room. Her arms were crossed over her chest, but she still had her frying pan in her hand. There was a deep scowl on her face as she glared at Janice.

Elijah started laughing. “I adore you, Ma.”

“You’d better.” Ma shook the frying pan at him. “You’re a part of this family now.”

Elijah couldn’t have been happier with that.

Elijah was nervous. He could feel his palms sweating and quickly rubbed them down the legs of his black slacks. He always had a bit of anxiousness when he went into a courtroom and had to stand before a room full of people, but this was different.

It was much more nerve-racking.

Ruben and most of the Blaecleah clan sat in the pews at the front of the church, just on the other side of the door Elijah was standing behind. If he looked through the small diamond-shaped window in the door, he knew he would be able to see Ruben sitting with Alani on his lap, surrounded by every member of his family minus Matty.

Elijah drew in a deep breath. They were his family now. All of the legal papers had been filed with the courts. For all intents and purposes, Ruben and Elijah were legal partners in life. The paperwork had even been filed for Elijah to adopt Alani. They were just waiting the sixth-month probation period before the judge signed the papers and made it totally legal.

Elijah had no doubt that the judge would sign them either. The home visit by child services had gone off without a hitch. The woman had loved what they did with Alani’s room, incorporating stuff from Mahra’s Egyptian heritage.

With the help of Mark’s carpenter skills, Alani now lived in a bedroom fit for an Egyptian princess, complete with pillars, hieroglyphs, and a large mural of Mahra on her wall. Ruben and Elijah never wanted Alani to forget the woman that had given birth to her. Her heritage was important and needed to be passed on to her daughter.

Elijah was just glad that Janice’s heritage wouldn’t be passed down to Alani. The woman was a menace to society. After all of the evidence had been gathered against her, including her pool boy who spilled his guts about shooting Elijah at her insistence, Janice would be serving a life sentence for four counts of attempted murder, one of those against a police officer. She wouldn’t see the light of day until she was old and gray and couldn’t hurt anyone else.

Ruben still didn’t want anything to do with her or his father’s money. The money that had been left to Alani had been placed in a trust and couldn’t be accessed by anyone until Alani was twenty-five years old, and then only by Alani—if she still wanted it.

Elijah suspected after being raised in the Blaecleah clan, money wouldn’t mean that much to Alani when she was older. There were more important things in life, like family and falling in love.

And convincing the man you love to spend the rest of his life with you. Elijah drew in another deep breath and opened the door to the main room of the church. A few people turned and glanced back at him but no more than that. Elijah knew there would be more and could feel them as he walked down the aisle between the pews, not stopping at where Ruben sat, but passing him right up and walking to the front of the church.

Benjamin Brody nodded to him and stepped off to the side to stand next to his husband, Neason. Elijah smiled nervously and looked out over the congregation until his eyes landed on the man of the hour. Ruben was giving him a peculiar frown, but the rest of the Blaecleahs all had knowing smiles on their faces. They had a right to their smiles. It took a lot of people to plan what Elijah had in mind.

“Hello,” Elijah said nervously.

He received a chorus of hellos and a few chuckles back.

“It’s Christmas Eve tonight. It’s a special time when people should be surrounded by friends and loved ones. As I look out over all of you here tonight, I can honestly say I am surrounded by friends and loved ones.”

Elijah clasped his hands behind his back and rubbed his palms together. If he got through this without passing out, he would be shit, shocked, and amazed. He glanced over at Ruben again and swallowed hard.

“Ruben Blaecleah, I told you that I loved you.” Elijah smiled when Ruben’s jaw dropped. “I asked you to marry me. You said yes.

Did you mean it?”

Ruben nodded.

“I can’t hear you.”

“Ye–yes,” Ruben squeaked, his face flushing deep red.

Elijah smiled when several people chuckled.

“Do you still mean it, Ruben?” Elijah asked. “Will you marry me?”

“Yes.”

“Will you marry me right now?”

“Yes, I—” Ruben’s eyes rounded. “Wait, now? Right now?” Elijah nodded.

The door at the end of the back of the church banged open and Matty walked in. He strolled right up to Ruben and pinned a yellow rose boutonniere on the lapel of his cream-colored silk dress shirt and then winked at him before walking to the front of the church to stand to one side of Elijah.

“Well, Ruben?” Elijah held out his hand. “Will you marry me?” Ruben swallowed several times. When he just sat there staring, Elijah began to think that he might have played this all wrong. What if Ruben said no? What if he didn’t want to get married in the church?

Hell, what if he didn’t want to get married at all?

Had Ruben changed his mind?

Elijah’s heart thundered in his chest when Ruben stood up and handed Alani off to his mother. He thought his knees might give out when Ruben scooted out of the pew and started walking toward the front of the church, stopping right in front of him, his eyes downcast.

Elijah’s breath caught in his throat when Ruben looked up. His deep hazel eyes glittered with unshed tears, but one by one they started to slide down his cheeks. His smile was tremendous as he grabbed Elijah’s hand and held it between his.

“Cowboy up, Elijah.”

THE END

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stormy believes the only thing sexier than a man in cowboy boots is two or three men in cowboy boots. She also believes in love at first sight, soul Mates, true love, and happy endings.

You can usually find her cuddled in bed with a book in her hand and a puppy in her lap or on her laptop, creating the next sexy man for one of her stories. Stormy welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website at www.stormyglenn.com

Also by Stormy Glenn

Siren Classic ManLove: Blaecleah Brothers 1:
Cowboy Easy
Siren Classic ManLove: Blaecleah Brothers 2:
Cowboy Keeper
Siren Classic ManLove: Blaecleah Brothers 3:
Cowboy Way
Siren Classic ManLove: Blaecleah Brothers 4:
Cowboy Courage

For all other titles, please visit

www.bookstrand.com/stormy-glenn

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com