Unfinished Hero 03 Raid (31 page)

This
totally
made sense.

“I
so
should have talked to you weeks ago,” I told her
.

KC smiled huge and twirled her hand in her hair.

“This is me. I got an alpha who pisses me off at the same time
he
rocks my world. Four years, five and a half with all that dating and engagement malarkey,
I’m an expert.” She again wagged her finger at me as she invited, “Now, seeing as
I have years on you, you now should feel free to come and share with Auntie KC
all
there is to Raiden Ulysses Miller.
Everything.
I’ll give you insights, girl
,
set you up to go forth and keep your badass hot guy happy.”

I smiled back. “I’ll do that, honey.”

And I would. Well, I
mostly
would.

She kept smiling at me as she came toward me, stopped, bent and kissed the top of
Sam’s head loudly. That pretty baby head shot back
.
Sam let me go and smacked KC’s face, giggling.

KC giggled back and moved to the stove.

I thanked the Lord I had a good friend right before Sam turned her attention and I
got a baby fist to the face.

This was when I started giggling.

Sam and KC giggled with me.

* * * * *

Thus, KC making me feel better about just about everything, when Raiden told me he
was off on a job
,
and, “Babe, this one is gonna last awhile,” I’d felt safe to do what I wanted to
do.

I wasted no time in doing it.

Therefore, Raiden had been gone for over a week and now he was back. I was pedaling
to his den, excited to unveil what I had to unveil, hoping like all heck he liked
it so much that maybe he’d back me against a wall to share that with me.

And I was looking forward to him doing it.

Chapter Sixteen

Bounty Hunter Language

I pedaled up the lane to Raiden’s den and saw him, arms and ankles crossed, leaning
against the side of his Jeep.

At the sight, my thrill went wild.

I smiled huge and came to a stop behind his Jeep. He grinned back at me, his shades
moving over me, Spot and my bike before he started to shake his head and pushed away
from the car.

I shoved down the kickstand and hopped off
. I
started skipping to him
,
but stopped, dashed back and wagged my finger an inch from Spot’s kitty nose.

“Be good.”

He made a kitty face at me, which said clearly he would be whatever the heck he wanted
to be.

I ignored him, turned and saw that Raiden had almost made it to me. There wasn’t a
lot of room
,
but still, I ran it, took a leap and landed in his arms.

They closed tight around me.

I returned the favor with all four limbs then dropped my head to his that he’d kindly
tilted back and laid a hot, heavy, wet one on him.

One of his hands slid to my behind and he let me.

I broke the kiss, smiled down at him and said, “Hi.”

“Hi,” Raid said back.

I battled a shiver that one syllable, said in his deep voice, shot through me and
went on, “Welcome home.”

“Yeah, baby. You’re absolutely fuckin’ right. That was a welcome home.”

I didn’t bother battling the shiver that time and gave him a four limbed squeeze.

He returned the favor with two arms and a hand tightening on my booty.

“Right. Put me down,” I ordered. “We’ve got to get Spot and go inside.”

His mouth twitched before he dropped me to my feet and let me go.

I skipped back to Spot and hoisted him out of the basket.

“Meow,” he protested.

“Quiet, we have to show Raid his surprise.”

“Meow.” Spot, like most cats, wasn’t big on surprises.

“Shut it, buddy,” I ordered, walking up to Raiden
,
whereupon Spot made a break for it, a successful one, amassing his considerable kitty
bulk and launching it at Raid.

Raiden caught him. Spot shoved his way up Raid’s chest, planted his paws in Raid’s
shoulder and started purring.

“Crazy cat,” I muttered.

Raiden chuckled, one arm under Spot. His other hand came out and tagged mine.

“You got a surprise?” he prompted.

“Right,” I replied and bounced in my flip-flops. “Let’s go.”

Up the stairs we went, Raiden in front of me, Spot glaring at me over his shoulder,
still purring.

When we got to the top, I shoved onto the landing, took the keys from Raiden’s hand
and said, “Let me.”

I didn’t give him a choice.

So excited, I was again bouncing on my flip-flopped feet
.
I unlocked his door, threw it wide, took a huge step in and cried, “
Voila!
”

Raiden and Spot followed me. Raid lifting a hand to push his shades back on his head,
he shut the door and looked around.

I danced around.

“Right!” I cried. “Starting here!”

I danced to the bed, stopped and looked back at him.

“Your sheets and comforter were nice, honey, but they didn’t match my afghan so I
got this!” I motioned to his bed on the floor, the box springs now covered in a gray
sheet, the mattress and pillowcases too. The comforter on top was black and gray,
and there were two more pillows and some (not too many, only three) masculine but
cool toss pillows scattered across the top.

I moved to the head of the bed.

“Mrs. Barthol
o
mew was talking and said her grandson needed a project for Wood Shop. I got an idea,
got the measurements and he made this!” I exclaimed, touching my hand to the black
painted, low wood shelves that now ran the length of the head of the bed
.
Raiden’s paperbacks were shoved in the shelves, two attractive lamps on top at either
side.

“I got the lamps,” I went on. “And Barry came in and wired an outlet in the floor
under the shelves
,
so no more extension cords.”

Still holding Spot and standing just inside the door, Raiden stared at the bed
,
but I was so wired, I didn’t take that in and skipped to the kitchen.

“This, I found in an antique shop up Harborough Road. Killer sale,” I shared, running
my arm down the front of a tall, wide cupboard against the wall like I was a game
show hostess. “Up top, on the shelves, as you can see, cereal, protein powder and
foodstuffs.” I bent and opened a cabinet door at the bottom of the cupboard. “Dishes
down below.”

I straightened and sideways skipped to touch the range.

“As you know, Rachelle is redoing her kitchen at home and this is her old stove
,
but it’s only two years old and she’s a cook so she only gets the best
,
so even used it’s still
awesome,
” I announced.

More sideways skipping to the fridge.

“Same with the fridge
,
and look!” I pointed at the water and ice dispensers in the front door. “
Hu
gh came around and plumbed it so it
works!
”

I threw open the doors
,
but turned to him, forcing my face to mock grave.

“Now, I hesitate to share with you that I disposed of the lab experiments you were
conducting
,
but Grams got you all this food and all of it is actually
edible
.”

I was so into my show, I didn’t notice that he still hadn’t moved as I closed the
fridge doors, did more skipping toward the table and I threw an arm out to indicate
the wardrobe.

“Barry and
Hu
gh fixed that to the wall so it’s sturdier and not in danger of collapsing
,
and I WD-40’ed the hinges
and
the hinges on the bathroom doors so no more haunted house sounds.”

Winding it up, I threw my hand wide toward the floors that now had a scattering of
rugs.

“More sale items from the antique store,” I grinned at him, “from me. They don’t cover
a lot
,
but they’re better than wood
,
especially when it starts to get cold.”

I leaned a hand onto the back of one of his kitchen table chairs and kept right on
babbling.

“They have a kitchen table at the antique shop I hope won’t sell
,
seeing as I kinda ran out of money
,
but it would be
great
in here
,
and bonus
:
no padding on the chairs so none of it can come out. They’re also having a furniture
sale at this place in Denver that has fabulous stuff. I almost bought you a couch
,
but I figured a man is usually one with his couch
,
so you’ll have to go with me.”

I threw my arms wide and finished.

“What do you think?”

Slowly, Raiden bent, dropped Spot to his feet which caused an audible “
thump
” when the cat’s weight hit floor. Spot instantly waddled away to start exploring
as Raiden slowly straightened again, put his hands on his hips and locked eyes with
me.

“My kids are growin’ up in a farmhouse.”

That was what he said.

And that was weird.

It was also disappointing.

I felt myself deflating.

“Sorry?” I asked.

“What’s this shit telling me?” he asked.

My head jerked.

“This…
shit?
” I asked back.

He threw a hand out to indicate the space. “Yeah. This shit.”

My spirits plummeted.

“I… well, I’m not sure what you’re asking me, Raiden, but obviously I screwed up again
and
—
”

“Plant my sons in you, babe, they’re growin’ up in a farmhouse in the woods outside
of town.”

My hand went back to the chair so I could lean my weight into it
,
seeing as my legs got suddenly weak.

“What?” I whispered.

“The fridge and stove, that’s cool. Gonna rent this place come winter
,
and decent appliances means we can jack up the rent. The rest, Hanna, total fuckin’
waste of money and time
,
unless you’re tellin’ me something with this shit.”

I was feeling a lot of things. Some of them I thought were good, others didn’t feel
so great.

“Waste of
—
?” I began.

He took two steps toward me, stopped and put his hands on his hips again.

“What are we doin’ here?” he asked.

“I wanted to show you my surprise,” I answered, my voice growing small.

“No, Hanna. That’s not what I mean. I’m crashing here. You gotta know that. This is
no place to live. It’s a necessary evil
.
I think we both know that Willow is it for us and if I wanted to waste time that
at least
I
thought
both of us had no desire to waste, I’d get a condo in Jackie’s complex or somethin’.
Seein’ as at least
I’d
prefer not to waste time, I’m not gonna jack around with a year lease which is the
only thing she gives. So what the fuck are we doing here?”

I took a calming breath and stated, “Okay, honey, I think I need a bounty hunter language
lesson or you need to revert back to normal people speak because I went all out to
make your space livable while you were gone and you aren’t being real cool about that.”

“No?” Raid fired back. “Well I’ve been waitin’ for you to pull your finger out and
ask me to move to your space
,
so you makin’
my
space, which is shit space, more livable and spendin’ money until you got no more
tells me
you
don’t intend to ask me to move into your space.”

My fingers curled deeper into the vinyl of the chair.

Raiden kept talking.

“We’re young, we got time and we haven’t talked about this
,
but here it is. I want three sons. My Dad was a massive dick and I want to erase
that memory by havin’ boys and givin’ them what I never got. I also love my sister
and always wished I had another one
,
or a brother
,
so my boys are gonna have a lot of siblings. The way you’re settled in that house,
babe, you’re not leavin’ it
,
and I don’t want you to. It’s you. It’s the perfect place to
build a family. Now, my question,
in what I hope is normal people speak
,
is are you tellin’ me with this shit we’re gonna dick around
,
or are we gonna get on with it?”