Uncontrollable (Key West #3) (16 page)

Epilogue

Kade

“I can’t believe I’m almost thirty weeks along,” Avery whispered in the darkness. My arm was wrapped around her waist as my hand lay stretched out over her rounded stomach. I could feel the movement of our daughter against my palm. I couldn’t wait to hold her in my arms.

“She’ll be here before we know it,” I whispered against her neck.

Avery wiggled her butt against me, and I groaned. Her giggle let me know she knew exactly what she was doing.

“Then we better take advantage of our time alone, don’t you think?” she cooed.

I lowered my hand slowly, and she parted her legs just enough to allow me better access. I slid my fingers between her legs and found she was wet and ready. A small gasp fell from her lips when I slipped a finger inside her.

“I think that’s a great idea,” I said as I trailed my tongue along her neck. She arched her ass back against my growing erection, taking the last bit of control I had.

The moment she reached around behind her and took my hardness in her hand, I was lost. “Open your legs, baby,” I instructed as I placed my hand over hers and stroked gently.

She parted her legs and let her hand slip away from my cock. Tipping my hips at just the right angle, I guided myself toward her wetness. She arched her back when I slid inside her.

“Mm,” she moaned softly, pushing her hips backward. Our bodies began to move as if we’d been sharing moments like this our entire lives.

Avery was made for me. I believed that now. She was my angel in the darkness. The sweet to my salty.

“I love you, pretty girl,” I whispered against her ear as I slowly pulled back, only to slowly enter her again. Her breath came out in small pants as she moaned softly. “Thank you for not giving up, for waiting for me to find my way.”

“You were worth the wait,” she whimpered as I thrust my hips forward. “Oh my God, Kade.”

Before I could respond, she tightened around me, and the sensation threw me into overdrive. I began rotating my hips, racing for my own release. “Avery,” I groaned as my body began to tremble and my legs tensed with the extreme pleasure. My orgasm rolled through me as I buried my face against her hair.

We both lay silent, taking the time to regain our self-control. With Avery near, it was easy to lose myself. Nothing felt better than having her close. I had to fight against her stubbornness, but she finally moved in with me. We’d only been living together four weeks, but I couldn’t remember what living without her felt like. I never wanted to remember, either.

This was my life now, with Avery and our little girl. I couldn’t think of any place in the world I would rather be.

***

Avery

Getting out of bed was becoming harder each day. My basketball, or so Quinn called it, was difficult to maneuver.

I slipped out from underneath Kade’s arm as carefully as possible without waking him. My shift at the hospital started in less than an hour. I had picked up extra hours when Brad had fallen and broken his ankle, so I would be going in at five a.m. instead of seven for the rest of the week.

Kade didn’t like it, but he got over it.

As I walked into the kitchen, I smiled, remembering what Jett said Saturday night when he and Quinn stopped by.

“This place looks like a chick’s place. You still live here, Kade
?
”

Of course, all Kade did was smile brightly and wink at me. He said he loved that all my things were now filling his apartment, that it felt like a home now, when before it was just a spot to lay his head.

After I drank a glass of orange juice and ate a piece of toast, I gathered my bag and my keys. I knew this schedule couldn’t go on for long; I was already feeling the effects.

A few minutes later, I pulled up to the hospital, got out of my car, and waddled to the front door. I spent most of my time doing paperwork or anything to stay off my feet and left the bigger items to the staff that could get around better.

“Hello, Mommy, how are you feeling on this Tuesday morning?” Judy asked. I met Judy in nursing school, and when I found she too got hired on at the local hospital, I was happy to see a familiar face.

“Fat and jolly,” I said, placing my bag onto the table in the back room. “Anything exciting happen last night?”

“Well, it was pretty quiet until around an hour ago. They brought in a guy that was found outside of Mason’s Bar, beaten up pretty badly.”

“Mason’s?” I asked. “Isn’t that a rough place?”

“Yeah.” She took a big drink of the coffee she held. “They run those amateur fights, and if you ask me, they are shady.”

“Do you think the guy was a fighter?”

“He was pretty messed up—concussion and a collapsed lung. But they stabilized him, and he’s still hopped up on meds. All that’s left is contacting family. We found a phone in his pocket, but I don’t think anyone had made the calls yet.” Judy shrugged.

“No worries, I got it,” I said as I turned from the room and walked toward the nurses’ station.

“I need the phone you found on the guy that was brought in from the alley behind Mason’s,” I told Gina.

“It’s actually lying on the countertop in his room. Number 4. We didn’t want it to get misplaced, so I left it there myself.” She didn’t look up from the paperwork she was completing.

“Okay, I got it,” I said as I turned away and walked toward room 4.

I didn’t even look at the bed until I had the phone in hand. As I turned to leave, I noticed the person there, and my hand tightened around the phone. My heart hammered in my chest, and nausea ran through me.

I dialed Kade’s number and waited for him to answer.

“What the fuck, Jude? You better have a damn good reason for waking my ass up at five in the morning.”

“Kade, it’s me,” I whispered as the tears fell down my cheeks.

“Baby, why do you have Jude’s phone?” he asked.

“You need to get Jett and come to the emergency room. They brought Jude in about an hour ago,” I whispered between the soft sobs that shook me.

“Avery?” I could hear the shuffling of his movements on the other end of the line.

“Kade, just get here, please,” I said.

“We’ll be there, pretty girl.”

Once he hung up, I scrolled through the phone. The name Katelynn was listed as an emergency contact.

Taking a deep breath, I pressed her name and listened as the phone began to ring.

“Hi,” a tiny voice said from the other end. The last thing I expected was a little girl to answer the phone.

“Uh, um,” I stumbled. “I was trying to reach Katelynn.”

“That’s my mommy. She’s sleeping. Her medicine makes her super tired,” the sweet little girl said.

Her mommy? Who were Katelynn and this little girl? The idea of Jude being married or having a family made my heart ache for Callie. Why would he hide that?

“Sweetheart, I really need to talk to your mom about someone she knows. Can you wake her up for me?” I asked.

“She won’t wake up,” she replied. “Uncle Jude waits until after breakfast to get her up for her exercise.”

Uncle Jude?

“I’ll try back later, okay?” I whispered. I had no idea what else to say.

As I hung up, the door creeped open, and Jett and Kade stood in the doorway, staring at the bed before them. At a man they considered a brother.

I held up the phone when Kade’s eyes shifted to mine. “I tried calling his emergency contact.” I paused, swallowing hard. “Do you know a Katelynn?”

Jett’s gaze shifted to mine. “Shit,” he groaned.

“What?” I asked.

Neither of them answered me as they looked at one another in distress.

“What the hell is going on?” My voice rose, just enough to show I was not playing this game of secrets.

“Katelynn is his sister,” Jett explained. “She’s disabled, in a wheelchair. Jude takes care of her and her kids after her husband ran off on them. He’s all they have. His parents died years ago. Even before Katelynn’s accident. Not only is she in a wheelchair, she’s also in the advanced stage of breast cancer. Jude is truly all she and those kids have.”

“Who is going take care of them?” Kade asked, concern in his voice.

“We will,” I said. “All of us. I know he’s secretive and keeps everything about his life tucked safely away. But someone has to help them. We can’t leave them alone.”

Jett and Kade stared back at me, clearly running over the options they knew we didn’t have.

I was just about to make another argument when Jett spoke. “We need to call the girls. Katelynn is gonna need some help with Zoey and Matthew.”

*Sneak Peek*

Undeniable

Jude’s Story

Jude

I sat at the small kitchen table, looking down at the new bill in my hand. Katelynn’s bills just kept piling up.

Wayne ran out on my sister after she ended up in a wheelchair. He also left behind his six-year-old daughter Zoey and three-year-old son Matthew—and all the debt he had accumulated under my sister’s name. Just when I thought I was caught up on paying it down, something new would happen.

Two years ago, I never would have thought I would be caring for my sick sister and raising her two children. But life happens, and leaving them on their own to figure out what to do, well, that wasn’t an option.

“Uncle Jude?”

I looked over to find Zoey staring up at me with her big doe eyes. She’s the sweetest damn kid, and she had me wrapped around her little finger.

“Hey, Squirt, what are you up too?”

“Matthew drew on my dolly with marker. I need a new one.” She held up the doll, whose face and clothes were now covered with black permanent marker. “Can I have one with brown hair this time?”

“Maybe we can clean this one up,” I said as I stood from the table and walked toward the kitchen sink.

Zoey stood by my side while I tried everything possible to clean off the marker, my frustration only growing stronger with each failed attempt. When I looked over at her, those eyes that got me every time were now filled with tears. Her lower lip vibrated as she fought back the sob I could tell was going to cut loose at any time.

I knelt down in front of her, bringing my eyes level with hers. “Hey, Little Angel, no tears. Uncle Jude will make it better, I promise. We’ll get you a new doll.”

The smile that spread out over her lips made this whole morning just a little better.

“Monster,
roar
.”

Zoey and I turned as Matthew raced into the kitchen, his arms held above his head, his little back hunched, and a fierce look written all over his face. What caught my attention most, though, was the black marker that now graced almost every inch of his tiny face.

“Roar is right, buddy,” I said as I reached out and hooked his waist with my arm.

“Matthew, what have you done now?” Katelynn’s weak voice filled the room.

I looked up to meet the tired eyes of my younger sister. The girl I had spent my entire childhood and teenage years protecting from any guy who even attempted to get near her. But Wayne slipped in under my radar when I was away in Italy. When I returned to find my sister four months pregnant and engaged to be married, I had no choice but to accept both.

“Looks like Little Man here found a permanent marker and got a little creative,” I said as I stood up, lifting him in my arms. I walked toward the living room as Zoey followed closely behind. We’d converted the open room into a living space for Katelynn and all her equipment.

“What are we gonna do with you?” Katelynn smiled, because nowadays nothing bothered her. She had come to realize more than anyone else I knew that life was too short.

My phone rang from my back pocket, and I quickly lowered Matthew to the floor to take it out. The number that lit the screen made my stomach tighten. It was Mason Frampton, the owner of Mason’s Bar and the guy that kept food on my table. Yeah, working at Jett’s was my main source of income, but it wasn’t enough.

“What’s up, Mace? What do you got for me?” I said as I answered, turning toward the kitchen and leaving the kids to talk to their mother.

“Drake is in town for a few nights, and he’s looking for a fight,” he said.

Just the name Drake made my anger take over. He and I had a lot of bad blood, and the last time the asshole was here, he took things to a whole new level. This would be my chance for revenge.

“What time?” I asked.

“Ten o’clock tonight is open,” he replied. “But, Jude, you gotta come prepared, man. You know he don’t play clean. The pot will be huge. It’s just that—”

“You worry about getting the crowd, I’ll worry about me.”

This money would be good. With shit piling up, I could use the extra cash.

Since the fight wasn’t for a few hours, I would be able to get the kids to bed, give Katelynn her meds, and call Mrs. Reames, a neighbor of ours, to check in on them while I was out.

One quick fight and I could return home with enough money to pay a few bills and grab a new doll.

At least that was the plan.