Walker Revenge (The Walker Family Series Book 5) (21 page)

“I understand. I hope that there will be a
time for you.”

“There will be.”

They thanked her and returned to the county
office to file their official marriage license.

Chelsea felt free as they drove home. She
was officially Chelsea Walker. It was an absolute dream come true.
Russell took her hand as they started down the long dirt road back
to the Walker Ranch.

“Are you happy, Mrs. Walker?”

She shifted a quick glance his way, and
smiled. “I’m very happy.”

“Everything will be normal soon. I
promise.”

She chuckled. “I have a feeling nothing will
ever be normal with you, and that’s okay.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because we are both a little hot
headed.”

“I’m hot headed,” he said. “
You
just
like to pick fights.”

“Me? I don’t pick fights. You…” She shook
her head and laughed. “See, it’s always been like this. Since we
met, we’d argue over everything.”

Russell reached his hand to her thigh and
rubbed it sending an electric pulse straight through her. “We
fight, but damn, we know how to make up,” he reminded her, with his
voice filled with heat.

She slapped at his hand. “I’m driving.” She
gripped the steering wheel with both hands and let out a long
breath. “I suppose we’ll need our own place soon. Your mother is
sure to tire of our arguments.”

“Or our making up,” he joked.

“Russell!”

They both laughed as Russell leaned over the
center console of the car so that his lips were poised at her ear.
“You know what I hear?” His breath was warm against her skin.
“We’re going to have a lot of babies.”

Chelsea slowed the car as they came to a
grove of trees, and she pulled off the road and into them. Parking
the car, she turned toward him and took his face in her hands.

“Do you still have all the same moves?” She
asked.

Russell lifted a brow. “Are you saying they
were good? I’m afraid to answer this question.”

She eased back. “Why?”

“If I say yes, I’ll assume you think my
moves are old and boring. If I say no, it goes two different ways.
Either I’ve lost it, and I’m no good. Or, you’re digging, to find
out with whom I’ve added more moves.”

Now her brow raised. “I don’t assume you
haven’t had any other women since I left you. Men cure heartbreak
with sex. I know that.”

“Not all of them do.”

“Right.” She narrowed her gaze. “What I was
saying, was that the moves you had were pretty great. The car is a
bit more confined than the bed or cab of a pickup, but I say we see
what we can do.”

“You’re suggesting we have sex in the car on
the only road toward the house?”

She laughed a sexy, sinister laugh. “I was
until you pointed that out. We have a toddler now. When are we
going to get another moment?”

His eyes grew wide. “I’ll meet you in the
back seat.”

~*~

No one had driven on the road to or from the
house in the half hour they had sex in the back seat of Chelsea’s
car. It had been quick, but Russell was just damned happy he’d
functioned at all.

He’d be surprised if his mother didn’t call
him out right away. Both of their cheeks were pink, and the grins
they wore told an entire tale, he thought.

As soon as they walked through the door,
they heard the sound of giggling, and running feet headed toward
them. Lucas ran toward the door, and Chelsea scooped him right
up.

“Where’s daddy’s ride?”

“In the car, and he should be using it,” she
added. “He’s trying to walk.”

His mother turned the corner from the
kitchen and stared at him, and then called for his father.
“Everett, you have to see this.”

He came from within his office. “They’re
letting you walk?”

“I’m moving up my own therapy,” he said.

Chelsea shook her head. “He’s going to hurt
himself is what he’s doing. But I’ll admit, he’s doing pretty
good.”

“Of course, I am,” Russell gritted his teeth
and bore the pain shooting through his arms from the crutches.
“Now, everyone move. I’m headed to the sofa.”

Lucas ran ahead and jumped on the tricycle
that Santa had brought him. He zoomed around the rooms as he did
the first day, and Russell grinned as he made his way to the sofa.
He never thought he’d long for the sounds of a child playing, but
at the moment, they seemed to be making him feel much better.

“Get situated,” Chelsea ordered as she
helped him lower to the sofa. “Prop your leg up. I’m going to get
you some pain meds and some water.”

He reached for her. “Can we do without the
pain meds? Can’t I just have a Tylenol?”

“Seriously. I see the pain on your face.
You’re overdoing it.”

“Please.”

She growled. “Fine. But you're
stubborn.”

“Did you ever expect anything
different?”

She let out a sigh. “Not really. I’ll have
Lucas play something quieter too.”

“No need. He’s not bothering me at all.”

In time, he figured, the look of surprise
would leave her face when he said he didn’t mind things that Lucas
was doing. He enjoyed every moment he was around, and he looked
forward to having more children with her.

Anyone who knew the circumstances of their
relationship would say it was crazy. Certainly, he’d thought that a
few times too. They’d only been back in each other’s lives a few
weeks, and now they were married and raising
their
son. But
it didn’t seem crazy. It seemed right.

Chelsea came back with a glass of water and
his Tylenol. “I’m going to take a shower. Your mom is in the
kitchen making dinner. She said a nurse came to check on you when
we were out.”

“I didn’t think they’d send a nurse since I
had my appointment today.”

“Those are my thoughts, too. Your mom said
she didn't seem concerned that you weren't there. She was more
interested in the house. Your mom showed her around. She also
checked your medications.” She handed him the pills. “Maybe they
sent her because they released me from my duties.”

“It’s okay, Chels.”

“I know.” She took a deep breath. “Is Lucas
okay to play between you two?”

“He’s fine. Go. Take a few moments to
yourself.”

“I love you,” she said, bending to give him
a kiss.

“I love you too, wife.”

She smiled as she pulled away. “I like that
title.”

Chelsea ran the water in the shower and
undressed. She ran a brush through her hair and scrolled through
her playlist on her phone to find something to listen to. For
twenty minutes, she wanted to shut out the world and be alone with
the water and her music.

When she stepped into the shower, the music
wasn’t quite loud enough. She reached her hand out and turned up
the volume. As she slid back under the water spray, she missed
Phillip’s text.

Dominic Cleary skipped out on his
parole.

Chapter
Twenty-Five

Russell lay on the sofa with his leg propped
up, and Lucas was zipping back and forth with his police sirens
blaring. It wasn’t peaceful, but it was grand.

Every few laps, Lucas would stop, dismount,
and run to check on him before heading back out on his police
tricycle to save the world.

Russell closed his eyes and had nearly dozed
off when he heard the doorbell, causing him to prop open an
eye.

His mother scurried to the door, Lucas right
behind her. She seemed to have everything under control.

He closed his eyes and muted the voices he
could hear at the door.

A moment later he heard Lucas scream, and
something crashed to the floor. Then it was silent. Lucas wasn’t
screaming. He opened his eyes, but no one came back through the
hallway or the living room.

Russell sat up. He could hear the sound of a
car speeding away down the dirt drive.

He looked out the window to see a silver
sedan kicking up dust.

“Mom? Mom!” He hollered, then reached for
his crutches. “Lucas?”

No one was answering.

He pulled himself up, secured the crutches
under his arms, and took a few steps. He was wobbly. Then he knew
why. Chelsea had given him those damn pain pills after all. They
weren’t Tylenol. Did she mean to do that?

The world grew fuzzy. He’d never reacted to
the pills quite like this. He took a few more steps, and the room
began to spin.

Pushing on, he made it to the front door.
His mother was on the floor. There was blood on her head, and his
gun was right beside her.

The world now spun out of control, and
darkness began to take his vision.

Chelsea turned off the shower and wrung her
hair out with her hands. Seriously, she’d needed that. Sex in the
car and a hot shower, that was her idea of letting the world slip
away.

She took her time to dry off and use some
lotion Gia had given her from her store. It smelled so
beautiful.

She combed through her hair and decided to
let it air dry. Looking at her limited wardrobe, she pulled out a
pair of jeans and then looked through Russell’s clothes. He had an
ARMY T-shirt in his drawer, and with a smile, she slipped it
on.

How sexy would he think that was, she
wondered.

For a moment she realized how quiet the
house had become. Perhaps Lucas had fallen asleep on the sofa with
Russell. That would be a picture to start a scrapbook with.

She went back into the bathroom to pick up
her phone.

When Chelsea opened the bedroom door, she
could smell something burning in the kitchen. It wasn’t like Glenda
to burn anything. She hurried in and noticed that whatever was on
the stove was left unattended and fried.

She turned off the stove and moved the pot.
“Glenda? Lucas?”

She looked out the back window, but they
weren’t there. Afraid she might have awakened Russell, she walked
through the dining room to the living room, but he wasn’t on the
sofa and his crutches were missing. Lucas’s tricycle was abandoned
in front of the Christmas tree.

“Russell? Glenda?” Her heart rate began to
hammer in her chest. She thought she’d check upstairs.

Quickening her step, she hurried to the
front hall to go upstairs and stopped cold when she saw both Glenda
and Russell laying by the front door.

The scream she let out resonated in her
head. Russell was in a crumpled heap on the floor, and Glenda was
bleeding from the head, and there was a gun to her side.

Lucas.

Where was Lucas?

Chelsea began to feel faint. She began to
scream for help. Looking at her phone, she went to dial 911, and
that was when she noticed the message from Phillip.

Her heart pained, and she grabbed her chest.
“No! No! No!”

She couldn’t lose control now. She needed to
help her husband and his mother and find her son.

Somehow she managed to dial 911, and just as
the operator answered, Ben ran in from the back as Gerald ran up
the ramp at the front.

She explained what was happening as Gerald
went straight to his mother.

“Is she shot?” Chelsea asked, afraid of the
answer?

“No. They hit her in the head with the butt
of the gun.” He didn’t pick it up, but he looked at it. “It’s
Russ’s gun.”

Her breath came quicker now. “Ben get a
towel and press it to her head,” she ordered him, and he ran to the
kitchen.

“Russ,” she tried to shake him. “Russ, wake
up.”

She lowered her head to his face. His
breathing was shallow, but he was alive. She pressed her fingers to
his neck and made out his weak pulse. What could have possibly
happened?

The sound of tires on the drive had her
moving from her position and running outside. Phillip ran toward
her.

“He’s gone!” She gripped his arms. “He took
Lucas. We have to find him.”

“What’s going on in the house?”

“Glenda and Russell are unconscious. Help me
get my son!”

Now he gripped her and looked her in the
eyes. “They told me you called 911. I’ve called out to all the
units. They have eyes out. I’ll have them block all entrances to
town from out here, and I’ll call every city that can be accessed
from these roads. He’s not going to get far. All of Georgia knows
he might be headed this way.”

“Might? My son is gone, and my husband is
laying in there next to his mother.”

“You have to calm down and tell me what’s
going on in the house.”

She tried to take a deep breath, but it only
made her dizzy. “He hit Glenda in the head with Russ’s gun.”

“Why did he have a gun?”

“He didn’t. It was in the truck the night he
wrecked. It was stolen from the truck.”

“And Russell?”

“He’s unconscious. As if he were
drugged.”

“What did he take?”

“I gave him Tylenol. I took them off the
counter and…” Her eyes grew wide. “They weren’t the right color,”
she said remembering them. “Oh, my, God! I should have known they
weren’t the right things. But I was talking to Glenda and she was
telling me about the nurse that came today and checked his med…”
The words stuck in her throat and Phillip took hold of her
shoulders.

“Listen to me very carefully. I have to make
a call. We’ll get an Amber Alert out right away."

“Paramedics are on their way. I want you to
go in and find that bottle. I’m going to attend to Glenda and Russ.
Who else is here?”

“Gerald and Ben.”

“Okay. You go get the bottle.”

She nodded and ran into the house. Gerald
had the towel pressed to his mother’s head, and Ben was trying to
wake Russell.

She ran into the kitchen and picked up the
bottle.

The regular two-colored Tylenol had been
emptied out. The pills she’d taken out were white, and she should
have noticed they weren’t right. She’d drugged her own husband.