Page 5 of All of Me

I blew out a breath. Shae was too clever for his own good, and I winced as my mom’s snide comment rang in my ears. Although in years past my ears were usually ringing because of my dad’s fists more than her words. “I won’t lose it if I get my act together. I’ve got enough evidence that she made the will when she was ofsound mind. Ellie expected what Ryan would try, according to her lawyer.”

“Then why don’t you?” Shae asked, tipping his head to the side as if trying to figure me out.

I scrubbed a hand down my face. “She’s not my real aunty. No relation at all.” Shae just waited patiently. “My dad was a cop, but he ruled the house like a barracks. Mom wasn’t any better.” I shifted in my seat. I hated this, but if I owed Shae anything, it was honesty.

“The house I grew up in was a couple of miles away. I used to spend a lot of time outside, so I guess like most kids I was drawn to the horses. Moira from next door caught me once pulling up tufts of grass and feeding the pony on the other side of the wire in a bare field.” He smiled at the memory. “She wasn’t angry, just explained he had something called laminitis, and they let him out here so he could exercise. If they put him in a pasture with a lot of grass it’d kill him.” I thought they were just being mean asses, but she told me the pony, Blueberry, was over twenty years old and she’d learned to ride on him.

“I knew so long as I did my chores and kept my room neat, my parents both preferred me not to be there, so I spent more and more time here. Jim, Ellie’s husband, was a roofer, but did just about everything else and always had a ton of projects going, so I was constantly busy.”

“And you didn’t get on with their son?” Shae guessed.

“He went to the same school as me, but he was a lazy ass and a bully. Never interested in helping his dad and I guess I was starved for any sort of attention, so I lapped it up.” I felt my neck heat. I’d never shared this much. Not even with Danny, who everyone seemed to spill their guts to. But I might as well finish the story. “Jim fell off a roof when it caved in and hurt his back. Ryan had gone to college, and I was already serving, so Ellie had no help. By this time, I wasn’t speaking to either Mom or Dadas they’d kind of washed their hands of me when I enlisted, but every leave I got I came here and did as many jobs as I could to help out. Ellie struggled because Jim wasn’t working, but she managed what she could.”

I drained my water. “I never expected Ellie to leave me this place. I suppose she did it because Ryan never once came home to offer help, despite Ellie practically begging him to. Sure, he sent Ellie fancy flowers on her birthday, but what she really needed was help to get Jim in the shower.” I’d made sure that when I was away, someone came in to help with the showers. Ellie thought she paid, but the bills she was sent were a fifth of the actual cost. “I never expected the house.” It would never even have occurred to me. “I was just trying to pay back what they gave me.”

Shae finished his water as well, probably sensing I’d done as much soul-bearing as I could stand. “Okay.”

“Okay?” I parroted, not understanding for a moment.

“Okay, I’ll take the job. But you take rent fairly.”

I nodded, wondering if he could see the shock on my face. I’d expected more of an argument. But winning this battle just meant I was setting myself up for a bigger one. Somehow, I had to make sure Shae knew we were friends.Just friends.

I’d done some impossible shit in my time, both in uniform and out of it. But I had a feeling this fight might be the biggest one of my life.

Chaper Three

Shae

I wasn’t really sleeping. Maybe I wasn’t used to such a quiet house. Even Gran’s was busy outside on the street, and Dad’s was a nightmare. It wasn’t the real reason though. The thought of being so close yet still a million miles away from Drake was driving my body insane. I didn’t even dare use my hand in case somehow he heard me. I knew I should be asleep because Drake had told me we were going over early to empty the apartment. Should I keep it? I suppose it depended on when he’d kick me out, because I knew this wasn’t an indefinite arrangement, plus I wasn’t sure if I could be this close to him knowing he wasn’t interested in me. There weren’t many apartments you could get with barely any deposit, and while I was pretty sure my current place had violated every code imaginable, it meant I didn’t have to share.

I hadn’t bothered calling the store to let Dave know I wouldn’t be in at eleven tomorrow, well today now, as it had to be after one in the morning. He paid me cash right out of theregister, and he could keep the twenty-five bucks he owed me. Hopefully Jez would get his job back, but Dave would either have to get his lazy ass moving or he’d have to find another guy. I knew Jez had quite a long record, but he’d tried to turn his life around after his daughter was born, so I wished him luck.

I touched my lip, telling myself I wanted to check if it hurt, but I knew that was a lie. If I closed my eyes I could feel Drake’s finger as he dabbed the cream on it, and my body hardened as I imagined that it had been his lips instead.

Gran would say I was mooning or some weird saying like that. I tried to swallow down my tight throat. Fuck, but I missed her, missed Mom. I reached over for the glass of water and lifted my head up to take a couple of sips. It was still hot outside even at the end of September, but Drake had given me a fan he’d put on the dresser.

I needed to sleep but my mind wouldn’t quit. I sat up and reached over, adjusting the blind a little without opening it fully. I could see the horses in the fields in the distance through the moonlight, and I could understand Drake’s fascination with them as a kid. I’d have adored a dog, but we weren’t allowed one in the apartment with Mom and Gran had two cats. I reached over for the glass of water a second time then paused and whipped my head back to the window as a shadow passed it. I stood very quietly and crossed to the side of the window so I could see out.

Narrowing my eyes, I spotted a figure hunched over, his back to the house. The fuck was he doing? The door was around the other side. Was he trying to break in through one of the windows? He moved and came closer. I could see he was carrying something, but not what it was. He seemed to be on his own, unless he had a partner at the front. He came closer to the house, and I could barely see him now at this angle, butwhatever he was carrying he started shaking and moving slowly along the edge of the house.

The second he reached into his pocket I knew exactly what he was doing, and I was in Drake’s room before I knew I’d used my speed. I reached out to shake his shoulder only to have my wrist grabbed and my body swung around just before he propelled me face first into the wall. I grunted. “Drake, someone’s outside.”

He swore and let me go instantly. “Shit, sor—what?”

“Quick. I think he’s gonna torch the place.”

Drake reached back and pulled a gun out from under his pillow. “How many?”

“I only saw one from my window.”

He nodded. “Stay here.” Like hell I would, but I didn’t bother replying as he’d already left the room. “Shit,” he whispered, and I knew he’d seen the orange flames flickering through the kitchen window. “Call 911.”

I dived back for my cell phone and by this time I could smell smoke. I obeyed immediately, ending the call when I started getting twenty questions from the operator over the number of people in the house, and was lectured about moving to a safe distance. By this time Drake was out of the door, but the smoke was getting bad. Water. I needed water. I wasn’t going to let Drake’s house burn down. I raced to the sink and turned on the faucet and barely a trickle ran out. Shit. The bastard had shut it off somehow and I didn’t have time to go searching.

Blankets.

Dragging one off my bed I followed Drake outside in time to see one guy running away while Drake had the other guy on the ground. The flames were climbing fiercely at one side of the house, and no blanket was going to smother them. I looked at the nearest field and saw the buckets sitting next to a water trough and dashed to it. No hose.Fuck.I glanced up as the flames took hold. I had seconds.

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