Page 50 of Shelter for Tanna

“That would be cool. Thanks. See you in the morning. Love you, Mom,” Daniel said and gave Tanna a peck on the cheek before he settled down under the covers.

“See you in the morning,” Braden answered and disappeared down the hallway.

“Mom, if you and Braden stay together, do you think Marsha would want to be our grandma?” the boy asked as he lay there, looking up at his mother.

“I bet she would. She’s a very nice person. I think she’d like to have a couple more grandsons.” Tears were pooling in her eyes and she didn’t want Daniel to see that. Listening to her son ask her questions like that, Tanna wondered why it had taken so long for Braden to come into their lives. She and her kidsneededhim. Everything he brought to the table made their world better.

“Cool. So I’ll find out tomorrow about science club. Night, Mom.”

“Night, baby. Sleep well.” Tanna rose from the side of the bed and snapped the lamp off. Her eyes were weepy as she made her way back out into the hallway to find Braden coming out of Max’s room. “Is he down for the night?”

“Oh, yeah. He could barely talk to me. Falling asleep while I was sitting there. By the way, the science club thing? God, Tanna, I’m so glad to see him taking an interest in something like that. If he wants to join, I’ll work something out so he can get back and forth and Max isn’t alone, but that kid, he needs to be involved in some things like that.”

“I know. I hope it works out, and thank you for telling him you’d help.” She only hesitated for a second before she said, “They love you, Braden. You make them feel safe.”

“I love them too. They’re the best. Now, I think we need to get some sleep too. Of course, I’ve got a little something I’d like to do before we pass out.”

“Would bare skin be involved?” she asked with a wink.

Braden laughed quietly. “Oh, it most certainly would!”

“Good. Then I think it’s bedtime!”

Their lovemaking was quiet and slow, just like the orgasm he gave her before he slipped inside her and rocked gently into her. Tanna couldn’t remember a time when she’d felt so loved, even with Michael. The big firefighter who was claiming her body had stolen her heart.

And she didn’t want it back.

Chapter 8

“We’ve gotta find out where she lives. We should follow her home from work.” Wayne was busy looking at the stuff he’d stockpiled in the garage. He had red phosphorus and some anhydrous ammonia, but he still had to have the ephedrine. That was in the trunk of the car.

The sound of a car door slamming rang out and Beau peered out the garage door. “Oh, shit. Dim-Sum is here. Damn.”

“I ain’t got nothin’ to tell him. We gotta find that car. He’s prolly been lookin’ for us all weekend, and that ain’t good.” Wayne scooted in beside Beau and peered out where the door was cracked. Quyen was making his way to the house, and he had some great big guy with him. “Hope to hell he doesn’t figure out where we are.”

“Me too. That guy looks like he could do some serious damage,” Beau whispered. They listened and could hear the men banging on the front door. It got quiet, and there were subdued voices before they heard screams. Seconds later, both men went back to the car and left. “What the hell did he do?”

“I dunno. Maybe we should go find out.” They crept from the garage to the back door and headed inside.

The living room was chaos. One of the girls who hung out with them lay on the floor, her throat slit. Two other girls sat nearby, crying and screaming. It didn’t help that both of them were tweaking. That just made everything worse. “What the fuck do we do about this?” Beau asked, bewildered.

“We’ve gotta get rid of the body. I dunno, take it downtown? Throw it in a dumpster? I have no idea. I don’t do cleanup, and this is definitely cleanup.” Wayne toed her thigh with his boot, but she didn’t move. That was that, apparently.

“We can’t take her out until it gets dark outside. We’ve got to find that wrecker woman and make her tell us where the car is.” Beau began to pace. “This is bad. This is really, really bad. They’re gonna kill us if we don’t get that ice cooked. This was a warning to us.” He stopped dead in front of the sofa and screamed down at the two women still wailing, “Would. You. Please. Shut. Up! God, you two make enough racket to wake the dead.”

“Obviously not workin’ for her,” Wayne pointed out with a head toss toward the dead woman. “So tomorrow we’ll follow the wrecker woman and we’ll make her tell us where the car is.” From the drawer in the coffee table he pulled a small pistol. It was rusty and old, and it hadn’t been taken proper care of, but he knew it was loaded. They’d use that to scare her.

One way or another, that woman was going to cough up the location of that car. Their lives depended on it.

* * *

Morning was crazy as Tanna got the kids ready for school and she and Braden got ready for work. Unless she stopped by the station house, she wouldn’t get to see him again until Thursday evening, and that seemed an eternity away. They kissed goodbye at the front door before she took the kids and he headed in behind her. As soon as she’d dropped them off, she drove straight to the office.

She’d no more than stepped inside when Charlie looked up from his desk and held out a ticket. “Pickup. For the auto club. Taking it to Martin’s Garage. Here’s the address.”

Tanna just took the ticket from his hand and turned back toward the door. “On it.” In seconds, she was out on the road.

As she drove along, she thought about the night before. Spending all night in Braden’s arms was amazing. Of course, it wasn’t all night. Part of the time he’d lain face down in the bed. Then he rolled to his left side and kicked the covers off. An hour later, he was flat of his back and snoring to beat the band. He was definitely a wild man in the sack, and that didn’t just pertain to sex. She just smiled at the thought. It didn’t matter. Being together was the only thing that was important.

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