Page 51 of The Beginning
“Could we come in to talk?” Officer Bailey asks. I move to the side of the door motioning for him to enter, but I don’t take my eyes from Lexi. My fear is this is a dream and if I stop looking, she will disappear again.
Officer Bailey walks in, as Darian and Lexi finally break apart. He slings his arm over her shoulder the way he always does and she loops her arm around his waist, as they walk up the walkway and then the stairs. The smile on my son’s face is priceless.
Reaching the top of the steps, Darian releases her and walks directly to me. “Should I tell mom?” he asks me, but I shake my head but my eyes still never leave the gorgeous girl standing on the porch.
“Not yet. Once we’re all seated I will go tell her,” I say. “Can you show Officer Bailey and his partner to the front room please?” I instruct Darian and he nods.
I take few steps toward Lexi as she does the same. I’m sure the officers went inside, but I’m oblivious to everyone and everything around me right now. She’s home. She’s safe.
We stand there staring at each other for what feels like hours, when I know it’s only been seconds. My eyes roam her face trying to memorize everything about her. Making sure she’s okay. I know she’s not, but physically outward, she doesn’t seem to be too harmed.
“Hey,” she whispers almost shyly. I don’t speak or reply. My hands lift to cup her face, my thumbs gently rubbing the swells of cheeks. Just feeling her soft skin again under my touch makes my cock twitch. “I’m so sor–” she goes to say but I cut her offwith my mouth crashing down on hers. I don’t want to hear apologies from her. I don’t want to hear anything right now. I just want to feel her, taste her, look at her.
My tongue dips into her mouth, and she melts into me immediately. I love that I have this effect on this confident, strong woman. This independent woman who doesn’t need a man but allows me to care for her. I deepen the kiss for just a moment, but when I pull back, her eyes stay closed and her mouth seems to chase mine for more, making me chuckle.
“Come on, sweet girl. Let’s get you inside where you belong. Shayna is going to be excited to see you,” I saw taking a step back, pulling her inside with me. We walk into the front room where the officers are sitting on two different chairs. I pull Lexi over and sit her on the center of the couch, knowing that Shayna will want to sit next to her. But I also know, right this moment I don’t want to be too far from her.
Sitting on the coffee table directly in front of her, I clasp the nape of her neck pulling her close. “I’m just going to the room to grab Shayna. I will only be a few minutes,” I say. Standing up, I look at Darian who moves to sit on the floor right next to Lexi’s legs as she leans back getting comfortable in the couch.
The hallway to our room seems quiet so I think Shayna has hopefully stopped crying. I open the door and see Landon sitting cross legged on the bed watching his mother. “Everything is good, Bugg. I need you to go to your room, okay?” I say and he nods and jumps from the bed running to the other hall, into his room.
I sit on the bed next to my wife and begin rubbing her back. Her cries have quieted, but the tears are still moving slowly down her face and pooling on the pillow beneath her head. Curled up on the bed with her knees pulled close to her. Leaning over, I kiss her temple. “Baby,” I whisper against her skin, making her sniffle a bit. Looking up at me, the tears start to fallall over again. “I thought you wanted to see Lexi?” I say with a crooked smile.
Sitting up quickly, she almost head butts me. “What do you mean?” she asks, scooting off the end of the couch. “Is she here? She’s okay?” she asks running out of the room.
I quickly get up and walk behind her, but she’s practically running. I hear crying and mumbling as I walk into the livingroom. They are in a hug sitting on the couch. I move to sit on Lexi’s other side throwing my arm over the back of the couch behind my girls.
“Shay, you two can have your little reunion after these officers leave. They need to talk to us right now,” I say, in my deep commanding voice.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she says as she pulls out of Lexi’s embrace. But she grabs Lexi’s hand and holds it in her lap smiling. “Thank you by the way, for finding her. We’ve been worried sick,” Shayna says and looks back over at Lexi.
Lexi is sitting back on the couch. She almost looks like if she could disappear she would. I can read her body language. Something happened that she doesn’t want us to know about.
“Well, we didn’t really find her. She found us. She was able to get away for a bit and had a young girl come find us,” Officer Bailey states. Shayna is still sitting up close to the edge of the couch, I’m sure because of all her nervous energy. I shift a little closer to Lexi on the couch and she leans her head on my shoulder, which make my heart beat erratically. Leaning down, I kiss the crown of her head softly.
“Were you able to arrest the asshole who took her?” I ask sternly, making both cops look at each other, but Lexi doesn’t move from her spot on my shoulder. I look down at her and her eyes are closed. I’m sure she’s tired. Shayna keeps her hand in her lap as she watches and listens to the police officers speak.
“We detained him at the airport, which is where we found Lexi. However, an incident happened…” the female officer states but her voice trails off as she looks at Officer Bailey. My eyes bounce from one to the other.
“An incident?” I ask, keeping my voice low and even. I can feel Lexi’s body sinking more against me. I have a feeling she’s falling asleep, and I don’t want to disturb her.
Officer Bailey looks at Lexi for a moment, then his own lap contemplating whether to say what happened. He heaves a big sigh and looks back at me.
“After he was detained, he and Lexi had… words,” he says the last word after thinking about it. “The suspect threatened her and attacked two other officers trying to follow through with the threat. He aquired one of the officer’s weapons, and pointed it at Lexi. I had no choice but to shoot him. I was aiming for the arm holding the gun, but…” his voice tapers off as he takes a deep breath. Leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, he shakes his head before finishing. “But, I hit his upper chest area. He was rushed to the hospital into surgery, but never made it off the table.”
The room is quiet. Both Shayna and I look at each other, then back to the officers. They both seem to be gauging our reaction.
“So he’s dead then?” I ask the obvious, and Officer Bailey nods. “Well, I hope you’re not expecting me to feel bad, because after what he did to my wife and Lexi, I don’t.”
“I understand. And trust me, I did what I had to do. I do recommend that she finds a therapist to talk to. With everything that she told us in her statement, she’s going to need it,” he says, leaning on his thighs to stand up, followed by the female cop.
“Wait. What did she say happened?” Shayna asks, letting her eyes flit between everyone in the room.
“That’s not my story to tell. Hopefully, she will talk to you guys at the very least if she doesn’t want to see a therapist.Everything she went through…” he shakes his head releasing a burst of air. “No woman should have to go through that. That’s all I’m going to say.”
Officer Bailey looks down at Lexi cuddled up next to me and gives her a soft smile. She takes that moment to shift in her sleep turning more into my chest, making me kiss the top of her head again.
“I would walk you out, but I don’t want to wake her up. I’m going to try and move her to bed,” I say. Just then, Darian stands from sitting on the floor next to his mother. I had completely forgot he was there.
