Page 45 of Decoded
Keaton’s nostrils flare and his face turns red, but he doesn’t say anything. He waits and he listens, so I continue, “And the night before I moved here, my dad invited him over for family dinner. When we left, he gave me that box. I didn’t know what to do with it, so I just shoved it in the closet. I’m so sorry.” I begin to sob, and Keaton softens.
“Anna, you have nothing to be sorry for. You did nothing wrong.” He holds me as I cry into his chest. “He’s going to stop, Baby. He’s going to leave you alone. For good.”
I let the words of the man I love sink in and it feels so good to believe him.
Chapter thirty-two
Keaton
“I
’m going to kill him. I’m going to fucking murder Daniel Brenner.” I’m pacing back and forth in my home office. After sending Anna upstairs for a bath followed by bed, I called my brothers and told them what was going on. Lincoln had Charlie and couldn’t come over, but Cam lives next door and showed up in under five minutes.
“As your attorney I’m gonna need you to not say shit like that in front of me,” Camden says and I glare at him.
“Am I just supposed to let him get away with this? He’s a fucking pervert and he’s harassing her.” I fall into the chair behind my desk, furious with what Anna has had to deal with and feeling completely helpless about it all.
“With the messages he has sent her, there’s enough here for her to press charges. If she wants, I can get the paperwork ready for her to file for a protective order. But I’m just going to let you know that with a man like that, this is gonna get messy. And it’s gonna go public.”
Fuck. The last thing I want is for Anna to have to deal with any of this shit. “Wait, she mentioned that this guy is best friends with her dad. What if we told him what was going on?”
“I think that’s something you should probably discuss with your wife.” I run my hand down my face in frustration.
“Listen Keat,” Camden continues, “it’s late and it sounds like you and Anna have both had a rough day. Let me investigate this and see what I can come up with. We’ll start fresh in the morning.”
I walk my youngest brother to the door and lock things up for the night. Then I head upstairs and crawl into bed where Anna has already passed out for the night. She looks so peaceful, and I can’t help but think she doesn’t deserve to be dealing with the shit that she’s been through.You were part of that shit. I kiss the top of her head and settle in beside her. As sleep begins to pull me under, I remember what Mama told me. Maybe Daniel Brenner is the demon Anna is dealing with. It was time to decode my wife’s secrets and make sure they couldn’t hurt her anymore.
Anna woke up before me, and I met her in the kitchen before work. It’s been a week since I discovered that fucking box in her closet and we’re not any closer to taking down the asshole causing a disruption in Anna’s life. Now that I know about it, Isee the way she hesitates when checking her phone. I hate that she’s been living in fear of him and I want nothing more than to see it go away for good.
“It smells delicious in here,” I say, sniffing the cinnamon in the air. I grab Anna’s waist and pull her into me. “It must be you.” I bring her lips to mine and taste the sweetness I constantly crave. She kisses me back before playfully pushing me away.
“I woke up craving cinnamon rolls, so I made some.” She says, explaining the strong aroma in the kitchen. Wait. Did she say craving?
“Umm, you were craving something? And you have buns in the oven?” I stare at her in disbelief. I know she said she was on birth control, but the way the two of us have been going at it lately, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of my swimmers went for the gold.
“What are you talking about?” She asks as I slide my hand to her stomach and press in. “Oh! No! No, not that. This is not an announcement, I swear.” I can’t say that I’m not a little disappointed she isn’t currently carrying my child, but I can’t say I’m not relieved either. Even though we’ve officially been married almost three months, there’s still so much I need to learn about my wife.
“But,” she says, biting that fucking bottom lip of hers. “Maybe one day.”
I smile at my gorgeous girl. “Definitely one day, Baby.”
She gives me one more kiss before going over to the oven and pulling out some sinfully delicious looking cinnamon rolls. As she sits them on the counter, she grabs her camera that was sitting on the counter. I notice how she’s staged the island with a simple white plate that has a dusting of cinnamon sugar. It sits on one of my plaid flannel shirts and there are some wooden beads that flow around it.
Carefully extracting one of the hot rolls from the pan, she sits it on the plate gently as though she’s performing major surgery.She steps back, angles her camera, and clicks. She snaps a few pictures before going through and seeing her work, a smile spreading on her face. Anna happy is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
“Let me see, Baby.” She passes the camera over and pride swells in my chest. She’s good. Like really fucking good. I can see her being able to make a career out of her passion, and I would fully support her if that’s what she wanted.
“You made these look even better than in real life. And they look really fucking delicious.” I pluck a hot roll out of the pan with my fingers, instantly regretting it as the hot icing drips down my hand. “Shit, that’s hot.”
Anna puts her camera back down on the counter and rushes to my side, grabbing my hand and assessing it like she has a medical degree. “Hmm,” she hums. “It doesn’t appear to be burned too badly, but I think I have a remedy that will help take that pain away.”
She pulls my hand closer to her, then her tongue flicks out and licks the icing from my middle finger. “Oops, missed some,” the seductress whispers breathily before sucking the same digit into her mouth. Her movements have my cock standing at attention, begging for it to be next in line. But all too soon, Anna pulls away and smiles up at me.
“Oh, Mr. Fisher. We keep getting ourselves into these sticky situations.”
Chapter thirty-three
Anna
