Time to Bounce (Carter Brothers #6)

Chapter 23

DM me if you want to be my cousin. I’m starting my own family from scratch.

— Athena’s secret thoughts

ATHENA

Despite the day I’d had, the night was rather perfect.

When we were finished eating, we headed into my room, and I packed a bag while Gable watched on with curiosity.

His eyes studied every stitch of clothing I packed.

It was when I was down to only needing to pack underwear that he got up and started going through my dresser. He came out with twice the amount of clothes that I planned on taking and I started cracking up.

“ Those are winter clothes, Gable ,” I pointed out.

He shrugged. “ You’ll need those at my place eventually.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “ Oh , yeah?”

“ Yeah ,” he grinned. “ It’s supposed to be pretty cold next week.”

“ The weatherman always says that, and it never happens,” I pointed out.

“ How do you feel about Halloween parties?” he questioned.

I shot him a curious look. “ Like the one at work?”

“ The one at work,” he confirmed. “ I’m off duty that day. And I’m fairly sure you would love it.”

“ I do love it,” I agreed. “ I’ve gone two years in a row. It’s a lot of fun.”

But rather sad when you were alone with no one to take with you. All the spouses, and families, of the officers came to the carnival mid-day, then the adults stayed into the night and partied.

It was tame, but it was a lot of fun. And it gave me an excuse to dress up, which I also loved.

The first year I’d gone, I’d attended with Gavrel . It was there that Garnett convinced me to apply for the emergency services dispatcher position.

This would be my second Halloween attending as an employee, and my third attending period.

But it would be my first year to attend with someone as my date.

Which made me giddy beyond belief.

“ When is it?” I asked.

I’d heard about it, but I hadn’t been planning on going this year. Though I loved it, and enjoyed seeing all my friends, there was something so depressing about going and not having anyone there to just be with.

If Gable was willing to go, and he wanted to go with me, then I was definitely down to attend.

“ Next Friday ,” he said. “ Halloween is the following Thursday .”

“ Cool ,” I breathed.

He shoved some more clothes into the bag, and by the time he was done, I had a bag that couldn’t close, and likely nothing that matched despite the things I’d originally packed.

But the fact that he was overpacking meant he wanted me to plan on being there longer, meaning he didn’t want me to leave.

He carried my things to the car, as well as the trash that was inside since, as he said, he didn’t plan on bringing me back for a while.

With my keys in one hand and his hand holding my other, we walked to my car.

He gave it a disgusted look before saying, “ You need a new one.”

I scoffed. “ This one gets me where I want to go just fine.”

He handed me my laptop and my purse before saying, “ Drive safely.”

And I did.

He let me park in the garage, which had my heart near to bursting.

When I met him at garage door, he said, “ It’s supposed to rain tomorrow. No reason for you to get wet if you don’t have to.”

He was being sweet.

When we arrived inside, he took all of my belongings to the bedroom, and I stayed to put the leftover pizza in the fridge.

When he came back, his face was clearly expressing annoyance.

“ What’s wrong?” I asked.

“ Garrett’s stuff,” he handed me his phone, and I read the long text that Tyrone had sent.

Tyrone :

Looking into it with your brother, Quinn . He’s under the impression that the new gang leader of West Backers wants to make an impression. I agree with him. We’ve put in a call to the judge for a warrant. Should hear sometime in the morning. As for Callena , she was talking about heading back home, and I agreed. Nothing left for her to do here. If you need anything between now and tomorrow, let me know.

“ Tell me what you think about your brother and all of what you learned today,” I urged.

He plopped his backside down on the counter and crossed his arms over his chest before leaning back against the top cabinets.

“ Here’s the thing,” he said. “ I never really felt like any of that was over. I always felt like there was something else going on there. He and I were switching out every month or so. He took some time off, and I took some time to see what I could find out. Between the two of us, we found enough evidence to send the old gang leader and three of his men to jail for life. But it’s like a hydra. You lop off one head just to have three more replace it. And in the end, when Garrett was hurt, I always had this feeling that something wasn’t right.”

“ You were there, too?” I asked, eyes wide.

“ I was there, too,” he confirmed. “ Garrett is good at being undercover, but around that time his girlfriend found out that she was pregnant.”

“ Garrett has a baby?” I cried.

“ No ,” he shook his head, sadness creeping into his eyes. “ Long story short, Garrett and his girlfriend found out they were pregnant. For the next nine months, his girlfriend treated him like utter dog shit. I’m talking, full on, ripping him to shreds dog shit. She yelled at him when he brought her the food requested. Forced him to stay away from appointments. Didn’t tell him that she went into labor while he was out in the field. When he found out, we of course switched places, but by the time he got to the hospital, her family called security on him. Even worse, the baby was stillborn. And by the time that Garrett found out about that, the baby was already cremated.”

My mouth fell open. “ What a bitch!”

“ She was,” Garrett said. I whirled around to find Garrett standing behind me. “ Still haven’t forgiven her.”

“ I don’t blame you,” I admitted. “ How are you?”

“ I’m fine,” he shrugged, his fingers going to the scar on his face. “ I just got back. Tyrone filled you in?”

“ He did,” Gable said as he watched his twin carefully. “ What’s the next step?”

“ Keep on livin’, man.” He walked to the fridge and pulled out three bottles of beer.

Even though I wasn’t the hugest fan of beer, I took one anyway.

When I couldn’t twist the top off, I walked over to Gable to hand it to him. He easily twisted it off and handed it back to me.

“ You movin’ in?” Garrett asked curiously.

“ I’m …”

“ Yes ,” Gable answered, his eyes straying to mine. “ Even though she hasn’t realized it yet.”

I scrunched my nose up at him. “ I feel like that might be a conversation we need to have first before making any declarations.”

My computer pinged, and I twisted to look at it.

“ One second,” I said, hurrying toward it.

“ What is it?” Garrett and Gable asked at the same time.

“ That’s the notification I get when there’s been a match with someone on the app I created,” I replied excitedly.

Both men moved to where they could see over my shoulder.

I started typing away at my computer and sat back when the matches started to pull up.

“ Whoa ,” Gable said. “ Isn’t that the little girl who went missing when we were kids? She’s what, sixteen now?”

“ Sixteen and just did an Ancestry Zero DNA kit,” I replied excitedly. “ I’ve had two come back for this same reason!”

“ Wouldn’t the cops have this, too?” Garrett wondered.

“ Actually , no,” I said. “ This is a voluntary DNA database, and they have to agree to give their DNA to a third party, which is me.”

“ Why would they choose to do that?” Gable asked.

“ Because they feel the need to get an Ancestry Zero DNA kit because they feel like they don’t fit in with their current family.” I shrugged. “ There’s a lot of reasons.”

Over the next thirty minutes, I fed information to the local cops in Cincinnati , Ohio .

They sounded stunned themselves and started working on their end with all of my information.

When I pulled back from my laptop, both men were watching me with curiosity.

“ That’s a really cool app,” Gable said once he saw I’d given him my attention.

“ I know,” I beamed. “ I’m glad Maven urged me to set it up. Even though I’d already partially had it in the works. I might not have ever put it out there if it wasn’t for her urging.”

“ You just changed someone’s life,” Garrett pointed out. “ You should be really proud.”

That night, when I went to bed, I thought about their words.

I should be really proud.

And I had my dad to thank for my perseverance.

If I could only find my sister…

Later that night, as I lay in bed in Gable’s arms, I couldn’t help but think about how happy I was.

“ Do you ever think you shouldn’t be happy?” I asked into the dark.

Gable had just come to bed after getting a shower.

His damp hair was against my skin as he lay with his head resting on my chest.

I was running my fingers through the damp locks and idly wondering if I deserved to be happy when it was possible that Mary Beth was out there struggling to live.

Was she happy?

Was she okay?

Did she suffer?

Was she even alive?

All of those questions raced through me all day, every day.

And now, with my heart protected by Gable , I wondered if I should be allowed to be happy. If , by being happy, I was somehow betraying my sister who couldn’t be.

His large palm came up, starting at my hip and ending at my rib cage. When he got to my lower ribs, he squeezed.

“ Baby ,” he said quietly into the dark. “ Everyone deserves to be happy. I think at this point, your sister wouldn’t want you beating yourself up over being at peace yourself. Would she?”

“ No ,” I admitted. “ She would be so mad at me for being like this. I just feel so guilty.”

“ You’ll find her,” he whispered. “ One day, you’ll find her.”

Tears once again pricked my eyes.

I was so freakin’ tired of crying.

He moved when my breath hitched, his body coming up to cover mine.

I widened my legs when his hips came into contact with my pubic bone, allowing them to fall between mine.

His hands came up to frame my face and he said, “ Athena Grace Murphy , you deserve to be happy. You deserve to be loved. You deserve more than me, but you’ll never get the chance to find anyone better, because I’ll never let you go.”

My heart started to pound. “ Yeah ?”

“ Yeah ,” he said before pressing his lips to mine. “ You’re my good girl forever.”

“ Forever ?” I breathed against his lips.

He wound both arms around my body and pulled me in tight, burying his face in my neck for a few seconds before murmuring, “ One day, I’ll ask you to marry me. And when I do, you’re going to say yes, because you love me. Don’t overthink it. Don’t wonder what if . Be selfish for once and choose you. Choose me .”

A fresh wave of tears rolled over me.

Choose you. Choose me.

I could do that.

“ Okay ,” I breathed. “ When you ask me, I’ll choose you.”

He growled something low in his throat, then twisted us so that I was on top of him, my entire frame resting on his.

I lay there, my ear to his heart, for quite a long time before I said, “ Seems a shame to waste a perfectly good bed, Gable .”

He laughed. “ Beds aren’t our thing. Plus , today was rough. I think we need some sleep. We can think about how to use the bed tomorrow.”

I carefully adjusted myself so that I was lying on my side, leg thrown over his hips. The stitches in his side were pressed against my belly, and the last thing I thought about as I fell into a deep sleep in his arms was, ‘ I hope I don’t rip those open in my sleep.’