Into the Sunset

SADIE

The woman that walked in with Reaper was stunning. Tall with long black hair, she walked with a confidence that I only dreamed of having. I was sure that when she walked into a room, people stopped to watch her. I sure was.

She would command the attention of men with only the slightest gaze. There was no doubt in my mind that she was the type of woman that Wrench should be with. He deserved someone as beautiful as he was.

Ellie walked in next to her, and I was immediately jealous of the easy camaraderie between them. The two women looked like they were best friends and sisters. It was a wonderful sight, and one that I always wished I had.

Chelsea turned to Wrench and hugged him tightly. Jealousy raged in the pit of my stomach at the sight, but I forced myself to remain calm. No matter what I wanted, he wasn’t mine.

She placed a kiss on his cheek, leaving a red lipstick print on it. They laughed quietly together about it.

It just about broke my heart.

How could I feel this deeply about Wrench when I had only just met him? He was a man that had shown me more kindness and understanding than anyone in my entire life. A man who was the walking definition of perfect and could have anyone he wanted.

I watched as she whispered in his ear again and the tips of his ears turned red, which I quickly realized meant he felt embarrassed.

Whatever she said had gotten to him, and it had me raging with jealousy. I’d never in my life felt like this. Even when I was younger and someone had something that I wanted, I never felt the green-eyed demon of envy like this.

There was history between them, or at least an attraction. The two of them looked into each other’s eyes like old lovers who had spent a lifetime getting to know one another.

It hit me that this was the girl he was talking about. She was the one he wanted. He was only opening up to me as a friend, and I was taking it too far by hoping he wanted more than to just help me.

She turned to me with a large smile. Her hazel eyes were kind, and they made me feel awful for being jealous of her relationship with Wrench. I felt dirty and tainted by all that I was feeling.

“And you must be Sadie. Reaper told me all about you, but I’d like to hear your story from you. Is that okay?” she asked.

I nodded and guided her to the living room. We sat on the couch that the prospects just brought in, and I told her the details of my life.

I started from when Adam and I first began dating—what he was like then and how charmed I was by him—and how everything had changed. I told her how I wanted to leave for years but had felt trapped and alone. How I started writing and self-publishing. How I opened a bank account a few towns over to save my money so Adam wouldn’t know about it.

I told her about my growing suspicions that he was having an affair and the text messages I received the day I finally caught him.

I cried as I told her about my son and all the hate that came from him—how I missed the little boy he was and how desperately I wanted him to realize how wrong his father was.

Talking about it, having it all laid out in order, showed me the enormous hole in my life. I had been living my life for the two people who didn’t care what happened to me as long as I took care of what they needed.

Adam had taken my very soul from me. I was nothing like the girl he met all those years ago and lured into a relationship. I had made myself believe I was happy for so long that I couldn’t conceive the idea that I was wrong—that our relationship was wrong.

I wasted all those years on someone who would never, could never love me the way I deserved.

I feared my son was too far gone as well. He had turned against me just like his father.

And then I was finished. In that moment, I felt cleansed. With the worst of my past laid out for everyone to see, I could finally accept that there was a way forward—a way out.

I looked up and met Ellie’s gaze. I had told her some of this the night before, but I wasn’t ready then to tell the full story. This time, I let everything go. I held nothing back. If I had any chance of moving on from this, I needed to confront it head-on.

Tears streamed down her face, and Reaper’s hand was on her shoulder, offering her comfort, though there was anger in his eyes. I turned to Chelsea, and she also had tears in her eyes.

I took a breath and looked toward Wrench. His jaw was clenched tight, and he looked as if he was barely holding on to his control. Anger radiated off him, but I knew it wasn’t directed at me. Throughout everything I’d been through the past two days, that was one thing I was very clear on: Wrench was not angry or upset with me.

I cleared my throat and continued on. “I was never physically abused, so I don’t know how easy the case will be. I only want out. To be away from him. I want nothing else from him. No money, no possessions. Nothing.”

Chelsea reached out and grasped my hand in hers. “He may have not hurt you physically, but he sure abused you mentally and emotionally. You said he knows nothing about the books or the money, correct?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I told him he could have all the money in the joint account and that I would pay child support until Garrett turns eighteen. I told him he could have everything in the apartment and the cars.”

Chelsea gave my fingers a squeeze before pulling a notepad and pen out of her large tote bag. “Okay, so, the bad news is that this will take at least a year. But the good news is that I’m going to do everything I can to make sure it doesn’t last any longer than that.”

“A year?” Wrench asked. “He was an abusive asshole who kept her as a maid for years and has threatened her multiple times in the last two days. Can’t this move any faster than that?”

Chelsea shook her head, a sad smile on her face. “North Carolina divorce law requires couples to be separated for one year before a judge will grant a divorce.”

“That’s bullshit!” Reaper shouted.

Chelsea nodded. “For situations like Sadie’s, yes, it is bullshit. But even in states that don’t have a one-year separation law, it could still take months—longer if there are children and custody issues to be worked out or significant assets that need to be divided.”

She turned toward me, a questioning look on her face. “Plus, I’m guessing Adam won’t go quietly and sign any paperwork we place in front of him.”

It was said as a statement, but I replied anyway. “No. Based on everything he’s done so far, he wants me back. He’s going to fight this.”

She nodded and started jotting down some notes. “So, we plan for a year, doing everything we can to make sure it doesn’t last any longer than that.”

“How can we make sure of that?” Ellie asked.

“We first file for a protective order. In theory, this will keep Adam away from you. But having it means you can call the police on him if he gets near you. Do you still have the text messages he’s sent you?”

I nodded. “They’re on my old phone, but I turned it off.”

“Give the phone to Reaper. We’ll have one of the tech-savvy prospects download the data in a usable form for court.”

“You should also try to get surveillance footage from the gas station. Adam threatened her there,” Wrench said.

“I’ll reach out to them,” Chelsea said, frantically adding to the list on her notepad. “Next, I start the divorce paperwork and reach out to the court. There are a few judges this case could be brought in front of. I’ll get in touch with my contact to see which judge is most likely to hear the case and what I can do to expedite the process.”

“What about my money?” I asked. “I don’t want Adam getting a hold of anything I made from writing my books.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll have an ironclad agreement drawn up and have some guys from the club escort me to have Adam sign it. Trust me, your money won’t be a problem. He never needs to know you have it.”

Outside of having to wait a year to be divorced from Adam, it all sounded too good to be true. “Will this come back to haunt me later?” I asked. The last thing I needed was a future lawsuit from Adam.

Chelsea gripped my hand once more. “No. I will make sure of it. The only way he will ever find out that you wrote those books is if you make yourself known. But from the look on your face, I don’t think that’s something you’re looking for.”

“I don’t want to be in the spotlight,” I replied. “There’s nothing about fame that appeals to me.”

Wrench grunted from his position against the far wall. “We’ll make sure that Adam signs the papers and gives you no trouble.”

“You heard him today. He’s not going to make any of this easy,” I said.

“That doesn’t matter,” Reaper said. “You’re now under the protection of Sinner’s Pride. He’s not getting near you again.”

***

An hour later, I ushered everyone out the door. Ellie and I made plans for the morning, and I set up an appointment to meet with Chelsea at her office later in the week.

I said my goodbyes and closed the door. But when I turned around, Wrench was still there, leaning against the island in my kitchen, watching my every move.

His eyes gleamed with a predatory gaze that I hadn’t seen from him yet. Although it turned me on, I couldn’t let myself get my hopes up. After watching the exchange between him and Chelsea, I knew his type, and a forty-year-old, overweight mother wasn’t it.

“You look like you weren’t expecting me to still be here,” he said with a smirk.

“To be honest, no. I thought you must have snuck by me so you could walk Chelsea to her car.” I chuckled to myself and shook my head. “She’s lovely, by the way. I can see why you would like her. But you need to seal that deal before someone else takes her from you.”

Wrench stayed where he was and gave me a questioning look.

It was just one more thing that made him so attractive to me. He wanted to think through my words to their deeper meaning, to understand what I was thinking.

I stood rooted to the spot by the door, watching him. He rubbed his chin while he thought through my words. I’d never seen anything more attractive in my life. His every movement was like that of a dancer—smooth and swift without a thought.

Unlike me, whose thoughts were running through my mind at a fever pitch. I felt the heat rise to my face at the intensity of his stare.

I wanted to know what those hands would feel like on my face. I wanted to know what it would feel like to be wrapped up in his arms—safe from the outside world.

Hell, I wanted to know what his real name was.

I decided to take a chance and walked closer to him, leaning on the counter across from him.

“So, if I understand you correctly,” Wrench said, taking two steps forward and standing impossibly close to me, “you think that Chelsea and I are either a couple or old lovers, or that she’s the girl I want to like me?”

The look on his face told me that he wanted an answer to his question and wouldn’t stop pressing me until he got one. It also told me that he didn’t like the thoughts I had at that moment.

I racked my brain thinking about the answer he wanted to hear. The last thing I wanted to do was make him mad.

“Possibly all of the above?” I said as more of a question than an answer.

Wrench sucked in a breath, and his eyes gleamed in a way that almost made me uncomfortable—not because he would ever hurt me, but because I could only guess what he would say next.