Read Tied - Part Four (The Tied Series) for Free Online

house,” she said with a wry smile. “Mom won’t be home. You don’t have to sneak in through the window or anything like that.”
     
    “Thank God,” I said, rubbing my aching knee. I smiled through it, though. This wedding crash went better than I could have hoped for.
     
    I helped her retrieve her underwear. Everything was still damp. And I kind of wanted to keep looking at her naked.
     
    “Hang these up,” I said, “I’ll get the hairdryer.”

CHAPTER 6
     
    Two weeks after the wedding and I still hadn’t been able to talk her into moving back into the apartment. We were talking, though, and making an effort to see each other every day despite our conflicting schedules. I’d meet her leaving her job, we’d grab something to eat, then she’d see me off on my way to my new gig.
     
    Some days, when we felt like gambling with the little bit of free time we had together, we’d rush back to the apartment in a frantic whirlwind of clothes and sweat.
     
    At least we never fell out of sync there. Whatever was wrong between us never seemed to touch our chemistry in the bedroom. If anything, all this “making up” was only getting us hotter.
     
    She should have preoccupied my thoughts. She did during the day, when I was home, when I was lying in bed and could smell her on the sheets, or when I was in the living room and could see into her bedroom where her furniture still lived.
     
    But at night, working my new job where I had more free time to think than was healthy, thoughts of revenge seeped in, sinking their claws into my brain. That unanswered crime was a festering wound that would never heal and would never drain until I took action. I stared at the monitors that I was assigned to stare at and imagined all the blind spots around the luxury Midtown building that I watched - imagined all the placed that I could take Rabbit down.
     
    I hated it. I hated how my stomach churned with bile, how my veins crackled with unspent adrenaline. I was never going to be able to fully be with Katherine if I didn’t rid myself of this disease. I couldn’t even begin to think about the child we were going to have.
     
    Would it be a girl or a boy? What would we name it? I wanted us to live together, but where the fuck were we going to live? These questions blew away like dust when the need for revenge took over.
     
    I clenched and unclenched my fists. The monitors were still. People passed by the front entrance on the sidewalk, but all the restricted areas showed no signs of life. No trespassers except for one fat raccoon. No reason for me to spring into action - though for me, “spring into action” meant “note the time and call the cops.”
     
    A guy like me with a boot on his busted foot couldn’t “spring” anywhere.
     
    Which brought me back to Rabbit.
     
    These thoughts were going to poison me if I kept on doing nothing, but Mal was hell-bent on having himself and Surly involved, which meant waiting until our fucking schedules aligned.
     
    I can’t spend all night every night this angry. I’m going to make myself sick . I checked my watch - only eleven. Katherine would still be awake. I picked up my phone.
     
    “Violet,” I typed. “Ivy. Rose. Daisy.”
     
    “Are these ex-girlfriends or are you planting a garden?” she replied back.
     
    “I was thinking about girl’s names,” I sent. My whole damn body went into flight mode when I thought about that baby but dammit, I was not going to give in. That was just fear talking and it wasn’t going to win. This baby is happening , I admonished my racing heart, Get used to it. Get it together.
     
    My phone buzzed with her reply. “I was thinking about Chelsea, if you’d like that.”
     
    Holy shit . I fell in love with her all over again. The message grew blurry in front of my face and I nearly dropped the phone. It was hard to say how my brothers would feel about it but I knew my mother would be so thrilled that she would cry.
     
    I typed