“Yeah, what’s that?”
I told him of my plan and Joshua being the vengeful fuck that he is added some twists of his own.
Around dinner time there was still nothing doing so we went down with the others where all the talk was about the wedding. Stan and Carrie’s dad were here tonight as well so we had a full house, which meant mom was in her glory. Kadyn kept looking at her ring and playing with it with a secret smile on her face. “You happy baby?” I kissed her temple as she sat next to me on one of the love seats in the drawing room where everyone was sitting around shooting the breeze.
“I’m very happy Matthew, and you?”
“You have to ask?” I gave her a tight squeeze and tuned back into the conversation, which had switched to school and what we had planned for our future. It was after ten by the time everyone was leaving and I was antsy as fuck. We’d left the recorder running but I didn’t want to miss anything. I was being pulled in two different directions, I wanted to make love to her to seal the deal and I wanted to watch him get taken into custody. Only then will I feel like he was finally out of her life for good because the shit he had on his computer was more than enough to send him away for a very long time.
In the end I walked her up to our room and got her settled in bed. “I’ll be back soon baby I have to go do something with Josh.” She pouted and lifted her lips for a kiss but she didn’t complain. “Don’t be long okay.”
“I won’t I promise.” I couldn’t resist pulling her in close for a hug and saying a silent prayer that nothing happened to screw this up.
It was around one in the morning when I watched over the monitor as agents busted down the door of Bruno’s house. I’d been waiting for it for hours but now that it was here I couldn’t believe it was actually happening. “Thank fuck I was about to give up on their ass.”
“Ssh, turn it up Josh I can’t hear what they’re saying.” He turned up the volume just in time for us to hear the charges against Tommy Bruno as he was being cuffed. Dazed and confused after being dragged out of bed the middle-aged predator didn’t seem to know what the hell was going on around him. Somehow I’d expected him to put up more of a fight but he just looked scared and out of his depth.
We watched for the next few hours as they combed the residence taking away boxes and boxes of files and searched every inch of the place. “I hope none of that shit is about Kadyn.” James hadn’t found anything but there was no guarantee that there wasn’t. Whatever the case she wasn’t going back there if I had anything to say about it. “One phase over now we wait and see if he slithers out of this.”
“He won’t, you ready?”
“Yeah.” We used the voice distorter to place a call to the local newsroom in Nebraska, which was closed at this hour but I was sure they’d get the message first thing in the morning. Along with the message from an unidentified source we sent the damaging pictures from Bruno’s hard drive along with some other information. All in all we hit up three news stations, two local and one national and with that, sewed up one pedophile nice and tight. If his money had gotten him off in the past it would be hard for them to get away with that shit this time. The public had a way of convicting assholes better than the justice system did. Corrupt fucks.
Back in our room where she was fast asleep I looked down at her. Sometimes she looked so young and innocent that it was hard to imagine her life had been what it was. But I wasn’t going to think about that anymore, after tonight I was going to make sure that neither of us spent any more time dwelling on that shit. Standing there I made a decision, it was the only one in the end that made any sense. “Kadyn wake up baby.” I laid beside her and ran my fingers over her face until she opened her eyes. “Hey baby.” I only meant to kiss her awake but the taste of her lips under mine coupled with the adrenaline high that I was riding changed my mind. I fell into her softness as she opened herself to me.
No words were spoken as we undressed each other in the dark. I ran my hands over her body burning the touch and feel into my memory. She moved beneath me her hands making their own foray over my hardness as I covered her and slid into her waiting heat. There were no rushed movements, I didn’t feel the need to pound away at her but instead I wanted a slow loving. I wanted to use my body this once to show her without words how much she meant to me. We clung to each other as I rode her to completion. “Again.” I didn’t stop moving inside her, staying buried deep until the fire raged out of control once more.
When we were both spent and our breathing had calmed down I finally told her. “Bruno has been arrested.”
“What?” she sat up like a shot. Pulling her back down to my chest I told her everything I’d been up to. She shook for a good ten minutes while she cried tears of relief in my arms. Her first thought was of her mom, which I kind of expected so I passed her the new phone I’d bought her. I didn’t even try to stop her from calling at this late hour because I’m sure neither of them would care about that.
I think out of everything I’d done so far, watching her talk to her mom was my greatest achievement. The two women stayed on the phone for hours as she caught her mom up on everything that she’d been up to. I was subjected to an embarrassing snapshot and a disjointed conversation with the woman who would be my mother in law but it was all worth it to see the unbridled joy on my baby’s face. I couldn’t wait to give her her other surprises this weekend.
Eight of us hopped on dad’s jet to head to New England that weekend, it was a festive group and the atmosphere was light. The news broke the day after the arrest of the local businessman who’d been caught and as was the case with these things even more shit was coming out about him. So far it seems Kadyn was the only stalking victim but there was a lot of allegations about child pornography among other things. If half of that shit stuck he’d be going away for a very long time. It was finally over.
We checked into our hotel before heading over to the campus to see where we would be spending the next four years of our lives. The place felt good, the atmosphere wasn’t much different from home, just another small town with new scenery. I was glad that I’d shared the news with her in the end because she seemed so much more light-hearted and the four of us were excited about starting our new lives in a couple months.
“Do you like it Kitten?”
“I love it, I love the air it feels different here.” She took a deep breath as she spun around with her arms outstretched, a wide grin on her face. The little starter house mom and dad had found us turned out to be a lot more. That was to be expected when mom was involved. The place was huge with its own backyard and front lawn, more than enough space. It was off campus but still in walking distance and Josh and I walked the grounds sort of mapping out a route.
We were both very conscious of the fact that we were going to be responsible for these two young women for the next four years with no parents around. I’m sure we were up to the task and though it might seem a bit like overkill to be checking out the area for any danger, we weren’t about to take any chances. We’d already ran a background check on the area and found that though there had been a few break-ins here and there in the last year or so, there was really no real crime to speak of. The campus had a good police force and they had things in place to safeguard their students, which was perfect.
With that taken care of, it was time to relax and enjoy the fact that our lives were heading in the right direction. I had a little surprise in store for my girl and that evening as we gathered in the hotel dining room I was on pins and needles waiting for it to show up. I recognized her as soon as she came into the room looking around for her daughter. I nudged Kadyn and nodded towards her mother who was following the maitre ‘d towards our table.
Now I felt like my job was finally done.
EPILOGUE
“When did the girls say they’d be back again?”
“Fu…I mean he…crap; I don’t know.”
“Watch your mouth Josh.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Yeah but you almost slipped and you know who has their ears pricked.” I inclined my head in the direction of our two little angels.
“I can’t believe we’re wearing this sh…stuff bro.” Josh pulled on the feather boa around his neck. I would laugh at him if I weren’t in the same predicament.
The wives had gone on one of their shopping marathons with Nessa. This could take a whole day but they promised that they’d be good which is what they’ve done a hundred times before but always broke their promises. I watched as our little girls poured us tea and chattered away at each other. Amara was mine and Selah was Josh’s; born one day apart three years ago, the two girls looked uncannily alike for cousins. Somehow we’d lucked out and there were no pregnancies while we were in school. There were more than a few scares but those always turned out to be false alarms. I was never too sure if I was pleased or disappointed after each one but it had worked out in the end.