Take It On The Run

Chapter 48

POV: Deacon

I didn't really care if Sumner made a perfectly reasonable argument or that he was twenty times as evolved as me. This 'If You Love Someone, Set Them Free' hippie bullshit wasn't gonna work for me.

I was naturally possessive of Sloan. That's just how it was when it came to her, but that wasn't why I wanted to intervene. It was because I understood her well enough to know what would happen if we sat around and did nothing until the wedding.

She was wracked with so much guilt. Murphy was also a master manipulator, and he'd learned enough about Sloan over the years to prey on her darkest fears, memories, and desires. She needed to remember that we loved and wanted her no matter what went down with Liam Murphy.

Killing the bug in her room, her apology, and ignoring the cell phone after what she'd done to get it should've had the four of us scrambling to act. Instead, we continued to waste precious time holed up in Mr. Dawson's castle, plotting like a couple of weak-ass bitches.

The guys thought they were looking at the bigger picture, not realizing there was a real chance Sloan could turn on us, rendering all of these carefully laid plans useless. I didn't think she'd ever betray us to Murphy, but there was a strong possibility she'd slip away and accept this new life thinking it would protect us. And that simply wasn't the case. He had big plans for the four of us, and she deserved to know about them before throwing everything away, before throwing us and all we'd built together away.

This relationship was more than worth fighting for. Maybe it was unconventional, maybe it would take some work to maintain, maybe we'd have to give up things like marriage or kids, but the love I felt with Sloan and my best friends was something I'd never be able to move on from. It was as though every hardship, every bump in the road had led to this perfect culmination.

I wasn't a religious man by nature, but I'd felt the presence of a higher power the day Sloan had walked into my bar and back into my life, like I'd been given a second chance at happiness. I hadn't realized until that moment how little I'd been living, how long I'd been on autopilot, an endless merry-go-round—fuck, sleep, work, repeat. One look at her through the window at The Blushing Rose had shattered all of that, had ruined me for anyone else. She'd done that already in high school if I was being honest. No woman ever managed to live up to my funny, beautiful best friend, so I'd stopped dating long ago, never fucking the same woman twice.

With Sloan, I still felt that familiar pang of puppy love again regardless of my age. Felt so many things I never thought I was capable of. That was why I couldn't just let this play out like everyone else.

Sumner thought he'd deleted the recording of Sloan in Murphy's room, but when everyone was otherwise occupied, I found the file in the trash and restored it. And holy fuck, a large part of me wished I hadn't done it.

It was still live, but I started listening from the beginning. For horrifying privacy reasons, Mr. Dawson could never learn of the recording, but I still needed to ask him if any part of what Murphy had said, particularly about his family, was true. As for their big talk, he'd had a perfect answer for everything, including his being a predator. He'd gaslit the shit out of Sloan, making his endless pursuit of her seem romantic and well-intended. The sympathy in her voice had sounded authentic too.

Honestly, if I hadn't been privy to so many phone calls between him and Kelly, I could easily see how she'd begin to buy into his wounded-puppy long-lost-love act. As it was, Sloan had no idea that her fiancé was still actively trying to find the four of us, making plans to root us out. I hadn't learned exactly what his intentions were, but somehow I doubted the man wanted to shake our hands and sing Kumba-fucking-ya.