Forever Zara: (novella 9.5) by V. Theia (ebook reader txt) 📕

“You would say that.”

“Officer Fielding, you are aware of the law. I don’t have to answer questions about my husband. The boys and I have been nothing but cooperative over this shit. You know Rider has done nothing wrong. Everyone in this station knows it too.”

“He’s not your husband, Zara, we can ask you anything.”

Zara saw red. “That’s Ms. Freeze to you, and he will be in two days. He was my husband last week and last month and last year.”

The questioning went nowhere, and Hawk was waiting for her outside when she could leave. He drove her home in silence. Grateful for his isolated demeanor because she didn’t think she could hold a conversation without screaming her frustration.

Annie was fit to kill.

Axel was the voice of reason and said to let Archie do what they paid him for. It was easier said than done when Zara had spent two whole nights without Rider in their house. It didn’t matter how she wasn’t alone. Annie and Ajax stopped over. The boys dropped by all day and night. She felt alone without him. She felt empty and not right without Rider there.

As the days went by, as the hours ticked slowly away, she wondered if they’d get their wedding after all.

Maybe they were jinxed.

Maybe this was what she’d been afraid of by saying yes to his many proposals. Hadn’t she told him she was afraid of things changing in case they lost what they had? And here they were without each other.

They wouldn’t even let her see or talk to him.

She’d never been a person to hate the police, even with the latest silly harassment the club endured, but now? She could easily hate Sofia Fielding for trying to pin a fictitious crime on her man.

Unable to settle at home, she bundled the kids into the car, aided by her ever-faithful shadow, Pretty-Boy, and they headed to the clubhouse. It was busier than usual, and there was some unrest because of Rider’s absence.

It pissed the boys off, and she stepped into the role of letting them know it was going to be okay.

It had to be.

She had a wedding to go to soon. How would it look if there was no groom at the end of the aisle? Unacceptable. So she chose to think positively.

“That doesn’t belong there,” she told a prospect when he dropped a case of beers in the hallway. “Take it through to the storage room.”

He faltered at first. “Sure thing, ma’am.”

She went on like this, organizing the already well-organized clubhouse for the next few hours, needing something to keep her busy.

The boys stuck close to her, and she appreciated their care. She’d inhaled so much of their manly, pissed off testosterone in the last few days. It was a wonder she didn’t sprout a chest-length beard like Hawk.

She hated not knowing what was going on.

Archie assured her they didn’t have evidence to put Rider at the crime.

It didn’t reassure her at all.

“Yo, Z-girl.” She heard her name called a few hours later. There was a lot to be said for nervous energy. Though Erin, the house mouse, ran an efficient ship and rarely had to be prompted to do anything, Zara had completely rearranged the store pantry.

There was no time for interruptions when she still had the cans of peaches to sort through and put in order of use-by-date.

“Yeah, what is it?” She asked Preacher, putting her head around the door.

He was grinning.

“You might wanna come through. Rider is back.”

Rider is back.

The best three words she’d heard in days.

Peach cans abandoned, she followed Preacher into the main room in time to see that man of hers climbing out of Archie’s Mercedes.

The relief was palpable.

Her grin was instant.

She let Harper run to her daddy first, followed by a toddling Knox. Then he received back slaps from his brothers and a hug from his mom, but Rider’s eyes were only on her.

“Okay, guys, give me a minute to see my girl.” He said, Knox in his arms, coming over to her, and that’s when she walked into him. Feeling his arm coming around her put Zara’s earth back on its axis and air-filled her lungs, clinging to him.

“You’re home,” she murmured into his chest.

“You okay, Icy-baby?”

“Yes, so much now. Are you okay? Did you get any sleep? Did they feed you?”

He chuckled, kissing her forehead. “My sweet old lady. You didn’t have to worry. I was okay.”

“What about the charges?”

“There aren’t any charges. Hawk tracked Timmons on his Rio Grande fishing trip. Archie threatened to sue if he didn’t spring me. We left him cleaning his house.”

Zara hoped the sheriff busted some balls for this.

She held onto him for a long time before he said he wanted to shower the cop station stink off him.

And then she got some food into her man while she hovered near.

“Do you think the rest of the week can go by without notable panic?” Zara asked with a smile later when she was sitting on his lap, the boys celebrating Rider’s freedom around them. Rider chuckled. Zara wasn’t done feeling vengeful, though. “I want to put nails in her tires,” she started, “or paint all her windows black, maybe sign her up for a magazine subscription.”

“My badass. But maybe we keep you out of a jail cell. I think we’ll let Timmons deal with Fielding.”

God, she loved that dark growl to his voice.

Three hellish days. Thankfully, their marriage ceremony was back on track.

And her surprise tomorrow would not be a disaster after all.

* * *

Earlier

When Rider stepped out of the station house alongside Charlie Timmons, he cut a blank stare at the sheriff. As soon