Chapter Sixteen
Roman
I sit at the bar in our kitchen with a cup of coffee in my hand when Hollis comes storming in, her shoulders tense and her eyes set in a hard line. She comes to a stop across from me, slapping her hand down on the countertop.
“Okay, I need to know what you’ve found. Tell me what you were doing yesterday, Roman.” She lays both of her hands, palms down, onto the counter. “Because I know you weren’t working with the DEA.” Damn it, it had been a long shot, thinking that she’d believe me. The euphoria from our last night’s lovemaking is long gone, replaced by the fighter I fell in love with.
I sit my cup down and take a deep breath. “I found him.”
She stands up straight, her mouth falling open in shock. “You did?” The hopeful look that replaces the shock on her face breaks my heart, and when she sees I’m not returning her smile, hers falls from her lips. She sinks down onto the stool, propping her elbows on the counter and rests her head in her hands. “Oh no, he’s dead, isn’t he? Died from some horrific drug deal gone wrong or worse.” Her head pops up. “It was an overdose, wasn’t it?”
As much as I wish all those scenarios were the case, it isn’t. Here’s my chance. I could lie and let her believe that’s how the man who fathered her met his demise and be done with all this fucked up shit, and start our lives together and put all this behind us. But if I’ve learned anything from my brothers, it’s that lying will only come up later and bite you in the ass, giving you a shit case of rabies.
So I dive in headfirst. “Not exactly,” I say on a sigh. This makes her perk up, but I hold up my hands, stopping her from being too overjoyed with my news. “Hold on a minute, Hollis, it’s not a good thing.”
She sinks back onto her stool. “You’ve met him?”
“Yes.”
“Is that where you were yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“And what kind of man is he?”
“Let’s just say, your mother had a type.” The similarities between him and my father later in life were too many, and a bit top off-putting for me. I came away from our meeting yesterday feeling like the dejected twenty-year-old I’d been when I’d learned of my father’s indiscretions. Feelings I’d not felt in a very long time came flooding back and washed over me like the tidal wave that had nearly taken me down then.
“A type, huh?” I can see the memories flash in her eyes. I knew this would take us back to a very painful time in our lives that neither one of us want to relive, but if she wants to go through with this, we’ll have to revisit bitter events that dictated the very different paths our lives took.
“What did he say when you told him about me?” She looks at me with a little bit of that heartbreaking hope in her eyes again.
“I didn’t tell him,” I say on a hushed tone.
“You didn’t tell him? Why not?” She leans back, crossing her arms over her chest. “Isn’t that the whole point of doing all this work?” She jumps to her feet and begins to pace back and forth.
I stand and go around to stop her. I rest my hands on her shoulders and bend a little so that I can look her in the eyes. “Hey, listen. We can stop this right here, right now.” I beg her with my eyes to drop this, to not go any further. I know I won’t be able to control my actions if and when he hurts her.
“Why didn’t you tell him?” She reaches up, grasping my forearms with her hands, a pleading tone to her words.
I lean in, placing my forehead to hers. “He paid to have you scrubbed, Hollis. I spoke to the nurse who did all the dirty work for him. He didn’t want you then, so I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want you to resurface now. And with a man that powerful, it scares me to think of the lengths he’ll go to to keep that secret quiet. Keep you quiet.” I’m not above begging her to drop this, because the man I met yesterday is just the kind of man who pays to make others who get in his way disappear, and not just on paper, but physically. He isn’t the first type of man like this I’ve met, but this time the situation revolves around my woman, my life, and that changes everything.
I never thought I would be wishing he’d been a junkie, living on the streets where we could’ve given him a twenty-dollar bill and moved on with her, knowing he was nothing. But I can see by the set of her shoulders and the resolve in her eyes that she isn’t just going to let this go. I know Hollis, and she’ll see this through till the end, and if that means her confronting a man who can emotionally ruin her, then that’s what she’ll do.
“Let this go, Hollis, please?” I beg her. I can’t lose her again, not right when we’re getting to the good part of our lives together.
She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, hopefully taking my words into consideration. “Who is he?”
“His name’s Keaton Campbell.” Her eyes fly wide and gleam with delight.
“Keaton?” She’d asked me before where her mother had gotten her last name and now we know. The bitch wasn’t going to go quietly, no matter how much fucking money he paid for her to. “Keaton.” She repeats the name, letting it fall heavily between us.
“Yeah, and he’s the Mayor of Souders.”
“That’s just two hours away.” I shake my head yes. “He’s practically been in my back yard this whole time.” I want to shake her, shake her until what I’ve said sinks in and she turns away from this.
She backs away from my hold and begins to pace again. She stops and looks at me. “The mayor? No shit. My mother did have a type.” She scoffs and then stops when she realizes what she’d just said. “Oh, Roman, I’m sorry.” She’s too late if she thinks that what she said has raked my heart over the coals of the fire her mother set to my life. She’s wrong, it’s been hurting since I was twenty. I shake off her apology.
“Who was the nurse to him and how did you find her?” she asks, stepping back to me and taking my hand, leading me over to the island, both of us sitting back down.
I take a deep breath and turn to her with a half-smile on my face. “You’re never going to believe me when I tell you.”
Her eyebrows shoot up into her hair. “Really? Because all this other shit is so normal?” She pushes my shoulder, and for the first time this morning she laughs, and the sound makes me smile. With all the heavy we’ve been going through, its God’s gift to see that beautiful sight.
“Cruz.” Her smile falls just as fast as it had appeared.
“Cruz Lloyd?” Her shock at the revelation is almost laughable.
“Yeah, Cruz,” I confirm as I reach for my coffee cup, wincing when I throw back a gulp of the now cold liquid.
She leans back, crossing her arms over her chest, watching me as I pour myself another cup, and get her one as well. “And how the hell is that?”
Placing the cup in front of her, I settle back down on my stool. “Remember the other day when you girls showed up at the clubhouse and they were there?” She nods her head. “Well they were on a run, just passing through, and needed a place to crash.” I lie. I have to about why they were here. She stays silent, accepting what I’m telling her. “Anyway, he dropped by the office one day and found me at my desk with your folder.” She lifts her cup to her lips, completely enamored by my story. There’s no need to recount the whole conversation to her, so I cut right to the part she asked about. “He recognized a photo of your mother.”
This makes her sit straight up on the stool, almost spilling her coffee all over the both of us. “My mother?” She shakes the liquid from her hand and wipes the rest on her jeans. “How?”
“Y’all are from the same town.”
~~~~~~
Hollis
His words hit me hard. “Does he know me? I mean, from then?”
“No, do you remember him?” He grabs the towel from the other side of the island and begins to wipe up my mess.
I search the areas of my memory I tried to burn away with drugs and alcohol, the parts I pushed out of my mind with highs that lasted for days. “No, I can’t remember him at all.” I feel ashamed that those parts of my past are gone because of the actions I’d taken to rid myself of them. “And the nurse?”
“Sarah. Her name’s Sarah Lloyd, and she remembers you perfectly.” He takes my hands in his. “She’s Cruz and Mose’s aunt. When Cruz’s mom ran off and Mose’s dad nearly beat his mom to death, she took them both in and raised them as her own, but she had an alcoholic husband and needed the money.” He looks sympathetic as he tells her story. “He approached her in the maternity ward one night and offered her more money than she could make in five years on her salary.”
I blink back the tears this woman deserves. She isn’t at fault for what they did, she was just as much a victim as I am. I could never fault a woman who had two children to take care of. I spent my life trying to find that kind of devotion from a woman who never really wanted me. Now I know why, she was tossed aside by him just as fast as I was. I was a terrible reminder of her not being good enough, and she laid that blame on me.
My mother was never one to take ownership of her actions, like sleeping around and becoming pregnant by a married man. I was just the collateral damage of the way she steamed rolled through life, wrecking anybody and everything in her path, the man sitting across from me being one of the unlucky ones. She might as well have been the one who jerked that steering wheel wrecking the car that killed both of Roman’s parents.
I reach up, cupping his face in my hands, looking into those breathtaking, crystal blue eyes. “I have to do this. Even if it’s just for a few minutes, let him see that even though he beat her down, she didn’t give up.” He stills at my words, and I watch as his calm slips from his eyes.
“You don’t owe that bitch anything,” he says through gritted teeth, right before jerking his face from my grasp. He pins me with his eyes, and I feel them burn my skin. “You’ve spent your whole adult life hating her, so why now do you feel the need to prove something for her at the risk of your own life?” He shoves his fingers into his thick blond hair and tugs at it, cursing under his breath. “I should’ve just lied to you, never told you what I really found.”
I take his arm and turn him to me. “Why would you do that?”
He scoffs at me. “Because you’ve not heard a fucking word I’ve said.” He throws his arms out to his sides. “About the kind of man he is, and what he’s capable of doing to you.”
I snake my arms around his waist, but this time, he doesn’t hold me back. “I have you.” I smile up at him, trying to get him back to the sweet Roman.
He gives his head a violent shake. “Not all the fucking time you don’t. I can’t be up your ass twenty-four seven, Hollis.” I smile a flirty smile at him. “Stop. You know what I mean.”
“Well what if you go with me?” I’m trying everything. Not until now did I realize how badly I wanted to know who he was, and now I’m consumed with wanting to come face-to-face with the man who ruined my life because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants.
“That’s for shit too.” He scrubs his hands down his face in frustration, but his anger, although it probably should, isn’t making me back down from this.
“And why is that?” I lean one hand on the island and prop the other on my hip. I can see he’s holding back how he really feels. He’d hurt me when I first asked him to do this, and he’s trying not to do it again.
“I showed up at his country club yesterday, dropped an insane amount of money on a fucking golf membership, and shared a damned bourbon with him. He knows who I am.” He pounds his finger into his chest, the thumping echoing around the kitchen. “He probably has a file on me three inches thick by now.”
I rub my hand over his chest, stopping my hand at his neck, the heat of his anger burning my skin. “Well then, if he’s as good as you say he is, he’ll know not to fuck with me or you’ll bring hell fire down on his head and release Leo on him.” I snicker, making him smile.
His laugh holds a slight hint of humor. “Kinda like the Kraken?”
My smile widens. “Exactly.”
He digs his fingers into my hair. “God, I fucking love you, woman.”