Chapter Seventeen
Roman
“He’s a real fucking douche,” I tell the boys who are sitting around the table in the clubhouse. I’d recounted the events of the day before, and the discussion Hollis and I’d had this morning. Eno’s already on his laptop, typing furiously, and has his cellphone to his ear.
I lean forward, resting my forearms on the table. “All that aside, he worries me.”
Leo leans back, sighing. “Me too.” Propping his elbows on the arms of his chair, he laces his fingers together in thought.
“But,” Dalton says, leaning in, “we have proof he’s a dick. The nurse’s statement, the folder full of documents you have and the money trail, our boy here,” he points at Eno, “is going to find.”
“Are your intentions to bring him down?” Cowboy asks.
I give my head a fast shake. “No, not at the moment, even though I have a valid reason to.”
“You have more than a fucking reason, brother,” Matt scoffs.
“We need to create a cushion around Hollis. Dig up enough dirt on him to keep him from touching her,” Leo instructs.
I hold up my hands. “He fucking touches her, I’ll go to prison.” There are a few grumbles of agreement around the table. “He’s good, so by now he has enough on me, and us, to know who we are.”
“Fuck yeah, man.” Eno throws up the devil horns with his left hand at me. “That’s enough to know we’ll fuck his world over if he fucks with her.”
Leo sighs, looking at his brother with a hint of a smile. “And she’s hell-bent on meeting him?” Leo asks, his hand balled in a fist.
“Yes, and she’s using us as a security blanket. She thinks having us at her back, he won’t try anything or be stupid enough to.” I try my best to convey my concerns to my brothers. I’ve been eye to eye with this man. I’ve seen the evil in his eyes, and I’m more than aware of what he’s capable of.
“Can you put her off for a few days, so we can get our own ducks in a row?” Leo asks, looking over at Eno who’s still buried in his computer and typing like a mad man.
“I’ll try, but…,” I trail off, rolling my eyes, remembering how anxious Hollis had been this morning. “I would like to talk her out of it, but that shit isn’t gonna fly. She has this sick idea that being face-to-face with him is going to somehow get revenge for her fucking mother.”
“Her mother?” Dalton leans onto the table. “How do you feel about that?”
“How the fuck do you think I feel?” I say with a disgusted sigh. If I’d known that she was wanting this partially for her mother, I don’t think I would’ve been quite as motivated to find him for her as I have been. “She’s pretty hell-bent on meeting him.” I rub my eyes with the butts of my hands, fighting exhaustion.
~~~~~~
I walk through the door a little after dark, and the heavenly smell of food hits me, making my stomach growl. I find Hollis in the kitchen, standing at the stove, and walk up behind her, gently snaking my arms around her waist. I plant my lips on her exposed neck and inhale her smell of lavender and vanilla. “What’s all this?” I mumble against her skin and feel a full body shiver roll down her. She turns in my arms and smiles up at me. I take her mouth with mine, pushing my tongue into her warm wet mouth, feeling her glide against mine.
I spin us both, pressing her butt against the counter to lift her legs around my waist. I dig my fingers into her hair, holding her mouth tight to mine as I rub my cock against her core. The feeling of her warmth against me has me needing to fuck her. We kiss until we’re breathless, and a fucking food timer goes off. She pushes against me and sits back, panting. “I’ve got to get the rolls out of the oven,” she mumbles against my mouth, just as winded as I am. I reluctantly take a step back, giving her enough room to jump down.
She looks back over her shoulder at me as she takes a pan of homemade rolls from the oven, a flirty smile on her slightly swollen lips. I almost lose the breath I just caught. Her beauty has always stolen the air from my lungs and punched me in the gut. I resist the urge to fall on my knees and beg her to let all this go. That the pain she’s going to endure isn’t worth it, and her bitch of a mother sure as hell doesn’t deserve any of her pity.
I step back and cross my arms over my chest. “What?” Her once dancing eyes and bright smile fade from her face.
“I really wish you would lower your expectations about meeting him.” I cut right to it. There’s no reason to sugarcoat it for her because he sure as hell isn’t going to go easy on her.
She slings the pan of bread onto the stove and jerks off the oven mitt, tossing it aside. “Why can’t you let me have this?”
I lean one hand on the counter and tilt my body toward her, pounding my finger into my chest. “Because I’ve met him, and he’s a first-class asshole. He paid a shit ton of fucking money to make you disappear from his life when you were born, so forgive me if I don’t want you to go through the pain he’s going to give you when we show up at his office now.”
She sets her shoulders and narrows her eyes at me. “Consider me warned then.” She turns to slap the oven door shut. “Enjoy your fucking dinner,” she bites out as she shoulders past me and storms out of the kitchen.
“Hollis, stop.” I follow after her, catching up just as she rounds the steps up to the second floor, grabbing her by the arm to stop her.
She jerks her arm away from my hold. “Stop treating me like I’m some fucking china doll.”
I shove my hands down into the pockets of my jeans, lowering my head. “I’m not.” I lift my eyes to look at her. “I’m treating you like the woman I fucking love.”
~~~~~~
Hollis
I know my excitement is overrated and my happiness is utterly stupid, but unlike Roman who has a lineage that leads back decades, the man he found is the only family I have to hold onto for now.
“What the fuck do you think is going to happen, Hollis?” He jerks his fists from the pockets of his jeans and slings his arms out to either side of his big body. “He’s gonna say, ‘Oh yeah, I fucked up, let’s be a family?’” He steps up one step and comes face-to-face with me. “No, Hollis, he’s going to tell you to get the fuck away from him and possibly threaten you to keep you quiet.”
He’s telling me things I already know, but hearing him say them cuts me like a knife. I’m very aware of what kind of man he is, and I know I’m a dumbass to have just a little bit of hope.
“Roman, you seem to have forgotten I’m used to dealing with men like him.” I watch as the memories of the shit I’ve gone through pass over his face, but it doesn’t stop me. “You’re not telling me anything I don’t already know.”
“Then listen to me!” he barks. “This isn’t going to end well for either of us, because Hollis, if he threatens you, I’ll kill him.”
“I know you don’t understand why I want this so bad. Hell, I don’t understand it, but it’s just something I’ve got to do.” He covers my hand with his and leans his face into my palm. “I know you want what’s best for me, and I love the way you take care of me.”
He pulls me into his arms, wrapping me in his warmth. He buries his nose in my neck and his hot breath rolls across my skin. I can feel his body relax against mine. I’m safe, and he’ll do everything in his power to keep me that way.
“Because I have you, I know everything’s going to be okay, Roman. You worry enough for the both of us,” I whisper against the side of his face.
He grumbles against my skin, making me shiver.
He lifts his head and looks down at me, his eyes saying more than any words he could speak. “Dial it back just a little bit, baby.” He pinches his lips together and threads his fingers into my hair, bringing my forehead to his. “Because he’s going to hurt you.”
I wrap my fingers around his thick wrists, the fire of the fight fading fast. “This isn’t what I want. I don’t want to fight with you over this.”
“I don’t want to fight with you either, but Hollis,” his once tense features soften as he looks at me.
I push up on my toes and place a light kiss on his lips. “It’s going to be all right. When I asked you to do this, I knew what I was getting myself into.”
“It doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.”
“I love you.”
“Yeah, this love is gonna fucking kill me,” he grumbles, making me laugh.
“And you love every minute of it.”
He scoffs, but with a smile. “I don’t think there has ever been a more exquisite torture.” His strong arms snake around my waist. Lifting me up, he turns and walks us both down the steps to the dinner I’d been working on. The topic isn’t mentioned for the rest of the night. Although I would love to press him for more, I have to consider Roman and the things he’d said. The fallout from this isn’t going to affect just me.
~~~~~~
Roman
It’s a little after nine on Wednesday morning, and I’m sitting at my desk when Eno strides through my door, holding his hands up with a disgusted look on his face. “On paper, the man is a fucking saint,” he huffs as he falls into one of the chairs across the desk from me. I lean back in my chair, throwing the pen I’d been working on a new client’s blueprint with. He shakes his head and takes out a bundle of folded papers he has shoved in his back pocket, throwing them across the desk to me. “All the boring shit is there,” he says, pointing at the papers that I lean in to pick up. “I couldn’t even find the money trail leading to Cruz’s aunt, he’s that damn good.”
“Thanks, man.” I sigh as I open the papers, scanning over them. “I guess we’ll just have to keep him in check the old fashion way,” I mumble.
“Sounds good to me. I’m always down for some violence.” He smiles, popping his knuckles as he stands. “Later.” He smacks the doorframe as he leaves my office.
With Eno gone, I devote my full attention to the information he’s compiled, nearly choking on my tongue when my eyes catch on a name. Reaching for my phone, I find his number.
He answers almost immediately. “Hey man, what’s up?”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me?” I bark.
~~~~~~
I’m thankful I’d been able to convince Hollis to wait a few days on the premise I couldn’t get away from the office until the middle of next week. Unable to concentrate anymore, I head to the clubhouse to make myself some lunch. Taking out my phone, I shoot Hollis a text.
Me: Hey, baby. How’s your day going?
I don’t have to wait long for an answer.
Hollis: Oh, you know, the glamorous life of a housekeeper, just hanging out with the toilets.
Me: Emily is a slave driver.
I smile when I hit send, knowing she’ll tell Emily what I wrote.
Hollis: She flipped you off.
I let out a full belly laugh.
Me: She knows I love her.
Hollis: Gotta get back to work. Love you.
Me: Love you too.
I shove my phone into my pocket as I walk through the clubhouse. Pushing through the saloon style doors into the kitchen, I come to a dead stop.
“What the fuck?”
Emily turns and smiles at me. “Well hello to you too, dickhead.”
Dread twists my gut. “No, I mean, what the hell are you doing here?” My feet are frozen to the floor and I barley register the door hitting me in the shoulder when it swings closed.
“Well, I thought I would make you guys some lunch today.” She knows me well enough to see the panic that’s taking over me. “What is it?”
“You didn’t work today?” Fear grips me around the throat and begins to squeeze as my mind goes back over the morning I’d had with Hollis, and then the text messages we’d just exchanged. Nothing was ever said about her having the day off, and it never crossed my mind that she might.
“No, today’s our monthly day off.” She props herself against the island, eyeing me. “You know that.”
“Oh, fuck.” I turn and she’s close on my heels as I run through the clubhouse to my truck.
“Why, what is it?” she yells after me.
“Hollis went to meet him by herself,” I say as I climb into my truck, squealing the tires as I speed out of the parking lot.
~~~~~~
Hollis
I toss my phone onto the passenger side seat, fighting back the tears that are burning the back of my eyes. Lying to Roman leaves the worst kind of taste in my mouth, but I’d made up my mind, and there wasn’t anything he could say to make me change it. I’m risking everything I have in my life for this one chance to have a glimpse of my past. For some reason, I don’t know why I need this, but I feel it down in my soul that I have to do this to move on to the next chapter in my life.
The consequences of what I’m doing are something I can’t think of or be sorry about right now. The knot in the pit of my stomach grows as I pass each sign telling me how much closer I’m getting to the closure I’ve yearned for all my life.
I knew if I’d waited on Roman to do this with me, he would always find an excuse as to why us coming this day or that was no good and prolong it for as long as he could. It’s no secret he would prefer I let this go, and I know it would be best for everyone if I could, but I can’t. He’s going to be furious with me on so many levels, and those are amends I’m prepared to make as soon as I made my mind up to come today. I can only hope he loves me enough to forgive me.
~~~~~~
Roman
The fiery onset of anger has now been devoured by desperation to get to her, protect her from the monster she’s going to face alone. The panic of what will happen engulfs me. Where it will send her is a haunting voice in the back of my head. This is what I’ve feared since she came back to me, the event that will tip her back over the edge. How could she do this knowing sobriety, no matter how deep she is into it, is fragile and a very sharp cliff?
My phone rings. “What?”
“What the fuck is going on? She went by herself?” Leo asks.
“Yeah, I didn’t know she had the day off.” I feel like an idiot, not knowing her work schedule.
“Didn’t you have someone on her?” he asks me in a tone a father would have with his son, asking something so obvious it makes you feel like a dumbass.
“No, she was with Emily. I didn’t think I needed to watch her that close.” Worry and anger fight for purchase in my chest. I can’t believe she’s done this. She hadn’t listened to a word I’d said or heeded one warning I’d given her about what he’s capable of. “Stay near the phone, I might need you,” I tell him before hanging up. The unknowns of the situation are fueling the fire, and I press the gas nearly to the floor as I speed out of town, breaking every road law there is.
My phone rings again, this time with a text message from Cruz. “She’s here.” I take a moment to let relief roll through me. He hadn’t hurt her—well physically anyway, but what had he said? And what the fuck was she thinking? Knowing she’s okay, the anger once again blazes through me. The complete disregard this woman has for her own safety and my fucking sanity is pushing at my limits of reason.
~~~~~~
Hollis
I drive slowly through town, finding the office I’m looking for thanks to my GPS. It wasn’t hard to find in this little town, but I wanted to make sure where I was going, and that I didn’t have to ask around town and make a scene or be remembered for the inquiry.
Pulling into an empty space, I shut off the engine of my SUV and feel as the butterflies in my stomach take flight, the flutters growing with each passing second.
I step out into the warm sun and feel as sweat begins to prickle the back of my neck under my hair. I check my reflection in the glass window before stepping through the door into the cool air of the office.
I take another deep breath as the ding above the door signals my entrance, making a woman at an extravagant desk look up and smile.
“Hello. Welcome to Mayor Campbell’s office, how can I help you?”
“Hello. I’m Hollis Keaton, I’m here to see the mayor.”
~~~~~~
Roman
I make the almost two-hour trip in record time, my anger only growing as the miles pass. She’d made me a promise, lying to me the whole time, then went behind my back and did the one thing I asked her not to do. She didn’t need to face him alone, I didn’t want her to have to go through it without me by her side. I had more than willing to do what she’d asked me too, but she couldn’t find it in her to return the favor. And it’s that betrayal that has me worked up more than her stupidity of making this journey alone.
I hammer my fist into the center of the stirring wheel, needing the pain in my hand to release some of the overwhelming anger my body is vibrating with.
This is the same idiocy she suffered from the night she’d stolen my truck and went to the strip joint, and just like then, here I am, rushing to fucking save her from herself, again.
I pull up to the gate, and the prospect moves at a snail’s pace opening it for me. Racing through once there’s enough space to push my truck through, I barely get the truck in park before I’m out and at the door of the Bastards clubhouse. I rest my hand on the handle and suck in a deep breath, trying to get my shit under control. “Get it together, Roman. This is Hollis, for God’s sake,” I say under my breath, trying to talk to the part of myself she seems to bring out of me.
Throwing the door open, I find Cruz pacing the floor, his head jerking up when I walk through the door. “Where the fuck is she?” A pained look comes over his face when he sees the mood I’m in.
He tilts his head in the direction of the set of stairs that lead up to the second floor. “She’s in my room. At the top, first door to the left.” I nod and brush past him, but he grabs me by the arm, stopping me. I raise an eyebrow, looking at his fingers, then at him, making him drop his hand from me.
“I know she ain’t my woman, but,” he takes a step back from me and shoves his hands down into his pockets.
“You’re right, she’s not.” I quickly cut him off before he oversteps. He throws up his hands in surrender. “What the fuck do you think I’m gonna do? Go up there and spank her with a belt?” Even though that’s what she fucking needs is a good old-fashion ass whipping. “Stay out of it, Cruz,” I bite off as I turn for the stairs, taking them two at a time.
I throw open the door and find her body curled into the fetal position, her back to me, on the full bed across the room. She sniffs but doesn’t turn to me. “I don’t need to hear it.” Her voice is slightly muffled by the pillow she has her face buried in.
“You don’t need to hear what, Hollis?” My words are harsh with the rage roaring through my body. She slowly rolls to me and I wince a little at her appearance. The makeup I’d watched her carefully apply this morning is melting down her red swollen face.
“How you were right and that you told me so.” She sniffles again, wiping her nose with the back of her hand.
I sigh, pressing my lips into a thin line. She recoils at the look I’m giving her. “You think I drove a hundred miles an hour to get here just to tell you I told you so? Is that the kind of man you think I am? I mean, fucking look at you, Hollis.” I throw my hand her way, taking her appearance in again. “You’re a fucking emotional mess and I’m pissed, just not about that.”
She sits up on her knees, wiping her face now, trying to rub the black streaks of mascara off her cheeks. “No, that’s not at all how I think about you. But you did tell me.” She actually looks regretful. She’s kicking herself enough, and she doesn’t need me to add anything to the mix.
“Yes I did, but you’re an adult, old enough to take responsibility for your actions.”
She rights her spine, and her lips form a thin line. “Then why the hell are you so pissed?”
I take a step toward her, making her recoil. I grit my teeth. “I’m pissed because you broke a promise and lied to me while doing it.” I watch her slump again. I cross over to the dresser on the other side of the room. Leaning against it, I cross my arms over my chest. “Now tell me what he said.”
“Roman, I’m sorry.” She looks at me, her eyes getting glassy again. Normally that would work in a heartbeat on me, but not today, not after what she’s done.
“I don’t want to talk about that right now. What I do want is for you to tell me what he said to you, word for word.”
She casts her sad eyes down, looking at her hands she has laid on her thighs. She drags in a deep breath and lets it out slowly, obviously reliving the painful meeting with Keaton.
“He thought I was lying to begin with.” She looks at me with the most beautiful green eyes I’ve ever seen in my life. “Then when I told him my mother’s name, he thought I was there to blackmail him.” She’s radiating disappointment, and now my rage is redirected to where it should’ve been all day. She stops talking and stifles a sob.
“What else did he say?” I push off the dresser and cross the room to her, unable to stay away from her any longer. I lay my palm on her cheek and stroke her soft skin with my thumb, catching a tear as it escapes. “What else did he say to you, baby?” She slowly lifts her head, and this time, her eyes are filled with tears, melting away any anger for her and making me forget her betrayal.
She pinches her lips together, giving her head a slight shake. “Things.” Her voice is soft, and the one word is broken.
I watch her past rush over her, and this is why I needed to be with her for this. The past she’s worked so hard to get away from, and the person she no longer is, slams back into us both. I know I don’t possess a super power to make her forget, or to scrub memories from her thoughts, but fuck, I want to believe she’s stronger with me at her back.
She wraps her fingers around my wrist. “It never crossed my mind to use.” And there it is, what I needed to hear. I feel the weight of that worry lift off of me. “I would never do that to you again, Roman, even though sometimes I make some of the dumbest decisions, that’s one promise I will never break.” I duck my head and take her lips with mine, a silent thank you to her for being the strong woman I always knew she could be.