Chapter 12
Royce
Paisley sleeps next to me in my bed, and I hesitantly slide out and go get ready. Erik and I had a brief and unsuccessful conversation yesterday after the girls went to Paisley’s room, so I’m going to work to meet him and set a few things straight.
If he’s going to be a prick about what I have to tell him, then I’ll find a job somewhere else. I’d even go work for my dad if I had to, and I hate my father, but if it’s what I need to do to provide for my family, then I’ll do it.
I gently kiss her cheek, and when she barely stirs, I just leave her a note telling her I’ll be back soon.
I arrive at Ace, and when I click the button for the gate, I’m relieved to see Erik’s Jeep is the only one inside. I reverse into the spot next to him, glad to be back in my Charger instead of the rented Escalade, and then head directly to his office. He looks up from his computer, and I close the door. “Did you get a chance to think about what we talked about yesterday?” I ask as I cross my arms.
“Yeah. But nothing’s changed.”
“Okay.” I nod and drop my arms, then grab the resignation letter out of my back pocket. “Notice.” I toss the paper on his desk. “I respect you, Erik, and I understand your decision, but I won’t do that to her or to my kid, so I hope you understand where I’m coming from.”
“How the hell do you think you’re going to support them if you don’t have a job?”
“We’re not going there.” I shake my head. “This is not personal. You made a business decision that I could not continue to work for you when I said I’m no longer able to travel. I respect your decision, but I will not be questioned by you as my woman’s father right now.”
“Sit down.” He motions to one of the chairs in front of his desk.
“Erik.” I sigh. “You don’t have to do this. I get it.”
He points again. “Sit.”
Instead of arguing again, I comply.
One of the picture frames on his desk holds a photo of Paisley. He’s looking at it now, and I know he’s seeing the girl she was when they brought her home. That photo is what I saw before I met her in person. She’s sitting on the sand and gazing out into the ocean. Her long blond hair is flowing freely, and she looks so at peace. Erik turns the picture around, and I smile at how pretty she was.
“She was fourteen years old, Royce. I might not have held her in my arms when she was a baby or even been there for the majority of the firsts in her life, but none of that means anything. I love the hell outta that girl.”
“I do, too.”
“And I want her to be happy. As much as I’m trying to separate the personal from the professional, I can’t do it. There’s no way I can willingly accept the resignation of the man who’s going to be the father of my grandchild. And fuck you for making me call myself a grandpa.”
I laugh.
“I have a proposition for you.”
“I’m not compromising.”
He shakes his head. “You’re stubborn as hell.”
“When it comes to her, I am.”
“And dammit if I don’t respect that. But I’m not asking you to compromise.”
I lean back and wait for him to continue.
“I can find you something local.”
“Permanently?”
“Yes, Royce. Permanent.”
“Where?”
He stands and walks around the desk and perches himself on the ledge. “I don’t know yet, but I’m willing to find something or someone.”
“I appreciate that, but I can’t rely on a possibility, Erik. You have to understand that.”
He nods. “Yes. Give me a week. I’ve got some leads… some things I’ve turned down in the past but just might be perfect now.”
“What have you turned down?”
“Give me a week.”
I slap my hand on my thighs, then stand. “I need to get back to Paisley. I’m supposed to go with Tara when she does another promo run. And I’m not going.”
“I get that you want to be there for your girl. I’m working on trying to see what I can do to keep you here as much as possible, but you have to be willing to be the tiniest bit flexible until that time.”
I shove my hands in my pockets. “I hear you. But right now, while this is still new and my girl’s scared outta her mind, I’m not leaving her for anything.”
“Just a couple of days,” he rushes to say before I leave. “I just need you until tomorrow night, and then Gio can relieve you.”
“Fine. One night. I’ll leave this evening so I can be there for her morning talk show run. Soon as he gets there tomorrow night, I’m out.”
He nods, and I lift my chin at him before going back home to my girl.
Paisley
I hate waking up without him. I hated it every single time I slept at my parents these past two months but am so happy everything is out in the open now and I can be where I’m the happiest.
I have some big decisions to make about my future, and ones that I’m not sure I can make on my own. Luckily, he walks in just when I’m about to start panicking because I’m so scared. I put some muffins in the oven because I suddenly had a craving but make some toast to help settle my woozy stomach in the meantime.
The door opens, and Royce comes right to me on the couch and leans down to kiss me. “Morning.”
“Hi. Where were you?”
He grabs a piece of toast off my plate and sits next to me. “Went to have a chat with Erik.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Nothing for you to worry about.”
“I don’t want to go back to school.”
The rest of the toast he’s eating gets tossed back on the plate. After studying me for a moment, he nods. “Why?”
“Because I’m pregnant. Because I hate it.”
He tilts his head. “You hate it?”
“I do. I don’t even know what I want to do. And the only reason I went to New York was because of my parents. My life was in limbo for so long, but now I feel like I just want to be for a little while, ya know? With you. The baby.”
“Okay.”
“I just… my mom was a stay-at-home mom, and I loved that. I really liked being able to come home and know she was there. I loved that she could come to my class and volunteer. When I was sick, I knew I could call her, and she’d be there to pick me up.
“I’m not saying I know exactly what the future holds, but until the realization hit me that I’m going to be a mom, I never realized how much I don’t want—”
He puts a finger to my lips. “Then stay at home with the baby.”
“Really? You’re not mad?”
“Why would I be mad?”
I just shrug. “I’ll stay working, though. I don’t expect you to pay for everything.”
“You’re not working.”
“I’m not?”
“You want to stay home and raise our babies, and I want that, too. My mom was a stay-at-home mom as well. And all those things you said are the same way I feel.”
God, I love him. “Really?”
“Yeah, baby. Really.”
The burn starts in the back of my eyes, and when he sees them fill with tears, his brows scrunch together. “Hate seeing you cry, Paisley.”
“Then stop being so perfect.”
“No other way I can be when it comes to you.” That makes me sob harder, and he grunts as my head collides with his chest. “Hate seeing those tears. God, I hate you crying.”
I sniffle and try to stop. “Why?”
“Because I sat at my mother’s bedside and watched her cry for days. I held her hand when she was sleeping and still crying. She cried so much that it made her dehydrated once, and I had to sit there while she cried as the nurses tried to get a needle into her arm. She cried when she was in pain; she cried when she wasn’t. Mostly, she just cried all the time.”
“Oh Royce. I’m so sorry.”
He wipes the tears off my cheeks. “It’s not your fault.” His eyes sparkle when he smiles. “She was awesome. The best mom ever. It was like she was a friend, too. Always there for me. My dad was gone a lot, so most of the time, it was me and her. I got lucky. Wish to God she could still be here. She’d have loved you. Had loved being a grandma.” He presses his hand to my stomach.
“She raised one hell of a son, so I’m sure I would have loved her, too.” Then I broach a subject I’ve always been afraid to. I knew his mom died, of course, but he’s so pissed off about his father that I hate to bring it up, but I want to understand him. “What about your dad? Is it true?”
“Is what true?”
I fiddle with my fingers. “That your dad owns Royal Security.”
“Fuckin’ Erik,” he mumbles. “Yeah. It is.”
“Why did you never tell me?”
He takes a moment to contemplate his answer. “You know that what’s in here”—he makes a fist and holds it over his heart—“is deep for you, right?”
I smile. “Yeah.”
“It’s been for a while now, and I swear I felt something the very first time I saw you. And I knew you felt something for me, too. You weren’t exactly subtle at hiding it. At least not to me.”
My cheeks heat. I knew it showed that I had a crush on him; I just didn’t think he knew how badly.
“It’s okay because I get it. And I got it then. I just wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but I knew it was something. And the way you looked at me was something I didn’t want to lose… that admiration. I didn’t want you feeling sorry for me or thinking I was some punk who was just being rebellious.”
“If it wasn’t rebellion, what was it?”
“Revenge.” I don’t have to think long at all about that answer. “You’ve gotta remember, my dad is well known in this town. He’s well known in the security industry. But so is Erik. To be quite honest, they’re both very well respected.”
“Why would he hire the son of a rival company’s owner?”
He smiles at me. “Small world, babe. And they were never rivals. Didn’t work together, but if they couldn’t provide a service, they’d recommend the other company. Royal provides more along the lines of security systems, PI services, kidnapping and ransom, and light bodyguarding. Ace is the exact opposite. Erik hired me because I’m really good at what I do. I know the industry, and I literally grew up in the business.
“I wanted the job partially to piss my dad off. Because working for another company, didn’t matter which one it was, was like a slap in the face to him, and anyone who knew my name would know I wasn’t working in the family business.”
“Why would you want to… slap him in the face?”
He looks away from me and I rest my head on the wall. “Are you going to tell him about us… about the baby?”
“We’ll shelf that for another day.”
I’m happy he shared what he did, so I agree. “Okay.”
He swallows, and his Adam’s apple bobs up and down with the movement. “Why don’t you go ahead and call the doctor to make an appointment?”
“Okay. Do you want to be there?”
“Babe.” He sighs. “Don’t ever ask me something like that again. Always. Okay? I always want to be there.”
“I just… with work and stuff, I wanted to make sure.”
“Yeah, about that. I’m leaving tonight, and I’ll be home tomorrow evening. But after that, I’ll be taking some time off.”
“What?” I pull my head back. “Why?”
His body pushes into mine as he crawls over me. “Because we need to find a house.” He kisses the tip of my nose.
“Really?” I wrap my arms around his neck.
“Yeah, really. We can’t raise a baby in this place.” I moan when his lips trail to my neck, then suck gently on the sensitive skin there. “You taste so good,” he murmurs before nipping and kissing his way back up. “Every inch. So sweet.”
My eyes roll back in my head as his lips ghost over mine. Just as his tongue begs to get inside, there’s a knock on his door. “No,” I whine.
“Fuck,” he groans.
The knock sounds again, and someone calls Royce’s name.
“Who is that? Carter?”
“No.” He shakes his head. “I think it’s Wes.” He hops up and pulls me with him. When he opens the door, sure enough, it is Wesley. “What’s up, man? Hey, Quinn.”
“Hi, Royce.”
I peek my head around and see Quinn Valentine. The biggest name in pop music right now. Being the daughter of the owner of a bodyguard company, I’ve seen my share of celebrities, so I’m able to compose myself around them. The first few times I acted like a nut job, though. But with Quinn, I’m pretty sure every guy at Ace has worked with her one time or another. The amount of security she has is insane.
She smiles sheepishly at me and tucks herself back into Wesley. “Can we come in?”
“Yeah, of course.” Royce opens the door wider for them and raises his brow at me when we notice how close they are.
Wes walks in with Quinn sewn to him, and he reaches over with his other arm and hugs me. “Hi, Paisley. This is Quinn. Honey, this is Paisley, my boss’s daughter.” He looks over his shoulder at Royce. “And Royce’s girl.”
“How the hell did you find out?” Royce lightly punches him on the shoulder.
“Word travels fast, my man, and are we forgetting she’s at your place? You know if you hurt her, you’ll have every one of us on your ass, so you’d best behave.”
I think he’s joking, but Royce doesn’t laugh at all. Instead, he nods. “I know.”
“Good.”
“Hi.” I hold my hand out for Quinn. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too,” she says. Her voice, which is beautiful, sounds so sad.
“What’s up?” Royce asks.
Wesley clears his throat just as the oven timer goes off. Quinn screams and jumps about twelve feet in the air. He pulls her into the front of him and wraps both of his arms around her, soothing her trembling body, his lips by her ear murmuring gentle words of encouragement. He pulls her sunglasses off to look into her eyes, revealing bruising on the left side.
“What the fuck?” Royce shouts.
She jumps again, and Wesley shoots him a glare. “That’s why I’m here.”
“Who the fuck got their hands on her?”
“It wasn’t his fault,” Quinn immediately jumps in, defending Wes. “It was mine. I left when he told me not to.”
“Don’t do that, Quinn. Don’t fuckin’ take this shit on.” Wes looks down at her, then over at Royce. “We need to talk.”
“Yeah.”
I step over, so Quinn can see me. “Let’s go in the kitchen. I have to take the muffins out, and I can get you something to drink if you’d like.”
“Okay.” She walks away from Wesley, and he and Royce go down the small hallway to the bedroom. A second later, I hear the door click shut, and then I turn the oven off. A moment—okay, more like several moments—of awkward silence passes between us.
She clears her throat. “Sorry to bust in here like this. Wes wanted to talk something over with Royce.”
“It’s fine.” I smile at her. “I know Royce would want to help in any way he could.”
I’m about to ask if she wants something to drink when the guys come back out. Wes goes right to Quinn and puts his arm around her. “Told you I’d be fast. Good seeing you, Paisley.”
“You too, Wes.”
He and Royce do some sort of man communication with their chins, then he looks at me. “I’ll be right back. Just gonna make sure they get out of here okay.”
“Yeah. Of course.” I put some butter on a muffin while he’s gone, but as soon as he gets back, I ask, “What was that about?”
“She’s had a stalker problem for a while now, but it’s escalating. He just needed to ask something.”
Cryptic, but I won’t pry. “That sucks. I hope they’ll be okay.”
He sighs deeply. “Me too.”