by Leigh Lennon
Kira comes running out with Jared on her heels. “What? Are you okay?” Kira asks.
They haven’t turned to the television yet, and their stares are still on me. “It’s not me. It’s Jo.” It’s all I say when they spin around.
I point at the television, Jared closing the space between him and me. His eyes fall on the screen, and his face whitens. “Ah, shit,” he says, pulling out his phone. I have no idea how he has it in just a pair of boxers, but he’s pushing numbers like crazy. “Gio, where’s Chad?”
“Fuck, yeah, I’ll have a car waiting for you.” He runs back into Kira’s room as I run to mine. I meet him back in the foyer, and his face sours. “What are you doing, Eve?”
“I’m going with you. I want to be there for Chadwick.” I’m standing by him, not halted by his actions, the glower growing on his face.
He turns his head back to Kira, and she shrugs her shoulders. “No offense, Eve, but I spoke to him yesterday. I’ve never heard him more broken than when he came back to his room to find your Dear John letter. I know your father did a number on you, and you don’t want to be controlled. He was willing to give so much up for you. He wanted you as a partner, but he’d never had the chance to get it out. I’m not sure if you know this, but his grams was everything to him. He had a piece of shit for a dad and a useless mom. They were always chasing the next big thing, and because they had the money, they left Chadwick to us, to the servants’ families. He doesn’t trust, so he has the two worst losses back to back. I can’t let you see him.” He leaves without another word, and I fall to my knees because his grandmother’s advice, I understand she was wise beyond her years and fucking right. I can’t see myself without him as my future.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chadwick
She wasn’t young, not for a while, but I never looked at Grams any other way than youthful at heart. The woman could make me more mad than any woman I’d ever known in my life, well before Eve, that is. And now with the reflections of the only other woman I’d ever loved, besides my kitten, the memories of my grandmother bring both tears to my eyes and a smile to my face.
Gio tried to fly back to Chicago with me, but I didn’t need an escort. Maybe a couple of hours in the air would get my mind wrapped around losing the two women I loved in only twenty-four hours.
I both hated and loved summers at Grams’ horse farm. I had the love I never got from my own parents—poor excuses for a mother and father—but I missed my boys during the summers. One day at the age of thirteen, Grams caught me smoking in the hay loft. Yeah, Jared got me hooked on that a couple of months before, and all Grams said to me was, “I hate that you’re smoking out here alone.” She picked up a cigarette, and we shared my last smoke ever together.
“Tell me what’s got you so glum, bud.” It was her name for me. She never called Carl or any of my girl cousins this. I was her favorite, it was as obvious as the hay in the barn.
“I love it here, Grams, but I miss the guys.” She didn’t need me to explain who the guys were. She was so involved in my life that she knew their names and sent them birthday cards each year with a hundred-dollar bill in them. For the boys whose families lived hand to mouth, it gave them the most joy. And when they were happy, I was, too.
“Well, I’ll tell you what, why don’t we go out for the day, just you and me?” My grandmother took me down to the Navy Pier to my favorite burger place in the city. It was then I knew I wanted to live in Chicago. I could never move from my beloved Los Angeles, but I’d make enough money one day to live in several cities—Chicago being one of many.
The next day, I woke to the sound of a horn from the driveway of the large spacious farmhouse my grandparents lived in. I looked out my window to six pairs of eyes who saw me upstairs. Running down the steps, I was out high-fiving the guys who were here for a week. After that summer, they’d all come out for a couple of weeks. Grams got me like no one else ever had, and now she was gone.
I couldn’t stop the tears that pooled in my eyes, but I refused to cry for a woman who lived such a complete life. And because our relationship was special, I was the only one she told about the general she was a POW with in the Korean War. Her exact words were, “I’d walk away from my true love a million times if it meant having you.” I was old enough I understood it wasn’t a simple choice and was not offended that she had second-guessed herself over the years. I was an adult by the time she’d decided to marry the retired general, who’d died in a plane crash just days before their wedding. I was the only one she allowed near her during all of the grief.
She was the only one who knew about the depths of my need. Overall, I dubbed myself a businessman, but Grams knew I needed more. She knew of my clubs and was never disgusted. “You are the best man I know. And if it makes you happy, it makes me happy.” She never judged me or thought I was disgusting. The wisdom she imparted on me was life altering— I hope you can make a decision you can live with. In her words, her only fear was that I wouldn’t find the one person in my life I could share my future with. I swore I was not built like that.
By the time I drain my bourbon and relive just a few of the memories I had with my grandmother, the private plane lands, and Jared is at the steps waiting for me.
I shouldn’t be shocked that the reading of the will was set for twenty-four hours after her death before the funeral arrangements could even be made. She swore I was the only one who she could trust. I’d already had words with my aunts who flew in immediately with fake-ass tears in their eyes. They hadn’t visited in years. “I have all the details but feel free to check with her lawyer if you’d like. He’s been instructed to take all counseling matters out of the person’s estate who calls him. If you want to pay five thousand dollars for an hour—a fucking minute of his time counts as an hour, then be my fucking guest.”
My father has already had words with me about respect, but I came back to him quickly. “Want to talk about respect? You haven’t seen your mother in three years. That, to me, Chuck, is fucking disrespectful.” And my cousins stayed out of my way, being scared of me.
During the reading of the will, each child was given two million dollars, and the four named grandchildren got a million. My aunts and dad had begun to grumble. Ten million dollars had been rewarded, but there was so much more. All eyes were on me when the estate, including the house, the horses, and the land, were awarded to me. She stipulated in the will that each of my boys, the guys she’d seen for summers until we were twenty-two, all got a horse of their choosing, and the estate would care for all costs associated with it.
This caused the entire room to begin grumbling. But they soon stopped when the lawyer started with the rest of her wealth—roughly forty million dollars. I received ten million to run the farm. The rest was set for donation to the Wounded Warrior Project. It was a cause she was deeply involved in. I was the only one who understood why most of her money went to such a worthwhile organization.
All eyes were on me. I must have inherited around twenty-five million dollars in her estate. I hadn’t expected it, but again, I was glad as fuck no one else got it. And honestly, I’m the only one with fond memories of the farm.
My first order of business since everyone had been bitching about their money was to kick all of them out of the main house, now my house. I planned the funeral with the help of Jared and Greer, who’d flown in from LA just for me.
With the family from hell out of my way, Greer and Jared stayed at the farm as my support. The next day, the three of us went on a long horseback ride, drank her signature gin, and smoked in the barn loft, like my grams and I had done so many years ago.
I was out on the front porch, one night after our day of paying homage to Grams. Maddox, Gio, and his brother, Anton, were on their way. I was alone in my thoughts, all radiating around Grams. Well, this isn’t particularly true. I tried to block out all things Eve related, but I was failing miserably.
The sound of footsteps on the porch had me turning my
head to find Jared taking residence in one of the rocking chairs.
“Hey, this is shitty timing, but I gotta tell you something.” He rakes his hand through hair the same color as my own. For two men not biologically related, we always passed as brothers.
“Club related?” I ask.
“Nah.” His reply is so casual, and it pricks at my nerves.
“I can’t right now, Jared. Two women, the only two I’ve loved, both leaving me within hours of each other.”
My eyes dip to his, and I know we are on the same page.
“Okay, but she’s blowing up my phone for you.” Should this make me happy that she’s reaching out to me because of pity? I want her to want me for me, not because I’m hurting.
“And if you ask me—” I cut him off.
“I didn’t.” My gruff tone has him stiffening.
“No, you didn’t, but I’m going to tell you anyway, you stubborn bastard. I think it’s more than pity. She was the one who saw the news report first. It was like she knew Jo in the way she’d referred to your grandma. She literally called her Jo, and your grams seldom gave the shortened version of her name to anyone.”
I shrug my shoulders. “I brought her here once, but Grams wasn’t here. I didn’t want to introduce her until we were officially together. Grams would have loved her.” I turn my head, and Jared knows I’m done with the conversation. “Okay, I’m hitting the hay. The boys will be here tomorrow.” I’ve asked all six of them to be pallbearers for Grams. She had wanted it that way.
The funeral was how my grandmother wanted it. My father and I had words afterward, and my cousin Carl took a swing at me. I knocked him on his ass. I’d left right away to celebrate my own farewell to my grams. In the restaurant at the club, my boys and I sat with a bottle of gin and talked about our memories of Grams. After several hours, each of my boys’ gals came and got them. They don’t travel without their subs—except for those who don’t do long-term subs. I’ve never known Greer and Maddox to keep a submissive. They play, but it’s never permanent. And for Anton, he’s made for commitment, but for some reason, he hasn’t claimed anyone as his for a long time.
“How’s the good district attorney?” I ask as Maddox begins to choke on a beer. He had switched from gin to beer a long time ago.
“Oh, I’m making strides.” Again, Maddox is laughing as if I’m out of the loop about something.
“What?”
Greer shakes his head at Maddox, but he continues anyway. “He’s hit him with sexual harassment charges since he always winks at him. He had no proof, and the judge threw it out, but we all know it was very true.”
I shake my head, and although I need my lawyer in tip-top shape legally, this makes me laugh. It’s nice to laugh—like really let go and not think of the shit show my life has become.
Anton pops his head into the restaurant. “You ready, Chad?” Both men look at me, unfamiliar with my new plans since I’d made them shortly after the funeral.
“Yeah.” My suitcase was at the door, thanks to Nina. Both men look at me for an explanation. “I’m going to spend some time in London. I have to get away and haven’t had some face time with my clients over the pond.” They need no explanation. They understand how I’ve been gutted in the past couple of days.
My driver turns his head, pulling out of the circular driveway. “You needed to make a stop, Sir?”
“Yes, you have the address?” I question, and Anton’s eyes meet mine.
“Yes, Sir. We’ll be there soon.”
I don’t share anything with Anton, and he doesn’t ask. Pulling up next to the seedy bar, and exiting the car, he’s behind me. This is how it always has been with my boys, the seven of us, never needing instruction but understanding when I need them. Honestly, Anton may be the only reason I don’t kill the son of a bitch.
My private investigator sent me a picture when he gave me the address. It seems fitting to be getting his fix right away when the only thing that matters to him is his alcohol. I take a seat on the barstool next to him, and Anton sits on the other side of the fuck nut.
“Do you mind giving a man some space?” he asks, and when I see past the wrinkles of his skin, making him look more like seventy than fifty, I observe a slight resemblance to his daughter.
“Actually, asshole, I’m not going anywhere until you comply with some demands of mine.”
His face whips around, and in the movement, his odor is overwhelming. “Yeah, and who’s going to make me?”
This is where I stand, towering over his body. “Me, asshole. And believe me when I say you don’t want to get on my bad side.”
Anton replicates my action with his own words, as he adds, “Me, too, so you better listen and listen good.”
“You are Richard Lipton, right?” I ask.
“Yeah?” Now the son of a bitch is scared. He should be.
“Great, I’ll only say this once. You stay the fuck away from your daughter, and if you ever sneak into her house, steal from her, or approach her, messing up the life she’s built after you almost destroyed her, I will personally fuck your life up, and I have the means.”
I don’t wait for a response before I leave the bar with Anton behind me. If I couldn’t have Eve in my life, I’d still protect her from anyone who is hell-bent on causing her harm.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Eve
My eyes are peeled to the door. None of my calls are going through to Chadwick’s phone, and when I try Jared’s, he answers and tells me to give him time. It’s been a week, and I’m about to scale the gates to get to Chadwick.
When the door jiggles, and his dark hair is the first thing through the door, I hop over the couch to get to him. “Jared.” In his one name is a demand, but when I tried in the past several days, he got all Dom-like with me.
“Not now, Eve,” he commands, but I don’t care if this is his house. I certainly have money, thanks to the generous deposit Chadwick gave me.
“When? I’ve been patient all week.”
He throws his keys onto a pristine table, and I cringe at the idea of the keys scratching such a beautiful surface. “Maybe you should have been a little more patient before you left him with a fucking Dear John letter.”
His words sting. No, they more than sting. They burrow into me and let loose the most unimaginable pain I’ve ever experienced in my life. I’ve always known emotional pain was physically real.
My father and mother made sure I was familiar with this at an early age. But I’d never had the physicality hit me spot on that made my heart churn and my body numb. This is a whole new horror. I reach for the couch as though my heart will burst from my chest.
“Eve.” Jared’s voice breaks through my thoughts, but I clutch the back of the couch with all I have. His screams seem farther away, though his face is so close to mine. “Kira, Kira!” I had no idea Kira is home. But the only thought in my head as my knees buckle and my eyes close is Chadwick and how his grams had been the one who made me realize I could accept him. Losing him is too brutal.
“Eve, honey, open your eyes. Open them, honey.” The familiar feminine sound is commanding, and I have to force my eyes open. Taya is in front of me, so yes, of course, she’s demanding. “Jared, she’s waking.” The bright sun hits my eyes, and I try to close them again. Why is it so fucking bright?
It’s not the dark features of Jared’s that mimic Chadwick as if they could be biological brothers, but Kira who flies to my side so quickly. “Fuck, Eve, don’t do that shit to me ever again. I wanted to call the paramedics.”
I search the familiar surroundings. I’m not in the hospital, thank fuck. I should have known by all the light that I’m still in Jared’s penthouse.
“Um, thank you for that.” I must have had a panic attack. It’s the only thing that can explain the heart-pounding pain coursing through my body. “How long was I out?”
“Not long,” answers Taya. “I live a block away and hurried over.” She’s holding my hand as
a sad smile tugs at her lips.
“Chadwick?” Surely, he’d come if he had been told.
She shakes her head, and I attempt to stand. “Seriously, why won’t you all let me see him? I fucked up. I’ll be the first to admit this.”
Jared’s head pops over Kira’s all the while Taya is pushing me onto my back. “This is the first time I’ve heard you say this. Never once in all the texts or the countless voice mails had you told me you fucked up.”
Had I not told him, or Kira, or even Taya how I realized I’ve been the one to hurt him so deeply in the last week as they blocked my way to Chadwick?
“Eve, honey, there’s time for this later. I think I’m going to call the club doctor to check you out,” Taya demands.
My body swims with the remorse I’d been keeping to myself since Josephine Westbrook knocked me over the head with common sense.
“I don’t need a doctor. I need Chadwick. I’ve been waiting to tell Chadwick everything.” I move from my back to my right side, attempting to swing my legs over the couch, and as I move to a sitting position, I simply think of Jo’s last words. “I hope you can make a decision you can live with.” I can’t live with the decision I made, and it is time I fix it.
“I met her,” I choke out, my hands covering my eyes to block the brightness from the outside.
On one command, Jared speaks. “Sophie, lower the blinds,” and whoever the fuck Sophie is, she obeys him. Fuck, even the blinds obey the Doms around here.
I’m too busy to worry about the invisible Sophie when Jared asks, “Met who?”
I close my eyes, soaking in the wisdom of a woman who’d changed my life and, in essence, hopefully her grandson’s if he can forgive me. The cliché of my story rings in my ears, but it doesn’t make it any less real.
