by Bella Rose
Griffin pulled into her driveway, and Leah immediately realized that her car was still where she’d been forced to leave it when Joe’s Demon Lovers had accosted her. She put that aside for now. She would call a tow truck and deal with it. She’d been dealing with things all on her own for years. Certainly she could handle this.
“Leah?” Griffin’s voice was so incredibly gentle. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.” She fumbled her way off the bike and took a hasty step away from him. “You and Thorn go home, and I’ll be just fine. All I want is to relax and curl up in bed.”
“Are you sure?” Griffin didn’t look convinced.
“Totally.”
Thorn bit his lip, looking a little uncertain. “Did I do something wrong?” he asked.
“No!” Leah went to her brother and wrapped her arms around him. Even sitting on his bike the kid was nearly taller than she was. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I love you. When you were born it was the best day of my life. Do you understand me?”
“Really?”
“Yes!” Leah wanted so badly for him to understand. “It was like having my very own baby. I didn’t have a place in that house until you were born. I was invisible. Once you came, I had this wonderful, happy, gurgling, little baby to take care of. You were so adorable and just so cute! I even loved changing your diapers.”
“Ew. Leah, dude, that’s major TMI.” Thorn made a face. “But I appreciate the sentiment.”
“Good.” She glanced from him to Griffin. “I’m just starting to realize that what I expected after Deacon died was a little wrong.”
“What do you mean?” Thorn frowned. He gave his sister one more impulsive hug. “You took care of me.”
“Yes, but you didn’t need me to come in and change your diapers again.” Leah thought about what she’d assumed would happen. How she would sweep in and raise Thorn in their mother’s place. She’d been so arrogant and so wrong. “You’re nearly a grown man and you have a wonderful family—the crew—that knows you far better than I ever could. You need to be out there with them.”
“Leah,” Griffin said quietly, “what are you saying?”
“Nothing. Just go.”
Griffin felt his heart drop into his boots. “It’s not nothing. You’re basically saying that you want Thorn to come out and live on the land with the crew, but you’re staying here in town. Is that what you really mean?”
“Yes.” She didn’t even bother to argue with him. “Thorn doesn’t need me like that. He and I can build a relationship without me hovering.” Then she gave Griffin a very strange look. “I didn’t give you nearly enough credit, Griffin. You had been parenting Thorn long before I came along. You and the others were looking out for him, keeping tabs on who he hung out with and who was trying to take advantage of him. I’m nothing but a liability when it comes to that stuff.”
“No.” Griffin started to reach for her, but she stepped back out of range.
“Yes.” She gave a decisive nod. “You guys will do much better out there without me to nag you to death.”
“Are you sure?” Thorn didn’t look convinced.
“Leah,” Griffin tried again. “You’re my wife.”
“Yeah. We need to talk about that.” Her deprecating laugh did not bring him any confidence. “I’m sure there’s a girl from the crew you had your eye on before I came smashing in with all of my ultimatums and bullshit demands.”
“Leah. No.” Griffin couldn’t find the words to tell her that he didn’t want some other woman. He wanted her. He had always wanted her.
“Plus you’ve got your bar,” she reminded him. “You guys are going to be so busy, you need a woman that doesn’t have a bunch of her own baggage to bring to the party.” Then she took a deep breath. “And don’t worry about the land. I’ll talk to my lawyer on Monday. The land belongs to the Hellfire Crew. I’m going to deed a little bit of it right around the house, and the main farmhouse to Thorn. I’ll put you on as trustee until he’s of age,” she explained. “But the rest of the land and buildings will go to your corporation.”
“You can’t do that!” Griffin protested. “You were supposed to be part of that deal. You can’t just give away your inheritance like that.”
“It was never really mine.” The soft expression of sorrow on her face made him sick. “It was never really my mother’s after she gave it to Deacon just because she wanted someone to marry her when she was in trouble.”
Griffin began to understand what had happened. “Is that what you think? That because you’re Joe Turnbull’s biological child you don’t have a place in the Hellfire Crew? That isn’t how we do things, Leah. That’s not what makes family to us.”
“But we’re not family, Griffin,” Leah said as she began walking toward her front door. “You and I never really were.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Leah looked up from the papers she had been grading to find Dana Richards in her doorway. She waved her friend inside the classroom and tried to be glad to see her. It had been nearly two weeks since the whirlwind wedding, the subsequent kidnapping, and the ridiculous notion that she would ever be able to live the life of a Hellfire Crew member. Now it was back to real life, and Leah was feeling strangely bored.
“Okay, so I have to tell you first,” Dana said dramatically.
Leah didn’t look up from the papers on her desk. “Tell me what?”
“Rodney and I eloped to Vegas last weekend!” Dana squealed and held out her hand to show a beautiful diamond ring.
“That’s wonderful!” Leah attempted to insert the correct level of excitement into her voice but was almost certain she fell short of the mark. “I’m sure you guys are going to be very happy!”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
Dana frowned. “You just got married. Aren’t you ecstatically happy?”
“Oh, that?” Leah chuckled. “That was more of a business arrangement. I told you. The land deal is almost resolved and I’ll…uh…I’ll get an annulment soon. My lawyer is already drawing up the paperwork.”
“What?” Dana looked properly shocked. “That’s no good! This guy was awesome, right? I mean, you seemed like you really cared about him. Didn’t you?”
“Oh sure, I guess.” She shrugged and wished she could manage to get out of this conversation. “He and I have known each other since we were kids. He’s going to be taking care of my younger brother. Although Thorn is sixteen, going on seventeen, so that’s not a long-term gig.”
“You’re just giving him your brother?” Dana jumped off the edge of the desk. “Girl, what is wrong with you? You were so excited to see your brother after your dad had kept you apart for so long. Now you’re just giving up? What is up with you?”
“They’re part of a motorcycle gang,” Leah said flatly. “Can you see me being a part of that?”
“Actually, yes.” Dana put her hands on her hips and practically glared down at Leah. “I know you pretend to be all straitlaced and perfect, but girl, you’re anything but! You’re a wild child. I’ve seen you drink when you allow yourself to go out for girls’ night or something. And there’s a reason why all of those boring men you date can’t interest you at all. You’re trying desperately to be something you’re not!” Dana reached out and touched Leah’s shoulder. “I know your mom put a lot of pressure on you that way. But at some point you’ve got to let go of that and live your own damn life.”
Leah could safely say she had never expected this kind of wisdom from someone as flaky as Dana, which meant it was obviously a no-brainer. Was Leah the only one who couldn’t see the truth? That was a very disconcerting thought.
Leah stood up. “I have to go.”
“Of course,” Dana retorted. “Running away again, are you?”
Leah left the classroom without looking back. She couldn’t bear to see the judgment and censure on her friend’s face.
***
Griffin stared at the papers that had b
een hand-delivered to the house by a court-appointed server. They were annulment papers for his marriage to Leah along with a lengthy document that put the land in the name of the Hellfire Crew’s LLC. Another document put the house in Thorn’s name. Griffin was listed as guardian and trustee for the house until Thorn was twenty-one.
“What’s that?” Thorn peered over his shoulder. “The house! That’s awesome!”
“Are you kidding?” Griffin rounded on Thorn. “Do you not get what’s happened here?”
“My sister is giving me my inheritance,” Thorn said blandly. “I get it.”
“She’s leaving us.”
“I’m having dinner with her tomorrow night, dude.” Thorn pressed his lips together and frowned. “This isn’t about me.”
Griffin had nothing to say. The kid was right. It wasn’t about Thorn anymore. Thorn was taken care of. He seemed to be resigned to attending school on a regular basis, doing his homework, and even working in the motorcycle shop after his school day was over. Griffin hadn’t had to use Curtis and Hobbs as babysitters in a while. Jackson was currently running the bar since Griffin now lived out at the compound. In fact, everything was going pretty well.
“You should be happy,” Thorn pointed out. “That other paper says the rest of this place is now in the possession of the crew. No more trying to steal the land from someone. No more wondering if the cops are going to show up and kick us off.”
“I guess,” Griffin allowed.
So why was he so damn depressed? He felt as if he had won the battle but lost the war. There was no point in any of this without Leah. He couldn’t help but remember the way she had so sweetly surrendered to him in that inn on their wedding night. Or the bold way she had come to him at the bar. She’d never been afraid of what she wanted. Hell. He had made love to her in a bathtub and felt her come undone in the sweetest way.
“If you want my sister, you’re going to have to go convince her,” Thorn told him in a matter-of-fact tone. “She’s sort of stubborn that way.”
“She is,” Griffin agreed. “I think that’s one of the million or so reasons I’ve loved that girl since I was a kid.”
“So?” Thorn raised his eyebrows. “Let’s go fix this!”
***
Leah paced back and forth in her living room. She could not seem to settle down. Mostly she couldn’t get Dana’s accusations out of her head, which had caused her to do something seriously stupid. Her date with what’s-his-name the accountant was supposed to be in less than twenty minutes, and she was nowhere near ready to go out.
She stopped pacing and stared out the front window. Why had Mama been so insistent that Leah marry a man with a regular job and a mundane life? What did it matter if Leah’s husband toed the line of respectability? It wasn’t like Mama was around to enjoy some kind of side benefit from it. There was no country club membership waiting for her. The good girls’ club didn’t come with any perks she could see. What had being good ever gotten her?
Nothing!
The word slipped unbidden into Leah’s mind. She was so sick and tired of turning herself inside out trying to be perfect! It was exhausting! She thought of the ride the other night, feeling the wind in her face and the sound and feel of the motorcycle underneath her. She thought about that big barn full of people working so hard to make a living for themselves. Why was that life any less important or special than the one her mother had wanted for her? It was enough to make her scream in frustration!
Then she saw a car pull in the driveway. The man who got out of the brown sedan was wearing a brown tweed suit. Trevor! That was his name. She remembered now. His name was Trevor, and they had gone out twice before. She had begged off more dates with him because he was so very obviously looking for wife material. Her subconscious had known she was terrified of marrying a man like Trevor and living the life that Mama had wanted for her.
I am going insane!
She flung open the front door and dashed outside. Her feet were bare—she hadn’t even put on her stockings yet. She hated the dress she wore—plain black with a knee-length hemline. It was hideous. Not because there was anything particularly wrong with it, but because it was just so very not Leah.
“Trevor!” she said in a rush. “I’m so sorry. This is a mistake. I’m just sorry. I can’t—that is to say—I made a mistake asking you out.”
He was obviously still trying to process what she was saying. His mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. “But you said you wanted to go to dinner.”
“I know what I said.” She waved her hand. If she could get him out of here she would drive out to Griffin’s bar and see if he was there. It was Friday night, after all. “I shouldn’t have told you that. I don’t really want to go out with you. I was just asking you because my mother would have liked you.”
That obviously made even less sense to the poor man, but it didn’t matter anymore; Leah heard the roar of motorcycle engines roaring up the street. There were a lot of them, and she had no doubt they were headed in her direction.
“You have to go!” she said urgently. “Really. Please. Just get in your car and go. Forget my number. Erase it from your phone.”
Now Trevor was starting to look angry. “This is extremely odd and very rude behavior, Leah. I’m completely put out about this situation.”
He’d opened his mouth to say more, but Griffin and the Hellfire Crew were already swarming the driveway, and it appeared that Trevor had forgotten how to speak.
Griffin tried to quell the urge to murder the man in the brown suit. He was obviously there to pick up Leah for a date. It wasn’t the little man’s fault. And really it wasn’t Leah’s fault either. She had been honest about her intentions. She had even presented him with signed papers. What Griffin could not get past was the idea that she had gotten over him so quickly that she was already dating again.
He planted his kickstand in her driveway and jumped off his bike. He marched right up to her and the brown man and glared at the little guy until Griffin was almost certain the man had pissed himself.
“I told you to leave,” Leah muttered to the brown man. “Just get in your car and go. They’ll let you out of the driveway. I promise.”
“Highly irregular and very rude,” the man muttered. “Don’t you call me again, Leah Rawlins.”
Griffin made a growling noise. “It’s Prentiss,” he snarled. “Leah Prentiss.”
“Whatever!”
The little man got into his sedan and left the driveway as though his pants were on fire. Griffin watched him go with satisfaction. Next he would be pissing on the driveway himself just to establish his territory. He needed to get a grip before he really screwed this up for good.
He took a breath to speak, but Leah got there first. “I screwed up, Griffin. I’m sorry. I never should have sent you those papers.”
“About the land?” He was having a little trouble following along. So far it seemed like she’d stolen his lines.
“No.” She made a frustrated noise. “I don’t care about the land!” Then she looked around at the crew. “I never cared about the land beyond what Thorn deserved. I’m talking about you, Griffin. I should have never annulled our marriage.”
“You shouldn’t have?” Griffin couldn’t stop himself from repeating her words. His brain was having difficulty reconciling this. “I thought I was coming over here to convince you.”
“I don’t need convincing.”
“You don’t?”
Barefoot and with bare legs, she threw herself at Griffin, and he picked her up and whirled her around. She squeezed him tight and pressed a kiss or twenty to his face.
“I love you,” she told him. “I really do. I think I always have. I don’t know. Maybe that’s why Mama was so adamant I marry an accountant.”
“That brown guy?” Griffin snorted. “You’d chew him up and spit him out in a second’s time.”
“I know.”
“I love you, Leah Prentiss,” Griffin told her.
“You’re part of our crew. We don’t care who your father was or what your mother was or what any of them wanted. You’re my wife. You’re Thorn’s sister. And you’re part of us.”
There was a huge yell from the assembled crew. Their shouts drowned out anything else that Griffin might have said, but he didn’t care. There would be plenty of time to talk. For now he just wanted to feel his wife in his arms and hold her close. He pressed his lips to hers and kissed her until their tongues tangled and he’d lost all sense of where he stopped and she began.
Finally he pulled away just long enough to murmur in her ear. “Come home with us, Leah. We need you. I need you.”
“Then that’s where I belong.”
THE END
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Mobster’s Revenge Baby
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Mobster’s Revenge Baby:
A Mob Romance
By Bella Rose
All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2016 Bella Rose.
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Chapter One
Courtney Piers-Cameron felt a little overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of her friend Bella’s wedding. The outdoor venue was packed with guests from the best families in the highest social circles in town. A full orchestra sat beneath a pavilion near the bower where the marriage vows would take place. The entire scene was dripping exotic flowers and reeked of money. Bella’s father had spared no expense for his daughter’s long-awaited marriage to the scion of one of America’s unofficial royal families.
