RUSH (Montgomery Men Book 1)

by C. A. Harms

  With my love always,

  Dad

  My entire body shook with deep sobs. The tears rolled along my cheeks and dripped onto the paper below as I continued to stare at my father’s words.

  “He knew,” I whispered. “I always thought I hid it so well.”

  “He loved you,” Ashton said in a soothing voice and he softly rubbed my back. “You can’t hide anything from someone when they love you that deeply.”

  My throat felt raw and my body felt weak, and if I could find a dark place to hide in away from everyone and everything, I would. I’d take my father’s letter with me and cry this whole thing out for days. But crying really wasn’t my thing. I’d learned over the years that it only gave Jase what he wanted, so I refrained from doing it. But now I just wanted to mourn my father, to hold on to this piece of him, because I had nothing else.

  “I don’t even know where my father is buried,” I confessed. “Or if he was even given a proper burial.” Ashton continued to rub my back as silence settled over us. “And the worst thought is, what if he wasn’t even buried? What if Jase just disposed of his ashes?”

  I’d thought of that possibility often. Jase would be cruel enough to do something unthinkable like that to punish me for whatever I’d done wrong in his warped mind.

  My heart literally ached within my chest.

  “I’m gonna make a promise to you right now,” Ashton said as he lifted my chin and forced me to look at him. “I’m gonna find out what happened after he passed. I’m gonna make sure you get the closure you should have been given long ago. Trust me when I tell you that I’m doing everything I can to make this heartache and darkness go away.”

  I nodded because at this point I couldn’t speak. My throat burned with sadness.

  “I want to be that man your father was referring to in his letter,” Ashton confessed. “I want to give you the happiness he wished for you. Because, baby, I love you, and knowing you’ve been hurt and are still hurt from all of this breaks me.”

  I closed my eyes to fight off the tears, but they rolled over my cheeks anyway. Yet before they could fall from my face, Ashton swept them away with his thumb. Then he kissed me, and for a brief moment all the pain that lay heavy on my chest faded, only to return when he pulled back and pressed his forehead to mine.

  “I’m gonna give you all the things you deserve and more,” he promised. “He’s done hurting you.”

  From the way he spoke those words, I knew he meant them. The intensity in his voice gave me the chills as a side of Ashton I was still unfamiliar with showed its face.

  ASHTON

  EVERY WORD SHE SPOKE AND every move she made showed me Kinsley had been crushed by what I’d shown her. And it gutted me that I’d taken her beauty and turned it into sadness.

  And that pissed me off.

  I should feel bad for the way I was treating the people around me, but I didn’t. Nothing was coming fast enough or getting done the way I needed it to be.

  I wanted results.

  I wanted that son of a bitch to be in a fucking cell begging for his freedom. Only he was living in a fancy house in Miami like a goddamn king. And the girl I loved had become a walking zombie, just going through the motions of the day.

  I’d never fucking felt this out of control.

  The ringing of my cell phone pulled my out of my near panic attack. Knoxville’s name appearing on the screen was the exact thing I needed at this point.

  “Tell me you found it.” I didn’t focus on pleasantries, because I had nothing pleasant within me right now. “I’m going out of my mind, Knox, and I need something that’s gonna bring us one step closer to the end of all this hell.”

  “He’s buried in a small cemetery less than fifteen miles from the home she lived in with Jase.”

  A huge sense of relief washed over me. I’d hoped he was laid to rest and not cremated and disposed of. Knoxville’s findings were one piece of this mess that had turned out like I’d hoped.

  “There was never a headstone, or a service for that matter,” he continued. “But after some digging I found his location.”

  Nothing about that surprised me. “And the rest of it?” I asked.

  “It’s amazing what a group of scorned and fucked-over clients from the Hellmans’ past are willing to do in order to bring them down.” Knoxville chuckled.

  “So you’re saying—?”

  “I’m saying we just had the twenty-seventh person file charges against the Hellmans for their past illegal activities. And among those twenty-seven, you’ll never guess who they’ve wronged.” Knox paused for dramatic effect.

  “Who?” I asked irritably.

  “Rance Jordan,” he announced proudly.

  “Should I know who the hell that is?”

  “No,” he chuckled. I was just about to tell him I wasn’t in the mood for any shit when he went on. “It would seem that Bruce and Jase are about to meet the new district attorney of Miami, Florida. And he has a huge reason to dislike them.”

  “They fucked him over,” I said, feeling a little lighter than before.

  “Nope, but they fucked over his stepfather and mother. Now Mr. Jordan wants nothing more than to bring them both down for what they cost the two people he loves the most. His stepfather and mother lost everything.”

  Finally, we had a fucking break.

  “It’s all gonna work out, brother,” he assured me. “The two of them have been living off the hardship of others for far too long. It’s time they pay for everything they’ve done. Their end is coming, Ash, and when it does, I’ll make sure both you and Kinsley have a front-row seat to their hell.”

  For the first time in what felt like forever, justice seemed to be on our side.

  Soft music graced the air as I exited the elevator, making this the first time in the last week that I hadn’t come home to depressing silence.

  I laid my keys on the table near the entryway and walked to the great room in search of Kinsley. I rounded the corner and came to a screeching halt at the sight before me. Long ringlets of pure blond perfection. Seeing it right in front of me was so different than seeing it on a missing-person poster.

  She didn’t seem to have heard me come in yet, as she continued to pull books from the box at her feet and place them on a shelf. I just watched her for a few minutes, not saying anything. She appeared much more relaxed than she had lately, almost like herself once again.

  “It’s beautiful,” I said, causing her to spin around and face me. “The color,” I clarified, pointing toward her hair. “It’s so much better than I’d imagined.”

  She lifted her hand and carefully combed it through her hair, letting it slowly fall through her fingers. “I convinced Kevin to escort my stylist upstairs and made him promise not to tell you or Murray. I wanted it to be a surprise.”

  “It is.” I walked toward her and stopped within inches of her. Now it was my turn to run my fingers through her hair.

  “I’ve thought about what you said,” she said, causing me to focus on her gorgeous eyes. “And I’m tired of hiding. I’m tired of pretending I’m someone else.” Her eyes glossed over as she shrugged. “I just want to be Kinsley; the girl I was before Jase broke her.”

  “You’re still her, baby.” I stepped closer and wrapped her in my arms. “You’re beautiful and strong.”

  “You make me that way,” she assured me.

  “It seems we have that effect on one another.” She had changed me so much without even trying. “It’s because of you that I now know the true love of a woman. I love you so much, Kinsley. All I want is your happiness. And over the last few days, I’ve been so worried about you.”

  “I just needed time to cope, I guess,” she confessed. “The letter, the will. It was all a shock.”

  “I know.” I hugged her close and thought about telling her the location of her father, then changed my mind. I would tell her when I could take her to visit his grave, not when we were still forced to stay in New York.r />
  But that time was coming. Jase and Bruce had better enjoy their last days of freedom, because things were about to get messy.

  KINSLEY

  I HAD ONCE AGAIN FOUND the peace I’d felt before Ashton confronted me about the lies I’d told him. For weeks now I’d slowly come to terms with my father’s death and my past. I accepted that I may never have the closure I needed, but I was okay with that. I had to be.

  I had Ashton, and his family, who were the most amazing, accepting people I’d ever met. They now knew everything about me, the good and the bad, yet they still welcomed me with open arms.

  Knoxville and Beckett were like brothers I never had. They did, of course, use me to irritate their brother, and I played along because getting Ashton all worked up had become my new favorite pastime. He was so adorable when he got all possessive.

  I also had my best friend, Lex. He never judged me, only accepted me, flaws and all. And Rig and Lucy still checked in on me often. The first time Ashton met Rig, I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. He was a little thrown off by the big, burly biker with tattoos covering every visible section of his body, and the hard look he gave Ashton when Ashton told my protector that he loved me and would do anything to keep me safe. Rig of course kept up the act until I started laughing so hard I cried, then Rig laughed too and pulled Ashton in for a side hug, slapping his back painfully loud.

  From that moment on, Ashton had earned the respect of the two people who had become the closest thing I had to parents.

  Ashton and I had fallen into our own comfortable domestic lifestyle. It all felt so natural, like we didn’t even have to give it much effort. I loved the life Ashton had given me, among all the battles I knew we still had ahead of us. But for now we had the life we had created together, and I refused to let Jase take it from me.

  I woke to find Ashton hovering over me, freshly showered with only a towel wrapped around his waist. He smiled, knowing just what the sight of him half-naked would do to me.

  Without speaking a word, I wrapped my arms and legs around him and pulled his body to mine.

  “Good morning,” he cooed before he nipped at my lower lip.

  “It sure is,” I said. “And it’s about to get a whole lot better.”

  I let my legs fall away and pushed against his chest, causing him to roll to the side and fall to the mattress beside me. I quickly crawled over him and straddled his hips. His towel had fallen away, and his erection was on display as it rested against his lower abdomen.

  God, he was beautiful.

  I hadn’t put on panties after the mind-blowing sex we’d had last night, so I took the opportunity to rub my sex against him, and he moaned as he gripped my hips tightly. I continued to rub against him, and with each jerk of my hips, he thrust upward as if chasing me.

  “You gonna ride me, or tease me?” he asked, and I smiled seductively.

  With a gentle shrug, I rotated my hips and he narrowed his eyes at me, trying to appear intimidating. “I may just tease you like this for a while,” I said.

  I thought I had the upper hand, but that was short-lived when he veered up and flipped me onto my back, covering me once again with his very naked body. When he pressed the head of his cock to my opening and pushed in just enough to make his presence known, I whimpered.

  “Don’t tease me, baby. You know how much I need this pussy,” he whispered.

  I loved when he took charge and whispered dirty things to me. I never thought I would enjoying giving all control to another person again, but Ash didn’t abuse that trust, and I knew he never would.

  “I’m gonna fuck you now, Kinsley.” He bit my ear and lightly tugged. “I’m gonna make you feel so damn good.”

  I knew he would, because he always did.

  Before I could say another word, he slammed into me, and the growl that ripped through him was so fucking sexy I almost came at the sound of it.

  He was like a madman unleashed. Our lovemaking was raw and dirty, and I’d never felt more powerful.

  Ashton gave me that.

  ASHTON

  “IT’S DONE, BROTHER.”

  I gripped the back of my neck and sagged back against the chair. “Yeah?” I asked Beckett, still not believing that what he said was true.

  “They were arrested an hour ago, and the entire Miami Police Department is now under investigation, and so is the mayor. It’s a fucking shitstorm, but I can assure you that Bruce and Jase are both going away for a long time and taking a lot of bad people with them.”

  This was the news I’d been waiting weeks to hear. But with the pushing and prodding my brothers had been doing, I knew it was only a matter of time before the shit came raining down on everyone involved.

  “It’s time to tell your woman that she’s finally free.”

  Beck’s words made the weight of the world lift from my shoulders.

  It was finally over.

  “Go home to your girl, Ash. You need to share this together.” I could hear the smile in his voice.

  I would never be able to repay Knox and Beck for the time and energy they’d put into giving my Kinsley her freedom back.

  “Thanks, Beck,” I said, feeling like I could finally breathe.

  I hung up and hurried from my office, passing a curious Lex, whose crude comments about my manly needs I chose to ignore.

  I had one purpose: to get to Kinsley as quickly as possible.

  She’d taken up a new hobby. She said it was something she’d always wanted to do, and I knew it gave her tremendous happiness.

  Who knew the woman who held my heart was also an artist, and a pretty damn good one at that?

  I found her in the spare bedroom I’d converted to a studio. It had the best view of the Hudson River in the house, and Kinsley had made it her own little safe haven filled with her creations.

  Her back was to me as she carefully analyzed the painting before her, resting the wooden end of her paintbrush against her lip as she tilted her head to the side.

  “It’s beautiful,” I said, and she looked back over her shoulder with a smile.

  She had become a lot less jumpy lately and seemed to feel safe and comfortable here with me. My home was now her home if every sense of the word.

  That was all I’d hoped for when I gave her no choice but to move in with me. I’d needed her here just as much as I knew she needed to be here.

  “Thank you.” She lowered the paintbrush to the table beside her and moved toward me.

  There was nothing more beautiful than the woman before me. Her presence was so overpowering that I grew weak in it. Before Kinsley, I never liked to feel weak. But with her, I welcomed it.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

  “Because I love you,” I said without hesitation. “I’ve never loved anyone the way I love you.”

  “I love you too.” Nothing made me feel more powerful that hearing her say those words.

  “I told you I’d keep you safe.” I rested my forehead against hers. “I told you to trust me, because one day everything from your past, everything that still haunted you would come to an end.”

  She pulled back and gave me a quizzical look.

  “It’s over, Kins,” I assured her, and her body weakened in my arms. “Everything is over. Bruce and Jase are finally gonna get what’s coming to them.”

  “How?” Her lower lip trembled, and for a moment I almost lost my ability to continue, but I pushed through.

  “They were both arrested and have numerous counts of fraudulent charges against them.” She still didn’t look convinced. “The Feds stepped in, and a criminal investigation is underway into the police department’s cooperation in the Hellmans’ wrongdoings. It’s all out now. Everything is.”

  “Are you sure?” Her eyes filled with unshed tears of happiness and disbelief.

  “Everything is over. I promise you, baby. It’s all over.” I knelt just enough to look directly at her, hoping she could see the truth in my eyes. “The
y will never hurt you again. You no longer have to hide.”

  Kinsley threw her arms around my shoulders and hugged me with more force than a woman her size should be capable of as she cried tears of joy and continued to say thank you over and over.

  I held her that way for a long time, just allowing her to accept the freedom she’d just been granted.

  She’d run and hidden for so long that the reality that she no longer had to must have been almost impossible for her to register. But the moment she did, I saw a happiness in her eyes that no one in this world deserved more than she did.

  Kinsley had her life stolen from her by a man that didn’t even deserve a second glance from her. She had so much to give the world and so much love to share, and I would make sure no one ever stood in her way again.

  She would finally have that happiness and love her father wished for her. I just hoped the afterlife was a real place where her mother and father were sitting back smiling down on their beautiful daughter, knowing I would always protect her, love her, and make sure she shined.

  Never again would the light in her eyes be dimmed by anyone.

  Six months later

  KINSLEY

  I STOOD BEFORE MY FATHER’S grave holding the hand of the man who’d done all he could to give me the closure I needed.

  Because of Ashton, Bruce and Jase would possibly die within the walls of a prison, and that thought gave me unbelievable peace. Maybe it was wrong of me, but I enjoyed the idea of them living a hellish life like the one they’d put me through.

  But Ashton didn’t stop there, because he’d never have been happy without illuminating every dark place in my heart.

  He pushed his attorneys to speak with the judge about granting me a divorce from the man I despised, and he was also able to find the things my father left me hidden in Jase’s office. After the Feds looked them over, along with Jase’s computer and everything else they found in his office to gather evidence for the case against the Hellmans, they finally returned those items to me. They were just small things I would always hold dear to my heart: pictures of me as a child with my mother and father, my mother’s jewelry, and my father’s watch.