by Mary Martel
What she didn’t say was that all of this messy shit broke her damn heart too.
I didn’t respond right away because words escaped me. I had no idea how to even begin to process all the information she’d unloaded on me. I just knew that none of it was good for how my girl would be feeling toward her dead sister.
I knew if Gem kept these secrets from me, lied to my face, and then I found out all about it after she was already dead, I might actually end up hating her for it and probably feeling like our whole friendship was a lie. If she was my blood family and the very person I was closest to in this whole world, it’d be even worse.
“I don’t think I knew my sister at all,” Gem whispered, and finally emotion had leaked back into her voice. It hurt my heart to hear and I almost preferred the emptiness to it. “And what I’m learning, all the lies she told me, I do not like. What’s worse, I think I owe Riley an apology because every time I’ve been around him, I’ve been a mega bitch to him, and I don’t think he deserved it. Well... except for last time. If I was a bitch to him in the parking lot, he might have actually deserved that. You don’t fuck with a woman’s purse or her phone. He’s lucky I didn’t beat his ass with my purse. He caught me on an off day, or I just might have.”
She finished with a nervous laugh that had me glaring at her.
What in the actual fuck was she doing talking about him this way? She didn’t know him, she didn’t owe him jack shit, least of all an apology. She hadn’t been the one to lie about him or bad mouth him while pretending to be his friend.
And what parking lot was she talking about? Had she seen him without me? I didn’t like that. Not because I was a jealous fucker, but because I worried about Gem and her state of mind right now. She didn’t need anyone around who might take advantage of her in any way or potentially hurt her. She needed to focus on grieving and now healing from this recent mind fuck.
Initially, I didn’t like the guy because he’d hurt Gin and I was smart enough to know Gem was capable of almost anything when it came to her sister. So I worried if Gem were around Riley, she might do something to him she’d later find regrettable or would possibly land her in hot water she’d need me to bail her ass out of. Neither of us needed that kind of drama in our lives, but mostly Gem really didn’t right now.
“When did you see him?” I asked in a careful voice, containing my emotions and keeping them from her. Now I was playing the same game with her she’d just played with me. Though, I honestly didn’t think she knew she’d been playing a game. She wasn’t that type of girl, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t done it anyway.
Gem drunkenly rambled on about some parking lot meeting with the Ken doll at the mall where he’d stolen her phone, and she’d unwillingly exchanged phone numbers with the twat. Since then, he’d been texting her already. She hadn’t responded yet, but admitted she wanted to.
A lot had been happening in the time since I’d last seen my girl, and I wasn’t feeling overjoyed at this turn of events, that was for damn sure.
Eventually she trailed off while mumbling and passed the fuck out right there on her back deck. If I wasn’t here, she’d probably wake up tomorrow with people standing down on the beach pointing fingers up at her and either laughing their asses off or taking pictures of her to post on the internet later.
Goddamn, she was usually so much smarter than this. I’d constantly drilled the importance of being safe into her, and I thought she’d actually listened to me. This shit right here proved I’d been wrong. She might have listened, but the shit clearly had not been sinking in in the slightest.
My girl Gem was usually a handful, but this took things to a whole new extreme. I didn’t know how to handle this new Gem, but I’d learn.
I left her out on the deck while I went back inside with both our almost empty bottles of Goose. I kept my eye on her while I did what I needed to do.
I poured the bottles of Goose together into one over the sink, dumped the empty one in the trash tucked away in the cupboard beneath the sink, and stuck the other one in the freezer where I noticed a shit load of food I had somehow missed in my earlier pursuit of alcohol.
Outside on the deck, Gem didn’t even twitch. I would know since I looked out one of her five hundred windows every four seconds to check on her sleeping ass. Anyone could walk up those stairs that led down to the beach and they’d run right into her. That was not happening on my watch, not now, not ever.
I went to my pile of shit I’d brought from home and the bags I’d bought full of shit along the way here because Gem had really made me feel uneasy about her situation, so I’d stopped and picked up a few things I considered necessities. I found the boxes with the air mattress and all the bedding I had picked up at a Wally World. It had been the only thing open this late at night. It wasn’t the top quality I was sure either of us were used to, but I was sure it was much better than nothing and would still be comfortable to sleep on.
Instead of looking into the other rooms, I decided we could just sleep in here for tonight and figure the rest out tomorrow. Plus, I wanted to wake up with the view all this glass would afford us.
I plugged the air mattress in and turned the knob on. It fired to life and I checked on Gem again because it was loud, and I expected her to wake up to the noise. Nope. The girl was still out cold. At least I couldn’t hear her snoring from here.
While the bed filled up, I opened up all the packages of bedding and lay them out beside the bed. I put all the plastic wrap in the garbage bin, and in that time, the bed had actually filled up. That took no time at all. It was making a weird whining sound, so I shut it off and unplugged it from the wall.
I made the bed and realized I’d forgotten the damn pillows.
A quick snoop through all of Gem’s shit piled high in the center of the room, and I found six brand-new pillows. Six of those fuckers.
This damn girl went out and bought herself six pillows. Good fucking grief, what the hell did she plan on doing with all of them?
I did some more digging and found silk pillowcases. They were in different colors, which I found absolutely hilarious. A minty green that matched Gem’s hair. A dusky rose that I actually liked and thought Gem could easily pull off as a hair color if she ever wanted to switch things up. A very pastel violet. A matte black. A mix of lemon and lime. And a light, dusky gray.
I put all of the pillows in their silky covers and tossed them on the bed. They looked almost absurd on the white comforter I had picked out.
Out of curiosity, I went back to Gem’s bags and dug around until I found all the bedding she’d picked out.
Both the sheets were the exact same color as the dusky rose pillowcase she’d chosen. I approved. Her heavy down comforter matched the dusky grey pillowcase she’d gotten. Again, I approved.
Not that she’d care one way or the other.
She couldn’t be normal or boring even when it came to something as simple as picking out bedding. Always so chaotic. They clashed violently against the stark white I’d chosen.
After pulling the comforter and the top sheet back on the bed I headed out back to get my girl. I plucked up her phone, stuck it in my pocket, and scooped her up in my arms. She felt right there, like she belonged there. I carried her into the house and tucked her away into the bed.
I found a couple bottles of water in the fridge and got one for each of us. I sat one on each side of the bed. Then I went in search of the thermostat and cranked the air up because it was fucking hot, even at night, and having those doors open hadn’t done anything good for the inside of the house.
I closed all the glass doors and locked everything up tight. I set the alarm and armed the back doors too. I shut down all the lights and was finally able to relax because I knew she was as safe as I could make her for the time being. That was all I could do for her at the moment.
I dragged my backpack and one of my LV duffels over to my side of the bed, and I dug around in the duffel. I pulled out a pair of light, sil
ky pajama pants and dropped them down on top of the bed.
I kicked off my shoes and toed them to the side. My shirt came next, then my t-shirt I had on underneath the button up. After carefully folding them both, I sat them on top of the duffle. My pants followed suit, and I slipped on the pajama pants. I only packed them for Gem’s sake. Sleeping next to her was the only time I ever wore any amount of clothing to bed. I couldn’t hide a hard-on but that didn’t mean she needed to see it in the flesh. Yet.
I pulled the covers and the top sheet back on my side and sat down on the edge of the bed.
What I was about to do next wasn’t something I was proud of, and I even knew it was incredibly wrong, but I was doing it all the same. I had to do what I had to do to take care of my girl, and in the end, there’d be no regrets after the fact. I could hope she never found out, but if she did, I would take that hit and accept what came with it and own that shit.
I pulled her phone out of my pants pocket and punched in the code. Scrolling through the contacts, I wasn’t even surprised to find his name under the K’s and not the R’s. She had him saved under Ken doll. It was amusing to see, and I put him in my contacts under the same name. It was just who he was now, apparently to both myself and my girl.
I tossed Gem’s phone to the other side of her body and left it there on top of the covers. It’d be next to her when she reached for it in the morning to check out the time or to shut off her alarm or whatever it was she did with the damn thing. I spent the night with her enough to know she’d do just that. Eventually, I’d be the first thing she’d reach for in the morning, but obviously we weren’t there yet.
I texted one of my associates Riley’s phone number and informed him we’d be monitoring it from here on out. I wanted to know about every phone call and every single text message, specifically the ones with Gem or when her and her sister’s names were mentioned. I wanted to know everywhere he went and how long he stayed there for, and I wanted an app on my phone that tracked his GPS in his phone. And I wanted it all done before I woke up in the morning.
It’d get done because I demanded it, and everyone knew my father’s illegal throne would one day belong to me and not simply because I was his son, but because I’d earned it.
Come tomorrow, I’d know everything I needed to know about this Ken doll Riley. And just maybe I’d have to go and pay the twat a little visit so we could get a thing or two straight when it came to my girl.
I took my glasses off and sat them on the floor next to my phone and the water bottle. I lay down beside Gem and turned my back on her. I hated doing it, but knew if I faced her, I’d drag her into my arms and never let her go again until she figured out she belonged there and always came back as if my embrace was where she found her home.
It took longer than usual for me to fall asleep, but eventually all the pot and the vodka kicked in and I passed the fuck out.
When I woke up in the morning, I did it pleased as fuck because my girl was pressed up tight against my back with her arm wrapped around my middle and her hand pressed flat over my heart.
If I woke up like this every day, I’d die a happy fucking man.
Chapter Ten
Bad News, My Brother
Riley
“Hey, man.”
Chance Ryder, my boss’s son, one of my closest friends, and just the man I wanted to see. I hoped he had something good for me.
It had been two days since I’d seen Gem last, and I was jonesing for my next hit. I’d texted her good morning when I woke up every day and goodnight when I thought it was an appropriate time at night for someone to go to bed. Not that that was when I went to bed, because I’d been working nights, but hopefully around the time she closed her pretty eyes and lay her head down to rest for the night.
Yesterday she’d left me hanging, and it had really pissed me off. I knew she didn’t ask for my number, and I’d kind of forced it on her, but she had me worried she’d blocked my crazy, stalker ass. Today she hit me back after my good morning with a picture of a cup of coffee on a table outside with a great view of the lake in the background. I took it because I’d take anything she gave me, but I would have preferred to actually see her in the picture or even get a line where she said morning back. But I guessed that was how she said good morning her way, and it was certainly better than nothing.
That was all she’d given me today though, and I had been obsessively checking my phone every five minutes before I clocked in to work tonight. I didn’t have high hopes and figured it was good that I kept my phone in my pocket so I didn’t text her again, because then she really might actually go and block me.
Chance was a much needed welcome distraction.
“What’s up, my man?”
We clapped hands and shoulder bumped. When we broke off, I caught the eyes of Marley the bartender who was on tonight and nodded my head toward a booth that was reserved for the employees and their people when they came in to hang.
I followed Chance to the booth, and we both slid into opposite sides.
Chance was a big guy who intimidated most just based on the sheer size and mass of him. He had to be six-foot-four, and he spent every second of his free time either working out or eating. It was nuts, but both showed on his body. The man didn’t have abs, but instead he had a rounded stomach. It didn’t protrude as if he were pregnant, he was just thick in the middle. Who knew, maybe there was muscle hiding out in there. The rest of him, however, was entirely jacked up, and he looked like he could rip your head off with his bare hands, and the always hostile or aggressive expression on his face made him look like he happily would, too, if you so much as blinked wrong in his direction.
Straight up, he looked like a mean muggin’, badass motherfucker. And he was, absolutely. He was also an absolute teddy bear who loved his family intensely, and fiercely protected the people he cared about.
Since getting my job here at the club, I was lucky enough to call the man my real friend, but I’d known of him and his family before, and he’d known of me and my family. Chance’s father was the ultimate businessman, albeit a dirty as fuck one, but he owned the building my mother worked in, and he’d long since taken an interest in her. The woman was pretty, so it wasn’t surprising a man would take one look at her and find himself wanting to know more. Somehow, some way, they’d become friends of a sort, and I absolutely did not want to know the hows or whys that came about, but it did.
Bummer for the man that my mother wasn’t interested in any man for more than friendship. My father had really wrecked her, and she wasn’t about anything outside of being a mother and taking care of her family. It made me incredibly sad, but I was glad she’d found a friend in Chance’s dad. Even though dirty as fuck, he was a good friend to have at your back.
Chance’s family looked out for mine and was the reason I’d landed my job here. I owed them, but they didn’t see it that way. Family was family and they looked after each other. The end.
“Bad news, my brother,” Chance rumbled in that deep voice of his that sounded like he had a mouth full of gravel.
My jaw clenched tight. This was not what I had been expecting to hear and definitely not a great start to this conversation. “What do you mean?” I asked, even though I didn’t think I really wanted to know. Anything bad about Gem wasn’t something I wanted to hear.
“Your girl, Gem Stone,” he said, and I raised my eyebrows at hearing her last name for the first time. She had a cool fucking name, but she didn’t have the same last name as Gin. That was why I hadn’t been able to get a lock on her before now. Thank fuck for that accidental run-in at the mall and my good thinking of getting my greedy hands on her phone number.
“She’s associated with a family known to my dad,” he said, and my stomach clenched.
This shit was not good. The only kind of “family” Chance’s dad had any kind of dealings with were like him, the dirty kind. I knew immediately who he was talking about. The bodyguard friend with the slick as shit rid
e. He had that kind of look about him that just screamed you didn’t fuck with him.
“Johnny Nines’ kid has claimed her. Not as his lady, the dude fucks with other chicks, but she has the same kind of protection as his lady would be afforded. I don’t know shit about this girl and that’s how it’s going to stay, because the Nines family isn’t to be fucked with lightly. They don’t want this chick to be known about, and I have to respect that, and I told my boys to stop looking into it before it causes problems for my dad, you feel me? If you were smart, you’d forget about this girl too, for your own good. You and me, we’re brothers, and I’m gonna ride with you always, so it fucks with me that I have to tell you I need to walk away from this one. I’m sorry, my brother, that I couldn’t do more for you.”
Yeah, fuck yeah, this shit just kept getting worse and worse. It also explained why that fucking guy had acted like he owned Gem. The whole underground world thought he did because he made it so.
My phone burned in my pocket and my fingers itched with the need to text her and make sure she was okay. I had already lost one of those beautiful girls, and I wasn’t about to lose the only one left to me, even to a criminal’s son.
No fucking way.
Did she know anything about this Nines guy she seemed so cozy with? I wasn’t in any position to tell her, because it might be a reason she’d use to push me further away from her. It seemed like she was grasping onto anything she could get her hands onto in order to do just that. That meant I couldn’t say shit to her right now about the bodyguard and all the messed up shit I’d just learned.
