“Hey, just letting you know that I have the kids,” Brian started. “Charlie is all right, he just needs to have some rest.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“He’s just a bit tired from the shenanigans. Ian’s kids are with Richard.”
“Where is Charlie?” I asked my voice had a note of worry to it.
“He’s just having a sleep, Kate. The kids hogged the bed all night.”
“Where are you?”
“Just having breakfast in our room. I’m still fairly hungover, so I was thinking we might just chill for a few hours and watch a movie. Let you and Ian relax.”
I thanked him and got off the phone before rubbing my eyes. I sighed as I got up and went to the loo before having a shower. Ian and I hadn’t consummated the marriage. Opting instead to just go to bed and sleep.
When I was clean, I went back into the room and Ian was sitting on the bed.
He looked me up and down and then smiled. “Come here.”
I gave him a coy smile as I walked towards him. “Why? Whatcha gonna do?”
“I’m going to kiss you good morning then have a shower.” He grabbed my arm, pulled me onto the bed and got on top of me. I laughed at him as he pinned my arms above my head. He kissed my jaw and neck. “How are you feeling today? You were overwhelmed yesterday. So damn beautiful but overwhelmed.”
“I’m going to need a holiday to get over my holiday,” I mumbled, thoroughly enjoying his attention. “I want to go home, hug my dogs, and go for a ride.”
“Charlie bought us a house for when we get back home. You’re going to bring your animals over, aren’t you?”
“Yes, of course. My animals and I are a package deal.”
“Inside or outside?”
“Inside.”
“I don’t like inside pets.” He growled.
“Do you put your clothes in the hamper?”
“No.”
“Then we are even.” I grinned.
His hand tracked down my body. “Is that so?”
I nodded.
“Putting clothes in the hamper is important to you?”
“Yes. As is putting down the toilet seat.”
He stroked my body lightly, it was maddening. “Well, I do that. Do your dogs sleep in your bedroom?”
“Only one. She has a bed in the corner if she wants to sleep in it.”
“But not on the bed?”
“No, not on the furniture,” I confirmed. “The cats try it but they have beds.”
He stared me as his touch skimmed over my skin. “So just cats and dogs?”
“Two tortoises, birds, horses and the dogs and cats. Do you have any pets?”
“No, never really had time. You’re talking too much.” He shut me up with a kiss as I melted into the mattress. “I love how you respond, so sexy.” He smiled. “How about you have a little more sleep and I will shower and get you some breakfast.”
I nodded.
He gave me another kiss then got off me.
I took a breath. “Ian, you’re married to me and know nothing about me. Doesn’t it worry you?”
He smiled. “I knew you were bat shit crazy when I married you. I’m good.” He walked into the bathroom with a cheeky grin.
Charlie
I’d spent a good part of the day sleeping off the epic day before. But now I was ready for a little bit more fun with the new members of my family. I hoped that the drama of their so called hen’s and buck’s night was finished. Everyone had certainly come together for the wedding because it had gone off without a hint of drama and the press never even got wind of it.
Brian had worked for me, so this was going to be interesting seeing him play instead of work. Workwise, he was a weapon. Calculated, smart, precise and brutal. I hired him for that reason. I had a lot of people come to me to help start up a business, all had either tried to con me into a shitty deal by not telling me everything or being a bully.
Brian had walked in to get a loan, put his cards on the table and asked if I wanted time to look it over. That he would be happy to come back at my convenience to answer any questions I might have. Then he left it in my court. I had ended the meeting and left the proposal on my desk for a week before I even looked at it.
The detail of it had been incredible. For the first time since Richard, Ian and Tammy which I helped them start their businesses but only because I was their big brother, they had all paid back my loan in 5 years. Brian did it in two, thanks to Kate paying out the loan.
I’d liked the man the instant I met him. Now I was watching him relax and tease Kate who didn’t really change. She didn’t lie about who she was. She didn’t pretend to be someone else.
I leaned over and whispered in Emma’s ear, “Is she always like this? Has she ever acted different to fit in maybe?”
Emma gazed at me with pale green eyes. She was possibly the most beautiful redhead I’d ever met. She smiled and nodded. “Yeah this is her when we aren’t working. When we’re working though. Different woman. She is as brutal as the boys are. Just doesn’t give a fuck. I mean, Carrie and I fight and shoot but nothing like she does.”
“How do you mean?” Fight? Huh? Then I remembered the video Brian showed me at the office…
Emma smiled. “If she goes off, she can make the boys back down. The crazy just isn’t worth it.”
I laughed. “I can’t see it. She is also soft and sensual.”
Emma cocked her head to the side then looked at Billy. “Hey Billy, you were in the bomb squad, which is more volatile? Bomb or Shorty?”
Billy smirked. “Out of the two going off in my face, I will take the bomb. Shorty will still nag and remind me about it ten years later.”
Kate turned and looked at Billy. “Oh, we goin’ back to that, are we?”
He held his hands up and then pointed at Emma. “She asked me who was worse, bomb or you.”
Kate glared at Emma.
Emma smiled back at her.
“I’m trying to behave.” Kate squinted at her friend. “Stop trying to get Billy in trouble.”
Emma sipped her drink before smiling and nodding at me. “Brian took Gertie to the range yesterday,” she announced.
I swear I didn’t even see Kate’s hand move before Brian blocked it. How the fuck he blocked it I don’t know. Both Kate and Brian stared at each other with wild eyes. It was a standoff.
Ian stared at his new wife with wide eyes before looking at me.
I tried not to smile.
“Why?” she growled. “You know not to touch her!”
“Because you weren’t there and I wanted to use her,” he stated, still holding her wrist.
“So, you touched my stuff because I wasn’t there. It’s a habit of yours, isn’t it?”
“You would never have taken it to even try.” He smirked.
Yes, I do believe we were no longer talking about Gertie, whatever the hell that was.
“I would have when I was ready,” she snapped.
“Well, you got a job now because I did,” he stated not looking sorry at all, in fact he looked quite happy to stir her.
“Yeah, but now you want me to fucking run it. Mate, that is on you.” She pointed at him. “You deal with the fucking drama. You’re just pissed because you want to be in the field more. I keep telling you, put Harry at the top and get back in the fucking field. I won’t bitch about kicking your arse more often.”
Charlie stared at them. “Brian, who created the original business plan?”
Brian smiled as he looked at Kate. “Shorty did.”
“I keep telling you it was Chris,” Kate piped in. “He was the brains.”
“The man had brains but that was all you. Random questions and our answers and ideas that magically ended up in the final product. He might have given his two cents but that was all you.”
“I’m not that smart,” she muttered.
Brian smirked. “No, you are smarter.”
“That was the best bu
siness proposal I had ever read,” I stated meaning every word. “I thought you did it.”
“I did up the second one.” Brian grinned at me. “But I handed it to Shorty to look it over before I did.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Why give it to her?”
“Because she’s the one with like four degrees.” Brian smirked.
I thought I’d done well with doing two. I sipped my drink and watched Kate. “You must have student loans coming out of your ears.”
“Nah, I paid them off the first night here, counting cards.” She stated being sassy. “Paid off my house the second night when I won the fifty.”
“Well, this one,” Carrie added. “The other one was paid off with Chris’s insurance.”
She nodded. “Becoming a little Real Estate queen.” Kate looked proud.
“With two properties?” Richard smirked. “It’s a start.”
Gerrard looked over at Richard. “She has a house on 6000 acres in Australia, the one here is on 200 and I have a feeling she was trying to buy the one next door which would have added I think, another four hundred.”
She nodded. “I put in an offer but someone one else made a better offer.”
“You going to make them move?” Gerrard stared at her with a glint of mischief in his eye.
She nodded. “If they’re cunts, absolutely.”
Ian laughed. “How do you make someone move?”
Kate raised a brow at him.
I wasn’t sure I quite liked it. There was a bit of cunning to it, this woman had a vicious side, I’d been unaware of.
“I don’t do anything, really.”
“You hated your neighbors so much in Australia,” Emma interjected. “That you wired their house so that it was playing the frequency of sound that is barely audible that causes you to be on edge and then randomly picked their windows and left them open. They thought the house was haunted.” Emma laughed. “Like seriously, they brought in a psychic and everything.”
Kate batted her eyes at Emma. “It probably wouldn’t have had such an effective result if they weren’t using LSD. Just sayin’ ”
Ian smiled slowly and glanced over at me.
I was impressed.
Richard though, sat back in his chair watching her. “I would never have picked you as one for psychological warfare.”
“I’m not really. I just didn’t want to go in, bust them up and give them their marching orders. I thought I would be nice and let them make up their own minds.”
I glanced at Carrie who was looking at the bar. Billy’s gaze was right there with her. I could see the beginning of a bar fight. I turned back to them and no one seemed concerned. They kept on with the conversation before things got very loud behind us.
“We’re going to get out of here. Is there anywhere we can sing karaoke or something?” Emma asked getting up.
I nodded as we stood from the table. “Yeah, we know a place.”
Kate
Charlie took us back to the bar where we’d won the band competition. I seemed they were having a lot of trouble finding people who weren’t tone deaf. But that was what happened when you were dealing with amateurs. There were some punk wanna-be’s on the stage.
Billy shook his head and looked over at Charlie. “You’re fucking kidding yourself if you think I’m going to sit here and listen to that shit.” He indicated to the band on stage with his thumb. “Fucking teenagers.”
Charlie smiled. “Scare the living shit out of me.”
Billy grinned.
I shook my head and sat down with the girls as the men decided to do their takeover of the stage.
Susan giggled. “Control freaks, all of them.”
I raised my brows knowing this would get interesting. The boys began and I leaned back to watch them. The other night we’d sounded good but watching them all get up there and play together, wow they sounded fucking incredible.
“You know they would sound better if we helped them out,” Emma said looking at me then the other women.
“You think they need help?” Susan grinned.
Emma stood as we all got up on stage with the boys then grabbed the two spare mics and yeah, now we were rocking the joint. We played up like a pro rock band. The boys grinned and encouraged us. People came in the door to listen. Charlie was having a great time and man, was he great on the bass and his singing? His voice was wonderful.
I glanced over at Ian on the guitar and he gave me a wink. We played for close to an hour before we decided to get drunk. We got outside to walk back to the casino.
A big arm went around my shoulder. “Fucking jackpot.” Charlie kissed the top of my head.
I put my arms around his waist. “So are you.”
“You know it sucks that we’re going home tomorrow,” Gerrard said and glanced at Charlie. “When are you all going home?”
“Tomorrow,” he replied. “I need to sort out my business and prepare. Most of it is done. Just gotta hand it over to the COO until the new CEO steps up.” He gave my shoulder a squeeze. “You have a big job ahead of you.”
I kind of ignored it for a moment but everyone stopped walking as they stared at him.
“Ha-ha Charlie, very funny.” I patted his back.
Charlie
Leaving Vegas had been hard. I’d had so much fun there and it would be the last time I would ever be there. But I still had so much to do. Getting Ian and Kate moved in was number one on the list.
I was looking around the house making sure everything was in place. This would be the house I hoped Kate and Ian would make their home while they got back into the swing of being married.
In Vegas, I’d gone back to my room alone after their last night on the town and to my surprise, Ian and Kate had knocked five minutes later. What surprised me even more was that Ian lay down on the bed and told me to have my way with his wife.
I’d been tired but he let me fuck her while he just touched her and told her she was beautiful.
Ian arrived first at the house with the kids and I got a heap of wonderful hugs and kisses. The kids were both very excited. More so, when they heard what sounded like a truck arrive. They ran out. Ian glanced at me as Joe and Rita‒his groundsman and housekeeper‒looked around the house with smiles.
Ian shook his head. “This is overkill.”
“This is my wedding present.” I smiled and patted his shoulder then went outside to see Kate getting out of a truck. She waved at us and smiled before opening the back door. She helped Ryan and Ella out who were both holding a tortoise each along with a bird on each shoulder.
Then four huge Maine Coon cats followed the kids out. She went to the back of the truck and tapped the side as six dog heads popped up. Three black German Shepard’s, a Doberman and two little heads, a beagle and a fox terrier.
She lifted out the smaller two dogs and then told the others to get out. They all obeyed except the Doberman who stared at Kate.
“No, Ninja, you’re a big girl, you can get out.”
The dog whined at her.
“Ninja, we talked about this. Get out of the truck.”
Ian chuckled as he sat on the steps to greet the kids and animals. I sat beside him.
Kate gave up on the Doberman then went to the huge horse trailer and opened the door. She disappeared and a moment later, the first horse walked off closely followed by a second, third, fourth, fifth….
“Oh, come on Jet! Fuckin’ Molly forgave me for moving you again!... Nah, now you’re just being a fuckin’ arsehole…DON’T FUCKING BITE!”
Ryan covered his mouth and started laughing and looked over at Ian and I.
“She says a lot of naughty words,” Tim noted.
Ryan pointed at him. “They are big people words, kids get their mouth washed out with soap.”
“Your mom is short,” Tim stated. “She isn’t big.”
“Don’t start on me Timothy!” Kate called from the horse trailer. “JET! Get off the trailer or I’m not giving you treats this a
fternoon.”
“She has ninja hearing?” Ryan giggled.
She appeared with a horse that had to be sixteen hands tall and black as midnight. He got off the trailer and whinnied in her ear.
“Mate, you have had a bee in your bonnet since I told you I got married. They’re both on the step. Go say hi, you bite them and I will put you in the back paddock away from happy time with Molly for a month.”
The horse huffed.
“And be nice to the kids too.”
Jet looked at us, huffed and shook his head then walked towards us. He whinnied, he wasn’t happy.
Ian stood up. I joined him.
Are we just about to argue with a horse?
The horse looked me up and down and gave me a nod then he turned his attention to Ian, pulling himself to full height and looking Ian in the eye.
“I take it you’re going to be pissed off if I hurt her,” Ian stated.
Jet huffed and pawed the ground.
“I consider myself warned.”
Jet nodded and side eyed me then gave me his side and waited with a huge sigh.
I looked over at Kate. “What does he want?”
She looked perplexed. “He wants to talk to you. Get on him, he will take you for a walk.”
I glanced at Ian who gave me a leg up. I took a handful of his mane to keep my balance and he started walking, leaving everyone on the steps. I hadn’t ridden a horse in over fifteen years. I was pondering what Kate had meant when she said he wanted to talk to me.
Then like a story in my head, I started thinking, only it was like I was having a vision.
Kate
I watched Jet leave with Charlie. I knew he would come back in a better headspace. It still didn’t stop the uneasy feeling I was having. I got Ninja out of the back of the truck and greeted Tim and Evie before kissing Ian. We still hadn’t consummated the marriage but kissing and touching there had been plenty of. I didn’t push him for it and he never offered an explanation.
“Your horse thinks you’re his girlfriend.” He chuckled.
“My horse is magic. Don’t try and ride him or pat him unless he offers it to you.” I looked up at him in warning. “He will hurt you.” I sighed. “I have to put these guys away.” I walked down the steps and let off a low whistle then walked the house.
The Vegas Random Page 19
