“It’s nothing,” she said, waving her comment off. “Just a silly joke for the drama geeks.” She sat forward and held out her hand. “I’m Holland.”
“Ronnie,” I said, smiling. It was the most welcomed I’d felt since arriving.
Abbot hadn’t been wrong when he said I wasn’t wanted in Jasmine’s house. I’d kind of expected a bit of a temper tantrum on arrival, but I’d been greeted with calm indifference. Six sets of eyes had swung in my direction as I stood at Kristian’s side, telling me I shouldn’t be here. No one spoke except Jasmine.
“You’re vouching for her now?” she’d asked with her ice-blue eyes on Kristian.
“I guess,” Kristian had replied.
“You guess?”
He sighed. “Yeah, OK. I am. I’m vouching for her. I want her here.”
I was ridiculously confused listening to the exchange. “Listen, I’m not here to cause any trouble,” I started.
Jasmine smiled in a way that wasn’t at all welcoming. “Yet here you are.” Her eyes shifted from me to Kristian. “We need to talk.” Then she told me to go wait by the pool.
The whole exchange screamed insanity. I felt like I was being presented to the fucking mob for consideration, with Jasmine the obvious boss. I’d asked it before and I’d ask it again—who the fuck were these people?
Holland tilted her head to the side. “Are you part of the ‘blissfully unaware’ or the ‘hated by Jasmine’ group?” she asked, releasing my hand before I took the seat next to her.
“Ahhh, both?” I laughed. “Me showing up seemed to cause a bit of a stir in there. I have a feeling I was brought here to prove a point or something.”
“Hmm. Those Cartwright men are good at pulling stunts to get their point across.”
“I’m not sure what Kristian’s point is.”
“Probably that he wants change. If he’s anything like his older brothers, I’d say he’s become restless with the status quo.”
“Was Nate restless too?” She gave me a quizzical look. “I was a waiter at the wedding a couple of weeks back. I saw you there.”
“Ahh, of course. Well, yes, Nate was very restless when we met. He had everything a person could want in life, but he was missing one very big thing.”
“The love of a good woman,” I finished for her. She gave me a smile and a nod. “That’s ridiculously cliché, don’t you think?”
She shrugged. “Possibly. Doesn’t make it any less true.” She took a moment to regard me. “You’re the girl who scratched up Kris’s car, aren’t you?”
“The one and only.”
“Seems you’ve been forgiven.”
“Oh, I don’t know if he’ll ever forgive me for that. I’ve kind of been messing with his car for a while.”
“Oh dear.” She laughed. “What did you do?”
“Messed with his tyres a few times. Once, I siphoned off his petrol. I’m a bit of a vindictive bitch when I want to be.”
A chuckle burst from her lips. “Remind me never to get on your bad side.”
I shrugged and watched the reflection of the sun on the surface of the pool. It was peaceful out here.
“He must’ve forgiven you somewhat; bringing you here is a bit of a big deal.”
“I don’t know what his thought process is. But we’ve definitely found some common ground.”
She lifted her brow, her expression telling me she knew exactly what that common ground was. “I’ll bet.” She grinned.
To my surprise, I felt myself blush. I had never blushed over a man before. What is wrong with me? “It’s not just that, we…I don’t know, we seem to get each other. It’s working for the moment.”
She smiled as she regarded me with a nod. “I get it. It was like that with Nate too. The beginning of our relationship was absolute chaos. But there was that instant connection. Cartwright men are very good at taking what they want with no regard for anyone else. Still, I can’t imagine myself without him. His family, I could do without most days. But they have this fierce devotion to each other that won’t be eclipsed by anything external. Either we all get drawn in or we get our hearts broken.”
I took a deep breath and looked towards the house where the family was convening. It had only been a week of fucking for convenience, so I didn’t think Kristian Cartwright had the ability to break my heart. I’d make sure I didn’t get too attached, though. A woman in my position couldn’t afford to get caught up in feelings. It would just make it harder to go back to what I was before.
“Was it the same for Alesha and Sam?” I asked for the sake of making conversation and learning more about this family I’d fallen in with. “Did they have a chaotic beginning too?”
She thought for a moment. “I would say they had a chaotic middle. They got married before they knew each other, and there was a steep learning curve after that.”
“That’s crazy. What’d they do, get drunk in Vegas?”
A musical laugh burst from her lips. I kind of liked her, which was odd for me. I’d never been great at getting along with other women. Or anyone, really. I was fantastic at burning bridges. Never go back, I always said.
“Not quite. There’s a very involved story about how they came to be. It’d be best if she told you herself. I’d bet she could write a pretty interesting book about it if she tried.”
I smiled. “I’ll have to keep my eye out for it.”
Comfortable silence fell between us for a moment, and I took the opportunity to look around the yard. Although, yard didn’t seem the right word as much as property did. Close to the house, there was an outdoor kitchen with a long wooden table. Just beyond that was the large kidney-shaped pool we sat by. Behind a detached garage was a tennis court as well as a manicured lawn that went on for days. It was secluded and screamed money.
“Do you know what’s going on inside?” I asked after a while.
“That all depends on what you know.” She smiled but I could tell she was wary.
I decided that if I was smart and pieced together what I did know, I might be able to get her to tell me something more about the Cartwright’s business.
But what did I know? Not much.
They had pull. They had enough knowledge of the local criminal element to implement a roadblock when they wanted to. And they—meaning Toby—could find things out about people that those people didn’t want known. They were obviously a powerful crime family of sorts. But what kind?
Wracking my brain, I formed my speculation based on the conversation I’d overheard between Kristian and Abbot and the things I assumed.
“Your husband messed up and needs money. Fast. They’re trying to plan a job with a big pay day.” I held my breath, hoping she couldn’t see how pulled from my own arse that summation was. I could have been wrong, but the admission was all over her face. I was right.
“You can’t blame Nate, though. It’s my fault, really,” she started, talking as if she really needed to confess but was never given the opportunity to say her piece. I was more than happy to listen. “If I hadn’t been so obsessed with making him go straight, he wouldn’t have felt the need to do what he did so we could leave. He pissed off the wrong people, and now we need to pay those people to leave us alone. To leave all of us alone.”
“What did he do?” I was risking giving away the fact that I had no information at all, but I hoped being provided a sympathetic ear might spur her on.
“You don’t know that part?”
I shrugged. “I just know the basics, and I didn’t want to pry into the details since I’m not family. Really, it’s none of my business and you don’t have to tell me, either. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“It’s fine.” She waved her hand in the air. “You’re bound to find out eventually. There’s a lot of family tension because of it, so it may as well come from me. Nate had a side job going. Did you know that part?” I nodded, even though I didn’t. “He was growing poppies for some big drug manufacturers. You know, Breaking Bad level sh
it. When I found out about it, I left. Because while I could handle the stealing, I couldn’t handle his involvement in drugs—I’d witnessed the damage heroin addiction can do to family first-hand. So I ended things. It was horrible on both of us. But, to win me back, he burned the field to the ground and faked his own death. We ran away together and everything was peaceful for a while, but then the shit hit the fan. That’s what they’re dealing with inside.”
“Wow. That’s some crazy shit. Although, I guess if a guy is willing to fake his own death for you, you never have to question his devotion.”
She laughed a little and nodded. “That’s true. He just didn’t fully think it through.” She let out her breath slowly. “You know, it’s nice to be able to talk about this to somebody. It gets real lonely out here when they’re all in there.”
“Why are you out here?”
“Honestly, I just don’t want to know the details of what they do. I know what happens, I know when it happens, but I don’t want to know how. It’s easier for me that way.”
“The life of crime isn’t for you?”
She shook her head. “Hopefully it isn’t for this little guy either,” she said, running a hand lovingly over her belly.
“You’re pregnant?”
“About ten weeks in. I have to tell you, it’s scary.”
“Because it’s early days, or because of the drug dealers?”
“Both. But mostly the dealers. Nate made a deal with them, but I’m worried what will happen if it doesn’t work out.”
“Do you think they’d really come after everyone?” And did everyone include me?
Holland nodded then sat back and crossed her feet at the ankles. “Sometimes being a Cartwright has its perks. Sometimes it really doesn’t.”
“Guess I should consider myself lucky I’m not a Cartwright.” I wasn’t sure I was up for dealing with the bloodlust of a drug lord. No dick was worth that shit.
She chuckled. “Not yet.”
I scoffed at the insinuation. “I think I can pretty much guarantee you that Kristian does not want me to be a part of his family.”
“Really? Then why do you think you’re here?”
This line of questioning caused my stomach to flip. “Kristian and Abbot had a fight over whether I should be here or not. It just seemed like regular dick swinging to me. You know, men throwing their weight around to prove who’s boss? I came because, I don’t know, Kristian said I had to.” I wasn’t sure if she was fully appraised of Kristian’s and my master-slave relationship, so I gave her the vague details.
With a smile playing on her lips, she looked at me for an uncomfortably long time. I wanted to yell, “What!” but then her gaze flicked to a point past my shoulder. “Looks like you’re wanted,” she said, nodding towards the house as Kristian came walking in our direction.
I laughed. “Hardly.” Because no one really wanted me. They might have wanted something from me, but never me as an individual.
Holland just smiled and laced her fingers behind her head. “Welcome to the family, Ronnie. You might want to put some panties on for this next part.”
It was pretty obvious at this point in my life that I had a really shitty moral compass. But at least I knew who I was and never pretended to be anything else (Except that hour at the beach shack where I tried to act like a ‘nice girl’, and we all knew how that turned out.) I also didn’t have a problem associating with others who had a murky relationship with the legal system. I didn’t judge people for the way they decided to make their money. At the end of the day, we all needed it, and we all preferred to make it the easiest way possible. It was a fact of life.
That being said, I did have a limit to how deep into the criminal world I wanted to go. Stealing cars, selling weed, even pirating movies from the cinema, those were all things I could get behind. Anything deeper and I started getting uneasy, because that’s when guns got involved. And I hated guns.
Back when Johno and I were dating, we used the contacts his mate Dazza had to fence some jewellery we found in the glovebox of one of our cars. There was a watch worth nearly five grand and a pair of diamond earrings, worth…I couldn’t remember. Anyway, we met with the guy while he was having a ‘house party’. It was hooker city in there, tits out, open-air fucking, and drugs all over the tables. I wanted to leave the moment we got there, but I sucked it up because we needed the cash. I went with Johno and Dazza into this guy’s office, he took a look at the merchandise and bought it from us, no trouble. But when he paid us, he opened one of the safes in his wall. Fucking guns. At least ten handguns and one of those little machine guns you only ever saw in movies, on top of piles of money. He made a big deal about showing them to us and made it clear he had the power to hunt us down and fill us with bullet holes if we ever crossed him. I immediately agreed and then got the fuck out of there, telling Johno I would never fence jewellery again. I’d rather throw that shit out than enter that man’s home, or whatever the fuck it was, again.
That was close to how I felt when Kristian called me into the house. Scared shitless. It really was a terrible idea to forgo underwear.
“What have you gotten me into?” I hissed as he led me to a bar area on the house’s first floor.
“Nothin’ you can’t handle, doll. Relax. I got you.”
While the sentiment made my chest flip happily, the giant moths in my stomach flapped clumsy wings, making me feel ill as I was presented to Jasmine, the big boss, the matriarch. Fuck.
She sat on a stool and held a crystal glass of clear liquid with a wedge of lime inside it. Everything about her positioning—the crossed legs, the way she rested her forearm along the marble-topped bar—was designed to make her look casual, welcoming. Even her smile appeared to draw me in. But her eyes? Her eyes told me to watch out. I was standing before a predator.
“I don’t think I need to point out that your presence wasn’t expected today,” she said, placing her glass on a coaster without it making a sound.
“Honestly, ma’am, no one expects me. They just kind of deal with the fact I’m there,” I said, offering a smile and a self-deprecating joke. She didn’t seem to see the humour in it and just looked at me like she was trying to figure out how I got on the bottom of her shoe. Yikes.
“I need to know why you think you were brought here today.”
“Uh, I think Kristian brought me here as a big fuck you to his twin brother. He and Abbot seem to be at loggerheads over what to do with me.”
“So, you consider yourself a trinket, arm candy?”
I swallowed. Calling me that really made it seem like I was a hooker. But I couldn’t really argue with the facts. “Yeah,” I said quietly. “That about sums it up.”
“You weren’t hoping to get yourself involved with our business?”
What business is she talking about? The legitimate or the criminal? I decided it was best to be safe and act dumb. “Are you franchising the mowing business or something?” I hoped the sheen on my upper lip didn’t give away my nerves. I had a feeling that if I said the wrong thing to her, I may regret waking up that morning.
She laughed. “No franchise plans. Although, I heard you were a great worker this week. A job, and a handsome man’s bed to rest in. You must be feeling very pleased with yourself.”
“I’m just doing as I’m told, ma’am.”
“It’s Jasmine.”
“Jasmine. But to be fair, the bed part isn’t part of the deal, per se. He’s not making me sleep with him.” I didn’t want her to think her son was forcing himself on anyone. Although from the disinterested look on her face, I assumed she didn’t care.
“Do you smoke, Veronica?”
“I prefer Ronnie.”
“Veronica. Do you smoke?”
Okay. So my preferences didn’t seem to matter here. That wasn’t anything new.
I cleared my throat. “Occasionally.”
She picked up a pack of cigarettes and offered me one. I honestly didn’t feel inclined, b
ut took it anyway, not wanting to say no to the woman who had previously wanted to kill me.
I held it between my lips and she sparked a flame, holding the silver lighter out for me. My fingers itched to take it and put it in my pocket. But I refrained.
“Thank you.” I blew out my first inhale as she lit her own cigarette.
“No one smokes anymore,” she mused. “I’m running out of people to share them with. Do you have that problem? There’s something about the act that needs to be shared, I think. Even if you aren’t speaking. Company is good. It’s during the moments of deep inhales that clarity comes. Problems are solved, plans made. Don’t you agree?”
I nodded.
“Most of them don’t even want me smoking near them. Especially Holland since she’s pregnant now.” She held one hand up to shield her mouth. “Don’t tell her I told you. Early days.”
I made the shape of an O with my mouth, even though I already knew. I wondered what this woman’s game was. What did she want from someone like me? I couldn’t imagine she just wanted to get to know me. I was on tenterhooks waiting for the other shoe to drop, listening while she prattled on.
“Abbot is the only one, really, but I’m sure you’ve already learned his conversational skills aren’t the greatest. We can talk shop though.” Her eyes moved to my toes then returned to my face. What the hell am I supposed to say here? I thought it best to say nothing unless she asked me a direct question. “Tell me, Veronica, what is it you want most out of life?”
Wow. Straight to the deep stuff.
I shrugged. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Care to elaborate?”
My mouth opened then closed before I pressed my lips together, trying to work out what to say. I knew exactly what I wanted: more than what I had. I wanted to stop worrying. I wanted to stop struggling and fighting. I wanted someone to care about me.
“I just want to belong,” I said, finally. It was probably the most honest sentence to ever come out of my mouth, but why I told her, I wasn’t quite sure.
A sage nod bobbed her head. “I actually see a lot of myself in you, Veronica.”
Foolish Games: Cartwright Brothers, book 3 Page 9
