CHEAT (Right Men Series Book 3)

by Mayra Statham

  “What?” He looked in the direction of the fire station off the main drag.

  “I was two,” she shared, and the hairs on his neck stood on end. “My social worker told me they were addicts. I wouldn’t know. I don’t remember, or I try not to. It only comes in bits and pieces, and even then, nothing makes sense in my dreams.” She licked her lips. “She said they didn’t even remember they had me when the cops came knocking on the door. They didn’t even remember they had a kid. That’s how high they were.”

  “Jesus.”

  “Foster parents weren’t any better. Lugging my crap in a trash bag from place to place when they were done with me. When they were tired of having me around. I don’t do that anymore.”

  “Okay.”

  “I have a steady place in the world.”

  “Babe—”

  “An apartment. Might not be much, but it’s mine.” She pointed at herself. “So, you can see why I would want to know for how long you would want me around. Because I don’t do this, soldier. I don’t date. I don’t keep people close. I keep to myself.”

  Fuck. He hadn’t known how right he had been. She had no fucking clue how much of her light fed others around her. How much of herself she gave without trying.

  “Girl?” the old man’s voice rang behind them, and she wiped away a tear that had escaped. Garrett wanted nothing but grab her and comfort her. Jesus. He got it now. He understood so much more now. Mine! a voice roared inside of him as he was unable to take his eyes off her.

  “You going to set up or what?” he asked, and she nodded.

  “Yeah. I will be right there, Kip.”

  “Hurry. Come on.” Garrett turned and watched the man stay in the doorway, waiting on her, and she did. She left him standing there, brushing past him without another word. And he let her. She patted Kip on the shoulder. Instead of following her into the bar, the old man stepped out and stood next to Garrett. Both men looked out to the parking lot in the darkness.

  “You need to be careful with that one, boy,” Kip warned.

  “Cut the boy shit, alright? I’m almost forty,” he argued. He was pissed his conversation was put on hold. He was pissed his girl’s childhood was nothing like his own. He was pissed the world could be so fucking cruel.

  “You’re still nothing but a boy to me, kid.” Garrett heard the click of a lighter, then the scent of a cigarette filled the air. “Scrawny little kid walks into my bar. Never forget how she looked. Skinny. So fucking skinny and tiny I swear, boy, she looked like a good wind could have toppled her over. But even so, she walked in like she owned the place. As if she was wearing clothes meant for royalty rather than the dirty, over-grown shit her foster parents dug out of the donation box from the church.” Garrett’s stomach rolled. “Sits her ass on a barstool, and before I can say anything, with confidence and bigger balls than I’d ever seen on anyone, she asks for water on the rocks.”

  “What?” he asked, turning to look at the old man. It was clear he was lost in the memory of the past.

  “I looked at her, ready to tell her to scram, but she smiled. Fuck me, that kid…” He shook his head, and Kip’s voice lowered with emotion. “Grabbed her an ice water. Went to the back, used to have a kitchen, and made her a sandwich. When I took it to her, set it in front of her and went on pretending she wasn’t there.”

  “Why?”

  “Because my gut killed me at seeing how that girl ate that fucking sandwich. Devoured it. Little skinny arms, holding the fucking thing with her dirty hands. Jesus, boy, she was so busy eating, she didn’t have time to worry about hiding the bruises on her arms.”

  “What the fuck?”

  “Not that I didn’t see the situation written on her face. Scratches on her face, bruising on her eye.” The image of Stefanie as a child, beaten and malnourished, made bile come up his throat. His sunshine came from a horrible situation. “Though, found out later it was this little brat at school who did it… that time.”

  “That time?” Garrett questioned before gritting his teeth and clenching his fists at his sides.

  “I’m sure there are great foster parents out there. Like the kind you see on Ellen or Oprah. That girl did not luck into any of those homes.”

  “Fuck,” Garrett whispered, the image engraved in his head.

  “I know it’s not my story to tell, and knowing that girl, she won’t tell you the ugly. She wouldn’t do that shit to anyone. That girl, fuck me, no matter how shitty a situation might be, has always moved forward. Not just pushed through, but fucking bulldozed her way into where she is now.”

  Garrett could see that.

  She was incredible.

  She was already amazing in his eyes, but knowing she had persevered all that and was still who she was, she shined brighter in his eyes.

  “I’m not stupid. I’ve seen you sniffing around, and I know she’s been seeing you.”

  “She’s a grown—”

  “Don’t get involved and get her wrapped up tight with you if you can’t see she’s different,” Kip warned seriously. “She needs someone who can handle her with care. She’s tough because she has had to be. Stefanie isn’t one of those dime a dozen types. She’s a once in a lifetime, and I swear, boy, if you’re too stupid to see that and are only here to dip your wick, I suggest you don’t step back into my bar.”

  “Sir, no disrespect, but I can’t read the future.”

  “If you believe that, boy, you should turn your ass around and call a fucking Uber to take your ass back to Hollywood with you and your brothers.” Garrett stood straighter and scowled. There was no way Stef had shared that, since she had no idea who his brother was. An evil smile crept up on the old man’s leathered face. “Oh, I know who you are, boy. Lt. Garrett Wright. Army. Sole survivor of a roadside bomb. Right?”

  “What the fuck?” he whispered.

  “One brother likes to fly around wearing a cape on a movie screen while the other saves the day in real life as a detective, right?”

  “Jesus.”

  “She’s not mine. Not my blood or anything at all, but mine nonetheless.” He took a long hit from the cigarette and exhaled. “Been there how I could. Couldn’t do more than I did. All I’m telling you, boy, is even a little of her light dims out because of you, well—” Garrett watched the old man make a show of looking around. “There’s a lot of desert around here, and people disappear all the fucking time.” He shrugged. “You can take that as an empty threat from an old man or a promise of the only family she has. Up to you. Result will still be the same if anything happens to her.” With that, the old man dropped his cigarette on the floor, killing the lit end. “Now, if I don’t see you back in there, thanks for your service.” Kip saluted Garrett and walked into the bar, leaving his ass standing alone and lost in his own thoughts.

  Stefanie

  I didn’t leave the stage until karaoke was well past running smoothly. I was like the Cowardly Lion afraid of everything, including its own shadow. Walking to the bar, I spotted him right off the bat. Garrett was impossible to miss. His tall, strong body stood out whether he wanted it to or not.

  As he sat there, his back to the bar, his eyes never wavered off me. I had a feeling he had been looking at me the entire time. I knew it. I had felt his gaze but hadn’t let myself look. Weenie.

  As I neared and took in the sight of him, I wondered how he could be the same man I’d found outside, beaten and bloodied. How the hell had our paths crossed for us to get to this point?

  “You’re still here.”

  “We’re not done talking.”

  “That’s all you want? To finish the conversation?”

  “To start with.” He winked and gave me a sexy grin.

  A grin I felt everywhere.

  He stood and closed the space between us, and everything around us faded. “Come on, sunshine.” And with those three words, I would have followed him anywhere. Thankfully, he didn’t ask to plan a bank heist. Instead, he wrapped a possessive arm around my s
houlder and took me out of the bar and to my car.

  Without words, I handed him the keys to my car, and we drove off to the hotel, getting the same room we had been spending time in. 143. My new favorite number.

  Entering the room, I kicked off my shoes and looked up at him. The same thought had been playing over and over in my mind. What to do about him? If I didn’t take a chance and see what happened with Garrett, I would regret it. What if he was the one person to keep me? Though, my luck wasn’t the best. There was something about his pull that gave me the feeling he could do serious damage if or when things went south.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked, and I smiled gently. He was such a contradiction. All hard edges on the outside, but the inside he was sweet.

  “You.”

  “Hmm…” He kicked off his shoes, placing them beside mine. There was something meaningful about our shoes next to one another. Despite the clear differences between styles and wear and tear, they were next to one another. Right next to one another.

  What would it be like to have that forever?

  Someone to set your shoes beside at the end of the day? Someone who was there, not for any other reason than because they enjoyed your company. Because they wanted to.

  Really have it, not just daydream about it?

  “Stefanie?” he said, snapping me out of my thoughts. Take a chance, my heart whispered just as I let myself look up and start to drown in the dark depths of his eyes.

  “Okay,” I said out loud and swallowed hard, feeling something change in the air between us.

  “Okay?” he raised a brow.

  “I’ll be yours,” I shared softy and didn’t miss the way everything about him changed.

  Gone was the silent, laid-back man who had checked us in and walked with me, hand in hand, to the hotel room. In his wake was left a man wound up tightly. A man whose breathing had changed and now was ragged. A man who made my thighs clench together, knowing exactly how he worked his body.

  “You have any idea what you just gave me?” he rasped, stepping closer to me. I should have felt like an animal about to be caged, but I just felt free.

  Both of us were barefoot and on even ground, yet he felt bigger than normal. Looking up at him, I felt daintier, feminine, and completely comfortable in my own skin. He was taller, stronger, but it wasn’t intimidating. I welcomed his dominance as I stepped closer, basically offering myself as a sacrifice to his altar.

  “I think so.”

  “You think so?” he repeated with a wicked gleam in his eye.

  “I just know that if I don’t try, I’ll regret it.”

  “Gotta be honest, sunshine, because it’s me you’re taking that bet on.” He stepped closer. His warm, strong hand on my hip seared through me. The air between up sparked and crackled. “You will probably end up regretting it,” he warned, but I was past caring.

  I had lived the way I had and had been living safely.

  When it came to Garrett, I wanted it all, and I would cheat life to get just an extra minute with him.

  Not that I got a chance to say that.

  Not when his mouth met mine.

  Not when his hands tangled in my hair.

  Not when my own hands were pawing and pulling at his clothes and every single moment past by us in a flurry of passion and heat and something so much more beautiful than I had ever experienced, I was afraid to call it what it was.

  Love.

  I was in love with Garrett Wright.

  Chapter Twelve

  Stefanie

  “It’s beautiful here.” I sighed, staring toward the beautiful lake in front of me.

  “It pales in comparison,” his deep voice tumbled, and I laughed, his beard tickling my neck as he rested his chin on my shoulder.

  “Smooth talker,” I muttered.

  It had been a week since our conversation and an obvious shift settled in our relationship as we started something. The official beginning of us. With a long weekend off from work, he had suggested we get away. The moment I agreed, he had everything planned, taking us to a cabin in Big Bear. We were standing at the second-floor balcony off the room we were using. Though, cabin was an understatement. For it being just the two of us, the place was not only gorgeous but massively huge. Which got me thinking and realizing how little I knew about him. How the hell could he afford this?

  “You like it.” With his arms wrapped around me, his body was the perfect cover to the chill in the air.

  “It’s beautiful,” I whispered, knowing I was tempting fate by asking something I couldn’t seem to get off my mind. “Hey, soldier boy?”

  “Hmm?” He nuzzled the side of my head, and I turned to look up at him, holding his face gently, enjoying the feel of his scruffy beard against the palm of my hand. “How can you swing this?”

  “What?” His lips twitched.

  “You didn’t have to impress me. I would have been happy with a staycation at my apartment.”

  “You mean the cabin?”

  “Yeah. Though, this is so much more than a cabin.”

  “It’s not—”

  “It is.” I laughed as he watched me quietly. “When you said cabin, I imagined four wooden walls and prayed for running water.”

  “It’s mine,” he confessed, and I stood still wondering if I had understood him right.

  “What?”

  “The place. It’s mine. I—” He cleared his throat, obviously uncomfortable. I let my hands fall, but he didn’t let them get far, holding me tighter, the palms of my hands laid over his strong chest. “I bought it.”

  “For this weekend?” I teased. No way he can be serious, I thought to myself, but the way his eyes darkened had me rethinking my first guess.

  “A couple of months ago,” he confided. I studied him wondering how the hell that was possible.

  “You’re serious.” My eyes widened in surprise. Holy crap. I looked over his shoulder toward the house.

  “Yeah.”

  “This place is huge.”

  “It’s not.”

  “It’s in Southern California. Do you know what the real estate market is in California?” I asked, and he rubbed the back of his neck.

  “Bryan and Val got a place together. So that meant B wasn’t coming back,” he explained as if it was supposed to make sense to me.

  “To your other brother’s place?” I asked, trying to connect the dots even though he wasn’t making sense. I knew about his living situation. He was crashing with his two brothers and their lifelong friend. It had made sense. Rent in California was outrageous, especially in the Los Angeles area.

  “Yeah, the middle one.”

  “Marc?”

  “Yeah.” There was something playing in the back of his dark eyes. I waited him out. “Okay, so don’t freak out or anything, okay?”

  “When someone tells you not to freak—” I couldn’t say another word because he covered my mouth with a finger.

  “Marc, my middle brother, the one who owns the place, well, he… doesn’t really stay there that much now that he’s married and has a family.”

  “Okay… so, you rent his place?”

  “No. I live there with our friend, but he has a place closer to the city.”

  “City?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Which city, Garrett?”

  “Calabasas. Though, most his shit is in a high-rise apartment in Burbank.”

  “Okay.”

  “Have you ever watched…” he elaborated, asking about the comic book franchise turned summer blockbuster. I nodded.

  “You would have to be hidden underneath a rock to never have seen those.”

  “My brother—”

  “Bryan?”

  “No. The middle one. He worked on those.”

  “Marc?”

  “Yeah, Marc,” he confirmed, and I blinked once. Then twice.

  “Marc,” I repeated and took a step away from him. This time he let me. “Marc Wright? You mean Marcus Wright
?”

  “Yep.” He crossed his arms and tried to do the serious intimidating thing with his face where he shut down emotionally, but I couldn’t help it. I started to laugh. The more I laughed, the deeper his scowl got, until it faded, and I could see he was trying to bite back his own humor as I wiped tears from my eyes.

  “Are you saying my big, bad soldier’s little brother is none other than Marcus Wright? Hollywood’s Mr. Right?”

  “Babe.” He lifted a manly brow, and I shook my head, looking away and off toward the lake. “And you bought this place?”

  “I wanted somewhere for me. A place for quiet and space.”

  “You totally have space here,” I said softly, taking in the view, noticing for the first time he really didn’t have that many neighbors around him.

  Then I thought of my own neighbor.

  How just last week I had heard Mrs. Ferraro sneeze through our walls, and I took her chicken noodle soup before I went to work that morning. I turned to take in the house, the amazing balcony, and the expensive outdoor furniture with fresh eyes. It was painfully obvious that we were from completely different worlds. Owning a place like this was so far off even my daydream spectrum, yet this was his reality.

  “You must hate my apartment,” I blurted without thinking. His frown was hard to miss, and I shook my head. “I just mean it’s tiny in comparison. No wonder we’re always at the hotel.” I shrugged and shook my head. “I don’t mean anything—”

  “We get back, no more hotels,” he stated, kindness and warmth in his eyes I felt. God, I could feel it in my bones, and then I felt more as he kept talking. “We get back, I’ll stay with you when I’m in town, and in the meantime, we look for a place.”

  “A place?” My eyes widened, and my heart felt like it was about to leap out of my chest.

  “Together.”

  “Together?”

  “I was serious last week, Stef. You take a chance on me, you got me.”

  “All of you?” I whispered. Holy smokes!