Betting the Bad Boy

by Sugar Jamison

  “You rat bastard,” she heard Duke’s angry voice say. She dropped the bag of groceries she was carrying and rushed into the kitchen to see them sitting at the table, a deck of cards between them. Her father with a huge grin on his face.

  “Is everything okay in here?” she asked, her voice unnaturally high.

  “Your father is a shifty bastard,” Duke said, glaring at his hand.

  “Not my fault the hooligan has a shitty poker face. Who knew the man couldn’t tell a lie? You really are a terrible criminal, aren’t you?”

  “Meanwhile the man who was appointed to administer justice is the biggest liar of them all. Isn’t that some shit?” Duke’s lip curled up into a half smile.

  “Oh.” Grace wasn’t sure what to make of this. “Ryder? Can you help me with the groceries?”

  “Yeah.” He got up from his spot at the table. “Duke won’t let me play.”

  “Too young,” Duke said absently as he dealt a new hand. “Help your mother.”

  They walked out of the kitchen together, Ryder glancing down at the bags she had dropped. “I got worried,” she said by way of explanation. “I forgot that your father might want to kill him. Lord knows he deserves at least a couple of good punches.”

  “It’s weird.” Ryder shook his head. “They’ve been calling each other names but I think Grandpa respects him. He kind of apologized.”

  “Did he?” Grace couldn’t believe it.

  “Kind of. He said he might have been wrong about Dad. And I think Dad forgave him. I don’t know how he did it. But they’re like cool with each other now.”

  “I don’t know how he did it, either, but your father is a good man.” A good man she didn’t think she could go back to life without.

  *

  It was still early when they left the judge’s house, still before eleven AM, but in the couple of hours that they were there they got a lot done. Duke and Ryder had cleared away a bunch of the junk that cluttered the house, while Grace made her father a large pot of pasta and enough chicken salad to last a few days. It was funny how much time changed things. For so many years Duke had kept an image of the judge in his mind—one of him as a young, proud, arrogant man—but age was catching up with him and it seemed that the shoe was on the other foot now. Instead of him being concerned with Grace’s well-being, she was now the one who had to care for him.

  “What do you want to do today?” he asked Grace, glancing at her as they drove through town.

  They had dropped Ryder off at his friend’s house since he lived just a few blocks away from the judge. Duke was looking forward to spending the rest of the day alone with her. He pulled her car back into the driveway and touched her face. She was distracted, worry etched into her face.

  “Do you think he’ll be okay?”

  “Your father or Ryder?”

  She looked over at him and smiled softly. “Take your pick.”

  “I think he needs more than a cleaning lady to come once a week, but he’ll be fine once we get somebody in there.”

  “I hated him for so long, but the thought of him dying scares me.” She looked over to him. “Have you ever heard from your father?”

  “Not since he walked out.”

  “So you don’t know if he’s dead or alive?”

  “No, and I don’t care, either,” he said without pause. “I might knock him on his ass again if I see him.”

  “You hate him that much?”

  “Yeah.” Duke was mad at him for abandoning them, but he knew life would have been much worse if he stayed around.

  “I was afraid to see you for the longest time because I thought you felt the same way about me.”

  He leaned over, shutting his eyes as he pressed his lips to her face. He didn’t hate her. He knew that sometimes she thought that he did. But he didn’t. He couldn’t. He was just angry at all the time they had wasted. He could have had this seven years sooner. But he knew it would have been impossible to expect her to take a chance on a man who spent so long in maximum-security prison with no education and no prospects. It’s not what he would have wanted for his daughter.

  “There’s something about you.” Because most of their relationship had been carried on at night and in secret, he’d worried that all he was feeling was the rush of sneaking around with the most beautiful girl in town. But they weren’t sneaking around anymore. They weren’t hiding it. It seemed impossible to, because whatever they had spilled over every time they were in the same room. And he liked doing mundane shit with her during the day just as much as he did being with her at night under the covers.

  That meant something big, didn’t it? He needed to tell her that. That life before her and Ryder was kind of meaningless and empty.

  He didn’t want to say that he would have traded it all—the money that King’s Customs brought him, the power that he had—because without it, he wouldn’t be able to take care of his family like he wanted to. He wanted to give them the world.

  “Duke.” She looked at him with those big beautiful eyes of here. “I—”

  A blast from a horn cut her off and Duke looked over to see Levi climbing out of his jeep and rushing over to them a tense look on his face.

  Duke stepped out of the car. “What’s the matter?”

  “This.” He handed him a pink piece of paper.

  “A Bertie special?” Duke swore under his breath. “This is going to be bad.”

  “What it is?” Grace was at his side.

  “This flyer says that Colt’s doing hair down at my aunt’s salon.”

  “What?” Grace laughed. “I don’t think so.”

  “I don’t think so, either,” Levi said. “But these flyers are all over town and people are heading over to the shop in droves.”

  “We’ve got to get over there.” Duke clenched his jaw, not knowing who was behind this, but knowing his brother well enough to know they had to be there to prevent bloodshed.

  “Do you think Colt knows about this?” Grace asked.

  “Hell no. If there’s one thing Colt hates, it’s being made a fool of.”

  They pulled up in front of Lolly’s salon, the Head Shed, to see dozens of cars in the parking lot and a mass of bodies at the front door.

  “Holy shit.” Duke shook his head. There had never been this many people at the beauty shop even in its heyday.

  Grace reached for his hand, tucking her smaller fingers in between his. “Why does anyone think Colt can do hair?”

  For a moment he didn’t process the question because he was too preoccupied with the way her hand felt in his. The whole town was there, and with her simple gesture she made a statement. They weren’t just co-parents. They were partners and she didn’t care who knew it.

  “Colt can do hair. When we were kids, I worked at the body shop, but Colt and Levi worked here after school, sweeping up hair and doing whatever the old biddies asked. Lolly made him learn the basic stuff, because I think she wanted him to take over running the place for her one day. But when he acted up, she made him do roller sets. The summer he turned fifteen he had done so many of them that he got better than Lolly at them.”

  “Oh.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “Do you know how to do them, too?”

  “No, I was smarter than him. I learned to stay away from Lolly and do my dirt in secret.”

  “I didn’t.” Levi walked up grinning. “That woman must have had spies on me.” His eyes went to the door where a line was forming. “I guess we better get in there.”

  They made their way through the crowd and into the still-empty salon. Colt was coming out of the back, pulling Zanna to the front of the shop with him.

  “He’s looks ready to kill,” Grace said softly.

  “Why do you think we’re here? Let Levi talk to him. He’s the only one who can get Colt to back down when he’s ready to blow.”

  “What’s this?” Levi said with his usual good humor. “What did you do to make Lolly punish you now?”

  “Lolly�
��s not punishing me.” He shot an angry look at the woman whose arm he was holding. “Zanna is.”

  Ah, Zanna.

  Duke was too preoccupied with his own woman troubles to find out what was really going on with his brother, but he knew that any woman who caused Colt this much trouble deserved a permanent spot in the King family.

  Perry Andersen along with his brother Jeff pushed their way inside the door. “Is this true? You doing hair for a living now?” He had a smug look on his face—which was brave of him, considering Colt had gotten locked up for trying to kill him just a few short weeks ago.

  “He ain’t doing shit,” Duke growled. “Now get out before I kick your ass, too.”

  “I knew it was a lie.” Perry locked eyes with Colt. “Everyone should know by now never to trust a King boy. They’re no good, just like their father. Let’s go outside, Jeff, and tell everybody that Colt is running away, just like his father did after that accident he caused in the factory. Just like he did when Duke got sent to prison.”

  “Send them in,” Colt said, a mix of rage and determination on his face.

  “What?” Zanna said. “You don’t have to do this. I’ll send them away. I’ll tell them it’s my fault. It is my fault.”

  “I don’t run away. Send them in.”

  And right then Duke’s respect for this brother grew tenfold.

  “I’ll help,” Levi said. “Colt wasn’t the only one who got punished by doing roller sets.”

  “Don’t look at me,” Duke said before anyone got any bright ideas. “I’ve never touched a roller in my life. But I’ll stay here to support you.”

  “I’ll go first.” Grace stepped forward, surprising him. “I would be honored to have Colt do my hair.”

  “Move it, Bertie,” Colt said, staring down the old woman whom the special was named for. “I’m taking over your station.”

  *

  Grace couldn’t help but glance at herself in the rearview mirror one last time before she stepped out of her car with the two large bags of Chinese food she had just purchased for the hungry men waiting at the salon. Colt had roller set her hair, but Zanna had styled it.

  “I’m going to give you Grace Kelly hair,” the beautiful stylist had told her as she took over. And she had. Grace’s hair was now slicked back with a curl at the bottom. It was elegant and classic, yet modern at the same time.

  She didn’t look like herself. In fact she hadn’t recognized the woman looking back at her. Her hair wasn’t thrown back in a messy ponytail; her face wasn’t drawn and tired. She looked content for once and she couldn’t help but attribute that to Duke. She had never stopped loving him, but since his return she had fallen for him all over again. For his goodness and his kindness. For how he treated others and how he loved his son so completely even though he had missed out on most of his life.

  And even now she was rushing back into the salon, her heart speeding up a little knowing that she was going to see him again, even though they had been separated for less than an hour. She wanted to say that she felt like a teenager again, but it was stronger than that.

  Maybe because they had so much more to lose this time.

  He was standing behind the cash register when she walked back in, studying a piece of paper.

  “Food’s here.” She had gotten enough to feed an army. They had all worked hard that day. Levi and Colt rolling hair, Duke cashing the customers out, and Grace running around doing what she could to make life easier for everyone.

  It was nice to see all the King boys together. They had an almost electric dynamic when they were all together in one room. Pure surging masculinity that would make most women need to fan themselves—but there was more there. She had a hard time describing it, but there was a closeness with them, a strong bond that felt unbreakable, one built on love and sacrifice. Few people ever got to experience that. But then again few people experienced what they had.

  Grace wanted Ryder to have that kind of relationship with his siblings.

  Siblings. The thought was jarring. She had always thought she was going to be single for the rest of her life, that Ryder was going to be her only child, but she realized that she wanted another one. A baby to take care of and love and raise with a partner instead of alone.

  She glanced back at Duke, who connected eyes with her, and wondered if that were possible.

  “Oh thank you, you sweet beautiful woman.” Levi grabbed the bags from her. “I had her order everything on the menu, Shells,” he said to Shelly, Levi’s childhood best friend, whom Zanna had turned into a pinup girl with some big soft curls and a rolled bang. “I want you to walk on the wild side tonight and try some spicy Kung Pao beef.”

  “I’ll be fine with just rice. You know I’m not used to eating exotic things.” She gave him a soft, almost shy smile. Grace worked with Shelly and had known her for years, but tonight she looked like a different woman. The prim elementary school teacher looked like a total knockout with her sexy hair and cute sundress. Her beauty wasn’t lost on Levi, it seemed, because he looked at Shelly with such longing in his eye that Grace almost blushed.

  “Only you would think that Chinese food is exotic.” Levi kissed her cheek and grabbed Shelly’s hand. “Take a walk on the wild side with me tonight.” They walked into the back, followed by the other stylists who worked in the salon.

  Duke walked up to her and she thought of her son, who was looking more like his father with each passing day. “I think I need to call Ryder again,” Grace said, reaching into her purse for her phone.

  “No.” Duke grabbed her hand. “He’s fine. He’s with his friends and you already called him.”

  They had agreed to let him sleep over. It wasn’t something that should be so out of the ordinary, but it was. Ryder had had a hard time making friends when they first moved here from back east. She wanted to chalk it up to culture shock but she knew it had more to do with him not having a father. In Boston it was much more common to be raised in a single-parent or nontraditional home, but in Destiny … Life was so much different here. She had spent 90 percent of her time worrying about him and how he would fit in and how happy he was. “I just want to make sure he’s not getting into any trouble.”

  “Two dozen phone calls from you isn’t going to keep them out of trouble. Plus I told him that if he didn’t keep his nose clean, I was going to break his neck.”

  “You didn’t?” she gasped.

  “He’ll be fine, Grace.” He wrapped his arm around her and looked at her in that way that only he could. “Now let’s go eat some high-calorie, inorganic, non-free-range food.”

  “I want to say I’d rather eat spinach and sole tonight, but I really am looking forward to shoving my face into some fried rice.” She was starving. She had been for the past few days. It was as if Duke had woken all kinds of hunger inside her.

  “That’s my girl. Come eat, Zanna.” Duke motioned his head toward the back. “I bet your feet are barking.”

  She nodded and looked back at Colt, who was sitting at Bertie’s station in a world of his own. He had been there since the last customer left twenty minutes ago.

  “Leave him,” Duke said. “He needs to decompress.”

  She did leave him, but not for long. Zanna grabbed some food and a couple of beers and went back out to Colt.

  “She’s a brave woman to go back out there to him. I don’t think he’s recovered from doing all that hair,” Grace said to Duke as she plated his food.

  “I think she might love him,” Duke responded. Grace agreed. “Lord knows that’s not an easy thing to do.”

  “I think maybe you’re wrong. You King boys can ruin a girl for other men.”

  Chapter 17

  For the first time since he had opened King’s Customs, Duke slept in. In fact, he more than slept in, making it a lazy morning in bed with Grace. In her bed, not down in the basement with the door locked. No one had to sneak away in the middle of the night or the early hours of the morning. They had gone to bed to
gether. They had woken up together. They had shared coffee and talked about what they were going to do for dinner that night. Things that might have seemed normal for a pair that had a thirteen-year-old.

  But it wasn’t normal for him. And certainly something he never thought he would experience, in a place he never thought he would return to.

  He came out of the kitchen to see Grace heading toward the lumpy old couch in the living room, which was filled with old, cheap furniture. He wanted to replace it all for her. Every piece of furniture, every stitch of clothing that was ten years out of style, every old, tired thing that she had. She deserved better. It was why he had let her go in the first place.

  She lay down on the couch, her eyes looking sleepy and beautiful. He followed her, unable to stay away even though they had spent most of the day together. He couldn’t get enough of her. And he wondered if she felt a fraction of what he felt for her.

  “Hey, Gracie.” He knelt by the side of the couch and she reached out, her fingers burying themselves in his hair.

  “Hello, love. Ryder will be home soon.”

  “He survived. You were worried.”

  “I was,” she admitted. “I was annoyed at you when you gave him a phone, but you were right. I checked the GPS thingie about a dozen times.”

  He smiled down at her and set a light kiss on her lips. “You’re a good mom.”

  “You think so? I love him so much, I can’t describe it, but I was afraid. He was starting to act out and was so angry all the time. I thought he was going to turn into…”

  “Me?” he asked, knowing it was fair of her to fear that.

  “No. Well, maybe parts of you. You were angry. Just like a ball ready to explode. That’s one of the reasons I went after you. I wanted to make you happy. I wanted to be the one to calm you down. How arrogant of me.”

  “You were good for me. You made me realize that I wanted something more out of life.”

  She touched his face, stroking her thumb across his lightly bearded cheek. “You’re good for him. He’s happier now that you’re here. He needed you. You came just at the right time.”