“Whatever it takes to get Paige back, I’ll do it.”
“I have a plan for our first plan of attack. There’s a winter festival next weekend. The girls and I are going, and we plan on dragging the guys with us. I’ll have Gwen ask Paige to come.”
“She won’t come if she knows that I’m going to be there.”
“That’s why she won’t know that you’ll be there. Gwen will tell her it’s just a girl thing, and she’ll come, guaranteed. Don’t worry Demon, I’ll get her there so you can grovel for all of your past sins,” Meg winked. “Plus, I might make you grovel some too just for good measure.”
“Just tell me where and when and I’ll be there.” I ran my hands through my hair and headed out the door. I would do anything to get Paige back, even enlist the help of Meg and her girl posse. The brothers and I all knew that if you had Meg, Cyn, Marley or Gwen plotting against you, you didn’t stand a chance.
Poor Paige didn’t know what was about to hit her.
__________
Chapter 9
Paige
I had three missed calls from Gwen and multiple text messages from Cyn and Meg on my phone. They were all begging me to come to the Snowflake Festival this weekend, and I had yet to reply to any of them.
“Hey, Hun, can you grab that new shipment of books and start putting them on the shelves. I know we close in half an hour, but I figure we could start getting some of them out.”
I shoved my phone in my pocket and headed into the backroom. I could think about the Snowflake Festival after work. I had never really hung out with everyone and was hesitant about Demon being there. It had been over a week since I had last seen him and I wasn’t eager to see him again.
I grabbed the cart that was loaded full of all of the latest indie books and headed over to the display by the front door. Just as I opened the first box, Gwen and Meg walked through the front door. It appeared since I didn’t answer their numerous messages, that they had come for an answer in person.
“Hey, girl,” Gwen sang as she shut the door behind her. “You get my messages today?”
“Yeah, I just saw them. I was going to call you after work.”
“Holy hell, you have a whole wall dedicated to the greatness that is Kristen Ashley,” Meg gasped. “I have all of her books on my Nook, but I’ve never held all of the Rock Chick awesomeness in my hands before.” Meg grabbed a book off of the wall and slowly paged through it. “I know what I’m buying with the gift card Lo got me for my wedding gift.”
“I thought you just said you have all of her books?” Gwen asked.
“Holding this in my hand, I now realize I need a bookshelf and it needs to be filled with all of my favorite books, including all of these.” Meg put the book back on the shelf and stepped back, her eyes roaming over all of the books.
“How much is your gift card for?” Marg asked as she pushed the other full cart of books from the back room.
“Oh, it’s not for here. It’s for Barnes and Noble.” Meg replied.
“How much is it? I’ll honor it for here.” Marg leaned against the cart and smiled. I had seen Marg do this before. She accepted gift cards from Amazon and Barnes and Noble in the store. She just bought them from the store and used them for her own personal use. She just liked people coming to the store and buying actual books. Plus, Meg was drooling over her shrine to Kristen Ashley, Marg always appreciated that.
“Five hundred. Well, it’s probably more like four fifty. I bought a couple of books last night.”
“Holy hell, your man bought you a five-hundred-dollar gift card for books!” Gwen gasped.
Meg shrugged her shoulders and blushed. “He might have gone a little overboard when I said I never had time to read. Now, he basically banishes me from our room for an hour so I can read. I’ve finally convinced him that I can read with him next to me.”
“That is the weirdest, but sweetest thing I’ve ever heard,” I swooned.
“Well, I was going to say I’d buy it from you, and you could have your choice of books, but I doubt you need four hundred dollars’ worth of books,” Marg laughed.
“Yeah, Lo might kill me if I come home with a truckload of books. I’ll just take these.” Meg grabbed all of the Rock Chick series books and set them on the counter. “I’ll be back later for the others.”
“Um, earth to Meg, earth to Meg. Can we get back to the reason why we’re here?” Gwen asked.
Meg pulled her credit card out of her purse and set it on top of the pile of books. “Lo is going to kill me,” she giggled.
“I’m glad to see that isn’t stopping you, though,” Marg winked.
“Oh, Lord, if I knew she was going to be like this in a bookstore I wouldn’t have brought her with.” Gwen waved her hand at Meg, realizing she was a lost cause for any help that Gwen was looking for from her. “You’re coming this weekend with us. Meg, Cyn, Marley and I are going, and I’ve decided that you need to get out more.”
“I really don’t think I can make it. I have to work Saturday.”
“Nonsense, you can have the day off. I’ll make Rod come in and man the counter. It can be like old days when I pretended to be the lost book nerd looking for the right book. Oh, the memories we have on that counter,” Marg said dreamily.
“You, you I like,” Meg laughed. “We should so invite her over to the clubhouse. Lo would have an aneurysm.”
“I don’t want to make Rod work for me.” Dammit, working was the only reason I had for not going to the festival. Now I was either going to have to go or come up with some crazy reason why I couldn’t go.
“You should go. The Snowflake Festival is fun. Snowmobile rides, outhouse races, chili cook-off, and fireworks. You have to at least go once, Paige. Rod and I will be there after the store closes.” Marg bagged up Meg’s books, set them on the counter and handed her credit card back.
“There, problem solved. You’re coming with.” Gwen put her arm around my shoulders and gave me a quick hug. “It’ll be fun.”
“Make sure you dress warm; I think it’s supposed to snow in the afternoon.” Meg shoved her credit card back into her purse and grabbed her books. “We’ll pick you up around noon. We’ll wander and stuff ourselves until the fireworks at eight.”
“We’re going to be there for eight hours?” That seemed like a mighty long time to wander around.
“Around there. It’ll be fun, I promise.” Meg tucked her bag under her arm and waved bye to Marg. “We need to leave before I buy every book in here.” Meg grabbed Gwen by the arm and hauled her out the door.
“Noon. Saturday. Be ready Paige, or I’m throwing you over my shoulder and dragging you out of the house,” Gwen threatened. She slipped out the door but not before she pointed her finger at me and glared.
The door slammed, the tiny bell ringing in their wake. “Next time, don’t be so helpful.” I grabbed a stack of books off of the cart and started stacking them as I turned my back to Marg.
“Oh, come one, Paige. You’ve been in town for how long, and you’ve done nothing other than work and read.”
“Hey, I went to King and Meg’s wedding.”
“Ah yes, the night with the mysterious mafia man. You never did really tell me much about that.” Marg rolled her cart over by me and started to unload the books onto the shelf.
“I did tell you everything. He barely spoke twenty words to me and then he took me home.”
“Girl, you have all this opportunity to live out one of your favorite romance novels. A night with a suspected guy connected to the mafia and now going to hang out with a bunch of ol’ ladies from an MC. Live it up, have some fun. Find a biker and ride him till your legs give out.”
Been there, done that. I thought to myself. “I’m not one to go out and party or just hang out. I like being in my own company just fine.”
Marg reached over and took the stack of books out of my hand. She set the books down and put her hand on my shoulder. “Paige. How old are you?”
“Thirty-one.”
Marg knew how old I was. It was on my application when I had applied for my job.
“No, I seriously think that you are a ninety-year-old stuck in a banging body that you have no idea what to do with.” Marg eyes me up and down, and I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Um, well, thanks, Marg. But I’m not ninety. I just act more mature for my age.” I had always acted older than I was. Growing up, I always felt that I needed to take care of Gwen, and I guess that just translated over to everything in my life. I needed to be the serious one who always had a plan.
“Sweetie, you are the best employee I have ever had and also the youngest. When you walked through that door, I knew that there was more to you then what you put out, but you hide it away because you think having fun or letting loose will somehow hurt you.”
“I don’t believe that entirely. I believe that you can have a good time without getting hurt.” Like reading. Reading was fun and safe. It’s when you added in other people into that fun was when things got out of hand, and people got hurt.
“What happened, Paige? What made you what you are today. I’m not letting you leave until you tell me. Hell, I’ll even get the tequila out, get you rip roaring drunk and drag it out of you.” Marg crossed her arms over her chest, and I knew that she meant business.
“It’s nothing, Marg. Haven’t you met some people that are just more serious than others?” Hell, half of the people who came into the store were straight-laced and quiet. Although it always seemed it was the quiet ones who bought erotica by the handful.
“Yes, and there is always something that made them that way.” Marg picked up the stack of books and handed them back to me. “And you, my dear, are the way you are because a man screwed you over.”
My jaw dropped, and I grabbed the books. How in the hell did she know? I had never mentioned anything to her before about any guy, especially Demon. I kept my eyes glued to the shelf in front of me and lined up the books.
“He cheat on you?” She asked. “Eat the last of the chocolate? Hit on one of your friends?”
“I’m not sure if eating the last of the chocolate is the same as being cheated on.”
Marg shrugged her shoulders and kept stacking books. “I’m serious, girl. I’ll call Rod and tell him I’m not going to be home till late. I’m not leaving until I know why there’s a stick shoved up your butt.”
“Marg!” I gasped.
“Oh, you know I love you. I just mean, well, you know, you got a stick up your butt.”
“You should actually write a book, Marg. Your words are so eloquent.”
Marg scoffed and crouched down, filling the bottom. “I tried it once. I got to a sex scene and about peed my pants when I read it out loud. Worst shit I’ve ever read in my life.” She plopped down on her butt and crossed her legs Indian style. “Pull up a patch of rug and tell Auntie Marg everything.”
I looked down at her and knew I wasn’t going to be able to get out of this. I finished putting the books on the shelf and sat down next to her. If anyone walked through the door, they were going to think we were a bunch of weirdos. “There's not much to tell, Marg.”
“I’ll be the judge of that. Start from the beginning and don’t leave any of the good stuff out.” She leaned back against the bookshelf and waited.
Where the hell to start and how much do I tell her? No one, and I mean no one knew anything. Gwen, my damn sister, had no clue of the things I was about to tell Marg. “He cheated, but he says he didn’t technically cheat.”
“Hmm, sounds like a man. What’d he do?”
“Well, he’s not completely to blame.”
Marg scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Please do not tell me you are going to defend him.”
“No, at least not about the cheating. We were going through some really heavy things, and I was pushing him away because I thought I knew what he was thinking, but I really didn’t. It was seven years ago while I was in college.”
“I’m going to need more details than that.”
“Jesus, can’t I be vague, and you just go along with it?”
“No. You’re spilling right now, and then I’m going to help you get over what this asshole did to you.”
I took a deep breath and told Marg everything that had happened seven years ago, all the way up to seeing Demon three weeks ago.
“Holy mother of God, you are living a fucking romance novel.”
“Hardly, Marg,” I laughed. “It’s just my messed-up life. Now you know why I don’t want to go out with Gwen and the girls. I know for eight hours they are not going to stay away from their boyfriends. I know Gwen has no idea that there is anything between Demon and me, and that is the way that I would like it to stay.”
“Well, I have to say in Demon’s defense, he didn’t cheat. At least not from what you tell me. It sounded more like he was watching live porn.”
“Would you let Rod watch “live porn” the way Demon was?” I was a rational person, I prided myself on it, but it was so hard not to want to kill Demon for what he had done.
“If I was there with him, yes. We go to the strip club together, and that's basically the same thing, except, you know, Rod can’t pull his wang out.”
“So I shouldn’t be mad at Demon for what he did?”
“No, no, no. That is not what I meant. If Rod did that without me being there, I’d tie him up, hang him from a tree, and beat him like a piñata. You did the right thing by breaking up with his punk ass. The problem is now.”
“What do you mean? I’m not going to ever see Demon again, problem solved.” I folded my hands in my lap and acted like I had just solved world hunger. I was so delusional, Marg rolled her eyes at me.
“This is a small town, Paige, and there is no way in hell that you can avoid that man. Especially with your sister dating one of the club members. Unavoidable.”
“So what in the hell am I supposed to do?”
“First I need to go back to one thing.” She reached over and grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight. “I’m so sorry you had to go through losing your baby, hunny. Young, old, single, or married that is never an easy thing to do.” Tears clouded Marg’s eyes, and I had to look away before I lost it. I had never had someone say that to me before. I knew that I wasn’t the only one to have lost their baby before, but at the time, I had felt so alone that I didn’t think anyone knew what I was feeling. “Rod and I lost a baby the first year we were married. I know what you went through.”
“I’m sorry, Marg,” I whispered.
“Thank you, hunny. Rod and I wanted that baby something fierce, but God didn’t want us to have him. Lord knows what kind of parents Rod and I would have been anyway. We’re too crazy for our own good half of the time,” she laughed. She wiped her tears away with the back of her hand and sat back. “Now back to the problem at hand. Demon.”
“Demon is a definite problem.”
“So, you know what I’m going to ask you next, right?” I shook my head no and stretch out my legs. “Do you still love him?”
I stared down blankly at the toes of my shoes and took a deep breath. “Do I have to be honest about this?” I laughed.
“Well, just from what you’ve told me, hun, I know you’re not over him. No matter how badly he messed up back then, the fact that he’s back and trying to talk to you shows that he still loves you, too. I know this is a hard pill to swallow, but he didn’t cheat on you, Paige. He was just an enormous fucking idiot that didn’t know how to deal with what he was feeling. And from the sounds of it, you were struggling with how you felt back then, too.”
“But I never would have done that to him, Marg. Why would he do that to me?” Tears fell down my cheeks, and they dropped onto my jeans.
“That’s something you’re going to have to ask him. You’re going to have to look past your pain and hurt and talk to him. Maybe if he gives you the answers you need, you two can move on. Of course, you’re going to have to make him grovel. A lot.”
“You
really think that I can forgive and forget?”
“I think for your own good, you need to, hun. You thought you were going to spend the rest of your life with that man and grow a family with him. You’re both different now, and I think you both need to sit down and see each other for who you are now.” Marg stood up and brushed off her pants. “Now, I’m gonna go grab the vacuum, because I just realized I can’t remember when I cleaned these floors last,” Marg laughed.
She headed into the back room, and I leaned against the shelf behind me.
I had loved Demon back then, and if he hadn’t been an idiot that night, I would still be with him today. I had gone to the clubhouse that night, hopeful that we would finally talk and get back to the way we were, but that wasn’t what happened.
I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. I loved Demon with everything I had back then, and now I needed to figure out if I still loved him.
Demon and I needed to talk, and I hoped that I got the answers I wanted.
The problem was I didn’t know the answers I wanted to hear.
________
Chapter 10
Demon
“You’re fucking pussy whipped now, too?” Slider sat down opposite of me and set down the two beers in one hand and took a sip from the glass of whiskey in his other hand. “You don’t even have a fucking drink in front of you.”
It was Friday night, and everyone was spread out in the common room mowing down on pizza and chicken wings. I had finished my plate of food and was just drinking soda. Tomorrow was the festival and from the sounds of Meg’s plan, I needed to be on my game tomorrow and not hungover. “I’m good, brother. You can drink mine for me.”
“I didn’t ask if I could drink one for you, I wanted to know why the hell you aren’t drinking.” Slider finished his glass of whiskey and then chased it with a swallow of beer. “This is the one night I don’t need to be at Fayth's, and everyone is boring as hell. What the hell happened to this club?”
Slider did have a point that the way the club was now was entirely different from only a year ago. King, Rigid, and Gambler were all sitting by their girlfriends, or wife in Kings case, just talking among themselves and Gravel wasn’t even here tonight. With Ethel going through chemo for cancer, which she was kicking its ass at the moment, the clubhouse was pretty tame. “Priorities change, brother. I guess we’re all growing up and finding out what life is really about.”
Fighting Demon: Devil's Knights Series Page 5
