Wicked Ties (Steele Security Series)

by Justice, A. D.

  “Oh, and by the way, you’re fired!”

  With that, Chaise stomped across the floor, yanked open the door, and hurried out to her waiting taxi. The driver put her bag in the trunk as she climbed into the backseat.

  The taxi driver asked, “Where to, Miss?”

  “The airport, please.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The slamming door left everyone inside the house in complete silence. Bull’s eyes stayed glued to the door as if he expected Chaise to walk back in at any second. The sound of a vehicle pulling away drew Noah’s attention and he raced to the window.

  “Sonofabitch!” he yelled as he watched the taxi drive away. Raking his hands over this face, Noah stood rooted to the floor, deep in thought of what their next move should be.

  “Why would you think this was a ruse, Reap?” Bull finally spoke.

  “What?” Noah said as he spun around. His face was contorted in confusion at Bull’s question. He had already moved on to other scenarios and Bull’s question pulled him back from his own world.

  “You said you thought she made all this up just to get to you. Why would you think that about her?” Bull quizzed him because his own thoughts strayed to whether Chaise had used him, played him, and then walked away.

  Noah sighed loudly in exasperation. “I don’t—I shouldn’t have said that. I’ve always expected my dad to send one of my siblings to guilt me into going back home. He’s so manipulative—I just don’t put anything past him, including using my sister,” Noah explained. He turned back to the window as he continued. “I took out my anger toward my father on her.”

  “Reaper, you should know that she’s really in danger. The men took shots at us and I heard them say they had orders to take her alive and kill me. If they get to her, her fate will be much worse than death,” Bull continued to speak with no emotion. He could’ve been repeating a grocery list for all the lack of empathy his voice portrayed.

  Shadow rubbed his jaw line with his hand, his thumb and middle finger meeting at his chin as he took in Bull’s demeanor. Rebel sensed it, too, because he leaned forward in his seat and pierced Bull with his gaze. They knew that Bull sensed their intense gazes but he rebuffed their attempt to engage him.

  Noah wasn’t as easily denied. He took a couple of steps toward Bull and narrowed his eyes at him. “You sure sound concerned, Bull,” Noah spat out sardonically. “So, my sister is good enough for you to fuck but not care about her wellbeing? Just another one of your whores?”

  Bull was on his feet, in Noah’s face, and had the front of Noah’s shirt twisted in his fists in a heartbeat. He growled out, “Don’t ever talk about her like that again.”

  Noah smiled at a very pissed off Bull. “Now, that’s more like it.”

  Bull released Noah’s shirt and took a step back, realization registered on his face. “You did that shit on purpose just now?”

  “I did. I had to see where you really stood with her, man. That was the best way I knew how to get you to admit it,” Noah replied.

  “I honestly don’t know where I stand with her, Reaper. I don’t want anything to happen to her but I don’t trust her. I can’t trust her,” Bull stated matter-of-factly.

  “You are so full of shit, man,” Rebel announced. Bull’s gaze shot to Rebel and glared menacingly at him.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Bull shot back.

  “It means, Bull, that over the past several days, you haven’t had any problems with trusting her. Today, you just turned your fucking back on her,” Rebel replied.

  “Whose side are you on, anyway?” Bull asked.

  Rebel and Shadow replied simultaneously, “Chaise’s.”

  Bull gave them both the middle finger salute.

  Brianna stood and said, “Can you boys excuse us, please? I’d like to talk to Bull alone.”

  Noah grinned from ear to ear, knowing Bull was about to get the ultimate tongue- lashing. “I don’t know why you’re smiling,” Brianna said flatly, “You’re next.”

  Noah’s smile dropped and his eyes widened in surprise. “Me?”

  “Oh yes, you! Now get out.”

  Brianna took Bull’s hand and led him back to the couch as the other men filed out the back door to wait on the patio. She knew Noah’s tactic to get Bull to admit his true feelings was brutish and would only work in the interim. Now that Bull realized what Noah was really trying to accomplish, it would be harder for Noah to get him to talk.

  “I won’t sugarcoat anything for you, Bull. You know as well as anyone that things between Noah and me have not been easy. We’ve had to work at rebuilding the trust between us. It wasn’t easy for Noah to forgive me, Bull. He wanted to stay mad at me. His male brain even told him not to believe me. But, where would we be today if we hadn’t worked through everything?

  “The most important thing is that we both want this relationship. We want to be together because we love each other. We forgive each other almost daily because neither of us is perfect. It’s worth all the trouble because we can’t live without each other.

  “You can’t berate her for not telling you she’s Noah’s sister. She was in trouble and she needed help. Would you have helped her if you knew she was Noah’s estranged sister? Sometimes, the hard road is the lesser of two evils. You can’t blame her for that.

  “So, you need to answer this question for yourself. Is Chaise worth it to you?”

  Brianna stopped talking and watched Bull’s reaction. He didn’t verbally respond but he did nod his head once in acknowledgement. “I’m going to leave you to think about that while I go have a little talk with my husband.”

  Half an hour later, Brianna, Noah, Rebel, and Shadow entered the house. Bull was standing at the front door with his bag in hand. Everyone looked at him expectantly, waiting to discover what he had decided to do.

  “Let’s go get her,” Bull stated.

  “That’s what I wanted to hear,” Noah replied with a brotherly slap on Bull’s back. “Don’t think I don’t still owe you an ass-kicking for sleeping with my little sister, though.”

  Bull, Rebel, and Shadow laughed while Brianna gave Noah a stern look in her attempt to admonish him. He smiled and winked at her while her response was an exaggerated rolling of her eyes at him.

  Boys will always be boys, she thought.

  “Go on to the airport without me. There’s something I need to take care of here before I leave,” Bull told them.

  “What’s up, Bull?” Reaper asked.

  “I need to go talk to my mom. My dad was one of the guys after Chaise but she says he’s undercover DEA. I’ll find out how to get in touch with him in case we need his help,” Bull explained.

  Shadow fished his vibrating phone out of his pocket and saw Brad’s name on the screen. “Hey, man. Did you find her?” A few clipped sentences, a couple of ‘yeahs’ and ‘uh-huhs’ later, Shadow hung up and found all eyes on him.

  “That was Brad. He found out that the cab company took Chaise to the airport. Let’s get a move on in case she gets lucky and gets on an early flight,” Shadow instructed.

  Reaper looked at Bull and asked, “What do you want me to do when I find her?”

  “Just try to keep her from boarding the plane until I can get there,” Bull answered. Noah nodded and they all left in a race to the airport.

  Several minutes later, Bull drew in a deep breath as he parked in his mother’s driveway. He couldn’t bring himself to turn off his truck yet. Sitting alone, he reflected upon everything he thought he knew about his life. He thought his father had abandoned him and his mother. He had accepted that his mother had lied to him, but now he’d learned it wasn’t for the reasons he had originally believed.

  Now, with Chaise, he was facing a similar conundrum. He knew from the beginning that she had lied about her last name and he had allowed her to keep it from him all this time. Even when she said she wanted to tell him, he was in no hurry for it. Just the fact that she admitted it and wanted to tell him wa
s enough at that moment.

  The feelings he had experienced over the past few weeks were new to him. He was just beginning to learn how to deal with them when the shit hit the fan. He was just so relieved to learn that she wasn’t one of Reaper’s past lovers.

  In retrospect, and knowing what he knew now, her questions and interest in Reaper made sense. Bull knew that Reaper hadn’t seen his family in years and Chaise must have been a pre-teen when Reaper left home. Then, to find out Reaper was married and had a baby on the way must have really hurt Chaise, thinking she would never be the aunt she wanted to be.

  Finally, Bull had to examine his own actions as closely as he had examined others. For all his blustering of being the eternal bachelor, even he had to admit he started playing house with Chaise very quickly—and it all came so very easily. He had to face the truth and admit, mostly to himself, that he didn’t want to lose her. He didn’t want to go back to how his life was before he met her.

  Bull finally left the sanctity of his truck and walked up to the front door of his mom’s house. He rang the doorbell and waited, taking time to really look around at his childhood home. He finally allowed the memories to resurface and realized that he actually had really good memories of his childhood. It wasn’t the constant turmoil his mind had built up.

  The door opened and Michelle looked at him, her eyes hesitant and fearful.

  “Hi, Mom,” Bull said softly, pulling her into his arms. “How are you?”

  Michelle wrapped her arms around Bull and held tightly to him, “So much better now.”

  They walked inside and sat down. Bull smiled at her and squeezed her hand in his way of telling her everything was fine between them. He’d always questioned her about why she never remarried. It never occurred to him that she was still married to his dad, John, or that she couldn’t imagine her life with any other man.

  “I need to know how to contact Dad,” Bull started, knowing that his mom would be shocked at his declaration. “I may need his help with Chaise.”

  “Well, you can start by turning around, son,” a friendly male voice boomed from behind him.

  Bull jumped up from the couch and whirled around to see his father standing in the doorway. He wore an old, ratty robe, had a towel around his neck, and his hair was still wet from his shower. He had a slight smile on his face but Bull knew his father was trying to gauge his reaction.

  “I know this is awkward, son. I wanted our reunion to be under better circumstances. Your mom told me about her conversation with you and everything she said is true. I am so damn proud of you. You were always a great kid and you’re a damn fine man,” John said with his voice full of emotion and pride.

  “I appreciate that. Maybe we can spend some time together, to get to know each other and be a family again. But, right now, I have to focus on the case. I need to know why they’re after Chaise,” Bull said earnestly.

  “Where is Chaise?” Michelle asked.

  “We had some complications. She left for the airport,” Bull paraphrased.

  “What?” John’s mouth dropped open. “You have to go get her, son. Now!”

  “Tell me what’s going on,” Bull demanded, the urgency in his voice matching his rising blood pressure.

  “I’ll change and tell you in the car on the way. We have to get to her first.” The worried look on John’s face ate away at Bull’s confidence.

  I never should have let her leave, Bull thought solemnly and with a silent prayer that she was safe.

  ****************

  At the airport, Chaise approached the ticket counter to purchase her one-way ticket back to Miami. Coming in on the private company jet had been a completely different experience than flying back in the coach section of a heavily crowded commercial airplane. They had left from Steele Security’s private airstrip so she didn’t have to jump through all the hoops required by the major airlines.

  With her boarding pass and driver’s license in hand, Chaise approached the TSA agent at the first security checkpoint. After verifying her credentials, she walked to the conveyor belt, grabbed a bin, and dropped her shoes and purse inside. Then she waited for the next agent to instruct her to step inside the full body scanner.

  After she’d passed the scanning procedure, she waited at the end of the conveyor belt for her purse. And waited. And waited. Another agent walked over, took her purse out of the machine and turned to her to ask, “Ma’am, is this your purse?”

  “Yes, it is. Why? What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “We need to scan it again. Sorry for the delay,” the agent explained vaguely.

  Chaise shrugged and continued to wait as the agent put it back on the conveyor belt and sent it back through the x-ray machine. The agent at the monitor stopped the belt and closely examined the screen. Within a few minutes, a plain-clothed agent, wearing a suit and tie, walked up behind the seated agent and started at the monitor.

  “There’s nothing in there. You’re welcome to look for yourself,” she told them, aggravation lacing her tone.

  “We’re not allowed to, ma’am,” one agent stated.

  “What? What are you talking about?” she asked.

  Other uniformed agents started grabbing luggage off the conveyor belt and putting it on the next machine. Everyone in line eyed Chaise suspiciously as her lane was shut down and everyone was moved away from her purse.

  She was mortified and thought, What the fuck is going on?

  The plain-clothes agent approached her and apprised her of the situation. “It appears there are two live rounds of ammunition in your purse. Do those belong to you?”

  Her hand met her head as she dropped it forward. “Yes, those are mine. I completely forgot about them.”

  “Do you shoot guns a lot?” the agent asked nonchalantly.

  “Yes, I do. I have my whole life,” she said defensively.

  “Do you have a concealed carry permit?” he continued to politely interrogate her.

  “Yes, I do, actually. It’s a Florida license and it’s in my purse. But I can’t get to my purse to show you.” The people walking by, openly gawking at her, were really starting to annoy her.

  “Do you know that you can’t bring live ammunition through a TSA security checkpoint?”

  “Yes, I know that. I just forgot they were even in there. I went to a shooting range and just dropped the extra rounds in my purse,” she explained.

  “Where are you headed today, ma’am?”

  “Back to Miami,” Chaise answered as she watched a police officer approach them. “Are you freaking kidding me?”

  “I just need to search your purse. I understand there are live rounds inside. Is that correct?” the officer asked.

  “Yes, go right ahead,” she answered with a wave of her hand. Everyone else had gawked at the contents in her person so the police may as well have their go at it now.

  The officer removed the two .357 rounds and she watched as they measured, photographed, and wrote their reports. The plain-clothes agent took her driver’s license and said he had to run an NCIC report to check for any warrants for her arrest.

  “How long is this going to take? I have a flight to catch. This was a simple mistake. I thought you were having a fit about a bottle of lotion in my purse!”

  “It shouldn’t take too long,” he replied as he continued to complete the paperwork. Twenty minutes later, Chaise had her purse back, minus the .357 rounds they confiscated, and the agent advised she would receive a letter in the mail that advised she couldn’t bring live ammunition through the TSA checkpoint.

  Yeah, I got that part, she thought sarcastically.

  Four hours and one connection in Atlanta later, Chaise walked out of the Miami International Airport without a clue of where she should go. She hailed a taxi to take her to retrieve her car from Bull’s house. That plan at least gave her a little extra time to figure out where she was staying for the night.

  She considered staying in his house since some of her stuff was still t
here but quickly decided against it. His entire place was meticulously guarded and monitored by Steele Security so there was no way she could get in undetected. She decided she didn’t need any additional reminders of Bull, anyway. She’d had enough heartbreak for one day.

  Cranking her car, she fought back the tears and her anxiety threatened to take over her mind. The dark feeling of foreboding was like a living, breathing presence in the car with her. She had effectively compartmentalized her day so that she could function; however, she had already decided that as soon as she checked into a hotel room, she was having a complete and total mental breakdown over a bottle of Moscato wine.

  Thanks to her shitty day and equally shitty mindset, Chaise decided to splurge on her hotel room and stay at Loews Miami Beach Hotel in South Beach. She requested an oceanfront suite so that she could soak in a jetted tub. She had stopped on the way in to purchase two bottles of her favorite wine.

  The clerk swiped her credit card, handed her room keys to her, and had the bellman take her bag up to her suite for her. Once she was settled into her room, with the door securely locked, she filled the garden tub full of hot water, turned on the jets, and sank down into the luxurious tub.

  Then, she opened all the doors of the compartments she’d created over the course of the day and let the tears flow unchecked. Her whole body convulsed with sobs. She mourned losing Bull. Even with their short union, she had foolishly let herself believe she had found a good man who would stand by her through the hard times.

  Her heart had shattered when she sat in front of Bull, in front of everyone, and tried to explain herself only to have him completely ignore her. Her eyes begged, her tone of voice pled and her body implored. She already knew what his answer would be—she knew before she left the bedroom—so she made the call to arrange a taxi to take her away from them.

  She mourned losing her brother, Noah, again. She had purposely sought him out at the beginning of the whole debacle with two intentions—she missed her brother and wanted him back, and she needed his help and protection. Then, when he accused her of engineering everything solely to manipulate him, he had hurt her more than she imagined he ever could. It was as if he had told her he didn’t care that her life was in danger.