I knew my sister was watching us over the railing and that she’d tease me mercilessly for it, but that didn’t stop me from yanking on Alec’s shirt and kissing the heck out of him until we both almost forgot why we were there in the first place. Luckily—or unluckily, depending on how you wanted to look at it—Ariana was there to remind us.
“Get a room!” she hollered. “Oh, wait. You already have one waiting for you, and so do I. An entire suite, in fact. The faster you get up here and help me move this shit, the sooner you guys can hole up in your room and kiss all you want. In private. Where you can follow it up with whatever else you’d like to do.”
“We’re coming!” I called back, reluctantly pulling away from Alec to head up the stairs.
“Not yet, but later on you will be,” he murmured as he followed behind me. “I think I’m going to try for a triple this time around.”
When we made it up to the apartment, my face was beet red and it had nothing to do with the climb. Ariana gave me a knowing look, but she resisted the urge to give me a hard time and shoved a box into my arms instead.
“You and I are going to stick with the light stuff only.” She pointed at a stack of them near the kitchen. “Those are the heaviest of the bunch, so Alec can lug them downstairs. They’re fragile, so be careful,” she warned. “I decided I’d might as well take the dishes and pans with me since I’ll need them sooner or later.”
I glanced at the counter and noticed all the small appliances were missing. “You’re taking the coffee maker and stuff, too?”
“Yup.”
“What about Mom? You won’t need them while you’re at the hotel, and—”
Ariana held up a hand to let me know she didn’t want to hear it. “She’s welcome to anything we leave behind.”
“It’s not going to be much,” I replied softly, feeling Alec’s hand at my lower back.
“Which is no less than what she deserves.” Ariana looked over my shoulder at Alec. “You’d better make sure you protect my sister’s soft side. She’s too nice. Too forgiving. It opens her up to people taking advantage of her. Like our mom. And that damn boss of hers who fucked her over.”
“I’ve got her,” Alec promised. “I’m already taking care of the situation where she used to work, and I’ll make sure your mom doesn’t take advantage of her either.”
“Good.” Ariana nodded firmly, walking into the living room. “Then let’s get a move on. Alessia bragged to me about how amazing the tubs are at the hotel, and I’m dying to take a bath when we’re done.”
She grabbed a couple small boxes off the couch and brushed past us out the door. I turned to follow after her, but Alec stopped me with a gentle touch on my shoulder.
“You told her about the bubble baths, eh?” he asked with a cocky gleam in his eyes.
“Whatever,” I grumbled. “You heard my sister. Get a move on it.”
It only took us about an hour to finish packing up everything we wanted to take from the apartment and loading into the back of the rental truck. When it was all done, I wandered through the place to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything important. Not that we owned a lot, but with the eviction only two days away I knew we wouldn’t get another chance. It was weird walking through and seeing the empty closets and cabinets, with only my mom’s personal belongings left behind along with the furniture.
Ariana rapped on the doorway to my bedroom to get my attention. “You ready to go?”
“Yeah, I think so. But we should probably leave Mom another voicemail and let her know we’re gone and she has two days to stop by and pick up her stuff before the landlord clears out the apartment and sells whatever he can to try to make up for the back rent.”
“Like I told your hubby, you’re too nice for you own good,” she grumbled.
“She’s our mom, Ariana. Nothing’s going to change that, no matter how badly she messes up.”
“Fine,” she huffed, yanking her cell out of her pocket to make the call. “But if someone’s got to do it, it’s going to be me.”
I moved closer as she put the phone to her ear. Once again, it only rang once and was sent to voicemail. Underneath the anger in Ariana’s eyes was the same pain I was feeling. Seeing it in my sister made me want to yank the phone from her hand to yell at our mom, but it wouldn’t have done any good because she probably wouldn’t listen to the whole thing anyway. Not with how she was ignoring our calls. So I just listened as Ariana warned her about the looming eviction date and what would happen to her stuff if she didn’t come pick it up. When she was done, she offered me a weak smile.
“Your hubby’s waiting in the truck with the engine running. He said something about not wanting anyone to steal our stuff. I didn’t have the heart to tell him nobody would bother since none of it’s worth anything anyway.”
With the quick change in topic, it was obvious she didn’t want to talk about our mom anymore. So I followed her lead. “That wouldn’t stop them from stealing it anyway.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“Of course I am. I’m the smart sister,” I teased.
“Since you found me a lush place to crash for free, I’m not going to argue with you over which one of us is smarter than the other.” She reached for my hand and tugged me out of my room and through the apartment. “Except to remind you whose idea it was to walk into that wedding chapel on Friday night.”
“Yeah, but which one of us got married to the white knight?”
The smile she flashed me this time was genuine. “The one who deserved him the most.”
“Hey! You deserve an amazing guy, too. Once I figure out what I’m going to do with mine, we’ll be on the lookout for yours,” I promised.
“You’d better keep him, that’s what you should do.”
“We’ll see,” I told her as we neared the truck, where the topic of our conversation was leaning against the back end.
“We’ll see what?” he asked.
“If Alessia’s—”
“Car starts,” I finished for my sister. I dug in my purse and tossed her the keys. “She volunteered to drive it over to the hotel for me if it does.”
“Yup, that’s exactly what I did,” she laughed before heading over to where my car was parked.
Alec opened the passenger door of the truck and helped me inside. “Can we wait for my sister? Just in case my car doesn’t start? It’s been acting up lately, and I haven’t driven it since Friday so I’m not holding out much hope for it.”
“Then we’ll wait.” He shut the door and rounded the truck. After he climbed in, he started the engine and drove around the lot to pull up behind my car.
My sister got out, shaking her head. I scooted over and made room for her next to me. “Sorry,” she said as she joined us and handed me the keys to my car. “It might just be the battery since it didn’t turn over when I tried to start it.”
“Do you want me to take a look at it?” Alec asked.
“Maybe later. We’ve got all this stuff to finish moving, and the car isn’t going to get any worse than it already is if it waits a day or two.”
“Listen to my sister,” Ariana suggested. “Or better yet, call one of those places that buys junk cars because it’s a lost cause. Another five years wouldn’t make it worse.”
She was exaggerating, but not by much. I wasn’t too disappointed that it wouldn’t start. My old junker would have stuck out like a sore thumb in the hotel parking lot. Thinking of which...
“This isn’t the way to the hotel.” I pointed behind us. “You should’ve taken a left at the light instead of a right.”
“We’re making a pit stop at a storage place I found. While you and Ariana did your final walk-through, I called them up and rented a small unit so you guys would have somewhere to put all the stuff you won’t need at the hotel,” he explained.
“I wonder if that dinner theater place, the one where you eat with your hands and the guys put on a show with the horses and full suits of
armor, is hiring. I bet your hubby could get a job there in no time flat.”
"I'm pretty sure jousting would violate my team contract, even in the off season,” Alec chuckled.
“Shit, there goes that plan,” Ariana laughed. “I forgot you were a hotshot hockey player. But hey, at least we have a team here now.”
I zoned out as Alec and Ariana joked back and forth. It was nice to hear my two favorite people in the world—and it was one heck of a shock to realize I was already thinking of Alec that way—getting along so well. Although it was a sad day because of the reason why we were moving, I decided to focus on the good instead of the bad.
When we walked into the owner’s suite of the hotel about an hour later, I realized how stunning those positives were. Suite was too tame a word for the luxurious space which was about five times bigger than the apartment we’d just moved out of.
“Holy shit,” Ariana breathed. “This is where I’m staying? For free?”
“Maybe we should have swapped rooms and let my sister stay in yours while we took this place.” I twirled around in a circle, taking everything in.
“Too late. No take-backs,” Ariana laughed.
But then the bad just had to rear its ugly head when Alec’s phone rang. “Alec Rourke.”
I couldn’t hear what the other person said, but I watched as the happy expression wiped from Alec’s face. “Thanks for taking care of this so quickly.”
He listened for a moment and then rattled off an email address. “It’d be good if you could send it over now. Don’t bother with a courier service. I’ll handle delivery.”
“Who was that?” I asked when he ended the call and shoved his phone back in his pocket.
“One of Alison’s lawyers.”
“Lawyer?” Ariana repeated. “Why do you guys need a lawyer? And if you say it’s so you guys can get a divorce, I’m going to have to kick someone’s ass.”
“Someone’s ass is going to get kicked alright,” Alec muttered. “But it’s not going to be mine or your sister’s. And you’re not the one who’s going to be doing the kicking. That’ll be me.”
Crap. That was definitely not a good sign.
Chapter Ten
Alec
“You can’t go in there and beat up my boss.”
“Your former boss,” I growled. It was the same correction I’d made the last five times she’d tried telling me I couldn’t kick his ass. It hadn’t changed my mind when she’d first said it back at the hotel, and it wasn’t going to be any more persuasive as we walked into the building where she used to work. She hadn’t wanted me to be the one who delivered the letter from the lawyer, but I’d insisted. Someone had to drop it off, and I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to teach him the consequences of fucking with my wife.
“What if they call the police? Wouldn’t that cause problems for you with your hockey team?”
“Maybe.” Almost definitely. But it didn’t matter because I was doing this, and Alessia didn’t need to know the risk I was taking for her. Although I didn’t think it was much of one. “But I don’t think your boss is going to want the cops to get involved in this. It would draw too much attention in a situation he’d prefer to keep quiet. It’s why he had you fired, after all.”
“To make sure I sounded like a disgruntled former employee if I tried to tell anyone what he did.”
“Exactly.” Getting her fired had been too damn easy. I figured it wasn’t the first time he’d pulled a stunt like that, but it sure as fuck was going to be the last.
“Oh, crap,” Alessia groaned, her gaze locked on the guard behind the security desk.
“You know him?”
“Not really.”
Her answer didn’t sound convincing, and the leer he sent her way made me wonder what their connection was. My fists clenched as the possibility of him being an ex of hers ran through my mind. There might be two guys getting their asses kicked this afternoon. “You sure about that?”
My gut clenched when her cheeks filled with color. “They had me escorted out of the building when they fired me,” she admitted quietly.
I felt like shit for forcing the issue and embarrassing her, but I was also relieved to know they didn’t have a history together. “You’re not the one who should be ashamed by that. They are.”
“Him especially.” She glared at the guard as we got closer. “The jerk didn’t think there was anything wrong about hitting on a woman while he was spying on her to make sure she didn’t steal office supplies after she’d been fired for no fault of her own.”
“Oh he did, did he?” The guy hadn’t reacted to her glare, but he sure noticed mine.
“Well, at least I won’t have to worry about you getting arrested for beating up my former boss.”
“Why’s that?” I asked, sliding my palm down her back to hover just above the swell of her ass. It was an unmistakable statement to the guy that Alessia was mine.
“Because we aren’t going to make it through the door with the pissing match you’ve got going on with the guard.”
“Sure we will,” I assured her, offering the guy a nod. “He and I know exactly where we stand.”
Her gaze jerked back to the guard, and her gorgeous green eyes widened when she saw the way he’d backed down. “How in the heck did you manage that?”
“It was easy. I won the pissing contest.”
“Why am I not surprised?” she sighed.
“Because you know exactly how big—”
“Alec!” she cried, cutting me off as her eyes went rounder.
My laughter dried up when we reached the security desk, and I turned serious. “Alec Rourke for Mr. Whitehouse.”
“I’ll call up, but I’m not sure they’ll allow Miss Valenti up there since she was recently let go.”
“Let go?” Alessia huffed.
“Mrs. Rourke,” I corrected.
“Pardon?” the guard asked.
“Alessia isn’t Miss Valenti anymore. She’s my wife. Hence, Mrs. Rourke.”
“Oh. I didn’t realize. That might make it easier.” His gaze dropped to the rings on her hand before he picked up the phone. “There’s a Mr. and Mrs. Rourke here to see Mr. Whitehouse.”
He nodded and set the phone back on its cradle. “You both can go up. Take the elevator to—”
“I know where we’re going.” Alessia yanked on my hand and led me to the elevators.
She was quiet as we headed up to the tenth floor, and I gave her a gentle squeeze before we stepped off. The receptionist looked surprised to see Alessia, but she didn’t warn anyone before she let us go back. The encouraging smile she offered us made me think she knew exactly the kind of shit her boss liked to pull, and it riled me up even more.
I yanked the envelope with the letter from the lawyer out of my suit coat pocket and settled my other hand at Alessia’s lower back as we walked into his office. The asshole jumped out of his chair the second he spotted her, but my hard glare had him sitting back down right away.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” I growled as I pulled the door shut behind us. “It’s not as easy to intimidate when you’re faced with a guy who can kick your ass instead of a vulnerable woman over whom you have power, is it?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he blustered. “I’m not sure what Miss Valenti told you, but whatever it was she was probably just trying to help build a case so she could go on unemployment and bilk the system for as long as she can. She was recently fired and can’t be trusted to tell the truth.”
“It’s Mrs. Rourke now.” I smirked at him as I dropped the letter onto his desk. “And she’s not going to need that unemployment claim because you’re going to offer her a generous severance package.”
“That’s preposterous! Why would I do such a thing?” he spouted off. His beady dark eyes went round with surprise as he ripped open the envelope and scanned the contents of the letter. “You really expect anyone to believe this crap?”
�
��Absolutely.” I leaned forward, pressing my fists against the desktop. “Did you spot the name of the law firm on the top of the letterhead? It’s one of the best in Vegas, and they were willing to take on my wife’s case after one simple phone call. Imagine the damage I can do if I put some effort into it. Called a private investigator. Asked them to do some checking into other women who’d worked under you and were fired. If I were a betting man—which c’mon, it’s Vegas...of course I am—I’d hazard a guess that it wouldn’t take them long to find someone who’d be willing to back up Alessia’s story with one of their own that would be eerily similar. What do you say, Whitehouse? Do you want to risk everything that they won’t?”
He went red in the face, his shoulders slumping. “What do you want from me?”
“A check in the amount the lawyers deemed fair.”
He nodded.
“A glowing letter of recommendation.”
Another nod.
“Your word, as little as it’s worth, that you won’t pull this shit on another unsuspecting woman in the future.”
A muscle in his jaw jumped when he nodded again.
“And this.” It was all the warning I gave him before bending farther over the desk to grab the collar of his shirt and yank him towards me with one hand while punching him straight in the cheekbone with the other. Then I cocked my fist back and followed it up with another blow.
I let him go, and he fell back against his chair. His lip was split, and there was a trickle of blood dripping from his nose. He deserved a fuck of a lot more pain after what he’d done to Alessia, but the cops would definitely be called if I kept at him. I was going to have to be satisfied with the punches I’d already landed.
“Do we have an understanding?”
“Yes,” he hissed.
“Good.”
I escorted Alessia out of the room with my hand at her lower back. Neither of us said anything until we were outside, climbing into the back of the car that was waiting for us at the curb.
“Holy crap! I can’t believe that really happened.”
Married Into Love Page 9
