“There’s plenty of junk food though,” Holland assured me. “Even though chocolate gives me killer heartburn.”
“OK.” I sat on the couch opposite Holland, glancing at her belly, then glancing at Ronnie who wasn’t showing yet then to Alesha who seemed to have a lot on her mind. “Is there some baby-making clause in the Cartwright marriage contract or something?”
Ronnie laughed.
Alesha shrugged.
Holland muttered, “Jasmine would put it there if she could.”
“I’ve heard,” I said.
“Right?” Holland said, her eyes lighting as if she’d just found an ally. “She thinks these kids will continue running her empire, but my child will have nothing to do with it.” She kept her voice low but dropped it even lower when she added, “Especially now the Grim Order is involved.”
“They offer us protection,” Ronnie pointed out, lifting her brow as she looked at Holland.
“As long as our men do the heavy lifting on this drug heist. But, who takes the fall if this goes south, Ronnie?”
“It won’t go south,” Alesha insisted. “They’ll plan out every move, run every scenario. They’re going to be fine.”
“And then what?” Holland’s eyes moved between Alesha and Ronnie, wanting answers I wasn’t sure they had. “I have never been more frightened of a job than I am of this. We came back here to fix things and all we seem to do is get deeper and deeper.”
“Well, we wouldn’t be this deep if you and Nate hadn’t run off in the first place,” Alesha snapped. They ran? Seemed Abbot wasn’t the only brother looking for an out.
“I know, OK? I know this is our fault. But surely there was some other way to end this. I mean, I watched Sons of Anarchy and you can’t just do one job and walk away. Those MCs always drag you back.”
Ronnie picked up a box of Favourites and offered it to Holland. “You watch too much Netflix, Holl.”
Taking a Cherry Ripe, Holland pouted as she unwrapped the chocolate. “There’s no such thing.”
“Breaker promised it’s just this one job. The Grim Order want to dominate distribution on the east coast, and this will help them do it,” Ronnie explained, filling some gaps in for me too. “The boys will get in and get out. When they hand over the drugs that’s the end of it.”
“Freedom, hey?” Holland said. “I’ll believe that when Nate and I go back to Portland and actually get to open our bookstore without another job popping up.”
“You want to open a bookstore?” I asked, growing more intrigued by the second. “As a front?”
“No. A legitimate business,” she explained with a sigh. “Australian author focused. A café. Moving ladder on the book wall.”
“And Jasmine knows this? She’s letting you out?”
Alesha started laughing, quickly followed by both Ronnie and Holland.
“I’m taking that as a no,” I said.
“It’s a nice dream to have,” Holland sighed, taking another chocolate. “But Jasmine will never let any of us out. Not willingly, anyway.”
“And you know Toby would just hunt you down,” Ronnie put in. “That man has a sixth sense.” I’d force you back. Toby might be a problem.
“I don’t know,” Holland said. “He helped us before.”
“Before when?” I asked.
“When we left the first time,” Holland explained. “He helped Nate fake his own death and we took on new identities. We overlooked a few things, which is why we’re back here. But, he helped…” Perhaps all was not lost.
“You know,” I said, my brow furrowed in confusion. “I’m getting a little lost here. Why don’t you start at the beginning?”
Holland smiled and looked at Alesha. “Well, you know that saying, ‘fool me twice’?”
“Of course.”
“That’s how it began with Nate and me. He tricked me, and he robbed me. Twice. And somehow, I fell in love with him.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
What If
“You’re quiet,” Abbot pointed out on the way back to the resort. “Did something happen?”
I shook my head, frowning a little as I focused on nothing in particular and tried to let the gentle strains of Ben Howard’s Every Kingdom calm me down. “I’m decompressing.”
Holland told me how she and Alesha had tracked down the thieves that had robbed her. Instead of calling the cops, they’d snooped and gotten caught, which was when the whole kidnapping and forced marriage happened. Although, for Holland, there had already been a strong attraction between her and Nate. They’d fallen hard for each other and Holland had even learned to accept that her husband was a thief. What she couldn’t accept, however, was any involvement in the drug trade. It had been her deal-breaker. When she found out Nate had been growing poppies to supply a local drug cartel, she’d booked it. Unable to live without her, Nate burned down the poppy field and faked his own death, thinking that would dissolve his Cartel connections, and then they ran away together. New names and everything.
“How much did they tell you?”
“Everything important, I think.”
The Cartel, however, wasn’t so forgiving and came after the family on the day of Nate’s funeral. At that point, the only person who knew Nate was still alive was Toby since he’d helped him disappear. But he’d given up their location when he realised they needed Nate back to clean up the mess he’d made.
“So you know why we’re in this mess with the Grim Order?”
“I think so. Nate pissed off the Cartel and you had to pull bigger jobs to pay them off.”
Abbot tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “He got greedy, got in over his head.”
“And now you’re all paying for it?”
He lifted a shoulder, his expression weary. “We’re family.”
By the time Ronnie entered the picture, they were bleeding money. It was her connection with Breaker that brought the Grim Order onto the scene. He saw an opportunity to help out the women he cared about and his club at the same time. The Grim Order got the Cartel out of the picture, but now the Cartwrights were indebted to them. It was a fucking mess.
“Do you really think the Grim Order will honour the deal?” I asked, my confidence in escaping this world becoming shakier by the second.
“He gave his word that it was a favour for a favour. We have to believe that.”
“Because there really is honour among thieves?”
“Something like that.” He glanced at me then took my hand in his, lacing our fingers together. “Hey, not getting cold feet are you?”
I shook my head. “Ronnie says that Toby always drags everyone back, which he’s threatened me with before, so I believe it. And if we’ve got the Grim Order looking for us too, where the hell are we gonna hide, Abbot? How are we gonna run, and live, and have a family? How are we gonna be free? What are we gonna do?” My breath came in short bursts as my chest tightened and my mind flashed danger signs.
Flicking on his indicator, Abbot pulled over to the side of the road and got out, rushing to my side of the car and opening the door. “Come on, blue,” he soothed, unclipping my seatbelt and pulling me out with him, gathering me in his arms. “Just breathe. It’s gonna be OK. I’ll make it OK. I promise.”
I fisted at his shirt with my hands, curling my body against him. “Nate and Holland tried—”
“And they failed because they asked goodie-two-shoes Toby for help. I’m not making that mistake.”
“But Kristian knows.”
“And he would never give us up.”
I lifted my head and met his eyes. “Even to Ronnie?” In my experience, every person had one person they trusted. So you had to expect that every secret was told to at least two people.
“He won’t tell a soul.” He hooked a finger under my chin. “Besides, I won’t be telling him where we’re going. Only that we’re leaving.”
I closed my eyes and rested my head back against his chest, listening to his heart and his bre
athing the way I had when we’d danced at the wedding. Slowly, the panic I’d allowed to take hold eased from my body, finding strength in his arms.
“We’re gonna be OK, blue” he said, swaying me gently in time to the music that played in the car, a song called Bones that seemed movie soundtrack-fitting to the moment.
As the crescendo wound down, I took a breath and looked up. “What if I’m already pregnant?”
“Then I have even more incentive to get this right.”
“You can’t get caught.”
Taking hold of my face in his hands, he pressed his lips to my forehead. “I promise you, beautiful blue, I will do everything in my power to come back from this job and run so far away with you that no one ever tracks us down.”
I nodded, taking a deep breath. That was all I could ask of him, really—a promise that we were going to be OK. There were so many variables and pieces at play that the odds felt insurmountable. I’d been overwhelmed with information and felt awful that I’d let my fear get the better of me. I wanted to be strong for him and show him that I was confident he’d return to me safe and sound. Two days in and I’d already doubted. I hoped that the coming weeks of training and preparations would put my worry to rest. But, how could it? They were robbing a government drug transport. The reality was that the three months together might be the only time Abbot and I had. I hated that possibility.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Security
“Yes!” I held up the open BiLock in triumph. I’d done it. After hours and hours of working on the fucking things I’d finally opened one in under thirty seconds. Finally.
I leaned back in my chair with a happy sigh and stretched my arms above my head to relive the kinks in my neck, the soft rhythm of Abbot’s gentle snoring the only congratulatory cheer in response to my success. He’d fallen asleep on the couch hours before. He’d insisted on waiting up until I was ready to go to bed with him, but he didn’t make it. Poor baby. But he needed his rest; he owed me a fuckload of orgasms since I’d dropped my picking speed from over ten minutes in just a few days.
Standing before twisting at the waist a few times, I smiled at his sleeping form, my chest swelling with the love I felt for this gentle giant.
There was no doubt in my mind that to the outside world this man was a formidable force to be reckoned with, highly intimidating to anyone who crossed him, but to me, he was just a big softy, a teddy bear, a lost boy… While he belonged to a tight-knit family, I still saw him as a lost soul, happy only now because he’d found his mate.
I knew that, because that’s how I felt too. Despite making my own life over the years, I’d never felt that I belonged as much as I did when around Abbot. He was my other half.
Grabbing a blanket from the laundry cupboard, I pulled it up his body then gently brushed my fingers through his messy hair. I’d seen photos of him with hair down to his shoulders on the wall at Jasmine’s and wondered if he was growing it out again. The long hair suited him, added to his boyishness. But I loved his hair either way. I loved him. It was so surreal to have this man—the boy from my past—as the love in my life. It had happened so suddenly, yet so slowly. A clashing of hearts helped by the passing of time.
Kissing his forehead, I left the open padlock and the stopwatch on the table next to him then went into the bedroom to change. I was tired, but restless. And since the resort had a beautiful heated lagoon pool right outside the apartment, I thought a late-night swim might be exactly what I needed.
Putting on my black string bikini—purchased solely because I’d dreamed of coming back to taunt Abbot with a show of excess skin—I covered up with a robe then exited the apartment via the sliding door closest to Abbot, leaving the curtain open a touch so he’d know where I went if he woke before I returned.
I smiled to myself as I dipped my toe in the water, swirling it through the warmth and watching the steam rising into the warm air. At nearly three in the morning, I had the whole place to myself.
Dropping my robe on the nearest chair, I hunched against the cold and rushed for the warm water, feeling like I was walking into a giant glowing bath the deeper I got.
Diving beneath the surface, I frog swam until I was forced to surface for breath, releasing a tiny giggle as I pushed my wet hair out of my face and rolled onto my back, floating and looking up at the night sky.
This is happiness.
Stars scattered like a mess of breadcrumbs in the sky, reminding me of the vastness of creation and how small a single person really was. It was easy to feel as though I was at the centre of it all, but in truth, a single person was just a speck for a moment in time. For a person to mean something to this great big universe, they’d have to move mountains, travel through the stars, change things. But to each other, we were everything. And to one very special person, we were their universe.
I took in a clearing breath, laughing a little at how deep and wishy-washy my thoughts were going. I sounded like all those girls in high school I’d listened to and rolled my eyes at. My, how things change.
Rolling back over, I dove beneath the water and swam to the widest part of the lagoon, deciding a few laps back and forth were in order. The exercise helped to ease the stiffness in my shoulders and work off that extra energy I had buzzing below the surface of my skin. Well, I’d hoped that’s what it would do. After several laps, my muscles were weary but my mind was wide awake. I felt as though I would never to sleep again, fuelled by the energy of life’s new direction.
Stopping when I hit the far side of the lagoon, I rested my elbows on the ledge and let my gaze land on the sliding door behind which Abbot was sleeping. Life was so crazy. Back when we were kids, I remembered thinking that Kris and Abbot were the most annoying little boys. They were always getting into trouble and making a mess of the games the rest of us came up with. Sometimes, we’d agree to play hide and seek with them and not bother to find them just to get them to leave us alone for ten minutes. It felt mean now, but at the time, we were just doing what kids did. And Abbot and Kris never seemed fazed by anything we did to deter them. Instead, they retaliated by playing pranks whenever they got a chance, their identical little heads thrown back in laughter with every success. Now, Abbot was a man. He was still annoying, but in the best possible way. I hadn’t smiled so much in years…I also hadn’t cried as much either. But that was love, I supposed, elation and fear, desire and worry. I had never ever felt this way about another person, never experienced so much angst in the times I was alone to the time he returned. It wasn’t that I didn’t think he’d come back from whatever drill they were running, it was that I didn’t feel complete any more without him. It was strange for me to experience. Even in the years I was with Mark I valued my alone time. Now, I didn’t want a second to pass where I couldn’t shift my gaze and find him near. I needed him.
A smile crept across my features as the sliding door to our apartment opened fully and the man of my heart stepped out. I saw the moment he spotted me, the white of his teeth blinking in the night like a happy star. He made his way down the steps towards the water’s edge while I dipped under the water and swam to him.
I saw him before I emerged, lying on the side of the pool with his arms folded under his chin. He was smiling, happy to see me. Happy, happy, happy. I sounded like a broken record, but what else could I call it when that was what it was? Abbot and me together was happiness personified. I wasn’t going to pretend otherwise.
Breaking the surface, I gasped for air and grinned right back, placing my hands on the edge just near his arms.
“Hey,” he said, that gorgeous dimple of his making my stomach flip.
“Hey,” I replied, water dripping down my face. I reached a hand up and slid the tip of my finger right into the curve of that dimple as I pulled myself up enough so our faces were level. “I fucking love this divot in your cheek.”
He chuckled then wrapped his hand around the back of my neck and kissed me, soft at first, then long and hard. I loved
kissing him, loved the way he dominated my mouth and took what he wanted. My soul—a little piece at a time. I was more than willing to feed it to him as I took his in return.
When he released me, I dropped below the surface of the water, blowing bubbles before coming back out to meet his mouth again.
He laughed against my lips, kissing me as I clung to him like a mermaid kissing a sailor and pulling him into the deep. Slowly, he slid forward until he dropped into the pool with me, both of us going under, wrapping ourselves together as we kissed and pretended that we didn’t need air.
“You still have your clothes on,” I said when we finally broke apart, my hand against the wet fabric of his T-shirt.
“I couldn’t resist,” he returned, between kissing me and pulling that shirt off his head. “I had to be in here with you.” He threw the shirt so it landed in a wet heap on the side of the pool.
I reached for the waist of his jeans. “I think you should take these off too,” I whispered, nipping at the corner of his lips.
“Blue, we’re in public,” he teased.
“Public?” I looked from left to right. “I don’t see anyone around, do you?”
He grinned and wriggled out of his jeans, letting them drop to the bottom of the pool as he caught me around the waist and brought me close, our legs swirling beneath us to keep us afloat.
“You got the lock open,” he whispered, teasing my lips with his. “Twenty-nine point five five seconds.”
“Precisely.” I slid my hands over his muscular back, loving every inch of his skin.
“Know what that means, right?”
I pulled at his bottom lip with my teeth. “Pool sex.”
Fool’s Errand: Cartwright Brothers, Book 4 Page 24
