by Livia Grant
The words echoed her insecurities. She stalled, surrounded by the men in her life.
Trust your gut, Samantha.
She rushed into Jonah’s outstretched arms, almost collapsing with relief as he hugged her tight.
She could only choke out two words. “You came.”
“Yeah, baby. I came.”
Her uncle was still on his feet, looking ready to strangle someone.
Jonah called out, “Ryan, you can come in now,”
Things were happening so fast. Samantha turned to the entrance to see their old friend, Ryan, entering, dragging a reluctant Caroline Fleur behind him. Her first emotion at seeing the actress was anger, directed at Jonah.
Why would he bring her here knowing how it must hurt her?
Jonah answered her unspoken question. “I knew the second she showed up with cameras and reporters in tow that something was up. It took me a couple of minutes to put together that every single time something like that happens in my life, you bastards were behind it.”
Her uncle’s shouting startled Samantha. “You had one fucking job, you bitch. Seduce him. How hard could that be?”
Caroline ripped her arm out of Ryan’s grip before she defended herself. “I’m not giving you back a dime. I held up my end of the bargain.”
The truth was sinking in. Her uncle, and maybe even her father, had paid the actress to seduce Jonah in hopes of driving a wedge between them. She had seen it all, or so she thought.
The judge had calmed down. A smug smile lit up his tanned face. “You know what, that’s okay. This is going to work out just fine.” He turned to face off with Jonah and Samantha huddled deeper into her lover’s embrace. “You broke our deal. This time I’m gonna lock you up and throw away the key.”
Jonah had to struggle to extricate himself from Samantha. She didn’t want to release him, but he was insistent. The minute he was free, Jonah stalked forward to grab her uncle by the scruff of his dress shirt, pulling him forward until their angry faces were only inches apart.
“I’m not some scared eighteen year old kid with one-hundred bucks to my name anymore. You want a piece of me, come at me. I’ll throw everything I have at you this time and it’ll be you who ends up behind bars, not me.”
She had no idea what was happening. She moved closer to Jonah, looking for answers.
“What are you talking about? When the hell were you behind bars?” she questioned.
Jonah directed his attention back to Samantha, then over to her father who stood by silently. She was surprised when he spoke to her father instead of her. “Are you going to tell her?”
She saw surprise in her father’s eyes as he replied, “I would have thought you already would have.”
“No. See, unlike you, Sami’s happiness is what’s most important to me. I know the truth will hurt her.”
“Will somebody tell me what the hell is going on?” Samantha was impatient for answers.
It was Ryan who stepped up to fill in the details she’d been missing for almost seven years. “The night of our senior prom, your dad and uncle had Jonah arrested for statutory rape. You were only sixteen and he was eighteen. They held a circus of a trial in the middle of the night with your uncle on the bench. Even though the law protected Jonah, they made up lies about him doing drugs and other bullshit so they could throw him in the juvenile detention center.”
“What?” She couldn’t even believe what Ryan was saying. She looked at her father, desperate for him to deny the insane accusation, but saw only guilt there instead. “But he didn’t rape me! We didn’t even have sex!”
Her uncle’s ugly words flung at her again. “Only because we got there and stopped it, you little whore. You almost blew the whole Munis deal that night by losing your virginity to this loser.”
For the first time in his life, Jonah contemplated murder. If he thought for one minute he could get away with it, he was pretty sure he could kill the sonofabitch in front of him with his bare hands.
He pulled Judge Stone up by the shirt collar again, shouting in his face. “Don’t you talk to Samantha again. Ever.”
Behind him, Ryan was determined to finish filling in Samantha. “They blackmailed him, Sam. Jonah didn’t have a chance. The judge ordered him held in solitary confinement. They didn’t let Jonah see his mother, me, or even a real lawyer. In the end, they kept him there for almost five months before he broke. By then he would have signed anything they put in front of him to get the hell out there. He had to promise never to step foot back in Texas and to never try to contact you ever again.”
Jonah saw the horror on Samantha’s face as she listened to the story he’d hoped she’d never have to hear. It wasn’t that he gave a shit about protecting the Stone men. They got what they deserved. But he knew it would kill Sam to find out what her family had done to him.
To them.
He needed to go to her. Comforting her was more important than revenge against the man he held by the collar. Jonah pushed the judge away, but before he could reach Sami, the judge’s accusations continued.
“Yeah, well the little shit did take the deal. He left you, Samantha. In the end, he took my fifty thousand dollar check as a payout and he left you behind.”
Jonah could see the pain in Sami’s eyes. It was bad enough both of the Stone men in her life had betrayed her, but she turned to him, confusion on her face. He couldn’t stand it.
Jonah reached to his back pocket, pulling out his wallet. His hands trembled with emotion as he sorted through the many hundred dollar bills to finally pull out the raggedy old piece of paper he’d been carrying around with him like a badge for almost seven years. He turned back to the judge, throwing the scrap of paper in his face.
“Fuck you. I never took a damn dime from you. I’ve carried that check around with me all these years as a reminder. I have to thank you, really. Falsely arresting me. Forcing me to walk away from everything… everyone I loved. It did more to push me to succeed than your damn payoff money ever could have. I was determined to prove you wrong. Determined to show Samantha that she’d chosen the wrong men to trust. Only you cheated her too, didn’t you? You spun the story to turn her against me. Well, wake up, asshole. Your story is falling apart now. She sees the truth.”
“It’s your word against ours. You have no proof.” William Stone spoke bravely, but Jonah saw the perspiration gathering on the forehead of the portly judge. He was starting to realize how precarious the situation was that he was in.
“You know, I used to think the only way to crush you was legally. Financially. But I don’t give a shit about that any more. All I want is Samantha. We’re gonna leave here today and never come back.”
He glanced at Sam and saw her tears. He prayed he wasn’t delusional when he thought she’d come with him.
Samantha’s father had been silent. Jonah hadn’t expected that. He didn’t know what that meant. He was even more confused when her father rushed to Sam and started to pull her away from all the commotion in the room.
“Please, Samantha. You have to believe me. I didn’t know about all of what had happened until it was too late.”
Jonah could see Samantha fighting to stay behind with Jonah as her father pulled on her arm harder. Her eyes searched for him. He could see the panic on her face that they might be separated again.
Jonah rushed to close the distance, holding Sami from behind and stopping her father’s forward progress as the two men who loved her most physically fought over her. Jonah saw the desperation on the mayor’s face as his brother taunted him.
“I’d be careful, brother. I’d sure hate to have to stop paying your gambling debts if you turn on me. You know damn well, the only way to see yourself clear is to marry her off to Antonio Munis.”
Renewed fury consumed Jonah at the thought of the men using Samantha as some kind of pawn—payment for some backdoor deal they’d made. That her uncle would sell her out was bad enough, but it was unacceptable to Jonah that her father woul
d go along with such a bullshit deal.
Before he could think through the consequences, Jonah balled his hand into a fist and shot out to connect with the mayor’s nose, sending the older man sprawling to the floor.
Samantha’s scream filled the space seconds before the deafening crack of a gunshot scared them all out of their wits.
Jonah spun to see the smoking revolver in the hands of the judge. The warning shot had gone through the ceiling, but the barrel of the gun was now pointed squarely at Jonah’s chest. It was clear the judge was done talking.
It was a good thing Jonah had brought his own backup as well. As if they’d choreographed the entire scene, the same local news crew who the judge had hired to go to Denver to get the dirt on Jonah came through the French doors to the great room.
He’d had the foresight to know that having witnesses to his little reunion with the Stone men might be a good idea. For awhile, he wasn’t sure it would pan out, but by the looks of the cameraman and reporter, they’d heard the entire saga.
“It’s over now, Judge. Put the gun down,” he warned.
“Like hell. If I’m going down, you’re going down with me,” the judge rationalized.
The sound of the gun being cocked filled the otherwise quiet room. Jonah caught the flash of movement in his peripheral view just in time to see Sam moving as if to put herself between the gun and Jonah. “Sami, stay back, baby!” Relief flooded him when she obeyed.
He looked back at her uncle, nervously. He could see the man had gone mad. It was there in his eyes. He was going to pull the trigger.
Samantha cried out to her uncle. “Stop it! Enough! I love him!” When her uncle’s trembling finger started to pull the trigger, she added, “He’s going to be the father of my baby!”
Her words stunned the entire room. Jonah froze, but her uncle didn’t.
The gunshot rang out simultaneously with Jonah being tackled to the ground by a running Mayor Stone. Time stood still until Jonah felt the warm wetness spilling down his neck. He reached up, afraid he’d been shot, but finding Sam’s father collapsed on him, a gunshot to the shoulder instead.
“Daddy!” Sam rushed to their side and knelt beside her father as Jonah fought to be free. Not knowing what the judge might do next, Jonah lunged forward when he was free, curling in around Sam to protect her until he heard Ryan and the reporter jumping in to disarm the judge. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the cameraman still filming the entire encounter.
Only when the scene had been secured and the police called did Jonah relax even a little. Only then did he let Sam’s words truly sink in.
He’s going to be the father of my baby!
“Daddy, hold on. We called an ambulance,” she tried to reassure her parent as she knelt beside him, pressing a cloth towel against his wound to stem the bleeding.
Jonah knelt on the other side of Samantha’s father and took over holding the towel for Sam who was trembling with emotion. Samantha leaned in to hug her father.
Jonah had never really known his own father. All of his memories were nightmares, really. Snippets of abuse he’d tried to block out. But he’d known the love of his mother. She’d been gone over four years now and there wasn’t a day he didn’t think about her. Miss her.
The look of love on Mayor Stone’s face as he held his daughter was the first time he’d witnessed parental love and sacrifice since he’d lost his mom. The man had loved his daughter so much, that he’d risked his life to save the man she loved. For whatever other bullshit sins he’d committed in his life, in that one moment, Jonah had no doubts that while her uncle was a greedy sonofabitch, at least her father had done what he did out of his own sick sense of love.
“I’m sorry. I was wrong.” Her father hugged Samantha, but he spoke to Jonah, his words shaky with emotion. “Whatever happens, I’m begging you, please take care of her.”
“I will. I swear it,” Jonah pledged. “I always would have.”
The man lying on the ground nodded. “I see that now. You were just a kid then, but… you scared me. I didn’t want you to take her away from me. She’s all I have.”
He’d dreamed of seeing this man rot in a jail for the rest of his days, but as he listened to Sami crying between them, Jonah couldn’t rouse his blinding anger. While he couldn’t forgive him, he felt pity for the broken man.
When Samantha turned towards him with love in her eyes, nothing else mattered. Well almost nothing else.
He got up the nerve to ask her, “Did you mean what I think you meant?”
Seconds dragged like minutes as he held his breath for her answer. Her shy smile betrayed how nervous she was. “I went to get birth control pills at the campus clinic yesterday. They did a routine pregnancy test first before they’d give me a prescription.” Samantha paused. “Please, tell me you aren’t angry.”
Angry? How the fuck could he be angry? A plethora of emotions flooded him, but anger wasn’t one of them.
He was going to be a father. More importantly, Samantha was going to be a mother.
That meant only one thing.
“Be my wife, Sami. Today.”
“Jonah…”
The ambulance had finally arrived. The room was filling up with police and other support personnel. It was a crazy place to propose. He held his breath waiting for her answer.
He was surprised to get support from the bleeding man on the floor. “Say yes, Samantha. You’ve loved him since you were eight years old. No one else will ever make you happy like he does. I see that now. Hurry and then get as far away from here as you can.”
She looked down at her father as the paramedics moved in to take over his care. Jonah could see the older man was pale from the blood loss, but he remained alert, determined to ensure he had things settled for his daughter.
Jonah cleared his throat before speaking up. “Mr. Stone, if you would be so kind, sir, as to give us your blessing. I’d like the honor of marrying your daughter.”
Her father had tears in his eyes as he acknowledged the courtesy Jonah had just paid him. A courtesy he surely didn’t deserve.
“Take care of her,” the older man begged softly.
“I will. I promise. That asshole over there can rot in hell.” Jonah motioned towards the judge who was being interviewed by the Sheriff’s Deputy who’d arrived on the scene. Jonah looked back down at her father before finishing his promise. “But, Samantha loves you. So if it’s all the same to you, we’ll be keeping in touch.”
Sam was overwhelmed. She leaned over her father to hug Jonah with all her might.
The pale man on the floor was visibly shaking, whether from blood loss or emotion wasn’t clear. His voice was fading as he answered Jonah. “I don’t deserve that.”
Jonah acknowledged, “Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. I won’t lie. I look forward to seeing your brother rot in prison for the rest of his life, but… well let’s you and I play it by ear.”
Samantha pulled out of their hug, looking back and forth between the two men in her life. He could see confusion. She was overwhelmed. She was in shock.
The EMT who’d been trying to get close enough to the gunshot victim on the floor finally spoke up. “I really need to get in here, Mr. Carter.”
Jonah pushed to his feet, pulling Samantha away from her father with him to let him get the medical attention he needed.
Epilogue
“Jonah, please. No more.”
Samantha begged, even though she knew it wouldn’t do any good. By her estimation, she was only one month along in her pregnancy. At the current trajectory, she would weigh two hundred pounds by the time she delivered eight months later.
“You aren’t eating enough. You’re eating for two, after all,” her husband countered.
Her husband.
They’d gotten married six days before on Christmas Day. They’d flown into Vegas, expecting to just go to the first chapel they came to, but had been met by Frank at the airport instead. When they saw him waiting, J
onah had worried he’d come to convince Jonah to make sure Sam signed a prenup. They’d been pleasantly surprised, instead, that he had made arrangements at the Bellagio for them to be married in the penthouse suite.
Samantha and Jonah had been blown away when they arrived at the hotel to find the room full of their closest friends who’d flown in at the last minute to witness the quickly planned yet years delayed wedding.
Of course the entire band was there after River had filled them in on all of the secrets the two men from Texas had kept from them over the years.
Megan and her boyfriend, Michael, had flown in from D.C. They had sat shell-shocked surrounded by all of the famous guests in attendance.
It had been Jaxson, Chase and Emma’s arrival that had surprised Jonah and Samantha the most. The trio was supposed to be in Wisconsin with Emma’s family, but had taken the time to fly west to witness their friend’s nuptials. Even Spencer Cook, master of Black Light, had made it at the last minute.
The only person missing was her father. Robert Stone had still been in the hospital, but was on the mend. Her dad had a lot of legal problems in his future, but for that day, he’d at least been able to join the celebration via FaceTime.
So their ski trip to Vail had turned into their honeymoon. And Jonah, being overprotective, had forbidden Sam from skiing, sure she would hurt herself or the baby.
Samantha didn’t want to tell him, but she was more than happy to stay snuggled together in their suite instead. They’d already spent more than enough time apart. Now was the time to be together. The non-stop sexcapades were awesome. The movie marathons and hours of naps were amazing. All-in-all, it was the best week of her life.
Samantha only had one complaint.
“I can’t eat another bite. Please.”
Her husband was determined to put more weight on her. “Just one more bite, and then you’ll get your reward.”
They’d played this game before. She loved her rewards.
