by K. M. Scott
“I’m sorry I had to be the bearer of bad news, Serena,” the lawyer said in a truly sympathetic voice. “I know your father cared a great deal about you and your sister, even if it seems as if this will proves otherwise. He did make sure to include provisions to ensure that Janelle’s house is paid in full.”
“I’ll make sure to tell her. She’s a little bit surprised, as you can tell.”
The poor guy was just doing his job. It wasn’t his fault my father had no use for females.
He finished reading the entire will and then left. Ryder sat silently beside me, still holding my hand under the table as he stared straight ahead like his brain hadn’t processed the news that he was now a very wealthy man.
“So in the end, in death my father showed what was important to him in life,” I said as I lifted our hands and rested them on the table in front of us.
He turned to look at me and shook his head. “I’m sorry. This isn’t right. Not after what you went through all your life.”
“My father never thought much of me or Janelle. We weren’t sons. In you, he got the son he always wanted. And in the end, he got what he deserved.”
“I think in his own twisted way he thought he was showing you love. I’d hoped that for once he’d do the right thing by you at the end,” Ryder said sadly.
“Don’t feel bad. It’s okay.”
He shook his head and his frown deepened. “It’s not okay. Nothing he did to you was okay, Serena.”
I smiled, knowing he was right. “I know. He made my life difficult on the best days, and he forced me to marry a man I didn’t love. But he did one thing that I can’t hate him for.”
“What’s that?”
“He brought you to me.”
We walked out toward the stairs to go up to see our son, but a knock on the front door stopped us. Smiling, I joked, “Maybe it’s the lawyer coming back to tell us you got something more.”
Ryder rolled his eyes and shook his head as he made his way to the door. “I never wanted anything from him. You know that.”
“I know. I was just trying to lighten the mood a little.”
He opened the door, and I saw two men in dark suits standing outside. Ryder’s entire body stiffened at the sight of them, so I hurried to join him and whoever they were.
One man smiled and said, “Ryder, we wanted to come out and let you know the case concerning Robert Erickson is closed.”
I took Ryder’s hand in mine and asked, “Honey, who are these men?”
Turning to look at me, he answered, “Serena, these men are from the FBI.”
Fear tore through me that they weren’t just there to let Ryder know the case against my father had been closed because of his death. Leveling my gaze on the two of them, I said, “How nice of you to come all the way out here to let us know. This has been a very difficult time for our family, so I hope you’ll understand our need to be alone with our loved ones now.”
The man who’d told Ryder the news smiled and nodded his head. “We certainly can understand, Mrs. Rhodes. I’m sorry to hear from the police that they don’t think they’re ever going to be able to bring the person responsible for your father’s death to justice. I’m afraid this case may remain unsolved forever.”
Ryder let out a sigh and smiled at the man. “Thank you for letting us know.”
As they walked away back to their car, I closed the door. “So that’s the FBI, huh? They seemed pretty nice.”
“Let’s just say they’re nicer when they aren’t blackmailing you.”
As we made our way up to Cayden’s nursery, I was sure that was true. I was also sure of something else. From now on, our lives were our own.
For me, it would be the first time ever that would be true.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ryder
Three Years Later
“Daddy, I wanted to stand next to you, but Mommy says I need to stand next to her. Can I stand next to you?” Cayden asked in his most serious voice.
I looked to my left to see Serena shifting our daughter from her right arm to her left before my gaze drifted down to the open spot between us where Cayden would stand. “If you stand where she wants you to, you’ll still be next to me. You’ll just be on the other side.”
My answer perplexed him, and he drew in his eyebrows to show his unhappiness with it. We’d never get this picture taken if he kept arguing about where he’d stand, so I tousled his dark hair and gently moved him around to stand between his mother and me.
“Ryder, I’m not sure Alita is going to be able to be her sweet self if we don’t get this show on the road,” Serena said as our two-year-old daughter began to complain that she wanted to stand where Cayden was.
The photographer waiting across the room chuckled. “I want to make sure you all fit behind the desk. Maybe if your son stands on the other side it will be better because it will be more balanced.”
Happy to hear someone agreed with his idea, Cayden ran behind my chair and stood on my right side. Looking up at his mother, he said, “See, Mommy. Even the camera man said I should stand over here.”
Serena took a deep breath and closed her eyes as Alita began asking if she could stand next to Cayden. I had a feeling at any moment she would announce this whole photo shoot was over and march the children upstairs to their rooms.
“Enough! Cayden is standing over here, and Alita, you do as your mother says. Understand me?”
They both looked at me with big eyes, and I saw Serena smile for the first time since we all walked into the office. This was just supposed to be a few pictures for an article in American Entrepreneur about Erickson Industries, and in less than ten minutes it had turned into a three-ring circus.
I’d agreed to the shoot only if Serena and the children could be included because no article on the business would be right without them. I may have been the CEO of Erickson Industries, but I could never have done it without Serena and our kids.
In the time since Robert left everything to me, she and I had worked together to clean up every part of the company. Gone were the nightclubs, drugs, strippers, prostitutes, and underground fighting, and in their place were honest businesses that had made Erickson Industries into a multi-billion dollar a year business, all completely legal.
“Okay, if I can get everyone to look over here, let’s see if we can make some magic here,” the photographer said in a cheery voice that hid his impatience at having to wait for Serena and me to corral our kids.
“Remember to smile like we practiced,” Serena said, subtly warning Cayden that sticking out his tongue as he had in every picture we’d ever taken of him was not allowed this time.
I gave her a sideways glance and tried not to laugh as Alita said in a sing-song voice, “Cheese!” as the photographer began shooting. After a few shots, he stopped and lowered his camera.
“Mrs. Rhodes, you don’t have any shoes on. Do you want me to stop while you go put them on?”
I looked over at Serena and saw her shake her head and smile as she sweetly explained, “No. I don’t wear shoes if I don’t have to, and right now, I don’t have to.”
Fifteen minutes later, he had his shots and the kids ran outside to play on the porch.
“Be sure to stay off the stairs, and Cayden, watch your sister,” Serena yelled after them.
The photographer smiled as he packed up his gear. “You have a nice family there.”
I couldn’t have agreed more. Serena and I thanked him as he left, and she kissed me sweetly on the cheek. “That was as difficult as I worried it would be.”
“Here, sit down,” I said as I offered her the chair. “You shouldn’t be standing. You should have been the one who was sitting behind the desk.”
She smiled and didn’t argue with me before taking my seat. “You’re the CEO of Erickson Industries, Ryder. It doesn’t matter that I’m pregnant. Readers expect you to be sitting behind the desk in your office.”
Rolling my eyes, I leaned down and
kissed her. “You’re as much the CEO as I am, Serena. More, if we’re being honest since you’re an Erickson. And this is our office in our house, remember?”
She slid her hands over her very pregnant belly. “My name is Serena Rhodes. It has been for years. That’s why our kids are named Cayden Rhodes and Alita Rhodes, and whatever this child turns out to be will have the last name Rhodes.”
“Well, you were originally an Erickson is what I meant.”
Smiling, she looked up at me. “I like being a Rhodes better. And I like our house with the white picket fence much better than where we used to live.”
“Well, Mrs. Rhodes, that photo shoot really didn’t go too badly, did it? Not too much of a disaster,” I said with a chuckle as I sat down in the black chair in front of the desk.
“Yeah, not too much. I’m dreading the idea of another one when we have three kids. We’ll be outnumbered then. That’s a disaster waiting to happen.”
“Maybe we can ask Janelle to babysit that day.”
Serena thought about my suggestion and nodded. “That could work. She does love hanging out with the kids. I just hope she doesn’t bring that boyfriend of hers with her. I’m not sure about him.”
Once he realized there would be no money from Robert’s will, Charles divorced Janelle to run off with his mistress, leaving Serena’s sister to finally try to find a normal life not dictated by Robert or his handpicked choice for a husband. Her decision was to get involved with the drummer from some rock band in Virginia and move in with him less than a month after they met at some bar one night.
She’d only brought him around a few times since they got together, and as far as I could tell, he seemed like a decent guy. I wasn’t sure about the eighties throwback look he had with the long hair, but the conversations I’d had with him hadn’t been too bad. He was definitely better than that stick-in-the-mud Charles she’d been with first.
“Mitch isn’t too bad. I mean, the ripped jeans thing when he’s not playing seems a little weird, but he’s all right.”
Serena twisted her face and shrugged. “I guess. Janelle seems to be crazy about him. Not that she’s ever been the best judge of character.”
“She likes our kids, and if I remember correctly, she liked me enough to practically proposition me way back when,” I joked, unable to stop myself from laughing.
Rolling her eyes, Serena stood from her chair and came around the desk to sit on my lap. “You’re not her type. Your hair is too short.”
I rested my hand on her belly and leaned down to talk to our unborn child. “Do you hear your mother, little one?”
“She hears me and she agrees. You’d be terrible with her Aunt Janelle. Like oil and water.”
Looking up at her, I smiled. “She was never the sister I wanted anyway. I liked the one who never wore shoes.”
Serena lifted her tanned legs into the air and wiggled her toes with their pink painted nails. “Still doesn’t. Some things stay with you forever. I’m always going to be a no-shoe girl.”
The memory of what Robert told me that last night in the warehouse ran through my head, and I hugged her close to me. “I love that no-shoe girl. Always have.”
She kissed me sweetly and giggled in that way that never failed to charm me. “And I’ve always loved you, but this no-shoe girl has to go get our kids before they lay waste to the place. I haven’t heard a peep from them in almost five minutes, which tells me we’re all in danger.”
I helped her ease off my lap and stood up to follow her. “Tell them if they’re good we’ll go to the zoo this afternoon. That should help.”
Turning around, she backed out the office door as she blew me a kiss. “They’re going to hold you to that, you know. Don’t say it if you don’t mean it.”
“I mean it. Tell them we’ll leave early enough to get lunch on the way and then it’s off to the zoo.”
She headed outside to tell the kids the good news, and I heard them squeal with delight through the office window. Surprising them never failed to make me happy, just like seeing Serena content in our life. It’s why I’d happily sold the estate and moved us to this house in the mountains with the big yard and a picket fence we painted white.
In the nearly three years since Robert’s death, I’d watched for any sign she remembered what he’d done to her. I’d met with doctors who specialized in repressed memories to find out what I should do if what happened ever came back to her, and I was ready if it ever did.
I prayed to God she never remembered what that monster did to her, but if she did, I’d be there like I always promised her I would be. From that night I found her in that bathtub bleeding to death, I swore I’d protect her. I hadn’t always succeeded, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t move heaven and earth to try.
Serena and I had weathered every storm, and if that ugliest storm came, we’d deal with it like we always had.
Together.
We’d dreamed of a future where we would be happy, and we’d fought tooth and nail to get it. We’d done horrible things and given up things other people would have clung to because they were worth millions, but to us, they were only reminders of what we’d had to suffer through to be together.
I’d lived with next to nothing and lived with more than any one man could ask for. None of it would mean anything without her. Like it had been right after we first met, I started each day happy to know she was in my life and went to sleep each night with her head on my shoulder.
And for the people who would say because of what I’ve done that I’m nothing more than a common criminal, I say this. Until you’re willing to put your life on the line to protect someone, you don’t know what you’d do for love. When it’s real, that devotion you feel is worth any cost.
I don’t lay awake every night anymore haunted by the things I did. All I can do is hope that the man I am now will someday make up for what I did when I was one of Robert’s men. And if I can’t, it won’t be because I didn’t try.
But I’ve never lost a minute of sleep over what I did to Robert.
“Ryder, are you ready to go? Our two animals want to go to the zoo to see the other animals,” Serena yelled in the window from outside in the yard.
“I’ll be out in a minute. Just let me change out of this suit.”
This was the life we’d looked forward to for so long, and it was everything I’d ever dreamed it could be. Whatever I was as a fighter and whatever I would be as a businessman or a father, I was never more than when I was just the man who loved her. She called me her savior, but in truth, it was Serena who saved me. Before her, all I knew was how to fight.
Because of her, I knew how to love.
CONTINUE READING TO CHECK OUT ALL OF K.M.’S BOOKS
AND FIND YOUR NEXT GREAT READ!
DON’T MISS A THING FROM K.M.! SIGN UP FOR HER NEWSLETTER TODAY! EACH MONTH THERE ARE EXCLUSIVE GIVEAWAYS FOR SUBSCRIBERS AND NEWS ABOUT UPCOMING RELEASES!
Newsletter Sign Up
About the Author
K.M. Scott writes contemporary romance stories of sexy, intense, and unforgettable love. A New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, she’s been in love with romance since reading her first romance novel in junior high (she was a very curious girl!). Under her Gabrielle Bisset name, she writes erotic paranormal and historical romance. She lives in Pennsylvania with a herd of animals and when she’s not writing can be found reading or feeding her TV addiction.
Be sure to visit K.M.’s Facebook page at facebook.com/kmscottauthor for all the latest on her books, along with giveaways and other goodies! And to hear all the news on K.M. Scott books first, sign up for her newsletter today and be sure to visit her website at www.kmscottbooks.com.
Books by K.M. Scott:
If I Dream (Corrupted Love #1)
If You Fight (Corrupted Love #2)
If We Fall (Corrupted Love #3)
Crash Into Me (Heart of Stone #1)
Fall Into Me (Heart of Stone #2)
Give I
n To Me (Heart of Stone #3)
Heart of Stone Volume One Box Set
Ever After (Heart of Stone #4)
A Heart of Stone Christmas (Heart of Stone #5)
Unforgettable (Heart of Stone #6)
Unbreakable (Heart of Stone #7)
Heart of Stone Volume Two Box Set
Temptation (Club X #1)
Surrender (Club X #2)
Possession (Club X #3)
Satisfaction (Club X #4)
Acceptance (Club X #5)
The Complete Club X Series Box Set
SILK (Volume One)
SILK (Volume Two)
SILK (Volume Three)
SILK (Volume Four)
SILK Box Set
K.M.’S BOOKS ARE IN AUDIOBOOK TOO!
Books by Gabrielle Bisset:
Vampire Dreams Revamped (A Sons of Navarus Prequel)
Blood Avenged (Sons of Navarus #1)
Blood Betrayed (Sons of Navarus #2)
Longing (A Sons of Navarus Short Story)
Blood Spirit (Sons of Navarus #3)
The Deepest Cut (A Sons of Navarus Short Story)
Blood Prophecy (Sons of Navarus #4)
Blood Craving (Sons of Navarus #5)
Blood Eclipse (Sons of Navarus #6)
The Sons of Navarus Box Set #1
The Sons of Navarus Box Set #2
Stolen Destiny (Destined Ones Duology #1)
Destiny Redeemed (Destined Ones Duology #2)
Love’s Master
Masquerade
The Victorian Erotic Romance Trilogy
