Stubborn Truth (The Stubborn Series Book 3)

by Arnold, Jeanne

  Gabe removed his hat and shook the snow off his shoulders. Then he opened the only door in the space.

  I stuck my head inside. “You bought a mattress?” There was a Texas flag folded on the floor.

  “And sleeping bags. I forgot the bedding, but I remembered the TP.” He held up the groceries. “Here. You’re welcome.”

  I removed my gloves and pulled out a pack of candles and a box of matches, and set them on the floor. I shot the toilet paper onto the mattress where I prayed silently there would be a bathroom and I wouldn’t have to pee in the ice caps. Gabe scooped his hand into the bag and pulled out a box of Swedish fish and a canister of Pringles. The other bag contained two bottles of Dr. Pepper, frozen burritos, four oranges, and a tub of chocolate chip cookie dough.

  “You like that stuff. I’ve seen you eat it with a spoon,” he said.

  “It’s all perfect, Gabe. I can’t believe we’re finally alone. Tell me nobody but Lane knows about it.”

  He tipped his chin. “Then I’d be lying.”

  “Who else knows? Please not Caleb.”

  “Not Caleb.”

  “So there’s a bathroom in there?” I asked.

  Gabe nodded and motioned with his hand. “Yep, but first.” He snagged my hood and stopped me in the doorway.

  “Hi,” I said as my back hit the wall. I had longed for him to touch me since we arrived. I looked into his hazels and melted into the wall panel.

  “Truth or dare?” he asked in his sultry way. Our lips were inches apart. I could already taste the artificial flavor in the Mentos he was chewing.

  A wide grin stretched across my face. I couldn’t fight it. I didn’t want to fight it. Gabe’s lips pulled my grin into a kiss. My eyelids fell. I angled closer and lifted my hands to the sides of his head. He kissed me tenderly.

  “Dare,” I whispered.

  “Turn around,” he whispered back. “Lose the layers.”

  I did as he asked, and he tugged my jacket down my arms and leaned in to set his chin on my shoulder.

  “Check out the bathroom.” He slapped me playfully and I jumped.

  His bag from the train station was open on the floor. His envelope from Tessa was on top of a pile of books. I opened the bathroom door and flipped on the overhead light. There were two toothbrushes on the sink. My heart fluttered at the gesture. I opened the medicine cabinet and found a hairbrush. He bought it for me. He didn’t have any hair.

  When I came out, Gabe was sitting on the mattress, elbows on his knees. The envelope had moved to the floor in front of his feet. He rubbed his neck as if he were fatigued. Then he looked up.

  “Major fail, Av’ry,” he said with a twang. “You flaked on my dare.”

  He stood and took a step toward me. I don’t know what inspired my next move, but Gabe’s stunned expression was one hundred percent worth it. I grabbed the hem of my dress and pulled it all the way up and over my head. I threw it on the floor and waited to see what he would do.

  “Did you wear that to torture me?” He stared at my purple bra.

  I stood perfectly still and watched as he slid his jacket down his arms. He tossed it on my dress, and before I could draw my next breath, he tackled me onto the mattress and sat on me.

  “Gabriel Halden,” I said in a laugh. “You’re heavy.”

  “Yep. And you’re ticklish.”

  “No, please don’t. No, Gabe!” I screamed into his face and squirmed when he pinched my sides. He held me down, and I couldn’t do anything but squeal like a pig until he freed me. It was the most unflattering moment of my life. While I gasped for a breath, he unbuttoned his shirt and tossed his tie over his head.

  “I hate dressing up,” he said childishly.

  “You look so good in a suit,” I replied.

  “You look so good in my bed,” he teased as he grazed my pox scars and loosened the band of my bra by jamming his fingers under it. I closed my eyes and welcomed the shivers in my torso while a flash of heat burned my cheeks and forehead.

  I opened my eyes when he slid off my middle and stretched out beside me.

  “Do you want me to open your letter from Tessa?”

  He shook his head and closed his eyes. I studied the lines of his face, freckles under his eyes, his beautiful lips. His eyelashes were longer than mine.

  “My turn then,” I said when he snuggled my neck with his nose. “You get truth.”

  “I’ll say whatever you want,” he told me.

  “Do you think I’m pretty?”

  He propped himself up on an elbow and frowned.

  “Are you fooling with me?” His gaze trailed from my head to my toes. “I have to try dang hard not to get tongue-tied when you get like this.”

  “I was kidding.”

  He smirked and bent down to kiss my shoulder. “You got more curves than a barrel of snakes—more than any girl I’ve known. Doesn’t talking like this get us in trouble? How about we play my game?” He threw a leg over my thigh-high stockings.

  “I have one more thing to say.”

  “Shoot.”

  I set my hands on the mattress and tried to relax. “Sometimes I just want to kiss you until the frantic feeling goes away. I get a fast heartbeat when you don’t touch me or I can’t touch you because we’re around people.” I curled over and ran my hand into his shirt to hold his warm skin and hide my face. My thumb grazed his scar. He didn’t say anything or breathe or move or joke. We clung to one another in silence.

  Gabe was the first to move. He sat up and wiggled out of his shirt. Then he rolled off the mattress.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Preparing to cure you of your ailment. I got that same complaint—only worse.” He tore his belt out of the belt loops and lashed the wall. Then he unfastened his pants and left them on. He towered above me shirtless. “Don’t look so surprised. I’ve read plenty about this condition you think you have.”

  “I’m not surprised, Gabe. You read everything.” I pushed up on my elbows and glanced at my half-naked body. “Do I look frantic?”

  “Not yet. If I put my glasses on, would I send you over the edge?”

  I fell back on the sleeping bag. “Did you bring them?”

  He crawled over my legs and dropped all of his weight on me. My hands slid down his arms.

  “It’s cold in here. You need to warm me up,” I said.

  He pulled the sleeping bag over his back. “I’ll never get used to this dead-cold air.”

  “Then why do you walk around without a coat when it’s negative thirty?”

  “Meggie says it’s my metabolism. My brothers are the same way.” His mouth hovered over mine. “I don’t wanna talk no more.”

  * * *

  “Av’ry,” Gabe said beside me when I opened my eyes the next morning. “Your phone is having a panic attack.”

  I was face down, yet I squinted at the sun shining in the bedroom window. I rolled to my side and found him on his back wearing glasses. I chuckled internally when I spotted the pile of red candy on his chest. A book was spread open on his stomach.

  “Good morning,” I whispered huskily, clearing the scratchiness in my throat. “It’s Deliah calling, I’m sure.”

  “I should’ve set up shop in Montana,” he muttered to himself.

  “I should answer it.”

  Gabe sat up and stopped me by grabbing my arm. The candy and book slid onto the mattress. “You slept like a rock,” he told me. “We have company out there.”

  I tried to stand up, but he tugged harder until I fell onto my back. “Caleb found us?”

  “Meggie freaked out. Deliah told her you were kidnapped. Caleb called around until Molly spilled the beans. He’s been looking in the windows.”

  “He talked to Molly?” I flipped over to cover up and grabbed the Texas flag off the floor. I shook it open so I could shield myself. “Gabe, why didn’t you wake me? I’m not dressed.”

  “Now that’s what I’m talking about,” he answered cheerfull
y, eyes focused on the flag. “You just fulfilled my ultimate fantasy.”

  “The windows,” I hissed. “Cover them.”

  “I’ll need the flag.” He held out his hand to be funny.

  I fell back onto the mattress and sighed. “Canada is starting to look good to me now. Is he still out there?”

  He shook his head and walked his fingers up my leg and found the flag lose enough to pry open at my waist. I didn’t stop him until he tried to pull it all the way off my top and expose me. He wrestled me as I held the cloth tight underneath me and didn’t budge other than to kick him backward in the thighs. I could never win. Fighting Gabe was like fighting with a brick wall. I held my eyes closed tightly until the flag covered us like a tent.

  “I gave you your present three times now. Was it not enough?”

  His kisses covered my shoulder and all the way down my arm as he held my wrist to my side.

  “Make that four times,” he said as I rolled back over to find him unbuttoning his pants.

  I held my hands to his warm chest and stopped to appreciate his glasses. “Not with him lurking out there. For all we know, the cameras followed him. Haldens are media magnets.”

  “Then you won’t be the face of clean energy no more. Mission accomplished.” He pulled me down the mattress and brushed his lips against my cheek. “What happens if you miss a pill today?”

  I pressed my head into the mattress and gave him a puzzled look. Where did that come from?

  “Probably nothing. I’ve missed a few before. You didn’t let me pack anything last night.”

  Gabe sat up tall and punched the Texas flag until it freed his head and bared me in the open. I crossed my arms as quickly as I could.

  “What the hell, Av’ry?” He went from playful to pissy in a split second. He was rolling through moods faster than a rollercoaster.

  “I’m teasing. I haven’t taken the pill in over a month.”

  I could hardly bite back the truth. His odd reaction disturbed me as much as it humored me. He stood up.

  “Calm down,” I laughed. “God, you’re moody.”

  “We should’ve used something.” He pulled off his glasses to rub the top of his nose. He couldn’t take a joke.

  “I got a shot. It’s good for months. I can’t believe you’re freaking out.”

  He walked to the window and shoved his hands in his pockets. The muscles in his back locked. I held my breath as the sunlight painted his broad shoulders.

  “It’s not funny.”

  “It is too,” I replied. “Is this because of what’s going on with Lane and Molly?”

  “You’re eighteen.”

  “According to my license. So what?” Using protection wasn’t even discussed the other night in Lane’s basement.

  “I wouldn’t know how to be a dad. You know I can’t stand mine.”

  “You wouldn’t be like him.”

  “You said yourself I was bossy and moody.”

  I shrugged and pulled the flag around my shoulders. “You’re a different person every day. Normal is boring.”

  He tossed a look over his shoulder. The kind of look that told me he wasn’t completely gone. I stepped up to him and ran my hands through his arms and clutched his chest while keeping the flag in place. He groaned, but it was a happy groan. His back was silky against my front. I tightened my grip and kissed his shoulder.

  “There’s still paint in your hair,” I told him. “I can see it in the sunlight.”

  I hit the ground as he spun around. The banging on the window startled me so much I bit through the side of my tongue.

  “It’s Caleb. Make him leave,” I hissed.

  Quicker than he could run around the trailer in the snow, a fist pounded the front door.

  “He’s not alone,” I said as I escaped to the bathroom. I spotted Gabe’s dress shirt and stole back into the room to grab it. Gabe was gone.

  I took a shower. I was happy to find a towel when I finished. It was a beach towel. I didn’t care.

  “Av’ry,” Gabe said without giving me a second to answer. The doorknob turned and the door pushed in as I was brushing my hair at the sink. Gabe set his back against the door and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Is he gone? Who was with him?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I asked.

  He took a deep, cleansing breath. “They opened their envelopes.”

  “Is that bad?”

  I twisted my hair into a top bun. He didn’t move other than to widen his eyes as I dropped the towel to the ground and pulled on his shirt. I watched him watch me button each button. I took the flag off the floor and wrapped myself up.

  “Come outside.” He took my hand to pull me through the bedroom.

  Caleb was sitting on the counter eating Pringles while Lane paced from wall to wall.

  “Legs, are you trying to kill me?” Caleb slapped his heart as soon as he saw my Texas flag turned bathrobe. Gabe flashed a disapproving glower at his brother.

  “Howdy, Avery,” Lane’s quiet drawl greeted me.

  I couldn’t read his expression. If anything, he looked confused. “What’s going on? Is Molly okay?”

  Caleb hopped off the sink and sauntered toward me, eyes glued to mine. Gabe stepped in and raised his hand to his brother when Caleb pressed his envelope against my stomach.

  “Chill out, little brother,” Caleb said. I pushed them both away and took the envelope. “We rubbed the bottle and a filthy, stinkin’ rich genie popped out.”

  Five

  “Dad’s been quiet about a will other than to tell me there was one and I’m not to concern myself,” Lane said. “I think it’s being held up in court. These guys think we could get controlling shares.”

  “Shares of what? Your father’s company?” I turned my attention to Gabe. He squatted against the bedroom door and rubbed his eyes.

  Lane ran his hands up and down his face.

  “Shares of our company,” Caleb responded. “HalRem Junior.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t assume there are shares,” Lane said. “Tessa was executor at some point. She snapped a photo of this cover letter. It lists our names under mom’s, and it appears to be from some sort of settlement or will.”

  “You think your mother wanted you to run the company? A billion-dollar industry?”

  Sometimes I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that the Haldens were not an ordinary family. “Isn’t your father the exclusive owner? Doesn’t he oversee and advise a board of directors?” I opened the envelope and glanced at the document.

  “No holes in your screen door, legs. All those suits he travels with—they’re his butt kissers…I mean, consultants,” Caleb said.

  “He commands dozens of divisions around the world. We’d know if it was in trouble. He’s CEO of Halden-Remington Global Holdings and International Trading Corporation,” Lane said. “But it doesn’t mean he owns it all. Technically, the shareholders own some pieces. He controls the biggest portion. Mom let him run it his way and stepped aside.”

  I hadn’t heard anyone refer to the company by its real name. I was intimidated by the title.

  “I knew we’d inherit his fortune,” Lane added. “I just never imagined we’d get any say in his lifetime. He made us believe he had an agreement with mom about Deliah and the company. Maybe there’s more to the story.”

  “This is dated after Deliah was born,” Caleb said.

  “Why are Gabe’s and Deliah’s birthdates listed on a different line?” I asked.

  “They’re the illegitimate kids. They get the scraps,” he joked.

  Gabe snickered. “I’ll vote him right off his throne.”

  “That’s not the way it works,” Lane replied. “We’re jumping to conclusions.”

  “Sure as heck it is,” said Caleb. “Interweb. I looked it up.”

  “Don’t you think you should talk to Tessa before you try to fire your father?” I asked. “He must know about th
is. He and Tessa worked together to take care of Deliah. This affects her too.”

  “Avery’s right,” Lane said. “We need to get ahold of Tessa and a lawyer. This is all conjecture.”

  “Do you always gotta be the voice of reason?” said Caleb. “He never worked with Tessa. She worked for him.”

  “The lieutenant knows every lawyer in the state. How the heck are we gonna find one?” Gabe asked Lane.

  “I’ll work on it. If I have to fly someone in, I will.”

  “What happens to your…to Eli’s part? His birthdate is listed on here,” I pointed out.

  The brothers exchanged glances. Lane shrugged.

  “Did Deliah open her envelope? She’ll go right to your father when she does. Maybe that’s why she’s been calling me.”

  Lane stepped to the door. “I have hers. She doesn’t know anything about it, and I’m keeping it that way. I gotta split. We’ll discuss this later. Not a word to anyone until I find Tessa.”

  Gabe saluted his brother from the floor as the door slammed.

  “What’s for breakfast?” Caleb asked. He didn’t follow Lane out and instead opened Gabe’s refrigerator and grunted at the empty shelves. “Lieutenant’s gonna need a pad to crash in when we take over his kingdom. You might wanna stock the fridge.”

  * * *

  “You’ll knock them dead, kiddo. I’m surprised you got up and ready so fast,” Meggie told Deliah at breakfast on her first morning of school.

  I talked Gabe into driving his sister. He had no idea what trauma she would undergo if she rode the public school bus.

  “Josh took off with Max before the crack of dawn. I was hoping he would give you some pointers. You’ll be surprised. Most of the kids aren’t from North Dakota. Their parents moved here to work in oil.”

  “Your outfit is perfect. Molly’s great at styling you,” I said.

  “I knew you could make do with what you had,” Meggie added.

  Deliah gulped her milk and set down the glass. She wiped her lips with the back of her hand and stood. “I refuse to wear a pink bandana anywhere on my body during my entire lifetime, but the rest is okay,” she said and yawned. “Let’s get this over with.”