“Christ,” Adam stood up, eyes hard. “You haven’t told her? What the fuck are you waiting for? Are you waiting for Justin to tell her first? What kind of fucked up plan is that?”
“It’s not exactly easy to tell your woman you were in prison for murder and you were a former drug lord and a member of an infamous, racist prison gang. You try doing it. The moment I tell her, she’s going to dump my sorry ass. What decent woman would want a man like that?”
“You have a chance,” Christian offered. “You tell her on your own, your way, you have a chance. She’s been with you all this time. She knows the real you. The man you are now.”
“Yeah,” Adam cut in. “But if you leave it to Justin he’ll tell it his way and you’ll look like the motherfucker who tricked her and lied to her.”
Trevor turned his head back toward the main house in the distance, imagining that this very scenario could be playing out right now. His heart shattered in his chest. “Fuck,” he muttered, and strode off toward the ATV.
“Where are you going?” Christian shouted.
“To take care of this. Now,” Trevor threw over his shoulder.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“I’m so happy you’re better, but you need to stay in bed,” Rebel said.
“Forget that.” Justin pulled a t shirt over his head and pulled it down over his chest. “Christian said I’ve been in bed for a week. I finally feel a little bit like myself. I can breathe without coughing up a lung, I can get up, stay awake and speak to people. I’ve had enough sleep to last a lifetime.”
“Christian said you still needed to rest.”
“Is Christian a doctor?”
“No, but I’d say he’s the closest thing we’ve got, and it’s good advice. You really should be in bed, taking it easy.”
“I need to get out of this bed or I’m going to lose my mind. I was able to take a shower on my own and get myself dressed. I’m weaker than normal, but I’ll be okay. I’m dressed now, you can turn around.”
Rebel turned. “Okay. At least it’s the morning and not super hot yet.” She glanced at her watch. “Come on, let’s get going. I’m sure Phoebe and Rachel are making breakfast. The other women might be up too. They’re bunking down in the tour bus parked next to us. We can start there. You can meet everyone at breakfast.”
“Everyone? How many people are living here? I’ve met everyone already, right?”
She’d walked up the hall of the RV to the front door as he was talking, expecting him to follow. She opened the door and said over her shoulder, “Including you, there are eleven people here.”
Rebel stepped outside. Justin followed behind her, and now they were both standing in front of the RV. He took a deep breath, smiled and looked around at the open space. His black eyes sparkled with good humor. She expected it must feel pretty good to him, being outside again.
“Eleven people?”
“It’s amazing, isn’t it? For all those months we were completely alone and now we’ve found other people. We aren’t the only ones.”
“Who’s that? That guy walking up?” Justin lifted his chin to indicate somewhere behind her.
She turned, and her stomach fluttered with anticipation. She hadn’t seen Trevor since they’d kissed goodbye at the crack of dawn as he’d left to join the men on an early start, working on clearing the yard of that house he was hoping they’d move into. It had been on the tip of her tongue then to tell him she loved him. To finally admit it to him. But she’d decided to wait. Wait, until tonight when she’d tell him over dinner, just the two of them, when they had plenty of time to talk.
Her palms were sweaty, just thinking about admitting her feelings, letting him in. But as she watched him walk toward her, her heart bursting in her chest, heavy with the love she felt for this man…it all seemed so right. Righter than any decision she’d ever made in her life.
“Oh, that’s Trevor. Good, I was just about to tell you about him. Now I can reintroduce the two of you. You’re going to be embarrassed when I tell you how you acted the first time you met him when you were sick.”
Trevor was getting closer and she could tell he was in a serious mood. The light in his eyes was gone and his body seemed tense, his fists clenched. She wondered what was wrong.
“I think I remember him,” Justin muttered.
And then Trevor was there, his arm going around her waist and bringing her into his side. “Hey,” he rumbled in that deep voice she loved.
“Hey,” she said back. “Look who’s awake.” She turned her head. “Justin, this is my boyfriend, Trevor.”
Trevor looked up and met Justin’s gaze. “I heard you were up.” He leaned forward and put his hand out to Justin. “Hey, man, nice to meet you, I’m Trevor Mason.”
Except Justin didn’t grip his hand in return, and his face was as dark as a thundercloud. “Rebel, stay away from him,” Justin ordered.
Rebel laughed nervously, leaving her arms wrapped around the waist of the man she loved. The man she was letting into her life. The man she was going to tell about the baby and give him the option to stay. “What are you talking about? Justin, this is Trevor, my boyfriend. Come over here, I’ll introduce you. You’ll see—”
“Rebel, I don’t know what lies he told you while I was sick, but this guy is a criminal, a dangerous ex-con. You can’t trust this man. Let go of him and come and stand by me.”
Her chest tightened. “What? This isn’t true. Trevor, tell him it isn’t true. It’s a mistake.”
Trevor sighed, a pained expression etched across his face. “No, Rebel, he’s right. It’s true.”
“What is true?” She let go of him and stepped back. “What’s going on?”
“Justin is telling you the truth, like I should have before. I was in prison before the end.”
“Prison?” she repeated stupidly. “No, you couldn’t have been. You-you didn’t tell me—”
“I was,” he answered gently. “Baby, I was. Justin’s right, no more lies, you need to know the truth about me. When the outbreak started, I was in prison. I escaped when all the guards died and I was able to walk out of there.”
“He wasn’t just in prison,” Justin snarled, “like some country club prison. Rebel, he was in the fucking Aryan Brotherhood. Look at him, look at his tats. The swastika and the four-leaf clover on his neck. They signify his membership in the Aryan Brotherhood. It was the most vicious, racist gang in America, and he was part of it. You can’t trust this asshole.”
She looked into Trevor’s eyes. Those beautiful eyes. Those lying eyes. “You were part of a gang?”
“A prison gang,” Justin said.
“A prison gang,” Trevor agreed.
“And if he was in the Brotherhood he wasn’t just any other prisoner. He was a vicious murderer. You have to prove your loyalty to those fuckers by killing someone on the inside. That’s how he got the four-leaf clover tat.”
She looked away, her eyes on the mountains in the distance for a moment. Then she turned back at Trevor. “You were in prison for…?”
His eyes narrowed and his lips tightened. “Murder,” he spat out. “I was serving a life sentence for murder.”
“Jesus Christ,” she whispered. “Murder was the reason you were in prison, and while you were there you just kept on killing?”
She looked around at the faces surrounding her. Christian, Rachel and Sebastian were standing next to them now. She’d sensed people approaching, heard their steps, but she was so…so… She searched their expressions for clues. Some marked with guilt, eyes sliding away, not meeting hers, some softened with pity. It was as if a fist plowed into her stomach. They all knew. Hell, Josie probably knew. Everyone knew. Except her.
She looked over at Tiana, Kati and Krissy. “Did you guys know too? Am I the only idiot who didn’t know?”
“No,” Kati whispered. “But honey, we suspected.”
She looked back at Trevor. “Who are you?” she hissed.
She was an idiot!
How could she not have seen the truth? It was literally marked all over Trevor’s body. People will tell you who they are, and when they do, believe them, Maya Angelou once said. Why hadn’t she read the signs? Goddammit, she’d been blind and deaf to it all, wanting to believe she’d finally found a man who was different than the rest.
But she hadn’t, had she? In fact, he was worse.
She looked at Trevor again and took a step back. “You lied to me.”
“I—” he started before she cut him off.
“I asked you point blank what those tats meant and you lied to me. You fucking lied to me.” Her voice rose as her anger reached a boiling point. It swept through her like a fever.
“You said you couldn’t be around ex-cons.”
“That’s right,” she said.
“And drug dealers.”
“That’s right,” she whispered, a cold chill sliding down her spine.
“I was a drug lord, Rebel. Before I went to prison I dealt drugs, a fucking lot of drugs. How could I have told you that? What would you have done if you’d known right from the beginning?”
“I would’ve run the other fucking way!”
“Exactly.”
“No!” she screamed. “No,” she said again, choking out the word.
Voices were arguing around her; she couldn’t hear them clearly. Justin’s voice registered. And Christian’s. She didn’t know what they were saying.
Rebel wiped her wet face with the sleeve of her shirt and straightened her back. She looked right into Trevor’s eyes. “I need to talk to you, alone,” she hissed.
No one else heard, the cacophony of voices drowning hers out. But Trevor heard her. He’d never taken his eyes off her.
She walked away, around the corner of the RV so they could have privacy. He followed right behind her.
She had to do this. Do it right now. Rip the Band-Aid off and be done with it.
Rebel turned around and looked up at him. The man she’d given her heart, her trust, her loyalty to just a few hours ago. The man whom she’d bared her soul to. The man she prayed would sign up for the job of being the father of her unborn child. The man she’d shared her secrets with and hoped he was the one to stay.
To finally be the one to prove her wrong about men in general.
He hadn’t.
Trevor watched her, waiting to see what she would say. At least he had the decency to look anguished.
“My brother died of a heroin overdose.” She told him straight out.
“Jesus, baby.” He reached a hand out toward her. She stepped back.
She took a deep breath and continued. “He was four years older than me. He was my hero, he was everyone’s hero—the quarterback of the football team, handsome, good grades, nice guy—all the good qualities. My parents had divorced, and Mom was with me in Hollywood and Tanner was with Dad in Vegas. But I still saw him all the time. We were close, really close. I loved him. I was so proud of him. He was being scouted by colleges when he hurt his back in a game mid-season during his senior year. It was bad, a career-ruining injury. He recovered, but he couldn’t play football ever again. But he hadn’t planned on going pro anyway, and what he really wanted was eventually to go to law school and become a lawyer, and with the money I was making with the acting, paying for his college wasn’t a problem. He would have recovered fine and moved on with his life, except he became addicted to the pain meds.”
“Fuck.”
“None of us even knew. He was buying Oxycodone off the street, sucking it down like candy. The drug dealers took him in like they were his “friends” advising him, helping him to see that it was smart to switch to heroin because it gave a similar high but was easier to get ahold of and a little bit cheaper. We sent him to rehab twice. No good. Mom, Dad and I all had to be trained on how give him a “shot” to resuscitate him in case he overdosed. It was terrible. By then he was a ghost of his former self. A skinny, wasted druggie with track marks all over his arms, caught in the grip of something he wasn’t able to shake. One day he overdosed and none of us were around. And he died. My beautiful brother…died, from something totally fucking preventable.”
“Baby.” He reached out again.
“Don’t touch me! Drug dealers killed him, Trevor.”
“Rebel—”
“And you were a drug dealer.”
He dropped his hand.
“I’ve never taken drugs, I never will, and I don’t associate with anyone who does. Especially with someone who fucking dealt drugs. You were that person, Trevor, that type of person who killed my brother. That could have been you.”
She heard him take a sharp breath.
“It’s over between us,” she told him with finality. And she turned around and walked away.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Rebel don’t go,” Rachel begged. “Don’t. You need to stay. It’s safe here for you.”
“Stop,” Rebel whispered. Rachel’s words hit her like sharp stones. “I need to leave, I need to leave right now. You heard everything, you should understand.”
Justin put his hand on Rachel’s shoulder. “We’re going back to Carmel. She’ll be fine. I’ll be with her.”
Rachel’s eyes were wet with unshed tears. “Don’t give up on us, Rebel. You’re not just leaving him, you’re leaving us too. And what about—”
“Don’t,” Rebel snapped. Holy shit, not this too. Hadn’t she had enough drama in one day? “Stop it, Rachel. Not another word.”
“What is she talking about?” Krissy asked.
“Nothing!” Oh God, she needed to get the hell out of there before Trevor found out. They were all still standing out on the front lawn. Rebel looked up and noticed that Trevor was walking back toward them. Her heart skipped a beat. Ice-cold fear ran through her veins. She took a step back, trying to get away.
“She’s pregnant, okay? She’s pregnant,” Rachel told Krissy.
“No way,” Krissy breathed.
Rebel’s jaw dropped at Rachel’s proclamation. She saw her already shattered world breaking off into tinier pieces.
“I’m sorry, Rebel, but I have to say something. This is crazy. I know you’re upset right now. But since you’re pregnant, you should really be staying with us. Please don’t make a rash decision while you’re upset.”
“What. Did. She. Say?” Trevor asked. He was standing at the edge of their group. He’d heard everything.
Rebel stiffened. Everyone went quiet.
“What the fuck did she just say, Rebel?” Trevor shouted at her back.
Rebel whipped around and met his gaze, witnessed his flaming rage and lifted her chin. Time to face the music. “I’m pregnant, Trevor. I’m over three months pregnant.”
“Fucking hell!” Justin exploded. “Kinda important information there, Rebel. Think you shoulda told me that one.”
“She was going to tell you, Trevor,” Rachel burst in.
Trevor put a hand up, cutting off Rachel’s words, and stepped closer to Rebel. So close he could whisper in her ear. She trembled but forced herself not to step back.
“We’ve been fucking without a condom,” he said softly, his words meant only for her. “Me thinking I’m planting my seed in you, and you didn’t think you should inform me that you’re already pregnant with some other asshole’s kid?”
Rebel swallowed hard.
Trevor was filled with rage. His body was on fire. He practically saw red. Mad at Rebel for not telling him the truth. Mad at everyone and everything.
Most of all, mad at himself.
He was a match that only needed a rough surface to light on fire.
He was lying. She was lying. It was all a boatload of wrong piled on more wrong. And she’d never told him that she was pregnant?
What. The. Fuck.
He was practically dizzy with the enormity of this information.
How could she not have told him? How?
He stared hard at his woman as she turned away.
“I he
ard you,” a voice shouted in his ear. He glanced in slow motion to look at Rachel, who was staring at him with eyes lit with rage. “I was standing right here and I heard what you whispered in Rebel’s ear.” Rachel reached out and punched him in the arm. “She was raped, you asshole!” she yelled at him. “Raped when everything went down in LA. Two men beat her and raped her and she’s been afraid to tell you this whole time because she was worried you would reject the baby. I told her you weren’t like that. I vouched for you and it turns out you are like that.”
Trevor took a deep breath, glanced up and noticed Adam jogging in their direction. The three new women were gathered closely around Rebel, covering her as effectively as a burqa, sweeping her off to the house.
“Adam, I—” Rachel started.
He hugged her. “Go inside, babe, with Rebel. It’ll be okay. We’ll talk later. Let me take care of this now.”
Rachel nodded and walked away. The other women were already inside.
“You got this?” Sebastian asked Adam in a low voice.
Trevor glanced at Justin, who was eyeing him with open hostility. Trevor lifted his chin and widened his stance.
“I’m good,” Adam replied. “You can go with them. I’ll take—”
Justin stepped up and swung his fist into Trevor’s jaw. Blinding pain swept across his face.
“Oh shit,” Adam muttered. “Here we go.”
Trevor stumbled back, recovered and plowed his head back into Justin’s midsection. The two of them fell to the ground, wrestling for control.
“Bring it on, motherfucker,” Trevor growled.
“You’re not going to hurt her again,” Justin snarled.
“Break it up!” Adam shouted as he waded in, bent down and shoved them both back with a palm on each of their chests. Sebastian stepped in too, effectively separating the two men.
“You are not going to lay other goddamn hand on her, do you hear me?” Justin spit out. “Let me go. I’m going to kick his ass for hurting her.”
“Justin,” Adam sighed as he pulled him off the ground. “You just recovered from walking pneumonia. You’re weak, man. Trevor will kick your ass. She’s gone, she’s leaving him. Let it go. Okay? The both of you. Let it go.”
Kill For You Page 20
