"Setting him up?"
"Yes and I need to stop it."
"You."
"Why not me?"
"You don't need to put yourself in harm's way, Stone."
"Cutter needs me."
"Why can't he handle it then? He'd do anything for Sloan."
"Exactly. He's too close to this. He might end up accidentally killing the kid if he says the wrong thing. I'm a lot more detached. It's a job to me. Nothing more."
"I don't like it."
"I get that."
"But it doesn't matter to you?"
"You matter to me, but my brothers matter too. I want to work with them, Ariana. This is how I'll get to know them. This is how we can start to make up for all of the time we missed. Nothing's going to happen to me. You worry too much."
I wrap my hand around her waist and pull her into me.
"Give me my kiss," I say.
I slide my hand into the back of her hair and give her a firm kiss on the mouth. I love this mouth.
"You trust me right?"
"Yes, of course. It's just that I worry."
"I know and I love that you do. Nobody's ever given a shit about me but my dad and you, but I'm a lot more convincing than you give me credit for. This kid will back down in less than ten minutes. I guarantee it."
She turns her lips up to one side.
"And Ariana– we can't have this discussion every time I go to a fix. This is what I do now. You're either going to roll with it or you're not. I rather you roll with it."
"Stone–"
I lean over and swiftly lift her up by her butt and hips. Instinctively she wraps her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist.
"Roll with it," I growl into her neck.
She sighs softly.
It's working.
"Roll with it." I say again as I my dick hardens.
"I'm rolling with it," she says quietly as she kisses the side of my ear.
Her body softens in my grasp.
"Fuck, Ariana, I have to go to work."
"I know, I know. You have to go scare a kid to death. But how about you bang me silly on this bed before you go."
My body grows taut.
I love it when my angel talks dirty.
"Bang you?"
"Fuck me."
Jesus.
"You've got fifteen minutes. Where do you want me."
"I only need ten, and I want to ride you."
Fuck me, I love this woman.
"You drive a hard bargain."
Then I toss her ass on the bed as she squeals with delight and get to making love to my woman.
This is easier than I thought it would be. I'm used to keeping hardened killers at bay in prison, so I put my strongest emotional battle armor on when I went to find Tommy Newton. Ready to scare the fuck out of him. Ready to strip him of his humanity.
But this is the real world. Not prison. And Tommy Newton is just some entitled basketball player from the suburbs who doesn't want to pay the consequences for his poor choices. So making him see the light is light work. If this is all I have to do for a living everyday, then I'm going to be a fucking millionaire.
"Mindy Newton. Oliver Newton. Kara Newton. Laura Newton."
I've cornered Newton outside of the Plymouth Meeting Mall. He just finished having dinner with some unsuspecting girl. Didn't even have the decency to walk her to her car after they were finished. Just patted her on the ass and sent her on her way.
"Who arrrre you, dude?" he stutters. "Why are you naming everyone in my family?"
"Because that's who I'm going to visit one by one with each of these baseball bats if you don't take responsibility for what you did in Boston."
"I didn't do anything."
"You sucker punched that girl after you raped her and now you're letting your coach take the fall. You're a real prick you know that?"
"I didn't do it!"
I pull out one of the lighter bats. The black and grey aluminum one.
"Say you didn't do it again and Mindy is first."
I actually would never hit Mindy Newton with a baseball bat. I think the woman is his grandmother and is probably eighty years old, but he doesn't know that. I'm sure he looks at my height, my ink, my scars and thinks that I would do exactly what I say. At least that's what I'm counting on.
"Coach Pearson was there. I mean...he was yelling too."
I swing the bat towards Tommy's head but stop it in mid-air. He flinches and covers his head with his hands like I knew he would.
"Pussy." I laugh. "Say that shit again, and I will visit Oliver next. He works at the mini mart around the corner from your house right?"
"Wait–"
"I'm listening."
"I'll go tell my lawyer that I'm recanting my statement."
"No need to waste his time. You'll go straight to the station and confess."
"I need a lawyer!"
"After your confession. And let me warn you right now, this isn't a negotiation. This is a ultimatum. You feel me?"
"I'll go right now."
“Right answer, homie. I’ll follow you there."
SLOAN
"So how are you holding up?" I ask my mother.
I've talked to my sister Dawn at least three times a day since the news broke about my father, but have yet to speak to my mother about it. She doesn't like to talk on the phone. She's more of a "let's meet and have drinks" type of person. So we’re here meeting at a local restaurant near her yoga studio.
"As good as can be expected. Some of those yoga hussies are talking about me behind my back in class, but I'm ok."
"Namaste, bitches.” I say while bowing my head and motioning the prayer sign with my hands.
My mother cracks a smile.
"So how did you find out?" she asks.
"He came by the apartment."
"Oh so he finally visited you in your love shack?"
"He doesn't know that Cutter bought the building yet. Unless you told him?”
"I didn't."
“I figured as much.”
"So what did he want? He came all the way over there to tell you about the incident?”
"He wants Cutter's help."
"Of course. Typical Dan. He wants help from the same man he won't even acknowledge.”
My mother pauses to pop a few mystery pills into her mouth and washes them down with some ice water.
"I know but I guess desperate times called for desperate measures."
"So is Cutter the one who got him off then?”
"What?"
"Your dad is no longer a person of interest. It just happened this morning. You didn’t hear?”
“No, but how?"
"The kid confessed."
"Which kid?"
"Tommy Newton. He said he hit her in self defense. I can't believe I had that little rapist over my house for dinner."
"You cook now?"
"Uber eats."
“Oh.”
"Well that's great news, but you seem kind of callous about this whole thing. I mean dad was in serious trouble for a minute there."
"Well there's a part of the story that I'm sure he conveniently left out.”
"What else?"
"There was another girl at the party. The friend of the dead girl. He was seeing her."
"What do you mean seeing?"
"Evidently she's someone he's been seeing when he visits Boston. He's been there at least four times over the last three months. Supposedly she was at that party with your father. I guess they were in another room which is how her friend ended up drunk and alone and getting raped by some of the players. I think she felt like your father might have set her up. That’s why she confronted him.”
Oh my God.
"And how do you know all of this?"
"Your father told me."
“He told you all of this? About the girl and everything?"
"He tells me mostly everything after the fact, and I don't expect you to understand why h
e does or why I listen, but you will one day when you're married."
I hope I never understand this type of twisted dysfunction.
My parents were in love once. I know because I'm pretty sure I saw glimpses of it as a little girl, but mostly because their courtship was documented ad nauseum in many of the celebrity magazines back in the day. But based on my father's long time bad behavior, I'm not sure what their marriage has become now. At this point I guess it's a marriage of convenience, because there is no other explanation for why a woman as beautiful and intelligent as my mother would continue to put up with my dad's chronic womanizing.
My marriage is going to be a lot different.
"I'm sorry, mom. I really am."
"Nothing new right? He's going through some sort of mid-life crisis, and he isn't seeing things straight. He thinks this woman might be his soulmate. He wants to see her through this. Be there for her as she mourns her friend. Never mind what we may want or need. Never mind the bad publicity and the whispers I get behind my back."
"You should leave, mom."
"And give some twenty year old bitch my life?"
I didn't think so.
"Mom, I'm getting married in August.
"This August?"
"Yes."
"Is that what you really want?"
"It is."
"Even after what I just told you?"
"Cutter is nothing like daddy. He is everything a husband should be."
"You're not dazzled by the dick are you?"
"Mom!"
"I've seen Cutter without a shirt and basketball shorts on. He is definitely something to look at. But make smarter choices than me, Sloan."
"Trust me I am."
"You might be right, because I don't know why that Newton boy confessed unless he had a really good reason to. I'm thinking your fiance made that happen."
"I don't think Cutter's involved. I would know. Let's just be grateful that justice prevailed. I was counting on it."
"You know whatever you think about your father, Sloan, he loves us. He always has."
"But he loves himself more."
The server places our drinks down and my mother takes a sip of her iced tea as if it were a shot of vodka.
"I know I seem like a rock to you, Sloan. Emotionless. Steady. Unbothered. But I'm not. I've been with your father from the very beginning. When he was in college and blew out his knee, there were no guarantees that he would have a pro career, but it didn't matter to me. I would have stayed either way. I loved him. But he's betrayed me so many times that I've lost count, and all that I have left is you and my philanthropy work."
My mother begins eating her meal in the methodical way that she always has since I was little. Protein first, veggies second, a small forkful of her starch third, and then a sip of unsweetened iced tea with lemon to wash it all down.
I wish she could be happy.
Like I am.
"Do you think dad will leave you for this girl?"
"Leave me?" she scoffs. "He was never going to leave. He's just planning to set up house with her. Sleep at home during the week and sleep wherever he sets up house for her on the weekends. He's with her right now. In Boston."
I almost spit out my mouth full of Shirley Temple, which I ordered as a joke, because I couldn't wait to see my mother's face when I tied the stem of the cherry into a knot with just my tongue.
"You can't be serious."
"That's what he said."
I place my fork full of fish down, and cross my arms on the table top.
"He's not invited to the wedding!"
My mother grins.
"Sloan...don't be so dramatic."
Me: Did you have something to do with getting my dad off the hook?
Cutter: Where are you?
Me: In an Uber. Answer the question.
Cutter: Maybe.
Me: I didn't ask you to do that.
Cutter: You didn’t have to.
Me: What did you do?
Cutter: It wasn’t actually me. I knew about it of course, but it was all Stone, and he was glad to do it.
Me: Really? Stone did it?
Cutter: Yep.
Me: So I guess I have to be nice to him now?
Cutter: That would be great, yes.
Me: But I rather be really nice to you when I get home in about fifteen minutes.
Cutter: How nice?
Me: Roll your eyes in the back of your head nice. On my knees nice. Arms tied behind my back nice.
Cutter: Get the fuck home NOW!
Me: I'm cummmin...sir.
CAMDEN
It seems as if every time Jade needs me, I'm no where to be found. I’ve spent every waking moment in the hospital, yet the moment I go on a store run for her, she's rolled into emergency surgery.
I ran six city blocks in record time after getting her text. Green juice flying everywhere. My heart beating furiously through my chest. What if she's frightened I thought. What if the surgeon doesn't know what he's doing. Why is it an emergency? Is she dying?
When I ran to the floor she was on and saw Doctor Dickhead casually talking on his cell phone at the nurse's desk I almost lost it. I wanted to throttle him. What was he doing in the hallway talking to who the fuck ever? Why wasn’t he with my girl?
Luckily one of the residents interceded and explained what was going on to me.
Jade was having an ectopic pregnancy. Which is dangerous and her life was at risk.
The baby would never survive in the fallopian tube, so they had to perform the surgery to remove it.
She could have children in the future if she wanted.
She wanted me there before they took her in for surgery, but they had to make a quick decision. Waiting was not a good idea.
The surgery went well.
There were no complications.
She was in recovery.
She would be moved into a regular room in an hour or so, and I could wait for her there. Which I didn't do. Because I had to make a stop first.
"Hey, little star."
"Hey."
"How ya feeling?"
"Like a mack truck ran me over and then backed up again."
"Well you look goddamn amazing."
"You're a liar, Camden King.”
"Yeah, I am." I smirk.
She winces in pain after giggling.
"Stop laughing if it hurts,” I tell her.
"Stop making me laugh."
"I spilled your green juice all over Sansom Street, so you’re shit out of luck.”
"Thanks a lot. I was thirsty."
“Who told you to go into surgery while I was getting it.”
"I'm sorry, Cam. You can say it if you want."
"Say what?”
"I told you so. I was pregnant."
"That's not how I wanted to be right."
“Yeah.”
“We’ll try for real when we’re ready.”
“When we’re ready, but in the meantime I think we’re going to have to use condoms."
"We're not fucking ever again if this is what can happen. You scared the fuck out of me.”
She winces again.
"I told you not to make me laugh."
"What's so funny about that?"
"You never having sex again?"
"I won't if it means putting you at risk."
"At risk of dying from dick withdrawal.”
Now I laugh out loud.
"Ok, maybe we'll just give it a few weeks."
I bend over and kiss her forehead.
"I give a good blow job. That should hold you over."
"Jade."
"Hmmm?"
"What am I going to do with you?"
"Everything."
I kiss her carefully on the mouth this time.
"Get better soon. We have a wedding to go to."
“Damn, did they set a date while I was in surgery?”
“Something like that. It’s the third Saturday in August."
"And now..." I bend down on my knees and lean over on her bedside. "We need to set our own date."
I pull a small red box out of my pocket. While Jade was in recovery I took an Uber a few blocks over to Jeweler's Row and picked out a ring. A princess cut diamond, with the highest clarity I could find, size five.
"Marry me."
Jade's mouth spreads in a smile. With IV's running through her veins, she lifts her slender arm and places her hand on the side of my head. Tracing her thumb across my eyebrow.
"Yes."
"I love you so much, lima bean.”
"I love you too."
I lift up and kiss her gingerly. Only giving her a smidgen of tongue. I mean she did just get out of surgery. I don’t want to hurt her.
"Cam?"
Oh crap, did I just hurt her?
"Yes, baby."
“I think we both need a breath mint."
I laugh out loud again.
My girl is going to be just fine.
CUTTER
AUGUST
I think my bride is secretly a sadist. It was her bright idea to house the groomsmen on one side of Roman’s yacht and the bridesmaids on the other for the last twenty-four hours. Every man on this boat despises her. The women probably do too, although they’d probably never admit it.
Roman, Elizabeth, and baby Masterson graciously lent us the yacht for our impromptu summer wedding. We invited a little over one-hundred and fifty guests and one-hundred and twenty-two were able to make it.
I haven’t had my hands on Sloan in close to a day and a half, and I’m itching to see her. To marry her. To fuck her. To love her.
“You’ll see her soon, brother. You want a drink?” Camden offers me a highball of scotch and water.
“Then I’ll taste like scotch when I kiss her.”
“You taste like scotch all the damn time. What does it matter? She’s going to marry you regardless.”
Stone snickers over on the side.
“What are you laughing at?” I ask.
Over the last few months we have gotten to know our brother a lot better and so I feel more comfortable giving him shit in the same way I give it to Camden.
“You can’t go one day without her?”
“When’s the last time you didn’t sleep next to your woman?”
The King Brothers Boxed Set Page 61
