Vagrant: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance

by Voss, Deja

  “I know,” she sighs. She cups my face, pulling me in for a kiss. “I love you, too.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Molly:

  “Holy shit. I need to stop paying my agent so much money.” I whistle as we pull into the gated driveway of Josh’s cabin.

  Sure it would’ve been nice to fly, but the ride here was fun. We took turns driving, even though my blood pressure nearly shot through the roof every time he got behind the wheel. The thought of him getting pulled over and being tossed into jail for driving without a license isn’t something I want to deal with right now. We have a romantic weekend ahead of us after all, and I have an awards ceremony to attend.

  Maybe on the ride home. Maybe if he gets arrested the police will help us find out who he actually is. I wouldn’t wish it on him obviously, but as our relationship gets deeper and deeper and we get closer and closer, I start getting more desperate for answers.

  We decided mutually that we could put off the search until after this weekend. Between his handful of contracting jobs he’s picked up and me avoiding writing the story I was already paid nicely for, things have kind of gotten stressful in the bus. We’re good, the two of us, obviously, but adding another layer of chaos to the dog pile is just not something I’m eager to get into right this second.

  “Can you imagine what it would be like to have this kind of money?” I stammer. The log cabin is massive on the outside with a huge wraparound porch. I spot a hot tub in one corner. The garage next to it is two stories high, and the koi pond in the front is bigger than my entire bus. It takes my breath away.

  “How was your ride, love?” Josh asks when he answers the front door. “And this must be the new man friend, I presume?”

  “It was a nice trip,” I tell him. “A little long, I’m pretty beat. And yes, this is Tucker.”

  “Tucker, it’s great to meet you, man. I’ve heard so much about you,” he says, shaking his hand. “Molly says you’re the inspiration of her newest story?”

  He laughs. “Was. Now I’m just the guy who carries her suitcases around and walks her dog.”

  I wrinkle my nose and grab one of my bags off of his shoulder. “Hey, I also let you buy me stuff,” I tease. “God, I’m delightful.”

  “Molly says you’re quite the hunter,” Josh says. “Maybe next elk season you can come out to my camp.”

  “I’ve only shot one elk in my life,” he says confidently. The look that washes over his face is one of confusion, but almost delight, like he is trying to process this newfound memory.

  “When was that?” I ask, trying to push him a little bit. “Or was it recently?”

  “Fuck,” he mutters. “Sorry, I don’t know. Do you guys care if I go lie down for a little bit? My head is killing me. That drive was rough.”

  “I’m going to get out of your hair, guys,” Josh says. “Let you get that romantic weekend on. I just wanted to drop the keys and say hello. I had to make sure you made it here in one piece. Bailey is out in the guest house if you need anything. I told her dinner at seven, if that works for you two?”

  “Jesus, Josh, is it rude if I ask you how you can afford all this?”

  “It is rude. But it’s not my money if that’s what you’re implying. Or your money, I mean. I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Most people don’t get so lucky as to be rich and beautiful like me. You two enjoy the house. I’m sure my father would be proud to have such a prolific up-and-comer under his roof.”

  Up-and-comer is one way to put it. Girl who’s about to blow her one shot with a big name magazine because she’s in way over her head is probably the better way. Right now I’m not worried about that though. Right now I’m worried about Tucker.

  Was that a moment of clarity? Or was it just his imagination? He didn’t say anything to me about shooting an elk with the Vagrants, so I don’t think that’s what he meant.

  The way he’s holding his temples makes me think I need to just get him to bed so he can relax.

  “I’m sorry, guys,” Tucker says. “This really isn’t like me.”

  “I get it, man,” Josh assures him. “That’s a really long trip. I’ll see you two tomorrow afternoon. We’ll pick you up and take you to the ceremony.”

  He hands me the keys to the house and gives me a polite hug before letting himself out.

  “Come on, Tucker,” I say. “Let’s go take a nap or something.”

  “I’m sorry,” he says again.

  “Stop being sorry. Are you ok? Do you need something to drink? Do you want to talk? Do you think you need to go to the emergency room?” His face is pale and his palms are sweaty.

  “I think I just need to go lie down. I don’t want to ruin this for you, Mary. I know how important this is.”

  “Did you just call me Mary?” I ask, hoping desperately that I misheard him.

  He’s looking at me curiously, like I’m a stranger. He’s trying to read my face, and I’m sure it’s nothing short of a puzzled frown.

  “No, Molly. I’m sorry. You must’ve heard me wrong. Let’s go find the bedroom.”

  I know I didn’t mishear him. I know what he said. He knows it, too. Even if he’s not having memories, I don’t like seeing him disoriented. Knowing that he likely had a head injury to begin with makes me feel so irresponsible letting him put off his visit to the doctor’s until after this trip.

  I can’t make the man do anything he doesn’t want to. I’ll let him sleep, but I’m going to keep a close eye on him. If he’s still acting funny tomorrow, then we are definitely going to have a serious talk about going to the hospital.

  The cabin is open concept, huge, the walls rough cut lumber that smell like cedar wood, and the staircase is a spiral leading to a loft. There are animals mounted all over the walls, eyeballs on me everywhere I look. I know it’s a stylistic thing, and I’m not a vegetarian by any means, but I personally find it a little creepy.

  Tucker probably loves it, I think. I imagine this would be his dream home. Out in the woods, primitive but luxurious. Private but with people who do all the heavy lifting for you. Other than these bags. Watching him struggle up the stairs with them is making me really uneasy. The man who could throw my body over his shoulder is looking winded and tired dragging the roller suitcase up the steps.

  “Just leave it, babe,” I tell him. “We don’t need it right now.”

  He frowns, obviously frustrated, but I pull it from his hand and prop it up against the bannister. I can carry it myself, but right now I’m more worried about him. His walk is uneven. He’s swaying a little bit, clutching onto the bannister as I help him the rest of the way upstairs to the bedroom.

  “I’m really dizzy. I think I’m carsick.”

  If the circumstance was any different, I would probably belly flop right on the big lush king-sized bed in the middle of the room. Instead, I just guide him to the bed, taking his boots off for him as he strips out of his button-down shirt. He doesn’t even bother with his jeans, just curls up in the fetal position and closes his eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Molly,” he whispers. “I’m so sorry.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Tucker:

  I’m sitting in the tree stand, my crossbow pulled back, ready to make this shot.

  My phone vibrates in my pocket. I ignore it. I’ve been scouting this monster bull elk for the last three months. I look down my sights, watching as the giant creature lifts his head, throwing it back and letting out a loud bugle into the morning air, his breath looking like a cloud of smoke.

  He’s gathering his harem. I have no interest in those cows. All I want is this guy. This elusive, beautiful guy. He’s got enough meat on his bones to fill my mother’s freezer, to feed my whole family for the winter. I know they’re pissed I took the semester off from school, but I also know times are tough right now.

  My time is better spent working at the gas station. Hunting. Providing for the people that I care about. Providing for the people who never made me feel like
I grew up in poverty, even though we were dirty fucking poor.

  My phone vibrates again, and for some reason, I get a sense that someone is angry. Someone is looking for me.

  I pull it out and cringe at the name on the screen. I know exactly what she wants. I know in her eyes I fucked up.

  “Where are you?” she screeches. I know the giant bull can sense me now. He’s shaking his head back and forth, smelling the air.

  “Mary, I’m out in the woods. I told you I needed to do this today.” I see my dad downfield throwing his hands up in the air in a “what the fuck, Jesse,” kind of motion.

  “And I told you that if you didn’t make some time for me this weekend, I was done with you.”

  “Honey, the day’s not over. I’ll be by as soon as I’m done. I have to go.” I set my phone down without hanging up on her, and I take the shot. My dad lets out a loud woot as the elk drops to the ground. We are very fortunate. It’s not often you get a clean and instant kill.

  “Don’t bother!” she’s screaming. “You’re no good, Jesse. You’re a fucking dirty redneck and you’ll always be one.”

  I hit the end button on the call. I don’t know what to tell her. She’s always wanted something from me that I couldn’t offer her. She wanted easy. She wanted money. She wanted me to be someone that I’m not.

  “You coming, son?” my dad shouts.

  The pure look of joy on his face tells me I’m exactly in the right place. The relief that we can provide for my mom and sisters for another day. It might not come easy, but we always have everything we could ever ask for.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Molly:

  He’s out like a rock. If it wasn’t for his loud snoring, I’d probably be checking to make sure he’s still breathing. I don’t like what happened earlier today. The thought of him being sick makes me really nervous.

  I tried to take a nap beside him in the cushy king-sized bed, but it just didn’t feel right. I couldn’t get comfortable knowing that something might be wrong with him. Eventually I got hungry and decided to explore the house a little bit and see what Bailey was making for dinner.

  “You must be Molly.” She smiled as I walked into the kitchen, looking around in amazement at all the amenities and state-of-the-art appliances. The woman looked old enough to be my grandmother, and it was almost comforting to have an adult to talk to because I felt like a dumb teenager who needs a little guidance. “Do you like pasta?”

  “It’s my favorite,” I told her. “I don’t care what you put on it, I love it all.”

  “Is Tucker going to be joining you?”

  “Do you think we can just set a plate aside? He’s not feeling so hot after the drive.”

  “That’s a shame.”

  “Do you want to join me?” I asked her. “I don’t like eating alone.”

  We talked about her life. How she’s been working for Josh’s family for the last thirty years and now that her children are grown she’s pretty much become a live-in staple in their guest home. She enjoys the quiet but loves when Josh brings his children around to spend the weekend at the cabin. It makes her feel like she is doing something good for the world. It makes her feel important. She’s a kind and simple woman, and being around her makes me feel at peace.

  I explained to her the Tucker situation. Of course I left out the nasty parts, but I explained how he rescued me that day on the mountain and we have been pretty much inseparable ever since. I told her about how he snuck around and got a job so that he could help support me. About how he fits right in with my friends and never questions my career or life choices. How he just cares about me for who I am.

  And how I love him for who he is, even though I’m not getting the full picture of who he actually is.

  The pasta was amazing, the creamy red wine sauce definitely far better than the jar of whatever I usually go for, and we ate until we were about to explode.

  “So you just let him?” she asked me.

  “Let him what?”

  “Honey, it doesn’t matter what kind of man he is. If he’s keeping secrets from you, purposely or not, you’ll never be able to have a healthy relationship.”

  I let her words sink in. It’s really not fair to me or to us or to the potential people he left behind in his past life for us to just let this go. Secrets are secrets, and if I’m going to spend the rest of my life with this man, I need to put my foot down. Especially with how he was feeling and acting today.

  “Do you want dessert? Coffee? Wine?”

  “Coffee would be fantastic,” I told her. She fixed a pot for me while I helped clear the table. “I hope you don’t mind if I take this to the bedroom. I have some work on my laptop that I need to do.”

  “You’re gonna start searching, aren’t you?”

  “I’m gonna try.”

  Now I’m sitting here on the bed next to him, feeling as if I’m about to commit some sort of treasonous sin. Bailey was right, though. As much as I think I know him, this man snoring loudly is technically a stranger to me.

  He’s a stranger to himself.

  And it’s time for me to start getting to know who the real Tucker is.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Tucker:

  When I woke up this morning, I was still in my jeans. I must’ve passed out hard. Molly’s snoring softly next to me in a pair of sweatpants and one of my t-shirts. Her laptop is cradled in her arms. I’m sure she was working late to make up for the lost time of the long drive we took yesterday.

  We don’t have anywhere to be until later today, and I figure I’ll let her sleep as long as she wants. We are on vacation after all. Plus, I’m itching to do a little exploring.

  This cabin is the kind of place that I could see us living in one day. It wouldn’t be that hard to build. Everywhere I turn sends my mind into a frenzy of angles and numbers, blueprints bouncing around in my brain. I can only hope I can give the woman I love a place like this to spend the rest of our life in. It’s going to take a lot of money, though and it’s pretty hard to get a loan to build a house when you don’t even have a last name.

  “Tucker?” the woman with the blue white hair sitting at the kitchen table asks when I walk into the room, looking up from her crossword puzzle with a smile on her face. “You’re probably starving. You’ve been asleep for nearly twenty hours. Are you feeling alright?”

  Holy shit, I think. It couldn’t have been that long. I feel amazing today. No wonder why.

  “I could eat.” I shrug. “That car ride took it all out of me, I guess.”

  “Have a seat,” she suggests. She gets up and starts pulling stuff from the refrigerator, cracking eggs and frying bacon in a big cast-iron pan.

  “I can help you, Suzanne,” I say. “You know I hate making you wait on me.”

  “Thanks for your offer, but my name is Bailey. Easy mistake. I guess I didn’t introduce myself properly. And I’m fine. This is the kind of stuff I enjoy doing. You just relax and get some coffee in you.”

  I know her name isn’t Suzanne. But I have no idea where that came from. It slipped from my lips so naturally, like having a maid fix me breakfast was something I was used to. I rub my temples. My head is fucking pounding from sensory overload.

  This place is overwhelming me. Everything about it is overloading my mind, giving me mixed signals, making me feel off balance.

  “Do you have a headache? You want some aspirin?”

  “You know I’m allergic to aspirin. You want me to have an asthma attack?”

  “Tucker,” she says. “I don’t have a memo with your allergies. I’m sorry.”

  “I’m sorry, Bailey,” I say, “I need to go for a walk.”

  I get up from the table, feeling like everything I’ve come to know recently is spiraling out of control. The stuff coming out of my mouth, I don’t know where it’s coming from. This house is doing something crazy to me, and the only thing I can think of that might solve my problems would be a walk in the woods.

 
Some time to think. Or not think. I want these thoughts to drift away. I want my simple Vagrant mind back.

  I don’t want to leave Molly hanging. I love that woman more than anything, but I don’t want her to see me like this. I don’t want her to worry. Tonight is really important to her, and I need to be the man she knows and loves, not this disoriented guy living in two separate places in his mind. I take the trail through the backyard up into the mountains.

  What would Tucker do? I laugh. I keep walking until my legs and lungs are on fire.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Molly:

  “You just missed him,” Bailey says to me. “Ran off without even eating breakfast.”

  I laugh nervously. I don’t know how to explain his behavior. It’s not even making sense to me.

  “I swear we spend more time together when we’re both home and working full-time than we have on this vacation. That car ride must have really gotten to him.” She pours me a cup of coffee and I lean up against the counter, watching her flip bacon in a pan.

  “I’m not bailing on breakfast,” I tell her. “That smells way too good.”

  “He called me Suzanne,” she says. “I don’t know if it was a misunderstanding, I mean, we hadn’t met yet so I figured maybe he just heard wrong. But then he started going off on me about being allergic to aspirin and having asthma. Is this normal?”

  I shake my head. “Nothing he’s doing right now is normal, Bailey.”

  She fixes me a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon and sets it on the long oak table.

  “What’d you find out, if I might ask? I’m assuming you did some digging last night. The bags under your eyes look like you didn’t sleep too well.”

  “Shit,” I stutter, putting my hands over my eyes. “I want to look nice for my award tonight.”