That was the last hit my wall could withstand. With that promise, it crumbled to dust and blew away on a strong breeze.
“You think you can handle just a little bit more?” he asked a while later.
“That depends,” I answered, lifting my head to meet his gaze. “Are you gonna make me get up?”
His arms grew tighter, pinning me in place as shadows began forming in his eyes. “No. I need you right here for what I have to say next.”
“I can handle it,” I promised, reaching up to rub my fingertips along his stubbled jaw. “You share it with me, and I’ll do my best to help you let it go for good.”
His voice was as abrasive as sandpaper with what he said next. “My brother died when he was eighteen.” I sucked in a gasp as my arms around his neck clenched. “My folks were the kind of people who only had enough love to give to one other person, and that person was Juan. I might’ve been the oldest, but he was the favorite, and they never shied away from letting me know just how much they preferred him.
“The older I got, the more pissed off I became. I started running with a bad crowd, did some fucked-up shit I’m not proud of, but I never had the same kind of self-destructive streak the other guys did. I’d drink, smoke pot every now and then, petty teenage shit. But when they started getting into harder stuff, I knew I had to get out. I wanted a better life than the one I had, so the second that diploma was in my hand, I was gone.
“My folks might not have given a shit about me, but Juan had always looked up to me as some kind of role model. Part of the reason I enlisted was because I wanted to become the kind of man he’d be proud of. It was two years before I went back home again, and when I did, I discovered Juan had followed in my footsteps. Just not the right ones.”
“Marco,” I whispered, a fresh wave of tears falling freely.
“He hooked up with the same losers I used to hang with, got mixed up worse than I ever had. Started using and got into so seriously shady stuff. I tried my hardest to pull him out of it, but I couldn’t stay there. I’d gotten my orders and had to ship out. He was shot holding up a gas station when I was in Iraq.”
Burying my face in his neck, I held on as tight as I could, hoping I was giving him the same strength he’d given me.
“First thing my mother said to me when I showed up for the funeral was that I’d killed my brother, and she wished it was me in that casket instead of him.”
“No,” I breathed, the hatred I suddenly felt for a woman I’d never met clawing at my insides.
“They blamed me for what happened to him. Told me and everyone else who would listen that I was the reason Juan went down the path he did. My whole life had been shit,” he said, his gaze turning vacant as he got lost in the past. “I lived under this constant cloud for as long as I could remember. The only bright spot in all that ugliness was Juan. He was the only real family I ever had. He was the reason I survived. Then one day he was just... gone.”
Cupping his cheek, I lifted his face to mine and declared, “Baby, what happened to your brother wasn’t your fault.”
The smile he gave me then was so sad it broke my heart. “What was that you said about hearing something enough you start to believe it?”
“You didn’t kill him,” I said vehemently. “It wasn’t your fault he did what he did. Those were his choices, Marco. You didn’t make them for him. He did that all on his own.”
“But he looked up to me.”
“So what? Rhodes is a year younger than Juan was. You think he know’s right from wrong?”
He hesitated for a moment. “Yeah, but—”
“And look at what you did!” I continued passionately. “Even though you made some bad choices, you were smart enough to know that wasn’t a road you wanted to go down, so you turned back. You picked yourself up and built a better life. Juan could have done that, but he chose not to.” Leaning in closer so I was all he could see, I stressed,
“Those choices were his own. You didn’t make them for him, Marco. You are not to blame for what happened.”
“Keep saying that enough, and I might just start to believe you.”
“Then I’ll say it as much and as often as you need me to.”
He leaned in, trailing the tip of his nose along the side of mine. “That your way of saying you’re gonna give me a great life too, girasol?”
“Absolutely,” I said against his lips. “Starting today. Remember this moment, because this is exactly when our great life started.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Gypsy
Rhodes came out of his room a while later. The shadows that had been lurking in his eyes were gone, and the sense of relief I felt at having my brother back nearly took me to my knees.
When the front door opened later, Holly’s reaction at the sight of Marco was to be expected. Her eyes bugged out and she shouted “Marco!” at the top of her lungs before bolting straight at him. He caught her mid-leap, swinging her up and into his arms while easily avoiding being whacked in the head by her bright purple cast. “You’re back!”
“I am, preciosa.”
“For how long this time?” Sunny asked, her words dripping with sarcasm.
I whipped around at my sister’s callous tone and scolded, “Sunny!”
Her face twisted up in insolence as she crossed her arms over her chest. “What? It’s not like we need him,” she directed to me before looking back at Marco. “We were just fine before you ever came along, you know. So if you’re here out of pity or something, you can just go.”
“I don’t want him to go!” Holly cried, her eyes growing red and puffy with the threat of tears. Her tiny arms banded around Marco’s neck like she was afraid he’d disappear.
It was in that very moment I was reminded yet again just how badly I’d messed everything up. In my foolish attempt to protect my heart, I’d broken those of the people I loved the most. I was the one who’d broken their trust in Marco, so it was up to me to fix it.
“Sunny, look at me.” The instant I got her eyes, I saw all the pain and heartache she was hiding behind that mask of indifference and acrimony. Seeing that, knowing I was the cause behind it, hurt worse than any physical blow ever could. “What you’re feeling right now, that’s on me, not Marco.” She opened her mouth to speak, but I pressed on before she could. “Marco hasn’t been around lately because of me. It’s my fault, honey. I started falling for him, and that scared me to death, so I pushed him away. If you’re gonna be mad at anyone, be mad at me. Not him.”
“But he didn’t have to go,” she argued as a flush rose on her cheeks. Her chest started rising and falling with quick, heavy breaths, and I knew my sister was struggling to damn the emotions flooding through her. “He could have fought harder. He didn’t have to just disappear on us.”
My vision blurred with tears, and my lips parted, but before I could say a word, Marco’s low, husky voice broke in. “I never disappeared, baby girl.” I turned woodenly in his direction as he continued to speak. He’d placed Holly back on her feet and had taken two steps in Sunny’s direction. “You sister needed time, and I wanted to give her that. What Gypsy didn’t tell you was that while she was falling for me, I was falling for her too, so I had no intention of staying gone.”
Sunny’s chest visibly shook, and a broken noise escaped her mouth, digging the knife in my stomach that much deeper. “Y-you promise?”
His voice was like gravel, rough and scratchy as he replied. “I swear on my life.” Sunny’s sudden movement gave me a start. She closed the distance between them in three quick strides and threw herself against Marco’s chest. He didn’t hesitate to wrap his long, strong arms around her and hold her tight, bending down to press his lips to the crown of her head. “I’m here, baby girl. I promise. I’m not going anywhere.”
As I watched him and my sister share a beautiful moment together, I knew to my very bones that that was a promise Marco would keep until his very last breath.
The Bradburys were bac
k on track, and officially made whole with the inclusion of Marco Castillo into our family.
* * *
Marco
Resting my hips on the porch railing, I looked through the front window into Gypsy’s house as the anger I’d been working for hours to keep in control simmered beneath the surface.
The rest of the evening had gone off without any more tears or heartbreak. Dinner was made with the help of Odette who’d shown up with Raleigh after the dust had settled. Homework had been completed, and now everyone was camped out in the living room, watching a movie.
I’d been able to push the shit with Black to the back of my mind while I handled taking care of my woman and kids, but now that we were all where I wanted us to be, it had pushed its way back into the forefront, and I needed to step outside for some fresh air while I tried to get a hold of myself.
Turning my back on the peaceful, familial scene, I blew out a harsh sigh and looked out across the trailer park, really taking the small community in for the first time. It was noticeable that a few of the residents did their best with what little they had. Gypsy and Odette were among those who took pride in their homes, trying to keep up their yards and such. Then there were some who just didn’t give a damn. They were the majority, with beat up cars on blocks littering driveways, lawns in need of mowing months ago, others that were nothing but brown patches of dead grass. On those houses, the windows that weren’t broken had foil or bed sheets taped to them in place of actual curtains.
The park was a hell hole, no other way to describe it. The family I’d just left inside deserved so much better, and if it was the last fucking thing I did, I was going to give that to them.
The screen door creaked open, and a second later I felt Gypsy’s heat at my back. Her arms wrapped around my waist, her hands coming to rest on my stomach just above the waistband of my jeans. Usually her touch soothed the storm raging inside of me, but knowing how close that prick had gotten to her today, there was nothing that could calm the hurricane swirling inside of me. “What’s on your mind?” she asked quietly.
“Nothing.”
Her breasts slid up my back as she raised up on her tiptoes in order to whisper in my ear. “Liar. You’re out here all by yourself, thinking so hard I could hear it from inside. What’s the matter? Is this...” She stopped to pull in a breath. “Are we moving too fast?”
Her arms fell, and she took a step back when I twisted around quickly. “No,” I insisted, grabbing hold of her hips and pulling her against me, holding her tight so she couldn’t break free. “God no, Gypsy. I swear.”
Her eyes held skepticism as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and bit down. “You sure?”
“I’m positive.” I gave her a squeeze for good measure. “We aren’t going too fast. Hell, we could be going at warp speed and I’d still be content to move faster.”
Gypsy’s expression grew soft and warm as she leaned deeper into me and smiled. “Okay. Then you wouldn’t mind me asking you to stay?”
At that question, the breath got stuck in my lungs. In the past few months, we’d only spent one night together, and that night had been tainted by her fear and insecurities. The thought of waking up with this woman in my arms, her warm curves pressed against me, was a dream come true. The bonus was knowing Gypsy and the kids would be under the same roof where I could look out for them and keep them safe.
“That what you want girasol?”
“Yes.” She answered instantly. There were no walls or shields to be seen in her eyes. Now that I’d broken through, she gave me everything without hesitation.
My chest swelled with pride and my arms clenched around her. “Then that’s what you’ll get.”
She didn’t just smile at me then, she beamed, and it was one of the most gorgeous sights I’d ever seen. “Good,” she whispered, lifting up so her lips brushed against mine as she spoke. “Then you probably need to run to your place to pack a bag huh?”
“Probably.”
“And you should probably pack enough stuff for a couple days.”
I grinned against her mouth. “Is that right?”
Gypsy’s arms slid up my chest and around my shoulders. Her fingers tangled in the hair at the nape of my neck before adding pressure and forcing me to tip my head down so she could reach me better. “Definitely,” she whispered.
I gave her what we both wanted, turning the brush of our lips into a full-blown kiss, and I knew right then that I’d never get enough of her lips against mine.
Then Ray’s voice came to us through the window and shattered the moment. “Ah, jeez! Enough already!”
Gypsy turned to look through the window at her brother’s disgusted scowl and burst into laughter. And just like that, she beat back the last of the storm clouds.
* * *
The neon lights from the sign filled the cab of my Cherokee with an ugly Pepto Bismol pink as I sat in the ill-lit parking lot of the strip club.
My duffle bag was in the passenger seat beside me, and I should have been on my way back to Gypsy at that very moment, but after leaving my apartment, I seemed to move on autopilot, pointing the SUV in the direction of Pink Palace without putting any thought into what I was about to do.
My phone pinged from its place in the cupholder, pulling my attention away from the gaudy building. I tapped the screen, pulling up the text conversation between me and Gypsy. Her response to the one I’d sent a minute ago telling her I had to handle something for work and would be a little getting back to her had just come through.
Gypsy: Okay, babe. Be safe, and I’ll see you when you get home. Love you.
Home. Christ, I loved reading that. Truth was, I’d never had a home before. The house grew up in never felt like home. I’d always been the interloper, the mistake that came before the golden child. I loved Juan with all my heart, but he couldn’t make that cold house feel like a home.
I was a thirty-five-year-old man who’d only just put down roots a couple years ago. But even then, Hope Valley and my place in it never felt quite right. Now, with one little text, the life-long search for a place to belong had finally come to an end.
Gypsy was my home.
Killing the engine, I pulled the keys from the ignition, climbed from the car, and made my way inside the club.
Xander spotted me the moment I walked through the door and gave his head a discreet tilt toward the bar.
I joined him at the far end closest to where I used to sit when I came in to keep an eye on Gypsy. Obscured by the shadows in the dimly lit corner, I kept my voice low as I asked, “He here?”
He studied me for a beat before speaking. “Gotta say, I’m not surprised to see you in here, but I feel I have to ask anyway. You sure you wanna do this, brother?”
My jaw ticked, and my fingers clenched as I gritted out my response. “That motherfucker broke into my woman’s house,” I hissed. “He waited until she was alone to take her by surprise. He fucked with what’s mine, and I’m gonna make sure that shit doesn’t happen again. Now you want to answer my question, or keep wasting my time?”
Xander heaved a heavy sigh before giving his head a single nod. “He’s in his office. Try not to do too much damage, yeah? We still need to take that asshole down.”
I was on the move without so much as a backward glance, rounding the bar and heading down the hallway that led to the office in the back. Putting my hand to the knob, I twisted and threw the door at the very end of the hall open hard enough to make it crash into the wall.
The room erupted into a flurry of motion, starting with the startled squeak of the woman on her knees beneath the glass-topped desk.
“What the fuck!” Black bellowed, shooting from his chair and tucking his dick the girl had just been sucking back into his pants.
Looking to the woman, I gave her a cursory glance, just long enough to come to the conclusion that she was one of the dancers. “Get out,” I barked, my tone leaving no room for argument.
She easily rose
from the floor and scuttled past me as fast as her feet would carry her. The second she cleared the threshold, I slammed it closed, leaving me and Black alone in the room.
“Hey, asshole,” he clipped, buttoning his fly. “You have any goddamn clue who I am?”
“I know exactly who you are,” I seethed, moving forward and bracing my hands on the top of his desk. “You’re the fucker who came into my woman’s house early today uninvited. What you don’t know, what I came to make sure you read loud and clear, is that you picked the wrong woman to fuck with.”
Understanding flashed across his face, and a second later his lips tipped up in a sneer. “And you thought you needed to come in here to stake your claim?” he mocked. “Worried she’ll see you for the pussy you are and trade up to a real man?”
I mimicked his smile. “As far as I’m concerned, only a pussy breaks into a woman’s house, hoping to catch her off guard.” His smile instantly fell, and an angry red flush slipped over his cheeks. “And only a pussy has to offer a woman money in the hopes of getting her in his bed. I got Gypsy in mine without having to flash an envelope full of cash, so believe me, man, you are no threat.”
“Yeah?” the seethed. “Maybe I should pay your woman another visit, take my time with her. Then she can decide which of us is a real man.” He tipped his hand with that threat, letting me know he was a hothead with no impulse control whatsoever, something I could use to my advantage. It was only a matter of time before someone as easily provoked as Malachi Black lost control and fucked up. And when he did, I’d be there to finish him.
Moving quick as a flash, I made it around the desk before he had a chance to register what was happening. Grabbing him by his throat, I slammed him into the wall and squeezed hard enough to cut off his air supply. We were roughly the same height and weight, but his size was nothing compared to the years of training I had, so when I pressed my fingers deeper, there was no chance of him escaping.
Wrong Side of the Tracks: a Hope Valley novel Page 19
