I shake my head. “I don’t race and I really don’t chase little girls.”
That should piss her off, send her galloping away on the beast of an animal worth more than I’ll ever see in a lifetime. But it doesn’t.
Instead, she laughs at me.
“We’ll see about that.”
And off she goes…
She was right. In the end, I chased her and she didn’t make it hard to catch her. She crawled under my skin in a way that might as well be terminal because, whatever I do, I can’t seem to work her out of my system.
She plagues me—in the best and worst ways a person can.
And here she is, happy, in pictures with my mom.
Faye Barrett is the only person on the planet who’s never betrayed me.
Or so I thought.
I stuff the small photo book into my back pocket. I don’t even flip the lights off on my way out. Ellie showing up to her funeral yesterday was a shock I wasn’t prepared for. But my mom’s gone and the only way to find out why she let Ellie into her life again is from my newest client.
* * *
As I type in the four numbers that haunt my mind and soul, I keep telling myself I shouldn’t be surprised. Yet when she uttered the code earlier today, it cut me in a way that brought back shit I’ve buried deep.
Then I found proof the person who gave me life was betraying me. I intend to find out why my mom kept secrets about the one person she knew I couldn’t even talk about.
I hit the gas and drive through the gates of Ellie’s haughty neighborhood.
When I pull around to her front door that’s now littered with a mountain of trash bags stacked on the wide porch, I don’t give a second thought to the hour or the fact she has a small child or that she’s now a single woman, widowed, and living alone in her absurd, small mansion.
I bang on her door.
I hit the bell three times.
Visions of my mom, happy and smiling with Ellie and her baby, race through my mind, making me hit the thick mahogany harder and I boom, “Open the fucking door.”
I don’t stop.
If I have to wake up every arrogant-aire in the neighborhood to get her tight little ass out here to talk to me, I will.
Finally, an interior light clicks on, followed by the one over my head.
She peeks out the sidelight.
I don’t quiet my voice. “Open the damn door.”
She crosses her arms and glares up at me. “No.”
I pull the photo book out of my back pocket, open it to a random page, and slap it on the glass in front of her face. “I’m not leaving until you open the fucking door and explain this.”
The determination melts from her face and her eyes dart from the evidence of my mother’s betrayal back to me.
Ellie’s the picture of guilt, and since I was a defense attorney for three years, I know it when I see it.
She reaches for the door. I hear the bolt click and then she’s standing in front of me in a tiny pair of shorts and a tank. All the evidence is there to prove she’s not wearing a bra. Her nipples pucker through the thin material, and when she realizes I’m looking, she crosses her arms over her chest.
She doesn’t say a word and she doesn’t invite me in.
I’m not surprised by either.
I hold up the pictures. “Explain this.”
She worries her lip before looking back to me and swallows hard. “It was a gift.”
I frown. “A gift?”
She tightens her arms around her chest and nods. “I gave it to her about a month ago. It seemed to make her happy.”
I look down at the picture in my hand of my mother holding Ellie’s baby, one when he’s much younger—proof she’d been visiting my mother for quite a while. “I can see from the damn pictures she was happy. I couldn’t believe you came to the funeral yesterday. Tonight I found this. I want to know why you were ever with my mom to begin with. When I told you I didn’t want anything to do with you, I thought you were smart enough to know that meant my mother, too.”
Her face pales and she shifts on her bare feet. “She reached out to me.”
“Bullshit,” I spit, though I don’t know why. That sounds exactly like my mother and it pisses me off even more because whatever relationship they had happened right under my damn nose, especially the last few months after I moved back to Texas.
Her voice wobbles. “It’s true. When I moved back to Dallas, she got hold of me through Jen.” She takes a deep breath and adds, “I told her you wouldn’t be happy. But if I remember correctly, she said he’ll get glad in the same pants he got mad in.”
I huff a frustrated laugh and drag a hand down my face. I can’t even be angry at that because I know it’s true—my mother said that to me a million times.
Ellie straightens her spine and looks more like the person I was more than obsessed with. “I know it’s a moot point now, but you don’t have a hand in who Faye was friends with.” She rolls her eyes. “Obviously.”
I hitch a brow. “Any other surprises you’d like to fill me in on as it comes to my mother?”
She tucks an unruly hunk of hair behind her ear, but if there are any more secrets about the woman who raised me, she refuses to say a word. “Griffin goes to bed before eight, so if you could refrain from banging my door down in the middle of the night, I’d appreciate it.”
“You didn’t answer my calls or texts. That would’ve been easier.”
Her eyes narrow. “I assumed you needed to speak to me about today and there’s no need. I plan to secure new representation tomorrow.”
I guess when I told Jen it was no skin off my back who represented her that was a lie because the next words slip out of my mouth. “You have counsel representing you and he’s got it under control.”
“Speaking in the third person is new for you, and quite honestly, you don’t wear it well.”
“I don’t care what you think about me.”
“You say that. Yet here you are, at—” she uncrosses her arms giving me another glimpse of the thin material that’s hiding nothing as she looks at her phone, “—twelve forty-five in the morning. You need to work harder at not caring.”
For once, she’s right.
And she goes on. “She might’ve been your mom, but I loved her, too. Make all the demands you want but that, Trig Barrett, you can’t take away from me. Be pissed. I’m used to it and I don’t care. Though, for the life of me, I still can’t figure out why you took a job working for my family. If either one of us has anything to explain, it’s you.”
I shrug. “I don’t owe you anything.”
“You might think that, but one man in my life creating havoc for my family is enough. I’m not sure my conscience can bear another. There’s no good reason for you to want to have anything to do with any Montgomery.”
“You haven’t seen the package your sister offered me. Not all of us have a trust fund.”
She shakes her head and reaches for the door. Looking up at me through the darkness, her blue eyes are lifeless and flat. “You should go back to ignoring me—that worked better.”
I slide the photobook into my back pocket. She’s right—I’m done. I turn for my car and mutter, “Good luck finding an attorney.”
“I’m a Montgomery, Trig.” She emphasizes her last name before I turn around just in time to catch her last words. “Have you forgotten how much power and influence that brings?”
With a look I won’t soon forget, haunted and full of hurt and resentment, she pins me to my spot in her driveway.
Right before she slams the door in my face.
And with pictures of my mom, Ellie, and her baby in my back pocket, I leave her McMansion. I hope for the last time.
7
Love Makes You Stupid
I love you, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t days I don’t want to slap the silly outta you.
Trig
“Excuse me, Ms. Montgomery. He’s on the phone—”
> “I don’t care if he’s talking to Jesus himself.”
Working for Jen Montgomery has been good so far, until her baby sister’s run-ins with the law began. She appears in my doorway, coming to a halt, and for some reason, I have a feeling this visit has nothing to do with oil, mergers, or to invite me to lunch.
It always amazed me how different the two Montgomery girls are. Jen is nothing like Ellie. She’s taller, curvier, and in control of every emotion she owns.
“Get off the phone,” she demands.
Until now, apparently.
I don’t move from where I’m leaning back in my chair while being brought up to date on the whereabouts of my fucking father. “Charlie, I need to call you back. How does two o’clock sound?”
Jen doesn’t wait for an invitation and marches her high-heeled feet through my office, stopping right in front of my desk. She’s gripping a piece of paper in her hand to the point it’s mangled.
“Great. Talk to you then.” I end my call and lean up.
Her hands land on her hips. “You’re not only an asshole, but you’re also an idiot.”
“What did I do now?”
“I wasn’t going to butt in, but after the last two days and my sister and nephew hanging in the balance, I’m going to address the elephant in the room. It’s been ten years, Trig. Ten long fucking years. I had hoped by now you either would’ve gotten past it or, maybe, I don’t know,” she widens her eyes in frustration, “used the skills you’ve gained in your career to see that just because something appears one way, it may very well be something entirely different.”
It’s all I can do to hold my ground. “What are you talking about?”
“Ellie is spinning her wheels, interviewing new attorneys today when she doesn’t have the time nor the energy to waste doing it. You’re supposed to be taking care of everything for her.”
“She doesn’t want me, she told me herself.” I don’t add the fact Ellie did it while standing in almost nothing on her doorstep in the middle of the night.
“I don’t give a shit what Ellie wants. Start with this.” She tosses the crinkled paper and it flutters like a feather, landing on my desk. The way Jen is looking at me, I bet she wishes it were a brick and it had landed against my skull. “Eli just sent this to me. It’s what he has so far on Robert’s shithead parents. They have it out for Ellie and have hired their own PI. They don’t know it, but by targeting my sister and nephew, they entered into a battle with the Montgomerys. They might have surprised us this week, but it’s a war I intend to win. You work for me, which means you’re working this case. Eli will be calling you with more information, but for now, get started with this.”
I sigh and lean forward to smooth out the paper. Jen’s halfway out the door when I call after her, “What did you mean, something entirely different?”
She shuts my office door and takes two steps toward me, holding her hand out low. “Ten years ago, you never saw the inside of a prison—hell, you weren’t even charged. It’s not like the local sheriff was on my father’s payroll but there are other ways to be in someone’s back pocket. He grew up with my dad, hunted on our land, and was entertained at our house when we were young. My dad hated you after everything went down—that’s no secret—so if you think his best friend wasn’t going to do everything he could to do his bidding, you’re crazy and stupid.”
I stand and my chair goes rolling behind me. “What the fuck are you saying?”
“My sister is the priority right now. Get CPS off her back and call my fiancé to figure out what to do about Robert’s parents. They’d better not so much as take a step in my nephew’s direction. I swore to Ellie I’d stay out of it, but if you get her shit straightened out, then maybe I’ll help you see what you should’ve seen long ago.”
She turns for the door.
“Jen, wait,” I call.
“I kid you not, Trig, you might be a bull, but I’ll turn you into a steer faster than you can blink if you don’t make this a priority.” She doesn’t look back when she yells, “Fix my sister’s shit and do it fast.”
* * *
Nine years and eight months ago
“I’ve answered your questions. I told you I don’t know anything.”
I’ve had it. I haven’t seen Ellie in two days. Her dad kicked me out of the hospital right after he fired me. I thought life had already flipped upside down, but then it blew up—literally.
The Sheriff strutted his ass in here today, dragging his potbelly with him, reeking of cigarette smoke and greasy burgers. He leans back in his chair, adjusting his belt that’s on its last hole and in jeopardy of shooting across the room, taking someone’s eye out. It had better not be mine.
“You see.” He shifts in his chair and sneers at me. “We’ve been talking to your little girlfriend.”
It’s all I can do not to come across the table at him. “Stay away from Ellie.”
He has the nerve to laugh. “Why? The way I figure, she can shed light on the incident. She was there, after all.”
“It’s only the second time she’d ever been there. Hell, I’ve lived there all my life and I don’t know anything,” I growl. The thought of this shithead being anywhere near Ellie, especially after what she’s been through, makes me want to throw a chair through the one-way mirrored glass right after I put my fist in his face.
He shakes his head and clucks his tongue. “That’s not what she had to say. I’ve got your daddy behind bars and enough evidence on him to put him away for a good long while. Everything points to you being his supplier and I want to know your role in it.”
“I don’t have one thing to do with my father.”
He shrugs and acts like he has a leg up, which he does. It puts a sour taste in my mouth, about as bad as he smells. “Other people have a different opinion of that. Like I said, spent a good amount of time up at the hospital today with Kipp and his baby daughter.”
I drag a hand down my face. There’s no way she’d try to throw me under the bus.
His yellow teeth appear as his face creases in a million lines, grinning from ear-to-ear. “I got you, buddy. Your girlfriend got cold feet and talked. It was either sell you out or be in hot water with her daddy. And guess what? She did not pick you.”
This is fucked up. There’s no way she’d do that. I had no idea my father was cooking meth in one of the back buildings on our property until I heard about the explosion.
“That’s right,” he sneers. “She told me everything.”
Fuck. My insides twist and my lungs constrict. I can’t breathe. There was nothing to tell aside from her calling me crying and telling me she had to get away from her parents and she was going to my house to wait on me. I didn’t want her there, but she was a frantic mess and I couldn’t reason with her.
It’s a feat, but he leans in, rests an elbow on the table, and lowers his voice. “Did you really think she’d choose you? You’re just the son of a maid and a meth cook. When I left the hospital today, her mama was on the phone trying to get her admission reinstated to that fancy school in New York City, the one she was going to go to before you came into the picture and shit all over her life.”
“Fuck you.” The words slip from my lips before I can stop them. The need to protect my mother is strong and the desire to wipe my father from the face of the earth is even stronger. “Throw my dad away for life—he deserves it after this week but leave my mom out of this. She’s done nothing but put up with his shit, raise me, and work her fingers to the bone.”
He leans back in his chair and wipes a bead of sweat from his receding hairline. “You tell me what you know about your daddy, I might leave your mama alone and I’ll see what kind of deal I can make for you.”
I might only have an Associate’s from a junior college, but I know enough that I’m not saying jack-shit to this asshole. There’s nothing to say anyway. “Kiss my ass. If you had anything on me, I’d be in a jail cell next to my father’s, but you don’t. I know my right
s. If you want me to answer any questions, I want an attorney. Until then, I’m outta here.”
I move to leave and he pushes himself up, the chair complaining, but all I can think about is her. I’ve been trying to convince her for months to go to New York, so I should be happy about this. But that was before. Before we decided on a future, or rather, that future was decided for us because lust made us stupid.
Fuck, Ellie just makes me stupid.
Three days ago, we had a plan and each other. It wasn’t much but we didn’t need more and were over the fucking moon about it.
Then she started to sing a new tune before the seasons had a chance to change.
I let a teenager—who’s barely more than a girl—convince me that lust is love. How many dumbass mistakes can I make in a matter of months?
If love makes you stupid and cuts this deep, I want no part of this shit. It fucking hurts in a way I know for a fact these wounds will bleed for an eternity.
* * *
I’ve compartmentalized every memory that has to do with Ellie Montgomery. It took years, but I did it. Every touch, stolen glance, and twist of my heart—I’ve rolled it into one collection and separated it from everything else.
Life with Ellie.
Life without Ellie.
I split my existence in two and it worked … eventually. I did it on my own, with the span of the entire US-of-fucking-A between us, and some days, even that wasn’t enough. My time with her might’ve comprised a small piece of my miserable time on this earth, but it far outweighed the rest of my existence. By a landslide.
From the day I first laid eyes on her to the day we lost everything, and even when I found out she’d betrayed me, I’ve felt more than most people do in a lifetime.
Is this what it’s like? After working for years to bury a memory, only to have it dredged up again?
Fuck. It’s just as raw as it was then.
Broken Halo: The Montgomery Series, Book 2 Page 7
