by Anya Summers
“It sounded like more than a misbehaving, vainglorious bridal party, that’s all,” she said.
Garrett approached her, cupped her chin and brushed his lips over hers. She didn’t kiss him back. He lifted his head, searching her eyes. Then said, “I have to work tonight, too, but we should go have lunch tomorrow and talk.”
An unerring sense of foreboding settled in her chest. Not good. The ‘talk’ normally meant: hey, it’s not you, it’s me, and I need to see other people.
Cora didn’t do the casual dating thing.
“Cora?” he asked.
She huffed, realizing that for him the subject was closed. If she didn’t have to leave shortly for work and still had to get herself and Milo dressed, then she wouldn’t let him leave until he spilled the beans. But there was something that didn’t feel right.
“Tomorrow then. Have a good night,” she said, and couldn’t help that her voice was laced with suspicion.
Garrett grimaced quickly. If she would have blinked, she would have missed the fleeting frown before he slid a friendly veneer back over his face. He gave her one more kiss, directly on the tip of her nose, and then released her. “Tomorrow.”
Then he retreated out her bedroom door. She gulped in a few steadying breaths, staving off the sudden onslaught of tears. She heard him say goodbye to Milo and her heart cracked. Had this whirlwind relationship been a sort of game to him? See how fast he could make the single mom and her kid fall for him before he traded them in for a newer model? If so, then maybe she would have to sic Spencer on him.
People could be as dickish as they wanted to be with her, but when they involved her son there was no place on this earth a body could hide that she wouldn’t find them and smite them with all the fury of a mythic Valkyrie.
She seethed as she dressed in her yoga gear before heading down the stairs with her sports bag and a change of clothes for Milo. He’d finished his breakfast and she got him dressed while he and Elmo played tug of war with a napkin. And not a linen one, a paper one, which meant she had to clean up tiny tufts of white. Once Milo was dressed, she took Elmo out to go potty, then brought him back in and put him in the downstairs bathroom with his food and water. She’d put an old towel on the floor for him to curl up on. If she was going to keep putting him in the bathroom when they went out, she might want to think about picking up a doggy bed for him to lie on in here.
But that was a problem for another day. She bundled Milo up into the minivan with his bag for daycare with extra clothes, snacks and a lunch. She got Milo to Teton Tykes, scoring a decent parking spot in the public lot across the street for a change, and then walked the short distance to the gym.
Her first class today was Vinyasa Yoga Flow, which was meant to get the heart pumping a little bit while delivering some great stretching movements to help get the joints lubed up. She had twenty students in her first class. She had a fifteen-minute break in between her first and second class, which was Power Yoga. This one combined yoga with some Pilates moves at the end. All in all, it was a great workout, and it ended up being a packed house with twenty-seven students. Then she had an hour break in between the power yoga and a bikram hot yoga class. Here, it was really a modification and not as hot, but she was still drenched by the time she’d finished and hit the showers.
Each one of her classes today had helped her. Being physical, working out tightness and pushing not just her body to its limit but also the limit that her mind held, on past it, was how she found peace. In many respects, Cora believed that it was teaching yoga, constantly doing it, that had got her past the worst of her grief. Jeff dying like he had in the line of duty had redirected her life from what she’d thought it was going to be on to a divergent path.
And over the last few days she’d begun to think that perhaps the journey she had been sent on was some cosmic pathway to meeting Garrett.
But after this morning… she wasn’t so certain. He had mentioned needing to head into work today in passing yesterday. Which was another one of the reasons she’d said yes to Rayna when she’d offered to babysit. It wasn’t so much his needing to work as the private phone calls that made Cora’s spidey senses tingle.
When she finished with her last class, after she’d already said goodbye to the last student and had taken a shower, she was dressing in the locker room when her cell phone rang.
She answered, “Spencer. What’s up?”
“Hey, I wanted to let you know we have extra coverage for tonight and you can have the night off.”
She sputtered, “But…”
“I’ll make sure it doesn’t reflect on your paycheck, hon, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
She sighed, realizing that no matter what she said, it wouldn’t matter. She didn’t have control here. “Fine. Not like I can convince you to give me my shift back.”
“If it’s money you need, all you have to do is ask,” Spencer said.
“I don’t want your money, Spencer,” she practically growled into the phone. What was with the men in her life today?
“Well, the offer is there. I also signed Milo and Elmo up for the training course with Alex. It starts a week from this Sunday and goes for twelve weeks. So that should give you a bit of a break when I take him.”
First she wanted to bite his head off and now she wanted to hug him. How could she stay mad at Spencer? It wasn’t his fault he was a guy and she was currently pissed off at men and their theatrics in general. All men. But she couldn’t stay mad at him when he was going to take her son and his dog to school.
“Okay, just let me know what time you need him ready.”
“I have to double check that. I’ll text that info to you. Sorry, the lunch rush is hitting and they need me out front,” Spencer said, disconnecting the call.
She stared at the blank screen on her phone. Had she entered the twilight zone? First Garrett with his private phone calls this week. And now Spencer, hanging up without even saying goodbye. He might do that with people he didn’t like, but he’d never cut her off so abruptly before. What in the world was going on?
And there was definitely something. She had the sinking suspicion that Garrett was cheating on her and for some reason her cousin was covering it up.
That made her the mother of all idiots because she had gone and done something completely asinine and fallen in love with Garrett. The big, fat, scary type of love, the kind that endures, not a teenage infatuation.
Cora had the very real fear and sneaking suspicion that she was being played for a fool. And she had no idea what to do about it.
Chapter 24
That went swell!
The look Cora had given him had made Garrett want to call the entire sting operation off. It had gutted him. But he knew that if he didn’t finish this with Gail, now, tonight, she would forever be the proverbial thorn in his side and in the life he hoped to have with Cora and Milo.
Christ. He rubbed his chest.
He had hated speaking to Gail this morning in Cora’s bedroom of all places. But the plan was moving and in action. When he left Cora’s he went to the club and met with Spencer, Jack, and Joe Avery. They’d gone over exactly how tonight was to proceed. Twice. They didn’t need any screw ups on this.
Technically, as Joe had indicated, this was an ‘off the books’ operation to force a confession. Once they had the video evidence, they could take her to interrogation and threaten her with the recording.
Spencer was closing the club to all but their closest friends. Carter and Jenna, Cole and Mia, and Mason and Emily would be in attendance tonight, among others, to give the club the feel of being open but having as few people involved as possible.
They had everything set. The video feeds in the private room had been connected to the recording equipment for Jack and Joe, although it wasn’t that hard. Spencer already had cameras installed in every room to monitor guests in case a scene got out of hand. Normally Spencer was the dungeon monitor, at least he had been until recently.
Now he’d begun putting the Doms he trusted most on a rotating schedule.
Now Garrett found himself in Spencer’s office with nothing to do but wait. All the prep they’d done had eaten up the better part of the day. He’d just listened in to Spencer’s call with Cora.
“She didn’t take it well, did she?”
Spencer glanced across the expanse of his desk. “No, she didn’t.”
“Fuck.” He wiped a hand over his face in frustration. There wasn’t a way out of the path he was on. He sent up a few prayers that this, what they were doing tonight, would work, that they would get what they need out of Gail.
“A few more hours and Gail and this whole shebang should be behind you.” Spencer eyeballed him and then began to laugh.
Garrett’s spine stiffened. “What the hell? It’s not funny.”
“Actually, it is. Seeing you fall head over heels for my cousin is quite the hilarious spectacle. I never would have guessed it.”
Chagrined, Garrett stared at one of his best friends; the guy who’d had his back through Iraq. “I do love her, and the little squirt.”
“Hard not to with that pair,” Spencer said.
“You’re not kidding. Since I’ve not met her father and you’re her closest relative, I would like your blessing because I do plan to marry her. It will take some convincing her on my part and I plan to ease her into my life completely before I ask. But there you have it.”
“Fraid she’ll say no?” Spencer smirked.
“I just don’t want to scare her off,” he admitted. And yes, there was an insecure part of him that worried that because their relationship had happened at lightning speed, she would question it, question him.
Spencer stood and walked over to a nearby ebony wood cabinet, withdrawing a bottle of Glenfiddich and two glasses. He poured two glasses of amber liquid, put the bottle away and returned to his seat, handing Garrett one of the glasses.
Spencer toasted him and said, “You have it. With the understanding that if you hurt her or Milo at any time, I will rain hellfire down upon you.”
Garrett clinked his glass against his. “Thanks. I will work to make sure you don’t have cause to end me.”
“And this is why we’re such good friends,” Spencer said, sipping his scotch.
Garrett leaned back in his seat. He just needed to make it through tonight and then he would be home free.
After dinner, Rayna came over.
“Hi. I’m so sorry, I forgot to call you and let you know I didn’t need you tonight. My shift was canceled.”
Rayna cocked her head, studying Cora. She had a way of looking at someone like she had made it a habit and skill to be able to size up a person in a few seconds flat. “That’s okay, but it looks to me like you could use some girl talk.”
Cora could. She really, truly could. She opened her front door and waved her in. “Come on in. I don’t have any wine, but I do have a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies.”
“Hmm, baking and mainlining carbs. That spells man trouble to me. And I would never turn down homemade cookies,” Rayna said as she walked in.
Rayna knew the place well. It was nearly identical to her place next door. Since Milo and Elmo were already down for the night, Cora didn’t have to worry about tiny ears hearing things they shouldn’t.
She poured each of them a glass of milk and brought them to the table. Then she grabbed one of the Tupperware containers stuffed to the brim with chocolate chip cookies. She’d made a double batch. Yeah, she was definitely having some doubts.
They lit into the cookies and Rayna sighed at the milk chocolate chips and buttery dough.
“You’ve been holding out on me. I didn’t know you could bake like this,” Rayna said.
“I had a lot of anxiety after my husband died and with a new baby, I needed to stay active. On the nights when Milo just wanted to be held and walked around, I would put him in this harness seat and make cookies.”
“It paid off in spades.”
“I was just lucky that I didn’t eat them all. I would deliver batches of them to Jeff’s fire station for all the guys.” And the fact that she wanted to sniffle over that told her that her emotions were all wound up, bouncing all over the place.
“All right, now that I’ve had an infusion of chocolate, spill the beans, sister. What’s going on?”
“Well, it may be nothing. It’s not like I’ve dated a whole lot since Milo was born but Garrett has started acting funny all of a sudden. I’ve caught him twice on private calls that he played off as work,” Cora admitted and reached for another cookie. Come on, power of chocolate, make me feel better. Perhaps she should be double fisting them.
“Honey, if he’s already cheating, I hate to say it but better to know now and cut him loose than to find out after being with him for five years. It doesn’t sound to me like you’re crazy. It sounds like you’ve caught him.” Rayna’s gaze was kind but her words made Cora feel deflated.
“I know. It’s just so disappointing. I mean, the sex is freaking fantastic. I’ve never had it so good. But I guess with a guy like him, coming from all that money, he has to have some fatal flaw, right?” she asked, knowing deep down that if her suspicions were on target and he was cheating then she couldn’t be with him. She was a fairly tolerant, level-headed individual but a serial cheater wasn’t someone she could keep around, not just because it would wreak havoc on her self-esteem, but also because she didn’t want Milo to grow up believing that was the kind of man he should be. She wanted her son to understand things like honor and how to be a gentleman, not a philanderer.
“At least his flaw is cheating and not beating you. Really, when it comes down to it, as sad as it may sound, you could do worse. And at the end of the day, he’s not worth the headache. Chalk it up to a learning experience that was a banging good time while it lasted but do yourself a favor and cut him loose. Otherwise you will lose sleep over someone who just isn’t worth your tears.”
The problem was, Cora thought he was worth getting involved with. Wasn’t that the problem? She’d fallen so far, so hard and fast, she’d barely caught her breath. And now to think it had all been a lie, that he was a good for nothing, two-timing cheater… “And which one have you had?”
“Me? I’ve had both. And I gotta say, I’d pick the cheater over the beater,” Rayna said, sipping her glass of milk.
“If you ever want to talk, I’m here,” Cora said.
“I’m five by five. But I appreciate the offer. And who knows, maybe one day I’ll get a hair up my hoohah and decide to spill. Lord knows, stranger things have happened.”
That niggling doubt bloomed. Garrett hadn’t worked all week and suddenly he had to be at the hotel today. And Spencer had canceled her shift at the club out of the blue. “Son of a bitch! Hey, do you think you could babysit for a bit tonight?”
She had to go check it out. If she was right then her cousin, a person she trusted more than anyone else, was in on the charade. Cora wouldn’t sleep tonight if she didn’t get some answers.
Rayna smirked, a single dark brow rose and she said, “I can. Are you planning on catching him red-handed?”
“That’s the plan.” Both of them. Cora felt sick to her stomach at the prospect. If that was really the case, then she would have to re-evaluate her stance on Jackson Hole and her plan to live here. Mayhap she would need to seriously consider her parents’ offer and move down to Phoenix to live with them for a while.
“Well hell, why didn’t you say so in the first place? Of course I’ll babysit Milo and watch cable for a bit. But I will want the full details later,” Rayna replied.
“Thanks, I owe you,” Cora said. She’d bake Rayna a double batch of cookies for her help tonight. She ran up the stairs and changed out of her mommy couture into something more club appropriate. By the time she’d finished changing, adding makeup and styling her hair, she felt she had an eat your heart out vibe going.
If this was going to be the last time Garrett saw
her, she wanted to look damn good. It was petty and vengeful, but in this instance, the supposition that he’d played her stiffened her spine and her resolve to see this through to whatever end.
But that didn’t stop the churning madness in her belly, nor the dread settling over her like she was about to face a firing squad.
Chapter 25
At quarter past ten that evening, Garrett was reclining on one of the couches watching the door. He’d gone for the full-on Dom look this evening and was wearing a pair of black leather pants with some shit-kicker boots and that was it. He wasn’t wearing his hat so the video feed would catch his face.
Tension riddled his form at the coming inquisition. It was necessary to clear his name and free himself from Gail’s clutches but that didn’t mean he had to like it.
Spencer sat on the opposite end of the couch, similarly dressed but he was far more at ease than Garrett. Then again, it wasn’t his ass on the line if they weren’t able to garner a full confession.
The private room was arranged with restraints and Spencer’s flogger. All their closest friends were present, standing in as props. That was one of the reasons Garrett loved it here: the friendships he’d made through Spencer and the club were the family he’d built.
With a look at Spencer, he nodded toward the club entrance where Derrick was escorting Gail over to them. Gail had dressed as skimpily as a person could without being naked. Some of her sheen, the polish that had attracted him all those years ago, had fizzled. There were signs that gave away her age, even with all the plastic surgery he knew she’d undergone. The handkerchief-sized black leather mini-dress fit her body like a second skin.
She had a sly, come hither smile over her red lacquered lips. It was supposed to make her look like a sex kitten. It made him want to vomit. All he saw was the black heart underneath the fake beauty. And it made him realize just how sheltered and insulated his life had been before her advent into his world. That was the only reason he could think of why he’d fallen for her act—well, that and he had been eighteen and thought with his dick.