by Karen Renee
“I don’t want fancy gates.”
“Your daddy does,” he said. Even though he and Joe Ramos hadn’t discussed much of anything yet, Beast could see it in the way he looked at his daughter. Then again, if Beast had it in his power, he’d likely succumb to the oppressive HOA bullshit inherent in living within the gates of any kind of club, if it meant keeping Janie safe and happy.
“Tough,” she muttered.
He wanted to chuckle at her, but he shook his head. “Anyway, I won’t be callin’ you that much longer. You’re my Clumsy, and you’re damn sure my Azalea. The Country Club nickname was strictly temporary.”
Her lips twisted to the side for a moment. “Or a way to set yourself off of me?”
He held her gaze as his jaw set. “Come again?”
She shrugged her good shoulder. “Can’t say I cataloged every instance, but it always seemed early on, that when you called me that, you were more remote. Might be that I’m over-analyzing, I’m prone to do that by the way, but when you called me Clumsy you were warmer and seemed to be physically closer to me.”
God, she was observant. He didn’t even realize he was doing that shit, but she was probably right. Whenever he whipped out the Country Club moniker for her, he was definitely trying to distance himself from her.
With a sigh, he said, “Well, you won’t have to worry about that any more, babe. No plans in my future to be remote from you.”
A nurse Beast was unfamiliar with entered the room. “Sir, you’re going to have to leave.”
“I’m not leaving. Might as well note her chart. She’s mine and I’m staying.”
The nurse inhaled and eyed Janie, then Beast, and her eyes went back to Janie. “Ma’am, you’re more likely to heal faster if you’re not crowded while you rest.”
Beast growled as the nurse spoke, but grumbled out, “I’m not crowding her, and if I have to, I’ll sleep in a chair.”
The nurse looked at Janie. “I still need to take your vitals.”
Beast glowered at the nurse as she cuffed Janie’s arm and handed her a thermometer. Even with that sticking out of Janie’s mouth, he could tell she was struggling with laughter.
The nurse updated Janie’s chart and ignored Beast. “You ate earlier. I’ll come back with your pain medicine and antibiotics. If you’re not comfortable, please tell me or better yet,” she jerked her head toward Beast, “him.”
Janie smiled and nodded, but Beast couldn’t hold in his sigh.
Her eyes were dancing when she looked up at him. “She’s doing her job, David,” she murmured.
He loved her bright green eyes roving his face while they were lit with humor. “So am I,” he murmured back.
The light in her eyes softened and Beast vowed to make her look at him like that as often as he could. He lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her sweet, slow, and long.
In the morning, Beast was shocked to find Janie’s divorce attorney standing in the room. He eyed Beast with trepidation, but shook his hand when Janie introduced them to one another.
Before the man could ask for privacy, Beast said, “I’m gonna step out and grab a coffee. Can I get you anything, Janie-babe?”
She shook her head. “I’m fine, honey. See you soon.”
Janie
Beast left, but didn’t close the door behind him. I waited while Craig crossed the room to close the door.
When he sat down next to me, his brown eyes seemed eager. “Listen, Mrs. Palmer, I’m sorry about everything you’ve been through since Saturday night. And not to make light of it, but I’m concerned about the fact that your police report hasn’t hit the media.”
I shot him a look. “I suspect Paul Shapiro, Trent’s campaign manager, had it buried.”
Craig nodded. “I suspect that also. Which brings me to why I’m here. I want to press your husband to cooperate and expedite this. Things have hit the fan for him. With his campaign manager consorting with the blackmailer named in your assault report, though, I’m still amazed it was buried. But we should take advantage of his weakness and convince him to stop contesting.”
I considered Trent might make the play to stall while he got his campaign together, and I was more relieved I had filed the assault report. I had my own copy and we could feasibly take that to the media if we needed the leverage. I still hated being so ruthless, but this had to get done.
“Fine,” I said.
The door opened and I thought it might be Beast, but Trent ambled in wearing wrinkled khakis with a white polo shirt. His hair was disheveled, and he looked haggard.
“Trent, what are you doing here?”
Craig stood up from the chair. “Mr. Palmer, I’m Jane’s counsel. It would behoove you to leave.”
Trent glanced at Craig and then held my gaze. “Janie, please, I know I fucked up. Everything is falling apart right now. Cops are questioning me as if I had something to do with Paul’s house catching fire. Jesus! How the hell his home caught on fire, I’ll never know. I need you with me. You’ve always been the calming force in my life.”
“Trent, that is just not true. You’ve been so driven from the very start. I used to love that about you, but people change. I’ve definitely changed–”
He took a step forward, but Craig made a move to block him. Trent ignored him as he cut me off. “I know, Janie. I let my ambition get the better of me. Please, Janie. Come home to me. This thing with the biker is nothing.”
My chest seized at him saying anything to do with Beast was nothing. “Shut your mouth, Trent. You’ve never cared about me more than you’ve cared about appearances. My ‘thing,’ as you put it, with David is real for many reasons, not the least of which is that I love him and he shows me he loves me.”
The air in the room went tense and I thought it was because of my admission of loving Beast, but as though my words conjured him, Beast prowled into the room.
Craig jumped into the conversational fray before Beast could. “Listen, Mr. Palmer. As you said, you have a number of difficulties in your life right now. Some of those legal. We’re more than willing to expedite this with you, which would take one legal battle off your hands. We’ve revised the original petition to give you back the vehicle. Divide the monetary assets and we could feasibly have this done before the end of the month.”
I watched Beast’s face while Craig spoke, and I could see he despised the fact I was giving Trent anything. Then I stopped looking at Beast because Trent said, “Fine.”
I shook my head. “Seriously?”
Somehow the room became oppressive with the negative energy coming from Beast. “You need to go after the fuckin’ house, Azalea.”
My head tilted ever so slightly. “Honey, he’s being cooperative. Let it go.”
Trent stared at me, his eyes looking remorseful and reminiscent. “You used to speak to me like that,” he said in a low voice.
A small frown tugged at my lips. “Yeah, but like you said, your ambition did you in.”
He looked down at his shoes and sighed. Then his head snapped up. “Take the car.”
My body jerked as I suppressed my bark of laughter. “No. If you recall, I loved test-driving the Infiniti. I’ve never been a true Beemer driver.”
Trent opened his mouth, but Craig ordered, “Sell it.”
Trent’s startled gaze told me he had forgotten Craig was there.
Craig filled the silence. “You offered it to her. She declined. Sell it, give her the money for a down payment on a vehicle.”
I wasn’t certain things should or even could go down like this, but it was clear when Craig had an advantage, he took it. All of it.
“Fine,” Trent repeated.
I caught his defeated eyes, and since I was thinking about the Beemer, I remembered sending him the keys back in the mail and the note I sent with them. “I was serious about that song, T,” I said using a nickname for him I hadn’t used in over a year. “I wasn’t much of a Kesha fan, but most of that song applies to us. You don’t necessari
ly need to pray, but you damn sure need to change.”
THE TENSION IN MY ROOM died out once Trent and Craig left. Activity in my room, however, did not. My parents rolled in shortly after, and the doctor showed up while they were there. While the doctor didn’t say it explicitly, I was pretty sure the hospital needed my bed, which meant the doctor was discharging me to go home with a care-giver toward the end of the day.
When the doctor left, my mother said, “Goodie! I get to wait on my Honey-bunch tonight.”
“No,” Beast bit out in a voice deeper than normal.
The three of us looked at him. His eyes held my mother’s gaze. “She’s got top-notch furniture in that condo. It has a walk-in shower with a removable shower head. Due respect, I don’t give a fuck what set-up there is at her Dad’s, but she’s goin’ to that condo and I’m her care-giver.”
My mother’s eyes were wide with wonder. “Well,” she whispered out.
I had thought there would be a verbal knock-down drag out over it. To say I was stunned when my mother kept quiet was a huge understatement.
My father’s steady gaze on Beast was hard to read. After a long moment he said, “I see you’re fierce where Janie’s concerned. While I like that, and I like you, I want to know you’re not going to keep her from us.”
Beast’s eyes narrowed a touch, and then he looked at me and back to my father. “I don’t know if that motherfucker kept her from you while she was married to him or not, but no. I would never keep any form of family from her. It’s the longest-lasting gift we get in this life, in my opinion. So, feel free to drop by. Not to be rude, since it’s your place and everything, but just, call before you come by.”
My father’s eyes closed and I could have swore I saw pink hit his cheeks. My mother tried and failed to stifle a giggle, but she had the good grace to look at her feet while she did it.
Not five minutes after my parents left, Frankie and Vamp walked in hand in hand. I had met Frankie at a baby shower Andrea threw for Jackie, but I hadn’t seen her since. I was kind of surprised she was here to see me, but then I thought perhaps Vamp simply dragged her along because maybe he needed to see Beast. Turned out I was wrong on both counts.
Frankie planted herself in the chair to my right. “Okay, I know we haven’t talked much, but I’m just gonna tell you now. I’m nosy, and I wanted to see for myself that you’re doing okay. I had a really bad arm injury almost a year ago now, and it is not fun trying to get dressed and take showers and stuff without full use of your limbs.”
“I’m fine, really, though, I haven’t given much thought to getting dressed and so on.”
Beast made a noise in his throat, and when I looked back to Frankie she giggled. “Yeah. You aren’t gonna have to worry about that with your man around.”
We chatted for a long while. Frankie, I was realizing, had a love for nicknames and how people got them.
“What about Clumsy?” She asked. Excitement shone out of her green eyes that were prettier than my green eyes because they contrasted beautifully with her gleaming dark hair.
Vamp and Beast had left the room, and I didn’t know when they would be back. I lowered my voice. “Well, he’s a fan of Fergie’s song ‘Clumsy,’ I guess.”
Frankie stared at me a moment before she tilted her head back and erupted with laughter. She was down to chuckles, but not speaking yet.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“I never would have pegged him—”
I gave two rapid short shakes of my head. “He ran a nightclub, Frankie.”
Her head tilted side to side as she said, “True. True.”
I looked to the door and back to her. “He dances to ‘London Bridge,’ by Fergie while he cooks.”
Frankie looked over my shoulder for a moment, and from the covetous look on her face I knew she was envisioning Beast dancing at a stove.
When she looked back to me, she grinned a sly grin. “You know, Vamp dances. Hell, he has ballroom in his background.”
“Really?”
She nodded. “He’s the best dancer I know, but I’ve never seen Beast in action. What I wouldn’t give for a biker dance-off.”
I had just taken a pain-killer, so I wasn’t sure if it was just that effective or if I was powering through the pain, but I laughed out loud at the idea.
“Never. Those guys would never submit to a dance-off.”
Frankie shot a rueful look my way while arching a brow.
Vamp and Beast walked in, and Vamp asked, “Did I hear someone say something about a dance-off?”
Frankie and I smiled at each other and giggled.
CHAPTER 28
Janie
VAMP AND FRANKIE LEFT before lunch, and while the doctor said my discharge would be by the end of the day, I was really hoping it would be sooner. Like say, lunch time.
For all the bad rap that hospital food gets, the meals being sent my way were actually quite good. Today’s lunch was spaghetti and meatballs, but the portion was so big I insisted Beast help me with it.
He had just shoved the roller table away from the bed when a knock came at the door, and a light-brown-haired, green-eyed man tentatively walked into the room. His body was tall and his muscles bulged under the tight olive t-shirt he wore with faded jeans. I saw Beast’s body tighten, and my brows furrowed.
“Man, I’m sorry, really, but I just...can I just say my piece and go?”
Beast’s eyes cut to me, and I said to the man, “I’m sorry, but who are you?”
When Beast remained silent, the man took that as permission to speak. “I’m Devin Harris. And I wanted to apologize for what my brother did. Know an apology does not cut it in the slightest. My brother has issues, and we should have kept a better eye on him–”
I shook my head. “You couldn’t have kept Paul from getting to him,” I interrupted.
“Yeah, he could have,” Beast grumbled.
My head shot his way. “No, he couldn’t have. If it hadn’t been his brother, Paul would’ve found somebody else, some other thing to bring you or me low. Believe me, when Paul had a goal—and especially if that goal involved Trent’s career, which is to say Paul’s career— nothing got in his way.”
Beast stared at me, his lips pressed together and when they released I thought for sure he would argue with me, but he lifted his chin in acquiescence.
I looked back to Devin. “I accept your apology, but so you know, I also know it wasn’t your brother’s fault even if he pulled the trigger.”
Devin shook his head. “No, ma’am, it is still his fault. We told Alphonse he couldn’t believe what people told him. Especially strangers. Hell, we told him not to open the door to strangers, so I apologize for my momma and I thinking he was improving.”
I gave him a small smile. “That’s not a crime either, Devin. It’s what we’re wired to do. To think that our loved ones are getting better, especially if we know they’ve been going to therapy or taking medicine. Like I said to David, Paul would’ve found a way to get at us whether he manipulated your brother as the tool to do it or not.”
Devin had been looking at me, but when I finished his head shot to Beast. “She calls you ‘David?’”
He shrugged. “You got eyes. Pretty sure you’d let a woman like her call you whatever she damn well pleased if it meant she was with you.”
Devin dipped his head in agreement to Beast, and then looked back to me, but I spoke before him.
“Now, for the important question. Did you bring that precious little girl out here with you or what?”
The way Beast spoke my name told me his teeth were clenched when he said it, so I ignored my man and smiled at Devin. “Well?”
Devin shuffled his feet and looked down. “She’s with her momma,” he told his feet. Then he looked up at me with a gleam in his eye. “In the hotel room.”
I gasped and my rounded eyes flew to Beast. “Honey!”
“No,” he said in a low voice.
“But, seriously�
�”
He slowly blinked at me. “No. I am not confusing that little girl, babe. She was already calling me ‘Dada’ and if I hear that it’ll gut me.” He nudged his head to Devin, “You think it won’t do the same to him?”
My face fell, and I looked at the blanket on my legs and told it, “Family can come in many shapes and forms, David.”
“She’s right, man,” I heard Devin say.
Beast perched his hip on my bed, and lifted my chin so he could look at me. “Not today. Let’s get you outta here, and I’ll think about it, yeah?”
I nodded, and slid my eyes to Devin. “When are you leaving?”
“Hopefully Wednesday.”
Beast let go of my face, and I nodded at Devin. “Thank you for coming out of your way to apologize. I appreciate it.”
When Devin was ready to leave, Beast walked him down to his car. He had unearthed my cell phone from my bag of belongings, and it rang from where it was sitting on the roller table. Luckily, Beast had rolled it not too far from me on my good side, so I leaned over and tagged the phone to answer the call before it went to voicemail.
“Hello?”
“Janie, it’s Sara Rumbold. I can’t tell you how shocked I was to hear about what happened to you over the weekend. How is your recovery going?”
A surprised smiled pulled at my lips. “Thank you so much for calling, Mrs. Rumbold. My recovery is going well, seeing as I’m supposed to be discharged by the close of business.”
“That is excellent news, Janie, and call me Sara. But, I also wanted to call about the matter we spoke about a couple days ago. I called my family in Mississippi, and I spoke to the judge personally. Your friend’s petition was held up on Friday, but it was legitimately because of other petitions running long all day. Though Judge Perez mentioned Paul Shapiro had called five times on Thursday. It will be heard today, and since Judge Perez never returned Shapiro’s calls, I do not anticipate anything untoward happening with it.”