by Vanessa Vale
“I don’t hate you,” Landon said, his eyes on me, not Jed. “Shit, not at all. I shouldn’t have said that. It was mean, hurtful and a total lie.”
I frowned. “Why don’t you hate me?”
“You want me to hate you?” he asked, his eyes wide.
“I don’t want you to hate me,” I refuted. “Of course not. I expect it though.”
At my shrug, the two of them stared at me as if I’d said I was a space alien. “You expect it? Because of this morning? Or last night?”
“Because of what my father did.”
“What your father did. Not you,” Jed added.
I gave a slight shrug. “Same difference.”
Landon put his hand on my upper arm, then let it drop, as if he felt he didn’t have the right to touch me. “Not the same at all.”
“You don’t know anything about me,” I countered.
“I know what color panties you wear,” he replied, his gaze raking down my body. “I know what you sound like when you come. What you look like. How your little hand feels gripping my cock. I know how you make me feel.”
I flushed while he had no qualms about talking dirty. “A one-night-stand.”
Both of them shook their heads. “We meant it when we said you belonged to us,” Jed said, his eyes lowering to settle on my mouth.
“And you think he’s bossy?” I asked him.
He grinned then. Wicked, dark. Dangerous to the wall around my heart.
“When I saw you last night, I was done for. One look and I became yours,” Landon began. “It was so good, so right. And that was when we knew nothing about each other, not even our names. It proves this connection we share. That it’s real on an elemental level.”
“All three of us share,” Jed clarified. “When you and your friend came up to the bar, seeing you for the first time was as if Landon had hit me in the gut with one of his two-by-fours.” He rubbed a hand over his very flat belly.
“I’m sorry,” Landon said to me, finally taking my hand. I felt the rough callouses on his palm, how his skin was warm, his touch gentle. “So fucking sorry. I have serious anger issues when it comes to your dad, but I put them on you. That wasn’t fair and I was wrong. If you’ll let me—”
“Us,” Jed cut in.
“—us try again, then we’ll show you… prove to you how it can be between us. For the rest of our fucking lives.”
A car pulled up then, another right behind it. Jed and Landon turned and we watched as people piled out.
One, two… five. Oh god. It was the rest of the Duke family.
Two big men who looked strikingly similar to Landon, a woman with red hair who looked nothing like them. Julia Duke. I remembered her hair color from when I was ten, that I’d thought she looked like the girl in Anne of Green Gables, a book I’d read about a red-haired orphan. Then there were Mr. and Mrs. Duke. I remembered them now, although they were a touch grayer than they’d been in the courtroom.
Mrs. Duke led everyone up the walk, then they fanned out about ten feet away from us. They were like a wall, either keeping Landon and Jed where they were, or lined up to take their turn to yell at me.
“What are you all doing here?” Landon asked.
“Making sure you don’t mess this up,” Mr. Duke said, staring pointedly at Landon.
“Did you tell this nice young lady that you hate her?” Mrs. Duke added, hands on her hips. She was a tiny woman, but clearly formidable. Out of the entire family, even the super-sized Duke boys, she was the one I feared the most. In her jeans and pale blue blouse, gray hair styled into a chin length bob, she looked like a Sunday school teacher, yet strong and determined enough to raise three boys—and Julia.
“Tucker is such a tattletale,” Landon grumbled. “What are the rest of you doing here?” he asked, eying his siblings.
Tucker, or maybe it was Gus, grinned. “Watching you grovel, big brother.”
Julia rolled her eyes. “He’s not doing a very good job. He’s not on his knees.”
“I should take you over my knee like you were four,” Mrs. Duke scolded.
Jed pinched his lips together, and I could see he was trying to stifle a laugh.
Groveling or not, apologizing aside, there was more going on here than me just forgiving Landon. I understood why he’d lashed out, why he’d been so mad this morning. I’d felt a similar anger toward my father for years and years. I recognized the feeling. Even if there was chemistry between me and Landon, ridiculous, hot, sexy chemistry, that wasn’t enough. This morning proved there was unresolved anger, strong emotions when it came to the accident. It didn’t matter that Mr. and Mrs. Duke were fine, completely recovered from their injuries. That was physical. Emotional wounds extended beyond the two whom had been actually hurt. Landon had issues and I could assume the others did as well, especially where I was concerned.
Telling Landon that I forgave him and that we could… try again, wasn’t enough.
I had five other reasons to walk away standing on my front lawn.
“Landon,” I said, placing my hand on his arm. He turned back to look at me. I could feel his warmth even through the sleeve of his shirt. The hard muscles, too. “Even if I said I forgive you, there’s the rest of your family who hate me. I won’t come between you and them. I won’t tear you all apart. I’ve done that enough already.”
“What?” Landon asked. So did Mrs. Duke and even Julia.
They all started talking at once and argued. I just looked at Jed, who’d remained silent, and gave him a look that said, see?
A sharp whistle pierced the air. Everyone went quiet and looked to Mrs. Duke. She lowered her hand from her mouth. It seemed power whistling was a required skill—and well used—for this family. “Now then. Boys, move out of the way.” She walked toward me and Landon and Jed stepped back. Boys, they were not. Yet even being over a foot taller, they did exactly what she said.
After fifteen years, I was facing Mrs. Duke. I took a deep breath, let it out. I got hot all over—and it wasn’t from the setting sun—and my heart was pounding in my ears.
“Why do you think you would you tear my family apart?” she asked.
“Because of the accident,” I replied, licking my lips.
“I expect a simple answer like that from my sons, the big idiots, not you.”
“Hey! Don’t lump me in with Duke. He’s the one named after a slab of beef,” Gus called out.
“Yeah, Tri-Tip,” Tucker countered.
“T-Bone,” Gus grumbled back. It seemed they all had weird meat nicknames, and behaved like children. Without siblings of my own, I found their banter endearing. Another reason not to mess with them.
Mrs. Duke didn’t turn around to look at her two youngest sons, only rolled her eyes. “See? But you’re much too smart for that.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” What else could I say?
“Do you want me to repeat the question?”
“No, ma’am.” I sighed, remembering what she’d asked all too well. “While Landon might be willing to forgive me for what I did to your family, I don’t think he speaks for all of you. I don’t want the rest of you to continue to hate me while he has a… a relationship with me.”
Relationship wasn’t what I’d call what we did the night before, but I wasn’t going to share that I’d gripped his dick and stroked Landon off so his cum splashed on my bare pussy and thighs. He might be a man in his thirties and his mother most likely knew he wasn’t a virgin, but she didn’t need to know the intimate details.
“That would never work and I’d never ask him to choose between his family and me,” I continued.
“What did you do to my family?” she asked.
My mouth fell open. “Out of everything I said, that’s what you focus on?”
She only raised one gray eyebrow in response. I hadn’t grown up with a mother, but I was sure that look worked on getting her kids to do whatever she wanted.
“What did I do to your family?” I repeated. I licke
d my lips, took a breath. While I’d been prepared to admit my sins, the words were still hard to get out. “It was my fault you were hurt.”
Now she just looked confused. “Yours? How? Did you drink a fifth of vodka?”
“No.”
“Did you drive down the county road when you were ten years old and hit our car?”
Her questions weren’t a surprise. Direct, just like her. They still hurt, the reliving of it, especially with the woman who’d been so injured. “No.”
Mr. Duke came up, stood beside his wife and put his hand on her shoulder. He was similarly sized to all of his sons. She settled hers on top of his, a sign of decades of love. The simple sign of affection, of reassurance, made my heart skip a beat. I could have killed that. Them.
“Then why was it your fault?” he asked.
Now I felt like I was being cross examined. My nerves were like butterflies in my belly, frantic to get out.
My father had known the truth of my involvement. Aunt Clara, too, but once I’d moved to California to live with her, we didn’t talk at all about what had happened. We just… moved on. I hadn’t ever said it aloud to anyone, just lived with it for all these years.
“I was at my friend’s house for a sleepover.” I cleared my throat, put a hand over my stomach. “It was raining and cold and I didn’t want to walk home. So I called my dad and asked him to pick me up.” It was hard to talk past the huge lump in my throat. “That’s when he hit you. He never came and I ended up walking home anyway. I… didn’t know he was drunk.”
“Oh, you sweet girl.” Mrs. Duke pulled me into her arms and hugged me. Fiercely. At first, I was startled, completely at a loss for the surprise embrace, then realized it felt good. Comfortable.
She was a good hugger, soft and her arms snug. She even smelled good.
But the feelings I was getting from the hold weren’t for me.
I pushed back, stepped away. Put room between us again. “Please, no. You shouldn’t be making me feel better. I’m the one who’s sorry.” The dam of tears broke free of my throat, filled my eyes. “I’m sorry. So, so sorry for you and Mr. Duke.” I looked up at him, but couldn’t see much because my glasses had slid down my nose and he was blurry.
An arm wrapped around me from behind, pulled me into a tight hold. Landon. I knew the feel of him, the scent of him.
“Angel,” he said.
Only the one word but the sound of it, the anguish in the tone had me setting my head back against his chest.
“You were not at fault,” Mrs. Duke said.
“We don’t blame you,” Mr. Duke added. “We never have. Not for one second did we think you were responsible for anything that happened.”
“But I—”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Landon said fiercely.
I pushed my glasses up my nose, looked to Gus, Tucker and Julia. “Nope,” Julia replied. Tucker and Gus just shook their heads.
I stared at them all, not saying a word. Landon spun me about, tipped my chin up so I met his dark eyes. “It wasn’t your fault. I can’t fucking believe you’ve felt that all this time.”
“I called him. If I’d walked home, it wouldn’t have happened.”
“If he hadn’t been drinking all night, it wouldn’t have happened either,” he countered.
“The weather was awful that day,” Mrs. Duke added. “The fact that your father expected you to walk in that is a sign of his failure as a parent, not yours.”
“But he said…”
Landon’s thumb slid over my cheek and he brushed a tear away, as if he really didn’t think it was my fault. That he… cared.
“When I saw him in the courtroom, he… he told me if I hadn’t been so lazy, so needy, the Dukes wouldn’t have been injured. That while he would go to jail and pay, I got off scot free.”
12
JED
* * *
Kaitlyn was crying. Hard, jagged sobs against Duke’s chest. Thankfully. The shit she’d kept in all this time must have been festering. Like Duke’s angry outburst; he hadn’t realized how fucking pissed he’d been at her dad. How it still lingered. But this… fuck, this was something else.
I met his gaze head on, saw the dark gleam, the way his jaw was clenched tight enough to crack molars. Yeah, I felt the same fucking way. So pissed that if Don Leary wasn’t already dead, I’d fucking kill him all over again. This was our woman and someone had hurt her. Not just someone but her father. No, he wasn’t a fucking father. He’d been a sperm donor who had kept Kaitlyn alive. Nothing else. I was familiar with parents like that because I’d had them myself.
My father had been a deadbeat ending up doing twenty in prison. My mother had gotten hooked on meth and went downhill fast. A different man in her life every week, strangers coming in and out selling drugs. Losing our house and moving into a trailer on the far side of the tracks. By the time I was seventeen, I’d lived with the Dukes, although in the bunk house. Still, it had been safe, clean and I’d had three square meals a day. My mother hadn’t even noticed I was gone.
There hadn’t been any rainbows and unicorns, but I’d had family: the Dukes. They’d shown me what sane, loving parents were like. What a real family should be.
But Kaitlyn? She’d only had her dad.
How dare he put his crimes on the shoulders of a ten-year-old child? The fact that Kaitlyn still believed his words to be true, fifteen years later, was literally gut-wrenching. Her tears were practically killing me. Mr. and Mrs. Duke didn’t look much happier, but as parents, I could tell they wanted to wrap Kaitlyn into hugs of their own. Stuff her with cookies and love. It wasn’t as if she’d gotten many of either of those things in her life.
Tucker and Gus were talking in low voices with Julia, none of them ready for Disney World either. Mrs. Duke looked to me. She didn’t have to say a word as the minutes ticked by. I knew what she was thinking. She’d take care of Kaitlyn, but was giving me and Duke the chance to do so ourselves. She’d obviously heard from Tucker and Gus about what Duke had done, but she was no dummy and could easily see how it was for us.
That she was The One. That while Duke was a fucking dumbass, he’d make it right. I’d make sure of it. I’d also make sure she was taken care of, that we’d prove to her, not matter what it took, that we wanted her for her. Kaitlyn Leary, no matter who her father was, or what he did.
I nodded to her in reply. From now on, we’d take care of her. She was under our protection. While I wanted to fuck her six ways to Sunday, I also wanted to love her. Cherish her. Keep her safe.
Seemingly content, Mrs. Duke took her husband’s hand and they walked back to their car. The others followed, giving us one last glance. She didn’t need all of them to comfort her, to change her mind about something that was so ingrained. I had no doubt they’d be pulling Kaitlyn into the family now. Dinners, shopping with the girls, whatever. They’d show her what a family was.
And right now Duke and I would show her what having men in her life was. How we were strong enough to carry her burdens too.
“Come here, baby,” I murmured when the worst of her tears had been shed, carefully pulling her from Duke’s hold. Wrapping her in my arms, I kissed the top of her head. She was warm and soft and it felt so damned good to hold her. She was right where I wanted her to be, where I knew she was safe, and soon, happy. If Duke and I had any fucking say about it, we’d spend the rest of our lives keeping this woman happy.
“Shh. Everything’s okay now. We’re here. We’re not going anywhere. Let’s go inside.”
Wiping her eyes, she nodded and let me lead her into the house, one hand wrapped around her waist. The place was small. Paint was faded on the walls, the wood floors scuffed. I could see into the kitchen, to the vintage linoleum and countertops, old but serviceable furniture in the living room. No matter that it needed some serious work, the place was immaculate. The scent of cinnamon, like holidays and baking, filled the air.
I stopped in the middle of the living room, tipped
her chin up and then stroked back her hair with my palms. I got a good look at her. Dark, yet red-rimmed eyes, freckles across her pert nose, full lips I remembered kissing. Fuck, she was gorgeous. Her hair was a wild tangle, like silk between my fingers.
“We mean it, Kaitlyn Leary. You’re the one for us.”
“I don’t understand how you can be so sure,” she said, her voice a little husky from crying. I wanted to change that, make it sound like that for a completely different reason.
Soon, but not yet.
“Have you ever felt like this with anyone else?” I asked.
She nibbled on her lower lip for a second, then shook her head.
Relief coursed through me and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Me neither,” I admitted. “It’s insane, but I want to kiss you, hold you, make all your sadness go away. I hope we’ve helped you get rid of the guilt.”
She blushed and glanced at Landon. He’d followed us in, waited quietly as if worried he’d fuck up even more.
“Seeing Mr. and Mrs. Duke helped. I’m so glad they’re okay.”
“Angel,” Landon all but groaned. He came over, stood at her side and settled a hand on her lower back.
“This morning, I was telling you all the things I wanted to say to your dad but never had the chance. How I felt, and shit, I’ve had so much anger I had stored up for him. When he went to trial and to jail, my parents were still recuperating. When he got out, my parents made us all promise we wouldn’t go after him. Wouldn’t get near him. And I didn’t.”
I remembered that and Mrs. Duke had made me promise as well. I’d have killed the man for the Dukes, buried the body where no one could find it if it made them happy.
But it didn’t. It wouldn’t. While I doubted they liked Don Leary, they were too nice to wish anyone dead.
Hearing what he’d done to Kaitlyn no doubt had changed their minds on that.
KAITLYN
* * *
Landon walked over to me, dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around the backs of my thighs. Surprised, my hands went to his shoulders and I cried out his name. I glanced down at his upturned face. He wasn’t going to let me fall. My cry was over, all the emotions having bled out. At some point, the rest of the Dukes left. I doubted I was done with it all—with them—but the roller coaster ride ended for now. The family actually seemed to like me. Well, they’d made it very clear they didn’t hate me.