The Last Call (MMG Book 5)

by Hilliard, R. B.

  Cas

  This morning was a complete shit show. Sarah was up before the alarm went off, and we argued about the damn wedding (again) before I left for work. Screw Max. I was so tempted to kidnap her, catch the first flight to Vegas, and marry her. I almost barreled into Garrett’s truck as I pulled into the LASH parking lot. Fuck! I slammed my hands on my steering wheel and tried not to lose my shit. When Garrett decided to let the Kentucky office go, the new owner asked him to stay on and train the new team. Since the owner was one of his previous employees, and the guy was doing him a huge favor, he agreed. We’d been one man down for the past four months. I hated to admit it, but having Garrett back was going to take some getting used to.

  “The bride to be has arrived,” Bobby announced as I walked through the door.

  “Fuck off,” I retorted. I had enough on my mind. The last thing I needed to deal with was Bobby’s bullshit wedding issues. Bobby loved Sarah, but he was worried I was jumping in too fast, especially after everything that happened with Alexandria. I appreciated his concern, but nothing was going to stop me from marrying Sarah, not even my best friend’s disapproval.

  “Awww, come on. Don’t tell me there’s trouble in paradise before you’ve even walked down the aisle,” he teased.

  “Not now, Bob,” I warned.

  Bobby was about to respond when Garrett cut him off. “I had Bobby look into Garrison’s finances, and I think we might have something.”

  “Which means it’s most likely nothing,” Bobby added. I waited, but neither he nor Garrett elaborated.

  “Well, are you going to tell me what it is or not?” I finally asked.

  “Now what would be the fun in that?” Bobby joked.

  I shot him an eat-shit look. “Seriously?”

  “Max called,” Tut said. As usual, he had his head buried in a magazine.

  “Are you reading People magazine?” I asked.

  He peered over the top of the page, and scowled. “What’s wrong with People?”

  Not bothering to go there with him, I replied, “What did Max want?”

  “Dunno,” he shrugged. “He just said to call him when you get in.”

  “Have you told Max about Meltdown yet?” Adam asked.

  “How the fuck do you know about Meltdown?” I shot Bobby a dirty look.

  “Don’t look at me. I didn’t say a word,” Bobby said.

  “I have my ways,” Adam smiled.

  I pointed my finger at each of them. “None of you breathe a word to Max. Do you hear me?”

  “You are going to tell him, aren’t you?” Garrett asked.

  “Eventually, yes. Now, can we change the subject? Adam, what did you find out about Sally?”

  He let out a deep sigh. “Poor, Sal. Apparently, she had a thing for Zane Mitchell. When he hooked up with Cathryn, who he’s currently engaged to by the way, it broke Sally’s heart. That’s when she took off.”

  “You sound like a gossip reporter,” Bobby commented.

  “What’s your source?” I asked.

  “I tried to talk to Zane, but all he said was she didn’t show for work, and he hadn’t heard from her since. One of the waitresses said she saw Sally and Zane together in his office on more than one occasion. When I spoke with her parents, they didn’t know shit. They think she’s here in Charlotte. Her younger sister wouldn’t talk, but after some coercing, her older sister, Petra, spilled the beans. Sally is hiding out somewhere nursing her wounds. She’s worried about her.”

  “Did she say where she was?”

  “No, she said she’d heard from her a handful of times, but Sally wouldn’t tell her where she was staying.”

  Great, Sally was still MIA, and we were right back where we’d started from…with jack shit. I wanted to find Sally for Sarah, but Sally was way smarter than we gave her credit for, and right now, it looked as if she didn’t want to be found. “If I have time, I’ll run by Whisky’s and talk to Zane later today.” I told them.

  “I’ll work with Bobby on Garrison,” Garrett said.

  “You might want to check in with Max. It sounded important,” Tut called out.

  “I bet he found out about Meltdown. Get ready to do some explaining,” Adam interjected.

  I shot him the bird, and the room erupted in laughter. Fuckers.

  I left them all laughing like idiots and made my way to my office to call Max back. They were right. I did need to tell Max about Meltdown. After all, it was my fucking wedding. It’s also Sarah’s, and after everything she’s been through, she deserves the best. I understood why Max wanted to do this for her, and even though I felt like I was losing my mind, I didn’t have the heart to say no. He was the only family she had. Soon, she’d have me.

  As it turned out, Max didn’t want to talk about the wedding. In fact, we never even got to the wedding. He had a side job for me, and it was one that could affect my wife-to-be. There was one hitch. He didn’t want me to breathe a word to Sarah. My wife possibly had a little brother, and I couldn’t tell her. I hated lying to the woman I loved, but understood why I had to do it. If he wasn’t her brother, then no harm, no foul. Max didn’t want Sarah hurt and neither did I.

  Once Max and I hung up, I called the high school and inquired about a ninth grade student named Malcolm Avery. I told the secretary I was a relative. Of course, without proper identification I wouldn’t get shit from her, but all I was looking for was confirmation the kid existed. After a brief conversation, she confirmed the kid was enrolled there, but that was it. My hacking skills were nowhere near as good as Bobby’s, but I could hold my own. Once the school offices were closed for the day, I would hack into the kid’s records and get the rest. I made a note to see if I could find any connection between Max’s dad and Malcolm Avery’s mom. If Malcolm, or Cole as he liked to be called, was fourteen, then his father died when he was eight. Max and Sarah already knew their father cheated on their mother. I needed to establish a time line. Something told me that what I was going to discover was going to hurt the woman I loved. Sometimes I fucking hated my job.

  Thirty minutes later, I decided to take a break. Before heading over to Whisky’s, I wanted to see my girl. After this morning’s argument, I needed to touch her – to make things right.

  Garrett called on the drive over and asked where I was going. Through gritted teeth, I explained how we were partners, which meant we were now equals. My location was none of his fucking business, and he’d better get used to it. Then I hung up on him. The front of the garage was unlocked, so I walked in. Gage stepped out from the kitchen with a sandwich in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other.

  “You got anything for me?” he asked.

  “No, but Bobby and Garrett are looking into it.” With a nod of his head, he continued down the hall toward his office.

  I poked my head in Max’s office, but Sarah’s desk was empty. Max’s, however, was not. He looked surprised to see me standing there.

  “You know where Sarah is?” I asked.

  “She was in the kitchen. You got anything for me?”

  I checked over my shoulder to make sure the coast was clear, before answering. “I called the school, and verified that the kid is a student there. Once the place is closed for the day, I’ll take a deeper look and see what I can find. I need to establish a time line. I’ll share it with you, but…”

  Max nodded his head toward Sarah’s desk. “She does not need to get hurt in the process,” he finished for me.

  “As soon as we know the facts, either you tell her or I will,” I warned. There was no way in hell I was keeping this from her indefinitely.

  Max’s brow shot up in surprise. “You think I’d keep it from her?”

  “Not necessarily, but I won’t.”

  “Noted,” Max angrily growled. “Anything else?”

  “Yep. Cancel the band you hired. Meltdown is playing at our wedding.” With a slap on the door, I headed to find Sarah.

  “Nice work!” Max shouted after me, and I could
n’t help but smile.

  I found Sarah sitting on the back patio drinking a mug of hot cocoa. God, my girl was beautiful. Her long, dark hair was in pigtail braids that spilled from the bottom of a purple striped beanie. She had on black jeans, fuzzy boots, and a purple sweater that matched her hat.

  “Hey, Killer,” she said when she noticed me staring at her.

  “Hey, gorgeous.”

  “What brings you by?”

  “I wanted to see you.”

  “Yeah, this morning was kind of rough,” she admitted.

  Placing my hands on the arms of her chair, I leaned in and kissed her. “Can you take a few minutes?” I whispered against her mouth.

  She pulled back with a surprised look on her face. “Here?” she whispered. I could tell by her flushed face that she liked the idea.

  “You have the keys to the bedrooms, correct?”

  She smiled. “Max will catch us.”

  I gave her a conspiratorial wink. “Not if we’re quick.” The next thing I knew she was up and out of her seat.

  “Hurry,” she whispered. On her way by, she grabbed my hand. I tried not to laugh when she pulled me inside the building and up the stairs. She inserted the key into the door that led to the bedrooms, and we quietly slid through. With a loud click, she flipped the lock behind us. Then she pulled me across the sitting room and into one of the far bedrooms. After turning the lock on that door, she pivoted to face me. “I hate when we fight.” she whispered.

  “Am I in trouble?”

  Her face lit up with a daring smile. “You’d better believe it. Now, strip.”

  * * *

  Sarah

  All morning, all I could think about was our stupid fight. I wasn’t an insecure kind of girl, but lately it felt as if we’d been on two completely different pages. When I saw Cas standing in the doorway looking all sexy in his yummy leather jacket and arse-hugging jeans with a cat-got-the-cream look on his face, I felt relieved…and turned on. Then again, I was always turned on when Cas Ashford was around. There was no way in hell I was going to turn down his offer to spend some time together. Workplace or not, I was getting him naked and inside me as soon as possible.

  “Bossy, aren’t you?” he teased.

  “We need to establish rules before we get married. This way, there will be less confrontation and more enjoyment,” I explained.

  “And rule number one is?”

  “Strip and I’ll tell you.”

  The sexiest grin spread across his face, and I suddenly felt light headed. My fiancé was a beautiful man, and he was about to be mine forever. Could a girl get any luckier? I sure as hell didn’t think so. Cas tossed his leather jacket on the chair before shucking off his boots. My breath caught when his fingers dropped to the top button of his jeans. With a slight twist of his wrist, his pants were undone. My heart was beating like mad. He whipped off his shirt and tossed it on top of his jacket. I should be used to seeing him this way, but I wasn’t. Every single time felt like the first.

  “Rule number one?” he repeated.

  “Never leave the house angry, and definitely never without saying a proper goodbye.” All kidding aside, I was dead serious. I never got to say goodbye to my mother before she died, and I was forced to leave my friends behind when Max and I ran. I learned the hardest way possible to never take the word or its meaning for granted.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Cas said as he folded me in his arms. So much for a quick romp between the sheets.

  I gave him a squeeze, before taking a step back. “Now, where were we?” I asked.

  “I was just about to bend you over the bed,” he responded. His phone dinged from his jacket pocket, and his eyes shifted in its direction.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” I warned, and as quickly as possible stripped out of my clothes. There was no way I was walking away from this room without getting what I came here for.

  “Can I pull your pigtails?” he asked.

  “Can I stroke your cock?” I responded.

  “You first,” he said, and we both laughed. My pulse stuttered as I watched him strip out of his jeans and briefs. He reached for me, and when our bodies touched, I felt the connection I’d so desperately missed this morning. Only when I was in his arms did I feel this way. “In two weeks you’re mine forever,” he whispered in my ear.

  “Fuck two weeks,” I said as I reached between us and wrapped my fingers around his rigid cock. His eyes heated with lust. Then his phone pinged, again.

  “Baby, it could be important,” he moaned. In a desperate effort to keep him in the moment, I dropped to my knees at his feet, and licked him from base to tip. “Then again, maybe not,” he growled. When his phone pinged a third time, I picked up the pace. By the fourth ping, I was bloody pissed, and ready to tell the fuckers to sod off. Before the moment was completely ruined, I shot up, turned around, placed my hands on the foot of the bed in front of me, and said, “It’s either me or them, and I’m telling you right now the choice better be me.” With a bark of laughter, he drove inside me, and gave me the proper fucking I so deserved. He held me for a few minutes after, and then our time was up. Feeling more relaxed than I’d felt in weeks, I dressed as quickly as possible and waited for him to do the same.

  Before I lost him to work, I gave him a kiss to remember, and whispered, “See you at home.”

  “Sarah,” he called out, right as I yanked open the door and discovered a very angry Max standing on the other side.

  “Max is looking for us,” his words trailed behind me.

  Max looked fit to be tied. “You are my employee, correct?” he asked.

  “Oh, come on. Don’t tell me you haven’t nailed Ellie on every surface in this place,” I chastised.

  “Ellison is my wife, and I own this place.” If he clenched his teeth any harder, they would fall out of his head.

  I gave him a sisterly pat on the arm, and said, “So fire me.”

  “See you at the house, lover,” I called out to Cas. The sound of his laughter followed me all the way down the stairs. God, I love that man.

  Two hours later, as I sat in a coffee shop across from Cas’s mother and listened to her throw barb after barb my way, I wanted to kick my own ass. Why did I answer the phone? Why, why, why? I mentally beat my head against the table.

  “It’s not that Caswell’s father and I have anything against you, per se, it’s just that we think it’s too soon for him to remarry,” she explained for the fifteenth time.

  I was on cloud nine after my rendezvous with Cas. Max was a tad bit pissy, but evidently a proper shagging was just what the doctor ordered, because I felt damn good.

  Around four, Max stuck his head in and told me he was heading home. Gage had already gone for the day. That left me to hold down the fort. I told Max I had a few more papers to file and then I would lock up. As I was filing the last invoice, my phone rang. Normally, when I didn’t recognize the number, I let it go to voicemail. Today, however, I decided to answer it. That was the single worst decision I’d ever made. I was trying to be nice, I really was. After all, this was Cas’s mother – my future mother-in-law – the grandmother to our unborn children. So what if she was a complete cow with no manners. As her future daughter-in-law, I had to be nice, right?

  “You are young. You have years to meet a nice boy and settle down,” she continued. I took a deep swallow of my coffee. After a very uncomfortable few minutes, she tried again. “You’re a very attractive girl, Sarah. I can see what Caswell sees in you. What you lack in sophistication, you have in beauty. Caswell always did go for the pretty ones.” When I still refused to play, she began to fidget. “How much will it take?” she finally asked.

  Surely I wasn’t hearing her correctly. “How much what?” I asked.

  “Ten thousand, twenty? Name your price.” Adding insult to injury, she said, “Just think what a girl like you can do with twenty thousand dollars.” Finally, I’d reached my breaking point. The cow was completely mad. As I fished my
phone from my purse and scrolled to Cas’s number, she asked, “What are you doing?” Her panicked tone almost made me smile.

  “Hey sexy,” Cas answered. “I’ve been thinking about you all afternoon.”

  “I can’t wait to drop to my knees and suck you dry tonight, Killer, but in the meantime, I’m trapped in a coffee shop with your cow of a mother, and she just offered me money not to marry you. In fact, she told me to name my price after calling me an unsophisticated tart. I’m seriously considering taking her up on her offer.” I glanced over at his mother and smiled. If her mouth stretched any wider with shock, she might be able to catch a few flies.

  “What the fuck is my mother doing in Charlotte?” Cas growled.

  “Apparently trying to buy me off,” I dryly replied.

  “Fucking hell. Let me talk to her.”

  “Gladly,” I replied, and with a sugar sweet smile on my face, said, “Cas would like to speak to you,” and shoved the phone at her. After a few minutes of trying to justify her actions to her son, she clamped her mouth shut. I assumed from her pinched expression that Cas was reading her the riot act. When she’d had enough, she pressed the end button, and handed me back my phone. Without so much as a word, she picked up her purse and coat, and headed for the door.

  “See you at the wedding!” I called out after her.

  Once she was out of sight, I plopped back onto my seat and burst into tears. How could I marry a man whose family clearly despised me? My phone buzzed on the table. I knew without even looking that it was Cas, but I just couldn’t bring myself to answer it. What was supposed to be one the happiest times in my life was turning out to be one of the worst.

  Are we making a mistake? Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure anymore.

  Chapter Nine

  Gage and Piper

  ‡

  Gage

  “Let’s wait for Max to get here before getting to the good stuff,” Garrett announced to the room. His eyes shifted to me. “Before we hire your wife to help out around here, I wanted to make sure you were cool with it?” I glanced from Garrett over to Cas and thought about what to say. When Piper told me she was thinking about applying for the position at LASH, I was surprised, to say the least. I thought we were heading in a completely different direction in our marriage. All of our friends were starting families. I just assumed we’d be next in line. So when she told me she wanted to take on a full time job, I was surprised and somewhat perplexed as to her reasons behind the decision.