Wild & Sweet (The Haven Brotherhood)

by Rhenna Morgan

  She shook her head. “A little too wound up.” Not a thing marked the top of the dresser. No pictures. No knickknacks. Not even a speck of dust. “How long have you lived here?”

  Zeke paused, glanced over one shoulder at her, then went back to rummaging through the middle drawer. “A couple of years, I guess. Maybe three.” He pulled a folded pair of black pajama bottoms free, shook them loose and stepped into them. “Hey, I was thinking maybe after we catch some sleep, I’d take you out so you can pick up that new computer you’ve been wanting. Heck, Knox might be available if you want the extra input.”

  “Nah, I’m not in a hurry.” And she wouldn’t be for at least three or four more paychecks.

  “You were a few weeks ago. You said you’d planned to do it the weekend you got hurt.”

  Gabe fiddled with the sheets, avoiding eye contact.

  “Gabe?”

  She let out a sigh, hating the truth, especially with so much wealth prominently displayed around her. The last thing she needed was another demonstration on how ill-suited she was for him. Still, he’d asked for honesty, and last night had been the most spectacular of her life. Largely due to both of them being 100 percent candid. “I can’t go yet. I need to save up again. I used some of it for other stuff.”

  Zeke ambled to his side of the bed, picked up his phone and started punching buttons. “You having to work the desk at the garage is docking your pay that much?”

  “That’s some of it.” Honesty, she’d give him, but that didn’t include an itemized list. “I’ll make it back. Then I’ll go shopping with Knox.”

  He set his phone aside and narrowed his eyes. “You spent it on the clothes, didn’t you?”

  Ugh. Skirting topics was so much easier with Danny. Leave it to Mr. Trauma Doc to zero in on the details at Mach ten. She shrugged. “It was worth it. I liked the way you looked at me.”

  Dragging back the covers, he crawled across the bed and stretched out next to her. “Next time you don’t have something you need, you tell me.”

  “I don’t need you to take care of me. I can handle stuff on my own.”

  “I know that,” he said. “But it would make me feel a whole lot better if you’d let me share the load.” He rolled so he gave her just a hint of his weight and rubbed his nose alongside hers, his perfect lips just inches from hers and his voice shiver-inducing deep. “Besides, I’ve got more than enough cash to spoil you a little. What’s the point in a man making bank if he can’t play sugar daddy now and again?”

  His kiss unwound all her anxious, negative thoughts like none of her pep talks could. Sweet and yet still sexy. Unhurried and indulgent as though they’d been lovers for years instead of hours.

  The crisp, shrill ring of his phone on the nightstand jolted her from the relaxed cocoon he’d created.

  He groaned and rested his forehead against hers. “You gotta be kidding me.” Rolling to his back, he snatched the device off the nightstand and swiped the answer button. “Yeah?”

  Whoever was on the other end of the line didn’t talk loud enough to reach Gabe’s ears, but whatever they said zapped Zeke’s focus to a laser point. “Where was he shot?”

  No wonder he’d gone superalert. Gabe propped herself up on one elbow.

  “How long ago?” he said, sitting up on the side of the bed. He stood and zeroed in on Gabe, tilting the phone away from his mouth. “Give me a minute. I gotta get some answers on this.” He strode from the room, barking more questions in a clipped, authoritative tone he’d never used around her before, not even the night she’d been injured. While she was glad it wasn’t aimed at her, it was crazy sexy in a supersmart, hot-doc kind of way. McDreamy didn’t have shit on her man.

  Her man.

  God, she loved that phrase. Just the idea of it put her in a twirly, dance-around-the-room, Cinderella kind of mood.

  A ping sounded from her canvas hobo bag on the floor.

  Weird. The only person who ever called or texted her was Danny. Or nowadays, Zeke, and she’d never received any calls or texts at five o’clock in the morning. She dug to the bottom of her bag and grinned at the screen.

  April: Hey, girl! You didn’t call! How’d the date go? You rock the dress?

  How cool was that? She had a man and a friend. Best day/night ever. She typed out a quick response, her heart humming about as fast as her thumbs worked the keyboard.

  You’re up early. LBD was perfect! Made for a long night, though. Maybe grab a coffee later today and I’ll share the details?

  The answer came a whopping fifteen seconds later.

  April: Up for the gym. Gotta work my fat ass into bathing suit shape. Work until five tonight. Can meet after or tomorrow. Let me know when. PS: Late nights are the best kind. ;)

  Actually, with the night they’d had, after five was probably a good idea. Then again, Zeke had mentioned going shopping for a computer. Was that off the table now? Yeah, she’d told him she wanted to take care of it herself, but he also had a way of getting what he wanted once he’d made up his mind. After last night, passing up any available time with Zeke seemed criminal, even if it was only window shopping.

  She crawled out of bed and strolled toward his voice in the living room.

  Zeke’s back was to her, one hand holding the phone to his ear and the other propped on his hip. “You sure you’re willing to put us out there for a guy like that? Moreno’s about as trustworthy as a hungry snake. Need for a truce or not, this is my license we’re talking about.”

  Moreno. She’d heard that name before, though she couldn’t quite place it.

  “Yeah,” he said, “people who peddle drugs tend to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.” He ran a hand through his hair, turned and spied Gabe in the doorway. As fast as her presence registered, his expression blanked.

  That’s where she’d heard the name Moreno. He was a local drug dealer whose name was mentioned almost every other day on television.

  Zeke held her gaze. “No, I get it. All right. Keep his feet elevated and pressure on the wound. I’ll meet you there.” He started to pull the phone away from his ear then put it back just as fast. “One more thing.” He paused as though waiting for someone to answer on the other end, his gaze burning with an intensity that sent shivers down her spine. “You need to call a rally. There’s something we need to talk about.”

  With that he punched the home screen to end the call and tossed the phone on the couch, striding her direction. “Thought you were going to get some sleep.”

  Sleep? No, she’d been too hyped up from her fan-freaking-tastic night that had nearly ended in a horrid tragedy. Apparently, she’d gotten her cart in front of the horse on the fan-freaking-tastic part. “I got a text.” She waggled her phone as if that might somehow explain things. “I made a friend yesterday. The girl from the store. She texted me to see how things went. We were thinking of meeting for coffee after she gets off work.”

  He smiled and pulled her into a hug. “That’s great, gatinha. That’s a big step for you.”

  She wanted to hug him back, tried to lift her arms, but couldn’t quite muster the enthusiasm. Could only stand there, dumbfounded and weighted with dread.

  Pulling away, Zeke anchored one hand on her shoulder and steered her face to his with firm fingers at her chin. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

  Just a World War III panic attack. One side featured all the reasons why she should’ve kept Zeke at a distance, and the other, hopeless-romantic side cast puppy dog eyes and urged her to hug him and forget what she’d heard. “Where are you going?”

  His lips pressed into a hard line and the hand on her shoulder tightened.

  “I heard you talking about drugs,” she pressed. “About losing your license. What’s going on?”

  He kept his shrewd eyes on hers, thoughts shiftin
g behind his gaze so fast she couldn’t even begin to fathom what they might be about.

  Well, to hell with that. She’d done the things he’d asked. Put herself out there in a way she’d never done before. “You asked me to be honest. That should go both ways, right? I don’t have a mom because of drugs. I almost lost my brother to them. I’m not giving them a third chance to screw up my life.”

  Exhaling hard, he cupped the back of her neck and gave her a semismile, though it had a bittersweet edge to it. “Yeah. Honesty’s a two-way street.” He spun her around and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, guiding her back to the bedroom. “Let’s get you curled up in bed and I’ll tell you what I can.”

  * * *

  On a scale of one to ten, opening the huge-ass can of worms in front of Zeke with a man bleeding out like a stuck pig fifteen minutes away had to rank a thirty, even if he did hate the slimy bastard doing the bleeding. He pulled the covers back on Gabe’s side of the bed.

  Gabe eyed the empty space, then her purse beside the bed.

  Oh, hell no. No way was he letting her walk out of his house without a fight. Though how he was going to be honest and not give her extra fuel to hightail it home was a mountain he wasn’t sure how to climb. Hell, he wasn’t even sure how much of his conversation with Jace she’d heard. If he knew some of the finer nuances of what had happened to her family when she was young, it might help, though. “Tell me about your mom.”

  “I thought you were going to tell me about where you’re going and how you’ve got a hand in drugs.”

  “I don’t have a hand in drugs. I wouldn’t. But, before I go there, I’d like to understand where you’re coming from.”

  Her eyes slid to the side, her cute little mouth puckered up as though she couldn’t decide whether she wanted to fight or share. “She got caught up with some bad people. Men who had a side business peddling small-time drugs.”

  “And?”

  “And they weren’t very nice.” She plopped down on the side of the bed, her head bowed as she laced her fingers between her knees. “She’d take me with her when she went to see them because she didn’t have anyone else to leave me with. I was too little to understand what she was doing when she’d disappear into the bedroom with them, but I figured it out later. They used her to front a lot on deals with customers they didn’t know. I was there the day she did a deal with an undercover cop and got hauled in. That’s when Dad found out what she’d been up to. He kicked her out and spent all his savings to get sole custody of me and Danny.”

  “How old were you?”

  She finally lifted her gaze. “Eight.”

  Fuck. Talk about a head trip for a kid. No wonder she had a thing for rules and keeping to herself. “And Danny? You said drugs almost took him, too.”

  She nodded and went back to studying her hands. “In high school. He started running around with a bad crowd and they liked to experiment with drugs. Their part-time jobs didn’t do much on funding their needs, so they broke into houses. Danny got busted. The only reason he didn’t end up in juvie is because Dad got him a decent lawyer and beat some sense into him.” She looked up at him. “But I’m guessing you already knew that.”

  “Most of it.” Though Danny hadn’t shared the part about his dad beating sense into him. Kind of made Zeke wish he’d had a chance to meet the guy. He sat next to Gabe and tugged her hands apart, taking the one closest to him and wrapping it up in both of his. She’d nailed it when she called him on the honesty thing. She deserved the truth. Or at least as much as he could give her. “Look at me, gatinha.”

  She twisted her head so a strand of her honey-blond hair hung over one cheek, those beautiful blue eyes of hers filled with raw, open fear.

  Damn, but he couldn’t take it. They might be side by side, but it was too much distance. Too much disconnect. He twisted on the bed and pulled her around to face him, guiding her legs so they wrapped around him. He cupped the side of her face. “I do not condone heavy drugs. Why anyone would willingly put some of the shit they do in their body is beyond me. I see too many of the side effects in my job. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t shared a smoke or two with friends when I was growing up, and I’ve got no problem with people who kick back with weed on occasion, but the hard stuff? No. Personally, beer’s about all you’ll catch me with. Sometimes a Scotch when Jace and Axel pull out the good stuff. Most of the time, I want a clear head, but I won’t judge other people for their choices. So I can absolutely tell you, I do not involve myself with drugs.”

  “But you know people who do. Like Moreno. He’s on the news all the time as being suspected for dealing drugs.”

  Well, that cleared up how much she’d heard. “I don’t know him. Not outside of the same pictures you’ve seen on the news. What I do know is he’s an ass who’s caused Jace a ton of problems in the last few months peddling really nasty stuff in his and Axel’s clubs. The problem tonight is Moreno’s brother is hurt. And while I might not like Moreno or what he’s done to Jace, there are very few people in this world I could walk away from without helping if it was in my power to make them better.”

  “He could go anywhere for help. Walk in any emergency room.”

  “It’s not that easy. Not for everyone.” He tucked her hair behind one ear, savoring the soft brush of her skin against his fingertips. “Let me ask you a question. If you were me and you could help a hurting person who didn’t feel like they could walk into a normal doctor’s office, could you walk away from them? Even if you didn’t agree with how they lived their life?”

  “No.”

  “That’s all this is. Me helping someone else.” And simultaneously earning a marker from Moreno. Bartering done old school. But that information put his brothers out there and that he wouldn’t share until he’d claimed her.

  She wrapped her hand around his wrist, the slightest tremor marring the touch. “That’s all? No drugs?”

  “No drugs. I promise.”

  The grip on his wrist tightened and her shoulders eased on a heavy exhalation. “Okay.”

  Thank. You. God. He kissed her forehead, then her nose, then her lips, the last making him hate Moreno even more now than he had five minutes ago, which was a helluva lot already. “I gotta go. You okay to sleep while I’m gone?”

  She nodded and eased away from him, slipping her feet under the covers.

  “I’ll call you when the guy is stable. If you decide to go anywhere, be sure to call me and let me know, okay?”

  “Yeah, I can do that.” She curled up on her side facing him and tucked one hand under her head. Seeing her there, so sweet and tucked up tight in his bed, re-shifted every priority in his life.

  Man, he was a goner. He just hoped like hell his brothers wouldn’t balk when they heard what he had to say. Maybe three weeks ago he’d have chosen his brothers over her, but now he wasn’t so sure.

  He started to stand then stopped. He’d given her the truth about Moreno, but not the truth he’d realized when he’d fallen asleep with her in his arms. As much as she’d put herself out there the past few weeks, she deserved everything. “I told you the things I did because I trust you. What we’ve got going between us...” Hell, he wasn’t sure what it was. He wasn’t even sure there were words for what he felt. “I’ve never been in anything like this. It’s huge and so deep I can’t see the bottom of it.”

  “Me, too,” she whispered. “It’s scary.”

  He leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “I’m not sharing what I did because I’m afraid, gatinha. I’m telling you because, for you, wading into the deep end’s worth it.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Fatigue wasn’t something Zeke fought often, but between the overnight fire and stabilizing Moreno’s brother on three hours of sleep, he was ready for some serious shut-eye. He pulled into Haven’s long drive behind Jace’s pimp
ed out black Silverado and followed his brother toward the main house. Tired or not, every time Zeke passed those front gates, a little part of him let out a relieved sigh. No one but the brothers, the women they claimed or the moms came here. While it was Jace and Axel’s main home, it was also the brotherhood’s safe place. Their solace away from the daily grind. And man did he need the relief. Now more than ever. What he had to say to his brothers could go ten different kinds of bad for him, Danny or both.

  At least he knew Gabe was okay. Getting her text after she’d napped, saying her friend was coming by to get her for coffee had shaken a little of the tension out of his shoulders. If she’d wanted to bail on him, she wouldn’t have bothered with a text, but would’ve just slipped out of his house unannounced and hid at home.

  Or maybe called the cops on him.

  He killed the engine, wrenched his aching body out of the car and trudged toward the spacious wraparound porch with its plentiful Adirondack chairs and mountain-lodge design.

  Jace waited for him, one hand stuffed in the pocket of his faded jeans and the other fiddling with the ever-present toothpick nestled on one side of his mouth. “Appreciate you taking care of Moreno. I know he’s not high on your list.”

  “You know I wouldn’t tell you no.”

  “No, but you don’t like what he does. Hell, I don’t either, but it earned me a marker my clubs needed.” He grinned. “Probably peeled you away from that sweet thing you’ve been spending so much time with lately, too.”

  “Yeah, about that.” Zeke rubbed the back of his neck, the kink that’d been building the past twelve hours sending a sharp jolt up the back of his head. “Gabe heard us talking on the phone.”

  Jace’s grin died. “How much?”

  “Enough to make her ask questions.” Questions he wasn’t altogether sure his brothers would appreciate the way he’d handled. “I like her, Jace. A lot. Enough I couldn’t lie to her. She doesn’t know who I was on the phone with and she doesn’t know the extent of it, but I told her what I was doing.”