“In what way?”
He grinned slightly. “You’re gonna make me say it, aren’t you?”
“Why, whatever do you mean?”
He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Alright, I liked being back in the thick of it. I liked having everyone around to talk to. It was…good.”
“Fuck, it’s about time. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could go on making excuses for you arresting them for no reason.”
He chuckled slightly. “Yeah, that’s not stopping. It’s just too much fun.”
“At least come up with something a little more interesting.”
“Like what? You want me to pin a murder on one of them?” I slapped my hand on his chest as he was about to pass. “Or…we could fuck with them a little.”
“Worse than pinning a murder on one of them?”
I grinned at him as a plan formed. “You know, I just love it when the fire department needs to be called out.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “God, you’re mean.”
“I know, but imagine the live stream of that.”
“I’ll call it in.”
Ten minutes later, we stood outside the roof access door of Joe’s building, grinning as the firefighters made their way up the stairs.
“What’s going on?” Shane Finnegan asked. He was with the volunteer fire department one town over. Our town was too small, with too many old men to have any young guys volunteer to create one of our own. So, we had to rely on other towns to come to our assistance in cases of fires. Or when women got themselves locked out on a roof.
“We have a group of women that got themselves locked up on the roof,” Jack answered.
“And you called us for that?”
I frowned at him. “Oh, did we interrupt your workout?”
“As a matter of fact, I just finished the last of my reps. You couldn’t find a key, or were you too busy looking for donuts?”
I shook my head. “Nope, I had my donuts on the way over. I would have brought you some, but I ate them all.”
He shoved past me and looked at the keyhole. “Well, getting a key is out of the question. What the hell did they do?”
“I believe one of them shoved a key in the lock and broke it off to keep their husbands away from them.”
“Well, that was stupid. Who would do that?”
Jack shrugged. “They had their reasons.”
“Alright, let’s take the hinges off,” Shane said to the other firemen. Turning back to us, he said, “I don’t suppose you geniuses thought of trying to drill the lock out.”
“We could, but I don’t have a drill,” I said, leaning against the wall as I watched the other guys trudge down the stairs to get the equipment needed.
“And nobody else in town has one?”
“Well, one of the women’s husbands is in construction,” Jack frowned. Snapping his fingers, he glanced up at me. “You know, we could have called him.”
“Yeah, but he’s all the way out in the country,” I argued. “We’d have to drive out there, and then drive all the way back…”
“And we did just detail the cars.”
“And those gravel roads are awfully bumpy to drive on,” I added.
Shane nodded. “And none of the neighbors had a drill.”
“They weren’t home,” Jack said, looking Shane dead in the eyes without blinking.
“All the neighbors were gone.”
He shrugged. “What can I say? This town gets wild at night.”
“And we couldn’t leave the women here alone,” I added.
“They’re already alone,” Shane snapped. “They’re on a roof.”
“Right,” Jack nodded. “You do have a good point, but then we wouldn’t have gotten to do this whole back and forth thing. Besides, you’re looking a little weak. I thought you could use the extra workout.”
The guys came back up the stairs with what they needed and got to work.
“You got this?” Jack asked.
I nodded, pulling out my phone. “Say cheese, guys. You’re on candid camera.”
“Fuck, turn that thing off,” one of the guys muttered.
“What? You’ve got your mask on. No one can see you.”
“I hate you fuckers,” another one muttered.
Jack and I laughed silently to ourselves, waiting for them to get the door off. It took them a little bit longer since the hinges were rusted, so I decided to give a little intro to the townsfolk watching, to catch them up on what was going on.
“This is coming to you live from the rooftop of Joe Cortell’s tattoo parlor where the lovely Cortell ladies have locked themselves on top of the roof to escape the insanity that their husbands bring with them. Being the nice lawmen that we are, we made sure to call our friendly neighboring fire department to help get them off the roof.”
“Yeah, because you were too lazy to do it yourself,” Shane shot back.
“So, why didn’t you drill the lock off?” I asked. “Since that’s what you suggested we do.”
“Because this is so much more fun. And if we take off the door, you’re responsible for making sure the residents are safe until the door is replaced.”
My smile dropped and I swore under my breath. I hadn’t really thought of that. Luckily, we were a small town, and no one really caused any trouble around here. Except for those damn Cortell women.
“Ready? On the count of three.”
“Yeah, cuz it’s so heavy,” Jack mumbled.
The fireman moved the door and there stood the crazy, slightly unhinged women that got themselves locked up on the roof. Front and center was the man of the hour, the one that ran to the women and told them the crazy plan for spying, which was why they were up here to begin with.
“Say cheese, you’re on camera,” I grinned, pointing at my phone.
18
Antonio
I sat in the living room with Princess and Max, drinking my scotch as the little kitten clawed at my leg. I was so fucking depressed. Not seriously, but I had really fucked up with Ciara, and Jo wasn’t too much happier with me. So, here I was sitting alone with just my dogs and the kitten for my amusement.
Princess started barking, getting all riled up again, while Max started whining. Christ, it was about to happen again. I rubbed at my eyes as the dogs chased each other around the damn house. I didn’t need the constant reminder that they were getting more sex than I was.
I really sucked at this whole relationship thing. I would ask Josh for his advice, but he wasn’t doing too much than I was right now. The only thing he had going for him was that he was already married. Carly wouldn’t leave him.
A grin split my lips as an idea came to me. I wasn’t sure why the hell I hadn’t thought of it before. Of course, the one way to ensure Ciara didn’t leave me was if I had her marry me. She would be tied to me for life. Then I could knock her up and further ensure that she would stay with me. I wasn’t sure I would be a great father or that I even wanted to be one, but hell, men in the Family got married all the time and knocked up their wives. It was a control thing. Now I understood why.
My phone rang and I thought about ignoring it, but the last time I did that, it hadn’t turned out so well for me. I had to learn that I was part of a community now, and I couldn’t just ignore people in my life, no matter how much I may want to.
“Yeah?”
“It’s Josh. Are you on Facebook?”
“Fuck no. Why would I do that?”
He sighed. “Because it’s one of the only ways to keep track of everything going on in town.”
“And why would I want to do that?”
“Because our women are currently being rescued from locking themselves on the roof of Joe’s apartment.”
I sat up and set my drink on the table. “They what?”
“You heard me. It was a secret plan of escape that failed miserably.”
“Wait, I’m confused…They escaped to a roof?”
“Don’t make me try
to explain it. Just get your ass down here and get your women.”
“My women?”
“Yeah, Ciara and Jo are both here.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course they are. I’ll be right there.”
Luckily, I hadn’t had more than a few sips of scotch. I grabbed my keys and headed into town. By the time I got there, everyone was off the roof, but a crowd had gathered, with all the townspeople treating the women like they were celebrities. Nathan, the doctor that was there for Carly, was standing right in the middle of them.
Shoving through the crowd, I snatched Ciara’s hand, barely ducking out of the way in time when she turned to punch me. When she saw it was me, she glared hard.
“What are you doing here?”
“I came because Josh called. He said you escaped to a roof?”
She snorted. “Well, it wasn’t my idea. I just went along for the fun. See, that’s what you do when you make friends with people. You trust them.”
“Yeah, to lead you on an escape to a roof,” I huffed in reply.
“Hey, I was being there for them.”
“Oh, you were not,” Jo said, appearing at Ciara’s side. “You were bored and went along with it for fun. When are you two going to stop arguing and just make up?”
Ciara narrowed her eyes at me. “There is no making up. I’m no better than a whore he’d leave money on the dresser for.”
I flinched slightly, regretting the words I had said to her. I knew I hurt her, which made it all the more clear what I really needed to do.
“Ciara, I love you. I know that I say and do all the wrong things, but I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just…” She stared at me expectantly, so I went for it. “I want you to marry me.”
Jo gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. “Oh my God.”
“Why would you want to marry me?” Ciara asked in confusion.
I shook my head, not understanding the question. “Um…because I love you.”
“Three days ago, you wanted to run away from me.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“And now you want to marry me. What’s really going on?”
“Nothing. I just…I want to marry you and have kids with you. As soon as possible,” I added on.
Her mouth gaped and then her lips tilted in a way I didn’t like. “You want to marry me to get me to stick around.”
I scoffed. “No.”
“Yes, that’s what this is. You don’t know how to ask me to stay with you, and you don’t know how to talk to me. You don’t want to hurt me, but you also don’t want me to leave.”
“If that was true, why would I ask you to marry me?”
“Because it’s forced. It’s something you feel you should do to make me stay. It’s the way our Families worked. You’re resorting to old habits of the Family so you don’t have to admit that you want me to stay. If it’s an obligation, then it doesn’t make you feel like you have to actually figure out how to be in a relationship.”
Jo frowned. “Is that true? Because that’s pretty fucked up.”
“No, it’s not…” But as I stared at Ciara, I knew she could see the truth of the situation and it wasn’t going to work on her. “Okay, fine, that might have gone through my head.”
“You were going to marry her to keep her without admitting that you wanted her?” Jo asked. “That’s fucked up.”
“It’s sort of sweet,” Ciara said, her lips forming a small smile.
“What?” I was shocked as hell.
“You don’t know how to have a relationship. I get that. So, you want to keep me while you work through your emotions, because you know if you don’t figure it out soon, we don’t have a shot at making it. So, you convinced yourself you needed to do this to keep me around. In a very twisted way, it’s really sweet.”
“I didn’t exactly go through all that logic in my head, but I’ll go along with it.”
Jo stared at her incredulously. “You two are so fucked up.”
She shrugged. “Well, we’re fucked up together.”
I smiled at her and pulled her into my arms. “So, I’m forgiven?”
“I wouldn’t go that far. I’m still pissed at you. I can’t believe you thought of leaving me money. Like that could ever take the place of you. But I won’t walk away, and I won’t marry you either.”
I grinned at her. “You say the sweetest things…when you manage to keep your mouth shut for long enough to let me work shit out.”
“I wouldn’t say you’ve worked anything out. And I’m not keeping my mouth shut. You’re just going to have to work shit out with me yelling in your ear.”
Something eased in my chest. Hell, nothing was perfect or worked out, and I was damn lucky she hadn’t kicked me to the curb after she figured out my plans. But she also understood me unlike anyone else. We’d figure the rest out eventually. Either that or we’d just get more dogs.
19
Jack
This was ridiculous. We were holding a town meeting, all because Josh couldn’t keep control of his wife. You would think between the six brothers that one of them would have figured out how to keep control of Carly after her release from the hospital. But a week later, she was still causing trouble, and it had to stop.
Luckily, after the women’s performance last night, I now had leverage over all of them, and I knew just what I was going to do to keep them all in line. Sure, I had been part of the whole thing, but we weren’t talking about my transgressions. I banged the gavel on the table, trying to quiet everyone down. The whole town was going into chaos. “Quiet down!” I shouted over all the voices.
Slowly, the town quieted and gave me their attention. I turned and looked at the six men and their troublemaking wives, sighing slightly. Most of them at least looked ashamed of what had transpired. Carly, however, she looked downright thrilled at the turn of events.
“Let’s get this meeting started. I know you all have questions, but I’d like to clear up a few things first. Everyone should keep their distance from Carly. She doesn’t need to be watched like a hawk. She’s on seizure medication and is perfectly fine.”
A hand shot up, waving around vigorously. I almost told the man to wait until the town hall meeting was coming to a close, but maybe it was better to answer these as they came.
“Yes, Mr. Mitchell.”
He stood, looking at me in confusion. “Does this mean we’re not supposed to ask her anymore if she’s having a seizure?”
“No, you do not need to ask her that.”
Another hand shot up.
“Suzy?”
“How much distance are we talking? Is she dangerous to be around?”
Murmurs broke out around the room and I held my hands up to silence them. “The only reason you need to keep your distance is she might attack one of you if you get too close.”
“Is she feral?” someone shouted.
“No, she’s not feral,” I said slowly. “But after everyone in town got in her face, can you blame her for wanting her space?”
When no one else raised their hand, I continued. “As for the most recent incident…” I glared at all the women sitting up on the stage. “If you own a business, please ensure that your rooftop locks are in working order, along with all other doors. We don’t need to call the fire department out to drag anyone else off a roof.”
Jennie’s hand shot up.
“Yes, Jennie’s?”
“Do you happen to know if that fireman, the one that was 6’ 2”, black hair, brown eyes, and was the first to run into the building…is he single?”
“Um—”
“His last name was Finnegan. I saw it on his coat,” she grinned, giggling like a school girl.
“I really don’t know the status of the fireman,” I said into the microphone. “And that’s not really the point of tonight.”
“But it’s not a bad idea,” Mark, a banker in town said. “Maybe instead of poker night, we should have a singles night.”
&nbs
p; “Ooh, we could do mixers,” another woman said excitedly.
“And we could have speed dating,” Jennie said, standing up like she was about to run off and get started on the project right away.
“In a town this small? How would that even work?” Mary Anne asked. “But if you do, my bakery is available.”
“A bakery for speed dating?” Joe scoffed on the stage. “You don’t even serve liquor.”
“You owe me, Joe Cortell. I haven’t had nearly as many people come in since you boys stopped all your shenanigans.”
“Hey, I fat shamed a person in your bakery…Or, fat admired?” he added, unsure of which was it was supposed to be.
“Can we get back on the topic of tonight’s meeting?” I asked. “We are also lucky enough to have these six fine gentleman agree to help out with one of our newest town members animal shelter. Jo has set up a fine shelter in the country, but she needs donations, along with some good homes for the animals she’s found. We’ll be hosting an event in the near future, so look for the Cortell brothers to come knocking for your support.”
“I never—”
I cut Josh off with a scathing glare and discreetly pointed to the cuffs on my belt. He sat back down, huffing in annoyance.
“We’ve also had Doctor Nathan Stark agree to host a town health and safety day.”
Nathan scowled at me next to the brothers, but it was the price he paid for going along with the women on their crazy scheme. As for me, I didn’t really suffer anything. I got to play along, but in the end, I still got to string everyone along and get my revenge. All in all, I’d say it was great outcome.
“But does this mean poker night is off?” one man shouted.
“Yes!” all the Cortell brothers shouted.
I grinned at them. I may be trying to move past my anger, but that didn’t mean I still couldn’t fuck with them every once in a while. They all shook their heads slightly, like they were warning me off. Hell, that just made me want to do this even more. For the past few years, I was drawing dead. Every hand that was dealt to me couldn’t possibly give me a win. But with every step I took to move past my anger and hatred, I felt myself healing, and that was largely due to the Cortell brothers. Like it or not, they helped me when I needed it the most. Every time they let me drag them down to the station, every ticket they took from me, gave me the strength to keep going. What kind of asshole would I be if I didn’t return the favor?
Drawing Dead: A Small Town Romance (A Good Run Of Bad Luck) Page 15