House Rules

by Rebecca Brooke

  Stretching, I reached out for Tess but all my hand encountered were cold, empty sheets.

  What the fuck?

  My eyes snapped open to scan the room. Had she gone to use the bathroom or get a drink of water? There was no sign of her anywhere in the room. I jumped from the bed and ran downstairs, all without bothering to get dressed.

  Everything was gone. Her dress, her purse, even the shoes she’d kicked off her feet while we’d sat on the couch talking. She’d snuck out of my bed in the middle of the night. What the hell was wrong with this woman?

  For years, women had thrown themselves at my feet, begging for one night, hoping I’d let them stay through into the morning. Finally, I let a woman sleep in my bed, and she snuck out before I even woke up.

  Whether it was anger, frustration, or something else I didn’t want to recognize, I ran back up the stairs to look for my phone. Maybe she’d left me a message.

  But there was nothing, not even one missed call. I almost threw my phone across the room. That was the moment I realized I was acting like a moody adolescent. That shit had to stop. Tess, no matter how intriguing, was just another girl.

  I dropped the phone on the counter and jumped in the shower, hoping to wash away all of the bullshit with a little soap and some hot water.

  Once I finished drying off, I walked out to the bedroom to grab some clothes. I saw the flashing screen from the phone. Hoping to see a message from Tess, I snatched the phone up and unlocked the screen.

  Dad: Breakfast?

  Me: Sure. One hour?

  Dad: Good.

  I tossed the keys at my favorite valet the moment I stepped out of the car at my dad’s place. For some reason, he’d asked both Ashton and I to stop by on our way into work that morning. A meeting in his home office usually meant he wanted to talk business. The kind we only discussed where we knew there could be no way for anyone else to hear our conversation.

  “Thanks, Garrett. I won’t be long.”

  “No problem, Mr. Hawes. I’ll be here when you’re ready.”

  At least it gave me something else to focus on besides the sexy as fuck brunette who snuck out of my bed. The thought of it alone pissed me off. Not a great way to go into a meeting with Dad.

  I nodded and went up to my parents’ place. The elevator ride gave me a chance to get my shit together before anyone noticed my mood, otherwise they would have a million questions, especially Mom. A whizz in the kitchen, it wasn’t a surprise to find her already making breakfast.

  “Hey, Mom.” I stepped into the room and placed a kiss on her cheek.

  She smiled. “Dad said you and your brother were coming, so I figured I’d make you something to eat. I know your brother will get a decent meal, but I worry about you.”

  I laughed. She wasn’t kidding about that. My brother inherited all my mother’s culinary talents. Me on the other hand, not so much. “Thanks. It smells delicious.”

  “Dad’s in his office. Go see what he wants and when you guys are done everything will be ready.”

  “Ashton here yet?”

  “He got here about ten minutes ago.”

  “Then I better get in there. I’ll be back.” I winked and turned in the direction of my dad’s office.

  Ashton sat on the couch, a steaming cup of coffee already in his hands. He gave me a smirk. “About time.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Long night. Besides, I’m on time.” I took the seat next to him.

  “Long night? How many did you fuck last night?” A mischievous smiled lifted the corners of his mouth. He knew exactly who I’d taken home last night, so what was he up to? And why did it matter to him if I slept with her?

  Bastard. He had a sexy piece of ass in his bed every night, one he didn’t have to worry about kicking out before he went to bed. Annoyance that my bed was empty this morning flashed through me. “Very funny, asshole. You don’t have to kick your piece of ass out of your bed at night.”

  His shoulders tensed. “Don’t fucking talk about Elena like that.”

  Direct hit. Ashton always seemed to forget that I planned on getting the last word, no matter what he said. It had been that way since we were kids. You’d think he’d have learned not to bite by now.

  “Knock it off, you two. I have more important shit to talk about than dealing with your juvenile pissing contest.”

  Dad sat across from both of us and, duly chastised, we directed our attention to whatever he’d asked us to come over for.

  “I know it’s early and you both have a ton of shit to do today, but your mother and I’ve been talking and have made some decisions.”

  Ashton and I looked at each other then back at Dad. “What kind of decisions?” I asked.

  We knew that Mom or Dad never did anything without the other’s say so, but something about this conversation felt different. The way he sat up straight in the chair instead of hunched over his desk, the slight twitch of his leg. Dad had never been nervous a day in his life.

  He drew in a breath. “Mom and I have decided it’s time for me to start to step away from the business.”

  “What?” The disbelief was clear in my voice. I thought it would be years before I ever heard those words leave my father’s mouth.

  Ashton’s face fell. “You want us to take over even more?”

  Dad’s attention turned to Ashton at the sound of frustration in his voice. “For you, no. I expect that you’ll continue to collect debts from our loans. It’s what you’re good at. This has more to do with Miller.”

  His eyes moved to mine. “Over the next few months, we’re going to work on getting you fully invested into everything going on at the dealership. I know you understand how everything works, but we need to get you invested directly with all of our clients . . . so we don’t have a repeat of before.”

  Ice settled in my stomach. Dad’s nerves made more sense now. After everything I’d done for the business, he was still afraid I’d fuck the whole thing up and end up in jail. “That’s bullshit, Dad,” I snapped. “I’ve never done anything to put us in jeopardy.”

  He leaned forward, resting his arms on the desk. “Jesus Christ, Miller. Don’t be so fuckin’ naive. Your ass was safe only because you’d made enough contacts and had favors to call in to deal with your problem.”

  “My problem? How the fuck was I supposed to know that crazy bitch planned on outing us?”

  “If you’d do your goddamn homework when you meet someone, you wouldn’t have to worry about that shit.”

  “I always check people out before I deal with them.”

  “Maybe in business. But outside of that you’re too busy sticking your dick into any pussy that’s willing to open up and let you in.”

  “Is that what you think happened? That I let the bitch into our lives because I was too lazy to check her out? Or was it that I didn’t care enough to bother?” My voice rose with each word and I shot up from my seat, anger sizzling through my veins. “’Cause I can say for damn sure I checked her out. She wasn’t some chick I planned on fucking for a few nights and never calling again.”

  There it was. The reason I swore off relationships. I had no intention of letting a woman who could endanger everything I’d worked so hard for into my bed.

  Ashton sighed and I looked down to see his head in his hands, his eyes never leaving the ground. “Dad, you can’t blame him for what she did. Miller’s not an idiot, he’d never do anything to jeopardize all you’ve built. Once he realized he’d made a mess, he took care of it.”

  “I didn’t fucking make a mess,” I shouted, hoping like hell Mom stuck to ignoring anything she heard from the office. “When I figured out what she was doing I handled it, and made sure to send a very clear message to anyone thinking of trying that shit again.”

  Dad slammed his hands down onto the desk, pulling himself up so his eyes were level with mine. “Exactly, and if you’d shut your mouth for a fuckin’ second you’d hear what I’m trying to tell you. Holy hell, Miller. You sure as shit know
how to try my patience.” He ran a hand through his hair and pointed to the couch behind me. “Now sit your ass down and listen.”

  My hands clenched into fists and I bit my tongue so hard I nearly drew blood as I slowly lowered myself down.

  “Are you done with your shit so I can finish what I want to say?”

  I gave him a slight nod. Dad hadn’t lost his temper yet. There was no use pushing him even further and starting a fight I’d lose in the end anyway. With my luck, he’d change his mind about turning everything over to me. That didn’t mean my blood pressure had returned to a normal level. I sat in silence, brooding, waiting for him to get to the point.

  “Now that you’re done being a jackass, I want the rest of my clients to get to know you so they understand what’ll happen if they try and fuck with you. It needs to be made clear what happened to Hilary. You’re a fuckin’ Hawes, and they need to remember that when I’m not around.”

  The tension leaked from my shoulders. Dad’s words went a long way to soothing my ego. Mom always said I needed to control my temper. I loved a good joke and laugh, but the moment someone questioned me it was like all rational thought fled and the only thing I could focus on was making sure that person understood how wrong they were.

  “Don’t worry, they’ll remember it very well,” I said, leaving no room for doubt.

  Dad came around the front of his desk and leaned against it. “I have no doubt they will.”

  How could they not? If the people my father dealt with knew anything about the way I ran my own business then they’d know that I do not fuck around when it comes to people taking things from me.

  After a few moments of silence, Dad stood and walked over to his office door. “You boys hungry? Smells like your mom made enough food to feed a small army.”

  Ashton chuckled. “No different than usual, I see.”

  Dad and I joined in the laughter. Now that the tension had fled the room, we were able to joke and laugh with one another. “I don’t know about the chef over there, but a home-cooked breakfast sounds way better than the Starbucks muffin I’d planned to grab on my way into the dealership.”

  “Let’s get out there before she comes searching for us.”

  Dad took the lead down the hall and, sure enough, by the time we reached the kitchen, Mom had the table set for four, food already piled high on the plates.

  “You’ve out done yourself, love.” Dad walked over and kissed Mom on the cheek before pulling her chair out.

  In all of the years they’d been married, Dad still treated Mom like a princess. Whatever she wanted, she got, and that included her family sitting down for breakfast together. Not that any of us would walk away from her cooking.

  “It’s a shame Elena didn’t come with you this morning,” Mom said, taking a sip of her coffee.

  Ashton shook his head. “She had a late rehearsal last night. With the new show opening up this weekend, Alan’s been pushing everyone hard to get it perfect.”

  “That poor girl,” Mom sympathized. “She must be exhausted.”

  “Don’t kid yourself, Mom. She loves every minute. And don’t worry, I left her breakfast this morning.”

  Mom pressed a hand to Ashton’s cheek. “It’s good to see you taking care of her. She needs it.”

  She wasn’t wrong. Elena had been emotionally abused by her ex-husband. The bastard traded her to my brother for three months to pay off his debt. Ashton took it upon himself to save her from the horrible situation she was stuck in. In the end, Dominic attacked Elena, trying to get her to come home to him. After years of beating her down, he hadn’t expected her to grow a backbone. He especially hadn’t expected her to shoot him to protect herself.

  Still, to say she needed someone to take care of her was an understatement. She needed someone to spoil her rotten. Which my brother and mother had mastered.

  “Besides, she’s looking forward to dinner on Thursday.”

  Dinner. I almost forgot. My plans for a few nights of drinking and fucking to wash Tess from my brain disappeared.

  Mom lay her hand on my arm. “You’re still coming right?”

  I nodded. Mom’s cooking was worth it and I could get drunk after I left.

  Conversation continued over breakfast until I glanced at the clock. Splitting time between the dealership and the bars was getting to be exhausting.

  And with Dad’s retirement on the horizon, life was about to get that much more complicated.

  CHAPTER 6

  Miller

  “Miller, we have a problem.”

  Jason approached me, coming from the bar area. He had been with me ever since we first opened our doors; working his way up from tending bar to handling all the bets in the building.

  Clients coming into place bets on different events would either take a seat at the bar or at one of the tables. They’d order a specific item off of the menu to eat, letting Jason know to go and visit them at their table. From there, Jason would ask them certain questions about their dining experience, the answers telling him how much they wanted to place and on what game. We rotated the menu options every few weeks and the dish was only spread by word of mouth. The system helped to keep most of our waitresses in the dark about what happened across the bar. It might have been sexist to hire only females to wait tables, but the bets were always higher when they were distracted by half naked women.

  Only the members who had a role in the betting and collecting of payments knew what happened behind closed doors, and I planned to keep it that way. The less people involved, the less likely you were to get caught. Jason handled everything on his own. The only time he came to me was when the problem had grown beyond his reach and we needed a different approach to deal with the person. So the very fact that he’d come to get me said a lot.

  “What’s the problem?” I looked up from the papers on my desk. I’d brought work over from the dealership, hoping to get most of it done. After leaving Dad’s I realized the stack of shit on my desk at the dealership was bigger than I thought. If he was going to trust me to take over, I needed show him I could get it all done, not leave piles of untouched crap in my office.

  Rock Bottom ran like a well-oiled machine, everyone doing what needed to be done, which was the main reason I didn’t spend a lot of my time there. The dealership and Orbit required more attention, which made Rock Bottom the perfect place to come when I needed peace and quiet to dig myself out of the pile of shit on my plate.

  Even though the dealership was a front, we still had to run the business. This meant selling cars and doing repair work for customers who came in having no idea what happened in the back offices. With too many new clients coming in, all of them trying to get away from Nathan Marcello, the paperwork had become overwhelming.

  That bastard had started going to extreme lengths to collect money; much further than Dad or I would ever consider going. The stories I’d heard about things he’d done to people for not having their payment on time made my stomach turn. Sure, we gave people a little warning if they didn’t have the money when they were supposed to, but we didn’t take it too far. After all, we still wanted to get paid at some point.

  Not him. He’d go for the jugular right away, sometimes even going after the person’s family. And family was a line a Hawes never crossed.

  “There’s a guy making a scene at the bar.”

  Now he had my full attention. I pushed the papers aside. “Over what?”

  “He bet three grand on Minnesota versus Detroit.”

  “What were the lines?”

  “Over under three. Minnesota lost by six.” He threw a thumb over his shoulder. “He’s out there screaming that the game was rigged because someone paid off the refs.”

  “Did you explain his choices?”

  Jason scoffed. “Stupid bastard doesn’t seem to care. He won’t pay up.”

  I stood from the chair. I didn’t have time for this shit. I had to get to dinner at my parents’ house. Mom was cooking, and there was no
fucking way I was letting some dumbass make me late. “Fine. If the bastard wants to be difficult, we’ll do it my way, but I guarantee he’s not going to like it.”

  I walked over to the bookcase on the wall, pulling open the cabinet underneath. All the while, the vein at my temple throbbed. I had a ton of shit to do. Normally I’d call Brock to deal with an asshole like this guy, but the fucker was causing a scene in the bar, drawing attention to something I’d gone great lengths to hide. Time was a luxury I didn’t have.

  My fingers wrapped around the handle of the baseball bat I kept in the office for these types of circumstances. I nodded toward the door. “Bring him back here and I’ll deal with him myself.”

  Jason’s brows drew down. “You don’t want me to call Brock?”

  “No.”

  Jason nodded. “I’ll be right back.”

  I paced around my office, tapping the bat against the palm of my hand. I’d had enough bullshit for one day. Normally I was a lot more patient, but this just happened to be the proverbial straw, and the dumbass on his way to my office was going to deal with the consequences, and pay for my bad fucking mood as well.

  The shouting sounded from down the hall. “Why the hell are you bringing me back here? I want to see whoever runs this place.”

  This motherfucker wasn’t going to leave on his own two feet if he kept that shit up.

  “I already told you, Mr. Hawes is in his office.” Jason’s voice rose loud enough to be heard over the crowd in the bar.

  The door swung open and a short, mouthy fat guy walked into the room. “He better listen to what I’m saying, otherwise things aren’t going to end well for him.”

  Jason looked over at me and opened his mouth to answer the idiot in front of me but I shook my head. When I said I’d deal with it, I meant all of it.

  Jason took a step back and shut the door behind him, all before the drunk idiot in front of me paid me any attention. I continued tapping the bat against my hand until, finally, he turned to face me. “Like I told that guy, I’m not paying—”