“I am, and I brought half.” Dean stepped forward and placed the bag of money in front of Marcello. I leaned forward in my seat. “Here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to take the bag and walk out of here. When you get to the car, you’re going to call your men and tell them they are to look for Ray only. The woman is off limits. Do we understand each other?”
“Half? What am I going to do with half?”
I stood and slammed my hands down on the desk. “I don’t give a fuck what you do with the money. If you want the rest, hunt the little prick down and get it from him. She’s off limits. Now I’ll ask again: do we understand each other?”
His jaw clenched and he glanced at the man who’d entered the room with him. I hadn’t paid him notice until now, too focused on dealing with the chicken shit in front of me. I watched their silent exchange, my patience rapidly reaching its limit.
A short moment later, Marcello turned back to me. “We understand each other perfectly.”
Finally. “Anyone touches her, and I’m coming after you. And it won’t be for the money.”
“Understood.”
I nodded to Dean and stood. “I’m glad we agree,” I said, adjusting my jacket.
He nodded. “It was interesting meeting you Mr. Hawes.”
Marcello stood and gave a quick nod of his head at the bag. His associate grabbed the bag and turned to leave. Once the door shut behind them, I sat down and poured another drink. Dean brought over a glass and did the same.
“I’m proud of you for not killing him on sight.”
I gestured with my glass. “Can’t say the thought didn’t cross my mind.”
We sat in silence, both nursing our glasses, until Dean asked, “So what now?”
“Now, I go to Tess and let her know that Marcello will leave her alone. You go keep searching for Wasden. I still want him found.”
“You got it.” He took a sip of his own drink. “She makes you happy doesn’t she?”
I thought about my answer. I’d never kept anything from Dean before, and I didn’t intend to start now. “I actually never imagined being this happy with one woman.”
And I would do anything in my power to keep her safe.
CHAPTER 18
Theresa
Three games a day. That was baseball season; at least, from what I’d learned since working at the bar. Not once in my life had I paid any attention to baseball before now, yet here I was, surrounded by screaming fans, getting drunk, watching a bunch of guys toss a ball around. The days were long, but the money was more than I could have imagined.
Turned out drunk sports fans left big tips.
A few weeks had passed, and even though Miller tried all methods of persuasion, I’d refused to quit my job. That didn’t stop him from continuing to try, but he did move me behind the bar and I was okay with that. I was making just as much money, if not more, plus I didn’t have to deal with Miller’s jealous rages—especially since the outfit for bartenders was much more reserved than for floor staff, and there were no hands attempting to touch my ass. Definitely no ass cheeks hanging out. Apparently watching me walking around “half naked” was a concession Miller was not willing to make. According to him, he was the only one allowed to see that much of my skin. I’d wanted to argue that he couldn’t tell me what to do, but didn’t see the point when I was more than happy to switch.
Not that he had any reason to be jealous. After all, I wasn’t the one with the long list of former bed partners. Don’t get me wrong, I loved spending time getting to know Miller, the man with all the secrets I wanted to unravel and understand. The man with the temper and a violent streak a mile wide still secretly worried me, but that didn’t stop me from standing my ground. I wanted someone who saw me as an equal, not someone they needed to take care of. Most of the time when he pushed, I pushed back. He’d warned me up front that he would be an asshole and I always did my best to put him in his place.
Even through all of it, Miller had pushed his way past the barriers I’d placed around my heart. The ones that would protect me when someone decided that I owed them something for them caring about me; as if caring about them in return wasn’t enough. Each day I found that I let him in a little more.
I still hadn’t told him about my parents. About why I left right after my eighteenth birthday. I had a feeling Miller wouldn’t take too kindly to them. And maybe they deserved whatever he threw at them.
We spent the entire spring break together. Being at the club—either sitting in his roped off section or dancing—felt different. I had to admit I hadn’t expected it to feel quite so strange. The employees knew who I was immediately, made sure my drink was never empty unless I wanted it to be, and offered to get me anything else I needed. Most of my experiences up until now had been fighting my way up to the bar and hoping you could flag a bartender down. It was like I’d turned into royalty overnight, and while I wasn’t going to turn it down, I couldn’t help but feel out of my depth sometimes.
But now, with spring break over and the demands the dealership and his own businesses increasing, plus my school and work schedules, it was becoming harder for us to see each other.
Exhausted from Miller keeping me up half the night before, I slid in behind the bar, grabbed a towel, and walked up to the guy closest to me.
“What can I get you?” I set a coaster down in front of him.
His head popped up and I froze. I shouldn’t have been surprised to see him here seeing as he had introduced me to the place, but I really hadn’t thought Ray would be so stupid as to show his face in one of Miller’s places again.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I snapped.
“I came for you, just like I said I would. Took me a little longer to find you, since you moved out of the apartment and ignored my calls, but here I am.”
He covered my hand with his and I quickly snatched it away. “I moved out when two assholes who were looking for you broke into my apartment.”
His eyes narrowed. “That’s been taken care of. So now you can come home with me.”
I wondered if there was some kind of hidden camera somewhere because there was no way Ray could actually believe that I was going anywhere with him. “What makes you think that’s going to happen?”
“I thought you needed some time to cool down. You obviously forgot you belong to me.”
Could he really be that stupid? “I don’t belong to you, or anyone else. And after the last stunt you pulled, you’ll have more luck with your right hand then you will with me. Now get out of here before I have one of the guys escort you out.”
His eyes widened at the threat but he quickly schooled his features. He knew what would happen if he didn’t leave on his own. Ray stood and leaned over the bar.
“I’ll go this time since you’re apparently still upset. Don’t worry, though. Now I know where to find you, I’ll be back so we can work this out.”
“And my answer will still be the same. Fuck off.”
His mouth turned down into a frown and his body tightened. I braced for what might come next but Ray shocked me by turning on his heel and storming out the front door.
I sucked in deep breath, my hands shaking from the interaction. What in the world made him think that showing up here would get him anywhere? It would seem he didn’t know anything about my relationship with Miller, and I planned to keep it that way.
When I glanced around to see who else needed something, I noticed Derek watching me out of the corner of his eye. Better to deal with this now than have him running off to tell Miller. The fact that we were dating had spread like wildfire through the bar and I had a gut feeling that Miller had said something to keep the guys from looking at me. None of them wanted to be on Miller’s bad side. Luckily Derek was the only one who’d seen what had happened so my chances of containing it were good.
I pointed at him. “You are not saying a word to Miller about this.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Why w
ouldn’t you want him to know?”
“I like to handle my problems on my own,” I said, mimicking his stance. Most of them anyway. Derek didn’t need to know anything about Nathan Marcello. “And if I tell Miller, he’ll think I can’t and that will ruin everything when he tries to fix all of my problems.”
He glanced around until his eyes settled back on me and he sighed. “Fine. If you think that’s the end of it, I’ll leave it alone. But if that asshole steps in here again, it’s over and I’ll make you tell Miller.”
“Trust me, it’s over.” Ray wouldn’t have the balls to come back.
He nodded and we continued our shift like nothing else happened. Thankfully, Miller had sent me a text that morning saying he’d be at the dealership until at least four.
Around four-thirty I began watching the clock. Thoughts of seeing Miller, pushed the fatigue from my mind, excitement taking its place.
As the day had worn on, I’d pushed what had happened with Ray out of my head and chosen to worry about the test I had the next day. My only time to see Miller would be when he showed up to work at the bar for a few hours.
A little bit later, strong arms wrapped around my waist while I was cleaning the bar. “Hey,” he whispered in my ear.
I turned in his arms and stole a quick kiss. At first, I was nervous about being affectionate with him at the bar, but he’d dispelled that pretty quickly when he grabbed my ass in front of everyone pretty much as soon as I agreed to explore things with him. Seeing this man who scared the life out of most people turn into the sweet, affectionate man, mad my heart stutter in my chest. “Hey, how was work?”
It felt like we were a normal, everyday couple. In these moments, it was easy to ignore that someday he would be head of the largest crime family in the area. It should have worried me, being linked to all of it through Miller, but he’d explained how they kept their books clean and this had gone some way in alleviating my concerns. It had taken a lot of faith and trust to tell me that. Something that vital could bring everything crashing to the ground, yet he trusted me with the information. He was rewarded in kind for his trust.
“Let me take you out tonight. Then I can take you home, put you in the tub, massage your back before I bend you over the side and fuck you senseless.”
The last part was only loud enough for me to hear and I squirmed in his arms at the thought. Memories of the night before had me clenching my thighs. “I like the sound of that, including the fucking in the tub, but I have a test tomorrow that I need to study for.”
He bent and began to trail kisses down my neck. “I love when you talk dirty to me.” At least he had the sense to pull us toward the back room and out of line of sight of prying eyes. “Dinner sounds much better than studying. If you’d let me take care of you, you wouldn’t need to worry about finishing school.”
I stepped back, giving him a quick shove. We’d had this argument a few times already and each time it got a little more irritating. “Did you give up on what you always wanted to do?”
“No. Doesn’t mean I have to like the idea of you working your ass off.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “You won’t even quit working so that all you have to worry about is school.”
It had to be the most frustrating conversation in the world. Why he couldn’t let it go was beyond me. I’d tried to explain to him that I’d been doing this for the last two and a half, almost three years. Working at the bar was the least amount of time I’d spent at a job while going to school.
“We’ve talked about this before. I’m not quitting or giving up school.”
“We’re going back to my office now and you’re going to explain this fucking ridiculous notion that I can’t help you.”
“I’m not sure I even know where to begin with that.”
“In my office. Now,” he snapped, low and under his breath.
I curled my hand into a fist, ready to punch him, until I noticed a few of the employees watching the whole conversation, which would only give them more fuel for their gossip mill.
“Fine, but only because this is no one else’s business.”
Miller glanced around. Immediately, everyone went back to work. Without another word, he stormed down the hall to his office.
What reason did he have to be pissed? I wasn’t the one flaunting my money. I stepped over the threshold and slammed the door so hard it rattled in the frame.
“Why the hell are you pissed?” I snapped.
My irritation from earlier with Ray came back in full force, feeding the anger that was starting to consume me.
“I’m trying to help you and you keep throwing it back in my fucking face. I want to make things easier, but you seem intent on making them hard as hell.”
He grabbed a glass off his desk and splashed some liquor into the glass. He lifted it to his lips and threw the contents back. A slight grimace marred his features as he swallowed and slammed the glass back down onto the desk. “Have I not proven to you over the last few weeks how much you mean to me? Goddamn it, I shared how my family handles the money with you, something you could turn around and tell the police and get my ass thrown in jail, yet you act like I’m the bad guy by trying to ease your load. All I want to do is help.”
“I won’t be indebted to anyone. That’s how I ended up out here on my own in the first place,” I yelled.
He didn’t get it. Maybe he never would. He grabbed the glass again and hurled it across the room, shattering it. “Then fucking explain it to me, because all I see right now is you pushing me away.”
I tried to keep my cool. I really did. But the pressure coming at me from all angles was just too much. Juggling work, school, and a relationship was hard enough, but throw in a bank balance that was skating dangerously close to empty, and an ex-boyfriend who had convinced himself I was his property and I was surprised I’d held on this long. I supposed I would have eventually shared my past with Miller, but probably in a more controlled and calm manner. But he wanted it so he was going to get it. All of it.
“You want to know all my dirty secrets? Fine, here you go. My stepfather showed up when I was about five. He thought my mom was who he wanted. When they started dating, he’d been perfect—taking her out places, showing her off to his friends, even pretended to be happy about having me around.
“Things were great until my sixteenth birthday, or at least I thought it was. I came home from school and found him with another woman bent over the couch, plowing into her while she begged him to fill her deep, screaming that she wanted a baby. It took him until he finished with her to realize that I was there. He forced the woman to leave and tried to make me promise not to tell my mom. But that wasn’t going to happen. Until Rex came along it had been just me and Mom, and I wasn’t about to let her stay married to a cheater. I told her what I saw, and guess what?”
He uncrossed his arms and dropped them to his sides.
“She took his side. After years of being the one person I could count on, she took his side. Said I must have not understood what I saw.” I hadn’t realized I’d started pacing until I tried to focus on the floor and saw my feet moving. “Kinda hard to make that kind of mistake. But I was only sixteen, where the hell was I going to go? I spent the next year avoiding my stepfather at all costs and only having limited conversations with my mother. She was still my legal guardian and if I needed anything the only one who could get it would be her. So I stayed and kept my mouth shut.”
I walked over and stood barely a foot in front of him.
“About four months before my eighteenth birthday, my door opened in the middle of the night. Rex came in and demanded that I strip and bend over the bed for him. According to him, my mom’s ‘pussy was too loose’ and he thought because he had taken care of me all of those years that I needed to pay him back. Forget the fact that I was a minor. When I refused, he left, promising to be back.”
A sense of déjà vu washed over me, but I ignored it. No way would Ray come back. “And he did, a few we
eks later. This time he tried to ‘help’ me remove my clothes. I screamed and Mom came running into the room. Sick thing was, I felt relieved. Finally, she’d see what kind of man he was, what she was married to. But it was short lived. She blamed me. Me!” My eyes burned from holding back the tears.
“So I left. And I vowed I would never owe anyone anything. I’ve taken care of myself ever since.”
Miller walked over and wrapped me in his arms. I slumped against him and took the comfort he offered. It felt good to let the tears go. Even if I was mad at him for forcing the issue, his strong arms gave me a sense of peace I hadn’t felt since I was sixteen. I’d never told that story to anyone. Not Ray, not my classmates—no one.
“That wasn’t your fault,” he said, stroking a hand down my back.
I looked up at him. The hatred buried in the depths of his eyes gave me a brief moments pause. I knew it wasn’t directed at me, but I’d seen Miller in action before and he wasn’t pissed off then. I couldn’t begin to imagine what he could do to someone when emotions were involved.
“I know that, but can you at least understand why I refuse to let myself be vulnerable again. To take things and feel like it needs to be reciprocated.”
Deep down I knew that I was contradicting myself because by sharing this with Miller, I was making myself vulnerable. Showing any kind of weakness was never a good thing. But even as I cried against him, I couldn’t bring myself to feel weak. Miller would never use this against me. Of that I was sure.
CHAPTER 19
Miller
Find them.
The urge to murder someone or break something was overwhelming. The first moment I got, I would be sending a text to Dean. I was going to track down her parents and set them straight about how they should have treated their daughter. I’d never put my hands on a woman before, but there was a first time for everything.
“I understand, but you have to know that this is me offering it freely. You would never owe me anything.” I sighed before adding, “I’ll drop it, just promise me one thing, if you ever need or want the money, you’ll tell me.”
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