by Tory Baker
“You can tell me, or I’ll just look it up. Where’s your phone?” I start to move to the nightstand. Leo pounces though.
“That’s not needed. Come on, I’ll tell you while we’re in the shower.” He moves my body until I’m wrapped around him as he carries me into the shower. Something tells me my question will go unanswered.
“Is this your way of not answering my question,” I state as we make our way into the shower.
“Yep.” A sly smile is playing on his lips, and something tells me this shower is going to be the best one yet. I love when we conserve water together.
Fifteen
Leo
“Hold your damn horses,” I grumble as I take the steps two at a time. I wore Tinsley the fuck out. Truth be told, I’d still be up there if I knew we’d have the afternoon to ourselves, but we don’t. I got a text sometime early this morning from my brother letting me know they’d be here after lunch.
I unarm the alarm system, open the front door, and am greeted with men who are more like brothers than friends and work colleagues.
“About damn time you opened the door. You knew we were here before we got out of our trucks,” Drake says as he pulls me in for a hug.
“Yeah, whatever. Let’s move this into the office. Tinsley’s asleep upstairs.” I shake Slade and Bridger’s hands before they come inside.
“So, it’s like that, huh?” Slade retorts.
“Damn straight, it is. Don’t you know us Martinez men by now? We do not fuck around.” Drake’s eyes move to Bridger’s.
“It is, but it wasn’t supposed to be like that. I know I’ve fucked up in the past, what with the fighting and shit. Tinsley is it for me though.” My voice sounds wistful even to myself.
“No bloodshed in the house, Bridge,” Slade grunts before continuing on.
“Good, she’s in the fold. Travis and Easton are taking care of her father, figuring out who he hired and how he funded the hit. Travis has some friends over that way. They have Robert Sutton on surveillance now, and man, it’s worse than we thought. Debt up to their eyeballs. They have a few notorious players after Robert and Cynthia. She somehow weaseled her way into the equation, and they’re both sinking like a boat taking on water in the Atlantic Ocean,” Bridger says, ignoring Drake and his comment. We all know Braxton is going to claim Rowen, it’s only a matter of time. Bridger can’t seem to let Rowen fly from the coop. Though, it could be the age difference, or the way Bridger is with his sisters. He’s like a papa bear protecting his cubs.
“So, the game plan is? I already know I’ll be sidelined on this. I’m okay with it. My judgment is to seek revenge and get retribution for what they’ve put Tinsley through.” I grip the back of my neck, feeling the tension in my muscles.
“The game plan is to let them have control of things while you rest for a few days,” Tinsley states as she walks into the office.
“Oh, the girls are going to love her. You are so fucked,” Bridger says under his breath.
“Yep, he’s not wrong,” Drake says before hugging Tinsley like he’s her brother already. Damn, I love my brother for this. I know she needs a family unit surrounding her.
“We hug in this family. I’m Drake, if you didn’t catch that.” This jokester is throwing all kinds of bullshit out. It’s all in good nature.
“As if I couldn’t tell. You two are practically twins,” Tinsley says, moving out of his hug, then coming to my side. I loop my arm around her shoulders, bringing her closer to give her a kiss on her forehead.
“I figured you’d still be asleep.” I smirk at her. She’s wearing a sweater and leggings. Tinsley’s hair is in a loose ponytail on one side of her shoulder, face clean of makeup.
“It got cold in there without you,” she whispers. We’re both lost in our own world.
Slade clears his throat, all of them having their own chuckle. “Tinsley, this is Slade and Bridger. You met Drake already.” I watch as she shakes their hands, giving them her full attention.
“Thank you so much for all of your help. I truly appreciate it. Let me run upstairs and bring you my laptop? Leo mentioned Easton may want it.” She goes to turn, but I tighten my hold on her.
“Anytime. You don’t have to rush for us. We’ll be here for a bit. Heads-up though. We told the women folk not to bother you guys today. You know how they are though. I have a feeling you’ll be invaded in the next twenty minutes. Raelynn and Cam might not make it today, they’re both busy. I’m sure they’ll be here in the coming days.” Drake shakes his head. Why Giana didn’t just ride over with him is a mystery to me. I tip my head sideways. He shakes his head. That enough tells me she wanted to drive herself, not with him. That means shopping afterwards in Giana’s world.
“I’ll go grab it now then, and make us some food. You said the fridge was stocked?” Her head tips back to look up at me. God, do I fucking love this woman. My hand moves to the nape of her neck. If our family weren’t surrounding us, I’d kiss the hell out of her. I wouldn’t stop though, so I refrain. I kiss her lips softly.
“Yeah, but you don’t need to do any of that. These guys know how to fend for themselves.”
“It’s okay, it’ll keep my mind busy. It also helps me snoop around your house. You didn’t tell me how massive it was. Is that like the requirement to live in this neighborhood?” she jokes, knowing damn well this place isn’t that big. Not compared to what she comes from, at least.
“You’re cute.” I tap her nose, her eyes getting dreamy.
“I’ll be back,” she says over her shoulder.
“Yep, I approve. She’ll fit right in,” Bridger inserts.
“Not sure I care if you do or don’t,” I grunt. The smiles all of the guys are wearing tell me their opinion isn’t needed.
“Tinsley’s right, you’re home for the time being. I don’t want you or her out in broad daylight. After today, we’ll all be staying away until we get the all-clear from Easton. It’s gonna fucking suck, but Robert will be running scared shitless soon, and who knows what he’ll do. For now, it’s contained. Once he figures out he’s being monitored and trailed everywhere, not to mention the bugs the butler placed in strategic places before he upped and moved to Cabo. We all need to play this safe,” Slade laments. He’s a sly motherfucker. There is no doubt about it. He’s got a few things up his sleeve.
“Alright, though spending a few days with my woman and nothing else, that sounds more like a vacation,” I joke, but we all know I’ll be on high alert.
“Let me know if Tinsley can go along with that as a vacation, then have her get with Taylor on that. I swear that woman is already planning the next one, and we just got back from one last month.” He shakes his head.
“Speaking of, Kellie and I will be planning one as soon as this case is done.” He and Kellie both need time away before the weather starts to turn in the winter months.
“This is fucking summer compared to Washington. Jesus, I thought I was going to get frostbite.” The guys laugh at that. Tinsley returns, hands the laptop to me, then she’s off to the kitchen or to snoop. Like I have anything I wouldn’t want her to see anyways. She’s fucking cute.
“May as well go see what’s in the kitchen. I’m awfully hungry.” Drake rubs his stomach.
“Aren’t you always?” Bridger rolls his eyes. It sure as hell feels good to be home, even with these knuckleheads.
Sixteen
Tinsley
One Week Later
Leo and I have become closer in this past week. It also helped that we were basically on lockdown for the exception of the gang coming over one night. Even when Slade was wholly against it, I guess Taylor couldn’t be stopped once she put her mind to it and gave as good as she got.
It was a lot of fun to interact with everyone, like we were all one big happy family. I didn’t think about my parents, the hired hit on my head, or the fallout that is surely going to happen. My last name comes with a lot of publicity, to the likes that I don’t want to deal with
any of it. Yet I know it’ll be a necessity to go back to Washington once Slade and Travis’s plan comes full circle.
The smorgasbord of food that was brought in when Taylor, Kellie, Raelynn, Cam, and Giana came bustling in with their men following had me cracking up. The girls carried the drinks, and the men were grumbling about how they think we’d eat all this. Everything from chips and salsa, fajitas, cheesecake, and donuts were brought. I think Leo and I ate off the leftovers for two days straight before they were gone.
“What are you thinking about that has you so lost in thought?” Leo comes in from the garage; he was tinkering on something out there. I didn’t pry, mainly because I’ve been online dealing with my college back in Washington and see what it would take to transfer to one here in Virginia. I’ve already decided I’ll be dropping my business major and picking up more creative writing style classes and keep working on my English degree.
“I just got off the phone with Seattle University. They said something that didn’t make any sense to me,” I tell Leo.
“Fuck, something wrong?” He sits beside me. Leo’s home is warm and inviting. I have a feeling his mom has something to with do it. There’s a flair of modern to it, in the side tables, coffee table, and TV console, but the brown leather couch, loveseat, and chair are fluffy and inviting. It doesn’t make things seem closed in, especially now. Leo stated we have to keep the curtains closed at all times and I’m to remain away from the windows, which really sucks. I’ve wanted nothing more than to go on his back patio. He has an outdoor fireplace, a hot tub, and it overlooks the forest. I want to watch as the trees sway in the breeze, how the snow lies heavily on the branches, and feel the crunch of the grass beneath my feet.
“No, well, maybe. They unenrolled me from my classes already. I haven’t done that. Did Easton start the process?” I ask. I’ve learned a lot about the Nighthawk men. When a task comes to them, they go full throttle.
“Not that I’m aware of. How difficult is that going to be for you to enroll out here, and have you figured out what college you’d like to attend?”
“Seattle said it would be a breeze, but if Easton didn’t do it, you think my parents did? I’m not sure yet, most of these classes I can take remotely, which might be best even in the long run.” Leo’s gaze is heated as he looks at me. He knows exactly why I’m saying that. Two nights ago, he came inside of me. It didn’t surprise me, partly because I begged for it. Literally pleaded. I wanted to feel everything he had to give me.
“Might be. I’m going to call Nighthawk and see what we can figure out about Seattle. You going to be okay?” His hand moves to my lower abdomen, where we may have potentially created a life together.
“Of course, I’m going to do some research on which colleges are geared for what I’d like to do, then watch the new series of Botched.” He shakes his head at my need for watching my crazy reality TV shows. It’s my guilty pleasure.
“Okay.” He kisses my forehead, turns to leave, and I watch as he makes his way to the home office he keeps. Every morning, he gets dressed in mesh shorts, a T-shirt of some kind, socks, and sneakers before going to the gym in the basement. He’s tried to get me to go down there, but no way is that happening at stupid o’clock in the morning. By the time he finishes, I’m just rolling out of bed and he joins me in the shower. That’s my form of exercise. Not that Leo seems to mind. I swear when he works out, it not only gets my heart racing when I see him standing at the doorway to our master bedroom after his work out, without a shirt, toeing off his socks and shoes, glistening with sweat. It only makes us both yearn for each other even though it was only hours ago that we made love.
Right now, he’s only in a pair of jeans, not even wearing a shirt, and it takes everything in me not to attack him. I shake my thoughts away because if we go again, I surely won’t be walking right tomorrow.
Seventeen
Leo
“That motherfucking cocksucker. This has Robert Sutton written all over it.” I’m on a conference call with Drake and Slade, letting them know the latest.
“Yep, it does, but in about another two hours, Robert and Cynthia Sutton will be getting nice new silver bracelets,” I hear Bridger interject. He must have walked in when I was having a shit fit.
“I hope those dumbasses don’t get away. It seems to always happen to the people who should be in jail the most. I can’t believe they actually thought unenrolling her would give them enough cash to flee.”
“True enough, but they aren’t going anywhere besides an escorted car, where they’ll be hooked and booked. Cynthia might get off with less charges though. You might want to prepare Tins for that. I have a sinking suspicion she’ll be her first call, before she calls an attorney even,” Slade grunts.
“That won’t be fucking happening. Can Easton redirect the phone call?” Drake takes over the conversation.
“Wait a second, I’m all for redirecting the call. But you know as well as I do that if we take this over without at least letting Tinsley know, the wrath it will create.” I’m apparently the only level-headed guy on this call.
“You are not wrong, brother,” Slade says. I’m shocked he understood where I’m coming from, and him using brother as well. I know there’ve been times Slade didn’t trust me, especially with Taylor’s case. It was only when I took a bullet for her that he realized my days of fucking around were over. The funny thing is, taking this case, or what was once a case, really solidified how much of a brotherhood we all share.
I told Tinsley about my past, how I fucked around even after they brought me into the fold. She wasn’t wrong when she told me I needed to forgive myself. These guys don’t hold grudges, and the past is just that—the fucking past.
“We’ll sit tight, turn the news on, and see if we don’t have a reason to celebrate tonight. Did Easton find out who was being paid to take the hit?” I ask.
“Yeah, he’s taken care of. It wasn’t cheap and we owe him, which let me tell you, I don’t really want to owe him shit. There was nothing else we could offer him though. He’s got more money than all of us, including Tinsley combined. We’ll just have to see when he cashes in.” I can hear the annoyance in Slade’s tone. Something tells me it’s going to suck when that happens.
“Thanks, guys, I know this is a lot to take on. Especially with your busy lives. We’ll have you guys over again soon, or maybe we can go out to Travis and Raelynn’s place. Tinsley was saying they have this new thing called goat yoga. She mentioned it before but hasn’t brought it up recently. It’s supposed to help younger kids too. I think these girls might be more dangerous to our wallets than the hit man.” I chuckle thinking about all the plans Tinsley has been talking about. She knows her inheritance is coming, and instead of putting it away for her future or investing to make even more money, she’s talking about opening up a children’s center for boys and girls, using farm animals to help them heal from emotional and physical abuse, or the rare case where their parents are working, and they have no place to go. I truly think she may need to switch to completely different majors. Writing is something I can see her doing, but her true passion is helping others. Much like she needed after her grandfather passed away, when she told me about him and how he never truly loved again after her grandmother passed away ten years before.
I know for a fact if I ever lost Tinsley, I’d never find someone else either. She’s more than my world—she’s my whole damn atmosphere.
“We’re always here for you, baby brother,” Drake says, causing me to laugh. I may be the baby, but we match size for size.
“Aww, that’s so sweet, you calling him baby brother,” Bridger runs his mouth, something he does frequently. No one takes him literally until he’s actually being serious. “But he’s right. We’re all here for each other.”
“Yep, I told you from the beginning, we’re a brotherhood. Just because it’s not by blood doesn’t make it any less true,” Slade states before we all get off the phone.
My next
task will be letting Tinsley know what we need to brace for. Hopefully, this will be the last hit she’ll have to deal with.
Eighteen
Tinsley
“Holy shit.” My breath whooshes out of me as Leo and I watch the news. He warned me this was going to be on national television and my picture would more than likely be broadcasted. Leo wasn’t wrong. My mind is that of a hamster on a wheel, constantly spinning but nowhere to go. I’m literally sitting in shock. They listed so many charges for my parents. More on my father than my mother, which Leo let me know was very likely.
“Hopefully, this is the end of it. Travis was going to try and do damage control, but I don’t know that he can, being this far away, even with his reach.” I’m leaning back into Leo for support. His arm is wrapped around me, and not for the first time am I really loving his couch. It’s big enough to lie down lengthwise without anyone falling off. The softness only adds that much more to it.
“It’s okay. I knew it was going to be bad. But the embezzlement? That was a shocker even to me. I bet my grandaddy is dancing in the sky right now. He always made noise about Robert Sutton being a good-for-nothing scuzz bucket. Of course, he waited until I formed my own opinion about my parents. I probably should have never gone back to their house, you know?”
“People do some shady shit, and don’t beat yourself up. Parents aren’t supposed to be like those two. Tomorrow will be better, the day after that even better. It’s only going uphill from here, sweetheart.” Leo’s lips meet mine, slow at first, almost tentative, as if I’m fragile. The truth is, I probably would be worse off if Leo weren’t here to pick up the pieces along the way.
That’s not what I sense right now. I feel the love I have for Leo coming off in waves and need to let him know.