His voice shook as he tried to explain his stupidity. “I wasn’t thinking. I was so mad. They told me that I was wrong and that they would talk to Claire in the morning and straighten all this out and that I shouldn’t be spewing lies.”
“What makes you think I believe a fucking word you’re saying?”
“I have the texts I sent them and theirs to me. I can forward them to your phone. I promise I wouldn’t do anything to harm my Éclair. What can I do to make it right?”
I could hear the remorse in his voice and it was truly sincere, but if he didn’t want to go to jail he may be trying to look innocent, not sorry.
“Send me the text messages via screenshots,” I ordered.
“Okay. I’ll figure out how to do that and send them right over.”
“Hold the side button and the front button at the same time,” Claire answered.
“Thanks. I’m really sorry, Éclair. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you. I swear.”
I ended the call because I didn’t want to hear his pathetic ass excuses and apologies. I looked down at my woman who sat on the bed with her head hung low.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She huffed out a deep breath she’d been holding and whined, “I just feel like so much has happened, and I wish I could get a do-over.”
I sat down with her and started rubbing her back. “Babe, we survived. We have a chance for a do-over.”
“You’re right. I’m just feeling sorry for myself. I need to stop.”
I moved her hair to the other side, and nuzzled her neck. I wanted to make her happy, but I knew that happy moments were few and far between when she was going through so much shit. “Claire, there is nothing wrong with feeling the way you do. You just can’t let it keep you down.”
“I guess when you’re older, you do get wiser,” she joked.
“Ha-ha. While we wait for his text let’s get ready for the day.”
“Oh, yeah. I still have to meet your sister and her family.”
“Yes, you do and their probably here already or on their way. Eli and I still have a lot to do. I don’t know if these are two different cases or if it’s all related, but I need to get some answers. Time is of the essence.”
We showered together. It may have not been the best idea, but I wanted to get down to business and to see if Tad was really an innocent fool, or a conniving criminal. I tried to avoid looking at her, but she was too tempting to miss. I was strong enough to not bury myself in her, but now, I had a major case of blue balls.
After dressing, I grabbed my phone and looked at the messages that pinged in from Tad. He wasn’t lying. He’d let them have it, and they claimed to be innocent. I let Claire look at the messages, but it was a mistake. She started crying all over again. I wanted to kick my own ass.
“Baby, this shows he didn’t do it.”
“I know, but it still hurts knowing that people I trusted could steal from me. Even worse, they could be involved in the fire that almost killed us and destroyed my livelihood.”
“Come on we need to get a move on so you can meet my sister and the kids. We have a future to plan for, and I want you to look at all we still have to look forward to.”
“Oh, no. I’m a mess,” she screeched as she looked into the vanity.
Looking at her through the mirror, I smiled and said, “You look beautiful.”
“Bullshit, my face is puffy and streaked with tears.”
“So, everyone knows what you’ve been through, and your tears are only normal.”
She shook off her worry and demanded I get a move on. “Fine. Take me to them.”
I stopped her in her tracks before she opened the bedroom door. “Wait, I need to do one thing first.”
“What?”
“This,” I whispered as I held the sides of her face and lowered my mouth down on to hers. Ours mouths met in a kiss that only messed with my heart even more than I could handle.
“I love you, Claire.” I didn’t mean to say it so soon, but I wasn’t going to take it back or ask that she return the words. I’d been moving fast in every way. I wanted her to mean it when she said it.
She just stared up at me and her eyes smiled along with her lips, then she whispered, “I love you too.”
“My family can wait,” I growled as I lifted up the dress she slipped on to get at her pussy. I moved to undo my belt and she slid my zipper down, caressing my cock as she did it. I closed my eyes as I tried to calm myself. All parts of me were set in overdrive. I was shaking in a need to possess her.
I slammed my mouth on hers, pressing her head into the door. My hands gripped her waist, and I lifted her up, pushed her panties to the side, and slid her down onto my cock. Our bodies hit the door hard as I pushed my cock deeper into her.
I growled as I whispered, “You’re so sexy, Claire.”
“Say it again.”
“You’re so fucking sexy,” I moaned.
“No, the other thing.”
“I love you, Claire. You’re mine, and I knew it from the moment I first saw you.”
“Oh, God. Harder,” she begged.
“Not until you say it again,” I growled.
“I love you, Travis.”
“Not that. Tell me how much you want me to come in your heat.”
Her body shook as my words turned her on. “Harder, I want it all, Travis.”
“Okay, baby,” I groaned as I pulled her away from the door and moved backwards to the bed and sat down.
“Ride me,” I demanded as I spanked her ass.
“Ah,” she cried out as she lifted up then down on my cock.
I took her ponytail in my hands and pulled on it. “Bounce, babe.”
My mouth latched on to her neck as she rode me hard. She started going crazy on my cock. She squeezed her pussy as she lifted up. It was getting me wild. I growled as I watched her fuck herself on me. I lifted her dress up and off her body, and then pulled her bra down because I needed to taste her plump breasts.
“Ah,” she moaned as I took her breast into my hot mouth. She pushed my head into her chest, silently begging for more as she clawed at my neck and shoulders.
I became an animal as I felt her coming on me. So I picked her up and flipped her on the bed as I leaned over pumped my seed into her. I knew there was a slim chance I could get her pregnant since she just finished her period a few days ago, but I knew soon she’d swollen with my baby, and it only spurred me on more.
“Mine,” I roared before I took her mouth.
Chapter 12—Claire
I couldn’t believe what just happened. I think I died and had gone to heaven. I wasn’t ready to admit my love for him because it was too soon, but when he said it with such honesty I just couldn’t hold back what he did to me.
We finally made it downstairs, and I wasn’t a nervous wreck anymore. Something about knowing his feelings seemed to make me feel more secure. We walked into the dining room where everyone was eating breakfast.
“Good morning, sweetheart. How are you feeling?” my mother asked as she came and gave me a hug. Her concern was sweet and knowing.
“I’m better, but I have a long way to rebuild my life.”
“In Texas.” I heard Travis mumble under his breath. I looked at him and didn’t say anything. I knew that was going to be a huge possibility.
He pulled me forward and with one arm around my waist, he said, “Baby, this is my sister, Melanie.” He smiled brightly to his sister, then said, “Mellie, this is my woman, Claire.”
“Claire, I’m so excited to me you, but I hoped it would have been under different circumstances,” his sister said as she gripped both of my hands before giving me a hug.
“Me, too,” I said as I pulled back into Travis’s hold.
“These are my sons, Elias, Jr., Kevin, and Steven.”
“Hi, boys.” I waved shyly at them.
They all said hi, but it was the middle one that came up to me and hugged tightly. “Hi, I’m Ke
vin,” he said with a windowed grin.
“Hi, Kevin. How old are you?”
“I’m four years old. I like cars, and trains. Do you like trains? Thomas is my favorite, but I also like Pussy.”
“What!?” I said as my face flushed. I was shocked that he would say something like that and who told him how to say that?
“He means Percy, but I’m sure he will one day,” Travis said as he tried to hide his laugh. The whole room tried to hold in their laughter, but my father let out a chuckle and it was too much for the entire room to bear. Everyone, but the children erupted in fits of laughter.
“What’s so funny?” the eldest boy said.
Eli answered, “You’re uncle likes Percy too.”
“Uncle Travis likes pussy,” Kevin said with innocent glee.
This time I turned purple which made everyone laugh harder.
“Kevin, my boy, there isn’t a man in this room who doesn’t like Percy.”
“Cool. Daddy, I didn’t know you liked pussy?”
“He likes Percy a little too much,” Melanie said as she rubbed her slightly rounded belly.
“You adults are crazy. It’s a stupid train,” Eli Jr., said as he shook his head, stood up with his empty plate and left the dining room. He was not amused at all.
“He’s our serious child,” my mother said with a smile.
“I don’t know where he could have got it from,” Melanie said as she pointedly looked right at Travis.
“He didn’t get it from me. He got it from that stick in the mud right there,” Travis exclaimed as he pointed at Eli.
“They’re law enforcement. That’s to be expected,” my dad stated.
“Speaking of, after I get a cup of coffee we can get down to business, Cole,” Travis said.
“And after some breakfast too,” my mother hissed as she glared at Travis with the motherly concern and threatening look.
He stood his ground, though. “I can eat and work at the same time. I don’t want to waste any time on this.”
“Like you didn’t waste enough time already today,” Eli grumbled.
Travis smirked, then boasted, “I don’t call that wasting time.”
“Enough, boys. I’d like to finish my meal without jumping across the table to strangle Williams.”
“Sorry, sir,” Travis apologized.
Travis and I got our plates and came back to sit down. We all talked about the kids who had us smiling naturally at their cuteness. My ovulation wasn’t for another week, and I suddenly felt sad that I was more than likely not pregnant with Travis’s baby. The more I watched the kids the more I wanted a little Travis.
“Babe, you and the women are going to have to chill at the house. Don’t talk to anyone about what happened. In fact, I think it’s best that you don’t answer the phone.”
“What if they need to talk to me?”
“There’s nothing that won’t keep and if there is, I will talk to them.”
“Are you going to try and control me already?” I was a little pissed that he was going to play me like this. I stood up from my chair and grabbed my plate, ready to leave the room.
He stuck his arm out and grabbed mine, stopping me in my tracks. “No, babe. I’m not trying to control you, but I want to make sure we control the situation and what is said. If something gets out we’ll know where it came from.”
I would argue his point, but it was because I called Tad that the girls knew I knew about their theft. “Oh, okay. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry. I get that nothing’s in your control at the moment. I’m going to get you another cell phone today. Then we can listen to messages and wait until I give you the okay to return the calls.”
“You will tell me if you learn anything important, won’t you?”
He stood up, took the plate away from me, and looked me in the eyes as he said, “Of course I will. That’s why I don’t want you talking to anyone outside this house. You could accidentally give something away.”
“Thanks.” It was easier to accept his commands when I knew his reasons behind them. If he thought I was going to lie down and take his orders without some questions he was in for a surprise.
Chapter 13—Travis
“I just learned from Claire that she contacted Tad the night of the fire, right before we went to bed. Then the dumb ass texted the two broads in question.”
“What? Is he fucking stupid? Or was he involved?” Cole shouted in outrage.
“Seemed like he could be, and I was questioning it but after talking to the ass, he’s just a fool.”
“Well, so it could still be the thieves. We need to question them as soon as possible. I want to question all of them, Tad included,” Cole replied.
“I really think it was them, not the ones after Sam. To me it didn’t seem like they had time to act at all three places. Not that it wasn’t possible, but it still seems like a lot to be done in a matter of a few hours,” her father added.
My phone rang and it was the fire chief. “What’s going on sir? Did you find a correlation?”
“No, actually except for you and the O’Connell name tied to either incident there was no correlation. The salon was arson all right. They poured gas all over the entire room, then placed a gas can in the center of the room after plugging in all of the salon tools. The kicker was the Molotov cocktail that went through the front window.”
“That must have been the shattering glass that woke me up,” I said as I had a whole room of eyes on me, anxious to hear what I’d learned.
“Yes. It seems you had two close calls. Although your apartment was a direct attack on you with the grenade.”
“It had to have been two different groups of attackers. The ones that came to the apartment were after my roommate, and they would have be more thorough with getting to her than going after Claire’s place.”
“What do they want with Miss Lake?”
There was some things they didn’t need to know and at this point my undercover assignment was one of them. “That is classified information. I just needed to make sure they weren’t one in the same.”
“Let us know if you need anything else. We want the arsons to stop as much as you do.”
“We will,” I hung up the phone and explained my conversation with the fire chief to the men.
“So it had to do with the theft, then, doesn’t it?” her father asked.
“Seems like it. They had to get into the salon without tripping the alarms and setting up everything without alerting us. I checked when I got the food that everything was locked back up, and I watched when Tad unplugged everything.”
“So someone had to know where to find everything and not make any noise. In the quiet of night, it would have been loud enough for you to hear if they didn’t know where to find everything and were fumbling around. They wanted my little girl dead,” Richard stated.
“It would seem that way,” I growled.
“They wanted my little girl dead,” he repeated. He took a breath and closed his eyes in frustration and pain. “I thought it would be easier to deal with if I knew the truth, but this is worse. If it was the men trying to get even with Rick for Sam and destroy our family property, it would be different. No, they knew she lived upstairs, and they made sure the fire would be too fast for her to wake up and get out safely,” Richard exclaimed.
I heard the heartbreak and anger in his voice. Her decision to ask me to stay had been fateful.
We were all in thought when the door to the room slammed open with Ethan and John O’Connell.
Richard looked up at his brother and asked, “John, what are you doing here?”
Arrogant as always, John replied, “What? You didn’t think I’d find out, Brother?”
Then Ethan greeted me so sweetly. “Hello, again jackass. Don’t you have work to do? My sister isn’t safe until we find them.”
John immediately jumped to my defense. “Ethan, calm down. The man needs evidence before he nabs somebody.” Joh
n looked back at me and asked, “So tell me how Claire is doing?”
“Wait, you know about them?” Claire’s father asked.
“Yes. I knew before you did,” John replied proudly like he’d won a prize or some shit.
“Really?” Richard said suspiciously.
“Yes, but now is not the time for that. How is she?” he asked his brother
“She’s safe thanks to Travis here,” Richard replied begrudgingly.
“Williams, Cole, I was questioned already today about the Lakes by the local detectives.”
“We’ll take care of it,” Eli said.
“Good. So who do I have to end for this?”
“We don’t know who it is yet,” Eli responded.
John wasn’t letting it go. “But you have an idea. It’s been over a day, already. Unless you’ve become a big pussy.”
I wasn’t in the mood for an interrogation from this asshole. “I’ve got my shit together. It’s the ones after Sam that I need help with. Have you met with any of the other buyers?”
“Only at a party the Lakes hosted two years ago. There were several possible marks there from all over the world. Have you heard from Rick and Sam since you learned of her parents’ murders?”
Richard responded, “Yes. I called them. They are supposed to be back tomorrow. He wanted to show her around some more.”
Ethan leaned against the wall and asked, “Dad, does Rick know of the danger?”
“Yes, he does, and he’s ready to do anything to keep her safe.”
Chapter 14—Travis
The following day, I met with investigators, Anderson and Kline and the Fire Chief Gordon about the fire at the Salon. They hadn’t found her former employees, Jane and Rita. It seemed that they had skipped town, only adding to the suspicion that they were involved. Tad came in and spoke with them, giving a statement, which cleared him of anything other than being an idiot.
“So, she forwarded her voicemails to you?” the lead investigator asked.
“Yes, let me play one.” I pulled my phone out and played the first one after the fire. It was sent at four thirty-three in the morning.
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