Deacon thought his mother would shatter into pieces when the cancer finally took his father. But she didn’t, she managed to keep their patchwork family together.
They all helped where they could. Even if it was just around the house.
But his mother never gave up after losing the only man she’d ever loved. She kept putting one foot in front of the other, day after day.
Whether she broke down where Deacon and Jemma couldn’t see or hear her, he didn’t know. But he wouldn’t blame her one bit if she had.
So, yeah, Reese reminded him of the two strongest women in his life. The only two women he’d ever loved.
With a loud sigh, he slid a hand down his chest and into his boxer briefs. He was hard as fuck this morning and it would have been nice to turn over to find a warm, willing woman next to him.
Not just any woman. Reese.
But she had gone into her room and shut him out last night. Just like she had the previous nights.
She got what she wanted from him and then split.
Wasn’t karma a fucking bitch?
At least it being a Saturday, they’d finally get to spend some time together when she wasn’t exhausted and had nowhere to go.
“Christ, I’m turnin’ into a goddamn girl, Jussie. Gotta be that fuckin’ pot. It’s gotta be tainted.”
Justice turned his head toward Deke and whined, his tail thumping on the mattress.
“Gotta pee as bad as me?”
Justice whined again and scrambled from the bed.
“Guess you ain’t gonna give me time to work out the big muscle cramp I got.” He stroked his hard-on twice, then, with another sigh, threw off the covers and rolled out of bed.
He stopped in the upstairs bathroom and by the time he brushed his teeth and braided his hair, he was able to piss.
He did so and then followed an excited Justice down the steps. The house was eerily quiet and the kitchen empty when they walked through. He opened the door and his dog rushed past him onto the side deck, down the three steps and across the paved driveway into the woods to do his normal morning business by marking a few trees.
Deacon didn’t watch him, instead he stared at the spot where his truck was usually parked.
The empty spot.
“Son of a bitch,” he grumbled. She had snuck out again this morning, trying to avoid him.
That was starting to hurt his damn feelings.
“You didn’t even give me a fuckin’ heads up, Jussie,” he yelled out into the woods, where his dog was now taking a dump.
He should’ve left his bedroom door open, so when she tried to sneak out, Justice would’ve heard her and woken him up.
He shook his head. Had she actually gone to the office today? On a Saturday? Was she that behind on her work?
Or maybe she was out getting him breakfast so she could surprise him.
Deacon snorted and shook his head. Right.
Justice tore across the driveway, up the steps and into the house, acting five pounds lighter.
“Feel better?”
With his tongue hanging out, Jussie gave him his doggy grin.
“Gimme a sec and I’ll feed your ass.”
He snagged his cell phone off the counter where he’d placed it before letting the dog out and typed out a text.
UR gone.
He leaned back against the counter and stared at his phone, waiting for her response.
Nothing.
That wasn’t acceptable.
U OK? he typed out.
He put the phone down and went over to Justice’s container of dog food, throwing a scoopful into his bowl. Within seconds his dog had scarfed it down and snuffled all around the bowl, looking for any wayward kibble that escaped his massacre.
Deacon went back to his phone, not surprised to see a lack of response.
This was fucking bullshit.
He tapped the screen a little harder than necessary. Where R U?
He was going to call her in a second if she didn’t respond. And keep calling until she answered.
She had his fucking truck, she could check in at least.
Finally, his phone binged. Her answer made him clench his jaws.
The office. Swamped. See you tonight.
Deacon knew what a blow-off looked like. He’d done it plenty of times himself.
She was working on a goddamn Saturday. Probably at the office by herself, too. His finger hovered over his phone’s keyboard. He wanted to make sure she kept her office door locked. Even though she probably wouldn’t like that he was worried about her.
She was used to being independent.
He thought back on what she had said. “I don’t have time for anything more than sex right now. And sometimes not even that. Sex can get complicated and my life is complicated enough without some man trying to be my... hero.”
“Goddamn it,” he muttered.
His fingers itched to type everything that was screaming in his head right now. Demand answers, order her to talk to him. But he fought it, knowing it would do no good. Knew that she would just shut him out even more than she already was.
He had to be smart on how he handled this. Her. Not just be an in-your-face asshole.
So, instead, while grinding his teeth, he typed: Red or white?
Deke...
He quickly typed his next message before she could finish her response. NM. Gonna surprise U. What time?
For fuck’s sake, he sounded like a teenage boy begging a bitch to pop his fucking cherry.
See you tonight was her last response.
It took everything he had not to throw his phone against the nearby wall.
The computer screen went blurry. Reese rubbed her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose and glanced at the time.
Holy shit, it was ten o’clock already. She had made great headway with chipping at the mountain of work she had. Now it was just a small hill. She had delegated some of the work to her paralegal and also her assistant for Monday morning.
Sometimes she had a hard time giving up work but she needed to trust her employees more. They were capable and did a good job. She just needed to learn to let go and let someone else help.
She saved the document she was working on, turned off her screen and slipped her feet into her shoes, which were under her desk.
She sighed as she spotted the half-eaten salad she had picked up at Mill Creek two doors down and brought back to eat while working. She hadn’t planned on staying this late, especially on a Saturday, but time had slipped away.
She grabbed the container and headed toward the kitchenette to dump it in the garbage. She thought about sneaking out the rear door into the parking lot since it was a faster way to get to Deacon’s truck, but the alarm panel was only at the front door and she needed to set it. It would be stupid not to and she planned on taking Sunday off. For once.
She needed it. She wanted to sleep in and maybe even take a long soak in her tub with the jets on.
Yes, that sounded like a plan. It would be the first full day of spending it with Deacon in the house. It would be interesting to see what he did all day while she was at the office.
She was surprised when he had texted her this morning, asking where she was and if she was all right. He seemed concerned, maybe even worried about her. She hadn’t had that in a long time. She’d forgotten what it was like to have someone else to check in with.
Normally, she and Reilly called each other once a week to catch up. It was weird not being able to pick up the phone and call her right now. She had to trust Deacon that she was okay.
Maybe tomorrow he could call her and put her on speaker phone. Reese just wanted to hear her sister’s voice. Even if it was just for a few minutes. Just to calm her worries.
She dumped off the soggy salad and headed through the office, set the alarm and locked the front door. It was Saturday night in a college town but even ten was a little early. Mill Creek had been busy when she stopped in for her order. Bambi had been
hustling and could only shoot her a quick smile as she worked hard for her tips.
While the sidewalk was empty, she could hear the deep bass of the band playing at the bar and see a couple people out front smoking. She hooked a left into the alley and headed back to her private lot behind her building.
The parking lot was empty save for Deacon’s truck. It sat alone, reminding her that it was a Saturday night and her life was so lame right now because all she did was work instead of enjoy it.
Instead of hanging out with non-existent friends. Or relaxing at home on the deck with the glass of wine Deacon said he’d have waiting.
Instead of mindlessly petting Justice.
Maybe she needed a dog. A loyal companion. She could bring it to the office with her. It would be nice to have constant company.
Normally, she’d be going home to an empty house.
While she had bought that house for solace, lately it had become lonely.
She’d had no boyfriend since splitting with her ex-husband. No time for friends. Not even time for any hobbies. She had concentrated on her career and making the best life possible for her and her sister. Unfortunately, she’d done it all alone.
Having Deacon in the house, having sex with him, too, made her realize how lonely she had been. She simply hadn’t wanted to admit it.
She sighed and made her way through the small, dark lot. A row of thick bushes lined the right side separating the rear parking lot of Mill Creek and hers. Because there was the possibility of rowdy drunks from the bar, she always secured her leather tote over her shoulder, kept her phone in one hand and her keys tucked between the fingers of her other. However, the Ford’s “key” was just a fob on a keyring. It was useless to scratch anyone’s eyes out.
Even so, she usually didn’t have any problems. This wasn’t a rough town. Sometimes the college kids got out of hand, but they normally weren’t violent.
When she rounded the truck to dump her tote on the passenger seat, she jumped and a squeak escaped her.
The bulky, shadowy figure stepped away from the truck and toward her. It was a man but she wasn’t sure who.
Until he started talking and the hair on the back of her neck stood.
“Know you got someone in your house waiting for me. Know your sister isn’t there. Where is she?”
With her heart thumping in her throat, she took a step back, poised to turn and run, but he snagged the wrist of the hand which gripped her phone and held her in place.
She jerked her arm hard enough to cause pain in her shoulder, but the fingers circling her wrist didn’t loosen, instead they tightened until they were crushing it. “Let me go, asshole.” She turned her body away from him and slipped her hand into her tote bag, hoping he wouldn’t notice.
“Where the fuck is she?” he roared in her face.
“I don’t know.” She tried to hide the shake in her voice, but failed. She took a deep breath and pulled her shoulders back as much as she could, trying to appear a lot stronger than she felt.
“Bullshit.”
“They won’t tell me.” Her fingers located her stun gun and she wrapped her hand tightly around it, switching off the safety. “Let. Me. Go.”
“Who the fuck are ‘they?’”
“Her hired bodyguards. You’ll never get near her.” She jerked her arm again and winced at the sharp pain. “Just give it up, Billy.”
“When she gives up the idea of testifying against me.”
“That’ll never happen,” Reese sneered. “You’re going down for what you did to her. I hope you go away for a very long time.”
She gasped as he crushed her wrist almost to the point of breaking bones.
“Fuck you, bitch.”
“It’ll be you getting fucked in jail, Billy. Hopefully without a drop of lube.”
He jerked her forward and as she tried to catch her balance, he backhanded her across the face. Her head whipped to the side with the power behind his strike and she couldn’t see anything for a good second.
Like the next hit. Her phone tumbled from her fingers to the pavement and she tried to jerk her arm free again, but it was impossible.
Warm liquid trickled from her mouth.
Blood. He’d made her bleed.
She dropped the tote from her free arm but held onto the stun gun. She pressed the trigger and jabbed it toward him but before she could make contact, he slammed his other fist down on her extended forearm. Severe pain shot up her arm and then there was nothing but numbness. He ripped the weapon out of her hand and whipped it.
Panic bubbled up her throat as she heard it skitter along the pavement in the distance.
She felt a second of relief when he finally released her wrist, but that relief was short lived when she caught movement toward her face and everything went black.
Someone was calling her name. She could barely hear it over the ringing in her ears. She forced her eyes open and stared up at the night sky. She was on her back on the hard pavement. She had a throbbing headache and her face pounded with each beat of her heart.
At least she was alive.
“Don’t move!” Bambi’s voice cut into her dazed thoughts. Reese turned her head to see the bartender squatting next to her. “I called the cops. They’re sending an ambulance, too.”
“I don’t need an ambulance.”
“The fuck you don’t.”
Reese groaned and sat up, her head spinning a little when she did so.
“Reese, don’t move. Let the EMTs check you out first.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not!” She sounded way too panicked for Reese’s liking.
“Where is he?”
“He ran when I screamed at him that I had called 911.”
“Where did he go?”
“He pushed me down and ran out of the alley. That’s all I know.”
“Where’s my phone?” Her one eye was swollen almost shut but she used her good one to search the area where she sat.
“He smashed it into pieces.”
“Fuck,” Reese whispered. She couldn’t even text Deacon to tell him Billy was in town. Not that he had any way to get around. Reese had his truck. “I have to go.”
“No... Cops are here.”
The flashing lights bounced off the office building and her, making her wince with pain. A cruiser pulled up and a few seconds later an ambulance.
Her stun gun couldn’t be found, her phone was destroyed, nothing on her was broken and she didn’t have a concussion. So, after the cops took her statement and the EMTs cleared her, they reluctantly let her drive home.
She owed Bambi a huge tip and free legal services for life. If it wasn’t for her taking out the trash and somehow hearing the struggle, Reese might have ended up more seriously injured, or even dead.
She couldn’t wait to go home and soak in her tub, but now for another reason. Her body ached, her face hurt, and she wasn’t looking forward to having Deacon see her like this.
Even knowing him for only a week, she already knew what his reaction would be.
Not good.
Deacon released a little growl as he heard his truck pull up the driveway. It was almost midnight.
He’d been calling her non-stop for the past hour. She had not answered once.
Not fucking once. Not even a text to tell him she was all right. Nothing.
At least she wasn’t fucking dead. Or in some ditch somewhere.
Fuck no.
He realized she was independent and didn’t have to answer to anyone, but, for fuck’s sake, a little common courtesy would have eased his fucking frustration.
He should’ve gone to bed an hour ago and just said fuck it and fuck her. She didn’t deserve his concern.
It pissed him the fuck off that he couldn’t. He wouldn’t be able to sleep until she was home and he knew she was okay.
Facing the door, he waited in the middle of the kitchen, his arms crossed over his chest, every muscle tense, his jaw popping
. As the door opened, his mouth also did the same to give her the shit she deserved. But as she stepped over the threshold and into the light, nothing but air escaped when an invisible foot kicked him directly in the solar plexus.
Then everything inside him exploded. “What the fuck happened?”
She jerked at his shout and once she closed the door, slowly turned to face him, an ice pack pressed to her eye.
He rushed over, grabbed her oversized tote off her shoulder and put it aside. “What the fuck happened?” he demanded again, tucking a thumb under her chin and tilting her face toward the light so he could see it better. The hand holding the ice pack had a circle of bruises around the wrist.
She had two butterfly bandages over one eye. He pulled her hand with the ice pack away to see her left eye bruised and almost swollen shut. Her mouth had dried blood at one corner, her right cheek had another bruise that was quickly turning an ugly color.
What. The. Fuck.
“Who did this?” he growled, his blood rushing, wanting to kill whoever touched her.
No, it was more than a want. It was a deep-seated need to make whoever did this pay. Because someone was going to pay a huge fucking price for this.
“You need to start talkin’ right fuckin’ now.”
Her good eye met his. And his blood went cold when she said, “Billy.”
“What!” She winced at his shout and he tried to tamp down the fury that engulfed him, but it was impossible. “You shoulda fuckin’ called me!”
She pulled away from him and walked deeper into the kitchen, putting the ice pack on the counter. “I couldn’t. He smashed my phone. I have your truck, anyway. What would you have done? Jogged to town?”
“Fuck!” he roared.
She went to the freezer and dug around, finding a bag of frozen peas and holding that to her face with a hiss. “He knows you’re here.”
“What?”
“He knows you’re fucking here!” she screamed and winced again. “He’s never coming to the house. This was all for nothing.” A tear slipped down her cheek from her good eye. And then another. She swiped at them.
Blood & Bones: Deacon (Blood Fury MC Book 4) Page 16