Zoey looked around, and then opened her shoulder bag and dropped the empty box into it before she continued.
“By the way, nice try, girlfriend. Now, are you ready to tell me what is up with you, Sean, and Jet.” Zoey held up her hand when I opened my mouth to answer. “I’m not talking about Atlantic City, I know what went on there. Drunken ho appeared, went along with drunken hotties, paid a hundred bucks to some beach chapel sham that moves around so fast the local police can’t catch them, then comes home and acts as if nothing went on and she is a sober virgin. Which let’s be real, you and the word virgin parted ways a long time ago.”
“Wow, you’ve gotten nasty with the growth of your belly.” Zoey’s eyes narrowed.
“And your skills of changing subjects needs work. So, back to what is going on. How about I start you out since I probably only have five minutes before I either have to go pee or the men come looking for me?” I rolled my eyes and Zoey continued. “You’ve been avoiding the men for a week because Atlantic City scared you. Yes, it was a bogus marriage, but, and it is a big BUT, it showed they have feelings for you, and it scared the ever-loving shit out of you. Now the three of you are acting as though nothing happened, which I will admit might work with a normal family; however, there is not a damn thing normal with the O’Malleys. Then, add that I am your BFF and know you better than anyone. You’ve always shared your conquest even when I begged you not to, but I find it funny that you haven’t said one word on your sexcapade with my brother-in-law and his friend. Why do you think that is, hmmm?” Zoey crossed her arms on top of her protruding belly, and cocked her brow, then waited.
Crap, she was right, and that had been my mistake when she’d pulled me aside after Jet, Sean, and I walked into the dining room of the hotel we’d stayed in Atlantic City. Everyone was already seated and eating so we stood to the side, and Zoey asked if I was alright. I’d told her I wasn’t sure what happened.
I rubbed the spot at the small of my back like a talisman, but the gesture caused me to remember that I hadn’t shared that with my BFF either. Or with anyone else, to include the yahoos who hadn’t acknowledge they’d remembered that particular part of the evening along with the wild night we shared. Yet, the duo thought they would tag team me and I would fall in line. Which was probably only because they felt guilty, and nothing to do with actually wanting to be with me. I’d learned that game early in life, courtesy of my parents. I had given up on that game when I was fifteen and they played the whole tug of war custody battle, which had nothing to do with me, and everything to do with who could fuck the other over more during a divorce. Then no divorce came, but their games and lack of interest in each other continued.
“Fine. Do you want me to start with how big their dicks are? What piercings they have? Or positions? Maybe how neither one of them mind eating at the restaurant south of the bord—”
“Knock the shit off. That isn’t becoming of you or them.”
Zoey was right again. Hell. “What? Are you that set on hearing they don’t remember setting the sheets on fire with me? Or that they’d been the ones to propose we get married before we went back to the hotel to try out the bed. It’s humiliating. Now, to make matters worse, they move into the house with Brant next door to Angelique and me. Why? Cal and Mace were to move in with Brant. There is no need for them to feel guilty about the shit in Atlantic City. Yes, I was mad the next morning, but after Jet made a few calls, we got the answer on the stupid chapel place. We were drunk, it happens when you consume a shit load of alcohol. I’m over it all. What I don’t need is them doing ‘we men, you woman’ routine.” Zoey burst out laughing, not a normal laugh either, nope, it was the double over, hold her pregnant sides, and included several unladylike snorts. I waited until she settled back in her chair and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“Oh my God, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.”
“Thanks for the support, Zoey.”
“This is me, the friend you pushed at two men in Vegas with the supporting words, ‘Enjoy yourself for once, live the dream, celebrate!’” Zoey rolled her eyes.
“Yes, and look at you. You’re married and have two men that worship the ground you walk on. And you’re expecting two babies. So, I think it was good advice, and you should thank me.”
“Sure, thank you oh great one of relationship knowledge. Now, let’s get real for a minute. I’m not going to list everything that happened between the one-night stand to me sitting in this chair because you know it all. What I want to know is why you don’t see the same thing in front of your face? Well, not the babies, but the men.”
“That is at least one plus, they did suit up. But, Zoey, it was attraction sex with a little crazy mixed in. We scratched the itch and now we can move on. End of story.”
“I’m throwing the bullshit flag, but I won’t pressure you. And I know you’re too smart to let your parents’ issues filter in because you aren’t like them, so don’t carry their baggage.” Zoey pushed herself out of the chair and stood. “I’ve got all the time in the world and watching this play out will be entertaining if this relationship goes as the rest have in this family. I will talk with you later. The restroom is calling me and I’m hungry, the candy didn’t quiet the natives.”
Zoey walked out the door, well, more like waddled, and I didn’t feel one iota bad for smiling. Not after her keen observation, which of course was wrong. I had no intention of falling for Sean and Jet, so there! That ship had sailed, I thought, and then stared at the door. Fuck get over it.
I opened the top drawer of my desk and retrieved the file on my possibly new client. If I was going to survive on my own, my business had to be my first priority. Who needed the hassle of arrogant, pigheaded, controlling men? Not me.
When I heard Zoey’s muffled crying, the file folder fell to the floor as I pushed back my chair and headed for the door.
Chapter Two
Jet
“Whoa!” I reached out with my hands and grabbed Zoey’s arms to keep her from falling backward. I’d just about took Zoey out as Sean and I turned the corner into the hallway that led to the meeting room where the other men waited.
“Thanks, Jet,” Zoey said and smiled up at me. I let go of her arms, and she stepped back while I bent down and picked up the snack-sized bag of Doritos she dropped. “I should have been paying more attention to where I was going, instead of digging in my purse for those.” She chuckled, and I handed her the chips.
“Damn, are you okay? You need some type of alarm system for that belly. Maybe a sensor like trucks have when they back up and get too close to things.” I whipped my head toward Sean, who currently looked Zoey over while she stared wide-eyed at him before she burst into tears.
“Dude! What the hell?” I shook my head at Sean.
“Crap, Zoey, sorry, I didn’t mean it in a bad way. It’s just you are growing bigger and—” I ran my hand over my face and cut Sean off before he dug a hole no man was ever going to get out of.
“For the love of God, shut up. Don’t say another word, man,” I didn’t get a chance to contain the situation before all hell broke loose in the hallway.
“Zoey! Baby, why are you crying? Are you hurt? What happened?” Reese fired questions as he and Michael headed for us with the other men not far behind. Then, I inwardly groaned when they stopped, and Brit came into view. She shoved Cal and Mace out of the way to get closer to Zoey.
“What did you jackasses do to her?” Brit looked between Sean and me, and I frowned.
“Why do you automatically think we did something to her?” Sean asked, then crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. Damn, we’d only had glimpses of Brit for the last week because she avoided us at all cost. Now, Sean and I stood not three feet away from her, and the look on her face had me wanting to place my hand over my crotch to protect my goods.
“Then what the fuck happened?” Michael asked as he held Zoey wrapped in his arms. At least her shoulders weren’t rising and f
alling from crying.
As I got ready to respond, Zoey raised her head from Michael’s chest, wiped her eyes and began to explain. When she reached the part about how she ended up in tears, all eyes flashed to Sean.
“What?” Sean said.
“Really, bro, even I know not to say shit like that to a pregnant woman.” I pinched my nose between with my thumb and forefinger when Falon piped in.
“Yeah, ‘cause you are the epitome of knowledge on what is appropriate to say and what isn’t, Falon,” Sean said, and I dropped my hand from my face in time to stick my arm out and stop Sean as he stepped toward his brother.
“Evidently, I do know what to say. I’ve got a woman, don’t I?” Falon said and glanced at Brit before he looked back at Sean and raised his brows. When Sean pushed my arm away and reached for Falon, I fought an inner battle on whether or not to let Sean snatch his younger brother, but the good won out. I grabbed Sean’s shirt as Fin pulled Falon back.
“Let me kill him, Fin. Mom and Dad will be upset at first, but they’ll still have five sons left.”
“Please, Sean. I am their favorite, and besides, Mel will kick anyone’s ass who hurts me.” I groaned and so did several of the others at Falon’s words.
“Geez, you are pathetic, Falon. Stop hiding behind Mel,” Fin sneered, and I laughed. Since Falon watched Mel in the underground fighting match where she kicked major ass, he constantly used her as a threat. One, we all found humorous.
“Never! I need my hands for my work, so I can’t be bothered fighting you peasants. And every one of you fuckers is secretly scared of my little woman. She could kill you in your sleep and you’d never hear her coming.”
“Maybe you should remember that before you go to sleep, sweetie,” Mel said as she walked around Sean and me. When she passed by Falon, she patted his chest and continued toward the meeting room without another word.
“Well, that’s as good as any cue that it’s time for our meeting,” I said and laughed along with the others.
“I agree. If Zoey is alright, let’s get this meeting started. We all have businesses to run,” Fin said, then looked at Michael and Reese. “If you two need to take care of Zoey, one of us can update you later.”
“No, she’s fine.” Reese looked at Sean before he continued. “Hormones and stupidity of others don't go well together. Zoey’s going to hang with Petal and Angelique at Slinging Ink.” Reese and Michael both kissed Zoey’s forehead, then Zoey hugged Brit before she turned to Sean and me.
“Sorry for the tears. These two,” Zoey rubbed her protruding stomach before she continued, “are wreaking havoc on my system. But, I need to add that I am so disappointed in you two. I love both of you and had high hopes you were going to be different.” She shook her head, and then walked around the corner to head to Slinking Ink.
I looked at Sean, who looked back and shrugged his shoulders. Glad to know I wasn’t the only one lost to what Zoey was talking about. When I turned around to where everyone stood before, the hallway was empty except for me, Sean, Michael, Reese, and Brit.
As we started to move a man’s voice stopped us, “Excuse me. The lady that just came downstairs said that Brit Williams’ office was up here. Can you point me to it?”
I looked at the tall, blond man. He seemed familiar, and normally I would have taken a minute to figure out who exactly he was, but I didn’t care. At the moment, I was more interested in why he was looking for Brit.
“Who are you?” I asked, and moved until I stood blocking Brit.
“Hey, Chad,” Brit said and stepped around me. “You’re early.”
“Yeah, I didn’t want to be late, so I gave myself a little extra time since I wasn’t quite sure where this place was located.” Tall blond GQ guy walked toward Brit, and I heard Sean growl.
“Oh, that’s great. Let’s go to my office and talk. I’m sure these...gentlemen have work they need to get to.” Brit led Chad to her office. When she reached the door, she let him walk through first, then looked over her shoulder at Sean and me, sneered and shut the door.
“Who the shit is that?” Sean asked.
Michael and Reese laughed, then started down the hall. Sean and I followed.
“What the hell is so funny?”
“Brit is a sports agent, Jet,” Reese said over his shoulder as we reached the door to the meeting room.
“That was Chad Macon,” I said out loud to no one in particular as it hit me where I’d seen him. We walked into the room and I shut the door behind me.
“Is he one of Brit’s clients? I’m not sure I like that. He already has a reputation—” Mel cut Sean off.
“Where? And you are talking about Chad Macon, rookie pitcher brought up from the Yankee’s farm team. All around bad boy with a helluva an arm. Tall, blond, owner of the ice blue eyes that make women drop their panties, and yummy, Chad Macon. Right?”
“How the fuck do you know about him, woman?” Falon asked, and I normally would have laughed at the look on his face. However, with the man closed in an office with Brit, I didn’t see anything funny.
“Oh, please, females of all ages know who Chad “Ladies’ Man” Macon is. And if he is in Brit’s office, let’s get to the meeting. Maybe he will still be here when we’re done.” Mel waved Falon’s growl off and took a seat.
“Yeah, I’m with Mel. Hopefully, the man is still here. I know I’d like to talk to him,” I said then pulled out a chair and sat.
“You and me both,” Sean said as he sat down in the chair beside me.
I knew we had to work out a plan for Falon and Sean to go to Bogdan Elson’s home. There were still so many unanswered questions and things we needed to find out on the underground fighting that I needed to focus.
When Sean and I found out Brit was going to have her office here, we looked forward to having her close. Yeah, that shit would probably come back and bite us in the ass.
I already saw the error of our ways. She was driving us nuts, and it had been a week. Throw in these supposed professional athletes and things were going to get complicated. Hell, any of them could turn her head, and then we would need to kill someone. This wasn’t looking good for our future.
Chapter Three
Sean
I knew I was glaring at the door and not listening to what was going on around me, but dammit, the man had walked into the office a long time ago. What the fuck could be taking that long? I saw Jet doing the same thing. Shit, we were just fucking sad. There was a meeting going on right in front of us, and all we wanted to do was get the fuck out of here.
“Sean?” I heard and turned back to look at the table full of my brothers and friends.
“Huh?” I said absently.
Ranger shook his head and laughed. He pointed to my brothers and me and said, “You know, I am going to be glad when you bastards all settle down. I mean, each time one of you is pussy-whipped you lose your concentration.”
I frowned and said, “I am not distracted?”
“Okay, so you are telling me the door for some reason pissed you the fuck off so badly you look like you’re ready to tear it down?” Ranger laughed and leaned back. I stared at him for a minute, then picked up my phone and punched a few buttons before I looked back up and grinned. Ranger narrowed his eyes after he finally realized that I had done something he wasn’t going to like, “What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I said and smiled again, this time a little bigger. “Just texting my dad to tell him Maria was feeling sick this morning when I talked to her; of course, I was so worried about her that I wanted to see if he could check on her. Which I’m sure he will contact Uncle Anthony first, so they can go together.”
Ranger frowned. “She wasn’t sick; she was fine.”
“Well yeah, after the morning she was fine,” I said and waited.
Ranger looked confused for a minute, and then whispered, “You bastard.”
I shrugged. “Nope, I know who my parents are. And my dad, well...we all know how he feels
about his ‘girls.’”
“I hate you,” Ranger snapped, and everyone laughed. I felt my phone vibrate and opened it expecting my father, but it was Facebook with an alert. I usually didn’t have it one when I was working here, but for some reason, I forgot to shut it off. I frowned and opened the app and looked. Everyone was quiet, and I realized they were waiting for my dad’s response. Jet leaned close and nudged me with his arm.
Fuck, I quickly closed the app and saw my dad had responded with a huge smiley face. I turned my phone and showed Ranger who groaned and pulled out his own phone and stood.
“If you will excuse me, I need to do a little damage control really quick.”
The men chuckled, and Fin shook his head. “That was fucked up. Funny, but fucked up nonetheless.”
“Yeah, well, I take it where I can get it. He is a boy scout, I feel like he should realize exactly what kind of family he got into,” I said dryly, and then looked at Fin. “So, where are we?” That at least took the attention away from me as I moved my phone under the table, opened the app again and stared at the screen. This had to be a mistake. There was no fucking way this was happening, especially right this second. I looked up for a second to make sure no one was talking to me again, but the only one looking at me was Jet, and he looked curious as he glanced at my phone and saw what I was logged into.
So here was the thing, in my family, it was a dog eat dog world, especially if you gave any of my siblings a chance to tease you. They were vicious and relentless, and I know because I joined in every single time. I learned a long time ago what I could and could not share with my family. So sure, when everyone settled into their jobs, and I chose to go into the family business. I loved tattooing, but, I kept my big money-making job separate. Not because I was embarrassed, fuck that, I wasn’t. But if any of my brothers found out, shit, they would make my life a fucking hell. And my parents, well that was a crapshoot. Jet motioned with his head, and I snapped out of it. Shit, I needed to make a decision. What the fuck were the odds I would be sitting in a meeting and Angelique would friend request me on my professional profile? I tried to think back and remember if I had read anything in her background that would be suspicious. I know it didn’t have anything dubious in there, though. Shit, what the fuck was I going to do?
Dazzled and Dazed Page 2