Zeke (The Powers That Be, Book 2)

by Harper Bentley

  I stared at her in shock. First of all, Zeke’s talking about me at all made me gasp. Second, what he’d said was just crazy.

  “He doesn’t love Sara. He loves you, Scarlett. Even if she is pregnant with his baby, he loves you. He started talking about your weekend at the ski resort saying that he wanted to tell you everything but he was afraid you’d freak out. He said he wants to be with you but he didn’t know if you still want him.”

  Wow.

  And then Skeptical Scarlett took a bow before listing all the reasons why what Scout had just said didn’t mean anything: 1) Zeke had been drunk 2) Drunks say all kinds of ridiculous bullshit 3) He’d never actually told her he loved me 4) He was a good guy and if the baby was his, he’d do the right thing.

  “I’m telling you, you wanna find anything out about these Powers brothers, get them drunk and they’ll spill everything.” She chuckled. “So listen,” she pulled out her phone, “give me your number and I’ll get a hold of you and we’ll go from there.”

  I did what she asked thinking we probably weren’t going to get anywhere with this.

  “I’ll call you. In the meantime, you could try giving Zeke a call…” She stood and looked down at me hopefully. When I didn’t say anything she added, “Or if I tell him to call you, would you answer?”

  I shrugged a shoulder then changed my mind and nodded.

  “Great! Talk to you soon!” She went down the bleachers and headed over to the court where Gable was playing, yelling, “Way to go, baby!” when he shot and missed badly and for some reason that got me started giggling and I didn’t stop for a full minute.

  *Week Eleven—15th Encounter*

  Sunday morning I felt a lot better about things. I’d actually showered and cleaned up a bit even going so far as to put on some mascara. Whoopee! I’d thought a lot about Zeke and had decided that tonight I would call him and we’d go from there. Now I was in the kitchen baking cupcakes so I was in my happy place. Grammy had come in to chat some but had taken a call and was now on the phone chatting with them instead of me and laughing almost constantly which made me wonder if she had a new boyfriend. Lane had spent the night with a friend and would be home later, but he’d complained that school would start again tomorrow, so the cupcakes were really to cheer him up.

  “Okay, see you in a bit,” Grammy said and hung up.

  “Who was that?” I asked, mixing up my special cream cheese chocolate frosting.

  “Just a friend. They’re coming by in just a minute to fix something.” She came over and stuck a finger into the frosting and after tasting it gave me a big grin. Then she slowly wandered out of the kitchen and I frowned at her as I watched her go wondering who she had coming over and what the heck they were going to fix. And that’s when the doorbell rang. “Can you get that, dear?” I heard her call and I rolled my eyes.

  “Sure. Let me stop everything I’m doing and get the door. Jeez,” I muttered, turning off the mixer then wiping my hands on a towel as I walked to the front door. Upon opening it, my eyes got huge, my mouth dropped open and I sucked in a breath because there stood Zeke.

  Shit.

  Shit!

  I stood staring at him through the storm door not able to move.

  “Well, let him in!” Grammy said from behind me then pushing past me opened the door. “Hi, Zeke. Looking handsome as ever,” she said all flirty. “Come on in.”

  He came in, his eyes never leaving mine and I know this because mine hadn’t left his.

  “Thanks for coming. I’ll just leave you two to talk,” Grammy said looking from me to him then back at me again, then patting me on the arm left us alone “to talk.” Damn. She’d orchestrated this whole thing. Such a sneak.

  “Hey,” he offered.

  “H—” I cleared my throat. “Hey.”

  “Mind if I talk to you?”

  “No.” That came out a little too quickly and also a little squeaky and I just needed to calm down. Taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly made things much better. Then we stood there awkwardly for a moment which made things not so good again. Jeez.

  He cleared his throat and spoke. “Actually, would you come with me to my place? No one’s home and I’d like to talk in private.”

  I guess my brain could be compared to quicksand right then because the words that’d come out of his mouth were kicking around in my head trying to get me to process them but they ended up getting nowhere, slowly sinking into oblivion.

  “Psssttt! Scarlett! Go with him!” I heard Grammy call from the hall, and since I was still staring at Zeke I saw his mouth twitch just a bit.

  This made me blink as my brain kind of got with the program and I heard myself telling him to wait there. I went into the kitchen and put a cover on the frosting and put it in the fridge. The buzzer on the oven dinged right then, so I turned it off and pulled out the last batch of cupcakes setting them on the stovetop. I did all this automatically having done it hundreds of times before, but when I finished, it hit me that I had to go back out there and face Zeke again and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to do that just yet.

  I mean, I’d thought a lot last night about what Scout had said, and what I’d come up with was that Zeke was a good guy and he’d always do the right thing, whether that was just helping to take care of the baby or if it included marrying Sara. I didn’t know the extent of their relationship, but I felt that if marriage was the conclusion he came to, he’d make it work between them. And as heartbreaking as that was, I also knew I loved him. I wanted to be with him. I’d given up my plans for him because I’d felt he was worth it. When I realized that I still thought he was worth it, that had been the turning point and I decided I was going to fight for him, for us.

  Thing was, I’d decided to wait until tonight to do it, not now! I hadn’t even given myself a pep talk yet!

  “We O’Rourkes don’t poke at bruises,” I heard Grammy say as she came in the kitchen.

  My head came up and my brow went down. “What?”

  “You heard me. I know what’s going on. Zeke told me this morning.” My head jerked in surprise and then her eyes got soft on me. “Every relationship gets bruises and if you keep poking at them they’ll never heal. If you only slap some liniment on them but keep poking at them, nothing gets healed. No, you have to let it go, let it heal, and the next thing you know, it’s gone. Now, darling, there’s a man out there who loves you. Stop poking at the bruise and go start healing.”

  I grabbed my jacket off the hook by the back door, pulled it on and as I walked by, I gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, Grammy.” Then taking a deep breath, I went into the living room.

  And, God, Zeke was a sight for sore eyes. I hadn’t seen him in five days and it’d been hell. I saw that the scruff on his face was a little longer than usual and he seemed to be tired, but he still looked good and still had the power to make the butterflies in my belly go nuts.

  “Ready?” he asked when I approached.

  “Yeah,” I whispered and we headed outside. He held the door of his truck for me, helping me in then went around and got in turning to look at me until I looked back then he smiled.

  God.

  God!

  How he could make me forget there was any problem between us I didn’t know but at that moment, you’d never know we hadn’t talked for days or that I’d cried my eyes out that whole time or that he could possibly have a baby on the way with another woman. No, we were just a guy and a girl out for a nice Sunday drive.

  Then he started driving and it all crept back in. Ugh.

  Halfway to his house, he reached over and took my hand in his, squeezing it and not letting go, resting the back of his on the console between us then continuously swept his thumb across the back of my hand which actually kind of calmed me. When we got to his place and went inside, things got weird again. He took my coat politely. He asked if I wanted something to drink. I told him water so he got me a bottle. He asked me to please sit down, which I did on the couch. He
sat on a recliner then asked how I’d been and I hated this. Hated the formality of it as if we didn’t even know each other at all. And I had to stop it.

  “Scarlett, I’m sorry,” he began.

  “Don’t,” I whispered.

  He looked at me with panic in his eyes. “What?”

  “Just… don’t… please…” I shook my head and closed my eyes. Opening them a moment later, I still saw the worry on his face as he slowly stood not knowing what to do. I stood up too and told him, keeping my voice even, “I understand everything. I mean, this situation could happen to anyone. I’m sorry I jumped to conclusions before letting you explain. If you still want me…”

  He huffed looking at me as if I were crazy. “Of course I still want you!”

  Well, that was definitely a good thing. “Then if it’s your baby, we’ll just, well, we’ll just deal. You’ve been my hero so many times before, Zeke. This is my chance to help you out and maybe be yours.” He just stared at me as I spoke looking like he was afraid to move as if I might disappear or something.

  Then he took a cautious step toward me, his eyes locked on mine the whole time, then he took another and kept going until he finally reached me. When I stayed there I saw him take a deep breath and blow it out in relief. His hands went to both sides of my face. “Thought I’d lost you.”

  I shook my head. “No. You haven’t lost me.” I looked up into his beautiful eyes. “I—I love you, Zeke.”

  I saw one side of his mouth tip up then his mouth came crashing down on mine. And, oh, how I’d missed his kisses. I’d missed him.

  When he pulled back the look on his face was one of awe as if he couldn’t believe I was still here and willing to go through everything with him.

  “Baby, I need you to sit down for a minute. We still need to talk,” he said, walking me backward to the couch to sit.

  Oh, no, there was more? And, believe me, it hadn’t slipped my attention that he hadn’t told me he loved me back but that could wait. For now.

  He pulled the coffee table up behind him and sat on it facing me, his legs on either side of my right leg, his big hands taking mine.

  “What I didn’t get to explain to you was—”

  “Wait!” I said suddenly, cutting him off. He pulled his head back with a small smile waiting for me to continue. “She’s not having, like, triplets, is she? I mean, one I can handle but three?”

  He snorted. “Not as far as I know.” He lifted a hand, running the backs of his fingers over my cheek then sat back, his hands finding mine again. “What I need to explain is—”

  “Sorry!” I interrupted again, holding a palm up for him to stop. “You’re not gonna tell me something bad, are you? I mean, triplets is bad but I mean bad, bad. Like, you say you want me, but in spite of that, you’re not gonna marry her out of honor or something, are you?” I winced as I waited for his answer.

  He chuckled. “No. Nothing like that. Now, give me a chance to tell you what’s going on?” He looked at me waiting for another question but when I couldn’t think of anything else I needed to say or ask, I nodded for him to continue. “Okay. This is what I tried telling you on Monday when we got back. It’s not my baby.”

  I frowned even though this was great news. “What? How do you know for sure?”

  He pursed his lips. “Slept with her once back in November. Not that I’m making excuses, but I was drunk, it was a poor decision but that’s it. We didn’t date, but I’ve known her for four years now and she’s a good person but she’s had it rough. Parents are cracked out on drugs, don’t give a shit about her, she doesn’t have anyone. The last couple years, she’s taken the video gigs to get out of the stripping she was doing to pay for school and everything else.”

  I gasped. Oh, God. Here I thought I had it bad and this poor girl was struggling with all of this.

  “When you saw me talking to her last Friday, she told me she was pregnant by Kristof Bader.”

  I gasped again. Whoa. Kristof Bader was a big time rock star who’d been in and out of rehab and had gone to jail several times for all kinds of infractions including beating up his girlfriends. He was an asshole.

  “Why would she get with him?” I asked in disbelief.

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. Said they got together in December at a video shoot and that he treated her differently at first. He was nice, wined and dined her. Seduced her, fucked her and kept her around for a while then two weeks ago, God knows for what reason, he beat the shit out of her. She’d just found out she was pregnant and didn’t report the beating to the police because Kristof might find out she was carrying his baby, and she said no way was she going to let her child be anywhere near him after that.”

  I frowned. “So what does this have to do with you?”

  “He somehow found out about the baby. He told her that she was his and if she tried leaving him, he’d cut the son of a bitch out of her. So that day, she asked me to go with her to talk to him and tell him it was mine. That’s what was going on in my head last weekend. I wasn’t sure what to do. I was gonna talk to you about it, but I didn’t know how you’d take it. Went back and forth about it because I know you knew I’d been with her and I wasn’t sure if you’d believe me. Also didn’t want to start any shit with this.” He looked at me remorsefully. “I should’ve trusted you. Shit blew up in my face anyway.”

  I’ll say. But I was curious. “So what ended up happening?”

  “That night after I dropped you off, couple of my linemen, Ryke and I went to go see the prick. I swore them all to secrecy but someone obviously said something. Anyway, Bader lives out on West Mercer Island. My God, Scarlett, you should’ve seen his fuckin’ house. Fucker has a swimming pool bigger than the football field. We showed up and he’s got some Mafia looking motherfuckers guarding the goddamned place armed to the fuckin’ teeth. Seein’ that, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna make it outta there alive especially after I told him the baby was mine. But you know what the asshole did?”

  I shook my head, enrapt by his crazy story.

  “He laughed. Told me the bitch was too fuckin’ loose for him anyway, that he liked his pussy tight and that she was used up. Said I could have her and her bastard because he didn’t allow trash in his presence. Swear to God, if those dickheads hadn’t been standing around with their guns, I’d have beaten the shit out of him just on principal. But Sara pulled on my arm wanting to leave so we went. She cried all the way back.”

  My eyes teared at this. “Poor Sara…”

  “Yeah.” Then he smiled and I wondered what good there was that could’ve come from this screwed-up mess. “She and Timmons hit it off. He’s an All-American guard. Great guy. Protective type who’d definitely take care of her. Held her the entire trip back then took her home.”

  I sat there envisioning all that he’d told me. Wow. He’d practically gone to a whole other world this week. I mean, he’d put himself out there to help a friend, facing off with a famous rock star, and he’d not only helped save her but her baby, possibly getting roughed up in the process. On top of all that, he was having to deal with rumors that were definitely not true.

  “Oh, no,” I muttered.

  “What?”

  “Scout’s gonna be so disappointed that she doesn’t get to do any investigating.” At his questioning face I told him I’d explain later.

  “But what about the rumors…” I said.

  “Don’t know how it got out, and that’s the part I was trying to protect you from, but you see how that went. Scarlett, I don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks but you. That’s all that matters to me.”

  And I’d been a huge jerk to him, leaving him to deal with this without me by his side.

  “I’m the worst person in the world,” I whispered.

  He chuckled, bringing my hands to his mouth to kiss them. “No. You didn’t know. It was my fault. I should’ve told you. Should’ve trusted you.”

  I bit my lip and nodded at him. “Yes, you should have. But I
see why you were reluctant to share. Kinda.” I frowned because, no, I really didn’t see why he was reluctant. Why he could share with his brother and teammates but not me.

  He kissed my hands again saying, “Babe,” but I pulled my hands away because now I was getting mad after hearing everything. Then I stood, pushing off on his leg with my hands and went retrieve my coat from the rack by the front door.

  “I’d like to go home now, please.”

  He was up like a flash and had me pinned against the front door before I knew it. Dang.

  “You’re not going anywhere, Scarlett. Just got you back. You’re not leaving,” he hissed, all up in my face, his hands on either side of my head.

  “I don’t know, Zeke. Can you really trust me to be here?” I snapped right back. I know I sounded like a child, but now that it had all sunk in a bit I was really hurt about it.

  “Baby,” he whispered moving his face so I’d look at him. He got my eyes but he also got a whole lot of glare along with them. “I’m sorry. You’re right. This is all my fault. I’m sorry,” he whispered, kissing the side of my head then he kept whispering his apologies. “I’m sorry.” He kissed my forehead. “I’m sorry.” He kissed my nose. “I’m sorry.” He kissed the side of my mouth. “I’m sorry,” he muttered against my lips, eyes now open as were mine. He pulled away and his hands came up to cup my face. “Please forgive me, Scarlett.”

  I tiptoed up and pressed my lips hard to his then bit his bottom lip between my teeth (not hard but not too soft either) and pulled back watching his eyes narrow knowing he was wondering what I was doing. I was being pissed was what I was doing. But then I let him go.

  “You hurt me, Zeke,” I whispered.

  He sighed. “I know I did.” He left it at that because he’d already apologized several times. What more could he do?

  Taking a deep breath and letting it out I suddenly realized what I was doing. “I’m poking the bruise,” I told him, frowning.