by Ali Parker
“I believe you heard exactly what I said, Mr. Lovett. A young man such as yourself shouldn’t have any hearing problems.” His eyes were ice blue and all but translucent in the sun. “I don’t like having to repeat myself.”
“Who the fuck are you?” My tone was harsh and unapologetic. I felt like I should have known who he was, but I didn’t recognize him at all.
“The name’s Ken.” There was a spark of malice in his eyes as he took another step toward me. He was only a couple of feet away from me now. Close enough that any onlooker would think we were acquainted.
“Well, Ken, what do you want?” As soon as I said the name, a bell rang somewhere deep in my subconscious. Hadn’t one of my brothers mentioned a Ken once?
I was pretty sure that the guy Sonny thought was the mastermind behind Dad’s crimes was called Ken. My heart turned to stone and my veins to ice.
Ken cocked a brow, his cold smile chilling even to me. “I wanted to come deliver a warning for you myself. Since you now know how I feel about repeating myself, listen closely. Leave this alone, for your sake and that of your family.”
“Leave what alone?” I already knew, but I wanted to hear him say it. Casually sliding my hand into my pocket, I felt my fingers hit the hard plastic of my phone’s case. They itched to pull it out and hit record.
Ken’s cool eyes followed the move, and he lowered his voice. “You can either sacrifice your father or your entire family. The choice is yours.”
I had to give it to the man, he was intimidating as fuck. If I were a lesser man, I would have been pissing my pants over his warning. Unfortunately for him, I didn’t scare easy. If anything, all that he’d accomplished was to piss me off.
Actually, the person it was really unfortunate for was Mr. George, not Ken. Because someone was going to take the brunt of my anger, and Ken was already walking toward a black town car with tinted windows parked down the street.
Watching him climb in the back, I made myself a silent promise before heading into the courthouse. Your turn will come, Ken. You will not get away with this.
Chapter Twenty
Eve
“Is there any chance you’re free for lunch?” Tyson’s deep voice asked at the other end of the line.
Setting down the paperback book I was reading on my stomach, I smiled. “Sure, but you might need to give me some time to get ready.”
“It’s eleven a.m.”
I looked down at my ratty pajamas. “It’s also Saturday. I wasn’t planning on going out, so didn’t bother to get dressed.”
“What are you wearing?” His voice dropped an octave or two, becoming husky and sexy.
My nether regions stirred, but I shut that down fast. “We’re so not having any conversation that starts with ‘What are you wearing?’”
“You’re not a fan of phone sex?”
I could hear the smile in his voice. Standing up from the couch I’d spent the better part of the morning reading on, I pushed off my pajama pants with my free hand and tossed them aside on my way to the bathroom. A definite perk of living alone was being able to walk around naked without having to worry. “I prefer the real thing.”
“In that case, fuck lunch. Come over to my place instead.” He sounded dead serious. It brought a smile to my face, even though it shouldn’t have.
I couldn’t get involved with him, but it was still nice to feel wanted every once in a while. At least, that was what I was telling myself it was. Just nice to feel wanted, that’s the only reason why you’re smiling.
Right. A snarky voice piped up from the back of my mind. Of course, that’s all it is.
Actively deciding to shut down the annoying inner dialogue happening in my head, I realized there was no harm in a little flirting. “If I come over to your place, we won’t get around to lunch. We’ve already wasted one good meal. Let’s not make a habit of it.”
“Fine.” There was a hint of disappointment in his tone, but he perked up again almost immediately. “I’ll meet you at Ed’s in an hour?”
I lifted the phone from my ear for as long as it took for the material of my top to pass it, then reached into the shower and turned on the water. “Sure. I’ll see you then.”
“Is that water I hear?”
“The shower.” My tank was small but old. It took a few minutes for the water to heat up. “I told you, I wasn’t planning on going anywhere so I thought I would take a nice, long bath later. You ruined that plan.”
“So, wait…” His breathing became choppier. “Are you naked right now?”
“Do you shower with your clothes on?” Why was flirting with him so much fun? I wasn’t a damn teenager. A little flirting was okay, but this was becoming juvenile. So why are you enjoying it so much?
“Give me your address. Wherever you live, I can be there in a couple of minutes. This town is only so big. Stay naked ‘til I get there.”
“Nope.” Tyson could not come to my house. My heart started pounding at only the thought. He was too smart. There was no way he would come here and not start putting things together. “We’re going to lunch, remember?”
“But you’re naked,” he complained. “We can talk and eat later.”
“Yeah, like in an hour when I meet you at Ed’s.” If we kept talking, there was no guarantee I wouldn’t give in. Tyson’s smooth, low voice talking about me being naked and practically begging to come to my house was just too tempting.
My body knew how good he could make it feel. Even though he was miles away, I felt myself responding to him. Yup, staying on the phone was definitely a bad idea. “I’ll see you later, Tyson.”
I hung up before he could say anything else and stepped into the shower after tossing my phone onto my vanity. The water was lukewarm, but since it was hot outside the temperature was fine for a quick shower.
The aftereffects of the call with Tyson lingered in my body, but I ignored my urge to do anything about it. As soon as I was done, I grabbed a fluffy white towel from the towel bar next to my shower and dried off before I could change my mind about those urges.
I had no idea how Tyson had this effect on me, but he did. I wanted him, like all the time. My body was always ready for him, always lusting after his touch. The more time we spent together, the worse it got. Roy Lovett’s son. Who would’ve thought he would be the one to breathe life into my libido?
I shook my head. I certainly hadn’t seen that one coming.
Tyson was already at Ed’s when I arrived. He looked really good in his fancy, tailored work suits and sexy as hell out of them, but dressed in jeans and a light blue T-shirt, he looked relaxed and gorgeous.
My heart did a funny, twisty thing when I saw him standing up, a carefree smile sliding onto his lips when he spotted me. “Hey.”
“Hey.” I returned his smile and sat down, nodding when the waiter offered to fill my glass with water. “How was the rest of your week?”
Tyson’s head tipped from side to side as he considered his answer. I liked that he actually thought about what to say instead of just throwing out the usual “good” or “okay.” “It all went downhill after you left my place the other night.”
“Why?” Tyson and I had texted a couple of times during the last few days of the week, but he hadn’t mentioned anything about things going downhill.
He shrugged, but his eyes told a different story to the casual move. There was a sudden fire burning in them. “There’s a new hearing scheduled for my dad. The petition isn’t dead, it’s just being taken to a new forum.”
My mouth instantly dried up, and my ears started ringing. “I’m sorry, what? I thought you said your appeal succeeded?”
“It did.” His tone was sharp, but I knew the cutting edge to it wasn’t because of, or meant for, me. “It should have meant the petition was dead, but they’ve found a way around it.”
“How is that possible?” Nausea swirled around in my stomach. I put my hand over it to try to quell the feeling, but it didn’t go away. “I thoug
ht you said there was nowhere for it to go after you won the appeal.”
“I was wrong.” He admitted it too easily, like it was a well-practiced line he was just rehearsing again. It didn’t sound like there was any meaning to it. “They’ve gotten the federal courts involved, and now a new date has been set.”
“Jeepers creepers.” I clapped my hand over my mouth. I didn’t know who was more surprised by the antiquated expression that had just come out of my mouth, me or Tyson. His brows rose, amusement lighting behind the angry fire in his eyes.
However, since the curse words I knew that were strong enough in this situation weren’t fit for being blurted out in public, it just slipped out. “The people who are behind this have to be freaking powerful for them to have gotten that right.”
“I met one of them yesterday.” A scowl settled on his handsome face, his gaze darkening. “He threatened my family if I don’t leave this alone.”
Crap on a cracker. My heart ached for him. It was an impossible choice to have to make. “That’s terrible. What are you going to do? I mean, maybe it’s best to keep the rest of your family safe, but that’s just my opinion.”
He shook his head, fierce protectiveness creeping in with the way his spine straightened, and his shoulders opened up. “I’m going to protect all of them. No matter what. I refuse to leave a man behind.”
“Even your father?” I knew there were some mixed feelings there, but Tyson nodded.
“Even my father.” He said it so decisively that I felt his determination to make his words come true shivering down my spine. “He might be in prison, and he might be the town’s most infamous criminal, but he is still my father. I will protect him.”
Reaching across the table, I took his hand and ran my finger across his knuckles. “I believe you.”
Our eyes caught and neither of us looked away. We were still sitting just like that when the waiter came by a few minutes later. “Are you ready to order?”
“We haven’t had a chance to look at the menu yet.” Tyson finally broke eye contact and grinned at the waiter. “Could you give us five more minutes?”
“Sure.” The man bowed out, leaving us alone once again.
I picked up my menu, deciding on a double cheeseburger almost immediately. Tyson chose his meal just as fast and motioned for the waiter to come over. We placed our order, and by the time he left again, the fire in Tyson’s eyes had gone out.
“How was the rest of your week?” he asked. “Sorry, I should have asked you that before I told you about all my shit.”
“Don’t worry, there’s nothing much to tell about my week anyway. Yours was way more eventful.” Nothing noteworthy had happened outside of my encounter with Ken on my supply run with Penny, and I definitely wasn’t mentioning that to Tyson.
“Eventful is one way of looking at it.” He ran a hand through his dark hair and sighed. “Anyway, let’s forget about all that for now. What are you doing tonight? Can you come over?”
I wished I could have accepted his invitation, but there was something else I had to go do first. “I have a meeting tonight.”
I almost left it at that, and I probably should have, but I couldn’t. Just a few more days with him, I vowed to myself. A few more days and I would kick the Tyson addiction I had developed for good. Cold turkey. “How about tomorrow? I can come over then.”
Those beautiful blue eyes of his lit up with a smile. “Perfect. I’ll pick us up a couple of steaks, and we can grill them out on the porch.”
“That sounds good.” It sounded heavenly, actually. Sitting on the back porch on a Sunday night watching the sunset with a gorgeous man making dinner for you was one hell of a way to start the new week. It sure beat my usual routine of two-minute noodles and Sunday night blues.
Tyson and I spent the rest of the afternoon talking and laughing over lunch. It was surprising how comfortable I felt with him. This whole thing between us had started out as scratching an itch in bed, but it was becoming so much more than that to me.
Not that it mattered. Regardless of how I felt about him, I couldn’t let my feelings for Tyson get in the way of what I was doing.
I missed him already, again, even though we’d only said our goodbyes a little over an hour ago. I swallowed all those feelings down and focused on what lay ahead of me. That was what was really important.
After making sure my car was locked, I made my way across the parking lot to the main entrance. The gravel crunched under my feet. It was an almost ominous sound, but the sense of foreboding I felt was probably natural given where I was.
I checked my phone and powered it down just as I passed a hulking guard. A sign tacked to the wall in front of me was faded and rusting, but I could still make out its message. “Welcome to Cypress Creek Penitentiary.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Tyson
I had been over every inch of the petition to get my father out of prison with a fine-toothed comb. Seven fucking times.
And I still had no idea how whoever was behind this, that Ken guy probably, was going to pull this off. Getting my dad out of prison was next to impossible. It lived with things like humans colonizing Mars in my lifetime or Jeremy and Marie having a baby tomorrow just because they had started trying for one earlier this week.
Neither of those things was entirely out of the realm of possibility, but they were so unlikely that they might as well have been. Okay, well, Marie could find out she was pregnant and had gotten that way before they’d started trying, but it probably wasn’t going to happen.
The weird thing about my father’s petition, however, was that I was starting to realize that there was every possibility it was going to happen. Even though the petition mentioned my involvement, it didn’t hinge on it. Plus, they hadn’t requested any of the documentation they would need to question my conduct.
This Ken guy obviously had serious juice if he’d pushed it up as far as he had, especially without me finding out about it.
There had to be something I could do about it, though. I couldn’t just let him win and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let it go just because he’d threatened my family. No one threatened my family and got away with it.
I was playing the slow game for the moment because I had to. I knew I had to talk to Sonny about Ken, but that meant getting him to talk to me at all, and I didn’t have time for that. I had to focus and take things one step at a time, and the most important step right now was finding a way to keep my father in prison. Finding out what my brother knew about Ken wasn’t going to help me find a way to use the legal process to my advantage.
When I was done accomplishing that, I would turn my focus to finding out exactly who this Ken fucker was and once I’d done that, I planned on destroying him. With that, my brothers could help.
There would be nothing left of him after that. He’d be rotting behind the same bars he was trying to get my dad out from behind. Men like that always had their fingers in more than one pie, and Ken was bound to be the same.
If he was one of the skeletons in Dad’s closet, there were others in his. All I needed to do was dig them all up. Easier said than done.
A knock on my door distracted me and pulled me away from my vengeful thoughts. For several sickening seconds, I wondered if thinking about Ken had conjured him up. I wouldn’t have minded another chat with the guy, although I knew it was best to wait until after the hearing to do it.
Getting up from the desk in my home office, I looked out of the window to see Eve waiting outside my front door. Shit. How did I forget she was coming over?
I had been so absorbed in work after saying goodbye to her yesterday, I’d hardly slept. When I woke up from what could at best have been described as an extended nap, I came right back into the office.
There were piles of paper covering every inch of my desk, not a fleck of the wood visible for the amount of paperwork on it. I vaguely remembered texting with Eve a few hours ago, but then I’d lost my phone in the papers, and I
hadn’t bothered to try and find it.
I got that way sometimes, so wrapped up in work that I forgot there was a great big world out there. For today, there was a beautiful girl waiting for me to let her in from that great big world outside.
My home office was set up in the room that used to be the formal dining room of the house and was right next to my entrance hall. Releasing the curtain I’d pulled back to look out of the window, I went to get the door.
Eve held up the brown paper bag she was carrying with a tentative smile forming on her lips. “I hope you like Chinese food.”
“I do.” I took the bag from her and hugged her before she followed me inside. Christ, she was so soft. I loved holding her. I could do it all day if she’d ever let me, but it felt like she was always running. Always busy. Always on her way somewhere or late for something.
She stepped out of my embrace and smiled up at me. “I know you said we could grill up some steaks, but since you said earlier you’ve been working all day, I thought it was better to bring takeout.”
Shit. I’d forgotten all about the steaks. Reaching for her hand, I wrapped my fingers around hers and walked her to the kitchen. “If you guessed I forgot about the steaks, you were right.”
I flashed her a grin that I knew was a little more sheepish than the ones I usually wore, but I really did feel a little embarrassed about forgetting. “I’ll make it up to you next time, okay?”
She blinked slowly a few times, like she was trying to decide if she’d heard me right. Then she bumped her hip into mine before going in search of plates. “Next time?”
“Yep.” Deep down inside, I knew there would be a next time. And probably another time or two after that. Another time or two wasn’t going to be enough for me, I already knew it. But it was inevitable that it would end after that. Anything more than that and we’d be heading into new territory I wasn’t sure I knew how to, or wanted to, navigate. I didn’t want to dwell on that thought now, though, that Eve and I would eventually be over.