Not Letting Go

by R B Hilliard

  “If you’re all done drooling, we can begin,” Max said. His eyes were on Ellie who was sitting next to him on the love seat. She gave him a big grin and he sighed. “You all know Garrett. The guy you are all drooling over is Caswell Ashford. Cas worked as a P.I. in Kentucky. Garrett was introduced to him through work and they became friends. When I met Garrett, he and Cas were in the preliminary discussions of becoming business partners. Garrett liked protecting my beautiful wife so much that he decided to open an office in Charlotte and he talked Cas, here, into joining him. Cas still does P.I. work but also has training in protection. That about right?” he asked Cas.

  “Sounds good to me,” Cas said. As soon as he spoke, Reyn let out a sigh.

  My eyes wandered over to Gage. He was staring straight at me and he did not look happy.

  Shit.

  “Cas, I would like for you to meet my wife, Ellison.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Ellie said, “and welcome to Charlotte.”

  “Nice to meet you, too. I’m glad to see he finally got off his ass and tracked you down.” He tilted his head towards her belly and shot Max a knowing look. “You sure didn’t waste any time with the reunion, did you?”

  Max rubbed his hands protectively over her belly and grinned. “No better way to stake my claim, man. This right here is my son.” Even though he was talking to Cas, his eyes were on Dillon. I wanted to kick him for goading Dillon and making his wife uncomfortable.

  “Enough,” Ellie pleaded. Max winked at her in response and then moved on with introductions.

  “You remember me telling you about Kurt? Well, here he is in the flesh. The stunning beauty sitting next to him is his wife, Joss.”

  Kurt stood and shook hands with Cas, while Joss craned her neck to get a better view of Cas’s body or, more accurately, his backside.

  Kurt was facing away from Joss so she couldn’t see the irritated look on his face but Ellie, Reyn and I could. I tried not to laugh when he sidestepped in front of her and cut off her view. Not one to be thwarted, she simply scooted over and continued her perusal. Again, Kurt maneuvered in front of her. Again, she scooted over. This continued until Kurt was officially pissed off and Joss practically hung by her fingernails off of the sofa. When Reyn, Ellie, and I all burst into laughter Joss relented, let out a big sigh of frustration and slapped Kurt on the ass.

  Max shook his head at us before continuing on to introduce Dillon, Gage, Zip, and Susannah. When he got to me he said, “This is your new client, Piper O’Connell. I wish you much luck as she is trouble with a capital T.”

  “Max,” Ellie chastised.

  What does he mean his new client?

  “Oh and the blonde sitting next to her is her friend, Reyn Walker, who she just saved from Dooley’s evil clutches.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you mean I’m his new client?”

  “Just that,” he replied. “While you were off saving the day, Wonder Woman, Garrett was searching for information on Dooley. He’s here to fill us in on what he found, as well as discuss the game plan.”

  All eyes moved to Garrett. He had that deer caught in headlights look on his face and I felt sorry for him. “Uh, okay,” he stammered, “As you all know, Dooley Shane is a real creep. Cas and I have been looking into some of his businesses. While we’ve made good progress, we may be able to access information that will really help us complete the picture.” His eyes darted to me. “Piper, I really need those pen drives.”

  “Piper can do what she wants with hers, but Zippo and I get to decide whether or not you get ours after we’ve seen them,” Gage cut in.

  “That’s fair,” Garrett agreed. “The faster you can make that decision, the better.”

  Before leaving the back house, I had grabbed all three drives and stuck them in my pocket. “Here Garrett,” I said as I dug them out. I’d never been so happy to get rid of anything in my whole life. “This one is mine. Here are Zip and Gage’s. Hopefully they will help.”

  “Thanks,” he said, taking them from of my hand. He tossed Gage and Zip theirs and then he turned back to me. “Now I need for you to tell us how your trip to Texas went and what your friend here has to do with all of this.”

  Reyn and I spent the next half hour walking back through why I went to Texas and what happened while we were there. Ellie jumped in when Reyn got to the part about Buck sitting outside her apartment.

  “Buck? As in our Buck?” she pointedly asked Gage.

  “Buck left here to go take care of his sick mother in Mississippi. The last Zip and I heard, he was still there,” Gage informed us.

  “Would he tell you anything if you contacted him?” Cas asked.

  “He’d tell me,” Zip interjected. “He, Ax and Chester weren’t on Dooley’s permanent payroll. They just filled in when Dooley needed extra men for something or another. We worked a lot together. That is, until Dooley promoted me. I introduced Buck to Gage and when the opportunity presented itself, we struck and got out from under Dooley. I don’t know why Buck would go back, but I’m pretty sure that he’ll tell me if he knows anything.”

  “See what you can find out,” Cas directed.

  Reyn raised her hand in the air. “Um, hello? Can I ask something?”

  “Shoot,” Max told her.

  “I’m sorry to bring this up now, but I’m starting to gather that I may not be able to return to Austin for a while. Because of Zeke and Dooley, I lost my job and likely will soon lose my apartment. All I have are the clothes I came here with. I can’t just mooch off of all of you forever.”

  “You can work at Dragonfly,” Dillon announced.

  “Pardon?” she asked.

  I glanced over at Dillon and he nodded. “We can teach you how to wait tables and eventually how to bartend, if you’d like?” I suggested.

  A look of relief swept across her face. “Really?” Her voice was full of such hope that if I didn’t already hate Zeke, I would definitely hate him now. Seeing Reyn on such an emotional roller coaster was heart wrenching.

  “Now, getting back to business,” Garrett said, “we all know that Dooley Shane is harboring a sick obsession.” He looked straight at me when he said this. “He may be lying low right now, but that’s what snakes do right before they strike. You are his target, Piper. We need to protect you and probably Reyn as well. In order to properly do this, two things have to happen. One, you will both move into the garage for the foreseeable future. Two, we need eyes on you when you’re anywhere but the garage.”

  I shook my head and said, “No way.”

  “Yes!” Everyone shouted.

  Garrett held his hand up to silence them. “May I ask why not?”

  Shit! Gage lives there. It will kill me to see him all over Missy every day. It-will-kill-me. However, I couldn’t say any of this out loud so I went with the only lame excuse I could think of. “There’s not enough space. Plus,” I turned to Gage, hoping he would help me out, “I wouldn’t want to put you and Zip out or anything.”

  Gage studied me for a second and then dropped the hammer. “There are two free bedrooms upstairs. You can each have your own room.”

  That being said, I could tell from assessing the room that further argument was pointless. The decision was made and Reyn and I were moving to the MG. Damn you Gage Blackwell!

  Once Gage announced that Reyn and I would be moving to the garage the guys decided to “further discuss things” in the game room. Their stated reason was that they wanted to brainstorm about the next move. What they were really doing was downing a few beers while playing pool and deciding my fate. I found it ironic that I was not included in this discussion and felt it unsettling that I had no clue as to what the outcome would be. An hour later, they emerged from the den of iniquity and on the way out the door Cas informed us that he would be by tomorrow morning to help us move. Gage said nothing, not even goodbye. All I could think about was how he was probably headed to Missy’s where he would spend the evening contracting her latest STD. Ugh
!

  “I don’t know what you are so upset about,” Reyn mumbled as she packed her make-up bag.

  I paused from packing up my closet to answer. “If you ran from the love of your life because you thought he did something that he really didn’t do and your actions resulted in losing him for good…to the town slut, and circumstances dictated that you had to then live in the same house as said guy while watching him with said slut, would you be excited?”

  “No, but at least you didn’t catch said guy shagging said slut plus another said slut at the same time!” she snapped.

  “True,” I sighed. “You have to admit that both are pretty bad.”

  “You may not be together, Piper, but at least Gage cares. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have come with Dillon and Zip to find you and he certainly wouldn’t be letting us move into the garage.”

  “That’s just it, Reyn. We’re not together but in my heart he’s still mine. Seeing him with Missy on a day to day basis is going to destroy me.”

  “If he rubs your nose in it, and that’s a big if, then he’s a dick. Not only that, he’s not worth it and he’s leaving you with no choice but to retaliate.” I raised my eyebrow at her and wondered what pearl of wisdom she was about to bestow upon me. She shrugged. “It’s pretty simple, you can either give up or you can fight fire with fire.”

  “And how do you suppose I do that O’ wise one?”

  “I’m not sure, but when the time comes I will help you figure it out.”

  “Are you okay Reyn? I mean, I know you are not okay, okay but….”

  “You two had something very special. Anyone who saw you together could see that. I didn’t remotely come close to having that with Zeke but I thought we had… something. Finding out that it was all just a lie has been a blow to my well-established ego and has left me a little unsure of myself and questioning my normally stellar judgment. But to answer your question, I will be okay. I’m not planning on dating ever again but I promise you that I will eventually be okay. It’s you I’m worried about.”

  Me too.

  I can’t believe I am doing this. Why am I doing this? Because I’m desperate…desperate and neurotic.

  Reyn and I had been living at the garage for three days and I had yet to run into Gage. At first I didn’t think much about it, but eventually it was all I could think about. A million questions flew through my mind and I didn’t feel comfortable asking any of them. Does Gage actually live here? If not, where does he live and with whom? Missy? Just the thought of him wasting all of his special talents on her made me sick inside. Finally, not being able to stand it any longer, I decided to get off my duff and do something about it.

  The Charlotte MMG had been well thought out. In addition to the garage area, the downstairs contained offices, a kitchen and a conference room. Other than the motorcycle bays, the most recent addition was a little playground area for when Bruiser got older. A staircase off of the kitchen led upstairs to a generously sized common room which held two sofas, four cushy chairs, a pool table and a fifty inch Plasma TV with surround sound. Four large bedrooms lined the perimeter of the common room, two on each side. Each bedroom had its own bath. The only design flaw was that in order to access the four bedrooms, you had to walk through the common room. This presented a big privacy issue…especially if you were planning on breaking into one of the rooms, which is exactly what I was about to do. That is, If Zip and Susannah would ever leave! Reyn had gone to bed with a headache right after dinner. Zip and Susannah, however, were another story. How many more episodes of Dirty Jobs are they planning on watching? It’s already midnight and they’ve been at it since eight! If I were Susannah, I would be in the bedroom showing my man what a dirty job really consisted of and it wouldn’t include a television!

  Forty minutes later and I was contemplating aborting my mission when, finally, they called it a night. Just to be sure, I waited an extra fifteen minutes and, deciding that the coast was officially clear, squatted in front of Gage’s door and pulled out my handy nail file. This baby had picked many locks throughout the years.

  “Don’t fail me now, girl,” I whispered as I inserted it into the lock.

  “Are you talking to your nail file?” A deep voice from behind me asked.

  “Holyshitfuckdamnation!” I shrieked and, like a Jack-in-the-box, sprung from my crouched position, tripped over my nail bag and lost my balance. I flung my arms out to catch my pending fall as the nail file shot from my hand, flew across the room and stuck like a dart into the wall next to the television. Breathing heavily, I turned and there, with a very naughty smirk on his face, stood Gage. Hand over my racing heart, I tried to play off the fact that I had just been busted breaking into his bedroom. He casually leaned against the wall with his arms crossed and looked scrumptious as usual in a pair of jeans, a black shirt, his leather jacket and cowboy boots. I miss those boots. His hair was all messy…kind of like it used to get when he had been out riding his Harley…or after a bout of wild hot sex. On the floor by his feet sat a bag, the same bag he used to take on all of his business trips.

  Uh oh.

  His eyes drifted from mine to the nail file embedded in the wall and then returned to me. “Looks like you missed your calling, Princess.”

  “Burgler?” I nonchalantly asked.

  “No. Javelin thrower,” he mused. I wanted to laugh, cry, fling myself into his arms and beg him for forgiveness. I wanted him back. “I would ask what you were doing crouched in front of my door while wielding a nail file, but I’m not sure I want to hear the answer. He glanced back at the file sticking out of the wall, “Though, it doesn’t look like you were too successful.”

  Immediately regretting it the second the words passed my lips, I said the first thing that came to mind. “That’s because you scared me!”

  His lips twitched. “Is that so?”

  Forgetting that I was in the wrong, I asked, “Where have you been?”

  “Why? Did you miss me?”

  His question made me smile. If he only knew. “Like a bad case of the runs,” I scoffed.

  He threw his head back and belted out a healthy laugh that caused my stomach to clinch. Gage Blackwell’s laughter was music to my ears and I wished that I could bottle it and let it out in tiny increments whenever I needed a pick-me-up. My own personal antidepressant.

  “Well, as much fun as this has been, I am beat and need to get some shut eye,” he said through his smile.

  I stepped back from his door to let him by. “Oh, okay. Ummmm, sleep well,” I stammered as I watched him disappear through his door. I thought about following him into the room but felt like I had probably pushed the envelope far enough for one night.

  He momentarily returned to the door after dropping his bag. “Before Max sees the nail file you might want to extract it from the wall.” His eyes danced with humor and I couldn’t help but respond with a smile. He told me goodnight once more and again disappeared behind his closed door. I let out a sad sigh on the way back to my room. Taking his advice, I removed the nail file on the way by. That did not go as planned.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The next week, as promised, Cas became my shadow and a giant pain in my nether region. The only time he wasn’t with me was when he was with Reyn or I was at the garage. He was crazy good looking, but cold…ice cold. At first, I tried to befriend him. When I realized that he was having none of that, I attempted to thaw his frigid heart with my sweet southern charm. When that failed, I dropped my nice girl façade and went for brutal honesty. He may look good on the outside and seem well adjusted but the boy was locked up tighter than a drum. By the end of the week, Reyn and I had turned badgering Cas into a game we played. We ratcheted it up daily to a new level, figuring that by the end of this job he would either feel so harassed that he spilled all of his secrets or he would hate us. Something tells me it will be the latter of the two.

  Gage didn’t look too thrilled about Cas being so close to me. Every time he saw us together he cl
inched his jaw and a frown line appeared between his eyebrows. I can’t say this upset me. In fact, it did the opposite. It showed me that there might still be a chance for us. I couldn’t really use Cas to my advantage because he was not a flirter; however, Gage didn’t know this. It probably didn’t matter anyway because Gage hadn’t spoken word one to me since my break-in attempt. This led me to what I would describe as “desperate measures.” Instead of just telling Gage how I felt about him and risking the chance of being rejected, I decided it would be better to show him. So, when I wasn’t at work or badgering Cas, I was dressed in my most provocative outfits while looking for opportunities to run into Gage.

  February in North Carolina could get a little chilly. This greatly limited my sexy clothing options. For instance, today the highs were supposed to be somewhere in the upper forties. Compared to the past two days of thirty degree highs, this was downright balmy. I decided to celebrate by putting on a skin tight pink spaghetti strapped tank that squeezed my girls in just the right way. Not wanting to be too obvious, I threw a sheer long sleeved black tee on over it. Next, I put on some obscenely short Daisy Dukes that showed off my toned legs. At the last second, I readjusted things and stripped off my panties. Might as well go all out. The final touch was the black biker boots that Gage had bought me at Bikerpallooza in Houston. I hoped to jog his memory of how good things had once been between us.