The Art of Sage (Cruz Brothers #2)

by Melanie Munton

  She was referring to everything in the past tense, which was a little disconcerting. “All of the Cruz men seem to have that adorable funny gene, even when you’re mad at them.”

  Mickie laughed. “It’s annoying, isn’t it?”

  “Incredibly so.”

  “Just so you know,” she said, meeting my eyes. “I’ve never seen Mason so happy before.” I froze and stared at her with my next breath lodged in my throat, praying that she was telling the truth. “I’ve known him a long time and seen him at his worst. But with you? It’s like he finally remembered how to smile. I’d never before seen his eyes light up the way they do when he’s around you.”

  I had to take a deep, calming breath before I could find my voice. “Well, I know you don’t know me that well, but I can assure you that I’ve never been this happy before either.”

  She leaned back, propping her elbow on the table. “Let me share some wisdom with you about the Cruz brothers, Sage.” My ears perked up. “The three of them dealt with their father’s treatment in different ways. Mason had some addiction problems, Parker just clammed up altogether, and Dawson has struggled with anger issues. But one thing they all have in common is that they aren’t good with opening up about their feelings. They aren’t always willing to express their emotions to other people. It can make a relationship with them difficult at times.”

  Makes sense. “Mason has shared some things about their father with me,” I told her, a little confused when her eyebrows raised. “Not everything, but he told me the gist of how it was growing up with him. And that he’s dying.”

  She still looked surprised. “Then, he’s told you a lot more than he’s ever discussed with anyone else, which is good. He needs someone like you. I just know that Dawson and I almost didn’t get married because he wouldn’t confide in me. And Parker’s girlfriend Kinley broke up with him for a bit when he wouldn’t open up to her about his past. I’m just telling you to be aware of that because it can cause problems before you even realize what’s going on.”

  Interesting. “I appreciate that. I’ll have to get your number in case that does happen and I need more advice on how to handle it.”

  She scoffed and took a bite out of Gabby’s abandoned cake. “I’ve been around this family a long time and trust me, there’s no universal secret to handling these men. Look at me and Dawson. We’ve been married almost ten years and I still don’t have all the answers to our problems.”

  It was that moment that the two men walked out of the back door of the house, rejoining the party. Mason immediately scanned the area and locked eyes with me, making my heart pound.

  “And they think we’re the complicated ones,” I muttered.

  Mickie chuckled. “Right?”

  I instantly forgot my entire conversation with Mickie whenever Mason began stalking toward me, his eyes drinking me in. Mickie excused herself whenever one of the kids starting crying about a cut on their hand. Mason stood over me and leaned down until our faces were inches apart.

  “I’m going to need you to come with me,” he breathed against my lips.

  “You mean come with you or…come with you?”

  He growled and lightly nipped my lower lip with his teeth. “Don’t push me.”

  I bit back my response whenever he grabbed my hand, practically dragging me into the house and up the stairs, away from all the kids and noises. He pushed me up against the bathroom door after slamming it closed, covering my mouth with his as his hands slid down to my ass, pulling our lower bodies closer.

  “You’ve been driving me crazy all afternoon,” he mumbled between kisses. “Keeping me away the way you have. It’s not right, Sage.”

  I let out a soft whimper when he started to grind his hips against mine. “You had me bent over in the shower right before we came over here,” I reminded him. “It’s not like you’re suffering from a sex drought or something.”

  “It feels like it, dammit.”

  His fingers ventured underneath my high-waist shorts but were having trouble actually reaching their destination. “What the hell are you wearing?” he asked on a groan.

  I laughed deviously and wrapped a leg around his waist, digging the heel of my high-top Converse sneakers into his ass. “We’re at a children’s birthday party. Did you really think I was going to wear a skirt and go pantyless at a kid’s party just so my boyfriend can have easier access?”

  His lips pulled on my nipple through my shirt, giving it a sharp tug. “One can only hope. No matter, though. These babies are short enough that all I’d have to do is push them aside and I could be inside you in three seconds flat.”

  Just to prove his point, his hand disappeared up the leg of my shorts where his fingers soon found my underwear, nearly ripping them as he shoved them out of the way. My entire core was so sensitive—ready for his entrance—that I gasped loudly the second he made contact with my wet folds.

  “You have two choices,” he growled in my ear just before he traced around the lobe with his tongue. “You can either let me quietly fuck you in my brother’s bathroom, or you can say goodbye to everyone right now and we take this home where we can be as loud as we want. Your choice but one of them is happening.”

  “That’s a hard choice.”

  “Yes.” A moan slipped out of me as he placed my hand over his engorged cock and pressed down. “It most definitely is hard. So make a decision, baby.”

  “How about we—” The sound of my phone ringing from my shorts pocket cut off my words.

  Mason grunted in frustration and brought his forehead to rest against mine. “Don’t answer it. Not when my fingers are inside you.”

  I kissed him as I squirmed and dug my phone out of my pocket. “It might be important. I’ll be quick, I promise.”

  He sighed and pulled his hand away, taking a step back. “I’ll be quick too if we delay this much longer.”

  I flashed a grin at him and looked down at my phone. A sense of alarm swarmed me when I saw the Dole’s home number lighting up the screen, instantly wiping the grin off my face.

  “Hello?”

  The first thing I heard was heavy breathing, like someone was out of breath or scared. “Sage?” a small voice asked.

  Katie.

  “Katie? What’s wrong, honey? Are you okay?”

  I was straightening my clothes as Mason’s brow furrowed in concern, silent questions marring his face. He knew the situation with Katie and how close of an eye I was keeping on her.

  Katie whispered something I couldn’t make out through her muffled sobs. She was upset about something, which brought out my protective instincts in full force. “What did you say?” I asked. “I can’t understand you. Take a deep breath and say that again, honey.”

  She released a heavy breath and whispered, “I need you to come get me. I don’t like Ed, Sage. He’s been drinking and he’s scaring me. And I don’t like the way he looks at me or touches me.”

  Everything around me came to a stop. Everything in my world ceased to exist at those words. “What do you mean, Katie? How has he touched you?”

  Mason’s eyes widened at the question, his jaw hardening. But it set Katie off again and it was hard to discern what she was saying through her cries. “He’s just…rubbed his…thing against me and he…walked in the bathroom when I was…taking a shower the other day. He said he didn’t realize I was in there but…he knew, Sage. He knew and I don’t…want to be here anymore. Please…come get me.”

  My blood turned to ice. I could feel the rage now coursing through my veins gather strength with every word she said. A dense, angry fog began to cloud my vision, my surroundings becoming hazy as I let the fury take over.

  “I’m coming,” I promised her. “Lock yourself in your room and don’t come out until I get there. Okay?”

  More broken sobs came over the line before she responded. “Okay. Just hurry.”

  “I will. Everything is going to be alright.”

  “Promise?”

&nbs
p; The barely audible word nearly destroyed me, her voice sounding so small and terrified. My spine became steel as the determination to save this girl set in. “I promise.”

  By the time I hung up, I was already out the bathroom door and halfway down the stairs with Mason following closely behind. “Sage! What’s going on?”

  I grabbed my purse off the coat rack and made for the door. “Katie’s in trouble. She said Ed was drinking and he was scaring her.” My words were coming out faster than I could process them. “I’m going to take your car since mine’s back at your place. Have Dawson give you a ride back and tell them I’m sorry I couldn’t stay.”

  I reached for the doorknob, but my arm was suddenly yanked back. Mason came around to stand in front of me, blocking my exit. The expression on his face was lethal. “You’re not going over there alone, Sage. Shouldn’t you call Social Services or something? They have certified personnel to handle this, right? They should be the ones extracting her.”

  “I work for Social Services, Mason,” I blurted, my voice raising in volume. “I am certified to do this. Besides, she’s scared and hiding in her room, so I’m not going to wait for who knows how long before someone else can get over there when that girl needs my help now.”

  I tried to get around his huge body, but he dodged me again. I was going to start screaming if he didn’t get out of my way. “He’s been drinking, Sage. You don’t know how unstable he is, especially right now.”

  “Which is why I need to get over there and get her away from him!” I yelled, throwing my hands up. “I don’t have time to argue with you about this. It’s my job to protect these children, Mason, so get out of my way and let me do my job!”

  He put his hands out to me in a placating manner but I shoved them away. Didn’t he see how time sensitive this was? “You need to calm down or you’re only going to freak her out more,” he said.

  I scoffed. “I can handle myself. But you need to get out of my way.” He tried pulling me toward him—to hug or kiss me or just prevent me from going, I wasn’t sure—but I did not want to be comforted right then. I had too many emotions swirling around inside me.

  “He touched her, Mason.”

  That stopped him dead. He didn’t even blink as he asked, “What?”

  “I don’t know exactly what he’s done, but she said that bastard touched her somehow and looks at her weird and she doesn’t like it.”

  A look of understanding crossed his features as he stared at me. Whether he understood my motivations or not didn’t matter to me in that moment because I needed to get to Katie.

  “I’ll drive,” he said.

  I shook my head. “Bringing you wouldn’t be professional. You really shouldn’t be there at all.”

  His face darkened, turning into one that no person in their right mind would argue with. “The man’s been drinking, Sage. Whether he’s been violent or not in the past doesn’t matter, and I don’t give a fuck if it’s not professional. I’m not letting you go over there by yourself. I’m coming with you. Deal with it.”

  We had wasted too much time, and I suddenly didn’t care if he came or not. “Fine. We’re going right now.”

  For Katie’s sake, I knew that I really did need to calm down before I stepped foot inside that house. It wouldn’t do her good to see her social worker, whom she trusted, hanging by her last thread of sanity, even though that’s exactly how I felt.

  God help Ed Dole if I was about to have another Roy on my hands.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Mason

  This was the side of Sage that Jamal had been talking about that one day. This was the fierce, protective yet angry side of her that she had never shown me before.

  But despite all of that, I knew that this situation with Katie was particularly daunting for her. Because it reminded her so much of her own past. I understood why she was being affected more than usual and why she was making it her personal mission to rescue Katie from the same demons that still plagued Sage.

  Not that I didn’t want to help the girl because of course I did. But I had to admit that I was worried about Sage more than anything. Worried about her physical safety, yes, but also about the emotional stress I knew this was causing her.

  I pulled into the driveway that she directed me to and unclipped my seatbelt. “You need to stay in here,” she said, halting my movements.

  I looked up at her in disbelief. “You’re joking. I came along specifically to make sure the guy doesn’t do anything stupid. I’m going inside with you.”

  She had seemed to get herself together on the drive over and looked at me with cool, calculating eyes. I got this foreboding sense that this attitude from her was somehow the calm before the storm.

  “I’ll be fine,” she said flatly. Her voice was even, but I sensed fury simmering just beneath the surface. “He’s not going to mess with me. And I don’t want him to be encouraged to not cooperate if you’re there. He’ll feel threatened that I brought you if he sees you, like I expected a fight.”

  “He should feel threatened,” I spat. “If he hurt that girl or thinks about hurting you, he should feel very threatened by me.”

  She took a deep breath and released it. “I can handle this. It’s what I do for a living. If for some reason I’m not out in ten minutes, then you can come looking for me. Otherwise, just stay here. Please.”

  She still wouldn’t touch me, but the fact that she made eye contact with me when she said please kept me in my seat. “Ten minutes. If you’re not out by then or if I hear anything suspicious, I’m coming in guns blazing. And I won’t be responsible for my actions if I see something I don’t like.”

  I wished I had minced my words a little when I saw trepidation take over her features, but she exited the car before I could fix it. Reluctantly and with my heart pounding, I watched her walk to the front door, opening it slowly after her knocks went unanswered.

  Aside from the months I spent resisting the urge to fall into my old ways after I got out of rehab, I’d never fought with myself so intensely than I did sitting in that car, watching Sage disappear into that house. I struggled to do as she asked and wait for her, but my mind wreaked havoc on my control, imagining what could be happening on the other side of that door.

  If he touches her…

  I hadn’t gotten into a good fight in a long while, and it sounded like there wasn’t a person more deserving of a hard right hook than Ed Dole. And that bastard Roy. If I ever encountered that man in a dark alley…or hell, even if I just saw him on the street, I’d beat him to within an inch of his life.

  I used to think I knew what anger felt like, what disgust tasted like. I thought my emotional capacity had run the gamut time and again throughout the course of my life, to the point that nothing I felt could surprise me anymore.

  But with Sage, everything was new. Everything was a surprise.

  And the night she told me about what that degenerate had done to her as a little girl, I felt every bit of compassion and every shred of humility being stripped from me, making me feel less than human.

  I hadn’t known what anger felt like.

  And I hadn’t known what love felt like.

  Not before that night.

  That was the night everything came to a head and I realized that my feelings for Sage had gone far beyond my level of comprehension. I would die for that woman. And God help me, I would kill for that woman. If that meant ridding myself of my humanity in order to protect the world from a man like Ed Dole and make Sage happy in the process, then so be it.

  With those thoughts in mind, I was relieved when the front door whipped open six minutes later and Sage came out with Katie tucked under her arm. That was, until I saw a large man that I presumed to be Ed come out and stomp after them. He had a menacing look on his face and his gait wasn’t completely stable. Definitely been drinking. I watched them closely with my hand on my door handle, ready for a reason to smash this guy’s face in.

  “Get back here you who
re!” Ed shouted and grabbed Sage around the arm, yanking her backwards.

  I was out the door immediately, approaching them with murder in my eyes.

  Before I could reach them, Sage put both her hands on his chest, shoving him back as hard as she could. He was a big guy but in his drunken state, it didn’t take much to throw him off balance.

  I stopped a few feet from them when I heard Sage address Katie over her shoulder. “Katie, this is my friend Mason I was telling you about.” Katie had been biting her lip as she watched the exchange but swung her fearful eyes up to me at Sage’s words. “Go wait in his car and I’ll be there in just a second.”

  I offered her a friendly smile and she tossed one more look over to Sage before shuffling off toward my car. When she was sure that Katie could no longer hear them, Sage spoke to the man before her.

  “Don’t ever touch me again,” she hissed. “I’m taking Katie with me and there’s nothing you can do about it. If you want to make it worse for yourself with Social Services, please keep trying stupid things. I’d be happy to add physical assault to the list of charges I’m going to bring against you.”

  He scowled at her and my fists clenched. No fucker was allowed to look at Sage that way. The man had already laid his hands on her. Did the asshole know how much danger he was in with me standing there?

  “You’re a slut,” he sneered. “You’re going to fucking pay for this.”

  “Because I don’t tolerate disgusting low lives grabbing my ass, I’m a slut?”

  I shot forward. “He did what?”

  Sage put her hand on my chest, stopping me from taking the prick to the ground. “Is that what it is, Ed?” she asked. “No decent woman other than your wife will have you so you try to get your jollies from innocent young girls? You’re one sick son of a bitch. And if you cause any more problems, if you don’t fully cooperate with my office from here on out, I will personally see to it that you rot in a jail cell for the rest of your miserable life before you spend an eternity burning in hell.”