Two of Hearts

by Christina Lee

  “Fuck, man, I hope she does this time,” I said, clapping him on the back and silently wishing him the best. I couldn’t imagine being in his place, with a wife and possibly a baby on the way. But hell, he sure made me feel a longing for what he had, deep in my gut. “I know how bad you both want this. I won’t say a word.”

  He nodded and I changed the subject before we got all sappy and cried into our beers. Before I confessed to him what seeing his sister on this trip had done to me. How I wanted her again and just not for one visit. Damn, she was definitely fucking with my brain.

  Chapter Twelve

  SHANE

  I grabbed a handful of pretzels from a bowl on the bar. “Did your sister also tell you that I drove them to that casino meeting?”

  “She said something like that,” Kai said and then grinned. “Mostly that you’ve been a pain in the ass and told her she needs a driver.”

  “I’m the pain in the ass?” I said with a humorless snicker, and Kai chuckled beside me.

  Dakota had given us the business our whole lives. Always so prim and proper, she had the best grades and was career oriented. At some point, our friendship changed to lust as she grew into that shapely body that went along with that smart mouth. And then all bets were off as we tried so hard to keep our hands off of each other in front of her family throughout college.

  “But man, this is definitely not something to laugh about,” I said and Kai’s gaze snapped to mine. “I know from experience that when things are brewing, bad shit can happen.”

  He nodded once, his expression telling me he heard me loud and clear. “That why you were talking to me about my studio?”

  “Yeah, especially if your wife is going to visit you,” I said. “Or anyone else for that matter. Dude, you don’t know what people will do when they’re angry or scared.”

  He nodded, looking somber. “I’m on it.”

  “Good,” I said. “Want me to check out Rachel’s store, too?”

  Rachel had taken over running her mother’s organic candle business in town.

  “That would be cool,” he said, fishing out his phone. “She should be closing up shop and meeting me here soon. Let me check in with her.”

  When I saw him promptly typing her a text message, I knew I had gotten through to him. When it came to his wife, he didn’t play around. He was as committed to her as he was to his music. Even more so. As I watched him type, I realized that I was seeing Kai in his prime, at his best. He was somebody to look up to now. It was like we had switched roles from college. I was the one who was a bit of a floundering mess now.

  “I hear Flint Thornfall’s been putting pressure on your mom to sell,” I said when he was finished. “What can you tell me about him and his son, Ridge?”

  He looked pointedly at me. “You sure this is about the casino or about what my sister’s been up to?”

  “Shut up, man, this is serious,” I said, pushing at his shoulder.

  “Believe me, I’m getting it,” he said, looking around and then lowering his voice. “Just trying to lighten the mood a bit.”

  “Sorry, dude,” I said. “All I’m saying is we definitely need to increase security around the casino.”

  “What’s this we business?” he asked, arching an eyebrow. “You sticking around or something?”

  I nodded. “Short leave of absence. Been wanting to take one for a while. This is the perfect opportunity.”

  He looked at me over his beer. “Dakota know?”

  I tipped my chin. “I want to stick around here in case things get out of hand.”

  “You really think that’s a possibility?”

  “Don’t you?” I watched my friend’s eyes closely. You can read a ton from somebody’s body language. I had learned a lot over the years. Guilty conscience. Whether or not a captor was planning on running.

  Kai sighed, his eyes hinting at what I already knew his answer would be. “Yeah, man, I do.”

  I swiveled in my seat to grab at the bowl of snacks on the bar. “So tell me what you know about the Thornfalls.”

  “Guess there’s tension over the mom’s passing and how his dad dealt with it or something,” he said. “My mom might know more.”

  “I spoke to her yesterday in the car. Flint sounds like a real winner. But I want to hear your perspective,” I said, and then popped a miniature pretzel in my mouth.

  “Likes to seem tough and successful,” Kai said, shrugging. “But greedy is what he is. I think he gets his way because folks don’t know how he’ll respond or what he’ll do next.”

  “What about his relationship with your dad?”

  “I think he respected Dad.”

  “Respect or jealousy?”

  Kai rubbed his fingers along his jawline. “Good question. No outward jealousy. But when that sacred-ground case was going on, Flint took up for the other side. For no valid reason, it seemed.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, glad I had decided to ask Kai about this. I knew he wouldn’t bat an eyelash at my questions.

  “He started spreading rumors—or at least that’s what we put together—that Dad was making a big deal out of nothing. That the other casino owner had promised to build a shrine to the elders they’d dug up on the property and would bring more awareness to our people’s history. They had plans to build the largest and most upscale casino in the Midwest.”

  “Seriously? Bet your father was pissed,” I said.

  “Understatement,” Kai said, sliding his fingers along the rim of his glass. “My dad was so relieved when his injunction went through—not only because he honestly believed what those men were doing was wrong, but because it shut Flint up for a while and sort of patched the riff between he and Uncle Elan.”

  I nodded. “Except Uncle Elan is also urging your mother to sell.”

  “True,” he said, motioning to the bartender for a couple of new beers. “But I think it’s coming from a good place. All the tension has been concerning to him. In the end, my uncle is a pretty upstanding guy.”

  I nodded, hoping he was right about his uncle. “So how did Flint take it when his son started dating his competitor’s daughter?”

  “He actually seemed kind of smug about it,” he said. “He probably thinks Dakota is a good catch. He’s all about appearances, so that didn’t surprise me.”

  I didn’t respond, lost in my own thoughts. Dakota was definitely a good catch and I was lucky that I hadn’t come home to find her already engaged or married. Just being around her again made me determined to find out exactly what this was between us.

  “My parents seemed to approve of Ridge, too, I guess,” Kai said, and my stomach tightened painfully. “I mean, he’s pretty well respected in the community for his charity organization. Dakota is, too. The proof’s in how efficiently she’s running that casino.”

  I believed every single word of that. That girl had always been a pistol. Cool and classy and professional. She practically demanded respect. The thing was she could be intense in high school and college, like she was a girl beyond her years. But now she seemed to have grown into her own. It was as if this had been what she’d always been meant to do. And it was attractive as hell.

  “How long did she date Ridge?” I could barely get the words out, but I needed to know. This would be the only part of her dating life that I’d be able to stomach. Fuck, just the idea of someone with their hands all over her made me want to punch the dude’s lights out and I didn’t even know him.

  “Hell, I don’t know,” he said. “A while.”

  I clenched my jaw and ignored how my chest felt constricted. “How did he treat her?”

  “Good, I guess. He doesn’t seem anything like his father. He’s a pretty humble guy and man, the dude was always dressed to the nines, that was for sure,” Kai said, laying down a tip for the new beer. “But I could tell he was into her way more than she was into him.”

  I released a breath. Somehow that brought me comfort. He wasn’t the only guy she’d dat
ed since we’d been apart, but at least I didn’t have to know about those other men to help out with this case.

  “It’s always been that way with Dakota,” Kai said and then zeroed in on me. “Dude, I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but she was pretty wrecked afterward, for a while.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. She couldn’t possibly have been feeling what I had been all of these years. Not after she had let me go too easily. “I was wrecked, too.”

  “So?” Kai waited on me. It was a conversation long overdue. We’d never discussed it, even when I’d swing back into town for a day or two. Even when I flew in for a couple of days to attend his wedding. Thankfully there wasn’t anything traditional about the reception, so I didn’t have to be around Dakota outside of the ceremony.

  We’d hardly made eye contact. I knew she’d brought a date, but I could barely even bring myself to look in their direction. I was too petrified of having some kind of severe physical reaction. Besides, you would’ve never guessed they were together, the way she kept her distance from him the couple of times we had even been in the same room.

  I couldn’t even have told you exactly what the dude looked like, that’s how focused I was on keeping my nerves from jangling to the damn ground. I wanted to prove to her that I had it together, that I was as okay without her as she was without me. But now here Kai was, telling me a different story.

  It was the same story her body seemed to be telling me in her office yesterday. But that wasn’t emotions talking; that was pure unadulterated tension, something we always had in droves between us—worse when we were trying so hard to hide our fever for each other in college.

  Finally, I cleared my throat. “I wish I understood what happened. We each had a year of school left, we had just gotten together, and we kinda didn’t know what to do with that,” I said, remembering how I’d lie awake after a brutal day of training and try to understand what had gone wrong between us. Thankfully, there hadn’t been a lot of downtime to do that. “We agreed to just focus on our studies and that we’d figure it out afterward.”

  Kai sipped and nodded, giving me his full attention.

  “But then I decided to head to Marshal training immediately after graduation. I knew she was disappointed. She said we should take a break. I got pissed that she just gave up on me, so I agreed and that was it. I figured that she wanted to find someone to be with closer to home. It didn’t seem like she really trusted that I . . . that she’d be included in my future plans.”

  “That’s my sister for you,” he said, shaking his head. “Always so sure she knows what everybody else needs. What a pain in the ass.”

  Dakota always seemed so hesitant about where I’d end up, always asking if I liked traveling and living away from home. I think she thought she was keeping me from following my dreams. So then she just let me go. And fuck, I was so pissed at her. At her stubbornness. And I could’ve fought harder, I guess, but I didn’t. That may have been my biggest regret.

  “Having this conversation with you might be like beating a dead horse,” I said, already feeling the same exhaustion that I felt so many years ago. “Just know that I . . . I never stopped caring about her.”

  “I think it’s the same for her, bro,” he said, scrubbing his hand over his face.

  My head snapped up. “Yeah?”

  “But shit, it probably had the best chance at working out when you were just getting together,” he said. “Not now, when you have a crazy job and lifestyle.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek and nodded.

  Rachel ambled in from her shift at Pure. Apparently there were now two locations and they were both real successes. I didn’t know how she was doing it with her pregnancy though. She looked positively dead on her feet. Not that I’d tell her that. Besides, I wasn’t even supposed to know.

  Kai stood abruptly. “Baby, we need to get you home.”

  She practically fell into his embrace. “Feed me first.”

  Kai reached for a menu and signaled for the bartender. “We can get it to go.”

  Rachel nodded and then reached over to give me a longer hug than she’d had a chance to at the funeral. “I still can’t believe how you’re all beefed up.”

  I grinned. “Gotta stay fit and sharp.”

  “Chasing after those criminals?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “Sometimes, yeah.”

  She shook her head. “Can’t even believe it. Our little Shane is all grown up.”

  “Dude, what about you?” I said. “Looks like you’re working your butt off.”

  I wasn’t about to mention she’d be popping out a human being soon if all went well.

  “Tell me about it,” she said, falling onto a barstool. “So what have you boys been up to?”

  “Just talking about the casino and the mess that’s going on. I’ll fill you in after I get you home,” Kai said, kissing her forehead. I had to turn away from the tenderness I saw reflected between them. Somehow it made me feel hollow inside.

  “Don’t worry, there’ll be more time to bug your ass about it all, too,” I said. “I’ll be in town for a while.”

  She leaned toward me. “Does Dakota know that?”

  I blinked. “Now you sound like Kai.”

  Her anxious gaze darted around my face and I knew she was just looking out for her friend. Little did she know, I was trying to do the same.

  Chapter Thirteen

  DAKOTA

  The phone on my nightstand buzzed with a text from a name I hadn’t seen there in years, let alone two times in the span of twenty-four hours. The feeling was so riveting I held onto my pillow for support, since I hadn’t gotten out of bed yet. I was still dragging from a late night at the casino. We had been down a server—one who had called in sick one too many times to count—so Stuart and I did some rearranging on the floor.

  Shane: Heading over to check security in your building. Didn’t want it to be a surprise.

  I allowed that thought to sink in. In the last few days, Shane had pretty much bulldozed his way into our lives again. Not only had he shown up at the casino and convinced Stuart that we needed to take extra precautions, but he had also apparently persuaded Rachel and Kai, who were now on my case about it.

  But Stuart was worse than any of them, besides Shane of course. It was as if he’d become an overprotective father or uncle, instead of an employee or confidante. After consistently walking me to my car, he finally convinced me to allow Grayson to drive my mom and me to and from work every day.

  As it was now, Shane’s concerns had infiltrated my brain so much that I’d begun looking over my shoulder whenever I was alone and doing everyday mundane tasks. It was exhausting. I felt safest at the casino where I was with my team, my family—or at least the people whom I’d once considered my family. Security there felt tight.

  Still, it was a tough position to be in. I trusted Shane’s instincts but I didn’t want my employees to think that I was removing myself from regular contact. On the outside, my actions might look fear-based. So I fought against that aspect of it, which was one of the reasons I had stayed past schedule to handle the employee situation personally last night.

  The other thing I hadn’t gotten accustomed to was Shane’s sudden daily presence. In the past five years I had placed my feelings for him in a nice little box and thrown it overboard into the vast darkness of my heart. But now it was as if it had resurfaced and was bobbing in the water.

  I read his text again. I wasn’t due at the casino until later and planned on doing some paperwork at home. Had Stuart given Shane my schedule? I gritted my teeth. I was definitely going to have a talk with him.

  Finally, I replied.

  Me: Okay.

  Thing was, I didn’t want to get used to having Shane around again. So why hadn’t I just told him I was out the door and wouldn’t be able to see him this morning? My heart and my head were at war with each other, that was for certain.

  The other thing that had
just become glaringly obvious to me was the fact that I was currently wearing Shane’s Radiohead concert T-shirt from college. I’d worn it for years, Shane’s spicy boy scent having vacated the material long ago. I first began wearing it a while back, after he’d forgotten to pack it after one of our rare weekends together.

  It had brought me comfort back then, and by now the material was soft and worn-in. I’d be mortified to have Shane discover that I’d kept it and used it as my sleep shirt well into my late twenties.

  I stood and immediately pulled it over my head, like it was on fire. I balled it up tightly, but as my fingers hovered over the garbage can, I couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. Instead, I smelled it, calling up some distant memory, and shoved it in the back of my top drawer.

  I took a quick shower, slipped into jeans and a feminine top and then fired up my laptop. I admit to being a workaholic. I was at that damn casino in some capacity seven days a week. My hours had only increased now that my father had left it in my hands.

  I constantly think about work—about running numbers and planning improvements. If I wasn’t at the casino, Stuart or another manager I trusted was there and kept me in the loop at all times. I needed it to run like a well-oiled machine, just like my father had made it run.

  And in my downtime, I was restless even in my own apartment. The fact that I slept little made it even worse. I at least made sure to have the basic necessities in my refrigerator. But most days I ate at the casino, if I remembered to eat at all.

  By the time I had thrown my hair up in a ponytail and glossed my lips, there was a rap on my door. My heart took a quick elevator trip down to my stomach, not enjoying the ride. How many times had I fantasized about this very thing? Of Shane standing at my door, returning to me. Professing his feelings and announcing that he was going to stay.

  Stay. Such a substantial word. A word that made me weak in the knees because I was utterly vulnerable to it. To the idea of it. To the longing embedded deep in my soul to have someone remain in my life because they wanted to. Needed to.