"So you look freshly kissed," Fee added, similarly disposing of her bags and cocking her head to look at me. "Come on, the suspense is killing me. Is he the hold you down sort?"
My mouth opened as I struggled on whether to tell them that kind of intimate detail or not. But he had just had me pinned to the wall a moment ago. "Sort of?" I allowed.
"Told you," Fee said to Lea who rolled her eyes.
"Just because she has a phone sex business, she thinks she knows everyone's kinks."
"Hey, I was right about the guy who owns the laundromat wasn't I?"
"He has a furry fetish," Lea supplied. "Something I really didn't want to know. Thanks for the nightmares, Fee."
"Listen, that's not half as bad as recognizing my daughter's guidance counselor on one of the lines once and learning he's a granny fucker and needs my women to offer him cookies and milk after groaning about him hurting their little geriatric hips and loving the feel of their teeth-free mouths around his cock. You want nightmares, that will give you nightmares."
I snorted at that, finding that Ryan's warning about them was perfectly accurate and also that the nerves I had felt building when he opened the door while still there, weren't getting worse.
"So," Lea said, turning to me. "You're Dusty."
I nodded my head at her, shrugging. "I'm Dusty."
"Mark and Eli did say you were hot shit. They weren't lying. Shane wants to know how you aren't three-hundred pounds when you don't leave your apartment."
"Shane is a gym rat," Fee supplied.
"I, ah, do workout DVDs?" I offered.
"That's what I told him. He's a gym purist. I've tried the DVDs, but unless I'm at the gym, there's no one to judge me when my ass gets the wrong kind of jiggly so that doesn't work for me. Anyway, we brought you some stuff. We heard you had to leave in a bit of a rush and figured Ryan didn't exactly think about things like pajamas, makeup, or tampons."
Well, that was true. And, come to think of it, I was due for my period soon and that wouldn't have been a uber fun conversation to have- hey, um, I have the red devil in my pants. Can you go buy me some tampons? Not sexy.
"That's great actually, thanks," I said, meaning it.
"I mean, I doubt you'll be wearing pajamas anytime soon," Fee added. "With all the sex. You are doing it, right? I mean, being agoraphobic doesn't mean you don't like sex."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we weren't supposed to bring up the agoraphobia thing," Lea chided, giving me an apologetic smile.
"Please," Fee said, rolling her eyes. "It's not a big deal."
"I think the issue was that now it looks like Ryan was talking behind her back," Lea specified.
"Alright fine," Fee said, turning to me with a smile. "When Hunt and I first met, he was my neighbor and some highlights of our courtship included- him thinking I was a total slut because he heard me dirty talking and moaning all the time and didn't realize it was my job, him seeing me stumble home drunk all the time, him stopping an attempted rape, and him finding me passed out in a pile of my own blood because I used to cut because I had a shitty upbringing that used to make it hard to exist sometimes. There, now you know all about me and Hunter."
"You forgot the vibrator thing," Lea added, making my brow quirk up. The vibrator thing?
"Right!" Fee said, sounding excited. "So I wasn't into the sex thing at first believe it or not. Long story. Next time you get a couple drinks in me, we will get into that. But anyway, I was trying to pretend I wasn't thinking about Hunter when I was... giving the hooded monk a back massage," she said, making a laugh escape me. "But that was shot to shit one night when he came over and found my vibrator in my bathroom sink."
"Shane and I don't really have any..."
"Um, shut the fuck up," Fee cut her off. "The gym bathroom thing? The oral while on his shoulders thing? Come on. You have some juicy shit to tell too."
Okay.
I liked them.
Was it possible not to?
Granted, there was a bit of a feeling of being an outsider because I didn't know all the little stories yet, but still, they were open and funny and accepting. What more could you ask for?
I figured that, given some time and story telling, they would be all too happy to have me in the fold.
"Oh, and we brought junk food too," Lea said.
"Thank God," Fee added, going into the bags and grabbing a bag of Reeces. "I mean, I love my kids. But I swear they can hear the sound of a candy wrapper from three miles away during a thunderstorm. I never get to eat my own junk food. And, well, they have several years until they start getting a period so they don't understand the struggle and need for chocolate yet, but when they do, I hope they remember all the candy they stole from me over the years and feel really bad about it."
"You taught kindergarten, right?" Lea asked, looking at me.
"Yeah," I agreed, nodding, accepting a Reeces when Fee handed one to me.
"Right here in town?"
"Yeah," I agreed, feeling a pang of loss yet again.
"A class full of twenty little Beccas or Izzys? How? Why?" Fee asked with a smile.
"I always liked kids. I was an only child. I liked the chaos."
"Fee, I think you just found a babysitter," Lea declared, moving off to the kitchen and going about making coffee like she had been in the place many times before.
"Seriously, if you ever want to be driven up a wall for a few hours, I am always looking for a decent sitter. To come here today, I had to pay three neighborhood girls to watch them for a few hours. Thirty bucks an hour because no single girl will take them on. They have that bad of a reputation."
"I'd be happy to hang out with them," I volunteered. "You know, once I am settled again."
"Yeah, crazy situation," Fee said, dropping down on the couch and propping her feet up on the table. "I mean, Lea might have you beat technically. But it's still nuts."
"Maybe she doesn't want to talk about that," Lea said, coming back as the smell of fresh coffee filled the air.
"Fine, then we can talk about how Shane took care of..."
Lea cleared her throat and they both shared a look that I didn't know them well enough to interpret.
But then Fee abruptly changed the topic of conversation. "This place is awesome, isn't it? No one stays here much but Hunt and I take it over on our anniversary for a long weekend every year. Charlie and Helen stay at our place for the kids. They have room service! Ugh, the luxury."
"Please, Hunter does most of the cooking anyway," Lea said, shaking her head.
"Well, only because I'm not good at it. We also have holidays here sometimes. Fourth of July we all show up because they do fireworks over the Navesink. It's perfect from here," she said, gesturing toward the windows.
Then, well, we all drank coffee and ate junk food and talked about light topics before things went serious and I learned about their pasts.
And I learned about Fee's screwed up childhood with a religious fanatic, abusive father in the woods and isolated from anyone but her father, mother, and brother. I learned about how she had run away to New York City and had to learn how the real world worked, with scars from her father both literal and figurative that made her struggle to keep sane without alcohol and cutting herself. Then, finding Hunt and finding someone who accepted her just as she was, she had slowly recovered.
Lea's story was no less traumatic, coming from a life in a bike gang where her father and brother did nothing to stop the club president from raping and abusing her for years. She escaped and he retaliated by abusing and killing a girl she once knew and hurting her brother and trying to guilt her into returning. On the run from him, she went to work for Fee and met Shane and, eventually, he got wind of the ex situation and 'handled' it.
There was a sort of finality to their words that said it would never be a problem again, but didn't elaborate further. I figured that was because, while I was with Ryan, I wasn't exactly in the fold yet. They barely knew me and didn't know how much they
could trust me.
I had to understand that.
It was almost dark out when Fee, obviously the one with less of a filter, finally blurted out, "So, agoraphobia..."
"Fiona," Lea hissed.
"What? We're old friends now," she said, shaking her head. "It's not like it's a secret for chrissakes. So was it just anxiety that escalated?" she asked, surprisingly accurate.
"Yeah."
"How long was it before Ryan forced you outside that you left? Months..."
"Years."
"Oh, wow," she said, brows raising. "So, you being here... this is huge. Good for you."
It felt good to hear that, to have someone outside of maybe the few people close to me, understand what that meant for someone like me, to know it took a lot out of me to make the moves that, to others, seemed small.
"Thanks," I said, feeling my face getting warm.
"If you ever have an urge to get out without pressure, you can come hang at my place," Fee offered. "In case you want to branch out with new safe zones and whatnot."
"I'll invite you to my place too, but the warehouse isn't all that interesting."
"The warehouse?"
"Yeah, Shane decided to convert an old warehouse. It's a safety thing I guess. It's a huge, open space."
A phone started ringing. Well, not ringing exactly. Her ringtone was a seventies porn theme: bow chicka bow wooooow.
"That'd be the girls. Probably mine," she specified, jumping up to fumble for her purse. "The actual babysitters are likely tied up and duct taped."
With that, she moved off to the kitchen to take the call and Lea tapped my leg with her foot. "You alright?" she asked, brow raised.
I nodded at that. "Yeah."
"I know this is a lot."
"I know I should feel that way, but I'm alright. You guys, actually everyone I've met from Ryan's family, has made it easy. I don't know. You guys aren't like my old friends or family... you just... go with the flow."
Lea smiled at that. "The Mallick family is an interesting group of people. They're all crazy and intense and unique, but for them... nothing is more important than family. So if Ry is serious about you and this is going somewhere, then you will be family too and they are going to accept you like you are. Actually, Helen is itching to get to know you."
"Ryan's mother?" I asked, thinking of the stories he had told me about her.
"Yeah, she likes unique characters. Fee with her twisted past and phone sex. I work part-time in the phone sex thing and my biker background. And then there's you with your agoraphobia."
"I think my thing is a lot less interesting than your things."
"Maybe," she agreed with a shrug. "But I think Helen's thing has less to do with how nuts our stories are and more to do with how well our stories work for her sons. Ryan has always liked sweet, nice, normal girls. Like when I first met Ryan he brought a date to Helen's dinner and she was just too sweet and too good and when Helen told her that Ryan is an enforcer, she booked it. So I think she likes that he found a girl that is his style but isn't scared away by the lifestyle."
"Well, I hope she..."
"Oh, no!" she cut me off, reaching out to touch my arm. "No. I didn't mean it to sound like she would be judging you or anything. She just wants to meet the girl who finally got Ryan to get serious. She and Charlie want more grand babies. So if you could get serious fast, I'd appreciate it because since Fee declared she's done popping them out, they're up Shane and my ass about making babies."
I laughed at that. "Well, I will do my best," I agreed with a smile.
"That's all I'm asking," she said, dramatically as Fee sighed.
"Alright, I have to go save the girls. I think they have gone gray with my hellions. And since Lea drove in with me..."
"It was really nice getting to know you guys," I said, meaning it. "And thank you so much for all the supplies. That was really sweet."
"Don't mention it," Lea said.
"Oh, wait, I forgot something," Fee said at the same time, going to her purse and digging in. And then she pulled out the biggest box of condoms I had ever seen. "The only good sex is safe sex, so until you feel comfortable enough to hit a clinic again, keep yourself from getting knocked up with these. I have a limitless supply."
"I heard of the fishbowls," I agreed, as she dropped it with the rest of the things. "Thank you," I added as we all moved as a unit to the door and said our goodbyes.
I was in the middle of unpacking the bags, going over the conversation of the past few hours in my head. And then it occurred to me.
The look Lea and Fee had shared at one point.
The fact that Ryan and his brothers all had to go out together.
The way most of the day lapsed without me realizing.
"That bastard," I declared to the empty apartment.
Fee and Lea weren't there to girly bond with me.
They were there as a distraction.
Because he was doing something with his brothers. And I got the strong, almost overwhelming feeling that what he was doing involved my and Bry's problems.
But before I could focus too much on that, the low, soothing sound of my ringtone called to me from the bag where Ryan had stashed our electronics beside the fireplace.
Thinking maybe it was him, perhaps too excited and relieved at the prospect, I ran across the room and grabbed it before it finished ringing.
"Hello?"
"Miss McRae?" an unfamiliar male voice said instead, something about the cadence of his voice immediately making me stiffen.
"Yes," I said, my heart already slamming in my chest. I knew. I knew without knowing that something was wrong.
"Miss McRae you are listed as the emergency contact for a Bry Hardy."
Bry.
Emergency contact.
"What happened?" I asked, my voice a strained whisper.
"Mr. Hardy was brought in with a gunshot..."
I didn't hear the rest.
I didn't need to.
And, unlike the time in my apartment when only my life was at stake, I didn't freeze. I didn't panic. I ran across the room and found my shoes, grabbed a sweater that had been in one of the bags, ripping off the tags as I ran out the door.
All I could think of as I rode down the elevator and exploded into the outside willingly for the first time in years was that he had always, always been there for me. No matter what, he stood by me.
I was going to be by his side when he needed me too.
Except, I wasn't Bry's emergency contact.
And the hospital didn't really call me.
And the shit was about to hit the fan.
FIFTEEN
Ryan
"You need to take a breath," Shane told me as we all climbed into the car together. "She'll be fine with Lea and Fee. And you know we have to do this."
This meaning we had to handle her situation.
We couldn't just sit and hideout at the fucking residence. That was no way to start a relationship. We needed to give it a fair chance in my apartment where she could settle in and get comfortable and feel like she could branch out.
So that meant me and my brothers were on the way to Chaz's to have a meeting with our father and see what we all thought the best move was.
Quite frankly, I hadn't given the whole situation as much thought as the severity of it demanded.
Though, considering that was because I had been having my hands, mouth, and tongue all over Dusty and, finally, my cock inside of her, I wasn't exactly pissed at myself about it.
What mattered was she was safe. No one could get past the residence desk if they weren't a resident. And even if you could do so, there was only one elevator to the two penthouse apartments and the only way to access them was with a key. Each member of my family had a key to the elevator and door.
The other penthouse resident, Ross Ward, was the only other person with a key to the elevator. He didn't let anyone come anywhere near his place so he was no concern. Actually, if anyt
hing, having him across the hall when the girls were there alone was another form of protection. He might have minded his own business the majority of the time, but he wouldn't sit on his hands if he heard something amiss across the hall.
They were safe.
She was safe.
But it was temporary.
She would never be fully safe until we handled the situation once and for all.
If the Dom guy was as big a deal as he seemed like, it wasn't going to be easy.
"Alright," Hunt said, pushing a file across the table we sat at, Chaz's closed until dinner time. "Dom Donovan. Drug dealer. Rapist. Murderer. General shithead," he said, sighing. "Bry got himself attached to a real gem."
"Alright," my Pops said, leaning back in his chair. "Really, there are two choices here. We take a trip to Camden and try to talk to Dom, businessmen to shithead businessman. But, to be honest, I don't see how that is going to help. He seems like the kind of bastard who will take our money and deal and then shoot us in the back on our way out."
"I can't say I don't agree with that," I said, nodding. "Bry isn't some hardened criminal, but he seems like he's been hustling his whole life. He's likely been involved with several dealers over the years so he knows dirtbags, but he is scared of Dom. He heard me tell him to get off the street and he fucking ran. Literally. While on the phone with me."
"You saw the picture," Eli added, body stiff, ready to spring into action, wanting blood. "If they'd do that to a woman..."
"Exactly," Pops said, nodding.
"So the other option?" Shane prompted, calmer than you would generally expect to find him. He was usually extroverted, loud, crazy. Since the shit went down with Lea's ex, he had a certain seriousness toward work situations that he hadn't had before.
Pops shrugged. "We have someone else handle it for us."
Right.
Navesink Bank managed to be the odd cesspool of crime it did because everyone knew their place. Everyone had their niche. The Henchmen MC ran their guns. The Grassis ran their docks. We illegally loaned money. Ross Ward had his underground fighting. Breaker was hired muscle. Shooter was a killer. V and Lex Keith were the shittiest of shitheads and dealt in skin and other deplorable acts. Hailstorm did... whatever the fuck Hailstorm did.
Ryan (The Mallick Brothers #2) Page 16