by Jen Talty
“Bitch.” Hollywood stood, looking down at her. “You’re going to be sorry you did that,” he said with a raised hand.
“In less than two minutes, a team of highly trained professionals are going to come crashing through that door.” Nick nodded toward the entrance near the window. He needed to get Hollywood closer.
Hollywood took five long strides across the room, pressing his gun to Nick’s temple, leaning in inches from his face. “In the last twenty minutes, I’ve doubled my security and gotten rid of anyone who doesn’t belong here.”
Nick smiled. “No, you haven’t.” He smashed his forehead into Hollywood’s nose.
Hollywood screamed, dropping the weapon and grabbing his bloody face.
Nick leaned forward, then flung himself backward, destroying the chair as he crashed against the floor.
The sound of shattering glass filtered through Nick’s brain as he continued to work the rope around his wrists.
Seconds later, Dylan stood over him, cutting through the ropes that bound him. He twisted his head to see Ramey helping Leandra out of her constraints and Logan standing over Hollywood, gun to his face.
Their father would be proud.
Their mother? Oy. He rubbed his ear, remembering how much it hurt when she’d tugged at it each time they did something she didn’t approve of.
Which was often.
He took the hand Dylan offered and hoisted himself to a standing position, before charging the piece of shit laying on the floor.
Shoving his brother to the side, he hoisted Hollywood up by the collar. Nick cocked his fist and swung. Blood spurt from Hollywood’s cheek as Nick’s knuckles connected to bone.
“That’s for what you did to those girls, you sick piece of shit.” Nick wrapped his fingers around Hollywood’s neck. “This is for touching my girl.”
“Nick,” Logan yelled. “It’s over.”
Nick stared into Hollywood’s wide eyes as the man struggled to breath. His hands grasping Nick’s forearm.
“Nick,” Leandra said. Her warm hand gliding across his skin. “Let him go.”
He let out a long breath as he eased his grip, then released Hollywood. “I hope you rot in hell.” Nick straighten his back.
Sirens rang out as the clank of combat boots echoed from down the hallway.
Nick straightened, causing a wave of dizziness caused him to stumble, grabbing a hold of Leandra. “You okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine, but not so sure about you.” She pressed her hand on his back. “Besides reopening this wound, you’ve got a nasty gash to your head, and one on your arm.”
He looked down, noticing one of his brothers tying a tourniquet on his left biceps just below the shoulder. “Well, fuck.”
“Let’s get you patched up again,” Dylan said, looping Nick’s good arm around his shoulder.
“Hang on,” Leandra said as she marched over to where Hollywood leaned up against the wall, holding his bloody nose.
“She’s not going to do it, is she?” Dylan asked.
“I think she is.” Nick smiled.
“Do what?” Ramey asked.
“I’d cover your ears if I were you, little brother.” Nick knew it was so terribly wrong to let her, but damn, the man did violate her.
She bent over, reaching between Hollywood’s legs.
He let out a high-pitched squeal.
“That’s for grabbing me.”
Hollywood screamed like a dying pig.
“And that’s for making my man bleed.”
She stood, turning on her heels, brushing her hands together as if she were washing away dirt. “We can go now.”
“Remind me never to piss off your girlfriend,” Ramey muttered.
Nick’s heart swelled with a combination of pride and terror.
They still had unfinished business and no way in hell was he letting her just walk out of his life.
Ever.
Chapter 11
Four weeks later…
NICK PROPPED HIS PILLOW UP, staring at the waterfall of hair flowing over his chest. Leandra’s arm draped over his bare stomach.
He glanced out the window of his brother’s guest room. Custom built homes on acre lots lined along the palm-tree-dotted quiet Tampa street.
Logan living in the ’burbs, about to get married, and with a baby on the way.
Life and it’s strange turn of events.
Leandra let out a soft purr as she stretched. “What time is it?”
“Almost nine.” He brushed her hair from her face.
“Why’d you let me sleep so late?” Her eye lids fluttered.
“You need it.” He smiled. “Ready to meet my mother?”
“No.” She pulled the sheet over her head. “Can’t it wait until your brother’s wedding?”
“That’s not for another month and in Jupiter.” Nick laughed. “Come on, it can’t be worse than how I met your parents. I mean, really. Nice introduction.” He tugged at the covers, tilting her chin. “Hey Mom and Dad, this is Nick and oh, by the way, I’m pregnant, and it’s his.”
She smiled. “I was just killing two birds with one stone. I don’t know who looked more shocked. You or my dad. But really, it’s not like you didn’t know it was possible.”
“So not the point.” He brought his mouth to hers, pressing his tongue between her lips. After everything had gone down in Miami, he’d gone back to New York with her for a few days before he was sent on another assignment, which took a week. When he returned, she’d dropped the bomb, one he hoped she’d drop, but the idea he would be a father still rattled his nerves.
Especially when he’d yet to tell the baby’s mother that he loved her.
“You’re trembling,” she whispered.
“My mother still scares me.” But that wasn’t what caused the fear swirling in his gut.
What if Leandra didn’t love him back?
They hadn’t talked of marriage or being together as a couple, although, every time they were together, they ended up in bed.
She could have stayed in one of the other guest rooms, but didn’t say no to staying with him.
Or meeting his mother.
“Wonderful. Now I’m even more terrified.” Leandra let out a long sigh. “What time is she supposed to be here?”
“She’s already here.”
“What!” Leandra bolted up right. Her tank top shoulder strap fell down her arm. His boxers rolled down low over her hips.
“She got in yesterday, but since we got in so late, she was already asleep. I’m sure she’s down in the kitchen making food for everyone.”
“We’re eating brunch here?” Leandra slapped his arm. “You should have told me that. I thought I was meeting her at some public restaurant where she’d have to be nice to me.”
“You’re carrying her grandchild. She’s going to love you.”
“I wanted her to like me for me, not because you knocked me up.”
“Well, same went for your folks, but you shoved me under the bus.”
She leaned back in the bed, shoulder rubbing against his. “That’s different.”
“I don’t see how.”
For a week now, he’d been trying to find the perfect moment to tell her he loved her and wanted to marry her, but every time a moment came, something like her parents, or his mother, ended up ruining that moment.
“What the fuck,” he muttered.
“Excuse me?”
He jumped from the bed and riffled through his rucksack until he found the little box. With trembling fingers, he climbed back onto the bed, hiding the box behind his back.
“I’ve wanted to say this for a while now, but honestly, something gets in the way, or I’m just afraid.” He sucked in a deep breath and let out it in a long swish before looking her the eye.
She smiled sweetly, her brown eyes melting his heart like a marshmallow over a campfire.
“I love you.” He braced himself for the ‘oh, well, I don’t feel the same way, j
ust having fun, but we can co-parent’ rejection.
“I love you, too.” She cocked her head.
He blinked, shoving a finger in his ear, wondering if he still suffered from temporary hearing loss. “What?”
“Why are you acting so surprised? It’s not like we haven’t said that before.”
He coughed. “We’ve never said those words. I’d remember since I’ve been terrified for weeks you’d tell me that all our future would be occasional screwing and co-parenting.”
“Oh, my, God. We’ve never said we loved each other?”
He shook his head.
“But I’ve known for a while you love me. How could you not know? Don’t I show it?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but I need the words.”
“I love you,” she said, cupping his face and smacking his lips. “Better?”
“I’d feel a lot better if you put this on your finger.” He opened the box and held it out in front of her. It wasn’t a huge diamond, because he knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t want that.
“Nicholas Emmerson Sarich,” his mother’s voice yelled from somewhere a little too close.
The hair on the back of his neck stood at attention. Nothing terrified him more than when his mother used his full name.
“The door is locked, right?” Leandra asked, staring at him, while he still held the engagement ring in front of her.
The door rattled.
“I guess not,” he said softly as the door flew open.
“Logan tells me Leandra is here…” his mother’s words trailed off as she planted her hands on her hips, glaring at him.
“You didn’t tell her I was coming?” Leandra asked.
Nick wanted to crawl under the bed. If he had told his mother, they wouldn’t have had a second alone the moment he’d set foot in this house.
“No, dear, he didn’t. I thought I was going to have to fly to New York to meet the woman strong enough to bring this one to his senses.” His mother grabbed him by the ear and yanked.
“Mom, really?” Heat spread across his cheeks. “You’re embarrassing me here.”
“Well maybe if you’d told me, I wouldn’t have to come barging in.” His mother let go of his ear and held out her hand. “I’m Catherine Sarich and the mother to this idiot. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
He watched Leandra and his mother shake hands right next to a ring he still held in his palm.
“Well, breakfast will be ready in fifteen minutes. Don’t be late,” his mother said, turning on her heels, but she stopped at the door, and glanced over her shoulder. “I’m going to tell you two something similar to what I told Logan and Mia.”
“Oh, God, Mother, please don’t.” He rubbed his ear.
“I know you’ve both been married before and I’m never going to be mother of the bride, so do what you want about that. But do not make me wait too long for lots of Sarich grandbabies.”
“You’ll only have to wait about seven and a half months,” Nick said with a smile, enjoying the way his mother’s eyes widened with her mouth hanging open.
She let out a breath and shrugged. “Well, it’s only fitting we have another shot gun wedding since that’s how your father and I did it.”
“What!?” That was news to Nick. “I’m shocked, Mother.”
His mother laughed as she gently closed the door.
“Well, that was entertaining,” Leandra said, taking the ring out of the small box and sliding it on her ring finger. “Embarrassing, but highly amusing.” She reached out and snagged his ear.
“Ouch!”
“I’ll have to thank your mother for showing me how to keep you in line for the next fifty years.”
Nick batted her hand away. “Interesting way to say yes to a marriage proposal.”
“I have a feeling our life together is going to be very interesting.”
THE END
Books by Jen Talty
Meet the rest of the SARICH BROTHERS of THE OMEGA TEAM
Nicolaus Sarich is eighteen months younger and started his career as a local police officer. After losing his wife in a boating accident three months after they’d married at the ripe old age of 20, Nick followed in his brother’s footsteps and joined the Army. When his brother gets him an interview with Athena Madero and Grey Holden (the founders of THE OMEGA TEAM), Nick jumps at the chance to work side by side with his brother. Nick vowed to never lover again…but it won’t last when his first assignment is to find and rescue a powerful business man’s adult daughter who has been kidnapped.
Ramey Sarich is two years younger than Nick, but the first of the boys to graduate from college…specifically, West Point Military Academy. Ramey is a test pilot for the Army and when one of the planes he’s testing goes down, he uncovers it was no accident. Wanting an outside source, he contacts his brothers at THE OMEGA TEAM and they send help in the form of an ex-military female pilot now part of the Omega Team…together they unravel a twisted plot, while entangling their hearts.
Dylan Sarich is the baby, but the tallest of the Sarich brothers at six-foot-four. He also attended West Point Military Academy and went through Special Forces training. During a top-secret operation, Dylan is injured and is forced to return home to heal. His mother has been trying to set Dylan up with the right girl for years, but Dylan’s only focus has been his career. All he wants to do is get healthy and back on the job. What he didn’t prepare for was the nurse his mother hired and how she’ll make Dylan question everything about his life.
NY State Trooper Series
IN TWO WEEKS
DARK WATER
DEADLY SECRETS
MURDER IN PARADISE BAY
TO PROTECT HIS OWN
DEADLY SEDUCTION
WHEN A STRANGER CALLS
Other novels
REKINDLED
JANE DOE’S RETURN
Dare to Love Kindle World by Carli Philips
DON’T DARE ME
About the Author
Jen Talty is an award-winning author of Romantic Suspense. Dark Water hit #10 in Barnes and Noble and her books have been in the top 50 on Amazon. Jen grew up in Rochester, New York. She recently retired from being a full-time hockey mom as her children hung up their skates. She and her husband still live in Rochester while her children travel globe. Jen is the co-founder of Cool Gus Publishing with NY Times Bestselling Author Bob Mayer. To learn more about Jen Talty please visit her website: jentalty.com
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