Swirl: The Complete Collection (BWWM Interracial Romance) (Books 1-3)

by Lexi Lewis

  She was breathing harder by the time she had finished her rant, and her hands were clenched even tighter around the clipboard. Her eyes bore into his, and she was gratified to see him look away first.

  “Is everything alright in here?”

  Crap. For a moment, Eve had forgotten where they were. She had forgotten that she was at work, and that giving her abusive father a piece of her mind like she had wanted to since she was a teenager might attract some notice. This was so not the place to be having this go down, but he’d pushed her to it by coming here, and Eve had to make a concentrated effort to reign herself in before she said something she was going to regret.

  When she turned, though, she was relieved to see that it was just Patty in the doorway looking concerned and not one of the doctors.

  Eve couldn’t be sure how much her friend had heard, but from the look on her face, it was clearly enough.

  “Eve,” Patty said. “You don’t look so good. Maybe you should consider taking off for a little bit or at least going down to the cafeteria and having a little break. You look worn out.” The look she was giving her was clearly saying that if she wanted, Patty would take over.

  Warm gratitude rushed through Eve, and she would have hugged the other woman if it had been appropriate and not a show of weakness in this instance. Instead she nodded, passing the clipboard to the other nurse. “Thanks, Patty,” she said. “I have been feeling a little lightheaded all morning. Not enough sleep last night, I guess. I’ll probably just head down to the cafeteria and get some coffee.”

  That was a lie. As soon as she was out of there she was going to Devin’s school to pick him up. She’d been trying to hide this from him for years, dodging his questions about his father and where he was, but maybe now she had to tell him, if only so that he didn’t go off with the man when Eve wasn’t looking.

  Patty patted her shoulder as she walked by and then stepped into the room with a grin. “Now, what seems to be the problem today?” she asked, her voice syrupy sweet with just an edge of danger to it. There was a reason why wayward patients always ended up fearing Patty. She was a fierce woman when she wanted to be, and she didn’t take any crap. “From what I’ve gathered, you’re very sick, so let’s see about trying to fix that, hm?”

  Eve sighed with relief once she was outside the clinic room. Patty would keep Jason busy for a while, and she would have plenty of time to get Devin and figure out what to do.

  A quick word to her direct supervisor had her off for the rest of the day with instructions to call in tomorrow if she was still feeling ill. He had taken one look at her face and immediately approved her request, and when she got into her car and took a minute to look in the mirror, she could see why.

  Her skin was much paler than it should have been, and she looked clammy and wide eyed and tired. Granted, the tired look had been there since she’d woken up that morning, but the ‘just seen a ghost’ look had only been added thanks to her father’s impromptu visit.

  Nothing she could do about that now, at any rate, and she already knew the office ladies at Devin’s school would have things to say about her behind her back when she got there. They always did, no matter how she looked when she turned up to collect Devin, and it wouldn’t even be surprising when they thought she was some kind of bad guardian to getting him when she was clearly not well.

  But whatever.

  If their father had worked out where she worked, it would only be a matter of time before he made his way to Devin’s school, and Eve had to talk to him before that happened.

  She parked right out front and walked into the office, trying to make herself look less frantic.

  “Ms. Cooper, is everything alright?” one of the administrative assistants asked, looking alarmed when she came in. She exchanged a glance with the other woman was at the next desk over, and Eve bristled, but forced herself to keep it in check.

  “Yes, I’m fine,” she said. “I just need to check Devin out for the day.”

  They looked at each other again. “Is there a reason, Ms. Cooper?”

  Eve could hear the condescension in their voices. Was there a reason? No, of course not. She just wanted to take her brother on a little stroll in the middle of the day. Just a little goofing off for no reason. She closed her eyes and let out a breath, forcing herself to make eye contact with her and not go off.

  “Yes, there’s a reason. We’re having something of a family emergency, and I need to speak with my brother and get him home before it gets worse. So if you could stop gossiping with your eyes for two seconds and call him, that’d be really good.” Her voice had slipped towards anger at the end there, but the widening of the woman’s eyes told her she’d gotten her point across.

  “Alright, right away,” she said, fumbling for the intercom. She called into the classroom and asked Mr. Schwartz to release Devin for an early dismissal, and Eve went to sag gratefully into one the chairs while she waited.

  Both of the office assistants seemed to be afraid to even look at each other while she was sitting there, and Eve rolled her eyes. Everything was a drama with these people, and it was more than a little irritating.

  Luckily, it didn’t take long for Devin to appear in the doorway, eyes wide as he stuffed papers into his backpack.

  “Eve?” he asked, frowning. “What’s going on?”

  “Don’t worry about it right now,” Eve said, getting to her feet and sighing. “We’ll talk about it in the car.” She held her hand out for his, and he took it, still looking up at her with worried eyes. It broke her heart a little that she had made her brother worry. That hadn’t been her goal at all. She didn’t want him to worry about her because it was her job to worry about him, but right now that couldn’t really be helped.

  They walked out to the car in silence, and it wasn’t until they had put some distance between them and the school and were headed towards home that Devin spoke again.

  “Eve, what happened?”

  She let out a slow breath and glanced at his earnest face in the rearview mirror. God, she couldn’t even remember being his age and being happy. All she’d known then was being afraid that her father would come back and ruin everything, and when he had, she hadn’t been prepared. Their mother had tried to defend him so many times. To say that it wasn’t as bad as it looked, but Eve hadn’t been fooled. She hadn’t ever been fooled.

  Eve didn’t believe in lying to your kids to spare them. Usually it was impossible to do, and whatever it was that you were keeping from them would come back to affect them anyway. So she knew she was going to tell Devin the truth.

  “Devin, you know how sometimes you ask me about your dad—our dad—and I tell you it’s not something we need to talk about just yet?”

  Devin nodded. “Yeah.” His eyes widened at the implication. “Is it time? Are we going to see him? Is that why you came to get me?”

  “No,” Eve said sharply, and she sighed when she watched Devin shrink back into his seat at her tone. “Sorry, Devin, I’m just…” Okay. She could do this. “Devin, you’re not going to get to meet our father. Not if I can help it, anyway. He’s not…he’s a bad person. We’ve talked about bad people and how it’s better to stay away from them, right?”

  He nodded again.

  “Our dad hurt Mom a lot when I was younger, before you were born. He made her cry a lot. And then he left. And then he came back so Mom could have you. And then he left again. He’s not someone you want in your life. He’s not like Mr. Santiago, who’s there for his kids and plays with them and stuff.”

  “Oh.” Devin seemed to be thinking about that, frowning a little. “Why would he hurt Mommy? She was so nice.”

  Eve sighed and closed her eyes. She should have known that talking about their mother would bring up thoughts of her. “I don’t know, Dev,” Eve said, keeping her eyes on the road even though they were burning. “I think…I think he was just angry a lot. And Mom tried to protect me from him and ended up getting hurt herself. It was wrong, and I
want you to listen to me, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “I’m going to show you a picture of him and if he comes and tries to talk to you, I want you to run. Go get an adult and tell them that someone bad is trying to hurt you. He’s going to pretend like he’s nice and he wants to be your friend or to talk to you, but he’s a liar.”

  “Okay.” His voice was so soft, and Eve ached inside for having to be the one to tell him these things. But it had to be done. She wouldn’t let him be unprepared for this.

  “Promise me?”

  Devin met her eyes in the mirror. “I promise,” he said, voice barely audible.

  He cried a little when she got them back to the apartment and inside. Devin curled up next to her on the couch and pressed his face against her side, crying softly, little fingers clenched into the material of her scrubs.

  Eve just stroked his head and murmured that it would be okay.

  They basically didn’t have any parents at this point. There was their aunt, but other than that, it was just the two of them, and it was Eve’s job to keep Devin happy and safe. She didn’t always know how to do that, and right then she felt more lost than she had in a long time, but she was filled with a determination that she hadn’t felt since right at the beginning of all this, and she knew she wasn’t going to let anything happen to her brother.

  CHAPTER 7: CHANGE OF PLANS

  If there was one thing other than being able to ride his bikes and his boards as much as he wanted that Reese missed, it was being able to pace when he was agitated. Hobbling around the room in his walking cast was not the same thing at all, and so he was sitting the chair in the kitchen, jiggling his good leg and wishing his injury would heal already.

  “I think we might have to consider the possibility that you’re going to have to quit,” Paul said, shrugging.

  Reese was pissed off.

  His agent wasn’t supposed to be telling him this. He was supposed to be telling him that they were going to find whoever was responsible and make them pay. That it was going to be alright to keep competing. But instead they were sitting in his parents’ sunlit kitchen, going over the things Reese was supposed to say before his interview the next day.

  Originally, it had been his plan to update everyone on his injury and assure them all that this wasn’t going to stop him, but apparently that wasn’t going to happen. Apparently, Paul and everyone else thought this was a clear sign that it was time for him to hang it up and bow to whoever was doing all of this.

  “I know that’s not what you want to hear,” Paul continued, and Reese hated that soothing note to his voice, like he was trying to placate a small child or something. “I know you don’t want to give up, but Reese, you’ve gotta be serious here. We’re not closer to finding out who’s behind all this crap, and they’re just escalating things. You don’t want anyone to get hurt, do you? All you gotta do is announce you’re leaving the games in the interview, and this will go away.”

  Reese’s anger bubbled over, and he shot Paul a venomous glare. “Oh, is that all I have to do?” he snapped. “Why didn’t you say so? I’ll just go on TV and announce to everyone that I’m giving up on my dreams because I’m being threatened into it. How simple.”

  Paul sighed. “Well, I thought you might leave out the part about the threats?”

  “Why?” Reese exploded. “Why would I leave that out? That’s the whole reason for this! I wouldn’t even be considering stepping down and backing out if it weren’t for this! Don’t you think the public has a right to know why I’m being a quitter?”

  “Reese, be reasonable. You’re trying to protect people. I don’t think whoever’s behind this is going to take very kindly to you making this too public.”

  “Well maybe that’s too bad. Maybe they should have thought about that before they stuck threatening notes in my parent’s mailbox, Paul. I can’t even believe you’re saying this to me right now! You know how I feel about giving up, how I feel about the sport. And if I quit, it means you’re gonna be out of a job. How are you so calm about this?”

  “There are other jobs, Reese, but there’s not another you. Or another copy of your parents or your girlfriend. Think about how you would feel if something happened to them because you were being selfish. Just use your head for a minute.”

  Reese glared, but he couldn’t stop the images that flooded his mind. His parents, Eve, Devin, all of them were important to him, and he didn’t want anything to happen to them, of course not. He wanted them all to be safe, and he could see the wisdom in what Paul was saying. In what his mother had been saying ever since that note had been delivered. He knew that they were just trying to get him to see reason as they saw it, but…

  It felt kind of like capitulating to terrorists, and he hated it.

  “Reese,” Paul said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I know this isn’t easy for you. Believe me. But…there's bigger a picture here, man. Do those bikes and things mean more to you than your friends and family?”

  Ugh. Did he have to use that wording? His mother had been saying things similar to that ever since he had started this, and he didn’t know how to combat them this time. Usually, he could call his mother out for being over dramatic and making a big deal out of nothing or for thinking about what she wanted over what he wanted.

  But this…this was a matter of safety, and he couldn’t brush that off so easily.

  He stared down at the notes on the table, looking at the part where he’d written about his future plans.

  I don’t plan to let this stop me for longer than it absolutely has to. I’ve gotta be moving, or I go a little stir crazy, so as soon as this slab is off my leg, it’s back to the slopes and the ramps for me. I’m not one for giving up, and yeah, this set back is bigger than the ones I usually deal with, but I don’t want people to worry. You’ll know when you’ve seen the last of me in the competitions, and this isn’t it.

  Reese had felt such pride when he’d written those words because they’d pretty much affirmed all the things he’d been feeling about his injury. The hopelessness of the early days of him being hurt and sullen about it was gone, and he’d wanted to let people know that.

  What Paul wanted him to say was nowhere near that triumphant. It was a concession. It was him telling people that he was leaving the sport with his tail between his legs, and it made him angry and even more agitated just to think about it.

  Did that make him selfish? Because he didn’t want to back down? It felt like it did, and at the same time, there was a part of him that just didn’t care.

  He needed to think. There wasn’t much time before the interview to make this decision either. It made it seem like the people behind this were going to be watching. Watching and waiting to make sure that he did what he was supposed to do. What they wanted him to do.

  It was easy to imagine them escalating their aggressions if he didn’t, too.

  God, this was so messed up. Reese dragged fingers through his hair and groaned. It would be so much easier if he had someone to talk to about this. Paul and his parents were clearly all on the same page, even if his father had yet to say so. Reese knew what he would say if he was asked for his opinion.

  Eve supported him no matter what he decided, or so she said, but…he kind of wanted to know what she wanted to see him do. She was another person who could be in danger if this got out of hand, and he wanted her honest opinion, too.

  He’d tried to call her the day before, but there had been no response, practically sending him into a spiral of panic before she’d texted him and said that she was fine, just feeling under the weather, so not to worry.

  Really, he wanted to see her. Reese wanted to hold her in his arms and bury his face in her hair and not think about this for a while. But he didn’t know how that was going to happen. Paul wasn’t going to drive him anywhere until he agreed to say what Paul thought he should say in this interview, and Reese wasn’t ready to agree to that yet.

  Just as he was seriously con
sidering calling a cab and just paying the stupid amount of money they’d charge him for the fifty mile drive, his phone buzzed with a text from Eve.

  Can I come get you?

  Reese frowned. They’d agreed that it was sort of ridiculous for her to come all the way out here just to get him, and she largely didn’t have time for that anyway. And this was the time when she was supposed to be at work. Unless she was on the late shift.

  Sure. Is everything ok?

  There was a long pause between messages, and Reese drummed his fingers on the table, waiting. Paul had fallen silent and was watching him carefully, but Reese just rolled his eyes. What did Paul think he was going to do, go get on a bike right then and there?

  Not really? I just kinda want to see you. Devin’s at the neighbor’s place for a while.

  Now he was worried for a different reason. Eve had any number of things going on with her that didn’t have anything to do with him, and it seemed like maybe some of them had finally gotten to be too stressful. If Devin was with the neighbors then he was probably fine, but still.