One stunningly beautiful dollface.
Why did she have to show up, now? Why couldn’t she just stay gone? She was going to ruin everything, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop it. His brothers were not going to let her go this time. More importantly, when they learned what he already knew, he would be lucky to survive the night.
Yep, being the oldest sucked.
“Richard!” Duke shouted, getting his attention. Looking up quickly, Richard saw him, but couldn’t make out what he was saying. His mind was thinking about someone else, no matter how much he didn’t want to.
“Did you hear anything I just fucking said?”
Not really, but he didn’t have to listen to know that they were staying. Just like the twins, Duke and Jake never got over the girl next door. Who would, especially if that girl was Cami Anderson? She was the sweetest little thing to hit Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and from the moment he and his brothers laid eyes on her, they all knew she was destined to be theirs. Only fate had an evil streak and took her away from them. Except fate was an illusion, and the real reason was something he chose to forget about. He turned his attention back to his brothers, who were staring at him angrily. “What?”
“Jake just talked with Nelson. Please tell me you didn’t give him an ultimatum. Tell me you’re not threatening to leave just because Cami showed up. Tell me that Nelson just misunderstood what you were saying and that as the oldest brother and head of our firm, you are not going out on your own just because a girl from our past, who by the way looks like she’s in trouble, needs our help. Tell me that you’re just in shock, and it’s nothing. Because if you don’t, Richard, if you tell me that Nelson is right, and you said exactly that, I will beat the living crap out of you while Jake calls Mom,” Duke vehemently said, boring holes into him.
Yep, he just pissed off the one brother who he knew could physically kill him. There wasn’t much difference between him and his brothers. Physically they all looked the same. They were all tall as trees, muscular, and well versed in several forms of defense, but Duke, the second oldest, had a distinct advantage over the others.
Duke liked beating the shit out of things.
It wasn’t that he enjoyed inflicting pain per se. It was that it just came naturally to him. Out of the five brothers, Duke was the bulkiest, the quietest, and the most capable of breaking a bone with his bare hands. In school, Duke thrived at physical contact sports, like football, wrestling, and baseball. Though baseball wasn’t technically a contact sport, Duke sure did like hitting the shit out of the balls. He wasn’t book-smart, or articulate, but he did his best and managed to graduate, second from the last of his class. He was typically soft spoken and generally misunderstood for brooding, that was until he spoke clearly, which wasn’t very often. However, put a five-foot-seven, petite dollface with soft caramel eyes in front of him, and he became the meanest son of a bitch on the planet.
“We can’t have her around, Duke. You remember what it was like when her family left?” Richard asked, quickly trying to defuse the ticking time bomb before him. “We were all a mess. Mom and Dad knew why the Andersons left, but said nothing, leaving you and the others to imagine many things. Poor Levi retreated into himself and was never the same. Nelson started whoring around like a young stud. Jake cried, man. He cried. Jake doesn’t cry. You physically rearranged you bedroom, which cost Mom and Dad a small fortune to repair, and she decimated me. Look, she was our bright light in a raging storm, and then she was gone. She never wrote, never called, nothing. What did you expect me to say? She just can’t waltz in after all these years like nothing happened.”
“I expected you to have some compassion, some common courtesy, anything but being a cold-hearted bastard,” Duke whispered as the snowstorm raged around them. Richard thought it was a fitting setting. The coldness of the air, the wind slashing through him, cutting him deep, and the howling within the trees as if his soul was screaming out in anguish. Hell no, he didn’t want to leave, but someone had to keep a level head about the situation. In addition, he wasn’t ready to face the one woman who decimated his life. No, he needed to move on and forget. If his brothers couldn’t do that, then that was their choice, but he was not going to stay around and watch as she ruined everything.
“Well, since bastard is my middle name, I’ll ignore your disgruntled advice,” he grumbled. Richard knew that there was no talking to Duke when he had his mad on. The best he could hope for was a pain-free getaway. “I’m not going to apologize for being honest and to the point. The fact of the matter is we can’t have her around. She will mess everything up. We have no clue why she’s here or what kind of trouble she’s in. Furthermore, you’re fucking blind if you don’t think she’s here to rekindle what was lost. Additionally, what’s up with that kid? Did you see how old he looks? Maybe that’s why her family sneaked out of town in the middle of the night like cowards. Maybe their precious daughter got knocked up, and they left hanging their head in shame.”
And that was the exact moment Richard knew he had gone too far. The next thing was that Duke cursed his soul to the devil as his brother’s fist connected with his nose. Reaching for some snow, Richard grabbed a handful, placing the icy coldness against his throbbing face, trying in vain to stem the flow of blood that was going to stain his shirt.
“Fuck you,” Duke growled. “You can find this woman by yourself since you already have one foot out the door,” Duke said before heading for the front door. Richard looked up to find Jake just shaking his head.
“You know something, big brother? You sure do live up to your name. You can be a real dick.”
The wind picked up, and before he even got to his feet, Richard was standing alone, in the freezing dark, as the snowstorm whipped around him. He watched from the outside as the front porch light flickered off, and then as Jake closed all the curtains in the house.
It was odd being alone. His whole life he had his brothers around him. Now, they couldn’t even stand to be around him. Looking around at everything they had built together, he wondered if it was all worth it. They had worked hard to create this new life, and in a matter of minutes, he felt as if it was slipping through his fingers. He had it all, and if he had just kept his mouth shut, he could have walked right back into that house and be welcomed.
Now, he didn’t know what to do.
Funny, he was in the same predicament not so long ago.
He should have known better. His mouth was always getting him into trouble. He just didn’t know when to shut up, and besides, he was right and his parents were wrong. They never skipped school to have fun. They never were caught necking by the cops. They were parents! Parents didn’t do stuff like that. He shivered trying to thinking about his mom and dad making out near the lake, and then being caught with their shirts off while his dad was feeling up his mom. “Ew, that’s just gross,” he mumbled as his whole body shook.
Yet, instead of taking his punishment like a champion, he rebelled and fought them with everything he had in him. It wasn’t that he was angry at being caught, or at the thought of explaining why he was in such a compromising position to the police officer. It was that his parents refused to understand that, as a young teenager, he had needs. Sometimes, he thought his parents were born old.
Gathering what he could, he put on his varsity athletic jacket, grabbed his Walkman, and snuck out the window. He didn’t need his parents anymore. School was a bore, he hated chores, and if he never saw his brothers’ laughing faces again, it would be too soon. Nope, he was old enough to decide what he wanted in life. He didn’t need anyone.
He had made it to the end of the driveway when he looked across the street. He sighed. He couldn’t leave without saying good-bye to her. Trudging across the street, he dropped his bag and quickly climbed the large oak in front of her house. Balancing on a limb, he carefully maneuvered himself until he was before her window. The moonlight illuminated her as she slept peacefully. She was so beautiful and sweet. She was
all that was good and kind in the world, and she was his best friend. After he gently knocked on the window, she stirred. When her eyes opened and found his, she smiled.
She got up from her bed, walked over to the window, and opened it. “It’s a little late for a visit, Richard. Everything okay?”
“I’m sorry I woke you, but I wanted to say good-bye.”
“Good-bye? Where are you going?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he muttered and realized that he really had nowhere to go. He should have thought about this better. It was late. All his friends were asleep, and his parents took his car away.
“Well, it’s rather late to be setting off tonight. Why don’t you sleep here, and then in the morning, maybe you will know what you want to do?” she asked yawning.
She was right. She was always right. It was too damn late, and he was getting tired. As he nodded at her, she opened her window higher and helped him climb in. After closing the window, she took his hand and led him to her bed. He quickly took off his shoes and flung his jacket on the chair next to her dresser. Climbing into her bed, he sighed, looking at the ceiling.
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked, pulling the covers over herself and rolling to face him.
“Not really,” he muttered again. What could he really say? It was the same thing, the same argument. And like all the times before, he let his mouth get away from him. Sometimes saying what he was thinking wasn’t always the best course, especially when he knew that technically, he was in the wrong. Yet it never stopped him, and like all the times before, he found himself in more trouble than when he started. “I said something I shouldn’t have, again, and like before, I got myself in more trouble.”
“What did you say?”
“I might have told my parents that they needed to mind their own business. That I was a grown man and was capable of making my own decisions. Then to add insult to injury, I might have inferred that they were prehistoric, and needed to chill the hell out, that I knew better than them on what I wanted and needed,” he explained.
“I see,” she whispered.
“They just don’t understand, Cami. How could they? They are old and have no clue what it’s like being a teenager today. The world is more complicated than it was eons ago. They don’t have to worry about peer pressure or raging hormones. I swear, sometimes I think my parents were never teens, because if they were, they would understand what I go through. I am the captain of the football team, I am the president of the student body, I make good grades, and I manage to hold down a part-time job. I am allowed some free time, and if I choose to spend that time with Allison Sweeny, then it’s nobody’s business but mine.”
“Where were you caught?”
“Down at the pond. I had just made it to second base when the cops showed up. Man, Allison was flipping out, and the next thing I know, I am sitting in the back seat of the squad car and the cop is knocking on my front door, waking my parents. It wasn’t pretty. My car was towed, and now I’m gonna have to pay to get it out of impound. That’s if I can get the keys back from Dad. Mom was angry because of who I was with, and my brothers, well, those shits were laughing their asses off. Needless to say, Mom and Dad grounded me, and I am forbidden to see Allison ever again.”
“Then you got angry.”
“Yeah, it one thing to yell and shout at me for getting arrested, but to tell me who I can see and who I can’t, well, I didn’t like that. I am seventeen years old, Cami. I am a grown man, and I can decide who I want to be with.”
“Was it Officer Sweeny?”
“Yeah,” he sighed, rolling to face her. There wasn’t a moment in his life that he couldn’t remember Cami being a part of. For so long, she was the reason, the understanding, and the best friend in the world who had all the answers. Just being in her presence made him feel better, yet she also made him see the errors of his way. She never judged, never complained, never asked anything from him. With Cami, she accepted him as he was, and he loved her for that. “I messed up again, didn’t I?”
Smiling, she whispered, “You’re allowed to, Richard. That’s what we do. We are still learning. The main thing is that you realized what went wrong, and in the future, you will know not to make that mistake again. And as for your parents, they get it. They understand, because they have been there. They won’t stay mad for long. They love you. They just want the best for you. You need to apologize to them.”
“I know,” he groaned. “I thought you would be mad at me, too, once I told you.”
“Why would I be mad at you? I love you, Richard. There is nothing you can do or say that will ever change that.”
“You’re too good for me, Cami. I don’t deserve you.” He smiled.
“I know, but I love you anyways. Go to sleep. You’ll feel better in the morning,” she said, yawing again and closing her eyes.
Richard watched as his best friend in the entire world slept as if he did nothing wrong. She always had his back, even when he was at fault. Though he wouldn’t admit it to anyone, he did love her, too. Closing his eyes, he took her hand in his and slept, hoping that come morning he would know what to do.
Sighing, Richard stood there as he remembered every detail of that moment, and when he should have been angry with her for leaving him, he wasn’t.
He did miss her. He missed her so much, his heart felt as if it would never stop aching.
Instead of soothing his pain, he turned, got into his truck, and drove off.
Chapter Five
Duke was thankful for the silence in the house. Jake had already headed back into the bedroom to see if Nelson or Levi needed any help. He wanted to go, but he needed to get his temper in check. Just thinking about what Richard said had his ire picking back up. He hoped his brother never came home. He didn’t care what he did, but Duke knew if Richard showed his face anytime soon, he was going to rearrange it.
For most of his life, Duke tried to contain the rage that always bubbled close to the surface. Anything would set him off, so he had to try harder than most when he was around his family or friends. However, Cami was different. Just thinking about her brought a smile to his face. Out of everyone who knew him, it was Cami, with her soft touches and sweet innocence that held his demons at bay. She was his lifeline in the raging storm.
When she disappeared in the middle of the night, he was crushed. Anger unlike anything he had ever experienced before rose within him, and the aftermath was total carnage. His parents tried to get him medical help, but all the therapists and psychologists in the world did no good. At one point, his father suggested the military, and though Duke couldn’t see taking orders from anyone, he joined, just to get away from it all.
Life was different, being in the Marine Corps. The structure and stability helped his aggression, but it was the deployments and secret missions that allowed him to release the dragon within him, that helped stabilized his anger. Nevertheless, even for those brief years, all the military did was mask the problem.
It took a few more years before he realized what his problem was, and even then, there wasn’t anything he could do about it. What he wanted, needed, and desired, he couldn’t have, and that pissed him off even more. So, learning to live without hope, he tried to move on. He knew there was no way he could stay in Louisiana, and when his brothers asked him to become part of a private investigative firm, he jumped at the chance. His military background helped, but he knew his brothers only needed him for his muscle. He was okay with that, and living in Montana had started to tame the beast within.
However, when Levi walked in carrying his desire, the beast roared, and nothing short of making her his was going to stem the fire that burned.
He knew from a young age what he wanted in life. It wasn’t money, power, or fame. All he wanted was to be married and love one woman for the rest of his life. That was his dream, his heart’s desire, and when he met Cami, he knew she was it for him. Of course, at the age of eight years old, what did he really know
about love? However, deep in his heart, he knew that someday, she would be his. All he had to do was wait until the time was right, and then he would have his happily ever after. Yet, one night forever changed his course, and since then, he had been trudging along in limbo.
Duke never knew why Cami and her family left in the middle of the night. He had tried to find out, but his parents refused to say anything. When he asked Richard, his brother told him it was best to forget about her and to move on. The problem with that was he couldn’t. When Cami left, she took his soul with her, and she never knew it. Now that she was back, he had already made a mistake. He had lost his temper once again, and hit. He knew how much she hated fighting. It wasn’t in her nature. She was a nurturer, a sweet, loving soul who only wanted to help and care for people. She didn’t have a mean bone in her body, and Duke needed her more than air. She centered him, made him feel that he could do anything.
Looking down at his hands, he rubbed the redness and knew by morning that they would be black-and-blue. Richard always did have a thick skull. Rubbing harder, he tried to massage the area, hoping to dissipate the pain, but mainly he prayed he could rub away the evidence before he saw her. He couldn’t go to her with his brother’s blood on his hands.
“She’s not going to care, Duke,” Jake said, breaking the silence. Out of all of his brothers, Jake knew him the best. Only nine months apart, he and Jake shared many things, including the love for the girl next door.
“Yes she will. She doesn’t like it when we fight. Is she sleeping?”
“I know,” Jake grumbled and sat next to him. “Levi’s got her all tucked in and is watching over her like a mother hen. Nelson is with the kid, getting him settled. From what Nelson said, they’ve been on the road for a long time. They’re hungry, cold, and definitely in trouble. We will know more in morning. Right now, she needs rest. Nelson told me the kid is hers. His name is Ethan.”
The Chains That Bind [The Men of Treasure Cove 10] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) Page 4