One New Message (A Dark Romance Novel)

by Vivian Ward

  As he walked me down the hotel corridor, I wondered what things would be like if I had never gotten pregnant. Would I care that he had another woman in bed? Would I care where he had been or what he had been doing?

  That was when it hit me, and I realized that there was nothing but emptiness between us. We used to have a connection; lust, love and infatuation all rolled up into one.

  There was once a time when neither of us could have kept our hands off each other, and nobody could stop us from being together, but now? Things felt more like an awkward favor.

  I was asking him to help me, help my family, and offering nothing in return. But I knew Gage, and he would want something for repayment. After all, he was the one who taught me that nothing in life is free, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe he felt bad about deserting me—and unknowingly, Bentley—and he was helping me out as a favor, a payback.

  For a moment, I wished he did want a favor. Getting a look at his huge, muscular stature pushed me right over the edge. I wanted to feel those sharp canine teeth sink into my soft breasts and his big, powerful hands grabbing my hips, fucking my brains out but that would be a recipe for disaster. Nothing good could come out of us hooking back up.

  And then I thought about Bentley. He was the whole reason I was here, but not for the reason that it should have been. A good woman would have come to the hotel and told the father about his son, but I was only here to seek protection for him without Gage even fully realizing exactly who he was protecting.

  “If anything happens before I get there, call me,” he handed me a card with his number on it.

  It had all of his info on it and read, “Private Security,” in between his name and phone number. I noted there were fancy “S’s” in the center of the card.

  “Do you give this to all your hoes now?”

  “What? No, Anita. That’s my business card; I wanted you to have my number.”

  “What’s this logo on it, in the background?”

  “Sanders Security. It’s the company I work for,” he looked into my eyes and could see my doubt. “Really. My boss’s name is David Sanders. You can Google it and call in the morning if you don’t believe me.”

  “I’ll be at the car lot around 9 AM,” I slid into my car and fired up the engine, staring at the moonlight bouncing off his chest.

  Why didn’t he at least put a shirt on?

  Damn. His barrel-chested torso made my mouth water, but I had to smolder this old flame if I was going to move forward. I couldn’t have him in mine or Bentley’s life if he were going to walk in and out of it, doing what he pleased.

  But I would do whatever I had to—at any cost—to keep my son safe. I just needed to keep my wits about me and hold onto my good senses; even if it meant getting a chastity belt and locking myself up until everything had blown over.

  By the time I got home, all of the lights were off, and I had missed Bentley’s bedtime. Creeping through the house, I hung my purse on the hook near the living room closet and started making my way into the kitchen to fix myself something to eat before I went to bed.

  “Anita, where have you been?” my dad startled me.

  Clutching my chest, I panted, flipping on the light. “Jesus, you scared me!” I whispered. “Why were you sitting in the dark?”

  “I went to sleep after your mom and Bentley, but I kept having bad dreams about that stuff that we found in the woods and I didn’t want to turn on any lights. I was just sitting here watching things.”

  I glanced out the kitchen window into the dark woods that surrounded our house. “See anything?” I kept my voice low.

  “No, it’s too dark out there.”

  He looked at me, raising his eyebrow. “I assume you found Gage?”

  “Yeah, I found him.” I could feel the heat leaving my cheeks as I stood before my dad and thought about how I’d found him in bed with that woman. As late as it was, I hope he didn’t think I’d been out, tangled in bed with him. “He said he’ll come to the car lot in the morning.”

  “Did he know what was going on? I mean, is he involved in any of it?”

  I shook my head, walking over to the fridge where I found a plate of leftovers mom had made me from dinner. “No, he didn’t know anything; just said he was back in town on business and left it at that.”

  Sliding my plate into the microwave, I pushed the buttons and began pouring myself a glass of tea.

  “Do you believe him?” my dad asked.

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged my shoulders. “He doesn’t have a reason to lie.”

  “Did you tell him about Bentley?” his eyes looked up at the ceiling, where Bentley and my mom were sleeping on the floor above us.

  There was no beating around the bush with my dad. He’d give it to you straight.

  “No, daddy. I didn’t tell him.”

  “What are you going to do when he sees that boy? A damn near reflection of himself when he gets here?”

  “Please, daddy, it’s late. I just want to eat and go to bed; I’ve had a long day.”

  He planted a kiss on top of my head. “Good night, darling. I know you’ll do the right thing.”

  A stake drove into my heart just a little more when he said that.

  I knew it was morally wrong not to tell him about his son who still weighed heavily in my heart and my mind, but when was I supposed to have done it?

  When he was wrapped up naked in the sheet or after his whore slithered out of the hotel room like a well-oiled snake? Up until then, that was the first opportunity that I had to tell him about Bentley.

  With him hanging around our property, things were only going to get harder.

  Chapter 6: Gage

  No matter how much I pumped iron, drank or fucked the closest chick I could find, I never could get Anita out of my head. I had to keep forgetting her. Every. Damned. Day.

  I told myself over and over that time could heal anything, but I was dead wrong. As soon as I saw her standing in my room, it was like a bullet hit my heart when I saw the hurt in her eyes.

  I couldn’t throw Sparkles out of the room fast enough, and I could kill Henry for letting her in. His tiny Asian body would fit nicely in a suitcase, and I reminded him of that as soon as his eyes popped open the next morning.

  While I was taking a shower, he got a hit on some credit card activity on Mask but it was overseas, and the transactions were still in progress, so we didn’t know exactly what they were for.

  “It could be anything,” Henry was telling Mr. Sanders as I dried off and started to get dressed. “They could be there, or it could be a simple wire transfer. There’s no telling until the transactions complete and then I can find out what they are.”

  He was silent as he listened to Mr. Sanders on the other line; I’d imagine he was chewing his ass out. He could be a patient man when he wanted to be, but when he wanted something, he didn’t like having to wait.

  “Okay, we’ll call you as soon as we know something.”

  After he had ended the call, I asked him what came through.

  “I’m not sure. I saw some overseas charges, but they could be anything, and I won’t have a clue what they are until they complete but you know Mr. Sanders. He thinks I should know the minute something pops up.”

  “Yeah, he does.”

  It felt strange being back home and not getting into a fight, and I was itching for one. Everyone in this town has always loved to start shit with me, and I couldn’t shake the overwhelming feeling to snap some bones and smell some fresh blood. I was looking forward to finding out who the hell was fucking around with Anita’s family’s property.

  We might not have been on good terms, but that didn’t change the way I felt about her. I could try to forget her and tell myself a million times over that she didn’t mean much to me, but it was all smoke.

  She was a good woman, and I had fucked things up; there was no doubt about that. But I’d fight for her and protect her till my dying breath.

  And when she came t
o visit me, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was holding something back from me. She was so distant, and maybe it was because of the way things were, but if she wanted distance, I’d give it to her in spades because I’d spent the last two years trying to get over her. I never planned on coming back here and I sure as hell didn’t think we’d run into each other.

  All that did was stir up shit that I didn’t want to deal with. Shit that I’d fought to make myself forget. I’d rather spend my time drilling screws into my toes than rehash all those feelings I had for her.

  As soon as I laid eyes on her, I remembered how good it felt to press my lips against hers and grab a hold of those luscious hips of hers while I banged the fuck out of her tight little pussy.

  But fuck, who was I kidding? I could try to avoid her all I wanted while helping out her dad and the car lot, but that perky little body of hers did voodoo shit to me. The kind of shit that’s unimaginable.

  I would have to force myself not to think dirty. I’d just have to concentrate on my work. I couldn’t allow myself to think about her lips, her tits or her ass. Just focus on the bad guys.

  The bad guys were why I walked out of her life, and then back into it. My world revolved around beating up scum bags and protecting the innocent. It didn’t matter if I was dealing with the boss’s daughter, Bethany, or taking care of things for Anita.

  It pissed me off to think about how vulnerable they were and how assholes like Mask and whoever was behind hiding things on Anita’s property could put them in harm’s way.

  When we got to the car lot, her dad was in his private office, but I didn’t see Anita anywhere in sight. He showed us out to the area that they had found the hidden stashes of cell phones and buried explosives.

  “Anita said you wanted to keep this quiet. How much of this property do you own?” I asked.

  I needed to know how much of the property was our problem and how much of it we had control over. If the secret burials lead into someone else’s property, we could have a serious problem on our hands and might have to get law enforcement involved, which none of us wanted to do.

  If the local cops saw me around here, they’d have a field day with me and find any reason they could to put me behind bars, and I had shit to do.

  “Well, technically we own 21 acres but beyond that, it’s just wooded area that is owned by the county.”

  “Okay. We’ve got this, and we’ll let you know what we find.”

  “Fine,” he stuffed his hands into his pockets, turning to walk towards the lot before he stopped and turned around. “You know, it was my idea to bring you in. Anita was against it so if I were you; I’d play my cards carefully.”

  “Understood,” I nodded. “Like I said, we’ll let you know what we find.”

  Henry and I walked the property, finding the unearthed piles of cell phones and pipe bombs; and we also found several buried maps and a few piles of buried cash stored away in lock boxes that we pried open.

  Just along the property line we found a disturbing amount of guns and ammunition buried in plastic coolers; like the kind you would take camping to store food in.

  “Oh man, this isn’t good,” Henry said, rubbing his temples. “Do you have any clue who buried this shit?”

  “I have no clue but we’re going to need to monitor it. We’ve got to find out who’s behind it and put an end to it.”

  “This shit’s for the cops, the feds. If we get tangled up in this mess, there’s no doubt someone’s going to end up dead.”

  “Yeah, them—not us.”

  I could sense he was getting cold feet; not that I expected any less of him. He was a computer genius; he wasn’t equipped for fighting and lacked basic survival skills, but he was already neck-deep in this shit, and I wasn’t letting him back out of it.

  “Here’s how it’s gonna go down. We’re going to help them out, but I want you to focus on tracking Mask for Mr. Sanders. Once you figure out where those fucks are, you let me know, and we’ll go from there. But for right now? This is our top priority,” he started to open his mouth, but I put my finger over it. “And not a fucking word to Mr. Sanders about our extracurricular activity.” I stared into his eyes, “Got it?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, but what if we get killed?”

  I smacked him in the back of the head, “We’re not going to get killed; I won’t let that happen. Let’s go back and get our stuff from the hotel.”

  “Get it from the hotel?” he gulped, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat.

  “Yeah, we’re not staying there anymore.”

  I thought the dude was going to shit his pants as round as his beady eyes blew up.

  “Where—where are we going to stay?”

  “In the woods. Damn. Do I gotta teach you everything? How do you think we’re going to catch who’s behind this? By monitoring from the hot tub of the hotel? We’ve got work to do, and it’s not going to get done watching Girls Gone Wild or whatever that porn is that you jack off to.”

  His face froze, and his entire body tensed up. I guess he didn’t think I was onto him, but he wasn’t slick, and anyone could hear him fapping to that shit as loud as he was.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Yeah, I bet you don’t,” I laughed at him.

  I didn’t see her for the first couple of days after we started watching things, mainly because anytime we needed something, I’d send Henry to talk to her dad, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t watching her from afar any chance I got.

  Henry would stay gone, sometimes for hours at a time while he talked to her dad or used their Internet to track Mask and Bethany before he’d update Mr. Sanders.

  We had learned the international transactions were nothing more than Mask moving around money in accounts and making purchases, but we still didn’t know what he was up to or where they were staying.

  The one thing that was keeping us here was that he pulled money from an ATM in Memphis, so we knew they were still in the general area, which was enough to keep Mr. Sanders off our back and from him asking too many questions.

  Any chance I could, I stared through the woods, watching Anita like a hawk as her shapely silhouette crossed from the house to the car lot as the sun passed across the sky. For as busy as their family car lot was, she sure made a lot of trips back inside that house, sometimes for a couple of hours at a time before getting back to work.

  But whatever. It was none of my business; she’d made it clear that she didn’t want anything to do with me.

  My business was buried out in these woods, and someplace in another part of the surrounding area, wherever that may be.

  While Henry was up at the house schmoozing with the Bailey’s, I was busy doing dirty work. Since we had found all this shit buried on the property, nobody had been back to claim any of it, and it didn’t feel right. Who the hell would bury all a small arsenal of bombs, guns and phones and not come back for it?

  I never said anything to Henry; he was too skittish, but to me, it felt like terrorists were behind all of this. It made sense. There was no reason the U.S. military would bury these things on a civilian’s private property and none of the crew that I used to run with would hide shit like this.

  My old friends were dirtbags, but they wouldn’t have any reason to have anything to do with this stuff. I hated to sound paranoid, but it was the only thing that fit.

  It was only our fourth day out there, and Henry had been doing everything he could to go inside the house, leaving me plenty of time to explore and discover on my own which was fine by me. The farther I stayed away from Anita, the better.

  I know it hurt her when I left, which was never my intention, but it felt like a dull sword ripping right through me when I ran back into her.

  I’d had plenty of time to think about her since I had been back. In fact, I was grateful for the times Henry went and talked to her. He would tell me everything they talked about and what was going on in her life.

  Fro
m the sounds of it, she didn’t have a boyfriend and hearing that put my mind at ease. The thought of another man pawing at what was once mine made my blood boil.

  Hiking through the woods, on the far west perimeter of the property line, I found a backpack filled with all black clothing—definitely, something a terrorist would wear so they could roam about the woods undetected.

  There were even some pamphlets in the bottom of the backpack, and I remembered reading something about the terrorists using pamphlets to recruit people. They were illegible, but heavy rains had swept through the area for nearly five days before we arrived so it would make sense that I couldn’t read anything on them.

  My heart dropped to my feet. With all of these findings, it was clear who was behind this, and there was no telling how much time they had spent on the Bailey’s family property. Had they been watching Anita and her family? Did they know their routine or schedule? Would they hurt any of them? Did they already have plans to kill anyone who stood in their way?

  There was no way of knowing what these people were capable of or how many there were—or where they were. I looked around, studying my surroundings.

  What if they were watching me right now? What if they’re watching the house or the car lot?

  I had to tell Anita and her family. They needed to know what the full extent of everything was that was taking place on their land and what kind of dangers they were facing. Carrying the backpack with me, I set off for the car lot to tell Mr. Bailey first. I wanted to tell him man to man before the women knew what was going on.

  “Is Mr. Bailey here?” I asked a man, probably in his late 40’s who came out of the shop.

  “I’m sorry,” he wiped his greasy hands on an old red rag; the same kind I used when I worked on cars for him just a couple of years ago. “He had to run up to an auction to buy some more cars, but he’ll be back later this evening.”

  Shit. This wasn’t something that could wait.

  “Where is his daughter? Anita? Do you know where she is?”

  “Who are you?” he eyed me suspiciously.