Hold (Gentry Boys #5)

by Cora Brent

  “I love you, Daddy.”

  “Love you too, little one.” I gave her a comforting squeeze, patted Cassie on the head and kissed Saylor quickly on the lips because by that time I really did need to take off. Aspen was capable of opening on her own but Brick wouldn’t be in until late morning so there was no one to handle any walk in clients.

  It wasn’t until I was halfway there that I thought to check my phone. The buzzing I’d heard when I was emerging from the shower was actually just a text from Creed. Texts from Creed were like harvest moons. They happened but were rare. He once called texting ‘pussy speak’, whatever the hell that meant. Creed was a direct kind of a guy so I suppose that was his way of saying that if you wanted to say something you should just say it rather than tapping an emoticon-heavy message into a tiny keyboard. He wanted to swing by the shop for lunch because he had ‘stuff’ to talk about. I texted back.

  “Sure. Between noon and one is fine. But what kind of stuff?”

  The reply was immediate.

  “Just stuff.”

  Well, all right then. There was no prying anything out of my brother if he wasn’t in the to mood to be pried. As I set my truck in park and hopped out I wondered if he was stopping by to say that he and Truly were pregnant. Saylor and Truly talked a lot and she’d hinted a while ago that they’d been trying but then I never heard another word about it. I had to shake my head and grin over the thought of Creed as a daddy. Yeah, I would love to see fatherhood soften that guy’s lingering rough edges.

  Aspen was already installed behind the front desk when I walked into Scratch.

  “Sleep in?” she inquired, batting her long eyelashes.

  “I’m not late,” I argued, although there was nothing to argue about since this was my shop after all.

  She laughed and pulled a headband out of her blue hair. “I made coffee already.”

  “Thanks,” I said and meant it because I didn’t consider taking care of my caffeine needs to be part of her job description. I headed over to the closet-like room that served as the informal break area. “Brick still going to be here in a few hours?” I called out as I poured a hot cup while Aspen started on what sounded like a manic stapling spree.

  “Sure,” Aspen answered cheerfully, pausing between staple clicks. “He’ll be around after he recovers.”

  I took a drink, grateful to the unknown inventor of coffee. “Recovers from what?”

  Staple. “From me.” Staple. “Woke him up at four am for a workout.” Staple. “Not that he minded.” Staple. “We went at so hard-“

  “All right, enough,” I groaned. “Shit, I just walked right into that one.”

  Aspen suddenly popped her head around the corner. I saw an innocent smile beneath a Technicolor mop. “You have a dirty mind, Cordero. I was talking about the marathon we’re training for.”

  “Right,” I nodded, although the smirk on Aspen’s face said she was messing with me and the only marathon she’d been training for this morning was a vulgar one.

  Speaking of vulgar, once Aspen had skipped away, I stood there leaning against the wall, still moodily wishing that I’d managed a morning quickie with Saylor. The memory of her mouth, the idea of her mouth on my dick, was a haunting way to start the day. If Creed wasn’t already stopping by at lunch, I’d think up some excuse to head home for a short fuck break.

  Yeah, I still had a hell of a filthy mind.

  Thank god I married a girl eager to please it.

  The vibration of my phone jarred me back to business. I didn’t recognize the number.

  “Head out of the gutter, kid,” Declan Gentry said by way of greeting.

  “You’ve got no idea where my head is,” I fired back.

  “Of course I do. It’s mooning around in the break room wishing it was back in bed with your wife.”

  “What?” I sputtered, plunking the coffee cup down so hard the contents swished out onto the counter. “Where the hell are you?”

  “Macedonia I think. Is that where we are, Jen? Yup, Macedonia.”

  “Cameras,” I remembered and whirled around to see the tiny lens mounted in the upper corner. Deck had them installed about two months ago. “I keep forgetting about them.”

  “You’re not the only one. You might want to reconsider resting your hand on that countertop.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because Aspen and Brick fucked themselves silly in that very spot yesterday morning while you were in the back office messing with spreadsheets and shit. On second thought they probably remembered the cameras after all. They seem like they enjoy an audience.”

  “Gross.”

  “Don’t be such a prude, Cord.”

  “A prude,” I scoffed, “You watching now?”

  “Of course.”

  I dropped my pants and mooned the camera.

  “Shit,” Deck exclaimed. “You should have warned me you were gonna do that. Jenny saw. You upset her.”

  I zipped up my fly, keeping the phone balanced between my shoulder and my cheek. “I’m sure she’s seen far worse behavior from you.”

  “Nope. I’m an adult now. Aw, jeez. She’s crying. She ran into the bathroom, howling that she’s never seen such an ugly, hairy ass since the last time she visited the zoo.”

  “Deck!” Jenny laughed in the background.

  “Whatever,” I grumbled. “You calling from Macedonia for any specific reason?”

  Deck dropped the laughter. “Just wanted to make sure all was well with the shop and that there’s no more trouble from any junior Gentrys.”

  The morning after our Emblem odyssey, I got in touch with Deck and summarized the basics. As I suspected he’d asked Gaps to keep an eye on those two boys and let him know about any trouble they managed to find. He didn’t mind parting with the bail money at all and was very appreciative that the three of us had dropped everything and driven down there to liberate the boys from Emblem’s finest facilities. Once again I wondered whether he had more of a connection with them than just distant cousins but I didn’t ask. Maybe no one knew for sure one way or another. There were a lot of unsolved mysteries in the world, particularly when it came to Gentry biology.

  “All is well,” I told him. “Gaps said he’d call if anything else came up.”

  “Good, good,” said Deck. There was a heavy pause. “No trouble from anyone else, right?”

  “No.” I frowned. “Like who?”

  Deck had a large number of dubious associates but from what I could tell they universally feared him more than they wanted to fuck with him so I’d never witnessed any fallout. Despite the fact that we were business partners there were things outside the scope of Scratch that he didn’t share with me.

  “Just checking,” he answered lightly but I knew that was bullshit because Deck never asked a question for no reason. But I also knew he never offered an answer that he didn’t feel like sharing so I let it go.

  We chatted for a little while longer, just about Say and the girls and exotic travel destinations. Then he abruptly declared that Jenny was in need of some attention and a hot naked woman trumped transcontinental cousin talk.

  “Hey Cord,” he said before he hung up. “Beware, okay?”

  I was puzzled. “Beware of what?”

  “Huh? I said take care.”

  “Oh.” I put a hand behind my neck and squeezed some stiff muscles. I must have heard him wrong. “You do the same.”

  The rest of the morning wasn’t too busy. I inked a rose vine around a delicate wrist and a lone pansy flower on the upper bicep of a cranky fraternity type.

  “I lost a bet,” he explained, as if I cared.

  Brick was in by late morning and traffic in the shop was very light. I was especially glad because it meant I could take a lunch once Creed showed up. Maybe we could head closer to campus and dine at our old hangout, Cluck This, a greasy chicken joint where once upon a time Saylor and Truly and even Stephanie had worked before they moved onto better things.

&nbs
p; I was in the office and heard Aspen’s chirpy voice call out, “Hey there Creed, he’s in the back.”

  When I heard the heavy footfalls in the corridor I sat back and waited for my brother to fling the door wide but after a few short knocks he merely eased it open soft as a whisper.

  “What the hell?” I said because I wasn’t prepared for the sight of Creed looking as if he’d spent the night beneath a freeway overpass.

  “Not hell exactly,” he said, sinking into a chair.

  A sour smell had entered the room with him. I pointed. “What’s on your shirt?”

  He looked down absently. “Spit up, I guess.”

  “Yours?”

  “No.”

  “Is Truly sick?”

  “Truly is fine.”

  I handed him a box of tissues and a water bottle, figuring he’d want to clean himself up a little and wondering what on earth was going on to make Creedence Gentry oblivious to the fact that he was wandering around with a stained shirt and smelling of expired milk. “Are you going to elaborate or do I have to keep guessing?”

  He started wetting down his shirt and patting it with tissues before giving up with a scowl. “Fuck, it’s worse than I thought.” He pulled his shirt over his head with one fluid motion. “Cord, you got something I could change into?”

  “Of course. I always haul around a complete wardrobe change in my back pocket.”

  Creed tossed the damp shirt at my head. “Glad I have two wiseass brothers instead of one.”

  “I can’t compete with Chase. He’s in a class by himself.” I pushed back from the desk. “Hold on, I actually do have a spare shirt folded up in that corner filing cabinet. You’ll owe me one though since you’re bound to stretch it all out of shape.”

  Creed flexed. “Can’t blame me for being physically fit.”

  “I’m physically fit. You’re a fucking monster.”

  I dug around in the two-drawer file cabinet which served as an informal depository for things that didn’t easily belong anywhere else. The black t-shirt I knew I’d find in there was clean, if a little faded. Creed seemed glad enough to have it though.

  “Thanks, man.”

  I stared at him as he rolled the shirt over his muscles. If I’d just met him on the street I’d assume he was juicing but I knew better than that. Creed put in gym time of course, but he’d always been huge.

  “You ready to start talking now?” I asked.

  Creed stood up and ran a hand through his short hair. He looked like the dictionary entry for ‘hung over’. But he just shook his head with a wry smirk before reaching for the door.

  “How about I buy you lunch?” he offered. “I’ll tell you all about it.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CREED

  My dreams were full of crying kittens but that was only because Truly had brought the baby into the bedroom. I knew it even before I was fully awake, as the dream image of mewling animals faded and my mind caught up to the fact that the cries were human.

  The gentle light filtering in through the blinds meant the hour was early. Truly was on the far side of the room, facing a window and soothing the baby with a soft lullaby in her dreamy southern accent. Her thick black hair spilled halfway down her back and her hand cupped the baby’s head as he closed his eyes with a soft sigh.

  “I’m sorry,” she said when her song ended. She didn’t turn around. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  “I didn’t say nothing,” I yawned, swinging my legs over the side of the mattress and stretching. “So how’d you know I was awake?”

  “Because I always know, Creedence,” she answered, finally turning around with a brilliant smile and an infant cradled to her breast. It was such a devastating sight that all I could do was hunker there, gaping, as the baby stirred. Truly whispered “Hush, angel,” before kissing his downy cap of dark hair. Then my wife looked right into my eyes and my heart felt like it was being squeezed by invisible fingers.

  “Mia’s still asleep,” she explained, glancing at the closed bedroom door with a frown. The second bedroom where Mia and the baby had been sleeping was across the hall.

  “Hmph,” I grunted and stood, hearing a small crack in my back. Truly’s screwed up sister had arrived on our doorstep three days ago. There’d been that odd phone call where she’d hinted she was heading in our direction via bus, refusing Truly’s offer to pay for a plane ticket. What she forgot to mention was that she was bringing her four-month-old baby with her. Because then she would have had to first mention that she actually had a baby.

  Mia Lee’s impending arrival wasn’t even on my mind the night I arrived home after playing to a raucous crowd at The Hole to find my sister-in-law sitting cross-legged on the floor and twisting her pale hands together. Meanwhile, my wife was perched on the couch, watching her sister with a helpless expression and a dark-eyed baby in her lap who was hiccupping and ogling me with curiosity as he waved his arms around, capturing a fistful of Truly’s black hair.

  Mia didn’t say much, merely watching me through watery blue eyes as Truly explained what her sister had told her. First, the kid was hers. Second, his father was killed in a tractor accident two months before he was born. Also, the farming commune she was living on had been raided by ATF because apparently a few of the things they were cultivating there were illegal. Mia took off with the kid before she could get swept up in the trouble. And finally, there was a vague possibility that members of law enforcement might yet be interested in finding her.

  I absorbed all this information standing in the middle of my living room with the sleazy smell of the club still clinging to me in a bitter haze. After setting my guitar against the end table I moved over to the couch and sat beside Truly.

  My wife watched me like she was worried about what I would say.

  Her sister watched me like she was afraid about what I would do.

  The kid watched me like he was hopeful I would produce something for him to eat.

  I held out a finger and the baby grabbed at it eagerly.

  “What’s his name?” I asked, expecting some wacky answer like Moonbat or Hazelnut.

  “Jacob,” answered Mia, still sitting on the floor, drawing her knees up and resting her chin atop the wrinkled paisley material that covered them.

  “Jacob,” I repeated and the baby flashed a toothless grin just before he tried to chew my finger off.

  I did not object when Truly assured her sister that she and Jacob were welcome to stay with us as long as they wanted to.

  Or until federal agents knocked on the door.

  Whichever came first.

  Our guests had arrived woefully ill-equipped for a long term stay so Truly had taken a few days off to go on a shopping spree and get acquainted with her nephew. Even though we’d babysat for Cord and Say’s girls often enough when they were tiny, I’d forgotten how much freaking stuff was involved in baby care. Bottles and diapers and onesies and car seats. Apparently the smaller the person the more stuff they needed in order to exist.

  But still, Jacob was a cheerful baby and Truly doted on him. I didn’t mind him being around either.

  His mother was a different story. I didn’t know what the hell to make of her. Meridian Lee spoke little, ate less and skulked around like a ghost. She’d gladly allowed Truly to take over caring for Jacob. At first I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, figuring she’d had a rough time and might be set right after a few days of rest. But now I was growing uneasy. Last night I’d wandered into the kitchen to get a drink of water and the bedroom across the hall where Mia and Jacob had been sleeping was brightly lit, the door flung wide open. I poked my head in there and saw the baby was alone, sound asleep in the portable crib that had been set up in the corner of the room. He’d rolled over on his belly so I set him on his back since Truly was adamant that was what you were supposed to do with babies. I covered him gently with the blue receiving blanket he’d kicked off. Then I shut the bedside lamp off and backed out of there.<
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  The living room was dark, empty. I heard the creak of bedsprings from the master bedroom and recognized the sound of Truly rolling over. She was always a fitful sleeper.

  “Shit,” I muttered because the condo wasn’t a huge place and there weren’t a ton of places Mia could be hanging out. What the hell was I supposed to do if she’d taken off? Should I run out after her? I wouldn’t even know where to look.

  Then a flicker of movement from beyond the glass patio door caught my eye. A hot wind was blowing, an early prequel of summer storms to come. Mia was out there alone, standing rigidly in the dark as the fabric of her long white shirt billowed and her wispy blonde hair whipped around from the whims of the wind. She faced away, arms crossed, unmoving, and it didn’t seem like she was looking at anything in particular. Just then a wind gust knocked into her thin frame and she swayed slightly, reaching out a hand to grab a stucco patio pillar. For a second my eyes did a funny thing and saw right through her, like she was fading away into nothing.

  I made a lot of noise as I opened the patio door, trying not to startle her. But either because of the wind or because she was lost in her own head, she didn’t so much as flinch until I cleared my throat.

  “Mia?”

  The face she turned to me was worse than horrible. It was a face of misery, despair. It pulled at her skin and left ugly hollows in her cheeks and under her eyes. Then she shook herself, shivered and looked normal again.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude,” she said in an accent so similar to Truly’s but lacking all of Truly’s vitality.

  “Why don’t you come inside?” I said, opening the door wide and hoping she’d listen because something about the whole scene was creeping me the fuck out.

  But Mia just shook her head and turned away again. “Like to hang out here a bit if you don’t mind.”

  “No, not at all.” I hesitated, feeling slightly uneasy. “Good night then.” I started to close the door and then thought of something. I wasn’t good at this shit. I really wasn’t. But there was something I hadn’t said yet and if there was one thing my wife had taught me it was that sometimes words mattered.