Men in Charge: A Contemporary Romance Box Set

by Natasha L. Black

  “I’m not interested, at all. Michelle is mine. She’s the one I want, the only one I want.”

  “Good. I don’t want to be doing all this for a woman you don’t love.”

  I chuckled. “You’re not.”

  We got into our normal routine, Trevor pushing me as he always did. The sweat dripping down my back and the front of my chest felt good. I loved a good workout. I always felt a sense of clarity after pushing myself to the point where my arms and legs felt as weak as an infant’s.

  “Let’s shower and go eat. I’m starving,” I said, wiping my face with a towel.

  He nodded, out of breath as he stepped off the treadmill. “Sounds good. Then we can do our little recon mission.”

  After rejuvenating ourselves, we headed out in search of Liam and his gang.

  “I think that’s them,” I said, pointing to a group of motorcycles parked in front of a bar. “Go around again.”

  Trevor whipped into a fast food restaurant before flipping around and driving slowly past the bar.

  “Yep, that’s them. Do we want to do this now?” I asked.

  Trevor stopped at the red light. “No.”

  “What?” I asked, a little irritated.

  “We need to get rested up. We try again tomorrow. Look how many bikes are in that parking lot. I don’t know about you, but I’m not up for that big of a fight. I was ready for a few guys, maybe five, but a whole damn bar? That’s no joke!”

  The light turned green and he slowly accelerated away from the bar. I knew he was right. We weren’t superheroes. We couldn’t go in there with nothing but our fists and expect to win a fight with twenty to thirty guys.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry I even asked. I really want to get out of here.”

  “I know. So do I. We have to do this the right way, or we don’t do it. I’m not going on a suicide mission,” he said.

  “Okay. Got it.”

  He drove us back to the motel for another lonely night in the motel room.

  “You better check in with the little woman. She’s going to be wondering if you’re still alive.”

  I chuckled. “I will. Thanks.”

  Once we were each settled on our beds, I texted Michelle. I liked the idea of needing to check in. It felt good to have someone worried about me.

  31

  Michelle

  He was seriously trying to make me crazy. I was tempted to start walking back to LA.

  “Nothing yet?” Rayne asked, coming in from the outside with Joey behind her.

  I shook my head. “No. Is this crazy? Should I call again? I don’t want to call and mess something up.”

  Rayne gave me a sympathetic look. “I think we need to wait. We’ve both talked about this. We trust them, right?”

  I nodded my head. “We trust them.”

  “We need to stay busy. Let’s collect wood and start a fire. We can make s’mores. It’s a chilly day and we’ll probably need it later,” Rayne said.

  I looked at her as if she had lost her damn mind. “Do you know how to start a fire?” I asked her.

  She smiled. “How hard can it possibly be? Wood, a match, a little newspaper. I mean, seriously, people accidentally start fires all the time. Surely we can build one on purpose.”

  Considering we had nothing better to do, I shrugged a shoulder. “All right. I’m game. We can be mountain women.”

  Joey was looking at the two of us like we had lost our minds.

  “What? Don’t you trust us?” I teased him.

  He shrugged his little shoulders. “How are we going to make s’mores?”

  I looked at Rayne. She burst into laughter. “Minor detail.”

  “There is that little store down the road. We could walk down there,” I suggested.

  “That has to be a mile or two away!” Rayne said.

  “The walk will do us good. Come on, let’s have a little adventure.”

  Joey looked eager. Of course he was. Little boys loved a good adventure.

  Rayne didn’t look quite as excited but embraced the idea. “Okay, well, I guess I have my walking shoes on.”

  “Let me grab some cash,” I said, darting upstairs to dig in my purse.

  Once we were all ready, we set out. It felt good. I loved the freedom.

  “Are we going to get wood for a fire?” Joey asked.

  I turned to look at Rayne. She shrugged.

  “Yes. I guess we will. We are going to be getting in our exercise today,” I said, looking forward to falling into bed tonight and actually sleeping.

  The walk down to the store was refreshing.

  “Look!” I said to Joey. “They sell ice cream cones!”

  “I deserve a triple scoop after that hike,” Rayne said.

  I nodded my head. “I totally agree. I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but you know we have to walk back up that hill.”

  She groaned. “I’m going to need a scoop to go.”

  We picked up what we needed for the s’mores, ordered our ice cream, and headed up the hill back to the cabin.

  “My ass is burning,” Rayne complained halfway up the road to the cabin.

  I was sucking pine needles off the ground myself. I could admit the walk to the store had not been my brightest idea.

  “Are you okay, Joey?” I asked.

  He was lagging behind a little. “My legs aren’t as big as yours,” he said.

  I laughed. “Your legs are almost as big as mine.”

  “We still have to get wood for the fire?” Rayne asked, gasping for air.

  I groaned. “You’re the one who suggested s’mores. We have all the stuff for it. Maybe we’ll feel better once we get back to the cabin.”

  We huffed and puffed our way up the hill. When the cabin came into sight, we all took a moment to catch our breath. Once inside, we put away the meager groceries we had picked up and collapsed on the couch. Joey lay down on the floor, lazily playing with his cars while Rayne and I stretched out on the couch, our feet resting on the coffee table.

  “Did it work?” Rayne asked.

  “Did what work?”

  “You didn’t check your phone even once. It got your mind off things,” she said.

  I nodded. “And now you reminded me.”

  “If you have the energy to call him, you go right ahead. I’m going to be right here with my feet up.”

  I reached for my phone on the coffee table and checked the screen. There was no message from Elijah. It was the afternoon. He had to be doing something. I was afraid to imagine my life if things went wrong.

  “Nothing?” Rayne asked.

  I shook my head. “No. I’ve got a bad feeling.”

  “Don’t. Let’s stay positive.”

  I leaned my head back, trying to relax. It wasn’t working. I moved my head to the side and smiled at my son, who had passed out on the floor.

  “Look,” I whispered.

  Rayne lifted her head and looked at Joey, who was lying on the floor, his cheek pressed against the carpet, his mouth slightly open and his eyes closed.

  She smiled. “I guess we tuckered the poor guy out.”

  “Yes, we did.”

  I looked at my phone again. I couldn’t resist and sent Elijah another message. I held my phone, staring at it, willing it to beep.

  “Relax,” Rayne said again.

  “What am I going to do if he fails?” I whispered.

  “Don’t think like that.”

  “I have to. I mean, if Liam scares him off or—”

  “Don’t you say it. Don’t you dare think it,” Rayne hissed.

  I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to think the worst, but deep down I had to recognize it was a real possibility. There was a good chance Elijah would get seriously hurt. Liam and Nick could be the victors. They had strength in numbers. Trevor and Elijah were no match for the whole damn club.

  “I can’t go back there. They’ll make me marry Nick. He’s going to be so pissed about all this. I don’t know what
he’ll do,” I said, trying to hide the fear in my voice.

  “You don’t go back,” Rayne said, a strength in her voice I wished I felt.

  “Where do I go? I can’t stay here. I have nothing to start over with,” I told her, the despair making me panic.

  “I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out. There are women’s shelters that will help.”

  I cringed. “No way. I can’t go to one of those. I’m not an abused woman.”

  Rayne sat up. I followed her movement. “You are an abused woman. It just isn’t your husband or your boyfriend. It’s your damn brother. If you go back, it will be your husband. You can’t go back, Michelle. You can’t. Not for your sake, and not for his,” she said, pointing at Joey.

  I sucked in a breath. “I can’t go back,” I affirmed. “I should start looking for places I want to live. Do you think I’ll need a new name?”

  I hoped she would joke around and tell me I was crazy. She didn’t. “I don’t know. It might be a good idea.”

  “Oh God, you think?”

  “Can we worry about that tomorrow? You’re borrowing trouble. We aren’t going to panic until we have to. Besides, do you plan on walking to Chicago or New York or wherever it is you’re planning to run off to?”

  “Crap,” I muttered. “I forgot I don’t have a car.”

  She laughed. “They’re going to come back, and everything will be fine.”

  I stood with a renewed sense of nervous energy. “I’m going to do a load of laundry.”

  “There’s nothing to wash,” she reminded me.

  “Uh, I’ll wash the bedding.”

  “Suit yourself. I’m going to join Joey and close my eyes for a minute.”

  I grabbed my phone. Instead of stripping beds, I went outside to call Elijah again. Still no answer.

  “Dammit,” I growled into the phone. “You better call me. I swear I will kick your ass myself if you are lying dead in a morgue or dying slowly in a ditch.”

  I hung up, realizing my message was stupid and childish. I didn’t care. He knew I was going to be sitting around worrying about him.

  Rayne came outside a few minutes later.

  “I don’t want to ask,” she muttered.

  “No, he didn’t answer or call back.”

  “We should start getting that firewood before it gets dark. I have no intention of being in the forest at night. I’ve seen the movies.”

  “Are we supposed to chop this wood we’re gathering?” I asked.

  She shrugged a shoulder. “I have no idea. I wasn’t in Girl Scouts.”

  “You wanted the fire!”

  “I don’t know. Can’t we just gather logs and stuff?”

  I smacked my hand to my forehead. “It doesn’t come in logs!”

  Rayne turned to look out at the forest. “Oh.”

  I groaned. “I think I saw a firepit in the backyard. Maybe we can find some smaller pieces of wood to gather, have a little fire, make s’mores, and call it a day.”

  She clapped her hands together. “I knew you would think of something!”

  “I’ll go wake up Joey. I don’t want to leave him here alone.”

  With a little sweet talking and a lot of promises of all-you-can-eat s’mores, Joey rose from his nap. He was a little cranky but getting into the forest helped restore his mood.

  I remembered having little fires on the beach with Liam when we were kids. With Joey’s help, we got a fire going in the firepit.

  “This is nice,” Rayne said, settling into a chair pulled close to the fire.

  I sighed. “It is. I could get used to this.”

  Joey was holding the little branch he had found, and I had carefully sharpened to a point, over the fire with a marshmallow on the end.

  “I think it’s ready, Mom!”

  I helped him remove the marshmallow and put it on the graham cracker before adding a piece of chocolate.

  “Is this a s’more?” he asked.

  I nodded my head. “So I’ve heard.”

  He took a bite and nodded his head. “I’m going to make you one.”

  “What about me?” Rayne protested.

  I laughed. “Relax. You can roast your own marshmallow.”

  She scrunched up her nose. “But Joey does such a good job.”

  We spent the next thirty minutes roasting marshmallows, some going up in flames and others dropping into the fire. I did my best to avoid checking my phone. I tried but failed miserably. I couldn’t stop thinking about what was happening.

  I managed to get Joey fed and tucked into bed without completely losing my mind.

  “Should I call the hospitals?” I asked Rayne.

  “And ask if there is a black-haired, blue-eyed guy in the emergency room who has been beaten to a pulp?”

  I thought about it a second. “Actually, yes.”

  “No.”

  “Rayne.”

  “Michelle.”

  “I think you would have gotten a call if something had gone down. Maybe he left his phone in the motel room or maybe it got broken in the scuffle.”

  “Do you think there was a scuffle?” I asked, latching onto her words.

  “Michelle be real. You know damn well they weren’t going to go down there and shake hands. Of course there was a scuffle. Elijah told you he wouldn’t go overboard. Trust him. Trust his abilities.”

  I inhaled through my nose and slowly exhaled, nodding my head as I did. “I know. I’ve been saying it to myself all day. I’m afraid to set myself up for hurt. I let myself fall in love with him again. I can’t lose him now.”

  “You won’t.”

  “I think I’m going to go to bed,” I muttered.

  “With Joey?”

  I shook my head. “No, I’m going to sleep in his bed. I need to feel close to him somehow.”

  She leaned over and wrapped her arms around me, hugging me close. “Please, try to sleep. I’m here if you need to talk.”

  “Thank you.”

  I crawled between the sheets, pissed I had washed them. I wanted to be close to him, to smell him on the bedding. Now all I smelled was fabric softener. He better damn well come back in one piece.

  32

  Elijah

  Trevor was extra quiet as we drove through the city streets, heading toward the place I had spent so much time growing up. We had gone over the plan several times, trying to predict what might happen and how we would deal with it. I wanted to be confident we would walk away without a scratch, but I knew that wasn’t realistic.

  “Hope for the best, right?” I muttered, staring out the window.

  We were close to Liam’s house, and now I felt that familiar feeling that came over me before a fight. Every one of my senses was heightened.

  “Keep your back to the wall,” Trevor said, falling into his typical trainer mode.

  “Got it.”

  “We leave if it looks like we’re not going to win. We can always go back.”

  “Agreed.”

  He parked the Jeep in front of the house. There were several bikes in the yard but not enough to be intimidating. I walked right through the yard, weaving between bikes, Trevor on my heels.

  I knocked on the door, feeling emboldened and brazen.

  “What the fuck!” Liam shouted, pulling open the door.

  I smiled. “Well good evening, Liam. I was hoping we could talk for a minute.”

  “You’re a damn fool.”

  Nick appeared beside Liam, two other men standing behind them.

  “You’ve got a lot of balls to come here. I can’t wait to kick your ass—again,” Liam sneered. “You’ve always been a stupid piece of shit. You always followed me around, kissing my ass, doing whatever I told you. You were a little bitch then and you’re a little bitch now.”

  I stepped forward, pushing him back with my body. “Really? I’m a bitch? You smack your own sister around and then try to force her to marry a man who punches her. Who’s the bitch? Only a bitch would hit a woman because
he’s too much of a pussy to fight a man.”

  “My sister is my business. She’s mine to give to whoever I damn well choose,” Liam said.

  “She’s a human being. She’s your damn sister. There is nothing worse than a man who beats a woman,” I spat out.

  Nick tried to elbow Liam out of the way. “You’re talking about my wife.”

  I laughed. “She isn’t your wife. And she hates you by the way. Why do you think she ran into my arms?”

  Nick lunged for me. I didn’t flinch. I stared him down. I couldn’t wait to hit him. I owed him a black eye and then some for what he had done to Michelle.

  “I’m not going to stop until I get her back.” Nick glowered. “She’s mine.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. She’s mine in every way. Every. Way.”

  Liam drew back and punched me in the jaw. I stood without moving or backing away. It was a weak punch, far weaker than I had expected. Liam had gotten soft over the years.

  “Now?” Trevor asked from behind me.

  “Now.”

  I hit Liam first, connecting with his jaw in a series of jabs that landed on the left side of his face. Liam staggered backward. When Nick rushed me, I gave him a quick kick with my heel in the center of his gut before coming forward and punching him with all my might, connecting with his nose. It erupted into a fountain of blood.

  “That’s for hitting my woman!”

  The other three men rushed me. Trevor roared and gladly stepped forward to deliver an ass-beating that was sure to leave several of the men in the hospital. I tempered my hits to Liam, not wanting to seriously injure him and honoring my promise to Michelle.

  Liam was leaned up against a wall, breathing hard, holding his nose and shooting daggers at me with his eyes. Nick had been dropped to the ground. The other men who were still standing backed off. They’d had enough.

  “Get them!” Liam roared.

  “This isn’t our fight, man,” one of the guys said.

  He clearly didn’t have the loyalty he thought he did from his crew. That would work to my advantage.

  Liam cursed, pushing himself away from the wall and coming toward me. “I’m going to kill you.”