by Apryl Baker
Mason had decided to transfer for his junior year to be near the rest of his family. It was going to be damn good to have all six of them in one city again.
“You staying in the dorms, or you need a place to crash?”
“I’m a frat boy, Viktor. I don’t do dorms.”
The arrogance in his brother’s statement reminded him so much of Nik, it made homesickness wash over him. He and Nik were closer, probably as close as he and Conner used to be. He missed his family.
“You’re gonna keep an eye on Delia, yeah?” He changed the subject before his brother started bustin’ his balls for being a sappy, sentimental fool.
“I got Princess Peach handled. Ain’t no one getting near our girl while you’re gone.”
“You really like her, huh?”
Mason cracked a grin. “That kid. She’s a sweetheart. How can you not love her?”
“Every time I think about her father, I ask myself that same question.”
Mason made a rude noise. “He ain’t her dad. He’s just a sperm donor. We’re her family.”
“He and his mother filed for visitation. At her house.” They’d gotten the hearing notice yesterday. Sara had nearly flipped her lid. He’d called his lawyer buddy, who agreed to take the case pro bono. He was going to be here on Monday to get up to speed. There was no way in hell he was letting Roger get anywhere near his kid. No fucking way.
“Fuck that shit.” Mason’s eyes went hard and cold. “I’ll off the bastard myself before I let him near her.”
“Just be on the lookout this weekend. Brad’s coming down on Monday to handle it.”
Mason started to pace, a bad habit of all the brothers when they were pissed. “Sometimes she looks at me like she can’t believe I’m real, or like I’m going to disappear in a puff of smoke. I’m guessing all that is because of the sperm donor?”
Viktor nodded. “Yeah. He made sure they both knew they were subservient to him. How anyone could treat their family like that is beyond me.”
“Motherfucker.”
Viktor agreed wholeheartedly. “Let’s get this shit done. I need to stop at the UPS store and then make it to the airport. We’re running late.”
They spent the next twenty minutes loading the Jeep and running around trying to remember everything. Rephrase…Sara ran around trying to remember everything. He had to wonder if she was this crazy every time she had a signing. It wasn’t until after Viktor got her in the Jeep and on their way into town that she actually seemed to settle down. Leaving Delia behind had been hard for her, but she didn’t want to drag her around from hotel room to hotel room this summer. Gabe and Mason being there helped. They’d keep her safe.
“So, tell me what to expect with this thing. I’ve never been to one before.”
She actually smiled. The first real smile he’d seen since he met her a couple weeks ago. It lit up her already beautiful face. Her lip was still sore, but she didn’t seem to mind.
“They’re amazing! So many people, readers, bloggers, photographers. I remember the first one I went to, I was so nervous. I was afraid no one would even come to my table, but when they did, I lost track of time. It’s the best feeling in the world when a reader tells you how much your book affected them. It’s why I continue to write. To know my words moved someone to cry or laugh and smile from happiness, it gets me right here.” She placed her hand over her heart.
“How many have you been to?”
“Not as many as I would have liked. I wasted so much money on table fees because of Roger.”
“You said something about that earlier. He would…hurt you to keep you home.” It was hard for Viktor to get the words out. The thought of anyone hurting her made him see red. He worked to keep his anger under control. She was just starting to trust him, and he didn’t want to see her flinch away from him.
“He was a control freak dished out with a side of extreme jealousy. A lot of it boiled down to Dimitri. He hated your brother. Dimitri and I talk a couple times a week. We have since we first met. Roger accused me of wanting him and using the book signings as a way of hooking up. I took several beatings because of it. I never told Dimitri.”
Viktor clenched the steering wheel. Had Dimitri known that, he would have beaten the ever-loving shit out of Roger. Hell, he’d have called all his brothers to teach the bastard a lesson.
“After a while, I stopped trying to go to them. It was just easier than fighting with Roger.” Her shoulders slumped, and he grabbed her hand, twining her fingers with his. He counted it as a win she didn’t pull away from him.
“So, this last one was the first you’d been to in a while?”
“Yeah. My readers were as excited as I was. Truthfully, I wasn’t going to go, but my mom pushed me. It was good for me.”
“Remind me to thank your mother when we get back. If she hadn’t pushed you, I might not have met you.”
She gave him a hesitant smile, and he crowed on the inside. Score two!
When he pulled up in front of the UPS store, he debated leaving her in the car. He knew her back was hurting her, but he couldn’t guarantee Roger wouldn’t approach the car while he was inside.
“You hold the door open for me while I unload all this shit.”
She rolled her eyes at his foul mouth, but she was finally starting to learn it was simply who he was. He cussed. Hell, all his brothers did. She was going to have to get used to it, or she’d drive herself crazy around them.
“Hey, Ben!” Sara called when she opened the door. What was her brother-in-law doing here? Then she noticed he was wearing a name tag. “Did you get a job here?”
He grinned, and then he saw her face. “What the hell?”
“It’s a long story.”
“Did my brother…?”
“No, but I think he had something to do with it.”
Ben came around the counter and hugged her. “I am so sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, honey.”
“What the hell, woman? I thought you were supposed to be holding the door for me?”
Oh, no! She rushed to help Viktor, who was struggling with the boxes and the door. “I’m sorry.”
“No worries, darlin’.” He came in and set the first boxes down on the counter. He noticed Ben a second later. “Ben, right?”
“I thought you were here to keep that from happening again.”
Sara groaned. “It wasn’t his fault. I was the one who didn’t listen.”
“I’m not proud of it.” Viktor wiped his palms on his faded jeans. “Trust me, she’s not getting out of my sight again.”
Ben eyeballed him for a moment then nodded. “What’s all this?”
“Shipping everything to Texas for my signing. We’re flying down, so we need this overnighted to the hotel. There’s more in the Jeep.”
“More?” Ben looked from the heavy book boxes to her. “What are you taking, the farm and the kitchen sink?”
“That’s what I asked,” Viktor grumbled and went back to the car for more boxes.
“These are pre-orders, mostly. I’m not taking a lot of stock with me. Signings aren’t about selling books, they’re about networking.”
“If you say so.” Ben went behind the counter and started processing the shipping labels.
“Why aren’t you at your brother’s garage?” Sara leaned against the counter, grateful for the support. Her back was killing her. It seemed to have settled on sore and decided to stay that way.
He gave her a what-the-fuck look. “You honestly think I’d stay there after what he did to you and Delia?”
She pursed her lips. “Your mother…”
“Is an ass. I love her, but Roger can do no wrong. I’m not like that, Sara Jane. I don’t have blinders on. My brother is a shit piece of work, and I washed my hands of him. Meant I had to find a real job. It’s not so bad. Pay is crap, but it’s honest work.”
“You thought any more about going to college and getting that engineering degree?” Ben love
d to design things. Had since he was a little boy.
“I ain’t got the grades for that.” He ducked his head, embarrassed.
“Take a few semesters in community college.” Neither of them heard Viktor come in. So much for her helping with the door. “A friend of mine had shit grades in high school. Worked his GPA up in community college and then transferred to university his junior year. It’s hard, but it’s doable.”
“I don’t know, I’m not really book smart.”
“Neither was Ted, but he got some tutors, and he graduated in the top twenty percent of his class. He wasn’t valedictorian or any shit, but he did it.”
“Cool.” Ben went back to prepping her boxes, and Viktor headed out for another load. He didn’t need to encourage Ben. He didn’t know him from Adam, but here he was telling him not to give up on his dreams.
For all his bluster, he was a kind man.
Once he’d dumped all the boxes on Ben, he refused to let her pay for it. He remembered she wanted to drive to save money, and since he’d insisted on flying, he wanted to bear the burden of the cost. It got a nod of approval from Ben. Overnighting this much stuff, especially at the outrageous weight of most of the boxes, was expensive. Her bank account was grateful, even if she grouched about it.
The airplane was a whole new layer to Viktor. He was terrified of flying. She noticed as soon as they sat down in their seats how much he was sweating. Beads broke out over his forehead, and he gripped the seat arms so tightly his knuckles turned white.
“Don’t you fly all the time?”
“Yes.” One-word answers that were short and clipped were all she managed to drag out of him until they were in the air.
“Flying is the safest way to travel.”
“Until it’s not.” He let out a shaky breath, and she turned away so he wouldn’t see her grinning. It was good to know he wasn’t infallible.
“We’re almost there.”
“Liar.” He looked at his watch. “We have at least an hour to go.”
“It’s just an hour, Viktor.”
“In an hour, the engine could fail, and we could fall, the plane bursting into flames and the sound of burning, twisted metal, screams…” He shuddered, clearly letting his imagination run away with him.
“Are you always like this when you fly?”
“Yes.”
Back to one-word answers. She took his hand and cradled it in hers, her only thought to offer comfort. “It’s going to be fine.”
He curled his hand around hers and held on tight. He didn’t crack a joke, make a suggestive comment, or try to tell her she belonged to him. He simply let her comfort him.
“What do you normally do to get through a flight?”
“Drink.”
“Why aren’t you drinking now?”
He shot her a shuttered look. “You.”
“Me?”
He nodded and inhaled several deep breaths. “Your safety comes first.”
“I doubt Roger’s going to jump me on the airplane.”
His free hand came up and traced the healing cut on her lip. “I’m not drinking, Sara.”
His touch was butterfly soft, but she felt it all the way to her toes. He wasn’t even trying, and he affected her. “What can I do to help you?” She winced at the breathy sound of her own voice.
“Tell me about yourself.”
“There’s not a lot to tell.”
“Unless you want to watch me crawl out of my skin, I need a distraction. Tell me about you, pre-Roger.”
“I almost can’t remember that girl.” Sara sat back, her thumb stroking over the back of Viktor’s hand absently. “It seems like a lifetime ago.”
“I bet you were popular.” He shot her a sly grin.
“And you were a football player.”
“Hell, yeah. All my brothers played in high school, even Mason and his scrawny ass. We’re a football family.”
“I was a cheerleader,” she admitted. “I dated the captain of the football team in high school, so yes, I was popular.”
“I knew it!”
Sara smiled softly, remembering days she hadn’t let herself think about in quite a while. “I was sassy too. I knew what I wanted and how to get it. I had so many friends back then.” She shook her head. “Though now I realize most of them were probably only my friend to be able to hang out with the popular crowd.”
“Grown-ass people still do that. It’s not just high school kids,” Viktor grunted.
“God’s truth, that.”
“Were you a drinker?” Viktor hissed when the plane hit some turbulence, a common occurrence, but from the way his face slowly drained of color, you’d think they’d just announced the plane was about to go down in flames.
He snatched her hand into his lap and held on for dear life. She’d laugh if he weren’t completely terrified. This big man, who seemed fearless, was showing her a side of himself he probably hid from everyone.
“I could drink with the best of them, but I tended to get drunk only when I was home with my girls. One of the first things my dad hammered into my head was never to let myself get drunk where I couldn’t control the situation. That’s how you end up raped or worse.”
“Roy was okay with his baby girl drinking?”
“Hell, no.” Sara laughed, remembering the time he and her mom came home early from a weekend trip to find her and her three best friends passed out drunk on the couch. She’d been grounded for a month. “He only caught me once, and that was enough.”
Viktor chuckled, the sound low and deep. It hit every nerve ending she had, and it was all she could do not to snatch her hand away from him. He affected her on such a deep level.
“What are you laughing about?” Now she was the one who needed distracting.
“I was thinking about Delia and how she is going to handle me and all five of her very overprotective uncles when she gets old enough to drink. She’ll never manage to sneak anything over on us.”
“You know I haven’t agreed to any of that.”
“But you will.” He pulled her hand up and kissed her knuckles.
How the hell was she supposed to argue with the promise of forever shining in his eyes?
“Dimitri texted me photos of his food porn earlier.” Viktor decided to change the subject before she retreated from him. He grasped her hand and tried to focus on the feel of her instead of the shaking of the plane every time it hit a damn air bank. He knew this was a stupid fear, but it was one he couldn’t shake.
“Food porn?”
“He and Becca are driving to all his signings and have decided to make sure to stop in at one of the restaurants from Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. She and I both love that show. He seems to think he’s the shit when he finds one I haven’t been to yet. Bastard.”
“I remember you mentioning it in Charleston. You watch the show?”
“Shit, yeah. Got to know the best places to eat in every city. You don’t watch it?”
She shook her head. “I’m a Hell’s Kitchen fan, or when I do flip on the Food Network, it’s The Worst Cooks in America or old episodes of Restaurant Impossible. I swear I didn’t eat out for almost a year after watching that and Kitchen Nightmares.”
He knew the shows she was referring to. He’d seen a few episodes himself and refused to watch them for his own peace of mind. He loved eating out too much.
“Dimitri wants to meet up at a placed called The Magnolia Café tonight. They’re open twenty-four-seven.”
“Oh, I’ve heard about that place. I think there might even be something on the menu that won’t put him in the bathroom all weekend.”
Viktor laughed; he couldn’t help it. His brother loved to eat more than any of the rest of them, but God had played a practical joke on Dimitri. His stomach rebelled at so much. Poor bastard usually ate it anyway and spent days suffering.
“It’s not funny,” Sara admonished, but he saw the grin peeking at the corners of her mouth. “Do you know how long it
took him to live down the meme of him running off stage clutching his butt and his stomach all at the same time?”
“I still have it saved to my phone and send it to him when he gets to be too insufferable.”
“You don’t!”
“Oh, but baby, I do.” He grinned. “Sometimes a little blackmail goes a long way, especially when dealing with one’s brother.”
“That’s horrible, Viktor.”
They continued to talk about their favorite restaurants, and before long, they were landing, another form of hell for Viktor. He was afraid the landing gear wouldn’t engage. All his fears of flying originated from one incident in Afghanistan when a plane he’d been on went down. The landing gear hadn’t engaged then either. He’d almost died, and since then, flying freaked him out.
Stepping out onto solid ground had never felt so good.
Sara wanted to take a shuttle to the hotel since it was close, but he rented an SUV instead. Not having access to a vehicle wasn’t an option. He might have to move her quickly. It didn’t take them long to reach the hotel and check in after that.
He waited patiently for the oncoming storm. Once she figured out he wasn’t getting his own room, she was going to flip her lid. When she didn’t say anything about him not checking in, he wasn’t surprised. This late, she probably thought he’d had to book a room at a nearby hotel since this one was full because of the signing.
He carried their bags behind her and hummed while they rode the elevator up. It was a nice place. Not as swanky as some he’d been in, but nice all the same. Cleanliness counted for a lot in his book.
Once they were in the room, he looked around. There was a small sitting room with a TV and another room that held a massive king-sized bed. It was here he put their bags. Damn, but that bed looked comfy. He’d been sleeping on a mattress that wasn’t a rock, but close to it. He’d bet the Graftons hadn’t changed that mattress in a good ten years. His back was a testament to that. It was why he’d changed his mind about letting Sara sleep in it that night she came back from the hospital. It would only have made her hurt worse the next morning.
“This is a nice place.” Sara picked up her suitcase and threw it on the bed. She rummaged in it for a minute before pulling out a plastic bag that contained…Lysol bathroom cleaner? What the hell?