“You worried about Marnz? That’s nice. He’s got a soft spot for you, too.”
Her eyes widening, Briony looked sharply at Hade. Marnz? He knew how to ride backward with his hands behind his head and . . . and what? “I don’t like to kick a man while he can’t defend himself, but he’s a little short on sandwich filling.” She tapped her head, then rolled her eyes at Hade’s grin. “Love you guys like brothers? Sure. I love all of the guys. Marnz is nicely put together and everything, but he’s not really my type. We tried it once and it was all kinds of awkward . . .”
Hade cocked his head sideways. “And yet here you are, fretting. Huh. So Slick is your type? Since when?”
Rocco came out of the bar to stand with them. “Since when what?”
“Since when is Bri keen on Slick for real?”
“That true?” Rocco asked, not looking at her.
The image of their designs side by side flashed through Briony’s mind but she bit her tongue.
“He’s racing Marnz?” Rocco asked Hade and the other biker nodded.
Rocco grunted. “I know men like him. They have to be in charge. Of everything. He’s only out there with Marnz because his ego can’t take a hit.”
Was that the truth? Briony flicked over their time together in the past weeks. She’d thought they had a connection, that they shared something deeper, closer, especially when they went through her designs. He’d even been jealous of her and Martinez. But Cole had never said anything to confirm it was more than his ego that was wounded. Why on earth would he care about her? He’d only signed up for this arrangement to cover his ass, and he’d had his lawyer make sure he had his claws in Wilde’s if she didn’t watch herself. “Cole’s going to win, isn’t he? This race, and Wilde’s. I never stood a chance.” She was an idiot. A romantic idiot. To think that she could keep her hotel and maybe get to keep Cole, too.
“Don’t beat yourself up about it, kid.”
“I just . . .”
Rocco butted in. “He seems straight-up enough. If he thinks he can make money out of it, he won’t take Wilde’s. Whether he sticks around once the deal is done is another matter.”
Briony sighed.
Rocco put a fatherly hand on her shoulder. “If he was Prince Charming, don’t you think you might have noticed the white horse by now? Although, if he really does have a Ducati 1098 that would probably count.”
Despite herself, Briony let out a chuckle.
The roar of a motorbike cut through the quiet night and Briony’s heart notched up in speed even further. “Come on. Let’s get the two of them a drink and stop this stupidity before someone gets hurt.” But as she peered into the dark, Briony only saw one headlight approaching through the gloom. “Oh shit.” Her heart rose up to the base of her throat and beat there, a meaty, fearful thumping that threatened to overtake her senses.
The bike pulled into the hotel parking lot and the gloom turned to drizzle. Briony put a hand over her eyes to try and see whose bike it was but the night was thick with fog.
“Shit. That’s not Marnz’s bike.” Rocco rushed forward and helped Cole off his borrowed Harley. Her fiancé stumbled and leaned on Rocco for support.
“There was a blind turn. He tried to overtake me. But there were lights, headlights, and the noise of it . . .”
“Where is he? Where is Martinez?” Briony pushed her heart out of the way of her words, forcing herself to swallow.
“I called an ambulance. I came after . . . They said it looked like he got off lucky. Maybe . . . they couldn’t be sure.”
She put a hand to her mouth as the icy hand of dread changed its focus from Cole to Marnz.
Rocco stepped away from Cole and the younger man stumbled. “What happened? Marnz never loses a race. He’s good. Damn good.”
Cole grimaced, and Briony noticed he took the weight off one leg. “Not good enough to win when it came to car verses bike.”
“And you’re hurt, too?” Briony demanded. “You idiot. I told you both not to go out there.”
Cole’s face flattened, hardening even as the color drained from his skin. He stood on both feet. “I’ll live. Martinez shouldn’t have been such an ass. He was the one that called me out.”
“Hardly. You pretty much spat in his face talking to him like that. He was just looking out for me. That’s what people around here do.”
Cole’s face hardened further and Briony felt some of the anger returning. He didn’t care about her. Rocco was right; Cole just cared about himself. He needed to be right and he needed to be in charge. Of everything.
“If you think you can come into my life, tell me what to do, tell my friends what to do, call them out, threaten them, and push them hard enough that they end up in the hospital, you can think again, dickwad.”
The corner of Cole’s mouth lifted. “Dickwad?”
“Dickwad, asshat, maggotshit.”
His lip curled again.
“This isn’t funny. Marnz is hurt.”
“I wasn’t pushing him. He just took the corner too hard. Wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
“You were the one who put him out there. In the rain. At night.” Briony squared her shoulders, releasing the frustration of her mixed emotions toward the man in front of her the best way she knew how. Best form of defense is attack, right?
Cole scoffed. “Me? He’s an adult, with his own mind. He’s one of your Hell’s Boys, too. I thought he did this all the time. And if you hadn’t been draped all over him, leading him on . . .”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Playing the two of us against each other, egging his ego on.”
“If you got jealous, you did it all by yourself.”
“Whatever.”
“Whatever? That’s your best retort? And you run a multimillion-dollar company? Lemme get this straight, you were the quickest and smartest of all the dumb-ass sperm your dad shot off?”
That did it. Cole’s lips pulled back in a hard grimace. “Don’t talk about things you know nothing about.”
Her mouth opened even as her head told it to shut the hell up. “I know plenty about you. Sad little rich boy. Had everything he wanted but it was never enough.”
They stood there, eyes locked, and despite the fury still coursing through her, Briony couldn’t help the stirrings of heat that had invaded her bloodstream and were making their speedy way south.
“I should’ve let you do your worst with that video. Can’t have been any more painful than having to deal with this every day. This place is a dump, always has been, always will be, and with this crew around, I can’t see it changing.” He waved his hand at the few bikers milling about behind them. “You’re going to have to get some genius marketing to pull off the dangerous and sexy angle, and I don’t see many geniuses lurking around ready to give you a hand.”
Briony recoiled as if the words had barbs. So it’d all been an act? Getting her on his side. Talking through the designs with her. “Gee, why don’t you say what you really think?”
He shrugged, his face blank, no emotion showing in his eyes as the outdoor lights backlit him.
“Well, at least I know what a heartless, shallow ass Cole Knight is. To think I had almost changed my mind about you. All those chats with your pop, I thought there was another side to you. A side that didn’t care where a person came from, could see through the bullshit into the heart of things. Into my heart. Wait, I said I almost changed my mind, but I guess what I really mean is I Didn’t At All. You wouldn’t know how to grow anything if someone gave you seeds and made you put them in the ground. Your new development might fool a few people, but it doesn’t fool me. It’s all for show, just like this engagement. Well, you can take the whole scam and turn it into roadkill.” Briony’s heart rose up her throat again but she choked it back down. There was nothing here for her; Cole had made that clear. Any connection she thought they’d had was fake, just like the rest of their engagement.
“You’re the one who blackmaile
d me into this,” he said, as if echoing her thoughts.
“Yes, and you’re the one who was so worried about his precious reputation that he fell for it.”
Finally Cole’s face showed some emotion. “Say that again.”
Briony tried to stand taller. “Need me to spell it out? The. Sex. Tape. Was. A. Scam.”
His eyes glinted and his hand went to his jaw as it tightened. His hard, gorgeous jaw. Briony gave herself a mental shake. Guy was a douche.
“I saw it. I saw us,” he said.
“Exactly. You saw us. You didn’t hear us.”
“So the whole thing about the payoff. The guys on my site?”
“—was all between us.”
His hand went from his jaw to cover his mouth.
What are you thinking? Thinking? She’d lost track of what she was thinking where this man was concerned weeks ago. The merry-go-round of admiration and hate was too blurred in her mind now to see straight. “You might as well go. The renovation contractor is paid for, and the plans are all finalized. So you don’t need to come back to oversee anything, we can take it from here.”
“Fine by me.”
“Good. I’m going to the hospital to check on my friend and make sure you haven’t killed part of the only family I’ve got.” Not wanting to see the dark expression on his face a moment longer, Briony turned and stormed back inside, dread at what she’d just done beating loudly in her heart.
* * *
Cole watched Briony until the door to Wilde’s slammed shut behind her. He waited for the snarky comment from the bikers, but none came; they drifted away into the night. Suddenly he was alone, outside, and the rain started again. Perfect. He shucked off the leather jacket he was still wearing and draped it over the bike. Pulling out his cell, he called a cab. There was nothing at this hotel he needed or wanted.
But in the cab on the way to his office, he went over and over his altercation with Briony in the parking lot. The woman was unbelievable. Not only had she blackmailed him, she’d managed to do it with nothing in her pocket. He shook his head as the streetlights flashed by. If the implications weren’t so huge, he’d laugh. What a brilliant scam. He had an out now and she had her renovation, but . . . but what? What next?
Sleep was a long way off so he might as well get something useful done. Standing at his sketch desk, Cole realized his leg was aching, but checking beneath his pants leg there was nothing but a small friction burn and something that would likely be a whopper of a bruise come the morning.
Turning back to his desk, he let himself draw without plan or purpose. Much like it had when he’d played with the plans for Wilde’s Hotel, his hand drew in images of people, women, Briony. He threw down his pencil. That was over. They were over. “It should never have happened in the first place.”
His phone pinged. Briony? Looking at the display he raised an eyebrow and picked up.
“Little brother? Bit late for you, isn’t it?”
There was nothing on the other end of the line for a moment.
“Bro? Rick? Are you pocket dialing me?”
“No, I’m here.” A long pause.
“Well, this is fun. You call to check I was breathing or something?”
“Lucy and I are breaking up.”
That was it. No introduction. No euphemisms. No politeness. This guy was not the brother he knew. Cole chose his words carefully. “Breaking up breaking up? Or having a break, checking out Hawaii, realizing you’re perfect together after all?”
“Thanks for trying, but it’s not really a joking thing.”
The blood pumping into Cole’s heart thickened, feeling sluggish. This was not happening. “I don’t want to be an asshole, but what the fuck, Rick? You’ve got it all. You’re the happily married one. You have a kid.”
“Turns out I don’t.”
“What?” Cole rubbed his face. “What the hell do you mean?”
“You know how it took so long for us to get pregnant?”
“Yeah, it takes heaps of couples a while.”
“Well, Lucy thought she’d speed things along a little.” His brother paused then drew in a long shaky breath. “She had an affair.”
Cole opened his mouth to speak and then snapped it shut, his eyes widening in disbelief, letting his brother continue.
“Some guy from work. It only happened a few times. Then she got pregnant and so she called it off with the guy, figured it was worth giving us a go if she was having my kid. But when the baby was born she realized what had happened. It’s his. Looks like him. Same eyes. Same hair. She just didn’t know how to tell me. So she told him. They took a test and the baby . . .” He held back a sob. “It’s his. Turns out he’s in love with her. Has been for ages. And she thinks she might be in love with him, too.”
Cole blew out a long stream of air. “Shit, Rick.”
“Yep.”
“You’ve talked and everything? You still love her, right?”
“Yep and yep. But apparently wedding vows don’t mean as much as they used to in Pop’s day.”
The grimace wasn’t just on his face; Cole felt it over his whole body. “What next?” he asked. “Do you need to come out here? Shit. I’m so sorry.”
“Maybe, yeah. At least it’s better that it happens early on, I guess. So the kid can grow up with his real dad.”
“Whoa. You’re his real dad. You were at the birth. You’ve been changing his diapers.”
“Not for much longer. They’re going to move in with him. Try it out properly.”
“Shit.” Cole shook his head, looked for more words of comfort. Didn’t find any. They’d never had a close brotherly relationship.
“Shit just about covers it.”
They were both silent for a long moment, then Rick cleared his throat. “So, what’s news with you? How’s your lady? The development? Everything. Distract me.”
Cole bit the inside of his cheek—share his drama or shut the hell up? “Everything’s ticking along.”
The relief in his brother’s voice was palpable. Right decision then. “I’m so sorry for ever encouraging you to see Martha. That was a stupid move. I guess she was the type of person I thought you would like, because I liked her. But then I’ve never been a very good judge of character apparently. And I’m so sorry that everything turned out like it did.”
“Forget it,” said Cole, but the fingers he’d had clenched around his heart released a little, allowing real warmth back into his feelings for his brother. Coupled with the bad news Rick had just imparted, he couldn’t feel any malice toward his brother anymore. The apology was timely. He hadn’t realized how much his brother’s involvement with Martha, even if on the periphery, had impacted on him.
“Everyone wants you to be happy, bro. Seriously. You do amazing work for this company, and I know it’s not easy. Sorry I leave it up to you. I just can’t do it. It’s not me. You’ve always been the smart one.”
“The smart one?” Cole scoffed. “Smart enough to steal and race cars for a hobby while you were collecting stamps.”
“Yeah. That was stupid.” His brother paused. “But you were depressed, and to be honest I was a little bit jealous of all the attention.”
Cole’s eyes widened. His kid brother had always been the good one, the golden one, and he’d been jealous? “Shut up.”
“Seriously, maybe part of me encouraged you to see Martha because I thought she was real, you know, someone who had seen a bit of life. But clearly she didn’t have the things that are important to you: family and loyalty. Although I’m beginning to wonder if those things exist. Listen to me, what a sad sack. Sorry.”
Cole stopped. Family. Loyalty. Briony had understood family and she’d put her whole life on the line for loyalty. He could bring her to court for what she’d done to him. And why don’t you? He still wasn’t completely sure.
“Anyway, we were talking about you. When do I get to see your new woman in person again?”
Cole bit the other side of h
is cheek. “You won’t. We’re done.”
“What? No way. Wait? Has she done the dirty on you?”
“No. I thought she might’ve. She didn’t, but I sort of caused a scene. Now she’s pissed.” And a guy was in the hospital.
“Causing a scene is no big deal. It’s not like she had another man’s baby.” Rick took a shaking breath and Cole shook his head. Maybe sharing his news would help his brother out. “Nope, but she did blackmail me into getting engaged in the first place.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone. For a long time.
“Rick? Don’t tell pop. He seemed happy about the idea of me being in love. Don’t want this to be yet another disappointment for him.”
“She blackmailed you?”
“With a sex tape.”
There was a pause, and then a huge guffaw of laughter. “That’s too perfect. You? Blackmailed with a sex tape?”
“I’m not sure what’s so funny.”
“Just the number of women you’ve had through your bed.”
Cole shrugged. Not that his brother could see it. If he needed to laugh, let him. Sounds like he hadn’t cracked a smile in a long time.
“Sorry.” His brother sighed to a stop. “I needed that.”
“Anyway, the point is, I’m screwed. Unbelievably, Pop likes her. He’s been calling to chat with her. I’m not sure what the hell to tell him.”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Do you like her?”
Did he? He didn’t really need to ask that question. “That’s hardly the point.”
“I would’ve said it was entirely the point.”
“The engagement is off. It’s a sham on top of a sham. Time to move on.”
“And how are you going to do that? The hotel is in the development, she’s got Pop having all kinds of romantic flashbacks about him and Mom, and,” his brother paused, “and you like her.”
“Is that right?”
“Yep. I can hear it in your voice. I know opening up to people and letting them take control goes against everything you’ve been building for the last few years. But you beat your depression, bro. You don’t have to fight so hard. You know how to manage it.”
Burning to Ride Page 22