House of Payne: Styx

by Stacy Gail

  “I’ll be happy enough for the both of us that Wesley dropped the charges.” A breath whooshed out of Sydney, and with it went the fear she’d been silently carrying around like an anvil in her chest. Of all the things that could have gone wrong in the wake of what had happened, the prospect of Styx going to jail had been at the top of her list. “This is such great news, I feel like we should celebrate.”

  “Don’t pop those bottles just yet. I’ve got more, and it only gets better from here.”

  “Better than Styx not going to jail? I can’t imagine anything better than that.”

  “Then you need to work on your imagination, El Syd,” Trey said, and again offered a dramatic pause. Honestly, it was like he wanted to be kicked. “Remember how I said there have been over forty arrests so far, thanks to you bringing Wesley down? Come to find out, just about every single one of the crimes committed by his massive theft ring happened to big corporations. These corporations are all about protecting their territory and making examples of whoever fucks with them. So, throughout the years that Newburg was robbing this region blind, these corporations kept putting up rewards for information on whoever was hitting them.”

  “You gotta be shitting me,” Styx said, starting to grin.

  “Nope. And you know what’s really hilarious about all this? No one even thought about collecting all those rewards floating around out there until that jackhole Newburg mentioned them yesterday. Believe it or not, he floated the idea that he should be entitled to whatever rewards there are, because he was the one who was giving up all the people he’d had out there doing his dirty business.”

  Styx snorted. “This guy must have King Kong-sized balls.”

  His brother nodded. “My thoughts exactly. You should have seen how he pouted when he was told he was ineligible to receive any reward for crimes that he had overseen. The rewards should—and ultimately will—go to the one person who brought Wesley Newburg down. And in case you’re not clear on who that is… it’s you, Syd.”

  Her eyes widened while Styx burst out laughing. “Wait, what?”

  Trey nodded, grinning. “As soon as Wesley mentioned collecting rewards for revealing his network of bad guys, every Hardwick with a badge began screaming about how it was you who brought Wesley Newburg into the light. We’ve got that cut-off text you sent to Styx to prove it.”

  “But I didn’t actually take him down, or whatever you call it,” Sydney said, shaking her head. “Styx was the hero. He’s the one who saved me.”

  “Doesn’t matter. Even if it wasn’t obvious you were the one who first figured out Wesley was dirty, Styx is a Hardwick. Since he’s related to so many cops, it wouldn’t look good if law enforcement insisted that he’s the one who should get the reward money.”

  “I wouldn’t take it anyway, since I didn’t do anything but beat the shit out of that scrawny shitheel for holding a gun on my woman,” Styx muttered, and she couldn’t help but wonder how long it would be before he could talk about Wesley without growling. Never, probably. “Believe me, that was payment enough.”

  “Not to sound too mercenary, but uh… just how much of a reward are we talking about?” Sydney asked, frowning. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m out of a job since there’s no way I’m ever going to go back to that store. I’ve talked it over with Styx, and I’ve decided to open a ballet studio, so I’ve got financial obligations looming on the horizon. Monthly rent, money I’ll have to pay out to have mirrors and a barre installed, and I’ll probably need to invest in a decent sound system. Then there’s the licensing, my certifications, business insurance and advertising. I’m going for a small business loan later this week, but even a few hundred dollars would help.”

  “The final amount is still being tabulated,” Trey shrugged, but there was a smirk there that made her heart start to thud. “There were dozens of businesses around this region that got ripped off, and each one of them put up rewards for information leading to the capture of the thieves hitting them, including Market Place. In fact, Market Place’s various rewards for information on the capture of the rings that were bleeding them dry—all of which were run by Wesley Newburg—amount to around thirty-grand. And that’s just one corporation,” he added while Sydney’s jaw dropped and Styx laughed again. “By the time the dust settles, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s closer to a hundred Gs.”

  “Holy crap,” she whispered, slumping against Styx. If he hadn’t been standing there like her personal Rock of Gibraltar, she would have keeled over. “That’s a lot more than a few hundred bucks.”

  “Something tells me your new ballet studio’s going to do just fine, Fun-Size,” Styx murmured, before picking her up with a whoop and swinging her around while Trey laughed.

  She’d have to remember to thank Wesley if she ever ran into him again, Sydney thought giddily, holding onto Styx with all her might. Without her former boss terrorizing her, she probably never would have plucked up the courage to bring Styx into her life and go for her dreams. Now it was all within her grasp, and she couldn’t wait to see what happened next.

  Five weeks later…

  “I don’t even like baseball. That’s such a huge part of the Hardwick family—they talk about it, plan their lives around its season, and celebrate it every time you turn around. How will I ever truly fit in if I don’t like baseball?”

  “Maeve.” Torn between sympathy and the desire to laugh, Sydney looked at the tearful woman’s reflection in the mirror. “You’re getting married today, whether you like it or not. Manufacturing reasons why it won’t work—especially a reason as lame as that—is just a form of self-harm, and I for one am not going to let you get away with it.”

  “Absolutely right. Everything’s going to be fine, baby girl.” Maeve’s mother, Brenna, was a pretty older woman with a helmet of unmovable black hair Sydney could only marvel at. She came over to side-hug her daughter as Maeve stared morosely at herself in a full-length mirror, set in a corner of the dressing room provided by the church. Sydney didn’t know why she looked so forlorn; as far as she could see, Maeve was a sexy knockout in her form-fitting mermaid-cut, strapless wedding dress. She wasn’t really showing that much yet, though she’d shared with Sydney that her seamstress had already had to adjust the bodice twice thanks to the early changes in the bust area.

  According to Maeve, Trey was a wholehearted fan of those particular changes.

  “I guarantee all your doubts and fears will vanish as if they never were the moment you see Trey standing there waiting for you,” Brenna went on, then sniffled loudly before she grabbed for a tissue. “It’s a moment you’ll never forget.”

  “I just want him to be there when I walk into the church.” The tears in Maeve’s eyes didn’t go away, but at least they didn’t fall, which was a good thing. Her bridal makeup was seriously on-point. “It’s so crazy, but right now that’s my biggest fear.”

  “If Trey were here right now, he’d give you hell for daring to even think that about him,” Sydney said, smiling at her via the mirror. “That man loves you.”

  “I know. I’m just…”

  “Scared,” Sydney finished for her, nodding. “I get it. But I’ve learned something recently, honey. It’s okay to believe in the man you love. And it’s okay to believe that your dreams really can come true.”

  “Trey is the man of my dreams,” Maeve whispered, and offered a tremulous smile. “Oh my God, he is so the man of my dreams, even when I wasn’t consciously dreaming about such things. This is really happening, isn’t it?”

  “It is, Maevy girl, and I’m just so happy for you.” Brenna tearfully gave her daughter one last squeeze before heading toward the door. “I’m going to see if everything’s ready, and then I’ll be back to walk you down that aisle. Oh, my stars, I’m walking my baby down the aisle today.”

  With a happy sob, Maeve’s mother vanished through the door, leaving behind Maeve, Sydney, and Maeve’s maid of honor, fellow teacher and Maeve’s best friend, Julia, who
helped Maeve get her poofy white tulle veil on. Another bridesmaid, a chatty redhead by the name of Christina, had been sent out front, ostensibly to make sure everyone was in place. Sydney, however, suspected it was because the redhead’s non-stop chatter had made Maeve reconsider her wedding-party choices in a big way.

  For her part, Sydney had been both surprised and touched when Maeve had asked her to be a bridesmaid. She still believed Sydney had somehow worked some kind of voodoo on Styx to get him to accept her, and nothing Sydney said could change the other woman’s mind. Ultimately, the only thing left for Sydney to do was graciously accept the honor of being Maeve’s bridesmaid, and do everything she could to be there for her new friend.

  As it was just the two bridesmaids and the maid of honor, it was by no means a wedding on a scale of the royals. But after dealing with the remarkably chatty Christina and a constantly weepy Brenna, it enough to make Sydney reflect on the benefits of eloping to Vegas.

  “It’s time.” Brenna appeared in the doorway, looking so overcome with emotion Sydney feared she’d burst into hysterics right there. “Christina’s already waiting behind the doors leading into the chapel. Sydney, you’re in line behind her and Julia, you go after Sydney. And I get to walk my Maevy down the aisle… ohhh, my baby.”

  Vegas, Sydney thought, trying not to chuckle when Brenna lost it entirely and had to take a couple minutes to mop up her face for her trip with her daughter down the aisle. If she and Styx ever chose to go to that next step in their relationship—which was a big if, since they’d only known each other less than two months—then she was definitely open to eloping to Vegas.

  The amazing thing was, she could picture taking that life-altering step with Styx. Whether it was her emotionally barren upbringing, or she simply wasn’t the romantic type, she’d never imagined something like a wedding for herself. She recalled how her friends in high school and college waxed lyrically about their ideal wedding, from where they’d get married, to what their colors were, to what their theme would be, and how their reception would be the party to end all parties.

  Not her, though. She’d never dreamed of loving someone so much that she might actually want to spend the rest of her life with them.

  She dreamed of it now, though.

  Every single day.

  It was shocking she even had the time to dream, with everything she had on her plate. Now that she was officially a small business owner and in the process of finishing out the renovations on what was now called OMMniscience Yoga and Ballet Studio, she was hustling all around Chicagoland to drum up business. She was also back on a personal training schedule, as she couldn’t very well teach a move if she couldn’t do a move. At first Styx had been horrified by what she was putting her feet through, and daily questioned her sanity. But gradually, as the blisters turned to calluses, he grew to grudgingly accept that this was how it was to be involved with a dancer who loved what she did.

  And bonus, nowadays she got a foot massage from him whenever she wanted.

  Talk about living the dream.

  It certainly felt like a dream. In just a few short weeks, her ho-hum life had changed so radically she hardly recognized it as her own.

  But she loved it, every last dazzling facet of it.

  The organ music began, and the doors were opened. Chatty Christina went out first, and Sydney wasn’t at all surprised to see her wave and pause every now and again to talk to someone she knew in the crowd. Then it was her turn, and as she headed toward the altar where the groom waited for his bride, her gaze instead slid to the groom’s best man.

  Styx.

  A casual onlooker probably would have thought Trey and Styx had never looked more identical than at that moment, with both of them in formalwear, but she could see the difference. Not only was Styx’s face leaner and his brown hair a fraction longer, it was the look in his eyes that set him apart not just from Trey, but from every other man in the universe.

  When Styx turned his gaze her way, it never failed to melt her all the way to her soul.

  She couldn’t help but look at Styx as she made her way to the front of the church, oblivious to the people standing quietly in the pews to bear witness to this solemn occasion. All she saw was her man, and his eyes were locked on her as if she was the only thing he could see. For just a moment she imagined that she was coming to him not in a pastel rose, tea-length bridesmaid dress, but in her very own wedding gown.

  Maybe the hassle of a full-blown wedding wasn’t that horrible of an idea, after all.

  A ceremony didn’t matter, she thought as she reached the end and started to turn toward the bridal side. What mattered was that she was with the man of her dreams, and she’d do everything she could to keep that dream alive.

  “No you don’t.”

  To her shock, Styx stepped forward, caught her by the arm before she could take her place, and in front of the entire church, bent to kiss her long and deep. When he finally lifted his head, Julia was halfway down the aisle, a few people were wolf-whistling and applauding, and the priest was clearing his throat loudly.

  “You look beautiful.” Styx’s voice was a disturbed rumble that did crazy things to her pulse. The way he was looking at her, she could almost believe he’d forgotten there were other people on the planet. “So damn beautiful I can’t even fucking breathe.”

  “May I remind you, we are in a church,” the priest hissed, clearly aghast, but Styx merely slid the older man a cocky grin.

  “It’s all good, Father. God understands. After all, He made this perfect woman standing before me. I’m just admiring His good work.” Then he bent and brushed a kiss along her blushing cheek. “See you on the flipside, Syd.”

  “It’s a date,” she whispered back breathlessly.

  “…and then out of nowhere,” Sydney was saying while Maeve giggled uproariously, “Maeve starts freaking out about not yet being a full-fledged fan of baseball. Trust me, Maeve, by this time next year, since the Cubbies are going to go all the way next season, you’ll be as crazy about baseball as the rest of us.”

  Styx listened to the laughter ring around the table set on a dais slightly apart from the rest of the dozen or so round tables within the banquet hall. He and Trey had managed to get the country club’s beautiful main hall booked during the busiest time of year, the holiday season, thanks to the owner wanting to get a tattoo done by the famous Sebastian Payne. All it had taken was a phone call and the promise to give up a kidney if Payne ever needed it, and it was a done deal.

  It had been worth it, though. Everywhere he looked in the elegant banquet hall, with its stained-glass windows, marble columns and polished hardwood floors, he saw happy faces. His brother was downright giddy, laughing at every joke while he kept in constant physical contact with his new wife and mother of his unborn child. Every now and again he saw Trey fiddle with the gold band on his finger, as if he kept having to reassure himself that it was still there.

  He’d seen Trey in every possible mood, and knew those moods like they were an echo to his own. That was how he knew his brother had never been happier in his life than he was at that moment.

  And that was fucking beautiful.

  What was also beautiful was that whenever he looked at Sydney, he felt that same wild happiness for himself.

  Sydney, immediately to his right, caught him staring at her and leaned in. “What? Do I have something on my face?”

  “Your face is perfect.” No truer words had ever been spoken, and he leaned her way to capture her mouth with his. “It’s my favorite thing to look at, so don’t get pissed with me if I can’t help staring at you.”

  Her eyes lit with a smile so brilliant it dazzled him. “Are you saying that because you’re hoping to get lucky later on tonight?”

  “I’m the luckiest man in this room,” he said, and by God, he meant every damn word. “Since I already got lucky this morning, tonight’s just gonna be a bonus.”

  “You know it.” She wrapped her arm around his and
hugged it to her heart, looking so damn cute it took all his strength to not just pick her up, get her ass in the car, and get her home as fast as he could. These people around them—family, friends, the bedrock of Hardwick life—were nothing compared to his Sydney, the woman who’d become his world.

  “Terrance, I hope you’ve prepared something for the best man’s speech.” Breaking into the world that belonged just to him and Sydney, his mother leaned across the table and gave him a little shooing motion. “These folks are getting antsy to cut a rug, so it’s time to do your thing.”

  “Just don’t talk all day, kid,” his father suggested around a mouthful of the prime rib he’d insisted had to be on the menu. “I got money riding on how long your speech is going to last.”

  “Jesus, this family.” Styx dug out a piece of paper from the inside of his jacket, looked at what he’d written, and promptly balled it up. What the hell, he thought, rising to his feet. Nothing wrong with winging it. “Yo, listen up, you mooks!”

  “Or, alternatively,” Sydney muttered, held up her champagne glass and tapped it repeatedly with her fork. “Ladies and gentlemen, if Styx may have your attention, please.”

  “Yeah, that.” He grinned at her while his father chuckled, his mother looked heavenward and Trey laughed out loud and slung an arm around his new wife. “Most of you know who I am—Trey’s brother, Styx. I’m older than him by fourteen minutes, but those fourteen minutes mean everything, because they make me the oldest of my siblings. The leader of the pack, you might say.”

  “I say bullshit,” Trey yelled happily while Tina whooped in solidarity, raising her glass of sparkling grape juice toward Trey.

  “Yeah, I didn’t think they’d go along with that,” Styx drawled while the crowd laughed. “But facts are facts. I’m the oldest. Yet, as life has unfolded for each and every one of us, it’s also a fact that my younger siblings ran ahead of me on that road we call life, opened their minds and their hearts to the people who would become their partners, their chosen family, and they looked forward to building beautiful futures with those chosen partners by their side. When Tina married Rick her final year in college, no one was really that surprised. Tina’s always been a romantic, who also happens to be the most bullheaded human being on earth, so when she decided Rick was the one for her, there was nothing Rick could do but stand there like a deer caught in the headlights and accept his fate.”