Fool's Paradise (Cartwright Brothers Book 5)

by Lilliana Anderson

  “I appreciate that, man. Thanks.”

  “You have all of ours too,” Sam said while Alesha nodded. “We’ve got a hell of a lot to lose, and I’ll be fucked if I’m letting that cunt anywhere near my family.”

  Murmurs went around the table as the rest of the family offered their services, anything we needed they all said. They wanted the threat of Grey over and done with too.

  “Can I just say,” Holland piped up. “That I think it’s so very brave what you’re all doing. But, I think my personal strength will be best used staying behind and taking care of the babies. While I’ve always liked to think of myself as the Belle in this story, I don’t mind playing the part of the woman with all the children shrieking about five eggs for a day or two. It’s for a worthy cause.” She gave a small smile to the rest of the table, most of them nodded in understanding and told her they thought that was a good idea. I, on the other hand, had no fucking clue what she was talking about. Who the hell was Belle and what did five eggs have to do with any of it? By the time dessert rolled around, I was completely lost and sick from the idea that my father had been plotting my death all along.

  Dessert was, however, absolutely delicious. Even in my frazzled mind, I couldn’t help but moan with pleasure from the taste. That biker could really bake.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  MY FAULT

  “BABABA.” Sticky hands grabbed at the hem of my dress as I sat on a white leather coach in the grand house’s living area, trying not to scream.

  “I really think he’ll be walking soon,” Holland said to the others, who nodded and watched the little boy pulling on my dress without doing anything to stop him.

  “Ma da ba.”

  He looked up at me with the same honey eyes as his mother and drool running down his chin. Oh god. Get him off me.

  “I reckon he’ll start talking soon too,” Ronnie said from the floor where she sat with Oscar between her legs. He was chewing on plastic blocks and drooling up a storm like his older cousin. The other two babies were sleeping.

  Did I die and enter the kind of hell women who never wanted babies were sent to?

  “Why are we here?” I blurted suddenly, earning myself some curious glances.

  “Like, on this planet?” Holland asked. “Or here in this specific room?”

  Sloane chuckled. “I don’t think she’s after the meaning of life, Holl. She’s looking a bit shell-shocked. And for what it’s worth, we were all the same coming into this family. The way they do things… it’s a little archaic and off-putting, but they’ll fill us in on the details when they come out of the war room.”

  “The war room?” I asked.

  “That’s my name for it,” Ronnie said with a smirk. “They go in there and beat their chests while we women folk stay out here with the children. It used to piss me off because I like to be part of planning our jobs. Then I realised it was actually beneficial. They argue with their egos in there, and by the time they present a job to us, they’ve reached a compromise.”

  “They just decide everything?” I was not OK with that.

  “Not really,” Alesha put in. “We get as much input as we want on the actual job. But they decide what the job is and who has a role in it.” That was bullshit.

  “Since we’ve had children,” Sloane said. “We’ve all taken a big back step. We don’t work outside the cover businesses unless our specific skills are necessary in the field.”

  “And what are your skills?” I asked, looking at each of them.

  “I jack cars and drive,” Ronnie said, pride in her eyes.

  “I’m a locksmith by trade,” Sloane put in. “So I pick locks and open safes.”

  Alesha went next. “I don’t really have any particular skills. But I do have access to a crematorium, so I suppose my specialty is cleaning up when things go wrong.”

  “Is that a threat?” I asked, light teasing in my tone because she was the one I was most concerned with.

  She laughed and shook her head. “Not at all. I just didn’t have much of a crooked history before I married Sam. I’m still learning.”

  “And what about you?” I asked Holland, who had thankfully collected her toddler and was now bouncing him on her knee.

  “I can sing?” she said, scrunching up her nose which caused the others to laugh.

  “Holland is our token non-criminal,” Ronnie explained.

  “I just don’t have the stomach for it,” Holland added. “I mean, I accept that’s how things are, but I prefer not to know the details. I’m too afraid of losing my beast and would worry incessantly.”

  “Your beast?” This woman spoke in riddles.

  Alesha grinned and filled me in. “Nate is her beast. Holl likes to merge her own life with the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. She and Nate have this massive library in their house and dream of retiring to run a bookshop.”

  Holland’s eyes glittered as she nodded. “He even built me a ladder that runs along the shelves.”

  “I’ll have to take your word on it. I’ve never seen any Disney films,” I said, shrugging.

  Holland looked horrified. “No fucking way!” She gasped and covered her mouth. “What kind of life have you led without Disney in it?”

  “A realistic one?” I replied. I wasn’t getting defensive at all, and I wasn’t even trying to have a dig at her. I was simply being honest because dreaming and hoping for a prince to save me wasn’t constructive during my upbringing. That would just lead to a world of disappointment.

  “Oh ignore her,” Ronnie said, waving a hand in the air. “She can’t imagine living a life without pop culture. I was the same when I came into the family. I’d never watched any of the nineties classics and she lost her ever-loving mind. Made me watch marathons for months until she was satisfied I’d get all of her references.”

  “Pretty Woman is life,” Holland added.

  “I’m sure it is,” I said, deciding to skip telling her I hadn’t seen that either.

  “Why don’t you tell us how you went from tracking Toby down to being the woman he brought to Sunday dinner?” Alesha asked, leaning forwards a little.

  “Why don’t you tell me why you threw yourself at him in the driveway?” I asked in return, eying her with suspicion. Something told me she considered herself above the others in her position within the family. Like she was the next female behind Jasmine. I’d picked up on it in the way she acted during the cleanup after dinner. With Jasmine in the office with her sons and Breaker, Alesha had taken control.

  “I can answer that one,” Holland said, smiling at her friend. “Leesh has been socially awkward all of her life.”

  Alesha went bright red and placed a hand on her face. “Please shut up.”

  Holland smiled. “She used to be incapable of stringing a sentence together around good-looking men.”

  “I’m fine now,” she argued, her cheeks still pink.

  “It’s crazy, actually. All our lives she’d been this stammering mess. Then she walks into this house and suddenly, she’s cured.”

  “I was scared out of my mind.”

  “Anyway, the Cartwrights are the first men she’s ever been close to. She’s like their little sister because she lived here with them for the first few months of her marriage to Sam.”

  “They made me feel more welcome than my own family ever did,” Alesha added. “Jasmine taught me to cook, Kris taught me to surf, Abbot taught me to see the humour in pretty much everything. I don’t think I need to detail what Sam taught me”—she pressed her lips together as her blush returned—“And Toby, well, he was like this guiding light. Whenever I felt lost, he was there.” She looked around the group of women. “I think he was that guy for all of us. He’s special in that big brother, favourite uncle kind of way. Does that make sense?”

  Sloane and Ronnie both nodded while Holland kind of shrugged. I was pretty sure her relationship with Toby had differed somewhat from the others since he’d actively pursued her and all.
Seemed funny to me that it wasn’t her I felt wary of. Only Alesha. I suppose that was because of her over-the-top greeting. You don’t wrap your legs around another woman’s man. You just didn’t. But, I’d let it go this time—primarily because of how quick Toby was to set her back down.

  “He’s a special person,” I said, pressing my hands together in my lap.

  “He is,” Ronnie agreed. “Seems you’re lucky to have found each other in the chaos.”

  “We were,” I said, keeping it short and sweet, my cards close to my chest.

  “Aw, come on, Blair,” Holland said. “We need some details here. Well, I do. My soul thrives on romance.”

  “Abbot says Toby always lived like a monk. He was really quiet about his free time, and they never saw him with a woman,” Sloane put in. “So we’re all super interested in you, and how you two got together.”

  “I’m just happy he’s found someone,” Alesha said. “He deserves to be happy.”

  “More than any of us,” Ronnie added, nodding.

  “There really isn’t much to tell. He was a job. I hunted him down, and after we escaped the boat explosion, we travelled together. And well, he’s gorgeous. One thing led to another, and here we are.” They all looked a little disappointed at my summary of events, but I still felt protective of Toby’s and my relationship. We’d been behaving as though two weeks was all we had, circumstances had turned that into one, and now we weren’t ready to let each other go. I didn’t really know what our future held, or if we’d even have one after we confronted Grey, but I was willing to try because Toby was worth it. He was the best man I’d ever met.

  “Well, he looks happy,” Sloane said before correcting herself. “Happier, anyway. Coming back here can’t have been easy for him. He really earned his freedom, you know.”

  I nodded because I did know. And I felt seriously stupid for playing right into Grey’s hands by bringing him back here. Grey was a smart man, he couldn’t be in his position if he wasn’t. He’d sent me after Toby, knowing that if the boat bomb failed, I’d herd him back to his mother the way I was trained to. We’d returned to what was probably a trap, and now I was afraid of what came next, and when….

  “Maybe you’ll all feel better once you have your freedom,” I said, rising from my seat and moving over to the window. I pulled back a blind and searched the darkness, unease bubbling through my chest.

  “No one can see in,” Alesha said. “There are gates and sensors all around the property. We’d be alerted if anyone was out there.”

  I swung my gaze upward. “That’s why, if I was Grey, I’d use a drone.”

  “What’s a drone gonna see?” Ronnie asked. “We’re all inside.”

  Releasing the blind, I let out a sigh. “Until we aren’t.”

  “There are infrared ones,” Sloane put in, not really helping anyone.

  “Why don’t you sit down, hon?” Holland suggested. “There’s a fully stocked bar in the rumpus. Relax a little, grab a drink. The guys will fix this, but we’ll be here a while.” Now she was rocking her little boy in her arms and he was nodding off, his little fingers twisted in her hair. Between me and myself, I felt a little pang of ‘awww’ go off somewhere in the dark recesses of my heart. But I wasn’t going to admit that out loud.

  “Anyone else want a drink?” I asked with a sigh, thumbing over my shoulder.

  “There are vodka mixes in the fridge if you want to bring some back,” Alesha suggested.

  “Any particular flavour?”

  “Whatever you grab is fine.”

  The way the first level of the house was laid out, there was a formal lounge and dining towards the front, a kitchen and office in the centre, then a rumpus room towards the back that opened out onto the backyard and an in ground pool. The rumpus held a long grey couch, a pool table, and a marble-topped bar on the farthest wall.

  Placing my hand on the cool marble, I walked around to the working side of the bar and kneeled down to open one of the glass-front fridges, pulling out four bottles of vodka mixed with guava—the kind of drink I always referred to as ‘lolly water’ because it was so sweet. As I set them on top of the bar and looked around for something stronger for myself, my eyes landed on the door that lead into the office, the place Ronnie had referred to as the ‘war room’.

  Grabbing a scotch glass from the shelf, I selected a vanilla-flavoured vodka and unscrewed the lid, my eyes straying again to that closed door as I sniffed the sweet notes.

  I wanted to be in that room, listening to them plan, taking part in the decision-making process. The man they were after was my father after all. He was the monster under my bed more than anyone else in this house. I would be the ticket that allowed them to get close to him. Didn’t I have a right to be a part of this?

  “Fuck it,” I muttered to myself, abandoning my drink preparation and marching across the slate flooring. I didn’t even take a moment to reconsider, just reached out and placed my hand on the knob and turned.

  I was met with silence as seven sets of eyes swung my way.

  “Is there something you need?” Jasmine asked, placing the tips of her fingers on the desk where she was standing. The others were all around her, some in chairs, others leaning on filing cabinets or bookcases. Toby was on his feet, closest to the side of the desk, looking like he was literally Jasmine’s righthand man.

  “I need to be a part of the meeting.”

  “Family only,” Jasmine replied, her words sharp.

  “Jasmine,” Toby warned, an edge to his voice.

  “Family? Considering you’re plotting to murder my father, I think I qualify. Don’t you?”

  Toby hissed under his breath as the shock registered on his siblings’ faces.

  “Your father?” Jasmine repeated, suddenly interested. “Why haven’t we been told this?” She directed that at Toby.

  Instead of answering her question, Toby took a few strides towards me and placed his hand on my elbow. “Can I speak with you outside?” He waited until we were on the other side of the kidney-shaped pool before he released me and turned my way, letting out his breath. “You agreed to let me protect you.” He put his hand on his hip and the other against his temple, like I caused all his stress.

  “Ah, yeah. But that doesn’t mean you get to cut me out.”

  “Maybe I was doing it because I don’t need them using you as fucking bait, or worse, deciding you’re somehow the enemy.”

  “I don’t know if you remember or not, but I happily volunteered as bait. No matter what he decides to do with me, he’ll see me. If you stay close, you’ll get your shot.”

  “That is the stupidest fucking idea I’ve ever heard,” he blustered, eyes flashing as he took hold of my arm. “After what he did to you? I am not serving you up to him so he can do it all again, or worse—kill you the moment you walk in. It’s insane, Blair. You’ve given this zero thought.”

  “I’ve given it a hell of a lot of thought, actually.”

  “But it’s suicide,” he yelled. “You’re planning with anger and revenge, and I won’t let you be reckless with your own safety.”

  “Let me?”

  He jostled my arm. “Yes, Blair, let you. You are mine. Mine to take care of. Mine to protect. And you do as I fucking say, or I can’t do what I’m good at.”

  That means you do as I say.

  It means you let me protect you

  Those were the terms I agreed to. He’d used that big cock of his as a weapon of persuasion and now he was holding me to my word. Fucker.

  “Are you saying I can’t be involved?”

  He released his grip and smoothed his hand down the length of my arm. “You’re too emotional to be involved.”

  My mouth fell open as I stepped back. “Emotional? That man is my father. He put me to work in one of his whorehouses when I was too young to know what was right and what was wrong. Then he ordered my torture, raped and beat me as an adult before trying to blow me up. Twice. He represents everything evil i
n this world, and I need to watch him die, Toby. Don’t you dare take this away from me.”

  “I’m not taking it away, sunshine.”

  “Don’t call me a pet name when I’m pissed off at you.” He reached for me and I stepped back.

  “Fine. I’m not taking it away, Blair. I’m doing this for you. I can’t go in there and do what needs to be done if I’m worried about you as well. We’ll both end up dead and then this will have been for absolutely nothing.”

  “And if I don’t go in there and do this, then I will be tortured for the rest of my life.” I pointed at my head. “I need to watch him bleed.”

  “I’ll take a fucking video and show you so you can watch over and over. Just please, I can’t concentrate with you in a room, and if anything happens to you, I’ll die, Blair. Please. It will be so much easier for me if I know that no matter what happens to me, you will be OK.”

  “No. We both knew the risks coming here. Just because we’ve let our feelings get out of control doesn’t mean the job is any different.”

  “Goddamn it, Blair. I love you too much to risk your life.”

  His words hit me in the chest, stealing my breath and causing me to stumble back slightly. “You love me?”

  He held his hand out, gaze softening. “With everything I have.”

  Looking from his outstretched hand to the sincerity that shone from his eyes, my chest tightened, constricting my throat. I shook my head. “Not yet, Toby. You weren’t supposed to. Not until after. It was only supposed to be a maybe until then.”

  “I love you know, Blair. I can’t help it. And if you love me, even if you just think it’s possible that you could love me, please stop fighting me on this. Killing that man will be my greatest gift to you.”

  “I want to kill him myself.”

  Stepping closer, he caught my hand then tugged me until I collided against his chest and stared up at him. “How many men have you killed, Blair?” he whispered, his fingers slipping into the sides of my hair so my face was still and I couldn’t look away.

  “None,” I whispered back.