Providence Series Books 1-4

by Mary B. Moore

  “Holy shit,” Brett choked from the direction of the front door while Ren coughed. “What does she eat?”

  Looking back at the last asshole standing, well sitting now, I relaxed back into my chair and drank my coffee. Revenge was most definitely sweet!

  Chapter 13

  Brett

  I ’d finally gotten the orange off my skin and the green out of my hair a couple of days ago. I’d almost scrubbed myself raw trying to do it, but it had worked in the end. I still had a slight green tinge to my hair and looked a smidge jaundiced, but it was a huge improvement on what I’d looked like before.

  Sitting back in my chair, I took a sip of my beer and looked around the bar doing my best not to look at the phone sitting on the table in front of me. I hadn’t heard from her in five days, and it was eating away at me. No, it was pissing me off; eating away at me implied that I actually cared about her which I didn’t. I didn’t do relationships or caring about females that weren’t family, and she was no different.

  I’d been used by women all of my life in some way. Either they wanted me to buy them shit, thinking that a fuck entitled them to gifts, or they were hoping that I’d marry them. Or, like the close call I had a couple of years ago - they were planning to get pregnant to trap me. Thank fuck for Mom, she’d saved my bacon on that occasion. All of those experiences though meant that I didn’t do relationships or the whole falling in love bullshit; I fucked plain and simple. They come, I come, they go.

  Then five months ago, she walked into my life, and that was me screwed. I really didn’t like that I thought about her and wondered what she was doing. It pissed me the hell off that I found myself checking my phone for messages from her, or planning messages that I could send her. Most of the time, I went with nonsense work ones that didn’t need to be sent, but that I did it anyway. The thing I hated with a passion, though, was that I always had this need to see her; I wanted to be around her all of the time, and it didn’t sit well with me at all.

  I couldn’t stop myself from looking back down at my phone and almost threw it across the bar when there was no reply from her. Where the hell was she? What was she doing? Who the fuck was she with? The thought that she might be with another man had me so fucked off that I felt like I could crush the glass bottle in my hand. Why did she have this effect on me?

  Looking away from the phone, I scanned the bar again and saw a chick that I used to fuck in high school. Trinny wasn’t a bad looking woman, but she was a bike. Maybe this was what I needed to get my mind off of her? Part of me wanted to do it, but a bigger part of me was pulling my dick inside my body at the thought.

  She chose that moment to look around the bar, probably looking for fresh meat, and then stopped on me. The smug smile that she wore as she stalked towards had me wanting to get up to get as far away from her as possible, and the temptation to go home and scrub myself raw for ever sticking my dick in her was strong, but I had a purpose for staying where I was. I was going to get her out of my system. Or at least try.

  “Well, hey there stranger. How ya been?” She asked as soon as she got to the table, punctuating it by bending over and flashing her cleavage at me. I’m pretty sure that it was mostly chicken cutlets, though, because I knew tits and those didn’t add up, and they sure as shit weren’t plastic.

  “Good, sugar,” I leaned back and kept eye contact with her. “You’re looking fine, Trinny. Single?” The grin that she shot me told me everything. Time to go in for the kill. “What are you up t…”

  My phone chose that second to chime just as my brain started screaming no at me. Before I met her, I would have left it and continued towards the score, but it had become an obsession to check it as soon as it beeped, just in case. Looking at the screen, my heart sped up when her name flashed on it. Ignoring the train wreck still talking at me and flashing her fake chest, I picked up the phone and opened the message.

  Sabine: I’m sorry, I haven’t been well. I will look into that tomorrow and respond.

  Ever since the explosion at the offices, she’d had issues with her chest and had been put on antibiotics and steroids. The last I’d heard, though, she’d been doing okay. The mental image of her not being able to breathe properly and being alone hit me, and I got up out of my chair and dialed the pilot.

  “What about tonight?” Trinny whined as I walked past her. Looking at her, the thought that I’d even considered touching her turned my gut even though I knew that I wouldn’t have done it.

  “No,” I said as I made my way towards the door, just as the pilot answered. “I need the helo here as soon as possible.” I walked outside the building with Coleman behind me. He’d been standing nearby after I’d told him that I wanted some time alone when I’d gone into the bar.

  “I can be there in a couple of hours, sir,” McKay replied.

  “Do it.” I hung up as we got to the SUV and turned to Coleman. “We’re going to Dallas,” I opened the door to the rear of the car and got in, not giving him a chance to answer.

  “Everything okay?” he asked as he got behind the wheel of the vehicle and a new guy that I’d never seen before got into the passenger side.

  “Unknown.” I felt as grim as I expected I sounded. Once I got there and saw for myself what was wrong and got her the best medical attention I could find, then I’d relax. Until then, I needed to get my shit together and get to her.

  We spent the rest of the drive back to the ranch in silence, and I took the time to make plans based on a range of scenarios of what could be wrong with her. Getting out of the vehicle, I told them I’d meet them back at it in an hour. It took at least half an hour to get to the airfield that we’d decided to go to to meet the helicopter, seeing as we couldn’t use the normal one that was closer. Even though there hadn’t been any more incidents, didn’t mean that the person doing it had given up, so we were treading on the side of caution and would do until further notice.

  I packed my bags and threw them in the trunk of the SUV and ran to my parents to say goodbye and tell them where I was going. I think Mom suspected that there was someone, but she’d be wrong. Sabine was just someone who worked for me, and her family were in France, so she was here all on her own. At least, that’s what I told myself as I ran back to the vehicle. Nothing had happened between us, and nothing would happen between us. She was just an employee, that’s all… Gritting my teeth, I knew that it was time for me to face the truth on this. For the first time in my life, I’d found a woman that hit a place so deep inside of me that I struggled to function without her. Did she feel the same way, though?

  Chapter 14

  “Mr. Lewis”

  I ’d been on my way to see my Red when the phone that had been quiet for months now, but that I carried around with me just in case, rang. I swear this bastard had eyes on me because he always seemed to call just as I was about to do something.

  “Sir,” I was keeping it cordial for just now. I knew that fucker was going to off me the second that this was all over or if I took a step wrong, but what he didn’t know was that I was gonna get there first.

  “Give me an update.”

  Looking around me, I took a step away from where people were walking and leaned against the wall.

  “They still have security tight.”

  “Mmmm,” I could hear papers being moved around on the other end of the phone and wondered what the fuck he did. If he was in contact with people every day, how the fuck did they not pick up on the fact that he was a psychotic son of a bitch? “I think,” he paused, and I did my best not to snap. I wasn’t going to keep Red waiting, not for this piece of shit. “Hang tight. We will stay our course for now. I’ll call you soon,” he added, and hung up without saying anything else. Fucking fine by me.

  Walking across the road, I headed to the small deli that seemed totally out of place in this ass backward hick town. Opening the door, I spotted her immediately and made my way towards her table.

  “Oh, hey there. I wasn’t sure if you would
make it,” my beautiful Red said as I sat down. She was smiling at me, happy to see me.

  “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.” And it was true, I wouldn’t have. Over the last couple of months, we’d become close and had met up for coffee many times. That asshole Adam Montgomery was missing again, thank fuck. If he’d been around, I might have had to break my “orders” and take care of him.

  Looking at Red as she spoke to me with her eyes twinkling, I wondered if she knew what Montgomery was up to? What he really did while he was away? If he comes back and starts taking up her time or sniffing around her, I was gonna have to find a way to let her in on his secrets. Let’s see if she thinks he’s the shit after that.

  Chapter 15

  Cole

  I t had been ages since the night of animalgate. In fact, it seemed like forever since we’d all been out as a group. I guess someone wanting you dead and pregnancy will do that to a social life. Baz had been reluctant to let us go out tonight, but there were enough undercover security and obvious security personnel dotted around Ethan’s club that, regardless of which of us went where, we’d be covered the whole time. Ethan had also briefed his own security and Mace wasn’t drinking, so I was thinking we’d be cool.

  Isla and Maya, neither of whom were drinking because they were still feeding the babies, were both watching their men with a mixture of amusement and adoration as they knocked back a couple of drinks. Ebru, Ava, and Scarlett had taken it upon themselves to drink Isla and Maya’s ‘alcohol entitlement’, which I assumed meant what they couldn’t drink the girls would. I couldn’t blame Eb, after everything she’d been through recently, she needed to let her hair down and have some fun.

  Mom had almost snatched Crystal from Ren when they’d brought her over to theirs, and as we were leaving, she was arguing with Gram over who got to hold her. They were both baby hogs of the biggest kind and had wanted the twins too, but George and Christy had them, and there was no way they would have given in to foregoing grandparent time with those two rascals.

  “So, have you used the breast pump yet?” Ava asked, giving me a shit-eating grin. I don’t know what the hell she had to grin about; that thing was fierce.

  “Wow, is this the type of conversation that we’re reduced to?” Tony grimaced as he rubbed his stomach. The guy now had a serious phobia of all things baby, aside from the babies themselves. Although, he still glared at Dewi from time to time. He’d shown up with Lars which had been a shock to the rest of the group, but Ebru had told me that they were dating and I was happy for them. Tony was a great guy with one of the biggest hearts ever, and Eb thought the same of Lars; they made sense as a couple.

  “Yup, when you have babies everything changes,” Maya grinned at Tony. “For example, at dinner the other night, we were discussing the ‘poo charts’ that the hospital sent home with Crystal.”

  The entire table went silent. “Poo…chart?” Ethan looked bemused by this news, but I was just relieved that he’d asked it instead of me.

  “Yeah,” Isla nodded, leaning into Luke. “When they released us, they gave us this chart of what the babies crap should look like for the first two weeks.”

  “Doesn’t it just look like, well, uh crap?” I wasn’t an expert, but I’m pretty certain shit looked like shit regardless what age you were. Although, I knew for a fact that the twins and Crystal’s asses smelt like death.

  “Nope,” Ren was grinning. “For the first two weeks, baby shit changes in colors, so you check it against this chart that they give you.”

  “It changes color? Like a mood ring?” Tony looked somewhat intrigued by this, and the mental image of your shit changing color depending on your mood had me chuckling.

  “No, like for example - the first day, that shit is black like tar,” Ren explained. “Then it goes a dark green color, and then like this luminous yellow mustard type color, and then…”

  “Someone make him stop,” Tony whined covering his ears, but I was finding this fascinating even though I’d never touch mustard again.

  “Why does that happen? I mean, don't they all drink milk or something?” I thought those were valid questions because how the hell can something that exists on milk and air have different colored crap?

  “It’s because up until then they were fed by the umbilical cord,” Ebru the medical expert at the table explained. “Then their stomachs have to adjust to having milk in it, and the baby basically gets the nutrients from whatever the mother is eating through that too. So, it needs to clear what it got from the cord, and then adjust to the milk, and then the milk changes from colostrum to…”

  “How do you know what day is going to look like what, though? I mean, they’re not going to know what the mother’s eating, so how do they know?” Ava looked as confused as I felt at this moment.

  Ebru and Lars looked at each other and smiled, and I wasn’t sure if they existed, but I figured a ‘medical joke’ had just passed between them.

  “Wait a second,” something had just hit me. “How do you know if it’s the right color? Is there a general description?”

  “No, way better than that,” Ren grinned at me. “There are photos!”

  “I’m outta here,” Ethan got up and walked in the direction of the bar.

  “Do you remember when we used to talk about normal shit and not baby shit?” Mace asked, looking completely serious.

  “Yeah, and this is way more interesting.” No one was distracting me from this topic. “So is it like a paint chip that you hold next to Crystal’s diaper?”

  The responding smiles on Ren and Maya’s faces answered that question for me. I wondered if they did a paint that’s shade was called ‘baby shit day 3’?

  “Did the twins get this too?” Ava asked Isla.

  “They did,” Luke answered for her, picking Isla up and putting her on his lap for a cuddle. “And I’m keeping it for the next one too.” It took me a second to catch on to what he was saying, but when he started rubbing her stomach, the penny dropped.

  “You’re pregnant again?”

  “No,” Isla sighed, and rolled her eyes. “But Luke wants another one. I’m happy to wait a while longer seeing as how I pushed two babies out only a couple of months ago.”

  “Don’t you dare,” Tony got up and glared as he pointed at her. “I will not go through that again. Do you know what being shot by a baby does to a man? Do you? Do you?”

  “Calm your glitter,” Isla was struggling not to laugh. “I didn’t say that we were going to have another one now, I said that Luke would like another one now. Then again, he didn’t give birth to the other two. So, he can say he wants another one, but we’re both enjoying the two that we already have, so it won’t happen for a while.”

  Still glaring at her, Tony plopped back down on his chair with his arms crossed and huffed, “You see that it doesn’t,” before pointing at Maya and saying, “and that goes for you too.”

  “Please, tell me we’ve moved on from baby shit,” Ethan begged, as he sat down again and a waitress put a tray full of drinks on the table.

  “Yeah, but I’m so going to the hardware store tomorrow to see if they do a range of paint that has the colors ‘baby shit day…’ on them.” And it’s true, I was.

  “As…thrilling as this has been,” Mace drawled as Ethan glared at me. “Can we move onto something that isn’t baby shit related?”

  We all broke off into our own conversations, and I took a second to sit back and look around the table. Ebru looked relaxed and was laughing at something that Scarlett had said to her and again it hit me how far she’d come. We’d discussed her parents yesterday and although she hadn’t forgiven them, and I still didn’t think that it would ever be possible for her to fully forgive them, she now accepted them and was supporting her mom through her treatment. I was struggling to understand how two people could have ever stomached treating their daughters the way Finn and Enya had, but I was no psychologist, so I doubted that I’d ever get my head around it.

/>   I’d spoken to Finn this morning after Brett’s lawyer had called me with an update on the case against the girls that stabbed Eb. They were pressing charges against them all and against the bitch’s dad too, but Eb was going to have to go and give a statement to the police. This was something that happened all too often for my liking in my family just now, but it would be worth it. I was waiting to break the news to Eb, though, but Finn had been relieved and was determined to fight for justice. Was it a case of too little too late? I really didn’t know, but he seemed genuine. I also would never let on my true thoughts to Ebru about her parents’ actions because I know she’d been devastated and hurt enough. I knew her well enough to know that if I said something that made her turn her back on them, and something happened to her mom, she’d never forgive herself.

  “How are things with your dad?” Ava asked Isla as I tuned back into the conversation.

  “Okay,” Isla shrugged. This was something that I’d wanted to ask her because he was another example of how not to parent, and I personally struggled to understand how she could forgive him. “He’s great with Kali and Dewi and comes around to see us almost every day. He asked not to get sent on any overseas posts and to remain Stateside so that he can spend time with us.”

  “Do you trust him?” The question popped out before I could stop it.

  She looked at Luke and then back at me and shrugged again. “I don’t know. I want to, and to a degree, I guess I do, but I can’t forget what happened.”

  “Rome wasn’t built in a day honey,” Ebru said, echoing the mantra that I used on her regularly just now.

  I was about to change the subject when Ren looked over my shoulder, and a look of hatred crossed his face. Turning around expecting to see someone like Francheska, my heart sank when I saw a drunken Adele stumbling her way through the club toward us. How she’d gotten into the VIP section, I’ll never know, but I’m thinking that Ethan’s security wasn’t as shit hot as he thought.