Holding Huck's Heart (Marco's MMA Boys #3) (14 page)

CHAPTER 26

HUCK

Settling in for the five and a half hour drive, my mind is all over the place. What in the hell was she thinking? I’m tempted to bend her over my knee and spank her ass when I get there. My phone pings.

CHELSEA: I got a room at the Hampton on A1A. I needed to decompress. Room 1212. I’m sorry you’re having to come get me. I just can’t bother my mom with another thing that’s my fault.

ME: It’s fine. I’ll be there ASAP.

Damn it. I ran out telling my brother briefly where I was going and that I’d be back tonight hopefully. Now I’m headed to a hotel to meet up with Chels, in the town her ex is in and I don’t have a clue what the fuck she’s doing down there in the first place. My stomach is in fucking knots and I can’t explain it.

Due to the fact that everyone on the turnpike drives 90 mph, I’m able to make it in a little over four hours. It looks like we’ll be spending the night. Good thing I keep a gym bag with a couple of changes of clothes in my truck. Going to the room number she gave me, I nervously knock.

“Chelsea, it’s me, open up.”

Nothing.

I knock again. “Chelsea, come on.”

Nothing.

I pull out my phone.

ME: I’m here where are you?

Almost immediately it pings back.

CHELSEA: Hotel bar.

I get back on the elevator and ride down to the hotel bar. As soon as I walk in, I see her sitting at the bar. She’s fiddling with her phone and doesn’t even notice me walk up. She seems flustered.

“If you wanted me to meet you in a hotel bar, all you had to do was ask nicely,” I say down by her ear.

She jumps, almost knocking her glass over. “Huck!” She spins around, I can see it in her eyes she’s drunk. “You scared me.” She shoves me in the chest.

I notice shot glasses lined up in front her. “How many of those have you had babe?”

“Enough,” she slurs.

“Enough to what? Put down a horse?” I say, sliding on the stool beside her.

“Enough to numb the pain,” she says, lying her head on my shoulder.

I kiss her on the head. “I think you’re done for the night.”

I motion to the bartender. “I need to get her check.” He nods, handing me a slip.

$90.00?! What the fuck?

I slip a hundred dollar bill on the counter and pull her up with me. “Hey, pretty girl, do you think you can walk to the room?”

She gives me a grin and then a nod. “Yep.” Stumbling a little, she steadies herself with the bar. “Okay. I got this, let’s go.”

I give her a little laugh as she clings to my arm while we make our way to the elevator. “You know, Huck. I’m a harlequin.”

“A what?” I ask, trying to make sense of her drunk rambling.

“You know a promis- promisc- a prostitute.”

“Are you trying to call yourself a harlot?” I ask, confused.

“Yes! That’s what I said. I’m a harlot, a slut, a prostitute,” she slurs out.

“Babe, you are no such thing. I do not ever want to hear you say that about yourself again,” I say sternly. What in the hell happened today?

“I let Pavel buy me. I’m no better than a hooker,” she continues as we make it to her room. The fact that she thinks that about herself pisses me off. I feel like going to kick that dick heads ass again.

Once we’re inside the room, I sit her on the bed. “Have you eaten anything?”

She shakes her head.

I grab the hotel phone and order a couple of burgers from room service. “I’ve got you some food coming.”

Her face makes a pained look right as she jumps up and runs to the bathroom. Collapsing in front of the toilet, she starts throwing up. I go in behind her and pull her hair up. “Do you have a hair tie or something?”

She nods, “In my bag on the bed.” Mumbling, she motions toward her purse on the bed in the room.

I rummage through her purse and pull out a black elastic band. Oddly enough, I can pull someone’s hair into a ponytail like a champ. This due to the fact that my mother was addicted to many things, she threw up a lot, so I’ve had more practice than I care to admit. The only difference is, for Chelsea I don’t mind. I want to take care of her.

I swoop her hair up with one hand and manage to put the ponytail in with the other. Wetting a washcloth, I wipe her face. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I think.” She sighs.

I grab some ibuprofen from the bottle I saw in her purse and fill one of the hotel cups with water. “Here, go ahead and take these.”

She takes them from me. “Thanks.”

I hear a knock at the door. Running over, I open it for room service. “Hey, man, you can just sit it down over there,” I say, pointing to the table. “Hey, could you have them send up a couple toothbrushes and toothpaste from the front desk?” I ask as I tip him.

He nods. “Yes, sir. I’ll actually bring it right back up myself.”

“Thanks,” I say, closing the door.

I walk back into the bathroom. “Do you wanna try to grab a shower?”

She looks up at me through hooded eyes. “Yeah, I think so.”

I stand her up and help in removing her clothes. Once she’s in the shower, I answer the door a few minutes later, getting the items I asked for from the front desk.

Once she’s out of the shower, she steps into the room wrapped in a towel. Seeing her wet body and knowing there is nothing beneath just makes me want to lick every drop of water off of her. Shaking the thoughts from my head, I hand her a T-shirt from my bag. “I know this will probably swallow you, but it looks like you don’t have anything else to wear. I figured you’d want to wear your clothes from today home tomorrow.” I grab one of the toothbrushes and the toothpaste. “Here, I got this from the front desk, I figured you might want it.”

She takes it all from my hands. “Thanks, Huck,” she says as she returns to the bathroom.

I sit down and start uncovering our food. She returns with her hair now up in the towel and my shirt practically swallowing her.

“I don’t know if I can eat,” she says quietly.

“Come on. Get some of this bread and grease in your stomach, you’ll feel better. You probably didn’t eat enough for the amount of alcohol it seems you consumed.”

She laughs, sitting across from me at the small table. “No. I was supposed to have a lunch meeting but it went a little differently than I thought.”

I sit back in my chair and take a deep breath. “Now, would you like to tell me why I needed to come get you? Also, why I showed up here and you were drunk alone in a bar?”

CHAPTER 27

CHELSEA

Damn it. I know I need to answer him. Knowing I would have to do this is one of the reasons I started drinking in the first damn place.

“Well, I drove my car down here, but it kinda ended up in the middle of Pavel’s dealership,” I say, staring at the hamburger in front of me.

Grasping his chin with his hand and rubbing it, I can tell he’s getting frustrated, “How did that happen?”

I start out explaining my lunch with Theresa and how it just went from a civilized lunch to me putting my car in the office.

“So let me get this straight. You went and planned a lunch with his wife so you could out your affair with him. Then, she basically says she feels bad for you and the two of you end up going all bad cop, crazy cop on him at the dealership,” he says with a hint of amusement.

I nod, still trying to will myself to eat. “Yes. I don’t know, it’s like I snapped. I was so tired of his lies. He was still trying to say that it never happened, that I’m on drugs or mentally unstable. I gave his wife hopefully all she’ll need to rake his ass over the coals. And yes, I did it in a crazy make a statement kind of way.” I feel the blush creeping over me as I realize just how nuts my actions were..

He motions to the food. “You really need to eat.”

“I know. I’m trying to work up the courage.” I give him a small laugh.

“So, now would you like to tell me why you were piss drunk when I got here?” he says sternly.

“I don’t know, I think everything finally caught up with me. Mom, Dad, Pavel, stripping, being attacked, having to kill someone and losing you.” I sigh. “I just needed to resolve something. You know he sent me flowers at the hospital? All the card said was ‘get well soon’”, I laugh sarcastically, “and then he denied everything with the cops. I just wanted it done. For good. When it was over and I had to call you, it was like a punch to my stomach. I went down there to have one drink and relax my nerves a little. Then, I got carried away. The more I thought about it all, the more I needed another drink.”

“I just wish you hadn’t come alone.” He stops as if something hits him. “Wait. Losing me? You haven’t lost me.” He reaches across the table, touching my hand.

“After the hospital, you pulled away. I felt like you were coming by to check on me out of obligation or something. I know you guys are set to do the benefit this weekend, but I really felt like I was losing everything. I just felt lost, abandoned and it hurt. I’ve felt so much emptiness over the past six years. Even though I was with Pavel, I was alone.” I feel a heaviness settling in my chest.

“I will admit, hearing his name and then to know the attack all had something to do with him…well, it really pissed me off. I wanted to kill him myself. I’m tired of him fucking with you even when he doesn’t mean to. To start with yes, I backed off because frankly, I was that angry and I didn’t want to freak you out. But then I realized that you were exhausted from all of it. Me, him, your mom, everything. I thought you just needed time to decompress or something.” He takes a bite of his burger and motions to mine.

I nod because my throat has a ball of tears stuck in it so big I can hardly breathe. I take a sip of the coke he ordered for me and then a bite of my burger, hoping it’ll push the emotions down inside of me.

We finish our meal in silence. Once we’re done, he looks over at me. “So what are you planning to do for a car now?” Then he kinda gives me a small chuckle. And there it is … the ease of me and Huck. Always able to speak freely and share anything, this is us.

I start laughing and I can’t seem to stop, thinking about the craziness of all of it. “Oh my God! I drove my car into a dealership. Right into a fucking glass wall. I’ve really lost it.” I start laughing again, clutching my stomach.

He shakes his head and pulls me over to the bed. Sitting back against the headboard, he grabs the remote. “No, I think you’ve finally found it. That little spitfire I always knew was in there.”

I finally catch my breath and think about the original question again. “I’ll probably just drive my dad’s truck until I figure something else out.” I shrug. “It’s just sitting there and it needs to be driven. I don’t think it’s been moved since one of the guys from the department drove it home for my mom.”

“Did you even tell your mom where you were going?” I ask, staring at the TV.

“I told her I was going to get some of my things from my old apartment. She’d worry too much if I’d told her about going to confront Pavel. Her sister is in town so I went ahead and called her to tell her the drive made me tired and I’d be back tomorrow,” I say, staring out into space.

“I’m sure she would. She was pretty worked up about all of the secrets you had going on.” He flips nonchalantly to another channel.

“Yeah, tell me about it. When I came home from the hospital I had a lot of explaining to do. She was pissed at me for the stripping part. I’m talking seriously pissed, my dad was always the one to lose his shit about stuff.” I think back about her yelling at me. “This time, though, Mom lost it, but she also told me that she appreciated me caring, but I shouldn’t have taken on the medical bills myself. Although, she was pretty understanding about the Pavel thing. She didn’t like it but she tried to understand it,” I say, pulling the blanket up over my legs. Giving him a little laugh, I smile at him. “She did tell me if she ever found out that I was taking my clothes off for money again, she would beat my ass. Even if it was the last breath she took.”

He chuckles under his breath a little. “Well, I can agree with her on that.” He reaches over and turns off the lamp, then tugs me down into the bed. “Let’s just get some sleep.”

I’m lying here thinking in the dark with Huck, only the TV lights the room. I feel like we’re turning a corner. I always thought I loved Pavel, only now do I realize what love actually feels like.

Hearing his breathing even out, I know he’s asleep and it comforts me. It’s been years since we’ve shared a bed overnight. Even then it was only once. He has me pulled into his side and I feel safe. What was left of my intoxication and my fatigue take over and I fall into a much needed sleep.

Huck and I are curled into each other on my bed at home. I hear doors slamming. Jolting up, I shake Huck. “Huck, wake up. My parents are home.”

He bolts out of bed, “Shit.” He starts tugging his clothes on. This is the first time I’ve seen his entire body naked. Anything we’ve ever done, the lights were off.

He kisses me quickly and out my window he goes.

Suddenly, I’m no longer in my room. I’m in the car with my mom. She’s looking at me very disappointedly. “Chelsea, I cannot believe you’d embarrass your father like this. Getting caught smoking pot, of all things.” Looking down at my dress in embarrassment, I’m nervous. “I’m sorry,” I say, looking up, but I’m no longer in the car with my mom. Now, Liz and I are in her car on the way somewhere. An announcement breaks into the music.

“An Okeechobee man was found dead in a local canal this morning. He’s been identified as Richard Markov, police are investigating this as it looks like there was foul play. We’ll keep you updated as there are breaks in this case.”

It’s dark and cold. I’m alone. I can hear someone breathing behind me.

“Give Volkov a message.” I nod my head. “I did his dirty work. He owes me. If he doesn’t come up with the money, I’ll kill him.”

There’s a blaring siren in the background. I keep searching for it. I can’t see where it’s coming from.

“Chelsea, baby. Chelsea, wake up.”

Bolting up in the bed, I’m covered in sweat and Huck is sitting next to me. “Chelsea, baby, you were having a nightmare or something.” He brushes my sweaty hair back away from my face. “You okay?”

I nod. “I kept hearing a siren.”

He points to the TV. “We left it on. You sure you’re okay?”

I nod slowly again. “When I get back home, I need to talk to Mack. I think I just figured out what that guy did for Pavel,” I say with uncertainty. “It was so clear in my mind.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

I shake my head. “Not right now. I just wanna go home.”

He nods. Glancing over at the clock to see it’s six in the morning, he pushes the covers back. “Okay, well let’s get dressed and we’ll go.”

I jump from the bed and begin putting my clothes on from yesterday. “Good. I’ll call Mack on our way home.”