Keep It Simple (MMG Series Book 4) (14 page)

I wanted to send her to rehab.

She convinced me counseling would do.

If I had listened to my gut, our son would still be alive.

“How much longer does Xan have in rehab?” Lissa asked.

“She gets out the middle of August.”

“Will you hand her divorce papers then?”

“I wish. My hands are tied until October. Trust me, I am counting the seconds.”

“I bet you are. You know, at some point you are going to have to talk to Mom.” She was beginning to sound like a broken record.

“I will speak to Mom when I am good and ready, Lis, and not a second before. I need you to hear me on this, okay? I also need you to help me get Mom to understand this.”

Her eyes welled with tears. “She’s just so damn sorry,” she softly said.

“I know she is, sweetheart. So am I. I’m just not ready to talk about it, yet. Okay?” I slipped off my stool and gave her a big hug.

“You should have told us how bad it was,” she sniffled into my chest. Mom knew how bad it was, she just didn’t want to admit it. Of course, I didn’t tell Lissa this.

“Shhh, No more tears, Lissa. You have cried enough. No more.”

A little over eight months ago, I had to take a three day business trip to Atlanta. My last night there, I received a phone call that blew my world apart.

“Caswell, it’s Mother.” I knew by the tone of her voice something was wrong.

“What happened? Are you okay? Are Dad and Lissa okay?”

“You need to come home now, Son. Y-you need to be here,” she stammered. My mother was the most level headed person I knew. In fact, in all my years, I had never seen her lose her cool. The desperate tone of her voice told me how bad this was.

“Mom, you aren’t making any sense. I need you to tell me what has happened,” I repeated. The next thing she said made my blood run cold.

“She was fine when I left the house, I swear.” Her pain filled whisper had me clinching my steering wheel hard enough to leave indentions on it.

“Who was fine, Mom? Alexandria? What did Alexandria do?”

I heard a muffled sob on the other end and then, “Cas? This is Sterling,” my father-in-law announced. “I’ve sent the jet for you. There’s been an accident.”

All sorts of horrible thoughts raced through my mind. “What kind of accident?” my voice cracked. I could feel my heart racing inside my chest. My hands were so clammy I had to keep switching the phone from one hand to the other, so as not to drop it.

“We’re not exactly sure. All we know is Kalen somehow got out the back door.”

My whole world stopped at those words. “What did you say?”

“No one knows how long he was in the pool. He’s on a respirator. They’re not sure he’s going to make it. Do you have a pen? I need to give you the information so you can meet the jet.”

I quickly grabbed a pen and piece of paper and wrote down the address. Then I hung up the phone and headed straight for the airport. On the drive there I tried to call Vicky, but got her voicemail. I left her a message to call me. A million questions buzzed through my head. Where was Vicky? She was supposed to be there. I fucking paid her not to leave Kalen’s sight. What did Alexandria do? What did my mother mean by, “She promised?” Where the hell was Vicky? Please tell me I’m not going to lose the only thing that means anything in this fucked up world. Life cannot be this messed up, can it?

The answer was yes. Life could be a real assfuck.

I took Melissa to lunch and, after saying goodbye, headed to the office. Bobby was going over the file when I arrived.

“Thanks for canceling on me at the last second, dick head,” he bitched.

“What was I supposed to do, bring Melissa along? I’m sure whoever you set me up with would appreciate hanging with me and my little sister,” I snapped. “Where did you end up going, anyway, Dragonfly?”

“Bubbles lives near Plaza Midwood, so I took her to Whisky’s.”

I tried not to laugh. “You went out with a girl named Bubbles?”

“Her real name is Belinda, but she goes by Bubbles. She’s the one I was telling you about the other day, you know, with the boobs.” He held his hands out in front of his chest, indicating how big they were.

“Funny, you failed to mention her name was Bubbles,” I joked.

A knowing smile spread across Bobby’s face. “Trust me, the name fits. I would have gotten in there a lot sooner had your girlfriend not fucked with us.”

“My girlfriend?” Then it hit me who he was talking about and I started to get angry. “Sarah was there?”

“Yep,” he responded.

“At Whisky’s?” I clarified.

“Yep,” he responded, again. “She busted me staring at her, while she was trading numbers with Hunter, and you know what the sneaky bitch did? She waited until she had both mine and Bubbles’ attention and then she gave me a sexy wave and blew me a kiss. Bubbles about lost her mind.”

Nothing he said registered after his first sentence. “What do you mean she and Hunter were exchanging numbers? Are you sure?” The thought of Sarah with a guy, much less one like Hunter, made me see red.

Zane Nichols owned Whisky’s. He was ex-Army and, for the most part, ran a clean business. His two managers, Blake Moreno and Hunter Lake, however, did not. Rumor had it those two were into some bad shit. Rumor also had it that Zane was in the habit of turning a blind eye, when he wasn’t cleaning up after them. Max would lose his ever loving mind if he knew Sarah caught the attention of either one of those two fuckers. Just the thought of her with another guy, especially Blake or Hunter, made me want to hurt someone. I began to ask for more details, but was interrupted when the door opened and in walked Tut.

Shortly after Bobby and I arrived in Charlotte, Garrett approached us about buying into the business. Bobby had zero interest in being a business owner. At first, I agreed with him, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I wanted it. I was sitting on a shit pile of money. I was never moving back to Wilmington. I was getting a divorce. All I had was my job here in Charlotte. I was already working the hours, why shouldn’t I buy into the business? Max and I bought in around the same time. However, Max had zero interest in the business side of things. Being that he knew nothing about the security business, he had no desire to be in on the day to day happenings. He would confer on all major business decisions, but otherwise he would leave things to us and take a cut of the money once we were up and running. Our first item of business was hiring Tut. We were aware Tut had a criminal record and none of us had a problem with it. He would be a great asset to the team.

As he walked through the door, Tut’s eyes hit mine and he frowned. “You always looked pissed. What do you have to be pissed about today, big man?”

My eyes cut to Bobby and he nodded in understanding
. No discussing Sarah in front of other people.

Bobby tossed the file on Tut’s desk. “Read this and tell us what you see.”

“Then we need to discuss what Bobby and I found on Dooley Shane,” I told him.

“Please tell me that motherfucker is still dead,” Tut muttered.

“He’s dead alright, but guess who he had on his payroll before he went down?” Bobby asked. Tut raised an eyebrow in question and Bobby gave it to him. “Dana Harkins.”

Surprise registered in his eyes. “No shit?”

After dropping that bomb, we talked strategy. By the time we were done, it was well into the dinner hour. We decided to grab a pizza before walking to Patterson’s for a drink. Tut had someplace to be, so he left after a few beers. I was busy nursing my second beer when Sarah walked through the door. She was wearing a tiny dress, her hair was in a messy knot on top of her head and she had that damn lip gloss on again. I watched her search the room and wondered if she was meeting Zane or Hunter here.

Fuck that.

As I started to stand her eyes lit on me and then scanned right past me, as if I wasn’t staring straight at her.

I’m going to spank her ass for that.

She walked by the bar where we were sitting without even a second glance and disappeared down the hallway where the restrooms and phone were located.

“Be right back,” I said, and followed after her.

She wasn’t in the hallway or on the phone. That left the bathroom. Folding my arms over my chest, I leaned against the wall and waited for her to come out. After what seemed forever, the door opened and there she stood.

Sarah.

Her eyes widened in surprise before narrowing into tiny pissed off slits. “What are you doing here, Cas? You made it very clear you want nothing to do with me.”

Her anger turned me on. “I didn’t say I wanted nothing to do with you. I said we can’t be together,” I calmly explained.

She leaned towards me and hissed, “It’s the same thing.” She was right, it was the same thing, but for some reason I was in the mood to split hairs.

“Actually, it’s not. We can always be friends.” I delivered this suggestion with a big smile.

The incredulous look on her face humored me. A friendship between the two of us would happen when hell froze over. Evidently, she felt the same way. A few girls scooted past us and entered the bathroom. Grabbing my arm, Sarah dragged me down to the end of the hall and around the corner, where no one could hear her laying into me.

“Look, no offense or anything, but I can’t be your friend.”

I gave her a hang dog look, and asked, “But why?”

Her gorgeous blue eyes searched my face, before narrowing with skepticism. “Are you teasing me, Cas whatever-your-last-name-is?”

“Ashford.”

“Pardon?” I loved it when she said pardon. It was hoity-toity and nothing like her.

“Ashford is my last name.”

“Oh,” she replied. “That’s a nice name.” Before she could say anything else, I leaned in and kissed her. She opened her mouth to protest and I slid my tongue inside. She tasted like mint and smelled like heaven. She hesitated for a second before giving into the kiss. Raking her fingers through my hair, she moaned down my throat. I planted a hand on her ass and pulled her in to my throbbing erection. I couldn’t be around this woman and not want her. Grabbing a fistful of her hair with my other hand, I pulled her head back and swept my tongue from her collar bone to her ear. I bit down on her earlobe and she huskily whispered my name.

“You are not going out with Hunter Lake,” I told her.

She pulled back far enough to look me in the eye. “What?”

This time, I posed it as a question. “Are you going out with Hunter Lake, Sarah?”

“I…No! Why would you think that?” I started to answer, when she hissed, “What? Don’t tell me you’re jealous?” When I failed to answer in her allotted two second time frame, she lit into me. “Wow, you are really something. You don’t want me, but you don’t want anyone else to have me either. Two words come to mind right now, Cas Ashford, and they are, Screw you!”

On that note, she turned on her heel, stormed down the hallway and out the front door, leaving me and my hard cock high and dry.

Even I had to admit, I deserved that. I stood there long enough to pull myself together and devise a plan of action.

“Where’s Sarah?” Bobby asked, when I returned to the bar.

“Pay up and let’s go,” I answered.

Bobby stood and tossed a few bills on the bar. “Where to?” he asked.

“We’re going to give Hunter a visit.”

With no argument, he followed me out of the bar and back to the office, where we retrieved my truck. On the way to Whisky’s, I gave him the shortened version of what happened with Sarah.

“You can’t blame her for being pissed, you know? You’ve cornered her twice now, gotten her all hot and bothered, and then pulled back and told her it was a mistake. If I was her, I’d sure as hell be pissed.”

“I never said it was a mistake. I told her we couldn’t be together and then told her she was not going out with Hunter.”

“I bet that went over well,” Bobby snorted sarcastically. A few minutes passed and then he asked, “What is it with you and this girl, Cas?”

I wish I knew.

Instead of answering his question, I flipped on the radio and ignored him the rest of the drive there. As usual, the place was packed. I had to drive around the block three times before finding a parking space.

“Do you know what you’re going to say?” Bobby asked.

“Sure do.”

I spotted Zane the second we stepped into the Dungeon. He was behind the bar, talking to one of the waitresses.

“We drinking?” Bobby asked.

“Nope.” I was here for one thing and one thing only.

“You here on business or pleasure?” Zane asked when we reached him.

“Last night you had two ladies at your bar,” I said.

“Got hundreds of ladies in my bar each night. You’re gonna have to be more specific,” Zane answered.

“Tiny little thing named Sally, who works at Dragonfly,” I clarified.

Zane nodded his head. “Yep, she and the tall, exotic beauty, I think her name was Sarah. They both stopped by. Why are you asking?”

His description of Sarah pissed me off. “Sarah is off limits,” I clipped.

Zane gave me another nod of understanding. “She yours?”

“In a matter of speaking. She’s also Max McLellan’s little sister.”

“You tell Hunter this?” Zane asked.

“That’s why I’m here.”

“Tell me what?” Hunter stepped up to the bar and asked.

“You remember the exotic beauty from last night named Sarah?” Zane asked him.

“Sure do,” Hunter smiled.

“Off limits,” I growled.

“The hell?” he shot back.

“She’s Max McLellan’s little sister,” Zane announced. Hunter visibly blanched. “Plus, she belongs to Cas, here.”

“You sure about that?” Hunter challenged. “I didn’t see you with her last night.”

“Positive,” I said.

“She’s really McLellan’s sister?”

“She is,” I answered.

Hunter shook his head. “It’s your funeral, man.”

I smiled.

It sure is.

Sarah

‡