I know it’s not fair, that he’s got enough on his plate and begging him this way will only make things harder on him, but I need him. For the first time in my life, I need someone.
I want him to drop everything and make me his priority. I want him to look at this all and decide that I mean more to him than his job and the promise he made to Daddy.
Just this once I want him to choose me.
“You know I can’t. I’ve almost got them all, Mel. I just have one more name to uncover and I’ll be home free,” he murmurs tiredly.
My eyes close at the cajoling tone he employs and I know without seeing his face that I’ve lost the battle before it even began. For Roman, duty is everything. He won’t quit till his job is done.
“I found Daddy’s papers,” I whisper, ignoring Tracy and shoving her away when she all but falls over the bar to hear what’s going on.
“Christ, you went to the house?”
“Yes, I…your brothers Miah and Jared found me there and…they’re trying to keep me under lock and key, you know that? I got Tracy to help me get out of the house and I came to the bar. Will and Lon—”
“You keep them the hell out of this, Mel. No good can come from those hotheads barging in to swing their dicks around. The last time Will Sparrow decided to take care of business, I had to get rid of a body with enough of your buckshot in his ass that you would have been doing twenty to life,” he snarls and I roll my eyes.
“I didn’t even hit him!”
“I know that. That’s what pissed me off so much about it all. Tell Sparrow that the next body I have to get rid of shouldn’t be one that incriminates my woman!”
“Oh, stop yelling at me! Swear to God I will end this call and you can go straight to hell for all I care,” I say.
“Sorry. Babe, I…go home with Miah and the boys and stay there till I come for you.”
“No.”
“Melissa—”
“No, Roman. I hate this shit. I can’t stay cooped up every day for God knows how long till you get your ass in gear. I’m fine here with Will and Lon.”
“You mean Will, the man who’s been trying to get in your pants for years? That Will?” he snarls, making my lips twitch.
The man’s in danger and half crazed about my safety, yet all he can focus on is the fact that I’ve come to Will for protection.
“Honey, Will is like family and you know it, so stop beating your chest and calm down. I have so much to tell you and—”
“Go home with Miah and Jared, Melissa.”
“But—”
“Shit, someone’s at my door. I gotta go, baby girl.”
“No wait! I need to tell you that I’m—”
“Go home with my brothers.”
The line goes dead and still I’m screaming that I’m pregnant inside a bar that’s gone totally silent. When I finally find the courage to peek out from my spot, it’s to see them all staring at me with something that looks like pity.
They’re all hovering near the bar, so I assume Tracy must have blabbed the moment she realized who I was talking to.
Females.
“He’s okay?” Miah asks quietly. I see the worry and love reflected in his eyes when I nod once and rise slowly to my feet.
“He’s still a stubborn bastard, so he must be okay,” I mutter, weighed down by disappointment and resentment that I have no right to feel.
The man just basically told me to wait for him because right now his case is more important than my feelings.
That’s hurtful, no matter how right I know he is, and I want to kiss him and hit him all at the same time for making me feel like I’m a liability.
My mutterings earn a few smiles and a wink from Jared before they all retake their seats at the bar and stare at me steadily. It makes me uncomfortable in that same way I felt whenever Daddy would catch me trying to sneak out of my window at night and look at me with disappointment.
“Dammit, fine! I’ll come home with y’all, but I am coming to work tomorrow and the day after and the day after that, so get that straight before you idiots start thinking I’m a pushover,” I warn, slapping my dish towel against the counter with a thwack.
“Mellie—”
“Do not start with me, Miah. I’m emotional and angry and a hundred other things, but I am no one’s pawn. I need to work and feel in charge of something in my life or I’ll go crazy.”
“Mellie, honey, you have more to think about now than yourself, though. You’re being followed and you’ve been back in town for less than a week. You know this isn’t smart,” Miah says quietly and I almost lean over and slap Will when he starts nodding and looking at my belly as if I’m smuggling a thirty-carat diamond or something.