Wed to the Bad Boy(75)

“Anyways, Lala, I have something for you. You know I wanted to be there. To watch you graduate. But I have… club business. So I thought I’d come now. Give you your presents.”

“Presents?” I perked up. When we were little, he loved to give me presents. Anything I wanted. Especially after our mom died. And it dulled the pain, even just for a moment.

“Just two little things,” he said, as he pushed across a couple of small jewelry boxes.

“Nothing expensive?” I asked. I made him promise me when he patched in that he would never buy me anything expensive. I didn’t want anything with stolen or dirty money.

“Nothing expensive, I promise you. All my own, too.”

I smiled, and opened the first box presented to me. Inside was a beautiful cameo necklace. The kind with a woman’s silhouette in a beautiful white stone.

“Open it.”

“What?”

“It’s a locket. Open it.”

I did. One side had a picture of my mother in it, and the other had one of all of us. A family. Tears flooded my eyes. We weren’t always happy, but we were a family. At least for a little while.

I looked up to see him smiling.

It had the desired effect.

“I’m not much, but I’m still your family, Lala. And the one gift, it’s for when you finally come to visit me. I got a new place. A little house, and I got something there. Waiting for you.”

Sean. Always trying to get me home.

“Oh, yeah?”

He slid across the second little present.

And I opened it, the case snapping up. It was a key, the kind that belonged to an old car or truck.

“What is this?”

“I figure, you graduated, that’s the customary present, right? You need to come get it, though. I ain’t bringing it up to this damn windy city. Come get it yourself, and maybe stay a while?”

That was his play. He wanted me to come home. This was his way to do it.

“Sure, I’ll come visit, Sean. Just as soon as I land that job and get enough to come away for the weekend.” It was the best stall I could come up with. I wanted to come back on my terms. That way I could escape at the end.

“I could always fly you out, sis.”

“I want to do it on my own, Sean.” I knew if I came on his money, I was never going to leave.

“You always were the stubborn one.”

I laughed and put on the locket. And I squeezed it when he left.

I don’t know what made me walk through the house. Maybe a desire to be out of his bedroom? I wasn’t sure, but I wound back up in the kitchen, looking out the back door.

What I saw there took my breath away. A little garden, seeds planted, small sticks coming out of the ground. Just like I’d always dreamed about. Just like he’d always talked about planting for me.

I opened the door and walked out onto the back porch, sinking to my knees as I looked over it, the tears flowing as I clutched my cameo.

Squeezing the last thing he gave me, the metal cutting into my flesh, I didn’t move, just sat on the cold concrete, remembering him.

And that I was alone. Utterly alone.





Chapter 3

Cullen

Just being around her again… It was like my mind was being crushed in a storm. I rode on autopilot, letting the raging engine rumble through the turmoil inside me.

Before I knew it I was in front of our - my strip club. Lala had made me so damn mad, I didn’t even think before walking out. Just took off.

It felt great, until I realized exactly where I was.

I hesitated before climbing off my bike. The last thing I needed was to run into Brandy. Last time we saw one another, the bitch had threatened to “tear my throat out” if she saw me again.

Ah, fuck it. I’d needed a break. Bitch could rot in the hell she’d made for herself. I’d had nothing to do with that. I’d gotten sick of her shit, and she’d gotten pissed with me.

It may have had something to do with the fact that my hands were on another stripper. After Brandy’s constant nagging, it’d been nice to have something friendlier in my lap, a sweeter tongue down my throat. Hey, I’d never lied to her. I was never a one-chick kind of guy and she knew it. That didn’t mean she’d liked what she knew.

I parked my motorcycle against the building, up on the sidewalk and near to the wall. It was safer that way, and it wasn’t like anyone was going to have it towed. This was my territory, and Kat’s Cat House was under my protection. Hell, Fire and Steel were joint partners. This was the only thing the mob didn’t own on the damn block.

It was the last place I needed to be, but I didn’t give a shit.

It wasn’t anywhere near Layla, or any memories of Beast.

It wasn’t a fancy strip club, not the kind that you’d see in a nice part of town.