• Sixteen •
“Find what you’re looking for?”
Briar
Six thousand three hundred and five dollars wasn’t exactly what I’d hoped to get for the two pairs of diamond earrings and the diamond-and-sapphire bracelet I’d pawned. They were the last two things of real value I had kept from past relationships. I never wore them, but I had known I could sell them if I needed the money. I’d even driven all the way to the other side of Atlanta to the highest-recommended pawn shop online to sell them, hoping I’d get the best price. I knew they were worth at least fifteen grand all together, but I needed to have some cash of my own.
I had left the job thing alone for now, but I was just biding my time. I would bring it up again soon. When Storm had brought my guitar out to the back porch two nights ago and asked me to sing for him, I almost mentioned it then, but after three songs, he took it from me, and we had sex on the swinging bed. I’d forgotten about it momentarily. That always happened with Storm and sex.
I told the garage door to open, then pulled inside. Storm wasn’t home. His Jeep was gone. He hadn’t texted or called me since before I’d left. I had expected him to do either or both seeing as he tracked me like a stalker. Maybe he’d been busy and not able to see where I was. One could only hope. I wouldn’t have to tell him what I had done if he didn’t ask me. That wasn’t a lie. At least not by my standards. Granted, those were questionable at times.
Opening the door, I went inside and headed for Dovie’s floor. She’d been here when I left, but said she might go somewhere with Nailyah and one of Nailyah’s friends. I expected her to text me if she did though. Once I reached the third floor, I headed to Dovie’s room first, but she wasn’t there, so I went to look in the lounge room. She was curled up on the sofa with an afghan and a book.
“Hey,” I said, and she looked up at me, then smiled.
“Did you get a good deal?” she signed.
I shrugged. “Eh. Not the best, but it’ll do. At least we have our own cash.”
She nodded, but was frowning.
“You didn’t want to go with Nailyah?” I asked her, walking over to sit down on the sofa.
She scrunched her nose. “Lula Mae is there. We don’t like her,” she signed.
Lula Mae was still in town?
“When is she going to leave?” I asked with a groan, laying my head back on the cushion.
“She’s staying at Nailyah’s house all summer. Nailyah isn’t thrilled about it,” Dovie signed.
I sat back up. “She’s staying all summer?” I asked. “At Storm’s parents’ house?”
Dovie nodded.
That was weird. Why stay all summer, and why at Storm’s parents’ house? Did Storm know this? He would tell me if he did … I thought.
Why did his parents want her there? The thought that this marriage thing was more than Storm was letting on reared its ugly head again. They were Mafia. And didn’t Mafia families decide who got married? Wasn’t it arranged? Was Storm supposed to marry Lula Mae one day, and I came along and messed it up?
I felt sick to my stomach. The idea of Storm with her. Married. Her in this house. A heavy dread settled in my chest, and I forced myself to take a deep breath.
“Have you told him your birthday is tomorrow?” Dovie signed.
I shook my head. “No. He’d buy me something extravagant, and he already gave me the G-Wagon. He doesn’t have to know.” At least not now.
He’d figure it out one day … if I was here.
I stood up and rubbed a fist against my chest, then forced a smile. “I think I’ll go outside and get some peaches, then make a cobbler. Want to help?” I asked her.
She held up her book, cocking her mouth to the side of her face.
“Okay, fine. Read your book,” I said, then headed for the door.
I needed to be alone anyway. Work through this in my head. Make sense of it. My imagination was working against me. If I thought I could trust Storm, this wouldn’t be an issue, but deep down, I worried that he had more secrets I didn’t know.
I took the money out of my purse and went to tuck it in a sock, then push it to the back of one of my drawers. When I was done, I headed downstairs to go pick some peaches. I’d been wanting to make a peach cobbler since the first day we had moved in here. It would brighten my mood and also give me something to do.
Taking a basket from the pantry, I headed out the back door and down to the trees. They smelled even stronger today. I inhaled deeply as I walked to the first tree with the ripest peaches.
I wasn’t going to be able to reach many without a ladder. I scanned the area, looking to see if Storm kept one hidden anywhere, but didn’t see one visible. The fancy-looking building that sat out to the right of the tree line looked like it was probably a shed. If he had a ladder, it would be in there, I supposed. With these trees, he had to keep one somewhere.
When I reached it, I opened the door, almost afraid it was going to be locked, but thankfully, it was not. Looking around the room, I paused, realizing it was more of an office than a shed. Why would he have an office out here? He had a million rooms in the house he could use. There was a desk, chair, and file cabinets.
Turning around, I saw the ladder leaning against the wall behind the door. Found it.
My gaze slowly scanned the room, and I tried to figure out why he had the desk and file cabinets out here with tools, farming equipment, some wooden crates, and other miscellaneous things that you’d find in a shed. I went over to the file cabinets and started to open one, then stopped. This was not my stuff, and I didn’t need to snoop. I stared at the cabinet and chewed my bottom lip as I debated the moral code here.
It couldn’t be important. He’d have locked it if it was. I might find some … some gloves I could wear while picking the peaches. Gloves would be handy. I jerked open the first cabinet before I could talk myself out of it. It had files in it. All neatly labeled. Names I didn’t know. Some businesses, it seemed.
Did he have businesses? Were these employees? Sometimes, it felt like I didn’t know the man I was in love with. I should know if he owned businesses. Right? When you live with someone and had a relationship with them, you talked about these things … I thought. I wasn’t positive. I’d never had a real relationship until now. Did Lula Mae know about his businesses? Annoyed with that train of thought, I shoved it away.
I closed the file cabinet and then opened the next one. More of the same. Except one was lying on top and shoved to the back. It could be one he had used last and not put back. Curious as to what business it was or person that he had looked at last, I picked it up and turned it so I could read the label.
Briar Landry.
I froze. My name was staring up at me. A chill ran down my spine, and I stopped breathing.
He had a file with my name. Why did he have a file with my name on it? I tried to think of a million reasons why, but none came to mind. I was trembling, I realized. Terrified to open it, but knowing I had to. What if I found something that … that … ruined this?
It was likely. This had all been too perfect. Fate had never much liked me. Why would it now allow me to be happy? My heart was racing in my chest. I could hear the pounding in my ears. I was sleeping with a man in the Mafia. Living under his roof. Had I really believed it was all normal?
“Find what you’re looking for?” Storm’s voice startled me, and a scream escaped me as I spun around, holding the file in my hands.
He was leaning against the doorframe with a cigarette hanging from his mouth. His worn brown cowboy hat was tilted back on his head. His arms were crossed, and the gray-and-blue plaid pearl-snap shirt he was wearing stretched tight over his chest.
What did I say? Yes, he had caught me snooping through his things, but I had also found a file with my name on it. I held it up and just stared at him.
“Go ahead. Open it up,” he said with the cigarette between his teeth, then took a long pull from it before taking it out. “Don’t let me interrupt.”
I looked from him down to the file. Was he angry? Was this a trap?
“What is it?” I asked. My voice cracked, and I cleared my throat.
He pointed at it with the cigarette between two fingers. “See for yourself. You are the one who found it.”
Why did I feel like I was the one who had done something wrong? He was the one with the hidden file with my name on it. I felt like his wrong trumped my snooping.
My hands shook slightly as I opened the file. He didn’t seem at all concerned with what I would find. I mean, it could be innocent. Maybe something King had had on me at one time. That made my nausea abate somewhat.
Frowning, I looked down at a birth certificate, then beneath it were school records, but they weren’t mine. They were for an Angelina Holloway. What was this? The file said my name. I was sure of it.
I lifted my gaze back to Storm. “Who is this?”
He took the cigarette from his lips. “The stuff you had ordered for Dovie to change her identity.”
My eyes dropped back to the paperwork. I scanned for a birthday and saw it was for a fifteen-year-old. Why did he have it? Why hadn’t he told me?! We could have used this. We could still use it. Dovie could go to school in the fall.
“Why is it in here? Why didn’t you give it to me? I ordered this. We need this.” I searched his face, torn between anger and frustration. He’d had it all along.
“She doesn’t need a new identity,” he said, then took another long pull before dropping the cigarette to the ground and covering it with the toe of his boot.
“YES, she does!” I shouted.
He would not control Dovie’s life. That was a hard line for me. No matter how I felt about him, I couldn’t let it affect Dovie.
“She deserves a new life,” I told him, gripping the file in my hand tightly.
He would have to pry this from my cold, dead hand. I wasn’t giving it back to him.
He nodded and took a step inside the shed. “She does.”
I was confused now. He closed the door behind him. The only light came from the windows around the top. His gaze stayed on me as he moved closer to me. I took a step back. There was too much I didn’t know about him. What I did know should have been enough for me not to get in a relationship with him, but I’d lost my mind and my soul, it seemed.
“Don’t move away from me,” he warned.
“I’m not giving you this file.”
He cocked one eyebrow. “If I wanted it, you would,” he drawled.
He didn’t want it? Okay, was this something else? This was not the time for sex. I was all kinds of messed up in my head about things.
“You don’t need those papers,” he said as he stopped in front of me.
I swallowed hard. “Yes, I do.”
He lifted his hand, and I flinched, moving the file behind my back. When he ran his knuckles down my cheek, his eyes slowly drifted over my face.
“My gorgeous little siren,” he said in a husky whisper. “Sneaking around, looking for things.”
I opened my mouth to defend myself, but what did I say? He was right. I had been.
When his eyes finally locked on mine, he tilted his head to one side. “Do you not trust me?”
I swallowed. “I don’t know,” I admitted.
Hurt flickered in his gaze, and dammit if I didn’t feel guilty. He didn’t deserve my trust. I had to remember that. Not feel bad that I’d said it.
“I’d move heaven and earth for you. Yet you don’t trust me.”
He was good at this, but I was holding a reason in my hand as proof as to why I shouldn’t trust him.
“Well, you were keeping papers from me that I desperately wanted,” I pointed out.
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Yeah. But I had a good reason. You should have trusted me.”
I stiffened, but I kept my mouth shut. I was not throwing Bash under the literal bus. I couldn’t tell him I knew he’d lied to me about other things.
“I’d do anything to make you happy. Anything,” he said, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear.
“But these papers would make me happy.”
A brief frown touched his forehead. “Not really. Dovie would have to become someone else. Lose her name. Change her hair color, wear colored contacts. Always live with the fear that her mother might find her. That wouldn’t have truly made you happy.”
Okay, sure, it wasn’t perfect, but it was all we had.
“It is the only way.”
He shook his head as he continued caressing different spots along my face, my neck, wrapping a strand of hair around his finger, then bringing it to his nose to smell it. “Not the only way.”
“What other way is there?” I asked him, frustrated with myself for wanting to lean into his touch.
“You having custody of Dovie.”
I let out a humorless laugh. “Yeah, well, in a perfect world.”
His eyes swung back to mine from where he’d been studying my ear as he ran his fingertip along it. “Didn’t I tell you that I’d give you all your dreams? You just need to trust me.”
There he was with the damn trust word again.
“You can’t get me custody of Dovie, Storm. That would mean letting Netta know I have her, and I can promise you, she would have my ass thrown in jail so fast. Not even the Mafia could keep me out.”
He lifted a shoulder. “Eh. The family kept Thatcher out of prison for snapping a guy’s neck when he was nineteen. We’d be able to keep you from jail too. But it won’t ever come to that.”
My eyes widened. I believed him, but I wasn’t going to test it. I was only important to Storm. The rest of the family didn’t care. Well, Maeme. She would care.
“I don’t think I want to test that.”
He ran the pad of his thumb over my lower lip. “You won’t have to. A dead woman can’t put you in prison.”
I gasped and grabbed Storm’s wrist. “You are not going to kill Netta, Storm Kingston. I am serious. I’ve got all the blood on my hands I will ever need.”
“Netta had a fall almost a month ago. It was down a very long flight of stairs. She was tripping on meth when it happened. She didn’t make it,” he told me as if it were a sad story he’d heard on the news. Almost as if he was detached from the situation.
Had he caused the fall? No. He’d said he didn’t kill her. But then he was known to lie.
“She’s dead.” I said the words aloud, trying to wrap my brain around it.
He nodded.
“How long have you known?”
His eyes met mine again. “Since shortly after it happened.”
I let out a breath. “But you didn’t tell me.”
His lips curled into a smile. “That would have ruined your surprise.”
What surprise? I shook my head, confused and almost afraid this was a dream. I’d wake up, and she’d still be alive. This meant no more running. Worrying. Looking over our shoulders.
“I don’t …” I shook my head, trying to get my thoughts straight. Too many were firing off at once. Mostly that, holy shit, Netta was dead. “What surprise?” I finally blurted out.
Storm grabbed my chin. “Your birthday surprise.”
My birthday. He knew about my birthday.
“How—who—my birthday?” I wasn’t forming sentences. I couldn’t seem to manage it.
His eyes were a deep amber as he leaned in close to me. “You think I wouldn’t make it my business to know when your birthday is? Come on now, Briar. You should know me better by now.”
Okay, so he was a champion stalker. I guessed I should have assumed he knew the details about me. There was a good chance he knew my bra size too.
“This is one hell of a gift,” I said, not sure if I should be looking at someone’s death as a gift, but it sure felt like one.
“That’s not your gift, baby.”
I blinked up at him. “But you said …” I paused, trying to figure out what I had missed.
“Your gift is that inside the house is all the paperwork and custody papers. As of today, Dovie belongs to you. One Briar Landry is legally her guardian.”
The folder in my hand slipped free and fluttered to the ground around our feet as I stared at Storm. My vision got blurry, and I sucked in air just before a sob broke free.
“You’re serious,” I breathed, already knowing the answer.
My chest swelled as tears began to roll down my face. Something between a laugh and another sob escaped me, and I looked up at the ceiling in complete shock and let it out again before throwing my arms around Storm.
Oh my God, Dovie was mine. Oh my God!
Storm’s arms wrapped around me and pulled me against his chest. He cupped the back of my head, and I continued the strangled-laugh-and-cry thing as joy surged through me the more it sank in. He’d worked a miracle. I’d ask how he’d managed to do it so quickly, but I figured if these people could keep a murderer out of prison, they could pull anything off. I hadn’t even had to go through interviews or admit to having Dovie all these years.
“I can’t believe you did this,” I told him, emotion clogging my throat. “Thank you aren’t strong enough words. I don’t know that anything is.”
“Do you love me?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
He knew that. I’d told him many times. Yet he always asked me.
“That’s all I need.”
He might have lied to me. And, yes, he might do things that make me nervous, and he might manipulate situations to get what he wanted. But he gave me Dovie. I wanted to believe that his other lies were for a greater cause, just like his keeping her new identity from me had been.
Pulling back from his chest, I grabbed his face and kissed him. The taste of cigarette on his breath and the smell of leather, combined with the circus of emotions going on inside me right now, had me grabbing fistfuls of his shirt as our tongues tangled in a wild rhythm.
He tore his mouth from mine. We were both breathing heavy.
“You keep this up, and I’m gonna have to fuck you out here. I’m trying not to because I know you want to go share the news with Dovie. But, baby, you can’t lick at me like that, or I’m gonna fuck you.”
Laughter bubbled out of me, and I looked at the closed door, then back at Storm. I wasn’t even sure how I was going to tell Dovie yet. I had to think of the way to do it. Netta had been a shitty mom, but she was still her mother. I didn’t know how much her death was going to affect Dovie. I had to think this through.
I grabbed the hem of my shirt and pulled it over my head.
Storm’s eyes dropped to my chest. “Thank fuck,” he groaned, taking off his hat and throwing it over onto the desk before he yanked his shirt tail from his waist and unsnapped the front with one pull.
I was smiling. The giddy kind as I stripped off the rest of my clothing. Storm’s eyes continued to devour me as if he’d never seen me naked while he got naked himself.
“Go sit your ass on the edge of my desk.”
I hurried over to it and climbed up as he moved between my legs, stroking his erection. I loved the sight of his big, tanned hand moving up and down his length. He ran a finger between my folds, and he let out a deep, pleased rumble in his chest.
“Always so ready for me. Do you stay soaked all the time?”
I leaned back on my hands, thrusting my boobs out. His eyes went there immediately.
“When you’re around, I’m wet,” I admitted.
He looked up at me through his dark lashes as he stuck the finger he’d had inside me into his mouth. “My dirty girl wants my cock all the time. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“That seems to be the case.”
He stepped closer and ran the pierced head around my slit. God, that was sexy. I looked down and watched the metal bar barely slip in and out of me. Teasing me.
“From now on, I want you in sundresses at home. No panties and bra.”
I was willing to agree to anything if he’d sink into me and stop with the torture of almost giving it to me. “Why?” I panted.
“Your pussy is needy, and now that I know it’s always this wet for me, I’m gonna want easy access so I can sink my dick into you whenever I want.”
I laughed between my heavy breathing. “That might be a little risky with Dovie living here too.”
He pushed in further, and I let out a moan. But he slid back out again. “If she’s home, I’ll be sure to shove you in a closet and cover your mouth while I slam into your tight little cunt.”
Why was that hot? God, I was becoming as depraved as him. Maybe worse.
“You ready for it?”
“Please!” I begged.
His hands grabbed my ass as he entered me in one hard thrust. “FUCK, that’s mine!”
Grabbing his biceps, I let out a wail of relief and pleasure. When he was inside me, filling me, that was when everything was right in my world. Leaning back on my hands, I lifted my legs higher up his sides as he went from watching my tits bounce to looking me in the eyes. The fierce gleam in his gaze and the sound of our bodies slapping together sent me even higher. I loved when he looked at me like that. I wanted to be his. To be owned. But only by him. I’d come to the conclusion that I’d give Storm Kingston anything.
“GAH! That’s a perfect pussy. Takes my dick so good.”
I let out a small cry as his words sent a shiver through me.
“You love me fucking it, stretching it, don’t you?” he taunted as the table shook beneath me from the powerful thrusting.
“Yes! Please yes.”
“Come on my dick, baby. Cream all over it. Give it to me,” he urged.
I climaxed, my mouth falling open as I screamed his name, and our eyes stayed locked as he let out a gasp just before his body trembled, then jerked. The hot spurt inside of me sent me into another spiral I hadn’t expected, and I grabbed on to his arms. My body shook as the wave washed over me. Storm continued to slowly rock into me. Staying buried deep. I rested my forehead against his chest as I tried to catch my breath.
“Naked under your sundresses from now on,” he said. His voice raw from the shouting.
I laughed and turned my head to lay it on his chest. “Yes, sir.”
I felt his cock jerk inside me.
“Fuck, baby,” he whispered.
“What?” I looked up at him, and he was looking at me like he was already needing a round two.
“Call me that again.”
“Sir?”
He nodded his head slowly, and the smile that curled his lips was a touch sadistic. I felt him twitch inside me again. He wasn’t getting smaller.
“You like that, do you?” I asked, amused by his reaction.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Sir, whipping me with a belt, no panties in the house. You’re getting kinkier every day.”
He leaned down and took a nip at my bottom lip. “Baby, if I did all the things I want to do to you, I’m afraid you’d leave me.”
A small thrill ran through me. That should scare me, but here I was, getting all hot and bothered by it. At this rate, we might fuck each other to death.