Chapter 11
Ben
After over half a year of trying to get Sherry to go out with me, she finally agreed. I expected to walk outside and see pigs flying, maybe a unicorn trotting across the parking lot, tossing confetti as I hopped into my truck and headed home.
A quiet sense of satisfaction settled in much chest as I approached my townhouse in Robin’s Landing.
This woman had ignored me, acted as if we didn’t have mind-blowing sex, and I finally got her to agree to go out with me.
I should have felt victorious, and I did for about three minutes, but then reality started to seep in.
Guilt tugged and nudged at my gut like an annoying sibling that was always there to knock me back to reality.
I shoved the guilt down deep, knowing it was only a matter of time before it resurfaced, but determined not to let it ruin my date with Sherry.
I’d put too much effort into this woman, and I wasn’t going to fuck it up now.
I pulled into the parking lot of Robin’s Landing and parked in my numbered spot.
It was a nice community for the price, clean, quiet, with just enough charm to distract from the overly active HOA board.
They had to know I was just a renter, but it didn’t stop them from pestering me.
Luckily, Steve or Odette wasn’t around as I headed to my front door.
I slipped the key into the lock and pushed the door open. Just as I stepped inside, a large hand came down hard on each of my shoulders.
“What the—?” My words cut off as my feet lifted from the ground, and I was carried to the living room and tossed on the couch.
“What the fuck, Mario?” I asked, straightening my shirt as I stared at my dad’s muscle in a suit. “Stanley, good to see you,” I said to the other muscle, whose suit looked like it was about to burst at the seams. “Still haven’t learned to size up, huh?”
Stanley answered with a crack of his knuckles, standing there like the brick wall he was.
Mario crossed his arms over his large chest. “Your father would like a word.”
I groaned. “I just got home. Can’t I eat something first, relax for a second?”
“No.” He slipped a cell out of his pocket and handed it to me.
I eyed the phone, then glanced at him. Anyone else, I’d be nursing a blackeye, but Mario knew better than to rough me up. I might have been a thorn in my father’s side, but he had some lines he didn’t let his men cross… yet.
The screen lit up with a number I knew all too well. No name, just a string of numbers that carried more weight than any contact in my phone. I sighed and snatched the phone from his hand.
“I know you love a flair for the dramatic, but you have my number. Did you really have to send your goons here?” I mouthed an apology to Mario. He wasn’t all that bad. Dad just had a lot of dirt on him, and because of that, he was able to make Mario do whatever Dad asked.
“Would you have answered?”
“Probably not. But that’s not the point.”
“The point? I’ll tell you the fucking point. It’s been half a year, and you still have shit for me.”
“I told you… This is going to take time.”
“Time I don’t have,” he snapped. “Every day you sit on your ass is a day closer to me getting fucked. I’m starting to think that’s what you want.”
“Why the hell would you think that?” He never, not once in my entire life, gave me the benefit of the doubt. Between that and his lack of trust, he was lucky I was even fucking here.
“You’re jealous. Jealous, I’m a success, and you’re nothing more than an impostor.”
My jaw clenched, my fingers digging into the phone while my others curled into a fist. “I’m not jealous of a man who can’t build a damn thing without burning everyone around him to the ground.”
A bitter laugh echoed through the phone. “Is that what you tell yourself? You had your chance to do it your way. I financed you, and you failed. Now you owe me.”
I closed my eyes, the familiar guilt gnawing at me. He wasn’t wrong. I had borrowed money. I had made mistakes. I had lost everything, including my pride. My dignity. My freedom.
Vine Valley wasn’t my idea. I had wanted nothing to do with his unethical business practices, but I lost my right to an opinion the minute my company had gone under, and I was sitting in the red line of debt.
“You think you’re better than me?” he snapped. “Newsflash. You’re nothing without my name, without my money. Now do what you’re told for once in your fucking life.”
I was on the brink of success without his damn name, and I almost had it until… it all fell apart.
The taste of blood filled my mouth as my teeth bit into my cheek to keep me from telling him to fuck off. I wanted to. Damn how I wanted to, but he only gave so many chances before he ruined you. My tally had been adding up for a long time.
“I’ll get you what you want,” I said, the words like jagged shards of glass in my throat.
“You better. I’m done waiting. You either bring me something by the end of the month, or you’ll wish you had.”
The line went dead.
With a sigh, I smacked the phone into Mario’s hand. He slipped it into the inside pocket of his suit jacket.
“Always great to see you guys,” I said, not bothering to hide the sarcasm in my tone.
They didn’t say a word. Just walked out of my place as if breaking and entering was just another Thursday for them. Breaking and entering was a walk in the park compared to their other activities.
Dad’s words played over in my head.
You either bring me something by the end of the month, or you’ll wish you had.
He made it sound so easy. Find dirt. Burn Vine Valley Vineyard to the ground. Walk away clean. Get my life back. But it wasn’t that easy. Not anymore.
Not since her.
It was supposed to be an easy job. Get inside, find dirt, and get out. No attachments, no second thoughts. No messy complications.
Then one Halloween, sexy Alice in Wonderland walked into my life, flipped it upside down, making it impossible to walk away clean.
Sharp-tongued, quick-witted, and stubborn as hell, and somehow, she’d slipped past every wall I ever erected within minutes.
A lifetime of barriers stripped away with a single glance.
Every time I heard her laugh, saw her smile, more of my walls crumbled. Until the lines between duty and desire blurred into something I could no longer untangle.
I wasn’t just on the inside of Vine Valley Vineyards anymore. I was inside her world—inside a world I was tasked with destroying.
I needed to shower and get my shit together. I had a date with the one woman I should’ve stayed the hell away from.
I finally got what I had wanted for so long, and like always, the universe broke into my life to remind me, anything I ever dared to want. It was never mine to keep.
It was only a matter of time before I lost Sherry.
Before I lost myself.
But damn it to hell. I was going to savor every stolen second of her before it all blew up in my face, and I went down in an inferno of my own doing.
***
A couple of hours later, the sun had sunk into the horizon, and I pulled up to Sherry’s house. I should have been fucking thrilled. This is what I wanted. What I had been chasing for months. But Dad’s words kept replaying in my head. Disgust ran through my veins, thicker than my blood.
I gripped the steering wheel, my knuckles turning white as I forced down the part of me that wanted to pretend I was just a guy and Sherry was just a woman I happened to have some strong connection with and amazing sex. But I knew better. I knew how this was going to end.
It should have been enough to throw the damn car in reverse and get the hell out of here. Leave Sherry alone and let us both go on with our lives. But the porch light flickered on, and she stepped out in a black dress that hugged every perfect curve, stopping at mid-thigh, revealing her toned legs.
I was screwed. Hopelessly and utterly screwed.
I hopped out of the car and walked straight toward the one thing I could never keep, but would tear the world apart to hold onto anyway. Because somewhere along the way, I had fallen for the enemy.
We were royally fucked. Two people destined to crash and burn. But no matter how fucked we were and no matter how deep in my father’s pocket I still was, for tonight, I was hers.
And I would burn it all down just to prove to her it was worth it. Even if the truth would destroy us both.
Maybe that made me a selfish prick. I didn’t care. Not when I reached for Sherry to help her down the stairs, and she slipped her hand into mine, a smile curving her sexy red lips, and a sparkle in those pretty eyes.
Somewhere between the lies and the secrets, she had become the only thing that felt real. The only thing in my life that made any sense.
Nothing else mattered anymore.