Chapter 3 #2
Well… shit. I should have just kept my mouth shut. “Alright. Uh… Liam’s mom.” I’m not trying to be an asshole, I swear, but maybe it would do wonders for the tension in here if we laughed a little. It’s getting hard to breathe.
Liam slams both hands over his mouth to keep his laughter in. “Let him call you what he wants, Mom. Cruz hardly talks.”
Sloane won’t look at me. She squares off with Liam and it’s clear that she’s in problem solving mode.
“This is not happening.” Her tone leaves no room for error or argument.
“You’re not prospecting with that club. I’ll sell the cafe, and we’ll leave.
We’ll go somewhere else. Start over. We’re not staying here not anywhere near where those thugs might find you. ”
I thought Liam was pale before, but he loses all his color completely. “You can’t sell the store!” He gasps. “This is your dream.”
“You’re my everything, Liam. I’m posting it for sale today. There are other stores. Something else. Somewhere else. I don’t care. The only thing that matters is you and your safety.”
“This is crazy. You have to listen to me,” Liam begs. “They didn’t know, I promise.”
“Then why is he here?”
Ouch. Sloane doesn’t even motion to me.
“As a precaution,” Liam says. “Because I couldn’t talk the club’s Prez and VP out of it. They think it’s a good idea for you to have someone watching the store and—and us, I guess. Cruz is the best at it. He was literally hired to teach the guys how to kick ass.”
I don’t want Sloane to get the wrong impression about me.
She’s already formed some judgments, and I’d like to set them straight.
I’m not a thug. Much. I’ve tried to defend innocent people.
Always have and probably always will. When I was a SEAL, that job came with obeying orders and some of them I didn’t like, but that was that.
“Self-defense,” I clarify. “That’s my job.”
“It’s way more than that,” Liam presses. “He’s an ex-SEAL, and he has all these medals and certifications in martial arts. He’s incredible. He’s also my best friend.”
Sloane’s lips press into a hard line. “You’re nineteen. He’s… well I don’t know how old he is, but he’s at least double your age. You are not best friends.”
“He’s forty-two. You’d give me a big lecture about being rude if I said that.”
“We’re far beyond rude. He’s not staying here. That’s final.”
Liam’s found his courage and he’s able to draw himself upright and face off with his mom, though he does get props for not being petulant or childish about it. He’s still worried, but I can tell it’s mostly for Sloane’s sake and not his own.
“He is. I’m sorry, but he has to. Just for a while.
” He takes both of her hands in his. “Until we know for certain that things are going to be okay. You can’t sell the store.
You need to take a day or two and think about it.
You’ve worked so hard for this. I… I won’t live it down if I’ve ruined all this for you. ”
“I want to tell you that you have, so that in the future, you’ll make better decisions,” Sloane says. “But it’s not in me to hurt you like that. You haven’t ruined a thing. I said that there are other things, and there are. There always will be.”
“Don’t make any decisions for a few days, okay? We have a spare room. Cruz can stay there. You won’t have to be alone with him. And yeah. Again, he’s quiet. You probably won’t even notice he’s here.”
Sloane shoots me a look that says exactly how un-pleased she is to have me stay here.
I guess I can understand where she’s coming from.
I’ve spent so many years honing my body into a finely tuned weapon or instrument, depending on what I require, that I haven’t ever paid much attention to base wants and needs.
Hunger? Exhaustion? Thirst? Muscle aches?
Other pain? That all gets shoved down into a black hole where it becomes nothing.
I never was much good at wanting anything.
I guess it was always beyond my comprehension that someone like me could, and when I was an adult, I didn’t need to want.
My needs were met and then some. I know what desire is, I suppose, but I’ve hardly ever done anything about it.
Looking like I do, I’ve attracted quite a bit of female attention in the past, but I rarely followed through with any of that.
Desire is just another thing that comes and goes and gets jammed down deep into black holes where I cease to feel it, so it ceases to matter.
I’m more than a little surprised that the heated look Sloane sends me meant to wither my nuts, does the exact opposite. I’m semi-hard and have no idea what to do with that, other than to shift my position in the chair.
“You are not friends with him,” she repeats, “and you’re not prospecting for the club. I need you to go back there and make that clear.”
“Two days,” Liam begs, “That’s all I’m asking for. We can talk more after that.”
“We’re not talking about it. It’s non-negotiable.”
“I want to make this right. I made bad decisions. I was wrong. Please. Let Cruz stay with us. If anything happened to you, my whole world would end too. Cruz being here is the only way I can start to even make this halfway right.”
Sloane eyes Liam, but I already know that she’s going to agree to what he’s asked. I can tell the exact second that her gaze softens. This has everything to do with their relationship as mother and son, and nothing that I have going for me.
I get that loud and clear when Sloane shoots me another scathing look.
She says nothing, but she doesn’t have to.
“It’s not forever,” Liam offers.
“Two days,” Sloane breathes. The words hang in the air, surprisingly ominous. “But that’s all, Liam. We’ll talk again, and I’d like us to truly consider making some changes.”
I don’t know if Liam’s just assuaging her, or if he means it, but he nods. I suppose he didn’t specify what he’d be willing to reconsider. It’s not the club. I know that’s a hard boundary for him. No one is going to change his mind, not even the person he clearly loves most in the whole world.
“Okay.” Sloane surges upright. “I’m going to flip that sign back on and unlock the door. You…” She skewers me with her eyes, shining bright and brutal in intensity. “Do whatever you have to do, I guess, but make sure you’re not scaring customers away.”
I’ve already said more words today than I want to, but I force a few more up from that deep place of me. They scrape up my throat and come out just as raspy as the first ones did. “I can do that.”
Far from looking at all satisfied or happy, Sloane forces a smile for Liam, but gives me her back.
I’m fine with that.
I can guard a pissed off woman just as easily as I can a happy one.