14. Dragon
Chapter Fourteen
DRAGON
Aweek in the city went by too fast. After our tourist day, I worked on the family cars while Horse was at the gym, and then he came walking down the street, whistling, and I’d wipe off my hands and spend the rest of the evening with him.
On the weekend, we went to Marco’s for barbecue, and his wife actually talked to me.
Priss was quiet, sweet, and had always been a little scared of me.
She handed me the baby while she wrestled with the toddler and Marco manned the grill on the tiny balcony with Horse.
“Congratulations,” she said, all shy and adorable.
I gave her my softest smile, the one I reserved for Minx. “Thank you. Your baby is so cute.”
She giggled and shone bright. Like Sunshine. “He looks just like Marco. Do you think you guys will move back to the city?”
“No,” I said quickly. “It’s been surprisingly good to visit, but we’ll head back to our real lives before too long.” I nodded out the small door where the two men were on the narrow balcony. “They seem to get along okay.”
“Marco loves fighting with him. They’re well-matched. He comes home bruised but happy.” She shook her head. “Men are so weird. I mean…” She sputtered, flustered as she stared at me, remembering that I was one of those weird fighters who liked a well-matched session.
“Fighters are weird,” I agreed. “But you think he likes my husband?”
She smiled brightly. “Absolutely. He thinks you should sign the marriage certificate and make it official.”
“Oh. It was supposed to come a few days ago.” I’d forgotten about it, lost in my husband’s arms. My mother had been so quiet, absent, like she was plotting with the aunties at someone else’s house.
Did it have to do with Joey? They’d let me know if they needed my help.
I was having a baby, and I absolutely wasn’t dragging Horse into mob drama.
Maybe I could talk to Lucas, explain about Boney.
We used to be best friends. I couldn’t believe that he was really worse than Uncle Ni?o.
Except that I trusted the look on Theresa’s face.
“It’s good to make everything legal,” she said with a slight smile before she turned to make a duck face at the toddler, which made him laugh. She stuck food in his mouth while it was open. All parents had to be food ninjas.
Dinner was nice, hectic with the little kids, but nothing like one of my mother’s family dinners since it was just us.
“Isn’t Joey coming?” I asked when Marco brought in the steaks. “I haven’t seen him all week.”
“He’s on a job,” Marco said with an easy grin.
He glanced at Horse and I had this feeling in the pit of my stomach.
That look said they were keeping secrets from me because I didn’t want to be involved.
Horse should be involved five times less than I was.
We were going to have a serious conversation tonight. If I didn’t get distracted.
Horse slid his arms around me and kissed my neck, smelling of grill smoke and barbecue sauce. It was a good combination. “You’re so pretty.”
I rolled my eyes because he called me pretty at least five times a day, like he thought I needed to hear it. Maybe he was right. I cupped his chin. “My adorable, manly man. We need to check with my mom and see if the certificate came.”
He blinked at me, then gave me a smile that looked slightly forced. He’d probably enjoyed not spending time with her. “Perfect. Speaking of perfect…” He cut a piece of steak and held it out for me.
I ate it while his face lit up, delighted to get to feed me. He would be the best dad. “It’s good,” I said, nodding.
“Right? Marco has been telling me all his grilling secrets. Grilling on a fire escape thirty floors above the death drop is an extreme sport if I’ve ever seen one.”
“That’s living in New York,” Marco said in his best New Yorker accent. “After we eat, let’s play Rook. Yeah?”
I nodded and then took the plate Horse made for me with as much salad as steak.
“The salad is for the baby,” he murmured in my ear before he pulled me onto his lap so we could eat like that in front of my brother and his wife. It didn’t even feel weird anymore.
Rook was hilarious because Horse didn’t know the game and lost every bid he took.
He was also distracted because Gumby’s favorite thing was climbing all over him, and Prissy handed him the baby, so at one point he was sitting there, frowning at his cards with one baby in one arm, and a kid over his left shoulder.
He looked so good. I pulled out my phone and took a picture.
He looked up at me, blinking. “What?”
“You are going to be the best dad in the world. That’s what. Also, I love you.”
Marco and Priss got really quiet. Right. Public declarations of love weren’t really my thing, but maybe they should be.
I ruffled Marco’s hair. “I love you too.”
He snorted and said, “Stop trying to distract me or I’ll take off forty points. And with your partner, you need all the help you can get.”
“Hey,” Horse protested. “I’ve got a handicap.” He smiled down at the baby. “Not that I’m complaining. I need all the practice I can get.” He made a goofy face, and the baby gurgled, a sound of pure happiness that made my heart glow.
We walked home afterwards, nice and slow so we could pretend to look at the stars. It was so nice just being with him, but…
“Horse, what were you and Marco really talking about? I don’t want you involved in the family, particularly if Lucas is pulling crap because of Boney.”
“He did say something about Joey, but he didn’t ask me to get involved. We could, though. We could kidnap him and take him out to Vegas, put him to work on a team, or support, whatever until things die down.”
“Do you know what happened to Boney?”
He glanced at me, frowning. “If something happened to him, I’d talk to Jezabel.”
“You don’t like her. Good. She’s very beautiful.”
He grinned at me, all sexy and delicious. “My wife’s possessive? I must be doing something right. Are you ready to go home? I’m actually worried about you getting involved with your family, and you’ve got the baby to think of.”
“I’m tempted to talk to Lucas, but you’re right. My first priority is safety for myself and the baby. Are you sure you guys aren’t talking about something else?”
He hesitated. “Your birthday. He wants to?—“
I covered his mouth with my palm. He nibbled on my skin until I pulled away. “Never mind. I’m so glad you’re not like them. I hated growing up with the secrets and the lies.”
“I know you hate lies.”
I kissed his cheek and then held his hand tight as we walked faster. “I feel like you know me better than anyone else.”
“Do I? I’m sure you could still surprise me.”
Was he talking about me stealing his bike again? “Well, I’m not going to throw you another surprise wedding, so my surprises might be at an end.”
He kissed my forehead and tucked me against him as we walked slowly home, holding me like he never wanted to let me go. He was absolutely delicious. We should have dated ten years ago.
When we got to the apartment, my mother was holding court with the aunties, but my dad was also there. And all of my brothers. Marco must have driven over.
I smiled at Joey, but when he got close, I punched him a solid to the stomach. That was for shooting Pixel. He folded with an oomph, but came up right away, grabbing me into a hug that lifted me off my feet.
“Careful,” Horse said. “She’s pregnant.”
Joey put me down and grabbed my shoulders, staring at my face like I’d carry the baby there. “Yeah? You are kinda fat.”
I knocked his hands off and we kind of grappled until Horse picked me up from behind and put his body between us.
“Careful,” he murmured in my ear, giving me shivers. “You don’t want more bed rest.”
I did not want more bed rest. Ever. I put my hands up in surrender.
Horse sat down in the only available chair, pulling me onto his lap. He spoke to my mom, “Mrs. O’Hara, did you get certified mail for me and Trix? We need to sign our marriage certificate. It’s great that so many people are here to witness.”
My mother took my photo album, opened it, and took out a letter that had already been opened.
I glowered at her. “You don’t open other people’s mail. That’s a federal offense.”
She rolled her eyes as she handed it over. “Sometimes I don’t know where you came from.”
I glanced at the envelope, and it was addressed to Nathaniel, so I handed it over. Nathaniel? He’d said Nate. I guess Nathaniel was a mouthful for anyone. Still, I’d have to get used to thinking of Horse as Nathaniel.
He unfolded the certificate and smoothed it out on the table everyone was surrounding, watching like witnessing was a serious business.
“I’ll sign first,” I said, taking a pen from the drawer and pulling the paper next to me.
I scrawled my name, ‘Trixie O’Hara,’ and then passed the paper over to Horse. Nathaniel.
He was smiling at me, but looked slightly stunned, braced for impact, like he didn’t believe we were actually married. Was he having second thoughts?
He took the pen and then moved the paper so he could sign his name on the line.
It took him so long to sign. Nathaniel was a long name.
And he had a middle name? David? That wasn’t too bad.
VanBuren? Wait, I’d just married a VanBuren?
There was something about that name other than the obvious ridiculousness of it.
I stared at his signature while my brain went blank for a long time, and then I turned and pulled the photo album over and turned to the back where a stack of ripped checks were tucked in page protectors.
The first signatures were sloppy and immature, but that last signature was an absolute ringer.
And the name. Nathaniel David VanBuren. It was a hotdog company name.
Ridiculous, like all rich people’s names.
I stared at that last check before I looked at the marriage certificate again. Horse was Nathaniel David VanBuren?
I slowly looked up at him, and he had a pleasant look on his face, the only hints of strain around his eyes.
I slowly looked around the room at my family.
No one was surprised. They were just waiting for my reaction.
If I wanted to throw him out, that’s why my brothers were here.
All three of them and my dad, because they weren’t messing around.
VanBuren. I wracked my brain for the name and saw Minx’s paycheck stub in my head.
He owned the Dove’s Rest, where Minx and Felicia worked?
He owned a strip club? What else did he own?
I closed my eyes and concentrated, and there was the name VanBuren when I signed my rental contract.
The hotel. VanBuren owned my hotel. Horse owned my hotel.
Did no one know? The silences when I’d walked into a room with Jezabel and the girls, the lack of eye contact, was this it? They knew that Horse was a billionaire who owned my hotel? Why wouldn’t they say something? Did he pay them off?
“Trix,” Horse said low, moving his hand closer to me, like he wanted to touch me but wasn’t sure if he should.
“She’s fine,” my mother said. “She’s just processing. She thinks slowly unless adrenaline is involved.”
How long had I been sitting there, staring at those signatures?
Too long. Not long enough. Jezabel knew that I was marrying a billionaire and hadn’t said anything?
My heart clenched. Marco. I looked up at him, studying him for bruising patterns.
Horse never pushed himself to his limits.
Because if he did, he’d kill his sparring partner unless he was matched with someone who could bounce back.
My brothers healed too fast. They were too strong. Like Lucas.
Horse was just another monster in a mask. Rich though. Lots of money to spend on the most expensive hotel in Vegas. And I’d made him sleep in a double bed.
My head throbbed as it made connections. The twisted metal vehicle in his room. That’s the one I’d pulled him out of. And the blanket on the bed was from my uncle’s garage.
He was the little idiot who was the most annoying person in the world.
Now he was a big idiot. But not as big as me.
I was the stupidest. So stupid. I’d been played by absolutely everyone.
Nix, he definitely knew what Horse was, which was why he was his preferred sparring partner.
Because they could hit harder than with a normal person.
“Okay,” I finally said, rising to my feet. “That makes sense. You’re obsessed with me.” I looked Horse in the eye, but he didn’t stand up, just stayed sitting.
“Obsessed, yes, but I’m not your stalker. You moved into my hotel.”
“You keep things nice. Great attention to detail.”
“Thanks.” He still didn’t stand up.
“Trix, do you want us to throw him out?” Joey asked, looking eager.
I frowned at him. “Why would I want that?”
He blinked at me. “Because he lied to you? You hate liars the most. He totally played you.”
“Naw, if we threw him out, he couldn’t pay your debts. That’s the game Mom’s playing, and you know she always wins. She wants him, and whatever secret army he has, to help take the power away from Lucas. She’d be an awesome godmother, right?” I shrugged and headed for the door.
“Trix,” my dad rumbled. “Where are you going?”
“I need some air.”
“Take Joey.”
“I’d kill him.”
He sighed. “Fair enough.”
I closed the door on his last words, alone in the hall with this numbness that covered a growing ache that I knew. But I wasn’t the same seventeen-year-old who’d been shattered so many years ago. I took the stairs, walking slowly while the world stumbled around me like a drunken man.
Horse was a monster. That explained how he carried me up so many stairs. Why didn’t he tell me? Because he knew that I’d leave. He knew me better than anyone. Stalkers were like that. I should ask him what I’d do next. Because I had no idea.
I stepped out of the building and onto the street. I walked a few blocks and then came to a nice car, Cadillac, nice and roomy backseat.
I broke the back window with my elbow, sending a shower of glass over that lovely leather.
“Sorry about that,” I told the car, and then I hot-wired it and started driving.