16. Sam
SAM
This was not the situation I had hoped to be in when I opened my eyes this morning.
I was in bed with a woman.
I never did that.
She was wrapped around me, and I was holding her to me.
I never—ever—let a woman spend the night.
And worse, I was warm and comfortable. There was definitely something wrong with this situation, and that something was me. I had allowed myself to fall into a deadly trap, all because I was worried about her safety.
She let that fucker into her house, and when I left last night, all I could think about was him returning and taking what didn’t belong to him.
So, I stayed outside, watching the shadows from my car.
Why? Because I was fucking insane. I told myself I had nothing better to do.
And when that didn’t sit right with me, I reminded myself of what that fucker did to Liam and Bailey.
It wasn’t the best excuse to sit outside her house, but it was the only thing I could come up with.
Nothing else made sense.
Well, aside from the fact that my dick was hard and I desperately wanted to fuck her again. It had to be some sort of affliction. Maybe I was going stir crazy out here in Montana because there was no way I was actually feeling something for this woman.
I only wanted to fuck her. That wasn’t the same as feeling something.
And here I was.
Snuggled in bed with her, staring at the ceiling as I considered all possible ways to extract myself without causing any problems.
Because the reality was, I still wanted to fuck her again, but if I handled this the wrong way, she would never let me between those sweet thighs again.
Groaning, she rolled over, slinging her arm over her eyes. That was it for me. I had my chance to escape, but instead, I found myself worried that she still wasn’t feeling well.
“Cass,” I whispered.
“Ice pack,” she murmured. “Close the shades.”
And like the whipped shithead I was, I sprang from the bed and tugged the shades closed, then snatched the warm ice pack from the bed and stalked into the kitchen for a new one.
The moment I laid the cold pack on her face, she sighed wearily, which only made me even more worried.
“Are you okay?”
“Head hurts,” she mumbled.
“Worse than last night?”
She made some sort of noise as her head swiveled in a circle.
“What does that mean?”
She mumbled something again, but it was no clearer than the first time.
Instead of trying to get any more information out of her, I went back to the kitchen and grabbed the medicine I’d given her last night, checking the label. Twenty-four hours. That’s how long I had to wait before I could give it to her again. She’d only been asleep for eight.
I snatched my phone and started researching what to do for a migraine, but half the shit on the list was holistic crap that I had no clue how to get.
I didn’t want to give her any more medicine.
That shit would only eat away at her liver.
The lights were off, the house was dark, and she had a cold pack on her head. What more could I do?
That’s when I remembered that one of her friends in town ran an apothecary shop. She probably had some ideas of things that could help.
Snatching my keys, I headed for the front door, about to leave, when I realized what it would look like if I left her house at this hour. I thought about going through the back until I remembered that her back door was boarded up.
Which left me out of options.
Did I really want to risk someone seeing me and assuming I was sleeping with her? I mean, I was, but that didn’t mean the whole town had to know.
However, if someone else were to bring stuff by for her—someone who was already married—then there would be no gossip. I thought about calling one of the Parkers, but with everything that happened last night with Clara, I wasn’t sure any of them were even available. Which also cut out my sister.
I would have to go directly to the source. Maybe I could just call in an order for her. Then again, I didn’t know what I had to order in the first place. This was all new to me.
But there was someone who might know.
Dialing JR, I didn’t think twice about asking for his help, despite the fact that I hardly knew him.
“Yeah?” a groggy voice answered.
“Hey, man. It’s Sam.”
“Who?”
“Sam. Blake’s brother.”
Something rustled in the background and then I heard a door close. “Okay, and why are you calling me at…fuck, five in the morning?”
“I have a situation I need help with.”
“I’m out of the business,” he said immediately.
I had no fucking idea what he meant by that. It was too early to decipher the way his brain worked. No, what I needed were clear, concise instructions.
“Listen. I need help, and you’re the man for the job. I have a…friend. And this…friend needs some medical assistance.”
“So, call the fucking doctor,” he grumbled.
“No, it’s not like that. It’s a migraine.”
He sighed heavily over the phone. “Are you seriously calling me at five in the morning because your fuck buddy has a migraine?”
“Whoa,” I laughed. “I never said this was for a fuck buddy. It’s for a friend.”
“Right. I always call people at the ass crack of dawn because a friend needs help.”
“Can you help me or not?” I snapped.
“Not.”
The line went dead, but I wasn’t giving up that easily. Dialing his number again, I grinned when he snapped at me.
“When I hung up, that was your sign that the call ended.”
“I need Josie to whip up some miracle for my friend.”
“Then call during regular business hours.”
“Wait, wait, wait!” I rushed out, making sure he didn’t hang up before I made my offer. “Take care of this for me, and I’ll get you front row seats to any boxing match you want.”
The line was silent for a moment. “Any?”
“You name the match, I’ll have them for you.”
Again, it was silent.
I glanced down the hall, making sure Cassidy was still asleep in her bed. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to have heard me.
“Fine. I’ll be over in an hour.”
“Wait, I haven’t told you where I am.”
“Don’t fucking need to,” he said before hanging up on me.
That didn’t exactly bode well for my secret, but it was possible he wouldn’t say a damn thing. After all, JR was a private person. He wouldn’t want gossip spread about him, so I couldn’t see him sitting down with his wife and gabbing.
In the meantime, I headed back to the bedroom with a fresh bottle of water and a new ice pack. Cassidy was passed out, her face smooshed against the pillow. But even while she slept, I could see the pain etched around her eyes, the way the lines of her face pulled tight.
Removing the pack on her face, I gently replaced it with a fresh one, brushing a few strands of hair behind her ear.
It was strange to think that when I left the Parkers last night, all I could think about was burying my cock in her.
But when I arrived and saw the way her house was torn apart, the fighter in me came out, and all I wanted to do was tear whoever did this to pieces.
There was no fucking way I was letting Austin anywhere near now that he had his sights on her. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the fucker was going after anyone related to the Parker family. Since Cassidy dated Jeff in high school, that would make her a target.
But what wasn’t she telling me about him?
There was something in the way her thoughts drifted to earlier in the evening when I asked if she had been alone with him. That asshole had done something, and if she wasn’t going to tell me, I’d find out another way.
“Sam?” she sighed wearily.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
“I need medicine.”
“Josie’s coming over. She’s gonna fix this,” I whispered, brushing the hair back from her face.
Her face creased in pain. “Talk to me. Distract me.”
Talk to her about what? I was no good with words, and even shittier with people. “Um…”
“Tell me about Thanksgiving.”
“It wasn’t anything to write home about,” I muttered.
“You don’t like it,” she murmured sleepily. “Why not?”
I thought back to Clara collapsing and the memories that assaulted me. I never talked to anyone about that shit, but since Cassidy was basically out of it, she probably wouldn’t remember anyway.
“My mom died around the holidays. She was talking to me…actually, yelling at me for acting like a shit. I remember she was in pain or something, and then she was dead two minutes later.”
I drifted off momentarily, caught up in the terror I felt at that young age, watching my mother die on the floor. I never even got my dad. I stayed by her, calling out her name, willing her to come back to me. And all the while, she laid there, staring up at the ceiling.
“An aneurysm, the doctors said.”
Her hand slid over mine, then she gave a small squeeze, indicating she’d heard me.
“Anyway, it wasn’t exactly easy to be cheerful around the holidays after that.”
“‘M sorry,” she murmured.
“Yeah, well…it was nothing like having all my dishes broken on the floor,” I jested. “Your Thanksgiving sucked.”
She chuckled, then burrowed her head against my shoulder. In just a few minutes, she was out cold. Brushing the hair from her face, I leaned down and kissed her cheek, wishing I could make this better for her.
But the longer I stared at her, the more pissed I got at myself. I shoved to my feet, storming away from her bed and out of her room. Shutting the door quietly, I leaned against it, confused as hell by what was running through my mind. She was just someone I fucked around with.
So why the hell was I so worried about Austin, or if she was in pain from a migraine? Why was I going to all the trouble to find remedies for her when it was none of my goddamn business?
The clawing words deep in my chest struggled to the surface, but I pushed them back down. I hadn’t cared about anyone in years, and I wasn’t about to start now.
I swung the door open before the doorbell could ring, and dragged JR inside, slamming the door before any prying eyes could spot him.
He stared at me, his jaw clenching in anger. “My wife is out there.”