Chapter 3
Ana marched Benjamin down the alley, but once they’d rounded the front, she couldn’t face going back to the grand-opening gala. She paused there on the sidewalk beside Benjamin, knowing she earned some curious looks from the valets as well as the doormen because she couldn’t hide her upset.
Benji pulled at his arm, but she dug her nails in tighter in case he tried to take off.
“Mom.”
Whatever he saw on her face finally did the trick. He stilled, staring down at her while she tried to collect herself and steady her erratic breathing. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
“Who was that guy?”
A somewhat shrill and hysterical laugh bubbled out of her chest at the question.
“Mom, you’re freaking me out.”
“You should be freaking out. Benji??—”
“It’s just freaking Ben.”
She leaned her head back to look up at him, the November breeze chilling her sweat-dampened skin until her entire body shook like a flag in high winds. Whether it was the cold air or the shock of seeing Cole Blackwell, she wasn’t sure. “Ben…”
Analise heard an engine roar to life down the alley and knew it had to be Cole with the limo. Her pulse skyrocketed at the sound. “We need to leave before he changes his mind.”
“I thought you had to stay at the party.”
“Now you’re worried about me being at the gala?” She stared at him, incredulous. “Yes, Ben, I’m supposed to stay here until it ends, but if I walk in there now, after what you’ve just put me through, I don’t— I can’t...”
“Are you okay to drive?”
Another laugh bubbled up from her chest, and when he just stared at her and looked confused, she chuckled even harder. The boy who’d just tried to steal a car asked if she was okay to drive?
“Mom, chill. People are staring.”
She tried and failed to smother the laughter, unable to stop until tears leaked from her eyes. She swiped them away while attempting to not mess up her makeup due to the people in front of the hotel.
Ben took her elbow in his hand and steered her toward the parking lot where she’d parked their small SUV earlier that day. He walked her to the driver’s side and unlocked the door using the key fob tucked into her purse.
“We can sit in the car until you feel better. Do you…want me to get you a drink? Something stronger than water? I can go inside and ask Quinley.”
She’d just settled into the seat when he’d posed the question, but she shook her head, adamant. “No. She’s with Rhys, and she’ll ask questions and— I don’t want to ruin their night.”
“I can still get you something if you want it,” he said.
The ease and confidence with which he made the statement ended the hysteria emerging as inappropriate laughter. A part of her wanted to put his words to the test and pray he couldn’t succeed, but given the events of the night, the truth stared her in the face. When had her baby boy become…this? “I don’t want anything. Come sit with me.”
Given the trouble he was in, she wondered if he would take off into the night. She watched closely as he rounded the back of the vehicle and climbed into the passenger seat.
Ana stared at the hotel. The grand opening was a big deal. Red carpet and velvet ropes lined the entrance, a spotlight flashed into the sky to draw attention from everyone who could see it and wonder enough to find out why. It should have been a great night.
Red brake lights flashed as the limo emerged from the alley. She thanked God the vehicle didn’t have to be towed and watched as Cole skillfully maneuvered the vehicle and then drove off.
“Who was that guy?”
“An old friend.”
“An old boyfriend?”
“For a while, yes,” she admitted. “I…ended things with him after he went into the military.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it,” she said softly before turning in her seat to face Ben. His long legs required his seat to be pushed farther back which meant he sat behind her even while sitting beside her. “Ben…”
“Can we go home now?”
“I’d like to talk about what happened.”
“I already told you. I wanted to leave.”
“So you stole a car? That seemed like a logical solution to you?”
“Since you wouldn’t take me home or give me money to get a ride, yeah. I figured I’d drive it close enough that I could walk the rest of the way before I ditched it.”
She blinked at him, at his plan, unable to process it. “You were supposed to wait. We don’t get everything we want in this world, Benjamin. You can’t snap your fingers and have instant gratification. Tonight was important to me, and you’ve ruined it with your behavior.” She pressed a hand to her forehead and rubbed. “How am I supposed to explain this to Rhys and Quinley? Sorry I had to leave, but my son is a thief? How could you do this?”
He huffed and then told her exactly where she could tell them to go.
“Enough! Enough with the language and saying things like that. Do you have any idea how much your stunt is going to cost me? Cost us? I’m not even sure how I’ll pay for the damages. If I can pay for them!”
“Just ask the Taylors. They’ll pay for it just to keep it from being a thing. God forbid we embarrass them.”
He kept his face averted, staring out his passenger side window. “Benji…”
“It’s freaking Ben, okay? Why is it so hard for you to say it?”
His voice cracked as he shouted at her, reminding her that while he might have the physicality of a man, he wasn’t one yet. “Calling you Benji is a habit, but I am trying to break it. Now talk to me. What was so important that you had to leave?”
He glared over at her, and she noted his hands were fisted on his lap.
“I got sick of it.”
“Sick of what?”
“All of it. I wanted to leave. To go do stuff with my friends tonight. Not…watch how men look at you. It pissed me off. Even that guy—your friend. He did it, too.”
She blinked at his words. Struggled to understand. “You got upset because men were…looking at me?”
Silence followed, and she tried to put herself in his shoes to understand his perspective. She supposed a boy watching his mother be ogled by men wouldn’t make for the best party experience. “I’m…sorry that made you uncomfortable. But that’s no excuse for doing what you did. You could be in jail right now.”
“He agreed that you could pay him.”
“And if I can’t? It’s a limo, for pity’s sake. Do have any idea of how much a limousine costs? Or what the repairs might cost? Do you?”
“If you didn’t want to do it, why’d you offer to pay for it?”
“Because I love you and I wanted to keep you out of jail! Cole was right. What you did tonight would fall under grand theft auto. That means years in juvenile detention or prison. What were you thinking? Benj—Ben, I won’t always be around to help you and then what?”
“I don’t care,” he shouted. “Nobody cares! Go back to your stupid party and leave me alone.”
“Nobody cares? Seriously?”
“Just go back to your party, Mom.”
“I can’t. Not when I can’t trust you to behave yourself.” She held out a hand, palm up. “Give me your phone.”
Angry tears flashed in his eyes as he glared at her from across the SUV. Seconds passed as he blinked hard to hide them.
“Ben, I mean it. I want your phone. Hand it over.”
He felt the pockets of his tuxedo jacket and then his pants. “It’s not here.”
“Benjamin, no more games. Enough!”
“I don’t know where it is! It must have fallen out when that guy assaulted me. Go ask him where it is.”
“Cole is a former marine. You would know if he’d assaulted you. And I’d advise you to stop saying that he did. Now hand it over.”
She watched as he yanked off his jacket and shoved it at her and then pulled the insides of both pants pockets out for her to see their empty state.
“I don’t have it.”
She held his gaze while she felt his tuxedo jacket for his phone, but even the interior pocket was empty. “Are you sitting on it?”
“No.”
She dropped her head onto the seat rest behind her and groaned. “Get out. We have to go find it.”
Ben seemed reluctant, but they retraced their steps across the lot to the alley and used the light from her phone to search for his.
It wasn’t there. If it had been, it was gone now, but she wondered if it was all a ruse anyway. She wouldn’t put anything past her son at this point, but short of a strip search, how did she get him to hand it over? “I’ll end service on it right now.”
“No!”
She stared at her son. “Because you have it, don’t you?” She held out her hand and waggled her fingers for him to hand it over, then watched in fury and disbelief when he bent and retrieved the phone from where he’d apparently stashed it in his sock. His sock!
Ben reared back and threw it at her, and she flinched when the hard metal bit into her collar bone. She nearly dropped her phone due to the surprise and pain, fumbling to catch the expensive phone before it crashed to the ground and shattered.
Ben stalked off toward the parking lot, and she followed, teary-eyed from the pain of the blow, her upset and broken heart. Her collar bone throbbed and would undoubtedly bruise, but the sheer magnitude of Benji’s behavior left her struggling to stay upright.
Exhaustion hit her like a tsunami, every step of this second trip to the parking lot dragging at her tired feet and legs. She practically collapsed into the seat when the full force of the wave hit.
All the stress, the nonstop hours and work to prep for the opening, the financial burden of leveling up her business topped by Ben stealing the limo and—and Cole.
Of all the people in the world for Ben to steal from— Why Cole?
* * *
“Come again?”
Cole glanced at Alec, the eldest of the Blackwell siblings, and then back at Gage, who’d voiced the growled question. “She’ll pay.”
“Are you kidding me right now,” Gage said.
“Frankie is setting everything aside at the garage to prioritize the repair. We won’t have a lot of downtime,” Cole said.
“And what is this repair going to cost?” Alec asked, every bit the businessman focusing on facts.
“It’s not confirmed, but…Frankie guessed around fifteen grand.” Mutters and blank stares met his words.
“Which means it could be higher,” Alec said.
Cole shrugged. Which went over well if the eye rolls and grunts that followed were any indication.
“And the thief isn’t in jail because your ex-girlfriend batted her eyelashes at you,” Gage said. “She dumped you, dude! And cheated on you. I saw it with my own eyes.”
Cole shot Gage a glare and fought his frustration with the mess he’d gotten himself into. It was a hefty price tag that they were now responsible for. Maybe he should’ve called the cops, but under the circumstances… “Ana says she broke it off with me before going to the party where you guys saw her with that guy.”
“And that makes it okay?” Gage asked.
“Drop it,” he ordered. “Look, Ana begged me not to ruin the boy’s life because of a stupid stunt, and she had a point, okay? He would’ve been charged with grand theft auto.”
“Which he deserves,” Gage said.
“Like we haven’t all pulled stupid stunts of our own over the years.” He pinned his younger brother with a pointed glare.
“It was a golf cart, not a limo,” Gage said.
“And a couple of bikes,” Cole added. “Not to mention booze.”
“None of which were yours.” Alec sat forward, his expression pensive as he stared at Gage. “Cole has a point.”
Gage shook his head and paced the office Brooks and Alec shared. Located at the back of the convenience store, the office was where Brooks headed up his towing and service company from his desk while Alec handled the convenience store and gas station from his.
In the last eight months or so, they’d built onto the side of the building, adding room for smaller and more frequently requested rental items while maintaining a storage unit elsewhere for the things that had to be reserved ahead of time.
Space was a commodity on the island, and every inch had to earn its keep. Including the limo. The rentals division of Blackwell Brothers had done well since opening, but having left the military, Cole’s bright idea had been to expand those options to include the car service.
“Are you still hung up on her?” Gage asked.
“No,” Cole said firmly. “If anything, my past with Ana pisses me off.”
“Then why did you agree to this?” Gage demanded. “What if Frankie’s wrong? Fifteen grand could be twenty for all we know.”
“Enough,” Alec said softly. “Speculating will get us nowhere. It’ll be whatever it is, and we’ll deal with it.”
Cole noted Alec had never taken his gaze off him during the discussion, and even though he had no reason to, Cole fought the urge to squirm.
Instead he forced himself to hold Alec’s gaze. “You would’ve done the same thing. You did do the same,” he said, referencing all the times when Alec had gone to bat for the brothers and kept them from jail for one infraction or another.
Like joyriding in unattended golf carts or snitching booze out of unsuspecting tourists’ beach coolers for some underage drinking and mayhem. In the aftermath of their parents’ death, they’d put Alec and Aunt Rose through hell when it came to trying to keep them in line and out of trouble. Every day brought a new adventure in how they could have screwed up their lives if someone hadn’t intervened.
Brooks leaned back in his office chair, and it squeaked loudly. “She still as pretty as ever?”
Cole glared at him. “I’m not hung up on her. That is not what’s happening here. I’m simply trying to keep a kid out of serious trouble.”
“Because he’s hers,” Brooks said with a grin.
“What if Analise can’t pay for the repairs?” Alec asked. “She just relocated her business and expanded. Things have to be tight for her. Can she afford to pay?”
Three sets of eyes locked on him, and Cole shoved himself off the door where he’d leaned for the discussion and straightened. Ana had been desperate to keep him from calling the cops last night and undoubtedly would’ve said whatever it took to keep her son out of jail. Could she afford it? “She will.”
“How are you going to enforce that?” Gage asked.
“I can think of a few ways,” Brooks said, still grinning.
Had his brother always been so…infuriating? “She’ll pay,” Cole said in a tone that dared Brooks to keep pushing buttons.
“What about the boy? What’s his punishment in all of this?” Alec asked.
“He could work it off,” Brooks said. “Might be fun to have a minion around to do our bidding.”
Brooks’s statement reenforced the idea Cole had considered last night but then rejected. But how did he argue the point without them believing it was due to Ana? “He would be trouble.”
“Yeah, but he’s the one who screwed up. Not Ana. We know what’s involved with expanding a business and moving hers into that hotel has to have her spread thin. The punishment should be on him, not her. If he’s busy washing and detailing the limo every day after school plus all the other stuff we could have him do, he’d be too busy to get into trouble,” Alec said. “Might help him learn his lesson, too.”
“Unless he tries to steal the limo again,” Gage muttered.
“Legally kids his age have to have a work permit,” Alec said. “But we can get him set up easily enough. That never stopped any of us from working where we could and earning what we could.”
“You seriously want him here?” Cole asked, surprised by his brother’s train of thought and yet…not.
“The boy is the problem, not Ana. I say we each figure out a list of things he can do and let him work it off. Cole can track things whenever he isn’t driving.”
Cole winced. “Or we can just let his mom pay us for the repairs, and she can handle him.”
His brothers stared at him like he’d grown four heads.
“If Ana could handle her son, this probably wouldn’t have happened,” Alec said, stating the obvious.
Knowing his brother was right didn’t make it any easier to swallow.
“I’d certainly like to know he gets some punishment,” Gage added.
“Hard work would keep him busy,” Brooks said. “And he could shadow all of us while we’re here, so we’d know he’s actually working and staying out of trouble.”
Cole felt himself losing the battle. Taking on responsibility of a troubled teenage boy wasn’t on anyone’s priority list, but apparently that was the plan.
Alec was newly married with a baby at home, and Brooks now had a wife and four imps to keep track of, in addition to running their various businesses. They all had more than enough demands on their time, yet here they were adding another. Even Gage.
Gage was single, but he was the king of side hustles. Always finding something new to add to his list of incomes whenever the offseason hit and tourists thinned.
Of the four of them, Cole was the one with the most time on his hands, yet he was not on board with this. “I don’t want to babysit some mouthy teenager too stupid to appreciate the fact he could’ve gone to jail. I’m out when it comes to babysitting the kid.”
“You’re in,” Brooks said, grinning widely as he chewed gum. “You’re the one who let the boy off the hook in the first place.”
“I agree,” Alec said. “This decision impacts all of us, and we need a united front. Ana’s son has to be taught a lesson, and if she can’t do it, it’s up to us to step up. Otherwise we’re only adding to the chaos that’s already out in the world causing problems for the kids we’re actually raising.”
“So she’s not paying us?” Gage asked. “What about the cost of the repair? How do we know Ana will agree to her son working here? We need a contract or something.”
“A contract about what?” a soft voice asked from behind Cole.
Cole froze, still propped against the inner frame of the office door, and then shifted inside and turned to see Ana standing a step or two behind him.
The office was located at the end of a short hallway. It had doors on either side and the office at the end. Restrooms flanked the left side of the hall with storage on the right. Thankfully it was quiet in this area even though the convenience store section stayed busy with customers.
Ana met his gaze briefly, just long enough to give him a glimpse of the upset and exhaustion in her sage-green eyes. She looked tired. Like she hadn’t slept well, if at all, last night.
Benjamin stood several more steps behind her, his posture every bit the punk he’d proven himself to be, though he didn’t appear any better rested. Maybe the kid had a conscience after all?
“What’s going on?” she asked Cole once she’d moved to stand inside the doorway.
“Apparently a change of plans,” Cole said in a tight voice. “Come in.”
Ana moved into the office, but Cole noted that Benjamin hung back. “You, too.”
Cole watched as Ana’s son rolled his eyes, hesitated like he wasn’t going to obey the order and then finally put his feet into motion. The moment the teenager stepped inside the office and walked to stand beside his mom, Cole closed the door and leaned his back against it.
Alec and Brooks both stood from their chairs when she’d walked in. Gage stared from where he stood in front of the only window.
Cole fought the urge to box Gage’s ears. Animosity rolled off his younger brother in waves, and he wasn’t acting much better than Benjamin at the moment. “Ana, you remember my brothers. Alec, Brooks, and Gage. Gage and I are partners in the rental business, but we’re all coowners and have a say in things.”
Analise nodded, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. Cole had a good view of her profile. She’d dressed in a lightweight sweaterdress and ankle boots, her hair swept back and twisted up in a clip that left a few strands curled around her jawline. She looked elegant and beautiful and scared out of her mind.
He fisted his hands, steeling himself against the protectiveness that surged. He had no reason to feel anything but anger toward her. Especially now.
“It’s nice to see you all again, although I hate that it’s under these circumstances. I’m very sorry for what happened, and I promise you that I….I’ll take full financial responsibility for it,” she said, turning her attention toward Gage. “You have every right to be angry. Cole has undoubtedly earned your upset by not calling the police, but…please don’t blame him. I begged him not to.” She stepped closer to the boy at her side. “This is my son, Benjamin. He…has something he’d like to say to you.”
Standing behind the group where he leaned on the door, Cole could still see the look the boy directed at his mom. Where Ana revealed her upset and embarrassment in her trembling body and quivering voice, the kid acted as though he had no remorse and his mom had thrown him under the bus.
Cole wanted to wipe the floor with the brat. He hadn’t been much older than Benjamin when his parents were killed. In the blink of an eye, they were gone, and the nine Blackwell children had been left reeling in the aftermath.
The boy didn’t know what a gift he had in his mother, and he sure as heck shouldn’t be giving her the grief he doled out with his stupidity.
“Sorry about the limo,” Ben said in a stiff voice.
Tension ramped up at the kid’s poor excuse for an apology and lack of sincerity.
“Sorry you took it or sorry you got caught?” Alec asked.
Benjamin shrugged.
“Benji.”
“Yeah, I’m definitely in,” Gage said abruptly.
Brooks released a low chuckle. “Me, too. This’ll be fun.”
All three of his brothers shifted their attention to Cole, silently demanding his agreement to their united front.
Cole glanced at Ana and couldn’t look away. Her son towered over her, outweighed her, and left her standing there trembling. But it was her ringless left hand that sealed the deal whether he wanted to admit it or not. “Fine,” he said darkly.
She glanced back at him, obviously not following the topic he and his brothers discussed just before her arrival.
“Ana, please have a seat,” Alec murmured. “We have some things to go over, and this could take a while.”
Ana ran her hand along the top of the chair as though she needed something to hold onto before lowering herself onto the cushion.
“I take it you have an idea of the repair cost?” she asked Alec.
Alec’s gaze shifted to Gage.
Gage repeated what Frankie had told him, and Ana’s gasp filled the air. Her head whipped to the side as she stared at Ben, and Cole saw the way her hands tightened to a white-knuckled grip over the arm of the chair.
She looked…heartbroken. And more than a little panicked and sick.
“I take it payment would be a problem?” Alec asked.