Chapter Sixteen
Chapter
Sixteen
Garrett watched as the door to the holding room
opened, and there was a brief hitch in his chest. What if she hadn’t been able
to get through to Keane? He could be stubborn. What if she was crying and Keane
was cold as ice because he decided he couldn’t risk having hope again?
How could he go on without the two of them? He knew he
hadn’t been with Olivia for long, but she’d become an integral part of who they
were.
A big hand settled on his shoulder. “It’s going to be all
right, son.”
Jack had changed his tune. Maybe it had been the way Garrett
laid out all the dangers he thought were surrounding Olivia and what he was
doing to investigate and protect her. Maybe it was the long, screaming phone
call from his brother. Lucas hadn’t cared that it was Keane’s story to tell.
He’d simply told his brother what happened and how he might have wrecked a good
man. Garrett was pretty sure Lexi had gotten in on that phone call, too.
No matter what it had been, Jack Barnes was now on the team,
and it felt good.
Abby and Sam were sitting out in the lobby. Gabe had taken
Miranda and Gigi back to the ranch once they realized Jack was taking over and
it would all be okay. The sheriff had agreed to let Keane go without charges,
and Deputy Morgan was planning on bringing Jessica Fellows back in for an
interview. The bartender was coming in the morning, and hopefully he could
clear things up. He’d updated Ruby, who was doing a deeper dive into both
Jessica and Scott.
He’d done everything he needed to and it was time to head
home, but he was hesitating.
“I know it’s hard to keep the faith when for so long the
universe seemed to take everything from you, but this seems to be your place,
Garrett,” Jack said quietly. “It’s important you figure out what part of the
relationship you hold up.”
“Are you talking about in our threesome? Because I worry I
might end up being the weakest link.”
“Bullshit,” Jack shot back. “You’re strong, Garrett. Strong
enough to handle both of them, but you have to start saying what you need. Your
Dom worries that if he starts something physical with you, he’ll lose you, and
that is the worst tragedy he can think of.”
“How would you know that?”
“Because it’s why I didn’t tell Sam for years. I expressed
my love for him through the women we shared. It’s funny how when you finally
find the right one, all that anxiety melts away and what’s left is your family.
Don’t be afraid. You’re the one who hopes. You’re the one who believes. Who
sees the truth and doesn’t doubt it. That’s your place. Take it. Open the door
because you know what you’ll find behind it.”
Somehow it was easier now, and he pushed through. The guard
told him he’d come in earlier and unlocked the cell since Keane and Olivia were
the only ones being held now, and he wasn’t going to put Jack Barnes’s daughter
through the humiliation of using the open toilet. He said they’d been waiting
patiently for the paperwork to be done.
Were they patiently together or sitting coldly apart?
Either way, he would make it right. They would walk out of
here together.
He stepped inside, and all those worries vanished because
they weren’t sitting side by side or opposite each other. Olivia was on Keane’s
lap and he had his tongue at least halfway down her throat. Such a sexy picture
they made. Even in a jail cell.
“Told you,” Jack said with a chuckle.
Olivia’s head came up, and for a moment she smiled at them.
“Hey, Garrett. I talked our Master out of doing stupid things.”
Garrett moved to the door, swinging it open. “I’m glad. Now
let me get you both home.”
She went from cuddly kitten to predatory cat when her eyes
landed on her father.
Jack stiffened behind him. “See, when her eyes flash fire
like that, you should start apologizing.” He gave his daughter a gentle smile.
“Now, sweetheart, I was only looking out for you.”
She rose off Keane’s lap like a goddess of vengeance. Her
dad was right. Her eyes did flash fire. She pointed a judgmental finger her
father’s way. “You were looking out for me by getting my boyfriend shoved in
jail?”
Keane sat back, seeming to try his hardest to keep the grin
off his face.
“Now, in my defense,” Jack began, “most of what I heard was
that you were horribly poisoned, and he had done it before.”
Keane held up a hand. He wasn’t the stiff, frozen man he’d
been the last time Garrett had seen him. He was relaxed and a little playful.
“Nah. I don’t bother with poisons or drugs, sir. And I would never hit a lady.
I did, however, beat the shit out of a pervert man who was raping a
fifteen-year-old girl. I would do it again.”
Jack turned to him. “Except this time you would keep going,
son. It is best once you start a thing to finish it off. We got a lot of land.
Person can disappear on it real easy. Just let me know because I will admit I’m
pretty sure Julian’s used it a couple of times. We should figure out where
those bodies are.”
“Hey, I’m your lawyer,” Garrett pointed out as Olivia
approached. “Let’s leave me out of the body-burying portions of the family fun
nights.”
Olivia ignored them all, preferring to expend her righteous
fury on her father. “You didn’t even wait to talk to me. You sat down and
started plotting with the sheriff. Since when are you the best of friends?”
“Well, now I will admit I’m friendlier with the man when I’m
worried about my baby girl,” Jack replied even as he took a step back.
“Don’t think you can run,” Olivia said before turning to
Garrett. She went on her toes and pressed a light kiss on his lips. “We have a
lot of talking to do, but I think we should do it in the playroom later
tonight.”
His whole body responded to those words. “I can handle
that.”
“But Olivia, that is my playroom,” her father said weakly,
as though the very thought made him sick to his stomach.
“Well, if you didn’t want to know what happens there, you
should have kept your nose out of my relationship.” She stood toe to toe with
her much taller, bigger and more intimidating father. “Tell me something. Were
you at least nice to Garrett? Or did you accuse him, too?”
It looked like she had her father handled. He walked into
the cell where Keane was standing now. He wasn’t rushing out. He seemed
perfectly comfortable that the door wasn’t about to close again. “Are you
okay?”
Keane stared at him for a moment. Not an anxious stare,
where he was trying to figure something out. It was like Keane was trying to
memorize him. Keane stepped in, getting closer than he normally would. His hand
came up to cup the back of Garrett’s neck like he’d seen him do to Olivia at
least twice a day. It was an intimate hold, a dominant touch. It stirred
something inside Garrett that had been sleeping for a long time.
“I’m much better now that our sub has kicked my ass,” Keane
said with a warm chuckle.
The instinct to put his hands on Keane’s waist was almost
too much to resist. Something was different about his fri…his Master tonight.
Something had changed, and the possibilities sent sparks through his system.
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“You did what? You offered Garrett money to leave me?”
Olivia practically screeched.
He noted that a burly deputy had started to walk into the
area, and when he heard Olivia, he turned and walked away. The man had some
sense.
Her dad did not. He should have run.
“The good news is he wouldn’t take it. Garrett stood right
up and told me to go to hell and told me Keane wouldn’t take the money either,”
her father announced.
“Did that really happen?” Keane asked with an amused smile
on his face. He was looking at Garrett with a gaze he’d only seen reserved for
women before.
Garrett nodded. “Offered us five million.”
“Five million!” Olivia yelled. “You offered the two best men
I ever met in my life five million to leave me?”
“Now, Livie, I wasn’t actually going to pay them,” Jack
replied with a wince. “I was going to show you how mercenary they were. But it
turns out they weren’t at all. They didn’t care about the money. They only
wanted you.”
“I’m surprised. Five million?” Keane asked. He moved to
Garrett’s side, watching Olivia. But Garrett felt a hand on his waist, like
Keane wanted the physical connection. “Did you negotiate at all? I think we
could have gotten ten out of him. And for the record, Jack, I would have taken
your money and still married your daughter. So we’re kind of even.”
Jack grinned. “Yeah, that’s good. We’re thinking on the same
lines. See, Livie, we’re getting along. And Garrett did negotiate. I’m going to
cube Keane’s truck and give it a place of honor with the other cubes, and
Garrett’s going to buy him a new one.”
“What?” Keane’s brows rose. “Wait a minute. That’s my
truck.”
“It’s a piece of crap, Master. Would you allow me to drive
around alone in it?” Now that he looked back, he could see all the sneaky ways
Keane had topped him over the years. He would insist on driving with Garrett
because he wanted to get out of the house. Sure, he did. Keane was a homebody
who didn’t love peopling, yet if Garrett needed to run an errand, he suddenly
needed some fresh air. All because he didn’t want Garrett to be alone if the
truck broke down.
“I wouldn’t…” Keane began, and then his jaw squared. “No.
No, I wouldn’t allow you to drive it on your own because I think it could be
dangerous.”
“And what do we do to dangerous things, Keane?” Jack
prompted.
“Well, we should sell them if we thought we could get a dime
out of it,” Keane argued. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of cash sitting
around, so I don’t have car cubes as artwork in my office. I’m not having my
sub go into debt so you can have another footrest.”
“I was thinking more like the support for a tabletop,” Jack
mused.
“I think we can afford a truck.” Garrett handled the money
for the most part. Keane could be stingy with it since they’d had so little in
the past. “I’ll show you the budget for it, Master.”
The word kind of rolled off his tongue now. It felt right.
It felt good to be able to call Keane that without worry because his