Chapter 8
Austin
I’m already awake when Ariel opens her sea-glass eyes. She’s so beautiful. Her nose scrunches in confusion before her face relaxes into a smile. She glances over at me, touches my cheek. “Morning.”
“Good morning.” My voice is raspy with disuse.
Reaching behind her, she finds Lyle pressed against her back. He hogged her last night. No surprise there. But I got to wake up to her impish little face, so I don’t mind too much.
“You’re both awake?” Lyle rumbles. “Ugh. What time is it?”
“Almost nine,” I say.
“I didn’t mean to fall asleep, sorry.” Ariel stretches and yawns. “So when are you bringing out the handcuffs? Will you give me a head start?”
It takes my depraved mind a moment to figure out she isn’t trying to arrange a chase scene with restraints. No, she’s talking about the bounty.
I’d forgotten all about it. She’s here, she’s ours. No way I’m handing her over to someone else.
Lyle frowns as he sits up. He doesn’t take his hand off of Ariel’s shoulder. “We have to do our job, brat. But I don’t want to. I don’t like it.”
“Why did your father put a bounty out on you, anyway?” I ask. “Maybe you could return the heirloom or whatever it is you took from him. He’ll write it off as a misunderstanding, and—”
She sits up and starts to crawl down to the foot of the bed, an angry expression flashing in those green eyes. “And what? We go our separate ways, truce?”
I grab her ankle and tug so she can’t go farther. “If you’d let me finish, instead of interrupting, I would have said, we could get to know each other better.”
The fight leaves her. “Oh.”
“Yeah,” Lyle mimics, “oh. We like you, Ariel.”
Instead of pleasure on her face, though, I see a flash of fear. “Well, the heirloom was my mom’s ring. Let me get my phone, and I’ll show you something.”
Against my better judgment, I let her go. But Lyle and I get out of bed, tugging on our boxers while Ariel digs in her handbag.
“Look.” She holds up her phone. “He told me it’s mine.”
Sure enough, there’s a message from the guy I’m assuming is her father. The name on the screen is Asshat Dad.
“So did he cancel the bounty?” Lyle asks.
“I…” She pauses and starts typing on her phone. “Hang on.”
I exchange a look with Lyle. Bounty or not, I don’t want to turn this girl in. I want to keep her. She’s twisting me all up inside. I want to take care of her, make her ours.
He nods. He gets it. We’ve never both settled on the same woman at the same time, yet here we are with Ariel and it feels right.
A minute stretches into two, while we wait for something, I don’t know what. Then Lyle’s and my phones chime at the same time with a notification. I pick mine up. There’s a text from Jaxon at Ironwood. Bounty for AC canceled. Enjoy a week off, and a bonus for working over the holidays.
“So that’s it.” I hold up my phone and grin at Ariel. “It’s over.”
Instead of looking happy, she looks sad. “Yeah. It’s over. I’ll grab my things.”
“Wait, he didn’t mean over like that.” Lyle hurries toward her.
“Regardless of how he meant it, I need to get going.” She pulls on her bra and panties. Then that wicked little dress.
“If you need to go now, I understand.” I step toward her after Lyle. “But at least let us take you out to dinner tonight, or dancing at Vice. We want to get to know you—”
“Bad idea.” She shakes her head. “It’s not going to work. I gotta go. Thanks…for last night. It was amazing. I’ll see myself out.”
I stand, struck dumb in Lyle’s room. He follows her out. I hear them arguing quietly. He asks her to stay, she says she can’t. Why, though? There’s no reason for the abrupt departure, the refusal to go on a date. Unless the fun was all about the chase for her.
I don’t see that, though. It was more than the chase. I don’t understand why she’d leave. I probably never will.
* * *
Ariel
My throat feels tight, like I might cry.
Stupid. The ride from Lyle’s house is too quiet, giving me time to think while I watch the city go by.
I need to get a grip on my emotions. After I asked him to close the bounty with Ironwood, Dad told me he’s already home from Colorado.
He decided to leave early after we talked yesterday, and he invited me to lunch today. The least I can do is say yes.
I couldn’t say yes to Austin and Lyle, though. The last time I was in a relationship, it was with Leon. He had too much control. Now here I am, tempted to give everything to these two guys I only met in person last night.
I go home to my apartment, shower, and put on a comfy pair of jeans and a sweater. Dad suggested we get take-out from the Italian deli, so I head over to his place around eleven. We settle into chairs in the living room with TV trays, just like we did on movie nights when I was a kid.
It turns out, lunch with Dad isn’t the reprieve I’d hoped for. And he can immediately sense something is wrong. It doesn’t take long before I cave and give him a brief rundown of what happened. Without too many details, of course.
“So you’re telling me, you wound up falling for the bounty hunters?” He raises his eyebrows. “Both of them?”
“Yes, and please don’t make a big deal out of it—”
He sets down his deli sandwich. “Your mom and me, we knew right away.”
My mouth falls open. I expected a lecture about being reckless, or foolish. Something like, Are you just trying to set yourself up for another situation like with Leon? I didn’t at all expect him to reminisce about his relationship with Mom.
Dad continues, “Sometimes you just know.”
“I thought I knew with Leon,” I say quietly.
“Did you, though? Or did you just want to be settled so badly, you ignored the red flags he flashed?”
“Oh, you’re one to talk—you didn’t even believe me when I tried to break up with him—”
“You’re right. He messed with our heads, both of us. But are you going to let him ruin your future chances at happiness, just because he was a dick?”
“Come on, Dad.” I poke at the remains of my sandwich, no longer hungry. I’m more heartsick now than I was when I left Lyle and Austin behind.
Dad covers my hand in his. “I just want you to be happy. You’re a special girl. Maybe you need a special relationship.”
“Psh.” I roll my eyes.
“No, don’t discount what I’m saying.” He gives me a kind smile. “If there’s something with these bounty hunters, it’s worth exploring. Ironwood hires solid people, Ariel. If you like them and they like you, don’t let the opportunity slip away.”
I know how easy it would be to fall for them both. Austin, with his intense, stern stare. Lyle with the outward appearance of friendliness but a dark streak of sadism hidden beneath.
But talking with my dad about my love life is starting to feel awkward. I’ll have to talk to Janie later, instead.
When I go into the bathroom to freshen up, I notice a square of tissue in the wastebasket.
Maybe it’s because I was just thinking about Janie, but the tissue has a lip print in her signature shade. Selen?o’s “Crimson Rust.” I’d know it anywhere because she’s been wearing it for years.
I stare for a long, long time at that stupid tissue. Janie has no reason to be here, at my dad’s house. Sure, she’s his assistant, but it’s an office job. Dad doesn’t bring work home—he stopped that when I was young, because Mom asked him to.
So why is Janie’s lipstick-blotted tissue in his house? Why was she here?
Heart pounding, I leave the bathroom, ready to confront my dad. He hasn’t heard me re-enter the living room and he’s looking at his phone. From the side, I can see a wistful, happy expression on his face as he taps on the screen.
His phone vibrates quietly and he chuckles. He must be texting with someone. He looks like a man in love.
Who is he texting, though? Janie?
Is my dad in love with my best friend?
“Hey.” I clear my throat, announcing myself because I feel like I’m intruding on a private moment.
My emotions are swirling all around. Dad hasn’t seriously dated anyone since Mom died.
Maybe he had hook-ups, but the word “hook-ups” and my dad don’t belong in my brain together, so I never wanted to dwell too much on the idea.
Janie isn’t a hook-up kind of girl, though. She never could do casual sex. So if she’s seeing my dad…that means it’s serious. Or it soon will be.
“Hey, Ariel.” Dad’s ears turn a little bit pink. Like I caught him and he’s feeling guilty or embarrassed. “Are you all done with your sandwich? I can clear the plates.”
“Yeah.” I swallow past the questions crowding my throat.
If he’s seeing Janie, he’s not ready to talk about it.
I’m not ready to talk about it, either, because I’m not sure how I feel.
Shouldn’t Janie talk to me about it? Like, I’m her best friend.
I should be the first to know. “Um, I just remembered something and I gotta run. But I’m glad we did this. ”
“Me, too, sweetheart.”
“I, um, I should get going.”
He squints at me. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah.” It’s a lie. Nothing is okay. I think my dad and my best friend might have something going on, and I fell for two bounty hunters but I’m not relationship material.
“Listen.” He takes my shoulders and stares intently into my eyes. “You have every reason to be afraid of a relationship. But it sounds to me like you know these guys are the real deal. I want you to be happy.”
I suck in a deep breath. “I want you to be happy, too, Dad. Are you?”
“I am if you are.”
“I’m working on it.”
As I leave his house, I resolve to be happy.
Even though it scares the shit out of me.
* * *
Lyle
Austin goes home soon after Ariel leaves. I’ve never felt so off-balance. The world doesn’t make sense. Everything was perfect. Ariel was perfect. The three of us fit together like a dream.
And then she left.
No explanation.
I know how to track her down, find her. Hell, I have handcuffs, zip ties, rope. I can truss her up and keep her in my bed.
But not if she doesn’t want to be there.
Fuck.
A good, long shower doesn’t do much to clear my disgust with myself.
Did she need us to beg? We would’ve done it.
I would’ve gotten on my motherfucking knees just to beg her to stay.
We need her. I want to get to know her, yeah, but my heart already knows the truth.
And the truth is that we belong together.
I sound like a fucking creep, but I can’t help it.
The day passes in a haze. I put on the sports channel and stare blankly at the screen. Austin sends me a text.
Have you heard from her yet?
No. And we aren’t going to. She was adamant that something between the three of us wouldn’t work. That’s all she would say. She wouldn’t hear me out, nothing.
Sometime around three, my phone buzzes with another notification. The message is hidden because it comes from Kynkworld. I laugh and turn my phone face-down on the coffee table. Like I want to hook up or look at sexy shit when my heart is pulverized. No, thanks.
I head to the shower, instead. Being naked reminds me of being with Ariel. There’s nothing sadder than having a boner and a broken heart, but here I am. Fuck, this sucks.
When I come out of the shower, Austin calls out from the living room. “Get out here, we need to talk.”
I never should’ve given him a key. “What is it?”
He doesn’t answer, so I throw on some jeans and meet him in the living room.
He’s in jeans and a hoodie, an eager gleam in his eyes. He holds up his phone. “She left a message for us.”
I trip over my own feet in my hurry to get my phone. Austin snickers.
That message from Kynkworld—it wasn’t a random notification. It’s Ariel.
I click on the message—it’s a link to a picture.
Our little blondie has her hair in short, braided pigtails. She’s wearing a midriff-baring sweatshirt and a pair of soft-looking sweatpants.
Scrawled across her stomach in hot pink marker are the words, I’m sorry. Come get me, Daddies.
“Is this another game?” I ask. “Is she gonna disappear on us as soon as we get there?”
“When did we switch places?” Austin laughs. “Used to be that I’m the cynic, not you. That’s her apartment in the background—recognize the purple sofa? Let’s go see what this is about.”
Nodding, I follow him to his car. Game or not, we’ll get our girl.