Behold the Stars (20 page)

She leaned back and looked up at him. “Come have lunch with me?”

He shook his head. “I’m just in to get paychecks out. Gotta get back to the clubhouse.”

“Show. Come to Marie’s with me. Just an hour. Half an hour, even. Come on. Buy me some fried chicken. I just sent Badger off to get pizza with some random kid in a Trace Adkins t-shirt, so I’m in need of bodyguarding.”

At that, he smiled and shook his head. “Billy is the Adkins fan. And you’re gonna get Badge missing important body parts if Isaac catches him playing fast and loose with his job.”

“But I’m with you now.”

His smiled disappeared. “That won’t keep you safe.”

She could have kicked herself for running over that territory. Rather than apologize and make more of it, though, she simply ignored the self-loathing in his comment. Hooking her arm around his, she said, “Come on, Show. Take me to lunch.”

He stared down at her, then nodded and walked with her back to his truck.

~oOo~

There was a decent lunch crowd, and the hum of conversation stopped cold when Show and Lilli went into the diner. Show nodded at Marie, behind the counter, and then walked to the last open booth. The people they passed—most of whom Lilli now knew—nodded soberly at Show as he went by. She appreciated the quiet way these people had of showing respect. Just a nod, then they left Show to himself. There was a lot to be said for country stoicism. They might gossip like fishwives later, but they kept their mouths shut now, and that was good.

Marie was right behind them, coffeepot in hand, when they sat. She poured, they ordered, and then, when she left, Show gave Lilli a look. “Why am I here, Lilli?”

She didn’t know quite what to say; she wasn’t entirely sure why he was there. She’d seen him looking so sad and broken, and she’d wanted to take him to lunch. “You looked like a guy who needed a minute away from your life, I guess.”

He scoffed. “No getting away from this life.”

“No, I suppose not. But I’m a pretty good listener, if you have something you need to talk about.”

He shook his head, and for a while they sat there in silence. Lilli stirred creamer and sugar into her coffee, watching the white liquid swirl and disappear. Marie brought their meals. Lilli picked a little at her chicken. Then Show said. “I was going to take her for her learner’s permit today.”

She heard him and understood. Setting her fork down, she looked at him but said nothing. She waited to see if he had more he wanted to say.

“I keep thinking about that. I was quizzing her on the road rules, helping her get ready. I knew she’d pass. She’s—was—such a smart thing. Holly and I had a big fight about it. She didn’t want her on the road yet. One of the few fights I ever pushed hard enough to win.” He laughed harshly and looked out the front window. “I was going to take her up to that frozen custard place in Worden after. Just her and me.” Still looking out the window, he sighed. “I’m a shitty father to say it, I know, but she’s—was—my favorite. Most like me. Rosie and Iris, they’re all about dolls and dress-up. Rosie cries over every little thing, and all Iris can talk about is these cartoon princesses. I don’t really get ‘em. I love ‘em, but I don’t get ‘em. Daze liked what I liked. I knew how to talk to her. And she got me.”

His head sagged, hovering over his plate. Lilli put her hand over his fist, where it was coiled on the table. He looked up, his expression angry. “That what you want to hear?”

She pulled her hand back. “No, Show. I don’t mean to pry. If you don’t want to talk, that’s cool. I just wanted you to know you can. If you want to step away from the club shit and talk to somebody, I’m here. I’m sorry if I’m prying, really.”

“Naw. I’m sorry. It’s okay. Not a share-my-feelings guy. Don’t even know how. But you’re right, I guess. I’m coming out of my skin. Fuck, I miss Daze.” He laughed sadly. “You know, I don’t even miss Holly. Last few years, our shit was hard. I want to die over what I let happen to her, but I don’t miss her. I miss my girls, but not my wife. I’m no kind of man.”

“That’s bullshit, Show.” He raised his eyebrows at that. “It is. I know you need to beat yourself up. I get it. But falling out of love doesn’t make you anything but human.” She sighed and put her hand on his again. “Arkansas isn’t so far away. You can still see Rose and Iris.”

“No.” He shook his head and turned back to the window. “Sent the papers back today. Signed what she sent me. Divorced. Child support, but no custody, no visitation.”

Holly had wasted not one second. “Jesus, Show. She cut you out?”

He continued to stare out the window. “Yeah. She threatened to rat if I didn’t. Left me the choice to give her what she wanted or keep her from talking some other way.” He turned suddenly, his eyes wider, as if he’d shocked himself. “Lilli, fuck. That’s a confidence. The Horde can’t know that. Not Isaac or anybody. They’ll go for her for the threat alone.”

Lilli knew how to keep a secret. Even from Isaac, if necessary, and this was. “Okay. Mouth shut. But Show, I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah.” He pushed his plate of uneaten food away and pulled his wallet out, its chain rattling against the Formica table. “I gotta get back, Lilli.”

When Show parked his truck at the feed store, he got out and came around as Lilli was climbing down. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into a quick, hard hug. Then, without saying a word, he let her go and went inside.

Lilli stood at the side of his truck and watched him, feeling low and helpless. Then she heard Badge laughing. She followed the sound, and found him, Billy, and a couple of other young guys grouped around a picnic table at the side of the store, two large pizzas from No Place spread over the top. When Badge saw her, he finished the slice in his hand, wiped his hands on his jeans, waved a goodbye to his friends, and trotted over to take her and her horse supplies home.

~oOo~

When she heard Isaac’s Harley roaring up to the garage, Lilli had Gertie tied off in the middle of the barn and was brushing her while Badger installed the new feed buckets in the stalls. Flash and Ebbie were grazing in the paddock. They needed more room to run, but Lilli didn’t yet have confidence she’d be able to get them to come back to her if she turned them out in the big pasture. Isaac called them in with a loud whistle, his thumb and forefinger in the corners of his mouth. Lilli couldn’t whistle at all.

Isaac came into the barn door, pulling his shades off and hooking them in the pocket of his kutte. “Hey, baby. Looks like you were busy today.” He put a gloved hand on Gertie’s nose and hooked a finger through Lilli’s belt loop, drawing her close for a kiss.

Lilli’s day had been stressful—the heartbreaking talk with Show; signing off on the property purchase, which meant dealing with Mac Evans and his unsettling way of looking at her; and one last impulse call she’d made that had stirred a lot of old sadness up. She’d needed Isaac. She hadn’t realized how much until his mouth was on hers. She dropped the brush and turned into him, wrapping her arms around him and opening her mouth to take his tongue. Gertie nickered and nibbled at her arm.

Isaac kissed her back, hard and deep, and then pulled away to look down into her eyes. “You okay, Sport?”

She nodded. “Missed you.” He pulled her closer, and her body throbbed and grew wet.

As if he’d caught the scent of her arousal, his eyes flared and, without moving his gaze from her, he called out, “Badge! Hit the road. LaVonne is waiting for you in the Hall.”

From the corner of her vision, Lilli could see Badge’s head pop up over the front wall of Ebbie’s stall. “LaVonne? Really? I—um—need to finish installing this, though.”

Isaac grinned down at Lilli, then turned to Badge. “I got it. You go on. Don’t keep her waiting, and don’t make her sorry. You make her sorry, you make me sorry. Then I make you sorry. Catch me?”

Lilli looked over to see Badge’s grinning, moony face. LaVonne was apparently a big deal. Badge came through the stall door so quickly Gertie started a little and then huffed at him, irritated. “Thanks, boss! Nobody’ll be sorry, I promise. See you tomorrow, Lilli!” And he was gone.

They watched him go, then turned back to each other. “Sounds like LaVonne is a helluva reward.”

Isaac winked. “She can, as we say, suck the chrome off a tailpipe.”

“And you know this personally?” She knew the answer; she just wanted him to squirm a little.

But he didn’t. He shrugged, still grinning. “I have a past. You jealous?”

“Nah. But I might have to do some sucking myself, make sure you appreciate me.”

He set her back and untied Gertie. “That’s no way to make a baby. So first, I’m gonna fuck you screaming right here in this barn. Later, you can suck whatever you want.” He led Gertie into the paddock. Lilli used those couple of minutes wisely, and when he came back, she was naked. It was pretty damn chilly on this late-autumn evening, but she knew he’d warm her up right quick.

He stopped dead inside the paddock door. “Jesus Christ, woman. I love you.”

~oOo~

Much later that night, after a brilliant barn fuck—if she wasn’t already pregnant it damn sure wasn’t for lack of trying—chores, dinner, and another multifaceted round in their bed, Lilli lay on Isaac’s chest, running her fingers through the happy trail of hair down the muscled ridges of his belly. Isaac kissed the top of her head. “Thank you for what you did for Will’s wife and for the town. For us. I know it was hard.”

“I know it’s the right thing. I’m glad we have the horses. We’ll have to figure out what to do with the property, but not till all this crap is settled down. As long as Ellis is gunning for it, we should let it sit.”

“I’ll keep you safe, Sport. I won’t let him hurt you. I swear it.”

She sighed. She didn’t want to fight him, but he knew as well as she did that a vow like that was pointless. If Ellis wanted to get to her—and he would—then he would get to her. She had to be ready to fight back. And hope that they were able to get to him first.

Deciding that he needed to let her know he wanted her safe more than she needed to remind him yet again that he couldn’t keep her safe, she changed the subject. “I did something today that feels kind of scary.”

He shifted under her, shrugging his shoulder so that she’d lift her head and meet his eyes. “You okay?,” he asked.

“Yeah. Not scary like that. I called my dad’s lawyer back after all the real estate stuff was done and asked him to clear out my storage locker and ship everything here. It’s mostly books, and a few boxes of heirlooms from my Nonnie and my dad.”

Isaac grinned widely. “Lilli, that’s great. That’s awesome. Why is it scary?”

She wasn’t sure how to explain it, but it had been eating at her vaguely all evening. “I don’t know. I think maybe it’s because it means I’m really settled. I mean—I don’t mean that I don’t want to be here with you. I do, so much. And I know I’ve been struggling because I wasn’t feeling like I had a place here. I do now, and that’s why I wanted my stuff. But…it’s weird. My whole past is in those boxes, and I haven’t seen any of that for more than a decade. All this time, my most permanent address has been that storage locker. It feels weird to give it up. And it feels weird that it feels weird.” She laughed. “It’s all very weird.”

He hugged her close, tucking her head under his chin. “I get it, Sport. I do. It’s a big change. But it tells me only good things. In some ways, to me, it’s even bigger than you being ready for a baby. You’re moving in. Now you’re moving in.”

They were quiet for long minutes after that. Lilli started to doze, snug in Isaac’s arms. Then his voice rumbled up against her ear. “I want to give you my ink.”

She understood what that meant. It didn’t surprise her; they were already planning to be married. She’d figured it would probably be something that happened at around the same time. But she knew that, to a man like Isaac, ink was the bigger deal. That was the lifetime commitment. She wondered if Holly had Show’s ink.

“Take my ink, baby. Don’t make me wait for that. Take it now. Please.”

When she realized that there wasn’t even a decision to be made, something deep inside her calmed, and she knew that she was already settled, truly home. “I will.”

He rolled, laying her under him, and kissed her deeply. When she felt his cock lengthen and harden again on her thigh, she knew the night was not yet over.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Isaac sat up against the headboard and watched Lilli sleep. The morning was getting ripe—almost ten o’clock. She almost never slept this late, so she obviously needed the rest. He hated to wake her, but it was getting late, and he would need to get moving soon. More than waking her, he hated to leave without letting her know.

She’d had a rough night, waking three separate times in the clutches of her nightmare. He wished he knew a way to keep her safe from her dreaming. But he didn’t know a way to keep her safe from anything.

Ellis had yet to make another move. Liza Keller had bought them some time by demanding of Ellis’s associates—and, surprisingly, getting—time to bury her husband before she dealt with his offer. By the time she did, the sale to Lilli was inked. Now, they had Liza and her family fully under the protection of the Scorpions in Florida, and, in Signal Bend, they were doing what they could to suppress the information about the sale. But that was borrowed time. When Ellis found out who the new owner was, he’d come for Lilli. The Horde needed to get to him first.

They’d been working Marissa Halyard for almost two weeks. They’d started easy. Victor had held off a vote for his patch by feeding her fake intel. It was his idea, and it was a risk, since they’d had no idea if he could pass off the fake stuff as real, but she’d bitten. They had confirmation now that she was the leak, and the intel they’d fed her had cleared a good path for Bart and Rick right to her father’s door. Now it was time to use her in a different way. Make her daddy sweat, get him to open Ellis’s door so they could walk through it.

It was a helluva thing for Isaac to wake up, curled close with his woman, his first thought love and concern for her, and his second thought the realization that he would spend the day torturing a twenty-three-year-old girl. His life was chaos.