Billionaire Ransom (4 page)

“One of our foster sisters. She died last year, but Craig and I stayed close with her up until then. Craig kept the house. He couldn’t let it go. I knew if he took you anywhere other than his place, it would be here. He keeps the power on and water running.”

Katie looked around at the place. “He was in love with her, wasn’t he?”

“Yes,” Morgan said and sighed, sounding like a lost boy. “When she died, he kind of went off the rails.”

Katie started to clean up the splattered food and scattered dishes.

Morgan reached for her. “What the hell are you doing?”

There was a huge lump in her throat and she wasn’t sure she could speak past it, but eventually she did. “I’m cleaning up. Morgan, he did this because…because…”

“I know why he did it.” His voice was inflexible. “I even have a suspicion that Lisa dying like she did is what really caused him to do a lot of the stupid things he’s done lately. But that’s no excuse.”

She wanted to hate Craig, but all she felt was pity. Morgan might have been able to help him sooner. He could have saved Craig from losing himself. “How did she die?”

Morgan sighed and took the plate from her and set it on the table. “We…we were foster kids. Not all foster parents are nice people. We all landed in a house with a couple that was really abusive. Craig and I did our best to protect her; she was four years younger and very timid. Her parents had abandoned her, drugs, you know, and she was really fragile.” He sighed and shoved the chair up to the table, as if trying to shove the past away. “She got hurt. A lot. Craig stabbed our foster father one night when he heard Lisa crying in their bedroom. They put him in a youth detention center for six months, even though they knew the foster parents were abusive. Lisa and I went to a group home that was like a fresh page out of Hell. Craig was shipped there too, after juvie. We all swore we’d take care of each other. We did. Lisa…she never really recovered. I always thought if she could have, maybe Craig could have settled down. But she…she…some people get lost, Katie, and they never find their way again. She never did. Craig pretty much supported her, even though she was always running from guy to guy and spending all the money she made in the clubs, she was a dancer, to get high. Craig just never gave up on her.”

“She overdosed?” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them

Morgan nodded. Her heart squeezed painfully. “And this was her house,” he whispered.

Katie nodded, letting Morgan speak through his loss.

“Craig had it cleaned up. It was a mess. She was a mess, but he couldn’t stop loving her. I used to wish he would, just so he could move on. I don’t think he ever will now.”

They stood in the room, awkwardly. Her life had been hard, but she had nothing on his.

She shivered as a cool wind swept through the open door. “What did he mean, you had to choose between me and the crew?”

“I don’t know.”

She was looking at his face as he spoke, and she saw the walls go up. He was lying, and she knew it. He knew exactly what Craig was talking about, and he either didn’t trust her enough to tell her or he didn’t want to.

Either way, it hurt.

Morgan had a very good idea what Craig had meant, but the last thing he wanted to do after such a crazy day was tell Katie.

The DEA were hunting his club down, probably planning on knocking them off one by one, a lot of busts were likely going to happen, and there was still the larger problem that at any minute they might have the slaughter of that ragged crew pinned on them.

If Craig was really as pissed off as he seemed to be, he might even be willing to help pin those murders on the Orphans.

It was unthinkable, but Morgan had to face reality.

Craig had gone off the rails, and it was possible he was so pissed about being ousted that he was willing to sell his entire crew—former crew he reminded himself, up the river just to get revenge.

He knew Lisa’s death had unhinged his brother. He also knew he had given Craig way too many passes for that behavior after Lisa died.

Morgan was also angry at himself for not trying to reach out more, for not trying to make Craig wake up and see that Lisa had let the damage done in her childhood stretch into her adult life. He’d wanted to tell Craig a thousand times to forget about her, to walk away, but he’d known how deep Craig’s love for her ran. He hadn’t been able to break from that promise he’d made to her or Craig, to always stick together, to stand up for each other, long enough to bring a heavy dose of truth to Craig when it came to Lisa.

And Craig had needed to hear the truth. Just like he had needed to know that she had overdosed on purpose. That her death hadn’t been murder as Craig had thought. Morgan had determined that the man who’d sold her the dope, and who’d slept with her when she was short of cash, had not given her the stuff to kill her. It wasn’t dirty dope, and it wasn’t straight dope designed to kill Lisa either.

Lisa had chosen to not fight to live anymore. Her spirit was broken. It had been hard to keep Craig from killing the dope dealer, but Morgan had managed to stop him. Just barely. He had arrived in time to keep Craig from shooting the dealer with a needle full of almost pure heroin, which would have killed anyone, but not in time to keep him from beating the man almost to death.

There had been a war after that, one between the Orphans and the street gang the dealer belonged to. When it all got sorted out, there was still plenty of bad blood on both sides, but they’d managed to call a truce and get back to business eventually.

Exiling Craig hadn’t been an option then. Every man in the crew knew what had him so rattled. They had forgiven him. They licked their wounds, mourned over the loss of cash and other things, and stood behind their brother.

Except Craig hadn’t stopped there. He had been waging his own private war ever since, and at some point he had started waging it against his own brothers.

And Morgan knew why, even if nobody else did.

Craig was angry with Morgan, and it had nothing to do with him feeling like he wasn’t getting his fair share of glory or goods. He’d been furious with Morgan ever since Morgan had stopped him from killing that dealer.

The truth had broken Craig: Lisa had vanished years before she had actually died. He just didn’t want to admit it. He’d believed he could save her.

Morgan sighed. It tore him apart inside to try and fix things. Long ago he had figured out some people couldn’t be fixed.

Lisa was one of them.

She’d turned into just another drug-addled stripper, and when that didn’t pay enough, she started hooking on the corners and at clubs. She started off in the nicer clubs, making good money, and then as her drug use continued and her looks started fading, she had spiraled straight down, moving to lower-class establishments, and then to the streets when she didn’t make enough at the clubs.

She’d sold her body. She’d sold every gift Craig gave her, and he gave her a lot. While he ate his heart out, hoping she’d change and see him as more than just a big brother, she just used him as an easy mark to get what she needed from him. He would never say no to her, even when Lisa was busy hooking up with dealers and men who were as damaged and addicted as she was.

She broke Craig’s heart so often Morgan was sure at some point Craig would have no choice but to recognize what was happening and leave her alone.

But he never did.

Not even after she killed herself.

Then it tore Morgan apart when he had to be the one to bring the truth to Craig again – a truth Craig had never wanted to know.

Lisa had never loved him. She’d used him; hell, she’d used both of them.  And she’d played them both. After Morgan had stopped falling for her hard luck stories and pleas for help, she had cursed him for his turning his back on her and focused all of her wiles on Craig. Craig, who had loved her since he was twelve, and who still loved her even though he was a much older man who’d seen enough of the world and its inhabitants to know better than to fall for someone like her.

That was the real issue between him and Craig, and he knew it. He just didn’t know how the hell to fix it.

Morgan climbed on his bike and helped Katie on behind him. He clipped on her helmet and pulled her tight against him. She curled around his back and hung on for dear life, closing her eyes for the entire ride back to his place. When he pulled up to his house and parked the bike, he scooped her into his arms and carried her into the house.

She didn’t protest when he insisted she go straight to bed, and carried her there. She was eager to get into bed with Morgan; that desire she’d felt earlier had only intensified as she’d ridden behind him, her body pressed against his strong back, lean hips, firm buttocks, and the flapping leather jacket he wore.

But as she staggered to the bedroom, her desire faded. She felt battered and bruised, worn down and fragile. She stripped down and crawled into bed, and Morgan crawled in next to her, cuddling her close to his naked body and holding her tightly.

The masculine scent of his body filled her nose and she sighed happily. His fingers lightly wandered across her skin and the tension slowly eased. Tears slid out of her eyes, and he kissed her face gently then used the ball of his thumb to wipe away her tears.

“It’s okay,” he said softly. “It’s okay; you’re safe.”

“I’m safe with you, Morgan.” She snuggled closer. “It’s not that.”

“What is it then?” His eyes bore into hers, demanding the truth.

She sighed. “I’m…I don’t know. I just feel like everything shifted so fast. I mean, we barely know each other, but I know I want to be with you. You’re like my knight in shining armor, again and again. It’s amazing and terrifying at the same time.” He had saved her once again, but another part of her brain tried to reason that all the troubles started when she met him. “I have no idea what comes next either.” Her voice dropped to a whisper, “There can’t be worse, can there?”

His mouth met hers. Slow heat erupted along her nerve endings. His hands stroked her bare skin, bringing back desire. Her leg moved up along his waist, wanting more of him.

He entered her slowly, both of them still on their sides, facing each other. Katie’s tongue met his and they kissed as he withdrew and slowly thrust into her again, his hips moving with an easy but powerful rhythm.

A slow climax built and washed through her, shaking all her fears away for the moment. Her fingers clutched at his shoulders, and her soft cry shattered the stillness that had fallen between them.

He moaned, a low and guttural sound, and then his body went rigid as he reached a climax of his own. They lay there, still joined and not speaking. A wave of nearly unbearable tenderness swept through Katie as he laid light kisses along her collarbone and then her breasts.

He rolled over, withdrawing, and curling her into the hollows of his body. Her heartbeat slowly went back to normal.

Morgan buried his face in her hair and said, “Katie, I’m so sorry I wasn’t here for you.”

She tried to turn but he held her tight against him. She reached behind her and wrapped her arm around his waist as best she could. “Don’t be sorry! You had no way of knowing what Craig had planned. Plus, you can’t watch over me like a guard twenty-four-seven. It’s impossible.” She sighed as she thought about Craig, feeling more sorry than angry. “Do you think he’s going to do something to hurt the crew? I mean, he said—”

He rolled her over, his lips stopping her words. She kissed him back as if they hadn’t just had sex. Desire to taste him distracted her thoughts. When the kiss broke off, she yawned widely and giggled.

“I vote we get some sleep. It’s been a long day. We’ll figure out the rest of it tomorrow.”

“That sounds good to me.” Her fingers ran up and down his chest, enjoying the satiny texture of his skin, and the hardness of the muscles below that flesh.

He yawned against her.

She smiled and snuggled closer. It had been a hard day, and it had been a long one but they were together, and safe, and that was all that mattered. They lay together for quite a few moments, their breathing steady and even. Katie knew Morgan wasn’t asleep yet and she couldn’t find a way to relax, her mind playing back the events of the day. “Want to know what I was thinking?” she asked quietly.

“What?” he murmured

“I was thinking that we’re both orphans in a way, aren’t we?”

He shifted and nestled his mouth by her ear. “Yeah, maybe so. It was bad, wasn’t it? Your childhood, I mean. I know you told me part of it, but I can guess the rest was just as awful.”

“I don’t know about awful.” She thought about his childhood with Craig and Lisa, and shuddered. “It was cold and lonely, mostly. It was…I was always striving for perfection, and when I didn’t get it I was always afraid I would be told it was because I wasn’t good enough. Actually, that always happened.”

Morgan said, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She snuggled closer, letting her limbs tangle with his. The comfort of his body made her feel immensely better. “We’re two lost souls finding our way.”

“I always figured it was my parents’ loss, not mine.”

She shifted so she could look at his face. “What do you mean?’

He shrugged. “Well, they didn’t want me. They didn’t even know me, but they knew they didn’t want me. I always figured that was their loss, because I grew up anyway, and I’m here anyway. And they’re missing out on someone who turned out pretty okay, for the most part. But what am I missing out on with them? Nothing but two people who couldn’t get their shit together and who didn’t have it in them to love me. Their loss, not mine.”

“That’s a really good way to look at it.” He wasn’t a lost soul. He had his shit pretty much together.

“I learned to look at it that way.” He inhaled, as if hesitating over what he wanted to say next. “And you should, too, Katie. Your parents…I know about your dad, but what about your mom? You never talk about her.”

She closed her eyes. The touch of his skin against hers was reassuring and sexy all at the same time, a heady combination. She could smell the scent of his cologne and the slight tang of sweat that lay on his skin. She inhaled those unique aromas and then whispered, “I don’t talk about her because there’s really nothing to tell.” The pain of her mother hurt too much.

He stroked a hand along the length of her hair. “Really?”

She said, “Yes, really. She didn’t want another child, but my father did so he hired a surrogate. She had me. Mom never accepted me. Go figure. I can’t imagine why he would have thought she would.” She sighed, years of frustration and never having someone she trusted enough to share her turmoil with seeming to escape like a crack in a dam. She couldn’t stop telling Morgan how shitty it had been, nor did she want to. “I also can’t imagine why he even bothered having her complete the pregnancy when he found out I was a girl. He didn’t want a damn girl. He had his male-can-only-carry-the-balls belief. You know, it’s entirely possible to fertilize an egg and create your favored gender? Maybe he didn’t know. Or maybe he thought a girl would be the best choice because nobody, no boy or girl, would ever measure up to Charlie. A girl would be easier to show she hadn’t measured up to self-made-billionaire Blake Wilkes’ standards.”

His hand found hers and held it.

She smiled. “Mom’s a ghost in my life, that’s why I don’t talk about her. She wasn’t there, and because she wasn’t there, I never learned to love or even care for her. Maybe even when I was a little kid I sensed I hadn’t really come from her. I mean, biologically, yes, it was her egg. But I wasn’t really a part of her.”

“What about the surrogate? Did you ever talk to her?”

“Oh, yes, all the time; she was our housekeeper.”

Morgan stuttered out a few sounds then said, “Wow.”

“Right? But before you go thinking she was one of those crazy, secretly watching out for her kid women like the spurned housekeepers in a Gothic novel, she took the whole thing as a business transaction, and she never felt I was hers either. She considered it just part of her job. She carried me, but she didn’t mother me.”

“I’m so sorry. That sounds like a really terribly lonely way to grow up.” He sighed and pulled her tight against him. “You need to love harder than any pain you’ve ever felt.”

And ping!
The little cherub angel of love had hit her right between the eyes.

Morgan’s fingers reached for hers and he covered her hand with his. “I seriously believe that. It’ll take away the shit from the past and let you focus on moving forward.” He rose up on his elbow, and leaned over and kissed her softly on the mouth. “I believe I could do that with you.” He smiled, a cocky, sexy smile lit by the moonlight. It took Katie’s breath away. “Now, back to your shit story. I wanna hear it was as bad as mine, despite the millions of dollars you got to roll in every day.” He winked and lay back down on the pillow.

She couldn’t say anything at first. His piercing words and admitting he could love her hard enough to erase the past shocked her. He was a tough, alpha bad-boy biker. Not a poet. Then, in the next heartbeat, he could make her ready to beg for sex, and then in the next beat, make her laugh. She inhaled, trying to think of a good joke about growing up with money, but when she couldn’t come up with one, she just continued her story, “I didn’t just have one hundred dollar bills as my best friends. I had real school friends eventually. Some were friends because of my name, but some were real, true friends. I learned to rely on myself. I mean, everyone has a bad childhood to some degree, I think. It’s what we do after we’re grown that defines us.”

“True.” He sighed, “I wish Lisa had learned that.”

She hated the pain in his voice. He thought she could take it away, but, in reality, Katie didn’t have the power to do so. “You feel guilty, don’t you?”

“In a way,” he admitted. “How could I not feel guilty? Feel responsible? We did grow up together, for the most part. She’d get yanked out of the group home and sent into foster situations, but she always came back. Craig and I got separated here and there, too, but by the time he and I were fifteen and she was eleven, we were pretty much marked off as far as adoption or finding a permanent situation. I was barely surviving on my own; watching Craig’s back and Lisa’s sometimes felt overwhelming.”

“I can’t imagine what that was like.”

Morgan frowned, and shifted so they were facing each other, but he wouldn’t meet her gaze. She wondered if she had pushed at something she shouldn’t have, but he said, “You know, the worst thing about being in the foster system isn’t what you think.”

“What is it then?”

“It’s the fucking adoption fairs. They weren’t so bad when you’ve done them a few times. See older kids, like eight and up, already know they’re not going to get picked. Craig and I knew it, and somewhere along the line we started taking the fairs for what they really meant to us.”

Her hand stroked along his broad chest, her nails scraping his skin lightly. “And what was that?”

“Free cake and hot dogs,” Morgan laughed. “Well, nothing’s ever really free, but it was free enough.”

She peered into his face, wishing he would look at her. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you mean.”

“You see, the fairs brought in all these couples.” He stared up the ceiling, tracing along the edge where it met the wall. “Have you ever been at the animal shelter? You know how people walk along the cages and pretty much decide right away what dog they want, but they feel like they have to give all the mutts a chance, so they pet them or play with them or whatever?”

“Yes.” She didn’t like the feeling in her gut. It was worse than when Craig had shown up this morning.

“That’s what the fairs were like. Those people would come in and they’d look around, and they’d pretty much decide then and there which kid they really wanted, and which they didn’t. But they always had to give every kid a shot, just to ease the guilt about their decision to leave the others.” He shrugged and dropped his eyes to her, staring at her with a hard look on his face. “Craig and I figured it out early. We took it for what it was: A chance to run and play without people getting all pissed at us, and a chance to eat cake or cookies, and drink soda or lemonade or whatever. We had to do the little good-dog trot for the people, smile and say hello and act polite, but that was the price, and we were okay with.”

A tear escaped from the corner of Katie’s eye.

“I’m not worth those tears.” Morgan swiped it away in almost an angry motion. “But Lisa, she never understood. She’d always get herself all dolled up and as soon as the people started coming in she’d run at them, eager as hell to make a good impression. To find her family. She never got that she was already too old, or that she was too eager, or that the people who smiled at her might not want her.” Morgan rolled onto his back. “She always hated the kids who got their adoption papers that day, and she would blame herself instead of seeing that it had nothing to do with her—it was never about her.” His voice dropped to a frustrated whisper. “It was just about
them
, the people who came to pick up a kid, like people go to a shelter to pick up a mutt. It broke her heart every single time. I mean every time. It knocked her self-esteem, what little she had, down in the dirt every fucking time.”

Katie swallowed hard. “Sometimes life is so cruel.”

Morgan shrugged, like his moment of vulnerability had to be hidden behind his tough-guy façade. “That’s the system. Craig and I learned to work the system, but Lisa let the system work her. She never thought about what she would do when she turned eighteen and got the proverbial boot from the system. All she ever thought about was what would happen after she found her family.”