Daddy's Boy (2 page)

 Heavy thuds sounded from the stairs as Rocco thumped his English Bulldog self up them, grunting the whole way.

Ignoring my crazy dog I laid down on my bed pulling Lucca across my chest. Nuzzling his little baby head I sighed deeply, wishing Denny was lying with us and wondering how the hell everything had gone so wrong.

One year two months and three weeks earlier…

It had been one week since I left Denny asleep in his bed after some incredible sex that should have never happened. I was not that girl, never in my life had I gone home with a guy after just meeting him. Some girls did it, and that was fine for them, but it just wasn’t me. First of all it was kind of a slut move and second, it was freaking dangerous. It was the first reason for my disappearing act before he woke. I honesty really liked Denny, and I couldn’t stand to see him look at me like the slut I had acted. All week I had battled with ‘the what if’s’. What if I had stayed all night, would Denny have asked to see me again? It was Saturday; maybe if I’d stayed we could be having our second date tonight. No, Rachel that is just wishful thinking Denny would have shown you the door the minute the rising sun announced morning.

Groaning I rolled over, getting a growl from Rocco for disturbing his beauty sleep as a knock sounded at the front door. Rocco gave another growl but didn’t move a muscle, some guard dog his was. Dad had made me get a guard dog when I moved out of the college dorms after graduation last year, saying it wasn’t safe for a then twenty-two year old to be on her own. For some crazy reason, I picked Rocco, who am I kidding, it wasn’t crazy, Rocco was the meanest looking dog at the animal shelter. It was that mean look that had no one wanting to re-home him. If only they would have spent a couple of minutes with him instead of passing him by, they would have seen that inside he was the sweetest dog in the world. Funny how I didn’t want people looking at Rocco and thinking he was bad just because he looked like a mean fucker. But one week ago I’d looked at Denny’s tattoos and piercings after he’d fallen asleep and knew that he was the bad boy of all bad boys. There was nothing but trouble in Denny Garcia’s eyes. But what if I’d judged too fast? What if he was just like Rocco, mean on the outside but good on the inside? Whatever he was it didn’t matter now.

Bending down I kissed Rocco and walked out of the room and down the stairs towards the repeated knocking knowing that it would be one of two people, Dad or Jace.

Without looking through the window−not smart or safe−I opened the door to Liz, Jace’s girlfriend.

“Hey Liz.” I said awkwardly feeling uneasy because it was no secret that Liz wasn’t my biggest fan, and never in the three years that she’d been with Jace had she come to see me without him.

Giving me a tight smile she made no move to come into the house. “Hey...uh is Jace here?”

“No.” I said shaking my head. Looking at Liz I noticed how white her face was. I felt my stomach knotting and cold fear washing over my skin. “Liz, what’s wrong?”

Biting her lip Liz looked at the ground. “It’s Jace. He said he had some business to do at Club Risk last night. He never came home.”

Frowning I shook my head not understanding what business Jace could have at a club. Unless he found out about me sleeping with Denny, Lord knows Denny wouldn’t be the first guy Jace paid a visit to. No, it couldn’t be that, I hadn’t told anyone about Denny. “What business Liz?”

Looking like she was seconds from crying she dropped her head into her shaking hands. “Promise you won’t tell your Dad?” She whispered through tears clogging her throat.

Ah hell, nothing that started with promise you won’t tell so and so ever ended good.

Sighing I nodded my head. “I won’t tell him anything.” I promised.

“Jace went to see a guy named J at Club Risk about buying drugs.”

Oh holy hell.

“Why the hell would he want to buy drugs?”

“Why do you think Rachel?” She said giving me the ‘duh’ face.

My brother’s doing drugs, I thought, wanting to throw up, and maybe slap Liz until I could get my hands on Jace. God help that little shit when I got a hold of him I was going to beat the hell out of him.

“I’m worried about him Rachel.” Liz whispered causing my anger to slip and fear for my brother to take root.

Searching for a missing person was not my strong area. Dad would know what to do but I promised Liz I wouldn’t tell him. Damn I should know better than to promise someone something before I knew what I was promising about. Ok plan, if I couldn’t find Jace by the end of the day, I would call Dad.

Stepping away from the door, wanting to hurry now that I had a plan, I pointed to Liz. “I need you to go home and call everyone you and Jace know to see if anyone has seen him. I’m going to go search for him. If you hear anything, call me.”

Without another word, Liz left to go make calls, and I hurried to get dressed, dreading the place I was going to go to first. I had no idea who J was, but I knew someone that might know. The question was would he help me after I left him alone in his bed?

****

After knocking on the door and waiting only a couple of seconds, the door flung open and a very pissed off man glared at me. If it wasn’t for the pissed off look on his face, I would have probably taken a step closer because the man looked amazing. Golden blonde hair fell into his unusually green and yellow eyes and all the piercings and tattoos, which looked dangerous on Denny, looked welcoming on him.

Clearing my throat and praying my face wasn’t as red as I feared it was, I spoke softly to the man, “I’m looking for Denny, is he here?”

The man’s green and yellow eyes ran over my body taking in my blue jeans and black turtle neck before finally stopping on my face, which was being covered by the wind whipping my blonde hair all over the place. I let out the breath I’d been holding because the guy didn’t look like he was going to slam the door in my face anymore. I immediately regretted it when I saw the tip of a gun behind the man’s back as he turned and yelled for Denny.

My father being a cop meant guns around the house was nothing unusual, but answering the front door with a gun in the middle of the morning was kind of weird and a little suspicious.

“He’s at the club.” I heard Denny yell.

The gun forgotten I glared at the man standing in the door as the pissed off look turned into a big old smirk.

“I’m pretty sure she heard that brother.” The man said laughter clear in his voice.

Glad I could be a mood picker upper for the guy, but he had about five more seconds before the bitch inside me broke loose.

“I’ll let you know when I care.” Denny yelled back again.

Oh yeah that brought the bitch out.

“Denny Garcia get your ass out here!” I screamed causing the man in front of me to lose the smirk pretty damn fast.

“Rachel.” Denny whispered walking up behind the guy who was back to being pissed off.

The guy looked between Denny and I then without a word turned and walked away.

“I’m sorry I walked out of you last Saturday, but seeing how you were being the World’s biggest asshole a minute ago, I figure we’re even. So I’m sorry again, but I really need your help.” I blurted out in a rush.

Denny stared at me for several minutes with every kind of emotion a person could have flashing across his face before he settled on a blank expression. Stepping aside, Denny motioned for me to come in.

I followed Denny into the kitchen, where he leaned his hip into the counter and folded his muscular arms across his chest. I felt the breath catch in my throat as I got my first real look at Denny in the light. Last Saturday Denny had been extremely sexy in a black suit, but now in the light of day dressed in blue jeans falling off his narrow hips, a black t-shirt clinging to big toned muscles, unruly dark black hair curling at the tips and dark blue eyes that were so dark they were one shade away from being black had me realizing just how beautiful Denny truly was.

Not just beautiful, dangerously beautiful.

“What do you need my help with Rachel?” Denny asked making me realize that my mouth was hanging open.

Shaking it off I looked Denny in the eye. “My brother Jace went to see a guy named J at your club about buying drugs.” Denny’s body stiffened, and anger flashed across his face. In a split second Denny went from being dangerously beautiful to downright terrifying, causing me to finish my sentence in a shaky rush, “I was wondering if you knew someone called J?”

“Jonah!” Denny screamed causing me to jump about ten feet in the air.

The pissed off guy, who’s name I guess was Jonah, appeared in the kitchen door within seconds.

“What’s wrong?” He said staring at Denny, worry clear on his stunning face.

 “Rachel’s brother went to Risk last night to see someone named J about buying drugs.” Denny hissed through clenched teeth.

Jonah’s face went impressively blank giving nothing away, so if he knew the guy or not I had no idea.

“What’s his name?” Jonah asked calmly looking between Denny and me.

“His name is Jace, but look he never came home last night after meeting with this J guy so if you know him can you tell me so I can go see him.”

Denny and Jonah stared at each other nodding and shaking their heads, but not speaking a word out loud.

Cussing under his breath Denny smacked the counter. “Give me your cell number and address then go home and wait for me to call.”

“Excuse me?”

“Go home so Jonah and I can go find your stupid brother.”

Yes he was stupid for buying freaking drugs, but only I got to call him stupid.

Squaring my shoulders and standing to my full height I stared Denny straight in the eyes. “If you don’t want to help me Denny just tell me to get lost, and I will find this J guy on my own.”

Stepping into my space Denny pointed towards his front door. “Go home, I said I would find your brother so that is what I’m going to fucking do.”

“You obviously don’t want to help so why bother?” I snapped pushing into his space. If he thought he was going to intimidate me with his big body, he had another thing coming.

“This isn’t worth another lay.” Denny mumbled pushing a hand through his dark curls.

He did not just say that.

“You think by helping me you’re going to get laid?” Shaking my head I laughed out loud. “Once was enough thanks.” Lie, lie, lie. I wanted Denny right here right now. Who knew arguing could be such a turn on.

“Fine, leave.” Denny snarled.

“Fine.” I yelled.

Before I could turn to leave Denny grabbed the back of my neck and slammed our mouths together.

Ripping his clothes away and having hot messy sex on the kitchen floor was so close I could taste it.

“Ah fuck no.” Jonah yelled. “Are you two going to get it on like rabbits or are we going to find her fucking brother?”

His words were ice-cold water on my sex drive. Pulling apart I wanted to die, I could not believe Jonah had been witness to Denny and I going at it like horny teenagers.

Taking a deep breath Denny stepped away from me slowly. “We should go find your brother.”

“Yes.” Was all I could say.

“Number, address?” Jonah snapped.

Yes, number, address. Quickly writing both down on a piece of paper Jonah shoved at me, I mumbled thanks and ran from the house without looking at either of them.

Once in my car I slammed my head down on to my steering wheel. What the fuck was that? Sexy as all hell? Yes. Out of control? Yes. So, so bad? Oh hell yes. I was the World’s worst sister. My brother was missing after going to buy drugs from a random guy and here I was thinking about nothing but sex and Denny. Hell here I come.

Starting the car I drove home.

Once home I’d cooled down enough to think. I’d give Denny and Jonah the day to find J which would hopefully lead to them finding Jace. If they didn’t find either, I’d call Dad.

****

I waited until Rachel’s car was out of site before I turned and ran back into the house.

“Talk.” I said pointing to a frowning Jonah.

“Me talk? How about you talk. What the fuck was that?”

“That could have been some hot floor sex but no you had to fucking talk.”

“Arguing with her turned you on?” Jonah asked disbelief all over his face.

Fuck yeah. “I’ve never felt so turned on in my life. Which is why you need to tell me what the hell you were doing calling her brother in, so I can find this little prick then go have floor sex.”

Rolling his eyes Jonah started talking. “Vinnie sent Kay to collect money for him a couple of weeks ago. When Kay got there he found one of Adam’s runners also collecting money.”

“Jace was buying from Adam and Vinnie?” I asked wondering how stupid Rachel’s brother was. Buying from two rival drug businesses was asking for all kinds of trouble.

“That’s what Kay thought. He did a little digging found out Jace is a dealer for Adam.” Oh fuck that was worse. “Which is why I had Kay tell Jace I wanted to see him at Risk last night. He comes to see me, I keep it to myself and don’t tell Adam he is buying from Vinnie, but the little shit never showed.”

Goddamnit that was not good. Did someone else find out Jace was working for Adam and buying from Vinnie? If so Jace was either very hurt or very dead. Something I did not want to have to tell Rachel. Which was odd because I didn’t care about anyone but Jonah and Mason. So why the hell did I care what happened to some chick’s brother? Because bad news would mean no sex. Yeah that’s all it was. Bad news no sex.

“What you thinking so hard about Denny? It looks like your head is about to explode.” Jonah said pulling me from my mental freak out.

Rubbing a hand over my face I shook my head. “Why the fuck do I care what happens to her brother?”

Chuckling Jonah gave me a rare smile. “Because you’re not Vinnie. You try to be like him but you’re not.”

“I’m an asshole Jonah, end of story.”

 “You think you are but you’re not. You care Denny and I’ll put my car on it that you really like this girl.”