Dirty Little Lies: A Men of Summer Novel (36 page)
Read Dirty Little Lies: A Men of Summer Novel Online
Authors: Lora Leigh
He could have lost her.
Right there, in the Maddox foyer, to a threat he’d never imagined made it into the house, he could have lost her. And if he’d lost her …
He would have lost his soul.
“Paramedics are here.” Ben’s strangled voice was filled with relief. “Beau-Remi, get that fucking gator out of the drive or they won’t be able to get in. Good God. How the hell do you tame something like that?”
“Tame?” Beau-Remi rose to his feet and headed for the door. “You don’ tame da win’, jus’ sometime, da win’ follow you, eh?”
With that, he was out the door, yelling at the gator about boots and belts as Mad sat back on his heels and shook his head in amusement as the paramedics rushed in.
“Zack, my friend,” he drawled. “He’ll make your life hell.”
Zack ignored him.
Nothing mattered but Grace.
Just Grace. And making certain he revealed the secret he’d been keeping for far too long.
She was his life. His heart and soul.
He was finished lying to himself and to her.
He loved her.…
Three Weeks Later
Painwise, Grace proclaimed, broken ribs and bruised ribs couldn’t be a whole lot different. She knew for a fact her bruised ribs hurt bad enough to convince her they were broken. Bad enough that they’d stolen her breath when they weren’t making breathing excruciating.
After that, all it had taken was the suggestion something was broken. Something broken was worse than something bleeding out, as far as Grace was concerned. She could handle losing a little blood as long as she didn’t look at the blood. But something broken inside her was another story entirely.
Lying in the bed three days later as evening began to soften the fierce glare of the sun over the mountains, Grace stared up at the ceiling, hearing … no voices, raised or whispered. No conversation buzzing from downstairs or bursts of laughter.
No irritated bellows of a reptile easily longer than Zack was tall.
Just normal quiet.
Next to her, Zack laid on his stomach, fully dressed, boots still on, his head buried beneath the pillow, where it had been for the past five minutes. And he was holding that pillow over his head with a death grip. His fingers were actually pale with the strength of the hold he had on that pillow.
“Zack? Is everyone gone now?” She tried to keep the amusement out of her voice.
After three days of dealing with her family as well as his, Grace had been certain the house would never be quiet again. Every guest bedroom was filled, every couch taken, and if she wasn’t mistaken, that had been Lobo and Calli she’d heard arguing the night before over who got which end of the couch in the front room.
They were arguing loud enough that Ben had actually stepped from the guest room next to the master and bellowed down at Lobo to park his ass in the van outside.
The 24-7 movement through the house had gotten the better of Zack the night before, though, when his uncle had knocked at the bedroom door and loudly informed him, “That damned Cajun’s pet is trying to eat the Rottweiler.”
Of course, it was Clyde’s Rottweiler’s, Magnus’s sire. Zack had yelled back that it sounded like a helluva midnight snack.
Then the dog had started barking, Grace snickered, and Zack groaned like a man tortured.
“Zack?” She said his name again, noticing his fingers tightening around the pillow. “You okay?”
He mumbled something.
“I didn’t quite make that out.” She grinned. “Come on, don’t make me laugh at you, it hurts.”
The pillow was jerked off his head, the narrow-eyed look he gave her one of suspicion. “You keep threatening to laugh at me, Grace,” he growled. “That’s not nice at all.”
She had to bite her lip to hold back a spurt of laughter.
“Laughing really hurts,” she assured him, unable to control the tug of amusement at her lips.
He shook his head at her, though the tug of an answering smile at the corners of his lips assured her he at least saw the humor in the situation.
“I know, baby.” He rolled to his side, his gray eyes watching her with the same quiet, steady look he’d been using since she awoke at the hospital after the Kevlar vest she’d worn under her shirt stopped the force of the bullet Thomas’s cousin had fired at her.
“It still hurts,” she assured him, but she couldn’t hold back her smile either, which kind of spoiled the effect.
“I love you, Grace.”
That whole punch-in-the-stomach, can’t-breathe thing slammed into her heart. The twinge of sensation had nothing to do with pain, though.
She hadn’t had any painkillers—Zack made certain no one had a chance to push any down her throat either—so she couldn’t blame drugs for the fact that she was hearing things.
She blinked back at him, licking her lips nervously. “Could you repeat what you just said?” she asked, tucking her hair behind one ear, more to find something to do with her hands than because it was in her way. “I don’t think I heard—.”
“I love you, Grace Maddox. I think I’ve loved you for as long as I’ve known you,” he stated. And he wasn’t laughing. He didn’t even look like he was joking.
She cleared her throat. “I was really young.”
“So was I,” he agreed somberly. “Grace, you’ve always been more important to me than you should have been at any given time,” he breathed out roughly. “I’ve never been able to stay the hell away from you, haven’t you noticed that? I love you. Heart and soul, Grace.”
He’d always been there.
The night her appendix ruptured, and he’d come to the hospital days later, when she called him. When she broke her arm, when she’d needed someone to stand for her, to hold her, to show her that she hadn’t really been alone in her life.
“Nothing to say?” he asked, brushing the hair from her cheek that escaped from behind her ear.
“I always loved you,” she whispered. “I never imagined…”
“What? That I could love you?” he asked, shaking his head. “You were like a princess in an ivory tower,” he sighed. “I was terrified to try to touch you, to do more than worship you from afar because to me, Grace, you were—you are—perfect. The rest of us are just mere mortals who wish we could be worthy of your attention.”
He’d said that once before. Nobody was perfect but her. She’d thought he was being mocking.
She denied the description, fighting back her tears. “No, I’m not perfect, Zack. But I am yours. I’ve always been yours.”
His head lowered, his lips brushing against hers, his gaze holding hers. “When you’re better, I’ll show you exactly how much I love you.”
“Well, be easy, I could handle a little now—” she began.
“Zack, dammit, where did you hide the propane?” Clyde barked from outside the closed door. “How am I supposed to grill steaks without gas for the grill?”
“Dammit, Dad, the garage!” Lobo yelled from downstairs. “Get down here and leave them alone. He wanted to take a nap.…”
Mena ordered her husband downstairs then, and Clyde stomped down like an irritated bull. All thumps.
“I thought they were gone?” Grace whispered, now understanding why Zack had held the pillow over his head for so long. “Can’t they stay in the RV?”
“I tried that last time they were in town,” he growled. “I had to buy a new RV.”
Oh yeah, she remembered Jesse saying something about “friends” trashing his RV a few years back.
“Are they ever going to leave?” she whispered, suddenly terrified they wouldn’t.
“I love you, Grace.” There was an air of desperation in his voice amid the comedy. “I love you so much.”
“You can’t kill family, Zack.” It wasn’t the first time she’d told him that in the past three days.
“I love you, Grace.…”
“I love you, Zack,” she promised. “But trust me, there’re laws against it.”
“Justifiable homicide,” he muttered at the sound of Clyde bellowing up the stairs again about steaks and seasoning. “Really justifiable.”
“Don’t kill him, Zack,” she giggled, then winced at the tug of pain in her ribs.
“Why shouldn’t I?” he growled.
She smiled. “Be nice, and when I’m all better, I’ll show you why you shouldn’t.”
He paused, interest flaring in his gaze. “Promise?”
“Absolutely.” She nodded. “Many, many times, I’ll make it worth your while.”
“Many times?”
“Many…”
His lips covered hers, the promise held between them, tempting them, teasing them.…
“Dammit, boy, she’s not well enough for that yet.” Clyde stood in the doorway, glaring at Zack. “Get your tail down here and help me.”
Grace caught at Zack’s hair, holding him in place as pure retribution flashed in his gray eyes.
“Many, many times,” she vowed without a hint of the laughter she could feel welling inside her. “In ways you could never imagine—”
“I love you, Grace,” he whispered again desperately.
“Now, boy, I ain’t getting any younger,” Clyde informed him. “But I’m sure as hell getting hungrier.”
The sound of Zack’s uncle stomping down the stairs moments later brought a wince to Zack’s face. “Don’t forget your promise,” he growled. “Ways I never imagined.”
“Ways you never imagined,” she promised again.
“I deserve sainthood,” Zack muttered, but he dragged himself from the bed and stomped in Clyde fashion to the door, where he turned and winked wickedly. “Remember, ways I never imagined.”
“I promise,” she assured him, happiness building inside her like a wave that refused to be held back.
“I love you, Grace,” he said again.
“And I love you, Zack.” She smiled back at him, that joy escaping. “Go feed Clyde, so we can get some sleep tonight.”
Zack loved her.
Closing her eyes, she let herself drift off to sleep again, rousing only when Zack slid in beside her, the warmth of his body settling as close as possible, his hand lying possessively at her hip.
“Night, baby,” he whispered. “Love you.”
“Love you,” she whispered back, and let herself believe.
She was loved.
ALSO BY
LORA LEIGH
T
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M
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OF
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UMMER
SERIES
T
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ALLAHANS
SERIES
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LITE
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PS
SERIES
T
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N
AVY
SEAL
S
TRILOGY
T
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B
OUND
H
EARTS
NOVELS
A
NTHOLOGIES
Praise for
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