House Rules (10 page)

Mom came bursting from the kitchen door. “What’s all the yelling about?”

I shook my head. “I have no idea. I was going to come see you first but I better get down there, otherwise he’ll end up bursting a blood vessel.” I bent down and placed a kiss on her cheek.

She glanced down the hall and back at me. “I think you’re right. Come find me when you’re done.”

“Miller!”

With quick strides I started toward Dad’s office. The door was ajar and through the gap I saw Dad standing behind his desk, palms flat on top. I could practically see the steam rising from his head. I stepped into the room and he looked up.

“Close the door. I will not have your mother hear me killing her youngest child.” His voice was low and deadly.

I swallowed hard. Turning to shut the door, I racked my brain for what in the hell I could have done to piss my father off that badly. Had Karlstad called him after he left? No way would Dad have believed anything he said.

“Why in the ever-lovin’ fuck did I get a call a little bit ago tellin’ me you
won
a girl in a poker game a few nights ago?”

That would do it.

I kept as still as possible, hoping not to antagonize the pissed off man in front of me. Dad was ready to kill and I had the unfortunate luck of being his target.

“Dad, it’s not what you think.”

“Then you better start explaining. And I better like what I hear.”

“Should we sit—”

“No.” The word snapped from his lips.

Damn. At least seated, he’d have to get up to come after me. That gave me a chance to either run or brace myself. With him less than five feet away, I was screwed. If I readied myself for him, he’d interpret that as guilt. Dad had been reading people and their reactions too long to misinterpret mine. I did my best to remain calm. Not once had I considered that Dad would find out what happened with Tess. I honestly figured it would be another one-night stand and that would be the end of it.

How wrong I was.

“You better stop fuckin’ stalling and get to the point real fast.”

“I decided to jump into the poker games last Saturday. Everything was going well, just like always, until Ray Wasden decided he had a hand to best mine. Dad, I had four Kings.” I knew I was rambling, but I couldn’t stop myself. “He didn’t have enough money to call the table and put his girlfriend in the pot.”

And like that, Dad was around the desk, and I was pinned face first against the wall with one arm pulled behind my back. How he managed to move so fast even at his age, I still hadn’t figured out. Neither Ashton or I ever saw him coming. I grunted as he pulled harder on my wrist.

“And you think it’s fucking okay to bet women like they’re property?” he snarled in my ear.

“No,” I said. “But it was only to spend the night with her. There was no talk of screwing. I wouldn’t take a woman to my bed because I won them in the card game. Tess made the choice.”

“Only after you threatened to beat the ever-lovin’ fuck out of her boyfriend if she didn’t.”

He had me there. “How in the hell was I supposed to handle it? If I’d let him out of the bet, people would be coming in all the time without paying their debts. Ray needed to pay his debt, and everyone in the room needed to see it.”

His griped relaxed as he absorbed my words. “Fuck,” he grunted out and let me go.

I spun around slowly to see him pacing back and forth across his office. “What in the hell is wrong with you and your brother?”

“Dad . . .”

He froze in his tracks and faced me, stalking closer to me with each word from his mouth. “Don’t start with me. I raised you to respect women and neither one of you knows how to treat them. Your brother takes Elena as payment for a debt, and you win this woman in a poker game. Do either of you think about your actions?”

“That’s not what happened and you know it.” His eyes narrowed dangerously at me. “Ashton only took Elena for payment to get her away from the prick she was married to.”

“So your brother’s got a brain in his head and you’re the fucking moron?”

“Fuck, Dad.”

He stepped far enough into my space that I had to move back until I ran into the wall behind me. “Don’t you dare speak to me that way.”

Sufficiently chastised, I lifted my hands. “I apologize. Please, just listen for a moment.” He moved back a little, not enough to take him out of my personal space, though. “When I won Tess it was for one night with her, not a one-night stand.”

“You’re telling me that woman never made it to your bed?”

I looked down at the ground. “That’s not what I’m saying.”

“Make up your mind. Either she spent the night in your bed, or she didn’t. “

“She did.” I struggled to keep my temper, beyond frustrated with the whole conversation. “But not because I won her in the pot. She made up her own mind to come to bed with me. I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with my fucking father,” I muttered under my breath, not loud enough for him to hear. I wasn’t
that
stupid.

Dad backed away a step, then moved over to the edge of his desk and sat down. He leaned backward, resting his hands on the top. “What the fuck makes that okay? You use women like they’re playthings. Women should be treated with fuckin’ respect. I spent my entire life trying to teach you that and you throw it in my face. How the hell am I supposed to turn over my business to you when it’s clear you don’t respect what I’ve built?”

My whole body froze. Ever since I found out exactly what Dad did for a living, I always knew that I would be there to takeover someday. Ashton was always more interested in being in the kitchen with Mom than what Dad was doing. From the time I left college, which I only finished because Dad insisted on it, I worked with him. I’d helped to increase the efficiency of moving the money, letting us get the “clean” cash back to the owner faster. The system worked like a dream. We got our cut quicker, and Dad was making more than ever before.

Both of my businesses were successful fronts for gambling. I’d done everything possible to prove that I could do it. The idea that Dad would keep me away from taking over what I helped to improve made me want to punch a wall.

“How the hell can you say I don’t respect what you built when I helped to make it better than it was?”

“That maybe true, but I will not have a man who treats women like shit stepping into my shoes.”

“I’m not Ashton. I don’t want to settle down and have a happy little wife at home. That’s not me. You know that. And just because that’s not what I want doesn’t mean that I treat women like shit. One time I let things go too far and you’re talking about taking away my future?”

“One time leads to two and three, and before you know it you’ve lost all your morals.”

“Morals? You’ve got to be kidding me!” I ran a hand through my hair. “We launder money for a living and you’re worried about
morals?
”

His fist flew out, snapping my head to the side and dropping me to the floor. I wiped my hand across my mouth and saw the trickle of blood left behind. I looked up to see my father standing over me.

“There’s difference between personal and business dilemmas. If you can’t figure out the difference between the two, you can get the hell out of my sight. My sons won’t be heartless assholes.”

For a moment, I sat on the floor and thought about what he’d said. Tess wasn’t some random chick who threw herself at me in the bar, hoping to get her hands on my money. At first, she’d wanted nothing to do with me. Which was even more clear the morning after when I’d woken up to an empty bed. The other women, they got what they wanted from me—a night in my bed.

Fuck
. I knew I needed to smooth things over before it got worse.

With a sigh, I stood and faced my father. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I know there’s a difference between business and personal. I should never have let Wasden bet his girlfriend. It was stupid.”

He opened his mouth and I braced myself for the next round.

“Go get yourself cleaned up and we’ll talk.”

Not what I expected. Without a word I turned and stepped into the bathroom connected to Dad’s office. Mom would lose her shit if she saw the blood. In a little over a week, Tess had flipped my life upside down and nothing was going the way it was supposed to.

It was clear that no matter what kind of chemistry we had in bed, I needed to keep my dick in my pants when it came to that woman. My resolve to hunt her down dissipated in seconds. No woman was worth risking everything I’d worked my whole life for.

In the end, she meant nothing.

CHAPTER 9

Theresa

Exhausted, I climbed out of the car, bracing myself for what I might or might not find. Ray was supposed to have all of his shit out of the apartment by the time I got back from class but I didn’t trust him one iota. The jerk kept calling, leaving tons of voicemails, all of which I deleted at the end of the day. Money would be tight until I could find a new roommate and I’d probably need to pick up extra shifts at the store, but I’d make it work. There was a little bit of money in my savings account I could use if I really needed to. I only hoped I wouldn’t have to and could save that for a rainy day.

I dug through my bag looking for my keys, finding them all the way at the bottom, which wasn’t really a surprise. I had a hard time keeping things neat and organized in general, and that didn’t take into account the giant bag on my arm. One of these days I’d get myself together. For the moment, the only thing I cared about was finishing school. Until that happened, the rest of my life could be a mess.

Before I could turn my key in the lock, the door opened. Belatedly I looked at the jamb.

Broken.

I took two steps inside and turned on the light, just as a hand wrapped around my waist and another covered my mouth. I was going to kick the ever-loving crap out of Ray when I got out of his hold.

“Stop fighting,” an unfamiliar voice whispered next to my ear.

I froze.

If Ray wasn’t in my apartment, who the hell was?

Another guy, one I didn’t recognize, stepped in front of me. My knees shook so badly, I could guarantee if there hadn’t been an arm around my waist, I wouldn’t have been able to hold myself up.

“Where’s Ray?” His voice was heavily accented and his breath smelled of stale cigarettes. I shook my head and whimpered.

“If I move my hand, you better not scream.”

The night of the poker game came rushing back. Those guys hadn’t messed around and I didn’t get the feeling this guy was any different. I nodded my head slowly, hoping if I complied with their demands they’d let me go. The hand slipped from my mouth. I kept it closed.

“Where’s Ray?”

“Did Miller send you?”

My stomach dropped at the thought. The night we spent together went a long way to ease my fear of Miller. He was dangerous, even deadly, but the way he’d caressed my body, the way he held me when we were both too exhausted to move, told me there was a different man under all the layers of danger.

Maybe I’d been wrong. The men standing around me in my own apartment screamed that my character judgment really needed some work. I’d trusted Miller. And now I was going to pay for that mistake.

“Hawes?” the guy holding me asked.

“Yes,” I squeaked out.

“Fuck that. The Hawes family has been stealing our boss’s business for too damn long.”

“Who is your boss?” The last word felt weird rolling off my tongue. That wasn’t how I picture a
boss
to be. They sat behind a desk waiting for your reports, or followed you around giving you more work than you could possibly handle. Not a man who sent people to beat the crap out of others.

“Nathan Marcello. And Ray happens to owe him a lot of money. Now no more stalling. Where the fuck is Wasden?”

My mouth felt like it was full of sand, and my voice came out croaky and weak as I explained, “He’s gone.”

The hand connected with my cheek before I realized he’d even lifted it into the air. My head snapped sideways as pain radiated across my face, bringing tears to my eyes.

“Don’t fucking lie to me.”

“I’m not. I threw him out a week ago.” My body tightened, bracing for another hit.

“Why?” demanded the guy in front of me.

My eyes focused on him. I needed to see if he was listening to anything I said. “He bet a night with me in a poker game. I’m not an object he can do whatever he pleases with.”

“Where did he go?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I told him to have all of his stuff out by the time I got home today.”

He looked over my shoulder at the guy behind me. Some kind of silent communication happened between the two. Heads nodded up and down, gesturing towards me and each other. The arms around my waist disappeared, and a card was thrust into my hand.

“If he comes back you better call us. I better not have to come here and deal with you again. You won’t like the consequences.”

“I will. I swear.”

The men nodded and walked out the door. I raced behind them and locked it. Not that it kept them out last time, except this time I threw the deadbolt. Shaking, I turned and leaned against the door, sliding down to the floor. With my knees curled up to my chest, I let the fear of the last twenty minutes truly take over. The sobbing started and I couldn’t get it under control.

What was I doing? I was stronger than this. Yes, what happened was scary, but that didn’t mean I needed to turn into a blubbering mess.

Taking deep, calming breaths, I forced myself to get it together. There were so many things I needed to figure out now. I couldn’t stay in this apartment anymore, that was for certain. They knew where I lived and I had a feeling they wouldn’t stop visiting until they got their money. They also probably wouldn’t be above using me as bait to lure Ray went from wherever the hell he went. He’d better hope they found him first because if I got my hands on him, the bastard was dead.

Twice.

Twice now, the little fucker had left me high and dry with his debts. There was no way in hell I was paying them. It looked like the weather had turned and my rainy day money would be needed to cover some of my bills until I could find a job with more money. It wasn’t like I’d get my security deposit back if I broke the lease early. I just had to hope that any place I could find had a low enough security deposit and first month’s rent that the money in my bank account would cover it.