Loving the Wild Card (22 page)

“For God’s sake, Matty, what kind of altered universe are you living in
that you think kidnapping upstanding citizens is remotely appropriate? By the
way, are you sure this woman you’re asking about is lost, or did you get on her
nerves with that stinky attitude so she left you? Don’t answer that,” Lux held
up her hand to stop Matthaeus from talking; even as she took a step to the side
to further obscure Josh from his view.

Good girl
, Josh thought as he surreptitiously cast a
glance towards the goons who watched Lux with unblinking disbelief.

Finally, his hands were free. Looking over at Sam, Josh raised a brow.
Sam returned it with an almost imperceptible nod.

Turing his full attention back to Lux, he was just in time to hear her
say something that sounded like,
boom, boom, we’re out of this room
. Bunching
his muscles, Josh surged to his feet. The idiots had forgotten to bind his legs
together. They’d tied them to each leg of the chair, but that wasn’t going to
stop him.

“Move!” Josh barked at Lux before he went to work. Ignoring Matthaeus,
he fixed his attention on the goon who’d dropped Lux onto the floor. The fool
was paying way too much attention to his wife antics, and he was on to him in
an instant.

He had a score to settle. Since the fool misguidedly thought it
acceptable to be so blasé with the handling of his wife. Josh was more than
willing to reciprocate. Plus, he had made a promise he intended to keep. With
his hands free, it took him exactly three seconds to break every bone in the
man’s hands.

Josh felt like a fool with his legs still tied to the chair, but he
didn’t dwell on it. The situation was moving fast and every second that passed
meant the advantage Lux had worked so hard at getting them would peter out.

He remembered all the tasks his father had set him and Jake in their
youth. Why this particular scenario had been a part of Jackson’s repertoire,
until now had been a mystery to him. Even as he pivoted, Josh confined to
memory the need to commend his father on the thoroughness of his lessons.

Josh used the unattached hind legs of the chair to dig the other guards
in the stomach. He then spun him around so he was within reach of his arms. The
chop he delivered to the guard’s throat felled him like a tree.

Swinging around, he was just in time to see Sam attempting to grapple a
gun from Matthaeus’ hand. What he saw next was so bizarre it stopped him in his
tracks. Lux was on her toes with her hands over her head, as though she were in
the midst of a pirouette. Josh’s mouth hung open as she spun in a graceful
motion, her foot extended just before her heel connected with Matthaeus’ chin.
The strike was so hard and fast with her booted foot, Josh could only watch in
awe. As he hit the ground, Josh was filled with so much pride the severity of
the situation couldn’t suppress the massive grin that overtook his face.

When he finally caught her attention, Josh was so proud of her, he had
to offer a compliment. “Luxandria, that was hot!”

Not put off by her eye roll, and his adrenalin running rampant, his mind
deviated to how he could entice her to come within his reach so he could get a
taste of her.

It seemed he was an open book where she was concerned because she gave
him the dirtiest look he had received since their reconnection. Josh wasn’t
deterred, he was who he was and as much as he loved her, Lux wasn’t about to
change him.

With Lux’s help, they both untied the fragments of the chair. When the
last piece of wood clattered to the floor, he noticed a woman standing in the
doorway processing the tableau. “Shit!” was all she said.

“I know, right. Sorry, but you’re way too late. My lady just put a
pirouette ass kicking on, what did you call him, Luxie? Oh yes, Matty.” Looking
around at the only other person involved in the mix, he wanted to confirm Sam
hadn’t missed Lux’s move. “You saw that, right?”

“I saw it,” Sam replied his eyes fixed on the woman approaching him.

If Josh were to describe
cool
unconcerned assurance, the blonde making her way into the room would be
foremost on his list. She looked perfect with not a hair out of place. To see
her anyone would suppose she was joining them for pre-dinner drinks.

“What are you doing here?” Josh asked the newcomer.

Ignoring his question, the woman approached Sam and looked him over
before untying his legs. When he was free from his bonds, she gave him a kiss
on the lips.

“You had me worried for a while.” Not waiting for a response, she turned
to Lux and looked her over in an assessing manner. “I liked that move. What do
you call that toe pointing kick?”

“It hasn’t got a name, all I did was what comes naturally to me.”

“I see, well it was certainly more effective than the stance you took up
when I first saw you.”

“I know right,” Lux responded with a slightly embarrassed expression.
“Josh looked as though he might know what he was doing, so I copied him.”

“I do know what I’m doing!”

“I think what he meant to say was, he
thought
he knew what he was
doing until you did it better!” The blonde quipped.

Josh’s affronted look caused Lux to turn away to hide her grin.

The blonde didn’t offer him the same courtesy. She was more than happy
to rub his face in the fact that Lux had handled Matthaeus without his help.

Chapter
24

Accepting the offer of a car, Josh and Lux didn’t wait around for the
ramifications of the attempted interrogation. The cleanup was down to Sam and
Rachel, or at least that was the name she gave. Keeping his thoughts to
himself, Josh was certain nobody would ever hear from Matthaeus again.

Being closer to his house than Jason’s, Josh headed home. Everything was
a mess and Lux’s’ continued silence now that she was coming down from their
encounter only heighten the tension.

He’d kept too much from his family and her. Keeping Sam’s confidence was
over. That he’d done the right thing in the wrong way; was a position he would
have to defend.

Deep in thought, Josh returned to awareness by the sound of Lux asking
him the inevitable question.

“What is the extent of your involvement with my brother?”

“It’s a long story–”

“I’m not in the mood for clichés, Joshua. All I want and deserve is an
honest answer.”

“I know you do, Luxie, but I think we should wait for Sam. This is his
story and this time I think you really need to
listen
to what he has to
say.”

“Suppose I don’t want to listen to anything he has to say. Suppose I’m
still pissed that while I was going about my business, I was struck on the
head, tied up, and abducted. Hmm, Josh, what then?

“You have a right to be angry about all those things. But at some point
you have to stop being so Goddamn judgmental. The world in not made up of
perfect people and that includes you!”

“I don’t need you telling me what I should and shouldn’t do!”

“Now you just sound like a petulant child. You’re thirty-one years old
Luxandria, start acting like it!”

Taking his eyes off the road for a second, he tried to gauge her
reaction. Nothing, her expression was blank which told its own story. He wasn’t
going to like what she was about to say.

“When we get back to the house, I want my passport so I can go back to
being the adult that I know I am. That means, going back to the Caribbean so I
don’t have to listen to you telling me how I should behave. It also means that
my decision not to have a relationship with a murderer will be mine alone.”

Okay, so he’d pissed her off more than he’d thought, but it was too late
to change that. If she was pissed now, she was about to go supernova with what
he was about to say.

“You may not have your passport because you’re not going anywhere.”

“We’ll see about that.”

The sound of her laughter grated on his already taut nerves. He felt the
same way as her about the ambush. In fact, he was still so angry, it was as
though it were a living entity within him.

She was pissed with him and that was her right. However, she was going
nowhere. She would fight him, but he was exceptionally good at getting his own
way.

As they neared his home, Josh thought it best to attempt to lighten the
tension between them.

“Are you done sulking?”

“What’s best at this point; is that you refrain from speaking to me,”
Lux responded with such a lack of emotion that he couldn’t help but pay
attention to her tone.

For a millisecond, he considered attempting to coax her into a better
mood. The thought floated away almost as soon as it came. There was far too
much riding on the next few hours to piss her off even more. He was serious
about what he’d said, she was here to stay.

It was just after 9:00pm by the time they pulled up to the house and
every light was blazing. Once inside they heard the sound of raised voices
coming from the family room.

Taking a deep breath, he glanced over at Lux, who still refused to spare
him even the briefest of looks. He was sure if she thought she could get away
with it, she’d head up the stairs and shut herself away.

Without warning, the family room door was wrenched open. His brothers
stood one behind the other in the doorway looking at them as though they were
apparitions.

“Yeah, we’re real. Did you miss us?” Josh quipped.

Their surprised expressions soon disappeared, replaced first with looks
of relief and then anger.

“Why the hell didn’t you answer your phone?”

“I should kick your ass for worrying my wife!” His brothers barked at
the same time.

“Ahh, I missed you too,” Josh replied in his usual flippant manner.

“Not funny, Josh,” Jake warned. “We were worried.”

“You guys worry too much. I can look after myself.”

As soon as he spoke, he caught Lux’s eyes, and felt heat rise in his
cheeks. He supposed he should be grateful she didn’t correct him. The next
thing he knew, Aviva’s held him in a tight hug.

“All that can wait. We’re just glad you’re okay. Isn’t that right,
Jason?”

God bless Aviva. Josh knew he could always count on her to be in his
corner to get her husband off his back. With a smile, he hugged her back.

“From what I can see he looks just fine, and if he needs hugging, he has
a wife to do it,” Jason told his wife. “What I find more interesting is all
that color rushing to his face.”

Easing back from him, Aviva took in his red face and Josh knew she was
going to say something to cause him even more embarrassment.

“What happened Josh, are you okay? Please don’t tell me you’ve been
fighting again!” Aviva asked as she began to look him over, her arms akimbo.

She sounded like a mother reprimanding a child and Josh honestly didn’t
know what to say to her. Instead, he looked over at Jason in the hope he’d get
his wife to back off. He should have known better. All he got for his trouble
was a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

“Joshua, answer me.?”

“Of course he’s okay,” Jason replied for his younger brother. “He
probably just got his ass handed to him.”

“No, probably about it,” Jake agreed.

“That’s not fair, there were at least three of them,” Lux said coming to
his defense.

Jason began laughing. “Three, you have got to be kidding me!”

Shocked at their derision of their brother, Lux jumped in again. “What
is the matter with you? Your brother was attacked by three men, bound and held
hostage by a mad man and all you’re doing is laughing at him!”

“Did they have firearms?” Jackson entered the conversation for the first
time.

Lux hesitated, showing a look of uncertainty. “Well... no, I don’t think
so.”

By the time she finished speaking Jackson, was also wearing a big grin.
“Young lady, the only way he was taken down by so few unarmed men was because
you were his primary concern.”

Josh felt like walking out and leaving them to it. He knew Lux was
trying to help, but she obviously had no idea what she’d just revealed.

“Are you hungry, Josh?”

Turning, he spotted MacKenzie standing at the bottom of the stairs. “I
guess I could eat something.”

Fed up with the lot of them, he didn’t spare them a second glance as he
took Lux by the hand and followed MacKenzie down the hall.

“Sorry,” she whispered under her breath. “I made it worse and that
wasn’t my intention.”

“Don’t worry about it. If it had been me, I’d have been worse,” he
assured her with a grin the color finally beginning to recede from his face.
“And by the way, there were four of them.”

Josh was glad MacKenzie left them alone to eat although neither he nor
Lux seemed to have much of an appetite.

After a shower and a change of clothing, they finally returned to a full
family room. It was growing late, but there were still outstanding matters to
discuss.

“May I get you both something to drink,” Jackson asked.

With all their drink orders met, Josh sat in silence and waited for the
questions to begin. He knew they would come; he was just unsure who would speak
first.

“I think an explanation is well overdue, don’t you?” Jackson asked.

“Yes, it is, sir. But I...” Josh trailed off at the sound of his phone.

Speaking a few words into the mouthpiece, he replaced the handset and
silently left the room. As he walked out, he heard Jake mumble something about
him answering his phone now, but not when they were calling him earlier. Josh
didn’t bother to tell him, he’d been relieved of it until a short while ago.

When he returned, Josh stood back and held open the door for Sam and
Rachel to pass through.

The men rose to their feet as the couple approached and Josh began
introductions.

“I believe some of you have met Rachel... I’m sorry; I don’t know your
last name.”

“Lee,” came the one-word response.

“Lee?!” Lux sputtered, looking at the new arrivals.

“That’s right, Rachel is my wife.”

Sam’s confirmation of the woman’s identity shocked even him. Unwilling
to allow the disclosure to distract them, Josh pushed on.

“For those of you who are unaware, this is Samuel Lee, Lux’s brother.”
Going around the room, Josh completed the introduction of his family.

“How are you?” Aviva asked Rachel with a smile.

“I’m good,” came the polite reply.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Aviva.”

“You know her,” Lux broke in with surprise.

“We’ve met.”

“Would someone mind filling me in on what’s going on here,” Jackson
asked no one in particular.

The brothers looked at each other and Jake took up the story. “Josh
asked us to keep a discreet eye on Sam while he and Lux were gone. I have to say
that wasn’t easy, but we managed it up until today, when we lost track of him.

Soon after Sam went off grid, I received a phone call from Rachel to
inform us that we needed to get Josh and Lux away from the house and that’s
where our involvement ended.”

“Josh, please continue,” Jackson said turning to his youngest son.

Josh made quick work of filling them in on what had taken place, from
their confrontation on the path to their arrival home.

“Over the years and from time to time, as some of you know, Sam and I
have helped each other out.” Josh was hopeful that his evasive response would
satisfy his father.

“Joshua, it would seem that you are under the misapprehension that
tonight is a good night to test my patience. I asked for, and I require a
straight answer. Do I make myself entirely clear?”

Glancing over at his brothers, their looks of sympathy were obvious.
Jackson was in patriarch mode, which the family knew meant he was more than
capable of taking them all down as a collective. The only other man in the room
unaware of this foolishly sniggered.

Jackson pinned Sam with his gaze. “By the impertinence of that sound, I
can only surmise you find something I said amusing. As I have somehow missed
the reason for your mirth, I insist that you share it with me.”

Jackson’s look was so devoid of emotion, Josh thought it best he step in
to attempt a diffusion of the situation. His father wasn’t aware of it, but Sam
was a dangerous man. Not that he was worried about him starting something he
couldn’t finish; he just didn’t want it to come to that.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean–”

“I don’t believe I addressed you, Joshua!” Jackson cut in. “I’m
waiting.”

There was a tension in the air that Josh didn’t like. It seemed as
though his brothers were feeling the same way. From his peripheral vision he
saw their wives place a restraining hand on both their arms.

“It’s amusing to hear a grown man being spoken to in that way, that’s
all,” Sam finally said without steam and Josh, exhaled.

“I’m aware that your father is no longer with us, Samuel. However, I’m
sure that if he were, he too would assure you that no matter the age of one’s
child, their wellbeing remains paramount. I suspect you were probably a problem
child, am I right?”

“I had my moments,” Sam mumbled under his breath.

“Well, this is not one of them,” Jackson fired back. “However, from your
presence in my home at this late hour, you must have something significant to
say. Therefore, I suggest you get on with it!”

Sam looked irritated at Jackson’s tone but he didn’t challenge the older
man. Josh used the opportunity to jump in and hopefully defuse the situation.

“When we had our…troubles a few years back, it was Sam who gave us the
information we needed.” Josh hoped his father would catch on to what he was
saying without further explanation.

“I see, so you’re the mystery man,” Jackson said as he rose to his feet
and approached Sam. Extending his hand, he waited for the other man to stand
and do the same. “My family and I thank you.”

Sam’s response was a simple nod.

“If I understand matters correctly, Rachel is the woman who came to
Aviva’s aid while she was in Europe. My question is how do you both know each
other?” Jackson asked still holding on to Sam’s hand as he awaited a response.