The Bad Boys' Reluctant Woman (17 page)

“What is this about, Connor? You’re
scaring me, and I only want you to talk to me.” Tears were streaming down her
face. The pain inside her grew to unbearable proportions. The destruction of
his room told her more than he realised. Something had happened when he was
younger with his parents. Did they beat him? Hurt him in some way? She didn’t
know.

“You should be fucking scared, Zoe.
I’m not ready for this shit. You should learn to keep your nose out of places
it doesn’t belong.” He kicked the door closed. She heard him running down the
stairs. His anger scared her. She didn’t know why his mood had changed so
strongly.

Seconds later she heard the front
door slam closed. Zoe’s whole body shook. The bedroom looked a mess. She picked
up the one picture that hadn’t been destroyed. It was a picture of Brent, Jake,
and Connor, the same picture Jake had showed her the first morning she’d woken
up.

Not knowing why she did, she turned
the picture frame over and opened it, pulling the photo out.

On the back, in Connor’s writing
there was a note. “The summer Connor died.”

Jake had been right.

She’d ruined everything. Opening his
bedroom door she made her way down the stairs to the hall where the phone lay.
She picked it up and dialled Vicki’s number. Vicki answered on the third ring.

“Will you come and pick me up?”

“Sure.”

Zoe let her friend know where she
was then ran back up the stairs. She opened the main bedroom’s closet and took
out all of the clothes she’d brought with her. No way was she returning after
that.

They could see her when he was
ready.

Vicki came twenty minutes later. It
looked like the younger woman had been crying.

“Are you all right?” Zoe asked,
getting into the car.

“It has been a really shitty day.
You look like crap.”

“Thanks. Will you drop me off at my
apartment and tell Steve I can’t make it to work tonight?”

“Are you leaving town?”

“No, I just need some time to think.
If I go to The Dugout, they can find me, and I don’t want to be found at the
moment.”

“You know they can just come to your
apartment?”

“It’s in a shitty neighbourhood. They’ll
give me my space.”

“If you think so.”

Zoe didn’t say anything else. When
they got to her apartment she invited Vicki upstairs for a drink. She liked the
younger woman. Vicki was a wonderful, loving, endearing friend, and Zoe was
pleased to say that after twenty-six years without one, she’d finally found a
friend in Vicki.

****

Connor entered his house several
hours later. The sun was setting, and he hadn’t been to work. He’d spent the
whole day riding around in his truck trying to clear his head. His mood was
gone, and he felt like a jerk for scaring Zoe and taking off. She deserved
better than to hear him ranting and raving over crap. The mess he’d made of his
room was embarrassing. It would take him all fucking week to get it neat and
tidy.

“You didn’t come to work today. Noah
and Drew are docking your pay,” Jake said.

He walked into the sitting room to
see Jake and Brent sat on the couch. “How come you’re here?”

“We’ve been here since we finished
work.”

“Where’s Zoe? Did one of you drop
her off?” he asked, removing his jacket.

“We haven’t seen her. Her clothes
are gone from the closet, and when we phoned her apartment she asked for us to
give her some space. Your bedroom looks like someone trashed it. What
happened?” Brent asked.

“She’s gone?”

“Yep.
She says she’s not leaving Law
Castle, but she needs space.”

“Shit.” Connor ran his fingers
through his hair regretting everything he did.

“I don’t give a crap about what you
did, Connor. Fix it, or I swear to God, I will go looking for your parents and
find out exactly what happened to you when you were younger,” Jake said.

He looked toward Jake and saw the
determination on his face. “I’ll go and talk to her,” Connor said.

“If you drive her away, I’ll fucking
kill you.” Jake stormed out of the room. Brent followed after him. Their
disapproval hurt.

They’d tried to talk to him about
his past, but he couldn’t do it.

“It looks like I’m on make-up duty.”
Connor put his jacket back on, grabbed his keys, and off he went to Zoe’s
apartment.

He parked his truck in the parking
lot. There were several people dotted around the parking lot. He ignored them
as they ignored him. They knew who he was. It was the plus side to being part
of the Bad Boys group or circus act, whichever one he felt at the time. The
stairwell was bare. He made it to her floor and stopped dead.

A man, Bill, was standing at her
door stroking her arm.

Connor saw the bastard touch her,
and he saw red. It didn’t matter that Zoe was pushing the other guy away. No
one put his hands on Zoe who wasn’t him, Jake, or Brent. This guy was going to
pay. He tore Bill off her, slammed his fist in the guy’s face, and kneed him in
the balls. The guy doubled over, but Connor wasn’t finished.

“I don’t give a fuck
who
you are in this neighbourhood. This is still Law Castle,
and no one fucks with the people in my town.” Connor dragged him outside of
Zoe’s apartment and pushed him against the railing. “If I catch you near her
again I will end you. Do you understand me?”

“You haven’t got the guts,” Bill
said.

Connor wrapped his hand around the
guy’s neck and cut off his air. “I’m not a squeaky clean guy you can threaten,
boy. Leave her alone and get the fuck out of Law Castle, or your life is gone.”

“Connor, stop it! You’ll kill him.”

He stared at Bill watching his
colour turn blue before letting go. Bill collapsed on the floor then scampered
away.

“What is the matter with you?” Zoe
said. Her voice rose making him wince. She slapped his arm then stormed inside
her apartment. He followed her and closed the door.

“What? Were you planning on banging
the fucking asshole? I did you a favour.” He wanted her to run into his arms
like everything was okay.

“Why? Because I slept with you and
your two friends my pussy is suddenly for sale for any guy who would want me?”

Obviously, he was wrong.

“Don’t overanalyse this, Zoe.”

“You almost killed a man.”

“I didn’t kill him.”

She shook her head then turned away
from him. “I don’t get you at all. One moment I think we understand each other,
and the next you shoot me down, Connor. What the hell is going on?”
 

“You ask too many questions. You
don’t need to know about my past,” he said. His anger was rising up.

“I don’t need to know about your
past? Then why am I the one dealing with all that crap, huh?”

He shook his head. “You don’t know
what you’re talking about.”

“I don’t know what I’m talking
about? Then tell me why every time you fuck me, you have to be in control? Tell
me that, Connor. I’ve seen the way you react to me when I try to disobey you.
You’ve never taken me in your arms and made love to me. You tell me you care
about me, and yet you treat me like a toy.” Tears began to fall from her eyes.

Connor felt like he’d been kicked in
the gut. “Don’t cry, Zoe.” He moved toward her unable to bear seeing her cry.

“Don’t come near me. I don’t want
you to touch me right now.”

He cursed running his fingers
through his hair. His choices were gone. He either opened up to her, or that
was it—they were finished.

His past was still controlling him.
Connor knew his friends were fed up with him.

“You really want to know the truth
about me?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Fine, here it is a nutshell. My
mother was a weak-ass bitch who couldn’t please my father.
When
she stopped being good enough, my father turned to me.”
The tears lodged
in his throat.

He sat down on her couch. His heart
was hurting, and he felt like he was going to throw up. Everything hurt inside
him, and he hated it. The anger left him as he gazed around at her poky
apartment. Connor wanted to give her the world and to show her there was a part
of him worth loving.

“Your father abused you?” she asked.

“No, my father loved me a little too
much.” He chuckled. “I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. My mother knew what was
going on, and she didn’t do anything to stop it. In Law Castle, everyone knows
your business, right? That’s not the case. Not one person understood my dad the
way I did.”

Zoe sat down next to him on the
couch. “It was not your fault,” she said.

“Not my fault.” He burst out
laughing. “What a joke. Most people wouldn’t benefit for being used. I did.”

“What do you mean?” she asked. He
saw the tears falling from her eyes. Connor stroked her cheek.

“Don’t cry, Zoe.”

“Tell me what happened, Connor.”

He shook his head. The memory of
their bargain was clear in his mind. “I didn’t want him touching anyone else. I
made a deal that I would do anything as long as he paid me. I turned myself
into a prostitute.”

“You need to tell the police about
this,” she said.

“Why? My folks are dead.”

“What? Jake said they moved out of
town.”

“About a year ago I got a call
telling me my folks had died in a gas explosion where they lived. No one else
was hurt as there was no one around at the time. Very tragic and I felt
relieved about it. What kind of person feels relieved that their folks died?”

“Someone who has been hurt by the
people they should have been able to trust, Connor.” Zoe stroked his hair. He
felt little comfort from her attentions.

Connor let it all out. He told her
everything. The moment the dam burst inside him, he couldn’t stop it. Zoe
comforted and held throughout it all.

“You need to see someone, Connor.
A professional.”

“I can’t do that. I’m talking to
you.”

“I think it would be good for you to
get it out and let someone show you the real way it should be.”

Connor shook his head.

“When you’re
ready.
I don’t
want to force you to do something you don’t want,” she said.

He cupped her face staring into her
honest beauty. “What have you done to me?” he asked.

“Nothing, Connor.
It is time for you to be free of
the past. You didn’t do anything wrong.” She leaned over and kissed him.

Connor pulled her across his lap.
She sat straddling either side of his waist. His cock thickened at the feel of
her womanly softness. He didn’t want sex. He wanted to hold her close and feel
her warmth.

“You’re going to have to tell Jake
and Brent, eventually. They love you so much. They have a right to know what is
wrong with their friend.”

He nodded his head. Connor didn’t
move from the spot. Her arms were around him, and for the first time in his
life since the chaos of his childhood, he felt safe. Zoe made him feel
safe.
 

Chapter Seventeen

A couple of weeks later

Life went back to normal. Connor
went looking for a therapist at Zoe’s insistence. Jake and Brent wanted to know
what had gone on. She didn’t say anything. Connor would tell them when he was
ready. She slowly began to move in with them. Every time one of her men picked
her up, they packed some of her stuff. She noticed their house was starting to
have a part of her inside. Vicki said they were goners. It was only a matter of
time before they had a wedding ring on her finger.

She connected to all of them in some
way. Zoe knew she’d fallen for them. It was hard to think about at times how
easily she’d given her heart to them. She knew they wouldn’t hurt her, or at
least not intentionally hurt her. They all tried to stay by her side.
Unfortunately, like today they were all busy. Jake had bought her a cell phone
so they could stay in touch at all times. Connor was currently singing to her
down the line.

Zoe smiled as she listened to Connor
singing to her. He had the worst voice she’d heard.

“That is an awful tune, Connor.”

“I’m singing it with you in mind.”

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m in the shower, naked. Want to
join?”

“Wait, if you’re in the shower
naked, why aren’t you on your way here?” she asked. “You’ve got me there, Zoe.
I’m currently standing in the mechanic shop. A bunch of girls are giggling, and
I’m looking at two ugly-ass men.
Wanna
save me?”