Betting the Bad Boy (17 page)

The King brothers were buying up everything that had to do with Andersens.

Properties they rented, places they worked, even the bank that held their mortgages. She wasn’t sure what to think about it, or even if she had the right to ask Duke about it, but it bothered her. She wasn’t sure why.

The King boys had every right to be angry at the family who’d taunted them in school.

The Andersen boys were always a little too cocky. They thought rules didn’t apply to them and that they could push people around just because their father ran the police force in this town. They had always walked around with a swagger that made boys want to be them and girls want to be with them. But beyond their father’s title and protection they were nothing special. Not smarter or better looking or more athletic. They were just entitled and probably deserved to be taken down a few notches. Still, it didn’t sit right with her that the Kings were so eager to take them down after all this time.

But maybe Grace was just uneasy about herself, because truthfully she had just as much blame as the Andersens did. If she hadn’t said yes to Patrick, if she hadn’t gone out with him that night in the hope of making Duke jealous, none of this would have happened. Her son would have had a father. Duke would have been free.

Part of her was waiting for the day Duke was going to hurt her as much as she’d hurt him.

*   *   *

It was Duke’s second night in a row home alone with Ryder. Grace was doing her third overnight shift of the week, and the house was incredibly quiet. Duke sat alone in the living room watching a baseball game on the tiny nineteen-inch television. But his mind couldn’t focus on the game before him. It wandered to its favorite topic. Grace. He couldn’t help but wonder if it would have been like this if he hadn’t gone away. He would have married Grace the moment he learned she was pregnant, but would they still be together now? Would she be working overnight shifts while he worked days as a mechanic? Would they have struggled to make ends meets? Or would he still have King’s Customs?

He wasn’t so sure about that. What had driven him to open his first shop was wanting to get back at all those people who thought he’d never be anything but a grease monkey, who thought he’d never escape from his convict past, who thought he’d never be better than his old man.

He wasn’t sure he would have had the guts or the drive to risk his life’s savings with a wife and a son to take care of. If everything was the way it was supposed to have been, he was pretty sure they would just be getting by. And stuck here in the town he had always longed to get away from.

He found himself wandering upstairs to see what Ryder was doing. They had cooked and eaten dinner together, but the two of them hadn’t spoken more than a handful of words to each other that night and he wondered if that was right. If other fathers and sons would go some days without saying much to each other. He thought about how he was with his own father, but that couldn’t compare. Duke had taken care of him. Hosed him off after he got sick from drinking too much whiskey, hauled him out of bars when he had been there too long. Took the brunt of his rages to keep Colt and Levi safe. At fifteen Duke had felt fifty. Ryder may have been fatherless for his entire life but he was already much better off than Duke had ever been.

Ryder had talked to him the entire way home from the hospital the day before. An excited expression on his face and more words coming out of him than Duke thought was possible. He liked that, but he knew it was all Levi’s doing. Levi had showed Ryder videos of him racing and told the boy that he’d take him to see his team. And that reminded Duke that Levi had wanted to tell him something before this whole thing had started.

Levi wanted to go back to racing. That had to be it. Duke knew the semi-quiet life of a television host wasn’t enough for him. And there was nothing he could do to stop him. Because that was Levi’s dream, just like King’s Customs was his.

He found Ryder sitting at the old desk in the den Grace had set up for him. The ancient television was on. Some action movie played in the background as Ryder concentrated on putting together his model car.

“Hey, boy.” Duke placed his hands on his son’s shoulders and looked down at the piece he was working on. “When did you know you first liked cars?”

“I don’t know. Always I guess.”

“I was the same way. My dad used to fix them on the side for extra money when I was a kid, and I used to watch him. I got my first real job fixing cars when I was fourteen.”

Ryder looked up at him. “That’s just a year older than me.”

“I know. I think it might be time for you to learn how to fix cars, too.”

“Can I have a job in your shop?”

The question made his chest swell a bit. The love of cars ran in their blood. “I think your mother would shoot me in between my legs if I gave you a job in my shop.”

Ryder let out an annoyed sigh. “She doesn’t let me do anything.”

“I’m trying with her, boy. She’s been your mom for thirteen years. I’ve been your dad for a couple of weeks. It’s going to take time.”

“I’m still mad at her,” Ryder admitted softly. “But I don’t want to be.”

“That’s going to take time, too.” Duke ran his fingers through his son’s thick, dark hair—which was the exact shade of his own. He hesitated before doing it, but did it anyway, needing some way to express the connection he was feeling.

It was as if his body knew that this boy had come from him, that Ryder would be his legacy, the good thing he left to the world.

“We have the same hands,” Ryder said, taking his and looking at it. “See?” He showed him his own. “I used to wonder who I looked like.”

“You’ll be good looking like me,” Duke said, joking.

“Will you move us to Las Vegas with you?” Ryder asked, taking him off guard.

“I want to, but not if you want to live here.” He knew that no matter how bad his history was with this town, he couldn’t pull his son away from a place that made him happy.

“Sometimes I feel like I don’t fit in here. Like maybe I’m meant to be somewhere else.”

Duke knew exactly how he felt, but he knew he couldn’t promise his son to take him away from here without talking to Grace about it first. “I’ll do right by you, boy.” Impulsively Duke pushed his son’s hair away from his eyes and kissed his forehead before he walked out of the room, wanting to give him space. But as soon as he stepped foot onto the basement steps his cell phone rang. It was Grace.

“Duke? My car died on Route Seven. Can you come get me?”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He went back to base of the stairs and bellowed Ryder’s name. “Put your shoes on, boy. We’ve got to go get your mom.”

It was nearly an hour later when he pulled up behind her car on the unlit deserted highway. He was pissed off seeing her sitting there with no lights on, completely exposed to the elements, completely exposed to anyone who wanted to come up and harass her.

He told Ryder to stay put as he got out and walked over to Grace’s car. She had her cell phone clutched in her hand, and when she looked up and saw that it was him she looked relieved.

She had been scared. He hated that she was alone and scared in the dark. “Thank you for coming.” She got out of the car and wrapped her arms around him. “I couldn’t tell if it was your car or not. It’s so dark here.”

He stiffened. “Did someone else stop to help you?”

“A trucker did. I told him my husband was on the way.” The word
husband
put him in a fouler mood. He would have married her. She could have been his wife, wanting for nothing.

“Do you have any idea what could have happened to you tonight? Do you know how dangerous it is to be out here alone and unprotected?”

“I didn’t plan this. I had to go to work. It’s not like I wanted my car to die in the middle of the road.”

“You should have said no when they called you in.”

“I couldn’t say no. I need the money.”

“You don’t need anything. I’m here now. I can provide for you.”

“I don’t want—”

“This is not about what you want anymore. You robbed me of the chance to take care of my son for too many damn years. Now you don’t have a choice in the matter. I’m going to do what I think is right and I don’t want to hear another damn thing about it. Now get in the car. We’re going home.”

Grace stood there frozen for a moment.

“Mom?” Ryder called from the car. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, sweetie,” she said, her voice sounding thick. “I’m sorry if I worried you.”

Duke ushered her into the car and closed the door behind her a little harder than he should. He had barely gotten used to the idea of being a father. He couldn’t begin to imagine his life as a single father.

*   *   *

The next morning Grace woke to the beeping sound of a truck backing up in front of her bedroom window. She glanced over to the clock on her bedside to see that it was already half past eight. She couldn’t believe she had slept so long. Or slept through the noise outside. She could hear men’s voices and banging, and the sound of Duke issuing orders like he was a general. She must have been more tired than she thought.

The ride home was one of the longest of her life. Duke was upset with her, and she understood that his stubborn silences and dictates happened because he had been worried for her. She was scared as she waited for him on the lonely stretch of highway. And terrified as the trucker came up to her car and offered her his assistance. But she couldn’t change what had happened. She really couldn’t have prevented it. And Duke, who never took a handout and always worked for everything he had, should understand why she didn’t want him to magically fix everything in her life after being out of it for so long.

She dressed after calling out of work. She had no car and she was pretty sure Duke would lock her in the house if she attempted to pick up another shift. Ryder was standing at the living room window, book bag on his back, looking at his father as he pointed a backhoe in the direction of the shed. “What is going on?” Grace swallowed.

“Dad is knocking down the shed.”

“What?” She had never heard Ryder refer to Duke as Dad before.

“He said it was dangerous and the last thing he needed was it falling on top of me. He’s replacing it with a metal one.”

“A metal one?”

“He said he’ll paint it a nice color for you and it can’t be uglier than the shed we have now.”

“I guess you’re right.” She ran her fingers through his dark hair. “How are you this morning, sweetheart?” Ryder had been calmer this week than she had seen him in a long time.

“I’m fine. Can you take me to school? Duke is pissed off and I don’t want to bother him.”

“Don’t say pissed.” She looked at Duke, who was barking out orders to what looked like a full construction crew. “I would take you to school, but I don’t have a car, remember? We’ll have to ask Duke for his.”

“He got you one,” Ryder said as if it were nothing. “Over there. He called the dealership and told them to bring over the safest one they had.”

She looked to where Ryder was pointing to see a large luxury SUV. Her jaw dropped. She had been saving up to buy a sensible used midsized car. She didn’t want an SUV. She didn’t want him buying anything for her, and what made matters worse was that he’d done this all without talking to her, without asking what she wanted.

It was a pigheaded jackass thing to do.

“You’re not going to make him take it back, are you?” Ryder asked, seeming to read her mind. “I hated the old car and now that I know my dad is a car god, I
really
hate that car. It was embarrassing.”

Grace repressed a sigh. She knew it was hard for Ryder to be one of the few kids in his class without a father, and with a mother who could barely make ends meet. She didn’t want to disappoint him again. “No, I won’t make him take it back.” She really wished she could, though. This was not part of the bet. This didn’t prove anything to her except that he had a lot of money and he could use it to get what he wanted.

“The keys are on the coffee table.”

“Okay.” She scooped them up. “Let’s get you to school.”

She stepped outside into a hub of activity, and just as if she had an alarm on her, Duke’s eyes zeroed in on her as soon as her foot hit the dirt. There was heat there. Not just anger heat, but the heat of a man who was hungry for something he couldn’t have. They hadn’t made love last night, either. She was too weary and he was too angry at her, but she still missed him. She found that even though they never seemed to be on the same page during the day, her mornings were always a little better after she spent the night with him.

He stalked over to them, his eyes on her the whole time. If she didn’t know Duke, she might be afraid of him. Most men would cower under that glare. “I’m having some work done on the house today.”

“I see,” she said, trying to hide her anger in front of their son.

“I got you a new car, too.” He studied her face, trying to gauge her reaction and daring her to say something about it.

“I saw that, too. I’m going to use it to take our son to school and then run some errands. And then we can talk about it later.”

“I don’t think there is anything to talk about.”

“You don’t think at all,” she shot back but then caught herself, not wanting to get into it in front of Ryder,

His jaw tightened and his nostrils flared just a bit, but then he looked at Ryder.

“I’m sorry I got caught up out here,” he said, his voice softening. “You could have interrupted me, you know.”

“You looked busy.”

“I’m not too busy for my boy.” He lightly nudged Ryder’s chin with his fist. “I’ve got a surprise for you when you get home.”

“Is it a helicopter? I’ve always wanted one of those,” Ryder joked with a straight face.

Duke grinned at him and Grace’s anger diminished quite a bit. He loved Ryder. It had been a few weeks, but she could see the love for their son in his eyes. It was a good thing, but it was going to make things much harder for them when Duke’s thirty days with them was up. She was going to have to pick up her life and move to Las Vegas. Despite how much of a pigheaded jackass he had been, she couldn’t say that he wasn’t a good father. She couldn’t say that he was losing the bet, even though she wasn’t sure how things were going to work in Vegas.