Bound (Forbidden Series - Book 1) (13 page)

             
When they pulled up to a small home surrounded by at least two acres of land, however, and she saw Blake walking toward the car, her heart thundered. His eyes locked in on her in the passenger seat and his silver glare seared right through her, making her wish she were any other place in the world right then.

             
“Smile, Jewell,” Tyler told her. “It looks like my brother is going to growl.” He opened his door and said hello.

             
When Blake didn’t reply to Tyler but instead went immediately to her side of the car and ripped open the door, she was seriously thinking of diving across the seat and out the driver’s side door and making a run for it.

             
“What in the hell are you doing here?”

             
Words wouldn’t come from her throat. When he took her arm and dragged her from the car, she shook in terror. This was going to be bad — really, really bad.

              As he boxed Jewell in against the side of his brother’s car, Blake couldn’t remember ever being this angry. Ever. Fury rolled off of him in waves and he wanted to punish her, punish Tyler, punish anyone who dared even look at him.

             
“Talk to me now, Jewell! Did you really think you could fuck me a few hours ago and then give it up to my brother?”

             
The fear in her eyes should please him. Let her fear him. It was smart of her. She wouldn’t play any more games if she were afraid. When he was about to open his mouth again, though, he felt a hand on his shoulder flipping him around, and then pain shot through his jaw as the force of a punch sent him flying against the car right next to Jewell. She quickly scrambled away.

             
“What the hell?” Red flashed before Blake’s eyes, and from them, too. He flung his head from side to side and lifted a hand, ready to pummel someone. But when he saw an answering rage in Tyler’s normally easygoing face, he was startled enough to unclench his hand. “What was that for?” Blake asked, using his hand to rub his sore jaw.

             
“You’re an asshole on the best of days, but you just insulted both me and Jewell with that asinine statement!” Tyler thundered.

             
“She’s a prostitute. What else do you expect?” Blake snapped, and Tyler made another fist. This time, Blake was ready and sidestepped the hit, then gave his brother a baffled look. He didn’t want to fight Tyler. He loved him. What was going on? He had to find out. “What in blazes has you so worked up, Tyler?”

             
“I stopped at your place and dragged Jewell out to lunch, then got your call. She’s done nothing wrong and you’re treating her worse than you’d treat a stranger you’d heard only bad things about. You can stay the hell away from her if you’re going to abuse her with such offensive remarks.”

             
“Um, do I need to run interference?”

             
Both men turned to see Byron standing there and looking back and forth between them with a brotherly smirk on his face.

             
“Stay out of this, Byron. I’m about to kick Blake’s ass!”

             
“I would love to see the two of you go at it,” Byron told them, “but Bill is standing in the doorway looking at you both like you’ve lost your minds. I think I agree with him.”

             
“I certainly think
Tyler
has lost his mind. He slugged me,” Blake said, keeping a wary eye on his brother.

             
“I’m sure you deserved it,” Byron replied. “Now if you two girls can kiss and make up, we can actually get this show on the road.” He stopped speaking when he finally noticed Jewell standing about ten feet away, looking in horror at the three brothers. “Ah! Now I see what’s going on. It’s always a woman…”

             
“I didn’t do anything,” Jewell said, surprising all three of them. “I basically got kidnapped and taken to lunch,” she snapped before turning to Tyler. “Not that it didn’t turn out to be a very nice lunch. Then Blake calls and I’m dragged here against my will, and the next thing I know punches are being thrown. If you want to act like Neanderthals, be my guest, but I want no part of it.” She folded her arms across her chest.

             
Byron blinked. “Sooo, you’re here with Tyler?”

             
“No, she’s with me,” Blake snapped. “Tyler decided he needed to ‘bond’ with her.”

             
“Ah, a love triangle. That’s a recipe for disaster,” Byron said in a bored voice. “A foolproof one, so even my pitiful brothers couldn’t screw it up.”

             
“It is not a damn love triangle,” Tyler snarled. “I can talk to a woman without the need to push her against a wall and take off all her clothes.”

             
“All righty, then. Can we get to work now?” Byron asked.

             
“Yes!” both Tyler and Blake exclaimed.

             
“And what about me?” Jewell asked.

             
They all turned in her direction as if they’d completely forgotten she was even standing there.

             
“You can sit down and shut up,” Blake told her.

             
To his utter surprise, her eyes narrowed and she stomped up to him, shoved her finger into his chest, and, after taking a deep breath, unleashed her wrath.

             
“I can put up with a lot, Blake Knight, and I have been doing just that over the past few days, but I am not going to have you talk to me like that in front of other people. I am a human being and I deserve at least a modicum of respect. Your brother forced me to come here, and I am not going to just sit around and wait. If you’re all going to work, then I can do something, too.”

             
No woman had ever snapped at him like this, or demanded his respect. He’d never before felt the urge to give in and do exactly what she was asking of him, either.

             
“No. It’s too dangerous,” he said, and thinking the subject was closed, he turned away.

             
“Then I’ll find something to do on my own.” She walked toward Bill. “Hi. I’m Jewell. What can I do to help you?”

             
Blake stood there for several heartbeats as he watched Bill put out his hand, clasp hers, and give the first smile Blake had seen on the old man’s face in years.

             
“Bill Berkshire. It’s a pleasure to meet you, young lady. How about we start with a glass of iced tea, and then we’ll find some work?”

             
“That sounds lovely.” Jewell walked with Bill into the house after casting a final, contemptuous glance back at the boys.

             
Blake and his brothers were left standing there with their jaws hanging all the way down to the ground.

             
“Well, brother, that’s a woman you might not want to let get away,” Tyler said before he moved over to the work truck Blake had one of the men deliver. He began putting on a tool belt.

             
After a moment, Blake shook his head and followed his brother. It was going to be a long day, and yes, he’d be having a talk with Jewell about her place in his life, but right now he just didn’t have the time. She would definitely pay for her sins later, though.

             
Taking off his expensive suit jacket, he rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt before thinking twice and yanking it off, leaving him bare-chested. He was not dressed for this type of work, and in fact rarely swung a hammer these days. He was far beyond that. He only did it when he needed to work out his aggressions.

             
He’d already fiddled around one of the worksites today in hopes of dealing with the frustration he’d been feeling, but this job would cause a hell of a lot more sweat than what he’d been doing when his foreman had called and told him that Bill had sent the workmen away. He should curse the old man, but he knew he wouldn’t.

             
The thought of getting revenge on Jewell kept him going as he climbed up onto Bill’s roof during the hottest part of the day and ripped off the ridge cap, then began tearing down the shingles. Yes, revenge and swift punishment would most certainly be sweet.

              “What are you doing with a cad like Blake?”

             
Jewell stopped sipping her glass of sweet iced tea and laughed. “I don’t know, Bill, but I can tell you it’s worth it. Because if I weren’t with him, I never would have gotten to know you. For that matter, what are
you
doing with a cad like Blake?” Her grin made Bill laugh in turn.

             
“I’ve known Blake since the day he was born,” Bill said, and his smile began to disappear. “His father was a good man, but his mama beat the good right out of him — I mean Blake’s dad. It broke the heart of my best friend, Blake’s granddaddy. I was just glad he passed on before he saw the final chapter of their story play out.”

             
“What do you mean?” She knew she shouldn’t pry into Blake’s life, but it was like watching a movie, one that you just couldn’t turn off because you had to know how it ended.

             
“I don’t think I should talk about that dark time,” Bill said with a negative wave of his hand.

             
“Of course not. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.” But of course she did — she was dying to know everything. She hoped Bill didn’t tell Blake about this.

             
“Oh, you aren’t doing anything wrong, sweetie. It’s just a really sad story,” Bill said as he got up to refill their glasses. When he returned and handed her a cup of tea, he looked at her intently. “Do you care about Blake?”

             
Jewell was so shocked by the question, she didn’t know what to do. Since this man was obviously attached to Blake, she could hardly tell him that she was only there because she was being paid to be. But at the same time, she didn’t want to say a whole bunch of mushy stuff either. It would be a lie. Gosh, she felt trapped.

             
“You don’t have to say anything, darling,” Bill told her after the silence stretched on. “I can see that I put you up against a wall there.”

             
Still, she had to say something now. “I’m sorry, Bill. I just…it’s just… Well, we’ve only been together a few days and the situation is…well…it’s just complicated.”

             
Bill’s penetrating eyes bored into her, making her squirm in her seat.

             
“I understand, darling. When I was younger, people didn’t play all these games they play today. If a boy liked a girl, or a girl liked a boy, they told each other. If it looked like it was going good, there was no need to draw the whole dating process out. Heck, you can know on the first date if the girl looks like she’ll be the one. I married my Vivian three months after we met, because I knew there’d never be another girl for me.”

             
“What happened?”

             
“The good Lord took her four years ago. I still think of her every single day, and I can’t wait till I get to go and be with her again.”

             
“I’m sure she’s waiting for you right at the gates.”

             
“Not quite yet, darling. My Vivian was always too busy to wait around for anyone. But when it’s time, she’ll be there to meet me all right.”

             
“If I may ask, how did she die?”

             
“In her sleep, so there was no pain. I think it was just time for her to go home. I was real angry about it for a while, but I finally accepted that someone up there knows more than I do, and I realized that being angry all the time doesn’t do any good.”

             
“You are a wise man, Bill. I’m glad I’ve gotten to meet you.” Jewell reached out her hand and took his, smoothing his wrinkly skin with her small thumb.

             
“I am glad I’ve gotten to meet you too, darling. You remind me of my sweet Vivian. She was always so calm and just loved everyone, but if you fired her up, she would have no problem taking the hide right off you,” he said with a chuckle.

             
“I don’t normally lose my temper, but…” She didn’t know how to complete that sentence.

             
“Don’t give up on Blake. He’s been through some dark times in his life. His mama wasn’t fit to be a mother, and it was her fault that she and the boys’ daddy died. To top that off, the three boys watched it happen,” Bill said with a sigh.

             
“Wait! They watched their parents die? Was it a car wreck?”

             
“No. If only it were that easy. Blake may one day open up to you about it. If he does, then you take the time to listen. I just want you to know that he has to deal with the hard times he’s known however he has to deal with them. Sometimes his bark is pretty bad, but that boy has a heart of gold. He’s just managed to bury it really deep.”

             
“He’s lucky to have you in his life,” Jewell told him.

             
“Of course he is, little missy. I’m a great man.” Bill smiled at her and she knew that all talk of sadness was over.

             
After the two of them visited a while longer, Bill fell asleep in his recliner without giving Jewell any tasks to do. So she went outside and saw the three brothers on the roof. They were working quickly, and shingles came flying over the side of the house.

             
A huge dumpster sat in the driveway, one that hadn’t been there when Jewell had gone inside with Bill an hour earlier. She walked over to the work truck —
Knight Construction
was stenciled on the door — and, finding a pair of gloves in the back, put them on.

             
Over the next couple of hours, she picked up roofing from the ground and threw it into the dumpster. By the time the sun was getting low in the sky, she was completely exhausted, but the yard was mostly cleared of debris and she felt pretty dang good about herself.

             
“You don’t listen too well, do you?”

             
Jewell turned to find Blake behind her. He wiped his forehead with a rag before looking her in the eyes.

             
“No,” she told him. “It’s always been a fault of mine.”

             
“We’ll see if I can help you change your ways,” he said with more than a hint of anticipation in his smile.

             
“You don’t have time.”

             
“I invent time. Especially for those who need punishing.” He threw down the rag and tossed his shirt back on. “Let’s run back to my apartment and shower. But we’d better get a move on. I want to do something tonight.”

             
He took her hand, led her to his work truck, and practically thrust her up inside.

             
“Where’s your car?” She just couldn’t picture Blake as a truck sort of a guy.

             
“I had my employee take it back when he delivered the truck. We needed tools.”

             
“Oh, makes sense,” she said, at a loss of what to say next. Everyone kept throwing her new curves, it seemed, and it was taking her overwhelmed brain time to catch up.

             
He didn’t even say goodbye to his brothers; he just started the truck and drove out into traffic. After a few minutes, Jewell’s curiosity overrode her need to be quiet.

             
“Where are we going?”

             
“That’s a surprise,” he replied. The eager gleam that shone in his eyes made his face look so much more handsome — not that he was a slouch in that department even in his worst of moods.

             
Jewell wasn’t sure if she’d be nearly as excited as he was about what was coming next, but she’d already argued with him far more than she should have today, so she decided to bite her tongue — if she had to — the remainder of the night.

             
An hour later, she would seriously regret her choice not to argue.