Her Knight in Black Leather (9 page)

Lisa quirked a blond brow. “What did they say?”

Cat shook her head. “Nothing. Just somebody breathing.”

Lisa shrugged. “Probably just a kid.”

Cat nodded, but unease settled in her stomach. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d gotten prank calls. Around Halloween, the tricksters all came out to play. She’d never gotten this kind, though. She couldn’t help notice the seemingly coincidental timing, either. Michael’s appearance in her life. The photos in the newspaper, which occurred during a time when she was sure they were alone. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s all it is.”

• • •

The steady cadence of his boots hitting the tiled floor echoed off the walls as Michael made his way down the hospital corridor. The place was eerily silent, the only sound coming from the hushed conversations of the occasional personnel he passed. He focused on his destination, tried to keep his mind set on what he came to do, but each step wrenched the knot in his stomach a little tighter.

Upon reaching the last door at the end of the hall, he paused. As his eyes traced the metal numbers adorning the wooden structure, he drew in a deep breath. This day had been ten years in the making. If he were lucky, the brush with death had calmed his father a bit. Maybe the old man had forgotten, and they could finally move on.

Yeah, and maybe pigs would fly south for the winter.

Deciding he couldn’t put it off any longer, he reached for the brass handle, but the door opened before he made contact. Gabe’s form filled the doorway, and dark eyes that had been moving in search of something settled on Michael.

He couldn’t resist the sigh of relief at the small reprieve.

“’Bout damn time you got here.” One corner of his brother’s mouth hitched as he stepped through the door and let it fall closed behind him. “Dad can harp on you for a change.”

Michael couldn’t help the wry chuckle that escaped him. At least he wasn’t his father’s only victim. “How are Lilly and the girls?”

His older brother had done everything right according to their father’s plan. He married his college sweetheart five years ago and had two daughters. He’d also followed in their father’s footsteps. Gabe normally ran management between the hotels as well as kept tabs on the bar in town. With Lilly currently eight months pregnant with their third child, however, Gabe chose to stick to the bar.

“Ah, they’re good.” A proud smile spread across his brother’s face. He sobered a moment later and cuffed his shoulder. “You were supposed to stop by the bar last night. What happened?”

What happened? Bright green eyes and a shy smile. He lingered for a moment in the memories. The way his hands molded perfectly to her sleek, feminine curves. Her warm, creamy skin, slick with perspiration, sliding against his. Her subtle, exotic scent had either imbedded in his mind or in his jacket, because he swore he still smelled her.

He refocused on his brother and gave a nonchalant shrug. “I got a bit distracted.”

“Must’ve been cute if she caught your attention.” Gabe winked, but a heartbeat later, his playful smile melted into a pity-filled frown. “Hope she was worth it, though, man, ’cause you’re about to catch hell for it. Dad’s not a happy camper.”

Was
she worth it? The answer slid into his mind barely a breath later. Even if he never saw her again, Cat had given him something he hadn’t had in ten years — a night of peace. Peace from the memories that haunted him and the guilt that followed him wherever he went. Peace from the oppressive weight of being who he was. For one night, he was simply a man, and he’d be forever grateful to her for that.

“Yeah.” Michael couldn’t resist the smile. “She was definitely worth it.”

“You plan to see her again?” Gabe folded his arms across his chest.

Michael’s shoulders slumped with the force of the emotion that grabbed him. Of all the questions, Gabe asked the one that weighed the heaviest on his mind. He couldn’t believe how hard it had been to leave Cat an hour before. Did he want to see her again? With every ounce of his being. The woman piqued his curiosity and stirred his desire like no other.
Would
he see her again?

“No.” He didn’t get involved with women from this damn town.

“You can’t stay single forever, you know. It’s been ten years, man.” Gabe gave a slow shake of his head. “You have to let it go.”

His brother referred, of course, to that awful night. The exact reason he left town in the first place. Ten years ago, on the Fourth of July, a jealous ex-girlfriend murdered his best friend in front of him, then turned the gun on herself, killing her unborn child in the process. The gruesome images were burned into his brain.

Michael heaved a sigh and raked a hand through his hair.

“Unfortunately, that’s easier said than done.” He closed his eyes, the memories rising like acid. The gun, the bodies, the blood. “I can’t stop seeing Kaylee hit the ground and wondering if I could have done something to stop it.”

The nightmare repeated like a broken record, over and over. It haunted his sleep, and every time he saw that night, the guilt weighed on him like an anchor.

“Well, you came home. That’s a start.” Gabe settled a brotherly arm around his shoulders in a quick, familiar hug that reminded him of all the years growing up. Michael opened his eyes and smiled his thanks. His brother always had his back. “You should go see Taylor. He’s asked about you.”

Taylor Johnson. Kaylee’s older brother and the one person he
needed
to see but hadn’t yet had the courage to face. It was another conversation ten years in the making. Gabe was right. He owed it to their family.

Gabe released him and stepped back. “I should warn you. With me taking leave from the hotels until after Lilly has the baby and his setback, Dad’s chomping at the bit to find someone to fill my position until I get back. Three guesses who he has in mind.”

Michael shook his head. “Sorry, but he can keep on looking. I’ve got my own shop to run. I know darn well it’s just his way of trying to reel me in.”

The thought of running the hotels wasn’t what bothered him. Oh, sure, he hated wearing monkey suits. Give him a comfortable pair of jeans over a tie any day. Bliss was being elbows deep in an engine and covered in grease. But he could work the hotels if he had to.

It was the principal of it that got to him. Growing up, his father always seemed to be trying to mold him into something he wasn’t. Michael had built something all on his own, and he was proud of it. He wanted his father to be proud of him, to see his shop in L.A. as the accomplishment it was, but Dad only seemed to see that his youngest son hadn’t come into the family business. From his father’s point of view, Michael turned his back on his family.

Gabe clapped his shoulder. “Well, good luck then. Dad won’t be happy to hear it.”

“Is he ever happy with me?” Michael gave a miserable shake of his head and shoved the door open, steeling himself for what was to come. Two steps in, he halted dead in his tracks. A sense of mortality — his own as well as his father’s — grabbed him by the throat. Whatever he’d been expecting, it hadn’t been this.

The old man sitting up in bed looked nothing like the father he’d known his entire life. His father had aged over the last two years. Dark, almost black hair had turned gray. His skin was paler, his eyes more sunken and rimmed with shadows. He was a lot more fragile under the baby blue, knitted blanket that covered his hips. Nothing at all like the strong, retired United States Marine who ran his family like a military platoon and expected every bit as much from them.

It didn’t matter anymore what had gone between them. They needed to forgive and forget and move on. Too many years had passed in silence, and it had to end here. His mother was right —
next time
might be too late.

Neatly trimmed gray brows came together as the coal eyes staring back at him narrowed. “You just couldn’t show up when promised, could you?”

In other words,
you screwed up again.
Michael expelled a heavy breath and let his shoulders slump. If that wasn’t the story of his life.

“Good to see you, too, Dad.” He shook his head as he moved farther into the room.

His father wasn’t going to make this easy.

• • •

An hour later, Michael paced the same invisible line on the hospital floor, back and forth between two bright orange faux leather kitchen chairs that sat against the window. Eyes on the black and white checkered tiles, he clutched the keys in his right jean pocket until the metal bit into his hand. Only his respect for his father’s heart condition kept the slew of retorts currently sitting on his tongue from leaving his lips.

Everything grated on his nerves, his body more on edge with every step he took. The sterile smell. The clean white walls closing in on him. The machines’ steady blips and bleeps increased the pounding in his skull. His father’s rant hadn’t stopped since the opening shot. He’d tried conjuring images of Cat, to reclaim the ease he felt in her arms, but the old man droned on in a scolding tone that made him feel like the teenager he’d once been. Just like then, no amount of distraction worked. No amount of explanation soothed his father’s tirade.

“Maybe if you’d married that girl like you were supposed to — ”

Michael rolled his eyes
.
The same argument. It started exactly as Gabe told him it would — with his father insisting he step up and take his place in the family business — and derailed on a downhill slide from there. He’d hoped they’d gotten over this one by now. That maybe, somehow, time had eased the wound.

“Don’t go there again, Dad.” Michael slowly faced his father. “We’ve been over this a million times. I didn’t want to marry her.”

“She was carrying your child.” He slammed his shaking fist against the bed, the soft mattress absorbing the sound. Anger radiated from his black eyes. “It was your responsibility to do right by her.”

Ten years ago, his father’s voice would have thundered around the room, but now it came out weak and breathless. Despite the misery of seeing his father’s weakened condition, Michael couldn’t stop the old, familiar anger from rising in his stomach.

To think he’d given up a leisurely morning he could’ve spent in Cat’s arms so he could listen to his father tell him repeatedly what a failure and disappointment he was. What the hell ever made him think he could bridge the gap between them? The man heard and believed only what he wanted to.

“Dammit, Dad.” He drew his brows together and met the old man’s heated glare with one of his own. “Did it ever occur to you to ask if the baby was mine?”

When his father went silent, Michael snatched his jacket off the gray overstuffed chair in the corner beside him and left the room. If he didn’t get out of there, his head would explode. He’d also end up saying something he’d probably regret later. Like telling his father where to shove his condescending attitude or suggesting the old man go take a long look in the mirror before pointing any damn fingers at him.

His mother waited in the hallway. Her normally bright eyes clouded with sadness. She took his hand and quietly led him into the waiting area down the hall. Once there, she pulled him into a seat beside her and turned to him, her brows knitted together in worry.

“You need to tell him the truth, Michael.” Her forlorn expression made the guilt in the pit of his stomach rise. The pleading in her eyes penetrated and made him feel like he was fifteen all over again, caught sneaking out of the house.

“I know.” He ducked his head and pushed his hands through his hair, releasing his anger on a pent-up breath. “I’m sorry. He just … he gets to me. He doesn’t ever listen. He just says what he wants, and that’s supposed to be the truth.”

“Your father’s a hard man, sweetheart. He’s that way because he loves you so much.” She paused, staring intently at him. “All he wants is to see you happy. He worries about you.”

“He sure has a funny way of showing it.”

“I know he does.” She sighed. “I know you want him to give you the benefit of the doubt, but there is too much water under that bridge. There’ve been wrongs done on both sides and you know it.”

He could only nod. She was right. He’d been a hateful teenager full of too much pent-up anger.

“It has to start with you, sweetheart. You give and he’ll give.” She touched his arm. “Go make peace with him, Michael. Make this right. You may not get another chance.”

Shoulders slumped in defeat, he nodded and rose to his feet. This was the entire reason he came back two years ago, but the day had been eight years in the making, and he hadn’t been prepared for the fight he’d gotten. Too many years of silence and pain had passed between them, too many things said in anger he knew damn well neither of them really meant, and he’d left town the same way he had the first time — angry and hurt.

His mother was right. The endless cycle had to stop with him. He wasn’t that twenty-year-old kid anymore. He was an adult, and it was time to put this to rest.

Returning to his father’s room, Michael took a seat in the chair beside the bed. His father’s face was somber, a hard edge in his eyes. The old man was dying, but he was still prepared for a fight. Michael took a deep breath and touched his hand.

“We need to talk, Dad.”

With a heavy sigh, Cat leaned her head against her father’s shoulder, a combination of worry and sheer nerves, leaving her stomach a turbulent mess. The two of them stood side by side at the front counter of his small bookshop, staring at the newspaper laid out across the counter.

Most days she loved being here. She always felt the most at home among the books. She loved research and had worked in the library in town until it closed two years ago. Now that she’d quit her job with Nick, working for her father felt like coming home again.

Today, however, Cat wished she could be anywhere else. Unfortunately, her father already had the newspaper out when she entered the shop five minutes ago and had seen the picture on the front page.

His continuing silence proved hell on her sanity. Her father staring at those pictures made her want to crawl in a hole. She enjoyed her night with Michael. Enjoyed how feminine and wanted he made her feel. It had been hers and hers alone. Now it was all over the front page of the town newspaper. Would people remember her mother? Wonder if this meant she’d become just like her? Or would they give her the benefit of the doubt this time? She wasn’t sure she wanted to find out.