Romance: Sports Romance: ON SIDE (Secret Baby Pregnancy Football Romance) (Contemporary New Adult Fiction) (9 page)

Chapter Five

ELIAS

I could tell Ava was hell bent on revenge as I was, which was why I'd passed her my number. Deacon would never allow her to help me. And honestly, I'd probably not allow her to help me either. But any information she might have could help. Not only that, slipping a pretty girl like her my number could come with some added benefits.

“I'll leave you two alone and let you catch up,” I said, standing up from the table. “It was very nice meeting you, Ava.”

I reached for her hand to kiss it, but she shook my hand instead. Strong, stubborn woman. I liked that. I smiled at her and she smiled back at me, but her smile appeared to be more of a challenge than a friendly expression.

“Nice meeting you too, Elias. And congratulations on your new role,” she said. “I know you have big shoes to fill.”

“That I do,” I said, nodding at Deacon. I admired the hell out of this man. The fact that he felt I was ready for this role meant the world to me, but there was something he wasn't saying. I could see it in his eyes. “Talk to you later, D-man.”

It was a playful jab at him because I knew he didn't like it. He hated being called anything but Deacon and it was something of an inside joke between the two of us.

“Soon, Elias. Very soon.” Deacon looked more serious than usual. “Meet with me before you head out to look for this man, we need to talk.”

He would try to talk me out of it, no doubt. He wouldn't do it here, not in front of Ava. But he would be talking to me, I had no doubts about that. There was no way I was going to let him get hurt by the same man who killed my parents. Deacon was like a second father to me and there was no way I was going to lose him too. And to think they were looking for him – nah, I wouldn't let them get him. And I wouldn't let them get his niece.

Unlike the other two, I truly had nothing to lose. After coming so close to death years ago, I no longer feared it. I'd seen the light right before Deacon jumped in and saved me. He knew if I transformed into my lion form in time, I'd heal from the wounds and survive. It was something nobody had ever really discussed with me before that. My father wasn't fond of what he was, so he kept it from me and didn't tell me much about it. But in that moment, after Deacon had told me to shift, my body healed itself from the inside out while I shifted. And for the first time in m whole life to that point, I felt alive.

Maybe part of me felt like I could never die. But another part of me knew that was a lie. My father was a lion. He died. My mother was – well, my mother was something else entirely – and she'd still died too.

I was their son, and yes, I too could die. But that didn't mean I would.

“Will do, Deacon,” I said calmly. Not that he had to know my true plans.

Whether or not I had time to catch up with him wasn't on the top of my priority list. But his niece, on the other hand – I'd definitely be talking to her.

“Call me,” I mouthed to her when Deacon looked away.

Ava nodded, her face serious.

Never before had getting a girl to call me been so easy. Not that it was ever hard, but Ava seemed like the type who might be hard to get. Not that I'd be pursuing her in that regard. She was, after all, Deacon's niece. And Deacon was like a father to me. I couldn't ruin Deacon's trust by hurting his niece. I wasn't going to let anything in this world break the bond I shared with him.

Not even his gorgeous, feisty niece.

***

The next morning, my phone rang, startling me awake. My adrenaline running, I looked at the clock and saw that it was five after seven. In the morning. I'd only been asleep for a few hours. I looked at my phone and saw that the number was blocked, which wasn't a good sign. I had half a mind to let it go to voicemail if only to get more sleep, but my mind shifted back to the night before.

It could be Ava.

I answered the phone and smiled when I heard her voice.

“Elias?” she asked before I even had a chance to introduce myself.

“Yes, it's me,” I said, sitting up in bed and scratching my chin.

Stubble was starting to grow in, I'd need to shave that. Yet another cliché about us biker types that I didn't feel the need to live up to.

“This is Ava. From last night?”

As if I could forget her.

“I figured,” I said. “When would be a good time to meet up and talk?”

“Now?” she said, and I could sense the urgency in her voice. “I can meet you for breakfast somewhere.”

“Better we talk alone, in private,” I said. “I can come to you?”

She hesitated and seemed to be weighing the wisdom of a private meeting. Not that I could blame her. She hardly knew me. She had no idea what my intentions were. If it weren't for her relationship to Deacon, well, my intentions might not be the best. But again, I couldn't do that to Deacon.

“If my uncle trusts you to take over his gang – I guess I can trust you in my home,” she said.

For the first time, I noticed a sweet southern drawl in that voice of hers. So adorable and incredibly sexy. Not coming on to Ava would be even harder than I thought, but I needed to behave myself. Bro code. Don't sleep with the beloved niece of the man who raised you. That would get me in a heap of pain, and fast.

“You can trust me, Ava,” I said, hopping out of bed and looking at the ground for my clothes. July in the Midwest was hot as hell and this place lacked air conditioning. I pulled out a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt while we talked. “I'm loyal to Deacon, which means I'm loyal to your family. Your family is as important to me as mine was.”

“Or rather what's left of my family,” she muttered.

Her pain was all too real and I knew exactly what she was going through.

“I'm sorry about your family, Ava,” I said, stopping and running a brush through my hair. “I really am.”

“And I'm sorry to hear about yours, and what happened to you, Elias.”

There was a moment of silence as I hurried and got dressed. “I need an address,” I said.

“I'm staying at a hotel. The Grand Winchester in downtown – ”

“I know exactly where that is,” I said, remembering a few crazy nights I'd had over there. “I'll be there in just a few minutes.”

“See you soon,” she said before hanging up.

Yes, see you soon, Ava. I looked in the mirror one last time, noticing the thick, dark stubble on my chin and face. I should shave, but I didn't have time for it. Oh well, some chicks dug the facial hair – not that I should care what Ava was into. But it crossed my mind anyway.

Damn you, Elias. Behave yourself. You don't need to fuck every pretty girl who crosses your path.

But Ava wasn't like any other pretty girl. She was different. Like me. The only other hybrid I'd met. No, we weren't one and the same, but maybe she could answer some questions about what we were and what it meant. And who knew – maybe I could answer some of her questions about the man who killed her parents.

Chapter Six

AVA

I paced the length of my hotel room, looking out the window every time I heard a car door. But he wouldn't be riding in a car, would he? He was a biker. Not saying he never drove a car, but – hell, what did I know about bikers? Not a damn thing, that was for sure.

I yearned for home, but at the same time, this small town felt a lot like my home. My parents were from there, as was Deacon. We moved when I was younger, which was why I had to stay in this dingy hotel room. Truthfully, I wasn't sure I even had a home anymore. I couldn't go back to my old town – the place where my parents died. I couldn't go back to their home. I'd been living with them at the time, trying to save up money to move into my own place since college hadn't worked out so well for me.

I just wasn't the college type. Daddy said I reminded him of Deacon in that regard, and when he said it, I remembered that there was a pain in his eyes. Like he sensed there was something off about me. I'd always known something was off about me, but I learned to live with it. I was a fighter. My body yearned to move, to punch, to kick – I wasn't meant to sit at a desk all day.

My dream was to one day open my own kickboxing studio, but that day might never come now. I'd lost everything and everyone. I had nothing but this dingy hotel room and a house I'd never be able to return to.

The sound of an engine revving and shutting down caught my attention, pulled me back to the here and now. That must be him. That must be Elias.

I walked over to the window, pulled back the curtains and watched as he stepped off his bike. His shaggy brown hair glistened in the sun, showing off some of his caramel highlights. It wasn't right that a man could have prettier hair than most women, especially a man as tough as Elias. Oh sure, he might look sweet and remind you of the boy next door, but there was something more to him. I could see it.

His black shirt hugged his body tight, showing off lean, tight muscles. His arms bulged beneath his shirt sleeves. His jeans were almost as tight. I noticed as he turned away from me, bending over and grabbing something from a bag on the back of his bike. Damn. They don't make men like him very often, because if they did, women of the world wouldn't be able to control themselves.

I pulled the curtain closed as he turned toward the stairs that he'd be taking to the second floor. His footsteps echoed through the corridor until they stopped outside my door. The look on his face when I swung that door open was priceless. His hand was still held back, preparing to knock, but I beat him to it.

“Come in,” I said, motioning for him to step inside. “No one followed you?”

“Of course not,” Elias said with a sigh.

He came inside and closed the door behind him. I made sure the doors were locked. Elias watched me, trying to suppress a grin.

“What?” I said. “Of all people, I would think you'd understand my nervousness.”

“Oh, I understand it. I just know all of this is pointless.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, my back to the door still.

There was only one place for us to sit down in the room. My bed. There was no sofa and no chairs because this God forsaken hotel was too crappy for amenities like that – or even shower curtains.

Elias had no problem sitting down on the bed, however. He sat on the edge, leaving room for me to sit down next to him.

“Just that if this man wanted to kill you, a lock wouldn't do you much good.”

He had a point. But locking the doors still made me feel safer, and it wasn't going to change anytime soon.

“That's all I can do, Elias.”

“No, that's not true at all, Ava. And you know it. That's why I'm here.”

“What? You think you're going to swoop in, find the man who killed my parents and – ”

“Our parents, Ava,” he corrected me. “He killed mine too, remember.”

“Yeah, but you didn't seem as gung ho about revenge until I came around. Why is that?”

I still didn't sit down beside him. I remained standing.

“Oh, that's where you're mistaken, doll – ”

“Don't you fucking dare call me doll,” I said, standing firm. “I may be small, but you have no idea who you're messing with.”

Elias laughed, but he held his hands up in defeat. “Sorry about that. But it doesn't change the fact that you are mistaken. I have always been out for revenge, I just knew I couldn't do it alone.”

That caught my attention. “Go on.”

His green eyes narrowed in on me, and I felt the weight of his gaze as it worked its way down the length of my body. I was wearing shorts and a tank top. Yeah, maybe it was a little revealing, but it was hotter than hell. Besides, I had a nice body, one I worked hard for, and I shouldn't have to cover it up because men like Elias might get the wrong idea.

I crossed my arms over my chest, hiding some of my cleavage without realizing it.

“You're different, Ava,” Elias said, licking his thick, luscious lips as he spoke.

“Are you trying to pick me up or tell me why you need me to help find our parents' killers? Kind of hard to tell,” I said.

My own voice felt weak and I couldn't deny the attraction was there. He was checking me out now and I knew it was no different than when I'd checked him out when he climbed off his bike. Well, okay, he didn't know about me doing that, so I guess there was a slight difference. I wasn't making a public show of it.

“I don't mean that in the flirty, pickup line sorta way,” Elias said, shaking his head. He stood up, and I feared he might walk toward me, but instead, he paced the room. “We have something in common, you and me. You're a hybrid shifter – lion and bear. And I'm a hybrid too.”

“You're also a lion-bear hybrid?” I asked, almost finding it hard to believe.

It was hard to believe not because we didn't exist – because we obviously did. But I was the only one I knew of, and even my parents were stumped by that. But what were the odds of me meeting another hybrid exactly like me in this world?

“No, I didn't say that.”

“Then what are you, Elias?” I asked, feeling tired from all the games he was playing.

My arms fell back down to my sides before I raised them again and began to rub my temples. The heat and his secretive nature were wearing me thin. The air conditioning in the room was kicked up to the highest level it would go, but it wasn't a match for the ridiculous Midwestern humidity. Not that my home would be much better. The south had it even worse. Maybe once we figured all this out, I'd move out west. Somewhere where humidity doesn't exist.

“That's complicated, Ava,” he said softly, turning to face me. “Can we focus on finding the man responsible for our parents' deaths?”

“Sure,” I said, shrugging. Honestly, it shouldn't matter to me what Elias was or what he wasn't. As long as he could fight alongside me – and I assumed he could – we'd be just fine. “But why are you so convinced my parents were murdered too? Especially since Deacon said their deaths had nothing in common with your parents?”

“I'm convinced because you're convinced,” he said, smiling the tiniest of smiles at me. “And because El Monstruo also visited you. I happen to doubt he was just stopping by for a friendly chat.”

“But if Deacon saved you years ago, why would he just now be seeking revenge?” Since Elias wasn't sitting on the bed, I decided to. I plopped down on the hideous floral comforter with a sigh.

“Probably because he had no idea who Deacon was. Until now.”

“That doesn't answer the question about why my parents' deaths were made to look like an accident while he butchered yours. And also – why am I still alive?”

“Good question,” Elias said, walking back toward the bed and standing inches from me, causing me to stare up at him. “And that's something I intend to find out.”