Wyatt (Lane Brothers #1) (5 page)

“Why? Tell me why you want her confidential files and maybe I’ll do it.”

Shit.

“She tried to run.” I sigh, closing my eyes at the memory.

After a night of excruciating torture touching my Ellie, I’d finally dropped off to sleep and had one of the best nights of rest I’d had in years.

I’d woken in the early hours and escaped to the downstairs gym to stop myself from going too far too fast, only to hear the alarm trip when my watch started beeping.

The guards had notified me of her direction and I’d followed closely behind, stalking her slowly but surely, watching her smile and almost yell her victory right before bouncing off that wall.

I’d felt amused at her daring nature and then just pissed that she hadn’t woken needy and looking for what only I could give her. Unreasonable, yes, but I never said I was a saint or a patient man.

Now I just feel like garbage and it’s driving me nuts.

“Where’s Miah?”

“Tell me what you did, asshole! Miah may take your shit and not ask questions because he’s the youngest, but I smell your stink from a mile away.”

Jesus, save me from this lunatic. I have to tell him now, whether I want the info or not, because knowing this psycho he’ll be on my doorstep and ready to beat me to death if I don’t.

“She ran and came up short at the wall, okay? I…I told her there was a snake behind her, expected her to freak and jump at me…”

Silence follows and I grit my teeth in frustration. I hate it when Jared does this silent shit because I know he’s just waiting for me to finish instead of jumping in and drawing his own conclusions like Miah usually does.

“She went nuts, Jared, like meltdown, total-terror nuts,” I finish.

My heart aches at just the memory of her face losing all color, and it’s all I can do not to start bawling like a girl.
My fault, my fault.

“She okay?”

“No. I had to sedate her to get her to stop screaming. Christ, it broke my heart seeing that shit, Jared.”

He’s quiet, but I hear his teeth grinding on the other end of the line and I can well imagine that if Bolton were alive right now, he’d be the unluckiest son of a bitch on earth.

Miah is nuts, but Jared is a different kettle of fish altogether. He’s an eye-for-an-eye type, like us, but that much worse because he believes in multiplying shit as if intent earns that extra suffering.

“I’ll get it to you soon as I can. May take a few minutes to hack in undetected depending on what they’re running and if it’s in the system. If not, I’ll have to fly down to Philly to get the hard copy.”

“Thanks, bro.”

I can always count on my boys, no matter what. I have army buddies across the states and love those men like family, but no one will ever have my back like these two and I know it.

“You hurt her again in any way and you won’t be giving her those kids you keep talking about.”

“I hear ya, bro. Believe me, I hear ya,” I mutter, running my bloody hand through my hair.

“Good. Love ya, you ass.”

“Love you, too, psycho.”

We ring off with heavy hearts and I replace the phone with a curse, my eyes falling on the liquor cabinet and the sweet oblivion it promises. But my baby needs me more than I need to get shitfaced, so instead of taking what the liquor offers, I head upstairs to shower before bringing Ellie round for that breakfast she never ate.

Ellie

I wake with a groan and the feeling in my head that reminds me of the flu and a hangover rolled into one. My nose is stuffy, my eyes burn, and my muscles are so tense that they hurt.

Nothing at all like the blissful feeling I woke with earlier this morning, and no guilty smile this time, either.

I’m confused for a second before it all comes rushing back to me. My escape, the elation of victory, running into the wall, Wyatt’s anger…and God help me, that snake.

My skin all but tries to crawl off my bones just thinking about it, so instead I open my eyes and focus on the here and now. I’m back in Wyatt’s comfy bed, safe and sound.

Why I should feel relief when I’m right back where I started is unbelievable, but I do.

“Baby girl.”

My head turns and I just barely stop a smile from forming when I see him kneeling beside the bed, his head bent close to mine.

“Hmm?”

He looks guilty and remorseful and I allow that to wash over me, pushing away the distrust and the urge to run again. I can’t say why seeing him this way should bug me, but it definitely does, enough that I have the insane urge to raise a hand and stroke it over his cheek in comfort.

Imagine, the hostage giving her kidnapper comfort!

That almost makes me giggle, and I feel my mouth twitch at that, as well as recalling the spectacle I made of myself with all that hollering. And the look on his face! Priceless.

He sees my mirth and his mouth drops open as his brow furrows.

“What the hell is so funny?”

“Nothing.”

It comes out as a squeak because I have the insane need to laugh and fear that laughing now will only piss him off. I don’t know how I know that he’d be angry at me making light of my episode; I just know that it’s true.

And doesn’t that just warm my cold dead heart and make me want to sigh and cuddle closer.

“Ellie,” he growls warningly.

“Fine. I just…you should have seen your face!”

That gets me laughing and the guy probably thinks I’m completely off my rocker. I sound hysterical and, quite frankly, I can’t see how I can be so amused right now, either.

Maybe because I
have
lost my marbles. I must have, because I feel so safe and protected right now that I’m not focused on anything at all but the expression of shock and bewilderment that I remember from earlier.

              When my laughter dies he’s still frowning darkly, but I notice that he’s got my hand in his and he seems as bewildered as he is contrite.

“I’m so sorry for scaring you that way, baby. I didn’t—”

“Know that I have a deep abiding fear of snakes? Don’t sweat it, Wyatt, it’s not your fault.”

And it isn’t. He may be my captor, my prison warden, but if there’s one thing I learned at Bolton’s hands, it’s never to blame others for actions that aren’t theirs.

“But—”

“Okay. Let’s forget about that for a minute. I mean, please just drop it, because this stuff you jabbed in me is good but not that good that I won’t freak again,” I interrupt, taking a deep, steadying breath. “We need to seriously talk, and I’m hungry so why don’t you feed me, Mr. Warden. Then you can answer all the questions I have for you.”

He frowns.

“If you ask me why again…”

“You’ll what, huh? Start wailing on me? Somehow I doubt that. No, I’ll ask you anything I want and you’ll tell me what I want to know. That is if you want me to stop trying to run. I can’t function without knowing things. Like you said, I’m used to everything being exactly the same, and no, I didn’t just do that to myself to turn invisible. It’s what I needed to do to get through the day. If I can’t have my routine, I need something solid to keep me steady and you can give me that by talking. Deal?”

Wyatt looks at me oddly before smiling softly and shaking the hand I never bothered to pull from his.

“Deal.”

The walk downstairs to the kitchen is done on shaky legs with a lot of assistance from him, and I take the time to catalogue his body thoroughly.

If he’d been in that calendar I bought in college—the one with the shirtless soldiers who’d volunteered to pose for the calendar to raise money for vets and amputees—I so would have bought more than one.

“Here, baby, you sit while I make us something. You okay with eggs or no?”

“Ha ha, funny man. I said
raw
eggs in a
shake
are
gross
. I like cooked just fine.”

His movements are precise and economical as he goes around mixing eggs, frying bacon, and making toast, all while preparing me a cup of tea to nurse while I wait.

I start to ask questions but he shushes me on the premise that we eat first and talk after.

I oblige and dig into the food, shocked that I’m starving and enjoying my breakfast when I haven’t allowed myself a meal like this in so long. I was never really into big breakfasts, but I admit, the granola was nasty.

“Okay, seeing as you’ve eaten more than half, you can start asking. I promise to answer as much I can, but if I don’t, you move on. No nagging or tantrums.”

“Fine. First, you watched me for months. My question is
why
, and for how long? And no, I won’t believe some cock-and-bull tale about you seeing me in the diner and having a love-at-first-sight epiphany. That stuff is not real, so make this believable, at least. Please.”

Wyatt, the bastard, smirks at me and shakes his head.

“You’re full of shit, you know that? You’re so closed off and innocent one minute, and then the next you’re busting my chops. Such a contradiction. Lucky for us both, I like it.”

His tone goes all soft and low and he gives me a slow perusal that sets my junk to tingling in a strange way that is both thrilling and discomforting.

“Stop that and spill it!”

“Jesus, you’re ornery. Fine. The first time I saw you I thought you were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. No, don’t roll your eyes, baby, it’s true. You’re gorgeous and I got hard just thinking of your lips on my…well, I wanted you. So I had you investigated, and when it all came back I just wanted you more.”

“The broken girl? You a fixer, Wyatt, is that it? You think you can fix me?” I sneer.

Pity? He pities the poor Ellie he saw in some photo?

My anger blasts out of nowhere and I’m yelling by the last word. No one can fix me. No one. What the maniac did to me is irreparable and I know it.

              “Shut the fuck up. I don’t want to fix you, Ellie, I just want you to stop pretending you don’t exist, baby. That’s all, because
I see you
. I see all that light you’re trying to snuff out and I won’t let that happen.”

“What are you planning to do with me?”

That smile of his gets way more suggestive and I roll my eyes sarcastically and purse my lips. He just laughs and shakes his head.

“Baby, I told you. I’m keeping you. I’m going to marry you and put my babies in you. That’s the long and short of it. You can believe me, not believe me, whatever. It won’t make one bit of difference because the end result will be the same. Get that settled in your head and get over whatever hang-ups you have with your past. I’m not here to hurt you or mess with you. I just want you. Forever.”

Stop, just stop that freaking bus and let me off to stretch my legs already! Is this guy serious?

“You
are
nuts. Who decides they want to marry a stranger?” I yell, coming out of my seat with a screech that makes me cringe. “You took me the night before last and—”

“But I was watching you long before that, Ellie. I already told you that. And I know everything there is to know, so you’re not a stranger to me at all, baby.”

              “I just met you! And our start wasn’t exactly normal.”

“Whose fault is that?!”

Now he’s yelling and towering over me. I should be intimidated by his nearness. Instead, I catch his scent and breathe it in, hating myself for wondering what it would be like to have that smell on my skin.

“Stop thinking whatever it is you’re thinking, Eloise. I don’t like that look you’re giving me.”

Tough.

I don’t say it out loud, but in my head I feel victoriously defiant.

And then it strikes me—a way to prove…something.

“What’s your mother’s name and number?”

The fool pauses and then grins so wide I see his wisdom teeth, if it’s possible for an idiot to have such things.

“Oh, Ellie, baby, you sure you wanna open that can of worms? Once Judith Lane gets her hooks into you, there’s nowhere to run, girl.”

Why is this so funny to him? I expected some backpedaling, an excuse, an outright
no
, at least. Instead, he’s laughing himself to tears and looking at me like I just sprouted three heads.

“You want me to feel safer about this lunacy? You give me her number and let me talk,” I snarl, almost swallowing my tongue when he hands me the phone and rattles off the number.

It rings and I find my palms and pits sweating enough to qualify me for a doctor’s visit.

“Wyatt, honey, have you gone and lost me my daughter-in-law already? I swear to God, boy, if you said something to my Ellie to make her cry or leave before I meet her, I’ll bean you.”

“Er, well this isn’t Wyatt. It’s Ellie,” I stutter.

He laughs at my face and the screaming coming from the phone when I pull it away to preserve what’s left of my hearing.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, baby.”

He shoves his hands in his pockets, grins, and starts sauntering off with a peppy whistle that separates my skittles.

“Er, uh, ma’am?”

“Sorry, sorry, honey, I’m just SO EXCITED! Phew, shoot, George! Get over here, honey, Ellie’s on the phone!”

Twilight zone. I have definitely stepped into the twilight zone. I’m sure I’ll be a candidate for a straitjacket soon.

This is just plain weird and unsettling.

“Judy, baby, stop trying to burst our darling’s eardrums and speak to her already. You dancing, baby? Well, I’ll be, if I knew you’d be this happy I would have told Wyatt to go get his girl much sooner.”

I hear it all and actually feel myself stepping closer to the rabbit hole. Voluntarily.

“Oh, Ellie, I’ve been waiting so long for you to come home, sweetheart. Did you get the cake? Was it good? Is that son of mine treating you right? Why am I even asking? I know how dense men can be sometimes. Of course he hasn’t told you everything yet. The boy has this idea that you have to love him first of your own free will.”

“Er, well, I just wanted to…call and thank you for the cake? It was the best I’ve ever tasted,” I mumble.

It’s not a lie exactly. It was the best cake I’ve ever attacked like a ravening beast.

“I’m so glad, Ellie dear. Now when are you and Wyatt coming home? I’ve got everything arranged for the wedding, and I even took the liberty of getting this Vera Wang dress in your size. It’s perfect and I just know you’ll love it.”

She starts prattling away about the cake, menu, flowers and whatnot, but I’m still stuck on the wedding thing and struggling not to pass the heck out.

“Ellie? You still there, sweetheart?”

“Um, yeah. Listen, this is going to sound terrible, and I really don’t want it to, but you need to understand that I’m just human and distrustful by nature and…why should I believe that you’re his mom and that he isn’t some sort of…”

“Lunatic murderer?” She laughs, making me smile despite the emotions plaguing me. “Well, honey, the thing is there’s nothing I can say to make you believe a word of all this, but I am his mother. I was in labor for thirty-six and a half hours trying to get that little snot out of me, but I knew it was worth it the year he enlisted in the army. He’s a good boy. As his mother, I also know that he has a tiny freckle on the inside of his left thigh.”

              “That’s it?”

She laughs in a way that reminds me so much of my own mom, my heart aches, and I long for her so fiercely that I’m in pain. My mom would have said the same things, only she was a lot more soft spoken and quiet in her way.

Judith Lane is his mom. I know it.

“Ellie, my love, do an old lady a favor and try to trust your heart on this one, okay? Wyatt is a stubborn shit if ever I met one, and he’s not the easiest man to handle, but if there’s one thing I can tell you about my son, it’s that he would chew his own hand off before hurting a hair on your head. Now give me a kiss and go get to know the man. If he’s not for you, tell him and he’ll walk.”

Isn’t she supposed to tell me what a great catch her son is and extol his every virtue and stuff? For a mom, this chick is not as complimentary as most of the blind idiots who still have their grown sons on their hanging nipples.

“Do me another favor, though. Try to give him a chance before you decide anything. He’s worshipped you for so long, I think he might not make it if he loses this before the battle even begins.”