Fire & Brimstone: A Neighbor from Hell (28 page)

Chapter 53

              “Oh, it looks like the stage is free again!” Mrs. Bradford said excitedly as she jumped to her feet and before Ethan could do anything more than whimper, he was dragged back to the stage.

              Smiling at the devious expression on Mrs. Bradford’s face, Rebecca walked over to Lucifer, who was watching her every move like a paranoid serial killer, which even she had to admit was a bit frightening, and sat back down on his lap, ignoring the empty chair next to him.

              “What was that about?” he asked, shifting his glare to the man that she’d just been talking with.

              Well, conspiring with might be a more fitting term since she’d just used her skills and charm to get a little help in ridding them of their unwanted audience while making sure to properly screw them over, which just showed how truly talented she was. Sighing, she wrapped her arm around his shoulders and leaned against him.

              Her talents were seriously going to waste, which was just another reminder that she needed a job, preferably one back at the Fire & Brimstone where she belonged. She missed being there so much and was seriously considering sucking up her pride and asking for her job back. Melanie had been right, she wasn’t going to be happy working anywhere else. 

              “The River Tavern would like to give a warm welcome to our next singing sensation. Please welcome Trevor, Jason and Aidan Bradford to the stage where they are going to perform Justin Bieber’s ‘Boyfriend,” Eric, the man that she’d been speaking with, said, smiling as he gestured to their table.

              She glanced at the three men that she’d screwed over, mostly for the hell of it. Aidan looked genuinely shocked that she would do something so cruel to him while Jason and Trevor sat there, shaking their heads in pity.

              “Is this really the best that you could do?” Jason asked, sharing a look with Trevor, who looked truly disappointed.

              “I really hope this isn’t your ‘A’ game,” Trevor said, sighing heavily as he got to his feet.

              “Are you boys picking up the gauntlet?” she asked with an overly sweet grin, mostly to annoy the man sitting across from them, who she was obligated to hate until further notice.

              “No!” Aidan squeaked, shooting a nervous glance towards the exit while Jason said, “Absolutely.”

              “Feeling up to the challenge, are we?” she asked, shifting her attention back to the two men still looking at her with something close to pity.

              “Did you really think that you were going to get us with Bieber?” Trevor asked, shaking his head in disgust.

              “We have daughters, sweetheart,” Jason said, gesturing between him and Trevor, “and we take a very active role in our babies’ lives.”

              “Next time, pick a challenge,” Trevor said, folding his large arms over his chest.

              Nodding, she pointed to Aidan. “But he doesn’t,” she reminded them and with that, the two men completely forgot about her and shifted their attention on Aidan. When their smiles turned predatory, Aidan’s eyes widened in horror as he stumbled back.

              “But-but…” he mumbled as he shook his head, stumbling back.

              “Let’s go, sunshine!” Jason said, grabbing one of Aidan’s arms while Trevor grabbed the other one and together, they dragged him to the stage.

              “You’re a cruel woman,” Lucifer said, chuckling as he leaned in and kissed her cheek.

              “I know,” she admitted, trying not to sound proud, but she really was.

              “Why don’t we leave so that we can talk?” he asked, giving her another kiss that made it difficult to stand her ground, but this was important.

              “We can talk here,” she said, gesturing to the empty chairs surrounding them just as the first notes of “Boyfriend,” began.

              “What’s wrong with talking about this at home?” he asked even as he pulled his phone out, found his camera app, pointed it at the stage and hit record.

              “We could,” she murmured in agreement as she pulled out her phone and followed suit.

              “But you want to stay?” he asked as she shook her head in wonder as Jason and Trevor began singing, proving that they were in fact great dads.

              Aidan on the other hand…

              “I really hope that you can sing better than him,” she said, sighing because she really wasn’t sure if she could handle him mangling her favorite song.

              “You’ll never find out,” he said confidently.

              “You never know…” she teased, because she already knew that it was never going to happen no matter how much she would love to see it happen.

              “I really do,” he said, putting his phone away and shifted her on his lap so that they were eye to eye.

              Once he had her where he wanted her, he touched his forehead to hers and said, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

              “Are you planning on shrieking at me again?” she asked, debating on staying to see this thing through, but since she was able to get Aidan up on stage she could probably call it a night.

              “I’ll try my best not to,” he promised with that smile that she loved so much.

              “I guess it will have to do,” she said with an over-the-top sigh and a smile.

              “If you’re good I might even make you dinner,” he said softly as he tilted his head, leaned in and-

              “Excuse me, Rebecca?” a vaguely familiar voice said, interrupting what promised to be a very sweet kiss.

              Blinking, she sat back and looked at the man, who at least had the good sense to look embarrassed for interrupting them, and realized that it was Eric. Ignoring Lucifer and the glare that he was sending Eric’s way, she smiled up at Eric.

              “I’m really sorry to interrupt,” he said, turning an adorable shade of pink, “but I was hoping to get a chance to talk to you before you left.”

              Nodding, she climbed off Lucifer’s lap, pausing just long enough to slap his hands away when he tried to grab her, and smiled at the charming man that had gone along with her plans to torment Aidan. Slapping Lucifer’s hand away again, she asked Eric, “What’s on your mind?”

              “Why don’t we talk in my office?” he asked with a warm smile that had her reluctantly nodding and gesturing for him to lead the way as she was forced to slap Lucifer’s hand off her hip, again.

              “I’ll be right back,” she said, following Eric towards his office where he was most likely going to offer her a job and then beg her to work for him when she had to let him down gently. She felt bad, but what else was she going to do?

              She belonged at the Fire & Brimstone.

*-*-*-*

              “Shit!” he snarled, shooting another glare towards the back where Rebecca had disappeared over an hour ago.

              “Aw, what’s wrong, big guy?” Jason, the bastard that he was seriously considering slamming his face into the table, said in a syrupy sweet voice.

              “Shut. Up,” he bit out, ramming his fingers through his hair.

              He’d fucked this up and now he was about to lose her.

              She belonged with him at the Fire & Brimstone. He never should have let her go without a fight. He should have yelled at her, begged her, reasoned her, done and said whatever he needed to in order to keep her there. She belonged there just as much as he did, maybe more. While the Fire & Brimstone was his life, it was
their
baby. She’d helped him make something of it, helped him get his head out of his ass and had done the impossible.  She’d helped him focus on the big picture by annoying the shit out of him when all he’d wanted to do was make every little detail perfect.

              “I wonder if she’ll be able to get us a discount,” Trevor said in a thoughtful tone that was going to get his jaw broken.

              “Probably,” Jason murmured in agreement as he downed the rest of his beer and signaled for another one, but by now their waitress was a bit wary of them and was avoiding their table whenever possible.

              “Looks like it might be time to head out soon,” Trevor said as they all watched their waitress dart across the restaurant in a desperate attempt to get away from them.

              “Why don’t we do another song while we wait for Rebecca?” his mother, a woman who was proving that she was just as evil as Rebecca if not worse, said with a bright smile that had his father trembling.

              “Can’t,” his father blurted out, looking a little panicked as he reached over and blindly grabbed onto Aidan, who had never fully recovered from his time on stage, and stood up. “We have early rounds in the morning.”

              “Oh,” his mother said with a disappointed sigh that didn’t hide the pleased little glimmer in her calculating expression that was absolutely fucking terrifying.

              “We could always come again,” Jason said, always the helpful bastard.

              “I’m free next Sunday,” Trevor added as they all got to their feet and tossed money on the table since it was obvious that their waitress wasn’t coming back to give them their check.

              “Great!” his mother said, clasping her hands together and looking way too pleased with herself.

              Rebecca was definitely going to fit in well with his family, he thought as the woman in question came waltzing back into view, smiling when she spotted him and letting him know that he was out of time.

Chapter 54

              “Umm, what exactly are we doing?” she couldn’t help but ask as she shifted her attention from the speedometer to the man sitting behind the wheel, who was incidentally the same one that had kidnapped her.

              When he didn’t answer her, because apparently that went against the kidnapper’s code, she discretely pulled her phone out of her pocket, making sure to keep it hidden behind her leg and decided that it was time to ask for help.

              Unfortunately for her the only person that she could think of to ask for help this time of night was the same bitch that was apparently “Team Lucifer.” As soon as she texted that she was being kidnapped, the betraying bitch sent her a smiley emoji. She considered sending a text to Aidan to let him know that his brother had finally lost it, but then thought better of it since he was still angry with her.

              At least, that’s what she was assuming since Jason and Trevor had been forced to restrain him when she came back from talking to Eric. The screams and promises of revenge had been a little unsettling, but she was confident that he’d eventually forgive her. If he didn’t that was fine too, because as soon as Melanie broke the news to him he’d have other things on his mind to worry about.

              She had no idea how they were going to do this, not when they couldn’t stand each other. For the next eighteen years they were going to have to work together to raise a child they hadn’t planned on having. It was going to change everything and she wasn’t sure that Aidan was going to be okay with that. Soon enough he was going to have a lot to deal with so for now she was going to leave him alone, which meant that she was on her own.

              “So, umm,” she said, shifting so that she could slip her phone back in her pocket without him seeing it, “where are we going at twelve o’clock at night?”

              Instead of answering her like any sane person would do, his jaw just did that clenching thing that she’d never quite seen it do until tonight. It was a new version of the jaw clench that he normally did when she pissed him off, which made her wonder what happened between the time that she went to speak with Eric and the time that she came back to see if he was ready to leave.

              “I’m kind of tired. When do you think we’ll go home?” she asked nonchalantly as she noticed yet another large green highway sign notifying her that they were getting closer to the New Hampshire border.

              No answer.

              Awesome.

              Shaking her head, she sat back against her seat and stared out the window at the cars passing by. All those years of teasing him to see just how far she could push him and someone else had broken him when she’d left the room. She felt robbed.

              Bastards.

              She continued staring out the window for another ten minutes before she couldn’t take it anymore. She didn’t bother asking him where they were going or what they were doing, because she knew that he wasn’t going to answer. Besides, after the long and seriously disturbing day that they’d just had she was too tired to play this game with him.

              “Look, it’s late and I’m too tired to keep playing this game. Either turn around and take me home or find a hotel so that I can get some sleep and be well rested in the morning to deal with whatever it is that you’re going through,” she said, too exhausted to sugarcoat this.

              All she wanted to do was take a shower, climb in bed and sleep for the next forty-eight hours.  Then after a hearty breakfast she’d hopefully feel up to dealing with whatever was going on with him. She just hoped that after a good night’s rest that he would give up his plans to kidnap her, tell her what was going on and bring her back home so that she could figure out the best way to grovel for her job back.

              Maybe get on her hands and knees?

              No, that wasn’t going to work, mostly because she wasn’t going to be able to pull that one off. She could try buttering him up with a home cooked meal, but she really wasn’t much of a cook. Lucifer was a better cook and would just take one look at her half-assed attempt to bribe him, shake his head and cook his own meal.

              So, that just left…

              Oh God, she had no idea what that left, because she was too damn exhausted to think right now. She still couldn’t believe just how much could happen in one day. Closing her eyes, she gave up. He was either going to keep going until they hit the North Pole or he was going to turn around and bring her home where she could pass out in her own bed.

              Actually, she preferred his bed since it was bigger, more comfortable and had him in it. She always slept better when she was with him. He kept her warm, kept her safe and made her feel like she was where she was always meant to be.

              With him.

*-*-*-*

              “Lemme sleep,” Rebecca grumbled angrily as she weakly slapped at him, making him chuckle as he carefully placed her on the first double bed in the hotel room that he’d reluctantly rented for the night.

              He’d planned on driving straight through the night to the court house and wait until they opened their doors so that he could drag her inside and make it legally impossible for her to ever leave him. He’d changed his plans when she’d slumped over, grumbled and attempted to slap the shit out of his leg in an attempt to soften his leg to her pillow standards.

              When it became obvious that she wasn’t going to stop, he decided that maybe it was time to call it a night. After finding a Marriott, he got a room, took his life into his own hands and woke her up. It took him about ten minutes to get her inside and then another fifteen to get her to their room. Once he had her there, he stripped them both naked, dragged her into the shower and took his time caressing her skin, running his fingers through her hair as he held her.

              Then he was holding her, just holding her as they stood beneath the showerhead and realizing that he was going to get the chance to hold her just like that for the rest of their lives. It had been the best moment of his night and one that had ended much too soon. When the water started to cool, he’d turned off the shower, wrapped her in a towel and after she muttered, “You may manhandle me,” carried her to the bed where he laid her down.

              Now he was playing tug of war with her towel, trying to remove it so that he could tuck the little pain in the ass in, but she wouldn’t give up that damn towel! Finally after a grunt and a cute little growl, she gave up her hold, rolled over, kicked the blankets and sheet out of her way and settled in for the night.

              Deciding that there was something seriously fucking wrong with him if this was how he wanted spend the rest of his life, he dropped his towel, climbed into bed behind her and pulled the blankets that she’d abused back up. Once they were both covered, he curled up behind her, closed his eyes and realized that tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough for him.

              When she abruptly turned around in his arms, pushed him onto his back and somehow managed to crawl on top of him before she passed out, apparently deciding that he made a better mattress, he prayed that tomorrow came before he lost his fucking mind.

*-*-*-*

              “Umm, what are you doing?” she asked, gasping when those very talented lips of his wrapped around one nipple and gently suckled while his hand cradled the other one, squeezing it gently and making her lick her lips hungrily, because she honestly couldn’t think of a better way to wake up.

              “Practicing,” he said, letting her nipple slip free from between his lips so that he could answer her and-

              Lick her nipple.

              “Oh, God!” she moaned loudly as he repeated that move as he allowed her nipple to slide between his fingers.

              “How’s that feel, sweetheart?” he calmly asked as he moved his attention to the other nipple and suckled on it.

              Before she could answer him, not that she was really capable of answering him, he decided to up his game and follow it up with, “Are you getting wet for me, sweetheart?”

              She moaned as he shifted over her and began kissing and licking his way down her stomach. “Maybe I should find out for myself,” he murmured as he reached down and pushed her legs apart so that by the time that he reached his destination it was impossible for her to answer him without moaning his name and since she knew just how much he liked that, that’s exactly what she did.