Getting by (A Knight's Tale) (24 page)

Liam, I noticed, had already hailed the cab. He took the phone from me, made some grunts that appeared to be answers and got us inside the cab after hanging up. We headed to the hotel. Now, on the road, I reacted to what Jacob Knight had said. He had to be careful with his words. “Love you” had to be a forbidden phrase among us. Wait, we said no friendship that night. Why the heck was he calling me?

Neither one of us spoke while riding back to the hotel. While my mind traveled through all the events of the night and tried to pinpoint Gaby’s escapades, Liam texted someone.

“Why was Jake checking the CTV?” I asked Liam. That question had an answer, and I hoped his brother would provide it. He shrugged. “Liam,” I insisted.

“Checking on you,” he said, shifting sitting positions and changing his gaze from the window to the driver every nanosecond. Then he gave me an impatient huff. “Jake likes to break into security systems and make sure you’re doing fine, Em, don’t judge him though. That’s his nature, to be caring for those that—”

“Don’t say it,” I said, because I knew he was about to use the L word. “I’m going to have to cut ties with the man. Maybe you too, Sam will be thrilled.”

“Oh no,” he said, and furrowed his eyebrows, “you’re staying with me, sweetheart, and we’ll talk about Sam next week. Jay’s problems with you are separate from the company and family.”

In that moment, we arrived at the hotel. Handing a bill to the driver, we got out and Liam escorted me to my room. “Don’t leave. I’ll talk to you tomorrow morning.”

*

Jacob Knight sent me a text the next day at seven in the morning saying that breakfast was at seven thirty in his parents’ room. Summoning me so early while I had work to do didn’t sound like paradise. Liam had emailed me a few ideas he had, so I could try to keep the account Sam was about to lose.

JAK: 7:35 bacon, fruit and bitter juice waiting, Pretty Girl.

He said the secret word, and I headed to the Knights’ room. When I knocked on the door, Liam opened it. Everyone was there…well the brothers, Rachel, Ed and Cade, whose friendly reception gave chills to my heart. Those fuzzy daggers in his eyes were about to kill me.

“She has no business in this room,” he said, standing up and coming close to me. Jake towered over him by two inches and stopped him. “Just because you—”

“Cade, don’t,” Jake ordered his cousin, not letting him finish whatever he was about to say. “Emma and I have a two year history. Respect her and get your temper under control.” Once he turned back to his seat, Jake walked toward me. “Morning. You look tired, why?”

“Where’s my bacon, and don’t start hovering or I’ll use a fork on you,” I said, making him smile. “Morning everyone.” Jake beat me to it and gathered food for me, taking me to one of the loveseats, where we sat together.

The first order of business, and why they had called me, was that they wanted to offer me a ride to New York. The plane had been scheduled to leave at ten in the morning. I told them I had plans with my grandparents that evening. After the events of the previous night, the possibilities of the wedding taking place were slim. That gave me the idea of calling them and trying to set up another visit before I left for New York.

“We can leave late,” Jake said. “It will be nice to get to know them.” I raised an eyebrow and then looked at my fork.
Is he freaking kidding me?
“You don’t want me to meet them?”

“Should I remind of you of our last conversation?” I puffed, and before I scratched my nose, he stopped me and shook his head. “This isn’t a joke, Jacob.”

The entire room observed us.

“But we’re friends,” he said. This wasn’t about him changing his mind about us. “They met them,” Jake pointed at his family, “and got to spend time with them. Why not me?” That was like a slap in the face. He needed to stay away so I could move on.

Furious, I stood up, placed the plate on the table and began walking to the door. “Have a fun trip, Knight family,” I said, opening the door and not looking back.

“Emma, don’t leave like that,” I heard him say, desperation in his tone.

I turned and fixated my gaze on his. “We’ll be friends when you can stop your PDA’s, gestures and the need to remind me that you love me but I’m not fucking enough.”

With that, I slammed the door and went to my room to pack. My need for space from him grew wider with each step I took. This entire trip had taken me back to square one. However, I had been blessed with the reconciliation of my paternal grandparents, who promised to visit me in New York when Grandma was ready to run in Central Park. As I opened the door of my hotel room, I called them and asked if it was possible to invade their space until Sunday when my flight left. My grandmother’s joy had been palpable over the phone. Grandpa agreed to pick me up around eight thirty, giving me enough time to pack and close my bill with the hotel.

Once the bellboy picked up all of my luggage in his cart, we both headed to the main floor where the concierge had my bill ready, and paid…of course by the Knights. How could I forget the poor family had to pay for the entire wedding? Including the accommodations, since a lot of Gaby’s family members complained about the high cost of the swanky place
she chose.

Chapter 29

Jake

“AT THE RISK of sounding like a two year old,” Emma said, “what is he doing here?”

After the scene in front of my parents, she had made it clear that either I behave like an acquaintance, or I should stay away from her. A difficult task, when we were about to offer her a venture to open her own advertising company.

“This is business, Em,” Liam answered her. “As I told you over the phone, we have a proposal for you.”

For the past week, I had been not only observing Sam but following his every move. I had tapped his cell phone, home phone and office phone. The guy had been selling things to our competition through a third party. I called Sanders and he confirmed his connection to the guy, who claimed to be a freelance designer. Some of his original work, was Emma’s that Sam had taken from the server and her office. That was the downside of not putting a camera or two in her office.

“Mitchel, you owe me one,” she said, while sitting down.

“No.” He shook his head. “We’re even, she wanted to introduce me to her mother,” Mitch growled.

My twin, the one who shared the first thirty weeks of my life inside the same womb, had decided to hook Emma up with his friends and find her a boyfriend. “Traitor,” I called him.

“Asshole,” he answered.

According to my entire family, I had to let her go for good. The woman was only twenty three, so what was the hurry? We could hang out for a while. She had family, her grandparents, why not keep a friendship? Damn it, I missed her, and looking at her across the square table of Mitch’s flat wasn’t taking away that crave.

Our plan to get rid of Sam began with Emma quitting the company. She would start a brand new one with a backer. Surprisingly, that backer wasn’t me, or either one of my brothers. It had been Judah Anderson and Edward Knight who decided to give a hand to Emma. We had most of the paperwork filled out and had it at the lawyer’s office to finalize the transaction. Emma would have to give up her sign-in bonus, but in exchange, we released her from the rest of the contract. Liam spoke about it, avoiding the messy subject of Sam, and her face went pale.

“I don’t have the money, Liam,” she said. “After the thing with Max…I set up a trust fund for him with it.”

“I’ll loan it to you,” I said, but she ignored me. “Emma, don’t be a child, please. Put your business armor on and help us, help you.”

“You didn’t just say that.” Emma gave me a killer gaze. “I don’t need a new business, anyone can hire me. Sanders would. My grandfather—”

“He’s the one investing in your new venture,” I said, making sure she understood this was truly business and had nothing to do with our relationship. “Him and Dad, they know about Sam; and the issues you two have. Can you please put your self-reliant crap aside?” Scratch, wrinkle nose and an unmoving gaze. I for once was relieved that the laser beam never worked, or I’d be a dead man. “This isn’t only for you but for everyone that works for K&W. Once the word gets out about you leaving, and our internal issues, some clients might not like it and hopefully they’ll follow you. If it’s that way, you’re saving your coworkers by giving them a job.”

“Fine.”

“Thank you,” I said, knowing this was a million times harder for her than she let us see.

*

It took two weeks for Emma to quit, give us back her prorated sign-in bonus and finish setting up her new company; Anderson Advertisement. With all the problems going on in the NY branch, Liam couldn’t travel back to London and I had to stay behind to help him. We didn’t want a scandal, or for K&W to go down like a sunken ship. Our intentions were to get rid of the cancer inside, and later, if Pretty Girl Anderson wanted, we could fuse both companies. I hadn’t seen her since she accepted our business proposal.

While walking from the metro to Mitch’s house, my phone buzzed. Mom’s number appeared, and after an internal grunt, I picked up.

“Jake, how are you, darling?” Her chirpy voice told me she had something in mind that I wouldn’t like.

“Cut to the chase, woman.” I heard her telling whoever was with her that I was moody, whatever that meant. It made me want to slam the phone on the pavement, but I abstained.

“Cade,” said Mom briskly. “He needs help moving his things to the new flat we got for him. Gabriela should be coming back from the trip she took, and he doesn’t want to fight for the house either.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me.”

“Jacob, language,” she used her motherly tone.

“Mom, I’m sorry,” I apologized, and toned down my voice. “She got to enjoy the honeymoon we paid for, now he’s giving up the apartment. Dad bought it. It’s not like he changed his mind and decided not to marry her. It was the other way around.” I wanted to add that he needed to grow some balls, but it wasn’t a conversation I should have with my mother.

“Well, Jacob, he doesn’t want to have anything that reminds him of her,” she explained. “You of all people should understand what it means to lose someone you love.”

“Don’t compare Gabriela to Em, Mom.” That was unacceptable. While changing routes to where Cade lived, I continued the conversation. “And I didn’t lose her. I had to let her go.”

“Yes, Jay, because you like to live in the past,” she said without any restraint, and hitting on the jugular. No pedestrian stopped while I bled from my mother’s words—insensitive. “Now be a good boy and help your cousin. Mitch promised to join later.”

Tapping a hand over my chest while I walked to Cade’s, I pondered if I could leave town while Mom and Dad visited my siblings. A week or two in a jungle training to keep my skills in shape would benefit me and my entire team. Maybe a call to Holton, he loved those killing survivor marathons as much as I did. That was a thousand times more bearable than Mom giving me a hard time about Emma, and seeing her around town while running errands.

Cade’s apartment was full of empty boxes. He had no idea where to start or what not to pack.

“Take everything,” I said. “Donate anything you don’t want, but don’t leave her anything.”

“I loved her,” he answered. The guy crumbled in front of me and I had no idea what to do. This was something Mom should be handling, touchy feely and talking wasn’t a guy thing. I gave him two pats on the back and stood next to him while he vented. “What am I supposed to do now, Jake? My dating skills are terrible. If it hadn’t been for Liam and Gavin, I wouldn’t have met her.”

I hoped one day he would understand that she had tried to destroy him. Gabriela Clements only saw a big dollar sign stamped on Cade and thought she’d be able to squeeze him dry. He was a good guy, an awesome one when treated right. Losing his mother, and the refusal to take care of him from his father, seemed to affect him more than I thought.

JAK: Cade’s down. Mom sent me to help him move and now he’s crying. What do I do?

ELA: Listen to him, give him some brotherly talk. Add to it that everything will be fine. He can’t see it now, because the betrayal is fresh, but things will get better soon. Be there for him. He’s family and needs you more than ever.

I repeated everything she said, and it seemed to have helped him, because he took a deep breath and began to put everything in boxes. We labeled them as Cade’s home and donations. Four hours later, with the help of my two other brothers, everything was ready to go. He called two different charities to donate the furniture and everything that he decided not to take. The only things left were Gabriela’s clothes, the wedding presents and the kitchen utensils. Since most of the guests had been from her side, she was responsible for making the returns. We all went to Mitch’s house for the rest of the evening.

JAK: Thank you for the tip, he’s better.

*

The slender brunette grinned with her entire body and whispered nonsense in my ear, instead of joining I wanted to yawn. Liam’s night club hopping idea seemed reasonable earlier while lounging in Mitch’s apartment. This was the first time I came to America after my cousin’s move. It had been six long weeks of work, training and travels. The three of us needed down time, and to get laid. Unfortunately our busy lives didn’t agree with our plans. Mitch left an hour earlier—an emergency at one of his restaurants. I walked a couple of my men through a delicate situation, and had just come back to find Liam otherwise occupied. He talked to a couple of chesty blonds who were about to have a wardrobe malfunction.

Serenity, Chasity or Candy; whatever her name was, pulled me toward the dance floor. Obviously her father had a thing for strippers to name her like that. She rubbed her boobs against my chest and began to go down on me with the rhythm of the music. At times I felt like a fire hydrant and she was a puppy trying to get some release. Her lustful eyes invited me to fuck her right there. Any man would succumb to those approaches, and my body, that had been denied sex for five months, had finally began to react to her, like any other hot blooded mammal should have been. Though, the vibration of my phone placed in the back pocket of my jeans stopped my train of thought. It was probably my men needing me to travel to South America. No such luck, Emma’s picture appeared.