In Tune (Red Bird Trail Trilogy Book 3) (2 page)

H
arper walked over
to the kitchen. “I’m cooking spaghetti. Is that good with you?” she asked as she opened both the fridge and freezer to pull out the ingredients she needed.

His stomach growled loudly. He’d put on some weight since they had started living together, but everyone said it looked good on him. He was still lean, but not gaunt in certain places. He liked having his stomach full; he liked a woman cooking for him. “I think you got your answer.”

She laughed as she continued to move about the small cooking area, and he walked back to the bedroom. Her mind was on the task at hand as she turned on the skillet and began browning the ground beef for a meat sauce she’d learned to prepare. She put a large pot under the faucet and filled it to her liking before setting it on the burner of the stove and turning it on. It was like auto-pilot as she went about preparing the meal. It was only when she had everything going that she stopped and realized that a relaxed Cash now sat at the kitchen table. She put her hand to her chest and took a deep breath.

“You scared me.”

He kicked his legs out from the seat, pulling his sweat pant bottoms up and over the edge of his feet. “I didn’t mean to. You know I just like to watch you work,” he admitted as he ran a hand over the shadow of a beard beginning to form on his face.

He did love to watch her work. Every time he was home and she was cooking, cleaning, reading a book, or doing homework, he was there with her. Many days they never said a word to one another. Just the fact that they were both in the same room was enough of a comfort for the both of them.

“I must have zoned out.” She grinned as she pulled out the opposite chair and had a seat across from him.

They were quiet for a few minutes before she spoke. “I have to work tomorrow night, and I’m gonna try to see if we’ll have any leftovers. We don’t get paid for a couple more days, and there’s not much food here.”

They both hated this part, but they did what they had to do.

“We’ll figure it out,” he told her, reaching across the table to grab her hand. If he had to, he’d try to pull together a Trail run. They were more careful now that it was getting closer to the holidays and colder weather. Their tires didn’t stay warm, and there were many more rolling checkpoints in these months. Cash was used to money being lean, but he’d never had two other people to take care of before either.

“I know.” She smiled brightly. “We always do.”

“It could be dollar menu if it has to be,” Cash teased. She hated the dollar menu. The cook and baker in her absolutely despised it. Eating out didn’t give her a chance to flex her muscle, and that’s what she loved more than anything.

“Dollar menu, my ass. We’ll eat all veggies before we eat the dollar menu. They go further, and they are much better for you.”

His nose turned up this time.

“You’ll do as I say, Montgomery. Besides, you need to set a good example for Remy. You know he does any and everything that you do.”

It scared her how badly Remy had a case of hero worship for his brother. She hated to think of the preteen boy riding his bike, doing the things she and Cash had done and would have to do in order to stay alive and make ends meet.

“If B can watch Rem, I’ll see about working protection at
Wet Wanda’s
,” he told her quietly.

This new job had come about recently, and Harper wasn’t sure if she liked it at all. It was a point of contention with the two of them. Liam had approached Cash about working for extra money, without having to run the Trail. Cash felt they were on borrowed time, before the Trail would be shut down by the cops, so he was always on the lookout for legitimate ways to make money. Cash knew Liam had probably done it out of the goodness of his heart, but Cash was thankful for the job. It was good money, but there were a handful of ladies at the club who had their eye on him and let him know every time he was in.

“I’d rather eat veggies.” She wrinkled her nose at him.

He laughed loudly before he reached over and ran a finger down her cheek. “None of ’em look as good as you, Harper, and none of ’em sure as hell hold a candle to you. I do it to make sure you don’t have to worry about what we’re going to do until payday.”

She licked her lips as she gazed into his eyes. “I know. You take care of us.”

“I try, as much as you’ll let me.”

The moment got heavy as the two of them stared at each other. Neither one of them sure what to say. They were saved when the oven timer went off, letting her know the garlic bread was finished. As she pulled it out of the oven, she turned to Cash.

“Would you go get Remy? I told him to be back at six.” She glanced up at the clock. It was a little after.

He stood up and walked over to her. Cupping her hip with his hand, he leaned in and kissed her softly. “Will do. Don’t start without us. I’m gonna have a talk with him about being late.”

She watched as he walked out of the apartment and heard him yell loudly for Remy to come eat. She breathed deeply, letting out the breath she hadn’t known she was holding.

There was only so long she could hold out, only so long she could deny what she was feeling, and only so long she could hold Cash Montgomery at bay.

She feared that time was coming to a very swift end.

‡
Chapter Three

C
ash stood with
his back to the
Wet Wanda’s
stage, watching the group of rowdy men in front of him. They were drunk and acting like fools, but this was the reason he was here. To keep them from getting too touchy-feely with the girls. He noticed one guy over to the side, sizing him up, probably trying to decide if he wanted to make a go of trying to get past him and get to the girl on stage.

“Watch that guy,” Drew Walker said as he nodded towards the right. “He’s been looking like he wants to go for at least an hour.”

Drew Walker, son of Liam, was young, but he was big and strong. Just past nineteen, he probably shouldn’t have been in a strip club, but he also had money to make.

“Will do. He’s taller than me, but I think I can take him,” Cash said, never taking his eyes off him. He took any job he did seriously, whether it be running the Trail or working protection here at the club.

“I think we both could,” Drew told him as he walked away.

This was one of Cash’s least favorite jobs. It wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate the group of scantily clad women who writhed and danced around on stage; it was that they
weren’t
Harper. He sighed, switching back and forth between his feet, taking some of the pressure off the sore parts, and dared a glance at his watch. It was almost midnight, and he knew Harper should be getting done with her catering job soon.

That was another reason he hated working
Wet Wanda’s:
it was always late when he got done, and if Harper was working, she walked herself to her car in the dark, and she came home to an empty apartment. Cash knew there was nothing they could do at this point. It was about surviving and doing what they could to pay bills and buy groceries, but it didn’t mean that he didn’t think about the time when he would be able to afford the better things in life for both of them.

“How about you go take a break.”

He glanced up at the deep voice of Jagger Stone, the person most knowledgeable about the strip club.

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” Jagger nodded. “Your lady just walked in. Why don’t the two of you go grab something to eat and spend a few minutes together. For protection, it’s on the house.”

His lady had just walked in?
His eyes quickly moved to the front of the building, and he couldn’t hold back the grin as he saw Harper cautiously looking around. “Thanks. I’ll be back in thirty?”

“Whatever.” Jagger grinned. “You do know that there are rooms back there?” He raised his eyebrows suggestively at the younger man.

Cash did know there were rooms, but he was pretty damn sure he and Harper weren’t at that part of their relationship yet. At least, not back around to that part. “I’ll be back.”

*

Harper questioned for
the thousandth time why she had decided to step foot in here by herself—even if it was to see Cash. She’d never been the type of girl to hang out in places like this. She liked to play life straight and narrow for the most part. Looking up at the stage, her mouth opened as she saw a girl who couldn’t be much older than her perform a split that caused her own groin to hurt. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room, and she noticed Cash coming her way.

She could see the women in the place looking Cash up and down as he walked towards her. They didn’t hide the appreciation in their eyes or the arousal on their faces. Harper knew he was a good-looking guy, knew he exuded confidence, and knew he had the bad-boy mannerisms down pat. What she didn’t realize was how other people looked and saw him. Somehow, in her security of their relationship, she had forgotten who he used to be.

“Hey.” She met him halfway and looped her arms around his neck. For some reason, it felt important for her to claim him here. She needed these women she’d seen looking at him to know he came home to her every night. That might not mean much right now, but it would soon. She knew they would make their relationship even better than it had been.

“Hey,” he answered back, his lips at her ear so that she could hear him over the loud bass of the music that the stripper danced to. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?”

She pulled back, looking up into his eyes. They sparkled with excitement at seeing her, and she knew he hadn’t been lying. He truly was happy to see her. “I didn’t want to go home to an empty apartment by myself. I promise I can stay out of the way,” she said quickly.

“You’re never in the way,” he was quick to assure her, taking a chance at pushing her hair back from her face. He widened his stance so that he could be at eye level with her and gave her a soft smile.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure that I can be in the way sometimes,” she argued. “But really I wanted to see what this place looks like on the inside when there’s not a concert going on. It’s not nearly as bad as I thought,” she admitted as she glanced around. “I figured the floor would be sticky.”

He choked on his own spit as he thought about what that entailed and realized what she was thinking about. He grabbed her around the neck with his arm, pulling her even closer. “That happens in the boom-boom room, and those rooms are back in that hallway.” He pointed to the left.

Her eyes got huge as she watched a man and a woman make their way down the hallway.

“They’re really going back there to…ya know?”

He couldn’t help but tease her. “They’re going back there to fuck. Sometimes you can’t wait until you make it home.”

She shivered as he said those last words, because his mouth was back at her ear. His lips brushed against the outer shell of her ear, and in that moment she wondered what it would be like to visit the boom-boom room with Cash.

‡
Chapter Four