Relinquished (19 page)

Come to think of it, he owned
Beau Monde Domestic Services
, that high-end house cleaning company I’d been so tempted to apply to work at. Who knows, maybe I’ll send in an application now that I was out of a job.

According to the report, he’d just started a high-profile identity theft protection agency. There was plenty of negative press about him, but since his company owned the station we were watching, we’d only see his positive side.

Even still, stories like his gave me hope for my life.  With Holden and Dante’s help, I was being given an opportunity to start over.  Who knew what the future held for me.

“Yeah, but he’s living the American dream,” I noted. “He went from nothing to having anything and everything.”

Holden looked thoughtfully at the TV. “Money isn’t everything. Sure it can make life easier, but sometimes it brings greed and pompous attitudes. I met that asshole during my last trip to the bay area, and I don’t care where he came from, that idiot thinks he can have anything he wants.”

“What did he say to you?” I asked, curious.

He snickered and rolled his eyes. “I was out to dinner with a realtor who introduced us. Maxwell admitted he was familiar with our company and had been thinking about getting into the gym business himself. That we might want to keep our eyes open for the competition, or we’ll find ourselves working for him.
Jackass
.”

I laid back and placed my head on his chest. “Well, I don’t need Raymond Maxwell’s kinda money, but it’ll be nice to not have to worry about where I’m going to sleep or what I’m going to eat.”

Holden sucked in a sharp breath. It was a very normal statement to me, but I hadn’t thought about how it would affect him.

“Jules, you won’t ever have to worry about that again. I promise.” He wrapped his arms around me, giving me the sense of safety I’d missed out on for so long.

It was going to take a lot of getting used to, but I would allow Holden to show me what it was like to not worry about basic life necessities. At some point, I would have to contribute to his life as much as he’d already given to me. If we were going to be together, I wanted to be his partner, not his burden.

We settled in to watch the rest of the I Love Lucy marathon together.

One day at a time
, I told myself. Because that was all I could do.

Thankfully, there were only a handful of cameramen smoking just outside the hospital’s entrance when Holden and I left through the sliding glass doors. They’d been told I was being discharged tomorrow and weren’t prepared when only two of us casually strolled out toward the parking garage. Although my blonde wig, large sunglasses, and Holden pointing to my bandaged face, teasing me about getting a nose job, also helped.

Marcus, the head security guy that Dante hired, thought a simple exit strategy would draw less attention than the whole team of ex-military men surrounding one girl. He was right.  That didn’t mean he and a few of his guys weren’t watching us.

I loved the feel of this new outfit. The aqua and grey tie-dyed maxi dress flowed to my ankles just above the black strappy flat sandals on my feet. It felt nice to wear something that didn’t come from a thrift store. And even though it was a casual dress, it was probably the fanciest thing I’d ever worn.

We slipped into Holden’s small SUV, and as much as I would’ve rather gone back to the beach, I understood why we were heading to Dante’s instead. 

I noticed a Suburban pull up in front of us. “Is that Marcus?”

Holden shifted gears and glanced at me. “Yeah.” Looking in his rearview mirror, he added, “The other guy is behind us.”

Tilting my head, I saw another Suburban in the side view mirror. “Hmm.  I wonder how long this is going to go on.”

Sighing, he squeezed my hand that was resting on my thigh. “I don’t know, but there’s a manhunt out for Sam now that everyone knows he’s the cop killer.  They should be able to find him soon.”

We passed large oak trees along a neighborhood built into the mountains that I was familiar with.  It was one of the many areas Scott had told me he liked to jack luxury sports cars before he’d hooked up with the guys in Northern California. Most of the residents here came from old money.  Since those cars were seldom driven, it took longer to notice they were missing, which gave Scott more time to race them.

Stealing and racing cars seemed like a lifetime ago, yet the problems I’d had even before then still haunted me today.

I bit my thumbnail anxiously. “What if Travis has other guys looking for me?  What if this never ends?” My mind was reeling with questions but I was trying not to let the worry completely take over me.

The International slowed down in front of a modern home that had more walls than windows. Marcus pulled up next to the curb, jumped out, and headed up the stairs to the front door.  Man, I thought Vince was huge.  Marcus and the other security guy that was now standing on the sidewalk were even taller and bulkier.
I’m glad they’re on our team.

Dante wasn’t kidding when he said his home was secluded. It almost looked like the garage and front lawn were literally built into the side of the hill, and the house itself sat at the top.

We stopped next to a small red sports car in the driveway, and Holden pulled the keys out of the ignition. Once he opened my door, he stared at me for a moment.

“I don’t want you to worry about that,” he insisted. “Dante knows what he’s doing here. I trust him, and it’s the reason I agreed to us staying here. My dad’s worked in personal security his entire career, and Dante helps him out from time to time.  I’m assuming that’s how he knew to call Marcus, and the reason, I’m sure, he knew that detective from the hospital. ” He took me by the hand and shut the door behind me.  

Out of habit, I looked in the backseat through the window for my duffle bag, but it, of course, wasn’t there.  That bag wasn’t much, but I was going to miss it since it had carried my few belongings around for as long as I could remember. The harsh reality of not owning one thing, including an ID, hit me as we followed the same path toward the front door where Marcus waited.

He narrowed his serious eyes as he gazed out at the property. “I’m going around the side while Abel stays out front.” He pointed to the guy standing on the sidewalk, scanning up and down the street. “And I’ll meet you inside.”

Everything was so surreal, and I felt like we were in a movie.  Who the hell has a security team escort them around, then scan the perimeter of the house they are about to enter?

Holden nodded and let us inside as Marcus jumped, pulling his large body up and over a brick wall, disappearing around the corner.

The house reeked of cigar smoke the moment we stepped through the door, and it didn’t take long to find the source. Dante was in the living room, relaxing his head against the back of a long leather couch that faced away from us and toward a set of opened French doors leading to his hillside backyard. One of his muscular arms was stretched across the backrest as he pulled a cigar from his mouth and puffed out thick, smoky ringlets floating in the air.

His arms and shoulders were covered in tattoos, shocking the crap out of me. Since he’d always been in head-to-toe suits, I’d never seen his ink. Plus, he’d always seemed too serious to be tatted up like this. Not that I’d ever pictured him naked.

It suddenly felt weird being in his house, seeing him exposed like this, and I didn’t want to disturb this, well, whatever this was, so I glanced at Holden and held my finger up to my lips. 

We had only taken a couple steps back when Dante let out a primal groan, “Fuck yeah.”

Marcus’s eyes widened as he came up to the glass doors and looked down at Dante. Holden cleared his throat, announcing our presence.

Dante jerked his head forward and barked at Marcus, “What the fuck, man?”

Marcus rolled his eyes and motioned toward us standing awkwardly in the entryway, then he strolled right off, presumably to check out the rest of the property.

Lowering his head to his lap, Dante mumbled, “Go in my room. I’ll be right there.”

I wasn’t quite computing until the dark-haired girl I’d seen him dismiss at the gym the other day suddenly popped up, clutched her balled up clothes in front of her, and casually strutted away, half naked and with a cocky smile on her face. 

I felt my face turn beat red, not only because of the awkward situation we’d walked in on, but because I couldn’t believe how clueless I’d been.  I lived next door to prostitutes for fuck’s sake and bumped into plenty of girls on their knees by the ice machine outside the motel. How the hell did I miss the fact that we’d interrupted Dante with some skank?

Dante reached forward to put his cigar out. “You were supposed to call before you guys left.” He stood up with his back to us, fidgeting with his pants before zipping up and turning around. The ink on his arms had already shocked me, but when I saw the intricate design of the tattoos on his chest and ribs, I think my jaw dropped a little. It was obvious that he took care of his body just like Holden did.

“I sent you a text after you didn’t answer my calls.” Holden smirked, leaning against the corner of a wall, taking the whole thing in stride. I wondered if it was simply because Dante wasn’t caught off guard often, and the little brother in Holden enjoyed seeing that he didn’t have everything under control after all. I didn’t have any experience with the whole sibling interaction thing, so it was going to be interesting living with these guys, to say the least.

Bending down, Dante retrieved his shirt and phone from the coffee table and looked at the screen. “Hmm, Andrea must’ve silenced it.” Raising an eyebrow, he headed in the same direction his trampy vixen had. “Why don’t you show Jules around and relax a while before Vince and Christina get here with dinner later.” He disappeared down a hallway and yelled back, “I’ll see you guys in a while.”

It was hard to decipher my feelings over the whole scene. I didn’t know why, but it irked me seeing that skanky, self-absorbed bitch sucking Dante off in the open. It annoyed me even more knowing what they were about to do. I definitely wasn’t jealous, but it made me wonder if those were the only sort of girls Dante was ever with, the kind that had lived next door to me in the motel rooms I’d spent so many years in. Then again, he’d already admitted he thought love made people weak, yet something in me wanted more for him.

I decided to use humor to disguise my feelings and leaned into Holden, whispering, “Remind me not to sit on that couch.”

“I can’t promise any of the furniture in this house is safe,” he snickered.

Fucking great.

Brushing off my irritation, I took a look around. Of course Dante’s hilltop home had a gorgeous view of the entire valley below and the mountains to the side. From what I could tell, it was only one story. The décor was clean and modern, which seemed to fit him to a T. What was it with both of these guys and their cleanliness?

“Let me show you the room,” Holden offered with a sweet smile.

It was total déjà vu, except when Holden had showed me his home, I’d been excited and couldn’t wait to see what came next. This time, I was more uncertain about my future than ever, to really let something as trivial as excitement reach me.  I was thankful for everything the guys were doing, but until Sam was behind bars, a swarm of bees would be taking residence in my gut.

We stepped down a wide hallway and into a bedroom on the opposite side of where Dante had disappeared. The large space was filled with dark furnishings, white walls, and what looked like teak trim around the windows and the French doors that led to the backyard.

Holden closed the door behind us and slid the closet open. “I hope this isn’t creepy but I was hoping you’d be spending more time with me, so I got your size when I put your clothes in the dryer.” His smile turned a little sheepish. “My original plan was to get a few things to keep at my place. Instead, I asked Christina to fill the closet here. The outfit you have on was part of her shopping trip.” He peeked inside. “Not bad for a day’s notice, huh?”

Overwhelmed, I stepped forward and lightly touched the bohemian-style garments similar to the dress I had on.  The small space was jam-packed with more clothes than I’d ever seen before. Well, clothes I was allowed to wear that is. I fought the urge to look for the price tags. The cost of just one garment probably would’ve fed me for an entire week.