Page 43 of Rough Start

“Haven’t seen her in years, Max.”

“That wasn’t the question, boy,” Max stated in his low tone that indicated he was very serious. “Your girlfriend got herself a job as a hotshot attorney. I knew if we sat back and watched her long enough she’d prove valuable. To our advantage, she deals in defense cases. We’re going to convince her to take on a few of our more delicate clients.”

“Her dad just died, and you want to hire her?”

“Who said anything about hiring her? She’s got a debt that needs to be settled. I’ll be gracious and let her work it off. Just be glad I’m letting her do it in the courtroom and not on the Wall.” Max was baiting him to see just how he’d react to the idea of whoring her out. Well, Max wasn’t the only one with a game face. Kye remained stoic, so Max continued. “Her dad pilfered nearly fifty grand in goods that should equate to enough time for her to get a few of our boys out of prison.”

“I can assume we’re not giving her an option,” Kye concluded. He felt hopelessness creep in, but what was worse, Max didn’t just have dirt on Eliana— he had dirt on Kye. If Max knew this much about Eliana, he likely knew everything. How Kye had made several trips to Cambridge to snoop on her. How he’d made the anonymous donation to Harvard for the All Saint’s scholarship to ensure Eliana could finish law school undeterred. It was enough to ruin both of them.

“You’re wrong on both counts,” Max said as he finished his cigarette and dropped the smoldering bud into his empty glass. “She’s got an option. Do it or die, simple as that. I don’t like to leave loose ends. If your leggy girlfriend won’t cooperate, then she’s lost her usefulness.”

“You said ‘both counts’?” Kye questioned as he balled his hands into fists under the table. Just the thought of anyone touching Eliana made his blood boil.

“I did,” Max agreed. “We aren’t going to do anything,” Max said, leaning forward toward Kye, his heavy eyebrows raising. “Iron your black suit and get to that funeral. You’re going to be reunited with sweet, innocent Eli.”

* * *

That was how Kye found himself pinning Eliana up against a tree outside the small, white church. Playing the bounty hunter once again, he was now sent on the ultimate errand: to bring in the only person in his life he’d ever loved. Whether karma was a bitch or just Max, nothing about this situation was easy.

After informing her that her life was no longer her own and Eliana’s inherited debt amounted to a life of servitude, he’d watched her stunned reaction fade into a distracted resolve as the minister had beckoned her to accompany the procession to the burial site. Kye stood in the distance, allowing her the privacy of a final goodbye as the casket was lowered into the ground.

She stood like an angelic pillar among the gravestones. The hem of her black dress wafted in the breeze while overhead, the late spring warmth had turned cold and dark clouds rolled in. A storm was brewing. The distant thunder was evidencing enough of that. A crack of lightning split the sky, and the first raindrops began to pour.

* * *

Eliana was past the point of emotion. The tears she’d had for her father’s passing were spent, her nerves of presenting the eulogy had faded, and now as the graveyard attendants performed their final duty, Eliana felt herself slip into a blissful state of numbness. She couldn’t feel anything at this moment.

One by one the onlookers who’d been invited to the grave left. Even the minister had excused himself when the weather turned south. Yet still, Eliana remained. Anyone might have guessed she was grieving, maybe praying or trying to muster the strength to walk away, but in truth, she waited until the last remnants of dirt filled the hole of the grave, the turf was tucked into place, and the rain soaked the ground around her, because she knew the moment she turned away from poor, dead Henry Granville she was going to have to face the very much alive Kye Driscoll.

She could feel him watching her. It was a feeling she recognized from over the years. Every so often she would catch what she thought was a glimpse of him in the crowd, by her house, at graduation, on the bus… but it never turned out to be him. Still, what felt more shocking than seeing him, speaking to him, touching him after all these years was that nothing felt any different.

He’d had her up against that tree, and every molecule in her body had come to life as though she had just woken up. While her mind was trying to process his words, his threats, her body had pressed into him like a thirsty man after a drink of water. And God was she thirsty for him.

Shaking her head and chalking it up to grief, Eliana glanced in his direction briefly before she began the slow walk up the hill from the graveyard back to the church where her car was parked. Without a second look, she knew he was following her. The torrent of rain was picking up, the cold air blew, and the mud squished underfoot to the point where the heels of her shoes were getting stuck. In her frustration, Eliana pulled her shoes off entirely and finished her walk barefoot.

When she was back at the door to the church, only two cars remained in the parking lot— hers and one she didn’t recognize. It was a black SUV with tinted windows that were obviously brand new as it still had plates from the dealership. Looking at the tree, she didn’t see Kye’s bike anymore. She could have sworn he was still behind her…

“Eli.” She gasped in fright when she’d begun to turn to see if he was there only to find him directly behind her. She stumbled on the slippery step, and Kye caught her before she fell. Eliana felt the hard muscles of his arm as it wrapped around her, and without another thought, she sank into him. Arms wrapping around his neck, she pulled him into a tight hug, and he didn’t hold back as he returned the embrace.

After ten years, they were finally together again. Though life and stubbornness had pulled them away, they had somehow found their way back into each other’s arms. Kye was still as firm and unwavering as she remembered, and Eliana still smelled of honey and chocolate. Her hair, though shorter, was still soft and feathering, and Kye still dug his fingertips into her back the way he had so many times before.

Kye only broke the hold he had on her when he felt her shivering from the cold. Keeping his hands on her hips he looked her in the eye, with her on the step above him she was of equal height. He brushed her cheek with his hand, and she leaned into the touch. Unable to help it, he placed a soft kiss to her forehead, and the warmth of his mouth sent a fresh wave of shivers through her.

“Come here,” he beckoned and took her hand to lead her into the now empty church. The room was darker than before, the light through the stained glass much dimmer now that dark clouds blocked out the sun, but the candles from Mass were still lit. Kye led her to the front of the church where he sat her in the front pew. He left her for a moment only to return with two hand towels from the bathroom and her coat that she’d hung up on the rack near the front door. “You’re freezing,” he noted as he draped her jacket over her shoulders before kneeling in front of her.

“I’m fine,” she said calmly as he began towel drying her arms, hands, and face. When he wiped her cheek. she placed her hand over his and gently pushed it away before taking the towel from him and finishing the job herself. Clearly, her senses had returned, and she was now going to ask for answers over affection. “Are you going to kill me?” she asked in the same even tone.

“No,” Kye answered as he removed his wet coat and sat on the step of the altar across from her. He wasn’t looking at her, though; he’d dropped his eyes to his shoes where he used the second towel to clean the mud from them. “But there are people in town who will,” he stated before she could ask a second question.

“All because my father committed crimes against the Screaming Demons. Crimes that I had nothing to do with?” she asked, the anger in her voice growing.

“Yes,” Kye answered plainly. “Max knew all along where you and your father were. I don’t know how, to be perfectly honest, but he’s obviously had this planned for a long time. He’s waited until the right time to collect a debt.”

“Is he hard up for cash or something?” Eliana asked with bitterness, and Kye chuckled which only seemed to anger her more.

“On the contrary, Max is a rich man. The club clears about ten million a year tax-free,” he teased.

“Then why? Why come after us now? Why me?” They were valid questions that Kye knew he couldn’t answer, so he was silent for a moment. “Damnit, Kye, answer me!” Her voice reverberated off the walls and made him look up at her.