Back In The Bedroom (The Wrong Bed #29)(41)

Reilly laughed in disbelief. “Yes, very necessary. Mom—”

“Eddie doesn’t discard all women,” Cheri said softly.

“He discarded you—”

She shook her head and made her way closer. “It’s time I told you the truth, baby. Eddie never wanted me to tell you and I’m not sure if that was stubborn pride or misguided loyalty to me,” she said, sighing, “but I discarded him. I was young and stupid and didn’t want to be tied down.” She shook her head and said, “And you want to hear the crazy truth? I’ve been regretting that decision ever since.”

He stared at her. “And you’re telling me this now because…?”

“I don’t know,” Cheri said, lifting a shoulder. “Because you’re acting as if all your troubles are his fault.”

Sheila laughed. “Listen, Mommy Dearest, why don’t you take your boy’s gun away and then turn your head, huh? And I’ll just get the hell out of your hair.”

Cheri lifted a brow. Checked out the mess once more. And slowly smiled.

Sheila did, too, in relief.

“Sorry,” Cheri said, shaking her head. “You’re going to jail, and you’re never going to bother Eddie again.”

Sheila’s smile faded. She muttered, “Hell.”

Sirens sounded in the distance.

Reilly looked at Tessa, who was standing there quietly. “What happened to waiting in the car?”

“I was, but then your mother pulled up and there was no stopping her,” Tess said, smiling when Cheri put her arm around her shoulders. “I couldn’t let her come in here alone.”

Reilly looked around. “Where the hell is Eddie?” he asked.

Sheila laughed and the sound held enough evil that chills raced down Reilly’s spine. He shoved the gun at Tessa and ordered, “Keep this pointed at her until the cops come in. Mom, go show them where we are.”

“Got it,” Cheri said and Reilly ran through the house looking for Eddie.

He found him in his bedroom, tied spread-eagle to the bed. Naked. Eddie had a rueful smile on his face and the phone off the hook near his toes. “Found her, did ya, son?”

Reilly let out a disgusted sound and started on the knots. “You’re a case, you know that?” he said.

“I do.”

Reilly got one foot free. “And you sure know how to pick ’em.”

“Yeah.” Oddly enough, he didn’t say anything more, as if he was…embarrassed, which couldn’t possibly be the case, since nothing embarrassed Eddie.

At least nothing Reilly could think of.

When his father’s hands were free, he sat up, but not in time to catch the robe Reilly tossed him. It hit him in the face. Pulling it down, he said, sighing, “Look, Reilly, about tonight…”

Reilly was certain he did not want to hear this, but just as certain he was going to hear it anyway. “What about it?” he asked.

“I was thinking…maybe you could forget to mention this whole incident to your mother.”

Reilly turned to face him and blinked at the genuine look of remorse on Eddie’s face.

“It’d be a bit mortifying,” Eddie admitted, “to find yourself at the mercy of a woman you don’t want, in front of the woman you do.”

“You…want Mom?”

“From the day I first saw her in gym class.”

“But… All those other women—”

“Hey, I never claimed to be a saint. Besides, for years now she wouldn’t give me the time of day. Playing around…it was a pretty fine way to pass the time when I thought she didn’t want me. But you know what?”

Reilly was afraid to know, he really was.

Eddie arched a brow. “Lately, I’ve got the feeling I’ve got a shot with her. Unless, of course, she’d have seen me up here tonight. That might have sealed it for me, the wrong way.”

The man truly was embarrassed, when Reilly would have bet his last dollar he’d have been laughing like hell over what had happened to him.

It didn’t make sense until he thought about what his mother had said, how she’d left Eddie and not the other way around as he’d always thought.

And wondered why that, in turn, softened him, just a little, when he didn’t want to be softened. “So you’re saying that you’re not quite as smooth as you like everyone to think?”

“Oh, sure. Make me repeat it,” Eddie sighed. “Please. Whatever you think of me, just don’t tell her.”

The man was completely, one-hundred percent serious. Even…earnest. Reilly shifted uncomfortably at the compassion that blindsided him. “I’d promise, but it’s too late, Romeo. She’s downstairs.”

Eddie picked up his shirt and quickly shoved his arms in it.

Reilly sighed and tossed him his pants. “Hurry. Because… Dad?”

At the unaccustomed name, Eddie went still. Swallowed hard. “Yeah?”

“I won’t tell her.”

Reilly staggered back a step when Eddie hugged him hard, and then lifted his hands to hug his father back.





16




THE NIGHT WAS DARK and warm. There was no moon and being Los Angeles, the stars weren’t that bright either, but there was just something about a summer night in Southern California that couldn’t be beat.