Undeniable (Undeniable, #1)(54)

Extending his arm straight out, palm facing down, he signaled his boys to slow down. Then he put his arm up in the air and extended his index finger. The boys slowed and went single file in order of their rank: Deuce, Mick, and then Cox bringing up the rear.

They headed home.





CHAPTER FIFTEEN


“I’m not going in there.”

Deuce folded his thick arms across his wide chest. “You gonna sleep out under the stars?”

I shrugged. “Since I’m not going in there, yeah.”

Closing his eyes, he took a couple of deep breaths. I knew I was wearing down his last nerve, but honestly, I couldn’t find a shred of give-a-damn. He had good intentions, yes, but he wasn’t listening to me and didn’t care how I felt about any of this. I had just up and left behind everything I’d ever known for him, and he was expecting me to move in with him and his kids. His grown-up kids. His grown-up kids I’d never met!

From what I could see, he had a beautiful home. It was a two-story rustic Montana cabin, widespread, with a wraparound porch and a backyard that went on for miles. It was off the beaten path—no neighbors, no traffic, no nothing. Just Deuce. And his two grown kids.

Holy crap. I had to get far, far away.

Was there a bus stop in the mountains? I didn’t remember seeing any. In fact, I don’t think I saw any buses either. Or people. Or anything at all actually. But there had to be a bus stop, right? If there’s a road, more than likely a bus will show up eventually…right?

“Reel it in, Eva,” Deuce growled. “How far you think you’re gonna get? You don’t even know where the f*ck you are.”

“This is kidnapping!” I yelled. “And stop reading my mind!”

“Fuck me,” he muttered. “Are you always this crazy?”

“Yes!” I screamed. “Which is why you need to take me to an airport or a bus station or any sort of civilization and let me go home!”

He ignored me. “I don’t remember you bein’ this crazy.”

“You want to know why you don’t remember me being this crazy? Because out of the twenty-five years we’ve known each other, we can count on our fingers and toes how many days of that we’ve spent together. And some of those days weren’t even full days!”

“Eva,” he said, exasperated. “You’ve spent four days on the back of my bike and sleepin’ in a tent, pukin’ your f*ckin’ guts out. You look like shit, you smell like shit, and I’m willin’ to bet you’d love to sleep in a real bed. So how’s ’bout you and I continue this f*ckin’ bullshit inside?”

I was praying for serenity, praying for the strength not to rip his throat out, when I heard the most awful noise in the entire world.

“Dad?”

A miniature Deuce sauntered down the driveway. I stared at him. He was nearly as tall as his father, not quite as well-built, but still impressive for an eighteen-year-old. His hair was long and blond and pulled back in a man bun, and when he flashed me his lady-killer grin, it was Deuce at Rikers all over again. But he didn’t have his father’s eyes. While Deuce’s were frosty blue, mini Deuce’s were brown.

Deuce pointed at his mini him. “Cage,” he grunted. Then he pointed at me. “Eva.”

Sheesh. He sounded like a Neanderthal. “Me man, you woman.”

The mini Deuce grinned again and lifted his chin. “’Sup, Eva.”

I buried my face in my hands. “Oh my God,” I whined. “I need a bus station.”

“Daddy!”

I peeked through my fingers at the screaming, giggling mass of blonde hair flying down the driveway. Dear God. This chick was a teenage diva. Skinny jeans and a sparkly pink tank top with furry pink boots, highlighted blonde hair, long and layered with perfectly side-swept bangs. Way too much eye makeup. This did not bode well for me.

I was not a diva. None of my clothing had ever been accused of being furry.

She launched herself at Deuce and wrapped her body around him. Since no one was looking at me, I decided to tiptoe slowly out of the driveway. How hard could it be to find a bus stop?

“Eva!” Deuce bellowed. “Don’t you f*ckin’ dare!

I stopped and glanced over my shoulder. Deuce was storming toward me while both his kids looked on curiously.

So I did what any victim being forced to live with your man’s grown children would do. I turned tail and ran like hell. True, I had no idea where I was going, but there was a road, and a road had to lead somewhere. If it didn’t, how would people get anywhere?

Deuce’s boots pounded heavy on the pavement behind me, growing closer and closer until he was close enough to grab me. I screamed and made a hard right off the road, jumped over a small ditch, and headed straight for the woods.

I didn’t make it.

“Bitch, I know I wasn’t f*ckin’ hallucinatin’ when you said you were sick of runnin’,” he growled.

“Fuck you,” I hissed. “FUCK YOU!”

“That what you need, Eva? You need me to f*ck you to remind you where you f*ckin’ belong?”

“Daddy?”

“Fuck,” he muttered. “Go back to the house, Danny.”

“I want to talk to Eva.”

“House. Danny. Now.”