Risk (Gentry Boys #2)(58)

Truly opened the door with a brilliant smile. She looked amazing. She always looked amazing. She wrapped me in her soft arms before I could get a word out. I closed my eyes and held her body against mine. All the shit in my head was gone. I was just a man who was in the arms of his woman.

She squealed when I lifted her. I carried her straight into the bedroom, stripped off both our clothes and buried myself in her. I would never get tired of this girl. In between bursts of sex we talked. I asked her questions about places she’d been and she gave me long answers. I said nothing of the fight and she didn’t ask. In fact, for a while, it wasn’t even on my mind.

In the morning I told her I needed to go to the gym. I breathed in the sweet scent of her skin and promised I would see her later. She kissed me goodbye before I headed out.

I took my time walking back. I went the long way, each step a little smaller than the last one. By the time I reached my apartment door I was nervous. In my mind I kept picturing Cord waiting on the other side, ready to throw me against the wall for scaring the hell out of Saylor. I deserved it. If he wanted to swing away I wouldn’t even try to stop him.

Cord wasn’t waiting though. Saylor was. She was sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of orange juice.

“Hi,” she said softly.

I swallowed. “Hey.”

She flicked my phone across the surface of the table. “It’s not broken.”

“Oh. Good.”

She paused. “I didn’t tell him about yesterday. He’s asleep.”

I said nothing. I picked up my phone and put it in my pocket.

“You shouldn’t tell him either.”

I shrugged. “Why’s that?”

“Because it will upset him.”

I leaned over the back of a chair and looked at her. “I didn’t mean it.”

She turned her head away and gave a bitter little laugh. “You know Creedence, you say that to me a lot.”

“Saylor.”

She stood and shouldered her purse. “I’ve got to go. When Cord wakes up, please just tell him I went to go run a few errands. I’ll be back later.” She walked a few steps, then stopped to stare at me. “Can you do that?”

“Yeah Say, I can do that.”

She nodded and left.

I sat on the couch and did nothing. The sound of Chase’s snoring reached me, or maybe it was Cord. I couldn’t tell the difference. After a while I picked up my guitar, thinking of the awful night when Cord and I went out for revenge. Normally the thought of hurting someone else made me ill. But not then. I wanted the blood of the men who had nearly killed Chasyn. I almost had it too. Cordero stopped me in a valiant gesture that I didn’t appreciate until later. He did something else too. He begged me to put away the rage and play some music instead. I’d hugged my brother and let him take me back to the hospital where we stood in a small room and sang for Chase and for anyone else who wanted to listen. It was one of the best moments of my life.

As I strummed the guitar in our shabby living room I let my mind sort through some of the other best moments. They were tied to Truly Lee.





CHAPTER TWENTY THREE


Truly



Saylor gave me directions. We were headed southeast, miles outside of the valley. For most of the drive we passed endless brown stucco housing subdivisions that appeared to be little more than clones of one another. Finally the stucco civilizations began to thin out. I’d never been to this part of the state before. It was flat and dusty. It must have been what the Phoenix area looked like before people went wild with building stuff all over it. We left the gloomy San Tan Mountains behind and kept going.

“Only five more miles,” Saylor promised.

“What are we here for?”

She twisted her hands in her lap. “I need to find someone who might be able to help. I tried to get Cord to call him but he wouldn’t.”

I had to ask her. “Say? How bad is this shit Creed’s wrapped up in?”

I could hear the pain in her voice. It matched the ache inside of me. “It’s bad, Truly. The last guy who hit the ground in one of these fights? He didn’t get up again. He died later the same night. I pieced that much together from hearing the guys whispering and also listening to Creed on the phone. Cord doesn’t know that I know.” She let out a low moan and rested her head against the passenger window. “God, I love him. I love him so much. This is killing him.”

Now that I knew more it was killing me too. I just couldn’t be as honest about it as Saylor was.

She touched my hand anyway, a gesture of comfort. Then she turned her head to look at the passing scenery. She wrinkled her nose.

“I hate coming back here.”

“Your folks still local?”

She laughed hoarsely. “Yeah. Think we’ll skip the reunion this time. My mom will never get used to the idea of her daughter mixed up with the Gentrys. I think in that case she’d rather not have a daughter. She especially hates Cord.”

I tried to pick my words carefully. “Because of what happened when you guys were kids?”

She shrugged. “It’s all right. You can say it out loud. Cord screwed me as a dirty bet he made with his brothers. He did it knowing it was my first time. Believe me when I tell you, when that story got around town there was no place I could hide.” Her pretty face had a far away look as she relived old agonies. “I know there are plenty of people who couldn’t understand why I forgave him at all after that, let alone fell in love with him years later.”