Montana Falls (Red Diamonds #5)

Chapter Seven

S itting beside Sapphire’s pool, feet resting on the wicker coffee table, I felt the first piece of solace and quiet I had in far too long. Chaos had been surrounding me for ages, and though I swore I was reaching my limit, I was wrong. Now it was worse . Not because I was in the middle of a gang war, or because I was even doing anything remotely dangerous. Not because Widow and Delilah were missing after Widow had potentially fucked over my diamond. Not even because the rest of the Jester boys had upped and vanished too, before I could get to Sapphire’s house and catch them.

No. It was none of that. It was purely because there was a stripper and aggravating teenager in the kitchen, having fun and making far too much noise. I mean, Yeva and Henley were with Ruby and Rika, too. But Henley was on the couch, busy texting away to whoever it was that had caught her attention, doing her best to pretend to not exist so I couldn’t question her about her cousin again. And Yeva may have been having one or two drinks, but she hadn’t uttered a single word since Angel and Yumi had taken Diamond to watch a movie, and the trio had fallen asleep in the lounge.

She was my favorite. Yeva, that was. Diamond was tied with her because she was just so… so innocent. She had no personality quirks for me to hate because she was a kid, and she reminded me of my diamond, and that was always going to be something I liked. But Yeva? I actually liked her, and she was a woman.

She was violent. Blunt. Sharp with every word she said. There was a hatred in her soul that I often felt and a single look at her bright green eyes was enough to show you that it was volatile flames that made them burn, not sweetness and sunlight.

It was why I’d picked her to train myself, rather than leaving her to Sapphire and until everything else had been dealt with. It was also why I’d put a few calls into one of Giovanni De Luca’s friends , who specialized in… nurturing that bundle of anger and turning it into something useful.

Something wickedly dark and devious that I just knew Yeva would enjoy when I had a chance to speak to her about it.

The other women I could see right now though, were not innocent or sweet or anything other than thorns in my side. The walls of the house throbbed because of them. The glass of the windows and doors quivered with a violent bass, and not a single ounce of me could escape the heady thrum of the horrendous music Rika had stuck on the speaker. RnB. Club tunes. Early two thousands classics. Also known as nonsense noise. Nonsense noise that Sapphire had enjoyed listening to before, so I knew just enough of the lyrics that I hummed along under my breath despite how much it made me scowl.

Leaning back in my chair I sipped my whiskey, the slight burn barely felt what with the half a bottle deep I already was. The night sky stretched above me, a vast canvas of darkness dotted with twinkling stars. Stars that were also vibrating from the music.

Stars that were unable to be truly enjoyed, because of the music. And the dancing. And the cheer.

And the fucking women . In my house. Sapphire’s house. Same difference. There were too many women, and they were not the ones I could tolerate. None of them. Not even a little.

Okay, maybe a little. But still.

I took a long sip from my glass again, the slightly spicy taste soothing my restless mind as I shut my eyes. Or at least it was meant to. In reality, it just made me drunk and sad, not just sad. Though, everyone knew drunk and sad was better than just sad. It made the original sadness feel… just feel less. It pushed it off onto tomorrow to be future Beau’s issues.

Barely two minutes into my pretend nap, the door creaked as it slid open, a set of heels click clacking against the patio as their owner tried sneaking up beside me. For a second, I froze entirely. Partly out of nerves, a little out of annoyance at being disturbed. The only good thing for me was that when they clicked a lighter wheel far too loud, some of my stupid stress went away. I didn’t need to open my eyes to know who was there. There was only one person who smoked now that Widow was gone and wore stupid heels. Plus, she didn’t last a single moment before opening her rarely closed mouth.

“Is the old man so tired already?” Rika snickered a laugh as I heard her drag a chair beside mine, scraping the legs on the floor and making my jaw clench. “It is not even late yet, and you are sleeping away outside like the babies do.” She mumbled more bullshit in Hungarian, as I refused to acknowledge her presence.

True to her form, she smoked for a few minutes as I continued to ignore her jibes and prodding. She spoke far too often for my liking. It was constant and random and pointless. I hadn’t had an ounce of peace since stupidly deciding to let her stay in my spare bedroom until she started college. Purely just so Sapphire had one less thing to worry herself about whilst dealing with the bullshit. But I knew it had been a stupid offer. I should have known the second I met Rika.

Even when she was quiet, her presence was loud. Feminine. Pink and garish. It reminded me a little of Ruby and just… just…

I sat up, opening my eyes to glare at the pink-haired hellion and her smoke fumes. Glare at her for daring to remind me of the red-haired demon who was currently cheering as the others did shots, as she helped celebrate Aiden’s birthday a little late, but better than never.

My boyfriend’s birthday. Because he was mine before he was hers and I had that childish fucking dibs thing that Sapphire’s bratty boyfriends liked to shout.

My boyfriend, who I couldn’t even fuck tonight because he would no doubt want her too, and I couldn’t stand having her near me for something like that. Not now. Not ever.

“Are you thinking about how much you hate me again?” Rika snatched a full bottle of beer from the outdoor mini fridge, uncapping it and sinking half in a single moment as she continued to smile at me like pissing me off was fun.

You could tell she hadn’t grown up around us. That she wasn’t someone who lived in Diamond Grove for long enough that she knew how things worked. She didn’t fear me, respect me or anything in between. She just saw how easy I was to annoy and ran with it, like she did for everyone else.

I hated it so much that I liked it, which was a headfuck of the worst proportions.

“Are you old enough to drink?” Sipping my whiskey again, I tried to bite down on the irritation in my tone. Partly because she was barely an adult. Mostly because she was Kody’s cousin.

If I upset her, he would have a tantrum about it and then Sapphire would want to speak to me and it would become a whole big thing that I didn’t have the mental energy for.

Rika leaned back on the chair as she slid her heels off. “In my country, yes. It is you who think people cannot drink until they are old.” She snorted, and I glanced at her face, finding her eyes red around the edges, and the slightest sign of dampness under her eyelashes. “You can drive as a child and buy guns in the supermarket, yes? But beer is so bad. It is fucking stupid, this country.”

She sniffled. Just a bit. Enough to make me wonder if she’d been crying.

Then I wondered if I cared.

Apparently, my brain was broken, because I did.

“You don’t like America?” I forced the conversation on, wanting to wait for an opportunity to ask why she’d been crying, like a regular man did. “I don’t; I’m only here for Sapphire.”

“No, I don’t like it. I am here to do college and for Koko.” She snorted and wiped her eyes with a handkerchief from my suit jacket that I silently handed over. “If I was moving for pleasure, it would be England, or maybe Scotland. Something wet and dark and fucking miserable.”

“You prefer the cold?” So did I sometimes. Perhaps it was my DNA. Or maybe it was because I was fucking miserable and when I was in the snow, I didn’t feel quite so bad.

It was hard to feel like shit when everything was a blur of beautiful white.

She stamped her cigarette out on the ashtray she must have bought with her, before instantly lightning another. “I prefer the winter vibes. It makes me feel like… like.” She waved her hand around. “Like witches or something that haunts places. I feel spooky, and it is more fun to read in blankets and with hot chocolate.”

“You like reading?” Look at me, making conversation and asking about her hobbies. I was practically a fucking saint.

Beau from a year ago would have walked away the second she sat down.

“I love reading. And writing. My dream one day is to be an author. Maybe thrillers or romance. Or both.” She blew smoke out of her lips. “I could do a romance with a man in a mask chasing a pretty woman he wants to fuck. That sounds fun to me.”

“Yeah. Sure. Sounds great.” I paused a second as she grabbed another beer. “You should watch how much you have to drink, and not just because hangovers are a bitch. But because alcohol doesn’t solve whatever upset you.” Swallowing down my disgust, I added, “What did upset you? Anything I can help with?”

Even saying it made me want to throw up. It was sickening how much I had to care about other people’s wellbeing lately.

Nauseating that all the reasons I had to kill her, and women like Ruby, weren’t enough for me anymore. I needed actual crimes or real evil deeds to convince my brain to kill a woman. I couldn’t justify it with the simple fact she was a woman, and they were evil themselves.

“Don’t you think it is funny?” Rika sat up suddenly, poking her finger into my arm as she tucked a lock of her ridiculous pink hair behind her heavily pierced ear and refused to answer my question.

I pulled back so she couldn’t touch me, but restrained myself from reaching for my gun on the table next to me. “What’s funny?”

“How you love me? Very obsessed kind of love that makes you care for me.” She gave me a simpering smile in between drags on the last embers of her cigarette before finally declaring herself done.

“I’m obsessed with dreaming about putting a bullet in your skull.” I huffed and reached for my bottle of whiskey, not bothering with the glass when the bottle worked just fine.

Before she could respond, the patio doors opened again as the party made its way outside. Or at least partly outside. What with Ruby hurrying to take off her clothes, as she was apparently dared to jump into the pool.

I didn’t look. At all. My eyes were on my bottle. And Rika. Definitely. It was Rika who stared, her eyes on Ruby’s ass, watching the way it bounced and jiggled in her skin tight skirt as she slid it down and –

And did fuck all because I wasn’t looking.

“How dangerous is Aiden?” Rika muttered through a sip of beer. “We talking very dangerous, or like a cat that’s a little mad when in water?”

“He will kill you.” I didn’t need to clarify why she was asking me that question. “Then I’d have to kill Kody because he would want revenge, which would then lead to Sapphire hating me and starting a war.”

“But she’s so pretty.” Rika whined as I forced my eyes on to a nearby bush, when Ruby lost the last of her clothes and did a terrible dive into the pool. “Everyone around me is so fucking pretty and yet not a single one is gay, or my kind of bi, or single. Do you know how annoying that is? I could find a girl to fuck in the woods and mountains. But not here basically in Sin City?”

I ignored the giggles and cheers from behind me, refusing to see what was causing them.

“No. I don’t date, so I don’t notice shit like that.” I snapped.

Rika laughed. “You have a boyfriend, bro.”

My jaw tensed, eyes narrowing. “I’m not, nor will I ever be, your bro .”

She snorted hard enough to choke on her beer and make me spitefully smirk. “Okay, bro . Do you want me to call you daddy instead?”

The urge to strangle her came back in droves and it was only through sheer willpower – and the fact I was desperately trying to keep my attention on Rika and not other things – that I refrained from doing so.

“Only if you want me to cut your throat.” I huffed.

“But you are a daddy. Both with your energy and legally.” She laughed harder. “You have six daughters. It’s not even one anymore, it’s six .”

Sapphire, Yeva, Delilah, Henley, Yumi and Diamond. Biologically one was mine. Legally, all of them were mine.

Fucking hell.

“Shit.” I leaned against the chair again, needing to relax and stop the sudden wave of nausea engulfing me. “I didn’t even think of that. I just signed a bunch of paperwork because Sapphire wasn’t here to do it.”

“Right. So, daddy Beau , you really ought to listen to me. I’m good with girls. I can help you work out how to be the best dad in the universe and not wind up hanging yourself in a week when they all make you so angry you hate life.”

Rika kept talking and all I could think about was that I wanted to kill her. A bullet between the eyes. A knife kissed across her throat. She was lucky her cousin belonged to Sapphire or else I would have done it. Because I wasn’t happy. Not at all.

I missed Ford. I missed Sapphire. I missed Luciana and my parents and being in my family home.

I missed being able to wake up without an anxious ball of energy burning away in my chest, forcing me to take a moment like now, just to step away from everything in the universe that had decided to overwhelm me and be a bitch.

I missed being able to control myself well enough that when a naked and sopping wet woman stumbled out of the pool and almost landed on my lap; I didn’t reach out to grab her and stop her from hurting herself.

“Are you drunk or just being stupid?” I snapped at Ruby as she barely restrained her giggles and I caught an eyeful of her… generous chest.

“No, sugar. I’m just havin’ fun. You should try havin’ it sometimes.” She shrugged out of my hold and hurried to grab a towel from the nearest deck chair. “Oh wait, I forgot you don’t have fun. You’re allergic to it.”

“I do have fun.”

Aiden headed inside with a shout about grabbing her some pyjamas to change into instead, as she said, “Jump in the pool, Beau.”

I scoffed. “No.”

“Exactly.”

“Do a shot.” I retorted with a huff as I sat up and swung my legs over the edge of the chair and offered her my whiskey bottle.

“Not the same thing. But you can pass me a can of lemonade; sugar free if you have it. I ate so much sugar tonight I’m about to start bouncin’ on the walls of this pretty house.” She sat down on the edge of Rika’s chair, entirely oblivious to the heady stare being sent her way. Or more importantly, toward the large handfuls of cleavage that were still on display in her towel.

I was aware of it though. And I cut that shit right off.

“Rika, go to bed. You’re basically a kid and it’s late.” There was not a single ounce of bartering in my tone, and luckily for her, she understood and listened.

She got to her feet, offering Ruby a pleasant goodbye before she turned to me with a wicked smirk.

“Goodnight, daddy.”

“Fucking brat.” I huffed, more to myself than anything, as she hurried to run into the house, laughter trailing behind her.

My glare almost burned through the walls as I did nothing but seethe and wonder if it was too late to shoot her.

“You know, Rika is on to somethin’” Ruby snickered suddenly and I turned to glare at her instead, finding her as she tried and failed to tame all her curls into two braids. “You have daddy energy.”

“Excuse me?” My lips parted on a sharp exhale.

She carried on talking as though I hadn’t interrupted.

“Now, on any other person, I would be all for it. But on you? Absolutely not.” She pulled a sickened facial expression.

“Why?” Was it weird that I was a little offended? I didn’t want anyone to call me daddy, but at the same time, I did think I had a bit of a… of an aura, if you will.

“Because I’m friends with Sapphire and she uses the word.” Ruby gagged harder as she kept yanking her hair, her attempts at styling it pitiful. “I would picture her face if I called you it.”

There wasn’t much I could say to that, so I didn’t. I just remained in silence, sipping and scowling and wishing that the music would change so I could enjoy myself.

Wishing that someone would take Ruby back inside so I didn’t have to sit there like a pathetic little bitch, enjoying the fact she was near me. As though I even liked her.

Even when Aiden returned with her clothes and helped her into them, she didn’t stop babbling and I didn’t stop ignoring each word as I kept staring at her mouth. At least I did until she started cursing, and almost threw her hair ties into the nearby bushes in a rage.

For some godforsaken reason, it annoyed me that she couldn’t do her hair.

For some godforsaken reason, I cared .

“Give me the hair ties.” I huffed as I held out my hand before Aiden could say a word.

Ruby narrowed her eyes at me as our boyfriend glanced between us, not saying a word with his mouth, but far too much with his eyes.

“Why?” She dragged out the question.

“I’ll do it for you. Watching you struggle is irritating me.”

“You can’t braid.” She slowly dropped the ties into my palm.

“Who do you think did Sapphire’s hair when Lucia died and Ford was busy being drunk and murderous?” I scoffed as I got to my feet, getting close enough I could touch her. “I sure as fuck wasn’t letting anyone else near my kid after all that happened. Even a fucking nanny. So yes , I can braid.”

Aiden leaned back against the chair, sipping on a beer and continuing to stare at me with far too many questions I didn’t have answers to.

“You did her hair? That’s really sweet.” Ruby stilled as my fingers brushed the back of her neck and I pretended not to notice.

It was just a normal thing to do. I was helping. Being nice …

It didn’t matter that I wasn’t usually nice or helpful. It didn’t matter that the longer time went on, the more Aiden started smiling like an arrogant son of a bitch who was reading into the situation far more than he should have.

Sure, it was going to be good for him to have both his partners getting along. But we weren’t doing anything. I was just offering to help Ruby with her hair, so she could hurry up and leave me alone faster. That’s all it was. No big deal.

He didn’t need to look so smarmy as he got to his feet and said, “I’m gonna help the girls set up for the movie.”

He left us alone for some reason. Alone as I touched silky soft curls that smelled like roses and did my best to fashion them into a respectable set of French braids.

“Do you believe me now about my talents?” I asked, when I finished the first half of her head, needing to break the silence with something other than my racing thoughts.

Ruby was quiet for a moment. Then she didn’t answer my question as she almost whispered, “You said your kid.”

My brows pulled together. “What?”

“It’s just that I’ve noticed when you talk to me, you refer to Sapphire as your daughter, more than your niece.” She muttered. “I didn’t know if you were aware that you were doin’ it. But I thought I would tell you to see if… if you wanted to talk about anythin’ in your empty brain.”

“Talk?” My frown hardened.

“Yeah. That thing people do with their mouths that’s potentially fun sometimes.” She snorted. “I want to know if you’re okay about things? Like Sapphire findin’ out you’re her dad, or how that works. Hell, even to see if you’re okay in general with what happened to Ford, and Malone, and all this other nonsense that goes on around you.”

There were a lot of things I could have said, but only one seemed the most important in my mind.

“You care about my emotions?” I asked.

“Isn’t that what friends do?”

“I don’t have friends.”

“Guess I’m a ghost then.” She started making woo noises instantly, waggling her arms about for good measure as I finished the second side of her head, and declared her perfect.

Well, not perfect. She couldn’t be perfect. It was impossible. I would never think that about her.

“Friends.” I tasted the word on my tongue, unsure if I enjoyed it or not. “Fine. Okay. We can be friends. But we can also not talk about the other stuff. At least not tonight. Maybe another day.”

“Aw, thanks for strugglin’ to admit we’re friends. It really does make me feel good.” She laughed as she got to her feet and respected my wishes not to talk about feelings just yet. “If you want to be real friends. Then you could come inside and eat pizza and watch whatever terribly cheesy romance movie Henley has probably picked.”

Everything inside me tensed up. But not all of it was with nerves. There were other thoughts and feelings in my brain that I… that I wouldn’t be dealing with yet. Maybe not ever.

“You want me to come and watch a movie with you?” I asked.

“Yes.” She stepped closer and stared up at me through her long, dark lashes, our height difference worse than usual, what with her lack of hooker heels. “I want you to come inside, sit next to me on the couch, and watch a movie. And I also want you to eat pizza and popcorn and drink soda until your mouth feels icky inside, and you’re all sleepy and relaxed. Is that okay, friend ?”

No. it wasn’t okay. It was terrifying and sickening and making me wonder about all the things that could go wrong.

My mouth didn’t seem to understand that, though. My mouth didn’t seem to understand a lot.

“Sure. I guess I can do those things. For Aiden. Seeing as it’s his birthday party.” I drawled, as I said goodbye to my night of stars and peace, and waved her inside with one of the words I didn’t think I’d ever called a woman before leaving my tongue. “Let’s go, friend .”