Redemption Hills: The Complete Collection

11. Trent

ELEVEN

TRENT

Fucking Juna Lamb.

I glanced at the clock on the dash again. She was forty minutes late, which meant I was going to be even later to pick up Gage.

Was she really going to pull this bullshit on me?

My eyes scanned the visible part of the obscured path. It led to a meadow hidden in the dense forest just off the road where I waited about an hour outside our mountain city.

Place we always met.

Secure and unseen.

Didn’t matter. Anxiety gripped me in a vise, ribs clamping around my heart that was a thunder of disorder and old rage.

Thing was, it wasn’t all that old, either. It was the kind that grew. Amplified and blistered. The kind that would never abate.

The dread. The worry.

The grief and the guilt.

The stark, unrelenting hatred I held for this woman.

Most of all, the devotion I had to my son.

All of it roiled and thrashed and overflowed.

Crashing over me.

Wave after wave.

Knew she couldn’t be trusted, but what the fuck else was I to do?

I met her here once a year, and every single time, I was on edge, wondering when it was gonna be the time she fucked me. When she betrayed me all over again. Pulled the motherfucking trigger.

And still, I somehow thought I owed her a debt. Came here year after year because there was one reason I was living my life, so I buried the rage and the animosity and did what I had to do to protect it.

Knew full well it was a precarious line I was treading.

Blowing out a sigh, I grabbed my phone, checking for a message or missed call.

Nothing.

Shit.

I sat there contemplating for a beat before I gave in, decided to ask for help because the last thing I wanted was to leave my kid waiting. Make him think I’d forgotten about him. Like he would ever in a million years slip my mind.

I tapped out a message to Eden, praying she’d get it, understand, praying harder that she wouldn’t ask any questions.

Me

Eden, hate to ask, but I got sprung with something messy. Can you cover Gage for 40? I’ll owe you big.

I was unable to stop the way my heart stuttered with thinking about her.

Seemed there was no chance of her slipping from my mind, either.

The girl’s face twisted through on a constant invasion that I couldn’t outwit or outrun.

I would have thought my reaction to her would have faded with time, but thoughts of her seemed to be coming on stronger with each day that passed. With each night she moved around my bar, possessing the air and fucking with my sanity.

More than two weeks had gone by since I’d followed her to her house and had spouted a bunch of shit I shouldn’t have.

A clear proposition.

Truth was, after that fucker had touched her, only thing I could process was the overwhelming need to gather her up and make sure she was whole.

Preferably without her clothes covering that tempting, delicious body.

I’d been half mad with the desire to drag her into her house.

Touch her and taste her and take her.

Problem was? It’d gotten clear really fast that need was more than just wanting to get lost in her tight body.

Knew there was a real problem when I wanted to start making her promises I had no business making.

Tell her I would never let anyone harm her. Tell her I’d fight whatever war she was fighting. Fix whatever in her life had gone bad, patch it back together because I’d come to crave those sweet, innocent smiles.

I wanted to dig around inside her to find why those eyes would dim, then set to work at filling whatever had gone missing.

The way I got the sense she might be able to fill a little of what had gone missing in me, too.

Stupid.

I had one reason.

One reason.

I couldn’t risk getting distracted. Couldn’t risk another heart. Another life.

My chest tightened in that spiky dread when I saw the flickers of red coming through the trees, and I tossed my phone to the opposite seat as Juna pulled into the grassy field.

The air thinned and my spirit groaned.

Hatred. Hatred.

Distrust and this debt and a thousand fucked up things in between.

I was quick to climb out of my car, standing behind my open door with my gun burning a hole where it was holstered at my side.

She came to a stop, staring at me through the windshield, her brown hair twisted in a knot on her head and falling around her face as she clutched the steering wheel in her own fear and agitation.

She was stunning. Not a fuckin’ lie.

But she curled every cell in my body in revulsion.

Finally, she killed her engine, warily clicked open her door, and stood.

“Juna,” I said through gritted teeth.

Her mouth trembled, and she gave me a timid smile. “Hi.”

My head shook in a fierce gush of disbelief. “Don’t hi me. We both know why you’re here and what you want. No reason for pleasantries.”

She blanched. “Trent…I?—”

I shook my head again. “No bullshit, Juna.” I ducked back into my car and grabbed the duffle bag. I tossed it at her from across the space.

She caught it with a thud, her arms curled around the fabric and hugging all that money to her chest.

“You got what you came for, now go.”

Her expression twisted like I’d slapped her across the face. “That’s not true.”

“No? It was always about the money. Don’t deny it.”

“I never meant for it to happen.”

A blistering scoff left my mouth, and I had to curl my hands around the top of my car door to keep from crossing the space and choking her out. “You did. You set the whole fuckin’ thing up. You just got cold feet.”

Didn’t want my blood on her hands, so she’d left me with my brother’s on mine, instead.

My fault, too.

Wasn’t like I’d wanted her. Only thing I’d wanted was revenge on an enemy, and the girl had been an easy target.

She looked into the distance, her chin quivering before she tentatively looked back at me. “How is Gage?”

My chest tightened, throat closing off, and my hands were cinching down tighter.

“Safe.” That’s all she got from me. Only thing she deserved. One thing in this deal she’d given.

Gage.

She chewed at her bottom lip before she whispered, “That makes me happy.”

My insides twisted in a thousand knots, that hatred and a flash of gratitude making me feel like I might lose my mind, and she dropped her shoulders and started to climb back into her car.

Guess it was the panic, that paranoia that had been hunting me for the last few months that had the words shootin’ from my mouth. “Anyone have a clue where you are?”

Juna looked up at me with surprise riding her expression before she frowned and her brows drew tight. “No. You know I’d never go back there.”

My nod was clipped. “Good. Keep it that way.”

She didn’t say anything else before she ducked into her car, though she watched me with some kind of sadness as she started it, backed up, and whipped around so she could drive back down the bumpy lane.

I watched her go.

On guard.

Always on guard because I didn’t trust a damned soul.

Not when the ones I’d cared about most had betrayed me.

Betrayed us .

Slayed when they should have protected.

But that’s what happened when you lived the kind of lives we’d lived.

When we’d been brought up in depravity and wickedness.

Only exception were my brothers. Gage.

Knew better than letting anyone else into that fold.

I sat there for another ten after she left just to make sure I was in the clear before I grabbed my phone and saw that the message that I’d sent to Eden had still been left unread.

Agitation stirring, I glanced at the clock. School was already out.

“Shit,” I mumbled as I dialed her number and hoped she’d answer.

It rang before that sweet, sultry voice came on the line. “This is Eden, I’ll get back to you when I can.”

I hit the road and gunned it, hating that I had the sick urge to trust her with this. I had to stop the truth from sliding out and give her another fuckin’ lie to bury the mound of others.

“Eden, hey, I’m on my way but had an issue at the bar. Really sorry. Will be there soon.”

I took the curvy, winding mountain road at top speed. Engine flying, but it was my anxiety that was soaring.

This unsettled feeling taking hold, way it did every year right about this time, but I guessed that was something I would be battling for the rest of my life.

I made the hour-long trip in forty-five minutes, barely slowing as I made it to the edge of the tiny city where the dense hedge of trees thinned, and the trendy shops and restaurants tucked underneath the short office buildings and apartments came into view.

My eyes kept darting for the clock on the dash as I sped through town. I beat a path in the direction of the small private school that sat smack dab in the middle of it, really fucking late and still not a word from Eden.

My hands curled tight around the steering wheel. I was doing my best to get the bitterness under control, the regret and the shame, before I got to my kid. Last thing he needed was to see me like this.

The ghosts writhing beneath my skin.

Teeth gritting around the bullshit that bitch always tried to cram down my throat.

No question in my mind that Juna Lamb’s favorite game was manipulating me. Hell, I bet she got off on it. Knowing she had me by the balls and all she had to do was squeeze. One year she’d show up making demands, threatening, next sweet as pie and full of feigned regret.

But Gage was worth it.

One love.

One loyalty.

One reason .

All I had to do was keep throwing cash at that bloodsucker to keep her out of our lives and pray to God she didn’t bleed me dry.

That I could believe her now after she’d committed the ultimate disloyalty.

Tires squealed as I took a right onto Oak View. Gunning it, I came up fast on the entrance to the school. I downshifted, barely slowing as I skidded into the student pick-up circle.

Circle that was completely empty considering how late I was.

School had been over for almost an hour.

Fuck.

My guts clenched when Eden jerked her attention from where she was out on the playground by the slide, she and Gage its lone occupants. Rest of the children were long gone.

Hell, half the staff parking lot was vacant, too.

Even from the confines of my car, I could feel it.

The crash of energy.

Confusion and need.

But it was different this afternoon. The air was hot with anger.

She and I had been tiptoeing since the night I’d followed her home. Skirting each other, our interactions nothing but restraint and civility after our boundaries had been set in stone.

I was her boss at the bar, and she was my son’s teacher here at the school, and it ended at that.

Except that was a farce, wasn’t it? With the way those autumn eyes flared and flashed. Way that golden color sparked beneath the glittering rays of sunlight that burned through the sky, lighting her up in a fiery show of disappointment.

Protectiveness bled out as she straightened herself in front of my son.

Yeah, I was a twisted fuck because my dick went hard at the sight.

Thirsting for something sweet.

For something innocent.

Something far too good.

The monster who wanted to dirty it. Dirty her. Delve into the sanctuary of who she was.

Get a taste of the light when my entire life had been lived in the shadows.

Her jaw was clenched.

Her demeanor stone.

The tires squealed to a stop, and I jerked the car into neutral and jammed at the button for the brake. I was out in a second flat, doing my best to quiet the disturbance rattling my ribs.

The way I was struck with two different emotions at once.

Disenchantment and a straight up thrill.

Gage whirled around at the sound of my approach, that golden hair bouncing around his cherub face, kid the perfect mix of Juna and me.

Only good thing either of us had ever created.

He looked at me with this huge-ass smile on his face that cut right through the middle of my spirit.

One reason.

One reason.

He pointed my way. “See, there he is. Told you, Miss Murphy, told you he was gonna come and we didn’t have nothin’ to worry about. My dad is the best.” He started jumping, waving his hand in the air like I didn’t notice him standing there. “Hey, Dad! Over here, Dad. Where ya been? Miss Murphy thought you mighta forgot me, but I told her never, no way. Not my dad. Right, Dad, right?”

He grabbed her hand and started to haul her my direction as my boots ate up the ground in a desperate bid to make it to the gate as fast as I could.

Fuck the signs posted every two feet.

Wasn’t anyone around, anyway.

Eden glowered at me. Fucking gorgeous, sweet Eden who was watching me like I was the devil.

She wouldn’t be wrong.

Fire and disgust flooded from her spirit.

Made me a damned fool that in spite of it, I couldn’t help but drink her in. Her body and that face and those eyes. I’d gladly drown in her wrath if it meant getting washed in who she was.

One time.

One time, I wanted to make her mine.

Take what couldn’t be.

She wore a modest sundress, this creamy soft thing with a touch of lace at the neckline, fabric swishing just below the knees. Still did crazy-ass things to me.

Eden tightened her hold on Gage’s hand and lifted that chin in a clear warning.

That did crazy-ass things to me, too. A little rage and a lotta awe, my fiery little Kitten going to bat for one of her kids.

My kid.

And I got that fucked up sense again—one that I was looking on something that was right. Something that was good .

I shook that bullshit off because you didn’t get good when you had no good to give.

“Dad, guess what?” Gage shouted as he pranced my way.

“What is it, buddy?” I asked, though most of my attention was locked on the woman who looked like she wanted to punch me in the throat.

We were all standing at the fence by that time, staring at each other through the wrought iron rods keeping us apart.

“We had pigs in a blanket for lunch. You know what’s that? That’s the tiniest little hot dogs you ever seen.” He giggled it while clutching to Eden’s hand. “And they have bread for blankets! See…pigs in a blanket.”

He cracked up like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard.

My chest tightened, and I glanced his way, love pouring out, that flood way more fuckin’ powerful than the deluge of anger Eden Murphy had flowing on me.

“No way,” I exuded through the clusterfuck of emotions.

“Yes way!” Gage grinned. All dimples and tiny teeth. “They were deeees-licious. And that’s with a capital D. You think we can have some at our house for dinner? Is it okay if I be the chef, Dad? I’ll make ’em so good.”

“We’ll see what we can do, buddy.”

The whole time, Eden itched at his side.

“See, Miss Murphy. My dad’s the best dad in the whole world.” He was gazing up at her with that expression on his face. One of sheer belief. Affection took the place of her anger as she looked down at him before she turned her attention back to me.

Autumn eyes narrowed in hostility and some kind of hurt I couldn’t pinpoint.

Something haunted. I was the idiot who wanted to touch her face. Ask her what it meant. Beg her to get it. To understand the lengths I had to go. The position I was in. But I couldn’t let anyone go there. I was a fool for even thinking it.

I reached up for the latch on the gate.

Eden huffed and muttered, “Typical,” under her breath.

“What’s your problem?” I hissed even lower, tripping on the mess of emotions that threatened to knock me from my feet.

“What’s my problem?” She gritted her teeth. “I think that should be obvious.”

“Gage, why don’t you show me how you can go down the slide?” I suggested through the affliction.

“Really?”

“Yup, do it fast.”

He untangled his hand from Eden, and my boy was making a beeline back toward the playground, shouting the whole time, “Watch this, watch this!”

“Watching,” I hollered as I flicked the latch and pushed through. Eden stumbled back, a surprised sound coming from her mouth.

“What’s your problem, Miss Murphy?” I demanded again, a knife twisting through my chest, eyes flicking between her and the kid because I wasn’t going to miss him going down the slide. “Just say it.”

“You’re more than an hour late.” The words shook.

“Didn’t notice.” Sarcasm dripped from my voice.

Yeah. Couldn’t help but get pissed, too. That she was over there making assumptions and she didn’t have the first clue.

She scoffed out a broken sound. “That…that exactly right there,” she begged below her breath. “That little boy was sitting over there by himself waiting for you…watching every other kid get picked up on time because their parents actually make them their priority. I had to drag him over to the playground to keep him distracted while you were off doing God knows what.”

Was she serious?

I was in her face. Towering over her. Rage snapping my teeth.

Fear and uncertainty stuttered her chest, and her gaze was darting all over my face, like she was looking for who I was. For a worthy explanation. For a reason to trust me.

“You don’t have a fuckin’ clue, Miss Murphy.” It was all I could give her and that sucked, too.

Gage shouted, “Here I go!”

Eden stepped back, her arms crossed over her chest as she stood there and warred. The two of us watched him hop into position and use the handles for leverage to propel himself faster. He threw his hands in the air and laughed hysterically the whole way down. He toppled off into the dirt at the bottom, and the second he hit it, he hopped up and had his arms thrown above his head. “Touch down! How was that, Dad? Did you like it? Did you see how fast I went?”

“Perfect ten,” I bellowed, trying to keep the anger out of my voice, but it was back full force when I looked at his teacher.

My employee.

At this woman who had me in motherfuckin’ knots.

“You have no idea what I do for that kid.”

Eden shifted on her feet, her chin quivering. Sadness streaked through those eyes. She tried to hide it by dropping her gaze to the ground, but I saw the moisture rise to the surface.

My chest tightened.

How had she gained the power for that single look to destroy me?

“You should have been here,” she whispered on an exhale. “We were—” She clipped off whatever she was going to say, her lips hard when she forced, “He was worried.”

In longing, she looked at my son.

“Yeah, I should have been, but it wasn’t because I don’t care. Wasn’t because I simply lost track of time.” I angled in closer, letting the words grate from my tongue. Or maybe it was just my defenses sliding out. “Wasn’t like I was gettin’ my cock sucked by one of my whores or doing God knows what .”

An earthquake rocked me.

I couldn’t stop this feeling that was taking me over.

She didn’t understand and I fuckin’ wanted her to.

Fuck. I wanted her to.

Her throat tremored when she swallowed. “I didn’t say that.”

I moved on her, coming closer, swallowing up her breaths and sucking down her aura. My mouth moved close to her ear. “No, but that’s what you were thinking, wasn’t it? That I’m a shitty dad?”

“No.” She blinked, and she angled so she could barely see my face. “Trent…I?—”

Eden was cut off when Gage came skipping our way, singing The Wheels on the Bus that he’d been driving me out of my damned mind with for the last week, but because I loved the kid so much, I typically just sang along.

She jumped back when she realized how close we were. That energy rushing and whirring and winding us tight.

Magnetic.

Neither of us knew how to stay away when it was clear that was exactly what we had to do.

I looked back at her. “I’m sorry I was late. I texted. I called. Left a message on your cell letting you know. It was out of my hands. Next time, I’ll be sure to call one of my brothers from work so I don’t put you out.”

I wasn’t about to lose my son over some closing bell, and that was just the way it was when Juna Lamb was in control. But if it was gonna cause this kind of reaction in Eden, someone I’d been fool enough to think I could rely on with a bit of this bullshit, then I’d figure something else out.

“You ready, Dad?” Gage swiped up his backpack from where it rested against the fence, swung it on, and took my hand.

Little fingers curled around mine.

The anxiety that’d been racing the entire day eased just a bit.

I gave him a gentle squeeze. “Yeah, buddy, I am.”

I started to turn and walk but swung back around to meet Eden Murphy’s eyes. “Think what you want, Kitten…but I would claw my way through Hell to get to my kid.”