Morrison Read online

  But I’m not fucking stupid, either.

  If my brothers were here, I could tear shit up and know Monte and his goons wouldn’t have a chance. However, holding her still trembling body, I know damn well logic and reason would be compromised by the worry and fear that he would take away her hope, in the form of that cute-as-hell little chick who is sleeping in the spare bedroom.

  When I have my lightbulb moment, finally figuring it out, I laugh, and she stirs, but after a few seconds she settles back into her slumber.

  I wake when the sun starts to peek in the window. As I move out from under her, she opens her eyes.

  “You should go slide in bed with the little one, get some more sleep.”

  “Are you leaving?” She sits up and stretches.

  “No, just need to do a few things.”

  “Okay.” She gets up and stretches again, lifting the shirt so I am seeing little lacy bottoms.

  “Hey, Slick”—she snaps her fingers—“eyes up here.”

  “Busted.” I smirk.

  “Yeah, well, thank you for last night, for yesterday, for helping us out.”

  “My pleasure. Now go get in bed.” The way that comes out mirrors the nasty little thoughts traveling around in my head. I shrug and she rolls her eyes. “Sorry, babe. You just look so damn tasty right now. You need to go before I stop being such a damn gentleman and—”

  “Morrison,” she stops me. “I really do appreciate it.”

  “I know. Now go.”

  The funny thing about appreciation is that it doesn’t get you laid.

  I jump in the shower and look down at my dick. “Been a long time since the two of us have been intimate; years, actually. But here’s the drill”—I wrap my hand around myself—“that girl out there, the one who has you standing at attention and peeking out of my pants, begging to get inside of her…Well, she’s had it rough. Now simmer down. It’s not the kind of ‘rough’ you like. She sees you and me as a job.

  “Now I know,” I say, stroking faster, “she didn’t act like that before, but with knowledge comes responsibility. So you and I are gonna get to know each other as well as we did at sixteen years old, ’cause the next time I’m up in that, and you’re seeing platinum up close and personal, Betty Badass out there is gonna have begged for it. She’s gonna know you and I are not a job, a payment, or an obligation, but a gift.” I close my eyes and think of that fine, fine ass I am going all crazy over and pump myself harder, faster. “I promise you this,” I grunt out. “There is no way in hell I’m letting go of platinum.”

  —

  “What do you mean, Detroit?”

  I push her hand back at her. “Look at the tickets. We’re heading out in a couple hours, just for a little while, long enough for this to blow over.”

  “There is a tournament this weekend, and I can win it, Morrison. I can win it and pay him off!”

  “You need to think about that real hard.” I look over at Marisa, who is sitting on my leather couch with a bowl of grapes, wearing my wireless Bose headphones and singing along to some cartoon show.

  “Do you like Sofia the Firs?” she yells when she sees me looking at her.

  I smile and nod my head, even though I have no fucking clue what she is talking about. And I am sure she’s gonna spill those sticky-ass grapes all over my couch, but I’m okay with it. I am, dammit.

  “Did you hear me?”

  I look back at Hailey, who is scowling at me, and I shake my head. “Unless it’s ‘Morrison, I know you’re right, because last night I admitted nothing is more important than the little singing chick on your couch, and I am just so fucking st—’ ”

  “Watch your mouth in front of her,” she scolds.

  “She can’t hear me.” I laugh. “No more hustle, Hailey.”

  “I have to keep her safe.”

  “Well, that means you have to be safe. Who does she have without you?” Yes, I am laying it on thick, but that fucking wall of hers looks much better crumbled on the ground at her feet.

  “You just want to own me, fuck me—”

  “Watch your mouth in front of her,” I throw her words back at her, and she scowls again but says nothing. “Here’s another thing you need to stew about: I’m not gonna touch you, and I don’t want to own you. I want to do something right. I made a promise to a woman that I would do good in this fucked-up world, and I have been a selfish prick up until now. So, if you need to keep up this tit-for-tat shit with the checks and balances, add that to the I owe you side. Now get that fine little ass in there and pack up a couple suitcases so we don’t miss our flight.”

  She doesn’t move.

  “Little momma, don’t make me say it again.”

  —

  We pull up in front of Hendrix’s place in a cab, and Marisa looks out the window. “It’s green here.”

  “It sure is.” I get out and snatch up the little chick because, honestly, I’m thinking Hailey might slam the door and lock it before telling the cabdriver to pull out and take her away from here.

  I keep Marisa in one arm and grab bags out of the trunk with the cabbie. Then I pay him and watch as Hailey glances around skeptically.

  “Look what the cat dragged in.” I look behind me as the garage door opens to see Hendrix, Jagger, and Livi walking toward us.

  “Surprise.” I laugh. “Marisa, these two clowns are my brothers, Hendrix and Jagger, and this here is Livi, my sister-in-law.”

  She wiggles out of my arms and does a little princess curtsy. “How do you do?”

  “Little chick, they’re just people like us; save that sh—” Hailey elbows me. “Oops, my bad. Save that stuff for the queen.” I start introducing Hailey. “This is my…um…my…”

  “I’m Hailey, a friend of Morrison’s.” She reaches out and shakes their hands.

  “We’re gonna grab the SUV,” I say, “head down the road, find a place to stay, and—”

  “Nonsense, you’ll stay here.” Livi crouches down and smiles at Marisa. “You don’t want to stay at a stuffy old hotel, do you?”

  She smiles and shrugs.

  “We have plenty of room here.”

  “Livi”—Hendrix wraps his arm around her waist—“they’re more than welcome to stay, but if they don’t want to—”

  “What do you say, Hailey?” I ask. “Wanna crash here for a couple of days?”

  “That would be very nice. Thank you,” she replies timidly, still taking everything in.

  “Good. Now the guys can grab the bags and us girls will go find Marisa a room. It’s late; you must be tired,” Livi says, standing and smiling at Hailey.

  “Nope.” Marisa smiles and takes both Hailey’s and Livi’s hands.

  Once inside the garage, I look at my brothers. “Don’t judge me. Yeah, I should have called, but there wasn’t time, and I wasn’t sure she was gonna come.”

  “She your girl?” Hendrix asks.

  “She’s fucking hot.” Jagger winks at me.

  “She’s a friend who is in trouble with her soon-to-be-ex-husband, scum-of-the-earth, Vegas loan shark. He thinks she owes him something and threatened to take the kid. Ain’t happening on my watch.”

  “Why you watchin’ if you ain’t tappin’?” Jagger asks.

  “Respect, Jag,” Hendrix warns.

  “Random hookup; didn’t even know she has a kid.”

  “You okay with that?” Jagger asks.

  “Hottest piece of ass I’ve ever had. Shit’s platinum. I might have a problem.”

  “Problem?” Hendrix questions.

  “Yeah. She’s stubborn, has walls as high as the sun. Thinks she has to keep things even, afraid to owe someone. Same way with sex; she insists on giving as good as she gets.”

  “Where’s the problem in that?” Jag questions, then laughs.

  Hendrix and I both just look at him.

  “Okay, fine, we don’t give it like that.” He nods.

  “We give it better,” I say as I pat him on the back. “I’m star
ving. Let’s go up, and I’ll order dinner.”

  Dinner is fun. Marisa loves the pizza and entertains us all. That kid is young enough that she doesn’t show any battle wounds. She is gonna break this damn cycle. Why? Because her momma is so damn strong and loves her so damn much she is going to make it happen.

  Hailey is quiet, very quiet. I can’t even count the amount of times I see her look at the door like she wants to run. I’m not the only one who notices it, either. My brothers and Livi see that shit, too.

  Marisa picks the room none of us have ever slept in, the room Hendrix had set up with Momma in mind. A room Momma never once stayed in.

  After Hailey gives Marisa a bath, the two of them thank everyone, then go to bed.

  Hendrix heads back to the bar to close up, and Jag says he is out to hit up the gym. It’s late; I’m sure he is hitting something, but my guess is that it won’t just be the gym.

  “Things sure change in the blink of an eye,” Livi says as she wipes down the coffee table where we all ate.

  “She’s a good girl, just needed a break.”

  “You’re a good man, Morrison. All of you are. But please do me a favor?”

  “Anything, you know that.”

  “Don’t let Hailey fall if you aren’t strong enough to hold them both up. And don’t forget about how important that little girl is, if you and her mom do end up together. Remember, she was there by her mom’s side first. And don’t you fall if you don’t think Hailey can return the love that I know you’re capable of giving.”

  “Listen, Livi, I’m not even gonna touch that again.” I nudge her playfully.

  “Uh-huh. I’m serious, Morrison. You deserve to be happy, too. She is so vulnerable and scared, and you can’t—”

  “Liv, I was raised by a woman who was strong enough to stay. I will never put a woman in a position like that. I’m gonna help her gain her freedom. That’s all she wants for herself and that little girl.”

  In the morning, I wake up early and walk out of my room to find Hailey just standing there, looking around. I stop and watch her, wanting to know what she’s thinking. In her eyes, I see a lost look. In fact, she looks not only lost, but as if she feels caged.

  I don’t want her to get the wrong idea about why I’m watching her.

  “Morning,” I say as I walk past her. “Coffee?”

  “Um…I…um…”

  “You take it black?”

  “I need to find a grocery store.”

  “Okay. But until then—”

  “Do you come here a lot?” she cuts me off. “You have a room. Do you—”

  “I stay in Vegas until I make enough to come home for a while. Then I hang with my family. If I wanna work, I work at the bar. Hendrix owns a place down the road.”

  “I need to—”

  “Whatever you need, we’ll get it.”

  “I need a job,” she blurts out.

  “Done,” I hear Hendrix say as he comes bounding down the stairs. “Caught one of my girls doing lines when I went to grab the bank bag last night. Shit’s not happening at Caldwell’s. If you’re clean and want a job, it’s yours. Livi or I can train you—”

  “She worked—” I interrupt him.

  “I have experience,” she cuts me off. “I worked as a cocktail waitress in Vegas, even filled in when the bartenders needed a break.”

  “Tap beer and shots at my place,” Hendrix says.

  “I can’t start tonight. I need to find child care.” I see her eyes shifting wildly as if she’s trying to figure things out all by her goddamned self. I fucking hate that.

  “Trust me to watch her?” I ask.

  “As if I have a choice,” she mumbles.

  I head toward the bathroom before I say some shit I can’t take back, but I stop when I hear her speak.

  “You won’t take her anywhere, will you? You don’t have a car seat, and I don’t know the area.”

  “No, we’ll hang here.”

  —

  For three days she has worked, and in that time we haven’t said more than ten sentences to each other. She and Livi are getting close, which is cool, and Marisa and I have a little routine at night.

  Mom leaves and we hit the home gym in the garage. After two minutes on the treadmill, she is sitting on the ground.

  Today, she is on my back, laughing as I run. Cutest little shit in the world. She likes grapes, eats the hell out of them things while we watch Sofia the First—not Firs. Then we read.

  Hailey is off tonight, and from a distance, I can see a light has returned to her eyes. She jokes around with my brothers and Livi and seems almost comfortable. The only time I heard any friction was when she and Hendrix argued about her paying rent. He told her no; she told him she’d leave.

  “Pain in the ass, you know,” he grumbled when she shoved the envelope at him.

  And when I bought a car seat—a fucking car seat—for the Escalade, she was pissed.

  “You ever need to take her to the doctor’s, you won’t be so pissed off at me,” I call out as I walk away.

  Shaking my head, I bring myself back to the present and realize I need to put some distance between us, so I go to talk to Momma. Then I go to the bar, where I drink too much.

  I get offers, lots of them, and I can’t even think about accepting. All I can think about is her. By the end of the night, I can’t drive, so I wait for the cab that Sally, the bartender, calls for me and then head home, where I stumble down the hallway to her door.

  I stand in the doorway, watching them sleep. She looks stunning with the little frown gone, the worry seeming to have been erased. I have platinum right here in front of me, and I can’t even touch it.

  I don’t know how long I’ve been staring at her when her eyes open. She sees me, then glares.

  I merely shake my head and walk away.

  I hear the door shut and look back as she walks toward me, wrapping her robe around her.

  “What the hell are you doing? Do you watch me every night?”

  “Yep.” I want to lean forward and touch her. I won’t, though.

  “Well, don’t. It’s creepy and wrong. It’s fucked up, Morrison.”

  I nod. “Your fault.”

  “Mine?”

  “I have walked around here for days, looking at you smile, laugh, and let down that wall with everyone around here.” I lean forward a little. “You have no idea how sexy that is to me.”

  “Don’t,” her voice quivers.

  I shake my head. “I want you all the damn time. I get hard when you walk by. I could have fucked five different women tonight—God knows I need a release—but I didn’t, because all I wanted was to come back here and look at the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. The you here, Hailey—the Hailey lying with her daughter, sleeping without a frown or any visible worry—is the one I would prefer. But that Hailey wants nothing to do with me. So forgive me if I like to watch you sleep. I promise you I won’t do it again.”

  She says nothing, but her lower lip sticks out, and I have to stop myself from biting it or simply touching her, because I know what that does to her, to both of us.

  So instead, I walk away.

  Chapter 12

  Hailey

  “Morrison,” I call out. I shouldn’t speak. I should let him walk off. I need to push him away and truly let him go, not call him back to me.

  He doesn’t speak. He keeps his body with his back to me and looks over his shoulder, watching me intently.

  The tears build, and I feel like the dam is about to break.

  “I don’t know how to handle all of this,” I whisper.

  “You handle it by letting me help you,” he replies as if it’s the easiest thing in the world.

  “We aren’t your problem, Morrison.”

  His face contorts as if he’s in pain. Turning to face me, he doesn’t come closer, only stands with his hands on his hips, waiting for me to continue.

  “I appreciate the safe place to stay, the job placeme
nt, and helping with Marisa to get settled. The long term, though, I gotta fix that for myself. I got myself into this situation, and I gotta get Marisa and myself out of it.”

  “Little momma, you gotta know your front is hot. ’Cause, baby, a strong woman is sexy as hell. But you also gotta know there is nothing—and I mean nothing—that makes the man I am fall harder than watching the beauty you share with that little girl right in there.” He points to the door behind which Marisa is sleeping soundly. “Hailey, you gotta know, too, that it’s okay to let people in. It’s okay to have help. And, dammit, it’s okay to have something for yourself.”

  “I have something for myself. She’s in that room, right there.”

  With three strides, he’s standing in front of me, tipping my chin to make me look at him.

  “I’ve seen firsthand how it works out for a mom who only lives for her kids. She’s number one. I get that, Hailey. She’ll be my number one, too. Same for Jagger, Hendrix, and Livi; we got both your backs. We know just what it’s like for a mom to sacrifice everything for the sake of her kids and leave herself with nothing else.”

  I know he’s talking about his mom. We haven’t gotten this deep before, but I feel it.

  My gut twists as he continues, his eyes never leaving mine. “I got one regret in this life: that we didn’t make Momma walk away. We didn’t pay enough attention until it was too late to give her something for herself. She had us boys and the bar, but she deserved better. And you deserve better.”

  “Morrison,” I whisper as the tears fall.

  “Nah, Hailey, there’s nothing you can say. Just listen. With or without me, you gotta remember to take care of Hailey, too. Marisa needs her momma whole. She needs her momma to have people who have her back. And what I’m telling you is that you’ve got that, no matter what.”

  Feeling completely defeated, I look into his unwavering eyes. “I can’t repay your kindness, Morrison.”

  He slams his mouth down on mine in an all-consuming kiss, and the more he kisses me, the more I feel like I’m floating. When he softens up, I moan as I melt into him. Then he pulls away.

  “You. Don’t. Owe. Me. A damn thing. In the month I’ve known you, I have felt alive for the first time since Momma died. You and little chick give me a reason to get up in the morning and do something other than work the next hustle. I lie down at night wanting nothing more than to give you everything I have inside of me and lay the world at both of your feet. Don’t you get it, Hailey? You give me so much more than any money can buy. This isn’t checks and balances; it’s fucking feeling. For once in my life, I fucking feel, Hailey, and outside of worrying about keeping you two safe, it feels fucking good.”