Forever in Love Read online

  “Well. Well. Well. Look who decided to come down from his lofty tower and slum with us peasants.”

  Buck slowly turned on his heel and faced the speaker. The years had not been kind to the man standing in front of him. Where he’d been somewhat on the thin side, he now appeared emaciated. The jeans and bright shirt he wore draped around his frame. If it hadn’t been for the packet of drink mix fastened to the bill of his ball cap, Buck may not have recognized him.

  “Is this your babysitter old man?” That earned a chuckle from the two thugs on either side of him.

  Buck shifted his weight, moving in front of Dexter. “I’m looking for Red.”

  “Red’s outta town. I’m in charge.” His chest puffed out when he said that.

  “Of what? Running a lemonade stand?” Buck scoffed.

  The thin man’s beady eyes narrowed. “All I gotta do is say the word and my boys’ll drop you where you stand old man.”

  He shrugged and tapped an index finger to the weapon at his waist. “You remember the last time we had a private conversation Cool-Ade?” He watched those tiny eyes roll around and sweat pop out on his brow. Yeah, he remembered. “I don’t need anyone to do my dirty work for me.” Buck stepped in the smaller man’s space, noted how the other two backed off. “We can continue that conversation.”

  Cool-Ade paled visibly, but a sneer twisted his mouth. “She sure is pretty. No wonder you wanted her all to yourself.”

  For a heartbeat, Buck entertained the notion of emptying a clip in Cool-Ade’s worthless hide, but Buck wanted something more satisfying, like the sharp snap of his knuckles against Cool-Ade’s face. Buck glanced at Dexter, he wouldn’t do this with Bonnie’s little brother in tow. “Tell Red I’m looking for him.”

  “You lookin’ to come back? Ain’t no room for you here old man.”

  Buck flashed a mirthless smile. “C’mon young blood, we’ve got business elsewhere.” As he turned, something niggled at his memory. Something he’d seen recently.

  “At night. When it’s quiet, I stand outside her house and wonder if it’s the right night to visit her. Her and I are about the same age? Do you think she’ll go for someone like me? I can be very persuasive.” He nudged his friends and they laughed. “Unlike you, I can share. Something that fine has to be shared.”

  Dexter grabbed his sleeve and Buck shook him off, wrapped a hand around Cool-Ade’s throat and lifted him to his toes.

  “You never did learn to shut your mouth.”

  The two friends scrambled, but one hit the ground at his feet and the other lifted his hands. Buck glanced to his right to find Dexter holding a pistol on the other men Admiration warred with the pressing need to pound this insolent punk’s face into the pavement. Cool-Ade clawed at the back of his hand and Buck tightened his grip, until the man’s eyes bulged.

  “This old man doesn’t have a problem taking you out here or somewhere else. Say another derogatory word and you will not be found.” Buck leaned close. “I know it was you. Stay away.”

  “Cops. End of the block,” Dexter said, shifting so the gun wouldn’t be as visible.

  “Yeah. Run back to your ivory tower,” Cool-Ade sputtered. “I’ll still kill her.”

  Buck let him drop to the pavement and knelt next to him. “You said that last time” One quick jab to the solar plexus left the man gasping for air. “Come near her again and you’re a dead man.” He straightened and grabbed Dexter. “Get rid of that.”

  Dexter nodded, breaking the weapon apart and wiping it clean with speed that surprised Buck. One piece went into the storm drain while the clip made its way into a nearby dumpster.

  “Where did you learn to do that?”

  “This neighborhood was a wealth of information,” he grinned, jerking on the handle of the car door. ”So when are we going to get this fool?”

  Buck maneuvered his vehicle into the early evening traffic. “Not we. Me.”

  “She’s my sister.”

  “This isn’t your fight.”

  “How can you say that. I’m the one who found her. Not you. You came after she was all bandaged and stable.”

  Buck jerked the wheel to cut across a lane of traffic, pulled into a vacant lot and slammed on the brakes. “Just cause you held off a coupla wannabes with a pistol does not make you a thug. I started this mess and I will finish it.”

  “He beat up my sister and I’m just supposed to sit and let you have all the fun?”

  “Yes. I’ve walked the road you’re trying to take and look where it got me? Your future is bright and you can do anything you want to trade places for a cell, ‘cause I guarantee if you go after Cool-Ade.”

  Dexter stared out the window.

  “Your sister means the world to me, but I can’t propose to her while my past is running rampant. My past. Not yours. What I did, my lifestyle is what harmed her. And I’m not going to let it hurt you as well.”

  “She doesn’t even know what he looks like.”

  “We do and if he comes near her.”

  “If you’re not around, I’m taking him out.”

  Chapter Five

  Bonnie smoothed her black mini-skirt down her thighs and crossed her legs. She picked her wine glass up by the stem and brought the goblet to her lips. The first few fruity sips exploded over her tongue and trickled down her throat. She’d been nursing the same glass despite numerous drinks being sent to her.

  She’d only been at the bar for ten minutes before the first few drinks arrived. A quick glance at her watch showed Buck was a little late. She reached for her phone as a hand clasped her shoulder. Not another guy trying to hit on her and his fingernails weren’t even clean. Buck really needed to get here.

  “Do you mind?” Bonnie banked mild annoyance as said hand stroked her bare arm. How dare he take such liberties. Ready to give the owner of that hand a piece of her mind she turned and met a set of small brown eyes. All coherent thought fled. She sat frozen as the night of her assault came flooding back.

  The corners of his mouth lifted in a sneer, baring rotted crooked teeth. “Aren’t you pretty?”

  “Keep your hands off me.” She jerked away from him.

  “Ah don’t be like that sweetheart. After all we got along so well the first time.”

  He grabbed her wrist and she picked up her wine and tossed the contents in his face then shoved him away. He stumbled backward into a group of people standing just behind him. Bonnie slid from her stool and fought her way through the throng of people. She had to get out of here. Her gaze bounced around the crowded club, looking for escape, a bouncer or both. She glanced over her shoulder.

  “So that’s how you want to play?” He straightened his clothes and surged forward.

  She cried out as he seized her arm.

  A light brown hand clamped over the man’s wrist and she looked up. Relief washed through her. “Dexter.”

  Dexter pried the other man’s hand from her arm.

  “What’s the matter, the old man let you off your leash?”

  “You need a muzzle,” Dexter snapped. “Keep your hands of my sister.”

  “Leave it alone Dexter,” she said pushing him back. The last thing she needed was for him to get into a fight on her behalf, especially with someone dangerous.

  “You’d do well to listen to her young blood.” Cool-Ade wiped his face on his sleeve. “We could start this over. You give me what Buck gave you and we can all walk away without getting hurt.”

  Bonnie gaped. “What did he give me that you want?”

  “Don’t engage this fool.” Dexter tugged on her arm.

  She shrugged him off and stepped between the two. If she could put an end to this now, then she would. “What do you think I have?”

  Cool-Ade grinned. “Money. I want his money.”

  “Enough.” Dexter stepped forward and she shoved him back.

  This was all about money? And how did he know about the card? No one knew about that except, she, Buck and Dexter. She met Dexter’s
glare with one of her own. “Not the place or the time.” She held his gaze a moment. “I’m okay. Let’s just go.”

  “Yeah. Just listen to her. God forbid you should think for yourself.”

  “I know who he is. We can call the cops.” She tugged on her brother’s arm, but he was slow in moving.

  “Well, in that case, let’s make it worth my while.” Cool-Ade surged forward.

  “Watch out!” Bonnie screamed.

  Dexter shoved her aside as he blocked the left hook thrown at him, then countered with a jab. Bonnie fell against a hard body and was jerked out of harm’s way when the two combatants sailed her way and crashed into a vacant table full of glassware. The furniture and beer mugs fell to the floor shattering, but it did not stop the two men from trying to kill one another.

  She surged forward intent on breaking them up and a strong arm, grasped her by the waist and pulled her back. “Get your...” She met a set of piercing blue eyes. “Don’t just stand there, do something.”

  “I am.”

  “No, you’re standing there while my brother is beating the daylights out of the guy who attacked me.”

  By now several beefy looking men with Security emblazoned on their shirts muscled their way through the crowd, pulled the fighters apart and escorted them to the door where the police were waiting. Before Cool-Ade was ushered from the club, a shot rang out.

  Buck grabbed her and pulled her to the floor, while others screamed and did the same. By the time calmness reigned again Cool-Ade was gone.

  ***

  Bonnie dragged a hand through her hair. This was bad on so many levels. Her heels clicked on the faded linoleum as she paced back and forth. A bar fight. Of all the things that could happen, her brother is arrested for a bar fight and the one who instigated it escapes.

  “Have a seat.” Buck said.

  She shook her head.

  “Wearing a foot pattern into the floor isn’t going to help Dexter.”

  She planted her hands on her hips. “What was that?” she demanded. “Do something is not allowing my brother to get arrested.”

  “He got there before I did. What did you want me to do?”

  “Stop him from screwing up his life.”

  Buck studied her a moment. “And how would you suggest I go about that? Your brother loves you and he’s felt helpless through this whole thing. Punching that punk was his way of defending you.”

  “I’m the one who’s supposed to take care of him.” Bonnie huffed, spun on her heel and resumed pacing. She couldn’t argue or be angry with Buck’s logic especially when Dexter was just doing his best to protect her. Her brother was her only family and she couldn’t let anything happen to him because of her past.

  “C’mon sassy. He knew what he was doing.”

  “No one knows what they’re doing when tempers flare.”

  A soft chuckle reached her ears.

  “Now you think this is funny?” She shook her head. “I can’t talk to you when you’re like this.” She stalked from the lobby and burst into the steamy night air.

  “Stop. Think about this a moment.” Buck caught up to her, grabbed her arm and dragged her to a halt. “You’re not even listening.”

  She stared up at him. “No, I’m not.” She shook him off and resumed walking away.

  He grabbed her again, this time lifting her off her feet and holding her against his hard lean frame. Now they were eye to eye.

  “Put me down.”

  “Not until you listen to me.”

  For several long moments neither spoke. She threw her hands up. “Fine.”

  He lowered her to her feet then lifted her hand, tracing an index finger over the forming bruises on her wrist. “This would be why I’d go back to prison.” He dropped her hand and touched the skin below her left eye and another spot near her temple. “And this is why Dexter was arrested. Not because of what could happen to him, but because of what happened to you. Because you made his world normal when everything else wasn’t.”

  Bonnie blinked back the tears burning her eyes. “I know that was the guy who attacked me. He was around the old neighborhood and I never liked him. He always gave me the creeps. Why come after me all this time and why threaten you?”

  “That night I told you, you couldn’t work for me anymore?”

  “Yeah?”

  “That was the guy.”

  “Him?”

  Buck inclined his head.

  “What did he want back then?” She shook her head. “Never mind. He wanted the pack. Now he wants money.”

  “How much?”

  She stared at him. “Just like that? You’ll give him what he asks for?”

  “If it keeps him away from you? Yes.”

  “He wants the card you gave me.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  He was silent a moment. “Give it to him.”

  She shook her head. If this had been any other guy from their past she might be tempted to give in, but this was Cool-Ade, someone who waited ten years to seek whatever revenge. She doubted he’d go away after he got the card.

  “No,” she said.

  “The money means nothing if I don’t have you,” Buck stated, cupping her cheek. “Life means nothing without you in it.”

  She held his hand to her face at a momentary loss of words at his admission. How many times had she wished for a declaration like the one she just received. Regardless she couldn’t let Buck give in to what amounted to extortion. “A guy like Cool-Ade isn’t going to go away just because you throw a few dollars at him. He’ll be back for something else. Are you going to pay him off then too?” She shook her head. “It feels too much like blackmail.”

  “This is a chance to be rid of him.”

  She held his gaze. “But for how long?”

  He drew her close a heavy sigh fluttered her hair as he rested his chin on the top of her head. “You’re right.”

  She leaned into him savoring his strength. With everything chaotic around her, being held by him and holding him made her world right again.

  “I just want you safe.”

  “You make me feel safe. You always have.”

  “Bonnie?”

  “What about Dexter?” She changed the subject. They still had to deal with her brother being locked up.

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  She studied him a moment. “Promise?”

  “Have I ever let you down?”

  “Not yet.”

  He reached in his pocket and pulled out a key. “Wait for me at my place.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “You’re right. I should drop you off, then come back for your brother.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and propelled her forward.

  “But what if they let him loose before you get back.”

  “They won’t.”

  ***

  Bonnie kicked off her heels as she stepped into the living room. She stooped to pick them up and a hand cupped her buttocks. Desire wiggled through her veins. She straightened shoes in hand and glanced over her shoulder with a smirk. “Yes?”

  Buck kept his hand where it was. “Your body is pure temptation.”

  Heat flooded her cheeks while warmth teased between her thighs. “Really?”

  He nodded. “Tonight didn’t go the way I envisioned.”

  She allowed him to usher her closer, molding her soft front to his hard lean frame. She circled his waist. “How did you mean for this night to go?”

  “I thought we’d have a drink, share a few laughs and then I would get to hold you in my arms.”

  “Well one outta three ain’t bad.”

  He chuckled. “No, I guess it isn’t.” He swept his lips across hers, then down her jaw. “You smell good enough to eat.”

  She drifted her fingers through his hair as he fluttered kisses over her collarbone. Passion flared and ignited with each minute caress. She released her shoes to grip a handful of his shirt and jerk it from h
is pants.

  “And you’re always so soft.”

  She flattened her palms against the solid wall of his chest, the fine coarse hairs tickled her hands. Now more than ever she wanted to be skin to skin with this man. She slipped the buttons from their mooring, shoved aside the two halves of cotton and trailed her fingers over his skin.

  “Bonnie.” A warning note clung to his voice.

  “You started this,” she murmured.

  He grasped the back of her neck, tangling his fingers in her hair. “Oh good. That means I get to finish it.” He brought his mouth down on hers in a hot demanding kiss.

  She opened for him, savoring the firmness of his lips as the moved over hers. He grasped the hem of her dress and inched it up her thighs until he hooked his thumbs in the sides of her panties. The silk tightened against her skin a moment before she heard a snap and the material loosened. She angled away from him. “I’d have taken them off.”

  “My way was faster.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “But you can take off that dress, before it suffers the same fate.”

  A gasp stuck in her throat and she stumbled a step back. He retained her hand, drifting a scorching gaze down her body. It lingered on the swell of her breasts as they strained against the fabric of her dress. Even though he’d hiked the skirt up a moment ago, it now whispered around her thighs. However the look in his eyes, the intensity of his passion stole her breath. No one had ever stared at her with such hunger or passion.

  Emboldened by his scrutiny, she reached behind her and fumbled for the zipper tab. For one second doubt crossed her mind. He’d never seen her fully naked and despite the lust glowing in his irises she was just a tab nervous. The garment loosened around her body, but she used one hand to hold the dress at her breasts.

  “What’s the matter, sassy?” He moved closer and hooked an index finger in the bodice. “Are you having doubts?”

  She snapped her head back to stare him in the eye. “What if you don’t like what you see? I’m not exactly skinny.”