Wicked Ties (Steele Security Series) (16 page)

Bull watched as Chaise positioned her suitcase by the door and removed something small from her purse. She walked over to stand directly in front of Bull but he wouldn’t meet her gaze.  She sat down on the coffee table in front of him and took a deep breath.

“You’re right, Colton.  I should’ve told you before, and I tried to; I wanted to.  My name is Sierra Chaise Steele.  I haven’t gone by Sierra for many, many years now.”  She cut her eyes at Noah as she stated the last part.

She handed Bull the business card that she had pulled from her purse.  He glanced down at it long enough to verify that it did, indeed, say
Chaise Steele
.

“When I graduated college and started doing contract HR work, I changed my professional name to Chaise Steele.  Too many people knew me as
Sierra-Steve-Steele’s- daughter
.  I told you how overbearing he was and that bled over into my professional life.  I have gone by Chaise ever since then.

“As far as being Noah’s sister, it’s true, I am.  I wanted to tell
you—and I tried to tell you—but I take the full blame for that.”

Turning to Noah, she said, “Noah, he didn’t know you were my brother.  I gave him a fake last name so he couldn’t have known.  Don’t blame Colton for
this—blame me.”

Chaise hated having
the conversation in front of everyone, but there was no time and no other way to handle it.  “Colton, this doesn’t have to change anything between us.  It doesn’t change anything for me.  I didn’t lie about my name—it
is
Chaise.  Please talk to me.”

She was met with a painful, stoic silence.

“This is exactly what I thought would happen.  I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I’m not sorry for anything that happened between us, Colton.  I don’t regret one minute of it,” she said through her tears that were freely flowing down her cheeks.

She swallowed hard and stood on shaky legs to move away from Bull.  She knew he would react in
that way.  She knew she didn’t matter enough to him for him to actually hear her out.  What they had between them wasn’t enough for him to look past his pride.  She’d known all along, deep down, that he would pull away from her as soon as she told him she was Noah’s little sister.  Noah had just beaten her to the punch.

An eternity passed as she made her way across the floor with all eyes burning a hole in her.

“And just where the hell do you think you’re going?” Noah brazenly demanded.

“Noah!” Brianna chastised him.

Chaise gave Brianna a small smile of appreciation before moving her eyes to meet Noah’s.  “I’m leaving.”

“Like hell you are!” Noah’s voiced boomed through the house.  “The Cordova family is a major international drug and human trafficking organization.  If they are really after you,
as you claim they are
, and if you leave here now, you may as well go turn yourself in to them.  Besides, you don’t even have a car here.”

Chaise kept her voice calm and professional, as if she was addressing a group of executives.  “Before I came in here, I made two phone calls.  The first one was to Steele Security headquarters.  I’ve paid your retainer fee.  Any additional expenses I’ve incurred can be billed to me.”

Bull still refused to look at her but she could see how hard he had clenched his jaws.  She couldn’t even venture a guess about what he was thinking, but at that point it really didn’t seem to matter.

“The second call was for a cab.  It will be here any minute now.  I had no doubt everything would turn out this way, so I’ve already made arrangements.  I had hoped it would be different, though,” she finished wistfully.

“At any rate, since I’m the customer and I’ve paid for the protection I’ve received, I am now relieving you of your duties.  I no longer require your services.”

The room erupted in
arguments—regarding her ability to make decisions, of her ability to protect herself, and of her sanity.  Noah’s voice boomed and cut through the fog of dissension

“If you leave now, then I have no choice but to believe this whole thing has been a
ruse and you were never really in any danger.  How dare you try to play me and my brothers like that?” Noah accused.

Chaise’s back was to him and her hand was on the doorknob.  The shock from his words hit first, then the pain, then the
anger—the full-fledged, red-hot anger that that been building deep inside her.  She whirled around, fire flashing in her eyes, and marched up to face Noah head-on.

“Let me fucking remind you of something, Noah. 
You. Were. My. Brother. First.
  You want to live by the military code of never leaving a man behind?  You want to talk about honor and loyalty?”

Her entire body was shaking but there was no stopping her.  The entire room watched with baited breath as she tore into Noah.

“YOU fucking left ME behind.  Without a second thought.  Without a backward glance.  You fucking left me behind when I fucking needed you the most!  You were
my
big brother!  You were supposed to look out for me!  But—YOU. LEFT. ME.

“So, you just fucking stay here with
‘your brothers’
and pretend you’re the one who has been wronged here.  Keep telling yourself that and, maybe one day, even YOU will believe your own bullshit.

“Oh, and by the way, you’re fired!”

With that, Chaise stomped across the floor, yanked open the door, and hurried out to her waiting taxi.  The driver put her bag in the trunk as she climbed into the backseat.

The taxi driver asked, “Where to, Miss?”

“The airport, please.”

Th
e slamming door left everyone inside the house in complete silence. Bull’s eyes stayed glued to the door as if he expected Chaise to walk back in at any second.  The sound of a vehicle pulling away drew Noah’s attention and he raced to the window.

“
Sonofabitch!”
he yelled as he watched the taxi drive away.  Raking his hands over this face, Noah stood rooted to the floor, deep in thought of what their next move should be.

“Why would you think this was a
ruse, Reap?” Bull finally spoke.

“What?” Noah said as he spun around.  His face was contorted in confusion at Bull’s question.  He had already moved on to other scenarios and Bull’s question pulled him back from his own world.

“You said you thought she made all this up just to get to you.  Why would you think that about her?”  Bull quizzed him because his own thoughts strayed to whether Chaise had used him, played him, and then walked away.

Noah sighed loudly in exasperation.  “I
don’t—I shouldn’t have said that.  I’ve always expected my dad to send one of my siblings to guilt me into going back home.  He’s so manipulative—I just don’t put anything past him, including using my sister,” Noah explained.  He turned back to the window as he continued.  “I took out my anger toward my father on her.”

“Reaper, you should know that she’s really in danger.  The men took shots at us and I heard them say they had orders to take her alive and kill me.  If they get to her, her fate will be much worse than death,” Bull continued to speak with no emotion.  He could’ve been repeating a grocery list for all the lack of empathy his voice portrayed.

Shadow rubbed his jaw line with his hand, his thumb and middle finger meeting at his chin as he took in Bull’s demeanor.  Rebel sensed it, too, because he leaned forward in his seat and pierced Bull with his gaze.  They knew that Bull sensed their intense gazes but he rebuffed their attempt to engage him.

Noah wasn’t as easily denied.  He took a couple of steps
toward Bull and narrowed his eyes at him.  “You sure sound concerned, Bull,” Noah spat out sardonically.  “So, my sister is good enough for you to fuck but not care about her wellbeing?  Just another one of your whores?”

Bull was on his feet, in Noah’s face
, and had the front of Noah’s shirt twisted in his fists in a heartbeat.  He growled out, “Don’t
ever
talk about her like that again.”

Noah smiled at a very pissed off Bull.  “Now, that’s more like it.”

Bull released Noah’s shirt and took a step back, realization registered on his face. “You did that shit on purpose just now?”

“I did.  I had to see where you really stood with her, man.  That was the best way I knew how to get you to admit it,” Noah replied.

“I honestly don’t know where I stand with her, Reaper.  I don’t want anything to happen to her but I don’t trust her.  I can’t trust her,” Bull stated matter-of-factly.

“You are so full of shit, man,” Rebel announced.  Bull’s gaze shot to Rebel and glared menacingly at him.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Bull shot back.

“It means,
Bull
, that over the past several days, you haven’t had any problems with trusting her.  Today, you just turned your fucking back on her,” Rebel replied.

“Whose side are you on, anyway?” Bull asked.

Rebel and Shadow replied simultaneously, “Chaise’s.”

Bull gave them both the middle finger salute.

Brianna stood and said, “Can you boys excuse us, please?  I’d like to talk to Bull alone.”

Noah grinned from ear to ear, knowing Bull was about to get the ultimate tongue- lashing.  “I don’t know why you’re smiling,” Brianna said flatly, “You’re next.” 

Noah’s smile dropped and his eyes widened in surprise. “Me?”

“Oh yes,
you!
  Now get out.”

Brianna took Bull’s hand and led him back to the couch as the other men filed out the back door to wait on the patio.  She knew Noah’s tactic to get Bull to admit his true feelings was brutish and would only work in the interim.  Now that Bull realized what Noah was really trying to accomplish, it would be harder for Noah to get him to talk.

“I won’t sugarcoat anything for you, Bull. You know as well as anyone that things between Noah and me have not been easy.  We’ve had to work at rebuilding the trust between us.  It wasn’t easy for Noah to forgive me, Bull.  He wanted to stay mad at me.  His
male brain
even told him not to believe me.  But, where would we be today if we hadn’t worked through everything?

“The most important thing is that we both
want
this relationship.  We
want
to be together because we love each other.  We
forgive
each other almost daily because neither of us is perfect. It’s worth all the trouble because we can’t live without each other.

“You can’t berate her for not telling you she’s Noah’s sister. She was in trouble and she needed help.  Would you have helped her if you knew she was Noah’s estranged sister?  Sometimes, the hard road is the lesser of two evils.  You can’t blame her for that.

“So, you need to answer this question for yourself. 
Is Chaise worth it to you?”

Brianna stopped talking and watched Bull’s reaction.  He didn’t verbally respond but he did nod his head once in acknowledgement.  “I’m going to leave you to think about that while I go have a little talk with my husband.”

Half an hour later, Brianna, Noah, Rebel, and Shadow entered the house.  Bull was standing at the front door with his bag in hand.  Everyone looked at him expectantly, waiting to discover what he had decided to do.

“Let’s go get her,” Bull stated.

“That’s what I wanted to hear,” Noah replied with a brotherly slap on Bull’s back.  “Don’t think I don’t still owe you an ass-kicking for sleeping with my little sister, though.”

Bull, Rebel
, and Shadow laughed while Brianna gave Noah a stern look in her attempt to admonish him.  He smiled and winked at her while her response was an exaggerated rolling of her eyes at him. 

Boys will always be boys
, she thought.

“Go on to the airport without me.  There’s something I need to take care of here before I leave,” Bull told them.

“What’s up, Bull?” Reaper asked.

“I need to go talk to my mom.  My dad was one of the guys after Chaise but she says he’s undercover DEA.  I’ll find out how to get in touch with him in case we need his help,” Bull explained.

Shadow fished his vibrating phone out of his pocket and saw Brad’s name on the screen.  “Hey, man.  Did you find her?”  A few clipped sentences, a couple of ‘yeahs’ and ‘uh-huhs’ later, Shadow hung up and found all eyes on him.

“That was Brad.  He found out that the cab company took Chaise to the airport.  Let’s get a move on in case she gets lucky and gets on an early flight,” Shadow instructed.

Reaper looked at Bull and asked, “What do you want me to do when I find her?”

“Just try to keep her from boarding the plane until I can get there,” Bull answered.  Noah nodded and they all left in a race to the airport.

Several minutes later, Bull drew in a deep breath as he parked in his mother’s driveway.  He couldn’t bring himself to turn off his truck yet.  Sitting alone, he reflected upon everything he thought he knew about his life.  He thought his father had abandoned him and his mother.  He had accepted that his mother had lied to him, but now he’d learned it wasn’t for the reasons he had originally believed.

Now, with Chaise, he was facing a similar conundrum.  He knew from the beginning that she had lied about her last name and he had allowed her to keep it from him all this time.  Even when she said she wanted to tell him, he was in no hurry for it.  Just the fact that she admitted it and wanted to tell him was enough at that moment. 

The feelings he had experienced over the past few weeks were new to him.  He was just beginning to learn how to deal with them when the shit hit the fan.  He was just so relieved to learn that she wasn’t one of Reaper’s past lovers. 

In retrospect, and knowing what he knew now, her questions and interest in Reaper made sense.  Bull knew that Reaper hadn’t seen his family in years and Chaise must have been a pre-teen when Reaper left home.  Then, to find out Reaper was married and had a baby on the way must have really hurt Chaise, thinking she would never be the aunt she wanted to be.

Finally, Bull had to examine his own actions as closely as he had examined others.  For all his blustering of being the eternal bachelor, even he had to admit he started playing house with Chaise very quickly—and it all came so very easily.  He had to face the truth and admit, mostly to himself, that he didn’t want to lose her.  He didn’t want to go back to how his life was before he met her.

Bull finally left the sanctity of his truck and walked up to the front door
of his mom’s house.  He rang the doorbell and waited, taking time to really look around at his childhood home.  He finally allowed the memories to resurface and realized that he actually had really good memories of his childhood.  It wasn’t the constant turmoil his mind had built up.

The door opened and Michelle looked at him, her eyes hesitant and fearful.

“Hi, Mom,” Bull said softly, pulling her into his arms.  “How are you?”

Michelle wrapped her arms around Bull and held tightly to him, “So much better now.”

They walked inside and sat down.  Bull smiled at her and squeezed her hand in his way of telling her everything was fine between them.  He’d always questioned her about why she never remarried.  It never occurred to him that she was still married to his dad, John, or that she couldn’t imagine her life with any other man.

“I need to know how to contact Dad,” Bull started, knowing that his mom would be shocked at his declaration.  “I may need his help with Chaise.”

“Well, you can start by turning around, son,” a friendly male voice boomed from behind him.

Bull jumped up from the couch and whirled around to see his father standing in the doorway.  He wore an old, ratty robe, had a towel around his neck
, and his hair was still wet from his shower.  He had a slight smile on his face but Bull knew his father was trying to gauge his reaction.

“I know this is awkward, son.  I wanted our reunion to be under better circumstances.  Your mom told me about her conversation with you and everything she said is true.  I am so damn proud of you.  You were always a great kid and you’re a damn fine man,” John said with his voice full of emotion and pride.

“I appreciate that.  Maybe we can spend some time together, to get to know each other and be a family again.  But, right now, I have to focus on the case.  I need to know why they’re after Chaise,” Bull said earnestly.

“Where is Chaise?” Michelle asked.

“We had some complications.  She left for the airport,” Bull paraphrased.

“What?”  John’s mouth dropped open.  “You have to go get her, son.  Now!”

“Tell me what’s going on,” Bull demanded, the urgency in his voice matching his rising blood pressure.

“I’ll change and tell you in the car on the way.  We have to get to her first.”  The worried look on John’s face ate away at Bull’s confidence. 

I never should have let her leave
, Bull thought solemnly and with a silent prayer that she was safe.

****************

At the airport, Chaise approached the ticket counter to purchase her one-way ticket back to Miami.  Coming in on the private company jet had been a completely different experience than flying back in the coach section of a heavily crowded commercial airplane.  They had left from Steele Security’s private airstrip so she didn’t have to jump through all the hoops required by the major airlines.

With her boarding pass and driver’s license in hand, Chaise approached the TSA agent at the first security checkpoint.  After verifying her credentials, she walked to the conveyor belt, grabbed a bin
, and dropped her shoes and purse inside.  Then she waited for the next agent to instruct her to step inside the full body scanner.

After she’d passed the scanning procedure, she waited at the end of the conveyor belt for her purse.  And waited.  And waited.  Another agent walked over, took her purse out of the machine and turned to her to ask, “Ma’am, is this your purse?”

“Yes, it is.  Why?  What’s wrong?” she asked.

“We need to scan it again.  Sorry for the delay,” the agent explained vaguely.

Chaise shrugged and continued to wait as the agent put it back on the conveyor belt and sent it back through the x-ray machine.  The agent at the monitor stopped the belt and closely examined the screen.  Within a few minutes, a plain-clothed agent, wearing a suit and tie, walked up behind the seated agent and started at the monitor.

“There’s nothing in there.  You’re welcome to look for yourself,” she told them, aggravation lacing her tone.

“We’re not allowed to, ma’am,” one agent stated.