Betting the Bad Boy (25 page)

“Come on, Gracie.” He half carried her to the car. Her legs were too weak to walk. Her mind racing too fast to think straight. She would die if something happened to Ryder. He was what she’d lived for over the past thirteen years.

She didn’t remember getting in the car or the trip to the hospital, but she remembered what she said to Duke as they were going through the sliding doors. “If anything happens to him,” she said, her voice breaking, “I’ll never forgive you.”

Chapter 18

Duke walked into the hospital room to see his son in a bed, his face deathly pale, his eyes closed, and his mouth and nose covered with an oxygen mask. He wasn’t moving, and Duke was automatically taken back to when he was a kid and had walked into the hospital room to see his mother hooked up to a bunch of machines. Dying. He was grown now, but not much had changed. He was still paralyzed with fear. Still feeling lost. Still silently sending prayers above that things would magically reverse themselves. That this had never happened.

Grace was right to blame him. She didn’t want Ryder working on the car so young. She hadn’t wanted to leave him home alone that evening. But Duke had been pushing her. Pushing her to let him grow up, pushing her to treat him like a young man instead of her baby. But now that young man was lying in a hospital bed, unconscious, looking as if the life was draining out of him.

“Mr. and Mrs. King?” A young female doctor walked up to them. Grace stepped forward taking the lead, because Duke was too numb to move.

“What’s his prognosis?” she asked.

“We’re going to have to keep him overnight and you’ll have to watch him for a few days, but I think he’ll be fine. He threw up on the way here and knew where he was when I examined him a little while ago. Right now we’re just trying to raise his oxygen levels.” She glanced at Ryder. “Go talk to him. He needs to know you’re here.”

Duke walked over to his son, brushed his over-long hair out of his face, and kissed his forehead. “Goddamn it, boy.” He felt choked, his throat burning, his eyes stinging. “I love you. You can’t go doing this to me.”

“I love you too, Dad,” Ryder said, opening his eyes and looking up at him. “How much trouble am I in?”

Duke had heard the doctor tell him that Ryder was going to be okay, but seeing him open his eyes, hearing his voice did something to Duke. It made him break. He stepped away from his son, trying to step out of the room, but Grace was there. She grabbed him, wrapped her arms around him, and told him it was okay. It was okay for him to break.

He had been through so much in his life. The death of his mother, the loss of his father to alcohol, the disappearance of his childhood, and then of the life he had planned for himself when he went to prison.

So many things. So many fucking things had been thrown in his path and he had just stepped over them, but if he had lost Ryder he … It was the one thing that would have probably knocked him on his ass.

“We’re very glad you’re okay, Ryder,” Grace said, her voice thick with tears, “but you’re in a hell of a lot of trouble and if you think I’m ever going to let you out of my sight again, you’ve got another think coming.”

“I’m sorry,” he said softly.

“You damn well better be,” she replied.

A few hours later, after he was sure Ryder was his usual self, Duke made his way upstairs to Lolly’s room. She was sitting in her hospital bed, fully dressed and made up, as if she were going to dinner instead of in a hospital room.

“Hello, boy,” she said, instead of her usual sassy greeting.

“Hello, Lolly.” He pulled the chair closer to her bed and eased himself down in it.

“Hold my hand, Duke,” she ordered and he did.

She surprised him by taking his hand and kissing the back of it. “How is he?”

“Fine. He just ate and is complaining about having to stay overnight.” Duke let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t think I have been so scared in my entire life. That’s my kid, Lolly. I can’t see life being good without him.”

“I know. I was so scared when you went off to prison. I blamed myself, you know.”

“Why? You didn’t have anything to do with what I did.”

“I could have took you boys in sooner. I knew my brother was a raging asshole, but I was too pissed at him and too stubborn to step in when I should’ve. I think if I would have took you in sooner, you would’ve had a better shot. You wouldn’t have been so angry. You wouldn’t have been so ready to kill.”

“You know you can’t blame yourself for that. My life isn’t bad.”

“No, but I wished you were happier. I didn’t know if things were going to turn out right with you and Grace when I called you back here. It could have blown up in my face, but I had to try something. Grace was the only person who ever seemed to make you happy.”

“She also has made me the most miserable.”

“But how are things now?”

“She’s my forever,” he said, unable to find adequate words.

“Does she know that?”

“She should.”

“That’s not good enough.” She smacked the back of his head. “You’ve got to tell her.”

“I will.”

“And soon!”

“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded, knowing she was right. “I talked to your doctors. You don’t have to stay in this hospital much longer. I’m asking you to come live with us again.”

“In Vegas with all that noise and those flashy people? I’d rather be roasted over a roaring fire.”

He laughed. He could see Lolly fitting in with the aging showgirls who lived on the Strip just fine. “Well, how about here in Destiny? We’re redoing the house. I could build you a suite.”

“No thanks, convict. Don’t want you cramping my style.”

“What can I do for you, Lolly? I want to do something. I owe you so much.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” she said firmly. “You came to see me every day. You’re a good man, a good father and that makes me proud.
But
if you would like to get me a little gift, there is a cruise around the world that I’ve been eyeing.”

“Done.”

“And a gentleman friend I would like to take with me.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, boy. I don’t need to repeat myself.”

He walked out of Lolly’s room a few minutes later, smiling. He loved that crazy old woman and he would give her whatever she wanted. He’d heard that she’d already told Colt she wanted a condo on the beach and a hot bronze-skinned manservant to take care of her. He was pretty sure Colt would give her what she wanted.

As the elevator doors opened to Ryder’s floor he spotted Patrick Andersen leaning against the wall, looking unsure.

Duke walked toward him and saw the wariness in his eyes. “I just came to see if your son was okay. I didn’t want to intrude.”

“He’s fine.” Duke extended his hand. “Thank you. If you weren’t there I don’t know what would have happened.”

He’d never thought this day would come. Shaking hands with a man he had hated for so long.

“I came to apologize. I was a spoiled cocky asshole back then who thought I could do whatever I wanted and get away with it. But I got what was coming to me and I should have taken it like a man. This place wasn’t as kind to me after you got locked up. People hated me here. Some still do. They should. I’m sorry. From the bottom of my heart, I’m sorry for ruining your life.”

“You didn’t,” Duke said truthfully. “I don’t know if I would be where I am if I hadn’t gone away.”

“But you shouldn’t have gone away in the first place, and that’s something I don’t think I’ll be able to forgive myself for.”

“Don’t sweat it. I hear you’re less of an asshole now.”

“You beat the hell out of me. I think that would cure most men.”

“I hope you never raised your hand to another woman. Because if I find out you have—”

“No.” He shook his head. “Never. I learned.” He paused for a moment. “I heard that the Kings are saving the factory. That you’re saving all the jobs.”

He nodded. “It was Levi’s idea. But I don’t want my son growing up in a dying town.”

Patrick nodded. “You’re a good man, Duke King.”

“And you’re a good one for saving my boy.” Patrick nodded and then took his leave. For the first time in a long time Duke felt settled, like that one thing he was holding on to for so long wasn’t an issue anymore.

He could go about his life and be happy now. There was just one more thing he had to settle first.

*   *   *

“Well, that explains that,” Grace said to herself as she looked down at the little white stick in her hand. It had a plus sign on it. All four of the sticks had plus signs on them.

She was pregnant. She had been exhausted and hungry and a little bit weepy, but she didn’t think she was pregnant.

She shouldn’t be surprised. They hadn’t used protection once. She was a grown woman who was supposed to know better, especially after Ryder. But Duke was magnetic and whenever they came into contact with each other … fireworks. It must have happened that first night. Their first time together in thirteen years and they had made another baby. It was so different then when she’d learned she was pregnant the first time. She had been so depressed that she could barely get out of bed. She felt hurt by her father and rejected by Duke and so numb that she never felt any changes to her body. But this time she felt them, and when she was ten days late she ran out and got the tests.

She eased herself down on the side on the bathtub and rubbed her hands over her face before placing them on her belly.

She felt like weeping.

Not because she was unhappy, but because she was going to be a mother again. She was going to grow another baby in her body, and rock them to sleep and love them like crazy. She was going to have all the best parts of being a mother that she had with Ryder without the skull-numbing fear.

Being a single mother all those years had taught her a lot, but the most important thing she’d learned was that she could get through nearly anything life had thrown at her. But this time she wasn’t going to be alone.

Her father wasn’t going to send her away. The love of her life wasn’t in prison. She had a beautiful son who was going to be a great big brother. Her new child was going to have strong uncles as role models. She had a family. And knowing she was going to have such a solid support system nearly took her breath away.

For thirteen years she’d felt like she had been walking a high wire, always afraid of taking a misstep because no one would be there to catch her if she fell.

She got up a moment later and opened the bathroom door. She needed to tell Duke. Right away. She needed to see his face and hear his reaction. They had to start things off right this time. But she was feeling a little … apprehensive? Scared? Worried? She didn’t know how to put it into words.

Since Ryder had gotten out of the hospital there had been a change in Duke.

He was quiet. Not necessarily distant, just quiet. Introspective. She caught him gazing at Ryder a little longer than he normally did. He was a little more affectionate than he used to be. He’d spent more time with his brothers in the past couple of days than she had seen him spend with them the whole time he was there. And that made Grace think something was up.

They were speaking but he wouldn’t talk to her about anything important. Not about Ryder or what had happened or what was going to happen between them. She had tried to bring up their future. The bet. Where they were going to live. He always avoided the conversation, and that didn’t exactly instill confidence in her.

She knew how close they had come to losing Ryder. How scared they both had been. She also knew that she had told him she would never forgive him if something had happened to Ryder. It was a moment she wished she could take back, but she couldn’t. She had said it because she was scared and hurt and needed someone to blame in that moment.

She could only apologize to him. But she had hurt him so much already, apologized so much for the past, she wondered if her words had any meaning.

“Do you know where your father is?”

Ryder was lying on the couch, the remote in his hand. Almost back to normal but not fully recovered from his ordeal. He had been very subdued and apologetic about what he’d done, even asking what his punishment was going to be. Grace didn’t have the heart to punish him. He had almost lost his life. That was lesson enough.

“I think I saw him go down to the basement.”

“Oh.” She had looked for him everywhere else, listened for the sound of his deep voice or his heavy footfalls in the old house, but nothing. Nothing but her own thoughts made any noise. “I’m going to go check on him. I would like to go out for dinner. Do you think you can be ready by the time I come back up?”

“Yeah.” He hesitated for a moment. “I think Dad said he had something to tell us.”

Grace’s stomach sank slightly, but she tried not to let Ryder see that. “I’ll go find out what it is.” She went downstairs to find Duke sitting on the bed, the same duffel bag he’d brought with him that first day next to him. The clothing that never made it upstairs already packed away.

He was leaving them. Or leaving her. She didn’t want to think this day would come, didn’t want to think that they couldn’t make it work, but the proof was right in front of her face. She shouldn’t feel so hurt, so … like someone had shot her in the chest, but she did and more than she was sad, she was angry.

“Damn you, Duke.”

His head swiveled in her direction. He had been so deep in thought that he hadn’t heard her come in.

“What’s the matter, Gracie?” He stood and walked to her. She hit his chest with both fists, pounded on it.

“You can’t do this to me. I love you, damn it.”

“Whoa, whoa.” He grabbed her hands, stopping her assault.

“What do you want from me?” She felt the tears slide down her face. “I’m sorry I hurt you. I love you more than anyone else on this earth. I will continue to love you more than anyone else on this earth. What is it going to take for you to forgive me?”

“Forgive you?” He looked bewildered. “I have. I’m not mad at you anymore.”

“Then why are you leaving? Can’t you see your son adores you? Don’t you feel the love here? You’re happy here. I know you’re happy here. I can feel it. Why are you walking away from us? Because I got mad at you the day Ryder got hurt? I’ll get mad. We’ll fight. That’s what couples do. But if you walk out on him now, on us, then you will have lost more than a bet. You’ll have lost the people who love you the most in the world.”