Between Never and Forever: Part 2 – Chapter 33

“You know how…” Mr. Hale cleared his throat. He sounded older, worn out, and afraid. He’d always been a great neighbor and friend to my parents. I think he’d probably also been a good pushover too. “Well, I think being a celebrity is pretty expensive.”

“Yes, but you haven’t raised a frivolous woman. We both know that.” My tone was firm as Keelani shook her head at me now, giving up the fight of trying to grab the phone.

“Right. No.” He sighed. The man loved his daughter, I knew that. He also loved his wife. “Keelani is a good girl. She’s always been great. We’re working on being better with money as a family.”

The words sounded like they hurt coming out of his mouth. I knew they must. No man wanted to admit they’d let their family down with a money problem. I just didn’t exactly know what the problem was yet.

Their family had enough pride to hide it though. I remember so long ago when my family offered to help with even taking Mrs. Hale in for tests after her stroke so that Mr. Hale could get back to work, he’d balked.

“You know I intend to take care of Kee, right?” I said the words seriously as I stared at my heartbreaker. Nothing would stop me now from helping her, from fixing what we’d broken so long ago. She sat down on the couch in defeat, her eyes glassy now.

“Right. Well, yeah. My wife always says you have a soft spot for Kee.”

“She’s always been smart that way.” I pushed him further now. “You have a soft spot for your daughter too, huh? So, tell me. What’s been going on?”

“Ah.” There was hesitation over the line. “Well, you know about my wife.”

“I know Kee doesn’t talk to her. That’s all I’m aware of.”

“Well, Keelani wants to talk to her mom. Who wouldn’t want to talk to the woman?” He chuckled. “But with her condition, it upsets her. Kee should sound younger, you know? Her brain remembers Keelani from when she was sixteen, not now. Sometimes she even has a hard time with me. The Alzheimer’s is pretty severe. And we don’t have medical insurance. So, Keelani helps.”

“Alzheimer’s?” I only repeated it because I couldn’t comprehend it. Her mother had been so full of life. To lose your mind was devastating but she’d had a stroke. It made sense that her health potentially could have declined.

“Yeah, that fucking disease doesn’t discriminate. We’ve been fortunate to have found great care right when Keelani left… I, ah, Keelani and I have figured out things over the years.”

“You and Keelani?”

He cleared his throat. “Sure, you know. I help where I can. I’ve been in contact with great guys who’ve given me some loans and what not. Trinity and I have worked on some deals together for Kee too. And, well, Kee has always tried to support as much as she could.”

I tried not to lash out and extract the information in anger, but I’d dealt with enough men to know that a private loan with “great guys” wasn’t a good situation at all. “Tell me a bit more about these loans.”

I listened to more of the story from him. He went round and round in circles, not ever taking blame for what I could tell must be gambling. He was taking her money. And then he went on to explain how family helped family, how Kee didn’t want people to know because it would hurt her mother. They weren’t going to exploit her disease. They made the decision as a family.

He explained it all as I stared at the woman who I’d thought had broken up with me for fame. Instead, I saw how she’d been strong enough to do it for family, had sacrificed her life for them, not willing to put them through pain when she must have endured so much of it.

She was strong. Brilliant. And broken from her family.

She had resigned herself to a chair in the corner and chewed on the side of a nail as she stared off at nothing. When I said my goodbyes, her dark eyes shimmered as they turned to me.

“Heartbreaker,” I whispered. The guilt of knowing she’d suffered for years alone with it sliced through me, almost causing me to choke on my words. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She waited a second before she looked away to say, “She’s not an excuse, and I won’t use her as one. Ever.”

“But she’s a reason. So is your father.”

“She didn’t have Alzheimer’s back when I signed that addendum, Dex.”

“I can put two and two together. Your father has been—”

“I love my dad. He’s a good man.” She cut me off, not willing to hear a single bad thing about him. “And we’ve always been taught take care of family, right? You work with your family. You take care of them.”

“Of course we take care of family,” I answered immediately. “But—”

“Then I took care of my dad and mom.” She shrugged, finishing the sentence with finality. She held my gaze, hers unwavering in that moment. “I would do it again.”

And I realized right then, I didn’t blame her for it. I would have done the same. It was the missing piece of the puzzle I needed to solidify what I already knew.

I’d never stopped loving her. Not even for a second. I might have hated her at the same time because I didn’t know, but the love was still there.

“I get it all now,” I said quietly. Then, I strode over to her and knelt down so I could take her face in my hands. I leaned in and kissed her. I kissed her like I should have fifteen years ago. I kissed her with no reservations but with love and softness. I kissed her like I should have every damn day since I met her. I kissed her like I loved her, because I did.

I loved that she didn’t fit in any damn box I tried to put her in, that she kept me on my toes, that she sacrificed herself for others, and that she’d sacrificed our love at one point. She was selfless and good and bad in all the best ways possible.

I pulled back to tell her again, “I get it all, Kee, but I wished you’d trusted me.”

“I trusted that I could handle it myself without burdening you or anyone else with it. I needed to do right by them. You don’t air family drama to the world—”

“I’m not the world, though. I never was.”

“I know that.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “But you were my world in some weird way, and I didn’t want you taking on something you couldn’t handle. You didn’t deserve that.”

“You didn’t deserve having that burden on you either.”

“Yet, he’s family, you know? He’s just—”

“Terrible with money?”

“Right.” She stood and straightened her shirt like the conversation was over. “So, we can do a press release tomorrow. We’re breaking off the engagement.”

I shook my head slowly. “I’m not doing that.”

“Of course you are. I have to figure this out, but you need to disentangle yourself from me immediately and—”

There was no way. Didn’t she see that now? “Actually, we’re getting married.”

“What?”

“You’re marrying me.” I wasn’t letting her go.

“Do you hear yourself?”

“I do. You said you had to take care of family. That’s what families do. Dimitri has been calling you his future sister-in-law for ages now. Are you not my family, Kee?”

“Dex—”

“You grew up next to me. You ran through our freaking fields, you went to school with us, you cried on the side of that lake with us, shivering, cold, in shock after we lost our friend. You’re my family.” It all made sense now. The reason I never committed before and couldn’t see a clear road ahead was because she wasn’t on that road. “You’re going to be my wife.”

Her mouth opened and closed twice before she blurted out, “I’m not marrying you.”

“You are. In our hometown. Where your father and I can have a chat.”

“Did you hear anything I said?”

“I heard you trying to leave me again, but it’s not happening. I’m too obsessed with you to let you go.”

“And what if I’m too obsessed with you to let you go through with it?” Her eyes widened like she wasn’t planning for that to come out of her mouth. “What if I say no?”

I sighed at the inconvenience. “The HEAT empire will go toe-to-toe with Trinity Enterprises. It’ll be a big scandal for everyone, including your best friend.”

I knew exactly who Keelani Hale was now. She was someone who wouldn’t burden anyone she cared about if she could avoid it.

“You wouldn’t,” she whispered. Dragging Dimitri into this was necessary because I knew Kee wouldn’t do anything that would hurt him. “You can’t.”

“I would do just about anything for you at this point, Kee. I’m not letting you go. And you’re not letting me go either. You need to come to terms with those feelings. Now, want to talk about the text you got last night?”

“Are you— What the hell, Dex? Are you fucking stalking me?”

“Yes, but you like when I do. So, you have one stalker threatening your life and the other saving it. Who do you want to pick to fight with?”

“I’m mad at you, Dex.”

“I know, heartbreaker. That’s fine. You can be mad all you want, but you also need to stay within the HEAT empire while we figure this out.”

“I’m making an official statement about—”

“You aren’t leaving.” Didn’t she fucking get that her life was in danger? “I can’t protect you if you do. If you leave the room, Jimmy will be there to escort you.”

She stood from the chair and combed a hand through her hair. “Dex, I am not hiding anymore or keeping my mouth shut. I’ve listened to everyone for a decade and a half, and I just want to be free of it and—”

“You will once we find out who’s sending those texts and red fucking envelopes.”

“It’s probably just Ezekiel or—”

“It can’t be him.” I sighed. “I tracked his whereabouts. He’s been seen with other women. I’ve also…” I tapered off, not wanting to admit the rest. Yet, I was being diligent. I wouldn’t miss a single damn thing.

“You also what, Dex?”

“Let’s put it this way. He knows better.”

“What exactly does that mean?” She wasn’t going to let it go.

“I told him no one would find his body if he tried what he did with you on another woman again. He knows better.” I was very clear with him. I’d gone to extreme lengths by having someone search his home. We’d collected fucked-up evidence on him already. The man was going to have to be put behind bars either way, but my first priority was her.

I was going through building a case on him quietly with a team in the meantime. Yet, my first priority was Kee.

She wrung her hands in front of me before she confessed, “Is it bad that I want to cry over admission? That I instantly feel like you’ve protected so many women in the industry by just threatening him? I shouldn’t feel good about that, but I appreciate you.”

“Show your appreciation by not leaving the building until we find out who’s sending you things.” I paused. “And marry me.”

“You can’t fix everything, Dex.”

When it came to her, I would. “I can and I will, heartbreaker. Want me to call Mitchell and see if he wants to sue you when you’re about to marry Dex Hardy? Or can you make that call yourself?”

“Let’s just slow down—”

“You have a weekend off in two more weeks. We’ll go then.” I started tapping away on my phone.

“You can’t seriously think we’re going back to Illinois where everyone hates—”

“Me?” I smiled. “All the more reason to marry my sweetheart. Give them something to really gossip about. Till then, you stay here, Kee. No going out where it’s unsafe.”

“So you just want me to wait around and twiddle my thumbs?”

“You’re performing. Go to the casino. Spend some money.” There was plenty to do. “Eat at the restaurants. Just stay within the Black Diamond. Your friends are here. We can invite people in.”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“And you’re being impatient and reckless. What’s new?”

“That is new. I’m never reckless.” Her face brightened in anger now.

“Yes, but I have a feeling that’s all you want to be lately.”

She stomped off to her bedroom, and I let her go. She needed to mull over everything while I did too. I even told her I was going down to one of my offices to work because I needed to move, needed to get my head straight, needed to think beyond her in the room next to me.

I wouldn’t leave her without a security detail sitting outside our room though. Someone had targeted her, and it was very, very real. HEAT security for the resort was world class. No one should have known our room number. HEAT employees signed NDAs, we had intel on everyone in the upper levels, and my staff was briefed over and over again.

I called Dimitri to the office to sift through things. He was more of a workaholic than me, and we went through staff member after staff member, firewalls, any breaches, everything. We couldn’t find anything. A storm was brewing outside, and I stared at the lightning in the desert sky. “I’m missing shit.”

“And you hate missing anything,” Dimitri grumbled. “I get it. But we won’t figure it out tonight.”

A crack of thunder sounded, and my watch alerted me of Kee’s heart rate picking up. Storms always made me jumpy too. Las Vegas weather normally allowed me to avoid them though. I knew it was a product of what we’d been through so long ago. I hated that I even saw the fear in Dimitri’s eyes.

I pulled up my camera of her bedroom and saw her lighting candles as Dimitri grumbled about something. She was struggling to get back to her resting heart rate. Once in bed, she tossed and turned until finally her body succumbed to sleep.

Dimitri talked me into calling Declan and Dom about the stalker, and then they decided they wanted Izzy and Delilah on the call.

“We’re not figuring this out tonight,” I grumbled when they all started talking about family stuff.

“No. Let me get Dante. He’ll know what to do.” Lilah disappeared from the screen.

Then Izzy said, “I think Cade and I should just come there.”

“You want to bring the kids to Vegas?” Her husband frowned at her.

“Could be fun… Plus, you’ll watch them while I gamble.”

“Gamble for what? All that money is ours anyway.”

“Exactly.” Dimitri rolled his eyes because we all knew he considered gambling to be a bad investment.

“You guys are no fun,” Izzy said just as Delilah came back on the screen with Dante.

“I want to go there too to see Keelani in concert.” Lilah smirked at Dante. “Can we go? She mentioned in her last show she might not be performing all her songs. I want to see her before that happens.”

“Yeah, let’s go!” Izzy bounced in her chair.

“You two realize we’re talking about her stalker right now?”

“She probably has like a hundred stalkers, Dex.”

“What the—” I took a deep breath. “You’re all here. So, may as well tell you. I’m going to marry her.”

“What the fuck?” Dimitri spit out while Dom rolled his eyes.

Declan said, “We knew that was coming.”

“Oh my God. Congratulations,” Lilah squealed.

I turned to Dimitri first. “She’s your best friend. She’s going to be your sister-in-law. You knew it was coming.”

“But like this? Did you even fucking propose?” He glared at me, and I rubbed my chin.

“I gotta work some things out.” My jaw flexed up and down as I stared at him. “You knew about her mom?”

“Her business to tell you, man. Not mine.” He didn’t apologize, and I knew he wouldn’t. That shit was on me for ghosting her all these years.

“You all know about her mom?” I asked as I turned toward the screen. None of them were dumb enough to respond but that gave me the answer I needed. “Fuck. I wish I’d been there sooner.”

“You’re there now,” Dom said. “We made sure of it with your stupid contract.”

“Fuck you guys,” I grumbled, but Dimitri’s hand clamped on my shoulder to provide the support I guess I needed.

“Anyway, your girl is popular.” Dante cleared his throat, and I narrowed my eyes at him. “She’s going to have stalkers. If we’re not too concerned—”

“She’s got one who took pictures of her. You understand? They’re of her in our suite. And then the pictures were sent to our fucking room,” I informed him, my tone grave.

Cade tsked while Dante sat down as if he was suddenly concerned. “You up security?”

“Of course I upped security.” I wasn’t a dumbass.

“I’m sure Keelani has her own team—”

“They were never her team,” Dimitri grumbled.

I confirmed, “They were fired the second we took over.”

The whole family stared at us and then they all started commenting at the same time.

“What time should we come in?”

“We’ll be there next week.”

“I want to go by then too. I need a vacation.”

“Should we just take the jet?”

“You fuckers aren’t coming here. This isn’t a vacation,” I tried to explain, but no one was listening.

Dimitri finally said, “Everyone stop. Just chill for a second. Give us a week or two. It’s too chaotic when you all are here.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lilah pouted.

“Yeah, you don’t want your baby sisters there? We’ve been cooped up for months.” Izzy was smiling big.

“Go to the Bahamas or something then. You guys start shit, and we don’t need—”

“Kee will say yes to us being there in a week. I just texted her.” I knew my sisters knew her from back in the day, but they weren’t that close.

“How do you even have her number? Don’t dig for information on her, Izzy.”

“I’m offended you would even accuse me of that.” She rolled her eyes, but I knew her to be one of the best hackers in the country, right alongside her husband. “Anyway, Lilah and I have to go. We need to get on another call so we can talk about what we’ll be doing there.”

Before I could say anything else, they both disappeared and left Cade and Dante to talk business with us.

“Fuck me,” I grumbled.

Cade said, “We’re coming next week, I guess, because I’m not fighting with her today.”

“Whatever.” I was only half paying attention now as I stared at my watch. I got updates on the resort and one notification came through about Kee. Her body temperature started to climb, along with her heart rate. I pressed a button to pull up her camera on my phone. Her muscles started to tense as she whimpered, and her heart rate spiked. I jumped up. She was experiencing fear on another level in her sleep. “I have to go.”

“Go where?”

“Home to my fiancée,” I said.

“Oh, now he’s whipped after acting like we were ridiculous in our relationships,” Dante grumbled while Cade chuckled.

I flipped him off. “You almost got my sister killed.” Then I looked at Cade’s face on the screen. “You too. If you’re coming, your asses are working.”

“Oh, like I don’t have kids to take care of?” Cade acted like I couldn’t figure a damn thing out.

“I know you have a nanny too. You’ll be fine.”

I hurried out of the conference room. I wasn’t going to admit it to any of them, but they were all right. I saw her hurting, so I was going to drop everything.

I rushed through the casino floor, around slot machines and poker tables. My fast pace turned from a jog to a damn run as I tried to catch the elevator doors closing. I swiped my watch to signal I was going to the top floor and waited.

Two seconds felt like two hours, and I found myself turning to say to a couple HEAT members, “Don’t even think about coming on this elevator with me.”

They got the point.

When I reached her bedside, I sat down fast to pull her into my arms and wake her. “I got you, Kee. I got you.”

Her dark eyes opened with tears in them. “Dex?”

“Just a nightmare, heartbreaker. The car wreck… It’s over,” I whispered in her ear, because I felt her shaking against me, knew the fear she was feeling.

“How do you know it’s about the car wreck?”

“The rain always triggers my nightmares too.”

“You get them?”

“I do.”

She snuggled into my chest and murmured, “You said I was your nightmare once.”

I nodded but she didn’t understand. “I get nightmares about losing you. One way or the other.” I rocked her back and forth for what felt like only moments, but we might have sat there for hours. The world melted away when I was with her. The fear of losing her, the fear of losing control.

She rubbed at my heart before she looked up at me and said, “Stay with me?”

Didn’t she know I wasn’t going to leave again? I was done denying our connection. I was about to marry her. I was about to make sure she was forever in my life.

I stood up and stripped off my jeans and T-shirt. She watched me the whole time. Once I was beside her, she cuddled close. “Do you think they’ll ever stop?”

“I think the body has to remind us of what we’ve lived through.”

“I wish it would remind me of something else.”

“Reminders are there so we can learn and prepare for the future. They mark us and tattoo a memory into our soul for reference.”

“What’s this memory trying to tell us then?”

“For me? It’s reminding me not to fuck up protecting you again.”

“That’s not your job. We’re not really together.” She was still coming to terms with the fact that we were, it seemed. “And even if we were, Dex, you don’t have to protect me.”

“We’ve always been together. Even when we weren’t. And we always will be too, Kee. I’m always going to protect you.”