Sunset Thunder (32 page)

“A mother’s eyes are everywhere.” Eliza winked at him. It was no doubt security tapes or maybe she’d even seen them leaving.

“That is kind of creepy, stalkerish behavior,” he teased.

Eliza shrugged it off. “I’m a Caliendo. Would you expect any less?” He supposed not. “Do you see what you have to do?”

He had to blackmail Joel.

Ryder nodded.

“Go get that sex tape and leave Joel with the threat of jail time.”

JOEL LOOKED RELUCTANT to let Violet into his room, but finally, after much debate dancing in his tired eyes, he stepped aside.

Expecting to find the room filled with his rowdy groomsmen, she was surprised to find it empty.

“Ryder’s not here, if that’s who you’re looking for. I think it’s pretty safe to say we aren’t friends anymore and he’s not standing by my side today.” She heard the gloom of a friend lost and the blame in his voice.

“I’m not here for Ryder.” She turned to him. “How did you get that video?”

“I was there.”

That’s what she thought. Violet looked away from the hurt she saw in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said. “That was the only time−”

Joel sat on the edge of the bed and cut her off. “I don’t need your apology.” He rubbed his hands across his face, wincing as they came in contact with his bruises. He looked exhausted.

“You deserve an apology. That was no way to start our life together.”

He looked up then, with a strain across his face, pulling at his features. “You’re only saying sorry because you want to make peace with me and be with Ryder.”

Violet sat beside him. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to be with Ryder. But, I am sorry if my infidelity hurt you.”

“Of course it hurt me. You just said
I do
for the rest of our lives and hours later you were having sex with my friend.”

“I didn’t know that you knew about me and Ryder. The eve of our wedding, I went into my dad’s office and begged him to call off the wedding. I’m sorry if that hurts too, but I didn’t want to marry you. I didn’t love you. When my dad told me about your ulterior motives−”

“My ulterior motives?” He sounded insulted.

“I’m trying to be honest with you Joel. The least you can do is live up to your part.” Violet had to know if he had proposed to her for her money.

“Because you were pregnant with our child?”

She slanted a look at him, feeling as exhausted as he looked and having difficulty mustering up anger. “For my money, Joel. You proposed to me for my money.”

“I proposed to you because you were pregnant with Sophia.”

“You were bankrupt.”

“You were pregnant,” he insisted.

Violet sighed loudly and stood up. “Joel, just stop. We are grown adults now, not foolish and hot-headed. I slept with Ryder on our wedding night and you were only interested in me for my money. Just admit it.”

Joel stood. “I am
not
admitting to something you and your dad made up. I dated you because you showed interest in me. I proposed to you because you were pregnant with my child. I married you because I thought we could be a family. I didn’t divorce you the next day because I was cornered.”

Carl had been right. Joel had been a good guy. All these years she’d wasted, hating him for false deceptions. If only they’d talked to each other instead of making their own assumptions and resenting each other.

Joel continued. “Your dad blackmailed me after he found out the money I was investing into my business wasn’t turning a profit because there was no business.”

Violet paused from her own regrets to listen.
No business?

“After my parents died, I went through their money and yes, I went bankrupt. I didn’t tell anyone, not even Ryder, not at first anyway. I was embarrassed and too proud. Then you showed an interest in me and you had connections to money. I may have used my relationship with you to find investors, but I wasn't using you. I liked you.”

He had?

“The figures I promised left no room for debate and everyone wanted a piece of the money I promised. Only there was no turnover.”

Why was he telling her this?
He had committed fraud.
He had committed fraud!

Her dad would have known and in turn this would have been in her file...or Joel’s. Which meant her mother knew. Violet had leverage on Joel. Why had her mother told her to think with her heart, when the evidence had been right there? Because Violet had already shut Ryder out.

“Then you were pregnant and I suddenly had a family again. Me, you and Sophia.”

A family?

Violet hadn’t known he considered them a family. She hadn’t even thought that he liked her.
Thanks Dad.

“But I was also in trouble. I took a lot of money from a lot of people, including your dad. After you told him about the pregnancy, he used his ‘Robert’ skills and discovered that I was broke.” Joel sighed. “He gave me the money to pay everyone back with interest. It saved my reputation, my life really. He could have called the authorities and I would have ended up in jail, but he didn’t.”

Violet was quiet. For the first time since she met Joel, they were actually talking and confiding in each other. His tale was sad, their past was sad with so many unnecessary heartbreaks along the way. At the same time, Joel was providing a solution to her current situation with Ryder. He was giving her the leverage to get Ryder back.

After Ryder showed up at her mom’s house last night, it was obvious he still wanted her, but that didn’t mean Violet was good for Ryder. Listening to Joel, she was discovering she was partially responsible for taking away his happily ever after.

What if she did the same thing with Ryder?

“That’s right,” Joel said, cutting into her thoughts. “Daddy will have my activities stored somewhere and now you have the upper hand.” Violet stared at him in shock. He was letting her go. Joel was letting her have a relationship with Ryder. “I’m not as stupid as you think I am.”

Joel sat back down stretching his elbows across his legs and dropping his head in his hands. “I’m so tired of fighting with you. I’m so tired of our kids looking at me like I am the bad guy.” He looked at her. “Which I proved to be this week. You know what? I went into our marriage trying. But the first night, our wedding night, you screwed Ryder. And worse, I was there, I saw it.”

“And you taped it...”

“I needed something to force your dad’s hand. He had me by the balls. I was married to a woman who couldn’t stand me. Who slept with my friend on our wedding night. What else was I going to do? If it makes you feel better, it didn’t work with your dad either. After he paid off my debt, I was in his debt.” The defeat in his voice corresponded with the defeat in her body.

Violet sat beside Joel again and felt connected with him in a way she never had. They were both two pawns in one of her dad’s twisted and selfish games.

“It doesn’t make me feel better. It makes me sad. I have been mad at you since the day I found out I was pregnant with Sophia. Because I knew my dad would try to force us into a marriage I thought neither of us wanted. I just had no idea the lengths my dad would go to. I shouldn’t have believed him, but he was brilliant at making you believe what he wanted. I’m sorry that I ruined your life. That my unstable family ruined your life.”

He nudged her side. “Your family didn’t ruin my life. I ruined my life, the day I stole money from people. Your family has always been nice to me. Minus Robert, who was never nice to anyone.” His sad chuckle was strained. “Even when I wasn’t that nice to you, your family still accepted me, treated me with respect and like part of the family. I didn’t deserve it.”

“I cheated on you the first day of our marriage. Why would you be nice to me?”

“Because I knew you were forced into it too.”

Violet laughed her own sadness. “We are a mess.”

“I guess we are just like any other family.”

Violet shook her head. “I don’t think there is another family out there as disastrous as us.” And today, in less than an hour, he was beginning his own family and they were sitting here rehashing depressingly down memory lane.

Violet stood up. “Anyway...I should go and let you marry the woman you love.”

Joel rose with her. “I do love Missy.”

That was good. He deserved to find his love.

“Then I am happy for you. Rumors obviously have made the rounds that you had an affair with Missy. That is why Sophia and Parker are angry with you. I guess we should address that too. After your honeymoon.”

He nodded. “I will destroy the video this time. Ryder’s not the womanizer I have made him out to be over the years. I only told you those lies to hurt you.”

Violet nodded her understanding. If she could stand here and make peace with a man who she had resented, and had resented her for over ten years, couldn’t she spend the rest of her, life with a man who loved her? Her heart lightened as Ryder settled himself back inside her heart. She needed to go find him and promise to never run away again, to never hide...or at the very least promise to
try
not to do those things.

“We may not have loved each other, but I cared about you and that night hurt,” Joel said.

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry about last night, and your office. I doubt Ryder is every going to forgive me.”

Ryder was a loyal man. Violet knew they would find peace between them. Maybe not right away, but once he knew about the pain they’d both caused to Joel, regret and guilt would alter his thinking.

“Ryder is your friend. Talk to him. He will understand.”

“I wouldn’t forgive me if I were him.”

“He slept with your wife. So, maybe you two are even.”

Joel cracked a smile that lit his darkened eyes. It was refreshing and she was glad he was able to do so. He had a special day today, his happily ever after, and Violet didn’t want their past to ruin his day. “That’s a warped sense of humor you have there.”

She shrugged. “I’ve been hanging around Ryder too much.”

***

RYDER DIDN’T HAVE to knock on the door and wait for Joel to answer it, or give him the opportunity to ignore it and cower away from him like the chicken shit he was. He swiped the key card Eliza had given him and waltzed straight into Joel’s room catching him in an embrace with...

“Violet?”

What the hell?

Ryder yanked Joel off Violet, just as he had the night before, only this time he didn’t let go. He slammed Joel against the wall and held him there with his arm against his throat.

Ryder turned to Violet waiting for her explanation and it had better be a damn good one.

Violet’s beautiful, all natural face was swollen like she’d cried the night away and pink pinched her cheeks and the tip of her nose. Her damp hair fell loose down her shoulders and darkened the sleeves of her blue sundress.

It immediately made him think of her snow−ice−queen outfit and how damn sexy she’d looked in it. They were supposed to sleep the night away in each other’s arms, not battle demons of their past. It also reminded him why they were here and that Joel was keeping them apart when he was the criminal.

“Ryder, let him go,” Violet ordered, surprising him. Why was he surprised? He’d walked in to them in a more than friendly looking embrace.

Was she really still in love with Joel? Had he been the fool chasing after a woman who was chasing after someone else?

The thought felt like Ryder was the one slammed and pinned against the wall. “What are you doing here?” he demanded, giving Joel a little extra shove against his throat. He made a painful sound and Ryder almost grinned. He deserved it.

Violet folded her arms over her chest, not looking at all like the damsel in distress he had envisioned. Her hard solid stare granted independence.

“What are
you
doing here?” she retorted, like he was one of the bad guys.
The villain.

“I’m here as your hero. Your Prince Charming. Your happily ever after. Lord, woman, what else do you think I’m doing here?”

“Strangling your best friend by the looks of things.”

Ryder glared at Joel. “He is not my best friend.”

“Not if you kill him.”

“Don’t temp me. Are you still in love with him?” Ryder had to know. What other reason would she have to be here? Hugging Joel? Crossing her arms and staring at Ryder like he was the villain?

Violet’s eyes narrowed on him. “I’m ensuring that I don’t destroy my happily ever after,” she said.

“With him?” Ryder’s voice hitched up a notch with shock.

Violet’s face softened. “No. How can you ask me that after I’ve already given my heart to you?”

Relief stripped away Ryder’s uncertainty, letting the element of her love overflow through his veins.

Violet loved him. Violet loved him!

“Please, let him go.”

Joel.
Violet’s love still didn’t change the fact that Ryder was putting an end to Joel harassing Violet. “Give me one good reason.”

“You had sex with his wife. On his wedding night. Even if you don’t remember, we hurt him, Ryder,” she said. The pain in her voice soaked through his anger at Joel.

Ryder hadn’t considered it from that point of view...from Joel’s point of view. He’d been so consumed with Joel holding this threat over Violet that he hadn’t had a moment to consider Joel’s feelings about what Ryder had done...with his wife...on their wedding night.