The Marriage Merger (35 page)

“No. There’s no job for an eighteen-year-old with no di-ploma and no money. The shelters were almost worse than the foster home. Almost. I started to learn the rules of the street. Found places to sleep, people to steal from, restaurants to haunt. I learned the gangs who ruled and how to survive. But Danny was getting restless, and he didn’t want to wait any longer. I stopped checking in with him as much, and I think he thought I’d abandoned him.”

A shattering silence fell over the room. “What happened?”

“He came looking for me. Packed his shit and snuck out at night. But he didn’t know where to find me. Gossip came from the street that there was a young boy who tried stealing food from a rival gang. They beat him to a pulp. He didn’t survive. I found out it was Danny.”

Julietta closed her eyes, fighting the nausea that ripped at her stomach. “Did your foster father get blamed?”

“Nah. He told the worker Danny ran away and that I sicced the gang on him. They found me and brought me in for questioning. I saw it in their faces, the knowledge that I’d killed him by not keeping my word. I promised I’d get him out, keep him safe. Instead, I killed him.”

The woman who loved him wanted to cry and rage and comfort. But he was past that and spiraling down a pit of blame he’d been nurturing since his foster father planted the idea in his head. She snapped her voice like a whiplash.

“And how is that your fault, Sawyer? Did you beat him up?

Did you deliver him to the gang who killed him?”

“No. But if I had gotten him a message beforehand, he would’ve waited.”

“Bullshit. His father was beating him daily. He would’ve tried to run away before he did, and I don’t think any message of yours would have stopped him. He’d had enough, and he ran into the wrong crowd, and he got killed. But you didn’t kill him.” He stared as if surprised she was still there.

“How did you get your scar?”

He rubbed his cheek. A small smile touched his lips. “I went after the gang. It was me against six, but I managed to put three in the hospital. They knifed me. It never healed right.” The energy seeped out of him, bone by bone, and all she glimpsed was a man who had surrendered his hope.

“The next two years were a blur until I finally found my way to Jerry. There was a little girl, Molly, who I also tried to help. She ended up hooking on the streets rather than live with him. ended up dead of an overdose before I could get to her. you know the rest.”

“And your foster father? How did he finally go to jail?”

“I finally went after him. All those years, he’d poisoned me to believe no one would think I told the truth. I was worried about the others. After Danny and Molly, nothing mattered. I just knew I couldn’t let him hurt any more kids.

one social worker listened to me. I exposed the truth and testified in court. of course, it was too late for the ones he had already ruined, but at least they locked him up for a long time.”

Julietta gathered all her strength and walked over. Tilted her head to gaze up at him. His beautiful face looked down at her in puzzlement, not understanding why she wasn’t leaving him or cringing in disgust. She didn’t know if he’d ever heal his wounded soul, but she refused to walk until she knew this man couldn’t give her the love he held tightly under wraps in the mistaken impression he’d hurt someone he cared about.

She traced the line of the scar with tenderness.

“This scar reminds me of your bravery. That you’re a man who protects the people who belong to him. A man who will fight for what he believes in and what is right, even against the odds. This is a man who deserves everything.

Happiness. A home. Me. Wolfe. A family. That’s what I want with you, Sawyer Wells. your broken past means nothing to me; it only reminds me of what you’ve become in spite of everything that tried to rip you down. you’re not getting rid of me. Until you can look me in the eye and tell me I mean nothing to you, I’m fighting for both of us.” She raised herself on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his lips. “I want you to come to Mama’s tonight. My family’s leaving soon, and it’s a good-bye dinner. They all want you there because you’re a part of us now.

“I love you. Deal with it.”

She left him with her words echoing in the air.

…

He wasn’t coming.

Julietta stared at the door with a sinking heart. Wolfe stretched out next to her, stroking Dante’s back as the cat purred madly. The kids sat in a circle playing with a puzzle, the twins rolling and giggling while Lily played the little mother and kept them in line. Alexa was in the kitchen with Mama helping to clean up, and Maggie and Michael had escaped for a walk. The house had been full of cousins and uncles and relatives. Now, the last of the guests trickled out, leaving an exhausted clean-up crew and a quiet vibration through the villa.

Julietta refused to accept defeat. She’d spent her whole life hiding from anything messy or real. It was finally time to fight for her future, but Sawyer might not be ready. The first test had failed. The path ahead might be a losing battle, but she wasn’t going to step neatly aside and let the man she loved isolate himself because he was afraid he had no emotions left to give.

Screw that.

Wolfe watched her face with a deep worry she ached to soothe. each step Sawyer took away from them, the boy suffered. They’d formed a bond within this short time pe-riod, and she sensed Wolfe’s constant premonition that anything good would eventually be destroyed. Julietta swore if Sawyer walked away from them, she’d never let Wolfe go.

She’d cling to him like a fierce mama bear and spend the rest of her days proving her devotion.

Max took a seat next to her. “I haven’t seen Sawyer since our night out. Working round the clock?”

Julietta slid a glance over to Wolfe and pasted on a bright smile. “yeah, the opening for Purity is coming close.

We’re all putting in extra hours to make sure we don’t miss the deadline.”

Wolfe paused midstroke. His gaze assessed her face as if he knew there was a deeper problem. Dante sensed something amiss and pushed his head into the boy’s palm, bump-ing his attention back to the task at hand. Wolfe looked down at the demanding cat and gave a half smile. “Pain in the ass,” he muttered under his breath. “Want some milk?”

Dante jumped down in perfect understanding and stalked toward the kitchen, not bothering to look back to confirm Wolfe followed. She watched the boy disappear and turned toward her brother-in-law. “Something’s wrong, Max. Do you know anything about his past?”

Max shook his head. “No, it’s obviously a closed subject.

I never pried.”

Julietta struggled between needing help and not wanting to disrespect her husband’s privacy. “There’s someone who’s come back from his childhood. It’s dredged up a mess of memories, and he’s distancing himself from us.”

“Do you think he just needs some time to process?”

She clenched her fists. “Maybe. But my gut says the more space I give him, the more he’ll slip away from us.

This person is trying to blackmail him.”

“Bad stuff?”

“yeah. Nothing that he did wrong, though. But he doesn’t believe that.”

“Sawyer doesn’t take crap from anyone. He’d never buckle from a threat. I’ll visit him tomorrow.”

“Thank you.” Julietta didn’t know if she was making a bigger mistake recruiting Max. Her husband could lose his temper and slip even further away from her, but she trusted her gut. It had never failed in business. Time to put her instincts to the test in her personal life.

Max gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Sawyer is one tough son of a bitch. He’s going to be okay. you probably knocked him sideways with his feelings for you. He’s obviously fallen hard, and he’s never committed to anyone before, let alone marriage.”

She forced a smile. “I hope you’re right.”

Please don’t leave us, Sawyer. We need you.

Sawyer made his way toward the basement and followed the sounds of grunting. Three a.m. The time of night terrors and ghosts that took flight. He pushed open the door and found Wolfe in the middle of the mat, going at the punching bag like rocky in the final round with Apollo Creed.

Sweat gleamed from Wolfe’s skin. His focus told a deeper story, and Sawyer felt a pang at how distant he’d been lately with the boy. He’d missed workouts this week, not ready to face him while he wondered about the status of his marriage.

Wolfe didn’t deserve to be around emotional conflict or deal with his whiny shit. He deserved more than that.

Sawyer dropped his bottle of water and towel, waiting for him to finish.

Wolfe tore off the gloves and panted for breath.

“Nice jabs. But your hooks still suck.” Sawyer waited for his smart-mouthed comeback, but the boy ignored him.

He turned his back and grabbed his own bottle of water, chugging it down. “Hard night?”

Wolfe wiped his mouth and glared at him. “What do you care?”

Sawyer jerked back. “Listen, I’m sorry I missed a few of our sessions. you know work has been killing me. Purity has to come first.”

“Got no problem with that. Just don’t like lies.”

He frowned. “I’m not lying. I can’t let up until opening, and even then the first year will take everything I got. I thought you were on board with that.”

Blue eyes glittered with banked rage. “you think I’m stupid, man? you think I don’t know you’re thinking of taking off?” He gave a bark of laughter. “I’m the king of that move, so don’t try to pretend it’s about Purity. It’s about Julietta. Me. Us, together. This whole thing is not working for you, and you got itchy feet. Fine, I don’t give a shit. Just be a man and tell us to our faces instead of this bullshit about work.”

The ground roared up and swallowed him whole.

Sickness churned his stomach. Dear God, Wolfe believed he was cutting out on him, just like everyone did in his life beforehand. He shook his head hard and took a step forward. “Listen, Wolfe, you’re wrong. Dead wrong. I am not leaving you, and I never will. We’re a team going forward.

I’m just going through some shit with Julietta, but I’ll figure it out.”

Wolfe made a low growl deep in his throat and backed off. “Lie. I see the way you look at me now, at her. Like you can’t wait to get away from us. We remind you of something we’ll never be able to fix. It’s just a matter of time before you bolt. But I’m not waiting around for it. I like Julietta; she’s given me more respect than I ever had, other than you. She makes me want to do better. I’m not going to hang around while you tear her apart and then start on me. I’ve been down this road, man. I’m done.”

Panic hit. Sawyer scrambled for balance. “you’re important to me, damnit! I don’t want you to leave, and I’m not going to bolt. even if this thing doesn’t work out with Julietta, I’ll never let you down. I can’t let anyone else down again!”

The boy studied him in the dim light. Foo Fighters blared in the background. In those endless blue depths, Sawyer saw a deep truth that shook him. An understanding and disappointment so ingrained there was nothing he’d be able to utter to wipe away the doubts.

Because Sawyer knew the boy was right.

He was a liar. He couldn’t live in his own skin any longer, especially with everything he loved and dreamed of and hoped for right in front of him. A wife he loved. A son to care for. A home and a family. everything he’d never believed in, so he was taking off before it could blow up in his face.

Wolfe twisted his lips and hung the towel around his neck. “I understand, man. you’re not letting us down; you’re just doing what we all do. Coping. I was wrong to believe there was something more. Not your fault.” He walked past him toward the door. “I’ll finish up until Purity opens, then I’m going back to New york. Don’t jerk Julietta around anymore. Not when you already have your mind made up to leave.”

Wolfe disappeared.

Sawyer dropped to the bench and slumped against the wall. His instincts roared at him to go after Wolfe and prove the boy wrong. Drag Julietta out of bed and admit his cowardice, tell her he’d fight for her, for Wolfe, for all of them. But all he heard was his foster father’s taunt-ing words reminding him over and over he’d never be enough. Gossip would be gleeful, especially considering his current limelight with his new hotel chain. The press had been trying to hook him up for years, and any nega-tive story would involve Julietta and eventually La Dolce Famiglia. And what about Wolfe? What if they discovered the boy lived with them and they began prying into his past? He couldn’t risk it.

Letting them go might be the biggest gift he had to offer.

They deserved everything.

Sawyer rose from the bench and headed toward the free weights. He wouldn’t come out of the room until his body was completely drained and shaking with exhaustion.

Maybe then he’d find a sliver of peace.

…

He walked the site and took note of the new developments with a tingle of pride. His vision shimmered before him, almost complete. The details were finally coming together to complete a portrait of exotic lushness paired with an envi-ronment that welcomed travelers home, with all the mod-ern luxuries, from a dedicated technology and video room for business executives needing to Skype and hold online meetings, to the pampering spa, pools, hot tubs, and steam rooms. The rich textures of polished marble, glittering crystals, plush velvet, and rich mahogany conjured old and new worlds. He’d used his private art collection to make sure the main rooms inspired, like a high-class art gallery for his guests.

Sawyer closed his eyes for a moment and pictured the hotel full, his dream finally complete. And wondered why the culmination of his goal beat like a hole in his heart.

empty. Void. Dead.

“Hey, it’s looking good, man.”

Sawyer turned toward Max. A flicker of guilt trickled through him. Blowing off the family dinner had been a visible slap in the face to Julietta and everyone else. Wishing he knew a different way to handle it, Sawyer shook Max’s hand and forced a smile. “Thanks. Listen, sorry I couldn’t do dinner last night. Got caught up in the office. Hope you understand.”

“Sure. We’ve all been there, especially around a new opening. Can I talk to you a sec?”