Nolan by Lane Hart, D.B. West

Chapter Seventeen

Nolan

She doesn’t even fucking know.

How the hell is that possible? Why didn’t that thought ever occur to me?

For five years, two of which I spent constantly miserable in a shithole prison with angry, rabid criminals trying to shank my ass every other day, Rita has been clueless.

All because her brother is that goddamn selfish?

Yes, the little brat probably is still just as big of an asshole as he was at sixteen.

Whenever I brought his delinquent behavior up while we were dating, Rita would make excuses for him – saying Cory was just acting out because he was a poor, lonely orphan and I should give him a break. I knew it was bullshit, but I couldn’t tell her that. He was her brother; the only family she had left after she lost her parents in a fire.

Now, though, she’s about to find out just what a piece of shit Cory really is as soon as we get to the damn safe house.

The van’s front headlights land on two Harleys parked in front of the white, two-story, old but renovated farmhouse, making me exhale in relief that I won’t be alone with Rita with the two green prospects. I checked the entire place out earlier today before we went to the strip club. The windows don’t open and the doors have several locks. It’s as safe as we can get right now. I know Roman wouldn’t have suggested it if it wasn’t, but it was nice to confirm that for myself.

Hugo and Abel are obviously inside poking around. And even though only Hugo has the first twelve-hour shift, Abel will no doubt insist on staying too.

The giant motherfucker probably won’t ever track Rita down to this address since it’s owned by a shell corporation by the Kings, but still, it’s nice to have backup.

And maybe once they find out that Rita doesn’t know what happened to me, they’ll give her some slack and stop calling her a bitch.

I always knew she wasn’t one. It was impossible since she doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. No, the woman is way too sweet and forgiving. She probably won’t even be mad at her brother. I can already hear her excuse now — “He was just a kid.”

Yeah, a kid making dumbass adult decisions that should’ve sent his ass to prison and not mine.

“What should we do with the stuff back here?” Jake asks, finally breaking the silence that descended on the van before we left the apartment complex.

I open the driver door so the interior light comes on so I can see Rita’s face. She looks at me in confusion, still apparently thinking about my last words to her.

“What all do you need to take in tonight?” I ask her.

“Just, um, my purse and the last two boxes we loaded with clothes and toiletries unless I need bedding?”

“The beds are made,” I tell her as I climb out and go around to open the cargo hold to grab the two boxes, stacking them one on top of the other.

“What do you need us to do now?” Lucas asks when he and Jake get out of the van.

“Didn’t Roman tell you? You’re both staying here day and night until this is over.”

I wait for them to grumble in annoyance, but they just nod and take it in stride.

The prospects have handled every job we’ve given them so far. And while they are sometimes at each other’s necks, they’re good kids for the most part, ready to get their patch any day now. I bet neither of them would send an innocent man to prison and not tell the woman he did it for.

I lead the way up the porch steps, the old sagging wood creaking loudly just like we intended so that we’ll be alerted to any lurkers.

Abel opens the front door with Hugo right behind him, illuminating them from the light inside. “You finally made it. The place is clear. No one followed us,” he tells me before I can even ask.

“Thanks,” I say as I slip inside past them with Rita and the prospects on my heels. Once the door shuts and locks, I sit the boxes down on the floor until we figure out which room Rita wants. “Abel, Hugo, you remember Rita.”

“Hey,” she says shyly, fingering the straps of her purse on her shoulder. “Thanks for helping me with Leroy.”

“That the giant son of a bitch’s name?” Hugo asks.

“Yep.”

“He sits outside of her apartment trying to look in the windows,” Jake informs the guys, who both lift their brows in disbelief.

“Creepy bastard,” Abel mutters.

“You staying tonight?” I ask Abel.

“Yeah, I’ll get a few winks in, and then make sure Hugo doesn’t sleep on the job,” he jokes with a grin.

“Sounds good. There’s plenty of food and beer in the kitchen if any of you get hungry,” I tell the four guys. “I’m going to show Rita around. Yell for us if you need anything.”

“You got it, bro,” Abel agrees.

“I’ll come get the boxes when we decide on a room,” I tell Rita when I grab her hand and pull her forward to start the tour. “There’s a bedroom down here, but I’d rather leave it for one of the guys.”

“That’s fine,” she agrees as I take her up the stairs. “Three bedrooms up here, but only one has its own bathroom.”

“Then I’ll take that one,” she says easily.

I flip on the light switch and pull her inside the room. There’s a white comforter with little red roses around the edges and several matching decorative pillows on the queen size bed that looks comfortable enough. Not that I’ll probably find out...

“This is perfect,” Rita says as she walks past me to peek into the bathroom. “Yeah. This will work great.” Turning to face me again, she lowers her purse to the top of the empty dresser. “Can we talk now?”

“Yes, let’s talk,” I agree, shutting the door to give us a little more privacy.

Rita sits downs on the foot of the bed, her palms splayed over the comforter while I lean my ass against the mirrored dresser right across from her.

“I never up and left you,” I tell her, grasping the wood on either side of my hips as I try and reel in my anger. “Cory knew exactly where I went.”

“Really?” she asks, her brow furrowed. “And where did you go?”

“To prison.”

* * *

Rita

“Prison?”I repeat in confusion as I stare up at Nolan’s blank face. “You went to prison? When we were together?”

“Well, first, I was held in the local jail. But once I pled guilty, I went to the state prison in Brunswick County for two years.”

“What…what did you do?”

“I didn’t do shit,” he scoffs, crossing his muscular arms over his chest. “It’s what Cory did.”

“Wh-what did my brother do?” I ask, starting to get a bad feeling.

“He stole a bunch of shit – video game systems, jewelry, laptops.”

“Cory did?” I say in disbelief. “How can you be so sure?”

“I’m fucking sure, unless you had a larceny hobby on the side?” Nolan asks with a single dark eyebrow arched.

“When would I have time to steal anything?” I huff.

“Then it was Cory,” he says confidently. Before I can argue that statement, he goes on to say, “Guess where he hid all the stolen shit?”

“Where?” I ask softly, swallowing around the sudden knot in my throat.

“In your linen closet under the extra towels and sheets.”

“The linen closet? In the apartment?”

“That’s right,” Nolan answers with a slow nod. “So, the day that the police showed up with a search warrant…”

I jump to my feet at that. “The police searched my apartment?”

“Yes. You were at work, at the office, and Cory had left for school, or he was supposed to be and was skipping. Either way, no one was there that morning but me and the four uniformed officers who had a warrant. It didn’t take them long to find the stolen goods in the closet and threatened to drag you and Cory both down to the station for questioning. You could’ve been charged with all kinds of bullshit since it was your apartment, and he was a minor. So, I told them it was all mine.”

“You what?” I exclaim.

“Since I had an old record of stealing a car for joy rides when I was nineteen, the police were all too happy to slap the handcuffs on me. It didn’t matter that the snitch had said Cory’s name. They had a known criminal admitting guilt. Case closed. The apartment was a goddamn mess when I left with them, and they wouldn’t let me leave a note before they cuffed me. They did leave the search warrant on the kitchen counter. I thought you would see it and Cory would tell you everything. But apparently he didn’t.”

I’m already shaking my head. “I just don’t believe my brother would do that, let you take the fall for something so…so serious and not even tell me!”

Nolan’s unshaven jaw ticks. “Believe it, woman. If it was just the larceny, I probably wouldn’t have served but a few months. Turned out, though, the goods were from a string of B&Es, so I was well and truly fucked. They gave me thirty-four months since most of the property was recovered. I was released in twenty-five for good behavior.”

“Jesus, Nolan,” I say as my heart snaps in half for him and tears fill my eyes. “You went to prison for us? Why didn’t you call me or write me, anything to tell me?”

“I thought you knew and didn’t give a shit!” he shouts, raising his voice for the first time. “Why would I waste another second thinking about you after that?”

“I’m…I’m so sorry,” I tell him, my throat burning with unshed tears as I pace around the room, thinking back to the day Nolan disappeared. I came home from the office to change for the strip club, and he wasn’t there. I thought he maybe had to make a run for the Savage Kings. He did that sometimes, up and left, but he always called to tell me, even if he had to leave a voicemail. Then that night, when I got home a little before three a.m., he still wasn’t there.

But Cory was home that afternoon. He said he was cleaning, which was unusual.

He must have gotten home from school, found the house a mess and the warrant, and tried to literally sweep it all under the rug.

How could he?

“I need to call Cory,” I tell Nolan.

“Right. Why did I think for a second that you would believe me over him,” Nolan says before he storms out the door and then slams it behind him.

I chase after him to the hallway, letting the tears finally fall. “I need to call him to chew his ass out! To demand an answer for why he let you…why he didn’t tell me!” I shout, not caring about the other men overhearing when he stops right before his boot takes the first step to go downstairs.

“You do that,” he says with his back still to me before he hurries down the steps.

I want to say more, to beg him to come back. But first, I have to call my brother. It doesn’t matter that it’s almost two in the morning. I’ll keep calling him until the jackass answers.

Back in the bedroom, I leave the door cracked open in invitation in case Nolan comes back.

Then I pull my phone from my purse and sit down on the bed.

My brother doesn’t answer the first call. So, I try again. He picks up with a huff of annoyance on the third one, his voice rumbly from sleep.

“It’s late, sis. What do you want?”

“What do I want?” I exclaim in outrage. “What I want is for you to tell me why you let the man I loved go to prison for you and not tell me!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says way too quickly.

“Nolan Bishop? Remember the man, the only man, that ever stayed over with me while you were still in high school?”

In the beginning, when Nolan and I started seeing each other, I wouldn’t let him come to my apartment the first week or so because Cory was only sixteen. I didn’t want to be a bad role model, having men come and go out of the apartment. But I wanted to be with Nolan so badly that I finally caved, giving in to my selfish desire and not caring what Cory thought since I was falling in love with Nolan before we even slept together.

“No,” my brother says, after barely taking the time to think about it.

“You’re lying!” I yell at him. “How could you, Cory? He had already lied to protect us, to protect you! Why didn’t you tell me about the search warrant and the charges? You knew where he was, you knew that I cried over him for months, and you never said a word!”

“I didn’t want to go to jail, okay?” he exclaims. “I knew that if I told you, you would make me turn myself in to save him!”

“I wouldn’t…” I start to say, but I’m not sure what I would’ve done at the time. My entire life feels like I’ve been trying to protect my little brother, to give him the normal life I never had after our parents died.

“I thought you might love him more than me,” Cory admits softly.

“You know that wasn’t true,” I tell him. “I just…I missed him so much and never knew why he left me without a word. I thought I had done something wrong, or he didn’t care about me. And he gave up on me when I didn’t reach out to him while he was locked up because of your stupid decisions!”

“If I had gotten caught, I never would’ve been able to finish high school or go to college.”

I scoff indignantly as more tears race down my cheeks. “You are so fucking selfish! Mom and Dad would be so ashamed of you,” I say before I pull the phone from my ear and end the call.

When he calls back, I toss the phone on the mattress next to me, ignoring him.

I’ve never been so angry and hurt, like I was betrayed by the one person I’ve spent the last eleven years busting my ass to make happy.

The one time in my life when I was finally happy and felt loved, he took that from me.

All Cory had to do was be honest. Nolan had already made his decision. He wouldn’t have backed down from it. I knew him well enough then to know that he put loyalty above everything in his world. I would’ve waited for him to serve his time and would have gone to visit him as much as I could.

There’s a knock on the door even though it’s cracked. Jumping up, I swipe my hands over my face as I go open it wide. Nolan’s on the other side with my two boxes in his arms.

“Oh, um, thanks,” I tell him, stepping aside so he can come inside.

He places them on top of the dresser and turns back to face me, his amber eyes steady and unwavering as they lock with mine. There’s not an ounce of regret behind them, just sadness because he knows how much my brother hurt me.

“Nolan…if I had known…” My words break off on a sob, and then his strong arms are wrapped around me, holding me while I cry when he should be the one upset, being comforted. “I’m sorry,” I tell him again, the side of my face pressed to his leather cut.

“I am too,” he says. His palms press to my back holding me close and rubbing up and down my dress. “I never thought for a second that you didn’t know.”

“Thank you. I don’t deserve your kindness. Then or now,” I say as the sobs let up, but I don’t try to pull away. It’s been too long since I’ve been held.

Nolan places a sweet kiss on the top of my head. “I don’t regret it, for either time.”

“How can you say that?” I ask him.

“I knew being locked up wouldn’t be as bad as if I knew you were there, and I couldn’t do anything about it.”

I choke out a laugh and shake my head. “Five years wasted…”

“It’s a damn shame, Cherry Pie,” Nolan says, using the old familiar nickname. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too,” I assure him. Leaning back, I reach for the back of his neck, pulling his mouth down to mine to finally do what I wanted to for so long – kiss him.

Nolan’s mouth seems hesitant at first; but as soon as my tongue touches his, he relaxes, kissing me back just as fervently.

When my fingers lower from his neck to undo his jeans, he freezes and covers my hands with his. “I told you we wouldn’t lay a finger on you, and I meant it. You don’t owe me anything.”

I stare up at him and ask, “What if I really want your fingers, and mouth, and everything else on me?”