The Strength of the Pack [Suncoast Society] (Siren Publishing Sensations) Read online

  I need to tell Nate.

  That larger conversation would have to wait. Tonight, after surviving the ordeal with her family, she planned on talking with Nate about the baby plans. If he didn’t handle that news well, it would render a talk about her father and what he did moot, because Nate wouldn’t need to know.

  Her pack would always come first, because they were the ones she knew she could absolutely trust in her darkest hour.

  She hoped and prayed Nate would become part of their pack, too, and that he wouldn’t break her heart.

  If he did break her heart…

  She knew Leo and Jesse would be there to help her pick up the pieces and try again with someone else.

  “We have to get going,” Eva finally said, interrupting her daughter’s nearly nonstop chatter with Nate.

  “How come I can’t go?” Laurel asked.

  Eva had prepared for this. “Remember how Grampa got upset in the hospital when Daddy had his accident?”

  Laurel frowned as she nodded. “He tried to take me from Poppa.” Even back then, Laurel had loved Jesse.

  “Exactly. Well, Grampa is…” Bigoted. Assholish.

  Sexual predator. “Sometimes, Grampa says hurtful things. He doesn’t think before he speaks. And if he gets like that again, Nate and I will leave.”

  “Okay.” Laurel jammed her hands on her hips and scowled up at Nate. “Will you take care of Mommy if Grampa acts like a butthead?”

  Eva couldn’t bring herself to scold her daughter for that. Apparently, neither could Leo, because he stood there with one hand covering his mouth like he was trying not to laugh. Jesse wore a knowing smirk.

  Nate knelt so he was at eye level with Laurel. Not just leaned over, but got down in front of her. “I promise you that I will protect your mommy and take care of her.”

  She seemed to be thinking about it. “Okay. Thank you.” She flounced down the hall toward her room.

  Leo’s eyebrows were still raised. “Wow. That was…interesting.”

  Nate stood. “Remember, I raised Cherise from when she was nine.” He pointed down the hall, the way she’d gone. “If you think she’s a handful now, you just wait. I would have killed to have had it that easy sometimes.”

  * * * *

  On the drive up to Tampa, Eva rested her arm on Nate’s leg, comforted and reassured when he held hands with her.

  “Is there anything in particular I need to know for today before we get there?” he asked.

  She considered her answer. “I told you about my dad telling me I was on my own after Leo’s accident.”

  “Yes, but you didn’t tell me why.”

  “Because I agreed to the deal Leo’s lawyer offered me, which gave Leo and Jesse primary custody and gave me the house.”

  “I’m curious why you agreed to the deal. Someone who didn’t know any better might have thought you were trying to keep Laurel away from your parents. You were willing to give up full custody of your daughter in exchange for a house and unlimited visitation with her. I’m not judging, just making an observation.”

  She stared out the windshield for several long minutes without talking, hoping he’d break the silence and interrupt her thoughts, but he didn’t.

  “I was,” she quietly said. Tonight, she wanted to deal with the baby issue, not…this.

  He gently squeezed her hand. “Okay. You don’t have to tell me anything else if you don’t want to.”

  Part of her wanted to. Wanted to let the emotional sewage come pouring out of her right then so he could turn the car around, take her home, and forget he even knew her name. She’d held on for so long, held back the truth from Leo, and felt guilty as hell over that. In a way, she’d taken Leo’s consent by not telling him the full story when they first got together.

  “I want to,” she said. “But it’s not a good time right now. Not before we get there. I don’t want to show up there having been crying. It’s too long and emotional a story to tell right now.”

  He squeezed her hand again. “So here’s my plan for today. You tell me if I’m wrong or you want to do things differently, all right?”

  “Okay.”

  “When we get there, you let me be the buffer between you and your dad after you introduce me. You let me handle how I deal with him. You don’t need to try to manage me, or protect me, because I’m there to protect you. I will deal with him and anyone else. I will also keep myself between you and him physically. If I decide we’re leaving because I’m concerned about you, that’s it, I get no argument from you. Understand?”

  “Thank you, Sir.”

  He squeezed her hand. The gesture felt comforting, calming. Conveyed the gentle strength she felt within him. “You’re very welcome.”

  * * * *

  No, Nate didn’t need to hear the whole story right now. She was right, it wasn’t the best time, and if she couldn’t summarize it in a few sentences, it meant they needed to wait for a better time for her to tell it.

  It didn’t take a rocket scientist to put the pieces together. A history of self-harm, a horrible relationship with her father, and an almost irrational need to prevent her daughter from having contact—especially unsupervised contact—with her father?

  No-brainer.

  When Eva was ready to tell him the whole story, they could move forward. An emotional minefield still lay spread out between them, however. Nate had put the power into Eva’s hands of when she finally opened up to him so they could move forward, with a collaring and…more.

  He also knew he’d need to see and carefully study the map of that emotional minefield before taking their relationship any deeper than what they already had. Yes, he could see himself spending the rest of his life with Eva.

  Until she could reach out and bridge that last gap, he would have to wait for her.

  And he was a very patient man.

  Chapter Seventeen

  She’d given Nate her parents’ address ahead of time so he could plan their route. They hadn’t hit any traffic and would arrive about twenty minutes early.

  Then he pulled over into the parking lot of a grocery store.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  He shifted the car into park. “Buying a little time.” He turned. “I want to arrive on time, not early. Not to something like this.” He stroked her hand. “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”

  She nodded. “We drove all the way up here.”

  “That wasn’t my question or a qualification. If you tell me you’d rather I turn the car around right now and head back to Sarasota, we will.”

  She stared into his brown eyes. Today he’d left his hair loose at her request. It made him look a little wilder, a little less subdued than when it was neatly tied back for work.

  Today he’d worn jeans and a patterned midnight blue button-up shirt with the long sleeves rolled up below his elbows.

  She hadn’t missed it was one of the shirts he wore to the club. One of his “Dom” shirts. And he’d worn the black leather boots she loved. They added nearly an inch to his already tall and lanky frame.

  He didn’t need them to be imposing, though. He normally exuded an easy, soothing aura.

  Today she felt a furnace burning within him, a protective fire she knew he wouldn’t hesitate to unleash on anyone who fucked with her today.

  It comforted her.

  “I want to be there for my sister,” she said. “I can do this.”

  “It isn’t a contest. You don’t get a prize for putting up with your father.”

  “I know.”

  He laced fingers with her, bringing her hand to his lips and kissing it. Another gesture she loved, one that always melted her from the inside out.

  “I make the call,” he repeated. “If I feel we need to leave, we leave. No argument. Understand? If that happens, I’ll take care of telling them we’re leaving. You owe them no explanations.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  He smiled. “Good girl.”

 
* * * *

  Yesterday, Nate had talked a little with Leo on the phone about this. He wanted to know what kind of a minefield he was walking into, even if he wouldn’t have a map of all the mines.

  Leo wouldn’t, obviously, give away her secrets, but he did give Nate some advice.

  “Don’t blink first,” Leo said. “Don’t back down, don’t apologize, don’t look indecisive in the slightest. Screw being polite. The man will walk all over you—and her—if you show any hint of weakness. Be confrontational, if necessary, even before he is.”

  “You don’t like him, do you?”

  “Not in the slightest. And the feeling was mutual. When he realized I’m not someone who can be pushed around or manipulated, he wanted nothing to do with me.”

  As Nate sat there and stared at Eva, he felt her tension, her anxious energy spiking through her like a crazed pinball on meth. Nothing about her body language said she wanted to be here. Nothing about her energy said she wanted to be here.

  The key to fully understanding all of this, all the closely scattered clues and tightly held secrets, lay within Eva and her ability to fully trust him.

  She fingered the tag on her necklace, the one they all now wore. Their pack.

  One day, he hoped he could replace the tag on her necklace with one he’d already bought for her. Identical, except on the back he’d had his initials engraved above Leo and Jesse’s. He never wanted to separate her from her pack.

  And with eagle-eyed Laurel running around, she would notice any kind of day collar he gave her that was different. Even Laurel would likely not notice the difference in the tag he’d had made.

  Nate also didn’t want to cut Leo and Jesse out of Eva’s life because he sensed how much she needed them, in a way he didn’t yet understand. His suspicion was that it was connected to the minefield, too.

  “Remember, I’m in charge today,” he said. “I’m responsible and in control of how long we stay, unless you want to leave sooner. If you need to hold my hand all night, that’s okay. I owe those people nothing, no explanations, and neither do you.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  Nate felt a heavy pull deep in his gut, one that past experience told him was about to lead to a very bad end. Part of him still wanted to overrule her, turn around, and head back to Sarasota right then.

  Yet, if he did that, he knew Eva wouldn’t be happy. Hell, she likely wouldn’t be happy anyway by the time they left her parents’ house, but he had to give her the chance to figure that out for herself.

  He pulled her in for a kiss. “I love you, and I’m there, and nothing they can say or do will change how I feel about you or run me off. Understand?”

  “Yes, Sir. Thank you. I love you, too.”

  He took a deep breath and they got back underway.

  Her parents lived in an older neighborhood near Town ’N Country, which was threaded through with canals that led to the north end of Tampa Bay. It looked like in the ‘70s or ‘80s the place might have been new and built by people back then considered to be in the upper echelon of income.

  Now it was a middle-class neighborhood with some homes that tenaciously struggled to hold on to their rich roots, while other homes looked like they were barely staying ahead of code enforcement.

  Hell, Leo and Eva’s house in Sarasota, while older, looked pristine and immaculate. So did his own.

  Her parents fell somewhere in the middle, nothing to be ashamed of, but any real estate agent would have had a laundry list of curb appeal projects for them to undertake before a successful listing could happen. The driveway was already filled with four cars, and several more were parked along the street, two wheels in the grass.

  He pulled down to the end of the line of cars and parked there, leaving enough room between him and the car behind them that if someone parked him in at the front, he could still back up and get out.

  “Did you grow up here?”

  She nodded as she stared at the house, but she didn’t answer.

  He really didn’t want to go in there, and wanted her to go in there even less.

  This was not a joyful homecoming for her.

  “How long’s it been since you’ve been here?”

  “A couple of years. I wouldn’t come without Leo.”

  She didn’t reach for her seat belt right away and he thought maybe this was it, that she was making the call.

  But she finally unbuckled and flashed him a sick-looking smile before reaching for the door handle.

  “Uh-uh. You wait for me.”

  “Sorry, Sir. I forgot.”

  He got out and walked around, opening the door for her and getting the small gift bag and card out of the backseat. She’d bought her sister a couple of small gifts with cats on them, as well as a gift card to Ann’s favorite coffee store.

  He considered it a thoughtful, personal gift.

  Eva’s grip nearly crushed his left hand as he slowed his stride to hers and walked with her to the front door. He stepped in front of her and rang the bell before she could.

  Somewhere along the walk from the car to the front door, Eva’s energy shifted, darkened, withdrew. She wasn’t a woman happy to visit her parents and see her sisters and other family.

  This woman acted like she was being marched to her execution.

  He turned to the door as it opened, an older woman offering him a polite smile that widened when she looked past him and spotted Eva. “Eva, sweetheart, you came!”

  He shifted his stance to block Eva as he smiled and held out his right hand. “We haven’t met. Nathaniel Crawford. So nice to meet you, Mrs. Banks.”

  The older woman was good, but not good enough. Her smile slipped a fraction as she shook hands with him. “So nice to meet you, Nathaniel. Call me Lorie.”

  He didn’t want these people calling him Nate. Only people he liked were allowed to shorten his name, although people he barely knew sometimes tried that. And he really didn’t care to call her parents by their first names, either.

  Since there was a very likely chance he might never see any of these people again, he wasn’t inclined to start out on a casual footing with them.

  In fact, he preferred not to, keeping them at arm’s length.

  Mrs. Banks led them inside and he didn’t miss that Eva gave her a one-armed hug, not releasing him or the gift bag, which she held in her left hand.

  “Everyone’s out back. Your sisters will be delighted to see you, and your father’s looking forward to seeing you and meeting your new man.”

  Nate just bet he was.

  Nate followed Eva’s mother as she led them through the house to the lanai where a screened pool cage overlooked a canal. Several people turned at their arrival and he quickly scanned everyone’s expressions.

  The man he suspected was Eva’s father stood over by a grill, a bottle of beer in one hand and a spatula in the other, and was talking to another man.

  “Everyone,” her mom said, “this is Nathaniel Crawford, Eva’s boyfriend.”

  Abraham Banks finally turned to study Nate, lifting his chin as if sniffing the air.

  Nate waited until her father had turned to the man he was talking with to shift his own focus back to Eva. She’d let go of his hand and was now hugging a woman.

  “Nate, this is my sister, Ann.”

  He offered her a warm smile for Eva’s sake. “Congratulations.”

  “This is for you,” Eva said, handing it over.

  “Oh, thank you!”

  Apparently her father was part cat, because he spoke from right behind Nate before he realized the man was there. “Well, at least you brought something. Surprised you’re not having to pay child support to that man you divorced. And I use the term loosely.”

  Nate slowly turned as Ann scolded her father in what was supposed to be a playfully meant way, but Nate picked up the tight, stressed tones in her voice. Nate stood nearly six inches taller than the man, something he hadn’t been able to judge while he’d stood by the grill.

&nb
sp; Nate didn’t move, didn’t step back, even though the man was practically in his personal space. “Mr. Banks, I presume? Nathaniel Crawford. So very nice to meet you.” He didn’t offer a hand, because the guy still held the beer and the spatula.

  The man finally had to step back. It was either that, or keep craning his head up at an uncomfortable angle for any man to maintain against another he wasn’t romantically involved in. “You’re not gay, are you?” the man snarked.

  “Dad!” another woman chastised. She’d come up behind him and now slid between him and Nate, a nervous look on her face as she backed up and forced her father away. “Hi, sorry. Look up grumpy in the dictionary, you’ll see his face. I’m Gayle. Nice to meet you.” She stuck out her hand.

  Nate shook with her, because her energy also read nervous.

  But neither sister seemed to bear the dread that Eva did.

  He also noticed that both sisters had brown hair that didn’t look like it came from a bottle. But in pictures he’d spied in the living room on their way through, he’d seen two dark-haired girls and one with fair, almost blonde hair.

  Likely Eva. He knew she colored her hair, and that her natural hair was very fair.

  Another puzzle piece.

  No one else apparently noticed the exchange except the sisters and their mother. And as Nate was introduced to various cousins, Eva looked around.

  “Where’s Grandma?”

  Ann leaned in. “She didn’t come. Mom offered to go get her but…” She pointed over her shoulder toward where their father stood. “You know she doesn’t get along with him. I went and saw her yesterday and took her out for dinner.”

  “Oh. I figured she’d be here.”

  Nate had to ask. “Your grandmother doesn’t get along with your father?”

  Gayle snorted. “Nooo. Didn’t like him when he dated Michelle and liked him even less when he started dating Mom and they got married.”

  “Michelle?”

  “Our birth mother,” Eva quietly said, taking his hand.

  Nate did his best to be charming, nice, and use more than a hint of British accent at times, winning friends and influencing people, so to speak.