Almost Gothic Read online

  He damn sure didn’t mind being her pet. She seemed to get him, and liked him for who he was without wanting to change him. They were dating and spent every spare second together, studying at her house or his, depending on whether or not he had to watch Corey. It wasn’t uncommon for him to take Corey with him to Eliza’s house, for them to eat dinner there with her and her parents.

  He didn’t mind having Corey with him. Just being with Eliza was enough, even if they weren’t alone.

  They trained together, too. She was teaching Rusty combat moves, and her parents had bought him martial arts lessons for his birthday when they found out his father had died and his mom was stretching every dollar.

  With Eliza in his life, he found himself not needing to run as much, for a multitude of reasons.

  Her parents had also given him an old car that they’d bought cheap off one of Eliza’s father’s employees. An ugly old beater without working AC, but it ran. His mom was able to afford to add it to her insurance policy, and it sure took a lot of stress off her worrying if they were able to get around okay if she couldn’t get off work.

  Rusty felt like he was pulling his weight.

  Eliza was also driving, a nicer car than his, and she didn’t mind driving him and Corey around. They even chipped in for gas money if they were using her car instead of his.

  It was like her parents had sort of adopted them, and Rusty didn’t mind in the least.

  Eliza felt right. Perfect. Like she understood him.

  Then again, she doesn’t really know about me.

  He knew he should open up to her but that wasn’t exactly something he wanted to talk about with anyone. While he knew he loved Eliza, he wasn’t an idiot. Maybe they’d last, maybe in a month something would happen to blow up what they had.

  The last thing he needed was someone having that kind of emotional ammunition against him.

  She didn’t even know about what he did when he ran, even though he didn’t need to run as much now.

  “I’ll let you take it at 10,” Rusty told Corey. Sure, it was stretching the rules, but he was the DM and could do that, if he wanted.

  He never abused the power to throw stuff against them. If it made the game a little more fun for them to help them out, why not?

  Right now, they were slogging through a cursed swamp.

  Not exactly a stretch, considering Florida’s topography.

  By the time he called an end to their session two hours later, all the players were still standing, but barely. They’d battled magical aquatic reptiles in the swamp and defeated them, and were on their way to claiming the treasure they’d been fighting for.

  Eliza was going to drive the younger kids home, then come back to have dinner with Rusty and Corey. Once everyone else had left, Rusty sent Corey to get his shower. Rusty was packing his game stuff and clearing their dining room table when the phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Rusty? It’s your Uncle Borden. Long time, no talk.”

  Frigid, terrifying darkness washed through his soul. “Mom’s not here.” He didn’t want to talk to him.

  “Well, I was going to see if you and Corey wanted to get together with me this weekend. Haven’t seen you kids in forever.”

  “We can’t. We have plans this weekend. I have to go, I’m cooking dinner.” He practically threw the handset onto the phone and backed away from it, wiping his palm against his shorts, sick fear congealing in his gut. For a moment he thought he was going to puke but managed to swallow it back.

  Sonofabitch.

  It’d been at least six months since the last time Borden had tried to talk them into doing something. The only good thing about his mom working so much was she wasn’t home when he called.

  Rusty never told her he called, either.

  Trembling, Rusty stood at the kitchen sink, fingers wrapped around the edge as he stared at the drain.

  Fucker.

  If he did somehow talk to their mom, Rusty had the perfect excuse—they had lawns to mow, and had games scheduled with the gang. His mom knew how much those games meant to them. Plus, Rusty had a martial arts class, and Corey liked to go and watch, although he usually sat there reading a book or doing homework. Eliza’s parents had offered to buy him lessons, too, but Corey wasn’t as physical as Rusty was.

  He managed to pull himself together, get the table cleared, and start dinner before Corey emerged from the bathroom.

  “Did I hear the phone ring?”

  Rusty didn’t turn from the stove. “Yeah.”

  “Well, who was it?”

  “Uncle Borden.”

  “Oh.”

  Rusty turned at his tone and spotted the dark look on Corey’s face.

  His heart hit his feet. “What?”

  Corey shook his head. “Nothing. What’d he want?”

  “I told him we were busy this weekend. Don’t worry about it.”

  “Good.”

  They’d never had a…conversation. Not about any of it.

  Although he knew Corey had to suspect, if not outright know. He’d tried to protect him, but…

  “Listen, I—”

  “I don’t like him either, Rus.” Their gazes met, both of them with their dad’s green eyes.

  Had it all been for nothing? Everything he’d endured?

  “What’s for dinner?” Corey asked. “Smells great.”

  Like that, Rusty knew there wouldn’t be a conversation between them. Not now, maybe not ever.

  Maybe that was for the best.

  “Cube steak.”

  “Great. I like those.”

  Rusty took care of most of the cooking now, too. He didn’t mind that, either.

  Corey headed for the cabinet to get plates and place settings. “For the record, thank you.”

  Rusty glanced his way. “For what?”

  Corey sighed, but it sounded old, a soul-weary one. “For…everything. For being my big brother. For…taking care of me.” He hesitated. “Keeping him away from me.”

  Rusty closed his eyes and came damn close to crying. His question had been answered.

  If he did nothing else in his life but protect Corey, that was enough for him. “You’re welcome. Love you, kiddo.”

  “Love you, too. Do you think Mom’s going to take some time off soon?”

  “I don’t know. She’s making more money on this shift than on the day shift. I know she wants to try to get in as much overtime as possible before school starts and she has to switch back.”

  “She should work the shift she wants to. We’d be okay. I know she’s stressing about money.”

  “Not as much as she was.”

  “I can mow more lawns.”

  “You need to study. You have scholarships to earn. Only way we’re going to be able to get into college. And you will go to college.” Rusty was nearly certain he’d already earned an academic scholarship to USF, but his senior year would be the benchmark. His mom had offered to apply for loans for him if he didn’t land a scholarship, but he didn’t want her to do that.

  It was up to him to live his life and earn his way.

  Eliza returned just as Rusty was ready to serve dinner. He’d made a plate for their mom and wrapped it with foil and sat it in the fridge. When she returned home later, she’d nuke it.

  After dinner, Rusty and Eliza headed to the living room to watch TV while Corey did the dishes. That was the agreed upon deal, the cook didn’t have to wash.

  Once they were snuggled on the couch, Eliza stared at him. “You okay?”

  Shit. She seemed to have radar when it came to him. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “You guys fight after I left or something?”

  “No. Just worried about Mom.” Not exactly a lie, because he was.

  She continued to study him, like she wasn’t completely sure she believed him. Finally, she settled back against him to watch TV. Once Corey had gone to bed and Eliza had to go home, Rusty walked her out, where he held her as he leaned against her c
ar. She felt perfect in his life, in all ways.

  “Can I ask you something?” she finally said.

  “Sure.”

  “Are you happy with me?”

  “What? Of course I am. Why’d you ask that?”

  She stared up into his eyes. “You haven’t…” Her lips pressed together into a thin line, like she was trying to decide how to say it. “I’ve been giving you hints and you don’t take me up on them.”

  “Hints?”

  She ground herself against his hips and, oh yeah, now he knew what she meant.

  “That,” she said.

  “Corey’s always around, Li. Plus we’re both going to college. I don’t want us to do something and accidentally end up with a baby.” Also not exactly a lie.

  Just not the whole truth.

  She kept grinding against him, though, knowing exactly what she was doing to him. No way she couldn’t feel his reaction between them. “I’d like a little…more, please? You don’t need to worry about my honor, barbarian.”

  Normally, he gave Eliza anything she wanted, always let her have her way. He liked things being like this.

  In this one way, he had his reasons and needed to try to keep a head on his shoulders. He’d been able to stall her during the school year, between studying and classes and LARPing on the weekends and…

  Yeah. But now, with summer upon them, excuses were harder to come by.

  And it was nearly painfully hard for him to think with her doing that to him. He finally settled his hands on her ass to hold her still.

  “I love you,” he said. “Next weekend he’s going on that camping trip with his friends. Maybe we can fool around a little then. I’m kind of a parent now, in some ways, and it’s easy for me to remember why we need to be careful. I dang sure don’t want a baby to take care of. Taking care of a little brother’s hard enough.”

  She wore a playful pout that meant she wasn’t going to push him harder, but she wasn’t exactly satisfied. “Okay.” She rose on her toes to kiss him good-bye, and he held her door for her while she got in.

  “Call me when you get home, please?”

  “I will, barbarian.” He shut the door for her and watched her drive away, reaching down to adjust himself.

  Shit. He’d definitely need a run tonight. He didn’t want to talk about…that. He didn’t even like thinking about it.

  Sooner or later, he was going to have to confront the issue with her.

  Hopefully she’d be patient with him.

  Even pets had their limits.

  Chapter Six

  Now

  Eliza started off her Thursday morning making a call to Ed Payne, their friend and attorney, to deal with whatever had to be dealt with regarding Borden McElroy.

  She also gave him strict orders not to talk to Rusty about it.

  At all.

  He didn’t ask why because he was that good and that close of a friend. He knew when not to ask.

  With that task handed off and worth every penny she’d pay him for the job, she headed to Cali’s. “So what’s first?” Eliza asked upon arrival.

  “We have a couple of paddles we sell a shit-ton of online. I want to make sure we have plenty to take with us. They’re one of our less expensive models, but they’re easy to make. The boys got them cut out, but they need to be finished, sanding and smoothing the edges.”

  “Sounds easy enough.”

  “If we finish those, I have some others we can work on.”

  Baxter, Cali’s black and white tuxedo cat, sauntered into the kitchen to greet Eliza.

  “Well, there’s the nip addict.” Eliza knelt to pet him.

  “Yeah, we warned him we were going to cut him off.”

  “How’d he react?”

  “He sank his claws into Sean’s stomach.”

  “Yowch.”

  “Yeah. It’s safer for all of us to indulge his addiction.”

  “Sounds like it.”

  “I really appreciate this, Eliza. Are you sure you won’t let me pay you?”

  “I did say I’d work for gourmet coffee.”

  Cali pointed to a cabinet. “Your choice. I’ll make us a fresh pot.” She dumped the dregs of what was left and washed out the carafe.

  Eliza opened the cabinet. “Oooh, girl. You weren’t kidding.” She selected a caramel truffle flavor and handed the bag to Cali.

  “You need to let me do something for you besides just coffee.”

  Eliza shrugged. “I’ll never turn down free implements to use on the barbarian.”

  Cali snickered. “Poor Rusty.”

  “You’re not married to him.”

  Cali’s smile faded. “Look, feel free to tell me to mind my business if you want, but is everything okay?”

  Eliza hoped her smile still looked right. “This isn’t for public consumption, but Rusty’s brother had a heart attack right on the heels of his wife being diagnosed with breast cancer.”

  “Oh, my god! Are they okay?”

  “His brother was just cleared to go back to work, and she’s undergoing chemo right now. But…yeah. That was what’s been going on. Rus is pretty protective of his brother and hasn’t been handling it well.”

  “Is there anything we can do for you guys?”

  “Please don’t ask him about it. He’s…” She tried to decide how to word it without sounding weird. “He doesn’t like to talk about some things. That’s why he needed a good beating last weekend. Part of his process.”

  “Oh, yeah, no, I won’t say a word.” Cali hugged her. “I’m just…on the heels of Kel and Mal and their issues, we were kind of worried about you guys the other night.”

  Eliza relaxed, now that she knew Cali was satisfied with her answer, and that Cali’s mind had gone in a totally different direction. “The barbarian and I are good, I swear. I appreciate the concern, though. He’s still happy putting up with me after over thirty years together.”

  Cali smiled. “What was he like as a kid?” She took down a bottle of ibuprofen from a cabinet.

  “Pretty much like he is now, only broke.” Her smile faded. “Their mom was widowed when Corey and Rusty were kids. She had to work a lot. It nearly destroyed Rus when she died. He had to take care of Corey, make sure he got through high school and into college, all while himself going to college. My parents sort of adopted them unofficially to help out.”

  “Wow. I didn’t know any of that.”

  “Like I said, he’s pretty closed-mouthed about certain things. Makes him damn good at his job.”

  Cali stared at her for a moment. “You know, it just occurred to me, I really don’t know what his job is other than ‘financial analyst’. I don’t even know what that means. Is he, like, a stockbroker or something?” She poured herself a glass of water and swallowed a couple of ibuprofen.

  This was a topic Eliza could talk about. Mostly because she didn’t even know everything he did. “He works for a firm that generates highly specialized and classified financial reports for banks and other companies around the world. His doctorate’s in economics.”

  Cali had been taking a drink of water—which was why Eliza carefully timed her comment.

  The spit-take was epic and well worth the set-up.

  Cali stared at her with wide eyes. “Rusty’s a doctor?” she asked when she quit coughing and choking.

  Eliza grinned. “At work he’s known as Dr. McElroy. He’s actually one of the pre-eminent authorities in the US on what he does, and he has a strong professional reputation in the UK and EU.”

  “Holy shit!”

  “I know, right? The barbarian looks damn good in a suit and tie, let me tell you what.”

  “I mean…” She leaned against the counter. “No offense, I never pictured him doing something like that.”

  “Neither did he. His doctoral advisor put his thesis in front of the right person at the right time, and they hired him with the ink still drying on his PhD certificate. He’s been with them ever since. Started out as a numbers
cruncher for them. Now he’s one of their senior analysts. He’s always had a way with numbers and economics really interested him. He had sort of planned to get a job at a bank and work his way up there, but things just worked out right for him.”

  “Holy cow. Why doesn’t he talk about this? That’s, like, really cool.”

  “The think-tank he works for is exclusive and pricey because of the privacy of the work they do. He had a guy fly in from the UK to talk to him in person yesterday about one of their reports because the client didn’t want any kind of a paper trail. Not because it’s illegal or anything, but because of the highly sensitive level of confidentiality they need. And if you’re not involved in finance, it’s kinda boring.”

  “Ah. Well, I guess those would be valid reasons not to talk about it.”

  “Trust me, he doesn’t talk to me much about what he does, even the parts he can talk about. I start zoning out and threaten to not spank him.”

  Cali laughed. “And you’re sort of retired, right?”

  “Not sort of—I am. I taught for the county school system. I retired seven years ago and was teaching various martial arts at a local dojo for a while. Rus asked me to stop because it was starting to take a toll on my body. I sometimes forget I’m not a kid anymore.” She smiled. “And with his salary, we’re okay. Kailey landed scholarships for college, so that was a huge weight off our shoulders.”

  “I wouldn’t have thought Sarasota was a hotbed for financial stuff.”

  “The founders of the firm were originally from New York. They came down here on vacation one winter, loved the weather, loved even more that it was cheaper to live here than in New York, and that we don’t have a state income tax. So they moved their operations here.”

  Once the coffee was ready, Cali grabbed them two travel mugs to take out to the garage with them. She flipped on a window AC unit to keep it cool while they worked.

  The job was…ridiculously easy, to be honest. Eliza had spent countless hours in her dad’s garage with him and Rusty, making weapons and costume components for themselves and other kids who didn’t have the access to tools. Then, later, with Rus in their garage as they made their own items, and taught Kailey how to wield tools.