Killian: A West Bend Saints Romance Read online

  My heart racing, blood pumping loudly in my ears, I barely registered River's hand on my arm. "Fuck!" I said loudly, enough that a couple passing on the sidewalk stopped and stared.

  Fucking Jed.

  "River, I - " I started, but she interrupted me, holding her hand up.

  "Whatever it is," she said. "I don't want to know. It's none of my fucking business."

  "River, I didn't mean to - "

  She shook her head. "Just because I defended you, doesn't mean I'm okay with you being a dickhead," she said. "I just don't like bullies, and that guy strikes me as a bully."

  "One of the worst kinds," I agreed.

  "Thanks for the ride, Elias," she said, the car keys dangling from her fingers. She turned to leave.

  I stood there and watched her walk away. Jesus Christ. I wasn't used to having to watch my attitude, make sure I didn't snap at people.

  I was used to dealing with subordinates, people I was in charge of in the Navy. Most of them fucking got out of my way.

  I felt a pang of regret. Shit.

  This is not how I'd planned on spending the rest of the day, dealing with family bullshit. I'd planned on spending it screwing the absolute hell out of River, but I'd fucked that part up.

  I needed to fix it, I thought. Later. I would fix it with her.

  Everything else was eclipsed by the thought of what Jed had said. And what the rental manager had mentioned. My mother had some questions she needed to answer.

  Between whatever bullshit was with her, and Silas' cryptic crap, there were too many fucking secrets.

  20

  River

  It's none of your business.

  Elias' words echoed in my head as I closed the car door and walked back up to the bed and breakfast. After I'd left him in town, I'd waited and watched him stride off back to his car like a man on a mission.

  Angry at the world, I told myself. And he didn't even realize it.

  What the hell did I care, anyway? He was right; it wasn't any of my business. Just because I was sleeping with him - no, scratch that since we hadn't even screwed yet- didn't mean I needed to know who he was. I was taking some time here in West Bend, just a few days, and that was that.

  This was just a break from my normal life.

  I needed to remember that.

  A couple of days off the grid and I would get back to it. I needed to get back to it. Monday, when I didn't show up for filming, the studio would be fucking pissed. We were near the end of this film, and they'd probably figure I went off the deep end or something, lost my damn mind, with everything that had just happened with Viper. They'd film without me in the meantime, but someone would be looking for me. Soon.

  I walked through town, browsing in a few of the store windows, the spaces decorated with country knick-knacks, cowboy clothing and boots. Being here was like stepping back in time.

  It was almost enough to forget everything that had happened, back in the real world. Back in Hollywood. Not that Hollywood was anything like the real world; I wasn't delusional enough to think that. But it was my reality.

  I just didn't know if I wanted it to be my future.

  When I returned to the bed and breakfast, Cade and June were on the front porch, and June had a picnic basket in her hand. She held it up when I got out of the car.

  "We were just making some lunch," she said. "So I figured I'd bring you some stuff over, drop if off in case you were hungry and didn't feel like cooking. Cade makes a mean chicken salad."

  Cade was standing beside her, a half-eaten sandwich in his hand. "Secret ingredient is curry," he said. "June's been eating it by the truckload since she got pregnant."

  "The kid is going to hate chicken salad," June said.

  "Well, with an endorsement like that, how could I not try it?" I opened the front door. "Is there enough in there for all of us? Would you stay and have lunch with me?"

  "Sure," June said. Then, to Stan, "Baby, come this way." He was picking the petals off flowers in a pot near the door. "Don't eat those."

  Inside, June set out plates and Cade sat with Stan on his lap.

  "It's good," I said as I bit into my sandwich. "Really good."

  Cade smiled.

  "He's a great cook," June said. "Does better than me with a lot of it. The muffins this morning? His recipe."

  "You're like a jack of all trades," I said. "You keep up with the horses and everything here too?"

  Cade nodded. "Part of running a ranch," he said. "Got a couple ranch hands helping out now that I'm at the shop more, though."

  "I saw your shop today when I was getting a car," I said. "Closed for lunch- obviously you were here."

  We ate for a few minutes in silence, but it wasn't the kind of awkward silence I usually felt around people. June and Cade were easy to be around.

  Then I asked the question that had been on my mind since I'd left town. "Do you know anything about the Saint brothers?"

  It was like all the air had been sucked out of the room. "Where did you hear that name?" June asked.

  "Elias Saint." I blurted out the words before I could think about stopping myself. "He's the guy who was with me here."

  A dark look crossed Cade's face and looked at June meaningfully. "You known him long?" he asked.

  "Not really," I admitted. "He helped me out of a jam." I didn't elaborate, feeling suddenly uncomfortable with the fact that I'd brought it up, since both of them clearly knew his name.

  "He's not someone you should be spending time with," Cade said, his tone gruff.

  "Cade, you don't know that," June said, her voice stern. She gave him a look.

  "A leopard doesn't change his spots," Cade said.

  "It's not fair," June said, "Him paying for his brother's sins. He was a kid then."

  Cade grunted, and stepped away from the table, kissing his wife on the top of his head before he started for the door. "Need to get back to the shop," he said, passing Stan to her

  "Bye-bye," Stan babbled.

  Cade kissed the top of his head. "Bye-bye, baby," he said. Then he looked up at June and I. "That family's no good, the whole lot of them."

  After Cade left, June turned to me. "Don't mind him," she said. "He's not closed-minded in a lot of ways, but when it comes to me, he is."

  "I don't understand," I said. I didn't know what Elias or his family had done, but this town seemed to be focused on it.

  "What he said isn't right," June said. "About his family. They're not all bad. The father - Abraham Saint - was a piece of work, as I remember, drunk a lot. Think he used to beat up on the kids. But he's dead now - just died, a week ago? Maybe two weeks? I can't keep up with things lately."

  A week or two.

  It had to be why Elias was coming back here. He hadn't said anything.

  But then, why should he, to some casual fling?

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “So they’re all bad seeds because of Elias’ father?” I might have grown up in a small town, and understood how petty and mean life in a small town could be, but this seemed extreme, even to me.

  June shook her head. She sat Stan down on the ground, then got up and opened a cabinet, dragging out some toys and setting them in the middle of the floor. “I don’t think Elias is a bad seed, honey,” she said. “He seemed like a nice guy. Seems to like you a whole lot, too.”

  I don’t know about the liking me a whole lot part, I thought.

  “Then what is it?” I asked. “What’s the thing Cade was talking about?”

  “Cade’s just overprotective sometimes, is all,” she said. “Everything that happened was a long time ago, back when I was in high school. You’re what, early twenties?” She didn’t wait for my answer, just continued. “So Elias is about your age. He’d only have been a toddler when it happened, I’d imagine. I didn’t know the Saints back then. There was an older brother - Mason - older than me by a few years, worked as a ranch hand for Cade’s dad.”

  I listened attentively, all the time th