CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
decker
“Leena, baby, are you here?” I walk through the bungalow looking for my bride-to-be. Well, hopefully, she’ll still be that after the shit I just figured out after I gathered all the information for us to secure our wedding license. Thankfully, this resort doesn’t put a on it hold for days like some places in the States do. But seeing her full name written out, the address of her home, things clicked into place, and once she realizes the shit that surrounds my own family and business, let’s just say she’ll have every fucking reason to walk away.
“In the bathroom, honey!” My breath leaves me as I walk to where she’s standing in the open-style bathroom, the front of her body pressed to the vanity as she does some kind of twist style with her hair. Her cream dress is long and flowing, straps thin, crossing in the back, showing off even more bare skin, and the front is no surprise there either.
“You have a minute?” I ask her.
“Yeah. Are you rethinking our marriage?” There’s a hiccup in her voice, and I’m the fucker that put it there.
“Not for a second. Though the same may not be said for you after I tell you what I’ve come to realize. Can you come sit down?” I move towards the sitting area in the master bedroom. It’s in front of a floor-to-ceiling window. I sit down in one of the wingback chairs, motioning for Leena to sit in the chair opposite of mine.
“That sounds ominous.” I’d love nothing more than to wrap my arms around her waist, sit her on my lap, and kiss her nerves away.
“It might be. I was filling out the forms for our marriage license, which is taken care of, by the way. The resort had your information and mine. It wasn’t until I saw your name filled out along with your address that I realized while we may have never met, our families frequent in the same circle. My brother, the minute I say his name, it’s all going to click, and if this all blows up in my face, know that I’ll understand, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to give you up either.” I take a break, letting my words soak in.
“Who’s your brother? Not to be obtuse, but I work in the construction industry, and the number of dicks who come around is astounding. It’s kind of like the world puts them all in one area and says, ‘Hey, Leena, it’s your lucky day, and you get to deal with them,’ so I’m sure it can’t be that bad.” Damn, I sure hope that’s how it goes, but with Elijah, there’s no telling what stunt he pulled.
“Yeah, Hart Construction and Williams Concrete are two totally different things. Unfortunately, Elijah, my brother, went through a patch where anyone who didn’t give him answers or the materials we needed for our next build, he was an absolute dick.” I see it clicking into place with Leena. She nods her head, not in an upset manner, though. If anything, I see her waiting and taking it all in. “I’d like to make excuses for him. He’s an addict of many things, gambling being one of them, snorting cocaine another, and the way he ruined his marriage, leaving his kids without a backward glance, there was a time I was ashamed he was my brother. Now I just know he’s got a disease, one that he’s not willing to fix. So, I know he was pushy as hell getting the concrete pads formed, and a dick to boot to have them down too fast, not putting the rebar in. I’m still not sure how our guys went along with it until one didn’t. Tanner and Keller aren’t big fans of my brother or the family business, but you had to know before we went through with the wedding.” Leena doesn’t say anything. Figuring that whatever we had going has the brakes screeching to a halt, I set my elbows on my knees, and my head lowers. It fucking sucks that I’m constantly cleaning up my little brother’s messes. The good part right now is, well, I should say before I left for my vacation, he wasn’t on a bender and seemed to be clean. Not sure how long or if that will last. The even better part is he’s been cut off from all of us—my parents, his ex-wife, Maya, and myself.
“Decker, I need you to look at me.” I don’t, needing a moment to face the inevitable. By now, Leena must know that we had to settle with her family’s business. Even though we only sub-contracted out the job, I still made sure that William’s Concrete jackhammered the three pads that were poured and reformed them the correct way. The invoice we should have given them, I tore it up, and even had my lawyer reach out to Tanner Hart to make sure if there was any way of them coming after our family, that it could be settled outside of a courtroom.