Crazy Beautiful: a Redemption novel Read online

“I’m so sorry. I wasn’t lurking, I swear. I honestly didn’t know you guys were out here. Then when I did, I wasn’t sure what to do. I kind of froze.”

  The sigh he released before bringing the tumbler in his hands to his full, pouty lips and sucking back some of the amber liquid inside sounded like it carried the weight of the world.

  “It’s all right, sweetheart. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  I began to fidget in place, shifting from foot to foot and wringing my fingers together in front of me as the full force of his attention hit me like a wrecking ball.

  My heart was at risk of doing a Kool-Aid Man impersonation and busting through my chest at any second.

  Even with half of his features still shrouded in darkness, I knew exactly what he looked like. I’d spent enough time watching him during his visits to see his sister that I’d managed to memorize every sinful inch of him. And yes, I realized that made me sound like a psycho creeper. But I couldn’t help myself.

  His well-trimmed brown hair had just enough product in it to keep it from flopping over his forehead but wasn’t overly styled. By this time of night, there was bound to be a five-o’clock shadow dusted across a strong, square jawline. The bridge of his nose had a tiny bump, making it slightly imperfect, but still attractive on such a handsome face, and his sharp cheekbones made him look almost regal. He was like a slightly scruffed up Chris Evans. In other words, gorgeous.

  He wasn’t like any of the men I’d grown up around. Redemption, Tennessee had its fair share of attractive guys, believe me. But this man was different. Where the men in my town lived in T-shirts, jeans, and flannel, Jase was well-groomed, usually in slacks and a button-down.

  From my vantage point, I could see that his shirt was opened casually at the collar, and the cuffs of his sleeves had been rolled up to expose solid, veined forearms. It was arm porn at its finest. The shirt was fine quality, tailored to fit his broad shoulders and thick biceps perfectly.

  As usual, his look screamed money, but not in a flashy way that said he was trying to show off. It was how he carried himself. His calm, cool confidence gave off that impression.

  God, he’s gorgeous, I thought, as I continued staring, unable to pull my attention away from his perfect, masculine features. I’d never been so thankful for dim lighting. It was the only thing hiding the insane blush that burned through my cheeks and chest—just one of the curses of being a redhead. “I’ll just, uh . . .” I trailed off pathetically, hooking my thumb over my shoulder and taking a step back.

  “No, stay.”

  Two little words from his gorgeous mouth, and I felt the need to fan myself. Clenching my fists to keep from doing that, I took hesitant steps in his direction, bracing my hands on the railing around the porch once I finally reached his side.

  I didn’t have the first clue what he and Bennett had been arguing about, but I couldn’t stand to see the blank, stoic look on a face that was normally so happy. I arched a playful brow and stated, “You look like you’re about two seconds away from making a run for it.”

  His head twisted toward me, one corner of his mouth kicking up in a smirk that made my belly flutter like a million hummingbirds had taken flight. Those golden-brown eyes, lined with long, dark lashes, danced with humor in the pale glow of the porch light. “You wouldn’t be too far off the mark, Flower.”

  My heart did an Olympic-gymnast style flip at the name he’d christened me with on his very first visit to Redemption. Said in that husky voice of his, I nearly melted into a puddle of goo right then and there.

  I twisted to face him full on and sucked in a dramatic gasp. “And risk the wrath of Farah? She’d murder you so dead.”

  His smile was still there, but for the first time that night, I noticed just how tired he looked. There were faint purple smudges beneath his eyes. The scruff on his jaw was longer than I’d expected it to be, his hair unrulier.

  Don’t get me wrong, he was still hotter than a damn forest fire, but it was evident in the lines on his sexy face that something was weighing on him.

  “Hey,” I started, lowering my voice. “You all right?”

  He downed more of his drink, bourbon, judging by the smell of it, and used that time to school his features and paste a carefree expression on before responding. “I’m good, Pop.”

  With how often Jase had come to town to visit Bennett and his sister, staying at the inn most of those times, I’d gotten to know him well enough to consider us casual friends. More than acquaintances, but not besties by any stretch of the imagination. Still, I cared that something was plaguing him.

  “You know, it’s none of my business if you don’t want to talk, and I’m certainly not gonna push, but if you ever need someone to listen, Jase, I’m never more than a phone call away.”

  His glass came down on the iron banister with a clank. The intensity in his gaze as he stared down at me—like he was seeing something deep inside me at that very moment, something I didn’t understand— stole my breath and caused my lungs to deflate.

  “You’re something else, Poppy. You know that?”

  My blush grew so furious I thought I might actually catch fire at any second. “I’m just me,” I said quietly, looking up at him through the fan of my lashes. “Nothing special.”

  His voice took on an even huskier timbre as he said, “That’s where you’re wrong, Flower. So very wrong.”

  With that, he downed the last of his bourbon, placed the glass on the railing, and shocked the hell out of me by leaning down and placing a kiss on my forehead. “And I’ll keep your offer in mind.” Then he turned and headed back into the house, leaving me reeling.

  Chapter Two

  Jase

  My cell began to ring, pulling me from a dead sleep. Usually a call in the middle of the night meant bad things, but with everything I’d had going on lately, I knew it was more than likely news I’d been waiting—impatiently—to hear.

  The arm over my stomach clenched in sleep, and I moved quickly but carefully to disengage from the naked female body lying beside me.

  Grabbing the boxer briefs I’d discarded hours ago, I pulled them up my legs, grabbed the phone, and headed for the balcony just off the bedroom of my condo.

  Engaging the call, I brought the phone to my ear as I reached the glass railing that offered an unobstructed view of the city below. “Hyland.”

  “Hit the motherload, my man,” the disembodied voice said through the line.

  My shoulders slumped with relief. It was like all the tension I’d been carrying around had suddenly loosened its grip, and I was finally able to breathe fully for the first time in fucking months.

  “Please, Christ, tell me it’s enough.”

  The man I’d hired to dig up all the dirt he could possibly find let out a rusty chuckle. “Can’t un-see what I’ve seen. Shit’ll be burned on my goddamn brain ’til the day I die. Stuff of nightmares, my man. I’m tellin’ you. But even without that. Other stuff I got . . . he’ll be buried so far down, you could dig for a decade and never find the ol’ bastard.”

  A grin slowly tugged at my lips. “Send me everything you have. I want it all, even the shit you think might not be important. Don’t leave anything out.”

  The man on the other side of the phone hesitated for a beat. “You sure, Jase? Some of this stuff . . . You do not want to see this.”

  “Everything, Chuck,” I bit out. “If there’s any-goddamn-thing I can use as leverage against him, I want it.”

  There was no missing the humor in his tone when he replied, “You got it, boss.” He’d been following the son of a bitch around long enough, Chuck knew just how big a prick he was, and he wanted him buried almost as badly as I did. “I’ll email the files over now and courier the flash drives to your buildin’ first thing in the morning.”

  “Appreciate it, Chuck. Thanks.”

  “No need to thank me as long as that fat check you’re gonna write me clears.”

  My chest shook with silent laughter. �
�Oh, it’ll clear.”

  “Figured as much. Talk soon.”

  I disconnected the call and brought both hands down on the railing as relief I hadn’t felt in far too long washed over me.

  It was almost done. The nightmare I’d been living in was finally coming to an end.

  Then, in a flash, that calm I’d been feeling disappeared as I recalled the argument I’d had with Bennett two weeks earlier at Farah and Cannon’s engagement party.

  Don’t do this, son. You go down this path, you’re no better than him. Be the bigger man; the man I know you are, not the man that son of a bitch raised you to be.

  A sour feeling hit my stomach and acid started to crawl up my throat. Was that really what I was doing? Was I turning into him?

  “Jase? What’s going on?”

  The feminine voice broke through those black thoughts. Until that very moment, I’d forgotten I wasn’t alone. Twisting to look at the sleepy, disheveled woman standing in the doorway to the balcony, wearing nothing but the button-down I’d discarded earlier that night, the calm I’d been feeling turned into heavy regret.

  Normally, the sight of Patricia all sex-mussed and soft would have been enough to make my dick stand up and pay attention, even after the workout it had gotten earlier. But recently, something had changed.

  More specifically, someone had the change.

  The only light I’d had during these murky months was when I traveled to Redemption to visit Farah and Bennett. There, I was able to forget all the shit swirling around in my life. There, I was able to remember what it felt like not to be sucked into the deep, depraved chasm that was the Hyland family.

  The more I visited, the harder it got to leave at the end of each trip. The only two people I’d ever loved, the only real family I’d ever had were there.

  Along with someone else.

  On that thought, a flash of red hair entered my mind, followed by crystal blue eyes more beautiful than any ocean in the Caribbean. I could recall Poppy’s delicate, heart-shaped face as if she was standing right in front of me. I remembered her smell, flowers and honey, so strongly it was as though the fragrance was drifting through the air around me right then. I could see that nervous blush that stained her cheeks every time she looked at me.

  Her words from that night rang in my head, clear as a bell.

  If you ever need someone to listen, Jase, I’m never more than a phone call away.

  Unlike every woman in my life—with the exception of my little sister—Poppy Weston was genuine to her core. There were no games, no manipulations or agendas with her. It was such a foreign concept to me that I found myself craving her company every time I visited that small town.

  Patricia was just the latest in a string of hookups, each and every one of them the polar opposite of Poppy. In the past, that had worked perfectly for me. I wasn’t the type to settle down. After witnessing the shit-show that was my parents’ relationship, I’d sworn to myself that I would never go down that road. But lately, each encounter left me feeling hollow . . . unfulfilled, and for that reason, over the past few weeks, I’d been pulling back, trying to put some much-needed distance between Tricia and me. However, considering she worked for Hyland Steel, it hadn’t been as easy as I’d hoped.

  We’d never been serious. I’d made sure she knew from the very beginning it was casual. Just sex. And she seemed to be on board with that. But she’d sensed the change in me and had begun pulling out all the stops.

  For instance, the only reason she was standing in front of me right then was because she’d shown up at my apartment, unannounced, wearing nothing but a goddamn trench coat. And I’d stupidly let my dick take control.

  “It was nothing. Just a work thing.”

  The sleepiness faded from her expression, quickly replaced by a seductive look as she moved close, dragging her nails down the planes of my chest and stomach. “You work too much,” she said in a low, sultry voice. “How about you come back to bed and I’ll take your mind off of it.”

  Her blonde hair was the wrong color, the scent of her perfume was overpowering and powdery instead of soft and subtle, causing a barb of annoyance to pierce through my chest.

  Her hand started a steady trajectory lower, and I quickly circled her wrist, pulling it away before she reached my crotch. “Appreciate the offer, babe. But something has come up that I need to handle. It’s really late. Probably best you head home.”

  Registering my words, Tricia’s face fell almost instantly. “But . . . I thought maybe I could—”

  I tried to keep my tone as gentle as possible while stating, “We don’t do sleepovers, Trish. That’s not what this is.”

  She pressed harder against me, a pleading glint in her eyes. “But what if it could be?”

  “It can’t,” I said firmly.

  “But what if—”

  “It can’t.” Taking her by the shoulders, I carefully shifted her back as I continued, “Look, Trish, you’re a great woman, but I made it clear from the beginning, I don’t do relationships. I don’t do long term.”

  “Maybe that’s because you’ve never tried.”

  She was right, I hadn’t. I didn’t need to have my own experiences to know how toxic relationships could be. I’d seen it firsthand with my own mother and father. I was never going there. Ever.

  I suddenly felt tired, beaten down, as I blew out a heavy sigh and reached up to massage the back of my neck. “I’m sorry, babe. I think it’s best if we just end this here and now. This is the way it has to be.”

  Her face pinched up in a way I’d never seen before. “You’re a sad, pathetic man, Jase Hyland.” A bitter laugh bubbled past her lips. “You know what? I’m glad you’re ending this. I’d hate to know I wasted any more time on you than I already have.” She spun around and started back inside, only to stop and spear me with a hateful glare over her shoulder. “You might have more money than you know what to do with, but if you don’t get your shit together, you’re going to be alone and miserable for the rest of your life.”

  The door slammed with much more force than necessary behind her. I stayed on the balcony, watching as she gathered up her things through the wall of glass between us.

  Once she was gone, I moved back inside and headed straight to my study. I tapped my fingers impatiently on the surface of my desk as I waited for my computer to boot up. The scene with Trish hadn’t been fun, and I hated that I’d hurt her, but I had bigger things to deal with.

  Namely, the email from Chuck currently waiting in my inbox.

  * * *

  The door to my office swung open. My father, in all his arrogance, came storming in like he owned the place.

  Just you wait, old man.

  “Care to tell me what’s so goddamn important you summoned me to your office instead of coming to mine? You forget your place, son?”

  Bastard.

  Leaning back in my chair, I rested my elbows on its arms and steepled my fingers, placing an ankle on the opposite knee. I was the picture of calm and comfort as I smiled across the room at my father.

  “Not at all. Please, have a seat,” I offered, extending my hand to the chair in front of my desk. He crossed his arms over his chest, ready to blow, but before he could pop, I finished with, “Trust me, Dad. You’re gonna want to sit for what I have to say.”

  He gave me a skeptical look, one brow cocked, but moved farther in and sat. “All right, I’m here,” he grumbled unhappily. “What the hell is this all about?”

  “It’s about this.” Straightening up, I grabbed the folder containing every damning piece of evidence I’d received from Chuck a few days prior and tossed it to the edge of my desk for him to reach.

  There was no masking his curiosity as he grabbed the folder and flipped it open. After scanning the first page, he looked back to me, his brow furrowed in confusion. “What exactly am I supposed to be looking at?”

  “Well, you see, as CFO, it’s my job to manage this company’s finances, as you well know. I st
arted noticing some discrepancies in the numbers, so I hired an outside forensic accountant to go through everything with a fine-tooth comb.”

  The old man’s face bleached white as flour. He knew exactly what I was getting at, but I continued to spell it out for him anyway.

  “I also hired a private investigator to figure out what you were up to, and why you’d taken so much of the company’s money.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he barked, his cheeks turning ruddy.

  “See, that’s where you’re wrong. I know everything. Flip further in that file and see for yourself.”

  The top few pages landed on the floor as he skimmed toward the back to the photos in question. Chuck had been right, those photos were definitely something I hadn’t wanted to see, and I only managed a peek at the first two before nausea forced me to stop. But that had been more than enough.

  “Using the company’s reserve to pay for your sick-as-fuck kink with high-priced hookers?” I tsked and gave my head a shake. “Not smart. Especially considering how much you stole. I think it’s fair to say you have a serious addiction. You should probably see about getting some professional help.”

  He slammed the file closed and tossed it to the floor, still maintaining his air of authority. “Get to your point, son, and make it quick. I don’t have all goddamn day.”

  “At first, I couldn’t understand why you’d take such a risk. Then it hit me. That pre-nup you and mom have is iron-clad. You get caught cheating, she’s entitled to half of everything. Including Hyland Steel. You couldn’t let that happen, could you?”

  He lifted his chin, staring down his nose at me condescendingly. Even knowing he didn’t have a leg to stand on, the man was too arrogant to waiver. “So what is it you want, huh? Is it money? Name your price so we can be done with this.”

  Red started to creep in along the edges of my vision. He just didn’t get it. Hell, he never fucking got it. I didn’t give a damn about money. Never had. It could all disappear tomorrow, and I wouldn’t bat an eye. What I’d been working toward for the past several months wasn’t about that, it was about justice, plain and simple.