“Okay. Whatever you say. What do you want to tell me? Just be calm, honey. ”
Gavin smiled. “I’m perfectly calm, Tucker. I need to tell you who I really am, and who you really are, but first I need you to suspend that rigid logic and control of yours for just a few minutes. ” He stared down at him for a long moment, as if gauging his responses. Taking a deep breath, he leaned in, forcing Tucker to allow him even deeper into his personal space, so he felt a little off-balance. Gavin’s body was touching Tucker’s from his knees to his chest.
“Please, Gavin…” Tucker said.
“Please what, baby?”
“Please stop this,and let’s just drink some more coffee and calm down. ”
“I keep telling youI’m perfectly calm, Tucker. I’m just trying to decide how best to do this. I’ve never had to
explain who I am before. I don’t know how much you saw last night, or how much you dismissed as just a dream. I could just show you—I don’t want to scare you to death though. ” Gavin frowned, obviously thinking hard of what to do next. “Okay, let’s go back and sit down and I’ll tell you some things, and you have to promise to just listen and not get upset. Okay?”
Tucker decided that when he moved, he’d try to make it to the door. Just get outside and then call for help. He needed to get Gavin to a hospital—somewhere he could get him some medical attention. He tensed his body to run, and then Gavin smiled down at him, running a finger down the side of his face. “Okay, baby?”
Tucker found himself nodding and taking the hand held out to him. He followed Gavin over to the sofa and sat down tensely on the edge of the seat.
“How much do you remember about your parents, Tucker?” Gavin asked softly.
“My parents?” Tucker said blankly, his face registering surprise. “Why do you keep talking about my parents? What do you know about them? Why are you asking…?”
“Just answer the question, baby. ” Gavin broke in. “Tell me what you know about them. ”
Tucker wrinkled his forehead. “M-my mother was killed in a car accident years ago. I don’t remember her at all, really. I was very young. My grandparents raised me. ”
“What about your dad?”
“My dad?” He shrugged. “I don’t know—the bastardwasn’t in the picture. I never knew him, so I never had much interest in the asshole. Never knew the difference, and I don’t give a damn now. My grandparents said he didn’t want me, so they took me in. ”
“I’m sorry, Tucker, but that was a lie. He wanted you very much. As a matter of fact, he’s been searching for you for years. ”
“What? Searching for me? I don’t understand. My grandparents would never…how would you…what the hell is this shit?” Tucker’s face was red and he tried to stand up, but Gavin pulled him back down and held him there with his hands on his forearms.
“Get off me, Gavin!This isn’t funny!”
“No, Tucker, it’s not. Your mother’s name was Angela Tucker. She met your father in Tennessee, where she was living at the time with her parents. Your father’s name is Richard, and when your mother died, he was inconsolable for a while. Your grandparents offered to keep you for him, since he was going through such a hard time. A couple of months later, when he went to get you, they’d moved away, taking you with them. He was devastated, and has been looking for you all these years. ”
“That’s just…what the hell are you trying to…damn it, you’re crazy! Why would my grandparents even do such a thing?” Tucker jumped to his feet, this time evading Gavin’s hands and surging backwards toward the door.
Gavin rose to his feet and walked slowly toward him, his voice still low and reasonable. “They were frightened, honey. Richard said that just a few weeks before the accident she’d told them who he really was. What he was. And they were still trying to process all of that when she passed away. It was probably all just too much for them to deal with. ”
Tucker backed up, shaking his head. “What the hell are you saying? You don’t even make sense. What he was—what does that even mean?”
“It’s what I’m trying to tell you, baby. ”
“I don’t know what this shit is! Idon’t know how you found out my mother’s name and that we came here from Tennessee, but obviously, you’ve done your homework and had me investigated. I have no idea what you’re trying to pull, or why, but it won’t work. No! Stay away from me!” Tucker shouted as Gavin came closer. He quickly twisted around and hurled himself out the door, with Gavin right behind him.
Tucker surged outside directly into a family getting off the elevator onto the open walkway outside the hotel room. Amid the startled squeals of the mother and the chaos of several children juggling beach towels, floats and oversized beach bags, Tucker managed to slip through them on the crowded walkway and into the elevator, frantically punching buttons while Gavin tried to navigate around them to get to him.
As soon as he reached the bottom floor, Tucker sprinted toward the hotel lobby, looking over his shoulder as he heard Gavin barreling down the stairway after him. He pulled open the door, got inside and ran over to the hotel’s front desk, where a large crowd of college students was in the middle of checking out. In his rush to get to safety, he knocked the bags out of a young girl’s hand, and by the time he’d steadied her, shouting to an astonished hotel clerk to call the police, he turned to find that Gavin had completely disappeared.
Damn! Gavin hit the steering wheel with his hand, and glared at the rearview mirror again, half expecting to see cop cars behind him any second now, as he navigated the noonday traffic on the strip. Once he’d allowed Tucker to escape, he’d gotten to his car immediately and called one of his men in the adjoining room to his, informing them of what had happened—a modified version of events, anyway. He’d instructed him to go into his room through the connecting door and clean up all evidence that he’d been there before clearing out himself, along with the rest of the group and then to meet him at a pre-arranged emergency meeting point some ten miles down the coastline. It wouldn’t take long for the police to figure out his entire group had registered at the same time, and were working together. Now they had to ditch their rental cars and find new ones, as well as another place to stay. And all because he couldn’t keep his hands off Tucker. Damn it!
He’d fucked this up royally, and he wasn’t quite sure how to proceed from this point. He never should have tried to approach his mate beforehe’d got him back to Tennessee. Damn bloodmatch. It almost always complicated things, never making anything easy. Once he’d caught his mate’s scent, he’d been like a stupid animal in heat.
Picking up his cell phone, he made the call he’d been dreading . “Richard? It’s Gavin. Look, I think I’ve fucked things up with Tucker. ”
“You mean James? What’s happened to him?” Richard’s voice sounded alarmed, and Gavin could picture him running his hands through his short, dark hair, making it stand on end.