Rocky Start (A Rocky Start Book 3) Read online

  Rocky Start

  A Rocky Start Series

  Book 3

  C.M. Steele

  Copyrighted © 2022

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written expressed permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is purely coincidental.

  Cover design: C.M. Steele

  Image: Deposit Photo

  The use of actors, artists, movies, TV shows, and song titles/lyrics throughout this book are done so for storytelling purposes and should in no way be seen as advertisement. Trademark names are used in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and please purchase your own copy.

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Everyone is finding happiness around her, but when Mr. Too Charming shows up declaring that he’s her happily ever after, Georgie can’t fall. She’s too used to being grounded in reality to believe in an instant romance. Sean McFadden is a woman’s fantasy: handsome, smooth, and too good to be true, making promises she knows he can’t possibly keep or mean.

  Sean takes one look at Georgie and knows she’s the one. He doesn’t care that she doesn’t believe him because he’ll prove it no matter how long it takes or to what depths he’ll have to go.

  Prologue

  Georgie

  “Are you almost done packing?” Darcy asks from the doorway at the top of the stairs.

  “Go on ahead. I’ve got a couple of boxes to go through.” We’re moving out of my parents’ house because they’re selling it and relocating to Florida without us. Lydia just graduated from college, so we’ve gotten a three-bedroom apartment on the south side of Chicago near the Orange Line train station. I’m in the basement, gathering the last of the boxes with my name on them.

  “Do you need any help?” she calls down.

  “No. I’ve got this,” I mutter, opening a smaller accordion file folder with my name on it.

  “Are you sure?”

  Rolling my eyes, I answer, “I’m positive. Besides, I’m not in the mood to get another lecture right now.”

  “Fine. I love you,” she adds, closing the door. My sisters are wonderful and everything perfect, too perfect if anyone asks, and can do no wrong in my parents’ eyes. I, on the other hand, feel like the proverbial middle child, the forgotten one, and worse—unloved.

  The old elastic on the clasp breaks, crumbling from age. I wonder if this hasn’t been opened since it’s been put in here. I slide out multiple documents and see more than I care for. One by one, I read them. Line by line, my life becomes a lie—or rather, the truth revealed. Pain stabs me in the chest. A birth certificate, a lie. Georgiana Elizabeth Moore.

  Georgiana Elizabeth James doesn’t even exist. I look through the rest of the documents and see the death certificate for my birth father, and I have a hundred questions.

  “Georgiana James, get your butt up here now or we’re leaving without you,” my mother shouts.

  “Don’t you mean Georgiana Moore?” There is no record of adoption or name change on any documentation, so I’m not sure how or where it is, but from the gasp and the slam of the door, she understood my meaning.

  Two minutes later, I hear them pull out of the driveway, and I go on looking through the documents of the lie that is my life.

  Chapter One

  Sean

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I slam my computer shut, running my hands through my short hair and down to my short scruff. I need a shave, but I usually don’t bother unless I have to do a press conference. It looks like I’ll have to call a special one soon.

  Every morning, I work out and shower before sitting down with my coffee and checking on my clients’ social media pages. I have two dozen at the present moment, and they keep me on my toes. As a literary agent and publicist, I have to be on top of everything that could damage their reputation and fix it before it ruins their careers. People slip up and say something that isn’t in vogue today but was great yesterday and it’s a shit storm of fake apologies, but this fucker takes the cake.

  Opening the damn thing again, I read the heading in front of me.

  According to model, Bennett Lake has been rumored to have kidnapped her.

  I read the article, which is not only poorly written but also full of mistakes and lies. I know Bennett, and the man’s a fucking saint if there ever was one. Although all of his books are thrillers, the man doesn’t do anything that isn’t a hundred and ten percent moral, so there’s no way in hell he’s kidnapped a woman. After all, he’s too busy writing in his cabin at the present moment.

  Who the fuck would start this kind of bullshit gossip? I’m going to have a blast suing the pants off these papers and the person responsible once I get my hands on the truth. I need to do some more digging.

  Spending the next hour on my computer, I find that the press is having a field day with this. Authors don’t get this type of press unless they’re as big as Bennett, but he’s never the kind that would want anyone in his business for any reason that doesn’t have to do with the actual book itself. The man prefers his life as simple and unbothered as humanly possible, and he seems to truly be a grumpy bastard.

  Tabloid rags sometimes print totally bullshit stories to drive authors’ sales, but this is a whole new level of reporting. It’s criminal if it’s true, so I need to make sure that it’s all squared away before I destroy some people.

  Still, I call Bennett’s cell, which goes straight to voicemail. What a prick. He still hasn’t turned it on. First thing I need to do is call the sheriff’s department to see if I can get some information before I get on a plane and fly to Colorado and pound pavement to get the answers I need.

  Calling the police station is useless as hell because they give me the fucking runaround and claim they don’t talk to reporters. “I’m not a fucking reporter. I’m his agent, and he’s not answering his cell phone.”

  “Yeah, sure. I’m supposed to believe that? Have a good day,” the woman on the other end says, hanging up on me.

  “Okay. I’ve got to go find your daddy and stick my foot up his ass. You stay here and be a good doggy.” I rub Bennett’s dog’s head before jumping out of my chair and packing an overnight bag. I’ve been babysitting his pooch because Bennett’s staying in the wilderness where there are too many wild animals.

  I want to be pissed, but I’m guessing that since I’m not the first on this story that their office has been flooded with probably more calls than they’re accustomed to getting. It’s a fairly small town an hour or so outside of Denver, and Bennett’s cabin is even farth
er away from the town, up the mountains all alone.

  “The trip to Lakeland, Colorado is going to be a fun one,” I mutter to myself, rolling my eyes as I hop into my Range Rover. I don’t have time to wait for a taxi, so I rush to the damn airport in the early morning hours, parking in their lot.

  I try Bennett again, but he still hasn’t answered his phone, which concerns me. I’d be his one phone call if he was arrested, so I’m betting that isn’t the case at all, so what is going on?

  The flight to Denver takes longer than I hoped, but at least my rental is waiting for me at the damn place just inside the airport. It’s another Range Rover because that’s what I prefer to drive, especially given the terrain.

  As I hop in, I see the most enchanting creature storming away with a determined look on her face as she heads onto a Greyhound bus with another woman. I stare at her long red and brown hair, wanting to reach out and wrap my fist around it, dragging her to me. She’s got sharp eyebrows, and she’s scowling at those around her, sending up a silent warning to all the men around, although those soft lips of hers are worried.

  As a publicist, I’ve learned to read people from their slightest expressions, and I want to know every single one of hers. I can’t explain this need to meet her when I’ve only gotten a fleeting glimpse, but my gut is telling me that she’s special.

  She’s already gone from my sight as more passengers load on the bus behind them. I pull my vehicle to the side to get a look at the sign and see it’s heading north toward Lakeland. “Fuck, yeah.” It’s perfect. There shouldn’t be too many stops from here to there.

  I should be rushing straight to Bennett, but fuck him. It’s his fault if I’m a little late because he should have answered his fucking phone instead of ghosting me like this shit going down isn’t fucking catastrophic to his career.

  I follow the bus briefly on the highway, thinking about what I’m going to say to her when we finally meet. “Hi! My name is Sean, and I’ve been stalking you since you got on the bus. I want to know everything about you including how you feel wrapped around my cock as you’re coming.” Shaking my head, I let out a harsh breath. I’ve officially lost my mind. Yeah, that’s not going to go over well, so I have to work on it.

  The traffic is making good time and I stay up the bus’s ass until I get a state trooper on my tail, so I ease up and lose the bus when it gets off on the next exit. The damn bastard must have seen me watching, or someone might have noticed me following too closely. Fuck. I think quickly. I have their bus number and its final stop, so I take it down and I’ll have my buddy run the manifest. I have to know who she is, and I will. Nothing will stop me, including finding all the damn flight manifests that came into the airport around the same time as I did.

  As soon as the cop gets off my ass, I pull off on that exit, hoping to find my future wife and the bus. Three minutes of taking a straight path, and I still don’t see any bus or my woman. Shit. My woman? I don’t know who she is or even if she has a boyfriend, but she’s mine. No boyfriend in their right mind would allow that beauty to take a bus anywhere, especially without someone to protect her. That’s something I’m going to handle the second we get our relationship situation straightened out.

  The little one next to her is probably rowdy as fuck, but not tougher than most men with sick intentions. I learned long ago that short women have a low tolerance for shit. It’s entertaining as long as you’re not on the opposite end of their ire. I’m usually good at not ticking women off in general, but I’m good at my job, which makes women angry because they can’t talk their way into my bed.

  There’s only one woman I want in my bed, and I don’t even know who she is. It’s a good thing to have great connections. I call my friend back in Texas, testing his hacking skills. Thankfully he answers on the second ring. “What’s up, Sean?”

  “Tate, I need a favor.” He’s actually a computer forensics expert, but still, he can handle these things—that, I’m sure of. It’s a matter of if he’s willing to dig into it for me.

  “Sure thing, brother.” We’ve been friends for a long time, even when he was going through a difficult time with the Houston PD. Now, he’s happily married and working for a private security company.

  “I need the manifest for a Greyhound bus asap."

  "Give me the details, and I'll work it out in the next twenty minutes." I shoot off the information I collected. "Any name on there in particular?"

  "No, but we're looking for two passengers, females. I'm banking on them being sisters or something,” I tell him, or at least I hope so because if they’re not, then I might be getting my hopes up for nothing.

  "Okay, I'll call you back shortly."

  "Cool. Thanks." I end the call and drive toward Lakeland, hopping on the highway to deal with the problem that sent me on this mission in the first place. I try Bennett’s cell again, but the prick still doesn’t answer, which is really becoming a bad habit.

  The traffic has picked up and I'm forced to do the speed limit, which doesn’t help my already antsy mood. I'm almost to Lakeland when Tate calls me back.

  "I got what you need. Check your texts. I'm betting it's these two. Georgiana and Lydia James. You were right; they're sisters, and there's a third—Darcy James."

  "I owe you,” I tell him because I’m going to find my future wife thanks to his information.

  "I'll make note of it. Take care, and good luck,” he says with a chuckle.

  "Thanks."

  I drive to Bennett’s place, which is up a long mountain road far from civilization, just like he prefers. As I pull up to the large driveway, I see a Lakeland cop car. Fuck, his lawyer needs to be called. I’m about to dial his number when my eyes fly to the door at the commotion, and I can't believe my luck. She's here.

  Taking a deep breath, I quietly step out of my ride just as they enter the house. With the door open, I follow inside without anyone noticing me.

  “Wait. The Bennett Lake? Like the author guy? No wonder she let you have her cookie. That girl has a mad crush on you, and I can’t say I blame her. Get it, girl. Do you have a brother?” my future wife gushes, and I’m ready to kill this imaginary brother.

  “No,” a growl comes from deep within me as I think about her wanting anyone else but me.

  “Welcome, Sean. Why are you here?” If we weren’t friends, I’d say he’s ready to kick my ass for getting in his way, but I’ve never seen my friend like this. He’s all over the woman, who looks like my woman but slightly different.

  “Because the media is looking for you. There’s a rumor that you kidnapped and raped a woman. I know it’s bullshit because you’re a fucking celibate hermit, but it’s my job to make sure the rumors aren’t spread around,” I bark out while stealing glances at my woman.

  “Hi. You’re only half right. He did carry me away, but I came very willingly and repeatedly. I’m Darcy, by the way.” She reaches out for my hand, but Bennett stops her.

  “Where’s my dog?” Bennett asks. Wow, what happened to my friend? I don’t know why I’m even asking because I have a feeling that the same thing has happened to me.

  “At the ranch. I rushed over here before the shit hit the fan.”

  “You know, that’s a really gross expression,” my future wife says, arching her brow while her lip curls in revulsion.

  She has me in a trance, and I need to say something because I think I’m in love. “Hello, beautiful. I’m Sean, and you are?”

  She doesn’t take my hand. Instead, she sighs, “Tired and hungry.”

  “Then I’ll get you what you need, beautiful.” I want to know who she is out of the two sisters on the bus.

  “Do you not know any other adjectives?” Damn. She just kicked me in the nuts, but I’ll gladly stay for more punishment. My pretty girl doesn’t play nice. That’s fine, because I’m not going to let her win. She’s mine, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to prove it.

  “I’ll call you whatever you like, little girl, as soon as yo
u tell me your name.”

  “It’s Georgiana, but we call her Georgie,” Darcy says, ignoring her sister’s glare.

  “That’s cute. You’re definitely a Georgie.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” She crosses her arms over her chest with an angry huff.

  “Nothing, sweet thing.” I wink at her, and then I tilt my head to Rocky and add, “I need to speak with this fool here. Don’t go anywhere, ‘cause trust me…I’ll find you.”

  “Whatever,” she scoffs, but she doesn’t tell me to go to hell, so that’s a positive sign.

  I stop staring at Georgie for a minute so I can handle business. “Come on, let’s talk.”

  Chapter Two

  Georgie

  As soon as they leave us, I’m asking Darcy a hundred questions while Lydia checks out the cabin. It’s a nice place, but I’m still worried about my sister’s safety and her freaking sanity. I don’t care how hot this guy is; she’s gone ahead and jumped straight into bed with a stranger.

  “Are you really okay?”

  “I am. Relax. He’s pretty freaking wonderful, if not a complete caveman, which I find sexy as hell.”

  “I can agree with that,” Lydia chimes in, earning a growl from the sheriff who happens to be equally as possessive over my little sister. I want to scream and shake them, but they seem so blisteringly happy that I don’t want to burst their bubbles with my rationality and reason.

  “I need to get some water, girls,” Darcy says. “Want anything?”

  “No,” we all reply.

  While I have a moment alone, I check my phone, which has been buzzing in my pocket.

  It’s a couple of text messages from my mother. She’s been trying to worm her way back into my life. What’s the point? She didn’t try when they had me there for twenty years. When they walked out after learning that I knew the truth, they chose to go to dinner.

  It’s been two months of these crazy messages with her trying to act like I mean something to her. This time, she’s trying to set me up with a guy. Like why would I take dating advice from her of all people? She sends me a picture of a guy, who is good looking, adding another message. I hope you’re losing your winter weight. He eats healthy.