Holden's Resurrection (Gemini Group Book 6) Read online

  Holden’s Resurrection

  Gemini Group

  Riley Edwards

  Holden’s Resurrection

  Gemini Group 6

  Riley Edwards

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

  Copyright © 2020 by Riley Edwards

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover design: Lori Jackson Designs

  Written by: Riley Edwards

  Published by: Riley Edwards/Rebels Romance

  Edited by: Rebecca Hodgkins

  Proofreader: Julie Deaton, Rebecca Kendall

  Holden’s Resurrection

  ISBN:978-19515670-9-5

  First edition: October 27, 2020

  Copyright © 2020 Riley Edwards

  All rights reserved

  To my family - my team – my tribe.

  This is for you.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Also by Riley Edwards

  Be A Rebel

  1

  “Seriously?” McKenna Swagger glanced over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes. “But, you just moved here.”

  I’d thought a lot about why I’d moved to Maryland. When I was packing up my house in Virginia Beach, I’d had a hundred reasons why I wanted to leave. But only two of them were true. The rest of them I’d made up to make myself feel better for uprooting my daughter to chase some fantasy that Holden Stanford and I could finally get back what we always should’ve had.

  That wasn’t going to happen.

  Holden made it painfully clear the last time I saw him. That’d been a month ago.

  My gaze moved to the kitchen table where my daughter, Faith, sat, and my heart constricted.

  Another move.

  Another change.

  Not that she remembered all the upheaval after her father had died. As a matter of fact, she didn’t know Paul. He died while I was pregnant with her. I’d buried my husband and a week later found myself alone in the hospital giving birth.

  Not that my parents hadn’t offered to be in the room. My mom was pissed when I told her I didn’t want anyone with me and complained that all her friends had been in the delivery room with their daughters and even daughters-in-law, so I was making her look bad. Paul’s mom wasn’t pissed—she didn’t bother to come to the hospital and neither did his sister. It was no surprise they hadn’t shown. They’d hated me from the start.

  “It won’t be until summer, I can’t move now in the middle of the school year,” I explained.

  “Charleigh—”

  The doorbell cut McKenna off.

  “I’ll get it.” Faith jumped up from the table.

  “No, sweets. Let me get it.”

  Without argument, she sat back down and picked up the marker she’d abandoned and resumed coloring. That was my kid, always polite, never back-talked, rarely complained. And as strange as it made me, I hated it. It was almost as if she knew that since her birth, I’d been on the edge of a nervous breakdown and she didn’t want to push me off the cliff. Even as an infant she’d been perfect.

  “It’s my landlord. I’ll be right back,” I told Micky and swiped the invoice the furnace guy had left earlier that day before I headed toward the stairs.

  When I moved to Kent County, Maryland, I rented an apartment above a real estate office in what the locals called the “downtown” area. It didn’t resemble any downtown area I’d ever seen in the city. It was quaint. Historic. Quiet. In another life, it would’ve been the perfect place to live. Hell, six months ago when I moved here, I thought this was where I’d stay and raise Faith.

  Now, I knew I needed to leave.

  I was weak. I couldn’t face Holden. Actually, I wasn’t facing Holden at all because he was avoiding me.

  I opened the door expecting Mr. Travers. However, the man standing in front of me was most certainly not my sixty-five-year-old landlord.

  “May I help you?” I asked, and not for the first time wished I had a peephole or a window in my front door.

  “Charlotte Towler?”

  It had been so long since someone had used my given name it took me a moment to answer.

  “Yes. May I—”

  “You’ve been served.” The man shoved a large envelope at me, leaving me with no option but to take it or watch it fall to the ground.

  “Served?”

  “Have a good day.”

  The man strode off without another word.

  Served?

  What the hell?

  I stepped back into the small entryway and closed the door.

  The outside of the manila envelope was blank. I opened the clasp and shook out the documents. My blood iced in my veins.

  Son of a bitch.

  Son of a stupid, mean, hateful bitch.

  NOTICE OF REQUEST FOR VIRGINIA REGISTRATION OF A CHILD CUSTODY AND/OR VISITATION DETERMINATION FROM ANOTHER STATE.

  That bitch.

  I quickly scanned the first page. Paul’s mother, Beatrice, was named as the requesting party, and Paul’s sister, Patricia, was named as the other interested person. I flipped to the next page and the thick layer of ice that had formed around my heart cracked until more anger than I’d ever known invaded it.

  Freaking bitch.

  I dashed upstairs, found my phone, and looked at Micky.

  “I have to make a quick call. Will you keep an eye on Faith?”

  “Of course I will. Is everything okay?”

  “No. Please make sure she doesn’t go upstairs.”

  Micky’s face softened and concern washed over her pretty face. I’d always liked Nixon Swagger. At one time, he’d been a good friend, then everything went to shit with Holden. After that, I made a series of bad choices—though Faith had come from one of those choices, so I couldn’t regret all the decisions I’d made. But, those decisions had put Nixon, along with Jameson, Weston, and Chasin right in the middle of a mess. While supportive, they’d come down mostly on Holden’s side, and I couldn’t blame them.

  I hadn’t lost them per se, but I had lost the closeness and I’d definitely lost their respect. Then after Paul’s death, I’d lost them all in a new way. They avoided me the best they could, only coming around to fulfill what they considered their duty to Paul’s child and widow. Those interactions hurt so badly; I’d put a stop to them all together, insisting I didn’t need
their help. Which was a big, fat lie. I needed the support. I missed their friendship. I just plain missed them.

  I was happy they’d all found women who complemented them. Especially Nix. He’d been the one to harbor the most guilt about Paul’s death. It wasn’t his fault, but he’d never seen it that way. McKenna was perfect for Nixon.

  I’d barely gotten them back and I was going to give them all up again.

  “I’ll explain in a minute,” I told her and turned to Faith.

  And like always, my daughter was on high alert.

  “Mommy—”

  “Everything’s fine,” I lied. “I need to make a phone call, then we’ll make another batch of cookies.”

  “And finish decorating the Christmas tree?” Faith asked.

  “Yes, we’ll finish the tree,” I promised.

  A tree that Faith and I had picked out alone. I’d strapped it to the roof of my car, then dragged it up the stairs all by myself and set it on the stand. Same thing we did every year. Just me and Faith.

  I jogged up the stairs to the third floor wondering what it would’ve been like if Paul hadn’t died. Would we still be together for Faith’s well-being? Or, would Paul have finally called off the farce of a marriage and divorced me? Would I have been able to continue to live a total lie? By the time I made it to my room, I had no answers to the questions that had plagued my mind for years. But there was one thing I knew for certain—had Paul been alive, his horrendous mother and sister wouldn’t be an issue.

  Paul despised them. He would never have allowed them around Faith.

  But Paul wasn’t around to shield his daughter from their malice. And each year, the Towler family became more vindictive. More hateful.

  Now they wanted to take Faith from me.

  Over. My. Dead. Body.

  I swiped the screen of my cell and knew I should take a minute to calm down. My mom called me a reactor, meaning I reacted before I thought. My best course of action was to have my attorney answer this latest court filing and not allow myself to get sucked back into their sick game.

  But that wasn’t the type of person I was. I thought the Towlers had learned their lesson the first two times they dragged me into court. Both cases they’d lost.

  Total waste of time and money.

  I pushed on the Devil Bitch’s contact and waited.

  “What?” Patricia answered.

  “Unfit? That’s your new play, really?”

  “Totally. First, you keep my niece from her family, then you move her to Maryland so you can chase after the man you cheated on my brother with—”

  “I never cheated on your brother,” I cut her off.

  “We have witnesses, Charlotte,” she sneered.

  “Well, they’re lying.”

  “We’re gonna get Faith, and when we do, you’re never gonna see her again. We’ll make sure she knows you never loved Paul. He was a meal ticket. After that other one dumped you, you needed another free ride. That money was supposed to be ours. Not yours.”

  Right. The money. Paul’s death benefits. It always came down to the money.

  “Paul’s life insurance isn’t yours and it’s not mine. It’s Faith’s.”

  Guilt ate at my heart. Was it really Faith’s?

  “It should’ve gone to my mother. She earned it.”

  “You’re disgusting.”

  Who thought like that? Who actually wanted their child’s death benefits? What kind of mother behaved like a vulture waiting to collect money that meant her son was dead?

  Beatrice Towler, that was who.

  She was horrendous and she’d taught her daughter to be a greedy, money-grabbing cow, too. It was a miracle Paul had turned out the way he did. Just because it wasn’t a love match between the two of us, didn’t mean he hadn’t been a good person. He was. When I’d found out I was pregnant, he insisted on marrying me. He’d loved Faith from the very first moment I’d told him.

  He would’ve been an excellent father.

  “And you’re a whore who got knocked-up on purpose to trap my brother. And once you had his ring on your finger, you lied and cheated on him. I wouldn’t be surprised if Faith wasn’t even his.”

  That was so far from the truth it was laughable. Though I wasn’t laughing, I was feeling homicidal.

  Hindsight being what it was, the very first time they’d called me a whore and denied Faith was Paul’s daughter, I should’ve told them they were right. Maybe that would’ve been the time to come clean. But there’d been a reason Paul was so eager to marry me and claim Faith even though he knew the truth. I should’ve signed over Paul’s life insurance and walked away, keeping my daughter protected from Paul’s family.

  But I couldn’t do it.

  Paul hated his family with a passion. He never wanted them to have a penny of his money. Before he’d married me, all of his money was to be donated to the Navy SEAL foundation. Maybe that’s what I needed to do. That would be the right thing to do. I hadn’t touched any of it. I couldn’t, not when I still had secrets that could ruin everything.

  “This is a waste of time. You’re not getting near Faith.”

  “We’ll see,” Patricia said in a know-it-all tone. “She’s as good as ours. We have pictures of you cheating on Paul.”

  Pictures?

  That was impossible. I never cheated on my husband and I never lied to him. Paul was very aware I was in love with Holden even though I was married to him. As I said, we were not a love match; Paul and I were friends who’d slept together once, in a drunken one-night stand. Then we did what he felt was best for my unborn child.

  Or did we?

  Paul had spent the last eight months of his life in a loveless marriage.

  And I’ve spent the last eight years mourning the loss of a friend I’d done wrong, while harboring so much guilt there were days I wasn’t sure I could breathe. Then there was Holden. I’d never stop grieving the man I loved.

  “You’re full of shit, Patty.”

  And with that, I hung up.

  I wouldn’t put it past them to make up more lies about me and I was sure they knew plenty of shady people who they could get to lie for them, too. But pictures? Bullshit. They didn’t have any because none existed.

  For the five millionth time, I wished Paul was here.

  And for the five millionth time, I was reminded I was all alone.

  Me and Faith.

  The dynamic duo.

  No matter what, the two of us would be okay.

  2

  Something was going on.

  Holden heard it in Nixon Swagger’s curt tone when he’d called and told him to come into the office early. He saw it on Jameson’s face when he’d mutely passed him in the hallway. The vibe in the Gemini Group office was tense—the atmosphere so thick, Holden Stanford could guess what the problem was, or more to the point—who.

  Charleigh Towler.

  The woman drove Holden mad. He avoided her at all costs. Truthfully, he avoided her daughter, Faith. The very sight of the little girl cut so deep, hurt so badly, he couldn’t bear to be within a hundred feet of her. Her cute face and pretty brown eyes sent Holden reeling back to a time and place he couldn’t afford to revisit. For years, he’d wished Faith was his. Cursed the universe for taking away his chance while dangling the one thing he’d wanted so desperately in front of him. Family. Something Holden would never have.

  But Faith was not his, she was Paul Towler’s. She was Charleigh’s. She was theirs.

  Fuck life.

  “She’s moving.” Holden heard McKenna tell her husband as he approached Nix’s office. He stopped just before the door and listened. “She said she was going to wait until the school year was over, but she’d made up her mind.”

  “That might not be a bad idea.”

  “Nix,” Micky huffed. “That’s a horrible idea. I don’t want her to leave. Plus, with those people trying to take Faith from her, she needs to be close so we can help her.”

  Holden’s anger s
kyrocketed.

  “Those people” could only be Paul’s mom and sister. It wasn’t the first time they’d fucked with Charleigh. Almost two years ago, Holden went down to Virginia to help Charleigh when Beatrice Towler tried to sue Charleigh. It was a bogus lawsuit and had been thrown out, but what came after had been bad. Bea and Patty harassed Charleigh and scared Faith so bad the little girl had refused to go to school.

  It seemed they were at it again.

  “You know we’re not going to let that happen. I’ve already called a friend to look into the pictures they supposedly have of Charleigh. Though I can tell you right now, she never cheated on Paul, and if there are pictures, they’re fakes.”

  What the actual fuck?

  A sick feeling Holden hadn’t had in a long time roiled in his stomach.

  Flashes of memories he didn’t want.

  If only his team knew the truth.

  The whole situation was twisted and fucked-up. It had been one gigantic disaster and Holden couldn’t deny his part in it. He was the catalyst that ruined four lives. His mistake had sparked a chain of events that would forever mark him.

  Fucking hell.

  There were a great many number of things that needed to change around Gemini Group before this situation got worse. The women seemed to be taking sides and it was causing friction. Especially between Genevieve and McKenna.

  Holden was close to Evie. He’d almost died protecting her, and from that grew a tight bond. Not that he wasn’t close to all his friends’ wives, but he was closest to Evie. So naturally, she’d side with him. Bobby, being Evie’s best friend, would take Evie’s back in her crusade to keep Charleigh away from Holden. Evie knew the pain it caused him every time he was forced to see Faith.