The Carter Family Screw Up [Carter Brothers - Book 2]

Twelve - "They're staring at me."

7pm rolled around and I was standing in the living room, waiting for Grace to pick me up.

"Maggie, you look gorgeous." Tessie said when she saw me.

I was wearing the dress Grave had picked for me, with silver strappy stilettos, that I'd paired with a sparkly silver clutch bag. My hair was curled into lose waves and pinned to one side. Make up was simple, with winged liner, a little contour and highlight and finished with a red lip.

I heard the horn of Grace's care and made my way out the door.

"You look so good!" I told her as i got in the car.

"You too!" She said. "We better go - the longer we're in the car, the more chance our dresses are going to get wrinkled!"

15 minutes later we walked into the ballroom at the Stafford Hotel.

It was decorated beautifully. There were fake trees all around the outside of the room, filled with twinkling lights, and luxurious fabrics hanging from the ceiling. A string quartet were playing in the corner, with a crowd of people gathered around watching them.

"Gracey, darling, there you are." A man said walking up to us. He was tall, with dark hair and the same blue eyes as Grace, which told me he was her father.

"Hi daddy. This is my friend Maggie. Maggie, this is my father Richard."

"Nice to meet you Mr Martin." I said as he shook my hand.

"Please, honey, call me Rick." He said. "Our table is just over here."

We followed him to a large round table near to the front, where a beautifully dressed middle aged woman sat. She had Grace's black hair, and a pale collection with was free of any blemishes. She wore a a black, strapless gown and a beautiful set of pearls around her neck.

"You must me Maggie. I'm Grace's mother, Cynthia." She said, getting up and kissing me on the cheek, before we all sat down.

"Grace tells me your parents work with the Red Cross. Very comendable job - you must be very proud." Rick said.

"Thank you. Yes, I am."

"But it must be hard for you; them being away." Cynthia added, with sympathy across her face.

"Sometimes. But I try to remind myself that what they're doing is important. And my aunt and uncle are wonderful people so I don't mind staying with them." I said.

"There's Mr Gordon. We must go and say hello." Rick said to his wife and daughter. Grace rolled her eyes as they stood up from the table.

"Sorry. Are you going to be okay on your own for a while?" She asked me.

"I'll be fine. Enjoy schmoozing with the bosses." I said and she pretended to heave, before walking away with her parents.

As I sat there looking around the room, I thought of my grandmother. She was always trying to get me to go to events like this. I always said no because they really weren't my thing. I used to have to go when I was a kid because I didn't have a choice, and I remembered always being bored. It was my job to look pretty, be quiet and give my grandmothers friends a good impression of the family. My grandmother is a great woman, whom I love very much, but she wanted her family to be a perfect representation of her.

Imagine her reaction, then, when my mother met my father and decided to join the red cross. She didn't talk to my mom for 6 months. Eventually she came around when she realised how good it made her look.

An hour later and Grace was still talking to her dad's boss. She looked at me across the room a few times and mouthed 'Sorry' and I told her it was okay.

My felt my phone vibrate in my bag and took it out to see a call from Daniel. I picked up my bag and left the main ballroom to go somewhere quieter.

"Hey." I said answering the call.

"Where are you?"

"Stafford Hotel. Why?"

"Meet me out front in 10 minutes." He demanded.

"Wait Daniel I can't I-" He hung up. Why must he be so rude?!

I walked back into the ballroom and saw Grace across the room. She was probably going to be busy for a while so I figured it would be okay for me to leave. I sent her a text telling her I had to go and that I would explain later, and made my way downstairs to wait for Daniel.

A few minutes later his truck pulled up at the front entrance and I walked towards him. As I walked towards his car, i could see him staring at me with his mouth slightly ajar. When I got in, and his eyes were still on my dress, then my face.

I couldn't help the blush making its way across my cheeks.

"Uh… I… I didnt realise you were at some important thing. If you need to stay, it's fine." He said.

"Oh, no its okay. I came for Grace but she's busy talking to her dad's boss in there so I was pretty bored anyway." I put on my seatbelt. "So what's up? Where are we going?"

"The club." He said, pulling away from the hotel.

"Daniel, I thought you weren't going to fight again until your injuries healed?" I scolded him.

"It's not for me." He said.

"Oh. Then who?"

"A friend." He replied.

"More information would be great right about now." I told him. I really didn't like it when he gave me vague answers.

"You'll see when we get there." He said. That was it - I had reached my limit.

"No you're going to tell me now! I agreed to help you, and I will help your friend if you need me to, but not until you tell me what the fuck is going on! I already have my cousin breathing down my neck, treating me like a child and I do not need that from you, too. Now spill."

He looked at me for a moment, shocked that I yelled at him, then he sighed and began talking.

"The reason I had to fight last night was because a friend of mine, Rory, had to pull out.."

"The Crucifier." I said, remembering what he has said to the security guard last night.

"Right. His sister had an accident or something and he had to take her to the hospital, so he called me and asked me to fill in for him. Anyway, turns out there's a guy, who we only know is called John, who had some money riding on Rory fighting and winning last night. So when he didn't, this guy John lost a bunch of money to a loan shark and was pretty pissed about it as you can imagine.

Rory went to the club tonight to watch a fight, and John comes in, angry as hell and wanting the money he's lost. Rory doesn't have it, obviously, so John attacks him.

Rory called me, screaming down the phone that he needed medical help and asked if I knew anyone and I thought of you."

I honestly didn't know what to think. My mind raced thinking about what I was going to see when we got to the club. Seconds later we were there, and Daniel picked up his backpack and we walked into the building.

There were only a few people around, cleaning the place up of broken glass, but all of their eyes were on me when they saw what I was wearing.

"They're staring at me." I whispered to Daniel.

"Arr you kidding? This is a fight club, full of sweaty violent men - and the women you usually see here don't look any better -so when a beautiful woman walks in, dressed like that.." He gestured to my dress. "..they're going to notice."

Did he just call me beautiful?