His Taste Box Set: The Pine Grove Complete Collection

by Hamel, B. B.

  Like, really attractive. Lean face, muscular body, confident ease, thick dark hair. He looks more like a model than a murderer.

  “Yeah. You know. Take her. I’ll skip down, disappear, you can… have her. She’s pretty.”

  The man groans. “Fuck. You just made my job so much easier.”

  He pulls the trigger. My dad’s head explodes and his body crumples onto the carpet.

  I can’t help it. I let out a scream before clamping my hands over my mouth.

  My dad’s dead body, his head broken into pieces, doesn’t move a muscle.

  But the murderer turns in my direction and lets out another long sigh.

  “Of course you’re home,” he says. “And of course I didn’t wear a fucking mask.” He starts walking toward me.

  I get up and run. I turn back upstairs and bolt for my room, not thinking, not caring about my dead father. Part of me is happy the guy killed him, happy that I’m finally free.

  Except I don’t think I’ll stay free for long, not if he gets his hands on me.

  I slam my door shut just as the man reaches it. He pushes but I manage to turn the lock. I hear him sigh on the other side.

  “Please just open up. I’m not here to kill you and I really don’t feel like getting more blood on my hands today.”

  I run over to my window and throw it open. Before I can climb out, he slams the door open, strides across the room, and grabs me by the arm.

  I stare up into the face of my father’s killer and for a second, I wonder if this is what an avenging angel would look like.

  Slight stubble on his perfect jaw, light green eyes, perfectly formed features. He’s movie-star gorgeous and I can’t stop looking into his eyes.

  He smiles sadly at me, like he’s exhausted. “Did you hear all that?” he asks me.

  I nod, terrified and unable to speak.

  “I’m sorry,” he says. “Men do things when their life’s at stake. It’s not always pretty.”

  “He was a fucking asshole,” I hear myself say, almost from a distance.

  And the gorgeous killer grins at me. I feel my body vibrate with that look.

  “Yeah, I bet.” He cocks his head, looking at the shiner on my eye. “He give you that?”

  I nod once.

  “Asshole,” he mutters and I feel his eyes suddenly drink me in for the first time.

  I’m self-conscious as he stares at me. I’m wearing only a pair of short cotton shorts and a thin white t-shirt. I’m sure he can see my breasts, my nipples slightly hard in the cool summer evening, my skin slightly dimpled with goosebumps. My hair’s long and dark and flowing around my shoulders. I’m not wearing any makeup but he doesn’t seem to notice as he takes in my body, finally resting his eyes on my lips.

  “He wasn’t kidding,” the man finally speaks. “You are pretty.”

  “Go to hell,” I manage to say. “You can’t… you can’t touch me.”

  He laughs. “I can, but relax. I’m a killer, not a fucking rapist.”

  He lets go of my arm and I stumble away from him, steadying myself on the windowsill. I stare at him as he watches me carefully, lips pursed slightly in thought.

  “What are you going to do with me?” I look down at the gun in his hand.

  “I’m not sure,” he admits. “Easy thing would be to kill you. I mean, that’s on me, honestly, I should’ve worn a mask. But I didn’t realize the fucker had a goddamn daughter.”

  I bite my lip. “You could let me go. I wouldn’t tell. I hated him.”

  He frowns. “I bet that’s true.”

  “Really. I’ll leave town. I’ll run away.”

  His frown gets deeper and he sighs, shaking his head. “I’m sorry. Fish probably knows about you and if I just let you leave, he’ll be fucking pissed.”

  I clench my windowsill and stare at the gorgeous killer, terror ringing through my body. “You don’t have to hurt me,” I whisper.

  “You’re right,” he says and I blink in surprise.

  “I am?”

  “You are,” he confirms. “Your dad offered you to me down there. How about you become my pet?”

  That fear strokes through me again and I press myself as far from him as I can. “Your… pet?”

  He laughs lightly but there’s something dark behind it, something I can’t totally read. “I’m fucking with you. Come on, you can lie low at my place for a while until Fish forgets about your old man then I’ll let you go.”

  He grabs my arm and pulls me from the window. I want to fight and scream but there’s something about the way he moves, like things are decided and there’s no point in arguing anymore.

  “Wait,” I say quickly. “I need things. Clothes.”

  He grunts. “Two minutes,” he says, letting go of my arm and stepping back to the door. He holds his gun gently in both hands and watches me carefully. “Better get moving.”

  I throw myself into action, not thinking. I’m in pure survival mode, I note from a distance. I grab a bag from my closet and shove clothes into it. Underwear, tops, bottoms, sweatshirts, sweatpants, anything I might need. I grab my makeup bag from my desk and reach for my laptop.

  “Nope,” he says quickly. “No computers, no phones.”

  I glance at him but I leave it behind. I wish my phone weren’t right out on my nightstand, right where he can see it, but there’s not much I can do about that.

  I finish shoving as much into my bag as I can before facing him. “Toothbrush,” I say.

  “Nope,” he responds, grabbing my arm again. “Sorry. I’ll get you that stuff later. We gotta go now.”

  I let him drag me out into the hall. We move through the house I’ve lived my entire life in, down the steps, and past the corpse of my asshole father.

  Part of me is sad that he’s dead. I didn’t want my father to get killed. I didn’t want him to die at all, despite being a total fucking prick. I’m not too upset that he’s gone, but he was the last connection to this place I had.

  The man drags me out into the night. His truck is parked a little ways off the driveway, tucked behind a tree, which is why my dad didn’t notice it on his way in. Our property is pretty big, an old ten-acre farm basically gone wild at this point. Our family used to be wealthy, generations ago, but we haven’t had anything worthwhile aside from this house for a long time now.

  “Get in,” he man says, pushing me up into the cab of his truck. I sit down and buckle myself in, bag on my lap, as he walks around and gets behind the wheel. He starts the engine and looks at me.

  The moon comes in through the glass windshield and I swear his green eyes glint in it like flint. His smirk is terrifying and gorgeous and I’m so afraid and attracted to this man that I don’t know if I want to run or throw myself at him. I’m confused and in shock and he has all the power.

  “What’s your name?” he asks me.

  “Allie,” I say softly.

  He grunts and puts the truck into gear. “I’m Rowan,” he grunts. “Nice to meet you.”

  He pulls the truck forward and we’re on the driveway in a second, moving fast away from the house I’ve always known.

  I wanted to be away from my father. I’ve always dreamed of it.

  Now it’s happening. But I’m far from free. I stare at my captor, at the gorgeous man that killed my dad, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get away.

  2

  Rowan

  I push open my guest room and drag Allie into it by the arm. I toss her bag onto the bed. “Sit,” I say, pointing at a chair in the corner.

  She hesitates but walks over to it. She takes a seat slowly.

  I have to physically force myself not to stare at her. That piece of shit Joey wasn’t wrong about his daughter. Allie’s fucking pretty, gorgeous actually. Her body’s tight and young and curvy in all the right places and those lips are full and pouty and her hair’s long and thick and fucking shit, I’m in over my head.

  I’m not a take-captives kind of man. I’ve been a killer for a
long time, although these last few years I’ve been trying to change. I never left people alive back in the day, and I’ve done plenty that I’m not proud of.

  I was good at my job. Still am, really. But this is fucking stupid.

  She should be dead. Instead, she’s sitting in my extra room.

  “Stay,” I command and quickly walk back through my cabin. Doesn’t matter much if she decides to run, especially in the middle of the night. I live out in the forest around Pine Grove, out in the middle of fucking nowhere. She could run for miles and find nobody, but I’d catch her before she had the chance.

  I find some rope in the garage and bring it back into the extra room. Allie hasn’t moved a muscle as I kneel down in front of her.

  “I’m going to bind your wrists,” I say softly.

  “You don’t need to. I’m not going to run.”

  “I know,” I say, taking her right hand gently. Her skin’s soft and I feel a chill run down my spine. “But I’ll feel better if I do it.”

  I quickly bind her wrists. I try not to make the rope too tight, but I can’t risk letting her get out easily. When I’m finished, I step back and stare at her.

  Young, gorgeous, hands tied in front of her. Fucking hell, if I were a worse man, I’d fuck her tight pussy right now. Make her suck my cock until she swallows it.

  But no, shit, no. I’m not that kind of man. If I fuck her, she’ll beg for it first.

  “I’m going in the other room,” I grunt at her. “Stay in here. Don’t try to run.”

  “I won’t,” she says quickly.

  I sigh. Of course she’s going to try and run.

  “Listen to me. Do you know who Dean Fish is?”

  She shrugs. “I’ve heard his name.”

  “He runs this fucking town. Your dad owed him a lot of money, I’m talking a lot of fucking money. Fish tried to get your dad to pay up, pay something, but…” I shrug. Debt usually doesn’t end in murder, since a dead man can’t pay, but her father must’ve been particularly fucking bad.

  “I won’t run,” she whispers.

  “If you do, and you manage to find your way back to civilization from out here, you’ll wish you stayed. Fish isn’t the kind of man to leave witnesses, and you’d best believe he knew about you.”

  She bites her lip, her pouty fucking lip. She’s goddamn sexy and I have to stop thinking about that right now.

  I’m not a piece of shit. I’m fucking not. Well, maybe I am, but I’m trying to be better.

  “I won’t run,” she says again.

  Clearly I’m not getting anywhere with this.

  “Fine. Just don’t be stupid. If you do decide to jump out a window, I’ll hunt you down and tie you to the bed next time. So please, make this easy on both of us.”

  She just nods her head, staring at me with those big blue eyes. My blood boils as I force myself to turn away. I leave the room, shutting the door softly behind me.

  I head into my kitchen. My place is neat and orderly, just the way I like things. I grab a mug from the cabinet and pour some whiskey from the bottle I keep under my sink. I sip it, grunting to myself.

  This isn’t how that hit was supposed to go.

  Shit, I thought it was gonna be easy. I mean, small town like Pine fucking Grove? Can’t be any guys worth being afraid of, at least not the kind of guy that would skip out on a debt owed to Dean Fish. This is the kind of place where the big dogs are really big, but everyone else is a puppy.

  I’m something in between. I don’t have political power or a big crime machine at my beck and call, but I know how to get things done.

  I guess I can’t judge Allie’s father too harshly. I’m in the same position as him in some ways.

  I came to Pine Grove to start over. I left New York to get out of the killing business. I had a dream to start a restaurant, and I thought I’d bring some old school New York cooking to this little Midwest town, really blow these people away. So when I got here, I went looking for a loan.

  Turns out, when you’re a contract killer, you got a lot of cash but no credit, which means the banks weren’t willing to give me enough money. I was pretty fucking down on myself, thought I’d have to go back home like a goddamn failure, but that’s when I met Dean Fish.

  He said he was a small business owner, but I could tell right away that I wasn’t dealing with just any old loan shark. I could tell he was trouble, just based on the way people reacted to him. I figured out over time that Dean runs this fucking town, but back then I was blissfully unaware just how deep I was getting myself.

  Anyway, I took his money and I opened the business. Almost two years later it shut down and I was even deeper in debt than before.

  So when Dean offered me a job in order to pay off my loans, I took him up on it. Fuck, one more kill and I’d be done. I gambled on a dream and fucking lost, but at least I tried. Now I’ll dig myself out of this fucking hole and start over.

  It was supposed to be easy.

  I never expected to end up with some gorgeous fucking girl as my prisoner.

  I drink more whiskey, mulling it over, when I hear the distinct sound of tires on dirt coming toward the cabin. I growl to myself and grab my Glock from the counter, checking the clip before walking over to my door.

  The truck parks as I glance out the window. The guy that gets out and walks up my porch is heavyset, nearly fat, with little squinting eyes and a pig nose.

  I slip my Glock into my jeans and open the door. Ray Short smiles at me.

  “How’s it going, Rowan?” he asks in his nasally whine. Rumor is he used to be a boxer back in the day and got his nose broken one too many times. Sounds like he was a shitty boxer.

  “All right,” I say to him. “You’re here late.”

  Ray gives me this look like, what can you do? and I just glare at him.

  “Boss sent me over to check on you.”

  “Fish doesn’t need to check on me.”

  “Doesn’t matter. The job done?”

  I nod once. “Job’s done.”

  “Good. Good.” He glances past me, into my kitchen. “That whiskey? I could use a sip, if you don’t mind.”

  “It’s fucking late, Ray. Go tell Fish the job’s done and clean-up is his problem.”

  Ray raises an eyebrow. “Clean-up?”

  “Corpses leave messes.”

  “You left the body?”

  “Of course I did.”

  Ray looks nervous. “Fish won’t like that.”

  “Fish can deal with it or not. Cops won’t find a damn fiber of mine in that whole house so I’m not too worried.”

  “Yeah, yeah. It’s just, you know. We like when they disappear.”

  “I don’t care what you like, to be totally honest.” I know I’m pushing it a little bit here but it’s late, I’m exhausted, and there’s no way I hell I can let Ray into my place.

  If he spots Allie, we’re fucked. Ray’s not the kind of guy to let shit slide. He’ll tell Fish in a heartbeat and then I’m on the hook for this girl. No, I’d have to kill the bastard and skip town, which won’t be easy with Allie in tow.

  And, okay, there’s a little pride going on here. I mean, in all my time working for the big crime syndicates out on the East Coast, I never once had them check up on me the night of a kill. Sure, the next day, but the same fucking night? That’s just insulting.

  I just need the fat asshole to leave, but he’s not getting the hint.

  “You want me to go back and tell Fish that?”

  “Tell him whatever you want,” I growl. “It’s late, I’m tired, and I think I have some brain still on my glove. So I’d appreciate it if you got off my porch.”

  Ray narrows his eyes at me but he doesn’t try to get past. He watches me carefully for a second and I think he’s about to question me, but he decides better of it.

  “Okay then. If it’s done, it’s done. I’ll tell him.”

  “Good.”

  Ray nods to himself a little. “Good,” he mutters,
turning away. “I’ll tell the boss that.”

  I watch him walk back to his truck, climb inside, and drive off. Once I can’t see his taillights anymore, I turn back into the cabin.

  Allie’s standing there in the hallway, watching me carefully.

  “Shit,” I say, wincing. “How long have you been there?”

  “I came out after he left.”

  “Fuck. I told you to stay back in the room.”

  She shrugs, still wearing those skimpy pajamas, hands still tied together.

  “Wanted to see what was happening.”

  I stare at her for a second before walking over. I back her up against the wall and glare at her, putting my hands on her hips, sliding them up slowly. She bites her lip, breathing deep, and if I didn’t know any better I’d say that the girl’s pretty fucking aroused right now.

  I move my hands down her arms and stop when I get to the rope binding her wrists. Slowly I untie the thing.

  “Thanks,” she says softly as I drop the rope on the floor. She rubs her right wrist gently.

  “Seems stupid to keep it on,” I say. “If you wanna run, you’ll find a way to get it off.” I cock my head, staring at her. “You gonna run tonight?”

  “No,” she says softly. “I don’t have anywhere to go.”

  I smile softly at her and feel a stab of guilt. “Sorry about that.”

  “No, you’re not.” She doesn’t smile, doesn’t make a move at all.

  I stay there, close to her, wondering just how far she’ll let me go in this moment. I get the feeling she’s interested in more than she’s letting on but I can’t let myself push too hard. I finally back off, stepping away.

  “Get some sleep,” I tell her. “I have a feeling we’re in for some shit soon.”

  “Why?” she asks.

  “That guy that visited? He works for the guy that hired me to kill your father. I don’t think he was happy about what I had to say.”

  “Why not? You did it.” She says it so simply and it almost makes me feel guilty.

  “I guess they wanted a full-service killing.” I roll my eyes a little bit. “Go to bed. I’ll see you in the morning. We’ll figure out what to do with you then.”