by J. D. Light
Copyright © 2019 J.D. Light
Edited by Ann Attwood Editing and Proofreading Services
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chosen spin-off coming summer 2020!
Keep an eye out for CREA!
Meet all my books!
Chapter One
Somebody just shoot me straight in the dick. That will solve all my problems right now.
I could go to the hospital and bask in the simple but incredibly painful situation high on drugs and low on annoyance. I could skip this whole fucking decorating fiasco, and stop getting hard every single time a certain, scarred man who hated me and my DNA walked into the room.
I could stop having dirty, naughty fantasies of him hate fucking me against the wall that always resulted in me breathing heavy in the middle of a meeting with a room full of shifters and getting asked constantly if I was okay because of course they heard it.
I'm not okay! I'm incredibly attracted to a man who probably wants to kill me because my father nearly killed him and a young girl when he went the wrong way on a freeway while intoxicated.
I of course hadn't known about him or the girl because, apparently, it had been a hit and run and he'd never even been tried for it. All that information had been given to me by Renn––said scarred man––within the first five minutes of meeting him.
If my father was anyone else in the entire world, I might not believe the man, or I would at least question it and look into it, but I knew in my heart it was true. Hell, I even remember the day he came home with the passenger side of his car smashed down slightly.
I wasn't even surprised that he'd fled, leaving his mess behind. He'd always been selfish and completely worthless as a father. Sometimes I thought I might have survived my childhood out of sheer spite. It wasn't like he hadn't told me several times when I was young that he'd wished I'd never been born.
Sometimes, I'd wished the same thing.
Oddly enough, Max Young was in prison, but it was for manslaughter. The mean old drunk had actually beat some guy to death with a baseball bat in the middle of a bar. The only reason he'd gotten manslaughter instead of murder two was because the prosecution had been in the middle of a pretty high-profile case and wanted a guilty plea, so they didn't have to spend much time in court. I was pretty sure there were three other men in prison for manslaughter when the violence of their crimes definitely would suggest a loss of control that was almost terrifying.
West cleared his throat, drawing my attention away from the window where I could clearly see Renn working away on the building that would soon be the office space for the CREA. It was like the third time he’d had to do that since the whole performance had started back up after lunch, because despite the fact that it was almost January, and we were in the low forties, he was working in a tight ass tank top, and the man had a fucking phenomenal body.
I sighed when I looked over at my friend, and he held up a large square that contained about ninety-seven and a half carpet samples and a chunk of tile he'd asked me about a week ago. I’d said something like sure, I don’t fucking care, and he’d been like, yeah, I like it too, and we’d finally had one fucking decision made. He’d apparently changed his mind.
"What the hell does it matter what color it is, West? I'm not here to talk about the décor. You and Lane are more than welcome to do what you will with color swatches and tile samples. I don't even match my socks. I'm here to talk about what Meyers got from the planner."
West wasn’t even listening to me. His focus was on the damn samples, holding the tile next to each tiny little carpet square like it was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen. Like it was Renn Fucking Lucas lifting his fucking shirt to wipe the sweat off of his face.
How the fuck is he sweating? It’s forty-two degrees!
"Turns out,” I said, my attention still on the man outside as he laughed about something Jax said. “He is the face. Meyers didn't even have to do anything to him. Apparently, since everything was taking too long, he got antsy and begged Meyers to let him at least make a phone call.”
Renn looked up suddenly, and it was just like the first time we’d made eye contact… which had also been through the window. My heart raced, and my knees gave a little bobble.
I needed to look away. The man probably hated me, and I didn't even blame him for that. But I was stuck. A weird part of me that I didn't understand, wanted to be out there by his side, wanted him not to hate me.
There was a slight frown on his handsome face, made more severe by the large segmenting scar that moved from almost the center of his forehead, down across the bridge of his nose, and across his cheek just under the prominent bone.
I didn’t know what it said about me that I actually liked the large, obvious scar. I didn’t like why he had it, or the idea that he’d once been in pain because of it… because of my father, but something about it made my stomach swoop pleasantly. Maybe it was the fact that he was a shifter and I was pretty sure they could make it far less noticeable, but he seemed to wear the thing without a fucking care to how it looked.
It looked good.
West cleared his throat, and I blinked, my eyes finally leaving the beautiful perfection of a man who was not meant for me to my… amused friend.
"What were you saying about Makenzie and his phone call?" West asked, looking superior, and I barely resisted the urge to flip him off.
“At first Meyers was obviously like no way, José, but the guy told him if he didn't make a phone call pretending to be somewhere else, his entire family was going to die. Meyers let him make his call because what could the guy do, right? He full-on lied to the man he was talking to telling him he'd made it out, but he was hiding out in a nearby town, and he'd let the guy know when he thought it was safe. When he got off the phone, he told Meyers everything, and begged Meyers not to let anything happen to his mom and siblings. Apparently, this guy is holding them to keep Makenzie under control."
Makenzie had information on the man that would mean the guy would send people to possibly kill him, but since Makenzie always asked for proof of life for his family, there was no way Sheridan would kill them before they'd found and killed Makenzie.
"So, this Makenzie guy, the one we thought was the Planner this whole time, he's not even really a bad guy?"
"I mean, not really, I guess, but he did stand by and just kinda let all that shit happen with the chosen."
"Because his family was in trouble," West said pointedly, and I sighed.
"Yeah. I guess I'm probably not the best person to talk to about family loyalty," I grumbled, looking back out the window, my eyes immediately finding Renn.
He was holding a sheet of plywood up against the outside of the building frame while Jax went through with a nail gun, shooting nails into the plywood and the two-by-fours all the way around, securing it.
Yesterday, the thing had basically looked like a wood skeleton. Today it was starting to resemble a building as the outside base for the walls went up a little at a time.
"Speaking of…" West set the samples down, walking over to look out the window with me, bumping me slightly so he had plenty of room. "Has Renn tried to talk to you anymore about your father?"
"What is there to talk about? Renn knows the man better than I do." I shrugged. "He's been studying him for years. All I ever really knew about the man was that he ignored me when he was drinking beer, went on a rampage through the house breaking stuff when he was drinking whiskey, and wanted to fight everyone and everything when he was drinking tequila… and I know Renn has every right to hate Max Young, and me by extension.
"
"Do you think he hates you?" West asked, just as Renn turned again toward the window, tilting his head to the side as he took in the two of us, watching.
"I don't know." There was no help for the sadness in my voice.
It wasn't something new to me to miss out on opportunities because of my father. I'd missed God only knew how many growing up. There was never much of a reliable income, since Max would go on benders and sometimes even disappear for days at a time, spending nearly every dime he'd earned at whatever temporary job he'd found that week to get by. That also meant there was no reliable means of transportation, so signing up for anything extra-curricular was a big no, since there was no way I could count on him to get me where I needed to go when I needed to go.
Thankfully, a sweet lady who lived almost a block away had taken it upon herself to fill out a food-stamps application on my father's behalf and just had him sign it. He'd resisted at first, but she'd very calmly explained to him how it would mean I could practically take care of myself, so he could just relax, and apparently, that was all the incentive he needed. After that, I at least always had food when I needed it, and only saw my father in passing from time to time in the hallway.
Someone must have called Renn's name because he turned from us quickly, nodding and walking off.
"He hasn't spoken to me since he cornered me in the kitchen and tried to ask me a bunch of questions. All of which, I didn’t really know the answers to." He'd seemed to get irritated with me, probably thinking I was protecting the man, but in all honesty, I just didn't know. I was getting pretty damn good at avoiding him anyway.
"Does he know how you feel about Max?"
"I don't know," I said shaking my head. "It doesn't matter. It still doesn't change what happened to him or that poor girl."
The front door opened, and three men walked in. I blinked in surprise to notice it was the same men I'd been watching through the window as they worked. I'd apparently dazed out hard enough to miss the fact that they'd finished drying-in the entire building, save the plastic barrier.
Renn stopped in the entrance, his gaze immediately finding me in the room, and holding there. I flinched slightly, hating that this project, which needed so many people to participate in all the different aspects of putting it together, put the two of us in the same room much of the time.
West cleared his throat and Renn blinked several times before shaking his head and moving toward the kitchen where it sounded like they might all be getting something to drink, and I sighed in relief.
"I'm gonna go," I said, giving West a small smile, and heading toward the door. I doubted they'd all be sitting in there all night. Chances were, they would come sit in the living room and watch TV, and I didn't want to be hanging around making Renn uncomfortable, or even possibly angry with my presence.
"You know he won't hurt you, right?" West asked, following me to the door. "Nobody here would let him, but he has a job to do too."
"I'm not scared of him, West." And that was absolutely true. I didn't feel threatened by the man. He didn't try to attack me that first time he saw me, and I was pretty sure if someone was going to attack out of rage, that would have been when it was. "But think about it. If something like that happened to you, would you want a constant reminder of the man who did it always right there?"
"So, you're just going to run out of every room he comes into for the rest of the time he's here to protect his feelings? Seriously?"
There was a loud bang from the kitchen, and I suddenly remembered we were dealing with shifters, and they could probably hear every fucking thing we were saying.
"Sh," I whispered harshly, but he only kinda listened, dropping his voice to an overdramatic whisper-yell.
"There's no telling how long this thing is going to take, and we really need all the help we can get, so he could be around for a long time."
"I don't know what else to do. I know nobody is actually in the wrong here, it's just a sucky situation. I can't undo what my dad did, but if I can even kind of take away some of it by not being in the room with him, then I will."
"That's fucking stupid," West said, letting his head drop back on his shoulders and I sighed, pulling the door open and walking out, leaving him there to pout about something that had absolutely nothing to do with him.
The next few days were… awkward. To say that there was a way to be subtle about avoiding being in the room with someone who was suddenly everywhere was just a flat-out untruth.
The worst one to date, had been when I was in the middle of a workout in the leap gym, and he'd walked in with Jax and Foster. Jax and Foster had given me a nod before immediately setting about getting their stuff out and ready, but Renn had stopped just inside the door, watching me like he always did.
Did the man think if he watched me enough, I'd finally crack and give him all the information I had on Max Young? Like, okay, I can't take it anymore. He once shit himself while he was passed out in his favorite recliner, and then put a blanket over it and went back to sitting in it like nothing happened the next day.
I'd put my stuff away as quickly as possible, but he'd still been standing nearly in the door way when I bolted and I'd had to squeeze by him, probably looking stupid as I pressed my back against the wall and slid down it in order to keep as much space between us as possible.
I'd barely resisted the urge to go back about fifteen minutes later and peek in on the workout for the sole purpose of watching him and drooling, but in the end, I reminded myself that even though they couldn't scent me, because of my delphinium necklace, they'd all probably be able to hear my heartbeat in my dick if I spent any amount of time watching that man pick heavy shit up.
Bending and pressing and flexing, I'd die.
The hardest part about the whole thing was the eating situation. When he'd first come to Purdy, he and a few of the others had been having pizza delivered around lunch time and they'd all been eating outside, so they could work and eat at will, but since there was less work to do while the electricians did their job, and the heating and air people did theirs, they'd started coming in and having lunch with everyone else.
That first day, I'd walked into the dining room, seen Renn sitting there across the room, of course looking up and meeting my eyes the moment I stepped through the entrance, and I'd turned slightly and headed outside to the porch swing instead of the table, and immediately texted Lane, asking him to tell me when Renn left.
The thought of ordering a pizza myself was enticing, but I really didn't want to draw attention to the fact that I wasn't eating with everyone. I'd kinda been hoping to fly under the radar. Unfortunately, that plan had only lasted four days.
Chapter Two
I was fucking furious, and I really didn’t know why. What the hell did I care if some gorgeous moron wanted to subject himself to lonely meals in order to avoid me? Except I did care, and not for the reason most might have thought.
I was mad, because it wasn't fair to him to have to sit outside and wait for me to leave just so he could sneak in and eat whatever wasn't already gone in order not to draw attention to himself or the fact that he wasn't eating with everyone else.
He was being ridiculous. I had overheard him telling West he didn't want to be in the same room with me so he didn't remind me of his father, and therefore the bad memories, but I wasn't mad at him for what his father did, nor reminded of the man when I saw Dylan.
It was clear by his actions that he was a pretty selfless guy. Nothing like Max Young. I would never blame Dylan for what that man had done, but he seemed determined to stay away from me for fear I'd… what? Freak out or something?
His heart was in the right place, but the last fucking thing I wanted was to make the man feel like he wasn't welcome in the house we were all going to have to cohabit for a while, especially since he'd been staying here longer than me. I didn't hate him, or even dislike him, though I could see how he might think that given how I'd acted when we first met, and the way I tend
ed to stop and watch him whenever he was around.
He was just… gorgeous. I'd thought so long before I actually met him. He'd still been an awkward teen when I first started looking into his dad. Tall and super thin with zits and a smile that was way too big for his face. Of course, he'd been ridiculously adorable in all the pictures I'd seen of him, though I'd never actually been around him. But over the years, things had definitely changed.
He was still tall and thin, but he'd developed some muscle, and his face had filled out enough that his huge smile no longer looked like it had been put on the wrong face. It was perfect. Somehow, I'd become completely enamored by this man who was the son of my enemy, but was also a good, caring person who was worried enough about me, a complete stranger, and my feelings, that he was willing to eat alone every day for however long it took to simply keep me from getting uncomfortable.
It made me want to go back to that first day and kick my own ass. I'd become so damn protective of this man, and it really didn’t make sense to me, since I barely knew him, but something about him told me he wouldn’t take up for himself if he needed to. He'd probably do just what he'd already done. Let some dumb asshole like me talk him into feeling bad for something that was in no way related to him.
I sighed, watching Lane send another text, and then looked out the window at the gorgeous brunet who looked down at the phone in front of him, and just nodded, rolling his eyes.
I couldn’t help but feel like I'd caused all of this with my careless words and actions that first day, just walking into the house the moment I realized who I was looking at and telling him that the big scar on my face was actually because of his father, and that the man had very nearly killed a young girl at the same time.
I hadn't done it to attack him or anything, I'd just been so surprised, I hadn't thought my actions through, and before I knew it, I was explaining how I knew who he was. It had apparently sounded like I was being a dick and possibly threatening, and I wasn't good at fixing things like that.