by Winters, KB
“Ugly? You and Lance? I don’t believe it.”
“Why not? You have brothers, you know how hard it is to live with someone for the first time? It’s a lot and it takes a lot of patience and a lot of self-reflection to accept that you’re okay spending the rest of your life picking up wet towels off the bathroom floor.”
“That’s what maids are for,” she said with a cheeky smile as our first course, ceviche, arrived. We were on the third course, after the using the tiny fork for the oysters, sinking into lobster ravioli.
Then she gave me a serious look. “So, I have a favor to ask. You can totally say no and I won’t hold it against you, but just hear me out.”
I nodded and motioned for her to continue before I agreed to anything. I just hoped it wasn’t something crazy, something that might alter our budding friendship. “I’m listening.”
“We need a new card girl at our specialty games, which is what we call our off the books high roller games. The stakes are high, extremely high. Like obscene amounts of money high. And the security is high too, so safety isn’t a concern. Ever. We’ve got the best security team in the world.” Her blue gaze flashed with worry for a moment, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared.
“What would I have to do?” Normally Kat ran off at the mouth at every opportunity, and the fact that I had to pull details from her put me on edge.
“Just put on something breathtaking each night, exchange cash for chips and cash the players out at the end of the night. You greet them at the door and smile pretty, keeping things fun and interesting between hands. But not too interesting,” she added with a grin.
Hmm. She’d said the job involved wearing something breathtaking. Was that what all the new clothes were about I wondered as my foot kicked the shopping bags under the table?
“The tips are huge, I’m talking thousands. And it’s only Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. I can run you through some training early next week if you’re interested.”
“Wow.” I sat back as the beautiful server delivered a monkfish and salmon terrine to our table. I picked at the food and thought about what she said.
“I have been trying to figure out what I might do to fill my empty days. And nights. But honestly, Kat, I don’t need the money. Lance left me a shit ton, and after all the bills your family paid off, I’m pretty well set.”
“Come on, Vanessa, everyone needs the money,” she laughed. “But if that’s not enough of an enticement, just think about getting out of the house a few days each week and meeting a bunch of new and incredibly interesting people. And they’re beaucoup rich.”
“Okay, I’ll think about it,” I told her honestly and dug into the terrine, which had a strange texture but excellent taste. “I’m actually relieved that’s the favor. I thought this was going to be another conversation where I had to say, ‘thanks but no thanks’ to a threesome.”
Kat blinked and set her fork down before she let out a big, booming laugh that caused her to wince in pain. “Seriously? I mean I’m not surprised it’s happened to you, but I am curious. Just how many threesomes have you been invited to participate in?”
I laughed at her curious stare and shrugged. “Too many. A few Navy wives thought it would be a good way to spice up their marriages, a few couples at random bars. The usual.”
“Usual? Not for me,” she insisted with eyes as wide as saucers.
“Consider yourself lucky, it’s not an easy conversation to have. Or an easy offer to reject.” I had never been so uncomfortable in my life and I was thankful that Kat wasn’t asking that, no matter how attractive a couple she and Terry made.
“Girl, I don’t feel lucky at all. I feel like I’ve missed out on something, some kind of rite of passage.” Kat sat back trying to work up a slight pout around her pretty mouth.
I laughed. “You mean like crushing on your brother’s best friend?”
Kat laughed, and we enjoyed the rest of our lunch. I listened as she told stories about the things she’d done to get Terry’s attention over the years, and I shared stories of my time with Lance. Before we knew it, lunch was over and we made our way to Wicked Wedding, a perfect name for a place that had gorgeous dresses for every type of bride imaginable.
We ended a perfect day with rounds of champagne helping Maisie and her bridal consultant pick out her perfect wedding gown.
After Maisie picked her dream dress that made her look like a fucking princess, she turned to me and said, “So, Nessa, since we’re friends and you’re helping me plan my wedding, I have another favor to ask.”
I looked into her wide blue eyes and didn’t crack a smile. “Not a threesome, I hope?” Kat cracked herself up and fell back against the plush sofa, clutching her gut with laughter.
“A what?” Maisie’s, black brows dipped in a scowl. “Why would I…never mind. I don’t wanna know.”
“You really don’t,” I assured her.
“What’s the favor?” I said.
“I need another bridesmaid. I asked Bonnie, and she turned me down. My best friend, and she said no, can you fucking believe it?”
“I can,” Kat grumbled, looking angry as hell even as she shrugged off my shocked look.
“I’m so sorry she did that, Maisie.” I didn’t have many friends because Lance and I moved around so much, but I knew Maisie and Bonnie’d been friends since they were freshmen in college. She had to be hurting.
What could I say? “I would love to share this day with you and Virgil.”
“Really, ‘Nessa? That’s so great! Thank you, you’re the best.” She flashed a bright white smile and ducked back into the dressing room. “The absolute best!”
It wasn’t until I got home that I wondered what I’d gotten myself into.
Chapter Five
Emmett
“Want to spot me, fucker?”
I looked up at Mace’s reflection in the mirrors on the wall in front of the free weights and the weight machines. He’d pulled me out of my memories of my evening with Vanessa. My very short evening. I hadn’t been able to get her out of my mind since I’d driven her home from Kat’s that night, but shit if I could think of a way to run into her. Best I just forget about the beautiful, mesmerizing widow and focus on my job, my crew. Right now, on Mace.
Mostly the Ashby fighters used the facility to train, but all Ashby Organization employees, like Mace and the other security guys, could use it too. I flashed an amused grin and shook my head. “You’re so big and strong, spot yourself fucker.”
Mace tossed his head back, long black ponytail hanging damn near to his waist, and let out a loud guffaw that drew eyes from around the entire gym. “Funny. Get your scrawny ass over here and spot me, man. I might even give you a few pointers.
I shook my head and took my time finishing my own bicep curls. I had no problem helping Mace. He was good people with a crazy ass sense of humor, but he wouldn’t hesitate to do anything necessary to protect Ashby interests. And I mean anything. But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t make him wait.
“Just a minute,” I said, groaning as I strained against the last inch of the curl.
Mace laughed again, his brown eyes full of amusement as he watched me in the mirror, silently counting my reps.
“Your form is shit bro, better do those last three reps again.”
When I finished my set, I flipped Mace off as swiped my face and neck with my towel and then took my time walking to the bench press he favored.
“You wish. My form is flawless, but since you clearly don’t know what the fuck you’re doing, it’s a good thing Coach is here to help.”
Mace moaned in mock disgust and leaned back, getting himself ready to lift. “Where are the rest of those fuckers?”
I snickered and took my place on the other side of the weight bar. “You should hurry, and we can tell them you lifted way more than this.”
Those dark brown eyes glared at me so hard they would’ve stopped my heart if Mace wasn’t such a good dude.
He said, “Fuck you, man,” before his arms started to bulge from the weight of the bar rising over his head.
My lips curled into a smile because shooting the shit with the guys reminded me of my days in the Army. During downtime, we’d sit around talking shit, razzing each other while keeping fit and waiting for orders. Made plans for all the things we would do when we got to leave the fucking desert behind. The guys that would never leave the desert, losing them, was what got me honorably discharged. In a way.
“Yo, Em! Man you hear me?” Mace had turned on the bench, his dark brows dipped in worry and confusion as he stared at me. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” I shrugged. “Just got lost in the past for a minute. No big deal.” That was what I always told myself, war and death was no big deal. You had to expect nightmares after the shit I’d seen, the people I’d lost. Hell, even before enlisting, there was enough fucking trauma in my life that they probably should have never let me in. Between a mostly absent father, if you could even call him that, and my mom who enjoyed drinking and drugging more than she enjoyed being a mom, I’d basically been raised on the streets of Glitz.
At least until Terry found me and introduced me to Sadie Ashby and her wild family.
“We all got a past, man. Wanna talk about it?”
I let out a bitter laugh and shook my head. “I already got a therapist I don’t talk to.”
“She pretty?”
“He’s military.”
Mace frowned. “Ugh, no thanks. The offer stands, unless you get me injured, in which case, I’ll kill you myself.” He was a big man, well over six feet and at least two hundred and sixty pounds, smooth brown skin that made him look like he was some kind of fucking Samoan warrior.
Still, I wasn’t scared. I scoffed, “You and what Army?”
“Army boys are pussies,” Provo said as he arrived and took his spot at the bench right beside Mace. “Everybody knows that.”
He smirked, trying to get a rise out of me because it was his favorite pastime.
I refused to rise to the bait because I knew Provo. A former Navy SEAL, he’d been good friends with Lance, so his death had hit him especially hard. The way he coped? He was constantly spoiling for a fight. I didn’t have a problem with that except the fucker fought dirty.
“You heard that Rachel? Provo thinks pussies are weak.”
Rising fighter and all around badass, Rachel Cruz narrowed her dark gaze in Provo’s direction. It was the first time I’d ever seen him look intimidated.
Rachel checked her form in the mirror and said, “Let’s see you try to push a squalling baby out of your dickhole. Better yet, come here and let’s see what happens when I kick you in the nuts.”
She cracked her knuckles and stretched her neck from side to side, a wicked smile on her face that said she meant business.
“Asshole,” Provo growled at me and turned back to Rachel with a smile. “I said Army boys were pussies.”
“Offer still stands,” she said, her voice a low growl before she turned back to the weight bag, throwing punch after punch.
“Damn, that babe has your number, Provo. Be careful or you’ll be next.”
Mace only laughed when Provo flipped him off and stuck his earbuds in to tune out the rest of the gym. “Provo’s been a prick since Lance’s death,” Mace said when he turned to me, “but he’ll get back to normal. Whatever the fuck that means.”
I knew exactly what Mace meant. At the best of times, Provo was hard to read, but losing his closest friend was nowhere close to the best of fucking times.
“Grief takes time and that shit never fucking ends,” I said.
Some days the grief over my fallen brothers was so bad, so all-consuming that the only thing I could do was sit on the sofa and stare into the void. Or hit the gym like a goddamn fiend and work myself until the memories were nothing but a blur of images. After everything that went down with Brendan Rhymer, or whoever it was, I was only just now getting back to my gym routine, and then the video of Fiona’s murder added another layer of grief to my misery.
“Don’t I know it, man. That shit is a never ending suck of darkness and bullshit. But booze helps. And babes.”
Mace flashed a wide smile. I envied his ability to rise above the bullshit or, at the very least, put it away to deal with it when he was alone. We’d all watched Fiona’s brutal murder on that video, so we had that darkness to deal with, now, too. Maybe if I was part of the Ashby inner circle, I’d know the progress on finding out who had taken her out and that would give me some peace, some closure. But I was only an employee, so nobody told me squat. I had to deal with this on my own.
If only I could do that shit, handle it like Mace, maybe I could stop not talking to the Army shrink.
“Babes. Is that all you think about?”
“Not all,” he said and rolled his eyes. “But come on, Emmett, look around. You’re surrounded by babes in peak physical condition, and you’re not taking advantage of it. At all. Makes me wonder if little Emmett is broken or something.”
I shoved at his shoulder. “There’s nothing little about him, fucker, and I don’t shit where I eat.”
“Yeah, I get that,” he said, his tone thoughtful. “But bro, you don’t do anything but work, so how you gonna meet someone to take that pain from your eyes?”
“What’s with you, Mace?” I did some stretches while we rested between sets. “It’s like you have some spiritual umbilical cord straight to Mother Earth.” The guy always sounded like a fortune cookie.
Mace laughed. “Being in tune with nature means being in tune with yourself. Your pain and your health, your healing. It’s why I’m mentally healthy and the rest of you fuckers are…tortured.” He flashed another proud smile and smacked his tattooed chest a few times. “Plus chicks dig guys who’re in touch with their feelings. Just some friendly advice from a pro.”
That made me snicker. “Pro?” I said in his face. “Pro what?”
“Professional lady wrangler, fucker. I got more game than all of you.”
“Or lower standards,” Provo added on an exhale, dodging Mace’s flying workout glove easily. His earbuds not as airtight as I thought.
“I get what I need and so do the ladies,” Mace said, laughing off Provo, then settled in for another set.
While I spotted Mace, my mind drifted to the blue-eyed beauty with thick brown hair that my fingers itched to touch but couldn’t. Vanessa was gorgeous and sweet, completely unaware of her charms, but she wasn’t ready to move on from Lance. And even if she were, she’d probably move on with a flashy guy like Provo, who wore his badassery like a badge of honor, while I hid mine. At least according to Terry. And my shrink.
I wasn’t flashy because it wasn’t my style, but my shrink might also say it was because my dad was a flashy motherfucker who liked to flaunt what he didn’t have. Money. Jewelry. Drugs. Connections.
I didn’t need that kind of adoration. If someone wanted me around, it had to be just for me. The Ashby family, for example, hadn’t kicked me to the curb when I refused to take a fall inside the octagon.
Instead, Sadie and Jasper found another place for me within the organization, unlike my own mother who only came around when she needed money. Needed to lie low from her latest dealer or abusive boyfriend. Unlike our dad, who only showed up when he had some kind of bullshit scheme he knew Jasper or Sadie would want in on.
They never did. So I only saw my parents about three times a year, not my birthday. Not Christmas. Just…randomly.
Between my nonexistent parents and the Army, I learned a valuable lesson about solitude. Some called it loneliness, and yeah, it was lonely sometimes, but it was better to be loved for who I was because that was the kind of love that lasted. No matter how much I struggled with the dark side of the Ashby business model, and I did, the family was there when I needed them. I didn’t judge them or what they had to do, and it made my existence a lonely one. The Army had changed me, gave me a greater appre
ciation for life. It made it harder to take a life, but the Ashbys had never once asked me to do that.
That was the kind of connection I was interested in because the rest was just bullshit dressed up as something more.
Chapter Six
Vanessa
“Hey sweetheart, you on the list?” A big man with smooth, honey-brown skin, a toothy, white smile, and long black hair slicked back into a ponytail smiled down at me.
His one dark brow arched in a question. I took a step back, not that it would have done much good if the big guy wanted to harm me. I’d never seen anyone so huge in all my life.
“Uhm, list?” I said. Kat hadn’t said anything about a list in training. Just to show up sexy AF and on time.
The big guy let out a low, deep laugh that transformed his serious expression into a beautiful, welcoming smile.
“Yeah, sweetheart, you can’t get in unless you’re on the list. What’s your name?”
I flashed a confident smile I didn’t feel and squared my shoulders before I gave myself a quick mental pep talk. You can do this. You’re strong and confident and fun, and tonight you are a better version of yourself. Prettier, funnier and more together than everyday Vanessa.
“Nessa, what’s yours?” I said, sounding more like a grown-up and less like a teenager trying to crash the big kids’ party.
The big man laughed and turned when the squeak of a door sounded behind him. “Hey, boss. We got a live one here. Calls herself Nessa.”
Suddenly, Jasper, Kat’s older brother, appeared with what might in some circles be considered a smile on his handsome face.
He grunted, “Nessa, huh?”
I shrugged, deciding I wouldn’t feel embarrassed tonight, no matter how intimidating I found the man who used to be Lance’s boss. “Yeah, it felt right for the task at hand.”
Jasper’s lips twitched and something like amusement shone in his green eyes, the light above highlighting the gold flecks hidden in their depths. “Works for me. Mace, this is Nessa, our new card girl.”