Jace, Axel and Trevor all marked his arrival about three steps into the room and offered everything from a raised beer to shit-eating grins in the way of greeting. The tension he’d been carrying around all night seeped out of him. This was what he needed. If anyone could help him get to the bottom of whatever was eating him, it was his brothers.
He jogged up the three steps to the raised, semienclosed space and rounded the table for a chair with primo viewing. “No Viv tonight?” he said to Jace.
Jace finished off his Scotch and slid the empty out where their waitress could see he needed a fresh one. “Got a gig she’s working tonight. Some of Trev’s old buddies.”
Axel snickered. “Not thinkin’ managing a male dance review falls under your new wife’s definition of hardship.”
“Whoa,” Zeke said to Trevor. “Been a while since you’ve been in touch with your old crew.” In fact, Trev studiously avoided all reminders of his brief stint shucking clothes for drooling women.
Trevor raised his beer and eyeballed Jace over the rim. “I’m actually surprised Jace didn’t put up a fuss when I told Viv what the guys needed. They might not go full monty onstage, but backstage it’s a damned free-for-all.”
Jace stretched one arm along the back of the vacant chair next to him and smirked. “So long as they don’t touch and I’m the one burning off the sexual frustration after, I don’t care if they drop trou the second she walks in the back door. Besides, Viv worked up is a thing of beauty.”
“Ach, Christ,” Axel said. “There he goes again. Rubbin’ his good fortune in everyone’s face.”
Their waitress sauntered up the steps, hips swinging and long, uber—platinum blonde hair hanging loose to her shoulders. The impact would have been a knockout if the smile on her face didn’t feel so calculated. “Vicky sent your refreshes. Scotch for Axel and Jace, Bud for Trevor, and Bohemia Weiss for Zeke.”
Impressive. Zeke didn’t recognize the woman so she had to be fairly new. Either Vicky had prepped her good before sending her in with refreshes, or she was a woman with drive. The question was whether the drive was healthy ambition or geared toward snagging a sugar daddy.
Trevor finished off his beer and slid it to the waitress. “Thanks, Lannie. Don’t worry about us for a while. If we need you, we’ll flag you down.”
So she was after a sugar daddy. Too bad. Good help willing to learn and grow in a place like this would be a godsend to Trevor with all his success.
“You sure?” she said. “I don’t mind checking back.”
“We’re good, darlin’.” Pure calm, cool Trevor. With the life he’d been born into, the guy made it a point never to lose his head for fear of leveling justice via his fists.
Disappointment penetrated those vibrant, but all too worldly green eyes of hers a second before she spun and sashayed down the steps.
“She’s a persistent lass,” Axel said.
Trev pushed back on the hind legs of his chair and rested the butt of his beer bottle on his thigh. “A little too much for my taste. Never seen a woman scope out and target customers with big cash to spend faster than Lannie.”
“You sure she’s not a plant?” Jace said. “Never know who might be out for info.”
Trevor shrugged and took a swig of his beer. “Knox ran a check. Wouldn’t hurt to have him take another go, though.”
“Where the hell are he and Beckett anyway?” Zeke said. “I thought they were coming out tonight?”
“Knox is knee-deep in some hacking case. Beckett had a last-minute call from some socialite out in Fort Worth in need of a security detail,” Jace said.
Axel snickered and sipped his Scotch. “Bloody bastard never could say no to a pretty face.”
“More like a pretty paycheck,” Trevor said. “Beck said she’s got good long-term client potential with low risk.”
“Damn. I wanted to hear how Danny was doing with Beckett’s crew.” Zeke had been the one to introduce Danny Parker to the brothers almost two years ago. If things kept going the way they were, he was all but one vote away from being the next addition to the family.
“Not a bad word to be heard,” Axel said. “Beckett says the man’s taken to security and protection like an adolescent boy to Playboy.”
Not surprising. Danny’s future had damned near gone to hell in a handbasket his senior year in college, breaking into high-end homes and stealing what he needed for a blossoming drug habit. According to Danny, it was his dad and a serious come-to-Jesus one-on-one that had knocked some sense into the young kid. “Knox ever finish the deeper dive on Danny’s background?”
“Not much more than what we uncovered when you first brought him in,” Axel said. “Always worked at the same body shop. No major changes in relationships. His mom’s still stacking up minor drug offenses, though how the hell she’s dodging them I’ll never figure out.”
“She a looker?” Trevor asked.
“Haven’t seen a picture, but Knox has,” Jace said. “Said she doesn’t look a thing like Danny, but probably held her own about twenty years ago.”
Zeke turned his bottle on the tabletop, widening the circle of condensation around it. “She going to be a problem?”
“Don’t think so,” Jace said. “Knox found trails where Danny’s given her money, but no evidence it’s more than him making sure she keeps her distance. From what we can tell, there is absolutely no love lost between mom and the rest of the clan.”
“He’s got a sister, right?” Trevor said.
Jace nodded. “Yep. Gabrielle.”
“Gabe.” All heads shifted to Zeke. “He calls her Gabe. Says all the guys do.”
“You met the lass?”
Zeke shook his head. “No. Been by there a few times and have seen her truck out in the drive, but she’s always locked up in the bedroom when I’m there. Got a sweet ride. Another one of Danny’s custom jobs, a ‘71 Chevy C-10 with a highboy conversion.”
“A woman with a custom truck.” Trevor shook his head and knocked back more of his beer.
“Not surprising really, if you think about it,” Zeke said. “She grew up with men. Danny said their dad kicked her mom out when Gabe was little. Add to that, she works with men all day as a mechanic. Danny says she’s a really good one, too.”
Jace planted an elbow on the table and ran his thumb through the beard along his jawline. “Well, she must spend a lot of time there, because she hasn’t got much of a social life. Knox said she didn’t have one damned social media account active. No records. No tickets. Hell, all he could find in the way of pictures was her driver’s license. For a twenty-four-year-old in today’s world, she’s an anomaly.”
“Any idea how we find out more about her?” Zeke said.
Trevor tipped his head to the wide arch that fed in from the main room. “We could just ask him.”
Sure enough, Danny ambled into the room hand in hand with a tiny little brunette with supershort hair and a biker vibe. His customary wool skully was in place, this one navy blue instead of his usual gray or black. His black hair hung way past his shoulders. Blended with his dark skin, most people chalked him up as Native American on first glance, but given what Danny had shared about his dad, Zeke guessed his ancestry ran closer to India.
“I don’t know.” Zeke tapped the side of his beer with his thumb. “Any time Gabe’s come up in conversation, he’s gotten tight-lipped. I get the feeling he’s sensitive where she’s concerned.”
“Protective.” Axel twisted enough to get a better view of Danny, now introducing himself to his lady’s friends. “Not a bad characteristic in my book.”
As if he felt the four sets of eyes on him, Danny turned and locked gazes with the rest of them.
Jace waved him over.
Danny gawked, obviously surprised by the summons. Considering no one but brothe
rs, Viv or the moms ever sat at their table, the shock was understandable. Even the women around Danny seemed a bit stunned.
Still, he didn’t hesitate. If Jace’s invite made him uneasy, he didn’t show it, making his way through the casual sitting areas like he traversed the path every day.
Before he hit the top stair, Zeke stood and held out his hand. “Hey, man. Didn’t expect to see you here tonight.”
Danny clasped his outstretched palm. “Didn’t exactly plan on it, but...” He motioned over his shoulder where the brunette still waited with her friends. “Sometimes you go where goodness leads, yeah?”
He shook hands with the guys and took a chair with his back facing the crowd. Not a bad move considering how many curious eyes were pinned on him. Trevor dove in first, making small talk and asking about Danny’s gigs with Beckett.
Axel leaned in and rested his forearm on the table. “You thinkin’ Beck’s line of work is something you might be interested in long-term? Or are you more interested in building your custom work?”
Danny’s eyes widened. “Hadn’t really thought that far ahead. Can’t really pull custom work alone. Not without a bigger pipeline.”
“If Zeke’s ride is any indication, you got a serious gift.” Jace dipped his chin. “If it’s something you enjoy doing, then you should do it.”
A ringtone sounded and Danny grimaced. He slid his phone out of his back pocket, checked the home screen, and frowned. For about two seconds, it looked like he’d answer it, but he sent the call to voice mail instead and set the phone face up on the table. “Sorry.”
Before anyone could answer, the phone lit up again.
“This ain’t a job interview,” Jace said. “You need to take the call, take it. That seat won’t combust while you’re gone.”
Danny picked up the phone, scanned the men at the table, and stood. “Yeah, it’s my sister. Give me a minute.”
As soon as he hit the bottom step, Jace mirrored Axel opposite him and crossed his arms on the table. His gravelly voice was only loud enough those at the table could hear. “Well, that could prove a timely opening.”
“Timely, or altogether wrong.” Zeke jerked his head to where Danny was standing not fifteen feet away. Danny’s stare was hard and locked on some distant spot against the far wall, one hand planted on his hip and tension radiating off him hotter than a late-August afternoon in Texas. “Whatever she wants, it doesn’t look good.”
Zeke had no more finished his sentence than Danny hustled back up to the table. “Hey, guys. I hate to do this, but—”
“There a problem?” Jace said.
“You could say that. My sister’s hurt. Had some asshole tackle her while she was checking on a neighbor’s house.”
The buzz Zeke had fought to unplug since he’d walked out of Baylor’s level-one trauma center ratcheted back into top gear. “Hurt how?”
Danny shook his head. “I don’t know. Not bad enough she couldn’t call me herself, but bad enough I could hear paramedics in the background givin’ her shit for not taking treatment.”
“It’s bad enough she called paramedics?” Zeke said.
“Not her. The cops. Sounds like she walked in on a break-in next door.” He met each man’s eyes one at a time, but did it with an urgency that said he’d put his sister’s needs before his own without a backward glance. “I gotta go.”
Zeke stood. “We’ll take my car. I got my stuff in the back.”
“Man, I can’t ask you to do that. It’s all the way out in Rockwall.”
Rounding the table, Zeke slapped Danny on the back. “I know where you live. My ride was practically reborn in your garage, remember?”
“Ah, the legendary birthing place of badass hot rods and our fearless doc in action.” Axel stood and chin-lifted to Jace. “This I gotta see. You in?”
Jace threw back the rest of his Scotch, plunked the tumbler on the table, and followed his lead. “I hear Rockwall’s a happening place on the weekends. Can’t miss this.”
Trevor grinned and rose slow from his chair. “Have a feeling I’m gonna regret missing this, but I got a business to run. Y’all have fun.”
Danny stood rooted in place, his gaze shuttling between the three of them.
Axel motioned him down the stairs. “Your sister needs you, and we’re following you two. Get a move on.”
God, the look on Danny’s face was priceless, the lingering worry for his sister mingled with the disbelief he had not one, but three men at his back when he needed it. Zeke slapped him on the shoulder and jerked his head toward the back parking lot. “You heard the man. Let’s do this.”
Chapter Two
Just over the I-30 bridge, Zeke downshifted and took the first exit on the far side of Lake Ray Hubbard.
The engine protested the unwelcome yank on its reins with a throaty growl and startled Danny out his silent study of the passing scenery. “Sorry, man. I should have been giving directions.”
“Might have only been to your place a few times, but it’s kind of hard to forget.” The subdivision was basically just one long street lined with small, old-school craftsman—and ranch-style homes that looked as good now as they had thirty or forty years ago. Even better were the huge yards and scenic views. Just driving into the neighborhood was like entering a utopian time warp. “So tell me what we’re walking into.”
“Don’t know much,” Danny said. “Just know Gabe went to check on one of the neighbor’s houses and got knocked around by someone who’d broken in. She called the cops, then me.”
“You catch anything the paramedics said to her?”
“Couldn’t hear them over her growlin’ at them to stay the hell away from her.”
Yelling was good. It was when people were too out of it to give a shit, or couldn’t talk at all that spelled trouble. “She say where she got banged up?”
“Nope, but she’s not too talkative. Not in situations like this. Tends to clam up.” Danny rested his elbow on the passenger door and shoved his skull cap back an inch. “She sounded like she hurt, though. Kind of like she was holding her breath. If you knew Gabe, you’d know that means it’s probably bad.”
“When you say she tends to clam up, what’s that mean?”
For a second or two, Zeke thought Danny had zoned on him again, his gaze locked on the businesses and homes streaming by outside. “She doesn’t do so good with people. One-on-one she’s okay once she gets to know you. It’s the getting to know you part that’s tough. She comes off a little rough. Standoffish. Most people figure she’s a bitch.”
“Is she?”
Danny twisted to make eye contact. “Gabe? Ah, hell no. She’s about as sweet as you’ll ever find. She just locks up around strangers. People think it’s because she wants nothing to do with ’em, but the truth is, she can’t cope.”
“She’s an introvert?”
Danny shrugged and straightened in his seat. “We thought that was the deal at first. Or that she was really shy. Then some shit went down in middle school and high school. Dad took her to a shrink, and he said she had some kind of anxiety thing. Something to do with social settings.”
“Social Anxiety Disorder?”
“Yeah, that sounds right.”
Well, that explained why Knox couldn’t find a social footprint for her. “The doc give her anything for the diagnosis? Any meds to help her out?”
“He offered, but she wouldn’t take ‘em. Said she didn’t want drugs controlling her.”
Man, he hated hearing things like that. It wasn’t an uncommon response, but it was damned unfortunate considering the right scrip could open up a whole new world for people like her. “You don’t talk about her much. What’s she like?”
Danny huffed out a near silent chuckle. “Like I said. Sweet. Got a great eye for art. Takes care
of the whole damned neighborhood like they’re her blood.” He opened his mouth, closed it, and frowned.
“What? Her having a heart and taking care of the people around her sounds like a good thing.”
Danny shook his head. “Taking care of the neighbors isn’t the bad part. What sucks is they’re the only friends she’s got.”
“How’s that bad?”
“Because there’s not one of them under the age of sixty-five. She’s twenty-four years old. Most women her age are on the phone, ringing up their girlfriends nonstop, and out chasing men. Gabe’s got no girlfriends. Only had two boyfriends I know of, and those lasted about a week each.”
Now that was intriguing, especially considering how Danny had no problem jumping into social situations and making friends with even the nastiest personalities. “You think something happened to trigger it? Something in school maybe?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. She tried to fit in with the girls at school a few times, but none stuck. The last time I heard her mention people from school, she was twelve. Came home in tears and wouldn’t go to school for two days after that. Dad didn’t have a clue what the hell to do, so he bought her a camera. She’s been wrapped up with her art ever since.”
“Photography?”
“Sort of. More like graphic art, but she takes the pictures and then makes them into something else. You have to see it to understand.”
Rounding a wide curve in the old road, the Camaro’s headlights swept the painted Elk Run subdivision sign up ahead. Unlike the fancy rock and ironwork entrances that marked the high-end neighborhoods farther down, Elk Run’s reminded Zeke of public campsites and state boundary lines alongside the highway. They’d barely made the turn into the neighborhood before the blue-and-red flashing lights from the cruisers and ambulance ahead slashed through the Camaro’s interior.
“Damn.” Danny leaned forward a little in his seat. “She didn’t tell me it was this bad.”
“Probably looks worse than it is.” Zeke paralleled against the curb closest to the ambulance, and the headlights from Jace’s Silverado slid into the spot behind them. “Why don’t you head on in to check on Gabe, and I’ll see what the paramedics know. I’ll meet you inside.”
Wild & Sweet (The Haven Brotherhood) Page 2