Elise glanced toward the blue fluorescent lights on the alarm clock. It was eleven thirty seven in the morning. She had slept like the walking dead. The rush to get out of El Paso and the bus ride to Florida had not given her a chance to think or feel. She hadn’t been able to really sleep on the bus ride over; sort of just zoned out between a barely-there consciousness and a restless sleep. She had constantly been looking over her shoulder, wondering if Bowie or one of the Brothers of Cain would jump out and grab her.
Some of the looks Elise had received from the men on the bus had scared her shitless. It’d felt like she was a trumped-up hooker on a Saturday night, strolling Central Park, looking for her next john.
Slowly, she wiggled her way out of the center of the plush, massive bed and rolled to stay upright. The hot water from the shower last night had helped ease some of the pain, enough for her to fall into a dreamless sleep. Another one seemed like a good idea for all her aching parts before checking out her new digs. Or maybe she could take advantage of the large tub to soak her cares and pains away. Maybe later, once she figured out the hunky stud whom she was house-sharing with.
As the water rushed over her battle-scarred skin, Elise thought about her initial meeting with Caden Weldon. He oozed danger and excitement. The kind of man who knew how to take care of a problem without batting an eye. He wasn’t what she had expected at all. Thinking of the sexy man helped to ease the pain a little.
She grew up around men who were rough around the edges, but Caden was in a class all by himself. The type of man who made you forget to breathe. There was an air about him that scared the shit out of Elise. He’d sized her up, and by the look on his face he could see straight through the smoke and mirrors she was hiding behind. She didn’t care for his appraisal one bit.
Yet, at the same time, he’d carried her bag up the stairs to her new room, and hadn’t said a word about her situation. A true southern gentleman, really. Something Elise had never received from any man. Well, except for maybe her brother, but that was totally different.
Arrow had begged Elise to trust him, but trust was something that must be earned. She’d learned that the hard way with Bowie, her dad, and all the other losers who had passed through her life. A testament to her trust issue. The only person she had ever relied on was Arrow, and there had been times when she was in trouble and he hadn’t been able to do anything. Bowie was case in point. Elise had had to deal with him on her own. Until now.
She had been lucky. Fuck. That was how Elise got her nickname, dodging bullets left and right. Her brother said she had nine lives, like a cat, because she always ended up on her feet. Elise was beginning to believe she had already used up all of those trying to survive Bowie the last few years.
The lifestyle she’d grown up in was harsh. She was damn lucky she had made it for twenty-five years. The reality of it all was, Elise only had herself to depend on.
She dressed and rummaged through her duffle bag for the burner phone Arrow had given her before she’d left. After it was powered up, she took a seat on the plush mattress and got comfortable. Elise was sure the conversation wouldn’t be.
Bringing the phone to her ear, she waited for him to answer.
“Caden sent me a text last night. I expected to hear from you. Why didn’t you check in?”
“Well, hello there, Arrow. Good to hear your voice again. Why, yes, I’m doing just dandy. Thanks for asking.”
“Quit being a little shit. Why didn’t you check in?”
“By the time I took a shower, I was beat. I didn’t really sleep much over the last four days on a bumpy-as-hell bus with bruised ribs, you know? The up and down jarring kind of had me in a constant state of pain. When I got here, I crashed.”
“I was worried, Lucky.”
“I’m sorry, bro. I meant to call, but when I finally lay down, it was lights out.”
“How did it go with Caden? He wouldn’t say either way. Just that you had made it safely there.”
“He’s not what I expected.” Tall, sexy, and a little irresistible. Correction. He was sexy as hell. Dark brown bedroom eyes that viewed her with warmth and kindness, promising hours of pleasure.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s quiet. Doesn’t say much.” But man, oh man, when he did, his deep rich voice had her pulse racing off the charts. She played with the comforter, remembering the first time she saw Caden.
“You’ll adjust. Give it time.”
“Right. I highly doubt that. I’m used to tending a bar full of rowdy-ass bikers, not sitting around twiddling my damn thumbs.” She would be content to sit around and watch Caden. He looked hot in his jeans and tee leaning against the door frame. She doubted he would look bad in a brown paper bag. Shit! What are you thinking, Elise? Your ribs are still wrapped from the last asshole.
“You need to get strong again. Then you can find a job. Take a few weeks to look around the area and get familiar with your surroundings. I’m sure the weather there is a hell of lot nicer than the heat wave we’re having here.”
“I plan to check out the natives and find a place to work as soon as I can.”
She heard muffled voices in the background, and her anxiety spiked. What if Bowie was around? Her brother was taking too many chances talking to her at the compound.
“Hey, babe, I’ll talk to you soon,” Arrow said really fast before the line went dead.
It took her a few seconds to calm down from the abruptness of his hang-up. Elise realized that he was covering his tracks from nosey eavesdroppers, but she worried about him all the same. She turned the phone off and put it back in her bag.
Elise was curious about this place and its owner. She had been so nervous coming here. And then meeting the ominous man she would be housemates with for a while. Caden was an anomaly. Quiet. Reserved. Fireman. Horses ass. She’d been around his type before, stealth and calm. You don’t know what hits you when they strike. Then it’s too late. An oddity she had a need to figure out.
She got the feeling he was wary of sharing his space with her. What could she say? Elise didn’t have any other choice. Although, he did have a nice home from what she could tell so far. She had hoped he would be a pushover. Somebody who Elise wouldn’t be attracted to. But he wasn’t, dammit. Far from it. The man had her vomiting garbage about keeping the damn toilet seat up. What the hell had she been thinking?
Deep breaths.
It helped Elise calm down when she’d stepped foot on the Greyhound bus, leaving everything she knew behind. She would start over.
Arrow and Elise used to talk about moving to the east coast, but things got in the way. Hell, life got in the way. She missed him.
It was bad enough she’d left him behind to deal with Bowie and his shit, as well as the club chaos that was sure to ensue, headed up by the jackass himself. Arrow was only a prospect for the Brothers of Cain, and prospects caught shit left and right from patched members.
Elise just wished Arrow would have come with her. It was all her fault he was stuck back in El Paso. She should’ve made him come with her to Lakeview. It wouldn’t have worked, though, because he had to stay in order for the charade to work.
Now, she found herself in a new place without Arrow, and she had promised him to make the best of the situation. So, come hell or high water, she was going to dig in deep and make the best of it.
Chapter 5
A change of perspective.
Three weeks passed as he watched her from a distance, completely unaware of him ensuring her safety. There was something about the woman he couldn’t shake. Elise was made of tough stuff. She was not a pushover or a cry baby. Hit her once, and she would fall down, then stand back up, and dust herself off. Bound and determined in her pursuit to survive whatever life threw her way.
Caden had made it a habit to be gone by the time she woke up in the morning, and had only come home for a change of clothes when necessary. The high-tech security system Trident had set up for him kept Caden informed
of every move she made. He found himself checking on her way too much.
The stiffness in her walk she had showed at the beginning of her stay had subsided—she was on the mend. There’d been a few times Caden wasn’t fast enough and ended up caught in her searing gaze. She was unsure of him.
He’d overheard a conversation she had with Arrow, he presumed. She had plans to leave the house today, which meant Caden would be her shadow. Lakeview wasn’t a town known to have troubles, but he wasn’t taking any chances with her safety.
Soft, lush curves passed by the camera in the kitchen as she made her way to the coffee pot. She might be a tiny little thing compared to him, but she was perfectly proportioned in all the right places.
Caden watched her reach for the mug on the second shelf and adjusted his stance. The sight of her plump ass in skin-tight jeans and her rounded breasts contained in a small shirt caused his dick to stir, especially when the barest amount of belly flesh was uncovered. Creamy, silky skin. Caden’s mind wandered at the thought of touching her, and a hiss escaped him at the lonesome emotion forming. He forced air back into his depleted lungs.
Caden would not allow himself to act on the urge. Elise was not for him. They were practically strangers from different worlds. The only common denominator connecting them was Arrow. She was here temporarily. Long enough to find a place of her own and for him to pay his life debt to Arrow. So, why did she constantly plague his thoughts?
The day she’d knocked on his door, protective instincts had swamped Caden the moment he’d laid eyes on the broken and battered woman. It had been his motivation from the beginning. Elise was running from an abusive past, and he would make sure it didn’t catch up with her.
She had been diligently looking for a job, applying online and at different retail stores around the area. Problem was, she didn’t have any transportation. However, there were a few restaurants within walking distance, and Caden could put in a good word for her with the owners.
Turning, he exited the app on his phone and made his way down to the kitchen.
Stopping just inside the doorway, Caden took a deep breath. The aroma of hickory smoked bacon frying and freshly brewed coffee filled the air. Elise had her back to him as she swayed her hips back and forth to the music that was playing softly on the radio.
The image of her cooking in his kitchen tempted hunger in him to draw her closer. She made her way around the kitchen like she belonged, and the only problem he could foresee was the emptiness of his home when she was no longer there. He rubbed his palm across the back of his neck in an attempt to release the tension forming.
Smoky ambled up next to him to nudge his hand, and he absently stroked her on the head, lost in the moment of watching Elise cook. The jingling noise made by Smoky’s dog tags alerted her to the fact she wasn’t alone. Elise quickly spun around, and her hand landed on her breasts in surprise, but her face remained blank of any expression. The rise and fall of her chest concealed inside her tight shirt were the only indication that she was caught off guard by his presence.
“Good morning, Caden. I didn’t think you were still here. Normally, you’re out of here at the crack of dawn. You’re in luck. I just started cooking my breakfast. Want some?” She frowned at Smoky, then looked back at the stove.
Caden grunted in response and walked the short distance to the coffee pot for a cup, still reeling from the effect of this complicated woman sharing his territory.
She had still been keeping a wide berth around Smoky, a little uneasy because of the dog’s size. He’d mentioned to her more than once that her fear of the dog was unfounded. Smoky was harmless unless commanded to attack. She wouldn’t. Elise took on a badass, mean-as-fuck biker, but was scared at seeing a trained canine. It was strange as fuck if you asked him.
“Talkative much?”
Caden snapped out of his thoughts, looking in her direction, and shrugged.
“I’ll accept that as a yes and put a few more pieces of bacon in the frying pan. Shouldn’t be much longer. Nothing’s as good as coffee and crispy bacon to start your day off right. Don’t you agree?”
“If you say so,” he responded, sitting down at the bar top as she flipped the bacon onto a paper plate. The graceful action stirred him inside out. A mysterious reaction for him.
“I do.” She spun, causing the mass of curls pulled back in a bunch to fall around her face, accentuating the glint of laughter in her eyes. Her steps faltered when their gazes locked, and the plate almost lost its contents as she continued to walk over. “Here you go.”
She returned to the stove for hers and took a seat on the barstool next to Caden.
“I plan to go job hunting today. It’s time I started looking for one. I need mucho dinero, hombre. It won’t take long for the little bit of moola Arrow was able to spot me to say hasta la vista, baby.” She chuckled at her own joke. “Your place is great and all, but I don’t really wanna live here forever, you know? Besides, your favor to Arrow isn’t open ended. The first step to getting me outta here is a job.”
“What are you looking for? Maybe I could help.”
“My old man got me a gig at the club when I turned twelve, washing the dishes and helping the bitches out. Said I had to earn my keep or hit the road. It didn’t take me long to learn how to make money. I only spoke when asked and stayed in the shadows the rest of the time. When I turned sixteen, I learned the art of mixing drinks. I’ve been bartending for years at the club. It paid the bills.” Her dainty shoulders shrugged, eliciting a tightening in his chest. She was young, but she had not held on to the bitterness of not having a so-called normal childhood. “So, I’m looking for something along the same lines. I need to stay under the radar, too. Something that doesn’t require a college education, but will pay me good, too. I got my GED last year when Arrow forced me to take the course. He knew I wanted to go to college. Who knows what my future holds? Maybe I’ll go one day. For now, I do what I know. Tips are usually decent bartending if it’s the right place; on a good night I can clear a handful of Bens. It should help with the go-fund me apartment drive.” She stood and cleared the dishes, placing them in the sink. “I’m going to try to find something close by. Any places around here you suggest I hit?”
“Let me think.” He tapped his temple. “The Hideaway is a local pizza joint a couple blocks south of here, and BJ’s bar is within walking distance as well. It stays open until early morning hours on the weekend with a DJ and music.”
“What’s the clientele like? You’ve been?”
“No. Just word of mouth.”
“Okay. Thanks. I’ll stop by both and see if they’re hiring. I’ll be heading out in a little bit.”
“Want some company? I could show you around Lakeview. Put in a good word for you. People around here aren’t real open to strangers. It couldn’t hurt to have me with you,” Caden admitted, trying to remain neutral and non-threatening.
She stopped and eyed him with curiosity. “That’s not necessary. I’m positive I can find my way around. It’s not that big a town. And if I need a reference, I’ll just give them your name.”
“I insist. Smoky needs some fresh air, and I can show you around downtown, introduce you to the right folks. I need to stop by the station to make sure the schedule is posted, but it shouldn’t take long.” He yawned, very much aware of her watching him, flexing the muscles in his back as he stood. “It won’t take me long to get ready. Let’s plan to leave in about ten minutes.”
He took the stairs two at a time with Smoky on his heels. What the hell was he thinking? He wasn’t supposed to get involved with her—only protect her until she was able to find somewhere else to live and move on. He was a loner, always had been, and planned on being that way for the rest of his days. There was no place in his life for someone.
Fuck. Flashes of the past surfaced in his mind. There were too many things that could happen if his past and present collided. She could never know what he’d done. Anyone who stayed around him ri
sked the chance of it trickling down on them.
Caden clenched his fists in a death grip at his side. He wanted to strike out at something for the desire he felt pulsing through him.
Elise drove him to want things he’d never thought possible. He wasn’t the family man type. Caden chose his path a long time ago and never looked back. There were others out there who would help populate the world; it was not meant for him.
Smoky nudged his balled fist. When Caden looked down, he saw she had her leash in her mouth.
“You ready, girl? Let’s get this fucking pretense over with. The sooner, the better for my peace of mind.”
***
Elise approached Caden after talking with Tom Jenkins, BJ’s owner. The sway of her hips was sensuous, her walk lighter than before, and a radiant smile formed. Before Caden knows what he was doing, fuck all, he was smiling back at her. Her happiness was infectious. It eased the hardness he surrounded himself with.
He didn’t know why he felt this strong attraction to her, because those feelings were foreign and unknown to a man like him. What was it about this woman that had him deviating from his normal routine? There had been plenty of beautiful women who’d approached him before, and he had never reacted this way. So why now? Why this woman?
“How did things go?” He took a step in her direction. His palms itched to touch the mass of curls blowing in the wind. She made him want to draw her close and keep her safe.
“I got the job and start Friday night. He wants me to come in on Thursday for Karaoke night to get a feel for the menu and stuff, but I have a job!” She squealed and launched herself into his arms, and gave Caden a hug around the neck. He froze on the spot. An ache formed in the pit of his gut. Every soft curve of her body matched perfectly against the hard planes of his own. She was a danger to his well-being. He wasn’t even sure she liked him half the time. Tolerated him, yes. He was letting her live in his house. Was that the reason she was hugging him? He breathed in her sweetness as it slowly seeped into him. He smothered a groan when she did the same.
Burn Me Anthology Page 3