Fugitive (Misty)

by JB Trepagnier

  Klaus was done cutting my hair and I couldn’t bear to look at it short with bangs. I hadn’t even looked up as he started painting and foiling my hair to make it black. Aiden had finally put his magazine aside and those intense green eyes were focused on me.

  “I wanted my body to look like a canvas. I focused on Art Nouveau and that’s the style all my tattoos are in. You should see my back. It’s like a full Mucha painting.”

  The woman buffing his toes looked up dreamily. “Can you take off your shirt and show us?”

  Clearly, I wasn’t the only one drooling over Aiden, even if I wasn’t sure how I felt about him yet. I looked over at Aiden and he was looking around like he was unsure of himself.

  “If my granny comes out and sees me without my shirt on in front of two young women, she’s going to smack me upside my head and yell the entire car ride home.”

  Okay, that was a little adorable. The woman buffing his toes kept pleading to see his back, even though it clearly made him uncomfortable. He finally said he would give us a look, but to look fast because he was putting his shirt back on. He stood up and pulled his shift off so we could see his back. I got a good look at his chest too and his pants sitting low on his hips. I was practically drooling and I had to correct myself because I still didn’t trust Aiden’s motives.

  I concentrated on the artwork on his back, but I hardly had time to concentrate on the details before I heard someone screech his name from the corner.

  “Aiden! Get your damned shirt back on. What in hell are you thinking?”

  I looked in the mirror and there was a tiny, older lady standing by the door with her hands on her hips. She strode over to Aiden and smacked him on the back of his head like he said she would.

  “Sorry, Granny. They wanted to see my tattoos,” he said sheepishly. “Can you talk to Tasha for me? I was trying to invite her to the compound to stay for a little while, but she doesn’t know if she can trust us.”

  “Which one is Tasha and which one asked you to take off your shirt? How do you know you can trust her?” she demanded.

  “Tasha is the one getting her hair done. Andre, Casey, Gareth, and I can deal with one tiny girl.”

  “Hrmph,” she grumbled, glaring at me. “If you hurt my grandson, I’ll rip your hair out and make sure you never set foot in New Orleans again.”

  “Tasha, you’ve still got a while for that dye to take. I’m going to take my granny home. Think about staying with us and I’ll be back for your answer.”

  Aiden walked out with his grandmother, who was grumbling and bitching about Aiden taking strange girls home with him. I still didn’t think I would stay in this fortress, but I had time to think about it because Klaus was still painting my hair with black dye.

  Chapter 4

  It seemed to take forever for the dye to set, get washed out, and my hair blow dried. I thought Aiden had given up or got talked out of me staying with him by his grandmother. I was a little relieved to be honest. When it looked like he wasn’t coming back, I didn’t have to think about it anymore.

  I had just looked in the mirror and was trying to get used to my new look. The black hair made my gray eyes stand out more and it really did look good on me. I looked totally different. I didn’t look like the same girl who fled California. I meant to just leave word with Klaus to thank Aiden for the suggestion as I was gathering my bags.

  “You can tell me yourself.”

  My head snapped up. Aiden was leaning against the salon door grinning. “I told you it would work. I figured you still needed a little more information before you could trust us, so I brought the boys with me. Come meet Tasha.”

  Three beautiful men spilled into the small salon. Were all of Aiden’s friends good looking? Andre wasn’t as muscular as Aiden, but he still had lean muscles. He had dark, ebony skin and bright hazel eyes. He introduced himself and shook my hand. I knew he was a software developer from Aiden, but he didn’t give me anything more than his name and it was fine with him if I stayed in his house.

  Casey was blonde and it looked like he still kept his military haircut. He had bright blue eyes and a full pouty mouth. There was something in his eyes that said he didn’t quite trust me yet, but he wanted to. All he said to me when he introduced himself was his name and that none of them would hurt me.

  Gareth was the total opposite of Casey. He looked like total sin. Black hair, black eyes, and a little goatee. He let his hair fall into his eyes and it made me keep wanting to tuck it behind his ears. He eyed me appreciatively, but all he said to me was that he worked in private security and would know if anyone came for me.

  None of them asked what I did. Only Casey seemed a little suspicious. Hiding was lonely and it would be nice hiding with four hot men, but I also knew I couldn’t drag them into my mess. I opened my mouth to decline their offer and go back to my seedy hotel, but Aiden stopped me and held up his hand.

  “Please, Tasha. You’ve been sitting in this salon for hours. I know you know nothing about us. Come eat with us and if you decide you don’t want to stay with us, that’s that and we’ll drop it.”

  I wanted to say no, but I’d been living off gas station food or junk since I ran. I hadn’t even eaten breakfast that morning. As soon as I arrived in New Orleans, I checked into a dirty motel, then hit up the salon. I was still going to say no, then my stomach betrayed me. It twisted in on itself and let out a huge growl. I must have turned the color of a turnip. I couldn’t exactly give the excuse I had already eaten or I wasn’t hungry now.

  Aiden just gave me a knowing grin, Gareth winked at me, Casey just raised an eyebrow, and Andre gave me a friendly smile.

  “What do you say, boys? Do we take her to Neyow’s?” Gareth asked. They all nodded and look like they were sharing some conspiratorial look like they knew something I didn’t.

  Andre caught my stare. “The food is the best and it’s a public place. If we say something you don’t like, you can just leave.”

  “I’m taking my own car,” I said stubbornly. I’d go eat with them because I needed to eat, but I wasn’t staying with them. I couldn’t imagine why they wanted a strange girl to stay with them unless there was something they were hiding.

  I found out what their looks meant when I actually met them at Neyow’s. The place was packed and the wait times were really long. If I wanted to eat there, I had to talk to them and get to know them. Tricky little fucks. I was going to need a drink if eating required talking to four hot guys who wanted me to live with them.

  Neyow’s had something called Bow Wow punch and it was their signature drink, so I just ordered that. It tasted like some sort of fruit punch and I could hardly taste the alcohol, so I just kept ordering more. By the time we were actually seated, I was on my third drink and feeling much better about this dinner.

  Gareth was the joker out of the bunch and most of his jokes were dirty. He was also a huge flirt, which seemed to bother Aiden and Andre. Casey seemed uncomfortable and was eyeing the entire room like he was just waiting for something to happen. Andre wanted to explain the entire menu to me and recommend what to eat. I ordered his suggestions thinking I should probably get some food in me because my vision was starting to blur a little. I ordered another drink anyway. Our food couldn’t take much longer to get there and I’d sober up once I’d eaten.

  The guys all put me at ease and I was trying to avoid thinking about what it would be like to stay with them. They all seemed like they would be easy to live with and I couldn’t decide who I liked staring at and objectifying the most. I already knew I couldn’t. They were too nice to bring into my drama. I couldn’t let Jake ruin their lives too and they’d get charges right along with mine for harboring a fugitive, even I said I never told them the truth.

  “Tasha?” Casey said. “If you’re driving, you should probably slow down on the Bow Wows. They are pretty strong.”

  I don’t remember what happened after that. I remember Casey telling me to slow down, then the rest is just a blu
r.

  Chapter 5

  I woke up in a huge bed with a gel mattress and pillow. I stretched out, thinking I was back in California and everything with Jake had been a huge nightmare. Something wasn’t right. These sheets were silk and not my usual Egyptian cotton. I bolted into a sitting position and the room started spinning. Jolts of pain shot through my head. When my eyes cleared, I was in a spatial bedroom with all these abstract decorations. Where the hell was I? This wasn’t my motel.

  I remembered going to eat with the boys, but my memory cut off at a certain point and I couldn’t remember what happened. I didn’t even remember eating. I jumped when I heard a soft snore. I looked to the right and Aiden was sprawled in a chair next to the bed sleeping. I had to get out of here. I never agreed to this and I had no idea how they got me here.

  I tried to sneak out of bed, but I tripped over something. Someone had stuck a bucket next to the bed. Was the whole room booby trapped so I couldn’t get out? I cursed and tried to right myself, but I had already woken Aiden.

  “How do you feel, Misty?” He looked concerned, but then I noticed his eyes were roaming my body appreciatively and I realized I had no pants on. I was wearing one of the boy’s shirts.

  “Where are my pants and how did I get here?” I demanded.

  “Your clothes are in the dryer. We didn’t know where you were staying, so we brought you here after you passed out. We should have warned you the Bow Wows are mostly rum before you got that drunk. Casey finally realized and tried to stop you. You cursed him out, threw up everywhere, and we got kicked out before the food came.”

  “Oh, fuck,” I moaned, burying my face in my hands. That probably settled them wanting me to stay with them and I could go back to my motel.

  “Don’t be embarrassed. We’ve all barfed in public at one point. It did have one silver lining. We had no choice but to bring you here, but now that you’re here, you can check the place out and decide if you want to stay. They will swim on you, but there’s some sweatpants on the dresser. Andre is preparing the best hangover food you’ve ever eaten.”

  “Let me get this straight,” I said, pulling the sweatpants on while his back was turned. “I cursed one of you out and probably got barf all over you, I got you kicked out of a restaurant, and you still want me to stay? And Andre wants to fix my hangover? You guys are too good to be true. Where are you hiding the bodies?”

  Aiden chuckled. “Nowhere. And we don’t normally let anyone else live here. There was just something about you at the salon that made me want to help. The guys weren’t just there for you to meet them. They wanted to meet you too. They all got the same vibe I did. You need to be protected, Misty.”

  “You didn’t tell them to call me Misty, did you? You shouldn’t call me that either.”

  “I don’t normally lie to my friends, but they think your name is Tasha. I have a feeling Misty is your real name and what you prefer being called, but you have a reason for going by Tasha. I was hoping I could call you by your real name in private.”

  “Please, Aiden. Not even in private. No one can know the name Misty.”

  “As you wish. You should come eat. You didn’t last night and I’m sure you feel awful.”

  I did feel like shit and now I was stuck here. I’d have to eat Andre’s cooking and take the house tour because they took care of me the night before. I’d still have to tell them I couldn’t stay there and they wouldn’t understand now more than ever, but I couldn’t bring my drama into their lives.

  Aiden led me through a series of hallways to a pristine kitchen and breakfast bar. Gareth was sitting sipping coffee and Andre was bustling behind a gas top stove. Gareth hopped off his stool when he saw me.

  “How do you take your coffee?” he asked. “Or did you want tea? If you let me make you Café Au Lait, I can spike it. Hair of the dog will go well with Andre’s cooking and get you feeling better.”

  I eyed him from my stool. He was being way too nice to me. “I take it I didn’t barf on you last night.”

  Gareth wasn’t fazed at all. “Nah, you got it all on yourself and the table. I wouldn’t hold it against you if you did. I farted while a girl was going down on me once.”

  I must have turned purple. “The Café Au Lait is fine,” I mumbled. Clearly, I should have just stated my coffee choice instead of trying to drive Gareth away. I already knew it would be hard with Aiden, but Gareth would just try to one-up me.

  As soon as Gareth set the milky coffee in front of me, Andre appeared with what looked like a beautifully plated breakfast. It looked like some twist on Eggs Benedict and bacon. It looked like he worked pretty hard at making me hangover food and I just couldn’t be mean to him about that.

  “What did you do to the Eggs Benedict? Where did you learn to cook?”

  “My mother was a five-star chef and taught me everything I know about cooking. You’re eating Eggs Benedict with a crab cake instead of grilled ham and the hollandaise sauce has been infused with sausage. This is what I make the boys when they decide to get drunk. I’m the house chef. Aiden is a vegetarian, but if it were up to Gareth and Casey, they’d live off steak and burgers. I have to get a little culture in these two, even if it’s food.”

  “Andre makes a mean steak when he decides to cook one too,” Gareth said, grinning.

  I dug into my breakfast and it was weakening my resolve to say no about staying here. A gourmet chef cooking all my meals and four hot guys who didn’t care what my deal was? I could just forget Jake and hide here forever. It was too perfect and nothing was ever perfect.

  “Okay, out with it. I asked Aiden where you were hiding the bodies and he said nowhere, but you have to have bodies hiding somewhere or you all have some weird fetish that involves me staying here.”

  Aiden grinned. “No bodies and no fetishes, but if you’re looking for flaws, Casey takes his job too seriously, Gareth takes nothing seriously, and Andre is obsessed with video games.”

  I still hadn’t found out what Casey did for work and none of those sounded like major flaws. Casey was gone when I woke up and the clock on the stove said it was nearly eleven. I understood why Aiden was still here. A tattoo shop probably didn’t open until later in the afternoon. I didn’t understand why Gareth and Andre were here and not at work, so I asked.

  “I have a home office I work from,” Andre said. “I don’t need to leave the house to write code and anyone who works for me also works from home.”

  “I work private security for a single client. He has a personal bodyguard with him all the time. I’m only needed when he leaves the house. I’m on call twenty-four-seven, but I’m home often. I’m glad he didn’t need me so I could be here when you woke up.”

  “What does Casey do?”

  Everyone cleared their throats and concentrated on their food. “Casey will tell you what he does when he’s ready. Casey is a very private person,” Andre said.

  “Shall we show you the rest of the house?” Gareth said as I was finishing my coffee.

  When Aiden said fortress he wasn’t that far off. The house was set back behind trees and there was a long, narrow driveway to actually get to the house. Andre showed me his security system. You couldn’t get past the front gate without being buzzed in by one of the boys and the fence around the house was too tall to climb. Even if you tried, there were cameras everywhere and you’d get caught.

  “You see, Tasha? No one is getting in here unless we want them too. You’re safer here than any motel you stay in. You’ll have friends to talk to or if you want to avoid us, there’s plenty of space to do that too,” Aiden said.

  “And if you want entertainment, we’ve got plenty of that. You’ve got a fortress, four knights to protect you, and a gourmet chef for your castle,” Andre said.

  Damn. They were right. No one would find me here if I was careful. I’d never had roommates before, but now I was sharing a house with four hot guys.

  “I need to get my stuff from the motel.”

  Chapter 6<
br />
  I was really trying to make this arrangement work. They said I could hang out with them or avoid them, but I didn’t want them to ask me to leave after I alienated everyone in the house keeping to myself. The boys were a friendly bunch and they wanted to make me feel welcome. They never asked any of my secrets. They never wanted to know why I was hiding in their big house. They just wanted to keep me entertained.

  I tried helping Andre with the cooking, but he just shooed me out the kitchen and said he wanted to surprise me with family recipes. Instead, when he wasn’t working, I tried playing video games with him. I was pretty awful at them, but he was patient and trying to teach me to play. He seemed excited I wanted to play with him and bought a few easier games we could play together where I wasn’t constantly dying and we’d have to start over.

  Aiden seemed to want to draw me. He asked for three days if I would pose for him before I gave in. It seemed to mean a lot to him and he did help me with my new look. I never thought I’d like myself with shorter black hair, but it did look good on me even if it took a while to get used to. Aiden never let me see his sketches. I stopped asking. I knew he’d either show me when he was done or he’d want to keep it private.

  My daily route seemed to be to wake up, eat this huge gourmet breakfast, then pose for Aiden. When he was done with me and had to go to work, Andre was at work and Gareth was home. Gareth was a huge movie buff and was showing me his favorite movies. Most of them were in foreign languages with subtitles. We’d watch the movie and spend hours analyzing scenes. When Andre got off work, I’d go play video games with Andre until he was ready to cook dinner.

  I never saw Casey at all. He seemed to be avoiding me or the house. He was gone when I woke up and he must have gotten home after I went to bed. I remembered he looked a little suspicious when we first met and I cursed him out when he tried to get me to stop drinking. I wondered if he hated me now or suspected something about why I was hiding. I still didn’t know what he did for work, but everyone in the house just insisted he was always working and he’d tell me what he did for work when he was ready.