by Clara Cody
“College isn’t for everyone.”
“Dammit,” he snapped. “She has to go. What the hell is she going to do without a degree? Besides, it’ll be good for her to get out into the world, grow up a bit.”
“Letting her figure it out on her own would be a good place to start.”
“She’s not like you, Elise. She can’t do everything by herself. She needs some help.”
I sighed, crossing my arms. “I don’t really see what I could do.”
“You’re a top professor, right? Well, she’s applied to Northern University as a last chance deal. A letter from an important member of the faculty such as yourself might be just what she needs to get her foot in the door.”
I scoffed. Signing a letter of recommendation for my lazy, alcohol-abusing, spoilt half-sister was just what my career needed. Plus, the reason I took a job at a university four hours away was so that I wouldn’t have to see my family. The idea of running into Chrissy in the hallway on a daily basis made my eye twitch.
“Just so we’re clear, you want me to write a letter for my little sister, a blood relation, stating that they should admit her to the university, right?”
He shrugged. “Is there a problem?”
“Not at all. It’s not like I would be the least bit biased or anything. I’ll just make sure to be as forthcoming as possible and tell them straight out that she is my sister, so that this doesn’t backfire on me and my career at all.”
He put down his drink. “Now, wait a moment,” he said, calmly, patting a hand in the air as if to tell me to relax. “You know better than that. If you write that than it’ll be worse than writing nothing at all. You don’t even have the same last name, so who’s to know?”
“Oh, yeah, because Brunner is so different from Brunner-Kelly.” I sniffed, shaking my head. “You want me to lie, then? Jeopardize my job and everything I’ve been working for just to help your daughter?”
“And your sister!”
I pressed my lips together, terrified my father would notice them trembling. I couldn’t let him see that emotion, not now when I was so angry. “Please, spare me the importance-of-family spiel, that boat sailed a long time ago.”
“You’re making a bigger deal out of this than it needs to be, Elise.”
“Easy for you to say when it’s not your job. You never even took a day off to go to one of my piano recitals, or a baseball game. And let’s just get something straight, Dad. I didn’t want to do it all myself. I didn’t go off to a boarding school at thirteen because I was independent, I wanted to get away from this messed-up family. And I didn’t work my ass off to get into the university of my choice, pay for it myself and get my job all on my own because I wanted to. I didn’t have a choice. In case you forgot, I didn’t have anyone else to help me.”
“I would have paid. You never needed to worry about a dime—”
The waiter showed up with my wine, and he snapped his mouth shut. Still more worried about saving face than anything else. My father was turning as red as the Merlot. I mumbled a thank you, hearing the shaking in my voice, and waited until the waiter had left again. “I don’t think I’m feeling all that hungry anymore.” I snatched my purse off the back of the chair and stood.
“Elise, you don’t have to go.”
“I do, actually. I have a lot of work to get done. It was great to catch up with you again, Dad.” I raced out of the restaurant before he had a chance to try and stop me. Not that he would. My dad and I had a long history of leaving rooms, unimpeded. Tonight was nothing particularly new. Except that I had actually thought, for just a second, that he might have been sincere. That maybe he did want to reconnect somehow. But that was stupid. My dad hadn’t wanted any connection to me whatsoever since my mother took off when I was five.
I still remembered that night. My father had woken me up in the middle of the night and carried me downstairs to the couch. He wouldn’t say why or what was wrong, but I knew it was something bad. He clung to me all night, sitting there on the couch, watching old movies in the darkness. The next day he told me. Mom was gone, and she wasn’t coming back. He barely looked at me for an entire week. My aunt ended up coming and getting me, taking care of me for a few days until my dad was better. But nothing was the same after. He married Carolyn a short three months later, and I was a bad penny left over from his other life. Something he just couldn’t get rid of.
When I was thirteen, I applied to and got into a boarding school halfway across the country. I think both Carolyn and my dad were relieved. I know Margo was thrilled. She even baked a cake the night I was leaving. I didn’t eat any of it, afraid she’d spat in it or something.
And now, here I was, wiping away tears in my crappy little car because my father hadn’t wanted to reconnect after all. No, he just wanted to use me to help out his real daughter.
CHAPTER FIVE
Jason
“Hey, jerk-off!” I called out to Sean as he climbed out of his truck. “Long time, no see.”
“Yeah, what’s it been? Two weeks?”
“Still good to see you.” I went down to help grab some things, but he had all their luggage in hand. “Jesus,” I said, looking sideways at the sheer amount of stuff they’d brought. “Are you guys staying for a week or a month?”
“Ha-ha,” Lacey said, climbing out of the truck. “You have your brother’s rapier wit.”
“How’s it going, Lace?”
Lacey smiled and wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “Great. Thrilled to have a week off work for once.”
“She works like crazy,” Sean said, smiling at her. “Good thing too. I need to be kept in a certain lifestyle, and bartending doesn’t pay shit.
“It does when you’re the boss. Why don’t you quit there and come back to Wilder Lake. The bars yours too.”
“One day, brother. When Ryan’s all right on his own. He’s still learning to control his bear and his new abilities. For now, Lacey’s my sugar-momma.”
“Yeah, you wish,” she said, nudging him with her elbow.
I started towards the house beside mine. “I thought you could stay in the other house. It’s newer, and you’ll have some privacy.” I’d built it before my parents died. Once they were gone, I thought it was more fitting to be in the big house, where we’d grown up.
“Are you sure it’s our privacy that you’re worried about?” It was my turn to get her elbow in my ribs. “Maybe you have a hot date coming over?”
“Only Silvie.”
Sean pulled a face. “Come on, man!”
“How is it you’re not dating anyone, Jason? There have to be some women around town that you’re interested in.”
Elise popped into my brain for some reason. Her hair, her hips, her scowl. The way her mouth twitched when she was pissed. “Nope,” I lied. “Nobody.” I noticed Sean eye-balling me with a weird look on his face. “What?”
He looked away, shaking his head. “Nothing.”
We entered the house, and Sean put the luggage down on the floor.
“Look at this place,” Lacey gasped. “You really built it?”
“With my own two hands. Sean might have helped a bit. And Dad.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“It’s all yours, if you want it.”
“You’re starting to tempt me,” she said with a wink.
I cleared my throat and started backing out of the room. “I’ll let you guys get settled in. I gotta go open up the bar. You guys should stop by later. I know a couple people in town will be excited to see your face, Sean.”
It was a slow night for a Thursday. There was practically nobody in the bar. I was about to send the other bartender home for the night when I saw Elise sitting at the bar. She was dressed up, like she had a hot date and looked fine as hell. My momentary excitement at seeing her died when I noticed the look on her face. She was spooked. She clutched a glass of amber liquid and threw it back in one gulp. There was definitely something going on.
“H
ey Elise,” I said, walking up to her.
She jumped and her eyes darted up at me. She relaxed a little when she realized it was me. “Oh, hi. Jason, right? Sorry, I’m just a bit jumpy.”
“I can see that. What’s up?”
“I—” She started to blush. “It’s stupid, don’t worry. I’m probably just imagining it, anyway.”
“Something tells me you’re not prone to flights of fancy.” I poured a shot of whiskey, telling her it was on the house. “What’s going on?”
After a deep breath, she through back the shot. “Okay,” she said, lowering her voice. “I just came from dinner with my dad.” She rolled her eyes. “It was really more of an excuse to emotionally blackmail me, but we’ll call it dinner. Anyway, I’m pretty sure someone was following me.”
“Following you?”
“I know it sounds crazy, especially in a town like this, but I’m being serious. I was going to my hotel when I first noticed these lights behind me. They were really far back, so I didn’t think anything of it, but they were always there, the same distance away, you know? I was halfway to my hotel when I thought of how much I wanted a drink, and I remembered that the hotel didn’t have a mini-bar so I turned around.”
“And so did the lights.”
She nodded. “I was about to pass by them, but they turned down some side road as soon as they saw me. Then, a minute later, the lights were back. Just out of curiosity, I took a detour, drove around a bit. They followed the whole time.”
“Did you get a look at who was driving?”
She shook her head. “No, they stayed far enough behind, and I didn’t want to get too close. Tell me the truth, do I sound utterly crazy?”
“Not at all.” I knew the feeling well. “You’re not into anything, are you?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”
I shrugged. “Gambling debt, drugs…maybe you owe money to the wrong type of people?”
“Jesus! I’m a professor, a bird-watcher for Christ’s sake! Not some lowlife off the streets. I’m not into prostitution either, just in case you were wondering.”
“Good to know.”
She scoffed with a glare.
“Do you have any idea who might be interested in where you are, or who you’re hanging out with?”
She shook her head. “Like I said, I’m just a professor.”
“Okay, let’s go.” I grabbed my jacket from under the bar and walked around to the other side.
“Wait, what? Where are we going?”
“Just come with me.” I took her hand. It was as if bolts of electricity sparked between our fingers. Her hand was shaking. “We’ll leave your car here for now. I’ll send my brother to get it tomorrow.” I pulled her to my side as we walked through the back room. “Take care of the bar, Stacey. I’m out.”
“Okay,” she called back from the storeroom.
“I’m parked right outside,” I said, lowering my voice.
She tightened her grip on my hand. I squeezed back, wanting to reassure her. Or maybe I just wanted to hold her tighter. My mind wasn’t exactly in the right place for dissecting motivations.
I threw open the door and hurried to the truck, letting go of Elise’s hand. My skin felt cold without hers next to it.
Swiftly, we climbed into the truck. I took a look around, but there was no one. Luckily, the back of the bar was almost completely isolated from the front. I could sneak out without having to drive through the front. I pulled out of the parking lot. “Get down a second.”
“Why? What do you see?” She looked around, frantically.
“Nothing yet, but I’m going to drive past.”
“No, don’t! They’ll see me.”
I could see a dark vehicle parked on the road ahead, across from the bar. It looked like they were on a stake out. “Not if you get down, they won’t.”
“But—”
We were almost in view. No time to argue. I grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her down, her head landing in my lap. She tensed a moment, but then relaxed, resting her head on my leg. I gripped the steering wheel, trying my damnedest to look natural while we passed by and forcing myself not to think about how close she was to my crotch. “Shit.”
“What?” she whispered. “What do you see?”
It was a black SUV, the same one that had driven past my house a dozen or so times in the last few days.
“Where are you staying?” I asked when we were well out of sight of the SUV.
“The motel on the other side of town.”
“Okay. Those guys back there? They’re not playing around. And for some reason, they’ve taken an interest in you.” Probably just for talking to me. They might move on once they realized she didn’t know anything, but I couldn’t take that chance. Not after what happened to my little brother Sam. He spent a week in the hospital recovering after the beating they gave him. He moved away not long after and never came back. “We’re going to go get your things. You’re staying with me from now on.”
CHAPTER SIX
Elise
I looked up at the motel, chewing nervously on my fingernail. This was not the type of thing that normally happened to me. People didn’t follow me, no one chased me down. Most people probably didn’t even notice me. What could I have possibly done to get this kind of attention? “You know what? It’s probably nothing,” I said, speaking a little too quickly. “It was probably just my imagination. Why would anyone be following me? It’s crazy.”
“Don’t freak out.”
“No, of course not. What’s there to freak out about?”
He shifted in his seat, resting his forearm on the steering wheel and squaring himself with me. “Elise.”
The sound of my name on his lips pulled me away from my thoughts. I noticed then just how soft and kind his eyes were. You wouldn’t think a man that looked so big and strong could have eyes like that.
“It’s going to be okay,” he said. “I’m going to stay down here and keep a look out. You go up, pack your things and we’ll go. You’ll be safe with me, I promise.”
I don’t know why, but something told me I could believe him. A feeling in my gut. He certainly looked like he could take care of me, but I barely knew him. Why was it I felt so safe with him? That wasn’t like me. I nodded all the same. “Okay.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
I hurried from the truck and up to my room, shooting quick, panicked looks over my shoulder as I did. But like Jason said, there was nothing. No black SUVs, no scary guys in black suits and dark sunglasses. My room was just how I left it. My duffel bag sat on the bed, next to a folded pair of jeans and a sweater. I rushed over and stuffed the clothes into the bag, along with my bird book that was on the night stand. In the bathroom, I fumbled around, throwing all my make-up and toiletries into my little green bag.
“Where are you off to in such a rush?”
I gasped and turned at the sound, dropping my bag. My make-up went flying across the floor. A woman stood in my room by the closet. She had long, blonde hair, gently curled and glossy, like a shampoo commercial. She was gorgeous too, wearing tight black pants and an even tighter black t-shirt and jacket.
“Who are you?”
“I’m a friend. Or I could be. Call me Gina.”
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“I already know it’s not here, I had a look around.” She walked over to my duffel bag and peeked inside. “Cute panties, by the way.”
My stomach twisted. This chick had been riffling through my underwear?
She reached inside, pulling out my bird book. She scoffed. “Birds? Ha. Your life must be so exciting.”
“What do you want?”
The woman narrowed her eyes at me and flung the book across the room. She crossed to me in the blink of an eye and back-handed me. Pain exploded in the side of my head as I flew to the floor. She bent over me, pulling my head back by my hair. “You don’t ask me questions,” she hissed in my ear.
The do
or flew open with a crash. The woman released my hair and spun. Jason stood in the doorway, eyes narrowed and furious. “Jenny?”
The woman laughed. “Hey baby. Miss me?”
They knew each other? Baby? I pushed myself off the carpeted floor and scurried to the wall.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“I won’t be long here,” she said. “Just a little chat, you know, girl talk. Then I’m all yours.”
He scowled at her. “You’re working for them, aren’t you?”
“My, aren’t you a clever one.”
“What are you? Wolf, lion?”
Wolves or lions? What are those? Gangs?
He sniffed at the air like he was smelling a dirty sock. “You don’t smell like any animal I know.”
“That’s because I’m all woman, baby. What? Did you think I’m a part of their pack?” She laughed. “That I share in their cause? Please. They pay me, and I get to kill people. The benefits are shit, but what are ya gonna do?”
What the hell were they talking about? Wolves and animals and what not? Meanwhile I was backed up against the wall, hugging my knees to my chest. I noticed my book sat just a few feet from me. It was strong. Heavy. A book like that could pack a wallop.
“Leave her out of this, Jenny. She doesn’t know anything.”
“Says you. Give me ten minutes alone with her, and I’ll have her all figured out.” She gave me a nauseating grin. “We’ll be best friends.”
My stomach turned. She didn’t just want to scare me. She wanted to torture me to see what I knew. What the hell was I supposed to know, anyway? Why me? I didn’t know either of these people, so how had I got caught up in their shit?
“You won’t touch her,” Jason said, clenching his fists.
Got that right. I scooted over as quietly as possible and picked my book up, tucking it behind my back.
“And what are you going to do to stop us, Jason?” She laughed. I leapt to my feet, swinging the book over my head. “Unless you want to go another—”
The book made a heavy thunk sound as it came down on her head. She crumpled to the floor in a heap.