Halligan To My Axe (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 2)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  “So you don’t consider pot smoke harmful at all, or is it only to animals you don’t consider it harmful to?” She asked curiously.

  Uh-oh. I knew a loaded question when I heard one. The question was, what exactly was she wanting me to say? That I didn’t think weed was that bad, or that weed was the devil. Or was she only worried about her animals, and not herself?

  Jesus. I hated women’s minds. Why couldn’t they just be straight forward?

  “I think your pets will be fine. The smoke will clear out once we open a few windows, and you can do the same in your place.” I sidestepped.

  She smiled widely at me. “Nice save you just made there.”

  “How many animals do you have up there anyway?” I asked curiously.

  She blushed. “Well, quite a few actually. But they’re all in cages. And it’s only temporary. I saved them.”

  Sebastian, who’d been doing his best to ignore the woman until she said she’d saved them, looked at me with widened eyes.

  “From a facility that wasn’t taking care of them.” She hedged.

  Then little facts started sinking in, mainly in the form of a huge news story that was sweeping over the South.

  A week ago, a facility in Southern Louisiana that supposedly ‘didn’t test on animals’ had some lab equipment go missing and they suspected an ex-employee. That ex-employee being about 5’5 with black hair and gray eyes, uncannily similar to the woman standing in front of me.

  “Well, I think it’s time for you to get Monty back into his cage. The police will be here any minute.” Sebastian informed her, holding out his arms for Adeline to take the snake.

  Adeline didn’t waste any time hustling back up the stairs without a goodbye, and I couldn’t help but be intrigued. A woman that looked like her didn’t strike me as working in a testing facility at all.

  “Cops are here.” Sebastian noted a few minutes later.

  My eyes turned in that direction and groaned.

  Sebastian turned as well and barely stifled his laughter.

  “Aw, shit.” I sighed.

  “Boys,” the bane of my existence, and ex-girlfriend, Detective Annalise Hernandez, drawled.

  Annalise wasn’t a bad woman. I just liked my women a little less...brash and ballsy.

  Annalise was a seasoned detective on the Benton Police Department, and she’s beautiful. But beauty wasn’t the only thing I was looking for. I liked my women soft and warm, not cold and hard.

  I’d gone out with Annalise for nearly five months before I finally realized that no matter how much work I put into the relationship, I would never be able to make it work. Not to mention the fact that she didn’t approve of the Dixie Wardens and went out of her way to make that known.

  “Annalise,” I nodded. “How are you?”

  “What have we got?” She said briskly, ignoring the niceties that I tried to engage her in.

  Annalise didn’t know why our relationship didn’t work, and I never had the desire to explain to her that she was too much like one of the guys, rather than a girlfriend. I didn’t think she’d appreciate that too much. Instead, I’d just told her I wasn’t interested in her anymore and left it at that.

  Harsh, yes, but in the end it saved some hurt feelings on her part.

  Sebastian answered her question when she raised her eyebrows at me in question. “Older male, late seventies. Dead. Sword through the chest.”

  “Witnesses?” She asked.

  They both shrugged.

  “Alright, back off and let me do my job.” She ordered and left to speak with the officer that was first on the scene.

  “You heard the man,” Sebastian said.

  At my glare, Sebastian laughed.

  “Funny.” I growled.

  Chapter 2

  She asked me to say something sexy to her, so I whispered, “I’m a fireman.”

  - Kettle to Adeline

  Adeline

  “Can I help you?” I asked the woman on the front porch of my apartment the next morning.

  I’d just come out to get my daily fix of the hot firefighter and found the woman on my doorstep about to knock.

  That was the second time in two days that I nearly got smacked on the face.

  “I’m Detective Annalise Hernandez,” she said flipping her badge open and shut again. “I’m here to ask you a few questions. May I come in?”

  “Actually, I was on my way to sit on the porch anyway. You may join me.” I said politely, closing the door firmly behind me.

  Wouldn’t do to have Monty get out with her here.

  She looked annoyed that I wouldn’t let her inside, and I’d had to contain the urge to laugh. I wasn’t a naïve little girl. I wasn’t bringing some cop into my house. I knew better than that.

  “I have some questions for you about last night.” Detective Hernandez began.

  “Shoot,” I said just before my eyes locked on the heart-stopping, panty wetting man running down the middle of the parking lot.

  Today he was in red Nike shorts, a pair of neon yellow running shoes, and nothing else.

  Oh, boy.

  And now he was looking at me. Should I wave? Yeah, I should wave.

  He smiled at me and waved back before turning his attention back to the ground in front of him.

  “You know Tiago?” Detective Hernandez asked sourly.

  I didn’t turn to face the woman until he rounded the corner and disappeared from my sight.

  “Tiago?” I asked curiously.

  I thought I’d heard his friend calling him Kettle, not that that name was any better, but still.

  “Yeah,” she indicated the direction the man had disappeared from just moments before with her head. “That’s Tiago, AKA Kettle. Do you know him?”

  If I wasn’t wrong, I detected a hint of jealousy coming from the woman, but I couldn’t be sure. Detective Hernandez was what you would call stoic. In the five minutes she’d been here, I hadn’t seen the woman do anything but glare and look mildly annoyed.

  “No, I met him last night, but that’s it.” I replied, taking a seat on the rocking chair and taking a sip of my coffee. I had things to do today, and sitting here being interrogated wasn’t one of them.

  “Can you tell me what happened last night?” Detective Hernandez finally asked.

  I explained what happened from the time I smelled the smoke, until I went to bed later that night.

  “Did you know the deceased?”

  “No. I’ve never seen him before. Although I just moved in a little over a month and a half ago.” I explained.

  I’d heard them, but not actually made their acquaintance.

  “And did you hear anything?” The detective persisted.

  “No, I was watching a movie. I had the surround sound on.”

  “What movie?”

  It was obvious to me that the detective was trying to catch me in a lie, but my explanation seemed to appease her some.

  “I watched Black Dog. It started about an hour after I got home at six in the evening, and then went on until around nine. I smelled the smoke about twenty minutes after that.”

  The questions persisted, one after the other, until she made me start over again.

  “What did you do between the hour you arrived home and when the movie started?”

  “Jesus Christ, lady. I took a shower, masturbated on my bed to that tall, dark and handsome man who just ran past us, and then ate a frozen dinner. A kids’ one that had a brownie in it. Anything else?” I snarled.

  I was getting tired of the bullshit, and when I lost my patience, I seemed to lose the filter on my mouth. I probably shouldn’t have told her I’d masturbated, but with a quick glance at my watch, it showed I was twenty minutes late for work, and she’d been sitting here for well over thirty minutes now.

  A low masculine chuckle brought my face from the very pissed detective to the satisfied male eyes at the very bottom of the
stairs.

  Kettle was still dressed in his shorts and tennis shoes, except for the shorts were about twice as sweaty.

  A dark red line went from the waistband of the pants to about mid-thigh, and up close, I could make out each individual drop of sweat that rolled down his chest and met the waistband of his underwear.

  I hadn’t realized I’d licked my lips until Kettle started laughing and Detective Hernandez snarled.

  “Well, I’ll leave you two alone. Stay in town.” She directed towards me and stomped down the steps.

  Kettle moved over slowly so the now extremely pissed off woman didn’t run me over in her exuberance to get the hell out.

  In the meantime, I was in the process of figuring out what the hell to say to him. I’d just admitted to masturbating to the man the previous night. Before I’d officially met him. He’d probably realize I was a perv and watched him run every morning. Then he’d get a restraining order

  But before I could come up with something intelligent to say, the cocky son of a bitch decided to throw it in my face.

  “So, you were thinking of me, huh?”

  I didn’t like to be teased. Just ask my sister.

  Without another word to the rude man, I walked back into my apartment and slammed the door.

  Smug bastard.

  Luckily, I was already wearing my shirt and skirt, all I had to do was slip into my Converses and braid my hair.

  I was a high school chemistry teacher for Benton High School.

  On the weekends, I worked in a lab to help supplement my bills. Or I did until I found out they tested on living animals and stole them. Now I didn’t have a job, but at least they couldn’t report me or they’d be doing themselves more harm than good.

  It’d be easier for them just to acquire new test subjects; however, I’d destroyed quite a bit of data when I’d left, so it’d take them some time.

  “Purse, purse, purse,” I chanted, as I made my way back to the living room.

  I found it wedged in between the cushion and the back of the couch, which could very well have had to do with Monty sleeping behind the cushions.

  Digging through my purse and looking for my keys, I walked to the door, then slammed it behind myself as I started stomping down the steps.

  What I should’ve been doing was watching where I was going, instead of stuffing my head into my purse while I looked for my keys. If I had, I wouldn’t have missed the last two steps and nearly fallen flat on my face.

  Luckily, tall, dark and handsome was at the bottom to catch me.

  Unluckily, he got sweat all over the front of my shirt.

  “Ewww,” I squealed as my linen shirt clung to his sweaty skin.

  “Sorry,” he said in his deep velvety voice.

  I disentangled myself from him and then bent down to retrieve all of my belongings that were now littering the sidewalk.

  He bent down as well and started picking up candy wrappers, a coke that was three days old, and my birth control pills.

  “Here, I want those. These,” I said as I shoved the trash into his hands. “You can throw away for me when you get a chance.”

  Kettle snorted. “Sure.”

  “Do you see my keys anywhere?”

  Oh man, I was going to be really late. I was supposed to be there for driver’s ED over thirty minutes ago. Now I was going to have to listen to Jesse Lawn’s mother bitching about how she had to miss yoga class again.

  I was habitually late, though. Mrs. Lawn missed her yoga appointments a lot. The school wasn’t going to fire me, however. Nobody else wanted to deal with the little sixteen year olds that thought they knew more than their instructors.

  I’d already gotten into four fender benders this year, and it was only four months into the school year.

  “Here.” He said standing up and leaving the trash where it was.

  “You forgot that.” I pointed to the offensive objects.

  He looked down, then back up at me, and laughed. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”

  Then I watched in flabbergasted silence as the man walked over one apartment down from my own, walked down the pathway, and entered his ground floor apartment.

  The apartment I hadn’t been aware he’d had.

  The apartment that was supposed to be mine, but another person had stolen it out from under me.

  That thieving bastard!

  ***

  Kettle

  Later that night

  I watched as my new neighbor, the one I hadn’t seen in my two months of living at this place, stepped out of her car in her fuck me skirt and stupid little tennis shoes.

  She was wearing long sleeves, too.

  In the middle of October when it was ninety degrees out.

  Although, whatever job she had probably didn’t like the fact that she had tattoos.

  The tattoos I’d seen the night before, in all their glory.

  Most jobs didn’t.

  “Evening,” he called.

  She stopped and turned, looking at me on my porch.

  “What?” She snapped.

  My brows rose at her tone, and I couldn’t stop myself from standing to my full height before walking down the walkway and across the sidewalk to her. “Did I do something to piss you off?” I asked curiously.

  She was so hot and cold. Last night she was nice, maybe a tad flighty, but mostly nice.

  Same with this morning.

  Then this.

  Her arms crossed, and her breasts pushed together, drawing my eyes to her impressive cleavage.

  “Yes, as a matter of fact you did. You were the one who stole my apartment.” She said pointing to my apartment.

  I leaned back on my heels and barely contained the need to smile.

  “Uhh, I’m sorry?” I apologized. “I only called and asked for an apartment. When I got here, that’s the one they showed me.”

  “It was mine. I’d even signed a lease for it. When I came to move in that day, the manager told me she’d double leased it out and offered me that one. Do you have any idea how hard it is to carry groceries up those freaking stairs?”

  I didn’t really know what to say. I’d already apologized. What more could I do?

  “If I’m home, all you’ve got to do is knock and I’ll carry them up for you.” I offered.

  Her eyes narrowed, and then her shoulders seemed to slump. “I’m sorry. It’s just that my sister is disabled, and it scares me when she comes to visit. Which she does a lot.”

  “It’s okay. You know where I’m at if you need me.” I said, before turning to go back to my own porch.

  “Don’t you ever wear a shirt?” She asked my back.

  I turned back around with a smirk on my face.

  “Yes,” I said, shrugging. “I just don’t like to wear them when I don’t have to.”

  Chapter 3

  I love when you talk nerdy to me.

  -Text from Kettle to Adeline

  Kettle

  Two weeks later

  I set the weights down with a small clink and stood when I heard the knock on my door.

  I wasn’t expecting anybody until about an hour from now, but it wasn’t unheard of for one of my brothers to stop by and shoot the shit with me on my days off.

  I was completely thrown off guard when I opened the door to find my little neighbor, the one who’d been avoiding me at every turn for the past two weeks, standing there with her arms crossed against her chest.

  Her eyes traveled down my body, taking in the workout shorts and my sweaty chest, before meeting my eyes.

  “No shirt again, I see,” she observed. “Do you ever eat at McDonald’s?”

  I shrugged. “Occasionally. What can I help you with?”

  “I have some groceries,” she said with a wide smile.

  I couldn’t help but let a grin tip up the corner of my mouth as I followed her out the door.

  Today was much coole
r, so when I saw the long sleeved, form fitted blue shirt tucked into another skirt that barely allowed her to walk correctly, I wasn’t as surprised.

  I was surprised when she brought me up to a rental car, though.

  “What’s with the rental car?” I asked as I went to her open trunk.

  She usually drove around in a black Challenger with hot pink racing stripes.

  The car fit her to a T. This one, on the other hand, did not. It was a non-descript white Ford Taurus.

  “I had to take it into a body shop this morning. Someone hit me last night on the way home from school.” She explained sadly.

  My head turned, and I regarded her closely. “Are you okay?” I asked, strangely concerned about the woman’s welfare.

  Why I would be concerned, I didn’t know. Maybe I just liked that she didn’t just jump on my cock and start riding me. That was the main reason women came around me.

  The first person to actually look at me, without eyeing my crotch, was my VP’s woman, Baylee.

  All women ever saw when they looked at me, was the body and the cut. And if they ever got past those two things, they saw that I was a firefighter, and they really had to have them some.

  I hadn’t had a meaningful conversation with a woman in well over ten years.

  Even Annalise started dating me because I was a firefighter.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. Little shaky. The guy didn’t stop. He was in this big ass truck with a huge bumper. I’m just lucky he hit me on the passenger side, otherwise my face would’ve been introduced to his bumper.” She sighed warily.

  Something weird started to happen in my chest, and I had to physically restrain myself from going to her and holding her in my arms.

  “I’m sorry to hear that. Which body shop did you take it to?” I asked.

  I started to pick up all her bags, and then carried them all up in one go.

  “Oh, my God! I need to borrow you every time I have groceries. Can we make a standing appointment for every Wednesday at seven in the evening?” She asked, as she raced up the stairs in front of me.

  I had to chuckle. Women found the weirdest things amusing.

  “Sure,” I said. “Now, which shop did you take it to?”