by Kara Kelley
“What is that?” She pointed a finger at the thing that would surely give a barracuda pause. Fitz looked up at her question and in the light of the window she saw his eyes were blue. He smiled and her heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t one of his flirty or sarcastic smiles, it was genuine and it went right up and crinkled the skin around those stunning blue eyes.
She frowned, staring. Those eyes. She’d only seen eyes like that once before. She mentally took away his beard and shortened his hair. Chewing her lip to hold in her gasp, she blinked. Andrew Trigger—hero, first kiss, first love, and first heartbreak. Addi’s mind was pulled back in time to when he’d broken her heart.
Addi stood, rooted to the spot in front of the cabin that was deepest into the woods. Four older boys occupied it, but it was the one standing in the doorway—filling the doorway, actually—that she was there to see.
“What do you want, Addi?” His voice, normally warm, was achingly cold. She immediately felt a shiver.
“I haven’t seen you today.” She paused, watching his mouth firm. He looked around disinterested, so she continued. “I wanted to see you.” Her words sounded lame even to her own ears.
“I’m busy.”
“Oh.” Her eyes watered but she blinked them clear, annoyed at her own vulnerability. “What are you doing? I thought you might wanna teach me how to swim today like you promised.” She shoved her hands in the pockets of her shorts.
“I’m packing.”
“Packing?” Her breath stuck.
“Yes, Addi. I’m finally leaving this dump.”
“It’s not a dump.” Anger flared. It was one thing to treat her badly, but her uncle worked hard to make the camp a fun place. Her face heated and she crossed her arms both from the upset and to hold herself together. Why was Drew being so mean?
“My family’s here to get me. I was forced to be here, so I made the best of it.”
“What are you saying?” she demanded, frustrated by the quiver in her voice.
“God! Do you need me to spell it out?”
“Actually I do, ‘cause you’re not making sense.” A tear slipped down her face and she angrily brushed it off. For a flash she thought she saw his eyes soften. It was only a second but it felt like years as she read his face. He was sorry. Sorry he was saying the things he was. He didn’t mean them. Then again, she loved him and was probably imagining it to lessen the crushing pain he was causing.
“Addi, this job was my first step to being integrated back into society after four years in a young offender detention facility. Your uncle reported directly to my caseworker. When he asked me to watch out for you, I did. I had to. But if you think I felt anything beyond an urge to be out of the system, you’re wrong. It was just a helluva a lot easier to keep an eye on you if you were following me around like a lovesick puppy.”
“But… Are you teasing me? Is this a joke? I love you.” Her voice shook, so she took a breath and added to her statement in an accusing voice. “You said you loved me too!”
He looked over his shoulder at the deep chuckling from inside the cabin and Addi felt her face drain. She peeked around Drew, the boy she had trusted with her life only minutes ago. A scruffy blond man, dressed in leather with silver studs and a tattoo of the devil on his neck, was tossing stuff into a duffel bag. “I love you,” he mocked in a squeaky, fake feminine voice.
Her boyfriend laughed cruelly then and she felt as if her heart, previously cracked with his cold words, explosively shattered.
“Let’s hit the road, Reaper. Your dad has plans for you.”
“Right, Mauler,” Drew said, looking over his shoulder and then curled his lip at Addi. Tears were free-flowing down her cheeks by then and no amount of anger could stop them. “Get lost, crybaby. I’ve got shit to do.”
“You’re an asshole and I wish I never met you.”
She took three slow steps back, before spinning. Her uncle stood among more men in leather, the camp vandalized, smoldering in places, beyond recognition. Their eyes met briefly, his defeated and worried, but she was already running away. Running deeper into the forest, away from her uncle, who’d asked a jerk to look out for her and away from the boy she’d thought loved her.
“Remember how Ray was always talking about the granddaddy of all fish in the lake? Ray had the best tall tales about this giant fish and well, he finally caught him.”
Addi was only half listening as she stared. Fitz was taller, thicker, and with the beard and shaggy hair she hadn’t noticed, but his eyes—they were a dead giveaway. She swallowed hard, her heart pounding like a jackhammer in her ears.
Addi walked over to the tank and peered at the fish, frowning, still deep in thought. His name was Andrew Trigger and he said his family called him Reaper. She’d never heard the name Fitz before though. But it had been ten years. A lot could change in ten years—even a name, because this man was no doubt the boy she’d once loved.
“It’s a pike. A carnivorous fish with sharp teeth. Ray’d always warned the boys that this guy could bite off a toe,” Fitz said and gave a snort of laughter.
“I remember,” Addi answered with double meaning, quietly and Fitz continued.
“A few of those boys told scary stories about that fish around the campfire. This kid, Markus, screamed bloody murder one afternoon, swearing it was after him. It had all the campers in an uproar. When he got out of the water, it was an old piece of rope wrapped around his leg. He never lived that down.” She felt his eyes on her, which made her turn.
Why hadn’t he said anything?
She bit her cheek. Maybe he didn’t think she remembered him. She hadn’t right away, but that was only because he’d changed so much and she couldn’t really see his face with the beard and glasses.
“Uncle Ray was amazing with kids,” she whispered and caught Fitz’s nod. His eyes were closed and he gathered a breath before he opened them again.
“Anyway, he caught this beast a month ago. It had been injured so he kept it in the tank until it was ready to be released. See the scar along here?” He pointed and she leaned closer and nodded.
“I remember him mentioning something about it. He was going to put it back in the lake this week.” She rubbed her hands over her face. “Said it deserved a second chance.”
“Yeah. A second chance,” he repeated, a little dazed. Emotion welled in her so she swallowed hard, rubbed her sternum and changed the topic.
“Where’d he get the tank? It’s ginormous and beautiful.”
“Ginormous, huh?” Fitz grinned, ruining his big, tough biker look once again. He looked boyish wearing the teasing look and it made her chest flutter.
“Yes, it’s a mix of gigantic and enormous,” she defended, setting aside the knowledge of who he was for the moment. Straightening her shoulders, she stuck her chin higher. His brows rose and he bit his lip, almost hiding the smirk on his rugged face.
“Certainly,” he said through a chuckle. “Artistic license and all.” He licked his bottom lip after he released it and Addi’s belly squirmed.
“Artistic license nothing. It’s military slang from the 1940s.” It was easiest to hide her vulnerability behind useless facts.
“I see.” He was still looking at her as if she was the most amusing thing he’d ever set eyes on when he continued. “I got the tank from The Old Inn on Main Street. They finally closed and gave it to me for free as long as I moved it myself.”
“And you did?” She cleared her throat. “Moved it yourself?” She looked at his muscular arms and swallowed.
“Nah, I had help.” He winked. “Not even Arnold could carry that alone.”
“Your biker club help you?” she probed.
He smirked again and she felt like a silly little girl at his mischievous look.
“I’m a lone wolf, baby girl. Did my time in a motorcycle club and didn’t much like it. Being a one-percenter isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
She looked closer at the fish, bending at the waist to eye it.
“Was it the one that vandalized the camp?” She peeked at him and watched as he shoveled a hand through his shiny dark hair.
She realized after she said it, it was a stupid question. She’d basically just given herself away. Now he knew she remembered him.
He didn’t say anything, just looked at her intensely as if he was reading her mind. Her gut dipped and she changed the subject, looking back at the fish—this time at the lone one swimming, unbeknownst to the danger it was in.
“How was he, Drew? This last little while.” Her voice was barely a whisper, but it was filled with emotion.
“Aw, baby girl.” He was about to come to her again when she straightened, clearing the emotion from her throat.
“Can you give me a minute to change? I want to go see him now.” She went and grabbed one of her bags.
Drew nodded, hid his soft expression under hard features, and left.
“I’ll be back to get you in ten minutes. I can’t go dressed like this.” He picked up the other bag. “Wear a jacket. It gets cool on the bike.” Before she could protest, his boots clomped loudly off the porch. “I’m taking this bag to your cabin.”
She swore under her breath. The hell if she was getting on his bike. She started sweating at the thought alone. She could find her way to the funeral home—in her nice, fully loaded, five-star safety awarded car.
She washed up in the little bathroom, wondering how on earth Drew had ended up back with her uncle after what he’d done to the camp. Her uncle was forgiving but that was crazy! Drew had destroyed it with his biker friends.
After getting dressed in a pair of capri jeans with embroidered flowers down the legs and a pink, lace-trimmed peasant top, she looked through Uncle Ray’s cabinets. She wanted a few crackers to put in her belly, but there was nothing like that in her uncle’s cupboards. There were cans of baked beans and soup, and some hotdogs in the fridge but not much else.
She was just sneering at the outdated package of hotdogs with green fuzz growing in the corner when Drew knocked.
“Come in,” she hollered. Swallowing hard, she tossed the hotdogs back in the fridge.
“You ready?” She turned, still holding the fridge door open to see him standing at the door with a helmet in one big hand and his leather jacket in the other. He looked good. His hair was wet and combed, although still a little wild with natural waves, and his beard was tidier too. The bleach-white t-shirt was a contrast to his dark hair, tanned skin, and piercing blue eyes. She looked at the tattoos he wore like sleeves up his arms again. He cleared his throat so she stopped gawking and he pointed at the fridge.
“You hungry? Ray doesn’t have much. He’d been feeling like shit so he didn’t want to go shopping this week. He wouldn’t let me do it for him either.” Drew came to the fridge beside her and opened the door wider, looked at the hotdogs and frowned. He smelled clean and yet still woodsy with a hint of campfire and… paint thinner?
“I’ve been bringing him dinner from my place, complaining my woman overcooked again and was wasting my money so he’d take it.”
“Your woman?” she stammered. His woman. Addi tried to picture the woman who would be this man’s lover and felt a tinge of jealousy as if ten years hadn’t passed between them. She was once his girl. “Someone else lives here?”
“No, no one lived in the camp but Ray and me. I don’t have a woman. I’d just say that so he’d eat what I brought him.” Drew’s eyes were pinned intensely on hers, making her heart quicken its pace. “There’s been no one serious since you, Addi.”
Her heart thudded harder against her ribs and her breath stuck. What the hell did that mean? He let the refrigerator door close, but they never broke their stare. She licked her lips. The silence was killing her. Why didn’t he say something else?
“You know before you took your glasses off I didn’t recognize you.” She waved her hand, rambling. “And I misunderstood when the lawyer told me a man lived here with my uncle.” She looked down to break their fervid stare.
“He said you were very close. I dunno, but the way he said it I got the impression you were my uncle’s boyfriend.” She looked at the helmet in his hands and shook her head, feeling her cheeks heat. “No, not hungry at all.” She pointed at the helmet. “And I’m not getting on that death machine with you.”
“Wait.” He started laughing and she looked back up at him. “You thought I was with your uncle? And then when I said he was like a father to me—” He paused to laugh harder. She loved the way his eyes crinkled when he laughed.
“Baby girl, trust me, I’m always the daddy in a relationship.” His brow arced at her and she felt a tickle in her gut. She licked her lips again and warmth began to spread through her. He’s always the daddy? He must have noticed her reaction because his mouth curled on one side and his eyes drilled hotly into hers.
“And honey, my bike is not a death machine. You can trust Daddy to keep you safe.” He winked and her breathing sped up. She was sick and twisted, she decided. Her dampening palms and panties proved it. He had just turned her on by calling himself Daddy—twice. And Jesus, she was about to bury her beloved uncle. What the hell was wrong with her?
“Besides, you have no clue where you’re going. We’ll get there faster on my bike.”
“Nuh-uh.” Addi shook her head, waving her hand, palm out, at him. “My rental has a GPS and plenty of life-saving airbags. I’ll find it just fine.”
His chest rose in a sigh. “You’re still damn stubborn. Just like your uncle.” He crossed his arms. “Follow me on the bike.”
“Why? Why are you back here?” she asked, surprised the words in her mind had come out. He looked down a moment before finding her eyes again.
“You have questions and I’ll answer them, but for now we need to get to the funeral home.”
She set her jaw as he left the cabin, effectively cutting off her opportunity to demand answers. Why the hell did he think he could control everything? What made him the boss?
Because he’s a daddy. She put her hand on her forehead. Oh, God. And as much as her mind hated the idea, her body loved it.
“Screw you, pal,” she grumbled under her breath and followed. He could demand all he wanted, but he couldn’t make her follow him. He hurt her, broke her heart and her uncle’s, and maybe it was a long time ago and he’d forgotten, but she hadn’t.
She knew she was being unreasonable, but she was hangry, and hated when men thought they knew best. Especially men she’d once loved; man—just one.
And dammit, being a bitch was unavoidable; she was scared to see her strong uncle lying in a coffin—scared she couldn’t hold back her fear, grief, and exhaustion much longer.
Especially with Drew around, bringing up her past, comforting her and making her feel things she didn’t want to feel. She didn’t want to crumple.
Chapter Three
Drew
Addi had become a beautiful woman. He knew she would, but seeing her exceeded anything he could have imagined. If only he hadn’t assumed she was that sleaze reporter Rebecca Snow… if he’d actually looked at her before he’d been such a jackass, he’d have known in an instant. Those almond-shaped eyes had always undone him—so dark and deep, practically bottomless. And God, her spunk was like Sriracha sauce, heating him to his very core.
He had the urge to go to his studio and paint her right away. Which was often the only way to remove obsessive images from his mind. He knew he’d be distracted until he’d painted her. He’d painted the girl countless times, but he wanted to paint the woman.
There was an insatiable itch—no, a burn—in Drew to drop her bag and run, full speed, to his studio on the cliff and barricade himself inside, lose himself in creation, to paint her naked, in the middle of an orgasm, her head tossed back and her hair wild, her hands gripping a red silk sheet. His heart pounded and his cock hardened. He’d loved her with the innocence of youth, and he’d lost none of that love, but now he wanted her like a man wants a woman.
But Addi needed to be taken care of. And he’d promised Ray. He remembered it as if it were only yesterday.
“I need you to promise me something, Drew.” Ray’s gaunt face stared grimly at Drew as he reeled his line back a little, tugging his fishing pole slightly. Drew did the same in hopes of drumming up interest in their bait.
“What’s that, Ray? Not to screw that new waitress in your bed while you’re getting your tests done in the hospital?”
Ray chuckled. “Nah, go ahead. It’s the closest I’ll get to any action now.” It was Drew’s turn to chuckle then as Ray looked skyward and smiled. “She has some rack on her. One look at her in that tight uniform brings Ray Junior back to life in seconds.”
Drew laughed harder, rocking the small fishing boat, until Ray looked at him seriously.
“It’s Addi.”
“Addi?” Drew swallowed hard, his throat suddenly dry and the image of the waitress naked disappeared as quickly as it had come.
“When I’m gone, I need you to take care of her for me.” Ray’s mouth firmed and he held up a hand to stop Drew from speaking.
“I know how you feel and I know it won’t be easy for you.” He rubbed his neck beneath his collar-length gray hair. “She’s got no one, Andrew. No one who takes care of her—even as a young girl.
“I’m the only one who could ever take care of her, besides you. You took care of her that summer, Drew. I know you did. Once I’m gone, she’ll be lost. She’ll pretend she’s fine. Hell, she’ll probably act like she could run the world on top of everything else. She’s stubborn like me, but I know you’ll see through her smokescreen.”
“But—”
Ray cut him off sharply. It wasn’t a tone he used often so Drew shut up. “I know you love her. I even know you don’t think you deserve her, but she’s my baby and I deserve to know she’ll be cared for.”
“Ray, I’m not good for her and you know what happened last time you asked me to watch out for her.”