The Hitman's Baby: A Standalone Bad Boy Romance Novel

by Fox, Kimberly

  The waitress’ face lit up in a smile. “Why didn’t you say so?” she asked, yanking Brooke’s beer off the bar. She tossed it into the sink and bent down in front of the fridge.

  “A sister of Jack’s gets cold beer,” she said reaching into the back of the fridge for another bottle.

  The old man at the end of the bar leaned over. “I’m Jack’s father,” he said.

  “Nice try,” the bartender said to him as she opened the cold beer and placed it on the coaster in front of Brooke. The frost was sliding down the brown bottle like tiny icebergs.

  “I’m Dakota,” she said, offering her hand. “I should have known by your red hair.”

  “Brooke,” she said, taking Dakota’s cold hand in hers.

  “That’s Luke,” Dakota said, pointing to the stocky bartender who was trying to work the TV over the bar.

  “What about me?” the old man at the bar asked.

  “What about you?” Dakota asked. She picked up a peanut out of the dish on the bar and threw it at him. It bounced harmlessly off his shoulder. “That’s Marv. He is the owner of the only grocery store in town. And he’s not going to get another drink until he orders some fucking vegetables for once.”

  Marv shook his head. “This town is full of carnivores. Carnivores don’t eat salad.”

  Dakota threw another peanut at him.

  “Jack didn’t mention that his sister was going to be in town,” Dakota said, leaning on the bar. She was rubbing the bump in her belly.

  “I wanted to surprise him,” Brooke said, taking a sip of beer and then grimacing at the bitter taste.

  Dakota was eying her as she nodded. “They’ll be off work soon,” she said. “Stay near me or Luke until Jacky is here, okay?”

  Brooke picked at the beer label with her finger. “Okay.”

  The bell over the door rang and a bunch of huge shifters walked in, their heads and shoulders covered in snow. Brooke shivered as the cold air hit her. She zipped up her sweater and turned away when the big guy in front pointed her out to the other guys.

  Chairs squeaked across the floor as the men sat at a table. Mountain lions. Brooke could smell them.

  “First customers of the day,” Dakota said, straightening her white cowboy hat.

  “What do you call me?” Marv asked.

  “I’ll call you a customer when you pay your tab,” she said. “It’s quickly approaching five figures.”

  “Fair enough,” Marv said. “But what about her?” he asked, pointing to Brooke.

  Dakota clipped her apron on. “Her drink is on me.”

  She left before Brooke could say thank you. She walked over to the table of shifters and busted their balls before taking their orders. Brooke wondered what her relationship to her brother was.

  Another group entered the bar and then another and pretty soon the bar was almost full. Brooke stared at her full bottle of beer sitting in front of her as the bar filled up. She watched Dakota and Luke open beers, pour shots and laugh with the customers. This looks like fun.

  But Brooke wasn’t feisty like Dakota. She wondered if she could handle waitressing for these rugged shifters.

  The large mountain lion shifter who had pointed her out before walked up to her. He leaned onto the bar beside her. “Hello sexy,” he said, his onion breath assaulting her nose.

  She smiled tightly and turned back to her beer as he looked her up and down.

  “Nice legs; what time do they open?” he said with a nauseating smirk on his greasy face.

  “Reece!” Dakota snapped marching over, looking like she was doing a Terminator impression. “Get away from her.”

  Brooke’s sordid suitor stepped back with his hands in the air.

  Dakota marched right up to him, her cowboy hat barely coming up to his thick chin. “How would you like to get beaten up by a pregnant woman?” she asked with her finger in his face. “I’ll have Leo fire up the cage.”

  Reece still had his hands in the air as she scolded him. “I was just saying hi,” he said.

  “Well you said hi. Now go sit down or I’ll have Luke escort you to your seat.”

  The huge man glanced over at the much smaller, stocky bartender. Luke waved.

  Reece lowered his eyes. “Sorry Dakota,” he said. He turned toward Brooke and dipped his head. “Sorry ma’am. Enjoy your drink.”

  “That’s better,” Dakota said, as he slunk back to his seat. She walked over to Brooke and leaned in close. “Anyone else bugs you, just call me over.”

  Brooke was about to thank her when the bell over the door rang and a familiar smell entered the bar. She turned around on the stool.

  Dakota rushed across the bar and jumped into the arms of a hot, muscular man with a shaved head.

  Three men entered behind him but Brooke’s eyes only found one of them. The man with the long, red beard. Her big brother Jack.

  His mouth dropped and his eyes lit up when he saw her. He ran over and wrapped his arms around his little sister, squeezing her so hard that she was turning blue.

  “How come he gets to hug her and I can’t even talk to her?” Reece asked Dakota as she walked by him, back to the bar.

  She slapped the back of his massive head. “He’s her brother you dolt.”

  “Jack?” Reece whispered, looking confused.

  “What are you doing here?” Jack asked, squeezing Brooke’s arms. She missed that smile which was barely visible under his bushy, reddish beard. Brooke had always loved her big brother. He was the best.

  “Surprise,” she said. She had come here for a reason but she didn’t want to tell him what that was with half of the bar eavesdropping on them.

  He kept touching her head and looking at her funny as if she was about to disappear. “Come sit,” he said. “I’ll introduce you to my friends.”

  “Bye Marv,” she said, as she picked her coat up off the stool.

  Marv nodded and stood up. “I have to go open the shop,” he said. “Luke put it on my tab.”

  Luke stared at him, shaking his head.

  Every head in the bar turned as Brooke walked through the tables to the one against the wall. There were three guys sitting at the bar: Dakota’s boyfriend and the two others that she hadn’t noticed before. One had kind eyes with a brown ponytail and the other one was staring at her, looking like he was in shock. His sleeves were rolled up and his muscular arms were covered in tattoos. His eyes were a calm, beachy blue and his mouth was wide open.

  “Guys,” Jack said. “This is my baby sister Brooke.”

  He introduced the three guys. Dakota’s boyfriend was Grayson, and the two others were Wyatt and Hunter. Hunter, the one with the tattoos, was still staring at her like a shell shocked soldier as she sat down.

  Hunter ran his hand through his messy, wavy brown hair and finally composed himself. “What are you doing all the way up here?” he asked. “It can’t be to see this guy.” He slapped Jack’s shoulder.

  Hunter smiled and Brooke looked away shyly. He was hot. Lean and muscular with a nice smile. She could definitely picture curling up to him in front of a fire on a cold winter night. But she wasn’t here for that. It was too soon. She wasn’t ready for a relationship yet after all that she had been through. Was still going through. She was still dealing with her last one. It was the reason why she was here.

  “I missed my big brother,” she said, hugging Jack again. That was true too. It had been too long. She hugged his muscular arm and rested her cheek on his bicep for a second, smelling the fresh, pine scent of the forest.

  “Jack you never told me you had a sister,” Grayson said. Brooke noticed a large scar on his hand as he played with the coaster on the table. There was a huge circular scar on the back of his hand that was a brighter shade of pink than the rest of his skin. That’s a hell of a paper cut.

  “That’s because I didn’t want you animals corrupting her,” Jack said. “She’s off limits.”

  Brooke glanced at Hunter. He dropped his eyes to the table and
moved his lips. Did he just curse?

  “Who’s thirsty?” Dakota asked, popping up at the table with a tray full of beers. The boys all cheered.

  “Ladies first,” she said, dropping another beer beside Brooke’s first, still full, beer. “Mates second,” she said dropping one in front of Grayson. “And you suckers last.”

  Dakota placed the rest of the beers in the middle of the table. The boys jumped on them like puppies jumping on their bowls at dinnertime.

  The door rang open and the whole bar quieted down as four men walked into the bar. Brooke gasped at one of the widest men that she’d ever seen. He was an older man with a cigar hanging from his fat lips, a long, crooked nose and suspenders stretched over his massive body.

  The whole bar went silent, besides the shitty music and the occasional cough, as he walked past the tables. He looked down at Brooke’s table and she felt her blood go cold. Her brother and his friends straightened up as he looked down at them with hard, unflinching eyes.

  “Grayson,” he said with a deep, scratchy voice. He nodded slightly.

  “Mr. Cash,” Grayson said, nodding back.

  “Put this round on my tab Dakota,” this Mr. Cash said. Brooke could smell his animal but she didn’t know what it was. She had never smelled anything like it before.

  “No problem Mr. Cash,” Dakota replied. “I’ll bring over the usual right away.”

  The weaselly looking man with a mullet and a red trucker hat behind him looked outraged. “Why are you buying them drinks Daddy?” he asked, looking furious. “He cheated when he fought me.”

  “That’s enough Brad,” Mr. Cash said as he continued to the table in the back, closest to the fighting cage.

  Brad gave Grayson a dirty look and then followed his Daddy into the back. Two huge goons followed the father and son in silence. Brooke smelt a whiff of gorilla and a whiff of polar bear.

  The bar came back to life once they were sitting down.

  “Who the hell are those guys?” Brooke asked.

  “The old fart is the town boss,” Wyatt explained. “And crybaby mullet head is his spoiled, crybaby son.”

  “I better go see what they want,” Dakota said, disappearing.

  “He looks mean,” Brooke said, feeling a chill in her bones.

  Hunter leaned forward, sticking his chest out. “I could take him.”

  Wyatt and Jack burst out laughing.

  “He usually only talks this tough after his fifteenth beer,” Wyatt said. “He’s only on his second sip.”

  “What is he?” Brooke asked.

  “Hunter?” Jack said. “He’s just a grizzly bear. And a pretty mediocre one at that.”

  Hunter frowned.

  He looks even hotter when he’s frowning.

  “I meant Mr. Cash,” Brooke said. “What kind of animal?”

  “Rhino,” Grayson answered. He held up his hand with the large, pink scar. “Courtesy of his horn.”

  Hunter puffed his chest out again. “One day I’ll turn that horn into keys for my piano.” He was trying to impress her but failing spectacularly. But he was cute for trying.

  “Where was all of that tough talk when we were actually fighting him?” Wyatt asked.

  “Where are you going to put a piano?” Jack asked. “Your cabin is as small as this table.”

  “It was just…you know…a figure of speech,” Hunter said stumbling on his words.

  “Are you okay Hunter?” Grayson asked, looking at him funny.

  Hunter’s eyes shot to Brooke and his cheeks turned red.

  “I’d put my money on you,” Brooke said, trying to help him out. He smiled from ear to ear and took a sip of beer.

  Jack grabbed her hand under the table and squeezed. “Come I’ll show you around,” he said, pulling her up, not waiting for an answer.

  “We’ll be right back,” Brooke said to her brother’s friends. Hunter was staring at her with raised eyebrows.

  Jack guided her into the back of the bar to the monstrous metal cage. He pulled her behind the cage where they had some privacy. Jack leaned on the cage and Brooke leaned on the wooden paneled walls.

  “I know you didn’t trek up into another country and all the way to this shit hole for a social call,” he said, stroking his beard. “What’s up?”

  She smiled nervously. “I just needed to get away.”

  Jack crossed his big arms over his bigger chest. “From what?”

  Brooke sighed. “I was seeing a guy. A lion shifter.”

  “A lion shifter?” Jack exploded. “What did I tell you about those cats?”

  Brooke rolled her eyes. She loved her big brother but he was always trying to control her and was way too overprotective. You shouldn’t complain. That over protectiveness is what you need now.

  “He…became violent,” she whispered.

  “What?!?” he screamed out. The whole bar was looking at them through the cage. “I’ll kill him!”

  “It’s fine,” she said, placing her hand on his forearm trying to calm him down. The large vein in his neck was pulsing. That was his black bear trying to get loose. “I left him. And I just needed to get away. That’s all.”

  “Is he going to stay gone?” Jack asked. “Or is he going to be a problem?”

  Brooke ran her hand through her red hair. “He’s going to stay gone,” she lied. Alex, her ex, had not taken the news well. He had threatened to find her wherever she went and make her pay. That’s when she decided to visit her brother in the most remote location ever.

  Jack was breathing easier after hearing the lie.

  “It’s so good to see you,” Brooke said, leaning on the wall. “I don’t want you to think that I came here just for that. I missed you bro.”

  His face softened and he stepped forward and hugged her. “I missed you too sis. It’s great to see you.” He let go of her and motioned back to the table. “Let’s go catch up.”

  It felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She was safe here with Jack. Alex wouldn’t find her all the way up here.

  Would he?

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