“This is the form for ordering from Bowie’s Distribution. We get all of our vodka…all brands from them and some of our whiskeys. The bartenders know what we use the most of and they will fill it out when we’re getting low on bottles and then they’ll bring it to you to sign. If you ever have any questions about anything they’re ordering, don’t sign it. You can always scan it to me if I’m not here and I’ll let you know if it’s an appropriate order or not. They’re all pretty good, but since you’re new I’d hate for them to try and take advantage of you.”
“Okay, I’ll do that.”
“Each one of the beer companies has their own form as well…”
“Kelsey baby!”
A middle aged man walked into the club. He was a nice looking man with close-cropped silver hair and dark blue eyes. He was dressed in a nice gray suit with a gray and white striped tie.
“Uncle Vic!”
Kelsey seemed pleased to see him. She jumped up and gave him a big hug. His eyes met with Paige’s over Kelsey’s shoulder and when he let her go he said, “Your bartenders are getting prettier.”
Kelsey hit him on the arm playfully. “This is Paige Gauthier. She’s our new night manager. Paige this is my ill-behaved Uncle Vic. Don’t pay attention to a thing he says.”
“Hello,” Paige said, holding out her hand.
Uncle Vic took Paige’s hand between his and brought it to his lips. He kissed the back of it and set it down gently on the table. “I’m honored to meet you,” Vic said.
Kelsey rolled her eyes and said, “This must be where Caine gets it from.” Caine stood up from behind the bar and said, “Did I hear my name? Vic! You’re back!” Vic went over and shook hands with his nephew.
“When did you get in?”
“Just an hour or so ago. I’m meeting with…”
“There he is…”
Paige’s entire body tensed when she heard the sound of that voice. It was her step-father. Shit! There was no way she could get up and disappear at this point. She was totally screwed. Vic and Jackson were shaking hands when Paige dared to look up.
Jackson wasn’t alone. He was with the same two hunky guys she’d seen him with at the funeral. Kelsey seemed to have forgotten Paige was there and suddenly all of her attentions were focused on the one that Paige considered the better looking of the two. She grabbed the lapel of his nice suit and brought herself up on her toes. Even in six inch heels, he towered over her. She was obviously going in for a kiss, but the mouthwatering gorgeous man brushed her off of him with one arm, gently nudging her back. Kelsey had fire in her eyes suddenly and Paige wouldn’t have been surprised to see flames shoot out at him. Paige turned her attentions back on Jackson. She was trying to make herself small in the booth so that maybe he wouldn’t notice her at all.
Would he out her right away?
Would he let them kill her?
“How long have you been back?” she heard Jackson ask Vic. He was smiling, but his tone didn’t sound all that friendly.
“I just got in Jackson. Those damned Mexican’s didn’t have anything ready on time.”
“But you have it?”
“Yeah, I have it. I dropped it in the locker as soon as I got off the plane.”
“Good. Caine pour me a bourbon and water.”
Paige could tell by the look in Caine’s eyes that he didn’t like being ordered around by Jackson Paine. He didn’t say anything however. He pulled out a glass and began to pour. That was when Paige’s eyes made contact with the blue ones of the God that stood near her ex step-father. She thought she saw his widen almost imperceptibly before he returned them to normal. She expected him to alert Jackson that she was there, but instead he left his eyes on her and seemed to be studying her face. She felt like she was melting underneath the heat of his gaze and as badly as she wanted to turn away, she was compelled not to.
The other man, the one that looked a lot like this one followed his gaze and found her face as well. Something in his eyes went dark and he was the one that gave Jackson a gentle nudge and then leaned in and said something in his ear. Paige saw Jackson’s eyes search the mirror in front of him. When he found her, his blue eyes looked like they were trying to convey a message. He brought his drink to his lips and took a sip before sitting it down on the bar and saying, “Caine, you have company in the club. You didn’t tell us.”
Jackson turned around and all eyes were suddenly on her. Caine grinned and came around from behind the bar. “I forgot you were there,” he told Paige. “Jackson Paine, this is Paige Gauthier…our new night manager. Paige this is Jackson and those are his sons Alex and Damien.”
His sons? Jackson has kids? What the fuck? Why didn’t he ever mention them?
Paige had to force herself to return her attention back to her step-father. She was just waiting for him to blurt out who she was. Instead, Jackson smiled and raised his glass. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Miss Gauthier.”
Paige forced a smile and said, “It’s my pleasure, Mr. Paine.”
She looked at Alex and Damien then. She wondered if they knew who she was. The one called Alex had a hard, cold look in his eyes. The other one…the one she felt so drawn to…his eyes held something else. She noticed up close that his blue eyes were rimmed in green. She’d never seen anything like it. He seemed almost intrigued by her and his intense gaze made it hard for her to breathe.
“Nice to meet you,” she forced herself to say to the two younger men. She wondered then why she hadn’t seen the resemblance to Jackson. Their hair and skin were much darker than his, but those eyes were unmistakably Paine. They had to be the most literally beautiful men that she’d ever seen in her entire twenty five years.
“Yeah, nice to meet you,” Alex said.
All she got from Damien the God was a tilt of his chin. Kelsey stood behind him with her tiny hand resting on the top of one of his massive arms…marking her territory, Paige thought. Damien still hadn’t taken those eyes off of her though and she felt like her chest might explode.
“Caine, I have to run some errands before I need to be back tonight, so if you’ll all excuse me…”
“Sure thing,” Caine said.
She turned to grab her bag out of the booth and felt him slap her on the ass. When she turned back around, Damien was still watching. Her insides felt like they’d liquefied and she wasn’t sure if it was worrying about Jackson telling them who she really was…or being this close to Damien. Either way, she felt like she needed to get out of there before she passed out.
“Thanks,” she muttered to Caine. “Nice meeting you all.”
She headed for the door then, trying not to run. Her breaths were coming in short gasps by the time she got outside. She felt dizzy and she was seriously afraid she might pass out. She waited until she’d hailed a cab and slid into the back seat before she finally let out the breath she’d been holding. She worked on controlling her breathing all the way back to the apartment. After she paid the cab driver she walked hurriedly into the building and sprinted up the stairs. She didn’t feel safe until she was inside the apartment with the door closed and locked behind her. She slid to the floor and put her head down between her knees. Fifteen minutes had passed when she finally calmed herself down and then there was a knock on the door.
She scrambled away from the door like it was on fire. When she was about three feet away, she got to her feet and just stood there. There was another knock. She ignored it again.
“Paige, I know you’re there. Open the door. We need to talk.”
It was Jackson…somehow she knew it would be. Paige took a few more deep breaths and went over to the door. Throwing open the lock, she pulled the door inward. Jackson and his two sons…the sons she never knew he had, stood there all looking at her with those damned intense blue eyes. Jackson had the gall to smile at her.
“It’s good to see you, Paige.”
“What do you want?” She could hardly bring herself to
speak to him. She hated this man when Greg was alive. Now he was dead and they were standing in his apartment…and Jackson was involved somehow, she knew it.
Jackson gently took hold of her shoulders and propelled her back into the room. Alex and Damien followed, closing the door behind them.
“Sit Paige, we need to talk.”
“You’re not my father. I don’t take orders from you.” She saw Jackson’s left eye twitch and she knew she was pissing him off. She didn’t care.
“Sit!” He didn’t raise his voice, but he used that tone that everyone in New York knew meant. “Don’t fuck with me.”
She sat.
Alex and Damien both stood on either side of their father. She felt all three stares boring into her. Jackson took a seat in the chair next to the sofa she sat on. The “boys” stayed where they were.
“Paige, I know what you’re doing here and you need to let it go and go back to Jersey…tonight.”
“No.”
She couldn’t be sure but she thought she saw mild amusement in Damien’s eyes. She doubted that he’d ever heard anyone blatantly defy his father…and live to tell about it. “If you know what I’m doing here then you know I can’t just go home. You know how much my brother meant to me.”
Jackson nodded. “I do and I’ve had nothing but sympathy for you and your mother. But what you’re trying to do here is going to get you killed. The Kramer’s are dangerous people. Not ones to toy with.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“You might be aware in the sense that you’ve read up on them online…but that stuff there only scratches the surface of what they’re capable of.”
“Like your bio Jackson?”
He was doing his best to be patient with her. Paige could see it in his eyes. “Yes Paige, exactly like that. Just as you have no idea what I am capable of, neither do you have any idea what they are. The difference is that I care about you and I cared about Greg, they don’t.”
She snorted and stood up. “I don’t want your professions of how much you care. If you cared so much you would be doing something. They killed him! They put a needle in his arm and ended his life and left him to look like a fucking junkie! They’re not going to get away with it.”
Jackson stood up as well. The boys were still just watching her.
“Okay Paige, I’ll make you a deal. You go home to Jersey and stay there. I will find out if the Kramer’s are behind Greg’s death and if they are…I’ll deal with them accordingly. You need to understand that you cannot do this. They will not hesitate to kill you and then you will be as dead as your brother.”
“No! I won’t go home until the people responsible for his death have paid for it.”
“Paige…” Jackson reached for her.
That was all it took to snap the piece of twine that was holding her together. She started wailing on his chest with her fists, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to break free.
“You don’t talk about Greg being dead! This is your fault! He was obsessed with bringing you down. This is your fault for being a low life drug dealer!”
Jackson let her finish and then he grabbed both of her wrists and held onto her until she calmed down. “Let go of me!” He let her go and she said, “Admit it to my face Jackson. Admit to me that Greg was right all of those years ago and that business of yours is just a bull-shit cover for your drug business!” Jackson didn’t say a word and she said, “I knew you wouldn’t do it. I knew you didn’t have the balls. I loved you like a father! I had respect for you! It was respect you didn’t deserve. You lied to my mother and my brother and me! You let my mother call my brother a liar when he told her the truth! You make me sick. I don’t doubt for a second that you’re involved in Greg’s death as deeply as the Kramer’s are. You knew he was here, didn’t you? You knew he was undercover? You had to know, you were at the funeral.”
“Yes Paige, I knew that he was here. I knew he was undercover and I did my best to look out for him.”
“You didn’t do a very damn good job did you?”
His eye twitched again. “No, I suppose I didn’t.”
“I guess the great and powerful Jackson Paine does fail after all.” The silence in the room then was deafening until she broke it by saying, “Did you have anything to do with it, Jackson? Were you involved in his death?”
Jackson looked her straight in the eyes and said, “No Paige. I cared about Greg, just as I care about you. Please go home where you’ll be safe. I don’t want to lose you too.”
“You lost both of us a long time ago. I’m not going home Jackson. Not until this is over!”
Paige eyed the man she once loved but now despised. He stretched out his long muscular arm and his hand massaged the back of his neck. His hair was dark and cut short and he looked just as handsome as he did when she was a kid. He finally raised his head, his blue eyes connecting with hers.
“Okay, but you can’t stay here in this apartment. It’s a direct link to Greg.”
“Fine, I’ll find another place…”
“You can stay with Damien. He’ll watch out for you.”
“Excuse me?”
Those were the first two words that Paige heard him speak.
“You heard me.” Jackson growled, not even looking at his son.
“I’m supposed to babysit the princess? Why can’t Alex watch her?”
“I don’t need a babysitter and none of you have the right to pawn me off on anyone!”
Alex, for the first time looked amused. Jackson did not.
“Enough!” He said raising his voice. He looked at Alex and said, “You will do some digging and see if you can find out who killed Greg. Damien…you will take Paige home with you and you will not let her out of your sight. Paige…you will listen to what Damien tells you or I will take you home myself. Now get your things.”
Continue Reading
House of Paine
More By Kylie Walker
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SCARRED
DECEIVED
ACROSS THE HALL
INDEBTED
BLINDSIDED
ASHER
BRETT
SEX TAPE
CHASE
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ASA: BLACK SKULLS MC Page 20