Deliciously Bitter (Naked Brews Book 3)

by KB Jacobs

  Alex took charge. “We’re in the process of relocating our offices into the second floor above the new Brew Pub. You could work up there or in the old office. Your choice.”

  He nodded. “I know you have a business to continue running here. Where do you need to be able to work? I don’t want to get in your way any more than necessary. I’ll probably be here the rest of the day.”

  “We finished switching over the main computer system this morning. So, how about you set up camp in the old office?”

  The detective nodded, his lips compressed in a tight line. He stepped a bit closer and lowered his voice. “We can talk more later when we have better privacy, but I highly recommend you put off the opening of the Brew Pub until this situation is resolved.”

  “No!” Alex shook her head emphatically and squared her jaw in anger. “We’re Americans. We don’t bow down to any coward who wants to use terror and intimidation to make a point. The Brew Pub will open, and we’ll celebrate the Fourth with the best damn beer made in the Rocky Mountains. And if anyone has an issue with that, they can suck my dick.” The Naked Brews crew whooped, hollered, and clapped. Someone yelled out, “Hey, you don’t have a dick, Alex.”

  “It was figurative, Colby. Work with me.” But her face flushed red with embarrassment. “It means the same thing, regardless.”

  Detective Murdock nodded, but he didn’t look happy about it. He turned with a sigh and took a moment to look over the employees. “Warner, let’s start with you. Come on. I need to ask you some questions.”

  I didn’t know if being Warner’s brother made questioning easier or harder.

  As they walked away, I pulled Alex to my side. “That was hot,” I whispered quietly into her ear.

  She shivered and her eyes darkened.

  I wanted to explore that more, but first, I had a responsibility to keep everyone safe. “I understand what you were saying, but maybe we should take a bit more time to consider the detective’s advice. This could be really dangerous, Alex, and not just to everyone who works here.” Although that was bad enough, the thought of her getting hurt made me feel physically ill.

  She nodded. “I get that. I do, but this has been going on for months. We can’t stop running Naked Brews because of fear. As it is, I have no idea how we’ll recover from this. We can’t fulfill half our orders without bottling capability. We can still deliver on the kegs, but bottling by hand is just too time consuming. I don’t know what we’re going to do. Damn, I don’t want to cancel those orders.” She gazed over at the workers who counted on their Naked Brews employment to survive.

  Knowing families counted on the business was a lot of pressure. There was really no debate here.

  “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do.” I led her up the stairs to the new office area and pushed her toward the computer. “I know you’ve been involved with the brewery long enough to have a good idea of the needs for equipment. Think expansion, because the brewery is already stretched to capacity with the equipment that just imploded. Find me a new bottling system to order. I’ll pay for it and deal with the fallout from Lake when she gets home. We’ll work it out. Right now, the most important thing is keeping the brewery up and running. While you do that, I have a couple of calls to make.”

  I pulled a business card from my wallet. They needed more security around here especially for the opening. Money brought power, and in situations like this, I wasn’t afraid to use it or my name. I would do anything and everything to keep these people safe. No one could stop me.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Alex

  “Have you called Lake?” Detective Murdock rested both hands on the old metal desk. After almost six hours of talking to every employee in the brewery, he looked as tired as I felt.

  “No, and I’m not going to.” What would be the point? Lake was half the world away in Ireland. Ruining her honeymoon wouldn’t change the outcome. The detective had pretty much admitted he didn’t have any leads, and this would likely be added to the case file as one more mysterious occurrence. “We don’t even know if was intentional.”

  He looked up at me like I’d just suggested water didn’t cause drowning.

  “Fine.” I threw my hands up and stood from the old chair. “It was totally intentional. I know it. You know it. Every guy in here today knows it. It still doesn’t change that we aren’t any closer to figuring out who is responsible. Dragging Lake back across the ocean in the middle of her honeymoon isn’t going to change that.”

  “You’re right.” The detective stood and gathered up the pages of notes spread over the desk. “I wish I had more to tell you, but this leaves us where we’ve been for the past several months. Scratching our heads.”

  I rubbed at the headache growing at my temples. It had been one hell of a day, and I still had at least two more hours of work waiting for me in the office upstairs. “The brewery is open to you if you think of anything else you need.”

  We walked out through the tasting bar area to the renovated entrance. Detective Murdock paused at the door. “I hope you’ll think about what I said earlier. These attacks aren’t stopping, and that puts all of you in danger.” He glanced at the darkened brewery behind me. “You aren’t the only one left, are you?”

  I stuck my head into the entrance room. A brand new mountain bike leaned against the wall. As tired as I was, a zing of excitement flashed across my chest. “No, Damian is here.”

  Murdock nodded. “Until this is over, you should keep him close.”

  Zing. Zing. Zing.

  “Noted. Good night, detective.”

  He gave me a grim smile and headed to his car in the dark parking lot.

  The brewery felt emptier than I’d ever seen. Almost all the lights were out except for the new office space upstairs. Blinds covered the glass walls overlooking the tasting bar, but a warm yellow glow shown behind them. Damian was up there somewhere.

  What the hell was I going to do with him?

  The last thing I had time for was anything at all romantic. The Brew Pub would be opening in no time, we needed to get a new bottling system in here before we fell off schedule, I still had to hire a new sales manager, and someone was trying to take down the whole brewery. Sexy times with the wounded but handsome Damian didn’t fit into the schedule.

  But there was no denying the something between us.

  That was hot.

  I could still feel his hot breath against my ear as he whispered those words to me. My lips tingled from the memory of last night’s kiss. It might have started as a way to end his nightmare, but it wasn’t exactly a hardship.

  Every part of getting involved with Damian was a bad idea. He might be getting more comfortable around me, but the man still struggled with some serious anxiety. And as soon as Lake and Walsh got back, that anxiety would drive him right back to his recluse hole in Denver.

  Shit.

  A short-term hook-up with a guy guaranteed to leave had always been exactly what I looked for. So why did knowing Damian was going to leave make me even more hesitant to continue where our steamy kiss left off?

  That was a question for another day. For now, the questions were... How fast could we get back to bottling? Was anyone in Aspenridge qualified to be our new sales manager? Could I still pull off the pub opening by July Fourth? And...how long could I hold out before I kissed Damian again?

  Fuck. I was so screwed.

  I marched up to the offices, intent on getting my work done and getting out of here. The less time I had to spend alone with Damian, the less chance there was for me to jump him and strip off his clothes.

  Pushing through the door, the scent of hot cheese, pepperoni, and perfectly-seasoned sauce hit my nose. Damian sat in Melissa’s chair, a slice of deep dish poised halfway to his open mouth.

  “Pizza? You ordered pizza?”

  Damian set his slice down and jumped up from his seat. “Yeah. I realized we never got to eat lunch because of the explosion and then the investigation. I wasn’t
sure what you liked, so I may have over-ordered.”

  I glanced around the room. At least five pizza boxes covered the new desks. My lips parted to throw out a sarcastic remark, but I bit the words back. This was...sweet. I swallowed the lump growing in my throat. “Any chance you got a Hawaiian?”

  He smiled at me, and for the first time since we met, the smile went all the way to his eyes. The damned butterflies flew back into gear, dancing around my empty stomach.

  Damian grabbed a box from the top of a filing cabinet and presented it to me, lifting the cover to display a still-hot pizza covered with ham and pineapple. “M’lady.”

  I leaned down and inhaled the scent of my favorite pizza in the whole world. Today had sucked huge donkey balls, but pizza with Damian sounded like the perfect way to turn it around.

  Grabbing the box, I practically danced over to my desk and scooped up a slice, shaking my head at the paper plate Damian offered. “It won’t be here long enough to need a plate.” I took a giant bite and sank down into my chair, groaning in appreciation. True to my words, the first piece was gone in a few minutes.

  I wiped my fingers on a stray paper towel and fired up my computer. “Okay, starvation averted. Time to read some resumes while I polish off the rest of this pie. If you want any ham and pineapple, speak now or miss out.”

  Damian perched on the edge of the desk and tilted his head to the side. “Resumes for what?”

  “For the new sales manager.” I opened up the application manager and groaned. Eighty-six applicants, most of whom had never even seen the inside of a brewery. I faced Damian again and focused on keeping my expression neutral. “Eventually, you’re going back to Denver, and I’ll need someone here who can work with our distributors, keep an eye on the production schedule, and bring me pizza so I don’t starve.”

  Damian smiled, but this one fell short of lighting up his eyes again. “I’ll let you get to it then.” He returned to Melissa’s desk and ducked his head down to study the screen.

  I grabbed another slice of pizza more for something to do than because I was hungry. Twelve more days until the Brew Pub opening. Twelve more days until Damian retreated back to Denver. Suddenly, I didn’t have much of an appetite anymore.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Damian

  I stomped up the stairs of the porch to my dark house, dragging the bicycle behind me to park it where the deck roof would protect it. Dark was falling quickly, although it was after nine at night, but I was a long way from tired.

  I unlocked the door and entered the house, but then I just stood there, taking deep breaths, trying to cool my temper. Why the fuck was I so angry? So disappointed? It’s not like Alex had said anything that was a surprise. I would be leaving in twelve days and returning to my life in Denver.

  A harsh chuckle erupted from my chest. My life. Like I had one of those.

  Fuck.

  I ran a frustrated hand through my hair and glanced around the empty rental cabin, my eyes falling on the leather couch where Alex and I had spent way too many hours together...having fun. While the cabin might be empty, the memories echoed through me, filling me. So unlike the hollow silence that exuded from my Denver home where I’d spent so many dark, unhappy hours. I’d created more happy memories here in the few days I’d been here than all of the two and a half years I’d lived in the Denver house. That was a sobering but true fact.

  Before coming here, I wasn’t even aware I could enjoy life like I had...with her...and that was why the thought of leaving was so distasteful.

  But my issues didn’t just revolve around Alex. Once I’d settled in, I liked working at Naked Brews, too. I liked the crew, the atmosphere. Yes, we’d been working extremely long hours, and it was exhausting work, but when I walked through the brewery, everyone was happy. They accepted my appearance with a smile, not a grimace.

  Now that I had experienced it, I didn’t want to give that up. But this wasn’t my home, my place. It was theirs, Alex’s, and I couldn’t stay. I was only here as a favor to Walsh. A favor with a deadline on it.

  My shoulders tightened. From experience, I knew this dark mood led to bad places. I needed to get a handle on it.

  I reached into the fridge and grabbed a bottle of Sergeant Hebert, the American pale ale the brewery had created in Ice’s memory. Just the label made me smile. Ice would have been so excited about what the brewery had done to honor him. I hoped wherever he was, he could see it.

  I popped the cap and lifted the beer in a toast. “Miss you, Ice.”

  I took a long swallow of the icy beer, enjoying the slightest hint of apples at the end. I missed the guys from my squad so much. The ache had dulled, so it wasn’t the sharp stab in my gut that I’d felt in the months right after the attack, but that pain never fully left. My friends hadn’t come home. They couldn’t take little joys like this anymore.

  I could, but I’d spent the last two and a half years, running away from living. How was that honoring them and their sacrifice? They would hate what I’d become. Hell, I hated what I’d become. A coward.

  I couldn’t deal with the quiet echo of the house, so I went back out onto the front porch and sat down on the swing. Lights twinkled through the trees as the population of Aspenridge settled into their cabins for the night.

  This road was crowded with cabins, both big like mine and small like Alex’s next door. But with the trees, each cabin felt secluded. It was nice...privacy with the security of knowing humanity was closer than it felt.

  I resisted looking toward her cabin. It was set back from mine so I’d have to crane my head around the porch to see her lights. I wasn’t that desperate to touch base with her...yet. It was enough to know she was there, close by.

  I closed my eyes, took another swallow of beer, and listened to the sounds of the forest around me. The crickets, the sound of rustling leaves as a small creature foraged for some last minute meal for the evening, the coo of a dove in a tree nearby.

  As night descended, the air turned cooler, settling over me with a light, comforting touch. Slowly, my shoulders relaxed as I let the evening sounds settle into my bones.

  I could even hear the sound of running water nearby. Was it coming from Alex’s house? Probably. It came from that direction. We all left our windows open to let in the cool air. Was she taking a bath?

  I swallowed at the vision that popped into my head. She would look stunning...naked, her pale skin glistening with water droplets. Blood filled my dick, and suddenly, I was tense for completely different reasons than I had been before. Slowly, I rubbed at the erection behind the placket of my jeans, thankful I hadn’t turned on my porch light.

  But I wasn’t in any hurry to do anything about it. It had been years since I’d been able to just sit back and enjoy this sizzling awareness, the low-level thrum of arousal. But it proved I wasn’t as dead as I thought. I had a life to live. Just like the sounds of the night, I let the sense of being alive settle over me as I considered my future.

  I had choices. What was I going to do with them?

  Chapter Nineteen

  Alex

  I pulled the blanket tighter around my shoulders. With the sun down, the temperatures were cool enough that my thin pajamas couldn’t keep up. I glanced up at the stars overhead, searching for a bright one to wish on. I could use all the luck I could get.

  Stop stalling, Alex. I’d been standing on Damian’s front deck for a solid three minutes, working up the nerve to knock. The past two nights when I’d run over to wake Damian from his nightmare, I hadn’t knocked. I used the spare key Walsh had given me and rushed in without even thinking about it.

  But this was different. Damian wasn’t having a nightmare. It was barely eleven, and he wasn’t even asleep yet. I could see the lights on in his cabin. He didn’t need me here.

  But here I was. Standing on his porch in my pajamas with a comfy blanket on my shoulders and holding a basket filled with movies and junk food.

  This couldn’t go anywhere. I wo
uldn’t let it. So what the hell was I doing?

  Knocking. That’s what I was doing. I reached up and rapped my knuckles against the solid pine door.

  From the other side came pounding steps as Damian walked to the door, and the scrape of the lock turning. He opened the door and I shut my mouth to keep from gasping out loud.

  Damian stood framed in the light from inside, a pair of gym shorts hanging low on his hips the only piece of clothing he had on. The past two nights, he’d worn a long-sleeved shirt to bed. His bare chest was wide, and defined muscles stood out from his broad shoulders all the way down to the six pack leading to his...

  He coughed, and I pulled my gaze back up to his. A teasing smile played across his lips letting me know exactly how busted I was for checking out the eye candy he had on display. An edge of wariness lined his expression, too. I doubted too many people had seen the extent of his scars. That he trusted me enough to see them felt huge. This was a large source of his anxiety, but he trusted me with it. My heart raced with the combination of that knowledge and the view of him in front of me.

  Despite the way Damian constantly covered up and hid them away, there was no denying his scars did nothing to detract from his beauty. I could happily examine his body all night long. In fact...

  “What brings you here?” Damian stepped back and spread his arms to welcome me in.

  I swallowed down my unease and embarrassment. “Sprinting through the woods at midnight was getting dangerous, so I decided to be proactive and come over while I was still conscious.” I held up my basket like little red riding hood. “I brought sustenance and a movie.”