by Aden Lowe
“Just sit right here and I’ll be right back. Is there someone you want to call to give you a ride home? Driving right now probably isn’t the best idea.” I set the basket and towels on the floor, keeping my wallet in my hand.
“I suppose I should call my son. He should be able to give me a ride,” the woman said as she dug her phone out of her purse.
I left the woman to her phone call and headed to the candy aisle that I had been trying to ignore. I grabbed a bag of licorice, chips, and a diet soda and went to the checkout. The dollar store didn’t actually offer a healthy selection, but this would do in a pinch. The woman just needed to get her blood sugars back up.
I grabbed my things after paying and headed back to the bench. I ripped open the bag and handed it to the woman. “Oh dear, you didn’t have to buy that. I could have given you money.”
“Don’t worry about it. I hope if this happened to my mom there would be someone to help her if I wasn’t around.”
“Well, that’s awfully nice of you. My names Ethel Birch by the way.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Ethel. I’m Meg Grain. I also got you some chips and soda.” I popped opened the soda and handed it to Ethel.
“Oh thank you, honey. My son is on the way here, should be only five minutes. You can get going if you want to, you don’t need to sit with an old woman,” Ethel said as she ate a piece of candy and took a slug of soda.
“No problem. The only plans I had today was to take a nap before work tonight. Delaying my plans by ten minutes won’t be a problem.”
“Well, in that case, you can help me eat this licorice. It’s my favorite, but I shouldn’t eat this all by myself. Where do you work at?” Ethel asked as she offered the bag to me.
“The factory right outside of town. I work in the warehouse, second shift.” I grabbed a piece and sat down on the floor. If I was going to wait for Ethel’s son to show up, might as well be comfortable while I waited for him.
“Really? Never would have thought that. Figured you would have said a nurse or something like that. Seems like you would have to be tough to work in a warehouse, sounds like a man’s job.”
I laughed. “Honestly, Ethel that is not the first time I have heard that and it probably won't be the last. You definitely need a certain attitude to deal with those truckers walking through the door. I have an awesome co-worker, so he helps out when truckers have a problem with a woman loading their truck.”
“Sounds like you give them hell. My Tim was a trucker before he passed. I know exactly what you are talking about.” Ethel took another drink of her soda and set it on the bench next to her.
“Feeling better?”
“Surprisingly, yes. It’s a wonder what a little candy can do. How much do I owe you?” Ethel asked as she reached for her purse by her feet.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m just glad that I was here to help.”
“Mom! Where are you?” Someone yelled from the front of the store.
“Oh good, Lo’s here. You’ll have to meet him.” Ethel cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled to him she was in the back.
I started getting up off the floor and remembered I wasn’t exactly as flexible as I use to be while struggling to get up.
“Ma, you ok?” I was halfway to standing with my butt in the air when his voice made me pause.
It sounded like the man was gurgling broken glass when he spoke. Raspy and so sexy. Those three words he spoke sent shocks to my core. Lord knows the last time I felt anything in my core.
“Yes, I’m fine. I forgot to eat breakfast this morning and started to get dizzy when Meg here was nice enough to help me out until you could get here.” Ethel turned to me. “Lo, this is Meg, Meg this is Lo.”
Oh lord.
I couldn’t talk. The man standing in front of me was… oh, lord. I couldn’t even think of a word to describe him.
I looked him up and down and I’m sure my mouth was hanging wide open. I took in his scuffed up motorcycle boots and faded, stained ripped jeans that hugged his thighs and made me want to ask the man to spin so I could see what those jeans were doing for his ass. I moved my eyes up to his t-shirt that was tight around his shoulders and chest and showed he worked out.
I couldn’t remember the last time I worked out. Did walking to the mailbox count as exercise? Of course, I only remembered to get the mail about twice a week, so that probably didn’t count.
His arms were covered in tattoos. I could see them peeking out from the collar of his shirt and could only imagine what he looked like with his shirt off. Tattoos were my ultimate addiction on a man. Even one tattoo added at least 10 points to a man’s hotness. This guy was off the fucking charts.
My eyes locked with his after my fantastic voyage up his body and I stopped breathing.
“Hey, Meg. See something you like, darling?” Lo rumbled at me with a smirk on his face.
Busted. I sucked air back into my lungs and tried to remember how to breathe.
Lo’s eyes were the color of fresh cut grass, bright green. His hair was jet black and cut close to his head with a pair of kick ass aviators sitting on top of his head. He was golden tan and gorgeous. The man was sex on a stick. Plain and simple.
“Uh, hey,” I choked out.
Lo’s lips curved up into a grin and I looked down to see if my panties fell off. The man had a panty-dropping smile and he wasn’t even smiling that big. I would have to take cover or risk fainting if he smiled any bigger.
“Thanks for looking after my ma for me. I’m glad I was in town today and not out on a run,” Lo said.
Ok. Get it together Meg. You are a 36-year-old woman and this man has rendered you speechless like a sixteen-year-old girl. I needed to say something.
“Say something,” I blurted out. Good Lord did I really just say that. Lo quirked his eyebrow and his smirk returned.
“Ugh, I mean no problem. I didn’t really do that much. No problem.” I looked at Ethel while Lo was smirking at me; Ethel had a full-blown smile on her face and was beaming at me.
“You were a life saver, Meg! I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t here.” Ethel looked at Lo and grinned even bigger. “You should have seen her, Lo. She knew just what to do to help me. I could have sworn she was a nurse the way she took charge. She’s not, though, just has a good head on her shoulders and decided to help this old lady out.”
“That’s good, Ma. You got all your shit you need so we can get going? I got some stuff going on at the garage that I dropped to get over here fast.”
I took that as my cue to leave and ripped my eyes off Lo and bent over to get my basket and paper towels.
“Yes son, that’s my stuff right here. I just want to get Meg’s number before she leaves.”
“Why do you need my number?” I asked as I juggled my basket and towels.
Ethel grabbed her purse off the ground and started digging through it again. “Well, you won’t let me pay you back for the snacks you got for me so I figured I could pay you back by inviting you over for dinner sometime. So what’s your number, sweetheart?”
“I don’t eat dinner,” I blurted out. I was really going to have to have a talk with my brain and mouth when I got home. They needed to get their shit together and start working in unison so I wouldn’t sound like such an idiot.
“You don’t eat dinner? Please don’t tell me you're on a diet.” Lo said as he looked me up and down.
“No,” I said. Lord knew I should be.
Lo and Ethel just stared at me.
“So, no, you don’t eat dinner?” Lo asked again.
“Yes. I mean no, I’m not on a diet. Yes, I eat dinner. I just work at night so I meant that I wouldn’t be able to come to dinner.” I looked at Lo and blushed about ten shades of red. “Why is this so hard?”
“What’s hard, sweetheart? Can’t remember your phone number? I can barely remember mine too. Don’t worry about not being able to make it to dinner; I can have you over for lunch. You e
at lunch right?” Ethel asked with a smirk on her face. Lo had a full-blown smile on his face, even his eyes were smiling at me. That smile ought to be illegal.
I could see where Lo got his looks from. With Lo and Ethel standing next to each other, I could totally see the resemblance. Especially when they were both smirking.
I had to get out of here. I’m normally the one with the one-liners and making everyone laugh, now I couldn’t even put two words together.
“Lunch would be good.” I rattled off my number and Ethel jotted it down.
“Ok, sweetheart, I’ll let you get your nap. I’ll give you a call later and we can figure out a day we can get together.” Ethel shoved the pen and paper back in her bag and leaned into me for a hug.
I awkwardly hugged her back and patted her on the shoulder. “Sounds good. Have a good day Ethel. Uh, it was nice meeting you, Lo,” I mumbled as my gaze wandered over Lo again.
“You too Meg. See you around,” Lo replied.
I gave them both a jaunty wave and booked it to the checkout. Thankfully there wasn’t a line and I quickly made my escape to my car. I threw my things in the trunk and hopped in. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and plugged it into the radio and turned on my chill playlist, as the soothing sounds of Fleetwood Mac filled the car.
Music was the one thing in my life that had gotten me through so much shit. Good or bad, there was always a song that I could play and it would make everything better. Right now I just needed to unscramble my brain and get my bearings. Fleetwood Mac singing “Landslide” was helping.
I pulled out of the parking lot and headed home. All I needed was to forget about today. If Ethel called for lunch, I would say yes because she did remind me so much of mom, but I wasn’t going to let Lo enter my thoughts anymore. A woman like me definitely did not register on his radar, he was better just forgotten.
When I was halfway home, I realized I forgot dog food and shampoo.
Shit.
======
Lo
I helped mom finish her shopping and loaded all her crap into the truck. I looked around the parking lot for Meg, hoping she hadn’t left yet so I could get another look at her. As soon as I saw her ass waving in the air as she struggled to stand up, I knew I had to be inside her.
It took all my willpower to not get a hard-on as her eyes ran over my body. Fucking chick was smoking’ hot and didn’t even know it.
“Thanks for coming to get me, Lo,” Ma said as she interrupted my thoughts about Meg.
“No problem, Ma. I’ll get one of the guys to bring your car to you later. Make sure it’s locked.” Ma dug her keys out of her huge ass purse and beeped the locks. We both got into the shop truck and I started it up.
“Sure was nice of that Meg to help out. I don’t know what I would have done without her.”
“Yup, definitely nice of her.” I shifted the truck into drive, keeping my foot on the brake, knowing exactly where mom was headed with this.
“You should ask her out.” All I could do was shake my head and laugh.
“Straight to the point huh, Ma?”
“I’m old, I can say what I want. Meg is just the thing you need.”
“I didn’t know I needed anything.” I pulled out of the parking lot and headed to Ma’s house.
“You need someone in your life besides that club.” My mom grabbed her phone out of her purse and started fiddling with it.
“We’ll see, ma. Meg didn’t seem too thrilled with me.” She definitely liked what she saw, but it was like she couldn’t get away from me quick enough when she saw that Ma was going to be ok.
“Well, you are pretty intimidating, Lo. Thank goodness you didn’t wear your cut.”
My leather vest with my club rockers and patches was a part of me. “What the hell is wrong with my cut? If some bitch can’t handle me in my cut, she sure as shit doesn't belong with me,” I growled.
“Not what I meant Lo. That girl has been hurt, you can see it in her eyes. You’ll have to be gentle with her.”
My phone dinged. I dug it out of my pocket and saw my mom had texted me. “You texted me her number, ma?”
“Use it, Logan, fix her,” she insisted.
I sighed and pulled into mom’s driveway. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be fixed, ma. Maybe she has a boyfriend.”
“She doesn’t. Call her, or I’ll do it for you,” she ordered.
I knew my mom’s threat wasn’t idle. She totally would call Meg and ask her out for me. Fuck. “I’ll help you get your shit inside ma.”
“I’ll make you lunch and then you can call Meg,” Ma said, as she jumped out of the truck and grabbed some bags.
I watched her walk into her house and looked at the message she had sent me. I saved Meg’s number to my phone and grabbed the rest of Ma’s shit and headed into the house.
Looked like I was calling Meg.
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Here's a look at Kincaid, from Marie James' Cerberus MC series.
Kincaid
By
Marie James
Copyright
Kincaid
Copyright © 2016 Marie James
Editing by Mr. Marie James & Hale’s Harem Betas ;)
Cover design by Kari Ayasha of Cover to Cover Designs
EBooks are not transferrable. All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded, or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher’s permission.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Prologue
“Weapon!” I hear one of the SWAT guys in front of me yell. The sound of weapons discharging rings out, lasting mere seconds.
I’m fourth in line behind three Denver Police Department SWAT Officers, which means we split off in all directions once we cross the threshold into the dank, dark home. The smell inside is putrid and makes me immediately feel the need to shower. Most meth houses are like this, and I cringe knowing that a child has been living in these conditions.
One officer begins checking pulses on the three individuals in the living room. Another officer splits off into a bedroom to clear the closet, and the third clears another bedroom, leaving me with the kitchen. I can easily tell there are no other visible threats, but a sound from behind a closed door draws my attention. With my M4 at the ready, I turn the door knob and tug the door open.
“Holy fuck!” I gasp when I see a woman curled up on the floor of the tiny closet. “Josie? Joselyne Bennett?” I say doing my best to gain some composure.
“Yes,” she mutters weakly.
I would’ve never told Kaleb this, but I was certain we’d find Josie dead if we ever found her body at all. My chest constricts the way it always does when a situation turns out opposite of how I imagined it. Absolute, pure joy is what I’m feeling at the moment, but my face falls when I see the condition she’s in. She’s not out of the woods yet.
“Girl, we’ve been looking for your ass everywhere!” I can hardly contain my joy at knowing my cousin will not have to deal with the death of the woman he loves.
“Jesus didn’t know I was in the closet?” she asks with a hoarse voice.
Jesus? She’s delirious, no doubt from being starved and hog-tied in here for weeks.
“You being here is a miracle, darlin’, but this ain’t heaven. My name is Diego Anderson, and I have a cousin that’s going to be beside himself knowing we found you.”
/>
I can tell she’s trying and failing to open her eyes against what has to be blinding light for her.
“Kaleb,” she whispers, and I can see the tremble of her lip.
I step out of the way as the SWAT team leader enters the room. I leave the room to head outside planning to call Kaleb, but I find him standing in the hallway looking into one of the bedrooms. He’s sobbing uncontrollably having no concern for the tears rolling down his face.
I walk up and clasp him on the shoulder. “Kaleb,” I whisper trying to get his attention. “She’s asking for you, man.”
He turns so quickly toward me he nearly loses his footing. I look past him and wince as a clearly deceased woman comes into view.
“What?” he asks with a slight shake of his head.
“Josie, man,” I tell him gently pulling him from the doorway and down the narrow hall. “Keep your shit together in there, Kaleb. She’s been through hell and looks it,” I warn him. “But you have to keep it together, man.” He nods as he makes his way into the crowded kitchen.
At the sight of her curled up on a filthy blanket just outside of the door he gasps, both in relief and torment from seeing her like this. I keep my hand on his back until he crouches down beside her.
“Kaleb,” I hear her whisper.
“I’m here, Josie,” he returns leaning in to kiss her forehead.
Short of her never being abducted in the first place, this is the best outcome anyone could’ve ever asked for.
Chapter 1
I’m trying to be as quiet as I can, but I can’t keep the hiss from slipping past my lips as I wrap the thick, elastic bandage around my ribs. I should probably go to the hospital, but I know there’s nothing they can do about ribs even if they’re broken and not just severely bruised. They don’t hurt as bad as they did last time, and I know it would only mean more trouble for me if I alerted anyone to my injuries.