No Refunds No Exchanges: A Hudson Family Series- Book 4- Matt and Ali

by Chontelle Brison

  It was somewhat magical, and my dad would always tell me that I had the same gift as my mom. It made me kind of sad to think of my parents and the way I had lost them.

  To make a longer story short, I had married a man that I had idolized from when I was a child, he was much older than me but I thought I was smarter than everyone else, so at seventeen I had eloped with Richard Taggart. He was the most amazing animal trainer I had ever met, legendary even. I was young and thought the man had hung the moon. My parents were livid when they found out, especially since they had already forbidden me from seeing Richard in the first place. Richard and I had been married two years when the rose-colored glasses finally fell off, my young, foolish head.

  It had started out with little things. I would come to watch him train and see him argue with my mother. She would complain about his tactics with the animals. Mom didn’t condone using whips or pain as a way to get an animal to perform, and she warned him that it wasn’t the way to get an animal to cooperate. However, when I had asked Richard about his methods, he swore that he snapped the whips near the animals to get their attention but never actually whipped them. I was so young and in love with my idol that I believed him and accused my mother of causing trouble.

  Like any good fantasy, Richard was too good to be true. I kept finding him in compromising positions with various women. At first, he would explain it away but after awhile I stopped buying his stories. The final straw was when I found him whipping Baloo. I had known Baloo my whole life, he was a gorgeous, brown Kodiak Grizzly bear and when he stood on his hind legs, he was easily nine feet tall. I was bringing Richard a surprise dinner when I came around the enclosure door and saw him yelling and whipping Baloo. I screamed, and Richard turned toward me with the whip, Baloo must have sensed I was in danger because he took one massive paw and swiped Richard so hard that he knocked Richard into the fence of the enclosure, and we both watched as his limp body fell to the ground. The commotion and yelling from Richard had brought the animal handlers, and no matter how much I struggled, they dragged me away.

  I had driven to the house I shared with Richard and packed up whatever I could fit in my suitcase and returned to the animal camp. Richard had instructed the guards not to let me in and in a panic, I called my parents. Trying to explain what happened through my hysterical sobbing, I’m shocked they understood a word I’d said. But mom and dad would never let me down, even though they had warned me about Richard, they never once brought that up. Which was great because I was due as seriously huge, I told you so!

  My parents rushed to my side, and even my mother was surprised that she was barred from entering the camp. My father started making calls, and my mom demanded to know why she was being kept from the animals. They gave her some story about wanting to give everyone a twenty-four hour cooling off period. I didn’t buy it, and neither had my parents.

  The next day we returned to find that Baloo had been sold to a private party in Wyoming. I was hysterical as Richard tried to convince my parents that what had I seen, had never happened. He called Baloo unstable and erratic. That same day I filed for divorce from Richard Taggert. My mother quit her job, and my father came up with a plan to get Baloo back.

  That was how the sanctuary first got started. My father cashed in his retirement and took the two hundred acres that currently only had our family home built on it and made a habitat for Baloo, complete with caves, a pond, and plenty of room for Baloo to roam. It took a lot of favors to get the permit to house a grizzly bear, but my dad had been pretty well connected. My mother had set out to find out where Baloo was and eventually we got him back. However, by the time we found Baloo and scraped together the money to buy him from the man who had purchased him from Richard, the man had filed down Baloo’s incisors, and he’d had Baloo declawed. The Baloo we brought home with us was sad and quiet, we had to feed him food that was prepared a certain way because he no longer had the teeth he had used for ripping into Salmon or other meat. It had taken a lot of time, but Baloo eventually came out of his shell but was never truly the same.

  As the years went on, we took on tour groups at the sanctuary to educate people about the dangers of taking wild animals and forcing them to perform. Before long, we got calls from police departments who had raided compounds that belonged to drug dealers and found a baby tiger, or a circus that went bankrupt and didn’t know what to do with a Falcon that had lost one eye.

  The ‘Lions, Tigers, and Bears Sanctuary’ had become my whole world. My parents and I lived in the main house that was gated off and then the property was scattered with various enclosures for the different animals. My mother loved it, and my father loved her, and I, of course, loved them all. I enjoyed learning everything my mom knew about taking care of those big animals. She taught me how to respect them for the wild creatures they were but also how to love them for the family they had become.

  Richard had been a constant thorn in my side. At first, he begged me to come back, and then he had threatened to make me sorry if I didn’t. Of course, once my father had a talk with him, he backed off. Then everything went to hell.

  I was twenty-four and was about to leave for the University of South Africa, they offered a degree in Big Game Veterinarian Science. I wanted to have the same knowledge my mother had so, even though I was getting a late start, I had applied for and received a scholarship. I was torn about leaving the animals; they seemed to be so much easier to get along with than people. People always had agendas and ulterior motives, and I had a hard time figuring out who was genuine and who wasn’t. Not to mention my faith in my own judgment was in the toilet. No matter what my parents said, I still felt like an idiot for marrying Richard.

  Still, the day we all climbed into my dad’s Jeep Wagoneer for the trip to the airport, I was filled with excitement. We had just started heading down the mountain when my father shouted that the brakes were out. To understand how bad this was, you have to realize that our ranch was at about four thousand feet in elevation, and we had to come down a winding, twisting road to hit the highway that would take us through Las Vegas to the airport, about an hour away.

  I don’t remember the Jeep skidding, or hitting the mountainside as it bounced toward the edge of the roadway where a hundred foot drop waited. I only remember hearing my father shout that he loved us, my mother gasp and the smell of smoke before I passed out. I woke up to flames all around and the terrifying knowledge that we here hanging off the edge. I felt pain everywhere, but as soon as my eyes landed on parents’ lifeless bodies and vacant eyes, it all went numb. I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to drag my parents away from the Jeep, just before it plunged over the edge.

  I had woken up in a hospital bed about two months later. My parents had died on scene when they impacted the tree that kept the truck from plunging over the side of the ravine, giving me precious minutes to pull myself and my parents free. The young man who owned the property adjacent to ours had been coming up the hill and saw the truck swerve. His name was John, but his call sign in the Navy was Ghost. My father had been his commander once, and I knew he owned the cabin about three miles north of our house, but I had never met him. My dad had warned me not to bother John because when he came to the cabin, he needed the solitude to deal with whatever horrors he’d witnessed when he was deployed to places I had never heard of.

  So John kept me alive until help came. To this day we don’t talk about it, he dismissed my attempts to thank him. When the quiet, slightly moody soldier would visit his cabin, I do what I can but never ask questions.

  It had been a hard recovery and over the next six months Trevor, who had been the Sanctuary animal manager since the beginning and who lived in a small cabin near Baloo, had taken over the day to day operations. While Trevor took care of my animals, I spent weeks in rehabilitation therapy. My hip and pelvis had been shattered, and my hip had to be replaced. I had metal pins in my pelvis and would walk with a slight limp for the rest of my life. The scars from the burns were t
he worst. My thighs, stomach, and lower back looked like grated cheese. My nose had been broken, and my shoulder had been dislocated. I was a mess. I mourned my parents, I missed my animals, and there were times I didn’t want to go on. My half-sister, Lela, definitely a story for another time, came by while I was in and out of consciousness, but when I was fully awake, she stopped coming. Yeah, I wasn’t normally a quitter but I’d being lying if I didn’t admit I had was tempted.

  I knew how disappointed my dad would have been to see me giving up, to see me stop trying to walk, to let scars hold me back. So, I worked hard and eventually returned to the sanctuary. My small circle of friends from Vegas talked me into trying to date, but it had been horrible. Everything was going great until this guy kissed me and put his hands under my shirt. The look of absolute horror on his face when his hands came across my scars is forever burned in my brain. You can guess how much dating I’ve done since then.

  So, now I run the Sanctuary getting funds from the school tours I take through twice a week and for the work, I do for Taylor. She knows I run an animal sanctuary, but I’ve never gone into what animals I have or about my accident. I take everything I make and put it back into improvements for the animals. Which is why I was going to take this current assignment for Taylor and knock it out of the park. With the generous commission she is going to pay me for this escort research, I can finally give the two lions I have, a pond of their own.

  I really shouldn’t even be nervous about tonight. It’s just a bunch of questions that will try to get me inside the head of some bubblegum, sex god, whose ego is probably as big as the bulge in his briefs.

  No big deal, you have interviewed people before…easy peasy!

  As I looked at the clock, I groaned when I realized I only had five hours until super stud arrived. I wondered if I could somehow get all these questions answered and kick the guy out early enough that I could get back to the ranch tonight? Liking my idea more and more, I slipped out of my slacks and into my yoga pants and tee shirt that said ‘Dogs never bite me, people, do.' For a moment, I wondered if I should try to dress us for Mr. Red Briefs, then I laughed at the silliness of the idea and went in search of room service. Hey, if this was on Taylor’s dime, then I was definitely going to eat.

  Matt

  “Baby do you really have to go?” Sylvia whined for the fifth time since I had woken up with her rubbing my chest.

  I looked at the clock on the nightstand and saw that it was still early enough that I could sleep another hour or so.

  Curling her into my body, I kissed the top of her head, “Go back to sleep baby, I can sleep for a bit still.” I told her as I moved her hand from my cock and laced my fingers with hers.

  “Why don’t you ever call me Sylvia?” She pouted as she wiggled her bottom suggestively into my crotch.

  Damn, it was a tricky question. The truth was that I had a firm rule of addressing a client with a term of endearment rather than her name. Why? Honestly, it saved me from ever embarrassing a client by forgetting her name and it helped keep some emotional distance. It seemed too intimate and personal to call a woman by her first name, and I didn’t need anyone getting the wrong idea about our arrangement.

  After finally leaving Sylvia’s bed, I took a shower and headed out to check in at the office. As always, Sylvia had tried to convince me to stay and have her for breakfast. Kissing her on the forehead, I had declined as politely as I could and had made my escape.

  While I enjoyed my time with my clients, I never slept with two women in the same day, it seemed tacky and somewhat disrespectful to both women. It was another rule I had when it came to my work as an escort. I never wanted to hurt a woman’s feelings, especially when she trusted me to make her feel good.

  Still, I could have stayed longer with Sylvia, but I found myself actually looking forward to tonight’s client. It was another overnight, which I didn’t usually do. Two overnights that were back to back could prove exhausting, but when Jessie had called me from the agency and told me that Sylvia wanted a last minute booking, I couldn’t say no. Sylvia had been a regular of mine for almost a year, and I never wanted my regulars to feel slighted, so for them, I would always go the extra mile.

  Pulling up to the gray building that housed, Archangel Escort Agency, I jumped out of my rental car and practically ran into the building. I hadn’t been able to reach Jessie this morning, and I wanted to make sure that my client for tonight hadn’t canceled.

  As soon as the elevator doors opened, I pulled out my key card and threw open the office door. I was greeted with a broad smile from Jessie. Jessie was our receptionist, office manager, scheduler and all around office badass. Today her hair was dyed brown with bright streaks of pink that matched her pink lips. I’d always liked Jessie, with her full hips, narrow waist and ample breasts she would get any man’s attention. Sadly, she didn’t play for the male gender’s team, Jessie had a girlfriend. Although, none of us had ever met Jessie’s significant other she did have a picture of the two of them sitting on her desk.

  “Hey, Matt!” She said brightly as I half sat, half- leaned on her desk. Tugging one of her dyed pink locks, I smiled.

  “Hey beautiful, just wanted to check and make sure my “interview” date didn’t back out,” tweaking her button nose I laughed as she swatted my hands away.

  “Why yes, Ms. Sunny Daise confirmed everything this morning and made sure I understood that this was an ‘interview’ not a sex date,” she laughed using air quotes.

  I smirked at the fake name the client had chosen. It wasn’t uncommon for clients to use false names. Hell, even I had changed my last name to Wolf for the website and the agency so that I would have some level of anonymity. It was more for privacy than anything; the last thing I needed was for some client to Google Matt Hudson and find out where I lived and what I actually did for a living.

  “So what’s the plan, Matt? Going to give the girl good interview?” Jessie joked wagging her cute, arched eyebrows up and down.

  “Who gives good interview?” A familiar voice asked from the doorway.

  “Damn, I haven’t seen you in forever Dev,” I complained as my friend and fellow escort grabbed me into a bear hug.

  “Men, please…keep the bromance to a minimum my ovaries are choking here,” Jessie whined as she took her seat behind the desk.

  I watched Dev’s eyes track her movement, almost mesmerized. Devlin Cross had been with the Archangel Agency about a year longer that I had. It was no secret that he had it bad for Jessie, who shut him down at every opportunity. Even with the picture of her girlfriend sitting in plain view, Dev almost salivated every time the feisty girl was around him. I think it was mainly a blow to his ego to not have a woman swoon in his presence. Like all of us at the agency, Dev was in top physical shape and sported a blonde, blue-eyed, bad boy look that most women fell over themselves for. His clientele was mainly women who wanted the tattoo, leather jacket, combat boots, guy with the eyebrow piercing, sort. My clients liked my clean-cut, well-groomed, well-dressed man of the evening quality that treated women like a queen and rocked their world in the bedroom.

  “Ya know Jessie, anytime you want to be converted to the dark side, I’m your man,” Dev teased as Jessie rolled her eyes. It was a constant verbal battle between the two of them. If I didn’t know Jessie wasn’t into guys, I would swear the two of them would burn up the sheets with the raw chemistry that seemed to arc between them.

  “Yes, come to dark side Jessie, we have cookies,” Roman said as he entered the lobby.

  Roman Jeter was another member of the Archangel team and the youngest at the tender age of twenty-five. Only six years younger than me, the kid got laid more than railroad tracks. I think his parents were Italian and with his olive skin and dark eyes, women begged him to say things to them in Italian while they had sex. The inside joke of that was, Roman didn’t speak Italian, the kid had been adopted by a couple in Missouri and actually had to hide a mid-western twang when he was talking.
Last year for Christmas, Dev had bought him an Italian dictionary, and now the kid knew enough phrases to drive his clients wild.

  “I don’t want your cookies Roman, I know where they’ve been,” Jessie teased as Roman dramatically clutched his heart.

  “Ouch babe, easy on the egos here, we’re just fragile men looking for a little attention,” Dev replied failing miserably at his attempt to look innocent and wounded.

  Jessie laughed like she always did and threw a pen at Dev’s head. Dev laughed as he walked away and for a moment, I thought I caught Jessie checking out his ass. Interesting.

  “Hey Matt, catch you on the flip side, I have a date with two women who want the Italian Stallion,” Roman announced as he placed his aviator sunglasses over his dark eyes.

  “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” I called after him as he swung open the office door. Turning to me the kid smiled in all his cockiness, saluted me and answered, “Aw Matt, that wouldn’t leave me anything left to do,” he smirked before turning and walking toward the elevators.

  “I swear you guys and your egos could suck the air of the room,” Jessie grumbled as she shook her head. It was then I noticed that she had black circles under her eyes and was wearing the same Jeans and tank top that I had seen her in yesterday.

  Feeling like my Spidey senses were tingling, I walked around the desk and used my fingers to bring her chin up to meet my gaze. “Hey kid, what’s going on?” I asked genuinely concerned. We might all joke with Jessie, but there wasn’t one of us that wouldn’t cough up a lung to help her. While she was wildly attractive with those violet eyes of hers, I loved her more like a younger sister. After all, she was only a year or two older than Rachel, the baby of the Hudson family. She tried to move her head from my grasp, but when I saw tears in those baby blues, I refused to let go.

  I didn’t know much about Jessie’s life before she came to Archangel, my ex- SEAL buddy Braxton had opened the agency and she been the first person he had hired. I was pretty sure whatever her life was before Braxton hired her was pretty bad because she never spoke of it and Brax treated her more like a daughter than an employee. I was usually the first one to let people have their privacy and not pry into their private lives, but seeing those lovely eyes of hers filled with tears made me want to punch something.