Violet Ends
Page 13
A fresh wave of tears course down my face as I try to pull all of my family closer to hug them all needing to touch them and show them I can see their love for me and I return it so many times over. My sisters are crying with me and for me and the men stand on the outside in one big, deadly cocoon of warmth and love. A part of me will forever be sad that Noel missed this but another part of me thinks maybe she had a hand in pushing me and Z together so I could have what she didn't, all the while watching me from above. My own personal angel.
***
We buried Noel in a family cemetery Niles' family has. It's a beautiful place full of large stone reminders of the loved ones who have had to leave us. Z and Sally helped with the funeral and Poppie hasn't left my side since that day in the kitchen except of course when I'm with Zander. She scatters pretty quickly when both of us get that look in our eyes. She came to realize how much Zander's gift meant to me and was quick to give him a giant hug for it. My man knows what I need before I even have to ask for it. He's just that good.
Zander is right when he says that I have done a lot of healing these past few months. I have also done a lot of growing, and I don't just mean my belly. Burying Noel here today is something physical that tells me it's over. The search, the hunt for something just out of reach, the unfulfilled hopes and wishes, all of that can be put to rest with Noel's body today.
Zander flew the man and woman who buried Noel the first time out to talk to me and to be here when she is put in her final resting place. I've spent the past few days talking to her about Noel. I think she and her husband will make a trip back next spring and we can give a little memorial to Noel. An anniversary for the day she was brought home to me. And I have a god to thank for finding her for me.
The End!!!!
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Continue reading for a preview of my next novel, Urgent Care.
URGENT
CARE
By:
JISA DEAN
URGENT
CARE
By:
JISA DEAN
Demi is having one of the worst holidays of her life-I mean who even likes spending time with nut ball relatives that don’t really like you anyway. It’s made especially awful by the fact her sister and her new fiancé, who used to date Demi, is talking wedding cakes and baby registries. Who wouldn’t make up a fake boyfriend to be left alone? The cherry on top of her Thanksgiving night is an emergency trip to the E.R.-hey it was her or that turkey, she had to fight for her life. One hot doctor, several stitches, and one whoosy belly later and she’s not only living a lie but she’s got to remind herself that the good doctor is just doing this out of the kindness of his heart and probably because she is so damned pathetic. Could this holiday season get any worse? Oh yeah, she could lose her heart in the process. Happy freakin’ Thanksgiving.
This is the start of a new series that follows the people that work at a hospital straight out of a soap opera. Most of the books follow a holiday and a hot person in scrubs because hey, scrubs can be sexy too. If you like fake boyfriends, hot doctors, instalove and turkey with your kink give this one a try. Who doesn’t like a little meat at this time of year (wink, wink)?
Chapter One
Demi
My sister is beautiful. Blonde, young, bright blue eyes and rotten inside pretty much explains her to a tee. Seriously something must have happened to mom when she was carrying Beverly. Maybe something was in the water we drank or something. I don't think I turned out all that bad. I understand I'm a nineteen-year-old sales clerk working one step up from a gas station, the Sip and Go actually does have gas tanks but I work in the restaurant part, not that there is anything wrong with the gas part though. I'm proud of what I've made for myself. Do I have a lot? No, but everything that I do have I got because I worked and saved like crazy.
Mom and Dad never really offered me anything. I bought my own car, I paid for my own rent and if I needed something drastic I often sought comfort in my friends rather than my parents. I guess they were too tapped out paying for all of my sister's wants and whims to worry about mine. Ever since I can remember Bev has gotten everything she always wants. Hell, she got my boyfriend who is now her fiance.
Cliff was a good man. He doesn't drink too much, he doesn't go out and raise hell on the weekend and if his dad ever retires he will be the inheritor of the number one grossing car dealership in the area. I've known Chad since we went to high school together. He's sweet but not the brightest bulb in the box. Still, he treated me nice when we dated. Right up until the time he tripped and fell dick first into my little sister's vagina.
Nothing throws the breaks on a relationship like walking in and finding him six inches deep in a relative. In all reality though, I don't besmirch them their happiness. Not at all. I never wanted to marry Cliff and be Mrs. Car-a-lot-seriously they went with the King Arthur theme all the way throughout the show room. The new cars are referred to as the Merlin special and if you bring in a clunker they give you the Morgan La Fay deal.
I let a small laugh go without thinking and sense my mom's eyes on me. She's been so tense this entire day like she's worried I'm going to go postal on my sister and start shooting the rest of the family for funnsies. Probably doesn't help that I'm laughing out loud at things only I can find funny. Way to sale the whole not crazy thing, right.
Every year for Thanksgiving we hang out at mom and dad's house until the Friday after. When I was younger this used to be one of my favorite times of year. We would welcome family we didn't see but once or twice a year, put up the Christmas tree, and watch Charlie Brown together. But as soon as my sister hit puberty all of that stopped. No one would come over because who could tell what Bev would do this year.
When I moved out right after I turned eighteen I thought about not going back either, but they're my family. I can't just abandon them, can I?
"What is so funny, Demi?"
"Just thinking about a conversation I had with my boyfriend a few days ago. Sorry. I guess I just miss him." I don't look up but I feel my mom's eyes narrow on me and start to sweat a little.
I am a complete fucking liar. I don't miss my love because I don't have a boyfriend to miss. I lied about having a boyfriend, so I could dodge some of the tension I knew would be thick in the air this holiday. Last Thanksgiving was the time I walked in on them thrown over the counter in the kitchen going to town on each other. To be honest I watched for a full minute because I didn't think I was really seeing what I was seeing.
How could the guy I had been dating for the last six months be dick deep in my little sister? He had come with me not her. Well, I'm sure he actually cum with her but damn it, he arrived with me. Thank God I never gave him my V card. It just hadn't felt right and I wanted it to feel right when I finally trusted someone enough to commit to them that way. When I do, it will mean so much more to me than it seems to mean to everyone around me.
Of course the number one reason Cliff was bottoms up in my sweet sister was because I hadn't put out for the past six months and 'there was only so much a man can take'. I got that from Cliff, my mom, and my dad but the worst was getting it from my sister who delighted in rubbing it in.
So I did what any self-respecting virgin who didn't want to hear it all over again would have done. I lied my ass off. I told everyone I had a new boyfriend and that we didn't know if we were serious yet, and I was the one who wanted to take things slow. Before I knew it, the lie had grown so big my mom wanted him to come to dinner on Thanksgiving.
"Tell us again why the man you are dating and refuse to tell us who he is won't come to dinner with the family?" Sometimes my mom can be as big a bitch as my sister. I can tell she's just waiting to tear me apart once the truth comes out.
"He had to work. And I've already told you, Mom, I don't want to jinx anything. We're new and I just want to make sure about everything before I introduce him to anyone."
&
nbsp; "I think you were worried your new man would take one look at your sister and another one would dump you and go for her. Which is really just selfish of you, Cliff and Bev are happy with each other. The boy is going to marry her, Demi."
I close my eyes and try to swallow down the pain of being the disappointment in the family. It's nothing new. My mom and dad have always been firm supporters of Bev. Even though my hand tightens up on the carving knife in my hand as I deflesh the turkey I would never do anything to really hurt any of them, even Cliff.
"Maybe she was trying to make Cliff jealous, so she can try to win him back." My sister's light, sweet voice has to chime in on the argument. I roll my eyes so hard I have a head ache now. But I have my back to them so they can't tell how the thought of taking him back makes me sick a little.
We always have a late dinner on Thanksgiving and this year is no exception. Me, mom, and Bev are in the kitchen doing the 'women's' work while my dad and Cliff are in the living room watching the game. It's not that I mind being in the kitchen. I like cooking Thanksgiving dinner and can't wait to have a family of my own to be able to cook for and decorate for and take care of.
The thought of having that dream is enough to make me sigh. It is a dream that isn't going to happen anytime soon. First you would need a male to start to have that life and since I have no male and I can't self reproduce- although if I could that would be pretty awesome- that is a dream that has to wait for later. The sound of my mother tittering about what Bev said is enough to make me wish I had taken my best friends advice and went with him to the beach. Palm trees, sand, and watching Houston hook up with really hot men would have been so much more fun than listening to my mom and sister make bitchy comments all day long.
I blame the thought of palm trees for my momentary lapse in coordination, but it was probably just me being clumsy, the knife I'm using bounces off the bone and glides right into the palm of my hand. It takes me a little while to realize it is way more serious than a band aid can fix. When I turn to show my mom what happened blood is already running down my wrist and making a long red line to my elbow.
Mom and Bev both scream loud enough that the men come running to see what happened, but they're not screaming because I'm hurt.
"Don't get it in the turkey! You'll ruin Thanksgiving dinner, Demi!"
"She did that on purpose to have everyone to feel sorry for her! How low can you get, Demi?"
Dad is the person that wraps a dish towel around my hand and puts pressure on it. He's also the person that shoots me the go to hell look for having to get up off the couch and leave the game. My body has gone hot and cold and it feels like warm water is being poured over me. I think I'm going into shock but I'm not saying a damned thing here. If I wouldn't pass out before I had it sown up I would just go upstairs and do it myself. As it is I'm too light-headed for that to actually work and the thought of a needle coming anywhere near me makes me see stars.
"I'll take her to the emergency room. It shouldn't take me long to get her there and be back." Damn, sometimes my parents' coldness even shocks me.
"You better take this," mom hands me a clean towel before she steps back and I'm shocked by her kindness, "don't want it all over the car."
Yeah, shouldn't have expected that to last long. Damn it I can really use a hug from someone right now.
***
The closest hospital is about thirty minutes from my parents' house, but they don't take the insurance that my mom and dad still keep on me. I had to talk fast to keep dad from driving for another thirty minutes to go to the one that does. One, I just want out of this car and two, I hate the other hospital. It's filthy and the staff are mean and rude. Besides, I know a girl who works at this one. She does the hospital's billing and accounting. We knew each other in school and sometimes I go with her for a cup of coffee or a glass of tea.
I finally have to tell dad that not only will I pay for it out of my own pocket, but he would be able to go back to the house and watch the game quicker.
"I can't believe how selfish you are. Not only did you do this on a holiday but I just can't see you doing this by 'accident'." Both my parents think I did this on purpose to get back at Bev. "Then you try to go to the most expensive hospital in town. But if this is the hospital you want to throw your own money away on than by all means go for it. Why did you want to come here anyway?"
"I told you, I know someone that works here, dad. I can ask them to give me a ride back home when I'm done. It saves money on calling a cab or taking the bus." My dad is a little bit of a cheap ass.
When we pull up to the front he pulls up and doesn't even get out to walk me into the waiting room. I'm not even through the sliding doors before he is back out on the road to head home. If I wasn't hurting so bad and covered in turkey grease and blood I would just catch the bus home and hide for the rest of the week. Going back makes me a little nauseous but that could be blood loss too.
I'm shocked they let me keep both towels and didn't try to jerk one back before he sped off. Guess they don't want turkey grease and blood on their matching accessories. I turn to the doors and think about calling Houston to send me the money to hop on the bus and come to him, he knows I'm good for it and I'll pay him back in a couple of weeks, but I can't because I left my phone at their house. So much for palm trees and living vicariously through Hou.
BLUE
VENUS
By:
JISA DEAN
BLUE VENUS
By:
JISA DEAN
Penelope “Poppie” Weiss just can’t catch a break. She was dared to hack into a government database and steal files on a senator who everyone loves AND now she’s on the hit list of a group of assassins called ‘The Brothers’. She doesn’t know where the person who put her up to this is anymore or if they may want to kill her too. She can’t figure out who wants her dead and who wants to keep her safe and she doesn’t have the luxury of time to wait and find out. Either way, she’s pretty sure it’s not the blue haired club kid named after the god of the Underworld who wants to take her to a kink club to keep her “safe”. That doesn’t stop her from wanting to find out just how much of a god he really is. The day Penelope is having might not let her get to the future she’s craving.
This may be my dirtiest one yet! If you like your alpha bad boys’ tall, dark, and sporting blue hair, Hades is the guy for you. Remember Ladies, he’ll show you a Hell of a good time! This safe read pushes the boundaries of decent and launches the new series ‘The Brothers’. It’s a standalone with no ‘cliff hangers’ or ‘to be continues’ that promises a happy ever after - or his name isn’t Hades.
One
_____________
Lights flash all around me and the music is pumping like the heartbeat of a wild animal. The room smells of sex and liquor, and honestly, it's giving me a fucking headache. There was a time when all of this; the lights, the noise, the sex made me happy, but now it just annoys the fuck out of me. People laughing and having a good time is not what's really going on. They are here so they can escape whatever fucked up part of their life isn't going right for them.
I shouldn't complain. I make money and my club is always busy but, where once it made me happy to escape into the throng of bodies gyrating on the dance floor, now I just find it...mundane. Normal. God I hate normal.
You would think a kid with blue hair and a bad attitude wouldn't be the businessman who owned a successful night club in one of the more urbane parts of the city. You also wouldn't guess that same blue-haired kid with a smart mouth wouldn't be very good at hacking into places where he wasn't supposed to, but wrong again. I bet you would never think that said blue-haired 'kid' was a thirty-year-old assassin who moonlighted as this club brat on the side.
Being one of the most feared hit-men in the greater tri-cities area is probably not something to be proud of but who gives a shit. I worked hard to be where I'm at today and I have my own world because of it. Even if that world is pissing me off c
urrently, it's mine.
I get itchy feet or itchy trigger finger, and after too long I go looking for a job. It reminds me to be thankful for all that I have and all that I had to do to get it. Some people go to church, some take up bingo, I shoot people. We all got our little vices, don't we.
I'm a part of a fucked-up group of assassins who have bonded over being two people at once. We have normal lives during the day, or in my case the night, but once the time comes to throw off that normal shit we turn into the animals we really are. They call us the ‘Brothers’.
We started out as nothing more than a pissing contest between me and the brother we call Zeus. We were both hired to take down a low-level dictator in some small backwater country in the hottest fucking part of the jungle known to man. The asshole actually thought having two hit-men was a good thing. Thought whoever did the job first would be paid and the other guy would just go away. It doesn't work that way.
Instead of killing each other we got drunk on bad liquor and started talking about being too damned old to do this much longer. From there we brought on our brother we call Neptune. Yeah I know, the bastard couldn't stick with a Greek god he had to be different. But that's pretty much Neptune's M.O., pissing people off and doing what the fuck ever he feels like doing.