by Roxie Ray
But he’d said he’d let me know he was okay, and he hadn’t. It was rude.
I tried to put him out of my mind. He wasn’t my business or my concern. He’d been nice last Sunday when he’d seemed like he was dying, but before that he’d been nothing but a total jerk. Why did I care if he’d figured out his anxiety?
Lisa had called and asked if Hayden could have a sleepover with Tori, and I’d allowed it. There was no reason that Damon would know where they lived, and just to be safe, I took a long, circuitous route to take Hayden there. I hadn’t been followed. Lisa knew the drill anyway, and had promised to lock up tight and keep an ear out for anything strange.
On my way back home, I had to drive past Jace’s Place. I slowed down, just curious, and spotted Jace’s truck parked in the back, near the spot where Damon had confronted me.
So, he was at work. I looked down. I’d thrown on jeans and a pretty enough top and had actually slapped on a little makeup. I might as well go in and see if he had the nerve to say anything.
When my eyes adjusted to the dim interior of the bar, I spotted Kaylee. Jace was nowhere in sight, so I walked over to Kaylee, who was at the bar and looking like she wanted to punch someone. “What’s wrong?”
“You know me,” she said.
I nodded. “I do. Are you okay?”
“And do I have serious relationships?” she asked.
I raised my eyebrows. “How many have you had?” The bar wasn’t busy yet, but she seemed like she’d already been there a while.
“Just a few. Do I have serious relationships?”
“No. You don’t do strings.” It was something Kaylee made apparent from the get-go with all her suitors, of which there were many.
“One of my boyfriends is stepping out of line and wanting to be exclusive.”
I shrugged. “They’ve done that before.”
She snorted and sipped her drink. “It’s more than that. He asked me to stop filming my show.” She threw her head back, her elegant neck craning, and laughed. “He wants to take care of me,” she said with air quotes. Her laughter faded and she glared at me. “I don’t need taking care of!”
“I know you don’t. You’re the most independent woman I know.” I rubbed her arm. “Don’t let him get to you.”
“It’s not about the money,” she declared. “I love what I do. I’m good at it. It makes me powerful and makes me feel so good. I’m an entertainer; an actress in my way. This is more than a paycheck.”
“Hey.” I caught her attention and pushed Jace to the back of my mind. “If this guy doesn’t know all this already, then he’s not for you, is he?”
She clamped her lips shut. “No. He’s not.”
“He’s not good enough for you.”
She slammed her glass down on the bar. Thank goodness it was one of those with a thick bottom or it would’ve shattered. “No, he’s not good enough for me!”
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Kaylee Price!” She threw up her arms as she yelled, fists tightly clenched.
“What is your other name?” I grinned at my friend, happy I’d been able to lift her spirits.
“Kitten Kaylee!” she yelled and pumped her fists in the air.
“Damn right. Don’t let that fool get to you.”
She slapped her hands on the bar. “Get my friend a drink!”
The bartender asked me what I wanted, but I shook my head. I wasn’t ready to drink yet, if at all.
“Kaylee, have you seen Jace?” I asked as she watched the bartender, who I didn’t know, fill her glass.
She smiled and nodded towards the far side of the bar. I looked that way to find Jace sitting behind the bar with a laptop on his lap. He wouldn’t have been noticeable from the door.
The smirk on his face infuriated me. “I’ll be right back, ‘kay.”
She waved me off as she drank. Rounding the bar, I lifted the trap door, slipped behind the bar and circled the unnamed bartender, who stared at me in shock. Jace grinned wider as I approached.
With my hands on my hips, I stopped right in front of him. “Is your phone broken? You seem alive and well. If I hadn’t talked to Skye, I would’ve thought you’d died of a heart attack, or from the side effects of being a total asshole.” No matter how loud I yelled or how mean I sounded, he never stopped smiling.
And it annoyed me all the more because his smile was so much more beautiful than his frown.
“What’s funny?” I asked and stepped closer. “It’s not funny.”
“It’s cute that you care so much,” he replied.
“I don’t care.” I crossed my arms and tried to think of what I could say that would make it seem like I hadn’t been thinking about him all week after I’d made such a scene. Even Kaylee was staring with her mouth unhinged. “I just wanted to make sure you weren’t dead, but you didn’t bother shooting me a text or anything.”
“Liar,” he said quietly. “You care.”
I wasn’t lying. I didn’t care a whit about him. But the damn man wouldn’t stop smiling! Grumbling low in my throat, I shot him my most scathing glare. “I’m glad you didn’t die, anyway.”
I whirled and waved at Kaylee. “Come on, I’m taking you home.”
“It’s too early!” she retorted.
“We’re going anyway!” I yelled and gave her my best mom look.
She raised her eyebrows, but she got her purse. “Yes, ma’am.”
I opened the door for Kaylee to go through and looked in Jace’s direction. I couldn’t actually see him because of the sunlight streaming in behind me. “Since you’re not dying, delete my number!”
“Not a chance!” he yelled.
I had to fight a smile as I slammed the bar door shut and waltzed to the car. If I had an extra roll to my hips, it was his fault for making me mad. He was a jerk, and I couldn’t forget that. I wouldn’t fall for another set of pretty eyes. I’d done that once and that hadn’t turned out well at all.
8
Jace
The pain in my chest changed this week. I hadn’t seen Bri all week, but I’d spent most of my free time replaying the visions. Sammy had admitted to spelling me so that the next time I saw Bri, I’d see the visions.
The good ones… I couldn’t stop dreaming about them. And the more I considered them, the less the pain bothered me.
I thought about the bad visions, too. Analyzed them. Contemplated them and tried to figure out if I could live with that.
I had no doubt they were real. It wasn’t some projection of what Sammy thought could possibly happen. It was going to happen, one way or the other. I had a choice to make.
Even though I kept telling myself I was still going to leave Briana alone, the pain in my chest kept lessening. Then one morning I woke and wasn’t achy.
Then she came into the bar, and I watched her cheer her friend up, and something inside me settled. After that, nothing would wipe the grin off of my face.
She didn’t hate me.
She yelled, she postulated, but she cared about me. She’d been worried about me and despite my best efforts, I hadn’t pushed her away.
The bond wasn’t broken.
My grin cemented on my face and didn’t go away.
The next night, Bri came back in with Kaylee. She ordered water and sat with her back to the bar so I couldn’t see her face. Kaylee kept glancing over at me, so I could only imagine what Bri was saying about me. I could’ve focused on the table to filter out the noise of the bar and hear her words, but I figured in that moment, it was none of my business. Besides, I wasn’t sure my ego could take it.
But when she got up, she always searched the room for me, and I made it a point to put myself in her viewpoint as often as possible. Her coy looks and the way she turned her head made me feel like a teenager flirting with the cheerleader. And my chest pulsed every time she moved or looked at me, or if I heard her voice. But the pulses weren’t pain this time. They were warmth.
As the night wor
e on, my tattoo started tingling. She glanced my way when she came out of the bathroom, so I winked at her—and my tattoo burned again. This pain was totally different from what I’d had in my chest. It was welcome, almost.
I hadn’t one hundred percent decided that pursuing this with Briana was the right thing, but walking away from her started feeling like the worst idea in the world.
The more we flirted from afar, the lighter I felt. She didn’t know that her emotions toward me affected the burning of my tattoo and the pull in my chest. But I welcomed the burn. I knew it meant her feelings for me were changing from disdain to something more pleasant. Fonder.
Our flirtation went on throughout the night until she got up to leave. She sent me a little finger wave, and I looked at my new bartender, Alfie. “I’ll be right back.”
He was a miracle find. He’d bartended all his life and just retired to Bluewater to live closer to the ocean. He needed a part-time job, and I needed a part-time bartender.
I followed Bri outside. Not only to say goodnight but after what she’d been through, I was paranoid about her ex this late at night. The dude had some major problems. My packmate at the police station informed me that Damon had bailed out again and his lawyer somehow got him out of being charged with violating his restraining order. Again. I wasn’t sure if Bri knew, but I wasn’t taking any chances. It was one of the reasons I went to Anthony and Skye this week and all but demanded something be done. Now, thanks to me, there were two betas on rotation watching Bri’s parents’ house while she stayed there. She’d have extra protection until it was no longer needed.
“Hey, gorgeous.”
Briana whirled around. “Hey,” she said uncertainly.
“What are you doing out here this late at night by yourself?” I said it kindly, without any harshness to my tone. I didn’t want her to think I was judging her like last time, but I was worried.
“I’ve got things under control.” She cocked her head and studied me under the streetlamp. “You shouldn’t worry, especially considering you give me shit after you step in to help me even though I’ve never asked you to.” She hesitated. “Though I do appreciate it. But what’s up with that, anyway? Why bother helping me if you’re just going to complain about it and be an asshole to me?”
I didn’t know what to tell her. I’d been trying to push her away, hoping it would break the bond with her quicker, but I couldn’t exactly tell her that. Not yet. “I’ve had some health issues. And I haven’t dealt with them well. I promise you, I’m not normally so hot and cold.” I didn’t want her to think I was anything like her asshole ex. “I mean, I can have a temper, but—”
“But you’re nothing like my ex?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I concluded lamely. “I wasn’t feeling one hundred percent on those days and stupidly took my frustrations out on you. I’m so sorry. Do you think you can forgive me?”
She hesitated and leaned against the car. “I think I can. But after what I’ve gone through with Damon, I’m not the type to give a lot of chances. You should know that.” She studied her shoe.
“I can understand that. I’m glad you don’t. I shouldn’t have treated you that way, and I really am sorry.”
“I guess I can find it in me to forgive you for being a dick.” She met my gaze again. “Seriously, though. Thank you for stepping in.”
I nodded. “Don’t mention it. I’m glad you’re safe.”
Bri opened her car door, but as soon as she turned over the engine, she rolled down the window. “Are your health issues improving? Or is it something permanent?”
Thanks to her, they were much better. I grinned. “I’m on the road to recovery.” I couldn’t help the smile spreading as my tattoo burned. She was concerned and the bond felt it. “I’m sure I’ll have a clean bill of health in no time. Or, at least, I hope so.”
She smiled, and her face softened. I wanted to make her smile like that every day. “I’m glad to hear it, ‘cause you were starting to look like shit.”
I burst out laughing as she backed out of the parking spot and headed toward Kaylee’s apartment. I’d forgotten that Kaylee had left with her. The poor woman was probably already passed out in the passenger seat.
My step as light as it had ever been in my life, I went back inside and got to work. The bar didn’t close for another couple of hours and there was a house full of customers.
Of course, I smiled until the last customer left. I’d had a talk with Bri that hadn’t ended with her glaring at me or me being an asshole. Progress.
I’d just waved at the last customer and was about to walk around the bar and lock up when someone came in. As soon as he crossed the threshold, I knew he was a shifter. But he wasn’t anyone I’d ever met before. We were the only clan in a hundred miles. Shifters from other clans didn’t usually make it all the way out to Bluewater unless it was for special business.
The guy stared at me as he approached the bar. “Hey, buddy,” I said. “We’re closing in like two minutes. I can pour you a shot, but then I have to show you the door.”
He nodded. “I know. I’ve been waiting all night.” His deep voice sounded familiar somehow, but I knew I’d never met this man in my life. My hackles were on edge, and my dragon prowled beneath the surface.
“What can I do for you, man?” I crossed my arms in front of my chest, ready to jump for my bat if needed. This dude was a shifter, though, we’d be more likely to fight by claw than a weapon.
“My name is Porter,” he said. He held out his hand to shake mine, I only stared at it. Who was this fucker?
The man, Porter, smiled and drew his hand back. “I understand why you seem suspicious. I can explain, if you’ll give me just a little bit of your time.”
I couldn’t help but be curious. “Okay,” I pulled a beer out of the cooler and popped off the top, then slid it across the counter. “Take a seat.”
Porter took a long pull and then looked into my face. “Six months ago, my mother died.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.” And I was. It would tear me up when I lost my mom.
“Thank you. She told me some things, there at the end. Things about my father that I’d had no idea about. His serial cheating. His refusal to mate with my mom.”
It sounded all too familiar, but I remained quiet.
“My dad left us years ago, never to be heard from again. I believed I was my father’s only child up until six months ago when my mother told me that I wasn’t and that she knew of one other son my father had. A son that had been created with one of the many women my dad was sneaking around with.”
He raised his eyebrows at me, and my gut twisted because I was already certain of what was about to be said.
“My father’s name is Alexander Collins,” he said.
Yep. That was my father’s name.
On one hand, it was shocking news, but on the other hand, not so much. I’d always kind of figured my dad had other kids out there somewhere. What had me upset was that I was a product of my dad stepping out on another woman to be with my mom. My chest tightened… was Porter the other woman’s son?
Fucking hell. I already hated my dad, but this topped it. I hoped the man never turned up again. I eyed my brother and took an extra-long drink. “What is it you want, exactly?”
Porter shook his head. “I don’t want anything from you. I just lost my mother and you’re the only blood family I have left. I wanted to meet you, if things go well… maybe get to know you.”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “We only have a name. I’m still not totally convinced we are really brothers.”
Porter chuckled and pulled a picture out of his back pocket, which I took. I walked closer to the light behind the counter and looked down at it.
It was Porter, much younger, and sure enough, he was standing beside my dad. I looked up at him, and he looked more like the man in the picture now than I did. I hadn’t seen my father in a couple of decades, but now that I saw this, Porter was the spitting image
of him.
“Well, shit.” I sighed and gave him the picture back. “Guess I’ve got a brother. If you’re going to be sticking around, you’ll need to check in with my alpha.”
Porter seemed to slump a little. Relieved? But I understood. I knew rejection well. He’d probably expected me to send him hiking.
“I have to ask,” Porter said carefully. “He’s not here, is he…ya know, dear old dad?”
I snorted. “Hell, no. And he’d better not show up. I don’t want anything to do with that man.” I eyed him. “And family is family, however we got it. I won’t turn you away.”
With those words, a vision of Briana and Hayden crossed my vision.
Family was family.
Damn. That made up my mind. I was going to make them my family.
9
Bri
“Just because spring break is coming doesn’t mean you can slack off,” I cautioned my sixth graders. “You’ve got some pretty big tests on Friday.”
I grinned at them. “But we’ve studied enough today. Why don’t we go around the room and talk about plans? Are you going anywhere or just enjoying a relaxing week at home without any stress of school?” I pointed to the girl in the front left chair. “Start us off, Anita.”
She grinned and jumped up and started rattling off about a vacation plan.
I was really looking forward to having a week out of school myself. Not that I had any plans, but it had been a while since I’d heard from Damon. I’d given myself a spring break deadline. If he didn’t bother us by then, we’d go home. Besides, I’d passed my carry class and was now allowed to concealed carry a handgun. Except on school grounds, I’d been keeping it on me, and I felt a lot better about my chances with Damon now. I just hoped I never had to use it.
The clock showed the bell would be ringing any minute. We’d gotten through everyone’s spring break plans and I’d let them vent some steam after reminding them to study tonight for their Friday exams.
I stood at my podium, making notes about attendance when the room got really quiet. I looked up to see the kids looking at the doorway and some of the girls giggling.