by J. L. Drake
“Good to know.” I removed my jacket.
“Well, goodnight, Sloane.” He looked over at the dog and made a face. “Night, traitor.” Tripper’s tail beat the couch cushion, totally comfy already.
“Thanks, John.”
I went to the window to watch him walk back up the path. When I turned back around, Tripper tilted his head to one side as he watched me.
“What?”
Chapter Five
John
“I have some questions myself, Trigger.” I held my phone to my ear as I moved to the window and looked down at the lake. It had been one week since Sloane arrived at the house, and I might have seen her twice. Frank had sent some boxes down to her, and she’d been quiet ever since. I knew she was alive only because the girls had been bringing her food and checking in, and whenever I asked how she was doing, they’d simply say she was busy. I knew I was being cold and edgy when she was around, but that was because I couldn’t figure out why she drew all these new feelings out of me. Feelings I didn’t deserve to feel. I knew I shouldn’t be interested, but…I rubbed my head, frustrated. I hated that a woman got inside my head. Not to mention my dog seemed to have totally fallen for her. But along with the excitement of an interesting woman came the acid in my stomach. Happiness just didn’t sit very well inside me anymore.
“Because you helped get my VP out of that shit hole,” Trigger broke the storm in my head, “I’ll agree to chat. But, ah, some shit has been brewing, so you gotta come here or we can call again.”
“All right, but I need to know why Brick was there. Can you tell me that much?”
There was a long measure of silence before he cleared his throat like he was annoyed.
“He was following up on a personal lead but also trailing the president of the Stripe Backs. Guess he’s stepping down, and the rumor is his nephew Caleb may take over. We’re trying to learn what they’re up to since that surfaced, and our new guest in Hawaii has made his mark. Think it’s best to watch all that want to take us down. Since Brick was already heading that way, I got him to tail the president, but shit went down, and that’s when he ran into you.”
“What was the personal lead?” I knew I was digging too far, but I needed answers to rule out Brick.
“Nothing that concerns Blackstone.”
“Fair enough. I appreciate the time.”
“Yeah.” The phone went dead.
“All right, bye,” I said to no one. He always was a guy of few words.
I changed into my camo pants and t-shirt and headed down to where the guys were training. I raced to catch up. I hated to show up late, but Cole knew I needed to make some calls. We were all a little extra forgiving lately with the present situation.
Three of North Rock’s members were still in the hospital, one in critical condition. We all waited, desperate for intel to come back on who had messed with the team and killed our guy. We were waiting for the call to ship out to even the score. It was painful not to just go, but we had our orders, and no matter what, we had to obey them.
I turned my ball hat around, so the peak covered my neck, and flipped the hundred and thirty-pound farm tire over and over again across the property. The effort felt good.
“Again,” Daniel yelled, and we switched directions and repeated the same actions again. My muscles screamed, and I welcomed the burn that spread through my body.
“So,” Mark grunted as he neared the finish line, “the lawyer is hot.”
“Yeah.” I lifted the chains over my shoulders, curled my fingers under the rubber lip, and stood with the tire around my waist then started the Farmer’s Walk move.
“You should take her to dinner at Zack’s.”
“I don’t think she’s totally single.” I reminded him of the dinner when the words it’s complicated were used.
“‘It’s complicated’ is very different than ‘I’m seeing someone.’”
“City and country don’t mix.”
“That was my excuse,” Cole chimed in while a vein popped out on his neck. “Now look.”
I dropped the tire, wiggled my arms to get the blood moving again, and dumped my water over my head. It instantly cooled in the chilly air.
“Savannah was an exception to the rule,” I pointed out. “She didn’t have a city life to go back to.”
“Stop hiding and date,” Cole muttered.
“I’m not—” I stopped when Mark elbowed Cole, and they both grinned at me.
“What?”
“Afternoon, Sloane.” Mark waved, and I glanced over my shoulder to see her jogging up the property in yoga pants and a zip-up sweater, and right by her side was the friggin’ traitor. I supposed I couldn’t blame him. She looked damned gorgeous.
She removed her earphones and slowed her pace. “Hey, guys.” Her cheeks were pink from her workout. “Beautiful day.”
“It is.” Cole shaded his eyes to see his father coming in our direction.
Tripper bolted for me, and like the crazy pup he was, he leapt into my arms. “Oh, you do remember me?” His long tongue started to lick my face all over.
“Sorry.” Sloane tried to hide her amusement. “I brought him up to the house three nights ago, but he wouldn’t stay there.”
“Smarter dog than some I know,” Mark whispered at me with a grin. “Hey, Tripper, wasn’t that you who took down that big guy on a drug bust last year?” Mark shook his head at Cole. “Now look at you, buddy.” Tripper wagged his tail furiously when he heard his name, then suddenly tuned in to Daniel and wiggled to get free.
“Hey, boy.” Daniel gave him a pat on the head. “Sloane, I wanted to ask, has Henry made contact with you at all this past week?”
Her face fell, and she wrapped her arms around her midsection. “Once, yes.”
“Did you let Frank know?”
“I meant to. I just fell down a rabbit hole and guess I forgot.”
Daniel glanced at Cole before he spoke again. “Did he seem any different?”
“Different how?”
“Agitated?”
She thought for a moment. “A little, but I didn’t think anything of it. They’re always intense and know no boundaries.”
“Boundaries?” Daniel questioned.
“It’s nothing. Henry was just outside my place the other day. He’s watching for when I come home. Claimed he had more evidence for me to look over.”
Daniel pulled out his phone and excused himself.
“Cole, it’s really nothing.” She turned to him. “This whole thing has been blown way out of proportion.”
“Maybe,” he shrugged, “but if Frank brought you here, my guess is it isn’t.”
Her hands rubbed her shoulders like she was cold, but I knew it was nerves. I really wished I knew what was going on.
“You mentioned you fell down a rabbit hole.” I jumped in. “Did you find something?”
“Um, maybe?” Her face scrunched up. “I came out for a jog to clear my head before I dove in any further.”
“John is off for the rest of the afternoon if you need any help.” Mark grinned.
So subtle.
“Thanks,” she smiled back, “but I think I could use one more run before my mind will let me work again.”
“Have you been up the mountain yet?” Mark asked.
“No, not yet.”
“Well, that’s John’s second home. Maybe he can show you?”
“Yeah?” Her eyebrows rose in interest.
“Sure.” I started to walk with her but glared back at Mark, who was in a fit of laughter, and Cole was about to join in.
Dicks.
We headed up the path. I began to jog, and she seemed to easily keep up with my pace. I decided to take a harder trail just to test her endurance.
“So,” she hopped off a ledge where I figured she might ease down, “does your family live in Montana too?”
“Yeah.” I jumped over large split in the rock and turned to offer her a hand, but she dove straight acros
s.
“Brother or a sister?”
“Yeah.” I barely heard her and moved onto a small ledge and inched across it. If I fell, it was only twenty feet down, but I wanted to see if she’d follow or just go around.
“Both parents still alive?” She slid her right foot onto the rock to test her balance.
“Yeah.” I watched once I got to the other side and couldn’t help but let my eyes roam over her tight pants. I was always respectful with women. My parents raised me well, but they hadn’t prepared me for Sloane’s tight little body all smothered in spandex.
She crossed, hopped off, and brushed her hands clean of rock dust.
“Are you always this forthcoming, or do I just bring out the one-word answers in you?”
I smirked and stared down at her, loving her in my element. Some of her hair had worked loose from her ponytail, and the dark color framed her intense blue eyes.
“Most women.” I stopped myself, curious as to why I even felt I should say anything. I closed my mouth and continued to climb.
“Have we graduated to two words now?” She chuckled behind me. “All right, then.”
I hated how much I enjoyed her banter, and the fact that she didn’t pry to know what I had been about to say made me almost want to elaborate. We slipped into quiet mode as we moved around the mountain. On the steep part, I turned around to help her, but she’d found her footing and jumped up next to me.
“You don’t have to look so surprised.” She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.
I lifted a hand. “Sorry. I guess your heels threw me off.”
“Is that why you took me the hard way around the mountain?”
“Huh?”
“Abigail told me about the different routes.” Her hands went to her hips, and she lifted an eyebrow at me. “I know there are two other ways to get here.”
I pressed my lips together to hide my smile. She’d known and had never once mentioned it the hour we’d climbed. She was good.
“Are you testing me, Black?”
“Possibly.”
She nodded and looked down before she laughed. “Well, you’re going to have to try harder than that.”
“Seems that way.”
I turned and fell into a fast pace, and she followed in silence until we reached the top of the lowest peak.
“Wow,” she scanned the panoramic view, “miles and miles of wide-open space.” She closed her eyes and let the afternoon sun warm her face. “I can see why you like it here.”
“I don’t stop here,” I corrected her, really just wanting the opportunity to stare at her a little longer with her eyes closed.
“What do you mean?” She turned to look up at the wall of rock that rose another sixty or so feet and jutted outward. It was an intense climb and one I did at least once a week. “You climb that?”
“Yeah.” I nodded and pushed off where I was standing.
“That’s insane,” she huffed.
“Hence the reason I do it.” I grinned as I stepped toward her. I pushed down my usual wall. I deserved at least one moment of freedom from the hell I carried inside. “What do you like to do for fun?”
She let out a long sigh before she shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t normally have a lot of free time anymore.”
“But when you do?” I was pretty close now and enjoyed how much I towered over her. She was slim and tall, but I was taller. She tilted her head back to look into my eyes.
“I love to be outdoors, no phones, no computers, no TV, just unplugged.”
I nodded, extremely happy with her answer. I’d misjudged Sloane, thinking she was all city. Not that she would be happy in the country, but it was good to know she wasn’t an uptight-citified woman who couldn’t handle outdoor life.
“Why do you get to ask questions and I can’t?”
I shrugged. She was right, but I wasn’t good at opening up like she was.
“You owe me an answer.”
“One.”
“Okay.” She tapped her fingers against her pink lips. “Do you mind me being at Shadows?”
That threw me for a loop.
“Why would you ask me that?”
“Because you seem to get annoyed when I’m around. You’re one way with the family and another with me.”
I swallowed down the knot in my throat. “Reasons.” I shrugged.
“You promised me an answer, John.” She filled what little gap there was between us.
“Ask me another.”
“No, I want this one.”
“Pass.”
She suddenly smirked. “I never pegged you for a quitter.”
“I’m not a quitter.”
“Okay.” She went to turn, but I snagged her arm and whirled her back to me. Her chest rose, which drew my gaze to her cleavage. I shook my head clear and tried to think straight.
“There are things about you that make it hard for me to be around you. It’s not something I can discuss very easily.”
“Okay,” she whispered as her gaze dropped to my lips.
My pocket vibrated, and I pulled it free and slowly let go of Sloane. “Hello.”
“Son, you need to come home. We can’t get…” Screaming in the background made my stomach coil into a familiar hard knot.
“I’m on my way.”
And just like that, my reality came screaming back to me, and I felt myself pull in again.
“I need to leave,” I muttered to her and raced back toward the path.
“Is everything okay?”
“No.”
We made it down the mountain within thirty-five minutes. I jumped into my truck without saying a word to Sloane. I wasn’t trying to be a jerk; I just had bigger things on my mind. My world wasn’t meant to be shared with two.
I arrived at my parents’ house in just under an hour. Even from my truck, I could hear her screams. I rushed inside and found my sister with her hands over her ears, her mouth wide open, with tears streaming down her face.
“Oh, thank God!” my mother shouted.
“What happened?” I dropped to my knees and held my twin sister’s head between my hands.
“We were trying to get her in the car, and she just panicked.” My mother pleaded, “She has a doctor’s appointment, and now we’re going to be late. I-I just don’t know what to do anymore.”
I glanced at my father, who was in the hallway, his face expressionless. He looked checked-out, as he often did these days.
“Ellie,” I whispered. “Ellie, look at me.”
Her bloodshot eyes opened, and she finally registered me. “John?”
“In the flesh,” I joked, knowing she often reacted positively to humor.
“I can’t go in the car.” Her speech was slow, but I was patient. “The last time I went in the car, I got hurt.”
My mother sank onto the couch and started to cry.
“El, that was years ago. You’ve been in the car a lot since then.”
She looked at me, confused, and I knew she was trying to search for those memories inside her head.
“Come on,” I helped her to her feet and handed her a tissue, “I’ll take you to the appointment. I think Mom needs to stay home right now. Let’s just go, you and me.”
“Thank you, John.” My mother was beyond emotionally and physically spent. I wished so much I could do more, but I didn’t know where to start.
By the time I dropped my sister off back at home, it was late. Mom had finished making dinner, and Dad was out in the barn.
“Doctor said she was okay, just to watch her salt intake.” I dropped my sister’s pills on the table and kissed my mom’s cheek. “I’m going to check on Dad.”
I walked across the yard and into the red barn that sat a few yards from the house. It had been our favorite place growing up. Our parents had let us decorate the loft and turn it into a clubhouse. Over the years, it became our place to escape from the world of grownups, and now it was where my father came to escape what was ha
ppening in the house. I took the twenty-foot ladder three steps at a time and found him sitting on the edge looking out from the massive barn doors, feet dangling, head back, and beer in his hand.
The white twinkle lights lined the opening, giving a warm glow on chilly nights. Three hens cuddled together in the hay and clucked when I came closer.
“Hey, son,” he greeted me with as much warmth as he had inside of him. Lately, there wasn’t much left.
“Ellie’s appointment went well.”
“Good.” He looked away, but I saw the stress that deepened the crow’s feet around his eyes. His dusty jacket hung open, and bits of hay clung to his sweater.
“I can come by tomorrow if you want and help move the hay.”
“It’s all done. We finished up today.”
“Okay.” I tucked my hands in my pockets. “How’s Mom?”
“Hanging in there, I guess.” He tipped his beer back and finished off the rest of it.
My heart squeezed tight; we were not that kind of family anymore. There was a time we were happy and light and full of life. My father would drop anything he was doing for any of us at any time. Now we were zombies going through the motions of life with no end in sight. Mom carried her emotions on the surface, and Dad carried them deep in his gut. Both as checked-out, just in different ways. Which left me to be the floater. I helped out in any way I could, but I had a job—a very high-stress job. The fact that I loved it helped, but I just didn’t have time for anything else in life anymore. My job and my homelife were all I could handle.
“You want a beer?” Dad pointed to the box of beer. I knew I should get back, but I could tell he needed company.
“Sure.”
Chapter Six
Sloane
I checked the mirror one last time. My black sweater hugged me tightly, a soft V-neck, with a dark gray heavier knit that lined the cuffs. My dark slim jeans looked good with the gray suede booties. I admired the chunky high heel and thought John would approve.
My smile fell when I thought of how we had parted ways after our hike. The past two days, it wasn’t lost on me that he was avoiding me. Once again, I wondered what the phone call was that had so quickly changed his mood.