by Kara Parker
This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons--living or dead--is entirely coincidental.
Riding Dirty copyright @ 2016 by Kara Parker. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
You can keep up with Kara Parker about her latest releases, exclusive prizes, and much more when you subscribe to her newsletter by clicking this link:
http://eepurl.com/b65IQr
Or by clicking the banner below!
Have comments? Feedback? Reviews?
You can send them directly to Kara Parker to her email address:
[email protected]
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FOURTY
CHAPTER FOURTY-ONE
CHAPTER FOURTY-TWO
CHAPTER FOURTY-THREE
CHAPTER FOURTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FOURTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FOURTY-SIX
CHAPTER FOURTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER FOURTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER FOURTY-NINE
CHAPTER FIFTY
Bonus Book Drifter
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
OTHER TITLES BY KARA PARKER
RENEGADE
DRIFTER
CHAPTER ONE
“Aguilar’s,” Rose says when she answers the phone, identifying the restaurant that bears her name.
“Rose?”
“This is Rose Aguilar. How may I help you?”
“Rose… this is Melina. Melina Scholly.”
“Melina! How are you? I haven’t heard from you in ages.”
“Oh, Rose…” the woman gasps into the phone. “Tim has been killed. I thought…”
“What?” she yelps. “Oh, Melina… I’m so sorry! How?”
Rose waits while Melina gets herself under control. “He was shot, Rose. Murdered this morning. Outside the restaurant.”
Rose sits in shocked silence. Things like this just don’t happen in the community of Eagle Valley. Melina has two lovely children, Michael and Kimberly, one three and the other not quite one. Both of them are about to grow up without a father.
“Melina… I can’t tell you how sorry I am. Is there anything I can do? Anything at all?”
She waits as Melina tries to get her sobs under control. “I hate to ask…”
“Melina…” Rose says warmly. “We’ve been friends forever. If I can do it, you know I will.”
“I need someone to run the restaurant for a few days. Just until things settle down. I’m sorry to have to ask…”
“I will be happy to help you, Melina,” she interrupts. “Can you manage for a day or two until I can get there?”
Rose can hear the relief in Melina’s voice. “Yes. Of course. I can’t thank you enough, Rose. I hate to be a burden. I know you have your own…”
“Hush now,” Rose says kindly. “It is no burden. My assistant managers can run the place for a few days. I’ll be there tomorrow evening some time. Don’t worry about this, okay? You worry about yourself.”
“Thank you Rose. Thank you so much!” Melina gushes. “Will you stay with me? Please? I could use the company. I feel like I am going out of my mind and…”
“Of course. I would love to. Anything I can do to help. Hang in there, Melina. I know it is hard right now, but it will get better. I promise.”
Melina is quiet for a moment before Rose hears a great gasping sob. “I have to go Rose. I haven’t called Tim’s parents yet. I’m dreading making that call.”
“Do you want me to do it?” Rose offers.
“No… I can do it. It’s just going to be so hard…”
“I know, Melina. I know…” she comforts as she begins to struggle with her own tears.
“Thank you, Rose. I couldn’t ask for a better friend,” Melina says.
“Same here,” Rose murmurs as she hears the line go dead.
She sits at her desk, staring at the walls. Tim Scholly… murdered. Tim was the nicest guy you could ever meet. A friend to everyone. Why anyone would want to kill him is beyond her.
Rose gathers herself and wipes her eyes before picking up the phone and dialing both her managers. She needs to let them know they are going to have to pick up the slack while she is gone.
***
After meeting with her managers early the next afternoon, Rose heads north on US-95 to Eagle Valley, Nevada. It has been a couple of years since she has made the six hour drive home to the community located right outside of Carson City. Not really a town, more like a loose gathering of homes for people that work in Carson City—and the businesses that support them—Eagle Valley was her home until she left to find her own way.
It is going to be like old times, going back to the restaurant she worked in until she left for college. She, Tim, Melina, and Joseph Warner—they were best friends and the core group of high school kids that had served as waiters and busboys for her parents’ restaurant, The Green Goose… or as the locals call it, the Goose. Her parents had sold the restaurant to Tim less than a year ago when they had retired to Florida.
When her parents announced they were retiring they had offered her the Goose but she had already graduated from UNLV with a degree in business and hospitality management and had opened her own restaurant, Aguilar’s, in Los Vegas.
Where Aguilar’s is upscale, open for dinner only, and catering to the well-heeled, the Goose is open from five am until ten pm every day, serving simple meals at reasonable prices. Tim, who had worked up from busboy to assistant manager, had expressed an interest when her parents had decided to sell and Rose was thrilled that the restaurant had
all but stayed in the family.
She hasn’t been home since her mom and dad had announced their plans to sell and retire, and despite the circumstances, she is looking forward to meeting her old friends. But poor Melina… Rose had worked it out with her two managers to be gone for about thirty days with just the occasional visit back to Vegas to handle any problem that might need her attention. By then Melina should be back on her feet and can take over the restaurant if she chooses. She had worked there for a long time before quitting to raise her family and Rose is confident that once she is over the shock of Tim’s unexpected death, that she will be fine and the Goose will be in good hands.
She slows as she cruises past the Goose on the way to Melina’s house, it’s lights off, closed because of the tragedy just past. She is saddened to see the dark restaurant. Not only because it is due to the death of her long-time friend, but also because the lights are so rarely out at the Goose. As she drives past she sets her jaw in determination. The Goose will be open for breakfast tomorrow morning at five am, just like always, if there is any way she can make it happen.
Less than ten minutes later, Rose parks her BMW in the drive of her childhood home. When the Scholly’s bought the Goose, they took it as a package deal with her parents’ nearby house. It was good deal for Tim and Melina because they were able to obtain the larger home their growing family needed, and they could live only eight miles from their livelihood. It was also a good deal for her Mom and Dad, allowing them to make a clean break and unload their house at the same time as the restaurant. She smiles as she pulls her suitcase from the back of the car. Except for being painted a pale yellow instead of tan, the place looks exactly the same as the last time she saw it.
Greg Scholly, Tim’s father, opens the door at Rose’s ring. “Rose,” he says. “I’m so glad you could make it. I’m sorry it is under these circumstances.”
Greg seems to be holding up well, but his eyes are sunken and red. “I’m sorry for your loss Mr. Scholly.”
He nods and his face twists as he struggles not to cry. “Won’t you come in?” he asks brusquely after clearing his throat, stepping back and opening the door wider before taking her bag.
“Oh, Rose…” Melina says quietly, entering from the kitchen, hugging her fiercely.
Rose tries, she really does try, but she can’t hold her tears, her heart breaking over Melina’s grief at the loss of her husband… and her own at the loss of a dear friend.
“Melina… I’m so sorry for you,” Rose gasps.
Melina weeps softly for a moment before releasing Rose and wiping her eyes. “Thank you, Rose. It’s been so hard.”
Rose wipes her own eyes. “I can’t imagine what you must be going through. How can I help?”
“You just being here helps,” Melina says, trying to smile. “I knew I could count on you.”
“I’m here for you Melina,” Rose says. “Anything you need, just tell me.”
Rose hugs Melina’s family, then Tim’s, weeping with them briefly and offering what words of support she can. No parent expects to outlive their child and Rose can tell Mr. and Mrs. Scholly are devastated by their loss. After Rose is settled in Tim and Melina’s parents leave, with Melina’s parents taking the children for the evening.
Rose then takes over the duties of answering calls and speaking with well-wishers. The grief in the house is palpable, but Rose holds her own tears, trying to be strong for Melina. They sit together and talk. There is a lot of crying and some laughing as they remember Tim and the time they spent together as kids and young adults. They reminisce over how it had been Rose that gave Tim a swift kick in the ass to ask Melina out for the first time during their junior year of high school, and they laugh about the merciless teasing that Rose and Joseph had to endure after Tim had caught them making out in the storeroom.
As they talk Rose learns that Melina wants to sell the Goose. Though she is saddened by the news, she can understand why. Running a restaurant is more than a full-time job, and trying to do that while raising two small children would be a nearly impossible task. The Goose is a well-established and respected part of the community so they shouldn’t have any problem finding an interested buyer within the thirty-day window that Rose has set aside. Tomorrow she will call her dad, find out who else was interested in the Goose when he sold it to Tim, and start making some calls.
When Melina finally falls asleep on the couch, Rose carefully covers her with a throw then retires to her own bed. Her restaurant doesn’t open until four in the afternoon and is open until one in the morning. Some mornings she is just getting to sleep when she will have to get up to have the Goose open at five. Rose sighs as she settles into bed. These first few mornings are going to suck.
CHAPTER TWO
The Goose has a good crew. Yesterday Rose and Melina had looked through Tim’s address book and she had made the calls to tell everyone they were opening the next morning for business on schedule. When she arrives at 4:45, the lights are on and the sounds of a busy restaurant are in full swing.
As she enters, Jack, the head cook, greets her with a rib-cracking hug. Jack has been the chief cook for as long as Rose can remember—at least fifteen years. She also recognizes Gail, Tonya, and Dick, greeting each of them warmly, but the rest of the staff are new to her.
She gives everyone a quick pep talk and then unlocks the doors. By five-thirty the Goose is humming. The old-timers remember Rose and talk to her, many asking if she is taking the Goose back after the tragedy. She brushes off the innocent questions with noncommittal answers, not wanting to mention the intent to sell.
***
Though open and busy all day, the Goose has two rushes—breakfast and dinner—allowing Rose to take a breather after the breakfast crush slows. She had forgotten how much work running a well-liked, mid-level family restaurant is. After the dinner rush the Goose will probably have served more meals in a day than Aguilar’s will in four or five.
She is sitting in Tim’s chair, trying to stay awake while looking over the morning receipts, when she hears a voice that she had not heard in years. “Rose?”
“Holy shit,” she breathes as she rises from her chair. “What are you doing here? Did you come for Tim’s funeral tomorrow?”
Joseph Warner smiles—the same smile that she remembers so well. She and Joseph had been lovers a long time ago before he had left her to join a motorcycle club.
“No. I live here now.”
“I thought you were in Arizona, or New Mexico, or someplace like that.”
“Tucson,” he says. “But once I took over the Nine Devils we relocated back here, to Eagle Valley. To damn hot in Tucson.”
“Nice name… Nine Devils,” she mutters.
Joseph shrugs. “It’s just a name. It has meaning to us and reminds us of who we are.”
They stand in an awkward silence for a moment, neither sure of their position with the other. Rose and Joseph had become lovers right out of high school… not long after Tim caught them necking in her dad’s restaurant, actually. They had carried on a torrid affair for two years, Joseph making the ride from Eagle Valley to Las Vegas at least once a week while she attended school. Once there they would make wildly passionate love for a couple of days before he would return to Eagle Valley. During her junior year, after a night of sexual bliss under the stars in the middle of the desert surrounding Vegas, he announced he was leaving. At first she thought he meant he was going home to Eagle Valley, only to realize he meant leaving forever.
She had begged him to stay and he had asked her to go. But in the end, she wouldn’t leave school and he wouldn’t stay. That had been seven years ago. She had thought she was over him—she is over him—except now that he is standing in her door he reminds her of what they had. Something she hasn’t found since. The years have been kind to Mr. Joseph Warner. He has filled out and muscled up, his skin kissed by the sun so that he glows with a healthy, outdoorsy tan. He is still as neatly trimmed and dressed as he always was, but h
e fills out his shirt and pants much better now.
She clears her throat, pulling her thoughts back from the past. “Are you going to the funeral tomorrow?”
“Yes. We all are.”
“We? You’re married?” she asks, hoping she kept her voice level and neutral.
That panty-dropping grin appears again. “Hardly. No, I mean all the Nines are going.”
“Oh,” she says, trying to hide her nasty little satisfaction that he hasn’t found someone to replace her. “How many is that?”
“Twenty-seven men and women.”
“Twenty-seven? Is that a special number? Three times nine?”
Once again the grin appears. “No. No secret meanings. Two years ago there were twenty-six of us. Soon I hope there will be twenty-eight.”
“So what brings you in? And how did you know I was in here?”
“I didn’t. I just came to get my mail and check my messages. And what are you doing here?”
“I came up for the funeral, but I’m also watching the place for a few weeks until Melina can get her feet under her again. And what is that about the mail?”
