Hail No (Hail Raisers Book 1)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  He gestured to something in front of him.

  It was a truck. A big one that looked like it was lifted up so high that I’d have to take a running leap to get into it.

  It had a light bar across the top, and I swear to God that it looked like the truck had a unibrow.

  Then I noticed all the lights.

  “Whose truck is that?” I asked, taking in the multiple bars that resembled red and blue emergency lights on the bumpers.

  “According to my paperwork,” he pulled out his phone and pulled up a screen in an app that I didn’t recognize. “It’s Officer Dale Rogers’ truck. He’s behind not one, not four, but six car payments.”

  I blinked.

  “You’re kidding.”

  He shook his head.

  “And that means…” I left it hanging, wondering if he’d answer me.

  “That means we’re picking it up and taking it in,” he grinned.

  He grinned.

  Grinned…with teeth showing!

  I’d never seen him smile before, but if that grin was anything to go by, it was life changing.

  And man, did he have pretty teeth. The smile changed his face, transformed it from mean and scary to sexy and dark.

  If there’d ever been a time where I wanted a man, it was now.

  I wanted him, and I wanted him bad.

  And the scary thing was that I thought he might know it.

  “Gotta go get my truck,” he murmured.

  I nodded.

  “You think you can go in there and distract him while I do my thing?”

  I froze in place.

  “Yeah…” I hesitated. “But I don’t know what he looks like.”

  Evander turned his phone around and showed me the screen.

  There was a bunch of writing on the screen. Then, in the top right corner next to his name and address was his picture.

  He was a male, in his late twenties, with a cruel looking smile. He was dressed in his dress blues from Hostel Police Department, and I knew the instant I saw him exactly who he was.

  “I’m not sure he’s going to believe that I want to talk to him,” I finally said.

  His eyes came down to me.

  “Why not?” he asked, sounding confused.

  His eyes roamed my body, starting at the top of my head, and moving down to the tips of my toes, and what he saw was obviously something he liked if the small grin he gave me was anything to go by.

  But it was there and gone so fast that I almost wasn’t sure that what I saw was real.

  “Because, just last week, I turned him down for a date…” I hesitated. “And the week before that, I turned him down, also. I’d never willingly go up to him.”

  He looked down at me, studied me for a few long seconds, and then nodded.

  “Then let’s hope like hell that he doesn’t come out while we’re doing this.”

  Then he walked to his truck, and I assumed, expected me to follow.

  I did, hurrying behind him to keep up with his long legs, and then came to a stop when he went to the passenger side and held the door open for me.

  “T-thank you,” I murmured, walking towards him.

  With the way the cars were parked on either side of us, the fit between him and the door was a tight one, making me squeeze so close by him that I felt his body heat all along the length of my back.

  I shivered as I reached for the bar to help pull myself in, and gritted my teeth as I started to hop up on one foot while also trying to keep myself from falling on my face.

  “You need a step on this thing,” I muttered.

  It wasn’t big, per se, but it was compared to my lack of height, and the truck’s taller stature.

  I’d just resigned myself to jumping when I felt a tug on my pants, and then felt my ass being lifted by the belt loop of my jeans.

  I went with it, not stopping to think until I was sitting on my bottom.

  That was when I realized that the man that I found super sexy had his hand near my ass, and I nearly squealed.

  “Thank you,” I murmured, managing to keep it at an octave that was conducive with hearing.

  He slammed the door shut without a word, and I decided that the momentous occasion of his finger in my belt loop was nothing to him while it was everything to me.

  Jesus, I needed to get a hold of myself.

  To keep my eyes from being on him when he got in, I reached for my seatbelt and looked toward where the truck was parked.

  “Do you think you can get the truck that quick?” I asked him, eyeing the cars all around it.

  He started to laugh, and I turned at the sound.

  I liked how his throat worked. I liked how he stared at me with his eyes shining. I liked him.

  A lot.

  “Yeah, honey,” he snorted. “I think I can get it quick.”

  And then I watched as he pulled out of his parking spot, rolled up the rows of cars, and then expertly backed up to the big, jacked up truck in under a minute.

  Then, I continued to watch as he got out, hooked the truck up, and was back inside in less than two.

  “You’ve done this before?” I asked him breathily.

  My heart was pounding!

  Why could I not breathe, you ask?

  Because the man was hot as hell.

  Watching him in the truck’s big ass mirrors while his muscles bunched and released was enough to send my libido into overdrive.

  The light sheen of sweat on his skin, though? That was enough to send me to my knees.

  “Do you think he’ll noti…” I stopped when I saw a man running outside, his loaded down cart full of wood and concrete trailing behind him.

  “Yeah,” Evander said. “I think he’ll notice.”

  I snorted a laugh, then settled back into my seat as he drove us out of the parking lot without a care in the world.

  Chapter 9

  Basically, if you can pull off a beard, you can pull off my underwear.

  -Fact of Life

  Kennedy

  “Cock sucker,” I grumbled, bending down to pick up the nail.

  I heard a snort, but when I looked at the man at my side, he looked no different than he usually did. Stoic and blank.

  I went back to the nail I’d just picked back up off the ground, placed the U-shaped piece of shit back across the wire that was strung tight across the four-by-four post we’d sunk into the ground, and bit my lip.

  Very carefully, I aimed the hammer in my hand against the nail head. Once I thought it was in well enough, I pulled back and hit it a little harder, only for it to go flying again.

  “Goddamn you, you little piece of shit,” I growled.

  That’s when the big man at the other end of the fence—the same man who’d started directly next to me going the opposite way as me—started to laugh.

  “How do you do this?” I groaned. “I don’t understand!”

  He shook his head. “One of the nail ends is a little longer than the other. Get that side in a little first, and then give it a good whack.”

  I glared at the offending nail that was winking in the sunlight from its position deep in the grass and grumbled something unintelligible. “Whatever.”

  Bending down, I picked it up again, and then adjusted my bra where I was storing the other nails—the ones I hadn’t had use for yet since I hadn’t even gotten a single one of the fuckers in.

  “Like this,” he said, suddenly beside me.

  I blinked at his abrupt nearness, but dutifully watched him do the nailing, putting in four in the blink of an eye.

  “Maybe I’ll just be your nail holder,” I offered, staring at his muscular forearms.

  He started to chuckle. “I guess that’s okay. I need another one.”

  So we worked in companionable silence, him pounding nails and me pulling them out of my shirt and handing them to him.

  We did that for a while, then we stretche
d more fence.

  Fence I hadn’t been aware needed to be stretched when I’d done this myself.

  Then again, I’d just used chicken wire and staples which, apparently, wasn’t how it was supposed to be done. Surprise, surprise.

  It was while we worked on one of the last posts that it happened. The one single thing that changed my life.

  “Here, hold this,” he said, handing me the piece of the fence. “Pull up while I nail it.”

  I did as asked, trying not to press my breasts against him as I did.

  My forearms were shaking with the abuse I was putting them through, and I was fairly sure that I was the picture of sweaty, unattractive female.

  Yet, I kept going, because this man was doing me a favor, and no matter how bad my forearms hurt and my hands screamed, I was going to work until I could no longer stay on my feet.

  “Do you have a nail?”

  I looked at my hands that were holding my fence up, and then down to his knee that was holding it down below, and then shook my head. “Not in my hand.”

  His eyes went down to my shirt where it was bulging unnaturally with nails and then bit his lip.

  “Just do it,” I gasped. “My arms are about to give out.”

  He reached forward and took the first nail that was on top, barely even touching any of my skin.

  It was just a brush—a barely-there, brief little graze—of his thumb against the inside of my left breast. But it was the best touch I’d ever felt in my life.

  I would remember it for the rest of my years.

  I’d also remember the look in his eyes at the moment his fingers skimmed across my flesh.

  I chose to be a good girl, though, and instead of letting out the involuntary moan creeping up my throat, I buried it.

  Turning away from his eyes which stayed glued to mine, I bit my lip and stared straight ahead.

  It took him another couple of moments to do his thing, and by the time he was done nailing in all five nails, I was on fire.

  Not literally, but my arms were screaming, and I was fairly sure I’d need a new pair of panties.

  Being this near to him was hell on my nerves.

  He was literally setting me on fire and he hadn’t even done anything but run the pad of one thumb against the side of one of my boobs.

  An innocent touch, yet it was enough to tell me two things.

  One, I was a hoochie. Anything would be better than nothing.

  And two, I was falling for this big, silent man who had done nothing but talk to me for a few short minutes each time I’d seen him.

  But, as they say, actions spoke louder than words.

  He’d helped carry heavy bags to my truck. He’d buried my chickens. He’d built me a freakin’ fence.

  So, no, I didn’t think that this big man was as bad as everyone in town was making him out to be. I knew for a fact that he was kind, caring and a whole lot of awesome.

  I just had to prove that to him.

  Oh, and figure out how the hell to make him fall madly in love with me, because I was well on my way to going down hard for him.

  ***

  Four hours later, I was sweaty, tired and on the verge of tears.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to stay?” I asked hopefully.

  “Can’t,” he answered. “Gotta take the truck to the lot and drop off my load.”

  I nodded, wiping my hand off on my pants.

  Then, I held it out to him.

  “Thank you for your help,” I whispered. “I really appreciate it.”

  He looked at my hand for so long that I wasn’t sure that he was going to take it.

  But he did, and when he did, his hand engulfed my much smaller one.

  “You’re welcome,” he muttered. “You made me a grand today by allowing me to help with your fence.”

  “What?” I asked, startled.

  He gestured to the driveway where his truck still had the one he’d picked up earlier hitched up in the air with the towing rig. “A grand on that one.”

  I blinked, then turned to survey the truck.

  “I think I’m in the wrong business.”

  He grunted. “This business isn’t for women. No offense,” I snorted at his words. “But you’d be eaten alive.”

  I shrugged, not knowing what he meant, but deciding that I’d get him to tell me all about his job.

  “You want to have lunch tomorrow?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Got to work tomorrow.”

  “Dinner?”

  He stared at me, watched my eyes, and then seemed to come to a decision.

  “Look…,” he growled. “I’ve been to jail. Being seen with me is like signing your own death warrant in this town. If you like delivering your eggs to the Mercantile and making money, you’ll forget you even know me in public.”

  Then he was gone, leaving me with my heart somewhere around my knees.

  But I made a promise to myself.

  The next time I saw him, I would go out of my way to let everyone in the entire town know exactly what I thought about the man.

  Chapter 10

  It only takes one slow walking person in the grocery store to destroy the illusion that I’m a nice person.

  -Fact of Life

  Kennedy

  Low and behold, that moment came the next day.

  I was in town, picking up new nesting boxes for my chickens that I was going to go pick up tomorrow, when I saw the familiar tow truck out in front of the diner. The diner that nearly everyone in town ate at during lunch.

  Making a split-second decision, I turned into the parking lot and came to a stop directly on the back side of the tow truck that I only assumed was Evander’s.

  My thoughts were confirmed moments later as I made my way inside the diner.

  He was sitting at the back of the diner, his back to the room.

  Somehow, I knew he was acutely aware of everyone and everything that was happening in the diner.

  I knew the moment he knew I was there because he stiffened.

  He didn’t bother to look up from his tea, though.

  He stayed exactly where he was, hunched over a book that was down on the table in front of him.

  Without asking if it was all right, I parked myself in the seat directly across from him, and stared.

  “Hello,” I smiled at him, causing him to bring his head up.

  He blinked.

  “What are you eating for lunch?”

  He looked at his empty plate.

  “Had a tuna melt.”

  I nodded, and then flagged down the waitress, who was doing everything she could not to appear like she was staring at me.

  “Can I have what he had, but a water instead of a tea?”

  The woman, Phyllis, blinked. “Sure, darlin’.”

  She stared at me, and then glanced at the man at my side, then shook her head.

  “What are you doing?”

  I returned my gaze to the man in front of me.

  “What you expected me not to do. You were expecting me to ignore you, correct?”

  He nodded.

  “Well then, yes, I’m not ignoring you. And I’m actually kind of peeved that you think that I would.”

  “Peeved?”

  I nodded. “Peeved.”

  “What, exactly, is peeved?”

  “Pissed off. Annoyed. Irritated,” I informed him.

  His lips twitched.

  “Wouldn’t want to make you pissed off.”

  I narrowed my eyes at his sarcastic tone.

  “What are you, a buck ten?” he asked. “What could you do if you were pissed off at me?”

  I opened my mouth to tell him exactly what I could do, but the server interrupted us.

  “Your water,” Phyllis set it down, then immediately left.

  I snickered.

  “They really don’t like you,” I told him.

 
He shrugged.

  “They think they have a good reason.”

  They think. Not they do.

  “I’m meeting the lady for my chickens later,” I told him. “Do you want to come?”

  He stared at me. He did it for so long that I was on the verge of asking him what was wrong, but he smiled.

  The smile made my heart stop.

  My whole fucking life went from gray and bleak to so fucking sunny that I had to take a breath at the beauty.

  When Evander smiled… Jesus Christ, it was poetic.

  He was gorgeous normally, but when he brought that smile out…it literally melted my heart.

  “Are you asking me, in front of witnesses, if I want to go out on a date with you?”

  I opened my mouth to deny it, then closed it.

  “Yes,” I said finally. “Come be a crazy chicken man with me.”

  He snorted, then leaned back in his seat.

  “I don’t get off until four.”

  Those words made me so happy.

  It wasn’t a no!

  Over the next hour of the lunch rush, I ate while Evander spoke. At first, it was about nothing consequential…then he started to tell me about himself.

  Whatever barrier that had been erected between Evander and I had been destroyed.

  And now he actually spoke to me.

  “My doctor said I should start killing people.”

  I blinked at him, wondering what he was going on about.

  “What?” I asked, setting my half-empty glass carefully on the table.

  He nodded. “At least, that’s what I got out of it.”

  “What was said, exactly?”

  He was funny. Really funny.

  He had a sense of humor that made me want to laugh out loud—which I would have done had we not been in a busy diner with nearly half the occupants already watching us with their speculative eyes.

  “Well, he said I should reduce the stress in my life.”

  “And that turns into killing people in your mind?”

  He nodded. “The only stress I have is this shithole town and the people in it. Since I can’t get rid of the town, I’m thinking the people need to go.”

  With that, I burst out laughing.

  “You’re fucking nuts.” I shoved a piece of my sandwich into my mouth.

  I liked this man.

  He had a wonderful sense of humor, and it was sad that the people of this town didn’t see what kind of treasure they had in the man.