“I can’t stop the way I feel when I think about Audrey. Or how I miss her when I’m laying in the dark, in the bed I bought for Harmony, wishing like hell she was lying beside me.” Last night, I’d woken in the early hours of the morning, worried something had gone wrong. Reaching out over the cold sheets, I would swear up and down I could see Audrey there in bed with me.
“I think about her all the time. I worry when she gets in the car, goes back to her house, and I can’t see her to make sure she made it there safely. In the morning, I jump out of bed because I know I’m about to see her.” Seeing her this morning, I appreciated how she wore her skirts long, giving me tons of space to imagine what she would look like in shorts or in just her panties and my shirt. Or, fuck me until tomorrow, naked and calling my fucking name.
“But I know what you would say if you were here right now. You would say I need to be honest, not only with Harmony and Audrey, but mostly myself. To be the man you know me to be and not the piece of shit I’m becoming.”
I stood to take the bottle over to Granddaddy, opening it up like he always did, and then taking the first taste to make sure it was made right. “And I know you would tell me to talk to Austin and apologize for being a dickhead.” Placing my finger along the edge of Nana’s picture, “Sorry Nana,” I whispered. “I plan to go see him after I leave here, and not let another day pass with this anger between us. And I swear I’m gonna be honest with Harmony, let her know I’m not the guy she thinks I am.” I poured a good dose of the Hennessey on the grass, which covers Granddaddy’s side of the grave. “I’m gonna ask Audrey if she’s willing to give a southern boy like me a chance to show her how a man is supposed to treat a woman he cares about.”
My cell phone started buzzing in my pocket, I knew from the way the vibration was continuous; it wasn’t one of my brothers calling. Pulling it from my pocket, the words on my screen were bright red and flashing. Someone had hit the panic button under Audrey’s desk.
Don’t wait and pray when you need something, thank God everyday for the small blessings you already have.
Taking one last glance at the guitar hanging on the wall, the image of his long fingers playing each note, just as skilled as any professional musician I’d ever seen, was imprinted on my mind. It would do me no good to think of where I’d love to test his skill of finger placement, finding a rhythm with my quickened breathing as I climbed the cliff’s edge. I tried to forget about the name he called me, Sweetness. I chastised myself for letting it play on a continuous loop in my head. He had never called me anything other than my name, he was a man born and raised in the south, manners dictating protocol, with a beautiful girlfriend.
“What time is Jackson Sevier coming by again?” Dylan’s question made me jump, gripping my chest as I spun around to glare at him. “Sorry darlin’, didn’t mean to stomp on your grave.” He squeezed my shoulder gently, a glint of humor in the corner of his smile. A reaffirmation of my silliness in reading anything into what Chase had said.
“Four-thirty. He’s the last one of the day, and then you can enjoy the weekend with your family.” I told him, checking the calendar on the computer one last time.
Dylan had found an old Indian bike frame during one of his mysterious parts runs. He’d had the guy deliver it and worked on it during the time he waited for the vendors to work on his other builds. A few weeks ago, he rode it over to a street show where it had received a ton of attention. A couple of guys took photos of it and posted them to social media. Jackson Sevier, who works with Dean, called Dylan and asked if it was for sale.
Jackson wanted a few modifications, and didn’t argue when Dylan quoted him an astronomical price. He’d finished the changes a few days ago, so I called and spoke with his secretary to set up this appointment. If I understood correctly, Jackson wanted to join them on the charity bike run for Miss Priscilla’s father. As fondly as Chase spoke of their Granddaddy, I felt a loss for never having known him personally. Besides, I’d love to be one of the lucky girls sitting on the back of a bike, wrapped around a man who gave two shits about me.
“Hey, why don’t you head on out.” Dylan started as the bell over the door rang. The warm air of the afternoon came in, bringing with it the man we were expecting. Long, jean clad legs and a well-worn pair of black boots added to the mystery developing right before my eyes. His black t-shirt was partially hidden under a black leather jacket and sandy blonde hair, coiffed in a style worn by a prosecuting attorney and not a seasoned biker. As he approached, he removed his sunglasses, giving me, and my hormones, a full view of his green eyes.
“On second thought,” Dylan tapped my shoulder twice. “Hang out for a minute.” Both men moved toward one another, extending out a hand.
“Dylan, hey man.” Grasping offered hands, the two men slapped each others backs in a shoulder hug. “You ready to ride?”
It was safe to assume this was Jackson Sevier, one of the attorneys who worked for Dean Morgan and who had spent an indecent amount of money on a used motorcycle. “Awe, you know it. Been too long since I’ve gotten to ride that far. How ‘bout you? Ready to tame this beast?”
Jackson placed his hands on his hips, effectively pushing his jacket back to reveal more of his tight fitting t-shirt. “Jackson, this is Audrey, the brains of this operation. And the beautiful woman who will be taking all your money today.”
“Beauty and brains—a deadly combination. One I am anxious to get acquainted with.” Jackson took the needed steps to place him against the edge of my desk, his hand extend out to me. Looking between his hand and chiseled jaw, caused me to momentarily forget any manners I had obtained in my own southern upbringing.
Cautiously, I extended my hand to meet his. Warm and soft, with the right amount of pressure as he pulled my hand horizontally, leaning forward and placing his lips at the end of my knuckles, his jeweled emerald eyes locked with mine. “Miss Audrey,” his deep baritone voice severed the silence and rendered me unable to have an ounce of cognitive thinking.
Charm and sex appeal were housed in abundance—qualities I both loved and hated in men. Allowing myself to fall under the spell he was casting was a guaranteed appointment with heartbreak. Successful men such as those in this room had only one use for a girl like me, and it wasn’t to fall in love with and ride off into the sunset.
“Mr. Sevier,” straightening my back, I removed my hand from his and returned myself to the professional Dylan was paying me to be. “I have your paperwork right here. After you’re finished with Mr. Morgan, we’ll have you out of here and enjoying your new purchase in just a few minutes.” I looked to Dylan, his arms folded across his chest, with a look of mischief in his eye.
“Well, Jackson, you heard the lady. Let’s see what your baby can do.”
Jackson nodded in Dylan’s direction before turning back and tapping two fingers on my desk, “I’ll be right back, don’t you disappear on me.”
The downside of working so late is you back yourself into a place where the busy work was done a week ago, and there is nothing left to do. Granted, I could take the vacuum into the back and get all of the dust and cobwebs out of the space I was going to call home for a while. But the noise would bring Dylan running, and I didn’t want him to know about the space just yet.
Yesterday, when I went out to get a case of oil for Jackson’s bike, I happened upon a family cleaning out their garage. Boxes of discarded items sitting at the curbside caught my attention. I found a hot plate, still in the box, an old stand lamp, and several books. In a plastic bag, I found an extension cord with a plug I could add to the light hanging from the ceiling. I recalled Granny having one in her garage—she used it to plug in her iron when she would iron the clothes she took in as extra income. When I got the items back here, I found out the plug was tossed for a reason, it no longer worked.
Tonight, after Dylan left, I would make myself a grilled cheese on the hot plate, and enjoy one of those books, no sweating my ass off in my old hiding spot, waitin
g for Lucas to bust down the door to yell at me again.
The roar of the bike coming to life called my attention. When I first started working here, the sound would evict a scream from my chest and a laugh from Dylan. Now, it’s part of the norm, the price of doing business. Pushing back my chair, I needed to get a closer look at Jackson and the expression on his face. One of the perks of this job was to see grown men acting like little children when they heard the engine come to life for the first time. The rumble is too loud for me to understand what Dylan is saying. Even with the bay door open, the horsepower of the engines creates too much noise to hear anything else.
Heads were nodding and Jackson was straddling the leather seat, his tight ass holds my attention briefly before the memory of another set of firm cheeks takes over. Chase had been gone for three hours and I wondered if he got a call from Harmony. Dylan had too big of a mouth for me not to hear what was going on between the three of them. How could one woman cause so much hate and discontent? If Chase knew the real girl Harmony is, he would have Dylan, or Mr. Carson, lock her in jail.
My ears were ringing once the engine was turned off; I heard the pinging of the metal as the temperatures of the bike began dropping. “Okay, Audrey, take all of Jackson’s money that you can.” Dylan instructs as they enter the office once again.
Mr. Sevier’s face resembled a man who had just had hours of sex with a woman who knew exactly what she was doing. “Well, I’ll have to leave him a little somethin’. He’s gotta have himself a drink later to celebrate.”
I handed Jackson the itemized bill, the numbers in the last column totaling more than I would pay for a new car. True to form, he pulled out a leather wallet and removed a stack of hundred dollar bills. As I took the outstretched bills, he tugged back quickly to get my attention. “Only if that drink included dinner with you.”
I counted the money twice and laughed along with him. Where the Rolex on his left wrist is real, the invitation isn’t. I know how plain and simple I look. My finances, and the need to avoid attention, calls for skirts to my ankles and the absence of makeup. There was a time when I curled my hair and made my eyes pop with the use of cosmetics, anything to catch the attention of men such as Jackson. But they caught notice from Lucas Campbell instead.
“Mr. Sevier, will you be filing the title on your own or would you like to have us take care of it for you?”
Jackson’s lips lifted in one corner, a move he had perfected long ago when he discovered its effect on the amount of women who fell at his feet. “I’ll have my secretary handle it, but thank you for your offer.”
I watched him climb on his bike, fluidly slide his sunglasses into place, and then grab the handle bar as he kick started the engine to life. I waited as he looked both ways, edging the front wheel over the end of the driveway, and then gunning the engine as he dove off into the distance.
Dylan didn’t stay but a few minutes after Jackson left, grabbing his gear and wishing me a good weekend. He came back before the door had fully closed, when he realized he hadn’t paid me this week. “Sorry, Audrey. Claire interviewed for a new position today and I haven’t heard from her yet.” Counting out several of the hundreds Jackson had used to pay his bill, Dylan handed me a much smaller stack.
“Miss Claire is a smart woman, from what I’ve seen, she gets what she wants.” Folding the money in half, I tucked it into the pocket of my sweater. Tonight would be the first time I wouldn’t hand the majority of my pay over to Lucas. A few more weeks of sleeping on the floor and stashing away this money and I could move on, taking what’s mine and disappearing.
“You’re right, she is brilliant.” Picking his bag off my desk, he slung it back over his shoulder. “Some days I wonder what the hell she’s doing with me.”
I pretended to shutdown my computer, but had plans of watching some movies later tonight. “Dylan, I figured out a long time ago, Miss Claire is on a mission from God. And your momma pays her well, like she does me.”
Dylan pushed the door open with his back, “Ha ha ha, very funny.” Placing his ball cap on backward, his sunglasses useless with the sun is skirting the early evening horizon. “But if my Momma is payin’ ya, you got gypped. Nana paid better.” He pointed his index finger at me as the door closed.
Bread and cheese married together with heat and butter, is the fruit of the gods, I tell ya. Eating on a cold floor with nothing more than a napkin and a can of diet coke would be considered a new level of destitute. For me it was a step toward heaven. Closing my eyes, I soaked in the silence, smiling every time I heard the blower of the air conditioning turning on. I watched a dozen videos on the computer before I worried one of the Morgans would drive by, seeing the light from my computer. I didn’t need, or want, to explain why I was in the office while the building was closed.
After I let the hot plate cool down and put my food away, I took the flashlight Dylan threw out and settled into my spot under the stairs, losing myself in a book written about a family of time travelers. I was about to take a bathroom break, when I heard the driveway alarm go off. Praying it was someone using the well-lit area to turn around, I turned off the flashlight and waited for the second chime. My pulse quickened as the seconds collected, the second chime still not sounding.
Jumping up, I pulled the door shut, and held my breath. Whichever Morgan had arrived would be able to smell the food I had cooked. Trying hard to listen and not make a sound, I waited, hearing nothing at first, and then the sound of the lock clicking, followed by the three beeps of the door opening. Fear pulsed in my chest as I waited to hear the alarm code punched in. Chase had assigned everyone their own unique four digit code, something he’d learned in his training. If you didn’t enter your code, or you input the wrong one, the alarm would chirp for fifteen seconds before a silent alarm was triggered. I had accidently set off the alarm one morning when my finger slipped and I hit the wrong number. Luckily, Dylan had pulled in behind me and was able to call off the alarm company.
Hearing the four numbers being entered, my hands began shaking, tears started forming behind my eyes. This was going to end badly, I would be out on my ass with no job and no place to live if they found me. I began praying for whomever it was to get what they needed and get out, without spending any time looking around.
Struggling to keep my tears silent and my praying from turning to begging, I nearly missed the female voice muttering, “Motherfucker.” Not just any female voice, one I hated with everything in me. I wanted to storm out of this closet, but thought better of it. If she was here, then Chase could be as well. I waited a second longer, closing my eyes to concentrate on the voice, thankful the blower wasn’t running at the moment.
“Fucking cunt!” She shouted and I heard the glass container of paper clips from my desk crash to the floor. I waited to hear Chase try and soothe her, or laugh at her stupidity, but it never came.
Had I locked the drawer with the cash box? I couldn’t remember securing the bottom drawer of my desk. There was forty thousand dollars in cash in the box, and while it had a lock, it could be pried open with enough patience.
Not caring if she heard me or not, I threw open the door, ran around the corner, and down the hall. Virginia could call herself anything she wanted, Ginny, Dragonfly, Harmony, hell Mother Nature if she wanted, but stealing from the Morgans was not going to happen, not if I could help it.
Standing at the end of the hall, her hair in a ponytail with hot pink strands she had added to match the new tattoo covering the underside of her pulled up hair. Dressed in black, her spray tanned legs and ass cheeks hung out of her booty shorts. With both feet on the couch and a hand supporting her against the wall, she had the neck of Chase’s guitar in the other, lifting it from the safety of the mount which held it.
Something snapped inside of me—anger hotter than the hinges of hell bubbled in my gut, giving me the courage and rage I needed to stop her from stealing the memories of a young boy. Chase had touched something deep when he shared how
he felt guilty at being able to turn on a light switch or water faucet while so many go without. He would love to be able to travel around the globe, punishing those who profited from the pain of the less fortunate.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” I moved close enough to tap the silent alarm with the tip of my bare toe. Chase had shown me how to trigger it without being noticed. The signal would go to all three of their cell phones, an unmistakable ring which would send them running in my direction. Once they arrived, I knew what would happen. They would find me in my pajamas when I wasn’t supposed to be in the building, much less living here. I hoped it was Chase who got here first so he could see the person he was tossing his family away for. There was a chance I would go to jail with her—trespassing is illegal and I didn’t have permission to be here. But after today, seeing the side of Chase I had, it would be worth it.
“Fuck me in the goat ass, what are you still doing here?” She had the guitar in her hands, but was still standing in the center of the couch. Leaning down slightly, she planted her left hand on the back of the couch and moved her feet to the floor.
“I work here. The real question is, what are you doing here?”
Harmony looks at the face of Chase’s guitar, running her finger over the signature of a country icon. “Did you know I had a brother?” She moved the guitar away slightly, and then turned to face me. “His name was Frances, but everyone called him Cash.” Looking back down at the guitar, she flicked a string with her fingernail—hot pink to match her hair with a rhinestone throwing tiny flashes of rainbow around the room. “We were put into the system after Cash killed our daddy for trying to fuck me one night. He said I was big enough to do what our momma couldn’t, being how she was buried in the cemetery. Cash stabbed him in the throat before he shoved his dick in me. I told the cops some guy had broken in, and they believed me. My brother had been saving me his whole life, not that I didn’t repay him. That was the real reason Cash killed daddy. Big brother had claimed my pussy the year before, when momma was still alive, too drunk or stoned to give a fuck what her son did.” It was hard to tell if she was telling the truth or not. She was a nasty bitch when she came around the trailer. Lucas loved her because of what she could do for him, in and out of the bedroom.
Absolute Valor (Southern Justice #3) Page 6
