EYE FOR AN EYE
TAKE A CHANCE
BOOK TWO
BY LISA HELEN GRAY
Copyright ©
Copyrights reserved
2020
Lisa Helen Gray
Edited by Stephanie Farrant at Farrant Editing
Cover Design by Cassy Roop at Pink Ink Designs
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are all products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses or establishments is purely coincidental.
CONTENTS PAGE
TAKE A CHANCE
BOOK TWO
BY LISA HELEN GRAY
CONTENTS PAGE
FAMILY TREE
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
Epilogue
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Other books by Lisa Helen Gray
FAMILY TREE
Maverick & Teagan
- Faith (engaged to Beau)
- Lily (married to Jaxon)
- Mark
- Aiden (in a relationship with Bailey)
Mason & Denny
- Hope
- Ciara
- Ashton
Malik & Harlow
- Maddison (Twin 1)
- Maddox (Twin 2)
- Trent
Max & Lake
- Landon (Triplet 1 – in a relationship with Paisley)
- Hayden (Triplet 2 – in a relationship with Clayton)
- Liam (Triplet 3)
Myles & Kayla
- Charlotte
- Jacob
Evan (Denny’s brother) & Kennedy
- Imogen
- Joshua
HAYES FAMILY TREE
(Eldest to youngest)
- Jaxon (married to Lily)
- Wyatt
- Eli
- Reid (Triplet 1)
- Luke (Triplet 2)
- Isaac (Triplet 3)
- Paisley (in a relationship with Landon)
- Theo (Twin 1)
- Colton (Twin 2)
CHAPTER ONE
WYATT
Sweat trickles down the back of my neck as I lift another stack of squashed boxes.
Raising my head, my gaze goes to Jaxon, who is casually sitting on top of the metal shelves we store supplies on, his bent legs parted slightly as he scrolls through his phone. My teeth clench as I slam the boxes down hard, shaking the trolley.
With a scowl, Jaxon focuses his sharp green gaze on me.
“Problem?” he drawls.
“Yes. Are you planning on doing any work this morning or are you going to sit there whilst I do it all?”
Annoyance gleams in his eyes as he jumps down from the shelves. He strolls over to the boxes and lifts one easily.
“Sorry. I’m worried about Lily. I left her sleeping in bed this morning. She didn’t feel well last night when she got back from work.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes at his remark. He would be worried about Lily regardless of whether she was sick or not. She started back at work once they got back from their honeymoon, towards the end of January. She was meant to start back once term started, but when she thought she and Jaxon broke up, she told them she needed longer before going back.
If I didn’t know Lily as well as I think I do, I would accuse her of manipulating my brother and having him wrapped around her finger. But five minutes with Lily Carter and you would know she wouldn’t do anything like that. Probably wouldn’t even know how to. So, I know my brother’s worry comes from his love for her, because it’s Lily. You couldn’t be around her and not want to please her.
Still…
“She doesn’t need you hovering over her twenty-four-seven, Jax. She’s been sick before and managed to survive. What won’t survive is your face if you keep letting me do all the work.”
“Fuck you,” he snaps. “You’re just in a pissy mood because Evie didn’t melt when confronted with your charm.”
I rest my hand over my chest. “Aww, you think I have charm.”
Snorting, he throws a pack of packing tape at me, hitting me in the shoulder. “Just leave her alone. Between you and Reid, I’m worried you’ll scare her away.”
“Like she’d fall for Reid’s crap. She wants me, not him. I’ve seen the way she watches me.”
Evie, short for Evelyn, started working for Hayes Removals towards the end of January. She started after we had to let the last girl go, since Reid was caught fucking her in the room Jaxon used to use as a bedroom. Jaxon got pissed after that and put Reid on desk duty while he found another receptionist.
But Jaxon fucked up when he hired the stunningly beautiful, blonde bombshell. It isn’t that she’s incompetent; quite the contrary. She is in fact overqualified. I don’t understand why someone who has a degree and diploma in business, who was top of her class, wants to work here. She could go anywhere. Or at the very least somewhere with a better heating system and a decent break room.
According to her CV, she has only previously worked as a barmaid and a waitress. It’s strange that someone with her skill isn’t already in the prime of her career.
No, Jaxon fucked up because since she walked into the office to start her first shift, I have done nothing but imagine myself spreading her sweet little thighs as she sits upon my desk, and going down on her. She has a beauty that’s angelic but naughty at the same time. She is simply stunning, with her slim build yet voluptuous arse, tits and hips.
Jaxon snaps his fingers in front of me, and I pull myself out of my daydream. I glare up at him.
“You’re imagining fucking her, aren’t you?”
I grin. “Yeah.”
His eyebrows pull together as he steps closer. Lowering his voice, he says, “Don’t start anything, Wyatt. We have enough shit going on. We don’t need to be dealing with a scorned woman. And I can’t have her being distracted. Not now.”
“He hasn’t done anything,” I remind Jaxon, knowing he’s talking about Black.
Andrew Black owns a moving company called Big Move. They are an international company with bases in many towns an
d most major cities. He came to us before Christmas and expressed an interest in buying our company, including our storage units and overseas shipping containers. All things a company like his must already have. Which is why none of us can get our heads around why he wants to buy our company from us.
When we refused, that’s when things began to heat up. Whenever we rejected one of his offers, there was retaliation, and over time, it only escalated. He’s done everything in his power to run us out of business. He wants us in a place where we have no other option but to sell. None of us will let that happen though.
He smashed our vans’ windows, poached potential and current clients, bribed customers into leaving us bad reviews, and most recently, tried to have our factory burned down. He nearly succeeded, and would have if it weren’t for an updated security system. The guy who set the fire left with a nice tattoo and a reminder not to fuck with a Hayes.
We also left a parting gift for Black: we doused his warehouse with petrol. We didn’t set it alight, though. We wanted him to know we could get to him, that we weren’t scared to retaliate. After that incident, we didn’t hear from him and assumed he’d left town, until Reid saw him on a date with a redhead.
So, we know he’s still here, waiting, biding his time. At the minute, however, we’re still playing catch up. We don’t know his true goal, and to beat a man like Andrew Black, you must know his motivations, and his strengths and weaknesses.
In one visit, we found out through his receptionist that he has a year to get business booming again or his dad will cut him off all together. Giving him control of the company is kind of a test run, to see if his son has what it takes to generate a successful business. So far, he’s done a shit job, losing clients here, there and everywhere.
The receptionist also let slip that he approached an art dealer in the hope to get his custom but was turned away. She never told us the dealer’s name, but it didn’t take a scientist to figure out it was one of our clients. Mr Yang is a billionaire who could have gone with a company that has tighter security but decided to take a contract out with Hayes Removals. When we asked why he chose us, he said that we had good security and it was the last place people would think he’d store his collections.
Although Mr Yang does have a container here at the farm, our business with him is mostly through our shipping containers. Through him, we managed to get our shipping route contract and it’s worked out best for all.
He’s been out of the country for a while now but is due back any day, and when he is, we will be paying him a visit to get all our ducks in a row.
Thankfully, our business is picking up, and not just because we are good at what we do but because Maverick and Maddox Carter have been directing work our way.
Maverick flips houses, either to sell them on for profit or rent them out. He and Maddox, who owns a construction business, refer our company to their clients. Once Jaxon found out it was because Lily had asked them to, Jaxon promised to do the same, referring them to our clients.
“Christ, are you even listening to me?” Jaxon snaps.
“Yes,” I lie.
“Look, we can’t risk it. Let’s leave it at that.”
I push the trolley through the doors leading out to the main floor, muttering, “Whatever.”
Reid has the van already backed up to the loading bay doors, ready for us to load the boxes onto.
When Evie’s head pops up from her computer, a little startled, Jaxon leans in to whisper, “If she leaves, I’m putting you on desk duty for the year.”
Her head tilts my way, her startling grey eyes piercing me in place as I lean against Jaxon’s desk. She gives me a shy smile, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear before going back to her work.
She often looks at me and my brothers in a way that never makes sense, like she can’t get a read on us or doesn’t understand our loyalty to one another. There have been times when we were close to punching each other, but we always laughed it out or got a bottle of whiskey from the drawer. She would watch, her lips parted, completely baffled by our behaviour.
However, when she looks at me, solely at me, there’s a hidden depth in her gaze, like she can’t quite make me out but is annoyed with herself because she wants to.
I’ve waited for her to come to me, even given her openings to get to know me, but she hasn’t taken one. In fact, she never shares anything personal about herself, even if one of us asks about her day or how she is when she walks into work each morning.
Yet, I know there’s more to her beauty and brains, and the fuck of it is, something inside of me wants to know what that is.
Still sensing me staring, a natural tinge of pink rises on her cheeks, giving colour to her light-toned, flawless skin. She’s kept her make-up light, natural, but she doesn’t need it. It only enhances her beauty.
Her long, dark lashes rest against her cheeks as she closes her eyes for a second, taking a deep breath.
I grin, loving that I’ve gotten to her.
Her natural blonde hair falls in waves, framing her face and cutting off my view. I sigh.
“Now who’s not working,” Jaxon grumbles, snatching the trolley off me.
I shrug, not caring. She isn’t only stunning, but she has a banging body, curves in all the right places. Anyone with a dick—gay or not—would stare.
The main door is shoved open, and I see Reid standing in the doorway wearing only his work trousers.
His body is covered in art. Some tattoos he did himself, some were done by a friend, and some he let Eli do when he learned our brother wanted the practice.
“Put a fucking shirt on,” I hiss.
Smirking, he scratches at his bare chest, his abs flexing. “You don’t mind me being shirtless, do you, gorgeous?”
“Reid,” Jaxon snaps, stepping off the back of the van. His lips twist when he catches sight of Reid. “For God’s sake, put a fucking shirt on.”
Rolling his eyes, he struts over to me, whipping his T-shirt out from where he tucked it into his trousers before pulling it over his head.
“Jealous?” he asks, cocky and sure.
Snorting, I grab my water bottle before taking a swig. “Of you? Not a chance, dickhead.”
Evie clears her throat, her red lips puckering and giving me dirty fantasies. Ones I’ve had many times before. She doesn’t always wear lipstick, but every time she does, I get hard; picture her on her knees, those plump lips around my cock.
“You okay?” Jaxon asks when he notices her looking his way.
“Yes. I’ve finished updating all your records and bookings. Did you need me to do anything else between answering the phone and emails?”
“You did that already?” he asks, his eyebrows nearly reaching his hairline.
I’m not sure why he’s shocked. She’s fucking good at what she does. I sit on top of the desk, my lips pulling into a proud smile.
She nods, tucking another strand of hair behind her ear, her gaze flicking to mine briefly. “I did.”
“You can—” I start, but I end up grunting when Jaxon shoves me off his desk.
“Leave her be, Wyatt.”
Blinking innocently, I tell him, “I was only going to ask her that if she doesn’t mind, could she sort through my order form. We need some new stock.”
Brows scrunched together, he doesn’t seem convinced, but he nods anyway. “Alright.”
Evie doesn’t have access to everything. Although her CV is great and she doesn’t have any convictions, Jaxon doesn’t trust our personal clients’ nor our shipping containers records to anyone. Only he and I have access. That’s how tight he is. With the triplets always getting drunk and running their mouths, he didn’t want to risk one of them letting certain information slip. They know a few clients, just not all.
Jaxon rolls the warehouse loading crate onto the truck, Reid helping him tie it to the belt at the side, keeping it secure. “How long is this move going to take?”
“We need to box anything valuable
up and get it shipped to the next destination,” Jaxon informs him. “Then box the rest that are going to charity shops, and the ones Mia and James are keeping.”
“They aren’t using one of our containers?” I ask, noticing Evie twist her head to her computer, biting her lip.
God, I’d love to sink my teeth into that lip.
I turn back to Jaxon, nearly missing his answer.
“Too much stuff,” Jaxon explains. “We recommended Co-containers for larger storage. They’re auctioning off most of it, so they’ll only have to pay for a month’s rent.”
“Wait, how are we going to know what is what?”
Jaxon rolls his eyes at Reid’s question. “If you listened when I did the briefing last week, you would know I hired someone to go evaluate and mark everything up. He confirmed everything with the siblings, and they went through it all and put tags on everything.”
The siblings, Mia and James, lost their father a few weeks ago and are finally ready to sort through everything. But with a large house filled with years of memories, they have no idea where to start. Which is why they hired us. It’s a large job, but the pay is great.
“So, we could be there all day?”
“Do you have somewhere to be, Reid?” I snap, picking up my clipboard from my desk before snatching a sweet out of the bowl Evie brought for her desk. Her eyes narrow and I wink, closing my mouth around the sugary sweetness. “Thanks, Evelyn.”
She clenches her jaw, annoyed at the use of her full name. I only did it ‘cause I know it pisses her off. “Evie.”
Paisley marches through the door, breathing heavily, and her face reddens with anger when she spots Reid.
“What did you do with my food, Reid?”
I sit down on the edge of Evie’s desk, earning an annoyed sigh.
“This should be good,” I whisper.
She turns, paying rapt attention to Paisley, who has on more than one occasion come in and lost her shit at one of us.
“I didn’t do anything to your food,” he yells, stepping back when she hits him with her bag.
Eye for an Eye (Take a Chance Book 2) Page 1
