He looked up, and his eyes blazed like she had taken him by surprise.
“Are you sure I was thinking about the chicken?” She couldn’t hold her laugh in. He had grimaced when he said the word chicken.
“Trust me on this one.”
“What should I get to go with it?”
“I heard about these little sticks called french fries. I hear they’re all the rage. We should try those.”
When the waitress came back, he ordered the biggest steak they had rare. He saw her grimace and asked for it medium instead and an order of fries. She ordered a much smaller steak and fries and an order of cauliflower. One look at his face told her not to push it. She sat back after the waitress left and realized she was enjoying herself. Mekhi made her feel beautiful and desirable.
Chapter Five
“Well?” He had taken his time examining the fries before he picked one up and tried it.
“They’re not bad.”
She frowned and picked up a fry and ate it. “You need some homemade french fries then you will be a convert.”
“Homemade?”
“You get potato’s cut them up and make your own french fries, they are always the best kind.”
“Are you offering to make these special french fries for me?”
A small smile hovered on her lips as she imagined puttering around his fantastic kitchen in an apron making him dinner. Snap out of it, she ordered herself. All that mattered in her life was business and making payroll, she couldn’t forget that.
“I could do that for you one day. You’ve never had anything as good as homemade french fries.”
“I will hold you to your promise.” He picked up his drink and took a sip. “This is good; I will have to introduce my brothers to it.”
“I don’t know what to think of you. You never had peach ice tea, but you drive a Benz truck.”
“I have layers.”
She burst out laughing. “I like you.”
He smiled at her taking her breath away. What was it about him that made her feel relaxed in his presence? She even felt safe, and she hadn’t felt that way in a long time.
She cleared her throat looking for even footing.
“Did you want to talk about the plans for the kitchen?”
“Why would I want that? We’re going over them tomorrow.”
They were, but she had been approached many times in the past by one person on a team who wanted to talk about the plans before the official unveiling.
“I wasn’t sure when you asked me out to dinner.”
“I wanted to eat and hoped you might want to eat.”
“You wanted to get to know me.”
His eyes lit with agreement, but he stayed silent.
“Do you like what you’ve seen so far.”
“Quinn, I should stay away from you, but you keep drawing me in. You still have time to run. To save yourself from me.”
“Are you a killer?” It was stupid, but what kind of man said something like that? “I won’t allow you to hurt me. No one will ever hit me.”
His eyes flashed, they changed shape, and her heartbeat sped up. Please be seeing things.
“Who hit you, Quinn?”
“It’s nothing, I was just saying.”
“Who. Hit. You.”
“It was an old boyfriend. I got rid of him.”
“You will tell me his name.”
“That’s not going to happen. By your reaction, I can tell you don’t believe in hitting females.”
“I gave up everything I cared about to save several females.” His voice shook with pain. It was so low it was almost a whisper, but she heard him. The pain hit her like a knife in the chest. Was this her pain or his? She wasn’t sure, but she was suffocating under the weight of loss.
She felt the connection break as he cut into his steak, and she could breathe once more.
“You will be amazed by what I have to show you tomorrow.” She fell back into a safe subject to talk about as she pondered what happened.
They talked and laughed about anything as long as it meant nothing until his shoulders relaxed, and his lips curved into a small smile. Quinn felt like she possessed magic when she saw him calm down.
“I enjoyed dinner. It got a little intense, but I enjoyed it.”
He paid the bill and then escorted her out the restaurant like she was royalty.
They were standing in front of his truck. “You should have run in the restaurant Quinn. Now I want to know everything about you.” He opened the door and helped her up into the passenger seat.
His emotions ran wild for a few minutes in the restaurant. Every customer in there should have been on their knees gasping for air, but Quinn caught them. She took them into herself, and he didn’t know how she could do that.
“There’s not much to tell. I work out of a small trailer that sits on the property my father left me. Would you like to see it?” Why would he want to take his beautiful shiny Benz to her property that was rough and guaranteed to make his truck dirty? What are you thinking Quinn, this isn’t a real date? He’s just getting to know you so he can take advantage of you.
“I’d like to see where you work.”
“You would?” She gave him directions to the outskirts of town. “Your truck might get dirt on it.”
He placed his hand on the dashboard and cried out ‘my truck’ in an anguished voice. She laughed again, she couldn’t help it when he looked at her with a glint in his eye. He was created to make panties wet and break hearts.
She straightened up in the seat. This was just a job, and he was a client nothing more.
“Stop right here.” There was nothing to see but lots of empty land with piles of dirt. “This is all mine. The only thing I own of any value, besides Tee. My dad left it to me.”
“What do you plan to do with it?”
“One day I’ll have enough money to build on it. I have several plans of what I could do. My trailer is further down.”
“Let’s walk.”
“Okay.”
He came around to open the door for her while she sat and waited. If this were one of her other dates, she would wake up the next morning still sitting in the truck.
“This is part of my legacy. My dad, he bought this land when I was about two. He always said it was waiting for me to turn it into something great.”
“Do you have siblings? Did he leave a legacy for them also?”
“I’m an only child. My mom couldn’t conceive after my birth. I always used to wonder if I somehow hurt her. One day, she sat me down and told me I was a miracle. They said my mom would never have a child. My parents made peace that whatever I was boy or girl, they would love me.”
“What about you? You have five brothers, but you went to military school.”
“We all did. The story of my brothers is a little complicated. Sometimes family is family because you’re drawn together not made that way.”
“I get it. My sister,” she made air quotes, “isn’t my biological sister, but I love her to death. She’s out of town right now. If she were here I would have already received a do you need a pickup call. She has a baseball bat.” Her eyes shined as she thought of her. “The cool thing is she’s not afraid to use it.”
“I think everyone should have someone who sticks up for them.”
She stopped when they came to a large shed. “I keep a lot of the tools we use in there. I have several bigger pieces of equipment that my dad owned. One day when I get the dream job, I’ll be pulling them out of mothballs. Do you see that small dot over there?”
“I see it.”
“That’s my office, not much to look at, but it’s mine.”
He could hear the pride in her voice. The trailer was small and blue. He could see it clearly. She must keep it clean, or it would be covered with layers of grime. It also looked like she had patched it in places.
Her stride lengthened as she walked toward the trailer.
“Wait till you see inside you’re
going to go; how do you work in someplace this small? You get used to it, and since it’s so quiet out here, it makes it easy for me to think.”
He stopped, reaching out he took her hand and drew her to a stop. They were close enough for Quinn to see the trailer.
“What’s wrong? I know it’s not the prettiest office.”
He heard the change in her voice. Fear, but he didn’t have time to reassure her. He was listening to something else.
“Do you hear that?”
“What?”
“It sounds like ticking. It’s slow and methodical. Whatever I hear is out of place in this quiet.”
“Stop that, it sounds like you're describing a bomb. What I would image one to sound like when it was ticking down.”
He pulled her to him and ran holding her body in front of his. There was an explosion. She looked over his shoulder and screamed as her trailer went up in a ball of fire. The side of the trailer was heading for them.
“It’s going to hit us.”
Mekhi hit the ground on his back then rolled to cover her with his body. Her screams rang in his ears, but he refused to move. The side of the trailer came at them; he could feel the heat. His shoulders tensed, and his eyes closed. He raised his arm to protect his head and waited for impact.
“What happened? How did it change course?”
The trailer side was lying about ten feet away from them to the right.
“Did you do that?”
She looked at him like he was crazy. Her hair was all over her head with dirt in it and bits of weeds from the ground. Her mouth opened in shock while her eyes looked at him like he had lost his mind.
“What… no… I mean how could I have done that?”
“They have shows on television that talk about humans and the powers they have.”
“I don’t have any of those powers. I wish I did.”
He moved off her body allowing her to sit up and take in all the damage.
“It’s gone, all of it.” She stuck her fist in her mouth to keep the words of pain and anger to herself. “They won.”
“Who won?”
She stood she was a Connor, they kept their chins up and their backs straight. She could weather any storm, except this one.
“Everything I had was in there. Every bill, every invoice, there were even copies of demo designs I did and designs for the future. They were all done nothing permanent just a thought, but they are gone. My office is obliterated.”
She slumped. Every dream she ever had was going up in smoke in front of her face.
“Don’t you have backups.”
“Backups! Are you crazy?” She was shouting. She knew better but every snub over the last two years was haunting her. Every time someone took advantage of her was replaying in her mind. All the insults she received came to the surface overwhelming her demanding to be allowed to observe this final atrocity on the life she tried to build for herself and her mom.
She screamed in anger. Mekhi approached her and placed a hand on her back in support. He never told her to be quiet or gave her words of advice, he just let her lose her ever-loving mind.
Finally, she was quiet. Screaming wouldn’t bring her business back.
“What did you ask me?”
She looked at him with green eyes rimmed in red, hair all over her head. Her chin tilted up and her shoulders squared.
“Warrior,” he whispered. Now he knew why his beast insisted she was there’s. Only a warrior could handle him. He thought this planet didn’t have female warriors. He was wrong; it had at least one.
“I asked if you had backups.”
Her lips tilted until they smiled. He was sure the sun had just come out.
Chapter Six
“Once again, what happened here?” The officer on duty patrolman Jeffries was taking her statement for what seemed like the millionth time.
“I came out here to show Mekhi my office and the land I owned. We parked further back and walked in. I showed him the shed with the equipment, and we were just walking to my trailer, which serves as my office when it blew up.”
“Do you live in the trailer?”
“No, it was just my office.”
“It seems strange they would blow up your office and not your equipment. Maybe someone blew it up for the insurance money.”
“There is not enough money to replace what I lost in there. I lost mementos from my dad who started this business in that trailer and all my work. No, I wasn’t interested in the money. You do whatever you have to do, but find the people who did this.”
“We will stay in touch Ms. Connor don’t leave town and your friend Mr.?”
“Mekhi Broken, you can reach me here.” He gave the officer his number and address before he took Quinn’s hand and led her away from the wreckage.
Once she was sitting inside the truck, she looked at Mekhi. “Who wants to kill me?”
“I was wondering the same about myself. I don’t think they wanted to kill you. No one would have known we would be at the site tonight. I suspect they thought someone would notice the explosion and call it in. Then the officers would come to your door, giving their theory that you rigged it to blow more credence.”
“You’re probably right.”
“What made you smile earlier?”
“You did. Your question triggered my OCD tendencies. I make a copy of everything, then scan it. It’s backed up on the cloud. I have at least five jump disks in different places. I guess you could say I’m paranoid.”
“It will serve you well.”
“Where are we going?”
“To a bar. You’re shaking I think you need something to help you calm down.”
She leaned her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes. There was no way she would try to fight that bit of logic. She rarely drank understanding that in the cut-throat world of construction that to be caught without her wits in working condition could be disastrous.
“Why do you think someone blew your trailer up?”
“All I can do is speculate. There have been people after my land since the day my dad purchased it. It’s a prime piece of real estate. Someone tried to get me to run off to Vegas with him once. We could marry there, and then he would be entitled to half of what I owned when he divorced me. I must have looked like a fool to him, but I wasn’t.”
“Have you had the land surveyed?”
She sat up and looked at him. “No, I just assumed my dad had done it. I figured it was in his papers and when I was ready to build on it. I would look for it then. What made you think of that?”
“We had our land surveyed.” They did the survey themselves. Slade was paranoid about Dante, the male who gave them the land. He was right their land sat over some interesting geological finds, and if they were right everything they were seeing wasn’t all human.
“If they put me out of business, they assume I’ll have to sell the land.”
“Will you?”
“No. I have begged and borrowed but stopped at stealing. I’ve never touched the land or used it as collateral. All I have to do is pay the taxes on it every year, and I’d work at McDonald’s if that’s what it took.”
Mekhi pulled up in front of what looked like a dive bar.
“You come here?”
“Phoenix does. He seems to like it.” He got out and opened the door for her. They walked into the bar together.
Immediately she kicked herself for judging the inside based on the outside. It was nice, even a little classy. There was a section with tables, a dance floor as well as the bar and stools. They took a seat at a table, and a waitress came over.
“I can tell by the look on your face that you weren’t expecting this.”
Quinn flushed ashamed at being caught acting superficially. “No, the outside made me think it was a dive.” She murmured.
“The owner keeps it looking like that on purpose.”
“He does?”
“Yeah, she doesn't want to attract h
igh society trash. Especially the boys who just turned twenty-one and think they have the right to break things that don’t belong to them. What would you like to drink?”
“Umm… Do you have anything kind of mellow? I just need to sip something and relax.”
“I think you’ll enjoy a merlot. It’s perfect for someone who doesn’t drink a lot. What will you have?”
“Peach ice tea?”
The waitress laughed. “We now carry tea for you and your brothers. Tell Phoenix I missed him tonight.”
“You don’t drink?”
“I metabolize it too fast for it to touch my bloodstream.”
“I bet your friends are jealous.”
“Tell me what’s going on Quinn.”
“A little over two years ago my father died on a construction site. They said it was faulty equipment. He fell eighteen stories. He checked his gear religiously every morning before he put it on and every night after he took it off. His belt looked frayed, but I knew better. No matter what I told the police, they ruled it as an accident.
“After his funeral, several people came to me offering to help. They told me I could cry on their shoulders, and they would show me the ropes as if I hadn’t been working in this business for years with my dad. They offered to buy my business and land, so I could live like a lady of leisure. I turned them all down. That’s where it got competitive. We were all going after the same contracts. They talked about me. Told potential clients that a woman couldn’t get the job done. A few I ended up dating until I found out they were looking to steal my plans.”
“Here are your drinks.” The waitress set them down before she walked away.
Quinn picked hers up and took a sip. “This is good. Enough about me, tell me something about you.”
“My brothers and I came here a couple of months ago.”
“To this city?”
“Yes.”
“The first house we saw was the one we are in now.”
“You realize that it’s a mansion also known as a miniature palace.”
“We need something big enough for all of us to have our own space since it seemed we would be living together.”
“Why did you choose to do that?”
Mekhi (The Broken Book 1) Page 3
