“No.”
“Why not?”
“Guys like that go for the skinny classic beauties like you. They have a hard time seeing the beauty in someone like me.”
“I think you’re selling yourself short.”
“Never, I’ve lived in a man’s world long enough to know.”
“You’re beautiful.”
“I’m also curvy with brains. I’m Brandi.”
“Hi Brandi, I’m Quinn nice meeting you.”
“You too maybe we’ll see each other around.”
“One question. I love your outfit. Where did you find it?”
“I made it. That’s what I do for a living.” She turned to leave. “I could make you an outfit.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because you remind me of myself.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“I do, let me get measurements. Quinn with the hottest guys in town, I think we will be friends.” They walked into the bathroom laughing.
When they walked back out front, the guys weren’t there, so she knew they were seated. She waved goodbye to Brandi and went to find Mekhi.
“Quinn.” She turned to see Matthew sitting at a table with a blonde who tossed her long hair. She tilted her face to give Quinn a fake smile.
Too much makeup, but she kept her thoughts to herself.
“I’m surprised to see you here.”
That caught her off guard it wasn’t like she was going to the dirty movies.
“Why? It’s a restaurant.”
“Usually, lonely single women stay at home to hide their shame. No one wants to be seen eating alone.”
His statement hit her in the gut. There was a time she felt like that. How many dinners had she stared at her stove when all she wanted to do was go to a restaurant? Live and learn she no longer felt that way.
“Since you feel that way you should offer to take those women out.”
How had she ever dated a jerk like him? He had told her it was true love. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her head shook of its own accord getting the sour taste of his words out of her mouth. All he had been interested in was the plans she was drawing for a high rise.
She turned to walk away. Her past was just that, and she didn’t need to revisit it. He caught her arm and pulled her to a stop.
“You don’t get to walk away from me,” he hissed. “You almost ruined my career.”
“If construction in this town weren't run by a good ol boy mentality, you wouldn’t have a job. You stole my plans and tried to claim them as yours.”
“Move the hand or lose it.” Mekhi’s voice was calm. Behind it was red hot anger.
“What are you going to do? I can touch her any way I want to. This bitch is going to…”
The blonde scream as Matthew hit the floor. Mekhi went to his knees and grabbed the front of Matthew's shirt lifting him up. He whispered in his ear and then dropped him. His head made a sickening thud against the carpet.
“What’s happening here?” The manager was standing there with a security guard.
“He accosted my female. I gave him a lesson in manners.”
“Arrest him,” the blonde yelled.
Other patrons were agreeing with Mekhi. He took Quinn’s hand and walked her to the table while the manager, and the security guard were still looking at the scene in shock.
“I didn’t mean to bring embarrassment on you.” She told Mekhi and his brothers.
“You didn’t.” Jabari stood up.
“Sit,” Slade snarled.
“He touched our sister.”
“We’ll see him again.”
Jabari gave a sharp nod of his head before sitting. Each brother stared at Matthew as they escorted him out.
“Who is he?”
One side of her mouth tilted up before she shrugged. “I used to date him. It was a match made in heaven, or so I thought. I wish I could say I was young, but honestly, I wanted someone to love me. He stole the plans I drew up for a skyscraper downtown. I proved they were mine. Neither of us got the job. They loved the plans but weren’t sure about a woman doing a job of that magnitude.”
She slumped in her seat, and her shoulders hit the back of the chair reminding her why she didn’t trust the opposite sex. If her only bad decision had been Matthew, then she would be all right. There were several of them. Not a string, but enough to feel that way.
“Quinn there is something you should know about me.” His voice struck her in the gut.
Her shoulders stiffened while her nails bit into her hands. Had she made another bad choice in males? The brothers looked at him their eyes narrowed.
“I’ll just say it. I have no desire to build anything on this planet, but if I did.” There was a long pause. “I’d work for Quinn’s Construction to get it done.”
She stared at him blinking. It was like he parted the red sea when she understood what he was saying.
Her stomach went from fluttering with dread and anger to rejoicing as the butterflies screamed I told you he was the one. She reached out and pushed at his chest.
“You scared me.” The smile in her voice said she was over it.
“Sorry tiny warrior.” He pulled her chair closer and wrapped his arms around her. “All I want is you and Tee, we can’t leave her out.”
“I am grateful to every Scientist who ever lived because you are here.”
“Hi, how are you guys doing today?” The waitress had a smile on her face. “Are you ready to order?”
“I want your breakfast special,” Quinn told her.
The others ordered two meals.
“Is that all you want? It’s not a lot of food.” Mekhi told her.
“It’s enough.”
“How do you maintain your weight?”
She looked at him open-mouthed. The waitress caught her eyes and mouthed he’s a keeper.
He was. She ordered a little more and sat with a smile on her face. What could go wrong?
Chapter Eighteen
Why the hell did she ask herself what could go wrong? They were in the grocery store together. She could be wrong, but it didn’t look like they had ever been in one.
“Tell me you’ve been food shopping before?”
“I went once,” Jabari told her. He was holding a tomato in his hand. She took it away from him saving both his shirt and the life of the tomato.
“What happened when you went?”
“The manager suggested that next time I call and place an order. They would deliver it.”
“That’s how you get food?”
“Mostly, we order or go to a restaurant.”
“We are having family dinners twice a week, and I’m teaching you simple cooking for the mornings.”
They looked at her with blank eyes.
“Believe me, I have it on good authority that teen boys can do this. So, I know you can. The store, lesson one. I want you to fan out and find food you’ve never tried and bring it back to the cart. We will incorporate them into our family dinners this week.
She watched them all wander off except for Mekhi. “You too, go.”
“Hey, what kind of steak do you think Tee wants?”
“Thick, rare. She’ll eat whatever you buy.”
She nodded and headed in a different direction. At the end of one aisle was a stand with an older gentleman manning it.
“You, miss.”
She looked around she was the only one near him.
“Hi, what are you selling?”
“I’ve got some of the best exotic products available on this planet and in the galaxy.”
“Umm yeah.” Common sense told her to walk away, but she was making love to an alien.
“What do you have?”
“No miss the question is what do you need?”
A picture of Mekhi standing in his beast form flashed before her eyes. She shook her head trying to clear the picture, but it wouldn’t leave. His once proud beast looked defeated.
>
“Do you have anything that would restore the coat of a…”
“Of a dog or a cat?”
“No. It would have to be safe for animals and males. Not really animal’s sentient beings and males who are… Never mind this is crazy.”
“I can’t help you if you don’t tell me.”
“I want a medicine that will help a male who can turn into a beast. His coat has been destroyed.”
“Why didn’t you just say so? Humans, you develop a language that no one except you can understand. This will do the trick.” He placed a small bottle with several pills on the table.
She looked at him allowing her skepticism to show on her face. Was this a trick? She looked down the aisle but didn’t see anyone watching.
“Why are you willing to help me and why do you believe me?”
“I thought I mentioned that my cures came from around the galaxy.”
“How much?”
“Everything you have.”
She took a step back looking for a way out.
“Don’t be so dramatic. I don’t want your first-born child or a kidney.”
That was what she had been thinking.
“I know. I mean it will cost you all the personal money you have. There are times you have to show someone you love them and not tell them.”
She eyed the medicine again ignoring the love bit of the man's speech.
“Will it work?”
“Yes child, it will.”
“Do you take debit?” Her eyebrows went up when she asked him.
“I do.”
She paid him every cent in her checking account. He handed her the medicine that sparked the minute she touched the bottle.
She looked down and pressed it to her chest. When she looked back up to thank the man, he was gone and so was his table. The medicine was still in her hand, she slipped it into her purse and decided it was all a weird dream. It was the kind of day she was having.
“A watermelon?”
Mekhi sat it in the cart. “I’ve seen them on television. Humans seem happy when they eat it, but I’ve never tasted one.”
“Then we’ll have it for dessert after dinner.”
Phoenix carried over a roast and set it in the cart. “Oh, that’s a good cut of meat. It will be delicious.”
“This says it will make drinks, but I’m not sure how,” Slade told her.
“It’s lemonade; you'll love it. I’ll show you when we make it.”
Akron brought several packages of chicken breasts.
“You’ve never had chicken before?”
“It didn’t look like that.”
“Now we need vegetables.”
Jabari brought ears of corn and placed them in the cart. Thrice brought snap peas.
“We are going to have great meals together. Let’s get the rest of the ingredients I need and our first trip to the store will be complete.”
Quinn turned the corner, she never saw the robed black form that stood next to her. She took a step, and her ankle twisted. Mekhi caught her before she hit the floor.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“Tell us what to get. You need to stay off the ankle until I can examine it.”
She rattled off a shopping list and smiled at the looks on several women's faces that were wishing they could change places with her.
“We need steaks. You guys eat enough of them; I’m sure you know what kind to get.”
Mekhi took her out to the truck and made her comfortable as they waited for his brothers to come out the groceries.
“The young of your species tried to grab our steaks,” Thrice told her.
She scrunched her eyebrows. “What?”
“He said he would put it in a bag.”
“Did you hurt him?”
“He was young.” The coolness in his voice told her how much he didn’t appreciate that question.
“He’s a bagger. Sometimes stores have them sometimes they don’t.”
“I will remember next time tiny sister.”
“Is calling me tiny going to become a thing?” They laughed and put the food in the truck before they got in.
“It’s your fault,” she told Mekhi. He might have felt contrite if she could have stopped smiling.
*~*~*~*
“It’s not broken, but it is sprained.” She was sitting on the couch in the shared living room while the other brothers were putting up the food.
“I will wrap it and give you a med for pain. It would help if you stayed off it. I know better. When it aches sit down.”
“I can do that.”
“I’ll be right back.”
She laid back on the couch. Her phone rang. That's when she realized she didn’t have her earpiece in.
“Hello?”
“Quinn, it’s mom.”
“Hi mom, is everything okay?”
“I’m fine I haven’t heard from you.”
“Sorry mom, it feels like a lot is happening. I gave up my apartment and have been staying with my friend. I start the outdoor kitchen project on Monday.”
“You like this friend?”
“I do mom. I can’t wait for you to meet him.”
“It would be nice if you could come over Sunday for lunch. I could cook.”
“That would be nice; Tee misses you. What time?”
“I miss her too, noon?”
“Perfect, we’ll see you then. I love you, mom.”
“I know baby; I love you.”
“Was that your mom?” Mekhi asked walking in with the bandage in his hand.
“Yeah, she invited us to lunch on Sunday.”
“I can’t wait to meet her.” He wrapped her ankle making sure it wasn’t too tight before he handed her a glass of water and a pill. “Take that it will help with the pain.”
“Speaking of pills.” She said after she swallowed hers. “I got this for you.”
She reached into her purse and pulled out the small bottle.
“Where did you get this?” His finger stroked the top of the bottle.
“There was a man in the store. The bottle looked like a regular medicine bottle when I got it. Now it looks like a work of art.” It was gold with a language written in a script she couldn’t read.
“It’s rare. How much did it cost?”
“Not that much.”
His eyes pinned her making her squirm.
“How much did it cost?”
“All the money I had.”
He opened the bottle and poured out eight pills. They were dark blue, and they pulsed with light.
“When the bottle is plain, it means the pills are inert. They have to be activated to work.”
“Money activates them?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“It takes an unselfish act done in love.”
“I don’t understand. All I gave him was all the money I have. Oh…”
“Do you love me, Quinn?”
She nodded her head afraid to say it out loud for fear he may reject her.
“I knew you were my mate when I saw you on television. When I heard your voice over the phone any doubt I had disappeared. Will you be my mate?”
“Is it like being your wife?”
“Yes, but it means forever in my world.”
You’re going too fast she screamed at herself. Remember the others she told herself. It didn’t matter she was beyond hearing.
He took a pill while he waited for her and put the others in his back pocket.
That sealed the deal. He trusted her enough to believe in her.
“Yes Mekhi, I want to be your mate.”
Chapter Nineteen
He carried her through the house and up the stairs. His brothers met them along the way, and instead of hiding her or being embarrassed, he announced to all of them. ‘The tiny warrior has agreed to be mine.’
The look of joy on their faces fought with sadness, she wanted to reach out and hug
each of them.
She expected him to take her to the bedroom. Instead, he took her to their private living room and sat her on the couch.
“Tell me why your shoulders are stiff Quinn.”
She chewed on her lower lip. Did she want to go there when they should be becoming one? She did, when they mate, she didn’t want anything between them.
“All of you are so sad. Can you tell me what happened?”
“I can tell you my story the others have to tell their own.”
She nodded; she understood that.
“Have you wondered why we use the surname Broken?”
“I have.”
“Each one of us experienced something in life that has been impossible to come back from.”
He stood up and walked to the window looking over the vast expanse of the backyard. “I love this view.”
She went to him and hugged him placing her head against his back. They stood that way for a long time before he led her back to the couch.
“My DNA is a cocktail of not only humanoids but animals; most of them were sentient but not all of them. One of the perks is that I can move things with my mind. Sounds like a parlor trick on Earth. I operate this way. Lifting a building doesn’t break a sweat most days, or it didn’t use to.
“On my planet, my brothers and I were the heavy lifters. One day, we got into a confrontation with the Aba. My brothers were in a craft that had gone out of control. The Aba had overtaken them and were squeezing their hearts making it impossible for them to move as death came for them. In a second craft were fifteen young females. They were where they shouldn’t have been. Later, I learned they took a parent’s craft to joyride. The Aba had control of them also.”
He stood up and walked out the room. When he came back, he brought two bottles of peach tea.
“Thirsty?”
She took the bottle from him and curled up next to his leg when he sat back down. His hand went to her hair stroking it.
“I was on the ground. Controlling the aircraft’s shouldn’t have been a problem. I’ve gone over it thousands of times, and it still doesn’t make sense. I could feel the energy being drained from my body, but I couldn't stop it. I was too weak to hold them both. They were going to die. That’s when I realized I had to decide. My brothers were screaming inside my head that they were already dying, save the females.”
Mekhi (The Broken Book 1) Page 9
