Kinda Don't Care

by Lani Lynn Vale

  He’d been working for the repossession company, Hail Auto Recovery, for a while now. Months and months longer than he actually had to.

  At least I thought that was the case.

  There was really no telling with how little he told me about his jobs.

  “At this point, I work there because it’s a good cover. Not to mention I get good insurance,” he replied lazily.

  I watched as he reached for his coffee mug—one of his favorites seeing as he had eighteen in the cabinets, yet always chose to wash that one—and pushed it underneath the Keurig’s spout.

  “You know,” I told him. “It kind of surprises me that you have a Keurig. I would’ve figured you for a pot of coffee a day drinker, like my dad.”

  He gave me a raised eyebrow that clearly relayed his non-amusement with the statement and went back to his cup.

  Once it was filled, he brought the cup up to his nose, inhaled the aroma, and groaned.

  I swallowed, thinking about the last time he’d groaned like that—when he was inside of me—and felt things clench.

  “When you look like that, I’m not sure how to respond,” he said. “My initial response is to barrel toward you, spread your legs, and make myself at home. But trying to be a bit more laid back while recognizing the fact that your father will probably kill me if he sees a bruise on you has me, instead, staying over here and trying to think about things that’ll make my cock deflate.”

  I snickered. “I don’t want anything that has to do with my father to take first place in our sex life. If it feels natural to you, just do it.”

  He took a step forward, reaching his arm out to place his cup on the counter, and headed toward me.

  I grinned, pushed my laptop to the side, and then made him late.

  Forty-nine and a half minutes later, I was satiated. Well, and thoroughly.

  “I gotta go,” he said as he zipped up his pants. “Lying there, looking at me like that, isn’t the way to make that happen.”

  I stretched lazily in the bed, rolled over on my belly, and then closed my eyes. “It’s best that you’re leaving. I’m tired.”

  His chuckle of amusement followed him around the room.

  I felt the covers fall into place over my back, then Rafe whistled.

  I turned only my head and saw Rafe calling my puppies to him.

  He patted the bed, and both of my babies jumped into the bed with me, Glock on one side, and Kimber on the other.

  “I named them after you.”

  He looked over at me.

  “Yeah?”

  He sounded confused.

  I grinned.

  “The first time I saw you, you were carrying a Glock. The second time I saw you, you had that Kimber. The one with the slide that has the oil slick-looking finish. I thought it was pretty.”

  His mouth opened, then closed, then he settled on a smile. “I kind of like that.”

  I closed my eyes again as Kimber’s nose dug into my shoulder—just like she always did when we were at home in our bed—and I went boneless.

  “Love you.”

  I blinked my eyes open again to see Rafe fully clothed now.

  He was leaning over me, his mouth inches from my face.

  I pursed my lips, and he grinned.

  He didn’t hesitate, placing his lips on mine, though.

  “Love you, too.” I stared at him for a long moment, my heart hurting. “Be careful. Don’t do anything crazy.”

  He winked. “I’ll try.”

  The remembrance of that day at the hospital, the worry I felt when I spoke with his doctor…it was still there. That feeling of impending doom.

  I’d probably always worry about it.

  It’d always be there, in the back of my mind.

  But then he whispered, “I love you,” one more time, and I forced myself to calm.

  My eyes fell closed, and the next time I opened them, it was to find the room empty—long empty—and the dogs now growling somewhere in the living room.

  I got up, slipped on a t-shirt of Rafe’s from the night before, and snatched my phone which Rafe had so helpfully plugged in some time after I’d passed out.

  With Rafe’s name pulled up for a quick dial, I made my way out into the living room to find someone standing in it.

  Found her standing in it.

  She was in the process of taking her shoes off, and she had her purse in her hand as if she was about to drop it onto the coffee table.

  “Can I help you?” I asked, pressing Rafe’s name on the phone.

  I was fairly sure that this wasn’t going to get ugly, mainly because I could more than handle myself thanks to my father’s and uncles’ instruction, but I figured Rafe would want to know that someone had come into his house.

  Also, that she’d done it seemingly without breaking in, because I would’ve definitely heard had that been the case.

  I also knew for a fact that she didn’t have a key—at least one that Rafe had given her—because Rafe had flat out said he hadn’t given her one. Not before when he’d had his memory, and not after when Elspeth had played While You Were Sleeping on him.

  Elspeth froze at my words and looked up, a look of horror on her face. “What are you doing in Rafe’s house?”

  I blinked. “Well, I actually came here legally. You, on the other hand, have not. Which, I might add, is illegal.”

  Elspeth blinked. Then a flush started to crawl up her chest—which was entirely exposed. Who the hell wore tank tops in the middle of December that looked like that?

  Nobody.

  It was dental floss at best.

  The pieces of triangles that were covering her nipples were just enough to cover the areolas and not much more.

  It was also white. Meaning that I could see those areolas.

  They were dark. Like, almost black.

  Was that normal?

  Yes, Elspeth’s hair was black, and mine was blonde. But her skin tone wasn’t much different from mine.

  Maybe even a little lighter, maybe.

  I hated her.

  “This is my fiancé’s house.”

  I snorted. “Your fiancé my ass. You damn well know that you made that shit up,” I said. “You do realize, right, that he was bound to remember sometime. Not to mention he’s mine.”

  “I’m sorry, but he’s not yours. He’s mine.”

  “Negative,” I disagreed. “He’s mine. Has been for a very long time,” I said.

  Rafe and I had spoken about how he’d deal with Elspeth when the time came—though we had always planned on him actually being here when the discussion took place—and it was decided that whatever avenue he was trying to use with Elspeth was now at a dead end. He wouldn’t be able to pretend to like her when he very much didn’t, and I was okay with that. Anything that kept him away from this woman was okay with me.

  “I beg to differ.” Elspeth crossed her hands over her chest, making the barely-there fabric stretch even thinner.

  I put the phone to my ear to ask a question, but Rafe’s words caught my attention.

  “That’s so fucking hot,” Rafe growled when I placed the phone back to my ear.

  “What is?” I heard a man reply.

  “She just claimed me.”

  I found myself smiling despite my anger at the situation. “She claimed you as her daddy?”

  At that, I burst out laughing. “Who is that with you?”

  Rafe snorted. “That would be Parker, the bundle of sunshine and flowers.”

  “Fuck you,” I heard him say.

  “She’s not leaving,” I finally said. “Is there something I should be doing? Calling the police?”

  “I’m about two minutes, at most, away. I’ll handle it when I get there.” Rafe’s words were abrupt and curt, letting me know that he wasn’t happy that she’d just walked into his house.

  “Okay,” I said.

  Then I dropped the phone
to my side. “He’s on his way. If you don’t want this to get ugly, I’d suggest heading on out before he gets here.”

  “Oh, no thank you. I want to know why he’d do this to me,” she sneered.

  I rolled my eyes and leaned one hip against the couch. “Then, by all means, make yourself at home.”

  Elspeth did, but the moment her foot edged in the couch’s direction, my dogs started their low, menacing growl again.

  My lips twitched.

  Then the door opened behind Elspeth moments later, and Rafe’s large frame filled the door.

  Oh, and he didn’t look happy.

  Not. At. All.

  He glared at Elspeth. “I said everything I was willing to say to you at the hotel. You have absolutely no reason to be here.”

  Elspeth’s lips parted to say something, but Rafe cut her off. “Get. Out.”

  Elspeth uncrossed her hands and put them on her hips. “I don’t think so. You owe me.”

  “I don’t owe you a goddamn thing,” he replied. “You owe me an apology, and you also owe Janie one.”

  Elspeth’s lips twitched as if in amusement. “I saved your life.”

  “You didn’t save a goddamn thing,” he replied.

  “Oh, well then, I guess I’ll just take that order back then,” Elspeth hissed.

  “What order?”

  That came from not Rafe, but from the even larger man behind him.

  The man was huge.

  I’d seen him before, of course.

  His name was Parker. He’d said about eight words to me at most, and he made me supremely uncomfortable mostly because he was so intense.

  Anything he said or did, I felt like I was being dissected and studied.

  Like he was taking in everything and deeming me as unworthy.

  Elspeth grabbed for her purse.

  She walked out, and neither man said a word.

  She got to her car, which was parked where Rafe usually parked his bike—in the fucking grass right up next to the house—and turned. “You’ll regret this.”

  Rafe snorted. “Oh, I already do.”

  At Rafe’s darkly murmured words, Elspeth got into the car.

  But there was something in her eyes that made me feel like this was going to get really, really ugly.

  Parker agreed with me.

  I couldn’t figure out whether that was a good thing or not.

  Chapter 19

  The day a man makes me happier than chips and queso is the day I’ll get married.

  -Janie, Age 11

  Rafe

  “Uhhhh,” Janie’s hesitant voice said into my ear. “Could you do us a favor?”

  I looked at my watch. I had exactly an hour and a half before I needed to meet my sister for lunch. “It depends on whether it’ll take less than an hour.”

  “It should,” came her instant reply. “It’s pretty easy.”

  “Hit me,” I said, my eyes scanning what was flowing over my computer screen.

  I was looking over communications between Layton and one of his associates. They were talking in code, but eventually, I’d be able to break whatever it was they were discussing. Then I’d take them down.

  “My dad needs a ride from the hospital. Shiloh and I are in sort of a situation,” she said.

  My heart started to race. “What kind of situation is it that it would keep both of you from picking your father up?”

  “The kind where we’re currently ankle deep in spa waters,” she hesitated. “And my dad asked us to ask you. Apparently, you don’t treat him like an invalid.”

  The doctors had decided to go ahead and remove James’ gallbladder. It was discovered that he had hundreds of gallstones, and it was a miracle he hadn’t had an attack before then.

  “I guess I can. If he takes too long to get in my truck, I’ll force him to go to lunch with me.” I chuckled.

  Janie snickered. “Your sister will be fine with that. She feels bad.”

  “How do you know that?” I questioned.

  I knew she and Raven had been in close contact since we’d made this official—Janie and I. Raven wanted to make a good impression at first, and now I think it was that Raven genuinely cared about Janie.

  Though, neither one had actually told me that they were talking to each other. I was just observant.

  “Uhhh,” Janie hesitated. “I gotta go. My dad needs to be picked up at one.”

  I shook my head in laughter. Janie was trying to mend bridges. Raven was trying to work through her inner demons. Though, she still blamed me for leaving her. And probably always would.

  And, since I still felt bad about not being able to fight for her, I took her shit and hung on.

  Because, despite my angry words when I found out Raven didn’t tell me about Janie, I loved my sister. I loved her despite how she’d treated me for the last ten years.

  Forty-five minutes later I was pulling into a spot that was as close as I could get to the hospital doors.

  He wouldn’t appreciate me pulling around, but I could finagle a closer parking spot without it looking like I was catering to his weakness.

  Minutes later I walked into his hospital room and nearly laughed.

  “Don’t just stand there and watch me, fucker. Come and help me,” James ordered.

  I walked up to him and pulled his IV out. He’d already started it halfway, so I wasn’t really doing anything that he hadn’t already started.

  Technically.

  “You got a Band-Aid?” he asked.

  I raised a brow at him and snorted. “Do you think I just carry Band-Aids around with me like dollar bills?”

  He gestured with his head for me to go get one, and, rolling my eyes, I did.

  I threw a handful at him and turned to survey his room.

  “I’m early. But what the fuck? What’s with all the flowers?” I asked. “I don’t have enough room in my truck for all these.”

  James snorted. “I have the nurses picking them up and taking them to a few other patients that don’t have the number of concerned visitors who think it’s appropriate for a grown male to have so many goddamn flowers that I do.”

  I snorted.

  “I swear to God. I tell them to stop sending flowers up here, and they send more. They think it’s fuckin’ funny.”

  “And who are these offenders?” I questioned, amusement lacing my voice.

  “The fucking SWAT team, mainly the Spurlock brothers, Benny Bear, Nico, Luke and the god-awful Red-Headed Bastard.”

  My lips twitched. “Isn’t that the entire SWAT team you just named off?”

  He shrugged. “We’re getting older. We have a few younger guys, but they’re not at the others’ level just yet.”

  “They gotta learn sometime. Y’all aren’t always going to be able to do what you do,” I told him. “Hell, even I can’t do what I used to do. Twenty years ago, hikes with my gear over twenty miles was nothing. This last time I was there and had to do that, I thought I was going to die. Then there are all these little boys at my side, holding fucking conversations while I can barely fucking breathe. I gotta admit, it’s a young man’s game now.”

  James grunted in reply. “Don’t fucking remind me. And don’t think that I like that some old man is dating my daughter.”

  So, we were going to do this now? I guess I could get down with that.

  “No warnings?” I waited for the inevitable ‘hurt her and I’ll kill you.’

  James looked over at me, grinned widely, and then shook his head.

  “I’m not going to give you a warning,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “You’re not?”

  I was kind of surprised by this. I would’ve expected more from the man who is the father of the daughter that I was about to cross that line with. Only, he didn’t offer me anything of the sort, instead, he shrugged his shoulders.

  “No,” he repeated. “I’m not.”

/>   “Why?”

  Why couldn’t I figure out how to keep my fuckin’ mouth shut?

  But seriously, why the hell wasn’t he warning me off? He had to know what I wanted from his daughter. He, as well as a lot of the other people in this organization, didn’t really like me much.

  I was lucky ‘Uniball’ was one of the only things they called me in front of others. It could be worse.

  “Because I don’t have to warn you. If you hurt Janie, she’ll take care of you. I won’t have to lift a finger.”

  I found my first smile since I’d walked through the hospital’s doors.

  She really could take care of herself. I didn’t have any doubt in my mind that she could.

  “I guess that’s true.”

  “It is,” he assured me. “I taught that girl everything she may need to know. She knows how to shoot. How to hunt. And,” he paused, looking over at me. “How to call for help.”

  I didn’t miss that threat.

  He would be there if his daughter wanted him there, and there wasn’t a damn thing in this world I could do about it.

  “Well, I’ll just go ahead and tell you what I have to say, then.”

  James sat on the side of the bed, crossed his arms over his chest, and waited.

  “When I met her, I knew she was someone special.”

  James scowled.

  “And over the years, as we came into contact, I stayed away, but that feeling never left,” I continued.

  James’ scowl became fierce.

  Now came the moment of truth.

  “This job—my last one that I ever wanted to do—my coup de grace, if you will, I was never meant to survive,” I said. “Whatever Layton is involved in, it’s big. So big, in fact, that I’ve been working for years to get to this moment. Little jobs, here and there. And last month, with Dante’s case, I think it was pure accident that I was able to stumble on a single one of Layton’s toes. He thinks he’s hidden well enough, but he’s gotten sloppy. He thinks he’s untouchable, and I want to prove that he isn’t.”

  “You’re not going to do this alone,” he said. “My daughter loves you. Has loved you since the day she saw your broken self enter our compound.”

  My lips twitched. “I don’t have that plan any longer. I’m backing off. I’m leaving this particular ball of snakes to someone else for them to handle.”