by Susan Bliler
“You’re a phoenix, Alexandra.” He didn’t know where the words came from, but once they were out, he knew they were true.
“Yeah,” she smirked sadly. “But I had to burn first.”
Claim her! The words ghosted through his mind and had him retreating a step as his hands un-curled. What? No. Fuck, no! “I…I gotta go.”
Confusion marred her brow before she quickly masked it, turning away from him. “Yeah. Okay,” she responded, but he could hear the disappointment in her tone.
He backed toward the door, still unable to take his eyes off her.
“Hey!” she turned to him. “When will I know? Will I…will I see you again?”
He shook his head. “I dunno.” Then he was out the door.
Brisk air assailed him and he breathed it in deeply like some magic in the diner had cloaked him in an invisible snare, and he was just now breaking free of it.
On the other side of the glass, Alex tore her gaze from his, but not before he saw the hurt that swept over her features. He’d acted like an idiot, and that was no surprise. He’d told Amanda he was the wrong Walker for this job and the look on Alex’s face confirmed it. He hadn’t meant to hurt her and wasn’t sure how he had. He wondered how the other Walkers assigned to follow prospective employees were faring on their missions. Were they having the same complex feelings for their candidates? Probably not. He didn’t typically connect with people that fast, but talking to Alex had been so damn easy. She was funny and cute and honest, and right now she felt like big trouble because Recker wasn’t about to go getting attached to no damn human who could be a potential Megalya spy.
Still though, if he was honest, right now he wanted nothing more than to race back to StoneCrow and demand Amanda give Alex the job right now, but Amanda had been right. One good…great interview didn’t change the fact that Alex could be an enemy attempting to infiltrate StoneCrow, and it was up to him to ensure that didn’t happen.
Striding to his truck, he didn’t look back, not even when his beasts snapped at his insides and demand he take one last look.
Chapter 5
Alex couldn’t stop thinking about Recker Rhodes. His face, his body, his voice, his scent. All of it was imprinted on her, and she couldn’t stop grinning every time she thought of how badly her interview had gone. She would have been worried if it hadn’t felt so comfortable. She hoped Recker had felt it too.
Things weren’t supposed to be that natural or easy with a man. She knew this because the three main male figures in her life were bullies and treated her like absolute shit. While living in the same house, her step-dad and two step-brothers treated her like the live-in maid. She did everything, and when mom died, they acted indignant that Alex wasn’t going to move in and take care of them. When she’d made it clear that she had no intentions of moving in to pay bills and to cook and clean for them, her step-father told her she was dead to him, and her step-brothers mirrored their father’s opinion, which was fine with Alex. She didn’t need them. Granted it hurt all the more to have them abandon her immediately after mom’s death, but she’d sucked it up and moved on. She was done letting the men in her life degrade her and treat her like hired help. She hated how they’d so easily discarded her, and it had her despising most men now. Fitz and his friends didn’t help alter her opinion either.
Her distaste for men was one of the reasons she didn’t date. All through college, she’d stayed single and hadn’t dated at all, too worried about her mom to care about boys. The only interaction she’d had with males since mom passed was her daily interaction with co-workers and worse, her weekly dealings with Fitz and his buddies, and they hardly counted as men.
Locking up the diner, Alex tucked the keys in her pocket and then zipped her coat all the way up beneath her chin. It was early spring, but a sharp bite of cold clung to the night air. Before setting out, Alex tapped her hand against her purse to make sure she hadn’t forgotten the sandwich she’d made herself before cleaning the kitchen. She hadn’t lied when she’d told Recker that no customers meant no tips. The pay was minimum wage, and she rarely had enough tips saved up at the end of the month to cover her bills let alone afford much in the way of groceries. Her boss was cool though and allowed her one free meal per shift. She’d arranged it so she could take her meal to go each night, and thank God because without her boss’ charity, she’d likely starve.
Eyeing the darkened street, she shivered at the prospect of the walk ahead. Employees had to park in the city’s parking garage down the block. She had to pass a few bars to get to her ride, but she wasn’t too worried. She may not have had the best of interactions with men, but she’d been in plenty of fights growing up and wasn’t too worried about any trouble. Plus, she had a pistol tucked away in her conceal-carry purse, and a pocket knife slid into her back jeans pocket.
Paranoid much? She snorted a laugh as she walked, but the truth was that it if she went missing, there was no one to know. Well, almost no one.
Just then her phone pinged, and she pulled it out of her purse, smiling at Alessandra’s picture that accompanied the text, which she read as she walked. Alise had taken a picture of herself with Alex’s phone when they’d been out one night. She had one eye pinched shut and her tongue poking out in a crazy face.
‘A-hole, how’d it go?’
Alex chuckled and shook her head. ‘Good I think.’
‘Well, fuck! I was hoping they’d hate u.’
‘LOL! Haters gonna hate!’
‘Can’t believe ur gonna leave me in this shit hole alone. I do hate u so right now.’
‘Liar. N u know I’ll stay n touch.’
‘Go touch urself. U think ur cool, but ur only room temperature. Call me when u get home, beitch!!!’
‘K.’
Alex laughed at the exchange and crammed her phone back into her purse. Lifting her head to eye her surroundings had her paranoia returning.
Loud music from one of the bars blared louder as a drunk stumbled out of the door. Barely able to stand, let alone walk straight, the guy leaned heavily on the building as he took a long time to fish a pack of smokes out of his pocket and miss his lips several times before the cigarette was finally clamped between his teeth.
Alex stared straight ahead and lifted her chin, brows spearing down in a “don’t even try fucking with me” expression as she passed. The guy looked up and tried to whistle at her, only managing to shoot his cigarette out of his mouth before he cursed then dropped to a knee to grab his still unlit smoke.
Alex chuffed a laugh and kept on walking.
The bar music faded, and she considered crossing the street. The bar on the next block was a favorite of Fitz and his idiot friends, and on more than one occasion, he’d seen her walking by and had come out to harass her. Fucking dick!
At the corner, she changed her mind and instead of crossing the street or staying her course and walking in front of the bar, she went down the side street. She’d cut through the alley. The parking garage was at the end of it on the right; she’d just have to hurry past the bar’s back door on the opposite side of the alley.
Even the new spring air couldn’t stifle the scent of garbage and alcohol that wafted through the alley. She could hear the music from Fitz’s favorite bar now and cringed at the whiny sounding country tune that echoed off the walls. She hated Country music, not all of it, just the stuff people tended to listen to when they were drinking and looking for an excuse to cry into their beer.
Walking faster, she reached back and rested her hand on the knife in her back pocket. It was darker in the alley than it was on the street, but she could see her car now. It gave her a sense of relief. It was a relief that was short lived.
She heard a noise and knew instantly what it was. The sound had initially been muffled by the twangy music pouring out of the bar, but the closer she got to her car, the more distinctly she heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh. The second she stepped where she was able to see around a tall dumpster, she f
ound Fitz and his boys pounding on some poor guy.
Fitz’s head jerked up just as Alex slammed to a halt and when his eyes locked on her, a grin split his lips.
Chapter 6
Sitting perched on the ledge of a four-story building in the form of a sleek black crow, Recker watched as Alex deviated from the brightly lit street to make her way down the darkened back alleys. Annoyed that she’d taken the most dangerous route, he watched as she slammed to a halt when her eyes locked on a group of men who were beating the shit out of another. He’d already seen the group and was hoping Alex planned on ducking into the bar or at least kept right on walking. She didn’t. Worse, when she stopped, one of the men locked eyes on her and grinned a predatory smile that had Recker sailing down from his perch and finding a darkened corner where he could shift.
“Well, well, well, boys. Looks like I’m gonna get everything I want tonight.”
The words had a snarl ripping its way up Recker’s throat. But, before he could even step out of the shadow, Alex curled her lip up in a sneer and told the guy, “Fuck off!” before she kept walking.
Recker chuffed a quiet laugh and decided then and there that Alex had a death wish. Sure she’d read him right in the diner, but right now, her instincts were a thousand percent off. These guys weren’t like him, and they clearly didn’t appreciate her sass.
“Check her out,” one of the guys crowed slapping another in the arm as they stepped over the sprawled man’s body, their victim forgotten. “She told Fitz to fuck off,” the guy laughed.
Recker’s eyes narrowed at the man who’d addressed Alex. Fitz, huh? Angling his head, he realized he recognized the men now as the group who’d left Alex’s diner just as he’d entered. What had she said about them? That’s right; she needed to earn her tips. This Fitz fuck was the guy who promised her a night she’d never forget? Recker sized him up in a glance and rolled his eyes with a snort. As if!
Fitz stepped forward, shooting a glare at his friends who were having a laugh at his expense before turning back to Alex.
He responded to her comment with, “Oh, there’ll be fucking alright.” He took off at a quick pace, following Alex down the alley.
Recker took one step to follow then froze.
Alex spun and clipped out, “You think I’m playing games with you?”
Fitz slammed to a halt and so did his friends, one of them hissing, “Shhhit!”
Recker looked around the men and saw that Alex had a pistol in her hand. It wasn’t pointed at anyone, it wasn’t even lifted. Nope, it hung uselessly at her side, but she tapped it repeatedly against her leg in what looked like agitation.
“I dropped my buck this season from three-hundred ninety-five yards.” She canted her head and pinched one eye closed, sizing up Fitz. “Your fat ass is literally fifteen yards away.” She straightened her head and opened her eyes, lowering her chin to glare at the group. “What do you think are the odds of me missing?”
“You can’t hit us all,” Fitz challenged.
When Alex grinned, Recker felt his balls draw up tight as blood flooded his cock.
“Don’t need to.” She cocked the hammer on her pistol and slowly lifted it. “Just need to hit you.”
Fitz threw his hands up and started backing away with an, “Easy, Alex. Calm the fuck down. We were just playing.”
“I ain’t,” she clipped out, and Recker—who was now half out of the shadow—backed up until he was fully hidden again.
Fitz and his crew kept backing up until Alex lowered her weapon and shrugged one slim shoulder before exhaling an annoyed sound and turning to head toward the parking garage. She’d given the crew her back, and they exchanged looks like they were wondering whether or not to rush her. Fitz though was smarter than he looked because he shook his head and muttered, “We’ll get her another time when she ain’t expecting it.”
Recker didn’t like the threat, but as much as he wanted to charge out of the darkness and pound all three men into the concrete, he had bigger concerns. A little white Pinto puttered out of the garage and pulled out of the alley. Recker craned his neck and caught Alex’s side profile from the driver’s seat as she made sure no cars were coming before she pulled into traffic.
A shift blasted through Recker, and because he couldn’t help himself, he tore down the alley straight at Fitz and his two moron friends in a massive Rottweiler form. Growling, snapping, and snarling, he headed straight for the trio who all saw him at the same time.
“Holy shit!”
One of the men scaled a chain link fence and scrambled over top before losing his grip and falling off the other side. He landed with a thud on the unforgiving concrete and cradled his arm as he rolled with a moan.
Fitz and the third guy scanned the alley quickly, but Recker was coming too fast and was nearly on them. Fitz and his buddy dove into the dumpster.
“Aw fuck, dude. There’s puke in here!”
The two men were scrambling back out when Recker’s sharp teeth bit into Fitz’s leg. He shook his head furiously as both men dove back into the dumpster. Releasing his jaws, he let Fitz go because the fucker smelled like shit. Besides, maybe he’d learned his lesson about lurking in alleys.
Disappearing at a full-on run down the alley, Recker followed the way Alex had gone, and when he finally saw her headlights up in the distance, he ducked off into a park and shifted back to crow form before taking to the sky and ghosting her home.
Chapter 7
The next day, Recker spent the entire afternoon following Alex around town.
The previous night, he’d tailed her beat-up Pinto all the way home just to make sure she made it okay. It was a small town after all, and he didn’t know if Fitz and his fucks knew where Alex lived or not. When she’d pulled her car up alongside a giant old Victorian that was at least four-thousand square feet, he’d felt duped. He’d thought all her talk about needing a job at StoneCrow because the tips at the restaurant were shit was a lie. It wasn’t until she got out and circled around the house to take the back staircase all the way up to a door at the very top of the house that he realized she must have been renting a room. It had to be a shit room at that too because no matter how much he circled the building, he was only able to find one tiny window that could potentially look into Alex’s apartment. It was covered with a thick curtain and was so small that Recker wondered what she planned on doing in case of a fire.
Deflated, he flew back the diner, retrieved his truck from where he’d parked it down the street from Alex’s diner and then drove back to Alex’s place where he parked on the street a few houses down from hers. Sleeping in the truck wasn’t comfortable, but Amanda had texted him Alex ’s work schedule, and he knew tomorrow was her day off. What better way to get to know punchy lil’ Miss Hayworth then by following her in her free time.
Now, at practically noon, he’d followed her to a small coffee shop where she’d had a cup of coffee and nothing to eat for breakfast. Through the glass, he eyed her from the tinted windows of his truck and wondered if she was one of those ‘starve yourself to be thin’ women.
After coffee, she’d taken her old ass Pinto—who even still drove those anyway—to the grocery store. Honestly, he was surprised her car made it because it sounded like it was on its last leg. At the grocery store, he didn’t follow her in, figuring she’d be slow and take her time like most females would. Nope. She was in and out in about ten minutes. She was mesmerizing to watch. She’d come out with her fists burdened with a few bags. That didn’t stop her from walking straight up to an elderly woman who’d just finished loading bags into her trunk and offering to return the older woman’s cart.
“Thank you, dear, that’s awfully kind of you.”
Alex grinned at the woman and returned the cart before going to her own vehicle and loading up. As she was leaving the parking lot, she stopped her car to have a conversation with a man standing near the exit of the parking lot holding a sign that said he had a family in need and anything would
help. Recker listened as Alex explained, “I don’t have any cash, but I’ve got some food I can share. It ain’t much, but it’s something.”
She passed one of her few grocery bags out the window to the enthusiastic appreciation of the man who waved Alex off with a, “God bless you!”
Interesting. Turns out punchy little Alex had a soft little heart.
From the grocery store, Recker followed her a few car lengths back as she trekked back to her apartment, dropped off her groceries, and then piled back into her car. That’s where shit got boring. He tailed her to the local bookstore where Alex purchased hot cocoa and then spent the next four hours reading a book in one of the corners. Honestly, it was the biggest waste of a day off Recker had ever witnessed and when Alex finally closed her book, Recker adjusted in the driver’s seat of his truck where he’d been watching her from the parking lot. To his utter dismay, Alex took the book back to the shelf, grabbed another, and then reclaimed her seat. It was then that he decided that he couldn’t stand waiting any longer.
Fifteen minutes later, his truck was parked in the rapidly darkening woods just a few blocks from Alex’s place. Exiting the vehicle, he scanned the area before shifting to crow form and taking flight. Because it was dark now, he was practically invisible, which made it easy to fly up to the landing outside of Alex’s front door where he dropped and then shifted. Looking over his shoulder to ensure no one saw, Recker palmed the doorknob and used brute strength to twist it open. Metal clicked and then snapped before the door swung open.
Inside, Recker was shocked at what he saw. The apartment, if it could even be called that, was tiny as shit. It was basically one room with a cot against one wall and a small stove, mini fridge, and a one-person table set up in a corner like a tiny kitchen. The table housed a basin and a large pitcher of what Recker assumed was water because there was no sink in the wanna-be kitchen. A shower curtain shielded another small corner of the room.
