by Natalie Ann
Table of Contents
Prologue
Epilogue
Table of Contents
Doesn’t Know
Little Bit of Heat
Slick-Talking Men
Your Behavior
Slaps You
My Thing
Where You Stood
Bug Me
A Problem
Worth Fighting For
Crossing the Line
Pass the Time
Accept His Presence
Fast and Cheap
She Belonged
Always the Way
One Date
Hard Enough
More on the Line
Your Employee
Push That Issue
Pretty Forgiving
The Other Side
Push His Mood
Like a Family
Get Run Over
Nothing in Common
Game Face
Wished Me Well
One of Us
Have His Back
Come Clean
Airing Dirty Laundry
His Girl
Moral Values
Copyright 2018 Natalie Ann
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without a written consent.
Author’s Note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Dedication- To all those ladies that love a bad boy!
The Road Series-See where it all started!!
Lucas and Brooke’s Story- Road to Recovery
Jack and Cori’s Story – Road to Redemption
Mac and Beth’s Story- Road to Reality
Ryan and Kaitlin’s Story- Road to Reason
The All Series
William and Isabel’s Story — All for Love
Ben and Presley’s Story – All or Nothing
Phil and Sophia’s Story – All of Me
Alec and Brynn’s Story – All the Way
Sean and Carly’s Story — All I Want
Drew and Jordyn’s Story— All My Love
Finn and Olivia’s Story—All About You
The Lake Placid Series
Nick Buchanan and Mallory Denning – Second Chance
Max Hamilton and Quinn Baker – Give Me A Chance
Caleb Ryder and Celeste McGuire – Our Chance
Cole McGuire and Rene Buchanan – Take A Chance
Zach Monroe and Amber Deacon- Deserve A Chance
Trevor Miles and Riley Hamilton – Last Chance
The Fierce Five Series
Brody Fierce and Aimee Reed - Brody
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Doesn’t Know
Little Bit of Heat
Slick-Talking Men
Your Behavior
Slaps You
My Thing
Where You Stood
Bug Me
A Problem
Worth Fighting For
Crossing the Line
Pass the Time
Accept His Presence
Fast and Cheap
She Belonged
Always the Way
One Date
Hard Enough
More on the Line
Your Employee
Push That Issue
Pretty Forgiving
The Other Side
Push His Mood
Like a Family
Get Run Over
Nothing in Common
Game Face
Wished Me Well
One of Us
Have His Back
Come Clean
Airing Dirty Laundry
His Girl
Moral Values
Epilogue
Prologue
Brody swung his bare, size thirteen feet over the side of the bed, lifted his arms above his head and turned to the right, then left. The accompaniment of snap, crackle, pop filled the room.
Naked and feeling gloriously free, he walked into the bathroom for a quick shower. With his head much clearer, he wiped the steam off the mirror and eyed the slight red mark on his temple from the ridiculously low showerhead.
The foreign two-day-old growth of beard staring back at him managed to look neat enough for him to keep. Why not, he thought. Being uncomfortable was the least of his problems right now.
Grabbing his phone, wallet, and key card, he walked out of the hotel room in search of some food.
In the elevator, he finally looked at his phone and noted the time. Guess it was going to be lunch, so he headed toward the bar.
“What can I get you?” the bartender asked. She was well past her prime, trying hard to hide it and failing miserably.
A quick glance at what was on tap had him changing his mind from his normal drink of choice. But when his eyes landed on the stock of liquor reflecting against the mirrored wall, he resigned himself to the cheap stuff. “Vodka and tonic.”
“Coming right up,” she said, her voice a bit raspy, her eyes sending more his way than he wanted to acknowledge. “You want some food with that, sugar?”
“Sure,” he said as he watched her pull a stained sheet of paper out that he supposed passed as a menu.
“What are you in the mood for?” she asked, placing the drink down in front of him. A cheap glass that wasn’t cleaned to his taste either, but not dirty. Spending as much time as he did in a bar, he took note of everything that wasn’t up to his standards.
“A burger and fries,” he said, finding that the least offensive thing at the moment.
When the greasy concoction was slid in front of him, he wished he was back home and could just walk into the kitchen and get his brother Aiden’s specialty fish tacos, made with a slaw marinated in one of his brother Mason’s summer IPAs. As pissed off as he was at everyone right now, he couldn’t get them out of his head.
After washing down the last of his fries with his drink, he threw cash on the bar and walked out to the ocean breeze awaiting him.
Spring on the Outer Banks was busy, and the beach was filling up rapidly with tourists and kids, blankets and umbrellas.
Toeing his shoes off, he picked them up and carried them as he made the lone walk along the shore. Breathing in the salty air mixed with the sweet smell of artificial coconut cleared his head. Doing all the things his siblings told him to do. Too bad he didn’t agree with them.
An hour later, covered in sweat, he undressed and climbed in the shower once again, trying to cool off.
The ringing of his phone had him cursing as he hit his head on the showerhead for a second time stepping out of the tub.
With a towel wrapped around his waist and water dripping on the sterile white bath mat, he pressed the answer button and heard his sister Ella’s voice echoing off the walls on speaker.
“Did I wake you?” she asked.
“No, I was in the shower,” he said, grabbing another towel and running it over his short dark hair and neck.
“So you did just get up? Good, you need some sleep.”
“I’ve been up for hours,” he said, his tone grouchier than normal. “Just got back from a walk on the beach.”
“Even better.” When he snorted, she laughed. “Brody, we’re worried about you. You’re working too hard and too long. This was for your own good.”
“Whatever,” he said, still not happy about being here.
“You’re the only person on the face of this earth who complains about being told to take a week off. What’s wrong with you?”
“When was the last vacation you had?” he asked. “That any of you had?”
“Not the point,” she answered, her voice light but firm. “We aren’t biting each other’s heads off like you.”
“I’m always like that,” he said.
“Not this bad and you know it.”
Sometimes the truth did hurt. “I’m coming home tonight. I can’t stay here another day. I don’t know what to do with myself.”
“We figured you’d say that, so I was elected to make this call. If you step foot in Charlotte before Sunday afternoon, you can’t come to the bar, the restaurant, or the brewery.”
His jaw tightened. “Who’s going to stop me?”
“The staff have instructions to block you from entering. Without you firing them, too. I’ll change the locks if I have to, Brody.”
“What the hell, Ella? Is this some kind of a joke?” He whipped the towel off and started to briskly wipe the steam off the mirror. He needed to do something other than stand here, shell-shocked. How could his family betray him this way?
“Nope. Orders from Mom. Take it up with her if you want.”
His shoulders dropped. Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. Ella and his mom were outnumbered, five testosterone-bearing behemoths in the house to two estrogen-toting pipsqueaks. Somehow, though, estrogen always seemed to win in the Fierce household.
“See you Sunday,” he said, wondering what the hell he was going to do with himself for the next three days.
“We love you, Brody. Even Cade, but next time you need to keep your fists to yourself. You’d been warned before.”
Brody cracked the barest of grins. “How’s his eye?”
“Not as bruised as his ego.”
“Where was he sent to cool off?” Brody asked.
“He’s fishing with Dad for two more days. Consider yourself lucky you got a solo timeout. He’s getting the lecture.”
Lucky, sure. There was no luck in being the leader of the Fierce Five.
Doesn’t Know
Aimee Reed walked into Fierce on Monday at ten. She was here to meet Ella Fierce, one of the three Fierce siblings who’d interviewed her last week. At the time, she didn’t know they were quintuplets, but after some research on her new employers she’d found a backstory on their business.
Fierce, started by Gavin and Jolene Fierce thirty-five years ago, had grown from a small pub-style restaurant to one of the hottest spots in Charlotte.
Brody ran the bar and ran it well. It was named one of the top five hot spots for two years running.
Aiden, the head chef, had culinary skills straight from abroad that made people’s mouths salivate when they walked in the door.
Mason, the chemist, ran the brewery that popped up four years ago around the corner from the pub.
Cade handled all the marketing and branding for the company that’d grown by leaps and bounds in the last five years.
And Ella ran everything and everyone else, it seemed.
Their parents—well, it was said that when the kids turned twenty-five, they handed the keys over and decided to enjoy their retirement. Good for them.
“Aimee,” Ella said, extending her hand out. “It’s good to see you again. Let’s get your paperwork started and I’ll walk you around. For the next two days, I’m going to have you shadow Mason in the brewery, studying the brews and what their makeup is, then spend a day with Aiden in the kitchen. It’s best to know the menu well so you can make suggestions for those at the bar during the day.”
“I noticed that most of the menu I saw online had your beer in it.”
“It does. Aiden is a whiz in the kitchen. Every time I blink, he has a new special featuring Mason’s latest experiment. The two of them have gotten extremely close in the last few years and their work complements each other well.”
“Ratings are very high for Fierce.”
Aimee was still stunned she got the job. Waitresses, bartenders, and sous chefs battled for a spot here. Yet she got offered the job and wasn’t sure why. Not a great way to exhibit confidence, she mentally scolded herself. But sometimes who you knew was better than what you knew…and there was no way she was going to blow this.
“They are,” Ella said, nodding, sending Aimee a glance that clearly stated she should feel lucky to have gotten the job. The Fierce Five, as they were referred to in everything Aimee had read, were a cocky group of five siblings running the show in downtown Charlotte. They didn’t just set the bar for their competitors, they blew it up with dynamite.
Aimee followed Ella through the closed bar, past the formal seating of the restaurant, into the kitchen where prep work was underway for the lunch shift, and up a set of stairs to the offices. Several offices, mainly looking empty at the moment.
She took a seat at the conference table where she’d interviewed just a short five days ago. In front of her were a laptop and a few sheets of paper.
“Let’s get started on the boring part, and then we can move on to the fun stuff. Mason knows we’re coming.”
“When will I start working with Brody?”
Aimee thought it was odd that the person who was going to be her immediate supervisor not only wasn’t there to meet her, but his name hadn’t been mentioned.
Ella laughed lightly, a sound that didn’t match the look in her eyes. “We’re going to try to push that off until Wednesday. Maybe Thursday, if we’re lucky.”
“Ah, okay.”
Ella reached a hand over and patted hers, then grinned. “You see. He doesn’t know about you yet.”
***
“You did what when I was gone?” Brody shouted at his siblings Wednesday morning during their weekly meeting.
“You should have filled that position six months ago when Felix left and you know it,” Ella said.
Brody looked around the room at everyone. No one was making eye contact with him right now and that just burned his ass even more.
“I had it covered,” he argued. “We don’t need another manager at the bar. I run the bar.” He turned to Aiden. “You run the restaurant, so you hire your own staff, right?”
“Yeah,” Aiden mumbled.
Next, Brody turned to Mason. “Do you hire your own staff in the brewery?”
Mason looked at Ella, then back to him. “Of course.”
“I won’t bother to ask you, Cade. It’s just you and your assistant. But we know you hire for yourself. So the question is, why wasn’t I given the same courtesy?”
“Take it up with Mom,” Ella said boldly, then crossed her arms, smirking the way Brody hated. The same smirk she sent him and his brothers when they were younger and they knew they’d never win. The same smirk he and his brothers learned to master—a trait of their mom’s.
“Shit,” he mumbled.
“That’s right,” Cade said, regaining his voice. “It was Mom’s idea.”
“Do you want a matching shiner?” Brody snarled.
Ella stood up. “Enough. Do you both need another timeout?”
“We aren’t five, Ella,” Cade said, snapping back. Good. Someone else was losing their temper, Brody thought.
“Then don’t act it,” she said.
“How many barf bags did you fill on Dad’s boat?” Brody asked Cade.
“Screw you,” Cade said, standing up.
“That’s enough,” Aiden said, in the same voice that controlled his kitchen—like a nun holding a ruler above your knuckles just waiting for a chance to snap it down. “The order came from Mom. That’s the end of it, Brody. The same order that decided you got a solo timeout and Cade got to go fishing.”
Brod
y snorted. His mother knew everyone’s weakness and she played it well. Brody hated being alone, hated any type of solitude. That was why he did so well managing the bar. He could talk to strangers day in and day out. The louder the better. Cade had the weakest stomach of them all and could never stand the smell of fish, let alone being on their father’s boat deep-sea fishing.
“So you all knew about this?” Brody asked, looking around.
His eyes landed on Aiden, then Mason, seeing the guilt and the looks that the two of them were sending each other. There was a time his brothers didn’t keep secrets from him. A time they banded together against any foe.
“I found out on Monday when I got back,” Cade said. “So don’t get pissy with me. It was done when I was gone.”
That didn’t make him feel any better since that was two days ago. “So when does he start?”
“She,” Ella said. “Her name is Aimee Reed and she started on Monday.”
From bad to worse. The person was already working and he’d never seen her. Where the hell was she?
“How is that possible?” Was he really losing his mind and his focus like his family thought?
Ella took her seat again. “Aimee and I met early Monday before you came in and we did her paperwork. She spent Monday with Mason in the brewery. Yesterday, she spent the day with Aiden in the kitchen.”
“And today?” he asked. “Am I going to get to meet this person that you thought should be my day manager? Or do I need to get permission from Mom first?”
“Cut the sarcasm,” Aiden said. “And don’t be a jerk to Aimee. She knows her stuff and you need the help.”
He didn’t need his siblings telling him how to run his end of the business. “I’ll determine what she knows and doesn’t know.”
“What bug crawled up your butt?” Mason asked.
Of his brothers, Mason was the quietest, Aiden the most talented, Cade the most outgoing, and he was the loudest. That Cade was keeping his lips sealed meant he was trying not to get on anyone’s bad side.
