“All righty, then.” She rolled her eyes. “Get to work.”
I did, and at first, everything was fine.
Great, really.
Then the fight broke out.
I wasn’t too sure what had caused it to start, but then I saw the two men who had been fighting for my attention all night shoving each other.
I frowned and walked to the baseball bat that Amanda’s dad kept behind the counter, tightening my hold around the smooth, old wood.
Unfortunately, Tiny was a convicted felon and couldn’t have firearms in his place of work since he owned it. Hence there was no shotgun that I, personally, would’ve liked to have had my hand on at that moment in time instead of a baseball bat.
Because the two men that were fighting weren’t small men. Both of them were big, burly, bearded and assholes.
Each time I came in, they were there. They were loud, angry drunks that I was sure only came to Tiny’s because this was the only place that allowed them in anymore.
One guy’s name was Buster, and the smaller of the two was named Cable. They were also the main reason that I feared coming here. It was inevitable with these two. One of them would try to touch me, and I’d lose it.
However, they both weren’t normally here at the same time. Usually, it was just one or the other. Today, I wasn’t so lucky.
I was fucking boned.
Especially when the fighting had one man taking a right hook to his cheek, and his back slamming so hard against the bar that I heard the bottles and glasses rattle.
“Shit,” Amanda said, handing me the phone. “Call the cops. I don’t need them ruining the place while Dad’s gone.”
Moments later I had the bat off the hook and in my hand, with my other hand wrapped around the cordless phone while I gave the dispatcher details on what was going on.
After hearing that a squad was on the way, I hung up and backed myself in the corner.
Which turned out to be the wrong thing to do when Cable knocked Buster in the chin with an uppercut that sent him sailing over the bar and sliding right to my feet.
Buster rolled and used my cowboy boot-clad leg to help him stand, and I started to hyperventilate.
When he crowded me, his hand going to my bare arm, the bat fell to the concrete at my feet.
I blacked out moments later—unaware that my breathing had gotten too shallow and fast.
All I could see was the last guy who touched me, the one my father had sat and laughed with while he did. It hadn’t been so bad until the stranger had rolled himself on top of me and dry humped my tiny body. He came in his pants moments later and then collapsed on top of me for longer than my young mind had been able to count. My father had eventually forced him off of me, but by then, the damage had been done.
I relived that horrid experience every single time some man had the audacity—or misfortune—of touching me.
And when I woke again, it was to find Officer Mackenzie staring at me with so much concern that it made my breath hitch.
“Hey,” he said. “You’re back.”
I swallowed, looking at him with wild eyes.
“Yeah.”
“My name is Johnny. Can you tell me what happened?”
I blinked. “There was a fight.”
He nodded. “Do you know where you are?”
I nodded. “Tiny’s.”
He grinned then, and let my face go.
“Can you tell me what happened after that?”
I knew what he was referring to. My freak out.
Something that I most assuredly did not want to talk about.
“Uhhh,” I hesitated. “I guess.”
He snorted and turned his body so that he was partially blocking my view of the room.
The move, while not threatening, made me feel safer.
I swallowed and looked down to my hands. They were still shaking.
“Sorry,” I muttered, my heart still pounding. “It’s just…I can’t…their touch. I can’t stand people touching me.”
I looked up at him when I heard him huff out a breath.
He frowned. “Why?”
For some reason, I felt almost compelled to tell him about it. Why I was the way I was, and that kind of scared the snot out of me. Sadly, knowing that I was going to freak the fuck out and being over it were two completely different things.
I’d probably never be over it.
But what would it hurt for him to know what made me so scared?
I shrugged and decided to go for it. What did I have to lose?
Apparently, it wasn’t what I could lose that should’ve scared me. It was Johnny’s reaction to hearing the news that I shared.
“Well,” I paused, trying to find the right words to share with him about what had happened to me to make me the way I was. “When I was younger, my parents had a revolving door to anyone bad. Drug addicts. Sexual predators. You name it, they let them in our house. It got so bad that my grandfather, Tennessee Common, took me away. Only when I was ‘old’ enough, did he let me go back. But, by that time his health had greatly deteriorated, and he really needed someone there for him twenty-four seven, and a young girl still needing school wasn’t it. So, he allowed me to go back, but I only ended up looking a little more appealing to the people that came around the house.”
As I spoke, he never betrayed a thing. He was calm, cool and collected.
Unless you looked at his fists.
They were clenched so stinkin’ tight that it was almost worrisome. Was it possible to break your hand by clenching it? Because if it was, he’d do it.
“Anyway, long story short, I had a few too many unwanted visitors in my room between the ages of fourteen and seventeen when I finally left my parents’ place. It seriously fucked with my head, and well, now I just can’t seem to tolerate a man’s touch.”
Any man’s touch but his, apparently.
He’d picked me up off the ground as I started to sob, and not once did I start freaking out worse. In fact, it only started to get worse when he sat me down and stepped away from me.
Which was really quite odd.
I’d never been able to tolerate any man’s touch, which explained my twenty-six-year-old virgin status.
You couldn’t have sex if you wouldn’t let the other person touch you.
“Let me get this straight, you’re working in a bar where there are a bunch of drunk men that don’t give one single fuck that you’re scared…”
I shrugged at Johnny’s flippant words. “I can’t help that my best friend’s father owns the bar. And honestly, since I started working here, my freak outs have diminished. I can tolerate being around men, but I still have a problem with the touching. I’m working on it.”
“You’re working on it…” he murmured. “I just…I don’t think that’s a good idea. There has to be other ways that you can combat these demons. You don’t have to work at a bar, one that caters to a rough and rowdy crowd, to get over this affliction.”
“I need a way that isn’t going to freak me out or cost me money, but I don’t have the time for it, or the money,” I told him frankly. “And it’s sweet of you to care, really it is, but I’m okay.”
He looked like he didn’t believe me.
As he shouldn’t.
I didn’t have anything together.
Not one. Damn. Thing.
***
“Look at him go,” Amanda whispered, pointing to the screen where the replay of the security cameras was running.
I leaned forward and watched as Johnny took down both men within a half a minute of walking into the bar.
He had them both subdued and on the floor moments after that, and thirty seconds after that, he had me in his arms and pulled into his chest.
“I can’t believe you didn’t completely freak when he picked you up. I kept waiting for it, but you never did.” She shook her head.
I watched myself on th
e screen as I was picked up like I weighed next to nothing, his bulky arms circling around my back and under my legs as he carried me away from the two men.
It wasn’t until I was practically half a bar away from them that Johnny set me down on the nearest bar stool and put both of his large hands on my face, forcing me to look at him.
He spoke softly to me, bent down slightly so his face was close to mine, and I could practically see myself coming back to life on the security feed.
From the point that I lifted my eyes, I remembered every single second. The way his voice was soft. How warm his hands were on my skin. The way he gave me space the moment that I’d come back to myself.
I could still feel the heat of his hands where they’d rested against my cheeks.
“I think he’s the one.”
I rolled my eyes. “We’re not talking about this, Amanda. I’m not going to do anything with him, let alone that.”
Amanda had been trying for years to get me to do that certain something with someone. She’d even offered up her brother—her brother who was so far from attractive that it nearly made me laugh.
What he was, though, was sweet, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he wouldn’t hurt me.
But, I couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t do it with her brother, and I most certainly wouldn’t be doing it with Officer Hottie.
Nope. No. Nuh-uh.
Chapter 5
Why does one have to be told it’s illegal to drag race down Main Street? One would think it’d be common sense.
-Hostel PD FB page
Johnny
“I want you to go out on a date with one of my friends,” Janie said, holding the cell phone screen toward my face as we Facetimed.
I frowned. “Who?”
“You remember Reagan? Her dad is on the SWAT team with mine?”
The name sounded vaguely familiar.
I frowned. “Vaguely. What’s she look like?”
I tried to get a picture with the name in my head, but it wasn’t coming to me.
“She has long brown, curly hair that’s down to her hips. Freckles. Sweet. Bookish. Your type.”
I rolled my eyes knowing that she could see my facial expressions on the cell phone screen.
My ‘type’ as she put it wasn’t necessarily boring as she was describing, but someone that wouldn’t get too excited and lose control.
I could also tell that she wasn’t going to back down. She wanted me to go on this date, and probably wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“I don’t know…”
“How about you come to dinner tonight. She’s in town for a few days because she’s doing some research or something for her thesis for her master’s degree. If you don’t like her, you won’t have to ever see her again.”
I looked over at Janie. “The last time you said that, I ended up dating she who shall not be named for years.”
Janie’s face soured. The ‘her’ in question was my ex who had done the ol’ cheateroo while I was in the military and had broken up with me on top of that.
“Whatever. Be there at seven.”
I gave her a semi-salute and went back to folding my clothes, but as I did, I wondered what I’d just gotten myself into.
Whatever it was, I probably wasn’t going to like it.
***
I offered my hand to Reagan and shook it. “Long time, no see.”
The moment I saw her walking across the parking lot toward us, I remembered exactly who she was.
Reagan’s smile was beautiful. “It has been a long time. The last time I saw you, I think you were about to go to boot camp.”
I grinned at the memory. “I was, and you were headed to school to become a marine biologist.”
Reagan laughed. “Botanist.”
I grunted and offered my hand to Rafe, who took it. Once he let go, I offered it to Parker. Rafe offered me a quick smile whereas Parker didn’t offer me anything. Despite meeting him more than a handful of times, I still couldn’t quite get a read on the guy.
Where Rafe was open and happy, Parker was closed and not mad, per se, but indifferent maybe. Like he could care less if he was there or not.
And my guess, he’d really rather be somewhere else, but since his woman, Kayla, was there, he would be, too.
Rafe led us to the bar, where we all got a drink. At least, all of us but Reagan, that was.
She ordered water.
I frowned, thinking that maybe I should have gotten water, too, since technically she was my date, but then something caught my eye.
A blonde something. A blonde someone who had been on my mind quite a bit lately.
My eyes watched her as she crossed the parking lot toward the front door, and without meaning to, I found myself walking to the door as well and opening it before she could.
She smiled up at me, but then frowned as soon as her eyes met mine.
“Officer Mackenzie,” she drawled. “How’s your hand from writing all those tickets? Any cramping from overuse?”
I found myself grinning. “Pretty good. It’s nice of you to ask about it.”
She rolled her eyes and moved past me, careful not to touch me, the door, or the people that had followed me across the lot.
I watched her go and felt something hard hit me in the gut.
“What the fuck, Johnny? You have a date,” Janie snarled.
I winked at her. “Yes, ma’am. Sorry, ma’am.”
Janie rolled her eyes and walked in, Rafe followed close behind.
“Watch it, or she might geld you in your sleep,” Kayla said as she brushed past.
I sighed as Parker passed, but he didn’t say a word.
Reagan gave me a twinkling smile as she was the last to arrive.
“Don’t worry. I’m not looking for anything right now, either. I have so much else I want to do that settling down isn’t even close to being on my radar right now,” Reagan offered. “Janie asked me to eat with her, though, so I said yes. I’m not expecting a single thing from you tonight.”
Thank God.
I gestured for her to enter with my free hand, and she did.
Moments later, we were standing behind Rafe and Parker as we waited for our table to get cleaned.
My eyes traveled around the room, and one table, in particular, caught my attention.
It was the one that June was sitting at with an elderly man.
The elderly man was smiling so wide at June that my heart actually jumped with the love I could see there.
I liked that she had that.
My eyes trailed over to June, who was sitting in her chair and patting the old man’s hand. She didn’t have any jewelry on, and the only thing makeup-wise she was wearing looked to be mascara.
My belly clenched at just the sight of her.
She was beautiful, and her hair was up in this complicated up do that looked like it took her hours to do.
“Yo, let’s go.”
I looked to find my party winding its way through the tables, and Parker lagging behind looking at me like I was a nuisance.
“Sorry,” I apologized, falling into step.
The table we received was all the way across the entire room from her, but I did have an unencumbered view of her as I took my seat.
I snorted when I and the other two men sat with our backs to the inner walls. Luckily, we were in a corner, so we didn’t have to fight for a space like we would’ve had we been seated at the next table over.
As I took my seat, I allowed my eyes to trail back over to June, and Reagan started to laugh.
“You should go say hi.”
“You shouldn’t,” Janie countered.
Reagan snorted. “I told you that I was blissfully happy being single. I’ve done the whole go-to-school and try to have a boyfriend thing. It’s not something that really works. But, if the time ever comes that I am in a position to pursue someone, it’s
not going to be Johnny.” She looked over at me. “No offense.”
I winked. “None taken.”
“Now that that is settled, let’s order an appetizer. I’m fucking starving,” Parker mumbled.
I agreed. I’d had a long day, and an even longer night due to nightmares making it impossible to sleep. If there was one place I didn’t want to be right now, it was in this place, trying to mingle when I wanted nothing more than to take a nap.
But, since I was trying to act like I wasn’t as fucked up as I actually was, I was playing the part.
Very well, in fact.
We were in a little restaurant in Jefferson, Texas—which happened to be the next town over from Hostel. The restaurant itself wasn’t all that busy, but the longer we sat, the more people that started to arrive. There was no arguing that this was one of the best places to eat in the surrounding area.
Something that the server told me a few moments later as she arrived at our table to take our drink orders.
“What’s good here?” I asked casually.
Someone snorted from beside me, and I looked up and over my shoulder to see June winding her way to the hallway that likely led to the bathrooms.
“Everything’s good here,” she murmured, then continued on her way.
I swallowed and watched her go, turning back only when I heard the mutters coming from the table beside ours.
“I can’t believe they still come here. Trash is trash, no matter how you dress it up,” some older lady said, sounding about as hoity-toity as anyone I’d ever heard before.
My eyes went to the older woman, and then to the younger woman, who had to be a daughter due to the resemblance that the two shared.
The daughter was attractive…until she opened her mouth.
“I still can’t believe that Coke hired her. Doesn’t he know the type of girl that she is?”
“Coke hired her?” the older lady said, then a sneer came over her face. “I’ll just have to talk to him about that.”
“Mom, don’t,” the middle-aged woman replied, confirming my suspicions that they were related. “I don’t want to deal with it. He’s an adult, and if he wants to hire the likes of her, who am I to stop him?”
“He may not be married to you any longer, but there is still a sense of decorum that he has to uphold. Think of your daughter.” The older woman gestured with her hand to a girl that was sitting quietly across the table from them. She looked like she’d rather be anywhere but there. I didn’t blame her, not one bit. “Francesca is an impressionable sixteen-year-old. You can’t flaunt that whore in front of her and expect her not to pick up on whore tendencies.”
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