Whiskey & Honey: Crimes of Crimson Valley: Book One

by A. Mae. Cooper

  “I look forward to working with him.” I lied and she narrowed her eyes at me. I flick a brief glance to her husband who has been watching me in silence this whole time and it only takes me a second longer to notice him standing at his father's back.

  Jesus fucking Christ.

  I was not prepared for the blow to my gut I received when I lay my eyes on Silas King again. I was not prepared for this shit at all.

  Ten years has done that boy some justice and it pained me to admit that, even if it were in my mind, not that I would ever voice it out loud to another living soul. As I was, he was the spitting image of his dark, tall mother before me. He towered over her by a few inches as he stepped around his father and reached her side, standing mere inches away from me now and I did my fucking best not to let what his nearness did to me show on my face or in my body language. He appraises me with skeptical eyes as I do the same to him, challenging him to make the first move, as if I were the queen in white and he was the king of black on this ancient chess board. Something flashes in his eyes, almost like regret and a flicker of awe, but it is gone before I can analyze it further. There would be no way Silas King felt any kind of regret about what he did to me all those years ago.

  He was exactly like the king of black, hovering in the background, silently demanding his presence be known, but waiting patiently to strike, just like a snake. Hair as black as his soul and blue eyes a shade darker than his mothers with a strong jawline and high cheekbones with a slight hint of dark stubble over it all. I can see under his custom-tailored suit that he was not lacking in the muscle department and I was surprised to see the beginnings of tattoos at the collar of his suit at his neck though I couldn’t see what he had exactly and it really shouldn’t matter. His skin was a flawless golden brown, courtesy of his heritage.

  “Congratulations on finally taking your seat on the council, Honey. Pleasure to see you again.” The low, rough tone of his voice took every breath I had straight from my lungs and all I can do is just blink at him. My parents were fucking dead and I was not here to celebrate my ascension to a throne I never even wanted.

  “It’s Miss Locke to you, Mr. King.” I smiled ever so sweetly and looked up at him from under my lashes, a playful tease to bring our little game to an end. I knew I should probably be playing nice right now, not letting any of these people see how much this reunion was getting to me, but I was only human and Silas had always known what power he had held over me in the past. It was what made it so easy for him and the others to pull one over on me like they did. But I was not that same Honey anymore and Silas King was not going to win. None of them were ever going to win again. His brows shoot up in surprise at the charming tone of my voice.

  Without missing a beat, I continue, “Nice to see you all again.” I flick my eyes away from Silas dismissively and they landed back on his mother and father. Flashing that same sweet smile to his parents I begin my farewells. “Excuse me, I would like to show my date around our exquisite town hall.” I lied again and before they could utter another word to me, I glided ever so gracefully past the King family without another look back.

  I can feel his eyes on me as I pull Finley through the clusters of people all around us, keeping my mask in place and doing my best to ignore all the people staring. Thankfully, no other Order family members approach as we make our way into the ballroom finally and I immediately pull him into a dance to distract myself and to get a minute to breathe after that clusterfuck of epic proportions.

  “I’m assuming that was one of the guys you are using me as a shield against?” Finley asks me in a low tone after a moment as we sway slowly to the beat of elegant ballroom dancing music where he is mostly stepping on my toes. He didn’t have proper etiquette training like I did.

  “Yes. He’s the worst of them all.” I murmur softly as I push closer against him when I spy another familiar male who used to be a close childhood friend of mine, before the Red boys went and ruined that relationship in my life, too. Silas King didn’t like to share his toys, and that had been what I was to him even at such a young age. I see that all too clearly now.

  Desmond Williams jerked his head at me from his spot in the shadows at the edge of the ballroom, a clear sign he wanted a word with me. Slowing my movements with Finley, I glance back at my pretend boyfriend and smile like I am a woman smitten with him.

  “Go fetch me a drink. Make sure if you drink anything, it comes from an unopened bottle. I need to go speak with someone.” And then I am sweeping away from him, the train of my silver dress brushing against the floor as I weaved myself through the crowds to where Desmond was slinking. The crowd parts for me and I keep my head high, ignoring them all as I pass.

  “Fuck, Honey. You look like sin tonight.” My old friend gave me a tight but warm smile and I didn’t give a damn that I could feel the prickle of familiar eyes on me, I leaned in and wrapped him up in a bone crushing hug. “Christ woman, you got some muscles on you. You are no longer that chubby, eleven-year-old I used to chase around the park.” He teases me as I release him and I lean back from him to assess me.

  “I’m a certified badass now, Des, watch out.” I grin and wink playfully at him. He looks disheveled like he always did even as kids, Desmond Williams did not like to play by Crimson Valley societal rules and standards. His parents were disgusted with their gay son on a daily basis but he said he always lived to piss them off and that had been what instantly made us friends. Not that I ever wanted to piss off my good-natured parents, but that he didn’t give a damn what his parents or the Order wanted with him. Not like the Red boys did.

  “I see that. Women usually don’t have that much muscle on them.” He laughed lowly so we could keep our conversation private. Reaching out my senses, I still notice eyes on me and when I glance around, intending to look for Finley and make sure he isn’t getting ambushed, I spot them sulking in the opposite corner from us clear across the ballroom. How pathetic, boys. Really, sulking? I want to roll my eyes at them but I refrain, I need information. “What’s the low down on everything I’ve missed, Des? I need any and all details.” My friend obliges me and I tear my eyes away from those vile, traitorous Red boys.

  “I can’t believe that is Honey fucking Locke. She aged like a fine wine, my friend.” An irritated growl slips out of me unbidden when Hawk slaps his hand on my shoulders, his eyes, like all of ours, glued to the gorgeous woman across the room talking to that dickhead Desmond Williams. Only bad things could come from her speaking to that prick.

  “What did you expect? It’s the Locke genes.” Kassim drawls like its common knowledge for the chubby, shy girl we once knew to just magically grow up into this glorious, upgraded version. And she was a goddamned masterpiece. My cock did not care that I betrayed this girl so bad that she would never give me the light of day again. All it cared about was getting inside of her again. That one night, the night of her thirteenth birthday, had not nearly been enough. We were too young and too inexperienced. Times have changed. I have changed.

  “We need to tread carefully around her.” Gabe observed softly as he took a sip of his whiskey on the rocks, his eyes observing her in that keen way of his, taking in every inch of her, but not in a sexual way. He just knew how to read everything there was to know about someone through their body language. It was how he had always been. “She’s gearing herself up for war, and by the looks of it, there will be major consequences.” He warns, eyes flicking to me with a silent look.

  “What? How can you tell?” Hawk narrowed his eyes on her as she leaned into Desmond, seeming to listen to his every word intently. He was filling her head with lies, no doubt. Another fucking mess I would have to clean up on Honey’s behalf. I know how much that guy’s friendship meant to her, but damn, he had a way of twisting things just because he didn’t like me.

  “Notice anything different about her body tone besides her breasts, curves, and ass?” Gabe asks impatiently and Hawk rakes his gaze over her and I try not to turn and deck him
in the face. My friends knew better than to even consider touching what belonged to me. What had always belonged to me. She just didn’t accept it yet. I would have to work on changing her mind.

  “She’s got muscles only those built for combat would have. Look at the way her shoulders flex when she moves, how graceful and deadly she looks when she walks. She’s got skills, and a lot of them at that.”

  This has me peering more closely at her as I watch her with rapt attention, never taking my eyes off her. I could care less if my idiotic parents caught me watching her like this. Never again would I let them hurt her through me. Like I was some goddamned pawn on their field. With her parents out of the way, accident or otherwise, my parents should be more than happy for new blood on the council. They thought they could bend Honey to their will and use her seat for their own gain.

  They are sorely mistaken there, but I never said otherwise.

  Gabe was right though. Honey just had that air about her that screamed deadly and dangerous. It shouldn’t surprise me. Honey had a will of iron and after what we did to her… Shaking my head, I turn to glance across the room at the man she had brought with her, a face I didn’t recognize meaning he must be someone she knew from outside Crimson Valley. And I am not sure how I feel about that.

  “Kass, find out everything you can about her little guest. I don’t like strangers sniffing around Order business and our parents won't be pleased with Honey if she decides to use him to stick her nose where it doesn’t belong.” Just like her parents had all those years ago. I suppress the rage and guilt that threatens to consume me with just that mere memory.

  “Fuck our parents. I thought we agreed when we heard Honey was returning home that we wouldn’t bend to their wills anymore. I’m tired of being a fucking puppet and I refuse to hurt that girl anymore.” Hawk waved his hand dismissively at my statement and I shot him a glare while Gabe looked around to see who all is close to us to have possibly overheard Hawk’s treasonous rant.

  “Regardless of what we agreed on, we need to play our part or at least appear to be doing so. We will not put ourselves into a position again that will result in a fucking repeat of ten years ago.”

  I get Hawk’s feelings on the matter. Out of all of us, it had hit him the hardest aside from me to betray Honey. He was playful and friendly at heart and his friendship with her formed when we brought her into our inner circle had been genuine, despite the order we had been tasked with where Honey was concerned.

  Whether Honey believed it or not, we had always been on her side.

  I am not excusing what we did to her. We had to make it look authentic. Her parents were sticking their noses into Order deals and businesses they had no right to and it had cost them their daughter. When they had sent her away after that without letting us reel her in and explain, I had been furious, livid really. I had wanted to track her down wherever they had stashed her and sit her down to force her to listen to us.

  Because, despite what I did to her, I had been falling for her too.

  At thirteen years old, even way before that since we had grown up from infancy together, I had found a girl I had wanted to risk everything for. I want to say, as a kid, I had no choice over the matter when my mother and father had come to me with the order to ‘teach those Locke’s a lesson through their spawn’, but the truth of the matter would always remain. There was always another choice. And I was sure Honey would see it as such all the same, I was, and probably always would be, a coward in her eyes. I would spend every day for the rest of my life regretting the choices I made that led us to this point in our lives. I could only hope that one day she would give me the chance to redeem myself.

  “Would she even speak to you when your mother flagged her down earlier?” Kass asks as he takes a swig from his champagne flute and my temper flares again when my eyes catch on Honey brushing her luscious chest against her supposed ‘date’ when he joins her and Desmond in the shadows across the ballroom. Seeing her, standing there by another man when it should be me by her side, made me see red and I could feel the blood boiling in my veins when he looked down at her with a smile that said she was his whole damn world and I fucking hated that. She was mine. No one was going to take her from me again. I didn’t care that I had no right to claim her like that ever again. I would spend the rest of my life alone if she didn’t take me back, but I would never let her forget what we once shared together.

  “No. Would hardly even look at me. Her overly sweet and business-like attitude wasn’t fooling me though. I could still see her fighting the pull to me.”

  “We are going to have to corner her and get her alone at some point. She can’t be galivanting all over town here on a personal crusade or some shit. She’ll wind up hurt again, or worse.” Hawk cringes and I know he is having the same flashback of memories as I am in that moment. He was right though. I knew Honey better than I knew myself most days and that was saying a lot because I hadn’t seen her in ten years. There was one thing I knew for certain though, and that was the fact that she wasn’t one to just roll over and let others walk all over her. If she wanted something, she was damn well prepared to fight for it.

  “I think Honey is smart.” Gabe supplies and Kass grunts in agreement, eyes searching the crowd for any of the Order members, probably making sure we aren’t being watched too closely. Not a chance really when all eyes seemed to be on Honey and she didn’t even spare any of them a glance and I found myself admiring her because she was able to ignore the onlookers and gawkers. Growing up, she had always hated these types of events because she hated being the center of attention and it was always the same at these things as heirs.

  “Whether we like it or not, Honey has now stepped into the role for the Locke family council seat. I believe she came back here with a purpose; I just don’t know what that is yet.” I surmised and Gabe snorted, taking another sip of his drink, and leveling a look on me.

  “Trust me when I tell you, as a professional trainer who went to school for that shit and got all the proper degrees, Honey Locke has a body built for single handedly waging an entire fucking war.” I hardly heard Gabriel speak so crass and blunt before, but I understood where he was coming from.

  Honey was not just deadly in the looks department anymore.

  “Want me to try and tail her when she heads to the bathroom later. She’s going to need it if she doesn’t stop chugging that bottle of bubbly her fancy pants boyfriend brought over to her.” I growl at Hawk’s use of the word boyfriend, because over my dead fucking body is she going to have any other man in her bed besides me now that she was home. A flicker of amusement washes over me though as I zero in on the full bottle of champagne the girl has clutched in her tiny hand and she brings it to her lips to tip back and chug a few swallows. The way her throat looks as she swallows deeply has my cock twitching in my suit pants.

  This girl was about to ruin me all over again.

  “You can try.” I allow. “We have to try and corner her to actually talk to us alone before shit gets out of hand and Desmond Williams can fill her head with lies.” I can tell whatever the prick is saying to her has her full attention, and I could also tell by her body language that she was getting agitated. That wasn’t good. Anger became a living thing in the pit of my stomach. The last thing we needed was outsiders turning Honey against us more than she already was. She needed to let me explain before everything was ruined.

  “I should go ask her to dance. She was never able to refuse me and I didn’t even partake in the torture that much that night.” Kass declares suddenly and I shoot him a glare.

  “Go for it buddy. I want to see her sock you right in the nuts when she turns you down.” Hawk quips at him, but Kass just grins and actually places his flute on a passing waiter's tray and stalks across the ballroom in pursuit of her. Instead of getting pissed off at Kass for approaching my girl and placing his hand on her arm to get her attention, I watch with intense focus as the two of them converse with each other.

&
nbsp; She turns to face him fully so all three of us get a good view of her posture and facial expression. The look she gives him sends shivers down my spine. It’s calculated, clinical, and treacherous. Almost a mirror to the look she had given me when she glanced over here earlier when she had most likely sensed me looking at her.

  When she pierced him with her gaze, there was no inkling of the friendship the two of them had built all those years ago anywhere on her face. She was looking at him like he was a bug on the bottom of her shoe she just stepped on and couldn’t be bothered with. Though he stood taller than her even in those heels with her skyscraper legs, she peered down her nose at him and a genuine snarl twisted her lips. There was a feral sort of resentment in her eyes and I would pay good money to see the look on Kass’ face right now, but he had his back to us and I couldn’t tell how he looked.

  I brace myself for the impact of her about to bash the bottle of bubbly over Kassim’s head, but it doesn’t come. Instead, she raises the bottle and takes another large gulp from it before pushing it into his chest where his hands come up to grip it. She says something to him I can’t hear and I am not the best lip reader, before she turns her back on him, dismissing him. She doesn’t walk away or leave, just shows the once deadly predator in her eyes, her back.

  A precise move that let Kass know she wasn’t afraid of him.

  He joined us a few moments later, the champagne bottle still clutched in his hands, an odd expression creased on his usually passive face. Kass was always the levelheaded cool one with the indifferent exterior about him. For once, he looked completely shaken on a bone deep level. Something I hadn’t seen in him since that night nearly ten years ago now after we all went to our secret hide out to scrub Honey’s blood from our skin until we were raw and blistered.