Halligan To My Axe (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 2) (3 page)

But before I could come up with something intelligent to say, the cocky son of a bitch decided to throw it in my face.

“So, you were thinking of me, huh?”

I didn’t like to be teased. Just ask my sister.

Without another word to the rude man, I walked back into my apartment and slammed the door.

Smug bastard.

Luckily, I was already wearing my shirt and skirt, all I had to do was slip into my Converses and braid my hair.

I was a high school chemistry teacher for Benton High School.

On the weekends, I worked in a lab to help supplement my bills. Or I did until I found out they tested on living animals and stole them. Now I didn’t have a job, but at least they couldn’t report me or they’d be doing themselves more harm than good.

It’d be easier for them just to acquire new test subjects; however, I’d destroyed quite a bit of data when I’d left, so it’d take them some time.

“Purse, purse, purse,” I chanted, as I made my way back to the living room.

I found it wedged in between the cushion and the back of the couch, which could very well have had to do with Monty sleeping behind the cushions.

Digging through my purse and looking for my keys, I walked to the door, then slammed it behind myself as I started stomping down the steps.

What I should’ve been doing was watching where I was going, instead of stuffing my head into my purse while I looked for my keys. If I had, I wouldn’t have missed the last two steps and nearly fallen flat on my face.

Luckily, tall, dark and handsome was at the bottom to catch me.

Unluckily, he got sweat all over the front of my shirt.

“Ewww,” I squealed as my linen shirt clung to his sweaty skin.

“Sorry,” he said in his deep velvety voice.

I disentangled myself from him and then bent down to retrieve all of my belongings that were now littering the sidewalk.

He bent down as well and started picking up candy wrappers, a coke that was three days old, and my birth control pills.

“Here, I want those. These,” I said as I shoved the trash into his hands. “You can throw away for me when you get a chance.”

Kettle snorted. “Sure.”

“Do you see my keys anywhere?”

Oh man, I was going to be really late. I was supposed to be there for driver’s ED over thirty minutes ago. Now I was going to have to listen to Jesse Lawn’s mother bitching about how she had to miss yoga class again.

I was habitually late, though. Mrs. Lawn missed her yoga appointments a lot. The school wasn’t going to fire me, however. Nobody else wanted to deal with the little sixteen year olds that thought they knew more than their instructors.

I’d already gotten into four fender benders this year, and it was only four months into the school year.

“Here.” He said standing up and leaving the trash where it was.

“You forgot that.” I pointed to the offensive objects.

He looked down, then back up at me, and laughed. “Yeah, I’ll get right on that.”

Then I watched in flabbergasted silence as the man walked over one apartment down from my own, walked down the pathway, and entered his ground floor apartment.

The apartment I hadn’t been aware he’d had.

The apartment that was supposed to be mine, but another person had stolen it out from under me.

That thieving
bastard
!

***

Kettle

Later that night

I watched as my new neighbor, the one I hadn’t seen in my two months of living at this place, stepped out of her car in her fuck me skirt and stupid little tennis shoes.

She was wearing long sleeves, too.

In the middle of October when it was ninety degrees out.

Although, whatever job she had probably didn’t like the fact that she had tattoos.

The tattoos I’d seen the night before, in all their glory.

Most jobs didn’t.

“Evening,” he called.

She stopped and turned, looking at me on my porch.

“What?” She snapped.

My brows rose at her tone, and I couldn’t stop myself from standing to my full height before walking down the walkway and across the sidewalk to her. “Did I do something to piss you off?” I asked curiously.

She was so hot and cold. Last night she was nice, maybe a tad flighty, but mostly nice.

Same with this morning.

Then this.

Her arms crossed, and her breasts pushed together, drawing my eyes to her impressive cleavage.

“Yes, as a matter of fact you did. You were the one who stole my apartment.” She said pointing to my apartment.

I leaned back on my heels and barely contained the need to smile.

“Uhh, I’m sorry?” I apologized. “I only called and asked for an apartment. When I got here, that’s the one they showed me.”

“It was mine. I’d even signed a lease for it. When I came to move in that day, the manager told me she’d double leased it out and offered me that one. Do you have any idea how hard it is to carry groceries up those freaking stairs?”

I didn’t really know what to say. I’d already apologized. What more could I do?

“If I’m home, all you’ve got to do is knock and I’ll carry them up for you.” I offered.

Her eyes narrowed, and then her shoulders seemed to slump. “I’m sorry. It’s just that my sister is disabled, and it scares me when she comes to visit. Which she does a lot.”

“It’s okay. You know where I’m at if you need me.” I said, before turning to go back to my own porch.

“Don’t you ever wear a shirt?” She asked my back.

I turned back around with a smirk on my face.

“Yes,” I said, shrugging. “I just don’t like to wear them when I don’t have to.”

I love when you talk nerdy to me.

-Text from Kettle to Adeline

Kettle

Two weeks later

I set the weights down with a small clink and stood when I heard the knock on my door.

I wasn’t expecting anybody until about an hour from now, but it wasn’t unheard of for one of my brothers to stop by and shoot the shit with me on my days off.

I was completely thrown off guard when I opened the door to find my little neighbor, the one who’d been avoiding me at every turn for the past two weeks, standing there with her arms crossed against her chest.

Her eyes traveled down my body, taking in the workout shorts and my sweaty chest, before meeting my eyes.

“No shirt again, I see,” she observed. “Do you ever eat at McDonald’s?”

I shrugged. “Occasionally. What can I help you with?”

“I have some groceries,” she said with a wide smile.

I couldn’t help but let a grin tip up the corner of my mouth as I followed her out the door.

Today was much cooler, so when I saw the long sleeved, form fitted blue shirt tucked into another skirt that barely allowed her to walk correctly, I wasn’t as surprised.

I
was
surprised when she brought me up to a rental car, though.

“What’s with the rental car?” I asked as I went to her open trunk.

She usually drove around in a black Challenger with hot pink racing stripes.

The car fit her to a T. This one, on the other hand, did not. It was a non-descript white Ford Taurus.

“I had to take it into a body shop this morning. Someone hit me last night on the way home from school.” She explained sadly.

My head turned, and I regarded her closely. “Are you okay?” I asked, strangely concerned about the woman’s welfare.

Why I would be concerned, I didn’t know. Maybe I just liked that she didn’t just jump on my cock and start riding me. That was the main reason women came around me.

The first person to actually look at me, without eyeing my crotch, was my VP’s woman, Baylee.

All women ever saw when they looked at me, was the body and the cut. And if they ever got past those two things, they saw that I was a firefighter, and they really had to have them some.

I hadn’t had a meaningful conversation with a woman in well over ten years.

Even Annalise started dating me because I was a firefighter.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Little shaky. The guy didn’t stop. He was in this big ass truck with a huge bumper. I’m just lucky he hit me on the passenger side, otherwise my face would’ve been introduced to his bumper.” She sighed warily.

Something weird started to happen in my chest, and I had to physically restrain myself from going to her and holding her in my arms.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Which body shop did you take it to?” I asked.

I started to pick up all her bags, and then carried them all up in one go.

“Oh, my God! I need to borrow you every time I have groceries. Can we make a standing appointment for every Wednesday at seven in the evening?” She asked, as she raced up the stairs in front of me.

I had to chuckle. Women found the weirdest things amusing.

“Sure,” I said. “Now, which shop did you take it to?”

“Uhh, I think Reed’s Auto Body. Does that sound right?” She asked as she swung the door open wide and turned on the light.

The first thing I saw was that large snake curled up on the corner of the couch. The second was that the Adeline’s house was trashed.

She didn’t seem surprised about it, only resigned.

“You can put those in the kitchen. I’m sorry about the mess. It happens a lot.” She said by way of explanation.

My eyebrows snapped together, and I looked closer at the woman who was trying her best to hide the fact that she was upset.

I probably wouldn’t have even noticed if her hands hadn’t been shaking, making the keys, still dangling from one finger, jingle together slightly as it happened.

Setting the bags down on the kitchen counter, I let my eyes roam over the destruction in the kitchen, before returning to the living room, where she was frantically shoving things back into drawers.

“You need some help?” I rumbled, causing her to jump.

She squeaked before turning around and shoving the drawer closed with her ass. “No, no. I’m okay. It doesn’t take long.”

My eyebrows raised. “This happen a lot?”

She shrugged. “Thank you for carrying my groceries, Tiago.”

I hated being called Tiago.

It reminded me of my father, who hadn’t spoken to me in over ten years.

But from her mouth, it sounded oddly...right. Coming from her full, beautiful lips didn’t give me the instant hives it usually did when I heard it.

“Do you need to call the cops?” I asked.

At the vehement shake of her head, I knew I wouldn’t be able to convince her.

I’d call Trance, a member of the BPD as well as The Dixie Wardens MC, when I got back to the house and report it to him. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

“Okay,” I nodded. “Just tell me this. Are you in danger?”

She sighed and her shoulders hung. “No,” she said, with a shake of her head. “It’s my brother. He likes to pawn my stuff when he needs a fix. I don’t even have a clue how the hell he gets in. Past any lock in the world. He’s always been good with locks.”

It wasn’t much, that admission, but it was enough to calm the raging beast in my brain telling me to drag her back to my place and wait until the cops arrived. Knowing that it was her brother wasn’t really that much better than just a random act of violence; but, for some reason, knowing it was her brother allowed me to calm the beast to somewhat manageable levels.

At least levels that didn’t require me to drag her by her hair to my cave.

“You should probably report it anyway. I don’t really want to tell you how handle your family situation, but stuff like this doesn’t just go away. One day, it’s not going to be just
something small. He’ll take something of yours that will be irreplaceable or, if you’re lucky, just use you. Don’t let it get that far.” I advised.

When she didn’t respond, or look at me, I knew it was time to leave.

“Alright, well let me know what you have need of strong hands to haul your groceries.” I said before heading back to her door.

If I didn’t leave, I’d try to convince her, and Lord knew I was one to talk about family.

My sister was one giant fucking mess, and I hadn’t spoken to my parents in ten years. What did that say about me?

Her nearly silent, “Thank you,” preceded me out the door.

Walking down the steps, I was surprised to see Annalise sitting on my front porch.

I’d spotted her when I was halfway down, and saw that her eyes flared at the sight of me coming out of Adeline’s apartment sweaty and shirtless. I didn’t say anything though. It wouldn’t help.

She was jealous, and egging her on wouldn’t help the situation.

“Annalise,” I said as I made it to my front porch.

Her nose and lip lifted into a snarl. “Did I interrupt something?” She sneered.

“What can I help you with?” I asked, ignoring her snarl.

It wasn’t like she had any claim on me anymore. Still, I could see how she would be upset by it. So I’d give her some slack.

For now.

“I came to see if you wanted to go grab something to eat, but I can see I’m too late. You already ate the girl next door.” Annalise spat.

“I think it’s time for you to leave if you don’t have anything worthwhile to say. I’ve got somewhere to be.”

“Do you really have somewhere to be, or are you just saying that because you want me to leave?”

Her question was answered moments later when Trance pulled up on his bike and pulled into one of my assigned spots.

He shut it off, put down the kickstand, swung his leg over the bike and stood.

Annalise’s face turned down into a severe frown, which was another reason I’d ended it.

She didn’t accept my family. And Trance was family as well as one of my best friends.

She especially hated Trance.

Trance was a K-9 officer with the Benton police department.

Although not in the same department as Annalise, they still passed each other on occasion, and she’d gone out of her way to let it be known that she didn’t trust him.

I hadn’t been aware of it until Trance had come to me one day, finally telling me his problem with Annalise. Not that he’d needed to, because I’d broken up with her the night before.