Six Months (15 page)

Reno grabbed Lorenzo’s jaw and turned his head. “You need to help us get some of your pack under control,” he said firmly. “One of
yours
just took off behind the house.”

That snagged Lorenzo’s attention and his eyes darkened. Lorenzo had zero tolerance for insubordination.

“Who?”

“Handlebar mustache, tats on his hands, and his wolf just ran by. White with a black leg.”

“Saul,” he said with a scowl.

Three seconds later, Lorenzo spun on his heel and stalked across the grounds to kick some Shifter ass back in line.

“I think he’s an old oak,” Ivy said in a distant voice, watching Lorenzo with an enigmatic gaze.

***

“Who listens to Pink Floyd anymore?” I said with a laugh, staring at a poster on the wall. It seemed to be shifting colors all on its own.

“Blasphemy,” Jericho replied, still kissing on the blonde he had pushed up against the wall in his bedroom. The chesty girl with the leather pants was on the bed, engrossed in a magazine.

Meanwhile, I sat in the beanbag chair after having invited myself in to escape from the men ogling me in the hall.
Okay, maybe I was hiding
.

When Trevor had come knocking, Jericho had slipped out of the room and told him someone had given me a ride home. I felt rueful when I heard him running down the stairs. Poor Trevor, always trying to save the day, even if it meant raining on my picnic. For some reason, I wasn’t as upset about it as I should have been.

“Where are my shoes?” I whined, glancing at my bare feet and wiggling my toes. Then my head fell back and I stared at the ceiling, searching for shapes and faces. It was the first time I’d ever sat in a beanbag chair and I had to admit I liked it. Might consider getting one. Pink, or maybe purple.

Where would it fit in the trailer? Hmm, conundrum.

I lifted my head when I heard the sound of buckles. Jericho was pressed up against the blonde’s back and a low growl rose from his throat as he kissed the nape of her neck. I couldn’t help but stare. It was an erotic visual, and nothing like my ex who did everything under the covers with all the lights off. Never any spontaneity, although I’m sure he had plenty with my friends.

Jericho lifted her skirt, yanked down her black panties, and the next thing I knew, his hips were moving in a steady rhythm. She moaned, reaching around to hold on to his neck with her hand.

Movement caught my eye and I turned around, planting my knees into the beanbag chair as I stared at the red lava lamp. Melting, misshapen blobs rose to the top and it seemed never ending.

“Cool lamp.”

Two hands were on my hips, rubbing in slow circles. “Little girl, you just don’t have a clue what this does to me.”

I kind of did. It had quite an effect on Denver.

“Tell me if you want to play,” he asked, doing nothing more than softly touching my hips with his fingertips. “I’m going to lie down on the bed and you can stay right here if you want, or join in.”

The door swung open, hit the wall, and his hands instantly came away from my hips. I glanced over my shoulder and my eyes played tricks on me as two men moved like the little blobs in the lamp.

“Reno?”

He punched Jericho with a hard fist and I gasped when something unbelievable happened. Jericho transformed into a beautiful brown wolf with sea-green eyes.

Everything was magical.

Floaty.

Bubbly.

I crawled on the floor toward him. “Pretty puppy!”

“April?” Reno appeared in front of me and pried my eyelids up. “Fffuck,” he hissed. “I’m going to
kill
you, Jericho.”

Then I leaned in and kissed Reno on the mouth.

Soft. Wet. Familiar. Why did Reno seem so familiar to me? His delicious cologne filled my senses and he tasted like sin.

Reno pulled back, hooked his arm around my waist, and hauled me off the ground. He gave me a hard shake and speared me with his eyes. “You’re stoned.”

Something licked my hand and I petted the wolf. Reno smacked him on the nose and the wolf leapt on the bed, letting the blonde stroke his cream-colored ears.

“Why did Jericho change? Is he a magician?”

Reno bit his lower lip and I touched his smooth face. “We’re Shifters, April. That’s what we are. You’re coming with me; it’s too dangerous for you to be alone right now. Austin’s clearing out the party. Jericho, your ass is dead meat,” he reiterated, staring at the wolf. “You can hear me in there and I know you were behind this. Think it’s funny? Well, one of the Packmasters got into your cupcakes and his mate is not happy. This is damage control I don’t even want to deal with,” he muttered.

I wriggled free from his grasp and flew out the open door, dashing down the hall in my bare feet.

“April!”

“Catch me if you can!”

I hurried down the stairs with a giggle on my lips and… Oh, another pretty wolf!

“Hi, sweetie,” I sang, stroking his soft grey fur. When I heard Reno drawing close, I flew out the door with a flurry of laughter, cutting straight across the lawn until I tripped in the grass.

When I rolled over and glanced up, I saw Dolly Parton looking down her nose at me. “Hi, Dolly. Didn’t get lucky with
Reno Machino
?”

She looked mad enough to spit nails. I stared at her cheap shoes and noticed she had a corn on her toe.

“He didn’t give me the time of day.
Every
man gives me the time of day,” Dolly huffed. “That can only mean one thing. Is he gay?”

I sat up with a deadpan expression. “Flaming. You didn’t know?”

She looked up at the sky and flapped her arms once, slapping them against her hips. “Figures. It just figures! You can
never
tell with Shifters.”

Dolly stomped off and engines revved in the distance along the private road. I fell back against the high grass on the edge of the property. I’d never seen such a serene sky as what was blanketed above me. It made my life seem miniscule in comparison to the infinite depths of the universe.

A black wolf trotted up to my side, tongue hanging out and panting. He bent down, sniffed, and licked my neck. I stroked my hand down his side and in a fluid movement, he inexplicably transformed into a man.

A very
naked
man.

And there I was, stroking his side. Horror swept over me and I realized that Reno was right—I must be hallucinating. But was the wolf real, or the man? Before I could formulate a word, he covered my mouth with his hand.

“Shhhh. I just want to look at you. I’ve never seen a human up close.”

He was stoned. I could see it in his pale eyes. I knew that look because I’d seen it in my mother’s face a million times. He twitched his pudgy nose and tilted his head, studying me like a bug beneath a microscope. My extremities were numb and I felt glued to the earth.

“I can’t breathe,” I mumbled against his palm.
Couldn’t anyone see?
No, because after a quick glimpse around, all I could see through the high grass were wolves, naked men, and people dispersing from the property. I was too far from the crowd.

He settled his weight on me, looking deep into my eyes. “Shhh, pretty pet. Pretty little human pet.”

When he lifted up in the air, I barely registered what was happening. It was as if he were elevated by an invisible force.

I gasped, able to breathe again. I couldn’t see Reno’s muscles through his white shirt, but I knew they were sculpted and hard like granite. He had a dangerous look on his face and his hand was clamped around the naked man’s throat. “Tristan! Get your mutt before I kill him myself.” Then Reno knocked him in the jaw, causing the man to spin around and hold his mouth.

“I just wanted to look at her!” the man whined. “I didn’t break any rules.”

Reno stepped forward, every muscle tensing. “You broke
my
rule.”

A man with long blond hair jogged over and looked between all of us before he grabbed the naked man by the hair. The man immediately shifted, and Tristan slapped the wolf on the snout before they walked off.

My hands trembled as I sat up, disbelieving what I’d just seen. What kind of drugs did I take? Everything seemed so vivid and I couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t.

Reno flexed his fingers, making fists and then opening his hands again.

“Reno?”

“Yeah,” he said in a cracked voice.

“I’m scared. What’s happening to me?”

And then his arms were beneath me, lifting me, holding me. Reno cradled me protectively against him and made his way to the house.

“You’ll stay in my room tonight. No one will come near you. No one.”

I believed him. There was a promise in his voice, and I remembered he was a man who had guns.

“Why didn’t you kill him?” I asked, remembering how easily he’d aimed the gun at the car of men for simply calling me a name.

“Because of pack rules I’m bound to,” he ground out. “Had he been a rogue, his ass would have been mine.”

I didn’t understand what he was talking about, but I quickly became distracted. “I’m hungry.” I’d never been so hungry in my life. I snatched a bag of chips from a table we passed and pulled out a triangle dusted in orange cheese.

Crunch, crunch. Mmm.

I opened my weighted eyes and glanced around a bedroom blanketed in darkness
. A filter of dim light trickled through a curtainless window to my right. The sheets were cool against my hot skin and my memory drifted back. I’d thrown up after eating two hamburgers, and then Reno had forced me to drink water. I didn’t know if people could die from water overdose, but on the second glass, I spit it in his face.

Which had officially murdered my chances of ever seeing him again. My inner voice was too irritated with me to complain about it, so she gave me the silent treatment.

I began crying, overcome with emotion.

Reno emerged from a small chair in the left corner. “Go back to sleep, princess.”

My arms flew out at him angrily, slapping at him as he tried to touch me.
What did it matter?
He’d never want to see me again after an embarrassing display from a woman stoned out of her mind.

He caught my wrists and held them. “Settle down,” he said in a thick voice.

“You let this happen to me!”

“Dammit,” he roared. “I tried to run after you and lost track. I would have been there sooner if—”

“Not that! My
mother
.”

He sat on the edge of the bed and his voice softened. “What are you talking about?”

Reno still held my wrists as tears spilled violently down my cheeks. “I said I’d
never
do drugs, Reno. I’ve spent my whole life trying to be a better woman than that. Going to school, working hard, paying my bills—but none of it matters. No matter how much I try, I’m no different. I’m just like her.”

But my words failed me somewhere in the middle and broke into pieces. Maybe it was the drugs still in my system, or maybe it was almost twenty-three years of pain causing my heart to shatter. Maybe it was the realization that I was my mother’s daughter after all, and the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

He let go of my wrists and turned away. Then he kicked his shoes off and crawled in bed beside me, wiping my tears with the pad of his thumb.

“Listen to me, and listen good. You’re not your mother, so erase that thought out of your head. One time isn’t going to make you an addict any more than one beer makes someone an alcoholic; that comes from a weak person who’s not willing to face their problems, and you’re not weak. We all hit a rough patch and sometimes need to disconnect from the real world and get our head together. But a user is someone who can’t live in the real world anymore. You’re a strong woman.”

“You barely know me. How can you say something like that?” I gasped three times, having one of those terribly embarrassing cries.

His hand came away from my face and he rubbed his chin. “Crying doesn’t make you weak. I have a good sense about people. You’re a shy girl, but you’ve got a strong will.”

“But not someone you want to dance with.”

Reno inched closer to me until I felt his entire body against my left side. “You were busy with my brother.”

He had me there. “Sorry, I didn’t know the protocol for ungluing your eyes from mammary girl.”

I heard a smile in his voice. “Maybe the protocol doesn’t involve letting my brother grind against your backside.”

I flew up and pushed him away. “What time is it? I have to go!”

Oh my God.
Sanchez.
I had to pay him off by midnight.

“Lie down,” Reno demanded, tugging at my dress.

I slapped his hand away and leapt off the bed. “I have to go home, Reno.
Now
.”

His eyes were sharp and alert in the dim light. “You’re stoned as hell, and where do you think you need to be at this hour?”

“I need you to drive me home this second.”

He didn’t get a chance to argue because I was already running barefoot down the hall.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing, Denver. Get your sorry ass back to bed. April, get back in here,” Reno called out from behind. “I’m warning you!”

Didn’t hear him. I was out the door and running down the driveway, wincing as the gravel bit at my feet. I had no sense of time and hoped it was still early. Behind me, Reno’s motorcycle thundered to life. The light flipped on and flashed on the road as he rolled up beside me and yelled over the throttling engine.

“Get on.”

Reno’s bike cut through the night, and a delicate mist began to wet the streets. I wore the helmet, but my lavender dress was ruined. The air felt uncomfortably cool and I began to shake, my teeth chattering as I held him close. I curved my hands around him, drawing in his heat and using his body as a shield to protect me from the wind.

We arrived at my trailer and before he could get the kickstand down, I ran up to the door and yelled out, “Thanks! Good night.”

I’d left in such a hurry that my purse with Sanchez’s money was still in Ivy’s room, along with my keys. I decided to test the handle before knocking. Strange. He hadn’t locked the door. “Trevor?”

Holy smokes
. The digital clock by the fridge said 1:19 a.m.

My heart beat wildly as I raced to my room to retrieve the money in my drawer, which I’d set aside to put back into the account. I grabbed a small purse and counted out the bills. It wasn’t until I walked out of my bedroom that I noticed something that had failed to grab my attention when I’d rushed into the trailer.

“Trevor!” I screamed.

And
screamed.

He was propped up on the sofa, head hanging to the side, a note safety-pinned to his chest. His
bare
chest.

Vanilla Frost,

I took a down payment.

“
Please, please, please
, don’t be dead,” I cried. My trembling fingers pressed against his neck and I felt a weak pulse. “Oh, thank God. Trevor? Can you hear me?”

He had been beaten to a pulp. His eyes were purple and swollen, a large gash ran along his cheek, and even his arms were bruised—as though someone had hit them with a heavy object. Horror gripped me when I noticed his misshapen arm.

Strong hands moved me to the side. Reno knelt down and turned Trevor’s chin, getting a good look at his face. I stared at the drops of blood on his white shoelaces and winced.

Reno got on his phone. “Austin, level red. We’ve got a rogue and I need your help. Sunny Breeze Trailer Park, the one near the store. Second turnoff; last trailer on the right.”

“We have to call the hospital,” I said in a shaky voice. I grabbed Reno’s shirt and water dripped from the ends of my trembling hair.

“He doesn’t need a hospital,” Reno said, carefully removing the note. “Do you want to tell me what this is all about?”

“I don’t know.” How could I tell him? If it had almost gotten Trevor killed, I sure didn’t want to bring trouble to Reno’s doorstep.

He scorched me with his gaze, his disbelief clear. “We’ll talk about it later.”

Trevor moaned. I hurried to the sink and ran a towel beneath the water, then rushed back to his side and pressed it against the gaping wound on his head.

“Trevor, can you hear me? I’m here, okay? I’m so sorry.” My words came out broken and breathy.

“I need you to take a step outside and calm down,” Reno said, taking the rag from my hand.

I stared at him wide-eyed. “I’m not going anywhere. What are you going to do?”

“Help him. His arm looks broken and I might need to set it. That’s some disturbing shit for you to see, so I want you to wait outside. Right by the door,” he said, making it clear he didn’t want me wandering off.

Reno had some kind of command over me and I put on my shoes.

“April.”

I looked at him from the open doorway and he nodded toward the wall. “Take the umbrella. I don’t want you to get sick.”

Sure. A cold was at the forefront of all my problems. Like a zombie, I walked into the misty rain and sat in a lawn chair, holding an umbrella over my head. Raindrops tapped against the fabric and it felt like the life had been sucked out of me. I didn’t have a phone to call the hospital, and Trevor didn’t have insurance. I’d help him pay for it. Somehow.

I nodded off, probably because of the residual effects of the drugs still lingering in my body. A loud motor revved up the driveway and I jolted awake, watching a black Dodge Challenger pull up beside Reno’s motorcycle. Austin hopped out, glanced at me, and went inside the trailer.

I sprang to my feet and raced to the door, tossing the umbrella aside. As it opened, Reno blocked me from getting in.

“Need you to stay outside,” he said.

“Then come out here and tell me what’s going on. I’m feeling more lucid now, so don’t lie to me. Is he going to be all right? Why can’t I just sit in the back room? Did you call the police?”

The door closed to a crack and Reno said something to Austin. “I don’t know; he won’t do it for me. Do your thing. I need to step outside for a minute.”

Reno opened the door and jumped down, mud splashing from beneath his biker boots as he walked me to the chair. I didn’t feel like sitting down anymore. My arms were shaking, my teeth chattered, and the cold air sank deep into my bones. But it wasn’t the temperature making me tremble.

It was the fear that Trevor might die.

Reno’s brown eyes softened when he figured it out, and he stepped beneath the umbrella and wrapped his arms around me. “Here, I’ll keep you warm.”

Minutes passed as Reno held me in the rain. It was better than some meaningless dance because of how intimately close our bodies were, not to mention the emotion of it. The door finally swung open and I whirled around.

“Trevor!”

He stumbled down the steps, wearing only his jeans and shoes. Trevor’s expression was volcanic and when I ran up to him, he waved me off.

“Trev, are you okay? Please talk to me.”

He turned around and penetrated me with his gaze. “I thought you fucking
left
,” he spat out in slow words. “It wasn’t my idea to go to the party; that was
all you
,” he said, shaking his head.

“I didn’t make you go! Are you all right? Your bruises, your cut—”

I reached out to touch his head and he flinched, pivoting around and stalking toward his car. “Time for me to find a new place,” he said. “Call ya later,
Showers
.”

He put a negative emphasis on the last word, and it sank into my heart like a sharp blade.

Austin knifed by me and spoke to Reno in harsh words. “We’ll talk later about this. I have to get back and do some damage control at the house.”

I fell to my knees as Trevor sped off. He blamed me for what had happened, and maybe he had every right. He just didn’t understand. I’d had no idea Sanchez knew where I lived since he’d come to my work and not my home. Had Trevor known what was going on, he would have gone with me to the warehouse. Trevor had a temper and Sanchez carried a deadly knife. I shuddered as the horrific images of Trevor lying unconscious infiltrated my thoughts.

“Get up,” Reno said, cupping his hands beneath my arms.

When it didn’t work, he simply bent down and lifted me. Reno carried me into the trailer, kicked the door shut, and took me to the bedroom. He set me on the edge of the bed and opened a few cabinets, searching for something. I’d never had another man besides Trevor in my bedroom, and here he was, wiping the mud from my feet with a clean towel.

“What do you wear to sleep?” he asked, opening a small set of drawers. It didn’t take him long to find my nightwear. It should have tickled me to see Reno turn five shades of red when he lifted a pair of my pink panties with the white lace trim, but I didn’t feel human anymore.

He handed me silk pajamas and I tossed them on the floor. I’d be sweating by morning if I wore those, so I reached around to unzip my dress. “Can you give me some privacy?”

Reno obediently stood up and closed the curtain. I threw my dress on the floor, and after changing into a new pair of panties and a white tank top, I hid beneath the sheet.

Rain dripped in through a leak, tapping loudly into an empty pot. Reno reappeared and tossed the towel in the bottom. “That’ll muffle it,” he said, sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed to my right. “You want to tell me what’s going on, or do you want me to find out for myself? It’s what I do for a living, April. I can. And I will. So what kind of trouble are you in?”