Six Months (7 page)

Jeez, too many choices
, I thought, staring at the display of wine. I narrowed them down by the catchiest names that were under ten dollars. My fingers touched the caps on the bottles as I held my hand indecisively over the top shelf. I recognized a familiar brand on the second shelf—I’d seen it at a few parties. When I pulled my arm back, my bracelet snagged the neck of a Merlot.

Three bottles toppled over and smashed on the floor.

Glass exploded and red wine splashed across my legs. I covered my head with my arms and squeezed my eyes shut. When I dared to open them, I glanced down at the mess. Red wine pooled across the floor and saturated my sneakers. The bottles had cracked in large chunks and shards of glass were scattered everywhere.

Nice job, sweetheart
, my inner voice mocked.
Will you be paying by cash or credit?

The sound of shoes crunching over broken glass came from my right and I cringed, expecting to see a store employee with a mop in hand and a frown on their face.

Reno stalked toward me wearing mirrored shades, a formfitting black shirt, and boots with a thick tread.

Without a word, he hooked his strong arm around my lower waist and lifted me off the ground with a
whoosh
. I draped my arms over his shoulders, uncertain of what to do as he swiveled and walked me out of danger. I was in the middle of deciding whether I wanted to tell him to put me down or succumb to
hero syndrome
.

He stopped in front of the freezer of beer with me still in his arms. I marveled at how easily he held me, as if I weighed nothing.

“Hi,” I said, staring at my reflection in his glasses. Then I began to get my first close-up look at Reno.

There was something mysteriously sexy about his lips even though they weren’t expressive like Denver’s. A tiny scar on his bottom lip caught my eye.

“Are you cut?” he asked, still not putting me down.

I was having a little trouble focusing when my entire front was pressed tightly against his, and tingles were awakening from a long slumber. My God, his cologne was intoxicating and clouding all rational thought. My mantastic episode was on the verge of becoming epic.

“Put me down and I’ll check.”

“There could be glass on your shoes,” he said matter-of-factly.

A grin curved up my face and I lifted the aviators off his nose and glanced into a set of coffee-brown eyes. They were so molten that I found my mouth operating without a license. “Well then, I guess you could just hold me in the imported-beer aisle for the rest of our lives.” My best attempt at flirting was about to crash and burn.

Reno set me down and towered over me. I was average height, but he must have been over six feet.

“I remember you,” I said stupidly, straightening my blouse. “I ran into your brother. He said you’d gone missing. You probably don’t remember who I am.” I stepped back and bent over, wiping the wine from my lower legs.

“April Frost.”

I straightened up and looked at him, wide-eyed. “How do you know my name?”

“Lexi introduced us and I don’t forget a name.” Then he knelt down and ran his hand down my strong calves and around the edge of my shoes.

Wow. I hadn’t had a man touch me like that in ages. The feel of his rough hands sliding up my skin made me shiver, which was embarrassing because all he was doing was making sure I wasn’t cut.

And there I was, playing out a fantasy in my head. I couldn’t figure out why a guy like him was so attractive to me, but he was. Maybe ten years older, rough around the edges, and serious, but he had the hands of a skilled lover. Hands I briefly thought about having all over my body before I felt a blush rising and I quickly extinguished those silly daydreams.

When he pulled back his hand, I could still feel his touch on my skin.

“You should take these off and throw them out. There might be a shard in there I can’t feel,” he suggested, tapping his finger on my shoe.

He had a rasp to his voice, and a sultry flow of words brushed over me like a slow caress.

“Denver was the one looking for you, in case you didn’t know.”

He glanced up with his shades still perched high on his nose. “I know.”

What was I, his mother? Then I went blank. I had
no
idea what else to say and shifted around anxiously. How had he remembered my name all these months later? “So, you’re Austin’s brother?”

Brilliant.
My inner voice chided me, clasping her hands together.
We’ve already established he’s Denver’s brother, who is related to Austin. Let’s show him how dense you really are
.

Reno stood up and straightened his glasses. “Yeah. He’s the baby in the family. Where did your friend go?”

“Um…” Had he been following me in the store?

“He’s picking up a few things for dinner tonight.”

Reno’s jaw clenched. “Does he look after you?”

“Trevor’s the best. He probably looks after me a little too much, but we’ve known each other for years.”

Reno’s hand dipped into his pocket and he fidgeted with something. It wasn’t change, because I didn’t hear a jingle. A half smile slid up his face when Trevor appeared.

He didn’t just appear—he wedged himself between us with his back to Reno and glared at my feet. “What happened to you?”

It was the scary voice. Trevor was going into ass-kicking mode.

“The usual, Trev. I’m a walking catastrophe, so behold the mayhem.” I waved my arm toward the mess on the floor.

He spun on his heel to face Reno. Trevor was not only leaner, but also shorter in stature, missing the six-foot mark by an inch or two. It didn’t take away an ounce of confidence. “What’s your business with April?”

Reno didn’t flinch. “The kind that’s none of yours.”

Didn’t matter that Trevor had been drooling over this man a couple of days ago, because now Reno was encroaching on my territory and this is exactly what Trevor did.

“Trevor,” I said in a low voice, trying to defuse the situation. “This is Reno. He’s Lexi’s friend and her boyfriend’s brother.”

Trevor spun around and regarded me with serious eyes. “He’s related to Lexi’s boyfriend? Oh, this barbecue should be
real
interesting.”

“What does that mean?” I whispered.

He shook his head. My eyes flicked back to Reno, who stood with a cool expression and a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. I couldn’t help but smile back. Just the idea of his hardened face softening made me a little weak, and Trevor noticed it, snapping his fingers in front of my face.

“Come on, babe. Time for us to go.” He seized my wrist and tugged me around the corner.

Reno moved so fast I barely saw it happen. He snatched Trevor’s arm and forced him to let go of me, inching in close in a way that intimidated even Trevor.

“That’s not how you handle a lady by dragging her around like a… pet. Is that what she is to you, a
pet?
”

Trevor’s eyes narrowed in slow motion, and I knew it was time to buckle up, because this plane was about to hit major turbulence.

“How’s your nose?”

Trevor lifted the bloody rag from his face and studied it for a minute. Then his head fell back against the headrest of his car, and I handed him a bottle of spring water.

“Don’t ever tell anyone about this,” he said in a thick voice, taking a sip of water.

“It’s not the first time you’ve been in a fight.” But
boy
, had Trevor gotten his ass served on a platter. I’d had to help him into the passenger seat of his car and drive him home.

“I didn’t even get in one swing.” He sulked, shouldering his door open and slamming it behind him. Trevor stalked up to the trailer, unlocked the door, and began yanking grocery bags from the back of the car to haul inside.

I’d never seen him so agitated. He wasn’t an aggressive guy—but he had buttons like everyone else, and if you pushed the right ones, he went macho. Trevor liked to fight—it’s something he seemed experienced at, so when he knuckled up, it became like a halftime show. He’d flirt with bystanders and dodge swings while laughing. Something about it had been different this time. Trevor had not only confronted Reno in the grocery store, but he’d placed himself between us as if Reno were a threat to me.

Then he called Reno a freak.

A second later, Trevor was lying in the cereal aisle with a busted nose and bloody lip.

“Don’t be like that,” I said, grabbing two bags and heading inside. “Maybe if you stopped trying to beat up every guy who talks to me, I just might actually find Mr. Right.”

He slammed the paper bag on the counter and washed his hands. “I may give shit to some of the guys who hit on you, but I want to make sure they’re man enough to take you out. I don’t want him near you again.”

“What’s wrong with Reno?” I asked defensively, turning on the air conditioner and closing the front door. “You didn’t seem to have a problem with him the other day. The guy saved me from a wine mishap that could have made my walks home from work unbearable had I cut up my feet.”

Trevor leaned over the counter and looked at himself in an oval mirror, pinching the bridge of his swollen nose. “
Fuck
. Look, I need to go out for a bit.”

“What about your tacos?”

“Have a sandwich to tide you over. We’ll do a late dinner. I need a few hours.”

“Wait a second!”

Trevor swung around and cupped my head in his hands, giving me his crazy-sexy smile. “Don’t be mad, babe. I’m just looking out for you. Sometimes I can tell things about a person that you may not see because you’ve got blinders on.”

“What blinders?”

He tickled my eyelashes with his thumbs. “Those long lashes you bat around. There’s an invisible thing that all boys can see that girls can’t.”

“And what is that?”

Trevor backed away and walked out the door, glancing over his shoulder. “Intentions.”

Since it was late afternoon, I put the meat in the fridge and chopped up the lettuce and tomatoes, thinking about what had happened at the grocery store. I’m not sure what had come over Trevor or why he took off, but whenever he got moody, he needed his alone time.

After I cleared off the counter and put the toppings for the tacos in the fridge, I went in the bathroom and scrunched my hair, staring at myself in the mirror. I briefly wondered what Reno thought of me. My natural blond roots didn’t look that bad against the platinum, but still.

Platinum was more stylish, especially with my long bangs. I had an experimental dark streak of dye that was fading. Maybe my natural color was more of a perception thing; I hated the idea of being called the
dumb blonde
. Some girls just rolled with the jokes or blew them off, but I didn’t want a label on me that said I was the party girl who would get drunk and sleep around. Maybe because of my mother, I’d become more sensitive to that kind of thing than most girls.

Trevor was the one who suggested platinum because it had a tough image that most guys thought was more badass than sweet ass. When I threw on my dark eyeliner and mismatched clothes, men didn’t know
what
to think about me.

I wondered what Reno’s impression was.

The air conditioner cooled my neck and I opened up my laptop and tried to look him up on the Internet.

Jeez. Stalk much?

After closing the search window and choosing not to become one of those women, I opened up a few files that Lexi had given me. There were so many miscellaneous documents on the flash drive, and I hadn’t even begun to sort through them all.

Then I thought about how arresting Reno’s eyes had been when I’d lifted his sunglasses. How strong his arms felt when they’d crushed around me, and how close our bodies were when they’d molded together like a piece of art. I’d felt every solid thump of his heart beating against my chest. He had a strong heart—like a banging drum. He also hadn’t shaved, and I thought about how sexy it made him look. Something had altered from my first impression of Reno when he’d scared the wits out of me with his formidable presence. It’s something I could sense without explanation. Behind the façade of a tough guy was a devoted man. Devoted to what, I couldn’t be sure. But I felt it just as sure as I’d smelled his skin and felt his arms encasing me.

In fact, I sat at my table creating a romantic scene in my head of our interlude at the grocery store.

Instead of Trevor coming up and starting a fight, I slide Reno’s glasses away from his head and drop them on the floor. Then I run my fingers through his short hair and he mumbles something about kissing him, so I do. I plant my lips on his mouth and at first, he’s uncertain. Not wanting to appear needy for his touch, I pull away, and that’s when he turns me around, knocks the items from the shelf with a swipe of his arm, and sets me down on it.

My legs are spread and he moves between them. Everything about him is smooth and unrushed. No groping. Just the feel of his strong hands barely resting on my hips, and it makes me want him even more because of his remarkable restraint. No one else in the store exists because… well… there was an evacuation. A tornado. Yeah, and we’re all alone because everyone ran into a ditch for cover. The wind is roaring outside, but it doesn’t match the sound of my heart. He kisses my neck softly, trailing his mouth across my clavicle and even lower until I softly moan…

“All right, fantasy time is over,” I said aloud, cracking open a can of soda. “I think all these books are going to my head.”

My time with Sanchez was running out. The marks around my pinky finger had made it difficult to sleep the night before. It’s not what I imagined him doing to me—it’s what I
couldn’t
imagine. I didn’t want to guess what guys like that did to terrorize clients who didn’t pay up. The sooner I could get him out of my hair, the better.

So I dialed the number on the business card.

“Sanchez.”

“It’s April. I have your money.”

“Ah, Vanilla Frost. You got
every
penny? I don’t deal with people who cut me short.”

“I got it. How do you want to do this?”

I heard a bristly sound on the other line as if he were rubbing his chin. The only hair I remembered on his face was a square patch below his bottom lip. “That was quick. How did you come across that kind of money so fast?”

“I won the lottery. Tell me how you want me to pay you. I can wire it to an account, or—”

“Cash,” he quickly replied.

Somehow I knew that’s what he’d say. “Okay. We can meet at the mall in the food court.”

Laughter cackled on the other end of the line. “You are one
dumb
vanilla. How about I come over to your place?”

“No,” I said firmly.

“Fine,” he said, his voice getting dark and serious. “Meet me tonight at eleven. We’ll do it close to where you work so it’s quicker. You know where the railroad tracks are?”

“Uh-huh.”

“There’s an abandoned building with graffiti just south of your store. You know the one?”

I could hardly miss it. I walked by it on the way home every day. “Yeah, but I’d rather not. Look, why don’t I just wire it to you?”

“Because this is the only way I do business,” he said in a curt voice. “You think I want someone around to snap a picture on their cell phone? Or an electronic record of the transaction? I spent enough time in prison and I’m not going back. So skirt your little ass up there
no later
than eleven. This isn’t negotiable, little girl. I call the shots, and you don’t want to know what the consequences are. Feel free to call the police. They won’t do a damn thing about it and all you’ll end up doing is pissing off Delgado and wasting my time. And don’t even think about bringing someone with you. All you have to do is pay the money and I’ll go away.”

I hung up on him and panicked. I needed to haul ass to the bank and make a personal withdrawal from my account if he wanted cash. My wine-stained tennis shoes were going into the trash anyhow, so I just kept them on and ran out the door.

***

“Now you boys behave yourselves.” Lynn brushed a speck of lint from her dark slacks. Reno chuckled to himself; he loved the way that woman kept them in line. “I don’t want to come back and find any of my new curtains torn down.”

Lynn had become the matriarch in the pack despite her human status. Lexi’s mom could be a little controlling of what went on in the house, but women were the lifeblood of any pack and they all knew it. She loved taking care of them, but over the past few months, Lynn had begun to take notice of how different Shifters lived from humans.

Jericho smirked from his leather stool at the bar and patted out the butt of his cigarette. They had converted an upstairs room into a lion’s den with alcohol, a television, video games, and a stereo. Jericho had hung up the dartboard from the old house, and rumor had it Denver was buying a pool table. God knows the boys were all for that. Shifters loved billiards because if you could get a woman to play, it was one of the most erotic wonders to behold.

Jericho admired one of the silver rings on his hand, no doubt feeling all eyes on him as he had a reputation for being the troublemaker when it came to parties. Reno sat to his immediate right and nudged his arm to pay attention. Lynn hovered in the doorway and anxiety bled across her face at what they might be scheming. Lynn was an amazing cook, an attentive mother, and one sassy woman with a fixation on upgrading their historical home. However, she had become a damper on game night whenever one of the men invited a woman or two to join them.

Not that Reno brought home women, but Jericho sure as hell wasn’t happy about it. Most packs minded their own business when it came to mattress bouncing, but if that front door so much as squeaked, Lynn was all over it and wanted to know the life story of every person who stepped inside.

That’s why Austin was sending her on an all-expenses paid vacation to Sea World with Maizy. Not only would Maizy get to see dolphins and whales, but it would get Lynn the hell out of the house so they could run the party that weekend,
Shifter style
. The Cole brothers liked to get rowdy; that was a fact. It could hardly be helped when Jericho’s band would show up with groupies. They usually invited neighboring packs, taking advantage of the opportunity to form and keep alliances. Lynn wasn’t comfortable around that many Shifters, so it was for her benefit just as much as it was theirs.

“Behave, boys,” she said sternly, lingering by the door. Maizy grabbed a fistful of her mom’s shirt and tugged impatiently, looking about as excited as any kid who was about to go see Flipper.

Lynn would make it there before sunset and looked relieved to be getting away for a spell. Human women just weren’t used to living with that many men, let alone Shifters. She’d have to get used to it if she wanted to remain with the pack. It was likely they would gain more members as time went by. Not just anyone—the selection process took time. Austin made the ultimate decision as the Packmaster, and the new blood had to mesh with their group. Someone who would die for his brothers, protect their women, and guard their territory. Loyalty meant everything. So the toughest pack didn’t have to do with size, but the strength of the family.

“What the hell happened to your hand?” Jericho took another sip of beer and Lynn went downstairs with Maizy to pack up the car.

Reno lifted his hand, staring at the discoloration on his knuckles. “Just one of those mysteries in life,” he replied.