Texas Tornado (Freebirds Book 5) (2 page)

His black eyes flicked to mine, and then went back down to his daughter, then his hands, and finally his clothes. “Can you hold her for a few minutes and let me go change or something?”

I nodded and he left, hurrying in the direction of the bathroom. I’d never been further than the bay doors. I knew that further beyond there was a down room, but nothing more.

The night I came home with Sam, he rented me a hotel room and dropped me and my shit off, and nothing more. Not a single word came out of his mouth. Which wasn’t surprising since he’d done the same the whole ride home.

Once I realized that he didn’t like me, I was careful not to say anything the rest of the way home. Normally, I didn’t have a problem making friends, but Sam seemed to hate me just because he hated our father.

Which was so beyond unfair that I didn’t even want to think about it.

The day after I’d been dropped off in the hotel, I’d walked to a local diner to eat, and ended up leaving with a job and, even better, an apartment above the diner. It took me nearly five months to earn the money for a car, but I did it and was now the proud owner of a used Chevy Blazer.

Yes, it was twenty years old, rusted, and had an exhaust leak (so I’ve been told), but I was super excited that I didn’t have to walk three miles to the grocery store and back. Groceries were heavy little bastards when you had to hump it that far, even if they were only cereal, milk, bread, and peanut butter.

I’d made an appointment with Sam to have my car tuned up, and he reluctantly set a time for six forty five this morning. I should’ve known he wouldn’t keep it. He’d spurned every single attempt at trying to get to know me. He didn’t even want to talk to me.

There was only so much that a person could take before she just didn’t care anymore. Even if it was her brother.

A loud boom startled me from my reverie, and I jumped. Lightening danced across the sky, followed quickly after by another deep boom of thunder. Cat started wailing after the second one, and I started cooing and rocking her to calm her down.

When nothing soothed her, I started singing ‘You are My Sunshine.’

I’d just finished the last few words in the song, looked up, and noticed boots clomping towards me.

Jack was back with a soft smile on his face. “Sorry about that. She doesn’t like the thunder very much. You did well. Normally, I can’t get her to stop crying when we have a big storm like this.”

That wasn’t surprising with the sheer amount of storms we’d been having over the past three months. There’d been more rainfall in the past couple weeks than we’d seen all of last year according to the weatherman.

Handing the tiny little baby to Jack, I smiled. “No problem. See ya.”

Turning on my heels, I hurried past the two motorcycles, and ran hard to get to my truck before the rain soaked me.

I wasn’t successful.

My white dress was now soaked all the way through. Cursing, I yanked open the door and jumped inside, slamming it hard behind me.

Shivering, I stuck the key in the ignition, and said a quick prayer that the beast would crank. It took so long to start that I started to get nervous. Finally, the engine caught and I let out my held breath.

“Shew,” I said feeling extremely relieved, and reached for the wipers.

They didn’t flip on, and my stomach sank. Beating on the dash, I yelled. “Come on, don’t fail me now.”

The most beautiful sight in the world appeared before me, making the swish swish sound of water being squeegeed off the windshield. “Thank you!” I squealed and clapped my hands.

I didn’t want to be here anymore. I really just wanted to go home, crawl back into my bed, and cry. In fact, I wanted to do one better. I wanted to go home to Galveston, crawl into my bed, and cry.

Except none of those things were going to happen because my dad royally fucked me over. My brother hating me was only icing on the giant fuck-me cake.

But I’d survive, because that’s just what I did. I didn’t need anybody. I didn’t need my no show dad, nor my unstable mother. I didn’t need anybody. I just needed myself. That was the only thing you could rely on anyway, because everyone let you down eventually.

Even my other brother, Sebastian, had let me down. It’d been months and months since I’d spoken to him, and if I didn’t hear from him within the next week, he’d be on my shit list, too.

Chapter 2

After watching copious amounts of crime shows, I concluded that serial killers only target young attractive women with matching panty and bra sets. I feel much safer now.

-Life lesson

James

I looked at the twisted steel and grimaced. I didn’t want anything to do with this stupid hunk of metal, but I’d made a promise to an old friend, and would do it whether I wanted to or not.

A flash of white brought my attention from the twisted hunk of junk to Shiloh as she left the office with Cat in her slender arms. She headed straight for Jack, bypassing me completely, which she seemed to do anytime there was an option of me or another person.

Today she was wearing a white dress that hugged her curves beautifully. The sandals on her feet displayed her cute toes.

And they were cute.

Her toenails were painted a bright pink with tiny little flowers interspersed all over. Her feet were tiny, just like her hands. A dragonfly tattooed on her left foot added to the cuteness with its bright cheery colors.

She wasn’t tall for a woman, only four or five inches over five feet, but she used what she had well. Her breasts were perfect. Large and plump. The sight of them made my mouth water. Made me wish to have the tight peaks of her nipples in my mouth, devouring them as I pumped into her without abandon.

And there my mind went with all the naughty images again. I’d been thinking these X-rated things about the woman since I’d met her eight months ago in San Antonio.

We’d been gathering some information on Jack’s wife, Winter, when Shiloh made her appearance. Sam’s father had pulled his favor, declaring that Sam was now responsible for Shiloh’s well-being and left without another word. Sam had been shocked that he’d even had a sister.

Eight months prior to meeting his sister for the first time, he’d met his brother, who was in the hospital on the brink of death. The brother was understandably hesitant to make any sort of connection with Sam, which was also the same case for Sam. Sam’s parents had been married for eighteen years after Sam’s birth. It was extremely obvious that the other children had been conceived while both were still married.

Sam being the stubborn man he was, refused to talk about anything. Which meant he was distant with his sister, refused to even speak with his father, and probably didn’t have much of a relationship with the brother either. Sam was a closed off person, and in this case, he was a steel vault. I couldn’t even get any goods out of my own sister about it.

Shiloh charged out the door as if the fires of hell were on her tail. Her eyes were brimming with tears, and I felt something funny happen in my chest when I realized she was upset.

Walking towards Jack, I stopped when I got close enough so he could hear me. The rain on the tin roof made it incredibly hard to hear, but I just raised my voice so he could make out my words.

“What did you do to her?” I asked.

His eyes were on Shiloh as she got into the Blazer that had definitely seen better days. “Nothing. Just told her she did good with Cat. Normally she just screams until the loud noise stops, but she sang to her and got her to calm down.”

The Blazer started turning over, but the engine wouldn’t catch, and I started to think that she might need a ride. However, the engine finally caught, and the Blazer rumbled to life.

“Needs a tune up. She’s got an exhaust leak too.” Jack mumbled.

“Hey! Where’s Shiloh going? I thought she was here to get her truck fixed.” Winter asked as she sidled up next to us.

“Well if she was here for a tune up, why’s she leaving?” I asked Winter.

“Probably because her bastard brother didn’t show like he was supposed to. You know this is his third time standing her up?” Winter fumed.

“What?” Jack and I asked at the same time.

“Yeah, she works at that diner down by that shit-hole motel off the interstate. I had to stop there the other day to pick up a passed out drunk. I was just making idle conversation while I wrote my report when I found out that the piece of junk Blazer the man had passed out next to was hers. She then started talking about it needing a tune up, and that’s when she told me that she’d tried to bring it in twice before but no one was ever able to get to it.”

Come to think of it, I had seen it in here twice, but never with her. “It’s never been on the board. I didn’t know it hadn’t been worked on.”

“Me neither. I just thought it was another project of Sam’s.” Jack concurred.

Winter just gave us both looks. “It gets better. She had to walk to drop it off, and then walk to pick it back up. Twice.”

“What?” I asked, anger starting to roil in my gut.

“That’s over six miles.” Jack asked confused. “Why didn’t she ask for a ride?”

“From what I understand, she had to drop it off early before her shift that starts at six in the morning. She usually doesn’t get off until later.” Winter explained. “And to do that, she’d have to get up really early to walk here, and then be able to get back home. If she got off at five, she’d still have to walk all the way here, and that’d put her at six getting here and we’re closed by five every day.”

“What the fuck?” I asked.

What the fuck was Sam thinking? Walking alone in the bad parts of town wasn’t safe for any woman, but definitely not a woman as pretty and petite as Shiloh.

“My sentiments exactly.” She said.

I couldn’t just believe that Sam would do that on purpose though. Sam just wasn’t built like that. Women were his weakness. “Where is Sam?” I asked finally, not knowing what else to say.

“He hasn’t been in yet.” Jack answered.

Walking into the down room so I could hear a little better, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called him. It rang four times before Cheyenne picked up.

“Hello?” Cheyenne answered.

“Where’s Sam?” I asked curtly.

“He was picking me up from work. We’re on our way home. Why?” She asked suspiciously.

“Did he happen to remember that he had an appointment?” I asked.

I heard her asking Sam, and then his rumbled reply. “He says he doesn’t have an appointment. Shiloh was supposed to come by later though.”

“She’s already been here and gone. She waited a little over an hour before she left. I saw the Blazer as soon as I opened the bay doors this morning, and it’s only seven thirty.”

“James says that you missed your sister.” Cheyenne told Sam.

More mumbling, and then Cheyenne said, “We’ll be there in a few.”

And hung up.

Jack poured himself a cup of coffee and then took a seat at the bar. “He hasn’t really had much to do with her, has he?”

“I’d just assumed he was hanging out with her without us. It’s understandable, but I haven’t seen her at anything, come to think about it.” Winter said sadly.

“Didn’t she come to the baby shower?” I asked Winter.

She shook her head. “Nope. She dropped a present at the station though.”

“Why’d she come to the station?” I asked.

“She said because she didn’t know where else to take it.”

“What about your wedding?” I asked.

They thought about it, and I did too. “No, now that I think about it, she didn’t come to that either.”

“Who didn’t come to what?” Cheyenne asked as she shook the water off her shirt.

Sam followed closely behind, his face closed off completely.

“We were just saying how Shiloh hasn’t been to any of our functions. Sam, you know you can invite her, right? Bennett comes anytime he can. Stormy’s even been here a time or two, and she lives in BFE.” Winter asked.

Bennett was Payton’s brother who was currently in the Navy. He didn’t come to many functions now that he was deployed, but he came to as many as he could.

Sam didn’t answer, just ignored her question entirely.

“Sam?” Cheyenne asked sounding confused. “What’s going on?”

I definitely wanted to know the answer to that question as well. Shiloh wasn’t a bad person. She was actually funny and nice. In the few times she’d actually been around me, I’d enjoyed her company greatly. I’d definitely have pursued something more with her if my life wasn’t a big mess as it was. Shiloh didn’t deserve to be dragged into my mess.

“I guess I forgot about her.” Sam said by way of excuse.

“Three times?” Winter asked.

Sam’s gaze locked onto Winter’s stubborn one and held. “What are you talking about?”

Winter then went on to explain what she’d learned from Shiloh while at her call.

“Sam?” Cheyenne gasped.

“What?” He snapped.

“You’ve stood her up three times? What the hell are you thinking? And what the fuck, you told me she was working in a restaurant, not a rat infested hell hole.” She fumed.

My sister had one hell of a temper on her. Which made me love her all the more in this instance. I was extremely confused as to why Sam would’ve forgotten anything, especially when it came to his own sister.

The office phone to Free rang. I stepped up to the wall and answered it just after the second ring. “Free. James speaking.”

“Uhh, hi. This is Shiloh.”

“Hey, Shiloh. Looking for Sam?”

“N-no. My t-truck broke down about a mile from my apartment. I was w-wondering if you knew a tow service I could c-call.” She said stammered.

“Duncan’s. The number is...”

“Wait! I need a pen. Hold on.” She said hurriedly.

Glancing at Sam, I thought to help by offering a different solution. “I can have Sam text it to you.”

“Uhh, I don’t have a cell phone. But I have the name, I’ll just look it up. Thanks.” She rushed out before hanging up.

***

Two hours later and still there was no sign of Shiloh’s Blazer.

“Duncan’s.” Don answered.

“This is James down at Free. We’ve been waiting for a tow to come in, but it’s not here yet. Any ideas when you’ll get to it?” I asked.