Worst Date Ever (Scandals #3)
Read Worst Date Ever (Scandals #3) Online
Authors: Kathy Clark
SCANDALS:
WORST DATE EVER
By
Kathy Clark
www.TheThrillOfSuspense.com
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This is a work of fiction based loosely on actual events involving fictional characters, names, businesses, places and incidents. They are either a product of the author’s imagination or were actual events, locations or places and were used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or NightWriter93, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Contact information:
[email protected]
Cover Art by Bob Wernly
Publishing History
First NightWriter93, Inc. Edition June, 2015
Copyright © 2015 by Nightwriter93
Published in the United States of America
Recommended for 17 years and older – language / mature subject matter
As always, thanks to my favorite editor, Steve, who also happens to be a hunky firefighter. And a special thanks to my readers and my street team for their super fandom, a special thank you. It is because of you that I write. For exclusive bonus scenes and fun contests, be sure to sign up for my newsletter at
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via MAIL CHIMP.
BOOKS BY KATHY CLARK & BOB KAT
NEW ADULT
Life’s What Happens
FINALIST BEST INDIE BOOK OF 2013
READER’S FAVORITE MAINSTREAM 2014
Due Dates
(Book #1 of Scandals Series)
Killer Date
(Book #2 of Scandals Series)
Worst Date Ever
(Book #3 of Scandals Series)
Dating For Dollars
(Book #4 of Scandals Series)
YOUNG ADULT
Oh My God (OMG)
(Book #1 of CUL8R Series
TM
under pen name Bob Kat)
WINNER BEST INDIE YOUNG ADULT BOOK OF 2013
Be Right Back (BRB)
(Book #2 of CUL8R Series
TM
under pen name Bob Kat)
WINNER READER’S FAVORITE 2013
Believe It Or Not (BION)
(Book #3 of CUL8R Series
TM
under pen name Bob Kat)
READER’S FAVORITE YOUNG ADULT 2014
Rest In Peace (RIP)
(Book #4 of CUL8R Series
TM
under pen name Bob Kat)
Don’t Judge Me (DJM)
(Book #5 of CUL8R Series
TM
under pen name Bob Kat)
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE PUBLISHED BY RANDOM HOUSE/LOVESWEPT
After Midnight
(#1 Denver Heroes Series)
WINNER BEST INDIE BOOK SUSPENSE OF 2013
READER’S FAVORITE SUSPENSE 2013
Cries in the Night
(#2 Denver Heroes Series)
FINALIST COLORADO HUMANITIES AWARD 2014
Deep Night
(#3 Denver Heroes Series) scheduled August, 2015
After Love
(#1 Austin Heroes Series) scheduled January, 2016
CLASSIC ROMANCE & CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S FICTION
Angel of Mercy
(#3 Angel Series)
Another Sunny Day
Born to be Wild
Cody’s Last Stand
Cold Feet, Warm Heart
Count Your Blessings
Golden Days
(sequel to
Another Sunny Day
)
Goodbye Desperado
Hearts Against the Wind
(Crystal Creek Series)
Kissed By an Angel
(#1 Angel Series)
No Satisfaction
Passion and Possession
Phantom Angel
(#2 Angel Series)
A Private Affair
Risky Business
Sight Unseen
Stand by Your Man
(Crystal Creek Series)
Starry Nights
Starting Over
Stroke of Midnight
Sweet Anticipation
Teacher’s Pet
Tempting Fate
WORST DATE EVER
I’ve always been alone. Ever since my mother…and I use that term in its loosest form…abandoned me when I was a baby, I’ve been on my own. A dozen or so foster families had provided me with food, clothes and shelter, but it was always clear that I didn’t belong. After a while, I even convinced myself it didn’t matter. Someday I’d be old enough to control my own destiny, and I would fucking succeed or die trying.
That someday is now, and I’m feeling pretty good about my prospects. Cautious, but good.
I am only a few classes short of a BS degree in Computer Science. I love working with computers. Their processes are very black and white…predictable and reliable, you knew exactly what they were going to do.
One of my foster mothers had accused me of having OCD. Yes, that was probably at least a little true. But I saw it as being in control of my circumstances. I wasn’t big on surprises. So far, none of the surprises in my life had been good.
Well, except for the whole inheritance thing. It wasn’t the money so much, although it was nice to not worry about how I was going to pay for next semester’s classes. It was the whole family thing. Getting used to having two brothers and two sisters that I never knew existed was quite a shocker.
I still didn’t know how to deal with the noise and drama. We’d found out about each other a little over a month and a half ago. Since then, we’d almost been blown up, poisoned and killed by a drug cartel. Oh, and Killeen, one of my new sisters, had almost been raped by a college jock we set up in a sting.
Now everyone else was out celebrating another successful ending to a case, and I was here, all alone in the Scandals Investigations’ office, putting the audio and video equipment away. I was responsible for making sure all the data we had gathered tonight was safely stored so it wouldn’t accidentally be destroyed. It was important evidence against Dante, the sleaze-bag UT star quarterback that, in all probability, would put him in prison for five to ten. An orange jumpsuit instead of an orange UT jersey and a Heisman Trophy…probably not how he thought his senior year would go.
Of course, once I started watching and listening to the recordings, the time got away from me. Before I knew it, it was after three in the morning. I yawned and decided it would be ridiculous for me to make the drive to our mansion at Lake Travis only to turn around and come back to the office at seven. There was a comfortable couch in the break room that had probably provided many overnighters and looked pretty inviting. There was even a pillow and a light blanket in the cupboard. I switched off the lights and stretched out on the couch.
I heard a rustle in the hallway. Was it a mouse? Or a footstep?
I wasn’t particularly afraid of mice, but I didn’t want someone sneaking up on me. The building was supposed to be empty, but…? I laid there a minute longer, and when I heard it again, I jumped up, turned the light on and leaned out into the hallway.
It was empty.
My crazy imagination was working overtime. This place was usually busy and bustling, and the quiet was a little creepy. I double checked to see that the alarm was turned on and the front and warehouse doors were locked, then I returned to the break room. But I left the light on in the reception area which provided enough illumination for me to check things out, but filtered down the hall enough to allow me to see anything nearby, but not so bright that it would keep me from sleeping.
I snuggled under the blanket again and ignored the creaks and groans of the empty building. I had slept in much worse places under much more dangerous circumstances. The thing I was most proud of was that I was a survivor. I yawned again and felt my eyes drifting closed.
“Tulsa! We were worried about you.” Liberty’s voice penetrated my dream and brought me immediately awake.
Liberty was only nineteen, the youngest of my new siblings. She had grown up in a commune, without electricity or television or microwave popcorn. It was like she was an alien, dropped into the twenty-first century. There was an innocence and naiveté about her that would have annoyed the hell out of me before. But her sweetness and eagerness to absorb everything made her endearing.
“You slept here?” she asked.
“I got sidetracked with the video and didn’t want to drive home,” I explained. I stood up and stretched. A glance at the clock told me I needed to freshen up because everyone else would be arriving soon. “Is there any coffee?”
“Pam made a pot, and there are donuts in the conference room.”
“Good, I need a cup.” I combed my fingers through my shaggy short black hair, pulling the sleep-flattened strands into tousled spikes. Actually, it was dark brown, but I’d been dying it black for a couple of years, then adding streaks of bright color. This month it was electric blue. There wasn’t a vain bone in my body, but I’d always been a little sensitive about my looks. Kids had made fun of me because my lips were too big, my blue eyes too far apart or my body too tall and skinny. I had gradually grown into my features, but old wounds leave scars.
Liberty looked at me with raw admiration. “You know Tulsa? You’re amazing. I want you to know how much I appreciate you helping me learn all about computers and the internet and stuff. I can’t believe how much is out there.”
I snorted. “You have no idea.” I smoothed the wrinkles out of my vintage Grateful Dead t-shirt. “Did you all ride in together?”
“I rode in with Dallas. Christopher and Killeen came in together…like always.”
“And Reno?”
“Dallas said he and Jenny disappeared last night after the frat party.” Her eyes widened in concern. “Do you think it’s a Witness Protection thing? Do you think they took him away?”
“I think it’s a horny dude thing,” I told her. “Jenny opted out of WITSEC so she could be with Reno. I heard them say they wanted some privacy, so I think they went to a hotel downtown.”
“Privacy! The mansion has over eight thousand square feet. He and Jenny couldn’t find a place to be alone there?”
I gave her an amused look. “Have you had a moment’s privacy since this whole Roger inheritance thing began?”
Liberty considered that for a second, then smiled. “No, but I’m okay with that. I’m used to having people around all the time. Mom and I had a two-bedroom home, and we had as many as fifteen people living there at one time.”
I could sort of relate to that. It had been difficult to have any shred of privacy when I was farmed out to a foster family. Often there had been four or five of us to a bedroom. More kids…bigger checks for the foster parents. It was all about the money. No one gave a shit about the kids.
“Oh gosh, Reno was so brave,” Liberty gushed. “He risked his life to rescue Jenny’s sister. He deserves a reward.”
After a quick stop at the restroom, I headed to the conference room. Liberty was already there. She handed me a black mug emblazoned with the Scandals logo in red. I eagerly filled it with the rich dark liquid that would send desperately needed wake-up signals to my brain.
Christopher and Killeen entered the room and headed straight for the coffee bar.
“Hey all…morning!” Killeen called out.
On that memorable day in June when the details of Roger Elliott’s will had been conveyed to us and we all met each other for the first time, Christopher had struck me as kind of a cold fish. Oh, he had been professional, incredibly knowledgeable about the business and helpful. It wasn’t that he’d been unfriendly, but more like he didn’t have time for us rookies. That all changed when he and Killeen started hooking up. Now he was relaxed and laughed a lot. She had definitely brought the sunshine into his life.
I looked at Killeen with amazement that any creature could be that beautiful and that nice, all at the same time. She had been going to ASU on a full-ride softball scholarship, but got knocked up by a rich asshole who left her as soon as he graduated and found out about the baby. The last I heard, she was still undecided about whether or not she was going to keep the kid. But Christopher had made it clear he would support her choice, either way. They made a gorgeous couple, she, with long golden blond hair and a killer body and he, so tall, dark and handsome. I had to admit that they made it look easy…and comfortable…and wonderful. I couldn’t imagine ever falling in love like that. It would take a lot for me to ever trust a man with my heart.
Everyone exchanged sleepy greetings as they each took a chair at the table and passed around the box of donuts. It had been a late night for all of us, and we were slow to get it started this morning.
“Where’s Reno? Anyone know?” Christopher asked.
The question was just out of his mouth when Reno charged into the conference room, out of breath and a cup of McDonald’s coffee in his hand. “Sorry…I had to stay with Jenny last night.” He spun the chair around, slid into the seat and opened his tall cup of coffee, all in one smooth motion.
“
Had
to, huh?” Christopher echoed sarcastically. “Poor girl clearly can’t make it on her own.”
Reno’s lips stretched into an easy smile. He knew he wasn’t fooling anyone. “Trust me…it was life or death.” He looked around the room. “I haven’t sat in this chair before. I see we’re on our new plan to break old habits. Great!”
Reno was always pushing us to change things up. He claimed ditching old habits would allow us to see the other side of issues we couldn’t see otherwise. I felt like he was picking on me since I was a true creature of habit. All of us IT geeks are. It came with the territory of repetitious, detail-oriented, mechanical work.
“How’d she do her first night without her sister?” Dallas asked.
“It’s rough, but at least she knows her sister is safe and happy. Jenny insisted on going back to work at the pre-school. I was going to ask if she could move into the mansion for a while, you know…until she gets her feet back on the ground and the nightmares of the cartel breaking into her apartment stop.”
“Non-billable hours, I assume?” Dallas asked, only partly joking.
“Listen…Uncle Sam’s reward covered this place for a year…so big deal…not billable,” Reno pointed out. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing yet,” Christopher said. “I wanted us to talk through last night. It was the first real job that we all worked on together.”
“If you don’t count nailing the guy that killed our father,” Liberty pointed out.
“That was personal.” Christopher frowned.
We all thought back to that harrowing experience. We had had no idea what we were getting ourselves into until we narrowly missed being killed. But through it all, we’d figured out how to work together and got to know each other in the process.
A loud metal-on-metal crash echoed down the hall and shook the building. What sounded like a racing motorcycle engine revved, then died and we heard Pam scream. After the last explosion at the Scandals’ office nearly killed Killeen and Liberty, we were all a little gun shy. We exchanged confused and questioning looks, then jumped to our feet and ran to the lobby with poor Liberty hobbling along behind on her crutches.
“The door is stuck!” Pam yelled as she leaned against it with all her weight, which wasn’t much.
Christopher, Reno and Dallas ran to help her. Christopher and Dallas braced their backs against the door and pushed backward while Reno tried to figure out where it was being wedged shut. This new, heavy gauge steel door was supposed to protect us after the last bombing. Actually, it appeared the door had suffered little damage. It was the twisted hinges and jammed locks that were blocking our exit.
“Looks like something rammed into the bottom. Let’s try pushing on the side opposite the hinge,” Reno suggested.
“I’ll take the bottom, Dallas get the center and Reno the upper corner,” Christopher ordered, and they took their assigned positions. “Ready? One…two…three!” They groaned and grunted and slowly the door creaked its way open.
Reno stuck his head outside. “Shit!” He pulled his head back in. “A little more at the bottom mainly. Someone planted their Harley in the door. Let’s do this!”
All three pushed the lower half of the door, and I could hear the sound of metal screeching across the pavement. “That’s it!” Reno, Dallas and Christopher squeezed through the small opening, one after the other.