SIX MONTHS_(A Seven Series Novel Book 2)

Chapter 4


After a long workday, the evening crowd died down and I prepared to close the store. Lexi had gone home early to do some research on coffee shops, and I knew why. She’d always dreamed about buying the empty space next door and knocking out the wall to join two shops. That was a lot to take on, but the potential was there. The only downside was the noisy kids in the candy store would disturb the adults next door who were trying to read and enjoy their espresso.
One alternative would be to change the coffee shop idea into a pastry shop. Moms could relax with a croissant while their kids scoped out the candy next door. Lexi liked that idea and wanted to talk to Austin about it. She was a crazy-good baker, and if she were involved in baking the sweets, then we’d be a surefire hit. After eating eleven of her homemade peanut butter cookies with macadamia nuts, I could testify on her behalf in a court of cookie law. I didn’t know how she’d swing that kind of money to start up a separate company, but she’d mentioned a couple of Austin’s brothers might be able to help out for free.
God, no.
I could only imagine that tattooed guy scaring the kids. Then again, his twin might actually draw in some of the women because every mother on a bad day wants to feel like she’s still got it going on, and Ben sure liked to let women know how sweet their asses were.
“Are you open?”
A nice-looking Hispanic man poked his head through the front door and I realized I had forgotten to flip the sign.
“I’m about to lock up. Is there something I can help you find real quick?”
He slipped in through the crack and the bell jingled. “Nice place.”
“Thanks.” I looked him over, trying not to be judgmental about the fact he was wearing saggy pants and I could see his red underwear. I had serious objections to men who showed off their drawers in public.
He scoped out the room. “I’m looking for something ah… vanilla.”
“We have taffy and wafers over here,” I suggested, leading him to an aisle on the right. I thought about offering the almond bark since a local lady worked with us to sell her candy, but I didn’t think that’s what he was looking for.
“That all you got in here that’s vanilla?” he said, coming up behind me.
I spun around with a wafer in one hand and taffy in the other. “I’m sorry, but it is. We don’t get that request too often. We do carry products that have vanilla flavoring in them, but they’re diluted with other ingredients so it’s not as strong. Is this for a special occasion? I might be able to look in our catalog and order it.”
Up close, I noticed a teardrop tattoo on his brown face and a scorpion on his thick neck. He smiled with closed lips and grabbed each piece without removing his dark eyes from mine. I backed up against a shelf but didn’t want to appear rude by weaving away from him. He placed the wafer in his mouth first and swallowed it after two bites.
“I’m Sanchez.”
That’s when I heard my inner voice screaming to get out. The main lights were off, leaving only the accent lights on near the windows and the sign behind the register. I was alone in the store with a guy hitting on me.
Not just that, but doing it in a creepy, roundabout way. I noticed a bandage on his arm and backed up a step.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Sanchez. Let me grab something else I think you’ll—”
“No,” he said decidedly, wedging in front of the small space I was trying to squeeze through. I had the wall to my back and nowhere to go. “You look pretty vanilla to me. How do you taste?”
Something knocked off the shelf and rolled across the floor. My heart sped up when his tongue swept across his bottom lip. By the glittery expression in his eyes, he liked seeing me nervous.
“I’m sorry, you need to leave. I have to lock up the store,” I said in a firm voice.
“What if I want you to open up?” he said suggestively.
Sanchez had rock-solid arms that looked eager to crush me in his grasp. He chuckled while chewing on the taffy. “I work for Delgado.”
I blinked in surprise at the familiar name and cleared my throat. “I paid him.”
Delgado was a loan shark my grandma had owed money to. We’d only met once because he’d wanted his payments in cash, so he always sent a guy to collect. I’d squared away the debt to him, though.
“Mmm, true.” Sanchez pinched the tuft of hair below his bottom lip. “Delgado wants the interest. All you paid was what was borrowed.”
My brows slanted in an angry line. “He didn’t tell me that! All he said was that I owed him three thousand and that’s what I paid.”
Sanchez’s eyes roamed down my shirt and he stared at the lettering that said Sweet Treats, written across my C-cup breasts.
“How much is the interest?”
I was relieved when he lifted his hand and held his fingers in the shape of a zero. Until he took his other hand and poked a finger in and out of the hole. “Pay me what I want and I’ll buy you some time.”
Guys like Sanchez thrived on intimidation. I grew impatient and narrowed my eyes. “I don’t care what you want; what does Delgado want?”
A smile crossed his face and a silver-capped molar gleamed back at me. “Been a few years. Interest builds up. Now you owe more than you paid.”
“That’s not fair!” I shouted, pushing him away as I struggled to get around him. He walked me against the wall and slammed his left hand over my head, leaning in hard.
“Be nice.” He bit his lip and lowered his eyes again.
I got scared. Sanchez stopped smiling and I cowered like a cornered animal, now understanding why they lashed out violently. He bent forward and licked the tip of my nose. I wrinkled my face, turning away from him.
“Five large, or one night with me and I’ll give you a discount. I’ll be real sweet. But if you don’t pay him what he’s owed, then I start taking fingers,” he said, lifting my right hand up between us. “Starting with the pinky.”
Faster than a heartbeat, Sanchez shoved my pinky finger into his mouth and clamped his teeth down hard. I tried to pull it out, but when I felt them lock on the bone, the threat became vividly real. This man didn’t really want to sleep with me—he wanted to mess with my head before he minced me up.
Sanchez closed his lips around my finger and eased up, so I quickly pulled it out and wiped my hand on my jeans.
“I’m not doing anything with you,” I growled. “When does Delgado want his money by?”
He tucked his business card in the hem of my skirt. “Saturday,” he said, backing up and stalking out.
“That’s in three days!”
As he opened the door, Sanchez glanced unapologetically over his shoulder. “Noon, Saturday. If you bring half the money, then I’ll… I’ll just take your pinky toe,” he said with a dark laugh, briskly walking out the door and into the night.
I slid down the wall. “Oh God, what did you get me into, Grandma?” I whispered.
***

That night, I made a desperate decision. I devised a scheme to deduct money from the company account to pay off Delgado. I had access to the account to pay bills and Lexi wouldn’t notice the transaction right away. My plan was to redeposit my own paychecks until I covered the amount withdrawn. I knew it was wrong, but I didn’t know what else to do.
When I got home, I refilled my wolf’s water dish and poured him some dog food I’d picked up at the store. He lapped up the water but only sniffed the food before scratching to go out. He was acting peculiar since I’d walked in the door. When I had first sat down, he wouldn’t stop smelling my right hand.
And growling.
Something deep, dark, and ferocious that made my stomach feel all fluttery and reminded me of how wild he might actually be. But his leg had improved, so out he went while I got on the laptop and transferred company funds over to my personal account.
It was one of the hardest things I’d ever done because I’d crossed an ethical line. I was stealing and could wind up in jail because of it, not to mention I was betraying Lexi.
Hermie and Salvador paddled around in their fishbowl without a care in the world. I stared between Sanchez’s business card and the one Maddox had left behind. I wondered if borrowing money from one shark to pay off the other would get one of them off my back.
Which wasn’t a bad idea.
I already owed Maddox more than I could possibly pay, but at least he wasn’t threatening my life or my fingers. If my grandma had borrowed frequently from the man, she must have trusted doing business with him.
My cell phone rang, pulling me away from my thoughts.
“Hello?”
“How’s my April Showers?”
“Hey, Trevor. Where are you?”
He sighed. “A Burger King in bumf*ck nowhere. I wanted to eat inside, but a couple of rednecks were giving me the Deliverance stare. Did you ever see that movie? It gives me the heebie-jeebies about driving anywhere in the South. Not that I have much of a choice,” he said with a snort. “I got all my stuff packed up.”
“That was fast.”
“Yeah, I did it porn style. In and out.”
“Thanks for the visual,” I said, rubbing my eye.
“I’m headed back tonight.”
Shoot! I hadn’t cleaned. Trevor had visited my home only twice before, but I wanted to tidy things up and make it special since he had been through a rough breakup.
“How long is your drive going to be? If I’m at work when you get here, I’ll have to hide the key somewhere.”
“Don’t sweat it, babe. I’ll be there in less than an hour. Just wanted to give you a heads-up so you don’t freak out and pull a machete on me when I come knocking on your door. And by the way, don’t bother cleaning. I’m not the queen.”
I laughed and put my feet up on the sofa. “I have a new friend living with me temporarily, and I don’t know if he’s going to like you very much.”
“Huh?” His clipped tone was serious and a little pissed off.
“Careful,” I said in a teasing voice. “Jumping to conclusions is an Olympic event.”
“I want that on a T-shirt along with my gold medal. So, who’s this friend whose ass I’m going to kick?”
“A dog. Well, I think. Maybe a wolf.”
“A what? I hope you’re yanking my chain, April. If you brought a f*cking wolf home, I swear to God.”
“It’s okay,” I said, getting up to open the door. “He’s just hurt and has macho issues.” I poked my head outside and whistled but didn’t see him. “I’ll make sure he stays outside tonight. Do you want me to wait up for you?”
“Nah. Leave the key in the grill and I’ll let myself in. Are you workin’ tomorrow?”
“Actually, it’s my day off. Um, I meant to ask you something.”
An amused laugh crackled on the other end. “This sounds good.”
“Do you want to go to a thing? I mean, it’s a party. Not the club kind, just a barbecue at a friend’s house.”
“Will adult beverages be served?”
“Probably. It’s a bunch of guys.”
“Magic words, babe. I’m in. Look, I’m going to take a whiz and then head out.”
“Too much information.”
I whistled a few more times, but there was no sign of my wolf. I slipped on a pair of sandals and walked to the grill to conceal the key inside. “Can you pick me up something for breakfast?”
“Don’t you have food?”
I chuckled. “Nothing I’m not already sick of. Might as well get something for yourself while you’re at it and stick it in the fridge.”
“Cool. Don’t wait up for me.”
With Trevor on his way, I put on a thin shirt and a pair of black shorts with a pink waistband. He didn’t care what I slept in, but I wasn’t comfortable enough with anyone to walk around half-naked.

Something roused me from my sleep in the middle of the night and I rubbed my face, staring down the length of my bed and through the open doorway. A dim light was on and cast a soft glow on the couch. Trevor was sprawled out with one long leg on the wall and the other bent at the knee. I couldn’t see his face because he had his nose buried in a paperback.
“Hey,” I said groggily, sliding my bare feet across the floor. “How long have you been here?”
“Ah, shit. Did I wake you, babe?” He set the book down and stood up, giving me a tight hug. “I got in about a half hour ago and holy hell, girl. You’ve been holding out on me,” he said, pointing at my new book.
“That’s book three.”
His brown eyes sparkled. “Good. That means I get to read it again.” He collapsed on the sofa, scrambling his fingers through his hair until it was sexy and all in his eyes. “First thing we’re doing tomorrow is getting you some food.” Trevor’s voice was borderline angry.
I bent down, picked up his leather shoes, and set them by the door. “I’ve been eating out a lot.”
“Don’t lie, April. That shit pisses me off. I know you’re not big on eating out because you have a thing about people putting boogers and spit in the food.”
“They do! I saw a show on it.”
He patted the space beside him and I sat down, curling up against him.
After a few quiet moments, I finally spoke. “It’s been so quiet around here. E-mails just aren’t the same. I miss our coffee-shop trips and our trashy-romance Sundays. Going to those garage sales in search of bad romance novels for a dime just isn’t the same. I missed you, Trevor.”
“Me too, babe. I don’t let go of a good friend that easily. If I moved to Alaska, I’d still be calling your ass. You’re like a ray of sunshine I’ve been missing all these months. Plus, nobody makes a tuna casserole like you do.”
I laughed and poked him in the chest. “You hate my tuna.”
We sat quietly and rain tapped on the roof like the impatient tapping of fingernails.
“It’ll get better,” he whispered. “Everything else going okay? Work?”
“Yep,” I lied. “Sometimes I just want to run out of this place.”
He sighed and held my hand, stroking his fingers over mine. “I can speak from experience when I tell you that running won’t get rid of your problems. They always catch up with you, and if you’ve spent your life running from them, you’ll be too damn tired to fight them off. Nobody’s going to help you in life, April. You’ve got to help yourself.”
“I just wish I had someone to take care of me.”
“Don’t be that girl, April.”
“What girl?”
“The one who needs a man to take care of her.”
I sat up. “Is that so wrong? I don’t want a man to make decisions for me, take away my freedom, and not allow me to work. Sometimes taking care of someone is loving them enough that you want to ease their pain and protect them. I care for these unwanted animals because they have no one to look out for them when they need it the most. Is it so wrong to love something that’s so far gone it can’t be saved?”
“You’re not a pigeon, April.”
I gave him my doe eyes; Trevor didn’t contradict me very often.
He wasn’t seeing my point.
“I’m not saying I’m weak, Trev. I’m just tired. Tired of living like this,” I said, waving my arm. “Tired of working my butt off and walking miles to and from work each day because I can’t afford a car. Do I complain about it? No, you’ve never once heard me complain about how unfair it is that some people get to live on easy street while others are struggling to make ends meet. But you know what? I’m tired of buying food at the dollar store, because the bread there sucks. I’m tired of seeing other girls my age going out every Friday because payday for them means dropping a hundred dollars on dinner and drinks while for me, it means clearing my debt and helping my sister. I’m tired of not having the things I deserve to have because that woman died and left me all her problems.” Tears streamed down my face. “I’m just so tired.”
Trevor wrapped his arms around my shoulders and whispered in my hair. “I’m so sorry, babe. I didn’t mean to make you cry. I get it. Shhh. I get it. It’s late and you’re exhausted. I just don’t want to see you give up so easily that the next guy who comes along thinks you belong to him. That he can push you around and walk all over you because he’s taking care of things. Remember shithead?”
He meant my ex who’d cheated on me.
“April,” he said, holding my face in his hands and wiping my tears away. “I don’t want you to think that you deserve that kind of love. I don’t want you to think it’s okay for a guy to f*ck around or talk down to you because he’s paying your bills or letting you stay with him. You see where I’m going with this? If a guy loves you, he’ll buy you f*cking Jamaica and walk away. He won’t hold that shit over you so you’ll—”
“I think our conversation train derailed,” I mumbled, sniffling as he looked at me and smiled. “That’s a little deep, Trevor. All I want is someone to take care of me for a change. It doesn’t have to be forever, just long enough for me to catch my breath. I’ve been doing good on my own, but I never wanted to grow up so fast. Even when my grandma was alive, I had to take care of the shopping and cooking. I’ve been more of a mother to Rose than a sister, and it shouldn’t be that way. I just want someone I can count on—a man who will turn the world upside down to help me find a slice of happiness because he loves me that much.”
“Damn, girl,” he said, wiping my tears with the pad of his thumb. “You should have been a romance writer. I’m not going to tell you Mr. Perfect is out there, because that’s a load of crap. But I will tell you that I’m here, and no matter what, I’m looking out for you. And tomorrow, we’re going to pick up some shit to make this place a joy to live in.”
I laughed hysterically and whipped the small pillow out from behind me. “What’s the matter, you don’t like the embroidered pillows?”
“For kindling on the barbecue grill? You bet. Otherwise, I don’t want your granny’s fart pillow beneath my chiseled face and lips of a Greek god.”
“You must have left off on Chapter six,” I said, glancing at the paperback.
He snatched it off the table and thumbed it open. “Yep. And I’m reading it again, so go back to bed and leave Vexton and me alone.”