Obsession Falls

“Just a dog. He’s a medium mixed breed, long-ish fur but I keep him groomed.”

“Oh sure, one dog is fine. If you want, I can meet you there tomorrow so you can take a look. Or later in the week if tomorrow doesn’t work for you.”

“I don’t need to see it first. I’ll take it.”

She paused. “Are you sure?”

“If it allows my dog and isn’t in Pinecrest, it’s perfect.”

“Oh, okay,” she said with a laugh. “If you could text me your email address to this number, I’ll send you a link to our online rental application. Go ahead and fill that out to get things started. When were you hoping to move in?”

“As soon as possible. I’m temporarily living with my mother and my dog and her cat aren’t exactly best friends. Well, my dog thinks the cat is his new best friend—or more accurately, his chew toy—but the cat has other ideas. It’s getting stressful.”

“I totally understand. The application process won’t take long. Just make sure to fill it out completely and that will give me everything I need. Assuming it all checks out, we can get you moved in soon.”

I sighed with relief. “Thank you so much. You’re a lifesaver.”

“No problem. I’ll give you a call when things are good to go on our end and we can meet to finalize the rental agreement and get you the keys.”

“Thank you,” I said again. “So much.”

I ended the call and immediately texted her my email address. About two minutes and too much fidgeting later, an email from Annika Bailey appeared with the subject line: rental application.

Bingo.

I filled it out, hoping nothing unexpected would come up that would prevent me from renting this house. I had a feeling it was going to be perfect.

And if not, at least there wouldn’t be a cat to worry about. As for the rest, I’d make the best of it. I was pretty good at that.





June 8th





I saw her today.

Yes, her.

I’d managed to scrub her from my mind. That took a lot of hard work. It took discipline. I was proud of that. Proud of how I didn’t think of her at all.

How I’d made her nothing.

Apparently her memory wasn’t buried as deep as I’d thought. Just seeing her brought it all back.

It made me angry to see her. So fucking angry. And I don’t like it when I’m angry. Anger is too raw and uncontrolled.

Perhaps she’s here to test me. That’s an interesting idea. Test my discipline. My strength.

Or maybe it’s time I consider settling the score, once and for all.





CHAPTER 6





Josiah





The Timberbeast Tavern was half-empty. Odd for a Friday, although it was early. Not quite six. It would fill up as the night wore on. Especially because Rocco, the longtime owner, had inexplicably started doing karaoke on Fridays. I’d be out of there well before that mess started.

I went in and took a seat at the bar, next to a couple of regulars nursing regrets along with their beers. A few locals had claimed spots at the tall tables and a group of women—definitely tourists—took up a large table on the right. They were late-twenties, maybe early thirties, probably in town for a girls’ weekend. They were doing a lot of laughing and posing for selfies.

I ignored them. Girls like that were Luke and Zachary’s thing. Not mine.

Hayden came out from the back. “What can I get you? The usual?”

“Yeah.”

He grabbed a glass and poured me a beer, then slid it across the bar. Hayden wasn’t really the new guy anymore, although I still thought of him that way. Rocco had brought him on a year or two ago. Or was it three? Hell, I didn’t know. Younger guy, maybe thirty at most, with shaggy dark hair. He had kind of an emo vibe, but he was a good enough bartender—served drinks without making pointless conversation. Worked for me.

I took a sip and glanced at the time on my phone. I was a bit early, there to meet Dad. One of the perks of partnering with my father was having our business meetings over a couple of beers at the Timberbeast. Mom teased us that it was just an excuse to go to the tavern. Maybe. But we actually got a lot done.

The door opened and I glanced over my shoulder. It wasn’t my dad, but I nodded at the guy who walked in. No one batted an eyelash at his entrance, but not that long ago, he wouldn’t have set foot in here.

Asher Bailey was a big guy who had a look of danger about him. And rightly so. He was a jiu jitsu coach who’d done time in federal prison for killing the guy who tried to assault his then-fiancée, Grace. I’d never understood how they could have put him away for that. Any man would have done what he did.

But that had been a long time ago, when his family and mine had still been feuding. Although the shots we took at each other had mostly been pranks, I’d been obligated by long-standing tradition to hate Asher Bailey and his brothers. Six years ago, that had all changed, and somehow, Asher and I had become friends.

Although it wasn’t all that weird. My sister Annika had crossed feud lines to marry a Bailey. But that was another story.

He took a seat next to me. Hayden came over to take his order. I didn’t know where Hayden was from, but he hadn’t lived in Tilikum long enough to remember when the Timberbeast had been Haven territory.

“What can I get you?”

Asher gestured toward my beer. “One of those.”

“Coming right up.”

“What are you doing in here tonight?” I asked.

“Grace and the kids are out with her mom. I saw your truck outside, so I figured I’d stop in.”

Hayden gave Asher his beer. Asher thanked him.

We lifted our glasses to each other and took a drink.

“What’s new with you?” He set his beer down.

“Not much. Just ripping apart a house.”

“How’s that going?”

“Shitty, but that’s typical. I had to pull out a bunch of drywall earlier this week that I hadn’t been planning to replace. But at least we got rid of the smell.”

Thinking about the house made me wonder. Did I forget to lock up when I left? That wasn’t usually something I’d do, but I had the weirdest feeling that I’d left the back door unlocked.

“It still amazes me that Grace remodeled our house on her own while I was gone.”

“Grace is a badass.”

He lifted his glass. “Cheers to that.”

I clinked mine against his. “What about you?”

“I had a job interview yesterday.”

“You thinking of leaving the gym?”

“For this? Yeah. Chief Stanely wants to hire me on at the TFD.”

I raised my eyebrows. That was some news. Asher had been planning to be a firefighter before he’d been sent to prison. Once he’d come home, his record had made him ineligible. “No shit?”

He nodded. “The state changed the law. I’ve gone long enough without re-offending, Chief can hire me. He blindsided me with that news last weekend.”

“Not wasting any time, is he?”

“I have a lot of training to catch up on, so he’s trying to get the formalities out of the way.”

“Your brothers must be excited.” Three of Asher’s brothers were career firefighters with the TFD, including my brother-in-law, Levi.

“They assumed I was fucking with them at first.”

“Naturally.”

The door opened again and I glanced back to see my brothers Luke and Zachary waltz in. Zachary nudged Luke and gestured to the table with the girls—because of course he did—before coming over to the bar.

“Hey, Asher,” Luke said. “I hear the fire department is lowering their standards.”

“How did you know about that?” I asked.

His brow furrowed. “Everybody knows.”

“I didn’t know.”

“That’s because you don’t talk to anybody.”

I shrugged. Fair point.

“Congrats, man.” Luke slapped Asher on the shoulder. “I don’t know how Chief Stanley is going to handle another Bailey on his crew, but that’s his problem.”

“He’s handled Gavin all these years,” Asher said. “That must make him some kind of saint.”

“That’s a fact,” Luke said. “Gavin is nuts.”

Asher chuckled. His youngest brother came by his reputation honestly.