Nine, the Tale of Kevin Clearwater Read online

  I roll my eyes. “Of course, I don’t think that. You know me, but I’m not exactly dressed for a bonfire.” I wave my hands down my body to bring her attention to the fitted black sleeveless dress I’m wearing that barely grazes my mid-thigh. “And these aren’t exactly outdoor shoes.” I lift my foot to show her the heel on my nude four-inch pumps.

  “You look fantastic. You always do.”

  I put my foot down. “I look ridiculous.”

  “You want me to ask our driver to turn around and take us back to your house so you can change? I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”

  I manage to smile at my friend. She’s right. We’ve always talked about going to one of these parties, but Jared smashed the idea down the one time I’d brought it up saying how dangerous it would be. Man, he really was fucking boring. A realization hits me.

  “Shit, Yuli, am I…boring?”

  “Drunk and boring, but yeah, boring nonetheless.”

  I gasp.

  Yuli grabs my arm. “Don’t worry. It hasn’t spread yet; there’s still time for a cure…but only if you’re willing to walk on the wild side with me tonight.”

  “Cure me, Yuli.”

  “Yes! That’s my girl!” She hugs me, then looks up with her arms still around my shoulders. “Do you want to go change first? Personally, I’d go wearing what you have on because one thing that dress isn’t is boring.”

  “You’re the nurse,” I say. “The dress it is.”

  “You are going to have fun tonight Lenny,” she lowers her voice to evil-movie-villain level. “Even if I have to kill you.”

  “I thought the expression was ‘even if it kills you?’”

  “Not tonight it’s not.” She shrugs off her light jean jacket, “Here. This might make the look a little more casual.”

  I take it and shrug it on.

  “Perfection, my dahlin’,” Yuli purrs. She looks at me for a minute then scrunches her nose.

  “What?” I ask. “Do I have something on my face?”

  A wide grin takes up her entire face. “No, I just realized something. You’ve only ever dated Jared. So, you’ve never broken up with anyone before, which means you’ve never discovered the best part of a breakup.”

  “And?” I ask, waving my hand for her to continue. “That is?”

  The Uber turns onto a dirt road while Yuli starts dancing, grinding her hips to the music coming from somewhere beyond the trees. “The best part of a breakup, my dear Lenny, is finding someone new to fuck.”

  The Uber driver stops in front of what looks like the woods. “We’re here,” he says. “Have a good night, ladies.”

  “Here?” I ask, peering out the window at nothing. “Where is here?”

  “Thank you!” Yuli shouts, hopping out of the car.

  “Fuck, even my thoughts are boring,” I mutter to myself, climbing out of the car.

  “What’s that, miss?” The driver calls out.

  “I said have a good night, sir,” I reply before shutting the door.

  I join Yuli who bounces on her sneakers with excitement while I navigate the soft earth in my ridiculous shoes and try not to fall.

  “Through here.” Yuli heads to a break in the bushes, revealing a small pathway between. I’ve been all over Logan’s Beach while running Leary Real Estate, but very rarely on this side of the causeway. I don’t even think I’ve ever been on this road before.

  “You sure about this?” I ask as we continue deeper into the wooded area.

  Yuli gives me a you’re killing my vibe look.

  I take a deep breath and fluff my hair. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. Let’s do this.” I pull the strap out from inside of my purse and sling it over my shoulder.

  The path leads us through some more trees into a large open field beside a farm of some sort with knee high green plants in dozens of neat rows.

  Despite all my reservations, I find my heart thumping in my chest with excitement. Yuli is right. Doing something completely out of my element is exactly what I need tonight.

  The open area beside the farm is filled with people. Overhead, white lights hang from wires zigzagging from large metal poles in the corner. A fire pit in the center rages with a fire at least ten feet tall. There are a ton of bikers, mostly members of The Lawless MC, but there are more than just bikers here. Some men don’t have cuts. Some don’t even have shirts. There are women everywhere, and couples all over, laughing or grinding on one another on top of the back deck, lawn chairs, the grass…every available surface space.

  “How exactly did you know about this party?” I whisper to Yuli who looks like she just walked through the gates of heaven, staring out over the yard in complete awe and wonderment.

  “I invited her,” a voice answers.

  We both turn to find a woman in her mid to early twenties with long icy blonde hair and matching bright eyes smiling at us.

  “Lenny, this is Ray,” Yuli says, making the introductions.

  “It’s great to meet you,” I tell her. Needing to say something more to sound interesting, I add, “I used to be in real estate, and I never knew about this place.”

  Fail.

  “We like to keep things pretty private around here,” she says. “Welcome to Logan’s Beach’s first medical marijuana field. We are celebrating the first contract for Clearwater Cannabis.”

  A business opening party? I’ve been to those before. This isn’t really so different if you don’t consider the location, bikers, half-naked women, and the marijuana field center piece.

  Ray gives Yuli with a warm hug. “I’m so glad that you could make it. Come on, let’s get you two a drink.”

  “How do you two know each other?” I ask as Ray leads the way over to a wooden deck area next to a small building I assume houses the field offices. Ray playfully shoves a biker who’s sitting on top of a big cooler. He stands and steps to the side.

  Ray digs around in the ice and emerges with three beers, handing one to each of us.

  “Yuli was the nurse in the ER the night my daughter, Nicole Grace, swallowed a refrigerator magnet,” Ray says, looking sad for a moment before glancing gratefully over at Yuli. “She saved her life.”

  “Well, one thing is for sure. I’ll never look at Hello Kitty the same way ever again,” Yuli responds with a laugh.

  “That’s right. It was a Hello Kitty…” Ray and Yuli continue their conversation as I turn and look around the yard. The music and people are infectious. If Jared knew I was here, he’d…it doesn’t matter. He chose to leave. Me. Us. This town. What he’d think or feel is irrelevant because the bastard isn’t here.

  I notice a lot of men staring in my direction, and I can’t help but feel flattered, if not slightly to majorly uncomfortable. I turn back around to Yuli and Ray, and my heel gets caught in the grass. Thankfully, Yuli breaks my fall.

  “What size shoe do you wear?” Ray asks, pointing at my feet.

  “A seven. They fit just fine, but they aren’t exactly all-terrain.”

  Ray chuckles. “On the other side of this building is an RV. I changed in there earlier, and I know I have a few pairs of flip flops stored inside. Check the blue tote bag in the cabinet under the stove. I’m sure you’ll find what you need in there. There’s no reason to be uncomfortable all night.”

  “Oh my god, you’re like my shoe guardian angel,” I say. “Thank you!”

  I raise my beer over my shoulder to salute her because I’m already halfway around the building to the RV. It’s one of those older, tour bus models. The kind that Beyoncé wouldn’t be caught dead in, but the perfect fit for say a recently reunited boy band’s grand tour of Northern Iowa.

  I push through the crowd of people and enter the darkened RV that feels like another world compared to the party raging outside. It’s quiet in here. Too quiet. I hurry to find the better shoe options so I can get back outside to the blissful mind-numbing noise.

  I can’t find the light switch, and only the dim light from the moon
is shining through the small window. I kick off my shoes and hold them in one hand while I navigate through the small kitchen. I locate the stove and crouch down. I find the bag and unzip it. Sure enough, there are a few pairs of flip flops inside. I grab a pair of comfortable-looking black ones and shove my feet into them.

  An eerie feeling like before hisses down my neck like dozens of tiny snakes sinking their needle-like fangs into my skin as they go.

  That’s my cue to leave.

  I turn and race back to the door, but I collide head-on with a massive wall of a road block. My hands shoot out to brace myself, and I immediately notice that the wall is warm. And hard. And muscular. And smells like cigarette smoke and light masculine cologne.

  Probably, because it’s not a wall. It’s a him.

  “Do you make stealing from people a habit?” a deep raspy voice filled with warning asks.

  I raise my eyes, and dread pools in my stomach. Immediately, I recognize the owner of the hard, good-smelling wall-chest. The man from the alley.

  Nine.

  His eyes are dark and serious. Heated just like his skin…oh, shit. His skin. I can still feel the warmth of his skin through his shirt because I’m still touching him.

  I take a step back, but he grabs my arms and holds me firmly in place.

  “What are you doing here?” I ask breathlessly.

  “What am I doing here? You’re on my side of the causeway. In my RV. The question is, what the fuck are you doing here?”

  “I suppose you’re going to be yet another person who tells me that I don’t belong here? Fine. Let me go, and I’ll leave.”

  “You’ll leave when I say you can. Why are you in here?” He slowly moves forward until my back is flush with a wall of cabinets.

  “Ray told me to come in here and borrow a pair of her shoes,” I grunt. “And, seeing as you don’t know me very well, I’ll just tell you now that I’m not a kid. I can make my own decisions, and I don’t have to answer your questions. Are we clear? I’m a grown woman. I got this.” I push on his chest, but he doesn’t move, and as much as I’m trying to get across my message to this guy, I can’t help my thighs from shaking with his proximity.

  “Yes, you are,” he says, raking me over with his eyes. “But being in here still isn’t a good idea.”

  “Who the hell are you to say that to me? I was invited, and last time I checked, you’re not my keeper. Thanks for saving me from Benny and the Jet in the alley, but I don’t owe you anything. I don’t even know you or anything about you except that your name is Nine, and that you took down those guys in the alley with your fancy necklace that I assume they don’t sell at Tiffany’s.”

  “Do you always talk this much?” he asks, his hard stare shifts gears to slightly amused.

  I swallow hard. “Yep. I have anxiety. The need to fill the silence with word vomit is one of the sexier side-effects. You don’t like it? I’ll be happy to be on my merry, babbling way.”

  “Maybe, I do like it.”

  We’re both quiet, save for the loud pounding of my heart beneath my ribs. “I should get back to my friend,” I say, but I don’t move.

  “Lenny, you’re not going anywhere,” he growls. He leans in, and his lips brush over mine. My entire body comes alive like a street light buzzing to life.

  “Lenny, there you are!” Yuli shouts opening the door to the RV with a loud bang. I jump away from Nine. “Get out here, and have a drink with me. What the hell is taking you so long?”

  I’m leaving when a thought occurs to me, “Wait, how do you know my name?”

  “Lenny!” Yuli calls again.

  He stands there with words on the tip of his tongue, but I decide not to stick around and wait for whatever bullshit answer he’s probably trying to come up with, even though I know the result of not hearing what he might have to say has a high chance of haunting me for the rest of my life and cause me many agonizing nights of sleeplessness.

  But then again, so did the ending of Game of Thrones.

  Because, anxiety.

  Besides, I already have enough material from the past week to keep me awake for ten lifetimes without lumping Nine’s non-answers onto the steaming pile of shit my life has become.

  Yuli is barely keeping up with me as I’m practically running to the cooler, praying I’ll find a chilled bottle of vodka hidden beneath the ice and beer.

  Go ahead, ignore me. See where that gets you.

  I freeze.

  The voice of my anxiety has always been a girl, but suddenly, it’s changed. It’s now a man’s voice.

  And not just any man.

  The voice belongs to Nine.

  * * *

  NINE

  Like all humans, behind my rib cage is an organ that pumps blood to the rest of my body, otherwise known as my heart. I’ve never before paid it much attention.

  Until now.

  Until the light from the moon through the window exposed the pale smooth skin of her neck. Until I breathed in her smell of some girly scented soap. Suddenly, I am all too aware of my heartbeat. Because one second it speeds up, and the next, it feels like it stops all together. Through all this crazy pumping and sputtering the only place it seems to be sending any blood too is straight to my fucking cock.

  I leave my RV and immediately spot Lenny. She’s several yards ahead of me, walking with her friend from the café back toward the bonfire. I follow but keep my distance.

  The little jacket she’s wearing over her scrap of a dress doesn’t mask what it really is or what it does for her body. Low cut in the front, it shows off the swell of her high, rounded breasts generously portioned to her tiny frame. With every step she takes, the fabric of her figure-hugging black dress rides up little by little, along with my pulse. Any minute now, the generous, heart-shaped perfection of her ass is going to be on full display to any man who notices, which will be any man with a heartbeat and a cock.

  She’s oblivious to the stares. To the fact that every man here is probably imagining the same thing I am. Bending her over the nearest anything and taking her rough and hard. That dress is downright dangerous. A distraction I don’t need. I’m supposed to be a danger to Lenny, not the other way around.

  I’m beginning to regret my decision to lure Lenny here by asking Ray to invite Yuli, but I couldn’t resist using Ray’s connection to the nurse who helped her daughter to bring Lenny to me instead of me waiting outside an apartment complex she was obviously never coming out of.

  I fucked up in the RV. I was supposed to go in behind her. Scare the truth out of her. But I hesitated when I saw her.

  When I wanted her.

  It won’t happen again. I’ll get her out of here as soon as I can take her without being noticed to somewhere much more private where I’ll get my answers.

  One way or another.

  Lenny is now bending over the cooler, searching for something in the ice. The bottom crease of her ass peeking out from her dress feeds the lust-filled looks from several men nearby.

  Fuck.

  Unnoticed is going to be damn near impossible.

  Chapter Twelve

  LENNY

  “Victory is mine!” I shout to myself. I found vodka because there is a God. I pour myself a generous amount of the liquid love into a red solo cup. I do a little victory dance and spin around almost colliding with Nine once again.

  “Stalk much?” I ask with a hand on my hip.

  “Lately or in general?” he smirks. His humor takes me by surprise, and I find that I don’t know how to respond to him when he’s not being the scary man lurking in the shadows or in alleyways.

  “It doesn’t matter, either will keep me awake at night,” I admit.

  He sucks in his bottom lip. “Why, are you planning on dreaming about me, Lenny?”

  I stand on my tip toes and stare right into his beautiful arrogant eyes. “We all have nightmares, Nine.”

  “Nine!” We both turn to see a man approaching. It’s Pike. The guy from the pawn shop
. He greets Nine with a bro-hug and a back-slap, then turns to me. “Lenny, I’m surprised to see you here.”

  Pike gives Nine one of those knowing side glances. “Trina says that your stuff’s going faster than we thought. I should have a dollar amount for you soon, but don’t expect much. A lot of the time, it’s only twenty percent of the value, less after fees.”

  “Thank you,” I say. Hopefully, it will be enough to turn the electric back on while I search for a job, which gives me an idea. “Pike, if you’re ever hiring, can you keep me in mind? I’m looking for a job.”

  “You want to work in a pawn shop?” Nine asks.

  “I don’t want to work anywhere. Like most of the population, I want to sun my bare ass in Cabo, but those aren’t the cards I’ve been dealt, which leads us back to the current question at hand. Are you hiring? Because I used to work in real estate. I know the value of things.”

  “Values of buildings and houses aren’t the same as the value of jewelry or instruments,” Pike points out, tipping up his beer.

  I shrug. “You’re right. I know the real estate market is so different from the market for goods and valuables.” I point with my beer to a stilt house lit up between the trees across the field. “For example, I can tell you that house is an Old Florida style stilt home built in the 1940’s and is very rare, since the majority of homes left in this area, with that particular style are newer bungalows, whereas that one is three stories and would be considered an estate or governor-style home. It’s been renovated, and the interior has yet to be seen, but as long as it supports the feel of the original design, that’s what matters. The real money is in its location, off the beaten path but close to both sides of the causeway with water access through the bay on the other side. I’d estimate the value to be somewhere in the high six to low seven figures.”