An Unknown Place (5 page)

He squeezed my hand again. I hadn’t even realized I was still holding his hand. This was a big step for me, it was intimate. Our hands felt natural the way they were tangled together. Kellan Freemont may’ve been the best therapy I’d ever had.

Mac

We pulled up outside my apartment building, me sweating profusely and Kellan cool as a cucumber. I was nervous about so many things right then it was hard to list. Would he even want to stay in my tiny apartment once he saw it? Was it clean? Was he expecting anything from me besides a couch to sleep on? Would I be willing to give him anything besides a hug? He was my boss, so should I give him the bed and I sleep on the couch? Did I have any dirty underwear lying around? And finally, the biggest question…What was I thinking agreeing to let him stay?!

I got out and, without thinking, clicked the car locked via the door car lock. I heard a muffled hit to the door and turned around. Kellan got out a moment later, after I watched him messing with the door.

“Locked me in the car.”

“Sorry, I didn’t think.” Obviously.

If I had been thinking I would’ve called Cam and freaked out about this before I offered for him to stay with me. I knew what she would’ve said to me,
Just let him stay. He ain’t gonna bite. And if he did, I know where he lives – I have his hospital records.
I took her in my head advice and laughed.

“What?” Kellan asked.

I hadn’t realized I had a whole conversation in my head while he watched. Maybe he wouldn’t want to stay with the crazy lady now.

“Just thinking about what Camille, Cam, would say about this little arrangement.” I said honestly.

“Is Cam that paramedic?”

“Yeah. She’s my best friend.”

“Ah, well her familiarity with you makes sense now.”

“So are you ready to settle in?” I asked.

“Actually, I’m starving. Anywhere around good for food?”

“There’s a place around the corner. It’s a Thai restaurant called Nai Thai. Best in Vegas.”

“Can I get take out, bring it back here?”

“Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll call in an order. Do you want anything special?”

“I’ll eat pretty much anything.”

And at that comment our normal conversation went from ho-hum to hot-hot. For some reason, which made no sense to me since I hadn’t had a sexual urge in forever, I had a flash of what he might look like naked. I saw him coming at me with a pair of jeans on and nothing else. Oh God. I wanted Kellan. Oh my God.

Pre-Maryland I had been fairly free and loose with my love. I had good sex and accepted nothing less. If a guy got down to business and didn’t know what he was doing, he wasn’t going to be able to get me off. I dismissed men if they weren’t adept with
all
of their appendages. I would literally tell them to leave if they didn’t do it for me – even if we were right in the middle of sex.

In the most recent times, I flinched at a man’s touch. I hadn’t talked to a man romantically in so long there were probably cobwebs not only in that part of my brain but also that part of my body. Maybe not my body since my silver bullet got, at least, a weekly workout.

I felt Kellan’s heated stare on me before I saw it. He had fire in his eyes and a lust fueled face. It scared me. It was okay if I was dealing with my own hormones but someone else’s – especially a man’s – not so much. I instinctively took a step away from him. What I wasn’t ready for was the curb right behind me. I stepped awkwardly, ungracefully falling on my ass and elbows.

Kellan was next to me an instant later pulling me up and laughing. Being laughed at I could handle. At least I had broken the tension.

“You alright there, Grace?”

“I’m good.” He released me from his hold and I suddenly felt cold and alone. I walked toward my apartment. “Uh, do you want me to come with you?”

“Nah, I have GPS. You know the address?” I pulled my phone out and found the address, quickly rattling it off to him.

“I’ll place the order under Mac.”

I was glad to have a minute to gather my thoughts, as well as gather my things off the floor and straighten a little. I realized Kellan and I hadn’t exchanged numbers yet.

“Call me if there’s an issue.” I yelled to his back.

Kellan turned from the opened driver’s side door. He pulled his phone out and dutifully put my number in. I waved him off and ran upstairs, unlocking my apartment as quickly as I ever had. My phone dinged a minute later.

Unknown Number:
See you in a minute. ;)

Did he have to send the winky face? Emoticons were the devil. My palms were sweaty and I could feel my nerves getting the best of me. However, all of that was forgotten when I saw the state of my apartment. I immediately started cleaning and hoped I had time for a shower.

Kellan

I didn’t want to let her out of my sight but I had to call Jake and we needed food. I could tell she was nervous and decided that we definitely needed to talk about whatever had happened in Maryland. I wanted to banish whatever had put that haunted look in her eyes. I punched the address into the GPS and took off. I found Jake’s number and hit send, putting him on speaker phone.

“How’d it go?” Jake said in greeting.

“Well, I’m out of the hospital. Thanks for asking how I am. Dick.” When I didn’t get any response, I knew he was waiting for an answer to his original question. He could be a little uptight at times. “I made the deal with The Strip.”

“No shit?!” He screeched through the phone like a little girl.

“No shit. I can’t take all the credit, though. I have a connection here that helped me out a lot.”

“Buy him a bottle of the nicest top shelf you can find, man. We need to celebrate!”

I knew Jake would be pumped about the deal. I hadn’t felt the need to correct him when he referred to my connection as a man or the fact that I was going to be funding part of said connection’s salary. I should’ve taken the high Jake was on and broken that news to him but I wasn’t ready to share Mac yet. We’d been coexisting in a little bubble all day, and I was enjoying it. I wasn’t ready to pop it yet by letting the rest of the world in.

I still couldn’t shake the lustful look on Mac’s face earlier. I wanted so badly to put her on the hood of the car and pound into her until there were scratches on the roof. It would’ve been worth whatever repair bill there would’ve been.

Instead of the lustful look continuing it was like me being turned on spooked her. She actually fell trying to get away from me. It broke me a little seeing her scared of me. I had done nothing to deserve that look, but I knew it was a knee jerk reaction. A reaction I wanted to know all about.

Part of the reason I had gone for food was to soften her up a little bit. Well, that and I hadn’t eaten all day. I was starving. Even if the Thai tasted horrible I would never know it, since it would be in my stomach before I could taste it.

“When are you getting back so we can start planning?” Jake asked me.

There were a lot of things to start planning now that I’d made the deal with The Strip. New taps to order, probably a bigger freezer, promotional gear…the list was pretty much endless. But for once in my life, I wanted to put it on the back burner. I wanted to put Mac and I first. I wanted to see where this would go. I wanted to let someone in. Someone who didn’t seem all that interested in being let in.

“We’ll see – maybe a day or two.” I knew I couldn’t put Jake and our business off for longer than that. They wouldn’t let me.

“Well, you might want to get back sooner rather than later.” Jake sounded on edge and I wondered what had put that there.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“Carmine called.”

Of course he did. Of course my father would call now that I’d found a skiddish girl I could barely hold onto myself, let alone if I added my family into it.

“Did he say what he wanted?” I clipped out quietly, trying desperately to keep myself calm.

I could already feel my face turning red. I had my father’s temper. When I was younger he and I would fight and you would think the house was coming down around us. Neither one of us had ever thrown a punch at the other, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t ever happen.

“Said he’d only talk to you. Something about your brother.”

“No doubt he’s in trouble.”

“Yeah, well, I just don’t want him here.”

Him and me both. I hung up on Jake. I knew him well enough to know he wouldn’t take it personally; I just couldn’t talk to anyone right then. I got his message. I was done.

I had just pulled up to Nai Thai and saw that right next door, conveniently, was a liquor store. I was going to roll with fate on this one.

Mac

I heard a knock at the front door, and pulled a t-shirt over my head. When I pulled the front door open I found Kellan, bogged down with a lot of bags. More bags than there should’ve been with just our food.

I led him into the kitchen and he put down his haul. I smelled the aroma of the Yellow Curry Chicken I had ordered. My mouth watered. Had I eaten anything? Nope. I’d forgotten.

“So I got the food. And then there was a little liquor store next door. I figured, why not.” He had three bags of liquor/beer in addition to our one food bag. “I didn’t know what you’d like so I got a variety.”

I walked over to the cabinet, which held my stash, and opened it. I had all kinds of liquor. I had beer in my fridge as well. I was a bartender. I had been hired on the side to work weddings and business functions. I was always given the left over liquor. Now, I had even more. I wasn’t a huge drinker, but apparently Kellan was.

After he saw the amount of booze in my tiny kitchen he looked abashed.

“The more the merrier, right?” I said, trying to soothe that look. It’s not like he had done it to be mean. It was nice. “Although, I’m surprised you’d want to drink anything after what happened to you.”

“Gotta get back on the horse sometime. You’re not going to drug me, are you?”

I understood the question being asked, and that he was joking, but I didn’t know why he was
really
asking. Something must’ve triggered the comment. What if I said yes?

“Of course not.”

“I trust you. I’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“Did you trust the woman who drugged you at the airport?”

I watched as he mulled it over.

“No. Not at all.”

He grabbed the bag of food and a bottle of tequila and went into the living/dining room. I lived in a three room flat. The only things that were separated were the bathroom and the bedroom. Kellan put down the bottle roughly on the coffee table in front of my tiny television.

There was something off about him, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Something had happened while he’d been gone.

“You alright?” I asked him.

He was acting weird and I had enough weird to go around for all of us. He took a deep breath, blew it out, and leaned back on the couch. He studied my face. I don’t know what he was looking for, but after a beat he said.

“Yeah. Thanks for letting me stay.”

“No problem.”

“But it is isn’t it?”

He really wanted me to lay it all out for him? Could I do that? It was a problem for me, maybe.

Letting people in had taken me a long time. I had four or five people I considered friends, two that knew me well and one that knew my whole story. I didn’t like reliving my past. Maybe that’s why it was still chasing me.

“Are you going to drown yourself in a bottle of tequila tonight?” I asked.

“Depends, are you going to join me?”

“What kind of drunk are you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do. Are you angry, flirtatious, honest…physical?”

“Tonight I might be angry.” That didn’t sound like the Kellan I had seen for most of the day. I knew he had a temper, but only when he was provoked or frustrated. I knew he was being honest but I didn’t like his answer.

“Alright, spill,” I said, pulling out the container of Yellow Curry and digging in. If I drank right then I would be drunk after a couple of sips. I was small and hadn’t eaten all day.

“I love this tequila…I would never!” I knew he was joking because I had hit close to home. I hit on something he didn’t want to talk about.

“What happened while you were gone?” I hadn’t dug into a man’s personal life in a while. Maybe it was a girlfriend issue.

“My father called Jake.” Kellan opened the Tequila bottle, deftly swigging it back. Him and a bottle like that were no strangers.

“Is that a big deal?”

“Last time he called he asked me to help my brother, Tonio, keep the business going while he was locked up.” I schooled my features so he couldn’t see the shock on my face. I wondered if Kellan had gone and helped his brother. “I laughed in his face and hung up. He called a few weeks after that call and told me he was joking. Was pissed I couldn’t take a joke. I don’t think he was joking though…”

“Do you miss them?” I could tell pain when I saw it. Like identifies like.

“Yeah.”

He took another drink from the bottle. I took a few more bites of chicken and held it out for Kellan. I held out my other hand to take the bottle. He made the exchange I was silently asking him to make.