“Beer.” He grinned as I popped the top on a Bud and put it in front of him within seconds of the word leaving his mouth. “Nice moves, by the way. You handle yourself well.”
I should, I thought with a grimace. I had spent years learning self-defense and martial arts so that I would never be at the mercy of someone else again. “Want anything else?” I ignored his complement.
His smile stayed in place. He was not in the least bit intimidated by me. I kind of liked that. “As a matter of fact, yes. You run the place?”
I shrugged. “My boss is on vacation.” Of course I had been running the place pretty effortlessly for the last two years on my own without Mel having to worry about it. She liked that I ran the everyday of Safe Haven. It gave her time to enjoy her life. And if anyone deserved it Mel did. She had taken me in, fed me, given me a job and been the mother figure in my life that I had always needed. She hadn’t looked down on my Goth side, nor chastised me for running away when I was younger. Mel knew what it meant to have a hard life and she wasn’t going to hold it against anyone else for doing what they had to do to survive in the big bad world.
Kieran, or Stone as everyone in the MMA called him because of his hard punches, nodded. “Good. So you probably know the person I’m looking for. I heard through a friend that she was working here.”
“She?” I questioned. I was the only ‘she’ that worked at Safe Haven. Everyone else was bouncers. We had six. Two Monday through Thursday and four on Fridays and Saturdays. My eyes narrowed on the fighter and I dropped my hand to my side. “What’s her name?”
“Rebecca Daventry.” He spoke the name and my entire body went ice cold. I hadn’t heard that name in over five years. There was no way of knowing how this man knew that name, because I sure as hell had never seen him in person before today...Or maybe I did know the reason he knew that particular name.
But I didn’t betray my inner turmoil by so much as blink. “What do you want with her? She family?”
“Her grandfather sent me to check up on her.” He took a deep swallow of the beer. “He knew I was going to be in the area for a fight and asked me to make sure she was alright.”
“I might know a Rebecca.” I told him after the smallest of hesitations. “But that doesn’t mean I’m just going to tell you where she is or whatever.” Someone called out for a beer and I sent a glare in the general direction of the caller. “Give me a minute.” I yelled back.
Stone nodded. “Understandable.”
“Maybe the Rebecca I know isn’t even the Rebecca you are looking for.” I leaned closer, trying to read the expression in those hypnotic steel grey eyes. “You got anything other than a name? You say you are here for her grandfather but have you even met the girl?” He shook his head. “So how you going to know if it’s her or not?”
He dug into his back jeans pocket and pulled out his wallet. The leather was handcrafted and expensive. Stone pulled out a small picture and offered it to me. I refused to let my fingers tremble as I took it and frowned down at the picture.
Long red hair with a mixture of gold and sunshine natural highlights. A dimple in her left cheek that went perfect with the innocent, almost carefree smile. And vibrant blue eyes so full of sweet little girl innocence. Her peaches and cream complexion was perfect and nearly radiant. The designer clothes she wore told me that she came from a rich, well to do family…One that should have taken better care of her.
I handed the picture back to Stone. “That girl couldn’t be more than sixteen.” Fifteen in that picture, I knew because it had been the last picture I had ever smiled in. Taken my sophomore year—my last year—of boarding school. I had been happy then. I had had friends at boarding school; teachers that looked after me for the most part. “The Rebecca I know is in her twenties.”
Wide, powerful shoulders shrugged. “It was the only one her grandfather had. They haven’t seen each other in a few years. But how much can someone change in five years right?”
More than you could ever know, I thought as I moved away to serve a few drinks. I had to have a few minutes to get control on the anger that I could feel slipping. Anger was the driving force that had saved me from so much over the years; anger which had turned darker than the lipstick that I currently wore. Mel had helped me push most of it down, helped me move on from my past. But Kieran Stone was bringing everything to the surface and I didn’t know if I was ready for that.
It was more than fifteen minutes before I returned to the end of the bar. Stone was sitting patiently, playing with the label on his beer. That was what had made him so good in the steel cage world of MMA, his patience. He could be as enduring as a cobra, hypnotizing you into feel calm right before he struck. I set another beer in front of him before he could ask. “So…When you check up on Rebecca, what do you plan on doing? There must be a reason why her grandfather wants you to check up on her now. You said that they haven’t seen each other in years…Why now?”
“I’m just the messenger here…” He frowned. “What’s your name?”
“Goth Girl.” I supplied. It was what everyone called me at Safe Haven.
His shook his head. “Your real name, baby.” The way he called me baby…Okay, not going to go there.
My eyes narrowed, but I found myself giving him my name anyway. “Reese.”
“I’m just the messenger, Reese. I owed the old man a favor and he called it in. I have no idea what went on between the two. All I know is that he asked me to check in on her and to give her something.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.” He took another long swallow and I looked away, hating the fact that I had started to become mesmerized by the way his throat moved as he swallowed. He sat the beer down, half empty after only one drink. “So can you help me out?”
I thought about that for nearly a minute. I had no reason to believe this guy, but something told me that I could trust him. I glanced at the skull covered watch on my wrist. It was just after one in the morning. The bar closed at two thirty and I still had to clean up. “I can help you.” I grabbed a napkin and wrote out an address on it. “She lives here. But she won’t be home right now. Best time to try and catch her is between three and four in the afternoon.” And he was sure in for a little surprise when he found me there.
He glanced down at the address and nodded. “Thanks, Reese.” He stood and tossed a few bills on the bar top. “I really appreciate it.”
I inclined my head. “You wouldn’t have gotten that address unless I trusted you. Which is really crazy. I don’t trust anyone.” Except for maybe Mel, but that had taken time. “Don’t make me regret trusting you, Stone.”
He just grinned as he walked away. His stride both confident and dangerous.
I stared after him for a long moment, my eyes more fascinated with the sight of his rear in those expensive jeans than I had ever been in my life. “Hey, how about another beer over here?” Someone called.
I grunted and returned my mind to work, trying to forget all about Kieran Stone for now.
Chapter 2
I didn’t get home until seven. I had helped the bouncers clean up, then did paperwork for a few hours so I wouldn’t have to do it when I first got back to the bar that evening. After I got home, the first thing I did was shower and wash away the smell of booze and smoke. Then I fell into bed in my flannel pajamas and snuggled under the covers.
But I didn’t fall asleep right away. My mind was too alert for that. So I tried to listen to the humming of the AC and count sheep. Instead my mind kept going back to Kieran Stone. Lord, the man was sexy. On TV during one of his cage fights I had been interested. In person he was so overwhelmingly sexy that even I, who had never had such a problem before, had been enthralled.
He was in Phoenix for a fight, that much I knew for sure. But that fight wasn’t for two weeks yet, or so all the advertisements I had been seeing had informed me: A billboard, a few posters, and of course the marquee outside the Comerica Theatre, even a commercial
or two over the last month or so. It wasn’t uncommon for such a fight to take place in Phoenix, but Stone was such a high ranking fighter in the MMA that I would have thought it would have been in Vegas. His last five fights had taken place there, after all.
When I thought about his reasons for being in Safe Haven tonight I gritted my teeth. So he had owed Greg Daventry a favor? Plenty of athletes owed the old man favors. Greg Daventry liked making money, but he loved sports to the point that he was forever investing his money on football players, baseball teams, and boxers. It hadn’t surprised me that Kieran Stone was among the long list of celebrity athletes that Greg was involved with. Hell, I wouldn’t be all together surprised if he was the money behind the upcoming MMA fight.
When I thought about the man who was my grandfather I couldn’t help a little of the old anger surfacing. It had been five years since I had ran away, longer really since I had last seen the man who was my paternal grandfather. When my father had died I had been seven and Greg had promised to take care of me. Of course that had only meant on the financial end. I had rarely seen the old man over the years, not even on holidays or birthdays. I, like everything else in his life, had to be penciled in to so much as speak to him on the phone.
So I was confused as to why Greg was interested in knowing how I was after so long. I had little doubt that he had known about my running away right away. He hadn’t even responded to my many urgent calls before all the shit had hit the fan. And I had taken great stakes to make sure I was never found by my mother and stepfather when I had first left. Not that they would have tried all that hard, I was sure. The only reason my stepfather had cared if I was around or not was to….
Yeah, not going there!
But it looked like I had not covered ever base as well as I had thought if my grandfather now knew where I was. Most likely he had found me through my social security number, which I had used to file my taxes. Still, I was a little confused as to why he had sent someone else and not came himself, but then again I was only his granddaughter, not someone that was all together that important. Not the way his business or his passion for the sports he invested in were.
Sighing I rolled onto my belly and forced all thoughts from my brain. Breathing deep and practicing the meditation that Mel had taught me. Mel was big into yoga. She was big into all sorts of hobbies lately with so much free time on her hands now that I was running things for her.
A small smile touched my lips as I thought of my mentor. In her late forties, Mel was still attractive even with the hard life that she had lived. She was born addicted to crack then had been pushed through the foster system from day one. She had quit school, ditched her last foster family and started working on the streets. Addiction had found her again and she had worked for her next fix until her best friend had been murdered in front of her.
After that she had fought her way out of the drug haze and somehow had bought Safe Haven, a bar that catered to all walks of life. I didn’t know all the details, but I was sure I knew more about Mel than most. Just as she knew more about me than anyone in the world…
I had met Mel when I walked into Safe Haven right off the bus from Indiana. I had shown her my fake ID that had said I was nineteen. Reese Graves was the name on the ID and I had liked it the best of the three fake names. She had taken one look at me, seen right through all my Goth paint and offered me a job, knowing full well that I was not nineteen. I hadn’t started tending bar right away. Instead I became Mel’s assistant. I was great at bookkeeping and had mad organization skills. I cleaned up her office, started keeping the books for her and took care of all the errands that she couldn’t do herself.
She helped me get my GED and then took me to my first self-defense class when I had confessed my reasons for running away. Mel became the mother that I needed, and I became something more to Mel: A daughter, a confidant, a friend.
I stayed with her until I was eighteen and then I started handling everything. Bartending on the weekends, organizing her life through the week. Mel had gotten sick two years ago, nothing terribly serious, but I had stepped in and conned her into taking some time to herself. I had everything covered, the bar was making more money than it had when I first started working for her, and she knew that Safe Haven was in good hands…
The ringing of my doorbell, followed by the pounding on the door woke me. I rubbed sleep from my eyes and glanced at the clock. Three thirty. I groaned and grabbed my robe on my way to the door. My apartment was small so it didn’t take long to reach it. I knew who it was, but took time to take a peek to make sure before opening it.
“Yeah?” I yawned, resting my head on the door and closing my eyes, fighting my way out of the sleep fog.
There was a long pause and I opened my eyes to find Kieran Stone staring at me with…Was that lust in his eyes? There was certainly something, an electricity coming off of him that drew me to look at him. I pushed my hair from my eyes. My real hair, the red tresses with the gold and sunshine natural highlights, not the black wig I wore to work. With no makeup and simple pajamas on I looked nothing like Reese Graves, Goth Girl, and ruler of everything inside of Safe Haven.
I looked like an older version of Rebecca Daventry.
“Rebecca?” He asked, his voice deep and just a little rough around the edges, completely different from his voice from the night before. When he said that name I had that strange feeling again, the deep-muscles-coming-alive feeling. I didn’t like it. In fact it terrified me.
“That would be me.” I rubbed a hand across my face, trying to get completely woken up. “Kieran Stone.” I stepped back. “Come in.” I turned and let him shut the door as I moved into the little kitchen to start some much needed coffee. “Want some?” I asked when I found him standing in the doorway of the kitchen.
His eyes were taking everything about me in. It was unsettling, because the only person who had ever looked at me like that was The Pervert. But there was something different about the look in Stone’s eyes, completely unlike that of my stepfathers. It wasn’t leering and it sure as hell didn’t disgust me. In fact I found myself sneaking appraising glances of my own as I went about making the pot of coffee.
“Your friend Reese must have told you I was coming.” He shook his head, a smile on his face. It was so not fair that he was that sexy. His white tee stretching over his bulging muscles, jeans that hung low on his hips. His face was not run of the mill handsome, not with that nose that had been broken at least twice, but I couldn’t help thinking that he was the most appealing man I had ever come across.
I blinked, completely surprised that Stone hadn’t realized that I was Reese. I mean yeah, sure I had been Goth Girl last night. But couldn’t he see beyond the paint to the girl beneath? That dead-muscle-coming-to-life feeling tightened and I busied myself making the coffee to hide the hurt and anger. Anger directed solely at myself for being hurt! What was the matter with me?
“Yeah, she told me.” I bit out as I loaded my mug with sugar and cream while the coffee perked. “So how is the old man?” I asked, my tone full of everything I felt for Greg Daventry. It wasn’t a pretty sound, my feelings: The coldness, the anger, the hurt…Mostly the hurt.
He shrugged those bulging muscles that were his shoulders, and despite my new dislike of this beast of a man, I found my gaze compelled as I watched the smooth movements. “He is good, I guess.” He pulled a thick envelope from under his arm and I saw my name scrolled across it in handwriting I remembered as that of my grandfather’s. “He asked me to give you this.”
I didn’t reach for the envelope and he just set it on the counter beside of him. “He also asked me to tell you that he is sorry.” There was something in his eyes, something that told me maybe he understood my anger, and didn’t judge me for mine. I would have felt comforted by his understanding if my heart hadn’t been aching so much right then from the hurt he had inflicted on me mere moments ago.
I clenched my jaw, but didn’t say anything. Finally the coffee was done
and I poured it into my mug. When I offered him a cup with a wave of the pot he just shook his head. “Well, thanks for delivering Greg’s message and the paperwork.”
He stiffened at my dismissive tone. “Am I keeping you from something, Rebecca?” He glanced around, as if looking for something—or someone. His steel grey eyes were narrowed a little and I noticed a ticking in his clenched jaw.
“Yeah. I have to get ready for work.” I took a big swallow of the coffee, not caring that it burnt my tongue; in fact I welcomed the pain. “So if you will excuse me?” I crossed back to the front door and held it open.
He frowned down at me as he passed, seeming reluctant to leave. But I really wanted him gone. His nearness affected men, made me nervous and admittedly excited. Both emotions pissed me off. “Are you working at Safe Haven tonight?”
“I practically live there.” I informed him truthfully.
He seemed to relax a little. “I’ll stop by tonight, then.”
I gave him a cold smile. “Sure.” And then I slammed the door in his handsome face.
“Jerk!” I muttered to myself as I went back into the kitchen to retrieve my coffee. “And to think I had actually liked that loser!”
As soon as those words left my mouth I stopped, frozen in my tracks and gasped. I liked Kieran Stone? I tasted the truth of those words and clenched my fists. “Stupid!” I scolded myself as I snatched up mug of coffee and, after a brief hesitation, the envelope with my name on it.
()
I was sorting through some bills that needed my attention. The bar didn’t open for another hour or so. I was caught up in the papers spread out before me, taking occasional bites of the dinner I had picked up on my way to work, and not really paying attention to much else.
So the hand that landed on my shoulder made me squawk and I grabbed for the baton strapped to my thigh instinctively. A feminine laugh made me relax before I had even flicked my wrist to extend the steel bar and my heart started to slow its erratic beating. “Mel!” I exclaimed, both happy to see my mentor and friend, as well as annoyed. “I nearly brained you!”