The UN Series Complete Box Set (65 page)

“You’re not working today!”

We all turn to face Tate as he stands with his arms crossed over his chest. If he hadn’t have repeated the same words I told her earlier, I would have been mad.

“I have to,” she snaps. I lean against the counter and take a sip of my beer. The fact that she’s pissed off at Tate and not me makes me happy.

“The bar can live without you for a day.”

Her mouth falls open and she looks to me. I shrug. “I already told you earlier you were not working today.”

“But—”

“Actually,” Holly interjects timidly, “when Micah told me what happened this morning, I immediately called and got someone to cover your shift, Sam.”

Angel lets out a puff of air when she looks at Holly. I can tell she does not like the fact that everyone wants her to stay home today. “That was nice of you. Thank you,” she says, trying to act appreciative.

The girls strike up a conversation about the work schedule for next week, and I look over at Tate. The feeling of happiness is now gone. What if he had a part in last night? I mean yeah, I said I had enemies, but for one to come after me right after he shows up… is it a coincidence? That’s just something I’m going to have to find out.

I turn to face him and speak quietly. “You seem to know everything about me and Angel. So, I’m guessing you know where I work?”

“Yeah,” he answers just as quietly.

“Why don’t you come by tomorrow? Say around one?”

He looks at me hesitantly. “May I ask why?” He takes a drink of his beer.

“We need to figure out who was in this house, and two heads are better than one.”

He gives me a small nod and I lean back against the countertop with a smile on my face. That’s not the only thing we are going to talk about.

*****

SAMANTHA

We said goodbye to everyone around seven last night. Although I had slept in late, I still feel exhausted.

The girls and I talked about work and having a girls’ day sometime this week. The guys put up the board over the window and Slade took them on a walk-through of the house after they all insisted on looking around for themselves.

As soon as my head hit the pillow my eyes were closed, but not for long. Slade was not as tired as I was and had other things in mind that included handcuffs and a vibrator. I think he was trying to distract me from our crazy day, and it didn’t matter how drained I was, I was not going to turn the man down. But my ass sure is dragging today.

As I park at work, I hear my phone ringing in my purse.

“Crap,” I say trying to dig it out of the bottom. I figure it is Holly wondering where in the hell I am. The alarm company stayed longer than expected, but I was glad they were able to come a day earlier than scheduled. I thought they were just going to put in a keypad, but oh no. Slade had to order some big bad state of the art security system, which took them over an hour to install.

I finally find my phone and pull it out of my purse only to drop it on the floor. After saying a few choice words, I grab it and answer without even looking at the caller ID.

“Hey, I’m about to walk in,” I say as soon as I put the phone to my ear.

The only sound on the other end is silence. “Hello?” I ask. When no one answers, I pull the phone away from my ear to look at it. I sigh when I see it’s a blocked number again.

“You have the wrong number!” I yell, frustrated, trying to put stuff back in my purse.

“No I don’t,” comes a very familiar voice.

I stop dead in my tracks as I try to place the caller’s voice. The first time I heard it was on the other end of the phone line the first time I called Slade. Then the same voice showed up at my work and slashed Nadia’s tires.

Jessica!

“How are things going?” she asks like we are best friends.

“What do you want, Jessica?” I say, affecting a dead tone to my words.

“Oh, you remember me,” she squeals happily. “I was just calling to let you know it’s going to happen.”

I inhale a deep breath, not really wanting to hear what she has to say, but my curiosity wants to know what bullshit she has come up with. “What’s going to happen?”

She laughs a little and it makes me want to throw this phone like the last one I destroyed. “Slade cheating on you,” she states as if it’s obvious.

I remain quiet as I try to decide how to take this conversation. I know Slade is not going to cheat on me. If there’s one thing I have trust in, it’s our relationship.

She laughs again, getting my attention. “You really think he can be faithful? Why would he only be with you when he could have any woman he wants? The only difference between Slade and Jax is that Jax was a careless idiot. Slade knows just what to say to keep you believing him.”

“Listen,” I say, ready to end this conversation. “First, quit calling me from a blocked number. If I really wanted your number, I’m sure getting it wouldn’t be hard. Second, quit trying to get me to believe Slade will cheat on me. It’s not going to work. Give it up already. He wants nothing to do with you. Give up and move on!” I snap.

“You think you know him, but you don’t. You’ll see,” she singsongs before hanging up.

I shake my head and get out of the truck. Even though I don’t believe her, the situation still pisses me off. This is the last thing I want to deal with right now.

Trying to get Jessica out of my mind, I walk inside and decide I need to have a good shift at work.

As I’m pulling cases out in the freezer, Holly walks in. “Sorry I’m late. Slade had this high-tech security system installed today and the guys were taking forever.”

She laughs a little bit. “I thought that was tomorrow?”

“They had a cancellation. So I had them and the glass company there at the same time.”

“Well, at least it’s all done.”

As she turns to walk out, I think of my phone call with Jessica. “Hey, do you have Jessica’s phone number?” I ask.

Holly turns slowly, a scowl on her face. “Why would you want her number?”

“That blocked number that called me a few weeks ago. It was her.”

Her eyes go wide. “How do you know? It was blocked.”

“She just called me again but this time she actually spoke to me. It only took me a few seconds to recognize her.”

“She’s such an idiot.” She gives a little laugh then she looks at me seriously.“You don’t think it was her, do you? The one that broke into the house?”

“No. She’s not that brave. Hell, she’s calling me with her number blocked for Christ’s sake. That was her third time to call and she just hung up when I answered the first two times.”

“True.” She pulls her phone out of her back pocket. “I do not have her number, but let’s check Facebook.”

Five minutes later, we find her Facebook page and we get lucky that it’s not private and she has her phone linked to it, giving us her number. Some bitches can be so stupid.

“What are you doing?” Holly asks as I pull my phone out.

“I’m saving her number to my phone.” Once I add it, I hold it up to show her what I’ve saved her under.

BITCH!

Holly throws her head back, laughing. “That’s awesome!” she says between her snickers. “What did she want anyway?” She bends down to pick up a case of beer and starts to walk out. I follow after her, doing the same.

“To tell me Slade is going to cheat on me.”

She stops so quickly I almost run into the back of her. She spins around to face me. “Sam. You know that’s not true.”

“I know, and I told her just that. That’s why I wanted to save her number. I didn’t believe her shit, so I know that she will continue to call me.”

She nods. “Did you mention how you know she slashed Slade’s tires?”

“No. That would be pointless and I didn’t want to have to talk to the bitch any more than I already had.”

She turns back around and continues to walk and I trail behind. We spend the next ten minutes stocking beer in both the front and small back bar.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you that you are training someone today,” she says as we head back over to the main bar.

I groan and she laughs. “It will just be for a few hours.”

“Who is it?”

“Jeremy. The guy that you said you didn’t like,” she teases with a smile on her face. I frown at her happiness. The last thing I want to do today is train someone. “You won’t have to do too much training,” she explains. “He has been a bartender for the last two years. He is only going to work behind the bar. Since he knows all the drinks all you have to do is show him where we keep everything and how to work our computer system.”

“That’s it?” I ask skeptically.

She nods. “Yep.”

As I walk behind the bar, I hear the back door open. Moments later Jeremy comes into view. I don’t know why, but just the look on his face has me taking a step back from him. His arms are covered in tattoos just like Tate, but Tate’s are tribal work whereas Jeremy’s are scary looking skulls, one even has flames coming out of the eyes. Another one has a dagger through a skull with blood dripping off of it.

I’m not one to judge someone by the art displayed on their body, but do you ever just get a bad vibe from someone? I get it from him, and it could just be because he pissed me off the first time I met him. Whatever the reason, I’m going to have to suck it up because now he and I are going to be working together.

“Hello, I’m Jeremy.” He reaches his hand out to me.

“I know. I remember you,” I reply flatly.

He smiles, and it’s that same cocky smile I remember annoying me that night at the hotel bar.

“Sorry, I forgot that I met you when I came in to get an application.” The sly smirk he has on his face tells me he’s lying through his teeth.

“No. I was talking about the first night I met you.” The smile falls off his face. “You were our bartender at the hotel.”

He stares at me with an expressionless face for a few seconds and it just adds to my unease toward him. He slowly schools his features and looks me in the eyes. “I’m surprised you remember me. Your boyfriend got you pretty drunk that night, but you did seem like one of those uptight chicks who needs a few drinks to loosen up.” Then he spins around and walks off toward the back bar where Holly is standing.

Once I pick my jaw up off the floor, I place my hands on my hips. What the hell was that about? If he remembers me from that night, then why did he act like he didn’t know me when he first came into Larry’s looking for a job? Why did he wait for me to mention it?

“So, Holly said you are training me today,” he says as he walks back over to me, that cocky smile returning.

I just stare at him before I let out a long breath. It’s only for a couple of hours I repeat over and over in my head, but I’m sure as hell not going to be nice. He thinks I’m uptight. I’ll show him uptight.

“That’s the plan,” I state coldly as I start to walk toward the back room. I stop and turn to see him standing there staring at my ass. “You know.” I cross my arms over my chest as I turn my body to face him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, unless you want to get fired.”

He smirks and it makes his lip ring bounce a bit. “You can’t fire me.”

I take a couple of steps toward him and point my finger at his chest. “I can do whatever the hell I want. So, don’t push me.” I don’t know how true that statement is. Holly is the one who pretty much runs this bar. I’m sure if I stomp my foot and throw a fit she would let him go.

“Whatever you say,” he says, sounding bored.

I square my shoulders. “Come on. I’ll show you what we do to set up.” I turn around, once again giving him my back. I try not to turn around and slap him when I get the feeling he is checking out my ass again.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

SLADE

“Slade,” Rose’s voice comes over the intercom.

“Yes?” I answer, finishing up some notes I need for court tomorrow.

“You have a Mr. Tate here.” Of course he shows up three hours late.

“Send him in please.” I quickly put the papers in my drawer as my door opens. I link my fingers together and place them on my lap as I sit back in my chair.

Tate steps into my office and Rose shuts the door behind him. He just stands there as he looks around my large office. “Please, have a seat.” I gesture to the chairs that sit in front of my desk.

“I’m guessing I didn’t come here to talk about the break-in.”

“We can, among other things.”

He continues to just stand there. “What was so important that you needed me to come to your office?” he asks, finally looking at me.

“We need to discuss a few things.”

“Samantha,” he states.

I nod my head and gesture once again to the chairs in front of me. He takes a few steps further into the room and sits, leaning back, mirroring my posture.

“You seem to know so much about me, Tate. Yet I know nothing about you,” I say flatly.

“It’s not like I made assumptions. I just gathered the facts, and the fact is that you use women.”

“If you’re referring to my past. Yes. I fucked around, but I assure that is no longer the case.” I have never denied the way I used to live my life.

“You’re saying you’ve changed?” He pulls his eyes from mine to look at the picture on my desk of Angel and me at the first Rams game we attended. She has her legs wrapped around my waist and her arms around my neck as I give her a piggyback ride.

“Yes,” I say simply.

“I find that hard to believe,” he snorts.

“That’s funny. Because I feel the same way about you.”

“How so?” he asks.

I sit up and place my forearms on my desk. “I think you have other intentions regarding Angel.”

“You think I want her?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

“What man wouldn’t?” I’m not an idiot. I see the way other men look at her, even though she never seems to notice. I never knew I could be so jealous. I never thought one woman would make me want to fight every man just because I know the thoughts he has of her.

He also leans up placing his elbows on his knees. “Any man would be lucky to have her. And for some God forsaken reason she chose you,” he says with a frown.

I stand up and lean over my desk. “Let me get something straight with you. I love Angel and I will kill anyone who touches her, including you,” I growl.

He sits back in his chair with a small smile on his face. “I promise you, you have it all wrong.”

“Then fucking explain it to me.”

“Do you have secrets Slade?” He tilts his head to the side.

“What kind of question is that?” I snap, getting irritated.

“It’s an easy question. Do you have secrets?” He leans up and picks up the picture of Angel and me. “Has Sam told you about my past? About our past?”

I shake my head, confused, as far as I know they don’t have a past other than friendship.

“Marie practically raised me.” He smiles like he’s remembering her. “My mom wasn’t always able to take care of me. That’s why I helped Marie.”

The fact that he had hidden stuff from Angel has me mad at him for a new reason. “You should have told Angel.” I slam my fist down on the desk. “Do you know how much pain she was in? The pain she is still in?” I growl. “I don’t care what she says, I catch her all the time looking up at the fireplace where both of her parents now rest. Why do you think all of her mother’s things are still in boxes in the garage? Because it’s too painful for her to go through them.”

He stands up and folds his arms over his chest. “A secret for a secret,” is all he says.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Fuck, this guy is like a riddle. He keeps changing shit up on me.

“That means I owed Marie,” he spits angrily. “You think it was easy to lie to Sam? It wasn’t.” His voice rises. “Do you know how hard it was to see her at her college graduation? Or to see her around town with that piece of shit, Jax? No! You don’t,” he yells.

I let out a long breath as I look over at him. “What are you not telling me? If you know something, you need to tell me.”

He takes a step back from my desk. “Not everything is what it seems, Slade. All I’m going to say is that I would never tell your secret, but I know that you wouldn’t be able to keep mine.” He turns and starts to walk toward my office door to leave.

I follow after him and spin him around.

I pull my arm back and punch him in the face, making him stumble back. “I’m not keeping any secrets,” I growl.

He places both hands on my chest and shoves me backward. “I don’t want to fight you, Slade. Believe me, I would love to.” He stands there looking at me, and for a second I think we are about to have it out here in my office. “But for Sam’s sake.” He lets out a rough breath. “Hasn’t she gone through enough?” He looks at me and his question makes me feel like a fucking jackass. “She needs everyone on her side right now. Someone is after you, or possibly her.” He throws his hands up in the air. “I’m not your enemy, Slade. I promise. I don’t want her the way you think I do. We should be working together to protect her.”

I take a few steps back and fall into one of the chairs, defeated. “That’s a full time job all on its own,” I mumble.

“Exactly!” he says, sitting down beside me.

I look up at him and see the true concern on his face. “You love her,” I state, trying once again to fight the urge to threaten his life.

He glances over at me. “There are different kinds of love.”

His choice of words does not help ease my jealousy. “I know you have her parents’ rings,” he says, changing the subject and making me nervous as hell. “That’s your secret. You want to ask for her hand in marriage. Believe me when I say, that is not the type of love I feel for her.”

I relax back into the chair and close my eyes. The thought of asking Angel to marry me has my palms sweating.

“I’ll help you keep her mind off looking for the rings,” he says, getting my attention as he stands up.

I stand as well. “What is your secret, Tate?”

“I already told you. I don’t trust you to keep it.” He then turns and walks out of my office, closing the door behind him. And now that I know he is hiding something, I have an uneasy feeling. Even if he doesn’t want Angel, he’s still hiding something from her. The only way to get close to someone is to earn their trust, so that’s what I will do. I’ll become his best friend and learn what I need to know, and then when I find out, I won’t hesitate to tell her what he’s hiding from her.

I turn around and pick up my office phone.

“Hello?” answers Angel’s sweet voice.

“Hey, Angel. How is work going?” I ask, sitting down in my seat.

She lets out a long breath. “Slow.”

“I’m sorry. What time are you going to be off?”

“I have to work a double.”

I frown as I look at the clock on my desk. My workday is done. I wanted to take her out to dinner tonight. “What? Who says?”

“Well, no one told me I had to, but Becky called in sick. I volunteered to cover it for her.”

I lean back in my chair trying to figure out why she takes this bartending job so fucking serious. She does not need the little income she makes working there. “Call someone else to cover for her. I don’t like you working nights, Angel.” I have never liked her working there anyway and I sure as hell don’t want her working nights since our house was broken into.

“I don’t like you telling me what I can and can’t do, Slade,” she fires back.

I sigh. “I know. I just want you to work only day shifts until we find out who broke into the house and why.”

“It’s too late now. I’m working tonight.”

“You should have called me first,” I say, clenching my jaw.

“Why?” she scoffs. “To ask your permission?”

“Well, yeah. What if I had plans for us or—”

“Goodbye, Slade. Don’t wait up.” She hangs up.

I smash the phone down onto the desk. Fuck, she can piss me off with just one word sometimes.

She knew her volunteering to work tonight would piss me off. She knows how I feel about that bar and the scummy men that walk in there to flirt with her. Plus, if a fight breaks out she always seems to be the first one to jump in and try to break it up. That woman is fearless, but also a huge pain in my ass at times.

Tate’s words come back to me
. “We need to work together to keep her safe.”

That is one thing he is right about, and I could use him to my advantage. Angel trusts him and I want her to see me getting along with Tate.

I dial up Josh’s number. “Hey, what’s Tate’s number?” I ask as soon as he answers.

“Slade, don’t call and threaten him,” he says annoyed.

“That’s not why I want his number,” I snap. “Angel offered to work a double tonight and I plan on going up there and hanging out. I figured I could buy Tate a few beers.”

“I don’t believe that for a second,” he offers with a chuckle.

“Believe what you want. All I’m trying to do is keep my girlfriend safe and she continues to get mad at me over it.”

“Yeah, who knew women didn’t like men bossing them around,” he replies sarcastically.

“Just give me the damn number, Josh.”

“Fine.” I write down the number as he rambles it off. “Courtney and I will come up there as well.”

“Think I need babysitter?” I tap the pen on my desk.

“Something like that.”

We hang up, and then I dial the police station to see if they have any new leads before I go home to shower and change.

*****

SAMANTHA

As I clean off the dirty bar top, I try to take a calming breath. Today has been a day from hell. I had to train Jeremy for two very long hours and then Slade gets mad because I offered to work for Becky. I answered the bar phone when she called and she sounded awful. Her daughter screaming in the background probably didn’t help matters either. I felt sorry for her, I wasn’t going to tell her I couldn’t work her shift because it would make my boyfriend mad.

I place the rag in my back pocket after I clean off the bar and turn to wash my hands in the sink when I hear Slade’s voice. I look over my shoulder to see him walking into the bar with Tate right beside him, followed by Courtney and Josh.

I smile at Courtney and Josh. “What are you guys doing here?” I ask looking at Tate.

“We thought we would come and have a few beers,” Slade says clearly not getting the memo that I’m ignoring him.

So, I’ll make it easy for him. “I’m ignoring you,” I say, finally looking him in the eyes.

Tate and Josh laugh as Slade gives me a smirk. “Oh, I figured that was to be expected.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Then what in the hell are you doing here?”

“Actually it was my idea,” Tate chimes in, getting my attention. “I wanted to hang out tonight and Slade said you were working.” He shrugs. “What better place to hang out than a bar?”

The smirk on Josh’s face is telling me that is not completely true. I look at Tate and notice he has a small mark on his chin. “Where did you get that bruise on your face from?” I ask, tilting my head.

He reaches up and touches it. “Oh, I worked at the repair shop today and lost a fight with a wrench.” He smiles.

The guys laugh and I feel like I’m missing an inside joke or something. I shake it off. “What does everyone want?”

I start grabbing drinks out of the bin as they tell me what they want. I pop the tops and place them down in front of them, trying to ignore Slade staring at me with a smirk on his face.

“You guys want to play some pool?” Josh asks.

They all say ‘yes’ as they get up and walk back toward the pool tables.

Courtney moves to the seat that is positioned right in front of me. She goes to speak when I place my hand up. “I don’t even want to know.”

“I just wanted to tell you my job has an opening,” she says excitedly.

Courtney had found a job in no time. Josh pretty much knows all the businesses in town and got her a job at the local bank. She wanted to continue working as an event organizer, but couldn’t find an open position fast enough. She took the job at the bank with future thought of quitting when the right one comes along.

“Thanks, but I’m good here.”

She looks around and then back at me, frowning. “Why do you want to work here so badly?”

“It’s not that I want to do this forever.” I sigh, staring down at the top of the bar. “I don’t know.” My shoulders slump. “I feel comfortable here, like I belong here,” I whisper.

“What do you mean ‘belong here’?”

“Since senior year things have been so depressing. College sucked. I never went out. Then when I moved here with Jax, he didn’t want me to work. He wasn’t happy when I took the job here, but then I met Holly and Micah.” I smile. “Things just seemed to turn around. Then, of course, Slade came into my life.” I look over at him as he takes a drink of his beer while listening to Tate talk about something. “Everything just felt right. It all started here, why would I want to leave that?” I look to her. “I don’t know why Slade won’t just drop it.”