Chapter 6
Six
I’m a side chick. Mashed potatoes. Macaroni. Potato salad.
—Birdee’s secret thoughts
Birdee
“All right, Gordie,” I said as I put the prairie rattlesnake that I’d been milking back into his enclosure. “Be a good boy and make some more venom.”
A chuckle from behind me had me whirling, and I pressed my hand over my chest as I stared at my creep of a boss.
I was glad that I’d finally graduated and I could finally look for a different job.
I had my eye on two jobs in specific. One with the United States Department of Agriculture for Wildlife management, and one with a private company that makes dog food as a research developmentalist.
Both jobs couldn’t get back to me fast enough.
“Hi, Stacy.” I smiled at Shade’s stepdad, though it didn’t reach my eyes. “I thought you’d gone home.”
Hoped you’d gone home…
“Came back to get my cell phone. Left it on my desk,” he lied.
He purposefully left it on his desk so he’d have a reason to come back for it when I was all alone.
Something he tried to do once a week.
When Shade’s mother, Rayelle, had first started dating Stacy, we’d all gotten a huge laugh out of it. I mean, first the man’s name was Stacy. And Stacy had been young when Rayelle met him. Rayelle had been in her early fifties, and Stacy had been just barely twenty-one.
Shade and I had seen the reason behind Stacy’s interest early on. She was hot and rich. A very potent combination when you’re a lazy twenty-one-year-old kid that didn’t have any ambition in life.
But they’d been married for going on ten years now, and I’d been forced to have him in my life since.
Stacy had always given me the creeps, and probably always would.
“Ahh,” I said. “I’m just about finished up here. My friend Creed is going to pick me up soon.”
I hoped.
He said that he would when he’d dropped me off this morning, but hadn’t gotten there yet.
He’d probably forgotten.
Not that it was an issue that he’d forgotten. It wasn’t like I was anyone to him.
“Oh.” He scowled, not liking the sound of that. “Who’s Creed?”
I knew it’d bother him.
Every time that a boyfriend was brought up on my end, it always bothered both Shade and Stacy.
Though, lately it was bothering Stacy more than Shade.
Shade, I could understand.
He was protective of me.
But Stacy was nobody to me. I barely said two words to him if I could help it.
It only sucked that he was the one to get me a job here.
I loved the job. Hated the boss.
How he’d even gotten this job, I didn’t know.
Probably Shade’s mom offering favors of any kind to look the other way on Stacy’s qualifications.
Oh, and did I mention that not only was he my boss, but he was also my landlord?
The house that Stacy had rented me was his parents’ house once upon a time.
I also suspected that he’d kicked the previous tenants out so I could stay there.
Not that I could complain. Stacy gave me a great deal, even though it came with a hint of creep.
“Oh, he’s a man I’ve been seeing,” I lied.
I was going to hell.
He would definitely know that I wasn’t dating Creed.
Hopefully he didn’t show up here until after my boss was gone, or Stacy would see how far out of my league Creed was and know that I was lying through my teeth.
“You’ve been seeing.” He stared at me as if he could see right through me. “Isn’t that interesting.”
The way he said it made it sound like he knew I was lying.
How he could know that, I didn’t know.
I could be!
Well, maybe not Creed Daugherty, but I could be seeing someone!
“I’ll be going now.” He sounded amused. “Have a good night, Birdee. Don’t stay here too long.”
I grumbled something dark under my breath before I started to finish up for the day.
By the time that eight o’clock rolled around, I knew that Creed wasn’t coming, so I began cleaning up.
By the time I was finished, I was exhausted and really not looking forward to a five-mile walk home in the freezing cold darkness.
I was halfway down the pathway that led to the sidewalk when I looked up and… “What are you doing here?”
And where did you come from?
“Givin’ you a ride,” he said as he waited with his feet crossed as he leaned against his work truck.
The man was damn potent in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. He was downright debilitating in his OD green tactical pants, khaki long-sleeved shirt with all the emblems and patches on it, and his black bomber jacket that declared him as a “GAME WARDEN.”
Even his boots were sexy.
A pair of scuffed-up brown cowboy boots that were very well used.
I didn’t know what it was about the combination of authority and sex appeal he was exuding, but it was an intoxicating elixir that I wanted to drown myself in.
I’d kept an eye out the window for hours, thinking maybe he’d show up, but he’d never come.
Snow started to collect on me as I stood and stared.
“Are you going to stand there all night or get in the truck?” he grumbled.
I swallowed and walked toward him and his truck. “I guess I’ll get in.”
He opened the passenger door for me and helped me inside before slamming the door closed. His old truck didn’t have all the bells and whistles that his service vehicle did, but I found it more alluring. More real. More him.
The outside may not be much to look at, but the inside looked well-loved and clean. The motor purred like a grumpy kitten, and he looked much more comfortable in his personal vehicle than his work one. As if he was one with it.
“I have to head home and change out my personal truck for my work truck, then I’ll drive you back to your place,” he murmured as he checked his mirrors before pulling into traffic.
I didn’t argue, because why would I when he was being nice and giving me a ride?
I was insanely curious about where he lived, though.
This sounded like a dream come true to my nosy-natured soul.
“Sure,” I said a little too enthusiastically.
I felt more than saw him look toward me, and my heart started beating double time.
“How was work?” he asked.
“Great,” I lied.
Stacy had been on a roll today.
He’d been full of questions, and I hadn’t been able to get a moment’s peace until he’d gone home.
But then he’d come back…
“You did too much, didn’t you?” he asked.
I smiled. “I’m not sure if you’re familiar with what I do all day, but it isn’t all that physical. I spend a lot of time sitting in a chair.”
“Tell me about what you do,” he suggested.
The fifteen-minute drive to his house, I told him everything about what I did, starting with milking snakes, and ending with the more scientific side of it.
Throughout the entire explanation, he kept silent, nodding along at the appropriate times to let me know that he was indeed listening.
“I’ve got to say,” he said when I was done. “I never would’ve expected a chick to want anything to do with snakes. My sister would’ve straight up died if she even thought about having to hold a snake.”
“I can’t say that I was all that hyped about it,” I admitted.
“When I started there, it was because my best friend’s stepfather got me the job.
I was pretty desperate for anything at the time, and this one paid really good.
For obvious reasons,” I rolled my eyes. “But it’s fun.
And with my background in animal science, I slotted right into the scientific side of it.
I didn’t realize I would be the one actually milking the snakes, though. ”
“That wasn’t discussed in your interview?”
“I didn’t have an interview.” I laughed.
“Best friend’s stepdad, remember? He would’ve given me the job whether I was qualified or not.
But it works out that I was qualified. I do, however, think that the snake handling part of the job was actually something that was written into Stacy’s job description.
I think that he’s afraid of snakes, so he just handed that job off to me. ”
Before he could add much to the conversation other than what he had, he pulled into a driveway just north of Sawtooth and my heart skipped a beat.
Of course he would live here.
I stiffened, and he noticed the change in my demeanor almost instantly.
“What?”
I hesitated, wondering whether I should bother telling him what I was truly thinking.
“Nothing,” I lied, thinking that maybe this was something he didn’t necessarily need to know.
He eyed me suspiciously, but didn’t press me on it.
Which was good, because if he had I would’ve broken and shared with him just how much I disliked his home.
He wouldn’t have any clue how many bad memories were centered here.
I may have been young when I lived here, but I sure the fuck didn’t forget.
He got out of the truck, and I remained where I was, thinking it would be best to stay put.
But he had other ideas, and rounded his truck and pulled open my door.
“I’ll just wait…”
He didn’t wait for me to finish and unbuckled my seat belt for me.
I inhaled deeply, and the scent of pine and clean laundry invaded my senses.
“I…”
“Will come in because I’m not leaving you out in my truck while I get dressed,” he said as he all but lifted me out of the truck.
I winced, my body freezing up for a long moment as he placed his hand directly on a bruise.
“Shit, sorry,” he said as he put me down. “I forgot that you were sore from yesterday.”
“S’okay.” I smiled, trying to ease the worry I could see in his face. “Just really sore today.”
And bruised, but he didn’t need to know that.
The entire right side of my body was black and blue from where I’d collided with the front of his truck.
I even had some bruising on my left side from where I’d fallen over and hit the concrete.
Literally, my entire body was one bruise right now.
I may be walking around normally, but I felt it with each step that I took.
I smoothed my features over and said, “I just don’t think I need to go in.”
“You’re coming in.” He left no room for argument with his words, but his hand on my own as he dragged me along the walkway that I’d once played on as a kid forced me to come with him.
I passed the spot where my dad and I used to build snowmen every year.
I purposefully ignored the bushes that I used to hide behind and try to scare my dad as he left for work.
The step that always used to lean slightly to the left, however, had me in a chokehold as he forced me to climb them.
On the other side of that still leaning board would be the name Birdee Lee Calvert carved into it.
I purposefully skipped that step as he forced me to climb.
He pulled a set of keys from his pocket and unlocked the door, pushing it open wide as he held the storm door open for me to enter.
I did, keeping my eyes fastened on the wall in front of me.
This place held my best and worst memories, and Creed had no clue.
“I’ll be right back,” he said as he disappeared around the corner into the master suite. “Make yourself at home.”
I kept my eyes transfixed on the wall in front of me, which only gave me a great view of a set of pictures that’d been hung up. They were the only decorations in the immediate vicinity, so of course they drew my eye.
The photos were of Creed and a female that had to be related to him. They had the same pale-green eyes and hair color. A sister, obviously.
In the first one, it was of him and her laughing at a fair. The one to the right of that one was of the two of them on a school bus, again smiling and laughing.
Honestly, there wasn’t a single one where one of them wasn’t laughing.
It was super cute.
The door to the master suite opened and Creed emerged wearing his usual uniform of jeans and a sweatshirt. He had the same boots on, though.
“Ready?” he asked.
I nodded. “Your sister’s pretty.”
He stiffened but didn’t say anything, but as he hurried me out of the house, I could tell that he was upset over what I’d said.
“I’m sorry if I said something to upset you,” I replied as we hurried toward his truck. “Did she pass away?”
He shook his head. “No. She’s fine. She lives in Alabama.”
That was all he would give me, and it had my mind whirling.
She must mean a whole lot to him to have him hang up photos of the two of them.
And if she wasn’t dead, why would he act like she was when I asked?
My thoughts whirled, and it only took me a couple of seconds to make some connections.
A few weeks ago, when we’d found the material about Romeo and his past on my mother’s computer, we’d been shocked to find out that he was not only a convict, but an escaped convict who’d covered up his own escape and ‘death.’
The thought that maybe Creed had the same kind of past as Romeo consumed my thoughts as he drove away from the house that’d once been a home to me.
Why else would he be here ‘doing weekly check-ins with Romeo and Apollo’ if he wasn’t a part of something more? Who the heck even did weekly check-ins, anyway?
And what was up with his sister?
What little he’d shared, him and his sister had been close once upon a time.
I’d asked a follow-up question of ‘is she was dead,’ and he’d blanched before saying, “No, she’s fine. She lives in Alabama.”
Which had, inevitably, been the final nail in the coffin.
Putting two and two together, I’d come up with four. Four being he’d been a part of the same prison break—or something very similar to it—that Romeo had been.
“I meant to come by earlier to tell you about what your stepdad was doing,” he said.
I stiffened.
“The county sheriff gave him a warning not to be sleeping in that neighborhood again,” he said. “He seemed to understand and heed it, because he left almost immediately after he was warned. If you see him out there again, let me know, and I’ll have my buddy take care of it.”
“Thanks,” I muttered darkly.
It creeped me out that he was out there sleeping on my street.
It creeped me out even more that he’d come to me of all people.
I mean, he and my mom had made it their life’s mission to make my life a living hell.
Tom may not have joined in on the beratement and verbal abuse over the years, but there was no way you could convince me that he had no clue what my mother was doing to us.
Honestly, I felt like he was just as dangerous as my own mother had been.
Five minutes later, he pulled into my driveway and went to get out.
I stilled him with a hand on his arm and said, “Thanks for the ride.”
He went to open the door, but I bailed, heading straight for my house.
I shouldered the front door open, then slammed the door closed behind me.
Only when the door was locked did I take a breath.
I didn’t know what it was about Creed that made me metaphorically hyperventilate around him.
Whatever it was, I needed to ignore it. Bury it into the deepest parts of my soul and forget about it.
Because there was no way in hell he would ever want anything to do with me.