Chapter 1 #2
“Oh, hey, Jerry,” Harlowe says as she comes out of the back. “This is my brother, Kodiak.” She introduces me by my road name, which I prefer outsiders use.
“Hey, Harley, want to go out tonight?”
I’m about to say something when my sister stops him in his tracks.
“Nope. I’ve got plans with Kodiak.”
I don’t believe we do, but I keep my mouth shout if it keeps her away from this asshole.
“How about you, Marnie? Maybe you can get someone to babysit the kid.”
I watch as Marnie closes in on herself. She’s no longer blushing or full of sweetness.
“No thank you. I have business to take care of.”
Marnie reaches for her daughter and pulls her from her high chair, not only to shield herself from Jerry but to protect the little girl from him too. My sugar is scared easily.
My thoughts slam to a halt. My? What the fuck.
I need out of here. I don’t date. I fuck and keep them in that box.
Fuck buddies. Nothing more. I don’t do relationships because everyone leaves.
My real mother left. The woman I think of as my mom left—not by her choice, but she’s gone.
Even Harlowe left me for a while. My father left me too.
I’m done picking myself up after everyone leaves me.
But I can’t stop myself from offering my fist for the little girl to pound. “What’s your name, beauté?” She smiles shyly at me and tugs on her ponytail, pulling the thick hair forward to hide her face from me. “Don’t play shy now. I thought we were best buds.”
“I’m Oly.”
“Oly?”
“Her name is Olympia, but she goes by Oly.”
“Hey, she doesn’t let me call her Oly,” the jerk Jerry says, and I turn to smirk at him.
“I’m her friend. You must not be.” I hold up my hand for a high five, and she smacks it with her tiny hand.
“Okay, Oly, you be a good girl for Mommy. I’ll see you soon.
” I wink at her, and she blinks back. I look at Marnie.
“Nice meeting you. I’ll see you around.” She blushes, and I turn to walk out.
“See you for dinner,” Harlowe calls, and I hold up a hand as I make my way to my work truck.
My sister wanted me to stop by and meet her boss, and now I suspect she’s trying to set me up with the beauty. But I can’t go there.
I head back to the job site I’m currently working on, unable to resist reaching for a cheese puff as I call Vortex. The fuckers are flaky and melt in my mouth, with the perfect amount of cheese inside.
“Yeah, Prez?” Vortex answers.
“There’s a weird fucker hanging around the shop where Harlow’s working.
Name’s Jerry. Keep an eye on him. Also, did you run a background check on the shop owner?
” I hate to ask because it’s an invasion, but my sister is marked for death by a rival gang in Anchorage. Everyone around her gets screened.
“I’ll look into Jerry. As for the shop owner, couldn’t find much. Her identity is pretty clean, just the basics. Single parent. New to Alaska. Brand-new business. From the Lower 48… somewhere like Portland, I think.”
“Ex-husband, boyfriend, anything?”
“Nothing. Her background is spotless, actually.”
“Too clean?”
“Kind of,” Vortex says.
“Do I need to get a fingerprint?”
“Not yet. If she’s in hiding, do we really want to alert whoever she’s hiding from?”
“You got a point. But no ties to Aaronov?”
“Not that I saw. She’s in a rundown apartment, drives an old Jeep Grand Cherokee that’s on its last leg, and that’s about all I could find. No debt. Rent paid free and clear for a year.”
“She has money?”
“I don’t know where. Her bank account has about two K in it, and the checking has another one K. No credit cards, nothing like that.”
“She’s in hiding. Don’t dig any deeper, or we’ll alert her or someone else. I’ll try to get Harlowe to get some information for us.”
“Got it.”
I hang up as I arrive at the site. The apartment complex we’re working on will be low-income housing, so it’s Davis-Bacon wages.
I also have a site that Aftershock is leading in a new subdivision on a private airstrip.
All the houses are hangers, built of metal structures, which is Shock’s specialty.
My crew is working on the interiors while I run a general contracting company that handles both residential and commercial projects.
We’re called in on a lot of jobs, and combined, all our businesses are premier builders of Alaskan-style homes and barndominiums.
Acouple of hours later, I pull up to my house and see my sister’s truck is already here. She must have had an early class. She’s still trying to get her schedule worked out. Some of her credits won’t transfer, and she’s frustrated. I’m just glad she’s still making school a priority.
I step into the house. Harlowe is cooking in the kitchen, and my cousin Loki is stretched out on the sofa, watching a show on TV.
“Get your boots off the coffee table, asshole,” I snap. He chuckles and drops them to the floor.
“Hey, LowLow,” I call, using the nickname I’ve had for her since our parents brought her home from the hospital. “How was your day?” I stride over and kiss her cheek.
“It was good. Marnie almost sold out of everything. She’s going in early tomorrow to bake, and I’m going to help her.”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”
We get seated at the table after I wash my hands and drop my ball cap on the side table. It’s a habit Harlowe’s mom, Charisma, started when I was a boy. No hats at the table. We start to dig in, and that’s when I decide to begin the line of questioning I need for Vortex.
“So, tell me about your boss.”
“Why? You like her?” She waggles her brows.
“I want everyone around you researched. Tell me.”
Harlowe cocks her head to the side. “Well, she just moved here from Northern California. I don’t know much more than that. She doesn’t talk about herself, and when I ask, she changes the subject.”
“Do you think we need to dig harder, or do you think she’s hiding?” I ask. My sister should be excellent at reading people. Our father would have taught her for her protection.
“No, don’t. I think she’s on the run from someone. She jumps if I sneak up on her, and you’re the first man she’s been around who she didn’t cower from. Even Jerry intimidates her.”
“Yeah, I went in one day, and she practically ran from the room when she realized she didn’t have to wait on me,” Loki adds.
“I accidentally snuck up on her one day, and she about came out of her skin.” Harlow pauses. “Please don’t push her away. I like her, and Oly is so sweet.”
“I don’t plan to. I just need to decide whether I should lift her prints and run her.”
“Don’t.” Harlowe is adamant, and I’ll give her that for now.