Chapter 5
Five
Damon
I light up a cigarette, watching the smoke curl and blend in with the cloud of exhaust coming off my old man’s beat-up truck as our crew starts unloading trees and propping them up against the chain-link fence of the parking lot.
At the far end, away from the booths, is where they stick the unsavory sellers.
Like the guys selling overpriced Lafufus.
Fake watches. Shit, that will turn your skin green.
My brother, Jace, says this is the best spot, but in reality, we both know the committee gave us this location because they don’t want someone like me scaring off families.
I see the way they snub their noses at my tattoos.
They don’t want the trees that reek of tobacco and exhaust fumes stinking up their minivans.
But mostly they don’t want to do business with a convict.
I’ve got a past and a reputation. The people of this town painted me as a monster a long time ago. Long before I ever had a record.
I know what they think of me. They hate me because I don’t give a fuck what they think of me.
Watching them all in their matching flannels, wearing their fake smiles, is enough to make me sick.
They are all liars and fakes. They all have skeletons in their closet.
I display mine with the ink on my skin. Wearing my sins and my scars like badges of honor.
Their perfect little wives eye me when they think no one is watching. Their husbands size me up and wonder if I’m as tough as the rumors claim.
The night hasn’t even started, and already I’m restless and on edge. I’m on the verge of saying fuck it and going to Voodoo Garden, the local bar, to get shitfaced on whatever they have on tap.
Jace sits up at the table with the cash box and the card reader to take payments.
He’s good at pretending he’s normal. That he fits in with the rest of them.
I envy him in a way. I can’t pretend like he can.
If my mouth doesn’t say it, my face or my fists will.
It’s no secret that I have a temper. No big shocker that I like to fight.
I flick the butt of my cigarette to the ground, snubbing it out in the mushy snow. As I bend down to pick it up to toss in the garbage, my eyes catch on green velvet.
Every nerve in my body crackles with awareness. I don’t have to see her face to know the sound of her voice.
Hadley.
She’s taking slow and methodical steps, avoiding the piles of melted slush.
My lips pull into a frown seeing how much skin she’s daring to show off.
Her body is built for sin, but she’s never been one to dress like a slut.
But tonight, she’s wearing a tight dress, every curve on display.
Though she’s never been easy to ignore. Her big tits practically spill out of the sweetheart bust. Sydney is hot on her trail, which is no surprise.
The two of them have always been stuck together like glue.
Sydney is loud and mouthy as fuck. Hadley is a good girl.
Shy. Not tonight, though. She’s laughing and smiling.
I observe as she scans the crowd and wonder what or who she’s looking for.
She doesn’t notice me. Not that I expect her to.
I’m used to being ignored and overlooked.
Something we used to have in common. I watch as she trades banter with the firemen working the apple cider table.
She tugs the hem of her dress down a few times then gives up and lets it ride high on her thighs. Her dark silky hair frames her face, with little wisps curling around her forehead.
Fuck me. She takes my breath away. Hadley is gorgeous without even trying, but tonight she’s setting my blood on fire.
“You working or scaring all the customers off with that ugly mug of yours?” Jace’s voice cuts through the noise.
“Both.” I grin at him over my shoulder and automatically want to knock the smug look of satisfaction off his face as he stares at Hadley.
“Do you know them?” he questions.
I keep my face neutral. “You could say that.”
“That one looks like she’s vying for the number one spot on Santa’s ‘Naughty List’ this year.”
I ignore him. He likes to poke to see what will get a rise out of me. I don’t give him the reaction he’s searching for.
I get back to work, losing track of Hadley for a few minutes, but then I see the top of her glittery elf hat moving through the crowd, heading in my direction.
She stops abruptly to say hi to someone.
Tony Copley.
He stands a little too close, smiles a little too softly. He’s got the same stupid buzz cut he’s worn since sophomore year. He became a deputy like he’s hoping that badge will make people forget what a spineless coward he is.
I watch them interact, and a feeling stirs in my chest. Not quite anger. Not exactly jealousy. Something more primal, cold and sharp. Like an icicle through my heart. A need to mark what’s mine, even if she doesn’t realize I’m the one she dreams about. The man she shares her darkest desires with.
They talk for a minute, and she laughs again.
Tony’s face does that thing where he pretends not to care, but I see the tell.
He looks her body up and down. Doesn’t matter he’s got a pregnant wife at home.
He fucks around on her all the time. Trades sex with whores for favors and shit to get out of speeding tickets and shoplifting charges.
I want to interrupt. Just barrel through him.
Showing him and the whole town how easily I could put the sorry prick in his place.
But I know better. There’s nothing in that equation for me except trouble, and my punch-card is full.
Going back to jail is the last thing I need.
My old man and my brother are counting on me to step up and run the family farm.
Dad’s not getting any younger, and it isn’t like anyone else wants to hire me with my record.
Instead, I lean against the truck and watch. She’s more in my line of sight now, no more than fifteen feet away. If she looks up, she’ll see me. I wait for her eyes to meet mine. I want nothing more.
That stupid fuck sees me staring at the pair of them. His face pales when he realizes it’s me. Tony saunters off. That’s the only smart choice he’s made in years.
Jace starts to say something, but I wave him off. My eyes don’t leave my naughty little elf, not even for a second. I should spank her ass for smiling at Tony.
Finally, she glances up. Hadley’s gaze snags on mine. She blinks, like she’s not sure if I’m real. Then her mouth twists upward—not a full smile, exactly, but not a grimace either. Recognition sets in. I raise a hand, slow, palm out.
She doesn’t look away. For a second, the crowd drops away, and it’s just the two of us, tethered across the slushy expanse. Her face is unreadable, but she lifts her fingers and gives the tiniest wave back. A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it movement, but I don’t miss it.
The gesture is a punch in the gut. It’s not enough, not nearly, but it’s something.
It’s a start.
She’s the one who looks away first. She turns to greet Sydney. The moment between us is broken, but her eyes flick over to me once more, quick as a needle in the arm at the doctor’s office. The rest of her face stays still, but her cheeks glow pink under the lights.
Jace’s eyes burn into me, staring at me now, left eyebrow cocked. “You gonna ask her out, or just keep staring like a fucking creep?”
“Shut up, dipshit.” I shove at him, but the edge is gone from my voice.
He shrugs. “Just saying. You only get so many Christmas miracles.”
“Ha. Ha.” He’s got jokes, but I don’t need a miracle. I know what Hadley wants.
I know all her secrets and then some.
I watch her until she disappears into the crowd, her skirt swishing with the movement, teasing at exposing her backside.
My skin prickles with adrenaline, and all I want to do is chase after her, pin her to the nearest tree, taste the frosting from her cookie off her mouth.
Lick the frosty dew from the chilly air off her bare shoulders.
But I don’t.
I sink back onto the tailgate, close my eyes, and replay the moment over and over, until it feels like it might belong to me. That the world knows that Hadley is my girl.
She noticed me. She waved.
This year, maybe, I’ll take what I want.
I’ll take her.
I move down the side street following Tony. Pussy asshole.
He was there that night. Four years ago. The last time I killed. He doesn’t even realize I’m following him. He thinks that badge gives him a free pass. That it protects him. It doesn’t. It won’t.
I watch as he makes a drug deal. Bet the sheriff would love to know his star deputy has an addiction to painkillers.
That one of the reasons their little stings never turn up any results is because Tony accepts bribes as well as gives them.
I have enough evidence on the sorry piece of shit to put him away for the rest of his life.
But why waste taxpayer money when I can take out the trash myself?
I was willing to let bygones be bygones until he set his sights on Hadley.
No one touches what’s mine or dares to fucking undress her with their eyes. I should have poked them out the moment he looked at her tits, but I don’t like an audience. Tony knows that when I take a life, I like my privacy.
The only reason he’s still breathing is because four years ago he was a witness to a crime. Four years ago, he begged me for his life.
I don’t believe in second chances.
Tigers don’t change their stripes.
His dealer slips back inside the back entrance of the vape shop. Tony fumbles around with his plastic baggie trying to dump out some pills into his palm. I step out of the shadows and into his line of sight, knowing he’s unarmed and too much of a coward to put up a fight.
He visibly jerks when he sees me, his hand shaking so badly he drops his pills, losing them to the snowy slush.
“Y-y-you,” he manages to stutter out like an accusation.
“Me,” I mock in return before raising my axe over my head and bringing it down on the top of his skull.
The blade sinks into his head with a sickening squelching sound as I pull it out.
Blood splatters onto my favorite jeans and onto my boots.
Blood droplets plop onto the snow, staining the dingy white mush.
“I warned you to keep away from Hadley,” I tell his lifeless body that’s now slumped down in the snow. Stupid fuck. His wife and unborn child will be better off without him.
Hadley is mine.
Tonight I’ll prove it.