Chapter 21
Nash
My alarm clock goes off and I groan in protest. It feels like I laid down five minutes ago. Reaching over to my nightstand, I hit the snooze button, rolling back over while cocooning myself in the blankets.
I stayed up late last night with a million things running through my head.
Why am I so concerned with Henry’s obsession with Holden’s partner for their English assignment?
It shouldn’t bother me, but something doesn’t seem right with his persistence.
Holden swears it’s the influence this new pack he’s trying to be a part of has over him.
I wasn’t sure until now with the repeated questions about wanting to switch assignment partners. Something doesn’t feel right.
Just as I’m about to drift back under the veil of darkness, there’s a hard pounding on my door.
“Get up,” Roman’s deep voice shouts through the wooden barrier.
I debate what the consequences will be if I just go back to sleep. I decide whatever it is, that it’s worth it for some more shuteye.
I’ve barely closed my eyes when the pounding starts again, a dull thud of a fist slamming against the wood.
Exhaustion still clings to me like cobwebs. “Fuck off!” I shout, my voice ragged, more desperate than fierce. All I want is to sleep.
I roll onto my stomach; the mattress sighs beneath my weight.
One hand slides under my pillow, searching for warmth, something to anchor me back to the world of sleep.
A place I so desperately want to reside in at the moment.
Somewhere I can tune out the pounding that hasn’t stopped even with my warning.
But then there's silence.
Did Roman finally give up, because he’s the only one out of my two brothers who’d do something so fucking annoying and insistent.
Then the handle clicks, slow and deliberate, and the door swings open, slamming against the wall. I pull the blanket further over my head, growling that someone, namely Roman, is invading my space.
Before I can push myself up, all the blankets are ripped from my body in one sharp motion, the sudden rush of cold air biting my skin. Fingers clamp around my ankles—strong and unrelenting.
“What the fuck?” I shout when in one swift pull, I’m dragged across the bed until I hit the floor with a hard thud.
“I said to get up. We have a job to get to, and your ass knew about it. I don’t know what’s gotten into you and your brother’s head but you both are acting as if you’re dead to the world this morning.” Roman’s angry voice pierces the air.
“It’s just an estimate, Roman. It’s not like you couldn’t have done it yourself,” I remind him, as I slowly stand from the floor, rubbing my right shoulder that took the brunt of the impact.
“And if you listened when I actually told you about this project, you’d know why you were coming.”
“Remind me then.” I run my fingers through my hair as I head over to my dresser and pull out a pair of jeans and a polo with our construction company logo on it.
“This customer wants a small staff and background checks before stepping foot on the property. I didn’t want to put any of the other guys through the hassle and since it’s not a big job, it’s the three of us.”
A vague memory of him telling me and Holden this starts to resurface. It’s still not completely clear, but I do remember.
“Downstairs, five minutes,” he orders before turning and storming down the hallway. The heavy footfall of his boots on the wood floor echoes into my room.
I quickly dress, then sit on the edge of the bed and put on my boots, taking a little extra time to lace them up.
A small piece of me wanting to piss off Roman just a little bit more than he already is.
This job, though not a big one, is for a well known pack.
One that, if they give a bad review, could break our company.
We make decent money, but each job is important and needed.
It’s one of the reasons Roman fights in the cages; all the winnings he places into a savings account in case we need it.
Once I’m dressed I head to the bathroom to piss, wash my hands and brush my teeth before letting my fingers run through my tousled hair.
“Better hurry up before the kraken finds his way back up here,” Holden says playfully as he pokes his head in the bathroom.
“Aren’t you worried about him?” I ask.
“Why would I be?” he answers, as he steps in the room beside me and picks up the comb, using it to tame his unruly hair.
“He just seems more wound up than normal this morning.”
“Yeah, who knows what it is.” He says as he continues to comb his hair.
“What time did you go to bed?” I ask, wondering if he was up late talking online with his project partner, River. Such an odd name. You’d think it belonged to a guy. Unless she is and is lying to the school.
“I went to bed around three thirty. We should get downstairs.” He doesn’t answer the question completely. Instead he leaves the bathroom. The way he’s dodging the question tells me he was talking to her.
I hurry behind him, catching him midway down the stairs. “Coffee,” I shout. “I need coffee.”
“No time to make any here, we can stop on the way over,” Roman says as he picks up his keys and notepad off the coffee table and heads toward the kitchen. “We need to get moving.”
“As long as we can get some food with it,” Holden adds.
“Fuck if the two of you aren’t going to be the death of me,” Roman mumbles under his breath.
“We can still hear you, and I’d beg to differ. If anything is the death of you, it’ll happen in the ring.” I can’t help but laugh. As much as he complains, Roman loves us.
We head out through the kitchen, straight to the garage. “Shotgun!” Holden shouts before taking off to the passenger door and getting inside, laughing at me once he’s done it.
Shaking my head, I open the door and climb in behind him while Roman gets in the driver's seat.
“I really need that coffee now,” I announce as I slide into the back, pressing my knees into the back of Holden’s seat to annoy him. Fucker shouldn’t have seat blocked me.
“You snooze, you lose, and if you don’t get your knees out of my back I’m going to break them,” he says harshly from the front seat.
“Whatever.” I make sure to make the W in front of my face even though he can’t see me. I may or may not have been having a nineties movie marathon last night as well. Alicia Silverstone was a fox.
Roman groans and I scoot back in my seat, not wanting to anger the beast any more than he already is this morning.
“So, what’s up with this pack? Why all the cloak and dagger?” I ask, genuinely curious. It’s not like our employees aren’t vetted. We’d trust them with working on our home.
“No clue and don’t care.” Roman announces as he backs out of the garage and turns so that we can head down our driveway. “We were personally recommended to them; that’s all I care about. So, please don’t fucking embarrass me or piss them off.”
“Us, embarrass you? You wound me, big brother,” I place my hand over my heart as if he’s crushed my soul, while Holden twists in his seat, trying to hide his laughter.
Holden and I are close, and one thing we love doing is giving Roman a hard time. Well, maybe me a little more than him.
“Don’t open your mouth again if you want that coffee.” Roman snarls as he reaches over and turns the radio up louder.
He knows just how to make me fall in line.
Threaten to take away my coffee. I pull out my phone and log into the school’s student registry, taking time to read what little information there is about River, and then I check on Henry.
If that pack he’s trying to get into went to this school, I could find information about them, but they don’t.
They showed up about a year ago, hanging around the school as if they were students.
Thirty minutes and a coffee and bagel later, we’re pulling up to the client’s address. It’s out on a large piece of property, away from anyone else. A large gate surrounds it, with a guard shack at the entryway.
“What the hell?” Holden gasps. And I feel the same way. This place is insane.
“You can say that again.” My mouth literally drops open as the guard steps out of the gate, armed to the nines.
“Can I help you?” he asks. His alpha dominance seeping out, surrounding us.
“We have an appointment,” Roman tells him.
“Name and identification for everyone in the car.” The guard tells us.
“I’m Roman VanAcker, and these are my brothers Nash and Holden.” Roman tells him as both Holden and I hand over our IDs to him to pass to the guard.
“I’ll be right back.” He takes the IDs and heads back inside the shack.
“This is some shit. You’d think we were visiting the president,” Holden whispers. Roman nods his head but doesn’t say anything. His attention is on the guard.
The guard returns a few minutes later, handing the IDs back to Roman. “Any weapons on you?” he questions.
“No.”
“We need to do a quick search, if you could step outside your vehicle.” Another guard steps out behind him with a dog.
What in the ever loving hell!
The three of us get out of the truck and move over to the side, standing together. “What the hell are you getting us into?” I whisper.
“Just shut up. So they’re cautious,” Roman retorts.
“Cautious. This is overkill.” Holden beats me to the punch with his own thoughts.
“Just keep your fucking mouths shut.” Roman gives each of us a stern look, but we can tell he’s just as unnerved about this as we are.
“Okay, you’re all clear. Head straight through the gate to the main house. They will meet you there.
“Thank you,” Roman tells him as we all pile into the truck.
As we drive through the gate and get closer to the house, my mouth drops open.
It’s not a mansion like I was expecting, but it is large.
But it also looks like a place we’d love to have.
Stepping out onto the porch as we pull up is a man about six foot, long brownish/blond hair, broad shoulders and a body that says he’s a fighter.
If not, he should be with those guns he’s sporting.
Roman parks and we all get out.
“Sorry about that. Can’t be too careful these days. You have passed security, so you won’t have to go through that every time.”
“Good to know,” I mumble, earning myself a nudge from Roman.
“It was okay.” Roman tells him, smiling.
“Hey, I’m Tav. Come around with me, to the back then. We’re wanting to add a deck that extends from the back porch around the pool, a grilling area and firepit.”
“Sounds doable. Shouldn’t take us much time.”
As we move around to the back of the house, I glance upward, catching sight of the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, peeking through the curtains in the window above the garage.
I can only see part of her face, but her hair is a beautiful blonde.
She’s not smiling, her lips pressed together into a thin line as she gazes down at us.
“I wonder who that is?” I whisper to Holden.
“She is none of your concern.” Tav barks at us. “As long as you are here, it is work only. Do not try to speak to her or see her. Do you understand? I’m paying well for this job, I’d hate to fire you before you even start.”
“No, they understand, Sir. And it will not be a problem.” Roman assures him while giving me the evil eye. I gaze back up, but she’s gone, as if she was never there in the first place.