Page 5 of Cocked Hammer

Alek and I rarely got along, and most days, I couldn’t stand the sight of him. We merely tolerated the other. Our entire lives, we made the most out of a very shitty situation; however, as we aged over the years, so did the bitterness between us. Honestly, I didn’t care if he rotted in a prison cell, but it meant the police would question all of us, and that was something I could not risk. My past was something no one needed to investigate because if they did, it would eventually lead me back to my father. Even though I was an adult, he was the one person I would admit I feared.

“Yeah, I’m not dealing with these assholes.” He stood, dropping the treat onto the top of the bone display, and my arms jetted outward in case the whole thing came tumbling downward. No way he would be cleaning up the mess. It would be on me because he’d let it lay there and make people step over it.

“The only asshole I see in here is you.”

“Well, now there are three of us.” He jutted his chin, indicating the men walking toward us. I was certain I’d never seen them before, and I’d put in a lot more hours into the pet store than Alek had by far. There was no way he knew them through the shop, at least.

“Whatever.” I shrugged, driving my nail into the back of his arm as I passed him to greet the closer of the two men. I considered going for blood but decided I didn’t want to deal with the aftermath.

“Umm. Excuse me. We aren’t open yet,” I said in a lower tone than how my voice normally sounded and was mentally kicking myself for leaving the front door unlocked. I assumed since the closed sign was the initial thing to greet anyone who approached the door, no one would walk in. Clearly, I overestimated people and their courtesy for others. The first man continued in my direction, while the second didn’t bother to walk any further into the shop. He stood just inside the doorway and waved two fingers in Alek’s direction, motioning for Alek to come to him.

Alek huffed louder than necessary, and my tongue immediately pressed against the inside of my cheek. “Go,” I commanded in a low tone.

“Fuck off,” Alek hissed with a glare, but much to my surprise, he went to greet the man who was now pecking the doorframe with a key.

The other man was about halfway into the store, checking out what little we’d already stocked on the shelves. He lifted a container of freeze-dried crickets, and a small unintentional noise piped through my lips. At the sound, he popped them back onto the shelf, rotating the bottle with the pad of his finger until the label was front and center.

“I need something small real quick, and then I’ll be out of your hair, Beautiful,” his silver tongue purred when he turned to look at me. His deep brown eyes found my face immediately, and excitement fluttered within my chest. A smile played on his mouth, and the tip of his tongue wet his lips, and although I was never one to give into a line, I did at that moment without realizing it.

“How may I help you?” automatically pushed out of my suddenly dry mouth. Heat pooled in my face, and my stomach clenched. Judging by the amount of ink that covered almost every inch of his visible skin and the leather vest he wore, he was a biker. He was trouble, and it made me want him. There was no questioning my immediate thoughts.

“Need something for my snake,” he said, sexual tension dripping from his every word, his eyes raking over my body shamelessly.

Stunned, I coughed and couldn’t catch my breath due to the amount of spit I was now choking on.

“Shit. Are you okay?” He clapped his hand on my back, and my skin stung from the force.

Unintentionally, I winced and squeezed my eyes tighter than necessary, replaying the countless traumatic events throughout my life like a slideshow. It was only for a second, but judging by the way his features softened when my eyes reopened, he’d noticed, and I hated it.

There was no reason for me to care what this man thought, but I couldn’t stop my stupid feelings from telling me to hide this weakness from him—to come up with something witty and fast. I was a product of my family’s awful ways, and the absurdity of it all was often the first thing a person spotted about me. I didn’t want that to be the case with him, but the way things were going, it was exactly what would be forever burnt into his memory of me. Frail little Lina was the person who most of those around me saw, including myself, on the days I listened to them. That wasn’t who I felt like on the inside, and I didn’t want this man to see me as her either. I had to do something to change his opinion, even if, in reality, it was just for me to feel better.

“Fuck. I’m sorry,” he apologized, pulling my body into him, his arms crossing behind my back. “Didn’t mean to hit you so hard.”

While I didn’t know him and had absolutely no reason to trust him in the slightest, I felt safe. My rigid muscles relaxed against his rock-hard chest, and I inhaled. I did not know if it was the soap he used or the cologne he wore that I could smell on him, but the scent was mouthwatering and inviting. He smelled like a mixture of leather, citrus, and wood.

“It’s fine,” I assured him softly, counting down the seconds before I had to put my guard back up and resume the real-life I lived.

With him as close as he was, I was drunk on his delectable scent, making my thoughts essentially mush. There was no point in attempting to do something I knew was unachievable right now. Sounding stern and powerful as I wished to be was out of the question, so I settled for the straightforward approach. “What did you say you needed?” I bluntly inquired, untangling myself from him and putting some much-needed distance between us.

“I didn’t. Not exactly.” His tattooed hand rubbed the back of his neck, and he cleared his throat. “I need mice for my snake.”

“We have live feeder mice, and we keep the frozen pinkies in the back. Which do you prefer?” My shoulders squared as my judgment cleared a little. This was a safe amount of space between us, and I was back to business as usual, able to detach myself from my feelings.

“I’ll take both, but could you get the pinkies first?”

“No problem,” I answered, not understanding why he wanted the ones that would have to thaw before the ones that wouldn’t. A sale was a sale, though. Perhaps I should have suggested the reverse, but I was limiting the number of words and my proximity to this man, so he was getting them in the order he wished.

Not only could I see myself being able to fall for him fast and hard, but I was also all too aware of what happened when I showed the least bit of interest in a man—they’d all conveniently disappeared, and a few were pronounced dead sometime later on the news as their disfigured body washed up on a random shore.

Alek selling me out to our uncles to save his ass wasn’t unheard of. Then again, when the roles were reversed, I did the same. Class wasn’t something we had a lot of in our dysfunctional, fake family, but if people expected very little of you, life was easier when you failed.

“Thank you, Sugar.” He smiled, and my knees literally shook with anticipation. Anxiety got the better of me, despite how much I fought to remain calm. Maybe I’d misjudged the situation and this man altogether, as I often did, blinded by my own insecurities. There was an exceptionally large possibility I projected my own past sins onto him because of his appearance. He was a handsome stranger whom I might never see again, and that thought pounded into my forefront. I didn’t want this to be the last time I saw him. I didn’t know if it was his looks or the feelings of protection zinging through me when I was in his arms that had me considering anything with him. Just pondering it could put him on my uncles’ hypothetical chopping block, but I needed to find out what this was. My mind was a constant contradiction.

The smoldering darkness behind his irises was too tempting. The ability to ignore him was something I didn’t possess, and I was thankful I didn’t.

“Don’t mention it,” I said in a soft tone with a giggle, smiling as I sauntered away into the back. To anyone else, what just happened would be discredited as a simple exchange of words. Yet to me, it was a small victory. I hadn’t shut my emotions off as I had planned to play it safe. He seemed safe enough, and what was said was innocent. Alek shouldn’t have anything to use against me.

After gathering the mice the man wanted from the back, I took my time returning to the front of the store. I needed to clear my thoughts and remind myself this was the most important thing right now. I might not be able to chase my dreams, but it wasn’t an unrealistic goal to save money and move away from here. Who was I kidding? They would continue to track me down until our deal came to an end. They would always find me; they had thus far, but it was nice to lie to myself occasionally. It gave me false hope, which was sometimes the exact thing I needed to get me through another day.

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