Page 8 of Seizing Mack
Chapter Four
~ Mack ~
Mack felt the lastof her good humor drain away as Carl led Detective Benning away. Dee wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that she was checking out his ass. Granted, the detective did have a nice ass, as well as nice hands, shoulders, and smile, but Mack had zero tolerance when it came to harassment. She wantedSeizeto be a safe zone and she wanted her members—men as well as women—to feel comfortable there.
“Delilah.” Even with her sharp tone, her stepsister had trouble tearing her eyes away. “Roll that tongue back into your mouth. Rule #1: we do not ogle, flirt with, or proposition clients.”
Delilah’s ruby red lips formed a perfect (and well-practiced) pout. “What’s the use of being surrounded by beefcake if you can’t have a nibble?”
“When you’re here, you’re a vegetarian. Got it?”
The pout morphed to a scowl. “You never were any fun.”
“And you’ve always been obsessed with the opposite sex.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
The dull throb at the base of her skull intensified. Mack loved her father, but really, what the hell had he been thinking when he hooked up with Catherine Barrington and her demon spawn?
Catherine wasnothinglike Mack’s mom. Mack’s mom had been loving and sweet, always ready with a freshly baked cookie and a warm hug at the end of the day, right up until the time she died. Short and ample with laughing blue eyes and a ready smile, she had simply been a beautiful person inside and out.
In contrast, Catherine was tall and slender with all the warmth of an icicle. Any hint of laugh lines was dealt with swiftly and severely; Catherine’s father was an internationally heralded plastic surgeon, after all. Mack doubted the woman had ever touched a cookie in her life, let alone baked one.
Catherine’s daughter, Delilah, was a real-life example of the apple not falling far from the tree. Mack and Delilah were as different as night and day. Tall, slim, blonde, and vain, Delilah’s sole ambition in life was finding a wealthy man to take care of her so she didn’t have to lift a finger.
Except, of course, to have it manicured.
And why wouldn’t she? That plan had worked well for Dee’s mother. Mack’s father was husband number three, and with him, Catherine had hit the mother lode.
The familiar anger simmered low in her belly. Mack was so used to it by now that it barely even registered. Anger at Catherine for being a gold-digger and taking advantage of a lonely man. Anger at Delilah for being such a spoiled, prissy little brat. Anger at her father for not seeing Catherine for what she really was and for bringing that woman and her daughter intotheirhouse.
The mother-daughter duo was one of the main reasons she’d joined the Marines, to get away from all that. From them. Despite her father’s dire warnings, she hadn’t regretted a single minute of it. Signing up had been the best thing she’d ever done, next to openingSeize. Now, here she was, more than ten years later and on the other side of the country,stillhaving to deal with their shit.
If only she’d let the call go to voicemail. But she’d seen her dad’s number pop up and secretly hoped he was calling to say he’d finally seen the light and was flying out for a visit to see her and the new fitness center, the one she’d been pouring her heart and soul into for the past couple of years. She’d named the placeSeize, inspired by her favorite saying—carpe diem—and the ideal of providing an affordable opportunity for people to take control of their life in terms of health, fitness, and discipline like she had.
Not only was her father not coming, but she was stuck with Delilah for an indeterminate amount of time ranging anywhere from weeks to months. How was she going to pull it off? Not even two minutes into her stepsister’s arrival and she already regretted agreeing to her father’s request. The next few weeks were going tosuck.
Mack exhaled heavily and summoned her patience. One of the reasons her father wanted her to look after Dee was to provide a good example of responsibility and maturity, although the realist in her knew it was probably more a case of no one else being able to tolerate Dee for any length of time.
“All right. You’re here, so we might as well make the best of it. We’ll get you settled in at my place tonight and you can start first thing in the morning. What can you do?”
“Excuse me?”
“What job skills do you have?”
Delilah stared blankly back at her, and Mack realized her father had selectively omitted that little nugget about getting a job when he’d been shoving Dee’s ass on the plane.
“While you are staying with me, youwillbe working here.”
Dee laughed, then sobered when she realized Mack was serious. “You’re joking.”
“No. This isn’t not a brief weekend visit, Dee. If you’re going to be living in my house, I expect you to earn your keep.”
Dee’s eyes narrowed. “Doing what?”
“Let’s start simple. Can you answer the phone? Use a computer?”
Dee sniffed, looking down her perfect, surgically sculpted nose. “I suppose.”
