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“I lost my sister too.” I said the words before I could stop them. “The one I moved here to be with. She was killed shortly after I got here.”
Haisley’s shoulders slumped. “Damn,” she whispered. “You’ve had a rough year.”
“It’s starting to turn around,” I replied, thinking of Levi. “I’ll always miss them.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t go away.” Her voice was soft. Then, she let out a small laugh. “Well, we got deep right off the bat. Told you we were gonna be good friends.”
The next few hours flew by as we worked nonstop. I loved every minute of it. Bringing smiles to kids’ faces, those who didn’t have many reasons to smile, brought me a peace that I needed, that I had missed. Facing death was never easy. Especially as a child. I’d been that kid once. Not sure I’d make it to adulthood. I wanted to take their minds off all the other things even if only for a little while.
We began to clean up after the last group of the day. Haisley left to get a broom while I wiped down the tables. When the door opened, I expected to see her, but instead, it was a man. He was older than me, but I wasn’t sure by how much. Dark brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and his tattoos were on clear display since he only had on a leather vest with no shirt underneath it. His blue eyes locked on me. His face was attractive, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t evil. There was a darkness in his gaze that terrified me. I was preparing to scream when the door opened again, and Haisley walked inside.
She frowned at the man. “You’re early. I’ve got to clean up first,” she told him, sounding annoyed.
Relief hit me so hard that my knees felt weak. Holy crap. She knew him, which meant he wasn’t here to kill me. This wasn’t someone connected to the gang who had killed Irish. I was okay. Taking a deep breath, I tried to hide the fact that I’d just been on the verge of screaming my head off.
“Aspen, this is my brother, AJ,” Haisley told me. Then, she looked back at him. “Go wait outside. You’re gonna scare people.” She rolled her eyes and began sweeping.
His eyes were still on me. “Aspen—that’s a unique name,” he drawled.
This was Haisley’s brother. Not a killer. I could see some resemblance to his sister. His eyes were a lighter version of hers, making them appear more blue. However, there was no kindness in his gaze.
“Yes, and so is mine and all of our siblings’. Yours is too, but you go by your initials. Go wait outside,” she snapped at him.
He didn’t move. His tongue came out to lick his lip, and a flash of metal surprised me. I turned back to wiping down the tables.
“How old are you, Aspen?” he asked.
“Oh my God. Are you serious right now?” Haisley turned on him, raising her voice. “I swear, I should have just taken the bus. Go, AJ!”
He didn’t go. I glanced from her to him, and he raised his eyebrows, as if waiting on my reply. Maybe if I told him, then he would leave.
“Twenty.”
“Too young for you,” Haisley pointed out.
“You new to town?”
“AJ, I swear to God, if you do not leave her alone, I will call security,” Haisley warned him.
He laughed then. “Hayes, come on now. You think I’m scared of security?” He winked at me. “Just trying to make a new friend. Calm down.”
“You don’t need a new friend. You are just home, visiting. And you’re not her type. Look at her. Does she look like she’s into thugs? No, she does not.”
He smirked. “She looks real fucking sweet.”
“And entirely out of your league. Now, leave her alone, so we can clean up,” she growled at him.
He gave me one last once-over and started for the door. “Hurry,” he told her before walking outside.
She looked over at me. “Sorry about him. He offered to pick me up today, and he’s only in town for a couple of days, so I said yes. Ugh.”
“It’s fine,” I replied, just thankful he was gone.
“He doesn’t normally flirt. That was unexpected.”
I started to assure her it hadn’t bothered me—even though it had—when my phone dinged. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw Levi’s name on the screen. Smiling, I swiped it to open the text.
Levi: I am stuck with a work situation. I had to send Saxon to get you. He’s the only available guy I had that I trust. He is waiting for you in the lobby. I’m texting you a picture of him. He knows what you look like.
