Ten(12)

“Do you want me to come back?”

My eyes open to see Six standing at the end of the bar, completely unfazed by the sex act playing out in front of him. I should have remembered to lock the door. I pull my dick from Lisa’s mouth and fasten my jeans. “No. Come upstairs. We can leave Jude to finish this up.”

“Ten?” Lisa gasps, but I ignore her. She doesn’t have to stay if she doesn’t want to, but I’ve lost interest.

“How was Louisa?” I ask as I sit down at my desk.

Six grins at me and slouches down on the couch in the corner. “A screamer.” He nods with a wink.

Louisa was a girl who’d been batting her lashes at me for months, but Lisa kept warning her off. As soon as she saw Six last night, he gained her attention and he ended up taking her home with him.

“I really appreciate the place to crash.”

“Don’t mention it. Now, you want to talk about work?”

He sits forward, leaning his hands on his knees. “I want to open my own tattoo place. I know that’s going to be a problem with licenses and money, but it’s something I’ve always been good at and I just want to do something I enjoy, you know?”

“I can help you with that.” And I can. I’m always looking for investments, and I know how talented Six is with a needle.

“Are you serious?” he asks, shaking his head in disbelief.

“It won’t be expensive to set up, and I have a function room outback that I don’t use. It has its own entrance, and with a little money, it could easily be transformed into a studio for you.” I lean back in my chair. “It’d be good for business.”

There’s a knock at the door. I call out for them to come in. Cole and RJ, who work for my uncle, come in. They offer a chin lift to Six and then stand there staring at me. “What?” I ask, annoyed. They look over at Six again like he’s an intruder. “He’s good. Just say what you have to say.”

“Your uncle said he knows a way to get Jonah to come here.”

The hairs on the back of my neck prickle and lift. “And that is?”

They look between each other. “Oh, we don’t know. He just wants to know if that’s what you want.”

Fucking idiots. Why didn’t he come see me himself, or pick up the goddamn phone? “He knows it’s what I want. Do what you have to do.”

“Okay.” They leave as quickly as they came, and I pull out the bottle of Jack I keep in the top drawer. “You want?” I ask Six, who’s staring at me.

“As in the Jonah?” he asks.

I pour a shot and shoot it back. “One in the same.”

“I’m glad I’ll be around.” He grins but I can’t return it. The whisky is fueling the fire inside my gut. If they get him here, do I have what it takes to kill him? If I don’t, I know my uncle will.





It’s been a week. I miss DJ like crazy but I won’t need to be here for much longer. I grab the last box and take it out to my car. It’s the final bits for Goodwill; everything else has been cleared. I saved my own room for last. It was therapeutic getting rid of all the stuff that now feels like a lie. Pictures, gifts, and diaries I’d written from the age of fourteen until I was sixteen. I sat unmoving for a full day when I found the passage of mine and Dalton’s first time together, and then finding out I was pregnant. I didn’t even get time to tell him. I lost so much on the day he went away. My Dad, Jonah, and him.

The bottom of the box I’m holding gives way and the contents spills free. Damn it.

“Hey, let me help you.”

I turn to see the guy from the bakery. I guess he’s the neighbor now, until I’m finished here, that is. “You were standing there just staring into space.” He smiles.

Shrugging, I bend down to help him pick up the contents of the box.

“I was in a different world.”

“One better than here?”

A sigh leaves my lips. “No, not really.”

His giant palm comes to rest on my shoulder. “Are you okay? You can always come over if you want to talk, or if you need me to help you in any way. Is someone harassing you?” His eyebrows pinch together.

“No, I’m fine, honestly. I just lost my Dad and this is his place. I’m just sorting through everything and it comes with lots of memories.”

He’s sweet and I have no doubt he would help me if I needed it; I think he’s lonely. I’ve seen the walk of shame happen every day since the first day I saw him living across the street. It’s not just women either. I saw a young guy kissing him goodbye on the porch in the early hours of the morning when I couldn’t sleep.

“Is this for you?” he asks, pointing to a removal truck.

“Yeah, it’s for the furniture to go to Goodwill.” I smile.

“Hey, ma’am. What do we take?” a guy asks, jumping from the truck.

“Everything,” I tell him, and hand him the keys. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.” I close the trunk of my car. “Thanks for helping me out…?”

“Six.”

Six? What’s with the number thing?

“I’m Alex.”

“Alex.” He repeats my name and shakes his head. “Of course you are.”

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing. You have a good day, okay?”

He doesn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he turns and jogs back to his house.




I pull up at the restaurant and straighten my dress, I haven’t seen Dad’s deputy in ten years, Jimmy was Dad’s best friend and had known us since we were in the womb. He asked me to meet him here when he learned I was in town and I was looking forward to seeing a friendly face.

He welcomes me with a broad smile and a warm hug. He hasn’t aged at all in the years I haven’t seen him. His light brown hair with flecks of grey scattered through is still thick and long, the laughter lines around his eyes bring the familiarity of knowing him ten years ago. “How are you darling?” He asks holding out a chair for me to sit in. “I’ve been better.” I laugh but it’s more with nerves than humor. I feel weird being here, I’m not the same girl that he remembers.

“I’m sorry about your Dad, he was a good man and will be missed.”

I swallow down the lump in my throat. “We’re holding a service for him tomorrow, we didn’t know you were coming here so we went ahead and organized things.” He rests his hand on top of mine. “I hope that’s ok?” I nod my head and swipe at the tear falling from my eye. “That’s lovely, it feels right that you should get your goodbye.”

The waitress comes over to take our order and we spend the next two hours talking about Dad and he catches me up on his family. I leave there feeling lighter and almost more at home here.





I’m staring at Lisa who’s stomping up and down my office and I’m about to toss her through the goddamn window. I have shit to do and she has become more than a pain in my ass now. Her fucking isn’t good enough to put up with her shit. I slam my hand down on the table, startling her. “Shut the fuck up and listen to me. I don’t know when or where you got confused about what this is between us, but I fuck you for a warm pussy when I need a release. Nothing more. This…” I point to her in my office, “…is never to happen again. If you come on all clingy and acting like we’re more than a casual fuck I will ban you from this place and let my uncle know you’re spoiled merchandise.”

Her mouth opens in shock. Yeah, she didn’t know I know she works for my uncle from time to time to earn extra cash. If you’re going to spread your legs anyway, why not earn while doing it? I don’t judge her for it, I don’t care enough to, but I know she didn’t want me to know what she is.

The door opens and my uncle walks in. “Out!” he barks at Lisa, and she scurries away.

“Come in,” I say sarcastically.

“This was once my office, boy. Don’t forget that.”

He sits in the seat opposite mine and puts his feet on the desk. He needs a haircut and a toothbrush. He’s one of those fuckers who likes to chew tobacco, and the stains on his teeth make him look like an inbred hillbilly. I don’t know how he ever got laid. Maybe that’s why he fucks whores - they don’t discriminate.

“Who’s this Six character?” he asks.

“A friend. Why?”

“Because I want to know why you’re involving him in Moore business.”

I straighten in my chair and lean forward on the desk, shoving his feet off.

“I’m not involving him in Moore business, but if I were, then that would be up to me.”

“He’s an outsider, Dalton,”

“Not to me.”

“Just because you two cozied up and sucked each other’s dicks on the inside, that doesn’t mean he can be trusted on the outside.”

He’s getting real close to getting an ass kicking. I don’t need to defend Six to him. I’d trust Six over any one of these fuckers. They left me to rot, to take the blame and do a decade behind bars. I was eighteen! A whole life planned out and waiting for me, and instead I had to pay the piper for their crimes. All the shit I went through comes flooding in like a tidal wave and I’m back there, lost to my memories.