Their Ex's Redrock Serial Bundle 1-4 (10 page)

“I know you know. Now take your sweet ass back to Whitehorse.”

Even though Tess liked his deep voice calling her ass sweet, she almost growled out loud, but instead of snarling in frustration she snapped at him, “You know too much about my business, Mr. O’Neil.”

“Finn,” he snapped back.

Then, just to piss him off more, she put her elbows on his high motel office counter, got up on her toes because she was short, and she leaned in. “
Mr.
O’Neil,” she said, snottily. “I demand a room.”

His body arrowed over the counter with his nose to her nose and she sucked in another breath. “You. Fucking call
me
, Finn, Chiquita.”

His sex-appeal-domination vibe sort of rolled over her, making things perk on her that had no business perking. “For a room, I’ll stop,” she tried, seeing so close that he had gold spikes in his incredibly charged green eyes.

“Too dangerous here,” he muttered.

“I need a room,” she whispered. “Really need one.”

He started to shake his head slowly, his lips drawing a firm line inside his goatee, and her gaze was so close she saw how young he was. Not like younger than her, but his overall bad vibe, adding to his facial hair and tats, when standing back, made him seem older. But he’d been in her class in high school.

“Please, Finn,” she tried some more.

“This is not the place for a babe like you,” he stated in the lowest, quietest gravelly voice she’d heard from him yet.

She quelled the shiver trying to run through her and opened her mouth to try again, when a swishing sound sounded behind her, then a scratchy woman’s voice demanded, “I need the key to twelve if you're done
screwing
her with your gaze.”

Tess kind of jumped back from Finn, while he moved slower, then Tess looked over her shoulder to see a slender blond woman approaching the counter. The woman was a very pretty, Suzy-homemaker type, and all that was missing was the apron. She had blond hair in a twist with a modest pink shell top and Capri pants over flat sandals along with a shoulder purse. She even had small pearls at her neck.

Finn growled at the woman, but it didn’t faze her as she reached across the counter with her hand raised out. Finn turned stiffly, nabbed a key, turned back, and slapped it on the counter. “Don’t break him, Katie,” he rasped, pulling his hand away, leaving the key.

“I’m going to
fuck
his brains out,” Katie decreed without a glance to Tess, who stood with her lips parted in surprise. Then Katie grabbed the keys and turned, but stopped to look at Tess. “Piece of advice,” she said, nodding toward Finn so the unwanted advice she was going to impart had to be about him. “Be an animal in bed or he will toss you aside.”

Then she stomped away, as Tess stuttered, “I-I’m not going in his bed.”

Finn uttered, “Fuck,” under his breath.

Katie was out the door and Tess saw her meet a tall, bald man outside, who grabbed Katie’s ass, then they both swung toward one of the rooms.

“Who was that?” Tess exclaimed, not really thinking she’d get any answer. It had to be an old fling of Finn’s

“My
wife
,” Finn’s voice barked behind her.

“B-but she ...” Tess turned to him, then looked back at Katie and the man opening the door to a room. “But she’s ...” Tess swung her hand around. “But you let her ...”

“Yeah,” Finn growled. “And just so you know, babe, I don’t give a fuck. I begged for that pussy once. Never do it again.”

“Okay,” Tess whispered, looking over Finn’s firm features for pain or regrets, and seeing none. What a story that must be. But she shook her head, trying to get back to her mission. A room.

“If you give her a room, you have to give me one,” she announced.

“Hers is for an hour tops ...” Finn paused. “No fuck, thirty minutes, not overnight.”

“But you’ll be here, there are chains on the door, and I have my cell to call 9-1-1. I need a room.” He shook his head. So desperately, she whispered, “I can’t go back to Steven.” Unwanted tears started gathering in her eyes.

“Shit,” Finn cussed, and Tess swallowed the lump in her throat, trying to call back her tears. She knew she’d gotten through to Finn, now she didn't want to outright bawl in front of him.

“Got a room, down the hall behind me. Ready in a couple hours.”

Tess looked behind him down the hall. “That’s the only way to get in?” she asked, not liking the setup.

“Only way you stay here, Chiquita,” Finn stated without compromise.

Tess sighed; at least she had a place, and maybe being back there behind the counter, it would be a place no one could get to her. “I’ll pay by the week, and thank you, Finn, really.”

“Mistake,” he muttered.

“I’ll be back in two hours,” she stated firmly.

Tess drove to her shop, feeling too confused and emotionally blank to handle much, so she was glad her young part-time helper Shannon had opened the shop for her that morning. After Vincent had left the condo with Luna, not stopping to say a word to Tess upstairs, for which she was really grateful but puzzled about, she’d thrown all her belongings into her car. They were piled haphazardly in her back seat and trunk, and she really needed to fix them so she could put them in the room Finn was getting her.

But she kept wondering why Vincent hadn’t come upstairs and leveled with her. Thrown her out, even. She didn’t believe he knew she’d overheard his confession to Luna.

I just did Tess to get to you, Luna.
Then ...
I don’t fucking want her, Luna, it was a point.

“God, I’m such an idiot!” Tess shouted inside her car as she drove. “So stupid,
stupid
.”

Of course Vincent had been using her to get back at Luna. But then why hadn’t he called her to tell her to get out of the condo?

“Does. Not. Matter,” Tess ground out, glad she could feel anger because it was overriding her hurt and devastated feelings. She wanted Vincent. God, with everything inside her, she wanted him. “That doesn’t matter,” she hissed, shoving the feelings deep.

She was acting like a cracked lunatic ... she had a marriage to dissolve and get out from under. Then she cussed really badly. Luna had
both
Steven
and
Vincent.
That
bitch.

When she pulled up to the alley behind her shop she nearly turned around, seeing the blue WTSF van parked beside her flower shop.

“Not today of all days,” she exclaimed. They were there to install a security system Vincent had made her take. “Why is he doing this?” she cried, slapping her steering wheel.

She pressed forward, knowing she had to as she pulled into her parking spot, praying Vincent had nothing to do with being in that van. Just then her cell rang, and she grabbed it—squinting at the cell phone hard when she saw Vincent’s name.

She muttered angrily, punching receive call, then without waiting she spat, “I do
not
want your security system. Get them the freak
out
of here!”

Silence.

“I won’t accept it. Ever!” she yelled. It was a suppressed yell, but still
a
yell.

Silence ... and then... “You fucking heard,” Vincent’s voice retorted harshly.

“Yes!” she shouted, then she punched off, hanging up on him.

A knock sounded on the driver’s-side window and Tess practically jumped high enough to hit her head on the roof. Finally catching a startled breath, her gaze shot to the window. She drew in another disconcerted breath that turned to relief to be looking a Cabe Santos, not Vincent Whitehorse. She’d been talking to Cabe about the security system.

She fumbled to roll the window down, getting an up-close and very personal view of Cabe’s bourbon-colored eyes with mahogany swirls and gold flecks. He was a breathtaking man with a five o’clock shadow like some men had that was so attractive. His hair was dirty blond and hung down to his shoulders in chunky, thick waves. She knew him, but hadn’t seen him for a few years. He’d definitely filled out well ...

“Mrs. Navarro ...” he started.

“Don’t call me that,” she blurted, then she tried to calm her voice. “Just Tess is good.”

He nodded, glancing in the back seat of her car, and she cringed a bit at what her strewn clothing must be saying to him. “The crew’s started and we really appreciate this training for them,” he said.

Tess started to open her mouth to tell him the security installation was off, but she saw a teenage girl scooting up behind Cabe. “Ohmygod! This new system is rad. It has Passive Infrared (PIR)!”

Cabe straightened beside her car as Tess looked up at them both. “Angie, this is Tess the owner,” Cabe said.

Angie had to be eighteen, if a day, and she had a nasty black eye on an otherwise pretty face. Angie obviously liked piercings, as she had them on her nose, lip, and multiple ear piercings. She was wearing jeans and a purple WTSF tee. Cabe had one on too, and it stretched broadly over his well-muscled chest.

“Hey, Tess,” Angie said. “You’re going to
love
this system," she gushed.

“Nice to meet you, Angie,” Tess said as she proceeded to get out of her car. Once out, they stepped back and Tess looked to Cabe. “Can I talk to you a second?”

Cabe jerked his shadowed jaw at Angie, who skipped away. She was so young to be out on her own. Tess had been going to tell Cabe she couldn’t take the security system, but what came out of her mouth was ...

“What happened to her eye?”

Cabe’s hands shoved into the front of his jeans pockets as he shrugged. “Boyfriend. We’ve only had her for a few days.”

Tess grimaced at the boyfriend part, then she moved a bit closer to Cabe to whisper, “Boyfriend know where she’s at?”

“Nope,” Cabe revealed. A light wind blew her hair and some of Cabe’s blond hair off his shoulders. “Trying to keep her low, but she’s flighty and I figured keeping her busy was more important.”

Darn,
Tess thought. Then she sighed. “Good idea, of course you probably get a lot of experience with this.”

Cabe looked down at her face intently and she wondered what he was searching for. “Most people not very perceptive about that,” he murmured.

So she wouldn’t blush, she said, “About the cost of this system, I insist on paying.”

Cabe’s gaze narrowed on her mouth, as if he couldn’t believe those words came from her lips. Then he looked at the back seat of her car, then back at her eyes. “That system Vincent ordered is so expensive, it’s ridiculous,” Cabe muttered.

Tess’ eyes widened, but before she could comment, Cabe added, “But it’s badass great. These girls, in the crew this week, can learn it. It will put them in high demand down the road.”

“It’s just a flower shop,” Tess said lamely.

“I’ve told Vincent he’s crazy, but these ladies get to learn it, and as I said. Priceless.”

Tess looked at him kind of helplessly. “Okay.”

Cabe leaned closer. “If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll bring new girls out here to learn on it if you’ll let us.”

“Of course,” Tess quickly declared. “Anytime.”

“Bossman Cabe, you want the wire through the roof or wall?”

Both turned to see a redheaded girl leaning from the side of the building.

“Neither. I’ll be right there,” he answered sternly, then he turned back to Tess. Once his back was to the girl, a small smile lifted his lips. “Gotta keep them on their toes.”

Tess started to smile back at him. “Bossman?”

Then he really smiled and her breath caught, unreasonably. He was very attractive. “This group calls me that. I’ve been called amigo, captain, pain-in-the-ass, and sir, by different groups of classes.”

Tess laughed with him. “It’s amazing for you to work with young girls as we know they are so logical and such calm thinkers.”

Cabe crossed his arms over his notable chest. “I’ve learned to deal. Their drama’s worth it when I visit one with a good job and ring on her finger.”

Tess nodded, and that was why she wouldn’t call the job off. She wondered if she could request no Vincent on this job, but why he’d want to was beyond her, so she figured he wouldn’t, and she didn’t ask.

A cloud must have settled over her features because Cabe asked with a lowered voice, “Everything okay, Tess?” He looked toward the back of her car. “I’ve gotten kind of good at reading the signs.”

“Um ...” she muttered. “I think I’m getting a divorce and things are up in the air.” That sounded good, right? Not too much information. But he was nice to talk to and she kind of wished she could just blurt it all out. She might need a Rusty night, girl’s night, but Rusty would lament Tess losing the hunk that was Vincent. She couldn’t deal with that right now.

“Sorry,” he murmured, then he stepped closer, into her space slowly, but he was close. “You need anything. Call me.”

Tess blinked up at him, trying not to get teary. “Thanks,” she said, then she decided she better get out of there before she did tell him everything and that wouldn’t be fair because Vincent was his partner in the WTSF charity.

“See you later,” she muttered, and she stepped away and hurried into the shop.

T
ess didn’t get back to Rowdie’s until after she closed her shop at six, late because of a last-minute funeral arrangement order that had to go out in the morning. When she walked back in Rowdie’s office she was surprised to see Finn still there.

“A long two hours, Chiquita,” Finn said, coming around the counter. He had on faded denims that fit him really well, a tucked-in wife-beater tee that showcased his dense shoulders and arm muscles, plus a chain hanging from one pocket to another.

Tess tilted her head ... or was the chain coming back out of the same pocket.

“You like my ass?” Finn asked as he grabbed the box she was carrying out of her hands.

Tess blushed, but quipped, “You show it off, girl’s going to look.”

He seemed okay with that as he went on to a new subject. “How much shit you have to bring in?”

She got mesmerized in his green eyes for a second, then mumbled, “Couple boxes and suitcases. But I can handle them.”