The Loneliest Alpha (The MacKellen Alphas) (18 page)

“And
he won,” Alicia said with wonder.

The
sisters nodded. “He did. It was a brutal fight. I’d never see anything like
that. Two men throwing everything at each other, channeling their inner lykaen
in a way I’d never see. Gosh, it gives me chills just thinking about it. Moving
so fast, so powerfully. Will still hasn’t forgiven him. Gavin embarrassed his
pride by stepping up the way he did and ordering him to stand down.”

So
that explained the animosity between Will and Gavin. “Is that how his face got
scarred?”

The
sisters glanced at each other and pressed their lips together.

“Oh,
come on really, you won’t even tell me that?” Alicia poured another glass and
sipped hard on her straw, pouting and batting her lashes.

Kaity
hissed at her sister, probably not realizing Alicia could totally hear her. “Why
not tell her that? That’s not too much? Right?”

Hanna
shook her head. “I don’t know, Kaity. She’s smart. She might start putting
things together.”

Alicia
narrowed her eyes but when they looked at her she immediately smiled as if to
say
see how friendly I am? You can trust me! Tell me all your secrets!

“No,”
Kaity said.

Alicia’s
shoulders sagged. “I don’t think I’ll ever understand why everyone is so close-mouthed
about his face. What’s the big deal, really?”

Kaity
shook her head. “No, I mean that’s not how his face got scarred or at least…I
don’t think so.”

Alicia
made a face. “What?”

She
shrugged. “Listen, all I know is he was fine before the fight, he was fine
after the fight, except for the typical blood and bruising, but the next day…
That next morning it was there. He won’t talk about. After almost four months of
trying, we just stopped.”

Alicia
took that information and rolled it around in her brain. However, her drunken,
fuzzy brain wasn’t in prime position to analyze this new data yet.

“I
see,” she said, not seeing at all.

A new
song came over the jukebox and Kaity stood, kicking her chair back with a
squeal. “This is my song! Let’s dance!”

Alicia
didn’t dance. She didn’t know how or even where to begin, and yet she found
herself pulled up by Hanna and Kaity, wiggling her body like a worm on a hook
to some song that sounded modern with a catchy beat. Alicia preferred her
classic rock with heavy power chords and sexy voices. Still, she found herself
bouncing around with Hanna and Kaity, shaking her tush and shimmying like a
1920s burlesque dancer.

Everything
started to pass in a blur. She had no sense of time. Drinks came and were
drunk. The girls danced together like a bunch of wild sorority sisters out on
the town looking for attention. Sam, the cute waitress, would sidle by and do a
little dance with them, laugh and spin away.

Alicia
couldn’t remember feeling this good in a long time. Well, she could, but it was
a different kind of feeling good. Something close to how she felt when she’d
first designed her killer feathered bra and panty set. That kind of glowing
excitement of greatness, of rightness that just hit her deep in the gut and
settled there with a pleasant warmth.

That
feeling was in full force now.

That
was, until the music suddenly caught off with a
screech
.

“What
the hell is going on here?” a gruff voice split through the bar, silencing all
conversation.

Dazed,
Alicia and the MacKellen sisters were much slower to turn. When Alicia did she
found the big and burly Jo MacKellen standing inside the front door, those tree
trunk arms crossed over his massive chest, his glower trained on them. Did the
man have any other expression or was his glower trademarked?

Alicia
took one step back and planted herself behind Hanna and Kaity. Just in case. The
guy was huge after all and with that scowl, and those tattoos running up his
arms disappearing into his shirt, he looked like a mafia thug about to bash
some heads in. Hopefully not hers.

“Hanna,
Kaity, and Alicia, home. Now.”

The sisters
snapped to and ran to the table to grab their purses and take one last sip at their
now watery margaritas. Rushing, they came to Alicia and hugged her sloppily.
One of them grabbed her ass.

“Where
are you going?” Alicia asked, baffled.

“Hey,
you too. Grab your shit,” Jo ordered.

Alicia’s
jaw dropped. The whole bar was watching this as if they were putting on some
sort of show. Well, she wasn’t putting on any show, and she wasn’t leaving just
because he came all up in here throwing his macho arrogance around.

She
crossed her arms, mimicking him. “No.”

“Get
your shit and let’s go,” he repeated. As if that made any difference.

“No.”

He
looked away for a moment, probably garnering patience, then strode toward her
in long, hard strides. She couldn’t help but notice that he was wearing the
same manila boots he’d worn when he’d kicked in Gavin’s bedroom door.

She
snickered and his eyes narrowed. “You’re shitfaced. Now it’s time to go.”

She
backed up as he neared. When he got in range to touch her she threw her arms
out and said, rather loudly, “Don’t touch me! I’m Gavin’s woman!”

Someone
gasped in the back. Another chuckled. Then more silence. Surely she could have
heard a pin drop.

Jo
narrowed his mean, beady eyes on her. Okay, they weren’t ugly or anything but
he was just so big. He could probably toss her into the air twenty feet then
catch her and do it again while never breaking a sweat.

She
giggled again.

“Like
I said, shitfaced. Now before you do something stupid, grab your purse and let’s
go. Now.”

Alicia
couldn’t help it. Something about the concoction of booze she’d drank along
with his over-the-top manliness just set forth peels of girly giggles. The kind
of girly giggles that Hanna and Kaity soon were replicating from across the
room.

He
reached for her and she slapped his hand away. She struggled to put on a
serious face. “I am Gavin MacKellen’s woman and you will not touch me, or I’ll
tell him what you did and let me just tell you, buddy, he
will not like it
!”
Of course she had no clue if this was true or not.

His
mouth opened and closed. His head cocked then he leaned in close. Her eyes
rounded. “Bullshit,” he said. “Just ’cause you’re stayin’, that don’t mean you’re
his woman. He hasn’t even shown you his face, has he? So bullshit. He won’t if
I lug you outta here like I’m about to.”

She
pursed her lips as she thought about this. Apparently this took too long to be
socially acceptable because he sighed and moved to grab her again.

She
slapped his hand away again, harder. “Well, I kissed him. If that doesn’t make
me his woman, I don’t know what does. Okay, maybe sex would, but I’d like to as
least see his face before we do that, you know? I mean, I might be able to do
it if he just blindfolded me again or something, heck, it might even be kinky,
but I really would prefer to look at his eyes. I caught a glimpse of them
before and they were pretty, you know? A lot like yours, actually. Though I’m
not trying to give you a compliment or anything because you look like a thug
and I don’t like you much. I mean, you’re nice and all but…no thanks, you know?
No hurt feelings. So, yeah, I like Gavin and we totally kissed and it was great,
but no, I haven’t seen his face. But, oh well, right?”

Jo’s
stoic face stared at her. A long moment passed. “Is that all?”

She
thought about it, nodded. “I think so.”

His
jaw slid left then locked into that position. Then, quite suddenly, he started
laughing. It was a deep, belly laugh that had her smiling and giggling like a
fool. Hanna started laughing, Kaity followed and even Sam the hot waitress
joined in. However, once she did, Jo’s gaze cut to her turning hard and angry.
Sam’s lips snapped shut and she spun around, disappearing into the kitchen.

What
was that all about?

“What
if I promised to sneak you to the house so you can surprise him? Turn the light
on in his face or some shit? Will you come with me then?”

Her
eyes lit up. The man was genius! “Yes!”

He
smiled. “Then grab your shit, woman.”

So,
she grabbed her shit, gave a grand wave to the bar and yelled goodbye to
everyone. They waved and smiled back. Nice people.

Hanna
got dropped off at her house first followed by Kaity. Jo was nice enough to
save Alicia for last.

She
couldn’t help but grin at their evil little plan. It was perfect! He’d kill the
headlights, drive up slowly and let her sneak into the house and surprise
Gavin. Win, win situation.

That
was the plan. But the night didn’t end that way. Not even close.

Because
as they drove across the pack toward Gavin’s house an SUV barreled into them,
slamming into their midsection and flipping them off the road.

Her
screams of terror filled the night.

CHAPTER 13

Hanna
fumbled to put her key into the deadbolt. It took her a few tries but she
finally opened the front door. She should have left the outside light on; it
would have made the past ten minutes she’d just wasted move a lot faster.

Her
chuckles at her own stupidity died as she stepped inside.

Darkness
and emptiness greeted her. The small kitchen light had been left on and its
glow lit up part of the hallway. To her right the dining room and to her left
the living room were both dark. Upstairs, the master bedroom, baths, and guest
bedroom were dark as night. No sounds greeted her save for the ticking of
clocks and the whirr of the refrigerator.

God,
it was worse than she thought.

She’d
told him to get his belongings today and leave. She’d spent the day in town,
putting on a brave face until she couldn’t handle the thought anymore and had
gone to tell her sister. Kaity, luckily, had provided some surprisingly much
needed relief by suggesting a night at the bar.

The
time for distractions was over now. She didn’t want to be here in this house
with all their memories, but a part of her liked the painful sting it caused,
like pushing on a bruise just to feel it hurt.

She
was stupid. An idiot. Because the first thing she did was march into that
kitchen and turn on the light.

Sure
enough, it hit her like a punch to the heart, knocked the wind out of her.
Pressure expanded in her chest and she barely held back the tears.

He’d
taken his coffee pot, his framed photo of him at a chili contest winning the
amateur cook-off prize. Such small things but they hurt like gunshots. If it
hurt just seeing the kitchen this much, then what would it be like to see their
living room…their bedroom?

Panic
started up. Her breaths turned into harsh pants as anger and hurt and pain
swirled into a nasty concoction inside her.

Don’t
do it, Hanna.

Don’t
do it.

She
turned slowly and stared at the answering machine. The tool that had finally
cinched her decision to end it with Tom.

Her
knees felt wobbly as she went to it. A new message was there. The bright number
one flashed up at her as if in warning.

Don’t
do it, Hanna.

God,
she hurt. Everything hurt. Her hands, her skin, even her hair. Everything hurt
as if she’d been beaten over every square inch of her body with a bat.

Still,
she watched her hand move to hit the play button as if she was watching someone
else go through with the motions. Not her. Not her, because she didn’t want any
more of this pain, right? She’d never been a glutton for punishment, right?

A fat
tear slid down her face and she clenched her jaw, bracing. Then, like she was
pushing on a swollen bruise, she hit play.

The
new message rang out loud and clear in the dead house. New because she’d
deleted the last one trying to rid it from memory. The first had been a woman
teasingly letting Tom know she looked forward to seeing him again soon. She
even made a kissing sound.

Hey,
Tom, I know you said only to use this number for emergencies but you’re late
and I just wanted to make sure everything’s okay. In case you forgot, it’s the
Palm Springs Motel, room eight. Can’t wait to see you.

Time
froze.

Hanna
stood still. Even her heart didn’t beat. Her mind had turned off or switched to
some alternate mode that would allow her to survive hearing that woman’s voice—again.

Because
the impact of it hit her like a freight train crushing an empty cardboard box
at fifty miles per hour.

She
laughed, an alien, hollow sound.

That
was a new message. One that must have happened since she’d heard the first one
that had killed her hopes and dreams. The call that ended her marriage.