VEX: Valley Enforcers, #1 (5 page)

“What’s that?” Justin said as he sat straighter in his seat.

I bit my tongue to keep from swearing and slammed on my breaks before we flew by the vintage looking RV camped out on the side of the road. Acacia stood in front of a grill wearing a low cut shirt bearing the Batman symbol and a pair of tight black jeans that showed off her plump ass and long legs. A rickety looking card table had been erected a few feet away from her portable grill. I could hear the music pumping out of the battery operated docking station that sat on top of the table. Acacia looked over and gave a tiny wave, spatula still in hand.

“Stay in the car,” I ordered as I turned on my hazards.

“But –”

I jumped out and slammed the door. Acacia was swaying her hips to the melodic bass line of the song. As I stalked closer she added a foot tap and spun around, bringing the spatula up to her lips as a makeshift microphone.

“Oh 4, 5, 6 c’mon and get your kicks. Now you don’t need money with a face like that, do ya, honey.”

I tried to interrupt her karaoke time, but she held up a finger in protest and continued. Behind us I heard the car door open and close. Justin appeared a second later, obviously disregarding my order. He crossed his arms and watched with an amused expression as Acacia danced around and pointed at me.

“Big black boots. Long brown hair. She’s so sweet with her get back stare. Well I could see you home with me, but you were with another man, yeah!”

Her fingers danced over to Justin. He threw his head back and laughed while she just gave a shoulder shrug and continued. She sauntered over to where we were standing. Ever the performing artist, Acacia was dancing like she was on stage in front of a hundred thousand adoring fans as she gave the impromptu show roadside with a spatula as a microphone.

“I know we ain’t got much to say before I let you get away, yeah! I said… are you gonna be my girl?”

She lowered the spatula and started using it as an invisible tambourine; flicking her wrist along with the music, she continued her poetic hip movements. I was enjoying her show but I hated that Justin was there with me. Nobody knew about Acacia and I wanted to keep it that way. Her RV was three miles and one left hand turn away from the main entrance to the reserve. She was too close to home and home was too close to her. It was going to be impossible to keep the two entities separate.

I took two long steps over to the card table and slammed my hand down on the ‘off’ button on the docking station. Justin’s thunderous claps started up immediately, and Acacia did a curtsey and a bow. My blood boiled watching the two of them together. He was flirting with her.

“
Mine
,” I growled. The noise rumbled deep in my chest and reverberated against my ribcage.

Justin abruptly turned and gave me a wide eyed look. Acacia, who didn’t hear the declaration, followed his gaze and raised an eyebrow.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

She motioned towards the small charcoal grill. “Making burgers. Do you two want to stay? They’re veggie burgers, but I swear they taste just as good. Hi, I’m Acacia.” She stuck her hand out at Justin who took it cautiously. “Are you friends with Vex?”

Justin cleared his throat and looked back and forth between us. “Uh, yeah. We’re friends. Work together. You know how it goes. I’m Justin.”

“We can’t stay Acacia,” I said a little harsher than I planned.

“Why not? We have two hours before our shift starts, and I want to venture into new culinary waters and eat a veggie burger. Plus, I’m starving and you refused to take me to town.”

“We just can’t,” I snapped. Instantly I wished I could take back the force at which I bit the words out. Acacia’s face tightened and she dipped her head before squaring her shoulders and turning towards the grill.

“Whatever. I’ll just eat burgers all week. It was nice meeting you, Justin.”

I ran my hand through my hair and sighed, “Acacia –”

“It’s fine. I get it.”

“You don’t though.”

My tone was exasperated and strained. I hated that we had an audience. I wanted to tell her how dangerous it was to be out on the side of the road alone, especially when we had extra security patrolling the woods. She was my mate but that really didn’t hold a lot of stock. Even if I marked her nothing would be set in stone. Orsa had been on probation for months before she was accepted into the clan. While Acacia hadn’t been a rogue who killed a human, she was looking for proof that shifters existed. In Deacon’s book that was probably good evidence that she planted the cameras. After a good night’s sleep and a lot of thinking I was one hundred percent sure that she had nothing to do with it. To an Alpha trying to protect his clan, however, my words wouldn’t mean much.

“Can we talk for a minute? In private?”

She didn’t even turn to look at me. “I don’t think so. You rushed out the other night and then I didn’t hear from you at all yesterday. Clingy of me, I know. Can’t help it. The owner of the grocery store yelled at me for parking in their lot so I hauled myself out here thinking I could get a little quality hiking done. My dad called as I was gearing up and tried to guilt trip me into coming home and after that I just wanted to stuff my face. Hence the veggie burgers.
And then
you show up acting like I am the biggest thorn in your side. I tried being nice, Vex, but I’ve had a bad few days and you are the cherry on top of the shit sundae that is my life. So no, I won’t talk to you in private.”

“Shit,” Justin mumbled under his breath. “She told you.”

“Go wait in the car,” I ordered brusquely.

Thankfully he did as I instructed. I waited until I heard the door shut before I approached Acacia. She was removing the patties from the grill and carefully aligning them on a plate.

“I’m leaving in the morning.”

That’s what I wanted, wasn’t it? But why did it feel like I stuck my fingers in a light socket? “You’re going home?”

“I don’t have a home.” Her voice made my heart shatter. Soft and quiet, it was barely there. It held no malice, just sadness. She was giving me a glimpse of the glass fortress of her soul again. “I talked to Aiden – my brother – this morning. He and his partner are going to let me stay with them until I get on my feet. I’m heading to DC, and hopefully Big Betty doesn’t die on the way.”

All I could say was, “Oh.”

Finally she turned to me. The dark makeup around her eyes was smudged from the unshed tears that rimmed her lids. My chest ached with a terrible feeling of being inadequate. I had contributed to her hurt, and I couldn’t do anything about it. Not with Justin a few feet away listening through the car door. Definitely not while she was still angry at me.

“Can I see you tomorrow before you go?”

Her lips curved into a tortured smile. “You’re going to be nice to me now that your friend isn’t listening? No. I don’t think it’s a good idea. I’m already probably too attached to you.”

“Acacia –”

“Goodbye, Vex.”

She stepped away from me and grabbed her cellphone before disappearing inside the RV. I waited for a second hoping she’d come out. I waited another second while I decided what to do. My bear was clawing at my insides shredding the little sanity I had into fine pieces. I was seconds away from tearing her door down and spilling my heart. I was going to tell her everything. Tell her about shifters and mates. Tell her that she was my moon and my stars.

But at the last second I saw Justin move in the front seat of my SUV. He rolled a window down and called out to me. He was like a stone crashing through the walls of my glass house. The gusto I built rushed out and I deflated. I retreated back to the car and gave Justin a look that told him I wasn’t going to talk about what happened.

And we drove in silence.

Acacia

I stuck my spoon into the tub of cotton candy ice cream and looked up at the tiny screen just as Tatum and her perky breasts started throwing bottles at Ghostface in the garage. Ice cream and
Scream
. It was like Lane Peters broke up with me all over again. Except I wasn’t in high school and I hadn’t been dumped outside of a gas station. Nope. I was weepy eyed while watching Rose McGowan die on screen because of a man I hadn’t even kissed.

I’d only known Vex a week, and yet, he seemed to possess every part of my life. I dreamed about him. One night it was like something from the cover of a romance novel. He rode in on a white horse with his shirt torn open and his silky black hair whipping in the wind behind him. Another night we were in space suits fighting a giant squid. There were plenty of intimate dreams of his lips caressing my skin, but there were even more moments of silliness and adventure. I dreamed of him any way I could have him because I knew in real life I’d never have the chance to play footsie with him while we had dinner with Bigfoot and Dean Winchester or save a centaur from a burning building. 

I quickly realized, and accepted, the depths of my obsession with Vex after he pulled me into a warm embrace and his scent of pine and fresh rain lifted me off the ground until I was floating in another dimension. We hadn’t spent a lot of time together but I felt like he saw me for me. It had been a long time since anyone looked at me the way he did.

So I wasn’t mourning the loss of a relationship while I spooned heaping globs of multicolored ice cream into my mouth, but I was mourning the loss of what could have been. I wasn’t foolish enough to think that anything could ever work between the two of us. He gave me hope, though. Hope that the truths I wanted were out there. Hope that not everyone thought I belonged in a padded cell. Hope that people cared.

I couldn’t give Vex all the credit for my tears. My family dynamic had shifted almost completely on its axis. My mom woke me up with a call about one of the other teachers at the school slandering our name because I was a
‘hippie terrorist’
. Jade called shortly after to berate me for yelling at our mom and causing such a disruption. She also threatened to keep me away from my niece and nephew if I didn’t get my act together and start acting like a twenty seven year old woman and not a twelve year old who believed in fairy tales. Her words, not mine.
Then
my dad called after I ignored my mom’s next three attempts at communication. He took her side and told me a mail clerk position at his office opened up and he could get me the interview, but I’d have to fix my hair, take out my piercings, and cover my tattoos. I played phone tag with my family all day long. Eden didn’t seem to take either side, but she did text me a mini novel about appreciating family. I only heard from him the next morning after I dealt with the grocery store owner, a phone call from one of my aunts, and a cryptic Facebook post from my sister about growing up and acting your age. By that point I was hurt, angry, and defeated. Aiden suggested me moving out to DC and staying with him and James, but I didn’t decide to go until I was facing down Vex.

Before I landed myself a three year stay in a federal penitentiary I wasn’t the most optimistic person. My teen years were an angst filled blur of loud music, ghost hunts, and bad haircuts. When you’re suddenly in lock up with a scarlet letter branding you a terrorist, things change. I spent the first year hating my life. I spent the second year feeling sorry for myself. And I spent the third year trying to be positive and look towards the brighter side of things. I didn’t find Jesus or have a stack of self-help books on my shelf (we were only permitted ten books per cell and my bunkmate loved Stephen King so much that she didn’t leave any shelf space for me). I hate when people have the “it could be worse” attitude, but I adopted one my final year at Waseca. There were plenty of bad seeds in Block B, but there were just as many
good
women.

My family visited me once during my entire three years. They flew over because it was an eleven hour drive from Miles City to Waseca. Eden was too young for the trip and Aiden was in the middle of finals week, so it was just Jade and my parents who made the trip. Sometimes I wonder if seeing them made things worse. Thirteen months into my stay they visited for thirty minutes. My mom barely spoke and Jade was looking around like she was going to be stabbed at any moment. My dad, who sent me a steady stream of letters and funny stories, was a chipper hub of conversation. They left, and I was alone. Again.

Things weren’t terrible at Waseca. There weren’t worms in the food. There wasn’t a lot of violence. I got enough tampons. I tried to keep a low profile and for the most part it worked. There were a lot of times when I was terrified. There were a few guards whose life missions seemed to be to tear everyone down and make them feel worse when they were already in a vulnerable position. There was a lot sex between inmates, which meant there were a lot of STDs that were passed around. I never partook in a three minute broom closet finger session with another girl while her friend stood watch, but I did have multiple UTIs and a yeast infection that the med center refused to treat. It wasn’t a vacation, by any means. It definitely wasn’t anything like
Orange is the New Black
.

I reached the bottom of the ice cream tub. My stomach hurt from all the dairy and I still felt like shit. I paused my movie and dumped the empty container before rinsing off my spoon. As I was adjusting my pillows and preparing to sit back down there was a thumping noise. It wasn’t like a knock on the door of the RV. It sounded like someone slapped their hand against the side of the metal container.

For a split second I thought it was Vex, but when a machine gun of thumps began and created a symphony of metal thuds I quickly tossed the idea that it was him. It sounded like there were multiple people, or
things
, slamming against my RV. The cabinets rattled and my rack of dried dishes clattered. My Taser was all the way in the back of the haul next to my bed, so I grabbed a knife and pushed the dishes back up on the countertop before they crashed to the ground.

The cacophony of sound ceased. I took a heaving breath and clung to the walls as I inched towards the door. It was locked, but the device was faulty and could easily be bypassed. My feet touched the steps and it was like I stepped on a landmine. The noise started back up, and this time the RV shook as if it were nothing more than a toy to a child. I fell backwards. The hard lip of the stairs dug into the back of my legs as I collided with the ground. The kitchen knife sliced my arm before flying towards the steering wheel. The dishes shattered, doors swung open, and there was a chaotic explosion as things fell and spilled around the RV. All I could do was brace myself as the world around me erupted.

The noise and shaking stopped abruptly. The entire encounter couldn’t have lasted more than a minute or two, but it felt like a lifetime. My muscles ached and blood was smeared across my arm and on my pajamas. I was torn between wanting to rush outside and see if I could catch who, or what, had caused the disruption and wrapping my arm so I didn’t bleed out on the floor.

I rolled and got to my feet. I held my arm in front of me like a zombie as I quickly tried to maneuver around the broken glass on the ground. I felt a few dig into my skin, but my main focus was getting to the bathroom. I left a trail of blood behind me as I grabbed a few towels and my first aid kit from the linen closet and locked myself in the bathroom I started rinsing the wound. I had been a Girl Scout all the way up until the summer of the attack and my interests turned towards things a little darker than badges, campfire songs, and selling cookies.

The water ran red and didn’t stop. I wrapped the towel around my limb and started applying pressure, but within a few long seconds I felt the warmth of my blood seep through and stick to my fingers. I rinsed it and folded the towel to a new section and attempted to pluck out the long piece of glass that had embedded in the bottom of my feet. At first I thought the cut was clean. Long, not deep. As the minutes ticked by slowly, however, it became apparent that I was going to need stitches.

There was a small hospital in Brown Bear Valley. Or was it an urgent care? Was there an Emergency Room sign outside? I had only passed by it once or twice. My attempt to keep pressure on my arm was failing. I tried to steady myself as I pushed the key into the ignition. The engine hummed and then sputtered. It let out a wheezing breath and I smelled smoke.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I didn’t even try turning the engine again. I knew basic maintenance for the RV but there was no way I’d be able to do anything with my arm dangling there. I also didn’t know if the person or thing that shook my home was still out there. Had they damaged my RV intentionally? Instead of running for my lone weapon in the back I dropped to my knees and rummaged through the mess until I located my cellphone.

I dialed 911 and made the operator stay on the line until I saw the flashing lights from the ambulance through the front windshield. And I swear their lights caught a figure moving in the trees. Something tall and furry, but not like any animal I’d ever seen.

It almost looked like a Sasquatch.

The Sheriff tapped his pen against the pad in his hand and looked at me like he knew something I didn’t. I was adamant that I didn’t want the police involved but the nurse who treated me when I got to the emergency room said it was hospital protocol.

“And you didn’t see anything?” He questioned for the third time.

I left the Sasquatch thing out of my story. The last thing I needed was another person of authority laughing in my face. He was relentless, though. Pushing in a way that made me feel as if he knew I saw something.

“I saw a Bigfoot.”

He didn’t laugh. “You saw Bigfoot? Are you sure it wasn’t an animal? A bear, maybe?”

“There isn’t just one Bigfoot, sir. There are hundreds of the cryptid across the United States. That explains how you can have a siting in Yellowstone and then a month later have a similar experience happen in the Smokey Mountains. And no, it wasn’t a bear. I know what bears look like. I also know what Sasquatches look like.”

“And you believe that a Sasquatch shook your RV, cut the wires in your engine, and slashed your tires?”

“There have been similar reports of Sasquatches encounters. Look, it wasn’t a bear. Okay? I know bears. Believe me.”

His eyebrows quirked and he looked as if he was going to say something, but as he was opening his mouth the door to my room burst open and Vex came in like a tornado.

“You’re okay! Thank God.” He rushed in and headed for my side. He glanced at the Sheriff. “Pohl. It’s been a while.”

“What are you doing here?” I breathed.

The Sheriff gave a nod as a greeting. “Evening, Vex. I’m sorry we had to meet again like this. I didn’t know you and Acacia were uh, friends or else I would have called you.”

The doctor who stitched me up stormed into the room without knocking. Two security guards were at her feet. They were both less than half the size of Vex and tried to look intimidating but they were failing miserably.

“Mr. Carino, what part of ‘no’ don’t you understand? Miss Reed didn’t list you as an emergency contact. You can’t be here.”

The Sheriff stood and raised his hands. “It’s okay, Dr. Maston. I apologize if Vex was crass, but he works with me.”

“Of course he does,” The frail woman huffed. She crossed her arms and turned to me. “I’m sorry for the disruption, Miss Reed. I’m still waiting on the results from your last lab but if everything checks out you can be discharged in an hour or two.”

I thanked her, but as soon as she and the hired goons left I turned my attention back towards Vex and the Sheriff.

“What are you doing here?” I asked again.

They both looked at me. The Sheriff cleared this throat. “I think I have everything I need. I’ll be in touch.”

Being alone with Vex made my heart thump out of my chest. I was wearing a hospital gown that looked like it doubled as my grandma’s curtains and had just gone through something mildly traumatic but his nearness still warmed me. The fuzzy feeling in my chest had nothing to do with the low grade pain killers they had pumped through my IV and everything to do with the man sitting next to me.

For the third time since he burst through the door I asked, “What are you doing here?”