Until the Tequila (The Killers #3.5)(3)

I sigh. “I know, I know. I went on a date. If you’re gonna go drama queen on me, would you just get it over with? I have a hangover.”

“You went on a date?” she echoes. “With whom? And if you tell me you’re dating your old tattoo artist again, I really will drive the nine hours to shake some sense into you. He’s an ass and doesn’t deserve to share your oxygen. Wait—scratch that. He doesn’t deserve oxygen. That pile of shit has earned carbon dioxide for what he did to you—”

“July!” I wince as my voice pin-balls around my head and move to my room to collapse onto my messy, unmade bed. “Calm your tits. It wasn’t him.”

“Oh.” I hear dogs barking in the background and realize she’s at work. July couldn’t be more opposite than me. She’s a total A-List rock star. She excelled in school and loved science. Throw in her obsession with animals, it made sense that she went to vet school and now has her own practice. She just got married, too.

When it comes to adulting, July is killing it.

“Then who is it? Anyone I know?” she goes on.

I pull my pillow to my chest and shut my eyes. “You don’t know anyone since you’ve never come to Virginia to visit me.”

Her voice turns muffled. “Put them in exam room two, please. I’ll be there in three minutes.” She turns her attention back to me. “I don’t have time for the guilt trip, I have patients stacking up. You can tell me all about your date later when you call me back,” I almost hear her roll her eyes, “but for now, I have news. Uncle Nico called me last night with new information.”

I groan and pull the pillow over my head to hide from daylight and life in general.

“Girl.” The background has gone quiet so I assume she’s moved into her office for some privacy and she softens her voice, like that’s going to make whatever she’s about to tell me go down easier. “The rumors are true. He’s back in town. Uncle Nico put a word out to his fellow officers last night to keep an eye out for him. He was spotted at a bar across town.”

I squeeze my eyes shut. “I guess hoping he was somewhere dead was too much to ask for, huh?”

“I told Wes about him and he spread the word at the club. Trust me, between my husband, his brothers, and my uncle, we’ve got a pulse on what’s going on.”

I pry my eyes open and look across my small bedroom at my garage sale furniture littered with empty Diet Coke cans. “And did they hear anything?”

After a long pause—one that’s heavy and filled with unease, making my stomach turn in a whole other way—she gives it to me straight. “He’s looking for you. Asking anyone and everyone he comes into contact with. One of Wes’s brothers overheard. He’s relentless.”

I roll to my back and stare at the stained ceiling of my crappy apartment. “He’ll find me. From everything I know about him, I know he will.”

“I know this sounds crazy since your dad is here, but what do you think about coming home? I worry about you all the way in Virginia by yourself. You could stay with Wes and me or with my parents. Or, even better, you could stay with Uncle Nico. There’s no way Duane Giesen would get near you. Your dad is practically allergic to the police.”

I’ve always been alone. Sure, I have friends, clients, and clients who have become friends. Hell, Addy has practically adopted me as a little sister and I’ve gladly allowed it. I love her and the small fold she’s brought me into at the winery. But July is right. I am alone because there’s no way I’m admitting to anyone here about the life I left behind in Tennessee.

That still doesn’t mean I can pick up and leave. “I have to work. I can barely take a vacation for fear my clients will find someone new to make them beautiful. As tempting as that sounds, picking up and hiding out with the Maysons isn’t an option. I just don’t understand … after all these years, why he’s looking for me now?”

She sighs. “I knew you were going to say that and I don’t understand, either. None of us can figure out what he wants.”

The pounding in my head won’t stop, especially now that I not only have to worry about Evan, but also my damn father who’s never acted like one a day in his life. “You have all your furry lovies to tend to and I need a nap. I’ll be fine. Let me know if he skips town and I’ll jump into the Potomac and freestyle it downstream. He never learned how to swim unless he took lessons in prison.”

“You’re crazy, Mary.”

I close my eyes and mumble, “Given the humans who made me, this surprises you?”

She ignores that, probably because she knows it’s the truth. “I’ll keep you up to date on what’s going on here but, dammit, answer your phone.”

“Go kiss some puppies for me. Puppy breath is the best.”

“Sleep off your hangover so you can make the world beautiful.”

I yawn. “Deal.”

“Deal.”

July hangs up, but not before I hear her greet a patient in her best doggie voice.





3





Broken





Evan





I started working at the vineyard when I was in college. I didn’t need a job but was bored out of my mind. Per my dad’s demands, I got a degree in business even though I never wanted to work in an office. I also never gave a shit about wine until I got a job here and was basically a catch-all, part-time employee to help out the property caretaker, Morris. I worked in the fields, watched the grapes grow, took part in harvest, and Van taught me about fermentation.