Page 23

Four months later

Macklin Day

S omeday, maybe, Master would have time for me. Someday.

I checked the rearview mirror, and nobody could see I’d been crying.

Nobody could hear me scream out here either, if these guys turned out to be murderers.

This was great.

I climbed out of the car, thankful it’d stopped raining at least, and I looked at the massive house that was ready to fall apart.

If I were to venture a guess, the most valuable features right now were the three cars I’d parked next to on the front lawn.

I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell those guys were getting themselves into. All while…I really needed this. I wanted them to accept me so I could help out and become part of something worth fighting for. And…if…if Walker and I didn’t make it, I’d have something to fall back on.

We had to make it. I wasn’t sure I could live without him.

But a guy had to be smart, right? I needed friends—and I liked Reese and Lucas a lot. River scared me a bit.

Today, I’d meet Greer Finlay too. From what I’d learned, he was a Marine who spent what little free time he had in this area. He’d bought a house here somewhere too.

Figuring the men were inside already, I walked across the rain-soaked lawn and reached the rickety porch steps, and?—

A sharp whistle halted my next step, and I looked toward the side of the house.

“Hey, kid.” It was probably Reese. Possibly. “Come with me. There’s a big hole in the floor on the other side of the front door.”

Oh.

Suddenly, I was glad I was up-to-date on my tetanus shot. At least, I thought I was. I should probably look that up.

“Hi, Sir.” I plastered a smile on my face and met up with the Tenley—okay, it was Reese. I didn’t wanna assume. I’d already mixed them up the first time I’d met River.

“How are ya? Where’s Walker?”

Excellent question. “I’m good. He had to work.” It wasn’t a complete lie.

Despite having met Lucas and the Tenleys for drinks once—and getting along with them—Walker called them my friends since I was the one hoping to become part of this community start-up. In short, he’d taken himself out of the equation, allowing him to work instead.

“How are you?” I asked in return.

“I’m fantastic.” He smiled, gesturing for me to go ahead of him alongside the house. “Welcome to our kinky mansion. It ain’t much at the moment, but it should be less of a deathtrap in a few months. First stage of renovations begins next week.”

“What’s the first step?” I asked curiously. Yikes, I sidestepped a big mud puddle.

“Oh, you know. Make sure it stands.”

That was a good first goal. Yes.

We reached the other side, and it was like being transported to what’d once been a gorgeous garden. It was big too. Past the empty pool—which probably needed more than a little tender loving—the lawn slanted down until you reached a forest.

This place had been beautiful once. An old French bistro chair was tipped over in the grass, having lost most of its white paint. Now it was mainly rusty brown.

“Watch your step here.” Reese climbed up the step to an ancient veranda. “We’re gonna replace all this. Wood’s rotten.”

Great!

I was careful to walk in his exact footsteps, and I followed him inside the house through a door that had a big crack in the window.

Oh, musty. Musty, musty smell.

“Here, we’ll want big sliding doors eventually,” he continued.

Whoa. I looked around the ginormous room and was once more pulled back in time.

Wallpaper was peeling off the walls, an old chandelier hung in the high ceiling—and one probably shouldn’t walk below it—and the wooden floors were cracked in places or missing completely.

Someone had yellow-taped a narrow path through the room, so hopefully it was safe to cross there.

“What’s that over there?” I pointed to a set of doors on the other side of the room, and that whole structure looked all weird. Like, they were interior rooms without windows…?

“Yeah, uh…we don’t really understand what the previous owners had in mind here,” Reese chuckled. “This used to be completely open, like a big ballroom. We’ll probably use those areas for storage. River guessed one of them was a cigar room, but there’s one upstairs too, so…” He shrugged.

Fair enough.

“Come on. I’ll introduce you to our resident fixer,” he said, clapping me on the shoulder. “River and I are leaning toward throwing money at every problem and letting a contractor take over, but Greer believes we can fix this up ourselves once the major work is done.”

“Define major,” I mumbled and followed him. Not one step outside the yellow tape.

Reese let out a low laugh. “In short, we ain’t taking on any load-bearing structures on our own.”

Good call.

We survived the trek across the room, and then we ended up in a grand foyer or hallway—it used to be grand, anyway—and sure enough, there was the huge hole in the floor.

The big staircase was still beautiful, though.

Everything here just needed love.

I could totally picture myself spending weekends here to give this estate a new golden era.

We walked down another hall, and I heard voices. I heard Lucas, in particular. And Reese slowed down when we reached a very wide doorway leading to the kitchen.

Oh boy. Big kitchen and big, big Marine.

“Hello, Macklin.” Lucas smiled at me.

“Hi, Sir.” I smiled back. Where was River lurking?

“So this is the young whippersnapper,” Reese said. “Macklin, Greer. Greer, Macklin.”

We met halfway and shook hands.

“Good to meet’chu, kid.” Holy crap, did he have a firm handshake. “I hear you wanna board our crazy train.”

I grinned. “Fingers crossed.”

“We’re only hesitant because he’s too young to already be stressed out,” Lucas explained. “Not only is he in school, but he works full time?—”

“Actually, it’s more like 75%,” I corrected. “You shouldn’t always listen to what my Master says.”

“Even so,” he hedged. “You have a lot on your plate, Macklin. Walker wasn’t exaggerating about that.”

Greer folded his arms over his chest and glanced between Lucas and me. “Can he vote?”

“Of course I can,” I said. “I’m twenty-one.”

He shrugged. “Then you can make your own decisions.”

I really liked Greer.

“Plus, we need the manpower,” Reese added. He looked to me. “We want you to meet Lucian. Lucas and I are having dinner with him in a couple of weeks to discuss some details. We think he’ll join us once he has a better idea of our plan. You and Walker could tag along.”

“I’ll be there,” I was quick to say. And damn it, I was going to convince Master to make time.

Reese was about to say something else, but the second Tenley waltzed in with his eyes glued to his phone.

“Did you get lost, brother?” Reese asked.

“If I did, it was on purpose,” River muttered, lifting his gaze to the others. Not me yet. He hadn’t spotted me. “Lucas, do you have some news you wanna share?”

Lucas tilted his head. “News…?”

“I mean, we kinda knew somethin’ was goin’ on,” River continued. “The few times you’ve met someone, you haven’t been able to keep your trap shut for a second.” He held up his phone. “Yet, you haven’t told us anythin’ about this Air Force guy you’re apparently in a relationship with.”

“What?” Reese grabbed the phone.

Lucas turned a little sheepish but hid it fairly well. “It’s complicated.”

“No, it’s not,” Reese said. “Because that’s an option. You can list yourself as complicated with someone on Facebook, but this just says—as of fuckin’ yesterday —that you’re in a relationship with a Colt Carter.”

I withheld my snickering, because I didn’t want the show to end. Hell, make me some popcorn, please!

“An airman?” Greer looked a little grossed out. “Aim higher, Lucas. You can do so much better.”

This was too funny! And if this was the banter they shared, I so wanted to belong.

“Oh, knock it off,” Lucas said. “It’s complicated because he’s been on deployment. We met in Richmond before the summer—twenty-four freaking hours, and I can’t get him out of my head. And apparently, he can’t stop thinking about me either, so we decided to go for it.”

Aw, that was sweet!

“You’ve been stressin’ about somethin’ this week,” River noted.

Lucas scoffed and folded his arms over his chest. “I’m learning that’s what happens when you worry about someone overseas. He’s going to give me gray hair before he comes home next spring.”

“Is he a Little?” Greer furrowed his brow.

Lucas cleared his throat. “Uh, no. He’s an arrogant, loud, dominant, and sadistic pilot from Texas. He drives me crazy already.”

“I’ll be damned.” Greer smiled. “What kind of pilot?”

“I have a better question.” Reese walked over to him, with a big smile on his face too, and threw an arm around Lucas’s shoulders. “Does he make you beg, West?”

I pinched my lips together as Lucas pushed Reese off him.

“Fuck me, he does,” Reese laughed. “This is serious . Oh man, I can’t wait to meet this guy.”

I couldn’t wait to be part of this. I fucking couldn’t. They had to let me join them.