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ONE

EVELIN

“Heat, if you don’t leave me alone, I’m going to shoot you with your own gun.”

Glaring at my big brother, all I want to do is kick him. No. Mostly, I want to shoot him. He’s infuriating and drives me absolutely bonkers. I should not have to deal with him as much as I do, but he’s overprotective when he shouldn’t be.

I mean seriously.

It’s not like I can’t handle myself. Our mom made sure I knew how to kick ass as much as the next person.

Heat doesn’t care that I can defend myself. To him, I’m his little sister, and he’s going to deal with anything he sees as a threat to me himself.

“I keep tellin’ you, Eve, I’m not leaving you alone. I hired you to manage the bar for the club because you needed a job, and we needed a manager. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop asking you questions about why you dropped out of school in your last year of college. Nor am I going to let you ruin your life by becoming some hora .”

I barely manage to keep from flinching from the verbal slap he just delivered. Sometimes Heat could be a complete and total jerk, but even I know he’s doing it to get his point across. He’d never actually call me a hora or anything close to it.

“You really think I’m ruining my life? Because I won’t tell you why I dropped out of school?” I didn’t want to have to tell Heat the reason for this or anything else in my life. I’m twenty-two now. I’m an adult. It’s not his business. “You think I’m out sleeping with every man out there in your bar?”

When Heat hired me to manage the bar, at first, I thought sure, this would be great, I’ll finally lose my virginity. However, I knew better than to do something so foolish. I learned over the years being around my big brother, even my mother, you don’t shit where you work. It’s the only reason I’ve not actually done as I’ve wanted.

Okay, that’s a total lie. I know exactly who I’d give it up to in a heartbeat. Well, I would if he’d give me the time of day, but to him, I’m just Heat’s little sister.

Heat sighs and shakes his head, leaning back in the chair across from my desk. “I just don’t like you keeping shit from me. We’re tighter than that, Eve, we don’t hide shit.”

“We don’t?” That’s a lie, and he knows that. There are more than just a few things he’s kept from me over the years, like the fact that I was adopted. Our mother adopted me when I was only a few weeks old. My biological mother was a junkie who abandoned me at the hospital after giving birth to me. My mom just so happened to hear about me. She worked it so she could adopt me, and she did so.

She was able to do this because of who she is, and it’s not like she’s a powerful player in politics or something. No, my mom’s cooler than that. She’s a Valkyrie. Like a legit Valkyrie that you read about in Norse and Viking Legends. She lives upon humans now because it’s what she wants to do, but she’s told me the stories about being a Valkyrie. Growing up, I didn’t have typical bedtime stories where she talked about Prince Charming coming to save the princess. No, my stories were about the Norse Gods and battles she’s seen in her time. I loved it and still do when she gets in the mood to tell me one of them.

My favorites were always about Freyja. Granted, I also loved listening to her talk about Odin. She’d tell me stories about others likeTyr and Hel. But Freyja was always my favorite to listen about.

Finding all of this out and the fact that I was adopted is something I didn’t handle very well, I acted out massively. Then, I finally got my act together. I did this after something happened to me, something no one else knows about. Not Heat. Not my mother. I learned at a young age the evil that’s out there. I learned that life will be a complete and total bitch if she wants to be.

“Eve, little sis, don’t even go down that road,” Heat remarks sternly, his jaw getting that tick like it always does when he’s getting pissed, well, more so than he already is. “You know when it comes to club business, it’s not something you get to know about.”

Club business. Yeah, don’t I know it. Heat doesn’t talk about anything to do with his club with anyone other than his brothers. If you’re not a member of the Kings of Anarchy MC, then you don’t get to know jack shit about it. That’s just the way it is with him. Him and his brothers.

Even with working at the bar for his club, I don’t know anything that goes on. I just manage the place. Well, the front part of it, that is.

The bar wasn’t in a typical building. It was a part of a remodeled warehouse. All the work was done by the guys in the club. The bar was at the front of it while the back portion, a portion walled off and the only entrance is through another door at the back, contains another business that is managed by Flash and Inferno, two of Heat’s brothers. The only thing I knew about the business was that it was a brothel.

One that wasn’t exactly supposed to be there, but it was established and booming.Another thing I wasn’t exactly supposed to know about it is that it is a business suited to all clientele, from what I’ve concluded. Not just your typical, but there was a variety from older to younger women and men, different variety of . . . well . . . species would be a good way of putting it. I don’t know what exactly other than those species are supernatural. You have to know what you’re getting into going through those doors.

However, stepping into the bar side of things, you go in knowing you get to drink, listen to kick-ass music, and, if you feel up to it, get on the dance floor. The club designed it to have two massive bars where there are typically two bartenders working each shift on both. Sometimes, a third will have to come in on the weekends. It’s funny how busy we can be, considering where the bar is located.

Windsor isn’t that big of a town. I’m surprised it’s even on a map. There’s literally one main road that goes through the heart of it, though there’s another one that crosses that one. It’s cool, though, because there’s no major interstate. The town has one grocery store, two Chinese restaurants, a Mexican one, several little shops, four gas stations (two on either side of the main stretch), and a pawn shop. Right outside of town, though, there’s a gun range/gun shop that’s owned by the club. There’s also another gas station owned by the club that has a garage attached to it.

Other than that, the town has a post office, and a small police station that consists of a handful of cops. There’s also a fire station. Some other small mom-and-pop places scatter the town. Mostly the rest of the town is filled with ranches and farms. All mixed in with the neighborhoods intertwining with it all.

What makes it even more interesting is there are a lot of supernaturals that live among the living, and no one seems to be worried about them. Guess that saying is small towns equals everyone knowing everyone’s business.

Thankfully, that doesn’t mean everyone knows my business because I keep it that way. The last thing I need is for my brother to find out any of my secrets.

Shoving my thoughts away, I roll my eyes and put my mind on work. “Look, big brother of mine, I love you, but I don’t need you up in my business. I’ve got work to do to keep your business running as smoothly as it does.”

“You’re a pain in my ass, you know that?” Heat growls, lip curling.

“Kinda hard to forget since you remind me all the time,” I state snarkily. “You know you’re more than just a small amount of a pain in the ass for me?”

Heat’s mouth goes from the lip curl to him outright grinning. “I’ll keep being a pain in your ass until you finally tell me what the fuck is going on with you. Even then, I’m your big brother, it’s my right to do what I please.”

“Whatever.” I roll my eyes while reaching for a stack of applications I need him to get Boot to look over. “These are the applicants for the waitressing positions I need filled. I’m two down. Also, I need a new bartender soon. Lively is moving at the end of the month, which means I’ve got to have her replacement hired and make sure they know what they’re doing before she goes.”

“I’ll get Boot to run these for you and get them back,” Heat says, taking them.

“Thank you,” I say just as someone knocks on the door.

Heat calls out, and it opens to show Fire and Pyro standing there.

Seeing Fire, as it always does, makes me go wobbly at the knees. He has to be the most gorgeous man I’ve ever laid eyes on. I’ve crushed on him pretty much since I was a little girl. Fire has been one of my brother’s best friends for as long as I can remember. He’s also Heat’s Sergeant at Arms for the club. I don’t know exactly what he does, but my brother doesn’t go anywhere without him at his back—him or Pyro. The two of them are usually with him, or Brimstone, Heat’s VP. Brimstone is one of Heat’s other best friends. They’re close like brothers. All of them are if you want the truth.

“What’s up?” Heat asks, getting to his feet, blocking my view of Fire.

This would be a good thing if it weren’t for the fact I could still hear his voice. What the sound of his voice does to me is something just as good as the sight of him. That deep baritone is soothing, and I could listen to it all day long.

As a kid, I’d listen to him while he lectured me about listening to my brother and stop doing stupid shit. I might have listened to him, but I didn’t pay attention to what he was saying exactly. It was all about that voice of his. I was enchanted by it.

“We’re headin’back to the clubhouse. You ready to go, or you stickin’ around here awhile longer?” Fire voice sends a shiver all the way up and down my spine.

“I’m headin’ back to the clubhouse, gotta get these applications to Boot,” Heat answers and looks back at me. “This conversation isn’t over with.”

“It never is, Heat, but I’ll repeat, it’s none of your business.”

Heat glares at me one last time and shakes his head. Thankfully, what he doesn’t do is argue with me further. He moves toward his brothers, and before they step back to let him pass, I make brief eye contact with Fire.

It’s brief, but still, it was enough to cause my insides to start fluttering and heating. I want nothing more than to have him make that heat he causes inside my body to burn bright.

Only that will never happen. He won’t touch me because I’m who I am. To him, I’ll never be more than just Heat’s little sister.