I was going straight to hell. I shouldn’t be looking, but fuck if I could help it. Jesus Christ she was hot. Smoking hot.

Makayla. Sweet, innocent, little Makayla.

Her perky tits with their soft pink nipples were on display before me. Like a tempting buffet just begging to be feasted upon. Her blonde bangs rested right above her big blue eyes. Like a god damn angel lost in the black world of Hades.

“Uncle Alec? I have to work… and I…”

“Makayla,” I warned. My patience was wearing thin, and the fact that her bare breasts were only a few feet away from me didn’t help the situation.

“It’s okay,” Tennessee said as he pushed her toward the bathroom. “Do as the bossman asks. He’s one of the men who signs all of our checks.” He glared at me, and I could tell he wasn’t exactly thrilled with having his training interrupted and me coming in here pulling rank, but I didn’t really give a fuck.

Makayla walked toward the bathroom, holding the barely there red lace up over her breasts. The zipper was still down and rested at the curve of her bare ass. Staring at her exposed back, her creamy white skin… what the fuck was wrong with me?

“What’s going on?” Tennessee asked.

“You’re going to need to get a new hostess. Makayla is leaving,” I said with little emotion.

“Wait, for good? As in not working at Spiked Roses?”

I nodded. “Something’s come up.”

Tennessee shrugged. “Your call. Do the others know? I’ll need Kenneth and Matthew to do more interviews.”

“Tell them,” I said a little harsher than I intended. “They’re meeting in about ten minutes or so. Go in and let them know I had to leave with Makayla. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

Tennessee shrugged again. “Not my inconvenience. I don’t care who works here as long as she does her job and doesn’t pull any diva shit. There’s only room for one diva, and that’s me.” He walked toward the door of the staff room and turned to look at me. “Are you all right?”

I didn’t answer but turned to see Makayla exit the bathroom in a black tank top and blue jeans with the red dress in her hands. Tennessee didn’t wait around for an answer, but left instead. I liked the man. He knew how to read cues and always knew when he should exit stage left without a word.

“What’s going on?” Makayla asked. She walked over to where dresses and leotards hung and placed her dress back on the hanger.

“We need to talk.”

“Clearly,” she said as she looked at me with a small smirk on her face. “You are making this really tough on me you know. I’m going to have a hard time proving my worth and making people feel I actually deserve to be here. Starting off as your niece isn’t going to make it easy. Everyone is going to think it was handed to me.” She crossed her arms against her chest, pushing up those perky little breasts that I had forever burned into my memory as bare and breathtaking. “I don’t want special treatment.”

“You aren’t going to be able to work at Spiked Roses,” I said as I wondered how I was going to break the news of what her father said to me easily. I wasn’t good at shit like this. I didn’t have a sensitive bone in my body, and tact wasn’t my friend.

“What are you talking about? You guys hired me.” Her soft features hardened, and her eyes narrowed. “If you think my father would disapprove of me working here, you’re wrong. He wanted me here so I would be close to you. He set some rules, and I’m not allowed to do any Tastings, and I’m fine with that.”

“Your daddy wrote me a letter,” I began. “Things have changed since you’ve been hired.”

“What’s changed? What letter? I just spoke to him on the phone a couple of days ago when I arrived in New Orleans. Everything was fine, and he was happy for me. This doesn’t make any sense.”

“I don’t know how much you know of your father’s past, and his current business dealings.”

“Enough,” she mumbled as her azure eyes seemed to darken.

I swallowed hard, nervous as fuck to be breaking the news. “He wrote me a letter saying things aren’t safe right now. For him… for you. He’s asked that I take you away. Protect you. He also asked for me to give you this.” I pulled out the envelope that was addressed to Makayla.

She took the envelope and then stared up at me with wide, frightened eyes. “Is he okay?”

I nodded, even though I had no idea if he truly was. I knew what could happen to him, and from the look of terror obvious in the eyes of his daughter, she also knew the level of horror of what could occur.

“He’s asked that I take you to the lake house. For a while. To keep you safe and away from everything,” I said, hating the way my stomach clenched as I said the words. Leaving for the lake would mean that I agreed with Rhett. That I too knew it was the only way to keep Makayla safe and away from the danger that could come for her.

“The lake house?” She looked down at the envelope in her hand. “The one we went to all the time when I was a kid?”

I nodded. “We still have it. It hasn’t been used in a really long time, but we’ve had a property manager keep it up.”

“Why the lake house?”

“It’s safe. No one will know we are there. Your father asked that I take you there, but I have to agree with him. It’s isolated, far away from Georgia, and no one will be able to reach you.”

“So I’m in danger?”

I found it odd that she seemed afraid when she asked about her father being in danger, but didn’t seem the least bit frightened as she asked about her own safety. Her question was so matter of fact.

“Your father believes it’s a possibility.”

“Do you?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been away from the world your father walks in for quite some time. So, I just don’t know.”

She looked back down at the letter, and with shaky fingers, sliced the envelope open and took out the folded paper. She looked up at me, back down at the letter and read out loud:

Makayla,

I always told you growing up that if you aren’t willing to bend, then you will surely break.

There has been a change of plans. The danger that has always been present while you were growing up has only grown worse. I thought simply having you leave Georgia would be enough to remove you from their hold and the evil, but I was wrong.

I have sent a letter to your Uncle Alec informing him of the new plan, and I am confident he will follow my wishes to a tee.

I know this isn’t what you wanted. I also know that you are disappointed that once again, you have to go back into hiding, but there is no other way.

Please do as your uncle says. Listen to him as you would me. It’s been years since you have seen him last, but he is a man who I trust with my life… with your life.

You won’t be able to reach me, but I will be in touch soon.

~Papa

Her voice quivered at points while reading his words, but I saw such poise and strength as the little girl that I knew, who now was clearly a woman, stood before me. When she was finished reading, she looked at me. I could see a glaze of tears coated her eyes, but not a single drop fell.

“What did your letter say?” she asked.

I didn’t want to tell her. My letter was much more ominous, and I didn’t think she could handle knowing what I did. “Basically the same thing. He asked for me to take you to the lake house until everything gets sorted. He’s worried for your safety, and asked for me to step in and watch over you while he works things with his… past… out.”

“So what’s the plan? We just leave? Right now?”

“Yes. I’ll make a few phone calls to get some things in order. I’ll let the property manager know we are on our way so the house will be ready for us. I think we should leave now.”

She gave a slight nod. “Can we swing by my place to pack my things?”

I nodded. “We should get going though. And you’ll need to pack fast.”

“Uncle Alec?” she said softly.

I looked at her, reminded of the sweet girl she once was all those years ago, with those big wide blue eyes of hers. “Yes?”

“I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too,” I admitted.

“I’m scared,” she confessed. “I don’t like not knowing what’s going on.”

“I know. But it’s going to be okay. We just have to get to the house and wait out the storm. It will all work out in the end.”

I was a liar.

A fucking liar.

I didn’t see this working out at all. It was not going to be okay.

This storm was going to be epic and we were about to enter the eye of the hurricane. A dark, suffocating spiral of blackness.

I was just too much of a coward and a liar to tell Makayla the truth.