Chapter Five

“Well?” He had taken his time examining the fries before he picked one up and tried it.

“They’re not bad.”

She frowned and picked up a fry and ate it. “You need some homemade french fries then you will be a convert.”

“Homemade?”

“You get potato’s cut them up and make your own french fries, they are always the best kind.”

“Are you offering to make these special french fries for me?”

A small smile hovered on her lips as she imagined puttering around his fantastic kitchen in an apron making him dinner. Snap out of it, she ordered herself. All that mattered in her life was business and making payroll, she couldn’t forget that.

“I could do that for you one day. You’ve never had anything as good as homemade french fries.”

“I will hold you to your promise.” He picked up his drink and took a sip. “This is good; I will have to introduce my brothers to it.”

“I don’t know what to think of you. You never had peach ice tea, but you drive a Benz truck.”

“I have layers.”

She burst out laughing. “I like you.”

He smiled at her taking her breath away. What was it about him that made her feel relaxed in his presence? She even felt safe, and she hadn’t felt that way in a long time.

She cleared her throat looking for even footing.

“Did you want to talk about the plans for the kitchen?”

“Why would I want that? We’re going over them tomorrow.”

They were, but she had been approached many times in the past by one person on a team who wanted to talk about the plans before the official unveiling.

“I wasn’t sure when you asked me out to dinner.”

“I wanted to eat and hoped you might want to eat.”

“You wanted to get to know me.”

His eyes lit with agreement, but he stayed silent.

“Do you like what you’ve seen so far.”

“Quinn, I should stay away from you, but you keep drawing me in. You still have time to run. To save yourself from me.”

“Are you a killer?” It was stupid, but what kind of man said something like that? “I won’t allow you to hurt me. No one will ever hit me.”

His eyes flashed, they changed shape, and her heartbeat sped up. Please be seeing things.

“Who hit you, Quinn?”

“It’s nothing, I was just saying.”

“Who. Hit. You.”

“It was an old boyfriend. I got rid of him.”

“You will tell me his name.”

“That’s not going to happen. By your reaction, I can tell you don’t believe in hitting females.”

“I gave up everything I cared about to save several females.” His voice shook with pain. It was so low it was almost a whisper, but she heard him. The pain hit her like a knife in the chest. Was this her pain or his? She wasn’t sure, but she was suffocating under the weight of loss.

She felt the connection break as he cut into his steak, and she could breathe once more.

“You will be amazed by what I have to show you tomorrow.” She fell back into a safe subject to talk about as she pondered what happened.

They talked and laughed about anything as long as it meant nothing until his shoulders relaxed, and his lips curved into a small smile. Quinn felt like she possessed magic when she saw him calm down.

“I enjoyed dinner. It got a little intense, but I enjoyed it.”

He paid the bill and then escorted her out the restaurant like she was royalty.

They were standing in front of his truck. “You should have run in the restaurant Quinn. Now I want to know everything about you.” He opened the door and helped her up into the passenger seat.

His emotions ran wild for a few minutes in the restaurant. Every customer in there should have been on their knees gasping for air, but Quinn caught them. She took them into herself, and he didn’t know how she could do that.

“There’s not much to tell. I work out of a small trailer that sits on the property my father left me. Would you like to see it?” Why would he want to take his beautiful shiny Benz to her property that was rough and guaranteed to make his truck dirty? What are you thinking Quinn, this isn’t a real date? He’s just getting to know you so he can take advantage of you.

“I’d like to see where you work.”

“You would?” She gave him directions to the outskirts of town. “Your truck might get dirt on it.”

He placed his hand on the dashboard and cried out ‘my truck’ in an anguished voice. She laughed again, she couldn’t help it when he looked at her with a glint in his eye. He was created to make panties wet and break hearts.

She straightened up in the seat. This was just a job, and he was a client nothing more.

“Stop right here.” There was nothing to see but lots of empty land with piles of dirt. “This is all mine. The only thing I own of any value, besides Tee. My dad left it to me.”

“What do you plan to do with it?”

“One day I’ll have enough money to build on it. I have several plans of what I could do. My trailer is further down.”

“Let’s walk.”

“Okay.”

He came around to open the door for her while she sat and waited. If this were one of her other dates, she would wake up the next morning still sitting in the truck.

“This is part of my legacy. My dad, he bought this land when I was about two. He always said it was waiting for me to turn it into something great.”

“Do you have siblings? Did he leave a legacy for them also?”

“I’m an only child. My mom couldn’t conceive after my birth. I always used to wonder if I somehow hurt her. One day, she sat me down and told me I was a miracle. They said my mom would never have a child. My parents made peace that whatever I was boy or girl, they would love me.”

“What about you? You have five brothers, but you went to military school.”

“We all did. The story of my brothers is a little complicated. Sometimes family is family because you’re drawn together not made that way.”

“I get it. My sister,” she made air quotes, “isn’t my biological sister, but I love her to death. She’s out of town right now. If she were here I would have already received a do you need a pickup call. She has a baseball bat.” Her eyes shined as she thought of her. “The cool thing is she’s not afraid to use it.”

“I think everyone should have someone who sticks up for them.”

She stopped when they came to a large shed. “I keep a lot of the tools we use in there. I have several bigger pieces of equipment that my dad owned. One day when I get the dream job, I’ll be pulling them out of mothballs. Do you see that small dot over there?”

“I see it.”

“That’s my office, not much to look at, but it’s mine.”

He could hear the pride in her voice. The trailer was small and blue. He could see it clearly. She must keep it clean, or it would be covered with layers of grime. It also looked like she had patched it in places.

Her stride lengthened as she walked toward the trailer.

“Wait till you see inside you’re going to go; how do you work in someplace this small? You get used to it, and since it’s so quiet out here, it makes it easy for me to think.”

He stopped, reaching out he took her hand and drew her to a stop. They were close enough for Quinn to see the trailer.

“What’s wrong? I know it’s not the prettiest office.”

He heard the change in her voice. Fear, but he didn’t have time to reassure her. He was listening to something else.

“Do you hear that?”

“What?”

“It sounds like ticking. It’s slow and methodical. Whatever I hear is out of place in this quiet.”

“Stop that, it sounds like you're describing a bomb. What I would image one to sound like when it was ticking down.”

He pulled her to him and ran holding her body in front of his. There was an explosion. She looked over his shoulder and screamed as her trailer went up in a ball of fire. The side of the trailer was heading for them.

“It’s going to hit us.”

Mekhi hit the ground on his back then rolled to cover her with his body. Her screams rang in his ears, but he refused to move. The side of the trailer came at them; he could feel the heat. His shoulders tensed, and his eyes closed. He raised his arm to protect his head and waited for impact.

“What happened? How did it change course?”

The trailer side was lying about ten feet away from them to the right.

“Did you do that?”

She looked at him like he was crazy. Her hair was all over her head with dirt in it and bits of weeds from the ground. Her mouth opened in shock while her eyes looked at him like he had lost his mind.

“What… no… I mean how could I have done that?”

“They have shows on television that talk about humans and the powers they have.”

“I don’t have any of those powers. I wish I did.”

He moved off her body allowing her to sit up and take in all the damage.

“It’s gone, all of it.” She stuck her fist in her mouth to keep the words of pain and anger to herself. “They won.”

“Who won?”

She stood she was a Connor, they kept their chins up and their backs straight. She could weather any storm, except this one.

“Everything I had was in there. Every bill, every invoice, there were even copies of demo designs I did and designs for the future. They were all done nothing permanent just a thought, but they are gone. My office is obliterated.”

She slumped. Every dream she ever had was going up in smoke in front of her face.

“Don’t you have backups.”

“Backups! Are you crazy?” She was shouting. She knew better but every snub over the last two years was haunting her. Every time someone took advantage of her was replaying in her mind. All the insults she received came to the surface overwhelming her demanding to be allowed to observe this final atrocity on the life she tried to build for herself and her mom.

She screamed in anger. Mekhi approached her and placed a hand on her back in support. He never told her to be quiet or gave her words of advice, he just let her lose her ever-loving mind.

Finally, she was quiet. Screaming wouldn’t bring her business back.

“What did you ask me?”

She looked at him with green eyes rimmed in red, hair all over her head. Her chin tilted up and her shoulders squared.

“Warrior,” he whispered. Now he knew why his beast insisted she was there’s. Only a warrior could handle him. He thought this planet didn’t have female warriors. He was wrong; it had at least one.

“I asked if you had backups.”

Her lips tilted until they smiled. He was sure the sun had just come out.