For the last few weeks, I’ve weighed options. I could go to the cops with the information I learned about Infinity Corp. They’d read the last name on my California driver’s license and lose theirshiteat the thought of a MacKenzie running hisgub!I haven’t finished counterattacking the hacker who’d infiltrated the Infinity Corp firewalls. The bloody bastard knows his way around code. He mentioned offshore bank accounts. This isn’t new to him. But sure asfeckis new to me. He also mentioned having othernedson his team.
My second option, reaching out to my family about a deadly predicament, will initiate a war. Though the lesser of two evils, it will break Mia’s heart, my heart, and Chevelle’s.
How safe can I keep my wee clan while holding them in my arms?
I’m afeckin’MacKenzie.
As beads of sweat glide down my pecs and abs, I beg God for a few stops to pull before we’re to the point of involving my clan. I turn the shower back on to wash the memory of the deid from my mind.
Chapter 3
Chevelle
Only a few preciousmonths separate the time when Lady and I downgraded from a luxury high-rise to my meeting Leith and his family in the same crappy apartment complex. The MacKenzies were kings in the making then, and it was by pure fate that they lived in the same rundown complex for a short time after our worlds collided.
Before Leith and I became friends, I played video games in the crummy ass living room, door open. Families would pass by. Moms and Dads with their kids going about their daily lives. I came to hate the distraction of watching neighbors pass by. Those interruptions sent me back to another life, my old life.
As soon as I could toddle around the house, designer kitten heels embellished my small feet. Dad spoiled me to no end, carrying me to catwalks and other couture events. The short period I had with my father seemed like a vastly different life. There was nomoving on upfor me. Lady and I had hit rock bottom.
However, there was a benefit to these interruptions. A potential audience walking down the halls kept some of the creepier johns in order. It also provided another nice surprise.
I looked up one day, and Leith was standing against the front door, watching me play. While the cool kid at school complimented my game, I died, literally and physically, staring up at him in horror.
Soon after, we became friends. The MacKenzies made the American dream their own. They soon moved into a home as imposing as their name. I thought being so near to the MacKenzie fortune might spawn old memories, but I was so caught up in Leith. Lady didn’t complain either. She stocked even fewer groceries in the refrigerator and more boxed wine in the bare cupboards.
Now, Leith and I live in what many would call a dream home. Not me. Occasionally, the opulence takes me back to a time when my parents’ presence surrounded me, but that usually occurs when Leith is in the Valley.
When he’s away, those fragments of my parents echo in my mind. Fragments I could easily erase with the slug of a shotgun. Luckily, Mia’s face consigns those thoughts back to hell again.
It took ages for me to share with Leith how Lady and I played Russian roulette with each other’s emotions in the past. Only, she’d blast me to smithereens with the slightest mention of my father. Lady manipulated that one card she had to my detriment. It made me a sweep-it-under-the-rug type of person, and I always will be.
I fully understand my history and refuse to let it repeat itself. My husband views me as a happy wife with an aversion to crime, ostentatiousness, and laziness. Being shunted tohousewife, I can’t stand not helping him take care of us.
I open the stainless-steel refrigerator and remove the gadgets and beakers from the bottom shelf. Since I stopped bartending, at Leith’s insistence, I’d begun drafting my own beer. I pull out my latest batch of brew. I place the chilled glass on a silver tray just as Leith rounds the corner. At first sight, he’s as unattainable as he’d been when I watched him from the comfort of half a courtyard away at school.
While wet, the reddish highlights in Leith’s dark blond hair are subdued. He pushes a few strands away from the ocean that is his eyes. His bronzed skin stretches over protective, ropy arms. Basketball shorts ride low on his hips, and a dusting of hair branches up his lower abdomen.
A sharp inhale fuses into my lungs.Damn.
“Take a picture, hen.”
My lips curve ever so cocky. “Nope, youalright.” I backpedal.
He commands my arm with one hand and removes the pint with the other. Eyes wide, I observe his every move while he guzzles the lager, one of the most challenging beers I’ve ever experimented with. The amber liquid swooshes until it’s all gone.
In breathless shock, I ask, “What do you think, Leith?”
“I downed it, aye?”
I shake my head, looking into those dreamy eyes of his. Why is this crazy Scot my most favorite feeling in the entire world?
With how badly Lady treated me, meeting Leith was more than a blessing. His love has opened my eyes. A giddy feeling surrounds me. “Of course, you downed thebeer, hello. But what about—”
“So good got me begging for asmooch!” His lips find mine, lush yet firm, tongue dipping into my mouth for a taste. As he moans, “how sweet,” I whimper. The notes of honey and orange infused into the lager heighten the desire brewing in my core. Our kiss builds like a forest fire, alighting my flesh from the inside out. Leith’s arms are my home as he surrounds me fully. Nothing’s better than sex with the one you love. But in these moments, the feel of his mouth along mine almost tricks me into believing his kisses even the score.
Coming up for oxygen, I ask, “But was the beer—”
“Nae, lass!” He growls, grabbing me about the hips.