Tainted Legacy (YA Paranormal Romance) (2 page)

He got in his car, which he’d parked around the corner. He ran over the events in his head, wondering if everything would be to his father’s satisfaction.

“Does it hurt?” she had asked.

He knew he should have told her ‘yes’. He was there to play off of her sympathies but his pride ran deep. So he had told her the truth and told her ‘no’. Compared to injuries he had sustained in the past, these were equivalent to harmless scratches, nothing more. The injuries would’ve been enough to keep a normal man down.

He wasn’t normal.

Despite the rib-cracking kick that had been bestowed upon him, he had managed to climb to
his feet. Already, the throbbing had subsided and the numbness set in as his bones began to mend.

He had not, however, been prepared for the searing pain he would feel as she cupped his jaw in her palm to clean his wound with alcohol. He had heard himself hiss in pain even as he sucked in another breath and jerked his head away. But it wasn’t the alcohol that burned. It was her touch, the way her fingers slid across his skin. He had leaned away, not wanting her to be too near. Instantly, his eyes had fallen to the cross she wore around her neck.

Gabe had wanted to tear it off, then and there. But that wouldn’t do. He was supposed to win her over. Not terrify her. He had reined in his impulse and let it go.

For now.

Perhaps he should have tried to flirt with her a bit. Tried to win her over. If he could have trusted that his face wouldn’t start to heal before her eyes, he would’ve stuck around a little longer. He should have tried to play appreciative-stranger to her accidental-rescuer. He’d have a chance for that later. Now he’d have to wait a while. Give himself an appropriate amount of time for his injuries to heal so it wouldn’t raise questions.

As he pulled his car into the garage, he let out a satisfied sigh.

She was prettier than the pictures he’d been given to study. That was a relief. She was taller than average. Her long hair was nearly the same melted-chocolate color as her eyes. Her cheeks were rosy from running, making them stand out against her flawless, olive-toned complexion. She was passably attractive. Still, she wasn’t anything like the girls he was interested in. By comparison, she was really quite dreary.

Not that it mattered.

The idea wasn’t for
him
to be interested in
her
.

Ava
needed to be interested in
him
.

He thought back to when he’d first started studying her.

“Look at this,” he’d said as he tossed the file to the side in disgust.

“I don’t have to look at it, I’m the one who compiled it,” Rafe had smugly reminded him. “I did the leg-work, you get the hands-on portion.”

“This girl? She teaches Sunday School to a bunch of snot-nosed twerps, delivers meals to the homebound and sings in her church choir. Did I also mention she’s an honor student? Most disgusting of all? She teaches a yoga class, the Golden Grannies,” he’d snorted, “down at the senior’s center. What kind of sick person wants to watch a bunch of wrinkly old sacks twist themselves into pretzels? There is something seriously demented about this chick.”

“Exactly. She clearly has an appreciation for the pathetic. Which is precisely why Father chose
you
for the task.”

Rafe’s words echoed in his head, adding to his own, never-ending private chorus of degradation. Rafe was probably right.

Ava.

She was so tangled up in her little goody two-shoes role of taking care of him, the poor, hapless, injured stranger. It never occurred to her to ask if he’d managed to cause any damage to the other guy. But there he was standing in front of Gabe, on the wide cement patio that led into his house. If Gabe looked bad, well, even freshly showered,
he
looked worse.

Gabe’s lip was split open and his right eye had nearly swollen shut. But it was the other guy’s nose, his usually straight, perfect nose that made Gabe’s split lip quirk up into a smirk.

“Busted?” Gabe asked as he allowed a cocky grin to take over his face.

“Go to Hell,” Rafe muttered.

“Only after you, big brother,” Gabe said as he slipped into the house, letting the heavy front door swing shut behind him.

 
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Chapter 2

“If envy is one of the seven deadly sins, I am truly damned,” Molly admitted with a content little sigh. She had positioned her lawn chair so that she could maximize her absorption of sunshine. It was still early spring. The last muddy patch of snow was gone. The chill in the air was not. She pulled her sunglasses down even as she pulled the collar of her jacket up.

Ava smiled at her friend. “You don’t need to be envious. You can come out here any time you want. You know that.”

She had inherited the cabin from her grandfather. He, like his son, her father, had also been a pastor. In his retirement years, after Ava’s grandmother had passed away, he had chosen to move into the small cabin to enjoy the beauty and solitude of nature. It was nestled right off the shore of a small, pristine lake. Her grandfather had fished year round on that lake. Right up to the day he died.

Ava was his only grandchild and he had left the cabin to her in his will. She wouldn’t have legal possession of it until she was eighteen but for all intents and purposes, it was hers. 

As cabins went, it was small—one bedroom—and sparse. She’d made the best of it, making it her own the past two years. The walls had all been painted a stark white but she’d spent weeks choosing just the right colors. Now every room was repainted, new curtains hung and new rugs tossed across the wood floors. Just last fall she’d dug up a flower bed in the front. The tulips would be the first to bloom but Ava was sure that was still several weeks away.

It was the perfect place to spend time with her friends. They had privacy.
Like
their own private club house
.
But for big girls
, Molly liked to say. They had spent many weekends out here. An air mattress tossed on the floor of the bedroom to accommodate Ava and her two best friends. Her sister, Grier, liked to tag along on these all-girl weekends but typically chose to sleep out on the sofa.

“You’re so lucky,” Molly insisted. “If this place were just a tiny bit bigger, I’d be begging you to let me be your roommate this summer. Or,” she said, favoring Ava with a conniving grin, “you could get rid of that queen size bed d. and put in bunk beds.”

“And feel like I’m living at summer camp?” Ava said with a laugh. “I think I’ll pass.”

She would be turning eighteen shortly after graduation. Molly assumed she would move in the day after her birthday, because that’s what she would do, if she had the opportunity. Ava wasn’t so sure. She was close to her parents and would be going away to college soon enough. Whether she moved into the cabin for the summer was still debatable.

“Wouldn’t you be scared out here all alone?” Julia asked. “It’s so secluded.”

This was true. The cabin was almost half an hour from town, nestled back into a thick pine forest. But Ava, like her grandpa, enjoyed the solitude. It was the daily drive she wouldn’t enjoy. And she planned on working at The Sugar Shack as much as her boss would allow over the summer.

“Oh, sweet Julia,” Molly chided. “If it were in town you’d worry about peeping Toms. Or a car crashing through the dining room.”

Julia gave Molly a grumpy look but didn’t try to protest.

“So, Ava, who is this strange boy Grier was telling us about?” Molly asked as she squirmed into a sitting position.

“Grier didn’t like him,” Julia interjected.

“Of course she didn’t. Grier doesn’t like boys. Or anyone else for that matter,” Molly decided.

“She’s just cautious around people she doesn’t know,” Ava said in her defense. She didn’t know Grier’s background well because of the simple fact that Grier refused to discuss it. Grier had been appearing at the Sunday service for months before Daniel and Leah St. Clair realized she was homeless. After convincing Grier to meet with a social worker with them, and after it was determined that they were not going to be able to find Grier’s mom, they had agreed to take Grier into their home. That had been several years ago. Grier was welcomed there for as long as she needed.

She was a year younger than Ava. As much as Ava wanted to form a close bond with Grier, it was difficult. This was not for lack of trying on Ava’s part. Ava often had to wonder if Grier suffered from some sort of social ineptitude or if she chose to be socially repellant as some sort of self-preservation mechanism.

Today she had insisted on coming to the cabin with Ava and her friends. Once inside the cabin, Grier had looked around in annoyance, as if remembering how loud three other girls could be. When Ava pulled out the blender and her friends crowded into the small kitchen, Grier had insisted they all leave. Immediately.

“‘Cautious’ my pleasantly plump derriere,” Molly scoffed and Ava smiled. Molly was curvy and proud of it. She was also just as defensive of Grier as Ava was. She enjoyed teasing Grier but was viciously protective if anyone outside of their tight little group dared to try. Not that it mattered. Grier did not seem to be wired si to be to notice, let alone care what anyone else thought of her. “That girl has the social grace of a toddler.”

“Grier!” Julia pleasantly called out, alerting Molly to her arrival.

“Here are your drinks,” Grier said as she trudged down the path that led from the cabin to the lake. She held out freshly blended tropical smoothies to Ava and her friends.

“You remembered to add rum to mine, right?” Molly asked.

Grier stared at her, uncomprehending.

“It was a joke,” Molly told her.

“It was?” Grier asked. “It was not amusing.”

“No, it was not,” Julia agreed, giving Molly a sour look.

“Thanks, Grier,” Ava told her. “Are you sure you don’t want to sit out here with us? It’s not too bad if you find a spot of sunshine.”

“Will you be engaging in the same insignificant chatter as always?”

“Absolutely,” Molly told her with a grin.

“Then no,” Grier decided, retreating back to the empty cabin.

“Tell me again, why was she so adamant about coming along?” Molly asked, not really expecting an answer. Grier was always insistent on being part of the crowd. She just never wanted to actually be
in
the crowd.

“Because she’s Grier,” Julia reminded her with a smile. Grier was Grier and to those who knew her, that was often explanation enough.

“So, this boy who showed up at your house last week?” Molly asked. “Which, by the way, I am hurt that I had to hear about it from Grier on the way up here. This is the kind of thing that I expect you, as my friend, to share with me.”

“It wasn’t a big deal,” Ava assured her. “I didn’t think it was worth mentioning.”

Molly ignored her comment. “The way Grier described him he sounds dangerous. Was he dangerously attractive?”

“Oh, please,” Julia moaned. “The poor guy got beat up on Ava’s front lawn. And all you care about is whether or not he’s
cute
?”

“Well…
yes
,” Molly unabashedly admitted. “If I don’t ask about that, then what am I supposed to ask about?”