Wrong For You (Before You Series Book 3) Read online

  Without turning around to see if he followed, Violet strolled toward the front door. “What brings you to Missoula?”

  “Family,” he answered untruthfully. He had no intention of visiting his mom during his stay. Maybe he’d make some discreet inquiries into her life these days, but he’d stay far away from the fucked up world she’d like nothing better than to drag him into. She was like a cancer consuming everything in her path and what she didn’t consume, she damaged irrevocably.

  “Do they live in town?”

  “Yep,” he said, his eyes glued to the slow sway of her hips as she walked across the parking lot. “But you wouldn’t know them. I don’t think they’re your kind of people.”

  “Hm…” she murmured while she slid the key into the lock.

  “Are you staying with them?”

  He chuckled, but instead of sounding light, it sounded bitter and dark because no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t make anything about his mom sound carefree or light. Nope, Cecilia Reed was as dark and evil as they came. Maybe she didn’t start out that way, but once her bitterness settled into her heart, it wasn’t long before the darkness swallowed her whole. “No. I think I’d prefer a hotel.”

  She turned around, her gray-blue eyes scrutinizing every detail of his face. Don’t look too closely; he wanted to warn her because she probably wouldn’t like what she saw. Darkness lived inside of him too, and if she saw it, she would shove him out the door—at least if she were smart. And little Violet looked smart. Too smart to be messing with guys like him.

  “Um…okay. My office is down the hall.” She brushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear. Her hair was so light it looked like moonbeams fluttering around her face. He smothered the chuckle begging to be released as that sappy thought registered in his mind. Get a grip, Reed; he wasn’t here to wax poetic about the uptight director of the Foundation even if the girl was beautiful in a wholesome kind of way. Definitely not the type of chick he could ever take home and build a life with. There was no question about it, she was way out of his league and then some.

  “You lead, I’ll follow,” he answered. She chewed or her lower lip and wrung her hands. Clearly, she didn’t know if she should be alone with him. Shoving his hands in his back pockets, he flashed his most nonthreatening grin. His sister Taylor always accused him of looking intimidating. He never gave much thought to it, but Violet obviously agreed with Taylor.

  “Um, maybe you could wait here while I get an application from my office,” she said, twisting the hem of her navy suit jacket.

  “Whatever you want, sweetheart.” He plopped down on the worn red bleachers on the side of the gym. They used to be blue when he came here after school, before school, on the weekends, and any time in between when the doors were unlocked. Funny, all the long-buried memories of his days here were seeping back into the forefront of his mind. With the exception of the hours he spent alone with Taylor, the time he spent at the Foundation was the only good part of his childhood. Regrettably, the bad shit was burned so far into his mind that on most days it swallowed all the happy memories.

  She nodded. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. I don’t know you, and it wouldn’t be smart to…” Cringing, her eyes darted to the floor.

  He smiled as she stumbled over her words, obviously attempting to make the thoughts in her head sound more benign than they actually were. “I get it. I’m aware of the way I look.”

  “No,” she yelled a little too loudly, a frown marring her naturally beautiful face. No makeup needed for Little Violet, not with that flawless skin. “You look good. I mean…fine. There’s nothing wrong with the way you look. I don’t judge people on their appearance. I’m not like that.”

  “Maybe you should.” He smirked as his amused gaze traveled the length of her cuter than shit body. He didn’t want her to get the impression that he could be trusted. The world was full of evil. She couldn’t save everyone regardless of how much she tried and something told him she tried often and frequently. Some people didn’t want to be saved. Learning that now would save her a lot of trouble when some asshole crushed all that goodness pouring out of her without remorse.

  And then she fucking laughed, her lips curling up into a sultry smile that would have brought a lesser man to his knees. “Are you trying to scare me?”

  “Am I succeeding?”

  “No. I’ve worked with troubled teens for the last four years. I can see right through you. No need to pretend you’re the big bad wolf,” she said, her wide, innocent eyes soaking him, taking in every last detail.

  He shook his head in disbelief. “If you say so.”

  “I know so.” She took two steps backwards, still facing him, giving him a wide smile, before turning around and walking to her office. All he could think about was spending a month getting tangled up in her.

  Chapter Three

  Holy crap. She needed to get her thoughts under control. Alec Reed was bad news. She knew it. He didn’t need to hammer home that point with her. His appearance screamed it loud enough to be heard from a mile away. Black messy hair, way too many dark, disturbing tattoos, a little lip ring highlighting his dangerously sinful lips, and good god, those arms. What the hell did that man do to create those muscles that rippled and bulged with every movement? And she hadn’t even got to his mysterious, heavy-lidded blue eyes practically pleading with her to take a dance on the dark side of hell.

  Closing the door to her office, she pushed her hair away from her face. Take a deep breath. Get over it, she instructed herself. Alec didn’t have any interest in her and she certainly couldn’t foster any delusional thoughts about him. Guys like him didn’t go for women like her…and that’s a good thing. The dark and dangerous thing didn’t appeal to her, especially when she had to deal with his type, albeit much younger, on a daily basis. She liked nice, solid, upstanding banker, lawyer types who wanted a calm, predictable life. She was all about predictability, planning, and forethought.

  Flinging open her ancient file cabinet, she pulled out a volunteer application. Alec thought he wanted to volunteer at the Foundation, and despite her better judgment, she would take anything he could give. She couldn’t be choosy, not when the Foundation didn’t have any money and even fewer resources.

  As she walked out the door of her office, she snatched a pen off her desk, chuckling when she noticed it was her favorite purple pen. She loved purple. With a name like Violet, it was to be expected. As a kid, people made fun of her name. In no uncertain terms, her mother told her to suck it up and embrace it. She did. It became her signature color.

  “Mr. Reed,” she called out as she walked back into the gym, her heels clicking rhythmically over the worn hardwood floor. The gym had seen better days just like everything else in the building.

  His ear to the phone, Alec shook his head and held up a finger before turning his back to her.

  “Yeah, I’ll make it back in time.” His free hand delved into his hair, lightly tugging at the roots. Her fingers wiggled of their own volition, desperately wanting to feel the texture of his thick dark hair. Men shouldn't have hair like that—thick, full of body, shine and pleading to be touched. It wasn’t fair. “Got it. Just fax what I need and I’ll take care of the rest," he barked into the phone.

  “Violet,” Alec said, pivoting toward her. “What’s the fax number here?”

  “It’s on the top,” she said, handing him the application.

  His eyes scanned the application and then he turned his face away from her again as he read the number to the person on the phone. “And don’t tell anyone where I am. I don’t want Taylor to find out and feel like she needs to come here and be my sidekick. She doesn’t need to run into Cecilia.” He paused, tapping his fingers on the inside of his leg to an imaginary beat. “Or anyone else for that matter.”

  After he disconnected the call, he stood up and slipped his phone into his front pocket.

  “The references should be here within the next hour.”

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nbsp; She didn’t say anything for a few moments as she took in his conversation. Who was he hiding from and why? “Who’s Taylor?” she asked before she could stop herself. Almost involuntarily, her eyes drifted to his left hand, scanning it for a wedding ring. Regrettably, it didn’t offer any answers. Every single one of his long fingers had a thick, chunky ring.

  When she glanced at him, he raised one dark brow in amusement and his lips curved up ever so slightly, so that if she hadn’t been watching him closely, she would’ve missed it. “Is that an official or unofficial question?”

  Heat climbed up her neck to her cheeks blatantly, announcing her embarrassment just as efficiently as if she had screamed it through a megaphone. It was one of the things she hated about her fair skin and fair hair. Her eyes vaulted around the room as her mind scrambled for something to say. “I just don’t like volunteers bringing their personal life to work with them and if you’re hiding from your wife…or something like that, it could cause some problems and we have enough drama at the Foundation without adding yours to it.”

  His lips twitched as if he were valiantly trying to hold back a smile. “No wife, no girlfriend.” He rubbed his hands together, his rings making a loud clanging sound as she witnessed his eyes cloud over and become completely unreadable. “I’m not the commitment type.”

  Warning accepted, not that she needed it. She wasn’t attracted to this man. No way, and even if she were, she didn’t need a relationship right now. She barely had time to pee much less date. As evidenced by her recent breakup with Eric, all of her attempts at dating failed and she accepted all of the blame without hesitation. “Good to know.” She didn’t want to be another one of his conquests and she’d bet her paltry bank account that he had already racked up more than his fair share in his short life. She cleared her throat. “Well, I have to make some phone calls this morning.”

  “Can you recommend a hotel nearby?”

  “Are you planning to stay in a hotel for the entire month?” That had to be expensive, not that she knew what he could afford. Despite the tattoos and his ripped jeans, she didn’t get the impression that he was destitute.

  “Do you have any other suggestions?”

  “I have a basement apartment at my house.” He started shaking his head. “It has a separate locked entrance. It’s vacant now.”

  “I don’t know.”

  Now that she mentioned it, she realized it was a great idea. Better than great, it was absolutely brilliant. It would alleviate her cash flow issues for the month and she’d actually be able to afford groceries or groceries that included something other than bread and peanut butter. “Look, as long as you can pay me some rent, you’d be doing me a favor.”

  He sucked his lip ring into his mouth again and she wished he’d stop doing it. It was really distracting. “How much do you want?”

  She mentally calculated four weeks of groceries, a couple miscellaneous bills she’d been juggling for the past three months or so. “How about eight hundred dollars?”

  He didn’t respond immediately and she thought she might have overreached. The apartment was worth it. She had rented it for a thousand dollars the last time she advertised it, but that tenant had driven her crazy with late night parties and visitors. The day after someone overdosed in the apartment at some crazy party, she posted an eviction notice on the door and she hadn’t tried to rent it again. For some reason, she could only find college students interested in the place and even though she wasn’t much older than them, she felt like a grandma in comparison. She’d never taken advantage of college life the way most kids did. She was too focused on the end goal of helping troubled teens to have an active social life. Sadly, that still hadn’t changed.

  “It’s fully furnished. You won’t need to buy anything but food.”

  “Okay.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep.” He slipped his wallet out of his back pocket, pulled out several crisp one hundred dollar bills and held them out to her.

  Wow. She wouldn’t have expected him to carry that much cash in his wallet. He was driving a brand new black truck, but a new car didn’t mean he had money. She had plenty of friends who spent their life juggling credit cards, mortgage payments, and car payments, but they didn’t have much left to do anything else. She took the cash out of his hand. “Don’t you want to see it first?”

  “Nah, I trust you.”

  “Okay. Let me give you the address and the lockbox code.”

  “Do you have a pen?”

  She handed him her bright purple pen and he twisted it between his thumb and his index finger inspecting it. “Cute,” he said popping off the cap. “Violet for Violet.”

  She laughed. “Ahh…you caught that.”

  Sitting down, he balanced the volunteer application on his thigh and the purple pen rested against his lips as he scanned the application. Okay. Even though she had every intention of keeping her distance from Alec, she had no intention of allowing him to keep that pen. She enjoyed the view of it rolling along his firm lips too much to let him keep it. It would be a good memory on the days that she was knee deep in the life of an underfunded charitable organization.

  “Address?” he finally said, looking up at her through his dark, long lashes, bringing an unwanted and abrupt halt to her inappropriate thoughts.

  “Right. 42 Mountain View Rd. It’s a small white bungalow not far from the University. The lockbox is on the south side of the house, hanging from the iron railing leading to the basement apartment. The combination is VVV.”

  He frowned after he finished scribbling notes at the top of the application and even his frown was appealing in a dangerous, heart-stopping way. “You might want to come up with a safer combination.”

  She shrugged. “I haven’t had any problems yet. I don’t have much to steal and this is a small town.”

  For some reason, he didn’t like that answer and his frown morphed from mild disapproval to downright threatening. He cocked his head to the side, not saying anything for a few excruciating seconds. His silence was killing her. “Trust me, Little Violet, you have plenty to steal.” Without bothering to explain his comment, he folded the application twice and stuffed it into his back pocket along with her purple pen. “See you around lunchtime.”

  With her eyes trained on his ever so tempting backside, he walked out the front door of the Foundation without a backward glance.

  She shook her head, forcing her mind out of the gutter and back into reality. Drooling over the dark and mysterious Alec Reed needed to end immediately, but she had to admit today was looking much better than yesterday. Admiring him kept her mind off the Foundation’s endless problems, and now she had one volunteer to help around the center for the next month. But most importantly, she had a temporary tenant, which translated into additional income for her broke ass, and as long as he kept to himself and didn’t have any crazy parties, she’d be happy. Those three things would go a long way toward maintaining her sanity until she could retreat to her parents’ ranch for two weeks and re-evaluate her plans for the future.

  Chapter Four

  Alec opened the door to Violet’s basement apartment, pausing at the entrance to take in the space. Though clean and uncluttered, the space wasn’t up to the standards of his new life—the life of luxury and excess he had lived since Chasing Ruin exploded onto the music scene. He didn’t mind, though. It definitely beat the crap he lived in after he left Montana and his childhood home, where it was a daily occurrence for him to trip over empty liquor bottles and drug paraphernalia.

  The apartment consisted of one large room that included a small kitchen with a single wall of cabinets, a small circular kitchen table, a double bed pushed in the corner, and an old tan sofa with a low coffee table.

  He tossed his overnight bag on the bed and texted his manager the address of his temporary apartment. He needed more clothes if he actually intended to spend the entire month here. Two pairs of jeans and two t-shirts wouldn’t cut it, particular
ly when the apartment clearly didn’t include a washing machine, unless it was tucked into one of the closets or the bathroom.

  His phone rang. Marcus. Well, about time. Nobody had heard from him since he stepped off the tour bus a month ago. He wasn’t worried. Disappearing was Marcus’ thing. He’d been doing it since he met him years ago. The one time he bothered to ask Marcus where he went, Marcus responded with stone cold silence. He hadn’t asked him since. He had secrets too and he understood the rules.

  “Hey,” Alec said.

  “Hey. Where are you? I’ve been calling you for two days.”

  “On vacation.”

  Marcus chuckled. “No really. Where are you?”

  Alec blew out a long exaggerated breath. “In Montana taking care of some shit.”

  “Your mom?”

  “Haven’t seen her. I plan to keep it that way.” He didn’t expect Marcus to comment or pry. That was one of the things he liked about Marcus. Even though Marcus acted carefree, Alec knew he had as many dark and fucked up secrets as him. As different as they looked on the outside, on the inside they were a mirror reflection of each other.

  “I had some shit come up. I don’t know if I can make it back in time for the recording session in a month.”

  “Hm…I talked to Rick this morning and I don’t think that’s going to fly.”

  “Oh, come on. If you say you can’t make it back in time too, they’ll have no choice but to agree.”

  “I don’t know.” Alec sat down on the low tan sofa, stretching his legs out diagonally in front of him to avoid the coffee table.

  “Look, I never ask for favors and right now I need one. I’m living in a nightmare and I can’t walk away until I sort this shit out.” Marcus’ voice was low and pleading and deathly serious. Marcus was never serious and that alone persuaded Alec to agree.