Devils & Rye Read online

  I did as he asked and lowered the dress to my waist, exposing my upper half completely. There was no one in the room, and even if there were, I knew that working here would require for me to get over my bashfulness. It wasn’t like the red dress covered all that much of me to begin with. I knew for a fact that Daddy had never stepped foot into Spiked Roses. He knew all about the place, but had he actually seen what my uniform would consist of, he would have had second thoughts about allowing me to work here—Uncle Alec watching over me or not.

  “These damn threads get tangled in the zipper and—”

  The door of the staff room opening interrupted Tennessee. We both turned our heads to see who entered, and I gasped when I saw my uncle walk in. I instantly tried to cover my breasts with my arms, but it was too late. He had seen. I saw where his eyes were focused, and it wasn’t on my face.

  “Uncle Alec…” I said with an awkward smile.

  Regardless of the fact that I hid my breasts behind nothing but my arms, I was happy to see him and wanted to run and give him a big hug. It had been years since I had seen him last, but he still was the man I remembered. His brown hair now was speckled with gray along his temples, and his rich brown eyes had lines of laughter around them, but he was still the Uncle Alec of my childhood. The years had been good to him.

  I also didn’t want to move because Tennessee was still tugging on the zipper, and I didn’t want to wreck any progress he had made.

  Uncle Alec cleared his throat and diverted his eyes and stared off at nothing. “I need to speak with you.”

  “Me?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Yes. Can you get dressed please?”

  “Hold on,” Tennessee said, who still worked at freeing the zipper. “Just a second and this dress will be fixed.”

  “Actually, I want you to get back into regular clothes,” Alec said as he once again glanced at my chest.

  “But my shift just started,” I said. “Tennessee was just about to start training me on how to be a hostess.”

  “I’m not asking,” he retorted with enough bite that it felt as if he had slapped me across the face. “Now.”

  Talk about a warm welcome.

  3

  Alec

  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.

  4

  Alec

  We had been driving for what felt like an eternity, but even in the midnight hours, I still remembered my way. Makayla had been quiet for most of the trip, clearly lost in thought as she stared out the window at the darkened scenery passing us by. I was grateful for the silence, because I, too, was still figuring out how to process the entire situation.

  Picking up and leaving everything was fairly easy. I knew Spiked Roses could do without me. Kenneth and Matthew ran the show for the most part. And my other businesses and investments practically ran on autopilot for me. I guess you could call me a man of leisure and semi-retired. I had earned my fortune and had worked my ass off for many years to get to this point. Now, I was fortunate to sit back and watch the money enter my bank account with very little effort. My pappy would have been proud. He always had lectured me growing up by saying that a wise man was a man who made money in his sleep. Looking back now, I was glad that I had followed that piece of advice of his. The lake house had Internet and cell service—though shitty as fuck. So, anything I needed to do for any of my businesses could be done remotely. The reality of the situation was that physically heading to the lake house wasn’t an inconvenience at all. Mentally, however, this entire trip was a complete mind fuck.

  I kept going over scenarios of how I could try to help Rhett. I had left that sick life behind me, but it wouldn’t be too hard to dive back in if it could help. The fucked up fact was that I really couldn’t figure out a way to help even if I did get involved. And diving back in could expose Makayla, which I knew was what Rhett really didn’t want. He had the power still. He still controlled the safety of his precious daughter, and I didn’t want to fuck that up by trying to swoop in and play hero by foolishly trying to rescue a dead man.

  “When was the last time you came to the lake house?” Makayla asked as she continued to stare out the window.

  I sighed as I tried to remember the last time. “Well, it was with you, your dad, and your… mom. Before she passed.”

  Makayla nodded. “So, the last time I was here too.”

  “Yeah. It just never felt right coming back here without you guys. Without her,” I admitted.

  “That’s why we never came back too,” she said sadly. “Papa said it would be too painful. That the memories of her here—where we were the happiest—would hurt us.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of,” I admitted as I stared at the straight, empty road in front of me.

  “It made me sad not coming here, to be honest. I think Mama would have hated knowing we all would never come back. She loved it at the lake. She loved having us all there under one roof in what she called paradise.”

  “Sometimes you have to close a chapter to move on.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see she had turned to look at me. “Is that what you did? Closed the chapter on us? Papa told me that you and he hadn’t spoken since Mama’s death.”

  I nodded, swallowing against the lump in my throat. “It was best for me to just walk away from it all. There was a lot going on with the business that I wasn’t happy with. And with the death of Minka… it was just a really dark time that I needed to break free from. The business partnership needed to end for the good of everyone. I did what your father should have done a long time ago. If he had… well, if he had—”

  “We wouldn’t be running off to the lake house for safety,” Makayla interrupted, speaking my thoughts for me.

  Safety. Was that even possible?

  I glanced at Makayla who stared out the window again. She rested her elbow on the door and propped her head up with her clenched fist. The dark shadows under her eyes revealed she was tired. Hell, I was tired too.

  “Tell me something, Makayla,” I began. “Do you think your life is in danger?”

  She shrugged but didn’t look at me. “Who knows? My life seems to always be in danger. I don’t even care any more to be honest.”

  “Always in danger?”

  “Yes,” she said as she glanced at me. “But I suppose you already know that.”

  “To some extent,” I admitted. “But not really. I got out. I moved away and never looked back.”

  “Well, my papa didn’t. If anything, he seemed to get in deeper and deeper with them.”

  “Do you know who them is?” I wondered how much Makayla really knew about everything. How much did I have to protect her from the truth? Did she actually know more than me?

  She positioned her body so she was facing me head on. An eyebrow rose as she asked, “Do you know who them is?”

  Fuck.

  I didn’t know how to answer her question.

  I didn’t know if I should answer her question at all.

  “We’re about to enter Old Pier,” I said, changing the subject. “Hopefully the gas station is still open twenty-four hours like before. We can pick up some basics to hold us over until we go into town for a full grocery trip tomorrow.”

&nbs
p; Old Pier was the closest town to the lake house. Aside from the gas station, it had a small grocery, a few cafes, a restaurant only open for dinner, a fish and tackle shop, a barber, an ice cream and soda shop near the pier, and an antique shop that was housed out of an old barn. At least that was what all it had a decade ago. Who knew what was still around now. The quaint town had always been a favorite of mine, and I had hoped it hadn’t changed too much in the years I had been away.

  Turning a corner, I was happy to see the lights of the gas station come into view. It was like stepping back into a fond memory that I had never released. Nothing had changed. It was the same white farmhouse structure with a single gas pump that announced we were only thirty minutes from our home sweet home.

  “Looks like they’re open,” Makayla said. I could see a smile wash over her face for the first time since we had left New Orleans. “I wonder if they still have those peppermint sticks I used to love as a kid.”

  I pulled up at the tank, deciding it was best to fill up now. “Let’s go in and see.”

  Groaning as I got out of the car, I realized how stiff I had been during our drive. The tension I was feeling clearly had wrapped itself around every joint in my body. Stretching my arms above my head and trying to elongate my torso, I turned to find Makayla watching me.

  Not saying anything further, I walked toward the tiny store with Makayla catching up to walk at my side. I was happy to find that the store still carried wine. It might not have been the most desired wine, but I would take grape juice spiked with moonshine if I had to at this point. I grabbed a few boxes of crackers, a bag of pretzels, some local beef jerky, some coffee for the morning, and some bottled water—all the fixings for a gourmet feast.

  I found Makayla in the aisle gripping a fistful of peppermint sticks like she’d done so many years ago. She looked at me with a warm smile on her face. “They still have them.” She had grabbed as many as she could hold, and I noticed she had also grabbed a bottle of wine.