Stone Predator by Kennedy Harkins (important books to read .TXT) 📖

ice cream place.
Once we were parked I got swiftly out and turned back to see Mel still sitting in the passenger seat.
I raised my eyebrows, “Are you going to tell me you don’t like ice cream?” Melody smiled and followed me inside. I’ve met people who don’t eat sugar and stuff like that, but I’ve never lowered my self to socialize with them. So it’s a good thing Mel didn’t turn out to be one of those girls.
I ordered us a huge tub of double fudge brownie to share. Yeah, doesn’t that sound like heaven? It is.
Remembering the M.N I asked Mel in a casual voice, “So what’s with all the luggage, plan’n on running away?”
Her smiled faded and I instantly felt guilty for bringing it up, “No, I was suppose to go to a sleepover at my volleyball coach’s house, but...”
“What’s stopping you? It sounds like fun,” I said gently. I could tell she wanted to drop the subject, but getting to the bottom of this was only going to help her in the long run. Unless I give her bad advice...
She sighed and pretended to study her spoon, “It’s this girl, Missy, she’s... she rules the school and she hates me. No one will talk to me.”
“Missy?” I prompted.
“Missy Burkes.” I about choked on my chunk of brownie. The Burkes’ ruled the town. Mr. Burkes was a very wealthy divorce lawyer and Mrs. Burkes a very expensive trophy wife. I’d seen Missy working around the hospital, mostly princess jobs that involved no real work.
“You have enemies in high places,” I complimented.
Mel smiled tentatively, “She’s been making my life a living hell.”
I leaned forward, now this was something I could deal with. “You need to make friends with the people who have reasons to hate her guts. Quietly build your forces until the time comes to knock her on her delicate ass.”
A look of shock over came Mel’s face. I realized, one second to late, that that’s not the response most grown ups would give.
I stood up, “Come on it’s getting dark.”
The drive home was silent, but comfortable. I put on the radio and we were before singing
along to the familiar songs.
Every once in a while she would direct me down a street and before long we pulled up to a huge house in the middle of no where. I knew this place...I couldn’t place it in my memory. The plantation style mansion had all it’s lights off and I couldn’t see any movement.
“Hun, are you sure some one’s home?”
“I-I think so...’’
I sighed heavily, “You realize, of course, that as a certified adult I can’t leave you here unattended. They could revoke my license.”
After a moments hesitation I jumped out of the car and got my share of the bags. She followed my example. The gravel driveway crunched beneath our feet as we made our way up to the shockingly familiar house.
I pulled my black jacket closer against my shivering form. I had changed at the ice cream pallor into thin baggy gray sweats and a black ‘True blood’ t-shirt, not the warmest attire. I glanced back to Mel, who seemed to be perfectly cozy...maybe it was blond thing...
People usually wait for the person who actually lives in the house to get the door, so as not to seem pushy. It’s a useless practice in my opinion, didn’t they already invite you in? Shouldn’t you get the door for them, as a sign of gratitude?
The door opened with a creak, which would have made me laugh at the cliche`, but I was too busy with being scared out of my mind. This place was seriously creepy. Inside the feeling of deja vu was even more intense, it was killing me that I couldn’t remember when I had been here. I passed a large living room, it was nice and modern with a leather couch...
The truth hit me like a tun of bricks, if this is where Mel lives then...
I whirled to face her and tried to keep my tone calm, “Mel, is there anything you need to tell me?”
She looked down at her feet, “I guess you get why the other girls don’t like me...It’s not Dad’s fault, he just wants to protect me from the world, but he can’t protect me from them.” A light went on in my head. Mel’s not a werewolf, her dad is. That should of made me feel better, but I just felt sick for ever fearing her. She’d gone through enough without me making it any worse.
Her voice was so tortured and grave that I crossed the room in one bound to rap her in my arms. She felt cold, but not in an inhuman way, more like a scared little girl who had lost her way.
She started shaking with silent sobs. I sat down on the leather couch, that not so long ago I had been unconscious on after being attacked by her father. It only took common sense to figure out who her dad was, and that whole ‘protecting me from the world’ definitely sounded like Ace.
I cuddled her against me and just let her cry. Despite all my big talk, sometimes you need to open up the bottle of repressed emotions and let em` out. I felt very comfortable; holding her in my arms. It made me think about what I might have been missing out on, like getting married, being a mom, and annoying little grandchildren that you love, but want to strangle at the same time.
I had the feeling she hadn’t had anyone she felt comfortable crying on in a long time. My heart clenched painfully, someone needs to be taking better care of her. My thoughts went immediately to Ace, he hadn’t seemed like a bad man, more like a man who had no idea how to raise a teenage girl. Then again, did anyone? I remembered my own teen years, which really weren’t that long ago, I was awful to my parents. I spent most of my time avoiding them, unless of course I needed something they wouldn’t give me, then I was like the vengeance of God.
Did I really want to go through all that with a kid who wasn’t even mine? I glanced down at the beautiful little girl grieving on my shoulder, a shudder went through her and I gripped her tighter, already having decided that maybe a sidekick wouldn’t be so bad. She definitely looked like she was in need of a super hero.
The front door slammed shut. “Melody? Mel, are you hurt?” Ace’s voice was tight with anger and fear. In a blink of an eye he was standing right next to me. Normally I would have jumped in surprise, but I didn’t have the energy.
“Melody, why don’t you wait in your room,” I whispered in her ear. She nodded, stood up stiffly, and exited the room quickly. Probably a little afraid of the crazy look in Ace’s eyes.
I straightened and met his eyes, “We need to talk.”
***
Half an hour later I had told him everything, and we were sitting across from each other in his large kitchen, that was colored a strange color of green. His face was in his hand and he looked as if he hadn’t slept in years.
“Where’s Mel’s mother?” I didn’t want to ask, more than anything I wanted to wrap Ace up in my arms as I had Mel. Funny how much I liked him when he wasn’t annoying the shit out of me.
He gazed up at me through bloodshot eyes and his voice came out like a strangled choke, “Gone. The agreement we had come to was that I got to see Mel on some holidays...then a couple of months ago she dropped Mel on my doorstep and didn’t look back,” he continued in a growl, “She said she found herself a new boyfriend who didn’t like kids and she couldn’t let Mel screw up her chances.”
“And you slept with her!” I slapped a hand to my mouth, did I actually say that out loud? Please say no, please please please.
One glance at the incredulous/embarrassed look on Ace’s face and it was very clear that I needed to spend the next ten years locked in my basement with a sock in my mouth. Bad Vivi!
The next thing I knew Ace’s was laughing, no cracking up, at my expense! I so take back everything I said about liking him!
“You-you should see...your face!” Ace’s choked out in between violent guffaw attacks.
“I’m glad this is amusing for one of us...” I ground my teeth together, “Melody needs someone trustworthy, respectful, kind, and a good role model. So, until we find a human sized Barbie doll, she can have me.”
Ace raised his eyebrow and repeated my words with disbelief, “She can have you?”
“Yes, stupid,” I said with extreme slowness as if he were mentally damaged...well the jury’s still out on that one...
He leaned forward, putting his face inches from mine, “Are you implying I can’t protect my own daughter?”
I closed the rest of the distance, so that our foreheads were touching, “No, I’m saying you don’t know anything about teenage girls and you’re in way over your head.”
He held my gaze and I looked away out of common courtesy, he sighed, but it sounded like a thank you, and dropped his head to his hands like it weighed more than he could lift. Now that the threat was gone, he could relax.
“Let’s say I accept your help, what’s the plan of action?”
I frowned, “It’s simple really, Mel spends time with me; sleepovers and stuff like that. I’ll teach her to stand up to Missy-”
“You mean you’ll teach her to be a stubborn hard head who finds herself in compromising situations due to her out of control temper.”
“Oh, and what are you going to teach her? Hmm, how to be an annoying Alpha who acts like a big ‘man whore’ and goes around growling at women who defy him?” I shot back heatedly.
“Only because-wait, did you just call me a ‘man whore’?
I stared into his vividly green eyes, what would it be like to caress his beautiful face? Woa! Bad Vivi, no touchy, no thinky about touchy either.
His eyes smoldered and he moved closer to me, too close. I could barely breathe, a need to touch him enveloped me. I reached out a hand and rested it on his cheek, it hadn’t even realized I did it until I saw the hand-my hand- on his face.
I froze and waited for him to rip my throat out, instead he closed his eyes leaned into the out stretched hand.
We stayed like that for a little while, I was in no hurry to move. His eyes snapped open and gazed at me with an expression I couldn’t read.
I sighed, “I have work tomorrow.” It killed me to say it, but snuggling wasn’t going to solve all of Ace’s problems, especially the Mel related ones. No matter how much I wished it would.
He nodded solemnly and walked me to my car. He watched me as I found my keys and hopped in the truck. I rolled down the window to and opened my mouth to say good-bye, when I felt a sizzling warm presence cupping my cheek. It felt unbelievably nice to have him so close, I greedily wanted to get even closer. I reminded myself how bad of idea that would be and I reluctantly rested my hand on his and pulled it slowly and gently away; trying to keep skin contact for as long as possible.