Primal Fury by Piper Davenport
Jekyll
“Come on, I’ll show you around,” I said to Leo, and he nodded.
I had a client in twenty minutes, so my tour was a quick one, and I passed Leo off to Vanna to finish the training. Two hours later, I walked my client out the door, and headed back to the front desk. Leo was tryin’ hard to flirt with Vanna who was havin’ none of it.
“Leo. My office,” I ordered.
I didn’t wait to see if he followed, stepping inside with Leo close on my heels.
“Close the door.”
He did so, and I waved to one of the chairs. He planted his ass and I leaned against my desk.
“Am I in trouble?” he asked.
“Why would you think you’re in trouble?”
He shrugged, staring at his feet.
“Bud, first lesson about bein’ a man is you need to look people in the eye when you’re talkin’ to them.”
He looked at me. “Are you gonna fire me?”
I studied the kid and shook my head. “Why would you think I’d fire you, Leo?”
He shrugged again.
“You clean the bathrooms?”
“Yeah. Vanna said they look good.”
“You took out the trash?” I asked.
“Yeah. And I swept the floor and wiped everything down with the disinfectant wipes.”
I nodded. “So, then, why would I fire you?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Everyone fires me.”
“Well, first, you’re not actually hired, so, no, I’m not gonna fire you,” I said. “Today.”
Leo’s whole face relaxed and he sat up a little straighter.
“But we gotta have a chat about how you treat Vanna,” I said. “And this will also apply to the other women workin’ here.”
Leo dropped his head again.
“Not gonna tell you again.”
He immediately looked at me again.
“You are fifteen. They are not. They are off-limits.”
“But—”
“No. You are underage. But more importantly, you need to stop creepin’ on Vanna. She’s got a man. Someone who could lay your ass out with a single punch, but even if she didn’t, she has the right to come to work and not have her space invaded.” I crossed my arms. “If you wanna work here after you make amends, then you’re gonna learn to show women the respect they’re due.”
“You’ll let me work here after I make amends?” he asked, hopefully.
“If you continue to do a good job. Keep your mouth shut and your ears open, and leave the women alone, I’ll consider it.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. Let’s go have a look at what you’ve done, and we’ll go from there.”
He shot out of his chair and grinned. “Okay.”
Leo had actually done a fuckin’ great job. Better than anyone we’d ever had working here before and when I told him that, he grinned.
“Indy’s pretty specific on how she likes things,” he said. “We get bonus points when we do it right.”
“What do you get with your points?” I asked.
“Depends. Sometimes we get extra screen time, or we can have less chores or whatever. We earn points, then we can cash them in.”
I was finding myself more and more impressed with Indigo Walsh. She was young, just turned twenty-eight, and she’d taken a broken-down youth center and created a place for at-risk kids to feel safe and thrive. Who wouldn’t be impressed with that?
“That’s cool, bud,” I said.
He nodded. “She’s the coolest.”
“Jekyll,” Vanna called.
“Yeah?”
She peeked her head around the corner. “Leo’s ride’s here.”
I gave her a chin lift, then Leo and I headed back up to the front.
Indigo smiled and I felt it all the way in my dick. She only had eyes for Leo, however, rushing to him and squeezing his arm. “How’d it go?”
He leaned away from her touch. “I’ll tell you in the car.”
Indigo tensed and her eyes flew to me. “Everything okay?”
I nodded. “He did good.”
“It’s cool, Indy,” Leo said. “Can we go?”
“Yeah. ’Course.” She turned to me again. “Do you have his phone?”
“Oh, yeah.” I pulled open one of the drawers behind the desk and retrieved it, handing it to Leo. “I put my cell in there in case you need to reach me.”
He nodded. “Cool.”
Indigo took it from him, and Leo rolled his eyes as she dropped the phone into her purse.
“Tomorrow good?” I asked, and Leo lit up like a fuckin’ pinball machine.
Leo nodded. “Yeah.”
“I can’t bring you tomorrow, bud,” Indigo said.
“Grandpa Hugh can.”
“He’s got a date,” Indigo shared, which got her a couple of raised eyebrows from Leo. “What? He’s not dead, Leo, he’s sixty-five. He’s allowed to date.”
“Gross, but whatever,” he said. “I’ll take the bus.”
“Do you have money for the bus?” she asked.
His face dropped.
“I can send a recruit to pick him up,” I offered.
Indigo shook her head. “That’s very nice, but he’s not going anywhere with anyone I don’t know.”
“Indy, you’re embarrassing me,” Leo hissed.
She rolled her eyes. “How does Friday work?”
“Yeah, Friday’s good,” I said.
“Okay, great. He’ll be here after school.”
“See you then,” I said, and lingered in order to watch her perfect little ass walk out the door.
* * *
Indigo
“Did you have to tell Jekyll I didn’t have money for the bus?” Leo accused once we were on the road.
“He needed an answer, Leo.”
“I could have called him… or you could have since I’m grounded.”
I sighed. He had a point. “You’re right, bud. I’m sorry. I just got a little flustered.”
He shrugged. “It’s fine.”
“How did it go?”
“So cool,” he said, his eyes lighting up. “He totally said I did the best job he’d ever seen with the bathrooms.”
“Yeah?”
“Yep. And he said if I did a good job and stopped creepin’ on…”
He didn’t finish and I glanced at him. “Leo, what did you do?”
“Nothing. I swear. I was just talking to Vanna and Jekyll didn’t like it.”
“Talking or flirting?” I asked.
He studied his hands with a shrug.
“Leo,” I warned.
“Okay, fine. She’s hot! What else could I do?”
I groaned. “Oh my god.”
“No, it’s cool. Jekyll and I talked man-to-man and it’s all good now.”
“Oh, yeah? What kind of man-to-man talk did Jekyll have with you?”
He filled me in on the conversation and I forced myself not to groan out loud. I didn’t want to like this guy. He was a degenerate biker and scary as hell, but he also seemed to be giving Leo some good advice.
Advice that the horny little punk was listening to.
“Okay, well, that’s good advice,” I admitted begrudgingly.
“He said if I keep doin’ a good job, he might hire me.”
“Wow, bud, that’s great.” I parked the car and smiled. “Proud of you, Leo.”
“Thanks, Indy.”
We climbed out of the car, and he walked with a confident swagger into the dorms, while I checked in with the counselors, then made my way home.
I loved my townhouse. It was small but it was all mine. About the only thing I dipped into my trust fund from my mother to purchase, in fact. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, just over a thousand square feet, a big kitchen because I loved to cook, a small great room and office, but the selling point was the giant bay window with a view of the mountains. It was perfect.
I should probably dip into Mama’s money again to fix my car, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I don’t know why, but I felt like I should make it on my own.
My father offered to help (often), but I was his daughter, and we shared a stubbornness that couldn’t be compared. In my defense, Dad was in sales, and well past retirement age but still working, so I didn’t want to dip into his social security just to have a few nice things.
Shaking off my melancholic thoughts, I did my nighttime routine, sliding into bed but unable to find sleep. I could not get a handle on this man and his motivations behind helping Leo. Because it was obvious to me that he was trying to help.
I just needed to find out why.
Obviously, it wouldn’t be tonight, so I forced myself to shut my brain down and sleep.