The Dirty Dozen: Alpha Edition Read online

  “Let’s finish cooking. She’ll feel better if she rests,” Maverick says to her.

  “I hope she can keep her job,” Cam says. Her statement breaks my heart. It also scares me. I hadn’t thought about my job yet. I find my phone and see I have three missed texts from Abby and one from the restaurant owner, Vinny.

  I walk into Maverick’s bathroom and shut the door before I call Abby.

  “Are you OK?” she answers.

  “Yes. I’m OK.”

  “Oh my god! I was so worried. Vinny won’t tell me anything.”

  “Calm down,” I say, my voice hushed so no one can hear me. “I’m really fine.” I spend five minutes re-telling the story, well, the shortened version of the story to Abby, including everything that happened with Brad and Maverick.

  “Holy shit!” she says when I finish. “Oh god! I’m so sorry. That’s insane!”

  “I know.”

  “I’m totally creeped out right now. Have you talked to Vinny yet? Is Phil in jail?”

  “Yes, they arrested Phil. I have to call Vinny,” I answer.

  “Jesus! Are you coming back to work?” she asks.

  “I…I don’t know yet,” I admit.

  “Well, let me know what happens. I’m here for you if you need anything.”

  “Thanks, Abby. I really appreciate that,” I say to her.

  “And, I want to meet this Maverick,” she adds.

  I giggle. “OK.”

  “Call me later,” she says.

  “I will. Later, gator,” I say as I hang up.

  I call Vinny next.

  “Bridget?” he answers.

  “Hi, Vinny.”

  “Are you OK? The police wouldn’t tell me anything,” he says.

  “I’m OK.”

  “Thank the fuck. I can’t fucking believe what happened.” I can imagine him running a hand over his scruffy beard as we talk. Poor Vinny. He must be a mess over this.

  “Yeah, sort of crazy,” I say.

  “Well, take a few days off. Your job is here still if you want it,” he says to me. “I’ll be hiring a new manager as soon as I can.”

  “Thanks, Vinny, but I really need to work,” I explain.

  “You don’t get me. You are getting a paid vacation, Bridget. Take off until the twenty-seventh. Then give me a call, OK?”

  A paid vacation? I had never had one of those before, and I wasn’t about to pass it up.

  “Are you sure?” I ask.

  “Yep. You’re one of my best servers. You deserve it. And please, let me know if I can do anything,” he adds. I know he must feel guilty about Phil, but it’s not his fault.

  “Thanks, Vinny. I appreciate your support,” I say because I honestly don’t know what else to say. I’m overwhelmed by everything that’s happened, and Vinny only knows the half of it.

  I sink down to the floor of the bathroom. I lay my head on the cool tile. It feels good. I notice the small things as I look around. The floor is clean. The bathroom is spotless. There’s a bathmat on the floor in front of the shower that looks fluffy and inviting. I wonder if I’ll ever live in a place this nice. There’s a knock at the bathroom door that brings me out of my daydreaming.

  “Bridget?” Maverick’s voice calls from the other side.

  “Yeah,” I answer.

  “Can I come in?” he asks

  “Uh-huh,” I answer, not bothering to lift my head off the floor.

  The door creaks open and I can see Maverick’s feet. In an instant, he’s kneeling on the ground touching my forehead.

  “Are you OK, sweetheart?” he asks. His hand feels so warm in comparison to the cool tiles.

  “Yeah,” I say.

  “Shit, let’s get you back to bed,” he says as he picks me up and carries me back to bed.

  “I think you need to rest more.” He lays me down and pulls the covers over me, leaning down to kiss my forehead as he does so.

  I sit up. “No.”

  “What do you mean ‘no’?” he growls.

  I look up at him.

  “Listen, Mav, I appreciate you taking care of me, of us, but I can’t lie here for a week. I need to do something to take my mind off everything.”

  “For a week?” he asks, confusion lacing his words.

  “Vinny, the owner of the restaurant, called. He’s giving me a paid week off.”

  “Good, you need it.”

  “I’m getting up. Maybe, I can go train?” I suggest.

  His eyes look from mine down to my neck. Shit, damn neck brace.

  “OK, so maybe I can watch you train Cam?”

  He shrugs. “OK.”

  “OK?” I ask.

  He nods and holds out a hand. I take it, and he helps me up and into his arms.

  “Promise me that you will take it easy though,” he says against my forehead as he plants another kiss there. The feel of his lips on my forehead makes me want to do other things, but I suppress that, for now.

  “I’ll try.”

  He pulls his head back and gives me a stern look.

  I roll my eyes. “Fine.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  MAVERICK

  Cam is a natural. I watch her spar with Mark. She’s only been learning things for less than a week, and she’s mastered every single move. I feel my chest swell with pride. I walk into my office where I had started going through the bills for this month. I loathe doing this every month. It’s just a task that is not my thing, but it has to be done.

  I’m more than a little surprised when I find Bridget sitting in my chair.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” I ask.

  “Fixing your spreadsheets.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” I walk around the desk and stare down at the computer screen.

  “Your spreadsheets are awful. I don’t know how you keep track of anything. So, I’m fixing them for you. You know for a nominal fee you can have a program that auto-fills most of this for you. There are even apps. You can snap photos of receipts. If you give me a little money from your monthly budget, I can get all this set up for you,” she says, glancing up at me.

  “How do you know how to do this?” I ask her.

  “School. I took this class last semester and it was all about small business bookkeeping. Your marketing can be improved, too,” she points out. I already knew this, but I haven’t gotten around to hiring someone to work on that yet.

  “I know,” I huff.

  “I can set that up, too. I have a friend from school that just got hired by a local marketing firm. I can inquire on pricing for you,” she says.

  “Is this going to be your distraction this week?” I ask her.

  She shrugs. “I don’t mind doing it.”

  “Fine, have at it,” I say to her. She grins at me.

  “Really?”

  “Yep, you seem to know way more than I do. I trust you,” I say to her.

  She stands up and hugs me.

  “What’s that for?”

  She pulls back and smiles. “Because no one has ever trusted me before, not to do something like this.”

  I’m slightly shocked because she’s so good at it. Why wouldn’t someone trust her? I wonder why the restaurant doesn’t use her skills.

  “Why haven’t you offered to do this at the restaurant?” I ask.

  She shrugs. “Other than Abby and Cam, I haven’t told anyone that I’m taking classes.”

  My eyes widen. “Why not?”

  “I guess when you don’t know if you’ll have enough money to complete the degree, it’s hard to tell people about it. I mean, I know I’d do it, eventually, but I didn’t want anyone feeling bad for me if I had to take a semester off to work.”

  This woman is amazing. She’s pretty much raising her kid sister, working a full-time job, and going to school. I feel guilty for ever having felt bad about my situation because it pales in comparison to Bridget’s.

  I squ
eeze her against me and kiss the top of her head. Every fiber of my being wants nothing more than to protect her. I vow then that I will keep her safe. I will not let any more harm come to her.

  “Get to it, knockout,” I say as I pull back and hand her my business credit card. “Just let me know final costs, OK?”

  She nods enthusiastically. “Sure thing, boss.”

  Now it’s my turn to grin. “I like the sound of that,” I say.

  She rolls her eyes. “Figures.”

  “Excuse me?”

  She looks a little sheepish. “You just seem sort of…headstrong?”

  “Headstrong?” I ask.

  “You know, bullish?”

  “Bullish?” I try to contain the smirk threatening on my face.

  She huffs. “Alpha?”

  “Alpha?”

  “Oh…just get back to work,” she replies, her face red. She’s adorable when she’s flustered.

  I lean down so my lips are nearly touching her earlobe. She trembles from just my breath against her skin, and it makes me hard as fuck knowing I can cause that sort of physical response without even touching her. “I’ll show you alpha later, knockout,” I say to her as I stand and walk out of my office, a giant fucking grin plastered on my face.

  Cam’s still sparring with Mark when I walk out to the main room. Mark just officially met Bridget. I was glad to see that they hit it off right away.

  I look around and see that the gym could use a new coat of paint. Some machines needed to be replaced. I had inherited everything just as Zeek had it. But Bridget’s words have me thinking. There was only one other gym in town, but it was newer but didn’t have the boxing expertise that we did. I needed to up my game. The gym had always had a profit, but I didn’t keep much staff. I was saving money by living in the apartment. It was time to invest in my business. And if I had my way, I had just the person in mind to help me do it.

  BRIDGET

  What a fucking mess! I had just finished setting up a new bookkeeping system when I realize that the gym had an archaic website. I decide to tackle that next, after I emailed my friend, Wayne, from class about the marketing firm where he’s interning. I crack my knuckles and get down to work.

  I’m not entirely sure what time it is when I finally finish updating the website. My eyes wander to the clock on the computer. Holy shit! I’d been working on it for three hours straight.

  I glance out at the gym from the window in the office. Cam is cleaning up some equipment. Mark and Maverick are talking in the corner. There are a handful of clients on various weight machines and one kicking a punching bag. I decide to explore the gym. I save everything on the computer and the cloud. I walk out and down the hallway. There are bathrooms. I know from using the women’s room the other day that the bathrooms had showers, some lockers, stalls, and sinks. It was basic but worked. I find three more rooms down the hallway, a storage room, a room that doesn’t look like it is being used for anything, and another room that has some weights and equipment in it, but I am sure what it is for.

  “You lost?” Maverick’s voice booms behind me.

  I jump. “Nope, just looking around.”

  I turn to face him. “What’s this room for?”

  He shrugs. “It’s for clients that want to train alone.”

  The wheels in my head start spinning, ideas flowing like a faucet that’s just been turned on, and I look back up at him.

  “Can I make you a business plan? I think there’s lots of room for improvement around here. It wouldn’t even cost much to do some of it.”

  “Sure, go for it, knockout,” he says. “I was just thinking that the gym hasn’t had a facelift in a while. It’s probably about time.”

  “Awesome, give me a day or two, but I think there’s lots of potential here.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I find a pair of earbuds and connect them to the computer, so I can listen to music as I work. I hear my name, but I’m deep in thought. I pull out one earbud.

  “You still alive back there?” I hear Cam’s voice. I smile as she comes into the office.

  “Hey,” I say to her.

  She looks at my neck brace. I realize we haven’t spoken yet since everything happened at my work.

  “How are you doing?” she asks, her eyes filled with concern.

  “OK, I’ll live. Plus, guess what?”

  “What?”

  “Vinny gave me a week off to recuperate from my fall. Paid.” I feel bad about that white lie, but I don’t want to scare her.

  Cam squeals. “That’s awesome! So, you can spend Christmas with me?” The hopeful look on her face makes me want to cry.

  “Of course, I will. I wouldn’t miss it for the world, Cammy bear,” I say to her as I pull her in for a hug. “How’s the boxing coming along?”

  She grins as she pulls back from me. “So good! Mark taught me this awesome move today.” She launches into a demonstration. I giggle as she ducks and swings.

  “Little fighter, you aren’t bothering my volunteer business planner, are you?” Maverick says from the door. He’s leaning against it with his arms crossed, and he looks dead sexy.

  Cam laughs. “Your business planner?” she asks.

  I shrug. “I need something to do this week. I figured I’d help Maverick out here. It’s a good chance to use all those skills I’ve been learning at school.”

  “Cool,” she says. “You almost done in here?”

  I look at the time. It’s getting late.

  “Yeah, I’m about done here.”

  “Good, because we need to go shopping,” Maverick interjects.

  Cam and I both look at him. My eyes plead with him to not suggest this. I have a little money, but not much. And poor Cam, she doesn’t have anything.

  “Come on, let’s get going before the stores close,” he says as he motions for Cam to follow him. He whispers something in her ear, and she grins and nods, skipping out past him.

  Mav saunters toward me and sits on the edge of the desk next to me.

  “How are you feeling?” he asks me.

  “Sore,” I admit. “Mav, I…we don’t have much money to spend. I’m not sure shop—”

  He holds up his hand, halting me mid-sentence. “I know. I want to help. You and Cam deserve a perfect Christmas,” he says.

  “I…you don’t have to do this,” I tell him.

  He reaches out and runs a finger over my jaw. “I know, knockout. I’m doing it because I want to do it.”

  I can feel the color creep up my neck.

  “Hey, do not be ashamed. Never be ashamed, Bridget.”

  I close my eyes, trying to swallow my pride. He’s offering to help, to give us a holiday we’ve never had a before.

  “OK,” I whisper as I open my eyes.

  “Good, let’s roll.”

  MAVERICK

  I hate that look of shame I see in Bridget’s eyes. But I’m determined to give her the best Christmas I can. I’m not made of money by any stretch. I’ve worked my ass off to build up this gym, and I know it’ll keep growing as long as I keep working at it. Seeing the business through Bridget’s eyes today has me seeing the gym in a whole new way.

  I need to up my game and take this business to the next level, and right now, I’m wondering if Bridget might be my key to success.

  She doesn’t see how amazing she is, but I’m going to fucking change that about her if it’s the last thing I do.

  I take Cam and Bridget to the nearest mall. We divide and conquer. I ask Cam to help me buy things for Bridget. We wander the stores while Bridget claims to need to look for something for Abby, but I know she’s looking for a gift for Cam.

  “Oh, that’s beautiful,” Cam says, admiring a necklace in the window of a jewelry store. It is beautiful. It’s a single turquoise stone set in a gold circle.

  I walk into the store.

  “Can I help you?” an older woman asks.

&nbs
p; “I’d like to see that necklace,” I say, pointing to it.

  She nods and opens the case, pulling it out and setting it on a velvet cloth on the counter nearest her.

  “It’s a turquoise stone. Do you know much about turquoise?” she asks.

  I shake my head. Hell, I don’t know much about any jewelry.

  “Turquoise is a very old stone. It was used in Egyptian and Native American jewelry. It was thought to have healing powers and to ward off evil and bring good luck to those who wore it,” she explains.

  “We’ll take it,” I say. I don’t even ask the price. It’s worth it. And this stone couldn’t be more perfect for her.

  “I love it,” Cam says. I see it has matching earrings.

  “We’ll take those, too,” I say to the woman. I turn to Cam. “How about you do some extra cleaning for me at the gym, and I’ll spot you for those earrings for Bridget?”

  “Really?” Cam asks, her whole face lighting up with joy. That alone makes it worth it. I nod at her as I hand the woman my credit card.

  I stuff the small boxes into my coat pocket.

  “What about you, little fighter?” I ask as we walk out of the jewelry store.

  Cam shrugs. “I’m not picky,” she says.

  We window shop for a while and I secretly note all the things Cam mentions as we look. After a while, we run into Bridget.

  “You guys see anything good?” Bridget asks.

  “Nah, just looking,” Cam says to her.

  Bridget has a few bags in her hand. “Well, we should go grab something to eat,” I say to them. It takes some encouraging, but I finally talk Bridget into eating at the food court.

  “I’m gonna run to the bathroom,” I say after we eat burgers.

  I head toward the bathroom, but then beeline for a store where Cam had pointed out some things she liked. I buy them and stick them inside a bag of funny holiday sweaters I bought for Z and Violet. I have other gifts for them, but that will have to wait.

  I find Cam giggling away as I approach my girls…my girls, I hesitate in saying that, but I also like the sound of it. The thought keeps popping into my head. They belong with me. I don’t know how I know it; I just do.

  “What’s so funny?” I demand.