“Went well? We got nothing accomplished.”
“Grim didn’t kill anyone and neither did you.”
“Well, there’s that,” she grumbled, glaring at where the other two men had disappeared.
“Bright side, you get to raise hell on ’em in the morning when they don’t wake up. After giving me a blow job, of course.”
Remi smacked his stony abs, but it only stung her knuckles. He didn’t even flinch. Annoying right now. But also sexy. And then it was annoying that it was sexy.
Kamp chuckled and pulled her tight against his side. “You look hot when you’re pouting.”
“I’m not pouting. I’m internally raging.”
Kamp picked her up in a rush and wrapped her legs around him, then spun her in a circle so fast it left her breathless. All she could do was hold onto the back of his neck as her stomach dipped like she was on a roller coaster. When he slowed, his lips crashed onto hers, and she could taste his smile. Easing away, he said, “I was going to take you skinny dipping at Whiskey Dick Falls, but now I have to fix the door you judo chopped. I don’t want a mouse getting in.”
“Well, where I’m from, having a mouse is lucky. Big old gnarly balls on him is preferable.”
Kamp snorted. “Okay, that’s weird. In that case, we need to go to the pet store and buy them out. You picked damn-near the unluckiest Crew in the known universe.” He kissed her once more and settled her on her feet. “I’m gonna go get my tools. Don’t wreck anything while I’m gone.” He turned with a smirk and then demolished her lady bits with a hotboy wink as he said, “Remi.”
Oh, the sound of her name on his lips. She wrapped her arms around the butterflies threatening to break her middle apart.
All it took was for one person to believe in something. In a Crew. In positive change. In redemption. That was something she’d learned in her years with the Gray Backs. She would be that person until this Crew could believe in themselves. Until they could stand on their own, she would do the standing for them. Kamp deserved stability.
He said his Crew was unlucky, but he didn’t see what she did.
This Crew had potential, and she wasn’t going to let them quit on each other.
They could do better if only someone had faith in them—and that someone was her.
Chapter Fourteen
You’re super fired.
Remi growled at the text message from her boss at the coffee shop. She’d okayed her to be off for a week but then apparently changed her mind.
“Okay,” she said, turning the key on the four-wheeler. “Everything is fine. If the job, my one source of income, the thing that pays all my bills, is gone, then it wasn’t meant to be my job.”
When she puffed air out of her cheeks, the breath in front of her froze in the frosty morning air. Cold weather would hit these mountains soon.
A wave of excitement took her. Should she be feeling excited that she just got fired? Probably not. But the job wasn’t what mattered most in this moment. What mattered was the thought of a future without her stomach clenching. She imagined what these mountains would look like under a blanket of snow. She imagined the boys building up the firepit and spending time together at nights. Someday. It wouldn’t happen overnight. Maybe it wouldn’t happen at all, but she could still hope.
The engine sounds on the four-wheeler were way too throaty and loud, and she laughed because Kamp and Rhett must have obviously done some upgrades. Their trucks were loud, too. Jacked-up and rowdy, and it was yet another thing that reminded her of Damon’s Mountains. These were her kinds of people.
As she revved the engine, Kamp’s front door swung open. His green and gold eyes went straight to her, and she froze under his smile. He looked like the happiest man just to see her. Never in her life had any man looked at her like this. Like she was the first thing he wanted to see in the morning to give him the best day.
“You look feral,” he said, allowing his door to bang close as he jogged down the steps.
“Thanks. I think,” she murmured.
He walked like a man who had utter confidence in himself with just the right amount of hitch in his walk. His work boots sunk into the soft ground an inch, his threadbare jeans clung to him just right, his white T-shirt hugged his muscular torso, and the flannel shirt he wore flapped behind him in the breeze. He’d rolled up the sleeves, exposing his forearms. Hot, hot, double hot.
He lifted the sack lunch she’d snuck just inside his door this morning. “You’re going to spoil me.”
“Good. Then you won’t leave me.”
Kamp didn’t miss a beat, just sang, “That’s the girl I’ll never leave, she’s the only one for me, she’s a cut above, that girl I love, the only one to set me free.” Sure, it was the lyrics from her favorite Beck Brothers song, but Kamp had said “love,” and to her, it counted. His singing voice was deep and steady and right on tune. She bet he could belt it if he wanted.
“You think I look feral?” she asked softly, letting the engine of the four-wheeler idle.
“I almost said beautiful, but that didn’t seem like a big enough word. Your hair’s wild this morning.” He caught a strand of a bleach-blond tress and rubbed his thumb down it.
She’d showered last night and let it dry natural. Kagan had always liked her perfect with tame curls, or straightened with an iron, but today she felt like letting her hair be however it wanted.
“And I can see your spots,” he murmured, studying her freckles, his lips curved up just slightly at the corners as he brushed a knuckle across her cheek. “And your eyes have that dark makeup. It makes the green look even brighter.”
She caught his hand as he moved to take it away. She pressed her cheek against his palm. “I don’t feel feral. My bear feels…happy. I don’t know why my eyes are too bright right now.”
“Not too bright. Not too anything. You’re perfect. I’ve never seen a more striking woman than you.”
Swoon.
“I want to take you back inside and bend you over my bed.”
Double swoon.
“Tonight I want to cook for you.”
Triple swoon!!
“Cook what?” she asked.
His smile spread across his face slowly. “Barbecue.”
Remi gasped and sat up straight on the ATV. “You mean a Crew dinner? Like I wanted?”
He nodded. “You have me thinking a lot about the changes we need to make around here. And even though Rhett and Grim are fighting it? I bet you’re in their heads, too.”
“Well, not enough, because they aren’t out here and it’s 7:02.”
“Good. You get to go grizzly on ’em. Do you want to pick up groceries for tonight or wait until I’m off and we can go together?”
“Oooh,” she purred, “A grocery store date? You’re trying to get in my panties again aren’t you?”
Kamp snorted. “Always.”
He dug his wallet out of his back pocket, but she stilled his hand. “I’ve got this.”
“No. I don’t want you to have to pay for a meal I offered to make.”
“Oh, you’re still paying. I just plan on stealing it from your cash stash under your mattress.”
“What cash stash?”
“The one Rhett’s been secretly building.”
“Rat!” Rhett called from his porch. When had he snuck out here? “I hear a rat.”
“He hides all the mail in one of the drawers in 1010, too,” she told Kamp with a shrug. She would spill every damn secret they had if it meant they would get to know each other better.
“I’m still stuck on the cash part,” Kamp said. “What the hell, man? You’ve been in my den? Are you the one who keeps setting the mouse traps for me to find in the middle of the night?”
“You’re the worst friend in the world,” Rhett yelled at Remi.
“He also plays guitar.”
“Oh, I know that,” Kamp said. “Rhett’s famous.”
“Wait, what?”
“And second worst friend in the world goes to you, you nut-sharting cock flea,” Rhett said, blasting against his shoulder as he tromped off into the woods.
