Chapter 1
Kekoa
“Ech, new guy, care for a game?”
“I’ve told you my pronouns.”
“Right, not a guy, got it,” Nuno grumbled. “You wanna play or what?”
“Or what,” I replied, turning my attention back to the drink I’d been enjoying before he decided to saunter over to the bar being loud.
Why was he always so loud? And right there in my personal space, just like on the job site. Being micromanaged was bad enough, but when the person doing it wasn’t even the foreman I was supposed to be reporting to, it got on my goddamn nerves. I was beginning to regret jumping at the first job offer I’d received, but the motel would require more money from me in exactly three days, so I’d signed on with Tano Siha Renovationsand instantly regretted it when Nuno started showing up at our jobsites.
“There’s darts, if you’d prefer,” he persisted.
“No, thanks,” I replied, hoping that would be the end of it.
Unfortunately, the universe had other plans.
“Awe, come on. Don’t be that way. I’ve already beaten the rest of these clowns a dozen times or more,” Nuno replied, jerking a thumb over his shoulder towards the group gathered around the pool table.
I knew several of the guys from the renovation site I’d been assigned to. All of them seemed like decent people, at least when they weren’t around him.
“I’m waiting for my food,” I explained, wishing he’d just go away.
“After you eat, then?”
Seriously, did this guy just not get it? It was bad enough watching him swagger around the jobsite, micromanaging and sometimes contradicting the instructions our foreman gave. There was no way I wanted to deal with him off the clock. In the three weeks I’d worked for the company, I hadn’t seen him do a single useful thing while he was at the site. If anything, he slowed us down with his incessant questions about what we were doing and why we were doing it that way. What was worse was when he interrupted our work to show us how he did things, complete with a long-winded explanation and step-by-step instructions that half the time didn’t make any sense. Everyone on the crew was a skilled contractor, most with more years of experience than I had, and yet he treated us all like rookies and then got pissy when we went back to doing things the way we knew best.
“It’s been a while since I’ve played,” I offered, going for half-truth, half-exaggeration, when he still didn’t go back tothe tables and leave me alone. “I doubt I’d present much of a challenge.”
“No worries, I’d be happy to give you a refresher course.”
Holy shit, this fucker couldn’t catch a clue with a net. Of all the arrogant, pretentious things to say. Son of a bitch, I was going to have to play him just to shut him up, and it probably wouldn’t even end then. At the very least it might wipe the smug look off his face, though, so I guess I’d have to settle for a small victory and an order of calamari as a consolation prize.
“Fine,” I grumbled as my platter of Buñelos Uhangand Buñelos Aga arrived. “Just let me enjoy my supper first.”
I’d been looking forward to the shrimp fritters and banana donuts from the moment I’d walked into the bar, and I wasn’t about to let them get cold dealing with him.
“Would you like another of these?” the bartender asked, gesturing to my nearly empty glass.
“No thanks, I’ll just take a Corona with lime, please.”
“No problem,” he replied, popping the cap off a cold one and pressing a lime inside the bottle before he set it down next to my cocktail glass.
The last thing I expected was for Nuno to belly up to the bar on the stool next to mine and demand a Budweiser while he stared at me. If I’d been smart, I’d have parked my ass in that seat, since it was on the end and offered a better view of the door, and I enjoyed people-watching and blending into the shadows. The problem was that it would have left me blind to anything coming up behind me, and I hated that. He clearly had no issue with it, probably because he was such an arrogant asshole, or maybe he was just one of those shifters whose beast was high enough up on the food chain that danger was just an abstract concept to him. I didn’t want to be around him long enough to figure out what kind.
His staring wasn’t good for the digestive tract, since he was making me twitchy, but I refused to rush through those crispy, succulent fritters.
“Don’t see a lot of folks like you on the job,” Nuno said as I was busy enjoying my first bite.
“Like me how?” I grumbled, though I had a good idea of what he was referring to.
“Feminine. Attractive. You’ve got nice hands. Why mess ‘em up swinging a hammer?”
“Because I can.”
I honestly preferred my meals without conversation, especially of thegetting-to-know-youvariety, but it seemed like the fates had other plans for me tonight.
