Page 29 of Creed

She leaned against the railing again and looked up at me. “There were a lot of us that never believed for a second that he raped Deanna. She was my biggest tormentor in high school. I’ll admit there were plenty that believed her at the time, but most of the kids in school knew better. She still managed to screw his life up, didn’t she?”

I shrugged, because that wasn’t my answer to give. Magnus was finding happiness again, getting out more, and winning the fight against his demons. He was a hell of a soldierand still one hell of an operative. He had his family close and was doing much better than the bitch that turned his life upside down. “He’s doing just fine these days. From what I hear, she’s struggling in life. I guess that’s karma.”

She gave me the sweetest half smile and I got lost in those eyes again. “I guess so. It never pays to be fake or a liar. Hollywood is filled with people like her. They’d sell you out to the tabloids without a second thought. They’d lie just to get the money. That’s why my relationship with Lane didn’t work. One of his fellow teachers sold us out to the tabloids. He was worried about his job and broke up with me. It’s also the reason Tristan and I didn’t work out. I guess I wasn’t worth sticking in there for and that’s okay. I couldn’t blame them. So, where were you from before the Military?”

I sighed. “Maryland, D.C., and Chicago. We moved a few times. My dad’s parents were in Chicago, so we lived there for the first half of my life. Then we moved to Maryland and later D.C.” I didn’t have much to say about it. I had no intention to give her too much information. The fact that my mom’s family was less than an hour away was nobody’s business. They weren’t my family, they were hers.

“So, you settled in Cold Springs because of Josh, but you’re from three different places and served in the military. What branch?” She asked.

“Army.”

She rolled her eyes. “Come on now. I was honest with you and it’s your turn now. It was more than just the Army, wasn’t it?”

I looked out at the waterfall and decided that part of my life wasn’t exactly a secret. “Seventy Fifth Ranger’s Regiment,then I was selected to join the Combat Applications Group, otherwise known as Delta Force.”

She looked completely lost so she must not have been familiar. “Special ops, our missions involved counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and recon. We sometimes had high value targets.”

Her eyes grew. “You mean like making a lot of money to assassinate people?”

I chuckled. “No, not at all. High value targets are those of which disabling them would do major damage to the enemy.”

“Oh, like Osama bin Laden?” She asked.

“Yes, but that was before my time.”

She smiled warmly. “You were valuable to our military.”

I shook my head. “Never really felt that way. Anyway, there’s not much to tell. We came here for a friend, decided to stay, and that’s the end of the story.”

“But why the compound?” At that point she was standing with her arms crossed and glaring at me like she was expecting a lie.

“Compound?” I shook my head. “It’s simply a private community. We all have homes around the lake, there’s a community center that offers a gym, an indoor and outdoor pool, movie room, bar, a basketball court, and a community kitchen and dining area. We pay our taxes just like everyone else and it’s secure. These guys are military retired, and they all work for me or the community in one fashion or another. Some fix bikes, some design them, others are in sales, and some are office support. We employ the women you so kindly referred to as whores, and they live there as well. Some have jobs cleaning,some cooking, some for laundry, some are secretaries, and some are mechanics. They aren’t paid to have sex with us, that’s a terrible rumor.” The last one wasn’t the whole truth. Most did have sex with my men, they just weren’t paid to do it. They enjoyed it and it was not a part of their job description. They simply liked to party, and some got their freaks on. Most of them had a reason not to live outside the community. Maybe it was an abusive lover, or they had pasts that weren’t our business. They were all vetted and none had criminal histories that put us in an awkward situation with Darren.

I knew she didn’t believe me by the look on her face.

“What?” I asked.

“My dream was to live on a lake like that one and you bought it all up. How does a former military man afford such a thing?” She had doubt written all over her face. It was obvious she never Googled me.

“I wasn’t born into your typical family. My father passed away a few years back and I received a very large inheritance. It's not a huge secret.” Damn, if she did look me up she would learn that Nicole Powers was my mother. It wasn’t something I wanted anyone to know. I couldn’t have hid it if I tried, but I never admitted to it.

“Okay, so if Creed is your last name then what’s your first name?”

I chuckled, because if there’s one thing I hate, it’s my first name. “Now that is privileged information. Anyhow, I need to had back. I have a meeting this afternoon.” I was ready to cut the conversation short. Just because she told me about her experience in California and it wasn’t what I thought, it didn’t mean I completely trusted her. I knew her kind, they were alljust like Addison and my mother. She would have to prove a lot to me before I told her much of anything else. We walked back up to my bike, which made for an uncomfortable ride to the park, and I didn’t expect the ride to the shop to be much better. The entire ride I could feel those perfect breasts pressed up against me and the fact that I was sitting between her legs gave me a permanent hard on the entire ride. After learning more about her I didn’t expect the ride back to be much better. In fact, I expected it to be much worse. I had to admit to myself that I was insanely attracted to her, but that didn’t mean I would let someone so close to the Meadows family anywhere near my life. Having her body pressed against mine made me hard for most of the ride to the shop. That might have just been the most painful ride of my life. Once I parked the bike, she swung her leg around and I shut my eyes and tried to calm my twitching dick. Fuck she was beautiful, despite the knots in her hair and the way she clutched her ass and complained how bad it hurt from my hard as hell seat. Imagine that, a spoiled actress complaining. I rolled my eyes and leaned my bike on its kickstand while ignoring her bitching about it.

“This isn’t gated in to your compound.” She pointed at the bike shop.

“Its an open business, of course it’s not gated off.” I unlocked my toolbox to get her purse.

“This isn’t what I was expecting.” She looked around then again at the block building.

“What exactly did you expect?” I handed her the purse, and she shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t know, a mechanic shop behind the gates. This building is huge and looks brand new.”

I shoved my keys in my pocket. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

“Where’s the gate to your compound?” She asked as I guided her toward the shop.

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