Page 1 of Stone Deep
ONE
SLADE
Jade dropped her arm around me. “Amy and I have decided you can’t go to Alaska.” Her words were a little stretched from drink, which, for Jade, meant two beers instead of one.
Amy grabbed my arm on the other side. “That’s right. We’re going to tie you up and keep you hostage.”
I lifted a brow at her. “I like where this is going. And if you weren’t married to my very scary big brother, I would be completely turned on right now.”
Amy released my arm and smacked it. “Oh my god, you can turn any conversation dirty.”
“Yep, a skill I’ve had perfected since I was fifteen when the only thing occupying my brain was girls and making out.”
“Then I guess that makes you mentally stunted at fifteen.” Jade laughed but her smile faded quickly. “Seriously, couldn’t you just stay here and continue working for that big ruddy-faced Captain Dill or Dell or whoever?”
Amy took a sip of my beer. She was sliding over to thelong, slow words side of drunk too. “I guess the probability of being maimed or drowned isn’t quite high enough on a small fishing trawler. Slade prefers the threat of a horrible death to hang over him. Gives him a fucking hard on.”
Again, I lifted a brow at her. “Look who’s talking dirty now.” I lifted my arms and placed one each around Jade and Amy, a move that would have gotten any of the other guys in the bar a sound pummeling from Hunter and Colt. I’d grown to love them both like sisters. They were worried about the possibility of me working on a crab fishing boat on the Bering Sea. It made me smile to think about. I couldn’t ever remember anyone, not even my parents—especially not my parents—being worried about me. It felt nice.
“First of all, I only went for the interview. My fishing experience isn’t that tight. There’s a good chance I won’t even get the position. But if I do, the money is a lot better up there. Yeah, it comes with some danger, but I didn’t earn the nickname Bolt for nothing. My reflexes are fast like lightning, and I’m a Stone. I’m tough as fucking granite.”
Amy finished the last drops of my beer. “No one calls you Bolt.”
“They don’t?” I pretended shock. “Well, they fucking should. Maybe you should start the tradition, and others will follow. Look, Street, everyone is moving on here. You’re a friggin’ bar owner now.” I waved my arm around Lazy Daze. Six months after she’d married my brother, Hunter, she’d bought the bar. Jack, the owner of Lazy Daze, had given her a great deal on the place. She’d gotten insurance money after her mother’s house burned down, and she sold the lot it sat on too. She’dalready made some improvements and even expanded to add a pool hall, a place where Hunter spent most of his free time. I squeezed Jade on the other side of me. “Jade is selling real estate.”
“I haven’t actually sold anything yet,” she said.
“You will. Colt and Hunter are doing their thing fixing up that old house to sell. For me, I love working on the water. It’s the only trait I inherited from my old man.”
“Thank goodness for that,” Amy said.
My dad had been one of the worst assholes to ever walk the planet, but there was no way to deny that he’d been a good fisherman. If nothing else, people could saythatabout him.
“If I get the job, I’ll only be gone for a few months in fall and winter, and I promise to come home alive and with all my limbs.”
Jade leaned forward to look at Amy. “Do you know what this boy needs?”
“A steady girlfriend?” Amy replied.
“Yep.”
I leaned my head back against the seat of the booth. “Holy shit, here we go again. You girls don’t get it. I’m perfectly happy on my own. I’m a free fucking spirit, and I intend to keep it that way.” I kissed each girl on the forehead. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, Jessica Grimly promised me an extremely raunchy good time, and I see her winking at me from across the room.”
Amy slid out of the booth to get back to work. I followed her. “Hey, Street, can I borrow the key to that little room in back?”
“This is not a brothel, buddy.”
“No cash will be involved. I’m only going to be paying for this with my sweat and my?—”
Amy pressed her hand over my mouth. “Shut up. No details. The key is in the office, and don’t you dare break anything in there.”
“Me? What kind of a sex-crazed maniac do you take me for?”
“You don’t really want me to answer that, do you?” Amy patted my chest. “Besides, Jessica makes you look like a damn monk, so tell her to keep the screaming down to a mild roar. This is a respectable drinking establishment.”
Colt and Hunter were just coming out of the pool room as I walked out of the office with the key.
“Where are you headed?” Colt asked.
