Predator (Copper Mesa Eagles Book 1) by Roxie Noir, Amelie Hunt Read Free Book Online Page A

hard rain.
    “It’s only eight,” Jules said.
    Seth just shrugged, helplessly.
    “There’s a gas station convenience store that might still be open, though I wouldn’t count on it,” he said. “Otherwise, we could go back to my house. I don’t think my brother’s home from school yet.”
    Her facial expression was mixed, like she wanted to say yes but wasn’t quite sure.
    “We can sit on the front porch and look at the stars over the Mesa,” he said. “I’d say we could have a drink but the closest place that sells alcohol is two hours away.”
    He felt a slight twinge as he said mesa , and reminded himself that it wasn’t her fault.
    “If I didn’t know better, I’d say this date was planned last-minute,” she said, her hazel eyes sparkling up at him, her body moving just a hint closer.
    “It was,” he confessed, putting a single finger on the point of her shoulder, feeling her warmth through her shirt. “But not because I wasn’t excited.”
    Her lips were perfect, just barely parted, and Seth looked into her eyes and had the sudden sensation that he was flying high over the earth, looking down into some lush paradise.
    Just as he bent down to kiss her, headlights blinked on from twenty feet away, blinding them both.
    “Bowling alley’s closed!” shouted a gruff voice.
    Are you fucking kidding me , thought Seth.
    “Sorry!” shouted Jules, her cheeks turning bright pink in the strong light. “Your place?” she asked Seth.

    “You live with your brother?” Jules asked as she drove them out of town.
    “My youngest brother. Zach,” Seth said.
    “How many do you have?” she asked.
    “Just two. Zach’s the one I live with, and Garrett leaves us voicemails sometimes. I even get to talk to him about once a year.”
    This isn’t the time to get into your relationship with Garrett , Seth told himself.
    “The house is beautiful,” Jules offered. “Is it old?”
    Seth nodded in the dark.
    “Remember Hiram, who made the deal with the devil?” he asked.
    “I could never forget Hiram,” Jules said.
    “He built it, and it’s been in my family ever since. I grew up there, my mom grew up there. All the way back.”
    “That’s amazing,” Jules said. “Do your parents still live there, too?”
    Seth turned and looked out the truck window for a moment. He didn’t particularly like bringing up his parents on a first date — it was too morbid, and of all the emotions he hoped to inspire in Jules, pity wasn’t one of them.
    But she’d asked, and it wasn’t like he was going to lie to her.
    “Nah, they died when I was seventeen,” he said. “They were trying to take a shortcut through a canyon up to highway 260, and their car slid off the road.”
    “Oh, my god,” said Jules. “I’m so sorry.”
    Her green-to-brown eyes flicked to him.
    Seth shrugged, never sure what response people expected him to have. It was over, it had happened, and it had sucked, but all that was past.
    “I was about six months away from being eighteen, so the court let me become Garrett and Zach’s legal guardian instead of tossing us into the foster system. And we had the house, so we had a place to live. It could have been a lot worse,” he said.
    “You must be close now, at least,” Jules said, then squeezed her eyes shut. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like maybe it’s a good thing that your parents died, that was rude.”
    Seth chuckled.
    “No offense taken at all. You wouldn’t believe the shit some people will say to a teenager who’s just lost his parents. And yeah, Zach and I are close,” he said.
    Garrett, not so much, but that’s a topic for another time , he thought.
    Jules hit the brakes and turned into Seth’s driveway, the mesa looming in the middle distance. For a few minutes, they jostled along in silence, and then Jules parked the truck and turned it off, suddenly blanketing them both in starlit darkness. Seth looked over at Jules. In the dim light, all the colors were muted