Page 3 of She is the Darke

“Mm-hmm,” Rachel said. “I’ll let you know what my dad says. It’ll probably involve the words ‘Oh hell no,’ but I’ll try. Send me one of the addresses he needs to quote, and I’ll try to entice him with potential business, and money. He loves money.”

Demi ended the call and parked in front of the next client’s house, but before she started unloading her trailer, she sat there with her feelings for a minute.

It was a good thing Tyler wasn’t coming home, but why had Rachel brought him up? She didn’t know what had happened, right? And clearly when he did live here years ago, Demi hadn’t liked him. At all. In fact, she had practically hated him, or tried to. All except one stupid night where Tyler had gotten the better of her and messed with her head, and then made her hate him even more.

Every time the Durock brothers had visited for the holidays, Demi had purposefully made herself very busy and very scarce so that she wouldn’t run into any of them on accident in town.

Especially, especially,especiallyTyler.

Tyler Durock was two years older—a total playboy, disrespectful, and saw women as toys. Playthings. He probably had a sugar momma, and if so, Demi felt sorry for that woman.

Why was she even thinking about this stuff? Tyler Durock had no weight in her life—not now, not ever.

He was one of those anchor-boys that successful women like her forgot about and elevated from. Not that they’d been together. Ever.

She huffed a frustrated sigh, and wondered again why Rachel had brought up that particular brother, out of the four brothers she had. And why had Demi’s response been “good,” instead of “I don’t care?”

She didn’t care.

She was immune to Durock brother charms.

She hoped he had a receding hairline and a beer belly now, and that he’d had his heart broken by some badass woman he couldn’t manipulate.

She was unaffected. Demi forced a smile on her lips and relaxed her shoulders, which were drawn up tight near her ears with tension from just thinking about him. He was such a butt-cheek. She did not need the stupid memories about all the timeshe’d annoyed her just to get her to react, or how freaking mean he had been to her right before he’d moved away.

He was a stupid boy, and now he was probably a stupid man. None of this mattered because he was still out in the world somewhere, and not dragging a dark raincloud over her town.

Feeling a little better, Demi pushed open the door and prepared her smile to greet her client.

Tyler Durock was right to leave town all those years ago, and he was right to stay away now.

Chapter Two

He couldn’t believe he was back here like this.

Tyler ran his hand down his full beard and tried to fit the woman he saw before him to the girl he used to know. Demi had sure grown up right.

She had jet-black hair in beach waves down past her shoulders, and a black tank top that hugged her fit curves. Her skin was sun-kissed, like she’d had a fun summer outside. Her dark-wash skinny jeans hugged her curves just right, and she wore a pair of black, slide-on Doc Martin boots. She’d lost those childlike features he remembered from when she was sixteen. Now her face was all gorgeous bone structure, full lips painted a dusty rose color, and perfectly-arched dark eyebrows that framed those soft brown eyes.

Any red-blooded male could see she was hot as fire. She’d probably broken a dozen hearts since he was here last.

He’d tried to call her a couple years ago, when the news of the crow shifters’ existence hit the media channels. He figured she and her family were under fire, but he should’ve known she would be just fine. She’d always been a tough one.

He’d called, and she’d ignored his call, and that was the only time in the past sixteen years he’d tried to reach out. Why? Because she was a splinter on a good day.

He was sitting on a strawbale near a big cardboard cut-out where families could push their faces through holes and take pictures. This one had a mural that would depict the family like a mermaid, a pirate, a cockroach, and a parrot.

Demi was working at an apple-cannon station. It was getting later. The evening hour was dragging darkness over everything, and he’d come here for a specific reason. This was professional,but he’d been sitting here for fifteen minutes, putting off talking to her. Why?

He couldn’t explain it even if someone had a gun to his head.

Demi was one of the biggest reasons he had left all those years ago, and rarely came back. Granted, he’d built a big life and had been too busy to revisit this place much, physically or mentally, but seeing her brought so much back.

He didn’t like it.

He didn’t like that she was clearly such a big part of the bad feelings he had about this town.

“Holy hell-beans.”