Chapter 1
Jonah
“Killing her this way just isn’t going to work. You’re going to have to get more creative with this one.” He’d boxed himself in and no amount of research was going to help. “I told you in the beginning there were only so many native plants that were poisonous.”
No matter what anyone said, writers were just as insane as any other artist.
Dakota gave me a scathing look as his pacing increased to an almost frantic level. “There has to be another option. That’s the point of the series.”
When he’d started his series based on a small town that had lots of crazy deaths, it had sounded like fun, but he hadn’t expected it to go on long enough that he’d run out of local plants that were poisonous or could remotely be from that region.
“What about an invasive species or someone who’s moved into the area from a weird part of the world?” I rolled over and stretched out on the floor. Desks were for boring people. “You said the college was going to be hiring next year. Just move up the timeline a bit.”
He huffed, a sign that while he didn’t like the idea, it might work. But talking him off that ledge would have to wait. Whoever thought Austin was the most dramatic of the group had never worked with Dakota. He was just the quieter form of crazy you could take out in public easier. “You’re going to have to pout another time. We’re meeting Bradley and Wade for dinner in twenty minutes.”
“It can’t be time for that already. We had two hours to go just a few minutes ago.” He started looking around with a frown on his face. Before I could remind him that he’d left his phone in the kitchen so it wouldn’t distract him, he marched over to the computer and found the time. “Damn.”
“Why do you persist in questioning me?” Anyone would think that after five years of working together, he’d stop questioning my internal clock.
He gave me a frustrated look and rolled his eyes. “Because one day you’re going to be wrong.”
“Well, it’s not today, buttercup, so let’s get going.” We did this song and dance every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when it was time for me to leave. It was so familiar I could have done it in my sleep.
He glanced over at his computer like it should be personally offended that he was walking away. “I’m not done figuring out how she decides—”
“Nope. We’re not going to be late because you had just one more scene to write.” I’d learned that lesson in the first few months after I’d started working with him. “Wade does not need an excuse to cancel dinner.”
And that got him going.
“Fine.” He tossed the pen he’d been playing with back on his desk and started shuffling papers around.
I’d seen that tactic before, so I started shooing him out. “You look like you haven’t bathed in a week. Go change clothes. You have fifteen minutes.”
He actually had almost half an hour, but telling him that would guarantee we were late. That was another lesson learned early in our odd partnership. Dakota tried to come up with another excuse, but I shot him a tough look and pointed toward the door. “Go.”
Constantly being in charge of him was exhausting.
I’d made him get a shower when I’d shown up earlier, but he still managed to look rumpled and almost homeless. I got another frustrated expression from him, but he headed upstairs to hopefully fix his hair and find a shirt that didn’t look like he’d been rolling around on the floor.
Hell, I’d been rolling around on the floor and I looked more presentable.
When he’d admitted five years ago that he needed a keeper, I’d thought he was humoring me. I’d needed additional income to help support what I was making from my art and I’d been convinced it was just a ploy. I’d been willing to look past that, but it turned out he really did need help.
He was a great writer—but not really a functional adult.
I heard Dakota moving around upstairs as I started straightening up his office and putting everything back where he’d think he would have left it—which was never where he’d actually set it down.
When I’d first started working for him, it’d been mainly research and helping with his social media accounts, because while he liked talking to his readers, he hated everything else about the different platforms.
It’d developed into more when I realized he wasn’t always showering on the days I didn’t come in, and once, I’d discovered him trying to finish a book for a deadline and he hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours. Yeah, he really had needed a keeper—or a Dom.
Once I’d cleaned up his office and had taken all the dirty cups to the kitchen, I texted Bradley that we were on track to be on time. He and Wade knew not to leave the house until they got the all-clear signal from me. After sending another quick message to Wade, I headed out to the living room and started playing on my phone.
Dakota had another five minutes until I had to start reminding him we were leaving, so I enjoyed the break. I loved helping him research for his mysteries and I even loved the social media work I did for him, but keeping him focused on the real world wasn’t always easy. Once he was away from his work he was a completely normal human, but I had to get him out of the house first.
A text from Graham caught my eye and I had to fight the urge to smile. It was a simple message about a meeting to go over a few last-minute details, but something about him always made me want to grin. He’d never even flirted with me, but when I thought about him, I just wanted to either curl into him or throw myself at him. It was insane and probably inappropriate because I had a feeling he was involved with someone else, even though he never talked about anyone.
Graham’s personal life was still a touchy subject with Shane, so I hadn’t been able to ask him about it, either. The one time he’d talked about his cousin before it all came out that Graham wasn’t quite as vanilla as Shane had assumed, he’d said that Graham was single.
