Book 2 of 2, sequel to Alaska's Illicit.
In which Mikaere returns to Alaska, but upon arriving realizes that she has a new problem: Vaughn, Darren, or should she just stick with Jared?
Vaughn's past and life are revealed, and also a serial killer mi...
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CHAPTER THREE: JASMINE
The next day, Vaughn has a job immediately lined up for him by his father. He doesn't like the fact that he's expected to just follow whatever his father sets up for him. It makes him feel like he did before he turned eighteen: reliant on his father, stuck with basing every life decision around what he wanted. He's an adult, after all, and is perfectly capable of getting his own job.
But maybe working alongside his father at the lodge isn't such a terrible thing. It might help build a bridge between them, as it seems to have done with his father and Siara. Deep down, he knows that's probably naive, but he doesn't need immediate family strife, even though he suspects it's inevitable.
His father tells him to take a couple of weeks to himself before he starts, and to enjoy being back. Vaughn hears the words, but he also hears the struggle behind them as well. He has no doubt his father will turn on him the moment he messes up.
But regardless, he decides to take his father up on his offer, opting to spend the day going to see Jasmine.
He doesn't even know if she'll want to see him. Maybe he got lucky with Tommy and Si, but won't be received as well by her.
Vaughn finds out where her apartment is from Siara, and then he's taking one of his father's trucks and headed over there. She lives about ten miles away from the family lodge and apparently works at the local law firm as a paralegal. Siara didn't tell him anything else.
He slowly climbs the steps to her apartment, wondering if she'll even be home. It's Saturday, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Back in high school, she would always be the one to suggest new places to hang out or different towns to visit when they had the time. She hated being stuck at home, or in one place, for very long.
He's surprised that she still even lives in Juneau, and he wonders what made her stay.
Knocking on her door, he starts to shift anxiously, worried about what her response to seeing him on her doorstep will be. She was always the most confident of them all, always seeming to know what she wanted and who she was, and she never once strayed from that. She was never afraid to give her opinion and some people inevitably hated her for it, but the hate was always based purely on envy. And within their friend group, she was always the first one they would go to for advice.
He hears footsteps echo through from behind the door, the sound of high heels clicking on the hardwood floor. He takes a small step back.
The sound of one lock being slid back is heard and the door is opened just a crack because of the second lock, a security door chain. He looks down, meeting her steady, brown eyes. There is no surprise in them as she stares at his face before she shuts the door again. He panics for a split second, wondering if she even recognizes him, wonders if he was ever significant in her life.
But then the door is opening completely, and there the stunning, intelligent Jasmine Jacobs stands.
Her eyeliner is sharper than he remembers, as are her features, especially her jawline. Her long, sleek, black hair is pulled behind her shoulders to rest against her back. Her brown skin is complemented by the color of the business suit she currently wears, which seems to have been made for her. It makes her look all the more intimidating, regardless of the fact that she's still a whole foot shorter than him without the heels.
