Strange and unusual, p.1
Strange and Unusual, page 1
Table of Contents
Strange & Unusual
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Other titles by Lani Lynn Vale
Blurb
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Epilogue
Never Trust the Living
Text copyright © 2022 Lani Lynn Vale ™
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
There’s currently a carbon monoxide detector beeping downstairs, and I’ve considered getting up for the last 34 minutes. Someone tell me why my husband can’t hear it.
Acknowledgments
Golden Czermak—Photographer
My Brother’s Editor & Ink It Out Editing—My editors
Alyssa Garcia—Cover Artist & PA
My mom—Thank you for reading this book eight million three hundred and seventy-two times.
My betas—I don’t know what I would do without y’all. Thank you, my lovely betas, for loving my books as much as I do.
Other titles by Lani Lynn Vale
The Freebirds
Boomtown
Highway Don’t Care
Another One Bites the Dust
Last Day of My Life
Texas Tornado
I Don’t Dance
The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC
Lights To My Siren
Halligan To My Axe
Kevlar To My Vest
Keys To My Cuffs
Life To My Flight
Charge To My Line
Counter To My Intelligence
Right To My Wrong
Code 11- KPD SWAT
Center Mass
Double Tap
Bang Switch
Execution Style
Charlie Foxtrot
Kill Shot
Coup De Grace
The Uncertain Saints
Whiskey Neat
Jack & Coke
Vodka On The Rocks
Bad Apple
Dirty Mother
Rusty Nail
The Kilgore Fire Series
Shock Advised
Flash Point
Oxygen Deprived
Controlled Burn
Put Out
I Like Big Dragons Series
I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie
Dragons Need Love, Too
Oh, My Dragon
The Dixie Warden Rejects
Beard Mode
Fear the Beard
Son of a Beard
I’m Only Here for the Beard
The Beard Made Me Do It
Beard Up
For the Love of Beard
Law & Beard
There’s No Crying in Baseball
Pitch Please
Quit Your Pitchin’
Listen, Pitch
The Hail Raisers
Hail No
Go to Hail
Burn in Hail
What the Hail
The Hail You Say
Hail Mary
The Simple Man Series
Kinda Don’t Care
Maybe Don’t Wanna
Get You Some
Ain’t Doin’ It
Too Bad So Sad
Bear Bottom Guardians MC
Mess Me Up
Talkin’ Trash
How About No
My Bad
One Chance, Fancy
It Happens
Keep It Classy
Snitches Get Stitches
F-Bomb
The Southern Gentleman Series
Hissy Fit
Lord Have Mercy
KPD Motorcycle Patrol
Hide Your Crazy
It Wasn’t Me
I’d Rather Not
Make Me
Sinners are Winners
If You Say So
SWAT 2.0
Just Kidding
Fries Before Guys
Maybe Swearing Will Help
Ask Me If I Care
May Contain Wine
Joke’s on You
Join the Club
Any Day Now
Say it Ain’t So
Officially Over It
Nobody Knows
Depends Who’s Asking
Valentine Boys
Herd That
Crazy Heifer
Chute Yeah
Get Bucked
Souls Chapel Revenants
Repeat Offender
Conjugal Visits
Jailbait
Doin’ A Dime
Kitty, Kitty
Gen Pop
Inmate of the Month
Madd CrossFit Series
No Rep
Jerk It
Chalk Dirty to Me
Battle Crows MC
Always Someone’s Monster
Make Me Your Villain
Rattle Some Cages
Not A Role Model
Get Tragic
Strange & Unusual
Never Trust The Living
Blurb
The moment he divorced his ex-wife, Jeremiah decided two things.
One, he would never, ever get into that kind of situation again—i.e., marriage.
Two, he would spend more time doing what he loved—baking, riding motorcycles, spending time with the Battle Crows MC, and getting some quiet time for just himself. Pretty much doing the things he enjoyed, that his ex-wife could no longer ruin.
And, months after his divorce was final, he’s held strong.
He hasn’t gotten entangled with a woman. He’s opened his own bakery. And he’s never been closer to his club.
It has to be why he allowed them to have a massive club party at his place, which became the cause of Gracelynn Barry entering his life.
If he’d known Gracie was going to be his employee, he definitely wouldn’t have slept with her.
Yet, there he is, in the middle of an interview, finding out not only was the woman he slept with the most viable applicant for a job he very much needed filled, but that she’d recently broken up with the man he loathed. The second reason he’d divorced his ex-wife. Erich. His ex-stepson.
To say life is simple for Jeremiah would be a joke of epic proportions.
It’s time for him to buckle up.
PROLOGUE
I’m a whisk taker.
-Gracelynn’s secret thoughts
GRACELYNN
“And how much experience do you have in a commercial kitchen?” the woman doing my interview asked.
I resisted the urge to look at my watch—a habit that I had when things made me nervous. It was a ‘how much longer do I have to be here’ kind of thing, rather than an actual checking my watch for the time kind of thing.
“I have…” I listed off all my accolades, finishing with, “And that was before I spent nearly half my life in a kitchen before the age of sixteen. We made all of our own food from scratch, going so far as to only use our homemade items in every single recipe we used.”
The woman doing the interview looked impressed with that, but luckily, she didn’t ask me to go into more detail.
Giving any backstory on my life was a total downer, and something that I did not want to go into with a potential employer.
“That’s very interesting.” She started to stack her papers neatly. “I’m going to say this now. Jer is a really, really big pain in the ass. I’m only doing this interview for him because he hates doing this part of owning a business. But my brother will be your boss. I like you a lot… but let’s just say, he has final say in everything. He will have to meet you first, but I can give you a call back once he decides that he’ll take you on.”
I smiled.
That was understandable.
It was his business, after all.
“Whatever you need from me, I’ll do,” I assured her. “I’m really excited to find a job like this here.”
The woman smiled. “My brother will make you miserable. I hope that you feel the same way after you’re hired.”
After that parting comment, I couldn’t help but say, “I don’t think I’ll hate him at all. Not if we both love to bake.”
Famous last words.
• • •
An hour later, with the giddiness for life once again surging through my veins, I made one last stop before heading to my rental cottage on the lake.
That stop being the job that I’d landed after hitting town.
Erich, my boss, as well as other things that I wasn’t really interested in putting a label on, was the first person I saw and heard as I made my way through the back door.
“Listen,” Erich snarled to the small woman that was all but cowering standing in front of him. “I said ‘whipped.’ Not ‘buttercream.’ Get back there and fucking fix it.”
I gritted my teeth as I made my way inside.
“Oh, so you decided to show up after all?”
I blinked, surprised to hear Erich’s voice so close when just a few seconds ago he’d been across the room.
His hand went to my hip, and I barely checked the urge to throw his hand off.
“Actually, I showed up with one specific reason in mind,” I said as I took a look around the kitchen.
The kitchen at La Pearl, one of the only fancy restaurants, as well as one of the only four-star establishments in two counties, was run by Erich. It was owned by a private benefactor that Erich had never mentioned, but I assumed was his mother.
Though the food was good, because Erich really was amazing in the kitchen, the work environment at La Pearl was hostile.
Erich was a tyrant to work with, and his turnover rate was horrific.
But looking at how he treated his staff? How he treated me sometimes? It just wasn’t worth it.
Not for my sanity, and certainly not for my overall health.
A pan dropped, and Erich’s head whipped around, eyes locked on the poor, unfortunate soul that’d had the luck of dropping something in his kitchen.
The young man, all of twenty, looked like he was about to die.
He started to scoop up the bread rolls that’d hit the dirty floor, and I could practically see the steam rising off of Erich’s head.
I put my hand on Erich’s arm and stole his attention.
“I’m quitting.”
Erich’s head turned so slowly that it could’ve been a comedy act out of a rom-com TV show.
“I’m sorry, you what?” he asked, hoping he hadn’t heard me correctly.
“I’m quitting,” I repeated. “As of today, I will no longer be employed at this restaurant.”
And I hoped that I’d know by the end of the week that I had a job elsewhere. Otherwise, I was going to beg my friend Anisa’s dad to give me a job at one of his hotels.
“Please repeat that, but more slowly. I think I didn’t hear you correctly,” he ground out.
He’d heard me just fine. He was just hoping that I would take it back.
“I just don’t like baking,” I lied to Erich. “I’m sorry.”
Erich looked at me like he’d rather throttle me than accept my resignation.
“You’re supposed to give me two weeks’ notice,” he said calmly.
I shrugged. “I don’t really care.”
Sure, most people would give two weeks’ notice. But not here. Once you gave your notice, if you even gave it because some people didn’t even have the courage to do that, you never came back. Mostly because Erich would make your life a living hell if you did.
I’d seen him do it.
At first, I thought it was funny. I mean, who wouldn’t? He was pissed that he was losing a worker he’d trained to be exactly what he needed. And then they left as soon as they’d learned the trade.
At least, that’d been what I’d originally thought.
But over the course of the month and a half that I’d been there, getting my feet wet while also living out of the area and driving in every day, I’d noticed a few things.
And all of those things were bad.
He was hard and brash. He said such demeaning things that it was a wonder that people even spoke to him at all.
Honestly, I was tired of the meanness.
I watched his eyes narrow as if something I’d said made him amused rather than pissed.
Which I’d most certainly not intended to do.
I didn’t want him taking this the wrong way.
“I’ll get the two weeks in another way,” he teased.
No, he most certainly would not.
Which I let him know seconds later.
“I’m sorry, but no, you won’t,” I apologized while backing away.
At least I’d done this in person.
I mean, I could’ve been a total coward and texted him my intentions not to come back.
“I’ll see you tonight?” he asked, sounding rather hopeful.
I shook my head.
His attitude toward me, and others, leaving the job had finalized our relationship, as well.
“No,” I disagreed. “You won’t.”
His eyes narrowed as if sensing that this wasn’t a joke. That he wasn’t going to get his way in any of it.
“What are you really trying to say here, darling?” he asked. “Because I’m sensing something that I shouldn’t.”
I nearly rolled my eyes.
Erich was that full of himself and confident in his sexiness that he believed that no one would ever leave him.
“I’m trying to say that not only have I quit, but I no longer wish to see you anymore.” I told him. “You’re not a very nice person. I don’t like you.”
He blinked. “And you’re not part of the problem?”
No, no, I wasn’t.
“No,” I told him point blank.
He snorted, as if what I’d said was vastly amusing to him.
“Some people don’t want to be fixed, because being broken gets them attention,” Erich snarled.
I felt that hit down deep in my soul.
“Erich,” I said quietly, “you don’t even have any inkling, not one iota, of what it feels like to be broken.”
With that, I left, not once looking back.
And when he texted me later that day, I blocked his number.
My final paycheck would either arrive, or it wouldn’t.
But I wouldn’t be contacting him again.
CHAPTER 1
Honestly, my biggest fear about becoming a zombie is all the walking.
-Gracelynn’s secret thoughts
GRACELYNN
“Are you sure?” my friend, Anisa, asked.
I glanced over at her and wondered if she’d give it up if I agreed to go with her.
Probably not.
I sighed. “If I go, will you leave me alone for a week about ‘going out’ and ‘making friends?’”
Anisa’s lips twitched into what one could only assume was a version of a smile.
Really, she so rarely smiled that I didn’t know what it looked like on her face.
“Yes,” she promised. “If you go with me, I’ll promise to leave you alone for another seven days. But only seven days.”
“What if I lose my virginity tonight?” I asked. “Will you leave me alone then?”
There was a long pause as she digested my words, then she turned, crossed her arms over her chest, and said, “If you lose your virginity, I’ll leave you alone for two weeks.”
I threw back my head and laughed. “That’s all I get?”
“If you lose it to someone hot, then I’ll agree to three weeks. But only if I deem them hot. Not if you deem them hot,” she argued.
I didn’t bother to contradict her statement.
Anisa had particular tastes.
Anisa was Indian. Not Native American Indian, but India Indian.
Anisa was, for all intents and purposes, living her life through me.
We’d met through mutual friends when we were eight, and since then, we’d been the best of friends.
Though, that was likely because our upbringings were so strict.
Anisa’s family originated from India, while mine originated from Utah.
Though Anisa’s family was strict, she’d chosen to still be a part of their lives despite her disagreements.
Me, on the other hand? I couldn’t handle the lifestyle of my family anymore. There were only so many times I could walk past a coffee shop and say ‘no’ before I decided to give it a try.
For the first seventeen years of my life, I was a good little rule-following girl. I wore tasteful clothing. I did my hair the way my mother wanted me to. I didn’t eat meat, nor did I indulge in coffee, tea, or alcohol. I made sure to always do what I was told, and be a helping hand wherever I needed it.
Then, I met a boy.
The boy I met wasn’t a bad boy. He was just a normal boy. A boy who liked to say curse words upon occasion.
A boy that introduced me to coffee and tea. Who taught me how to say my first swear word. He showed me how much fun it could be to be… bad.
And though we hadn’t gone all the way into sexual relations or anything, we had experimented.
