Lord Have Mercy Read online

  Carver went to protest—at least from what I’d heard since I didn’t bother to turn around to look at them—and Camryn made a sound in the back of her throat. “Trust me, I’ll be fine. Swear.”

  Carver made an aggravated sound that resembled choking. Moments later, I heard his car start up, and the engine had this groaning swish, and I realized that his fucking car was electric.

  The weirdo had an electric car.

  What the fuck?

  I pulled out my ticket book and started to write a ticket, wishing that I hadn’t had to do this right now. I had plans later, and I wanted to go straight to the gym after this stupid, pointless meeting that I was required to go to by the principal of the school. But now I’d have to stop by the station and fill out a report, as well as let my supervisor know that I was rear-ended.

  I could just see the look on Pessy, my lieutenant’s, face now. He was going to be pissed.

  Luckily, all the damage that was done was a small scrape of yellow paint from Camryn’s front bumper. Her car, on the other hand, had quite a bit more damage.

  I turned, ticket in hand, only to stop short of taking a single step because Camryn was standing right there, inches away from me, staring at me with anger written all over her face.

  “Here,” I said, handing it to her. “Sign at the bottom.”

  She glared at the ticket book I was holding out to her, and then snatched it from my hands.

  She didn’t flat out tell me ‘fuck you,’ but her actions spoke louder than actual words.

  After scratching out a quick, barely legible signature, she practically shoved the book back in my chest.

  I had to fight the urge to smile.

  I liked her spunk.

  Even more, I liked the way she looked when she was glaring at me.

  “Anything else, Officer Flintstone?”

  I barely held back the smile that threatened to break free at her words.

  “Very original,” I said. “But you do realize there’s a whole other name in between my first name and my last, correct?”

  “Actually,” she said, saccharine sweet. “I didn’t.”

  “Flint Dagus Stone,” I told her.

  She frowned. “Dagus? What kind of name is Dagus?”

  She had the nerve to talk.

  “What kind of name is Camryn Elvis Presley?” I countered.

  She gasped.

  “How did you know that was my name?” she demanded, irate.

  “I know because I know shit.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Now, go get in your car and get going. And watch the traffic. Try not to hit me again.”

  Her eyes narrowed, and I wanted to reach out and poke her in the forehead.

  Instead, I settled for a tilt of my chin in the direction of her car.

  She stomped off in a huff. “I hope you’re happy.”

  The moment she got into her car, she threw the ticket on the floorboard and started her car.

  Moments later, she pulled out and flipped me off for good measure.

  Grinning, I got back in my car and spoke to my dog. “She’s crazy.”

  My dog didn’t answer.

  Chapter 2

  You may be in your 30s if getting a vacuum cleaner for Valentine’s Day makes you more excited than getting chocolate.

  -Camryn’s secret thoughts

  Camryn

  I looked up at the intimidating building and felt my belly clench with fear.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said to my best friend, shooting her a look of incredulity. “I refuse.”

  Raleigh looked at me with pleading in her eyes. “Please? Pretty please with sugar on top?”

  I growled in frustration. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I repeated.

  Raleigh gave me her huge doe eyes, and I started to cave.

  “Raleigh, this is CrossFit. This is hardcore shit. You’ve tried CrossFit, and it didn’t go too well, remember? Can’t we try that wine and yoga class I tagged you in last week on Instagram? Pretty please with sugar on top?” I folded my hands together and brought them up to my face.

  “No,” she said. “I need to sweat. I need to lose ten pounds, and this flab around my middle so that I can look pretty in my bikini. I’ve heard a lot of good things about this CrossFit gym. Do you know who Rich Froning is?”

  I frowned. “Vaguely. Isn’t he that super-hot guy that used to be a firefighter?”

  I honestly wasn’t sure why I knew who he was.

  That was a lie.

  The reason I knew who he was, was because Raleigh’s brother, whom I’d had a crush on since forever, was big into CrossFit. I knew exactly who Rich Froning was because Croft was super big into CrossFit and had been since a couple of years ago. In a vain attempt to hold a conversation with the man without seeming desperate, I started to do everything I could to learn everything there was to know about the sport.

  She nodded. “He’s like the King of CrossFit. Anyway, the reason I mention him is because they say there’s a coach here that looks a lot like him. Only he’s a cop, not a firefighter. I know you’ll like him.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “You’re going to have to give me another reason,” I told her honestly. “I’m still not totally convinced.”

  “Croft goes to this class.”

  I sighed. “I’ve given up on Croft.”

  And I had. I’d moved on.

  There was only so much a girl could do before she started to look desperate and dumb, and I’d more than surpassed that point with Croft at least three years ago. Yet I kept trying, and the more I tried to get on his radar, the worse he ignored me.

  “You’ve done what?” she asked in surprise. “You can’t give up on him! How are we supposed to be sisters for real if you give up on him?”

  I grimaced as a familiar black sports car rolled up, engine rumbling.

  Croft got out and waved at Raleigh. He didn’t spare me a glance.

  “I don’t think he likes me.” I paused. “Funny, but I don’t think many men like me, and I’m not quite sure why.”

  I was a nice person, at least for the most part. I was nice to men. But I could never get a man to want me. I dressed pretty. I had a semi-nice body that was on the verge of being a little too curvy. My boobs were great, and I had a really great smile. My hair was strawberry blonde, and despite being stick straight, it styled nicely when I found time to curl it.

  But, right then, I was dressed in workout gear that was on the verge of being too tight. My black pants were some of those high-waisted ones that came up over your navel. The shirt that I wore was an old one from high school that had two gun barrels on it and beneath those said ‘Come and Take It.’ I’d cut the sleeves off of it, and it’d been washed so many times that it was no longer a bright red, but more of a soft, faded heather red.

  My shoes were cute, though. At least I had that going for me.

  “They don’t not like you,” Raleigh rolled her eyes. “You’re beautiful, smart, and funny. What’s not to love?”

  “Obviously everything,” I muttered darkly, studying the front door. “Why are all the windows tinted? I feel like I should be able to see what I’m about to walk into.”

  “I have no idea,” she admitted. “But the cross on the door is kind of cool.”

  “The cross on the door looks like an ‘X,’ and it kind of reminds me of ‘X marks the spot’ as in the spot I’m about to die,” I countered.

  She snorted. “Come on,” she pushed. “Please?”

  “Fine,” I paused. “But I want some of your cookies. Tomorrow. Bring them to school.”

  “No!” she said. “If I make cookies, then I’m gonna want to eat them!”

  I narrowed my eyes and gave her the ultimatum.

  “Either bring the cookies, or I’m leaving,” I ordered, lips thinning.

  “I refuse.” She was wavering. I could tell. I wanted to laugh at the indecision I saw in her
eyes. “No.”

  “I’m not doing this then,” I told Raleigh. “I refuse.”

  She’d just opened her mouth, I assumed to give in when an annoyingly patronizing voice called out from behind me.

  “Can’t hack it, Presley?” a condescending voice said from behind me.

  I gritted my teeth and turned, finding Flint standing there staring at me with humor-filled eyes.

  I ran my tongue over my teeth, trying to find something to say that didn’t have ‘fuck’ and ‘you’ put together.

  And goddamn, what the fuck was he wearing?

  Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. At least not to normal people.

  But to me, who found this guy incredibly sexy when his body was covered, it was pure fucking torture to see him so uncovered.

  He had on black athletic shorts that fit him so tight I could make out every curve of protruding muscle—and that included the length of his dick—that was beneath them.

  His shirt was black as well and said CrossFit Gun Barrel on it in large white letters. And although the letters were blindingly white, I couldn’t peel my eyes away from how tight the shirt was on his biceps—which were massive.

  And his arms—no longer covered up by the black sleeves I almost always saw him wearing—showed off an impressive array of tattoos that made my heart thump hard.

  Oh, God. I was such a sucker for tattoos.

  Not that my mother and father would have ever let me have them. So instead of expressing myself with tattoos of my own—because it had never been worth it to listen to my mother bitch for four hours straight about how she went wrong in life when it came to raising me—I admired other peoples’ tattoos from afar.

  Not to mention they kind of made me weak in the knees. Adding his muscular arms, with his popping out veins that drove women wild? Yeah, I was a goner.

  “I’m not an athletic person,” I finally decided on. “I haven’t ever been good at working out.”

  In fact, I was so not good at it that I could barely freakin’ walk, let alone do actual movements with weights.

  “Does that translate to ‘you’re a quitter’?” he suggested.

  I narrowed my eyes. “I’m not a quitter.”

  He huh-ed.

  “Could’ve fooled me.” He shrugged.

  Then he walked away, leaving me standing there with Raleigh.

  “Come on,” she said. “It’ll be okay. I promise.”

  “Raleigh,” Croft called, holding out a bottle of water. “You need this?”

  Raleigh patted me on the back and then hurried to her brother, who was holding a single water bottle. I pursed my lips, trying to decide if I was offended that he hadn’t offered me one, or happy.

  I mean, if I didn’t have water, I couldn’t work out, could I?

  Then a water was tossed at me, and I caught it out of reflex more than skill, causing me to glare at the man that’d done the tossing.

  “Water. Now you’re good to go,” Flint said sarcastically.

  I placed the water on the bench that I happened to be standing next to and sat down to retie my shoes. You could say things were getting serious for me.

  Once I tied my shoes, Raleigh was back and standing next to me while she sipped cautiously from her bottle of water. Her brother stopped at her side and didn’t spare me a glance.

  But that was okay, because for once, my attention wasn’t entirely focused on Croft. It was focused on the asshole currently stripping his shirt off and tossing it next to a set of keys, a wallet, and a phone in the corner.

  I nearly moaned audibly when I saw the tattoos covering the sexy back. Then he turned, and I did moan. Because the back, although beautifully sexy, was nothing compared to the front.

  He had the V. The goddamn V that started just above his waistline and traveled down into the waistband of his knit goddamn shorts.

  He also had an impressive set of abs that made certain parts of my anatomy start to contract with anticipation.

  Oh, God. When he was hot and sweaty later, I was surely going to die of need and want.

  Then he resituated his cock by pressing it with two fingers and doing that little wiggle that men do when their balls are sticking to their legs and started to talk. My eyes were all for that repositioned cock, though. The way it was situated now, it was running down the length of his right thigh, and was even more impressive.

  “All right, everyone come closer and we’ll get started. Since this is a boot camp that’ll introduce you into the world of CrossFit, we’re not going to scare you or anything. Today, we’re going to establish your baseline. This baseline is not ‘easy.’ At least it won’t be to you right now for those of you that are just starting out exercising. I want you to give it your all, though. Because then you’ll see just how much better you are at the end of the six weeks.”

  I reluctantly pulled my eyes away from his cock and let them trail up the length of his body, freezing solid when I finally found his eyes and realized they were on mine.

  He’d caught me staring at his dick.

  Then, the asshole had to smirk and wink at me, causing my embarrassment to extend to a new level.

  Fuck me.

  I licked my lips and looked away, staring at the board behind his back.

  On it was a list of things that we were about to do, and a sense of dread started to roll through my body.

  This was going to be so bad.

  He was about to see me at my worst, and he was hot as hell and so fucking smug that I wanted to throat punch him.

  He clapped his hands and ordered us to find a spot on the ground to start stretching, and I practically crossed the entire length of the room to get away from him.

  Unfortunately, in my haste to get away, I hadn’t realized that I’d gotten close to his pile of clothes and stuff until he’d followed me over there.

  “Are you nervous?” Raleigh whispered, crossing her arm over her chest to stretch it.

  I nodded, trying not to look at the man that was getting closer and closer by the second.

  “So nervous I’m about to throw up,” I whispered back.

  She snorted. “If I don’t look fuck-hot by the time I’m done, I’m leaving a bad review.”

  I snorted. “If you don’t look fuck-hot by the time you’re done, you probably broke your diet and started eating cookies again.”

  I mean, it wasn’t like I could judge her for that seeing as I was just as bad, if not worse than she was. But still.

  “So you’re saying I can’t leave a bad review,” she said.

  “Presley,” Flint drawled. “You ready?”

  I turned to the man I’d been studiously trying to ignore and said, “Of course.”

  His self-deprecating smile made me want to kick him in the shin.

  “Then let’s start the warm-up,” he suggested, waving his hand in a wide, low arc for me to proceed in front of him.

  I did, reluctantly, and stopped when I heard him say so.

  “Everyone gather around, I’m going to demonstrate with Camryn the movements that we’ll start with. Once we know proper form, we’ll begin the test. Sound good?”

  No.

  Plenty of ‘yes, sirs’ followed, and I snorted. Suck ups. They were all suck-ups.

  Flint took me by the shoulders and turned me so that I was facing everyone—as well as his chest.

  “Okay, this is how we’re going to start the first movement,” he began.

  Then he started to educate everyone on the movements we were about to do while placing his hands on my body and showing everyone how not to do it wrong—which fifty percent of the time I was doing.

  When his hand moved to the small of my back to adjust my form on a squat, I nearly moaned aloud.

  Hell, I hadn’t even realized Croft was in the first row helping other people until his ass almost hit me in the face. Luckily, it didn’t, and the only reason it didn’t was because Flint jerked me back into his
body.

  It was at that point that I started to sweat.

  I couldn’t do this.

  Really, I couldn’t.

  Luckily, after showing us what we were about to do, he let us grab a drink of water and to catch a quick restroom break.

  Raleigh came up to my side and stared at me with panic in her eyes. “What did I get myself into?”

  “Presley, go get some water,” I heard from behind me.

  I gritted my teeth and turned, shooting Flint a look that clearly said what I thought of his suggestion.

  His eyes were filled with amusement.

  In an attempt to get his eyes to release mine, I lifted my shirt and wiped at my brow, exposing the length of my belly to him while I was at it.

  His eyes finally dipped as he trailed his gaze down the length of my belly, and I saw a flare of need cross his face for only the briefest of seconds before he was able to bank the emotion.

  But I’d seen it, and I knew that I could get him back for teasing me so annoyingly.

  With it being as hot in the gym as it was, I could easily get away with taking my shirt off.

  Plus, since he took off his shirt, I should be able to take off mine.

  I had a cute belly. It wasn’t super toned, but it wasn’t something that showed rolls until I sat down and hunched forward to eat a taco. Meaning when I took it off, I wasn’t self-conscious in the least.

  The same couldn’t be said for my ass and thighs, but with the fabric that I’d wiggled my way into compressing them so nicely, I didn’t look half bad.

  And, apparently, Flint agreed with me.

  His eyes went electric before he backed away from me and said, “Get water.”

  I turned back to Raleigh, who was staring at her brother across the room. “He’s annoying me.”

  I tugged on her wrist and pulled her to where our waters were sitting side by side and said, “Why?”

  “Because he’s flirting with the girls instead of helping. If he’s not going to help, he doesn’t need to be here,” she explained.

  I snorted. “You don’t want him here because you don’t want him to video how awful you look doing all this shit.”

  Raleigh shrugged. “That, too.”

  I placed my bottle down on the railing above the bench and turned just in time to hear Flint say, “Y’all ready?”