“I pulled the CCTV tapes from the night Jimmy attacked you and stopped by to check the positioning of the cameras at the bus stop. Thirsty work staring at hidden cameras, so I thought I’d come in for a quick drink before I went home.”
Arianne pulled his beer and Dawn chatted with him every time she hit the bar with a new order. He seemed in no hurry to get home and was content to talk in abruptly interrupted snippets, with Arianne pulling up the slack when Dawn was serving tables.
“He seems quite decent for a cop,” Arianne whispered as she loaded Dawn’s tray. “A bit straitlaced for me, but nice.”
“He is nice.” Dawn shuffled the glasses around to balance them out. “Too nice. I’d probably taint him forever if I told him my whole life story. But he can also be very intense. Sometimes he gets fixated on a case and he can’t let go. He told me all about it over coffee one afternoon. He hinted that it had something to do with one of his sisters.”
Arianne loaded Dawn’s empties in the dishwasher. “Where’s he from? He doesn’t sound local.”
“Chicago. He wouldn’t tell me why he moved out here, but he doesn’t have any family or ties to the town.” Dawn gave her a grin. “Maybe he’s running from something. I think he has dark secrets. The quiet ones always do.” She lifted the tray, freezing when Arianne hissed in a warning breath.
But she didn’t need a warning. She knew Cade was here, felt his eyes burning into her skin, had sensed him the moment he walked through the door.
“Where is he?”
“How did you…?” Arianne cut herself off with a grin. “Sort of like I did the first time Jagger came to see me.” She looked over Dawn’s shoulder. “He’s heading to the back. Section four. Not sure why because all the tables are taken.” She snorted a laugh. “And suddenly there’s a table free. Your customers from table sixteen have been relocated to section five with only minor injuries. I guess he enjoyed your sordid activities at Big Bill’s bike shop.”
“I shouldn’t have told you. And it’s not serious. It was just … sex.” Turning slowly, Dawn spotted Cade at the back of the bar, sitting in the corner in an I’m-so-dominant-I-need-the-space-of-three-men pose, his legs spread wide and his elbows resting on the arms of the chair. God, he was gorgeous.
“I’m surprised to see him.” Arianne pulled a bottle of bourbon from the shelf. “Last I heard, he and Gunner were at Peelers Strip Club with some of the brothers for a hot night watching Dancing Delilah and the other strippers. They were celebrating some secret thing that happened a few days ago that I’m not supposed to know involves fifty thousand dollars’ worth of stolen guns, five injured Jacks, and one angry Mafia boss.”
“Seriously? And now he’s here?” Dawn turned and Cade beckoned her to him with a waggle of his finger. “Oh. My. God. Does he think I’m going over there after he’s spent the evening with a woman in his lap? The strippers were the warm-up and I’m the booty call?”
“From the way he’s looking at you,” Arianne said, “that would be a yes. And I have a feeling that if you don’t go over, he’s going to pounce. But, like you said, it’s not serious, so why do you care?”
“I don’t.”
Arianne gave her sly grin. “Maybe you should kiss your cop friend. See how not-serious Cade thinks things are between you. Because I’ll tell you one thing I’ve learned during my time at the club: The Sinners are a possessive bunch. Once they claim you, there is no going back.”
After enduring all the posturing at the police station, Dawn could just imagine what would happen if she kissed Doug. But she didn’t want Doug to get the wrong idea, or for Cade to wind up in jail. “Maybe I’ll just ignore him instead. I’m not going over there to be someone’s sloppy seconds.”
Arianne poured a shot of bourbon and placed it on Dawn’s tray. “He’s watching you like a predator about to pounce. If you don’t go over there, he’s gonna hunt you down, and I don’t think he’ll care who gets in his way. Maybe you should spare Banks the bloodshed.”
Dawn unbuttoned the top two buttons on her shirt and pulled the ponytail holder from her hair. “How about this? He wants a hot night; I’ll give him a hot night. But it will be look and don’t touch.”
“I can hardly wait.” Arianne laughed. “Cade’s never been with a woman who pushed back. He’s always the one running the show.”
Dawn lifted the tray and wove her way through the tables, flirting and joking with her other customers as she steeled herself for a professional but distant conversation with the man who made her blood hot and her heart cold. By the time she reached Cade’s table his lazy smile had disappeared beneath a mask of disapproval.
“You look like you need a drink.” She handed him the last glass on her tray.
His fingers brushed over hers as he took the glass. A zing of electricity shot through her body and she stifled a gasp.
“What the fuck was that?”