“What did Holly do?” I ask Cheyenne. Holly’s mouth opens, and I put my finger in the air to silence her. I’ll hear from her in a minute. I want to hear from Cheyenne right now.
“She ran outside and told the guy to leave,” Chey says with her eyes sliding over to Holly. I take my eyes off my daughter and scan the parking lot. My brothers are all standing around and listening. They’re smoking and keeping an eye on the open clubhouse gates. I catch Wyatt’s gaze and nod toward Chey. He’s at her side in a minute, leading her inside for a soda and to chill out. Once she’s out of earshot, I look to Holly and signal her to follow me as I walk into the clubhouse. She follows close behind as we walk through the main room and down the hallway, and practically bumps into me when I pause at the door to my room. I doubt she’ll talk openly in front of the club, but maybe if I get her alone I can get a few things out of her besides insults.
I open the door and let her in first. She walks in cautiously, her eyes everywhere but on me. She’s different from how she normally is around me—mean and bitter. Right now, she’s quiet and compliant. It’s good to know she’s not a raging nut case all the time— not that the raging nut case doesn’t get my dick hard. She starts going off and gets me torqued up and acting irrational and shit, and that’s good for no one. I haven’t met anyone who could piss me off as bad as Holly Mercer can, and that’s saying something considering the assholes I share a patch with. Every time we’re in the same space shit gets explosive. We’re all trying to keep a low profile on behalf of the club right now.
As it is, I’ve got Detective Gonzales all over my ass to come down to the station to answer a few questions about the recent assault on a local named Darren Jennings. Apparently someone saw a van that looks similar to one the club owns in the neighborhood the night Jennings’s body was dumped in his dad’s driveway. As if we don’t have enough shit to deal with, now we get to deal with the cops crawling up our asses because Duke had to be a prick. Not that Darren didn’t deserve what he got.
“Ruby told you to stay put,” I say. It’s the first thing that comes to mind. Not the most important thing to be focusing on, but I want to know what the fuck she was thinking when she drove my kid through town while one of Mancuso’s men is here. And at Chey’s fuckin’ school no less.
“That was terrifying,” she says as she folds her arms over her chest. She’s seething mad. Her eyes are narrowed, and everything her gaze lands on receives a dirty fucking look if I’ve ever seen one. That natural pretty shines through even her pissed face. She sucks in deep breaths that go in steady and blow out unsteadily. My eyes catch sight of her chest rising and falling and I’m back to thinking about bending her over shit.
“I don’t even know what that was about, but I never want to be sucked into your club’s crap like that again.”
Now I’m glad I brought her in here. I can deal with a little sass behind a closed door, but in front of my brothers? We’d have a real big problem. I should consider it a problem even in here without any witnesses, but there’s something about this woman that just makes me not give a shit that she’s throwing me attitude. I haven’t had anything new in a while and might as well see what I can do. I haven’t been fucked proper in a while and even an uptight bitch with a smart mouth and a nice ass has me forgiving shit I shouldn’t. Going soft is one of the reasons Ruby wants us all settled at home. You don’t got a steady woman, you go soft on all of them, she says. I guess she’s right.
Women like Holly are nothing but trouble, and trouble is the last fucking thing I need. Still, she’s hot and fiery and God help me, but I like it. Still, I’m chalking up my interest in her to a temporary bout of insanity. I was all emotion last week, but as much as I enjoyed having my hands all over her like that, I really shouldn’t entertain the idea of letting this shit spiral out any further than it already has. I lock my shit down and focus in on what I need to take care of for right now.
“Tell me what happened,” I say and lean against the door. She paces for a moment with her thumb in her mouth. She bites down hard enough to wince and then pulls it out. When she swings around, her eyes are wild and her hands shake at her sides.
“I don’t even know,” she says. “I was at my desk. Cheyenne came running in saying there was a weird man at her car who had a message for you.” Her words come out quickly, but the last one has a bit more punch than the rest. Yeah, she’s real unhappy with me right now. “I went outside and told him he couldn’t be on campus, and I told him to leave Cheyenne alone. He didn’t like that much, and he told me that Mr. Man—Mancini, I think—his business partners are here and they need to meet with you.”