“Fuck.”
“Look, I’m not trying to put you on the spot, which I guess I’ve done, but it doesn’t matter to me whichever way you answer. I’m just trying to figure you out, and you’ve been troubled for a while now. I’m sick of listening to you saying everything is okay, when it clearly isn’t.”
We sit in silence for a few minutes before Lucien speaks, “I’m with Ruben on this. You’re our brother regardless of who you prefer. We’ve always stuck together and that isn’t about to change so spit it out.”
“I’m bi. Fuck!” He leans forward and puts his coffee cup on to the table and rests his arms on his thighs. “I was with Noah up in Canada, and he lived here with me until he up and disappeared. I like women, just prefer…men.” He looks between Lucien and me. “Is this weird?”
I shake my head, answering him, “No. We’ve suspected for a while now, although you threw us when Carla was pretending to be your girlfriend. I’ve also seen you watching Sylvia.” I grin. “You going to do anything about her?”
“I’m not in the position to do anything about her.”
Well now, my morning turned out to be a hell of a lot more informative than I expected, but I could do with something a bit more substantial in my stomach than a muffin. I decide to let my brother off the hook…for now.
With a large plate of food at the diner calling me, I get to my feet, and say, “If you ladies have finished, I’m going out to get something to eat.”
“Ladies my ass,” Lucien grumbles. “I’ll come with you.”
“I could eat… You both won’t say anything to the others will you? I’ll tell them when I’m ready for the folks to know.”
“I’ll stay quiet, but the sooner you tell them the better. They’ll react the same as we did, well, maybe Sebastian will act like he’s five, but Michael and the folks will be fine.”
“I suspect Sebastian may know.” Ramon shrugs. “Carla does so she may have told him, but I don’t know for sure.”
Lucien laughs. “If he knew you can bet he’d have let you know.”
Ramon nods as Lucien and I follow him out from my apartment and downstairs to the club, where I see Simon entering his office. I need to talk to him, and hope I can trust him with what I’m about to tell him.
I thump my brothers on their backs, and tell them, “I’ll meet you at the diner. I’m going to have a word with Simon about what we discussed.”
“See you there.” Lucien walks out the rear door.
“Thanks Ruben,” Ramon looks relieved as he turns to follow Lucien out through the door.
With a sigh of relief, I walk toward Simon’s office to tell him what I’ve discovered about the club. The doubt from earlier creeps up and I realize that I should try to gauge his reaction. This is shit—suspecting people who I trust to run Kenza. But this shit is going to stop, and soon.
Chapter 8 ~ Rosie
“Hey Rosie, how are you doing?” Hunter asks me, taking a seat at the bar that I always seem to be wiping down whenever he arrives.
“I’m good.” I place a longneck in front of him and lean on the bar. “What’s going on Hunter? Do you know who is causing the trouble here?”
Taking a long swallow, he holds my gaze. Keeping his drink in one hand, he leans closer to me and I fight the urge to move away from him. He’s crowding my space, but I refuse to back up. “You’re cute and Ruben’s a dick for letting you go.”
I wasn’t expecting that, and counter with, “Ruben has never had me to let go of. Now, you were saying?”
He laughs. “I wasn’t saying anything.”
“You were about to tell me what the fuck is going on inside Kenza,” I offer him my best smile, which I’ve been told can turn heads, “and I was about to listen.”
Narrowing his eyes he leans even closer to me. “You get any closer you’re going to face plant in my lap—not that I’d complain, but I think your boyfriend might have something to say about it.”
“Hmmm. You’re an ass, and you’re trying to distract me so I forget my original question, which I haven’t in case you’re wondering.”
Hunter’s eyes stay on me the whole time I’m serving a couple of other customers. He doesn’t bother me because I know he isn’t really interested in me. He has the whole flirt from a distance thing going on, which is perfectly fine with me considering my hang up with my boss.
Moving to the front of the bar, I collect a couple of empties that have been left lying around when I spot Ruben across the room glaring daggers at me. Well, what the fuck’s pissed him off, and why is he looking toward me like that?
He’s the one who likes all that stuff that I’m not into, plus he’s been ignoring me since our embrace or whatever you want to call it at the bottom of the stairs.