“You make it mighty hard to leave, Raelyn.”
Good. He made it mighty hard for me to not want to be around him. My attraction and dependency to a man I knew only days was slightly scary. If I was already feeling that I didn’t want him to leave now, I could only imagine what a few weeks of knowing each other was going to be like. “Then don’t leave,” I whispered.
He squeezed me tight and sighed. “I’ll touch base with you tomorrow, okay?”
Huh. That didn’t sound promising at all for him to stay. “Or you could just stay the night and then you could just touch base with me when we wake up.”
“So fucking tempting.” He pressed a kiss to the side of my head and stepped back. He dropped his arms, and I instantly felt cold.
How? How in the hell was he doing this to me? He said it was hard for him to leave, but it didn’t really seem that he was struggling with it that much.
“Sleep sweet, pretty girl.” He gave me one last longing look and then turned down the path back to his bike.
I watched his retreating form and held back the urge to run to him or call out his name. I had told him to stay. He knew I was catching feelings for him.
Maybe that was why he was going.
He wanted to stay the night but he didn’t want my feelings that went along with him staying.
The more Playboy was around, the more I was getting attached to him.
I could tell he had heartache written all over him, but I couldn’t seem to run away from him. I couldn’t step back and act like I wasn’t feeling anything.
His bike roared to life, but I didn’t move. I didn’t go into the house.
I watched his headlight bounce across my car and then turn as he backed his bike up.
I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth. Never had I wanted something more in my life.
Playboy revved his engine, and then, he rocketed out of my driveway.
His words echoed in my head as I opened the door and dropped my purse on the floor. There was no way I was going to sleep sweet if Playboy wasn’t with me.
*
Chapter Nine
Playboy
Body snatchers…
We forgot to call Barracuda about Leona.
I had been hoping I could try to clear my head, but Raelyn’s message was there when I pulled my phone out after I got back to the clubhouse.
Barracuda sat at the bar with a drink in his hand and a frozen pizza in front of him.
“You might want to cook that,” I advised.
He flipped me off. “I was working on it.” He grabbed his pocketknife and sliced the plastic off.
“Leona get home okay?”
Barracuda shrugged. “I’ll let you know.”
“Uh, what?” I asked.
Barracuda grabbed the frozen pizza and moved around to the other side of the bar. “She was rambling on about having pizza.” He opened the pizza oven and slid the pizza in.
“So, you brought her back here for pizza?”
Barracuda nodded. “Yeah.”
I wasn’t normally one to question Barracuda seeing as he was the prez, but it seemed a little out of the norm for him to not only give Leona a ride home, but to detour to the clubhouse seemed crazy. “Are you feeling okay?”
He slammed the pizza oven shut and grabbed his drink. “Never better.”
I sat at the bar and set down my phone. “Raelyn asked me to check to make sure Leona made it home.”
Barracuda sipped his drink. “And?”
“And what the hell am I supposed to tell her?”
He shrugged. “Whatever the fuck you want to, brother. I’m not worried about Raelyn. That’s your deal.”
That didn’t help me whatsoever. All good. Barracuda took care of her. Not exactly a lie. He was taking care of her, it just wasn’t at her house.
Okay. Thanks. I had fun tonight. Getting tipsy at a strip club was fun? Maybe Raelyn fit into the club scene better than I thought.
Me too, pretty girl.
“You wanna tell me what the hell is going on with her or is that none of my business?”
I shrugged. “Not much to tell.”
“See, that’s where I think you are wrong. I think there is a whole hell of a lot going on seeing as I haven’t seen you in this club with a chick since last Friday.”
“Raelyn was here Saturday,” I pointed out.
“You know what the fuck I’m talking about,” Barracuda growled. “Are you getting hooked on this chick?”
Was I? It sure as hell felt like it, but it was too fucking early to know anything. I wanted to stay with her tonight. Hell, I wanted to fuck her ‘til the sun came up and sleep all day with her. That was what I really fucking wanted to do.
But here I was sitting at the clubhouse talking with Barracuda.
“Hard to say.”
“What are you, a fucking Magic Eight Ball? Are you bedding the chick or not?”
Barracuda seemed pretty interested in where my dick was. “Bedding her? No. Spending time with her and helping her find her sister? Yeah. That’s what I’m doing.”
“Fucking body snatchers up in this bitch then. You’re staying with one chick and I’m nursing a drunk girl in my room.” Barracuda grabbed a bottle of whiskey and filled his glass to the brim.
“From the lack of soda in your drink, it looks like you’re trying to figure shit out, too.”
He shook his head. “You don’t even know half of it, brother.”
“Club shit or women shit?”
Barracuda shook his head. “Just shit.” He took a long drink from his glass and winced at the burn going down his throat. “I finish this and I won’t be thinking about it anymore.”
I grabbed my phone and shoved it in my pocket. “Well, you know where to find me if you want to talk.”
Barracuda nodded, and I headed to my room.
I wasn’t one to be in my room before ten thirty unless it was to do some fucking, but ever since I met Raelyn, I was in my room before midnight and alone.
I’d known the chick for three days, and I was already becoming pussy whipped.
I laughed, and the sound echoed in my room. The hell of it was…I wasn’t even getting any pussy.
*
Ten
Raelyn
Slightly stalker-ish…
“I’m not gonna be in today.”
I filled my coffee cup and tried not to laugh. “Not feeling good?” I asked into the phone.
Leona groaned. “You know damn well why the hell I’m not coming in. I don’t even know what I was drinking last night, but I know I will never ever drink it again.”
A low voice rumbled in the background. My jaw dropped, and I gripped the handle of my coffee cup so I didn’t drop it. “Who is that?” I demanded.
“Oh, uh. I gotta go.” The line went dead, and I stood there staring at the coffee maker and realized Leona had spent the night with Barracuda. Well, at least, I figured it had been Barracuda. No way in hell she would have been able to find another guy after Barracuda dropped her off.
Playboy had texted me last night that Barracuda had taken care of Leona, but I guess I didn’t read between the lines.
Hell. I had asked Playboy to spend the night and he hadn’t.
Leona got real tipsy and wound up in bed with Barracuda. I guess her dry spell was over.
My phone rang, and Playboy’s name flashed across the screen.
“Hello?”
“Hello, pretty girl.”
I would never get tired of Playboy calling me that. Never. “I didn’t expect to hear from you this early.” I carried my coffee cup over to my desk and sat down. With Leona not coming in today, I had more work to do, but I had a couple of minutes I could spare to talk to Playboy.
“Perks of going to bed before midnight. I’m up before the fucking sun.”
I laughed and powered on my computer. “Careful. You don’t want to ruin your reputation. Nobody cool is ever up before the sun.”
�
�You got jokes and sass this morning, pretty girl.”
I watched the progress bar on my computer fill with color. “Perks of being awake before the sun,” I parroted.
“Got plans for lunch?”
Hmm. This was totally unexpected. Once I had gotten in the house last night and changed into my pajamas, I had convinced myself that Playboy wasn’t interested in me after all and he only kissed me last night because he felt sorry for me. In the daylight, perhaps that wasn’t true. “Well, seeing as my co-worker drank herself silly last night and won’t be in today, I gotta stay in the office so I’ll order something.”
“Stay in the office but don’t order anything. I’ll be over in your area around lunch.”
My computer screen flashed, and the home screen appeared. I needed to focus on something other than the fact that Playboy was coming over for lunch. “You know where I work?”
“Yeah.”
Hmm. I shouldn’t be surprised by that. The Royal Bastards seemed to know everything. “Slightly stalker-ish.”
“I know a lot about the things I take interest in,” he replied.
“Is that so?” I countered.
“Get to work, pretty girl. I’ll see you in a few hours.” The line disconnected, and I was left alone in my office.
I dropped my phone on the desk and let out a scream. I was on the freaking roller coaster of emotions, and I was at the top of the hill. My heart was in my throat, and I didn’t know what was going to happen next.
Whose life was I living? I prayed to God whoever’s it was that they didn’t want it back because I liked having Playboy around. My mind quickly snapped to reminding me Billie Jean was still missing.
And down the hill I went. My heart dropped, and a wave of worry washed over me. It had been a week since I had heard from her, and all we knew now was she had left with a strange guy. I hated that there wasn’t anything for me to do. I didn’t have a magic button that would bring Billie Jean back.
I still had the feeling she was alive. Whoever had taken her wasn’t hurting her. At least, not yet. I held onto that feeling. It was my life raft, and I clung to it.
I grabbed a file I needed to start working on and knew I needed to focus on work or I would sit at my desk all day just worrying about Billie Jean.
There was four-ish more hours until Playboy showed up, and he could help distract me from worrying myself crazy over Billie Jean. Until then, I was going to bury myself in work and just tell myself everything was going to be okay.
It had to be.
*
Chapter Ten
Playboy
Afternoon delight…
I held my phone to my ear and wondered what the hell Sledge was calling me for. “Yo.”
“Brother,” he called.
I leaned against the bar. “Long time no talk, man. What the hell are you up to?” I asked.
Sledge and I had run in the same circles back when we were younger. He had called me a month or so ago asking about the Devil’s Rebels and mentioned his new club was in a bit of hot water with them.
“Got a bit of a problem.”
“More than the one you told me about before?”
Sledge groaned. “Same one, but it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.”
“Oh, come on. I thought you guys were the Kings of Vengeance for a reason,” I laughed.
“Yeah, we do vengeance pretty good around here, but we’re coming up against some shit bigger than us.”
The Devil’s Rebels were bigger than most MCs. “What do you need from us?” I put the phone on speaker and laid it on the bar. Barracuda was sitting next to me, and it would be easier for him to hear whatever Sledge had to say straight from him. “You’re on speaker and ‘cuda can hear ya.”
“Well, shit,” Sledge grunted. “Let me grab Quinn. Might as well just have the two big dogs talking to each other.”
There was some static and grumbling and then it cleared. “‘Cuda,” Quinn grunted into the phone.
“You got him,” Barracuda replied.
“How are things going in Sacramento?” Quinn asked.
“Some shit happening, but nothing we can’t handle. What do you having going on there? Seemed like you guys were handling your business pretty good the last time we talked,” Barracuda grunted.
“Well, the thing of it is, when the Rolling Devils blew up, we sort of pissed off the Devil’s Rebels more than we thought.”
Oh. Shit. That was a club Royal Bastards tried to steer clear of.
“How so?” Barracuda asked.
“They got into the clubhouse and managed to kill one of the girl’s cats. Now we have a demand for thirty grand or the deal they originally had with the Rolling Devils.”
“And what was that?” I asked.
Quinn sighed, defeated. “Five girls initially and then three every month after.”
I whistled low. Damn. That was a lot of money and trafficking humans was something no one should fuck with. Trafficking was a league only the scum tread in. “So, you give them thirty grand in hundreds?” I asked.
Barracuda chuckled.
“Well, we’d more than love to pay them the thirty, but we don’t have it and the money tree we planted in the backyard isn’t producing yet,” Quinn grunted.
“So, tell me what you need, and I’ll see what I can do to make shit happen for you.” Barracuda paused. “It’s gonna cost you, though.”
“Never doubted that it would.”
Barracuda pulled out his phone. “Let me set up a meeting with the Devils this coming week and see what I can work out.”
“The sooner the better, but if it’s gonna take a week, we get it.”
“One of their head guys has a thing for one of the girls at the club. I’ll get in touch with him today and get the ball rolling.” Barracuda lowered his voice. “I can’t promise you anything though, Quinn. I’m willing to try and help you, but we’re not going to put our necks on the line to save you.”
“Totally understand, Barracuda. We appreciate you just getting us in touch with them if that’s all. Right now, we’re at their mercy with this shitty burner phone they left after they broke in.”
“Will do. Give us a bit of time, though. We’re dealing with some shit right now.”
“You got it, man,” Quinn called. “We’ll be waiting for your call.”
I ended the call and tucked my phone in my back pocket.
“Are we really able to help them?” Sledge and I went way back, and he was a good guy. I didn’t want to leave him hanging when we could help him out.
“I’d rather not, but we can put it to a vote, and I’ll set up a meet with them before. If you guys are willing to put your necks on the line then I can’t say no.”
I didn’t know if the other guys would want to help. “When are you calling church?”
Barracuda smirked. “I’ll give ya a couple of days to try and convince some of the guys to get on your side.”
I knew I wouldn’t be able to convince all of the guys to help, but if I got the majority on my side then we would.
I glanced at the clock and saw it was getting close to noon.
“Where are you headed?” Barracuda asked.
I pulled my keys out of my pocket. “Got plans for lunch.”
“Raelyn?”
“Yeah. How did things go with Leona last night?”
Barracuda shrugged. “About as well as you can expect with a drunk chick and a frozen pizza.”
“Gotta say that’s one scenario I’ve never been in before.”
He held his glass up to me and smiled. “Maybe you should try it sometime, then.”
Barracuda headed back to his room, and I walked to my bike. I had no clue what to get for lunch, but I needed to figure it out now.
I passed a Chinese place on the way to Raelyn’s office and stopped to pick up two lunch specials. I had no idea what kind of food Raelyn liked, but I knew she wasn’t picky. She tended to go with the flow.
I park
ed in front of her office and grabbed the food from my saddlebags.
The front door swung open, and Raelyn held it for me. “You’re pretty punctual,” she laughed.
I slipped in through the door but not without a swift kiss to her lips. “I said lunch and it’s lunchtime, pretty girl.”
She sighed lightly, and her cheeks flushed pink. “I like a man who keeps his word.”
I stepped into the office and pushed my sunglasses on top of my head. “Small place,” I murmured.
Raelyn laughed. “Yeah, it’s cozy.” She tipped her head toward the back of the office. “Follow me. I don’t want you to get lost.”
I followed her to her desk and set the bag of food down. “Thank God you didn’t lose me. Things got confusing when we passed the coffee machine.”
Raelyn laughed and moved a stack of papers to the side of her desk. “I see you’re the smartass one now.” She grabbed the bag and pulled everything out.
I sat in the chair opposite her and watched. “That's okay for lunch?”
Raelyn dropped the empty bag on the floor. “More than okay seeing as I didn’t have to decide what to order.”
“Guess I’ll need to bring you lunch more often then.” I looked around the office. “It’s only you here?”
She nodded and handed me a plastic fork. “For today. Normally Leona is here with me.”
I grabbed a container and snapped off the lid. “Is it really safe for you to be the only one here?”
She rolled her eyes. “Nothing is going to happen to me because no one ever really comes here besides my bosses. Who, by the way, I haven’t seen in three weeks. They tend to stay on the job site while Leona and I handle all of the boring contracts and paperwork.”
The phone on the desk rang, and she picked it up.
I had never had a real nine-to-five job before, and I sat back to watch Raelyn in her element. She listened for a second and then turned to her computer. She started talking about floating decks and the price of using real wood and some fake shit that she swore looked just like real wood.
I was halfway done with my food before she finally got off the phone after telling the person on the other end of the phone that they wouldn't regret going with the fake shit.
Playboy (Royal Bastards MC: Sacramento, CA) Page 7
