“Shit,” he hisses as I slide back down from the bar. Twisting the cap off, I toss it toward him. “Glass of ice, or do you need permission to give that to me too?” I ask, arching a brow.
He shakes his head, his lips twitching with a smile as he grabs a tumbler and fills it half full of ice. Sliding it across the bar, I grab it quickly, lifting it as my thanks and walk over to an empty table with two chairs.
Setting the glass down, I sit down then pour the glass to the top with clear liquid. Closing my eyes, I lift the glass to my lips and slowly take a drink. I sigh as the liquid burns my throat until it settles warm in my stomach.
“So, you’re back,” a feminine voice announces.
Opening my eyes, I’m surprised to see Whitley sitting in the chair across from me. She looks almost the exact same as she did six years ago. Almost. She now looks a little more tired than she did, probably because according to my mom, she and Free can’t seem to keep from making babies every year.
“For now,” I agree, lifting my glass to take another healthy drink.
Whitley and I were close for a while, she helped my mom with her daycare and was in and out of my childhood home every single day until I went away to boarding school. Once, I considered us friends, though judging by the way her eyes are narrowed, those days are long gone.
“You’ve hurt your mother, Skinner, the rest of this club. I assume you’re here because you’ve finally got yourself in trouble again that you can’t get out of without help.”
Her tone is cool, cold almost, but I know deep down she’s one of the most caring people in the world. She’s angry with me, though and I can’t really blame her. I could have been back here several years ago. I could have come home. I could have never left.
“I know that I have. And yes, I’m in trouble, but I think it’s bigger than even I realize,” I admit with a shrug and another healthy drink of vodka.
Whitley sighs, her eyes searching my face, then she shakes her head once. “Your mom is on her way down here. I just… don’t hurt this club again. You’re young and you’re allowed to make mistakes, but try not to do it at the expense of everyone else around you. You’re an adult now, it’s time to grow up,” she states.
I don’t respond to her words. She grew up too quickly, I know her story. My mom did too, so did every single person involved with this club. She doesn’t realize that I’m much like the rest of them.
I grew up overnight, I’ve just been fighting myself for the past nine years. I didn’t want to grow up, not then. I tried so hard to hold onto my childhood, but Fish ruined it—ruined me.
All I want to do is be free, something that I never will be. The ache in my shoulder and my pussy are vivid reminders that freedom is an illusion of the past.
There is no more running, not ever again. This is the life that I’ve always dreamed of and even if the reality isn’t exactly what I’d imagined, I’m staying right here. Baby is right, this is my home and where I belong. Here and by his side. This is how our lives were always meant to be.
BABY
Snake’s brows furrow as he stares at me from across the table. I feel like I’m on trial here. Skinner isn’t here, thank fuck, but the way that Snake, Free, and Crooner are staring at me, I know without a doubt that they are judging the fuck out of me and probably pissed as shit.
“We’re not going to even discuss the brand you put on Lea. That’s between you and Skinner now. I will say, that he’s going to lose his shit and I won’t stop him if he decides to beat the fuck out of you,” Snake announces.
Ignoring his words, I decide to ask him about the Martel family. I know that he must have more information on Chardonnay at least.
“Give me what you have on the bitch that’s been in my bed for over a year,” I grind out.
Free chuckles. “Avoidance is not going to save your ass, but I’ll give you something.”
The door opens and Keys walks inside of the room, looking like he hasn’t slept in a fucking week, which he probably hasn’t. When he hacks, he locks himself away and lives on caffeine for days while he digs and searches, no sleeping and no eating until the job is done.
“I have some interesting spider webs happening here,” he announces as he sits down at the table, his laptop in hand.
“Chardonnay is a Martel,” he explains. “She’s not just a Martel though, she’s the Martel,” he mutters.
“I don’t even know what that means,” I point out.
He chuckles. “Yeah, didn’t think you would. Let’s just say the bitch is the one in charge. Phillippe that is posing to be her father and our beloved senator is actually her brother. He’s only thirty-five years old and buys gray hair dye and bleach once a month to keep up appearances.”
“Fuck,” I hiss. “How did we miss this? How did you miss this?” I demand, looking to Keys.
“Hey,” he calls out, lifting his hands in a surrender motion. “I was told to look into Phillippe and I did. He came back clean as a whistle, still does. I was never told to look into the rest of the bunch. Everyone just took Chardonnay at her word as his daughter.”
“How old is the bitch, anyway?” I demand.
“Twenty-five,” he mutters.
“Well, at least she didn’t lie about her age,” I sigh.
“She and Phillippe are only half-siblings. His mother died when Senior was just starting his lucrative business. She was actually purchased and kept by him.”
“Purchased?” I ask.
“Kingpin human trafficker, which is why they need dope and gun shipments. They want large crates to move with girls. Guns and dope are only a cover.”
Snake stands, his hands slamming down on the table and a growl erupting through his throat that if I didn’t know the man, would make me shit my pants. However, I know the man, so I just shift my gaze from Keys to him.
“How did this get by all of us?” he growls.
“The senator doesn’t deal in it. He just clears a free and easy trade route for the father. I never looked into the father, no need to,” Keys logically explains.
“I want this family in front of me, on their fucking knees, all of them,” Snake barks.
Keys chuckles, shaking his head a couple of times. “Phillippe Martel, Senior makes the Aryans and their whole fucked up group look like chickens with their heads cut off. He is organized, to the point of anal.
“His security is more than some cameras on a compound. The man has trained soldiers, there is no way to simply bring them in and take care of them. Not to mention the son has the security of our federal government surrounding him and at his disposal.”
Snake clenches his jaw, a muscle ticking in his cheek. “We were played, I was played,” I mutter.
“And if your bitch finds out about your new woman, she’s going to lose her goddamn shit.”
“Chardonnay Martel is known for being a hothead. She rules that family. She is the only woman there and the bitch craves power. Trust me when I say that she won’t be mad because Baby doesn’t want her, she’ll just be pissed that she isn’t in charge,” Keys explains.
“I know,” I agree.
Chardonnay is a bitch, but she’s not a dumb bitch and she wants control, even if she doesn’t care if I stick my dick elsewhere, she cares about being an Old Lady, about having some kind of control over what the club does and how they do it, which is why she wanted a position inside of it. She wants to have full reign on her daddy’s skin trade.
“She knew we didn’t deal with skin, she did this to prove a point. That we would, for her, because of her. That she’d have us by the balls and she would be the big bitch in charge.”
I take in a deep breath, then I admit something that I thought I wouldn’t even have to. Admitting it aloud makes me feel worthless and weak as fuck.
“Lea’s life is in danger, not just because of Chardonnay, but Martel Senior has met her, he wants her.”
Snake makes a noise in the back of his throat. Crooner looks down in his lap, Free
growls, but Keys stares at me, his eyes clouding with a darkness that I didn’t think the man possessed.
“Nobody touches Lea. Not like that, and not a man like him,” he states, slamming his laptop closed.
“What do I do? What do we do?” I ask.
Snake closes his eyes for a beat, then reopens them and I see that fire burning bright in them, that fire that makes him the president that he is. That ‘no fucks given, burning down an entire fucking compound of racist fuckers’ look.
“If I know her, she won’t take to going into a safe house,” I point out, finishing my thoughts before he speaks.
“She stays here, under our protection. My stance is still in place, Baby. You don’t fuck her where your bitch can find out. She doesn’t need to be in any more danger than she already is. You need to keep Chardonnay in the dark, docile.”
“That may be difficult,” I grunt.
“Yeah?”
“I killed her little brother,” I admit with a shrug.
“She doesn’t know it was you. Talked to our man there, he moved the body to a whorehouse, a place Carter visited the night before, made it look like a robbery,” Keys explains. “Read the newspaper article about it just this morning.”
“Think the dad will buy it?” I ask. “But what happens when Lea is nowhere to be found?”
Snake grunts, lifting his hand and running his fingers through his hair. “I’ll deal with it. I’ll call him, finish setting up that meet that Lea was supposed to handle. We’ll meet in one week, on neutral ground,” he explains. “You and Chardonnay will be in attendance, and you’ll look like a happy goddamn couple, so whatever you have to do to make that shit happen, you better handle it,” he says, lifting his finger to point at me.
“Fuck,” I growl.
“Yeah, you’ll have to do that, the bitch loves your dick,” Crooner chuckles.
“Shut the fuck up,” I bark.
The last thing I want to do is betray Lea, but I’ll also do whatever it takes to keep her safe and alive. I’m positive she’ll think of me as a fucking bastard and hate me, but I’ll get her back to me.
When this is all said and done, she’ll still be at my side because she’s mine and that’s where she’s meant to be, even if that means she hates my fucking guts for a while.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
LEA
The door to church opens and I’m not surprised to see Baby as the first man who walks out. His eyes scan the room and land on me. Taking another drink from my vodka glass, I watch as his gaze hardens and then his jaw tightens.
Lifting a brow, I wait for him to walk over to me, to put me in my place or some such bullshit, but he doesn’t. Instead, he walks over to the bar and lifts his hand, signaling for a drink.
Knitting my brows together, I watch his back, wondering just what is going to happen. I’m sure he’s pissed at me, but to be ignored? I didn’t do anything that bad, I just defied his order to stay in my bedroom.
“Shit will happen, it’ll go down and you will get caught in the crosshairs. How you react, how you cope during and after, that is what will make you different from the others. He’s already marked you, so there’s nowhere for you to go until he says otherwise, but know, there is so much more to what is about to happen. Not everything is as it seems,” Snake announces from next to me.
Tilting my head, I look up at him. I’m a little drunk, a little too drunk. There are two of him staring down at me and I’m not sure which one I’m supposed to respond to, so I shift my gaze from him back onto Baby.
“That sounds really fucked up, Snake,” I mutter.
“It’ll feel really fucked up for a while, babe,” he agrees. “Just remember, this is the life you chose. If you didn’t want that ink, you wouldn’t have got it. You knew exactly what it meant the second the needle touched your skin.”
“I did,” I agree with a nod.
“You’ll regret it, at least for a while,” he says ominously.
If the way my gut churns is anything to go by, Snake is not wrong. I will probably regret this. Calling Baby, sleeping with him, being marked, and then finally, coming back here with him. Something has shifted in just the moments he was in church until now. I can practically taste it in the air.
Snake doesn’t say anything else as Baby approaches. Instead, he walks away to leave the two of us alone.
“How is this shit going to work out if you don’t follow even the simplest of directions?” Baby asks, tipping his bottle of beer and taking a healthy pull. I watch as his throat works the liquid down, my thighs clenching at the sexy sight.
“Did I ever say I was the girl that was going to shut up and listen?” I ask.
His eyes shift to the side, then back to me. “You will if you know what’s good for you, Lea. This life can be dangerous, and fuck, it’s about to be just that. You need to listen to me to survive.”
Standing, I grab ahold of the back of the chair to keep from swaying as I tip my head back and look up into his pretty blue eyes.
“I’ll listen to the important things. Hiding up in that room when I can be down here and I’m still in the building, that’s something I’m not going to do. I know that I’m safe in these walls. I’m not hiding up there like your dirty little secret, which is exactly what you want me to do, isn’t it?” I ask, arching a brow as my lips turn up into a smirk.
Baby doesn’t say a word, as quick as lightning, his hand shoots out and his fingers wrap around the front of my neck. He tugs me against his chest by my throat, my feet not resisting even a millisecond by the move.
Dipping his chin, I feel his lips crash against mine in a bruising, claiming, kiss. “You’ll listen to me, Lea, or I’ll have to make you listen. Trust me, Tiny, you do not want me to make you do anything,” he warns.
My thighs shake, my knees almost give out from his husky warning. Placing my palms on his chest, I press a bit closer to him.
“Mitchell,” I whisper.
His eyes widen, I watch as his nostrils flare and then he lets out a grunt before he takes a step back from me. It’s a move that I don’t expect. He looks to the side. I follow his gaze and notice that Snake is watching intently, too intently. He dips his chin just as Baby lifts his own in an unspoken message between them.
“I got shit to do, babe. Call your mom and Skinner, let them know you’re here so they can get you some clothes and shit. I’ll see you soon,” he announces.
Then without another word, a kiss goodbye, or even a glance back at me, he’s marching out of the clubhouse bar. I stand there, gripping the back of the chair again for support as I watch his gorgeous ass encased in blue jeans walk away from me, wondering what the fuck just happened.
“You need another drink?” a voice asks next to me.
I glance over to see the same prospect from earlier who was tending the bar. Flicking my eyes to the bar, I see that someone else is now behind there doing his job.
“What’s your name?”
His lips twitch into a smile. “Coda,” he says, holding out his hand for me to shake.
I take his hand, holding his rough warm palm for just a beat before my grasp falls. “I’m Lea,” I say.
“Know who you are,” he informs.
“Then why are you talking to me? You know what the mark on my shoulder means, I’m not hiding it.”
His smile widens. “I know another wild one when I see one,” he chuckles. “Besides, that shit looked intense, how about we chill for a bit. Wanna smoke?”
I bite the corner of my lip, my eyes drifting to the door that Baby just marched out of, then back to Coda. Shaking my head once, I make probably the most mature decision of the past couple of days.
“I need to make a call, raincheck?”
Coda shrugs, pulling a blunt out of his pocket. “Your loss, babe. Come find me when you want to fuckin’ chill.”
He leaves me and I decide to make my way toward the phone in the kitchen. Five minutes later, after my mom is practically crying on the othe
r end, she tells me that she’ll be at the clubhouse, with clothes, in less than an hour.
BABY
Walking away from Lea without any explanation of what is going to go down, of where I was going wasn’t nice. It had to be done, but I’m sure there was a better way of handling the situation, I’m just not sure what that better way could be.
The door to the house swings open and I’m greeted by the sight of Chardonnay with her arms crossed under her tits, pushing them up and out for me to see. She doesn’t look happy, but then again, she hardly ever does.
Swinging off of my bike, I make my way toward her. She doesn’t move to the side to allow me access to the house.
“Where were you?” she demands.
Arching a brow, I glare down at her. “Working.” I shrug.
“I sent out invitations yesterday.” She grins, hoping to get a reaction out of me.
She won’t get it. Not now, not ever. I will watch this bitch die, maybe even by my own hand. But first, I’m going to get every useful piece of information out of her, then watch her fucking suffer before I end her.
“Good for you,” I say, taking a step closer, hoping that she’ll move. She doesn’t.
“I want to party tonight. At the clubhouse,” she announces.
The blood in my veins turns to ice, but I don’t react to her words, even if I want to. I can’t. She cannot know about Lea, it’ll ruin her, Chardonnay will ruin her. And she’ll do it for no other reason than she’s bored.
“Not tonight. I’m beat,” I grunt.
Chardonnay presses her lips together, her head tipping back and her eyes finding mine, holding their gaze.
“Tomorrow then,” she breathes. “I want all those catty bitches to know that I’m going to be an Old Lady soon. I need this, Baby,” she all but demands.
Keep her happy. That’s what Snake and Keys said to do. But at what expense? I don’t question myself, Lea will get over it, she doesn’t have a choice. I’ll explain it all to her when this shit is done, and we can move on.
Mixed with Trouble: A CASH BAR NOVEL Page 9
