by Kasey Krane
“Wyndham?” he asked, turning to me.
“Ghost will fill you in,” I said and he nodded. Like me, Drax was under strict advice to take it easy. A few days before I got stabbed by Eagle, Drax was shot by him. So he was recovering from a gunshot wound, and his woman, Mary-Beth, was keeping a close eye on him.
“She’s gone to get some errands done,” he said in a lower voice to me. He was clearly talking about Mary-Beth. “So I decided to walk around this place, try and get some work done. It’s the best I can do before she gets back and brings this place down because I got out of bed.”
We smiled at each other. We both knew he was crazy about that woman, even though he complained about her all the time. From the corner of my eye, I could see Sabrina listening.
“Before I forget, there is something I should tell you. Ghost and the others are probably keeping this from you but I thought you should know. Come with me.”
Drax started walking away before I had a chance to say anything. I turned to Sabrina; she’d heard too.
“You’ll be fine here. Everyone will keep an eye on you,” I said and she nodded. Was that a flash of nervousness I saw on her face? She looked away.
I followed Drax to his office.
“Duke, the President of the Granite Apostles, thinks he may have a lead on Eagle’s location,” Drax said when I shut the door to his office.
I was confused by what I was hearing. Did he just say what I thought he said?
“They’ve found Eagle?” I growled. The Granite Apostles had been our long-time allies, but only in business. But ever since our war escalated with the Silver Knights and Eagle went missing, they agreed to come down and work with us in finding him and bringing him to justice for all the shit he’d pulled on us.
“Looks like it was the right decision to get them involved,” Drax added.
“I’ll bring him in,” I said quickly. Drax sighed and gave me a nod.
“Yeah, I know you have taken his disappearance personally.”
“I’m the one who let him get away.”
“You’re the one who got nearly fatally injured by the bastard,” Drax grunted. “You couldn’t have done more.”
I shook my head. “You have to give me this.”
“You are not the only one around here who wants a piece of him. Have you forgotten about Crash? What Eagle did to him, his own President? Mary-Beth is his sister. She will never be able to forgive Eagle for what he did to her brother. Crash will hopefully recover from his addiction, and if he doesn’t, Eagle is dead the moment Mary-Beth lays eyes on him.”
I couldn’t respond to that. I knew he was right. Eagle had done more than just physical harm to Mary-Beth; he had destroyed her family. If Crash didn’t come out clean at the other end of this, she would lose her brother. Her only family.
“And he owes me some answers too,” Drax added. “You’re not the only one who let him slip away. I did, and so did Ghost.”
I rubbed a hand over my face.
“When we finally get our hands on this motherfucker, he is dead meat. He’s not getting away this time. No more chances.”
I nodded. “But I want to be there. When they finally find him and bring him in. I want to be there.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
“And Sabrina. I’m supposed to be watching her. She’s the mayor’s daughter. It’s the gig Ghost assigned to me.”
Drax nearly laughed at that. I knew it sounded silly to him. This wasn’t the sort of job I was supposed to be doing.
“We’ll have someone keep an eye on her if you’re occupied.”
I nodded.
“I should probably take her back to her place.”
“Yeah you should probably do that. The poor girl looks as if she’s in shock.” Drax gave a laugh and I smiled too. Yeah, I thought Sabrina didn’t fit into a place like this, but I wasn’t so sure about it anymore. There were so many deeper layers to her underneath that sparkling facade.
8
Sabrina
Spike wasn’t gone for more than fifteen minutes, and while he was away, I got a chance to sit back at the booth and observe the place. Now that it was nearly midday, there were more people here. The men were all the same biker type. Leather jackets, big and muscular, tattoos. The few girls who were around were all dressed similarly to Sophie. They were all draped around the arms of the men, laughing and flirting and drinking with them.
It was only the middle of the day, but it was obvious that these people didn’t notice. They barely even noticed me. When they did see me, I could sense they were surprised by my presence. They sniggered about me openly. I could see Sophie telling them why I was here.
Then Spike appeared by my side again and said it was time for us to leave.
A few hours ago, when we first arrived at this place, I wouldn’t have expected to feel the way I did now. I didn’t want to leave. I wished I could stay for a bit longer, maybe talk to a few others. I was curious and interested to find out more about their way of life. I wasn’t afraid of them anymore.
But I followed Spike out. Sophie even waved at me, and the jealousy I had felt toward her before and the flirty, easy relationship she shared with Spike was now replaced with something else. I was beginning to discover that it was very easy to like Sophie. She was the kind of person anybody would want to talk to.
Back on the bike again, I sat behind Spike, draping my arms around him, but with more ease this time. Unlike the first time, I wasn’t afraid of falling off the bike, or the twists and swerves we were going to take on the ride. I was focusing on the way Spike’s chiseled abs felt under my hands. The way our bodies pressed together.
I wanted him to take me. Fuck me. Touch me.
Once again, I pressed my cheek to his back and closed my eyes. Riding on the bike with him, the wind blowing my hair, lashing against my face sharply, I felt free. I could say whatever I wanted. I could laugh or cry or curse, nobody was watching. Spike would keep me safe. I didn’t have to follow Daddy’s rules.
When we returned to the house, I saw there were cars parked in the driveway. I knew exactly what this meant. Daddy had some people over. People he would want me to entertain and make small-talk with. Spike helped me off the bike and I turned to him.
“I think I should get changed. Daddy will want me to meet the people he’s brought over.”
Spike nodded.
“I’ll be right here,” he replied, and that filled me with warmth.
I was done for the evening. There were four men and two women who Daddy had invited for cocktails tonight and they were still in our lounge, laughing loudly at all of Daddy’s old jokes. I’d played my part, said interesting things about Paris and paid compliments, and looked the other way when one of the men touched the small of my back.
But now I was done.
When I walked out of the lounge, excusing myself, saying I had an early start the next day, I found Spike waiting right there in the hallway. Was I the only one whose eyes lit up? I wasn’t sure if he was as happy to see me as I was to see him. He came toward me and I forced the lump down my throat.
I wanted to tell him how tired I was of all this.
This life I had grown up in. The one Daddy wanted me to live. How was I going to escape it? Maybe I shouldn’t have come back here from Paris.
“I think I just want to go to bed,” I said to Spike instead.
He didn’t want to listen to me vent about my dad. It was important for me to remember that he wasn’t here in the capacity of being my friend. He was here to do a job, and he wouldn’t appreciate it if I got in the middle of that.
He didn’t actually owe me anything, least of all owe me his time to listen to my sob story.
He followed me around the hallways of the house till I was at my bedroom door. Was he going to follow me in like he did last night? I wanted him to. I so wanted him to!
I turned to him, standing at some distance from me.
“You seem tired, so I’m going to let you go t
o sleep. I’ll be right out here.”
“When was the last time you slept?” I asked and Spike smiled.
“You don’t have to worry about that.”
He was right. He was doing a job, and it wasn’t my job to worry about his welfare. I said nothing more, but went into my bedroom. We stared at each other while I shut the door on him. I was waiting till the last moment for him to stop me. Force his way into my room and pull me to bed.
Once the door was shut, I could feel my body burning up. Why wouldn’t he just do it? Make a move? Couldn’t he feel how much I wanted him? Was I really that wrong about the vibe between us? Or did he have an actual thing with Sophie? Some other girl I didn’t know about?
There was so much I didn’t know about Spike. I didn’t even know his real name or anything about his family. But it seemed as if he knew everything about me.
I was lying in bed in my lingerie again. Maybe I was expecting Spike to walk into my bedroom, or maybe I was just beginning to really like the feeling of going to sleep like this. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t fall asleep. My mind was buzzing.
I couldn’t get him out of my mind, especially knowing he was right out there. Standing outside my door. Was he going to sleep tonight? What was the worst that could happen if I stepped out of my room and pulled him in here right now?
He could reject me. He would reject me. I would never be able to recover from that kind of humiliation. No man had ever rejected me. Realistically, Spike had already rejected me.
The way I felt with him when we rode on his bike today was something out of this world. I knew I had never experienced that with any other man before. Spike was different. Daddy had no idea what he was pushing me into by bringing Spike into my life.
And it wasn’t just him; I couldn’t get Fifth Gear out of my mind either. Spending that much time at the bar today, drinking and eating and observing. Talking to Sophie, overhearing the snippets of conversations around me—I knew it was a different world but I felt a crazy sense of belonging there. I knew I didn’t fit in. I knew everyone was looking at me funny, and maybe most of them wouldn’t believe me—but I felt something there. I wanted to go there again.
At some point in the early hours of the morning, after tossing and turning in bed all night, I finally fell asleep. When I woke up, it was way past my wake-up time and I jumped in the shower. I was half-expecting Spike to barge into the room again today, but clearly he had become more confident about being able to decipher the sounds inside my bedroom. He wasn’t as suspicious this morning as yesterday.
I was excited to see him. I changed into something casual and stepped out. Spike looked fresher somehow. Did he actually sleep? I decided not to ask him since he told me not to worry about it.
“Your father has summoned you to the dining room for breakfast,” he said. Those were his first words to me. What I really wanted to say was that I’d missed him. I wished we had spent the night together in my bed. I wanted to feel his body against mine.
“Okay,” was all I actually said and he followed me to the dining room. Before I walked in, past Jim and some others who were hovering outside the dining room door, I looked over my shoulder at Spike again. He wasn’t looking at me; he was speaking to Jim.
It was all the proof I needed that he’d not stayed up fantasizing about me the way I did about him.
He didn’t want me in his world.
“I’m going to be traveling for the next two weeks, so you’ll be by yourself, sweetheart,” Daddy said when I sat down at the dining table with him. He had no idea how fast my heart was beating. I was thrilled to hear it. This would mean that I could be completely alone with Spike for two whole weeks. No inhibitions.
Despite the no-touch policy that Spike was operating on, I couldn’t help but hope that maybe now, things could change between us.
“Do you think you’ll be okay here, sweetheart? All on your own?” Daddy asked. I smiled sweetly at him. How did he think I usually lived? I was always alone. The only time I ever saw my father was when he wanted something from me.
“Yes Daddy, I think I’ll be alright. Besides, I’ll have my bodyguard.”
“Yes, exactly. This is precisely the reason why I wanted to find someone who could do the job well. Keep you safe while I am away.”
I wanted to ask him what he had personally ever done to make me feel safe.
“Keep me safe from what, Daddy?” I asked and he focused on the food on his plate.
“From anything. There are so many ways that your life could be affected now that we live in the public eye. The mayor’s daughter is always an easy target for manipulation. You know, from the paparazzi and such.”
I knew this was not about the paparazzi. Daddy had never cared about them before. In fact, the more attention I got from tabloids, the happier he usually was. Bad news is some news, was what he always said. He enjoyed seeing those glossy images of me in the tabloids.
“Is he doing a good job?” Daddy continued.
“Spike? Yeah, he’s fine,” I replied. It was my turn to focus on my food.
“I want him to be with you around the clock. Never let you out of his sight. I hope, sweetheart, that you’re cooperating.”
I smiled at my father because it gave me a little thrill to think about all the other ways Spike and I had been close together.
“Yes, Daddy, I understand how important it is.”
“Good, because I know he is not the kind of fellow you’re used to having around. He can be a little…rough around the edges, from what I can see.”
“Spike is fine,” I said, probably a little too firmly this time because Daddy looked at me strangely. But the moment passed and he was smiling again.
“Jim is packing for me now, I have a flight to catch in two hours. I will always be available on email. Call me if you need anything. Or call Jim.”
“Yes Daddy,” I replied and then we continued with the rest of our meals in silence.
I didn’t know what I was going to do when he finally left the house but I knew I wanted to celebrate in some way.
The pool! That was what I wanted to celebrate with.
Very soon, Daddy and Jim and the rest of his entourage had left the house. Spike was in the background, I could always sense his watchful eyes on me. I asked Cherie for a big jug of iced tea and then I went to my room.
Spike was close on my heels now.
“I’m just going to change into something more comfortable,” I told him before I went in.
It gave me a thrill to know that I would be walking out in my bikini any moment now. I picked a sexy purple one I had never worn before. It had some trims around the edges that added a pretty delicate flare to it.
I stepped out of my room and found Spike standing there, checking his phone. He looked up and saw me, his eyes traveled all over me.
“I’m going for a swim, you should join me.”
I started walking away and I knew he was following me. Right outside to the pool. Cherie had already set up the iced tea with two glasses and straws. There was a bucket of ice too.
Spike stood back while I poured it into the glasses, with ice, stuck in the straws. Then I offered him a glass and he seemed to hesitate.
“Oh come on, just because you’re on the job doesn't mean you can’t have an iced tea! You were drinking beer for breakfast yesterday!”
He smiled a little and took the glass.
He was trying his best not to look at me. I drank some of the tea and put the glass down. When I turned around, I knew his eyes were on my butt, watching the way I moved to the edge of the pool.
“Do you want to join me in there?” I asked, looking at him over my shoulder.
I really thought he would give in this time. I selected this bikini on purpose because I knew how it made me look. I thought I was irresistible. He looked at me that way too, as if he had never seen a female body before.
But Spike just stood there, gripping his glass of iced tea tightly.
“I’m waiting!” I called out to him and he shook his head slowly.
“I’m not jumping in the pool with you, Sabrina, but I hope you have fun,” he said in a low deep voice. He emptied the rest of the tea down his throat and then walked back toward the house where he stood by the door. He forced himself to look away from me. It was as if he wanted me to be sure this time; nothing could ever happen between us.
9
Spike
Two days went by without much incident. I still couldn’t decipher what Sabrina really wanted from me, but ever since that day at the pool when she insisted for me to jump in with her, it seemed as if she was keeping herself detached.
I thought we were getting to know each other, but now she built up a wall around herself. I was always there, watching, surveying, making sure she was safe, but we barely ever spoke. The only time she said anything to me was related to giving me information on what she was about to do or if she needed some privacy.
Was this really because I didn’t join her in the pool? I couldn’t do it because of my injury, and also because I wasn’t going to do it in her father’s pool.
If we both got near-naked in there, it was obvious what would happen. There was no way I would be able to keep my hands off her no matter how much I tried. And I didn’t want to be with her like that. Not here in her house, in her father’s pool. If I was going to break the rules, I wanted it to happen on my terms.
So she was keeping her distance from me.
