No. As difficult as this was going to be. As unprepared as I was, I needed to see this through to the end.
I started to stand up from the bed too.
“Sure, yeah, we should head out. I’ll just put on some clothes,” I told him, and he nodded.
Within five minutes, we were ready to leave and this time on his bike, I held on to him even tighter than the last time. I wanted to savor every moment I had with him because I didn’t know if it was going to be our last.
19
Bones
We rode to the clubhouse together and the whole way there, I could feel Thea clutching me tightly from behind. She had her arms wrapped around me in a way that seemed to convey she didn’t want to let me go. Was that what she was trying to say or was I just imagining it?
I knew she wasn’t acting completely herself. I’d seen how afraid she’d been the previous night and then today when I showed up at her apartment, she seemed like she was having second thoughts again.
Now more than ever, I wished I was the kind of guy who could talk to people. Who could get people to open up about themselves. And even though I felt this deep connection with Thea which I’d never experienced with anyone before, I didn’t know what to ask her or what to say to make her trust in me and open up.
We arrived at the clubhouse and I helped her off the bike. The others were going to be waiting in there for us. Thea smiled weakly at me and I felt the urge to tell her how beautiful she looked. How I wished I could hold her anytime I wanted. Instead, I said something else.
“Hey, are you sure about this?”
She had already taken a few steps in the direction of the clubhouse, but she stopped now and looked at me quizzically.
“About Gunther and the plan. The whole thing. Maybe I should have asked you this question earlier when we were at your apartment, but trust me, it isn’t too late to change your mind now. I can make up an excuse for you with the guys. And they will understand if you change your mind. Nobody can make you do something you don’t want to do.”
She was staring at me with her blue eyes, sparkling and bright. The color seemed to have returned to her face and cheeks and lips. She definitely did look much better now than she did when I first went to her apartment this morning.
She gave a quick nod of her head and smiled again.
“Thank you for your concern, seriously, but I think I’ll be fine. I’ve been prepping for this for ten years. Last night was just a bit of a reality check. I need to be better prepared for all possibilities…but other than that, I should be fine. I don’t want the plan to change in any way.”
She dug her hands into the pockets of her tight jeans, and I tried not to stare at her breasts.
“Cool,” I said.
“Cool.”
And then we were walking into the clubhouse together.
Like I suspected, the others were happy to see us, and they welcomed Thea with a loud cheer and thumps on her back.
“We were concerned when you weren’t answering your phone today!” Grimm exclaimed and she blushed again. Something she didn’t do very often before.
“Yeah, I overslept, sorry,” she replied, just as Bender handed her a tall cold glass of icy beer.
* * *
The first order of business was for Thea to try and get in touch with Gunther. He hadn’t called her since the previous night to set up their next meeting and the guys were getting restless.
If it was up to me, I would have suggested that we wait a few more days, give Gunther some time to settle down, but everyone else’s opinion was to strike while the iron was hot. While he was still drooling over Thea and she was hot on his mind.
Besides, it was true that we needed to eliminate him as a problem as quickly as we possibly could—before he started to cause any serious damage to us.
Thea seemed pumped up and ready to go again. The others had managed to excite her and put her in the mood for the plan once more. That hesitation and fright which I’d seen in her last night and then this morning…had disappeared. Once again, she was in on the plan.
So, we listened in as she made the call to Gunther.
He answered after several rings and sounded like he’d been asleep.
“Hey you, guess who?” Thea had modulated her voice to a more seductive tone which I barely even recognized. The truth was, and I had no choice but to admit it, that she was actually good at this. She was good at making men feel wanted and desired…was that what she was doing with me too?
I stood back and listened to the rest of the conversation. We were all silent, waiting with bated breath for Gunther to agree to the plan we’d laid out for him.
“I know exactly who you are,” Gunther sounded excited and like he was sitting up in bed. “You couldn’t wait to call me, could you?”
“I felt bad about leaving so abruptly last night. I mean, the truth is that I did want to spend more time with you, around you…it was sexy to see you like that, so powerful and strong. Your men really do respect you,” Thea continued. She kept her eyes down, maybe she was too embarrassed to look at any of us.
Gunther grunted a response. He was pleased by what he was hearing.
“But you know…I felt self-conscious amongst all of them. I don’t know…I guess I just wanted you all to myself.”
Gunther chuckled.
“You can have me.”
“Can I really? Just the two of us? No distractions? That would be the only way we can really get to know each other.” Thea drawled those words sexily. I knew exactly what her goal with that tone was…to make herself irresistible. Gunther grunted again.
“Yes, just the two of us. You can come visit me at my apartment. We can be alone together there.”
He sounded happy, possibly because Thea sounded so excited. I watched her as she spoke. Her voice was modulated to suit the tone of the phone call, but her expression spoke otherwise. She looked pale and cold, with no warmth on her face or in her expressions. I could sense she hated speaking to Gunther. How was she going to spend time alone with him?
But I wasn’t going to stand in the way of her plan.
They spoke for a few more minutes and then the phone call ended.
When she looked up at the guys, they all broke out in a loud cheer at the success of that call. Things were going to go ahead exactly as planned tomorrow and it was all because Thea had been able to convince Gunther that they needed to be alone!
She glanced at me once and I nodded my head, even tried to flash her a smile. It was the least I could do, right? This was her life’s work…she’d waited ten years to be here.
“He’s going to take you to his place. Hopefully, the two of you will be completely alone in his apartment and we can watch the windows from an adjacent building,” Cash suggested.
“Sniper style,” Rogue was quick to interject.
“In fact, Bones is the best shot you could ask for in a sniper situation like that,” Patch said, and they all turned to me. I should have seen this coming. They were going to eventually ask me to fill those shoes and it would be impossible for me to say no. Thea and the others needed my help and if this plan was going to work, this was the only way to do it.
“No. I need to take that shot!” Thea interrupted and I looked up at her and shook my head.
“That would be too dangerous. If you’re alone in the apartment with him and you take out a gun, he’s going to take out two more than you and get you first. You need training for that kind of thing,” Grimm tried to explain. Thea had her lips pressed together. She was thinking, but refusing to fully give in. She did not want to let go of the idea of not being the one to actually kill Gunther.
She looked away from Grimm and turned to me instead, staring at me hopefully for some insight. I held her gaze.
“I am going to be the one taking the shot. It’ll be smoother that way. But you get to be the one standing over him when he dies. Isn’t that ultimately what you want? Watch him die in front of you. You’ll be the las
t face he sees,” I said.
Thea gulped and then eventually, she nodded. She licked her lips and took in a deep breath.
“Okay, yeah, I guess that makes sense.”
Another round of cheer rang out in the group and high-fives were exchanged. Thea caught my eyes again and this time she smiled too.
This was really happening. Finally. In one day, it could all be over, and then what? Where was it going to leave Thea and me? Would we even see each other again after that?
* * *
We were all sitting around, discussing the plan for the next day. This was the first time I’d taken an active interest in the planning for one of Thea and Gunther’s encounters. This was my last chance. If tomorrow night didn’t work out for us, all our lives would be in imminent danger and especially Thea’s—so the plan needed to be decided upon in minute detail.
Some of our prospects were already out there, spying on Gunther’s apartment and figuring out which building and which apartment overlooking his would be the perfect spot for us to set up shop the next day.
Once Gunther was shot, Thea was going to be alone in the apartment with him for some time. She would have to make sure he was dead. Even though Gunther wouldn’t have his bodyguards in the place with him, we were assuming they would be somewhere outside, maybe in the hallways, trying to listen in and keep an eye.
Once he was dead, Thea would then have to calmly walk out of his apartment without raising any alarms. Once she was out of there and his body was discovered by his men, we could all make a run for it.
We had no way to predict the consequences of Gunther’s death. At this point, we weren’t even sure if his men wanted him alive or not.
We went over the plan over and over again. Thea needed to be prepped about the things she needed to do once she was inside his apartment. How she was supposed to find accessible windows and keep them open.
We’d been at it for at least two hours till the boys decided we’d all been working hard enough, and it was time for another round of celebrations.
Thea seemed mentally exhausted too, and I stood up from my chair, hearing my belly rumble with hunger. This already felt like a long day. Maybe I should have accepted Thea’s offer for making me breakfast earlier in her apartment!
But then I was struck by another idea. I turned to her as she stretched her arms out.
“Are you hungry? Do you want to grab something to eat?” I asked her. She wasn’t expecting to hear that, so she just stared up at me like I’d suggested the unthinkable.
“Umm…you and me? Go somewhere?”
I shrugged. I knew it sounded dangerously close to a casual dating scenario, but I didn’t actually give a shit anymore. I wasn’t even sure if I would see her again once this whole thing with Gunther was over. All I cared about was the present and this strange desire to want to spend time alone with her.
Thea stood up and smiled.
“Sounds good. I’m going to get my bag and then we can go!”
* * *
We were on my bike again and once more; Thea’s arms were wound tightly around me. I could smell the scent of her fruity shampoo, feel her tight grip on my chest. Her knees were up against my thighs as she sat behind me.
“Where are we going?” she shouted over the sound of the roaring engine of my Harley.
“Somewhere there’s no chance of one of the Smoking Beards finding us out together!”
That seemed to satisfy her curiosity.
When we got to the small burger shack in the middle of nowhere, Thea got off and looked around, shaking her head.
“I can’t even believe a place like this exists!” she exclaimed. We started walking in together and this felt strangely…nice.
“Not fancy enough for you?”
She laughed at that.
“Trust me, I don’t do fancy either. It just…I don’t know, reminds me of the kind of place my brother Drake would have liked to eat at. Low maintenance, middle of nowhere, nothing but burgers on the menu!”
We got in and took up a small table at the back. The guys at this place all knew me and I saw Smithy, the guy behind the counter, give me a surprised look. Maybe he wasn’t expecting to see me there with a girl.
“Or maybe I’m just over thinking everything these days,” Thea continued. “Drake has constantly been on my mind these last few weeks. I’m equating everything with him and how he would feel or act in a particular situation. I think I’m going crazy. I don’t know.”
I watched her as she shook her head. Some of those sharp blond bangs fell over her blue eyes and she didn’t push them off. She was looking down at the short laminated burger menu pasted to the table. It wasn’t like this place offered a crazy number of choices.
“You can order anything that sounds good to you. There isn’t anything on that menu I wouldn’t recommend,” I said, and she looked up at me then and smiled.
“I wouldn’t have taken you as a burger enthusiast, a foodie…”
“A man’s gotta eat,” I said with a shrug and she nodded.
“Yeah, you’re right. I actually haven’t been able to picture you as anything other than a tough biker, in the clubhouse or with blazing guns in your hands taking shots. This is good. I get to see you as a regular guy,” she said.
“And I get to see you as a regular girl. Not someone trying to pop somebody,” I added and we both smiled at that.
“We’re meeting under pretty dark circumstances, aren’t we?” she suggested, and I had no choice but to agree with her. She was right. I wasn’t sure how things would have gone if she wasn’t on an agenda. If I didn’t feel the need to protect her from harm. If we were just two strangers fucking in the toilets of a random bar on a random night.
* * *
I was sure I’d never been this amazed by watching someone eat. Thea ate like nobody was watching.
She ordered the same burger that I did, which was the tallest and biggest most masculine burger on the menu and boy, did she go to town with it!
We couldn’t actually have a conversation between us while we ate because our mouths were simultaneously stuffed with the burger or fries or we were trying to wash it all down with a cold beer.
Thea smiled or laughed at me from time to time because it was quite funny. The way we just sat there, eating like we’d never eaten anything like this before.
I managed to clean out the plate and Thea came close to it too, before she threw down the towel and sat back in her seat and let out a big sigh.
“This was…wow! Like you were feeding me my last meal!” She wiped her mouth with a napkin and then pressed her eyes close and turned her face up to the ceiling. Like she was really truly trying to savor the flavors in her mouth. All I could do was stare at her with awe.
It was dawning on me now, maybe a little too late, that she could be the perfect woman for me. Was there anything missing in her that I would desire in someone else?
She opened her big blue eyes and stared at me straight.
“You know I wanted to take cooking classes, like professional classes so I could make something of myself in the food industry. I thought I was pretty good at it too. It wasn’t just about making the food, I was interested in the science behind it too. I wanted to study what makes certain flavors what they are and how to use them appropriately and make food that is beautiful.”
She was leaning towards me over the table as she spoke. I could see the excitable sparkle in her eyes. She was completely serious about this conversation.
“So why didn’t you?”
She shook her head.
“I had to fend for myself. Get a job. Get away from here once Drake died. I needed to start my life all over again in Hawaii and paying good money to do a course I didn’t even know if I would succeed at, would have been a waste of time and money,” she replied. She looked down at her hands while she twisted her fingers around nervously. Those bangs were falling over her eyes again. Did she know how beautiful she looked like this? When she wasn�
��t self-conscious of someone watching her?
“You should do it once all this is over. After tomorrow, you’ll be free,” I said, and she looked up to meet my eyes and then nodded her head.
“Yes, maybe I will. I think that’s what Drake would have wanted for me too.”
She was watching me, and I stared back at her. There were things I thought I wanted to say to her, but I didn’t have the words for them. I’d never said them before. It felt like they would all come out wrong.
“Your new life begins in twenty-four hours,” I added, and she smiled.
20
Thea
I was amazed that Bones had invited me to a meal with him. Even though I’d been trying not to look too deeply into the meaning of an invitation like this, I couldn’t help but watch out for signs too.
For starters, the sex we had this morning was something else. It wasn’t the kind of sex I had with any other man, not even with Bones before. And now he’d asked me out for a late lunch. Was this supposed to be a date? Was he trying to tell me something?
I couldn’t help but blush every time I thought about it, and I knew he was watching me, keeping a close eye on me at all times. Did he know what was on my mind? I was embarrassed by my own thoughts. It was the day before D-Day, I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about whether some guy had feelings for me or not.
But I couldn’t help but wonder if Drake would have approved of him. And all signs indicated that he probably would.
Bones was also more talkative right now than he had been with me before this. It was like I’d managed to turn some faucet in him, and all these thoughts and words were gushing out of him without control.
Me telling him about my silly culinary dreams; seemed to instigate him to talk about his life too.
Bones: The Black Cobra MC #4 Page 13
