by Lilly Atlas
“How’s your girlfriend?” His sister’s voice was full of teasing. She loved asking about Amanda. If he wasn’t mistaken, Cece’s dream would be for him and Amanda to get married, pop out a houseful of kids and move closer to Aunt Cece. He shuddered. His head may be all fucked up about who he was, but he was damn certain he wasn’t father material.
“She’s good, Ce. You call for any reason other than to bust my balls?” As he spoke to her, he shoved one of Kat’s many piles of research out of his way and sat at the table. The girl had been away more often than not over the past few months, which suited him just fine. More alone time with Amanda. Not to mention her anti-MC crusade made him twitchy.
He could practically hear his sister’s eyes rolling. “Yes, as a matter of fact I did. Two reasons. First, sent more of your money yesterday. It should arrive by the weekend.” She grew serious. “Look, Nick, I’ve been poking around a bit—”
Shit. “Cece, what the fuck? Didn’t I tell you to keep your nose out of this?” His question was met with silence. “Ce?”
“Can I finish what I was saying before you lose it on me?”
He couldn’t help but chuckle at her snark. “Speak, kid.”
She laughed. It was strange, he’d lived just a few short hours from her for years, yet now, states away, their relationship seemed closer than ever. “I’ve been hearing some rumors, from very far away, in a safe place. That better?”
“What kind of rumors?” he ground out. Had to be about the club. What the hell else could she be referring to?
“I shouldn’t be telling you this. Not when I want you to be done with that life so bad.” She paused. “I guess I just feel like you deserve to know after all you’ve been through. So think about your woman and don’t make me regret telling you this. Okay?”
“Cece, just spit it the fuck out already. I’m not going to go running out of here guns blazing like some cowboy.” At least he didn’t think he’d do that. Guess it depended on the rumor.
“All right, all right. The cartel is getting fed up with Casper. There’s been some buzz about them taking some kind of action against him.”
Snake pinched the bridge of his nose and clenched his jaw. “Swear to Christ, kid, if you’ve put yourself in any danger…”
“No, Nick, I promise.” She spoke quickly, probably to reassure him.
“So how the hell did you find this out?”
“It doesn’t matter. You have more secrets than any one man should. I’m allowed a few of my own.” She rushed on before he had a chance to break in and demand she tell him. “I promise I’m safe and no one knows who I am or has any idea that I know anything.”
He’d have to be satisfied with that. Looked like he’d underestimated his baby sister. He made a mental note to return to the subject at a later date. Maybe when she was more willing to spill her guts.
“I got to get to work, Nick. Just wanted to catch you before I left.”
“Thanks, honey. I’ll talk to you soon. Stay as far away from all this shit as you can. You hear me?”
“I hear you. I’m not anywhere near it. Promise.”
Snake grunted and disconnected the call, running a hand over his face. Coffee. He needed coffee.
“Honey, huh? You getting’ a little something on the side, Nick?”
Shit. He was really losing his edge if Kat could sneak up on him like that. How much of the conversation had she heard? He ran a quick replay through his mind and aside from calling a woman who wasn’t Amanda honey and worrying for that woman’s safety, he didn’t think he’d said anything incriminating. Last thing he needed was nosy and persistent Kat all up in his shit.
She stood next to the percolating coffee pot, arms crossed and a very unwelcoming scowl on her face. There were shadows in her eyes that hadn’t been there when he met her and she’d lost weight. Overall, she had a sickly appearance. She was tightlipped about her research trips, but if he knew one percenter clubs, Kat had probably endured some things that left a few emotional scars.
“Sister,” he said as he reached around her and grabbed the mug Amanda had dubbed as his.
“Ah, your sister. Of course.” Sarcasm dripped from her tone.
Well fuck her. She had enough of her own damn problems. “Where you been this time, Kat?”
“Arizona,” she said.
Shit.
He stiffened. Arizona? Was it in any way possible that Kat had found out who he was?
“You ever been there, Nick?” She stressed his name in a way that had sweat popping out across his brow.
Careful to keep a neutral expression, he looked her straight in the eye. “You got something to say to me, Kat?”
She opened her mouth, closed it and shook her head, filling her coffee cup in silence.
Snake had taken three steps toward the stairs when Kat apparently changed her mind about stating her opinion.
“You know what?” she said. “I do have something to say to you. A few things actually.”
He turned and gave her his full attention, prepared to be blasted by Amanda’s best friend. There was a good chance she was about to tell him she knew who he was. In that case, he’d be gone in the next thirty minutes. A sickening feeling settled in his stomach. He wasn’t ready to leave Amanda yet. Wasn’t sure he’d ever be ready. But he couldn’t ask her to go with him, not with Kat’s hunger for fame. She’d expose him in a heartbeat and where would that leave Amanda?
“I don’t trust you, Nick.”
“Can’t wait to hear why. Don’t leave me in suspense.” He’d had about enough of her shit and his feelings for Amanda were the only reason he didn’t rip into her now. But that didn’t mean he had to tolerate disrespect from her.
“You remind me too much of the scumbags I’ve been observing the past few months.”
“Why? Because I have a bike? Coupla tats?” He snorted. “You have quite the active imagination. I thought reporters were supposed to deal in facts.”
Kat shrugged. “Just because I can’t prove it yet, doesn’t mean it’s not a fact. And the bike is only one of the reasons. You’re closed off, hard. I see something in your eyes sometimes. Something cold and dangerous. Then there’s the fact that you were beaten to a pulp and shot multiple times. I recently heard that you were shot by bikers. Coincidence?” She laughed, a harsh, barking sound. “Unlikely. More like you pissed someone off. Doesn’t take much for these clubs to kill.”
She jerked her chin in his direction. “Also heard some buzz about a MC president with a crazy snake tattoo. Don’t have much info on that little tidbit. These guys are pretty damned closed-mouthed. But I’ll be looking into it for sure.”
Her face held a smug look, like she was so proud of her skills as an investigator. Snake’s blood ran cold. If she pursued this line of thinking, not only could she put the two of them in danger, but Amanda as well, and that was something Snake wouldn’t tolerate.
He stepped closer until Kat had to tilt her head back to maintain eye contact. A glimmer of fear flashed in her eyes and the self-satisfied smirk slipped from her face.
“You need to be careful throwing around accusations like that, Kat. If you haven’t learned that lesson yet, you will if you push this too hard.”
“Threatening me, Nick?” The way she said his name, full mocking and disbelief. Christ, she couldn’t possibly know who he really was, could she?
“I don’t have to threaten you. Continue running your mouth and spewing shit you know nothing about, and you’ll find that out for yourself.” Done with her shit, he grabbed his coffee cup and stalked toward the bedrooms where a warm and always willing woman awaited.
Amanda hadn’t shifted an inch since he left. He should leave her to her rest, but the conversation with Kat had him agitated and he needed to bury himself inside her to take the edge off.
He rested the coffee mug on the table beside her and the clink of porcelain hitting the tabletop had her stirring. “Mmm, something smells good,” she said, as she inhaled,
her eyes still closed.
With a smile at the way she sniffed the air like a curious puppy, he sat next to her and drew the sheet off her. They’d passed out without any clothing last night, just as he liked to sleep. Though Amanda claimed she hated to sleep naked, she’d been doing it more and more. He grinned, please with the way he was slowly corrupting her. At least in the bedroom.
She shivered as the air-conditioned air wafted across her exposed back. Snake ran a hand down the smooth skin of her spine, then filled both palms with her ass. He gave a squeeze at the same time he bit down gently on her neck.
“Mmm, something feels good too,” she said in a sleepy morning voice.
Keeping his lips on her neck, he traced a finger down the cleft of her ass until he reached her soft, wet center. Amanda moaned and moved her hips, arching her back in invitation. He teased her for a few minutes, denying what she wanted until she groaned into the pillow.
Snake chuckled and encouraged her to roll to her back. “Fuck, you are so beautiful.” The words just popped out. He sure as shit wasn’t a romantic or poetic bastard, wouldn’t know how to woo a woman with words, but it was the plain and simple truth. Lying under him, her creamy skin on display, puckered nipples and glazed eyes, he couldn’t remember seeing a more beautiful woman.
A radiant smile lit her face and she tugged him down to meet her mouth. If she had any idea who he truly was, what he’d done and what he was capable of, she’d never have gotten in bed with him. He was smart enough to realize that, and asshole enough to want to keep her from ever learning the truth.
The smart move would be to head back to his cabin for a few hours to process what Cece had told him and begin devising that plan to eliminate Casper. His contact with the cartel would be the perfect place to start. Too much time had passed where he let his priorities shift. It was time to remember who he was and what he stood for before Kat uncovered information that made him have to leave.
And he’d get right to it. Just as soon as he made Amanda come like she was dying.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Amanda loved everything about falling snow. The cold crisp air, the beauty of the swirling flakes, the undisturbed blanket of white that lay over the lake and mountains. But her favorite thing about a winter storm was the knowledge that she was warm and cozy in her home while the outside world remained cold and uninviting.
Large quantities of snow were the norm for February in Idaho, especially at their elevation. Storms could make travel and restocking supplies difficult, but Amanda had lived on her own in this area long enough to know to be prepared.
“Hey Kat,” she said as her friend and roommate came into the den, a stack of file folders tucked under her arm. “Nick had some stuff to work on so I told him I was going to try to wrangle you into a girls’ night of wine, brownies, and Rom Coms. What do you say?”
“What’s he doing?” Kat plopped on the couch opposite Amanda and didn’t bother to look at Amanda.
Amanda shrugged. “What? Oh, I’m not sure.”
“You didn’t ask?” Kat’s voice was flat. She’d changed over the past few months. Drastically. Gone was Amanda’s fun and crazy best friend. In her place was a sullen woman who spent every minute she was home poring over stacks of documents, filling notebooks with scribbled notes, and clicking away on her laptop. She was also gone more and more. Every time Amanda tried to engage Kat in conversation about her trips or how her investigation was going, she was shut down almost before the questions were out of her mouth.
“No I didn’t ask. He’s allowed some privacy, Kat.”
Her friend looked up and rolled her eyes. “Is that the real reason you didn’t ask, or are you afraid of the answer?”
Amanda opened her mouth but no sound came out. The antagonistic question came out of left field. In the months since Nick arrived, Kat never indicated any type of issue with him or hesitancy over their relationship. She was barely there enough to speak two words to him. “What? I-I’m not sure what to do with that Kat. I—” She blew out a breath. “Do you have a problem with Nick?”
“Do I have a problem with a man who I know nothing about? Do I have a problem with a man who has more than one weapon in his saddlebags and who the hell knows how many in his cabin? Do I have a problem with someone who keeps secrets? Do I have a problem with Nick Gould? I don’t know, Amanda, maybe if his name actually was Nick Gould, I could give you a more accurate answer.”
Disbelief flooded Amanda’s system, kicking up her heart rate and making her breathe heavier. She wanted to direct that anger back at Kat, but, how could she? While her friend may be wrong to attack Amanda’s relationship in such a blatant and hostile manner, she’d hit a few nails on the head.
For nearly five months, she’d been pretending it didn’t matter that Nick never talked about himself, never shared his past, never opened up. And hadn’t she sensed from the beginning that Nick Gould wasn’t his real name? Was she blinded by her emotions? Heck, was she blinded by sex?
“I mean do you know anything about the man you welcomed into our house? The man you sleep with every night? There are some shitty people out there, Mandy, and for all you know, he could be one of them.” She’d spoken with aggression rather than friendly concern.
I’m rotten to the core, Amanda. Even if I stayed, I’d drag you down to my level somehow.
Nick’s words from months ago reverberated through her mind. She wanted to argue, wanted to rage at Kat, but how could she when Nick himself had tried to warn her away?
Staring down at her hands, clenched in her lap, she fought to come up with an explanation for her relationship with Nick. “Look, Kat, I may not know all the details, but I do know Nick has a rough past. He’s been honest about that. In all the months he’s been here, though, I’ve never had a reason to be alarmed or a reason to fear him.”
Except that one time he threatened Dr. Michaels at gunpoint.
“Does his past define who he is? Does it mean he doesn’t deserve a good life? Does it mean he doesn’t deserve love? I don’t think I have the right to judge him or anyone in that way. He’s a good man, Kat. Haven’t you seen that?” It wasn’t vital for Amanda that her friend be head over heels for her boyfriend, but she loved Kat like a sister and the thought of her despising the man Amanda had fallen in deep with was upsetting.
Kat’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “Love? Are you saying you’re in love with him?”
“I-what…um, no. I’m just…it was just a figure of speech.”
Kat sprung out of her chair and paced in front of the couch, her arms flying about as she spoke. “Mandy, you have no idea what these people are like. What they are capable of. It would shock you.”
Amanda furrowed her brow. “What people? We were talking about Nick. One person, not people. Who are you talking about, Kat?”
“Bikers!” Kat threw her hands in the air like the answer was so obvious. “They are mean, they are nasty, they treat their bikes way better than they treat their women. Hell, they treat the dirt they ride over better. And they are ruthless, Mandy. Ruthless maniacs.”
Pain darkened Kat’s eyes and she appeared lost in a terrible memory for a few seconds. Amanda shoved her personal frustration aside, rose from the couch, and placed a gentle hand on Kat’s arm, slowly so as to avoid startling her. “Kat? Has something happened to you? Did someone hurt you?”
“Huh?” Kat shook her head and stepped back from Amanda’s touch. “I’m fine.”
“Okay.” Keeping her voice low, Amanda sat back down. “But that doesn’t really answer my question. Did something happen on one of your trips?”
“I said I’m fine,” Kat snapped. “Nothing happened that I didn’t allow to happen. We’ve talked about this so many times, how can you still not get it? Don’t you understand what this means to me, Mandy? How it can propel my career forward? I’ll do whatever it takes to break this story. Whatever. It. Takes.”
Amanda felt like she was standing on a land mine and if she
flinched the wrong way, this entire conversation was going to blow up in her face. “Kat, your ambition and drive to accomplish your career goals are admirable. But none of that should take the place of your safety.”
“Maybe you should have thought about my safety, both of our safeties, before you invited that biker into our house and between your legs.”
“Wow, Kat, low blow.” What the hell had happened to her lifelong friend? This was not the same girl she grew up with. This was a hardened and bitter version of Kat.
Kat shrugged and gathered her files. “Sorry if the truth hurts. You know I’ve heard talk about a biker with a snake tattoo—”
Amanda held up her hand. “Stop! Just stop. So because he has a tattoo of a snake you think he’s some kind of monster? I’ve had enough of this, Kat.”
“Fine.” After she’d collected her papers, Kat marched up the steps toward her room. “I’m not up for watching movies tonight,” she called over her shoulder.
Clearly, she wasn’t up for anything but starting a fight. As worried as she was about her friend, Amanda couldn’t help but let the irritation creep back in. She followed Kat’s path to the bottom of the staircase. “Just because he rides a motorcycle doesn’t mean he’s some kind of big bad outlaw biker, you know,” she yelled up the steps.
“Well, be sure to not talk about it when you’re doing nothing but fucking!” Kat called back seconds before her door slammed shut.
Even though Kat was on a different level of the house, Amanda staggered backward as though she’d been struck. Sure, Kat had a salty sailor mouth, but in the almost twenty years they’d been friends, Kat had never spoken to Amanda in such a way. This was not just about Nick. That much vehemence couldn’t be about a man Kat barely knew. Something had happened to change her friend.
She couldn’t be in the same house as Kat right now. Fuming, she jammed her socked feet into her snow boots, stuffed her arms in her puffy coat, and yanked a hat over her head. “We do more than just fucking,” Amanda muttered. “We talk. We talk about a lot of things. We just don’t talk about Nick.”
