by Jayne Blue
“Man code?”
“Yeah. In fact, I’ve already told you too much.”
“Ah. So you could be in danger of having your man license revoked? That sounds pretty dire.”
“Totally. See, that’s why you need to take me out to The Wolf Den. So I can build my street cred back up.”
I put an arm around Mitch’s shoulder as we walked down the hall together. “Ugh. You stink, little brother. What is that smell?”
“Man smell,” he said, sniffing his own armpit. “Comes from sweat, hard work, and testosterone.” He thumped his chest like a gorilla.
“Well, gross. Take a shower.”
“You think I could at least get to ride a Harley out of all of this?”
“Mitch, you’re killing me. You can barely ride your ten speed without crashing through Mrs. Davis’s shrubbery.”
“I was seven when I did that!”
I pushed Mitch through the open bathroom door, grabbed a towel and a washcloth from the closet, and threw it at him.
“Cut the grass when you’re done, Man-Boy,” I said. “I’ll get Dad under control.”
Mitch leaned against the door frame and smiled.
“What?”
He shrugged. “Nothing. You just look different today. I don’t know. You kind of look happy. I like it.”
My heart lurched again and my smile dropped. Mitch’s only widened. He closed the door and ran the shower. “Use soap. Lots of it.”
I pressed my back against the wall and sank down until I sat on the floor. Shit. What had I been thinking? I did the one thing that could fuck everything up for Mitch and me again. Things would turn sour with Kellan, just like they had with every guy I’d ever let close to me. I wasn’t carefree like most twenty-five-year-olds . That wasn’t my life. I had my dad, I had Mitch. I had a stack of bills piling up on the counter and probably a foreclosure notice coming right around the corner. If Dad couldn’t pull it together, I was going to need to get serious about filing for guardianship of Mitch. Shacking up with a biker wasn’t going to score me any points with a family court judge.
The Wolf Den came along at just the right time. The minute he got a real taste of the hot mess that was my life, Kellan would leave, just like all the rest. I pressed my forehead against my crossed arms. The smart thing to do was set the ground rules now. I’d work for him. I’d help him bring customers into the Den and that was it. Anything more, no matter how my body craved it, would only lead to drama I couldn’t afford.
Except I did crave it. So much it took my breath away.
Chapter Thirteen
Kellan
Heidi Barlow looked scared shitless. From the second Tate and I rode up to her house, I knew something was way off. She didn’t come to the door at first but her car was parked in the driveway. I pounded on the door for a couple of minutes before I saw movement through the blinds.
Finally, she came to the door but wouldn’t open it. She just stuck two fingers in between the blind slats and told us she wasn’t feeling well.
“Heidi, open the door,” I said, trying to keep my voice measured. I wanted to bust the damn thing down. Something wasn’t right. What I could see of Heidi had me on edge. Her eyes looked bloodshot like she’d been crying.
“I don’t want to get you sick, Mr. Carter,” she said.
“I told you when I hired you. Call me Kellan. Mr. Carter was my grandfather. And we’re not leaving until you come out on this porch and talk to me face to face.”
Tate put a hand on my shoulder and pulled me back until we were standing in the yard.
“She’s spooked,” Tate said. “This doesn’t smell right.”
I looked around. Heidi lived in a shitty little apartment in the rough part of town. A couple of her neighbors across the street had come out of their houses and were watching us from their front porches.
“I don’t think she wants to be seen talking to us,” Tate said.
He was right. With our cuts and our bikes parked right in front of her door, we couldn’t have been more conspicuous if we’d sky wrote our presence.
“Fuck that,” I said. “If someone’s giving her shit for associating with us, I need to know who and why.”
I stepped back up to the porch and pounded the door hard with the side of my fist. “Heidi, open the damn door!”
She did this time, at least a crack. She had the lights off in the apartment so she stood in shadows. I did something that I knew would probably scare the shit out of her even more, but she wasn’t leaving me a choice. Alarm bells were going off in my head big time and I wasn’t leaving this porch without solid answers.
I pushed Heidi’s door open. She gasped a little but stepped back.
“We coming in or are you coming out?” I said.
Heidi’s shoulders sank and she opened the door all the way to let us in. I felt like a fucking giant standing next to her. The girl couldn’t be more than five feet tall and maybe weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet. She was tough though. She’d worked in a few rough places and had come highly recommended. And she was damn good at her job. Efficient. Calm. The customers loved her. I wasn’t going to lose this girl without at least making her give me a good damn reason for it.
My heart dropped into my boots and my blood boiled when I saw her face and saw the reason. Heidi sported a huge shiner on her left eye. The skin was mottled and purple, blood pooled around her iris.
“Jesus Christ,” I said. Putting a gentle hand under her chin, I tilted her head into the light. "Who did this?”
She jerked away and crossed her arms in front of her.
“It was dark. I walked into a car door.”
“Bullshit.”
I wanted to smash something. Hard. Somebody hurt this girl and had her scared enough to not want to talk to me. My fists curled at my side, my fingers played at the Glock I carried concealed under my leather vest. I scanned the room.
“Kellan,” she said. She might have said something else but I couldn’t hear her past the red haze clouding my vision. This didn’t feel right at all.
“You alone, Heidi?” Tate asked, but he was already in motion. I drew my gun and Tate drew his. We moved around Heidi to the hallway, Tate on one side, me on the other. She had one bedroom and a bathroom. Tate moved to the other side of the doorway and I pressed myself against the wall.
“There’s no one here, I swear to God,” Heidi called from the front room.
We checked anyway. Tate kicked the door open, poked his head around.
“It’s empty,” he said. “Closet door is off its hinges.”
“I told you,” Heidi said. “Will you please get out of here now?”
Holstering my gun, I turned back to Heidi. I took a softer tone and put my hand on her shoulders. She shook beneath my touch.
“Who hurt you, honey?”
“I’m not trying to be rude, but it’s really none of your business. I just can’t work for you anymore, okay? Some things have come up I need to take care of.”
“Did this have anything to do with that guy who tried to manhandle you last night? Heidi, I swear, you’re safe with us.”
She shook her head hard and pulled away. “Please, just go. I’m sorry I couldn’t give you two weeks, but I really need to take care of some stuff now.”
My shoulders sank. Whatever happened, this girl wasn’t budging. I couldn’t force the truth out of her or I’d be no better than whatever asshole put his hands on her.
I took an envelope out of my pocket it and handed it to her. “It’s two weeks’ pay,” I said.
Her eyes widened when I put the stack of cash in her hand. “You don’t owe me that.”
“I’m hoping maybe in a day or two you’ll come to your senses and reconsider. We need you, Heidi. You’re one of the good ones. If you stick with us, you’re family. Whatever’s going on, we can help you handle it.”
Tears formed at the corner of her eyes, but she looked away. “I’m really sorry. I wish I could give you a diff
erent answer. But, please, go.”
She waved the envelope at me. “And I wish I could say I didn’t need this. But it will help, thanks.”
We left her then. Heidi shut the door behind us and I heard her engage the deadbolt. By the time we walked to our bikes, she had the blinds drawn again and the lights out.
“Something’s not right,” Tate said as he kick-started his engine. “It feels like somebody got to her.”
Bile rose in my throat. “It feels like that to me too.”
“Anything we can do about it?”
“We take it to the table. Find out what E.J. and Mac got out of the other girl who quit.”
We pulled out of Heidi’s driveway, drawing a few dirty looks from her neighbors across the street. I resisted the urge to flip them off. Whatever happened to that girl, if it happened here, none of them had done anything to help her. It was killing me that she wouldn’t let me do anything for her either.
We headed across town and back to the Den. With every mile, anger rose within me. Heidi was one of our girls. A strike against her felt like a strike against the club. Though she refused to say as much, I knew in my gut her leaving was connected to us. Something or someone had scared her off from the Den. I couldn’t let that slide.
Colt warned me that this wouldn’t be easy. Bringing the club into legit business would come with a price. I accepted that. But I’d be damned if I let anyone pay that price but me.
Chapter Fourteen
Mallory
Nothing says TGIF better than cold beer spilled down the front of my shirt.
“Oooh, I’m so, so sorry!” The new waitress stood in front of me, all color drained from her heart-shaped face, her doe eyes blinking hard. My hands dripped as I wrung them out. Bruno and Tim snickered behind me.
“Don’t sweat it,” I said. I felt kind of bad for the girl. Kellan had brought her in on short notice. Something was going on. Over the last two weekends, he’d had something like four waitresses quit on him. I couldn’t figure it out. The place had been hopping. I’d seen stacks of twenties left on tables as tips for the waitresses he did have. There was no place else in town these girls could make this kind of money this quickly without taking their clothes off.
Well, there wasn’t much I could do about it and I’d made a point of keeping my distance from him. If I couldn’t trust myself not to give into temptation, the best I could do was steer clear. He didn’t make it easy though. He was everywhere. Every time I took the stage, his eyes found mine and sent that flash of heat through me. That knowing smile of his nearly melted me every time. When I wasn’t at the Den, he seemed to find me in my dreams.
“Your shirt’s toast, Mal,” Justin said, leaning into me. “You could go out there in your bra. I imagine that’d do wonders for the door.”
I gathered the ends of my soaked shirt in my hand and wrung it into a knot. Beer poured over the floor in front of me. At least my black leather skirt was more or less dry. My stiletto boots too. The skirt had a slit all the way up to my thigh.
“Here.” Jeannette, the hostess, tossed me a shirt in a high arc. Justin caught it just over my head and handed it to me.
“Go out there and play for a few minutes,” I said. “The crowd’s getting restless. I’ll go fix this.”
Justin gave me a salute and walked out of the shadows and onto the stage with Bruno and Tim right behind him. A sound wall of screaming women rose up around me and I stepped back into the hallway to the green room. The boys could manage without me for at least a few minutes.
Locking the door behind me, I peeled off my ruined shirt and used the dry part of it to sop up the rest of the beer soaking into my bra and down my stomach. Thank God at least she hadn’t dumped a Bloody Mary on me.
“Great, I’ll reek of beer and sweat by the time the night’s over. Sounds about right.”
Jeanette had thrown me a Wolf Den tank top, black with the howling wolf logo in red glitter on the front. It was the same thing all of the waitresses wore. I pulled it over my head and adjusted my bra. It would have to do. I could hear Justin finishing out his guitar solo so I fluffed my hair one last time and headed out.
We had a good set. The crowd was into it. I found myself looking for Kellan the whole time. Tonight though, he wasn’t so easy to find. Come to think of it, most of the club members were scarce. I only saw Brax by the door and a couple of the guys Kellan told me were prospects. Something was up. It threw the whole vibe off. Kellan was a natural born host. I didn’t know what he’d done in a previous life, but this place, this bar was made for him. I did my part, sure, but he’s the one who had the vision to take this place to a higher level. I hoped whatever was going on with the staff wasn’t the start of a new trend.
The three new waitresses seemed in over their heads. The beer I wore wasn’t the only bunch that got spilled. I signaled to Justin and he nodded. We’d stick to our safest stuff tonight. Nothing that might get this crowd too riled. Not while Kellan’s A-Team seemed AWOL. I felt an odd protectiveness over the place already that had more to do with it being a cash cow. Jeannette, Brax, the rest of the guys, they’d made us feel welcome since that first night. Whatever we needed, Kellan always found a way to provide it. Last week, Tim blew an amp. Three days later, Kellan had a new one for him, no strings attached.
We finished just after eleven and I still hadn’t seen Kellan. I wanted to ask but was afraid it would send a signal I wasn’t ready to follow through with. Actually, the problem was that I would want to follow through with it.
As usual, Justin and the boys got thronged by willing, horny women after we finished. Brax stuck close to me so I didn’t have to worry about my own throng. I appreciated it but wondered if a huge part of it was at Kellan’s directive. Ever since that first night, the guys in the bar seemed to understand I was off limits. It wasn’t that I was looking to hook up with any of them, but it was an odd dynamic, just the same.
“Great job tonight,” Brax said. “As usual.”
“Thanks.” I smiled up at him. Brax had to be the tallest guy I’d ever met. He was something like six foot six with long, wavy blond hair he clubbed back. He looked fierce and dangerous when he wanted to, but his eyes were kind when he looked down at me.
“You need a ride home?”
I shook my head. “No. I drove my own car tonight. Justin’s love mobile is still out of commission and I wouldn’t be caught dead in the bucket of bolts Bruno drives around.”
Brax laughed. “I wouldn’t either. Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll have someone walk you to your car.”
I smiled and nodded, biting back the question burning on my lips. Where was Kellan? God, I felt like I was back in high school, lingering at my locker so some hot guy I was into might walk by and notice me.
“Is everything okay?” I asked instead.
Brax’s eyes grew dark, but he kept his smile in place. “Just some club business going on tonight. Nothing you need to worry about.”
“I don’t mean that. I’m talking about the girls. What happened to Heidi and that redhead you had working last weekend? I’m just seeing a lot of new faces on the floor tonight. And these are sweet girls, they’re just not, uh, ready.” The second I said it, we heard glass shattering to the floor behind the bar. Brax winced.
“Growing pains,” he said. “You’re always going to see turnover like that during a start-up.”
Bullshit. Turnover, yeah, but this was looking more like a revolving door. It didn’t make sense with the amount of business pouring into the club. Even on a slow night, those girls had to be clearing a couple of hundred a night in tips.
“Right,” I said, grabbing my bag from behind the bar. Jeannette gave me a wink and a wave. Her cheeks flushed when Brax caught her eye. There was something heavy going on between those two. Good for them. I liked them both immensely.
“You ready?” Brax said.
I nodded. He took me out the back through the kitchen. My car was parked right outside the door.
I fumbled for my keys and got in. Brax leaned down into the window.
“This is only a slightly better bucket of bolts than Bruno drives. You let me know if you ever want to trade up. I’m hooked up with a guy who could get you a steal on just about any American-made car you want.”
“Thanks. I like my bucket of bolts.” I said a silent prayer as I turned the key of my dad’s red and white, 1997 Ford F-350. It was old but sturdy.
Brax smiled when the engine turned and he gave me a two-fingered salute as I started to back out. “See you next weekend,” he called out.
I nodded and headed for the main road. I got halfway to the highway when I realized I’d forgotten to check out with Justin. In fairness, he seemed pretty ensconced in a blonde groupie who’d muscled her way to the front row during our last three shows. Yeah, I didn’t factor on hearing from my cousin for at least twelve hours. Still, when I hit the last stop sign before the highway, I sent him a quick text to let him know I was heading home.
I checked the gauges before hitting the on-ramp. Shit. I’d forgotten to get gas on the way out. There was a station about two miles out if I took the back roads. The nearest one off the highway was at least five exits away. The dial wavered on E so I figured it was best not to take a chance. Great through northwest Ohio snowstorms, the truck hogged gas.
I veered away from the highway and kept on the old country road heading east. Dad had the radio preset to classic country. The buttons stuck so I could either drive in silence or blare Conway Twitty. I went with Twitty. The truck chugged along but I went easy on the gas pedal. The absolute last thing I needed was to stall out in the middle of nowhere.
Headlights flashed in my rearview mirror, nearly blinding me. Some asshole behind me had his high beams blaring. I tipped the mirror to flash him back. He revved his engine and closed the gap between us.
“What the ever-loving fuck?”
I stepped on the gas and took the truck up to sixty. The vehicle behind me, another pickup, stayed right behind me, tailgating. My heart started to race. Something didn’t feel right. I let my foot off the gas and coasted down to fifty, then forty and hugged the shoulder as close as I dared, hoping the guy would get the hint and pass me. He didn’t though. Instead, he slowed down with me, keeping no more than a few feet between his front bumper and my tailgate.
