Working in a bar and all.
"That was months ago."
"Yeah, but I also have it on good authority that you haven't fucked anyone since then either. Which, as we all know, is not like you. You're no choirboy like Reeve was. You fuck anyone with an adequate cup size and a pulse."
"Not true," I said, shaking my head as I looked down at her. "I ain't never discriminated based on tit size," I finished, making her snort-laugh at me.
"Tell me I'm wrong. That you've fucked someone."
I hadn't.
She knew I hadn't.
And I had no good reason for it either.
So what if I had a missed opportunity with Lou?
That didn't mean I didn't need to dip my wick. It didn't mean I had to act faithful to the memory of someone who clearly had no trouble moving on.
"Where could she be for months anyway?" Bethany asked, dropping down with a giant bowl. "Don't get too excited," she told me with a knowing smirk. "Rey made a giant 'happy salad' for dinner."
"The fuck is a 'happy salad?'" Sugar asked.
"Pretty sure there is nothing happy about a salad," Roderick said at almost the exact same time.
"It means it is loaded with vegetables. And red lentil pasta. And chickpeas. Her homemade dressing is amazing though. Give it a shot."
"Yeah, I mean, I get that she chases skips," Lenny agreed. "But four months really seems to be pushing it, y'know?"
"And don't forget that she just got an assload of money off that last skip," Roderick piped in. "She wouldn't really need to get on another job so fast."
"Maybe she's taking a vacation," Rey piped in, walking out with Charlie, her snowy white cockatoo, on her shoulder. "Did Bethany tell everyone about the salad?"
"Ya can count me in, sweetheart," I offered, glad for a change in topics, even if it was something as lame as food. "I haven't had anything green yet today. I know, to ya, that is damn near blasphemous."
She offered me a small smile, still not sure of her footing here, as much as she tried to fit in. "I'm not that bad," she objected, though she knew she was.
"Hey, you are trying to make sure we all have long, healthy lives," Bethany told her, giving her a smile. The two couldn't claim to be fast friends, being different women, but Bethany always tried to bring her into the fold a bit.
"Ya need me to take the dogs on a walk tonight?" I asked, knowing she worried about them not getting enough exercise, even though we had the yard for them to wander around in.
"Did you run that by Reign?" Sugar asked with a raised brow that said he knew I hadn't, he knew I wouldn't, he knew Reign would hand me my ass like he had the last time.
"Just tell 'em not to look for me if V gets me," I offered. "I've slithered out of worse situations before," I added as I moved to stand. "The leashes in the room with 'em?" I asked Rey as Charlie lunged at the watch on my wrist as I passed, being a fan of all things shiny and breakable.
"Yeah. Thank you. I really appreciate it."
"He needs a long walk to clear his head of thoughts of his lover girl," Lenny told the others, but pitched her voice just loud enough that I could hear as I walked away.
I let that one slide, knowing if I said anything, anything at all, that it would only open up the discussion again.
So I found the leashes, clipped them onto the collars of Rey's five dogs, all various forms of hideous and deformed, stole out the back door, and made my way down the main area of Navesink Bank, most of the stores shuttered given the late hour.
It was an especially stupid move to walk alone when there was no one around to be a witness if you got taken out, or abducted. But I'd left my cut at the compound, and had taken a bit of a roundabout way between buildings before I resurfaced on the main drag.
It was the first time in weeks that I felt like I could pull in a proper breath, that my lungs were fully inflated.
Muscles that I hadn't even noticed were tense slowly loosened up, making me feel lighter than usual.
It was amazing what a little breath of freedom could do.
I still snuck out at times.
Headed home.
Just to get a couple hours to myself.
But I tried not to piss off Reign too much. He had enough on his plate. He'd taken a bit of a chance when he had taken me on in the first place.
I just did it when I couldn't take it another minute.
And, yeah, as fucking ridiculous as it was, to see if she was back.
But she never was.
What little mail she got piled up until I started taking it in.
I'd have thought something maybe happened to her. But her bills must have been getting paid. Our landlord was all about his bottom line. He had the apartment next to mine on the market just hours after the guy living there OD'd on the shite he kept sticking up his nose. If Lou wasn't paying her bills, there'd be someone new in her place already.
So, she was alright.
Out there somewhere doing her badass thing.
And I spent way too much fucking time wondering what that thing was. If she was wearing a little black dress while she did it. Where the fuck she bought roofies. Who her contact was for illegal weapons. If she threatened to cut anyone else's hands off this week.
It was fucking asinine to be thinking about her - this woman I just spent an interesting day with. But I couldn't seem to shake the thoughts either.
The girls were right; I hadn't gotten laid.
I'd sort of chalked it up to all that crazy shite with V and then the lockdown.
But, hell, everyone else managed to get laid if they really wanted to.
I simply hadn't put in the effort.
For months.
And that simply wasn't like me.
So maybe they were also right about the reason.
Because who I really wanted to fall into bed with was Lou.
And maybe a part of me realized that no one else was going to work.
Crazy.
But possible.
And wasn't that just some fucked up shite?
"Smell some hot tail or something, One-eye?" I asked, giving his leash a little more give so he could surge ahead to find whatever scent he was on.
I didn't know his name.
Any of them actually.
Just the bird.
So I called them by their most distinguishing features. One-eye, Tripod, etc.
I was so busy watching him that I almost missed it.
Almost.
The light in the shop did nothing.
Paine's place was always open late. It was a general rule that most tattoo decisions were done at night. After a few drinks. Without properly thinking it through.
And I'd looked over one time too many to see asscrack or man tit.
I generally averted my eyes to save them from burning.
But something caught my gaze.
A flash of shining brown hair.
It could have been anyone. A random chick from a bar. A guy who had dreams of rock stardom.
But something told me to look.
Giving the leashes a small tug to indicate I was stopping, I turned back.
And there she fucking was.
After all this time.
Back in Navesink Bank.
Sitting in Paine's chair, staring up at the ceiling as he bent over her with the gun.
Even from outside, I could hear the buzz of it, the telltale sign of a needle piercing her skin over and over.
Her eyes fluttered closed. Judging by the purple smudges under them, starkly standing out in the harsh light of the shop, from exhaustion, not pain.
Who came back to town after months looking dead on their feet, and decided to go get a tattoo instead of hitting the sack for a few hours?
And, well, I had never been the kind to leave questions unanswered.
I pulled the dogs closer, reached for the door, and let myself in.
Lou kept her eyes closed, not so much as a fluttering to her lids, making me wonder if
she had actually passed out.
It was Paine whose head swiveled, cursing under his breath.
"This is supposed to be a sterile environment," he informed me, shaking his head in a way that said he was used to people being a pain in the ass in his shop and wasn't one for letting it get to him.
I liked Paine.
I hadn't gotten any new ink - or even touched up old - in years, but I had sat with Sugar and Virgin when they got work done. At both Hunt's and Paine's shops. Paine's girl Elsie was a member of the girls club by association to Alex and Amelia, so I had seen her around as well. I liked her too. And them as a couple. Good people. And Paine had some stories. From his days running Third Street. We'd shared some drinks and laughs a time or two.
"There's gonna be dog hair everywhere," he added, dipping the gun into black ink. "When did you become a dog walker anyway? Decided gun-running was too cliche for you?"
Lou's eyes flew open at that, landing directly on me.
Her lips parted slightly, brows drawing together.
"Saw an old friend," I told Paine as I watched Lou's eyes lose their surprise.
"Friend? Hardly. He decided to play ride-along-bounty-hunter a couple months back," she shot back, her voice doing that snark thing it did when she talked to her boss.
So that was how she wanted to play it.
"Aw, duchess. That's all ya got to say? After we shared a shower?"
Paine's head lifted, giving both of us a smirk.
"You co-opted the shower in my hotel room. Without asking. I didn't use it at all. Now if you're done with the dick-swinging with your buddy here, I came here for some peace. Go away."
"Getting stabbed a few thousand times with a needle is your idea of peace, duchess? I'm startin' to worry 'bout yer sanity."
"Luckily, your opinion isn't a factor here."
"Ya are in a mood." She was the type who liked shite on the table, so I was happy to put it there. "What are ya getting done?" I asked, moving a foot forward to lean around Paine's body.
Her arm.
She wasn't getting a new tattoo per se.
She was getting work done on an old one.
She was getting a bullet filled in.
I felt my brows drawing low, wondering what would prompt it. If it was an anniversary thing, or a job thing. Like maybe she got one filled in whenever she brought in a certain kind of scumbag.
"Well, I'm done here," Paine said, putting the gun down, pulling off his gloves. "I am going to go in the back for some coffee so you guys can do... whatever the fuck you are doing," he said, taking off toward the place that used to be his apartment, but now just served as a break room for himself and his new protege.
"Seriously, what are you doing here?" she asked, folding upward, reaching for the paper towel and the spray Paine had already laid out, spraying it on her arm, then wiping away the excess ink.
"I was walking my brother's girl's dogs."
At that, her gaze went to the floor for the first time, and that hard look on her face, in her eyes, melted away.
"Oh, my God. They're hideous," she declared in that sing-song voice every woman I had ever met used around animals. Before the words were even out of her mouth, she was sliding off the chair, and dropping downward. Right onto her knees, waiting for the dogs to come to her.
I dropped the leashes, too curious not to see this through, watching as all five of them charged forward toward her, the clicking of their nails on the linoleum drowning out the soft croon of music from the overhead speakers.
"Oh, you ugly little thing you," she crooned, reaching out with both hands to pet behind One-eye's ears. "Oh, kisses. I love kisses," she added as Tripod climbed up on her legs to lap at her neck. "I only have two hands. Hold on!"
I couldn't seem to hold back the smile that pulled at my lips as she sat there, rubbing bellies, ears, and backs, talking to them like they understood her. "Can I walk them?" she asked unexpectedly, angling her head up at me, dark eyes bright, shining, all the snark and malice out of her tone.
"Ya wanna walk 'em?"
"Yes," she said, enunciating perfectly.
"I come with the deal," I told her, rocking back on my heels, hands in my front pockets.
"Obviously," she said, rolling her eyes, and already gathering leashes, trying to untangle them.
"They keep them all pretty straight once ya get movin'," I assured her as one of them wrapped her leg up in his excitement. "Big dog fan, eh?" I asked after she handed cash to Paine, apologized for the dog hair everywhere while paying no mind to it coating her clothes, and we headed out the door onto the street.
"I had one once," she recalled, letting the dogs pull her for half a block before she got more control. "He was old when I was a kid. Kinda just laid around a lot. But I adored him. He died when I was maybe seven? And my mom said she was too heartbroken to get another. So we never did."
"Ya aren't a kid anymore, duchess. Ya could get a dog."
"My lifestyle isn't conducive to having a pet. I am forever out of town. Motels and hotels don't always let dogs stay."
"I'm always in town."
Her head swiveled at that, brows drawing close, making two little lines form between them. "Are you offering to co-dog-own with me?" she asked, lips curving until she showed a sliver of white teeth, not bothering to hide how amused she was by the idea. "Our little mutt trading nights and weekends? Come on now."
"Ya'd get something ya want."
"And you'd get to weasel your way into my life."
"Duchess," I said, tone sharp enough to make her stiffen, stop short, and turn even as I pressed forward, pushing until her back met the wall of the building. Until my pelvis was pressed to hers. "If I wanted a way into yer life, I wouldn't have to bargain my way in."
I watched as she struggled to find something to say to that, and she swallowed hard.
"I don't need any men in my life," she decided to go with, eyes on mine as her chin lifted, challenging.
"Need? Nah, duchess. But want is a whole other matter entirely."
"I never said I wanted you."
"Ya think ya'd have to say it?" I asked, pressing closer, my stomach and chest brushing into hers, actually feeling her breathing shallow out at the contact. "Ya think I can't tell without the words?" I added, ducking my head down closer to hers, watching her lips part, the tip of her tongue swipe out to wet them, whether she meant to or not. In fact, it was almost hotter to imagine it wasn't done with purpose, that she simply didn't have the control, that her body reacted on its own without input.
"Ad..." she started, her voice nothing more than an airless whisper.
"Ya think I don't feel how yer breath is fast and shallow? How yer pulse is speeding just having me close?" I added, lifting a hand to slide my fingertips down the column of her neck, pausing for a second at the pulse point there. "How yer skin responds to me?" I went on, sliding a finger into the dip of her clavicle, watching as goosebumps formed there. "I don't even have to feel it to know yer pussy is dripping with the idea of me sliding my fingers there, rubbing my finger over your clit, sinking inside to torture yer G-spot. Maybe get down on my knees and taste ya until ya are begging for my cock. Try to tell me, Lou, just try," I dared her, my lips brushing her earlobe as I spoke, "that ya aren't thinking of me buried inside your tight cunt until ya scream. Try."
When she pulled air back into her lungs, it made her chest shake, causing her breasts to brush into my chest, nipples hard just from my nearness, a realization that made my poor cock throb with need.
"Adler, we're on the street," she managed to say, even if her voice was uneven as she did it. "And the dogs are pulling," she added as I pulled back enough to keep her from seeing just how lost I was with my need for her.
"Aye," I said, lips twitching when I glanced down to find all fucking five of them sitting patiently, looking up at us. "They are 'bout to rip yer arm off, it seems."
She said nothing to that, just slipped away with the space I had given her, and
started walking once more like we hadn't just been having a moment.
She was good at that.
Compartmentalizing.
Hell, maybe even better than me.
And I was fucking good.
There was one thing for sure.
Lou had secrets.
And while I was generally one for leaving people to theirs - seeing as I wanted to be left to my own as well - I couldn't help but want to uncover hers.
"How far do you usually take them?" she asked, rounding down a street just before crossing into Third Street territory.
"Until they seem tired. Then by the time we get back to the compound, they're dragging ass, and will pass out."
"Someone is keeping five dogs at the compound? Is that new?"
"Ya have been away for a while," I reminded her. "There's been a lot going on 'round here."
"Such as?" she asked, glancing my way for the first time since I had her backed against the wall. When I didn't immediately launch into it, she rolled her eyes at me. "Come on. I live in this town. I have a right to know if a war is breaking out."
"An old war," I allowed, knowing she would find out the truth sooner or later, seeing no reason it couldn't come from me. "Ya been around long enough to know who V is?"
"She was a bit before my time, but I know the story."
"She's out."
"Ah," she said, nodding. "And since Reign helped get her put away..."
"And Summer is her daughter..."
"You guys are on lockdown," she guessed accurately. "Everyone is closing ranks."
"Aye. The dogs. And parrots. Tortoise. Kitten. And other various creatures would normally be livin' in a big Victorian where they get the run of the place. But Reeve-"
"One of your brothers."
"Aye. V got her claws into him. So his girl Rey was brought in. Along with all her critters."
"Is he alright? Reeve? From the stories I hear of V, she's one vengeful bitch."
"Puttin' it lightly, I think. But he's recovered alright. She didn't have him for long."
"And now you are all waiting for the other shoe to drop," she guessed.
"There's no way V has just moved on," I agreed.
"You must be going stir crazy. I mean, I know bikers spend a lot of time at their compounds. But a lockdown sounds stifling. I'm surprised you're allowed to even walk the dogs." My guilt must have been showing on my face, because her eyes lit up. "You're not, are you? You are going to get in trouble for this. What does Daddy Reign do to you when you disobey? Send you to bed without supper? Take away your Xbox?"
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