by Sophia Gray
His question threw me a little because I was expecting something about the Chaos Disciples, that night, or something else to do with the club. I definitely wasn’t expecting him to want more information on the sexy little nurse. But maybe I should have been. She’s a sexy thing, and Kato likes ‘em tall. My eyes narrowed a little at him, “I told you. She’s your fucking nurse.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but where the fuck did you even get her? I mean, what did you do, call the Uber version of Nurses Gone Wild? She looks more like a damn stripper than a nurse, and that would make a hell of a lot more sense, honestly.”
“You don’t remember her?” I asked, ignoring the stripper comment. Honestly, I wanted to strip her, but I wasn’t necessarily keen on anyone else getting that privilege. I wanted her, and that meant she was off limits until I was through.
Kato frowned a little, thinking it over. “Should I?” he finally asked. “Is she actually a stripper? Paying for college or some other bullshit?”
I snorted. Yeah, they’re all paying for college. “No, she’s not. I wasn’t lying when I said she was a real nurse.”
Shrugging a little—and then wincing because he was still sore—Kato asked, “Then why would I recognize her? I haven’t had reason to spend a lot of time in the hospital.”
Which was a rule. Unless you were fucking dying, you didn’t go to the hospital. And even then, sometimes you just had to bite the bullet. It depended on what we got into, but hospitals tended to ask a lot of questions, and when you didn’t answer them right, the police got involved. Avoiding that was our priority most of the time, so no one had spent a lot of time in the hospital.
Though Kato should have.
I pushed aside the microscopic twinge of guilt over risking his life like that. I was supposed to look out for my boys, but sometimes, doing that meant throwing one of them under the bus. Sacrifice the one for the many and all that crap.
Besides, Kato knew what he was getting into. It wasn’t like he was some innocent.
“She was the one who found you that night,” I explained. Anything he remembered about her that night might be helpful in telling me how much she knew about us and the Disciples. “Do you remember if she showed up when those guys were there?”
Again, Kato took a long, drawn-out moment to think. His memories of that night were foggy still, but things were coming back to him and sorting themselves out in his head. After a while, he shook his head a little. “Nah, boss. I don’t think so. I’ll be honest though, I was out before they were gone, you know? She could have been in that fucking car, and I’d never know it. Why? You think she was in on it?”
His eyes flashed with quick, white hot anger. If Jamie had been in the room with us in that moment, I’d have stepped in front of her automatically because I knew that look in Kato’s eyes. It meant he’d tear something apart just for being too close. And it didn’t matter whether or not Jamie had actually been a part of anything or not. She was as good as guilty to him right then just because he was suspicious of her.
The urge to defend her came up quickly and without warning. “No, I don’t. That woman was probably a damn preacher’s daughter or something. She wouldn’t know bad if it tapped her on the ass.”
The look of murder faded from Kato’s gaze, though suspicion lingered there. He grinned wolfishly. “I don’t know. I’ve met a lot of preacher’s daughters who liked to get freaky in the pews, if you know what I mean.”
Actually, I did. I’d had a pretty little reverend’s daughter back in high school. She’d gone to a private Catholic school, the kind with those little pleated skirts and the button down shirts. On the surface, she was an angel, but beneath that skirt was a wicked desire that she sated with my cock. Why? Because I was already wearing leather and had tattoos at that time and daddy forbid her from doing the nasty with anyone, especially with me.
I knew how good girls worked. They liked to but cute and innocent on the outside, but inside, they were desperate for a good, hard fucking.
And I was pretty sure that Jamie fit that bill, too. Probably not as innocent as that little Catholic school girl had been, but she was definitely in the good girl category.
Focus, I ordered myself. Thinking about the things I wanted to do to her pussy wasn’t the priority right now. Getting Kato to understand that I didn’t consider her a spy for the Chaos Disciples—even if I still thought she could be a liability—was.
“Yeah, been there, tasted that little slice of pink heaven,” I confirmed. His grin widened right before I brought him back on target. “But being fucking kinky in the sack is one thing, working for the Chaos Disciples is another. She doesn’t seem to know a damn thing about the life.”
“She could be faking,” he pointed out, his smile folding into a thin line.
I shrugged. Yeah, she could be, I acknowledged silently. Out loud, I said, “Fat chance. Woman was freaking out when I came upon you two. Not the kind of calm and collected type of reaction you’d find from someone who was in on it.”
“Could have been an act.”
“It fucking wasn’t,” I said to him in little more than a growl. My eyes narrowed, and I took a step towards the cot, my hands curling into tight fists.
Some part of me knew that I shouldn’t be getting this pissed over some woman, but I mentally brushed that aside. I told myself that it wasn’t about Jamie; it was about Kato respecting my authority. I was in charge, and that meant when I told him something, he swallowed it without question.
“I don’t have to fucking explain myself to you, Kato,” I reminded him, pulling myself up to my full six feet four inches. “I say she’s good, she’s good, got it?”
Kato looked like he was going to argue with me for a moment, but he must have realized how stupid that would be. He was in a cot, his side all stitched up, still feeling like shit, and I was madder than hell. Didn’t matter why for any of these things. All that mattered was that was how it was. Meaning he didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell.
Finally, he looked away and shrugged his shoulders again. He held back the wince, though I saw him tense. “Whatever you say, boss.”
“That’s right. I am the boss. Don’t fucking forget it again.”
# # #
I stepped out of the mudroom feeling twice as frustrated as I did going in. Which is a hell of a thing because I was pretty damn frustrated to begin with. Between that cock tease Jamie and Kato’s defiance, I felt like killing something…or fucking something good and hard.
My gaze traveled up the stairs towards the location of Jamie’s temporary room. I’d set it up so that she was on the second floor in an effort to put some distance between her and the front door. I wanted the chance to catch her if she decided to make a break for it and stairs proved be good for just that. They offered me time, anyway.
It helped that my room wasn’t far from hers. In fact, she’d have to pass mine in order to get out.
I’d made a point to lay down the law with Kato, but I wasn’t dumb enough to think that was a permanent fix. If he thought that Jamie wasn’t trustworthy, he wouldn’t let that sit. And on some level, I appreciated that about him. If she was working for the Disciples—or for the cops, for that matter—she was a serious liability. And that affected all of us. But my issue wasn’t so much with his mistrust of her, though my raging desire for her wasn’t fond of that, either. Instead, it was the idea of him standing up against me, like he had any goddamned say in how I ran things.
That was enough to piss off the pope, and I wasn’t such a forgiving guy.
But my anger aside, there was a logistic issue, too. If Kato decided he still didn’t trust Jamie, then he’d ignore my decree that she wasn’t going to be a problem. And that meant he might do something stupid. One of two stupid things, probably.
Start muttering his theories about what kind of a danger Jamie was.
Or take her out.
I wasn’t good with either of those things. It put me on edge, though I told m
yself it was all about the need to be in charge and to keep people in line. But there was a squirming feeling inside that hinted it might be something else. This I promptly ignored.
Running a hand through my hair, I shook my head. “Fuck.” Letting out a breath, I started towards the staircase. I stomped up the stairs, not caring how much noise I made. It was my damn house; I’d make as much noise as I wanted.
I reached the second floor landing and paused. My door was just past the stairs. I could just go inside and crash out for a bit. Or I could start making the calls I knew I needed to make. The ones that were to the boys, letting them know about the Chaos Disciples and what had happened to Kato. Or rather, about ordering all of them to get their asses here so that I could tell them in person. I knew better than to tell anyone but Marco over the phone. It was dangerous to give people that kind of information, then send them off half-cocked. Maybe it would all be fine, but I could think of a few assholes that would go looking for trouble. The rest wouldn’t mind getting into trouble if they ran into one of the rival gang members.
So no spilling the beans over the phone, but yes to making calls.
My eyes slipped past my door, however, to eye the one beside it. Jamie’s. I hadn’t seen her downstairs, and she didn’t spend a lot of time wandering around the place, so I knew she had to be in there. I thought of her long legs encased in those perfect, tight jeans. I decided early on that I liked those modelesque legs, even when they were wrapped up in what seemed like miles of fabric from her scrubs. I’d yet to see them bare, and I was beginning to think I never would.
A frown tugged at the corners of my mouth. My plan had been to seduce her and figure out what she knew about what was going on here, but I’d all but discarded it after talking with Kato. Not that I didn’t still want to slide into her wet center and screw her brains out, but I knew there were some other things to consider now.
Mainly, the fact that she was in danger if she stayed here much longer. Danger from Kato but also from the Chaos Disciples. If things turned into a real war between us—and they would, I just wasn’t sure if I’d be the one to really push it or not—she could easily become collateral damage. Chaos Disciples see her around us and suddenly, her head’s on the chopping block. But if she stayed here much longer, there was a good chance that my own men would take care of her. And not in the nurturing way.
Sure the woman was a pain in the ass, but she’d saved Kato’s life, and I didn’t think it was fair to reward her with an untimely death just for doing what she felt she had to. Talk about shitty.
And all that ammounted to needing to get her the hell out of here before the shit hit the fan. I’d have to escort her out before things got serious, and with any luck, I could get her off in the middle of the night without a soul watching. That would be the best case scenario.
Though I’d rather be getting both of us off, I thought crudely, once again imagining her long, lean body undulating beneath my bulkier one.
Ignoring those desires, because they were going to distract me, I made a beeline for the door to the guest room. Her door. I promised myself that it was only to tell her that I expected her gone by the end of the day, and to inform her that I’d found her a job elsewhere. Like, in another town.
That wasn’t true yet, but it would be by the end of the day. Just like I would make sure that she was fired from her current job.
I was serious about getting her out of this as alive and uninvolved as possible. This would be the quickest way of doing so. No one could go after her if she wasn’t around.
Not bothering to knock—because it was my house and because I half hoped to catch her in her underwear—I opened the door, preparing myself for a fight. Instead, I met silence. The room was messy. At least, as messy as it could be given that Jamie had very little of her own things and only a few that I’d purchased for her. All these things were currently sitting on the bed, dumped out on the bedspread. The drawers were pulled open, and the toiletries were spilling out of one of the silk pillowcases that had been on the bed earlier.
Gritting my teeth, I quickly realized what was going on. “The bitch left.”
Anger tore through me, white and hot. Yes, I wanted her to leave but on my terms. Always on my terms. Storming out of the room, I stomp heavily down the stairs to the front door. I ripped it open and stared outside—outside to where her car is very obviously missing.
Chapter Eleven
Jamie
There was an odd war going on within me. On the one hand, I felt extremely proud of myself for leaving. Screw Pax and Kato and all the other strangely buff, leather wearing, motorcycle riding employees—or whatever you wanted to call them. They had no right to order me around and manhandle me and then, on top of it all, keep me like some sort of prisoner. Pax could take all of his reasons and shove them up his ass because I wasn’t buying them. Sure, the money was great and all, but it wasn’t enough to buy my freedom from me.
But despite all of those surface feelings, I felt a little nervous. I was in my car, driving back to where I hoped the main road was. I wasn’t familiar with this area specifically, but if I could get to the main road, I was sure I could make it home from there.
If I’d left right away, it wouldn’t have been a problem, I thought. I was sure I’d have remembered the road well enough right after traveling down it.
Navigation aside, there was also the little niggling in the back of my head that this could be dangerous. Pax had said he owned a company, and it was through that company that he hired and paid me. But what if that was some front for a crazy mafia hitman business?
Okay, that sounded a little extreme—I really needed to stop reading those damn romance novels—but at the same time, it was starting to sound a little less far-fetched. In fact, based on the way everyone was acting and their reluctance to let me leave for anything, I was halfway to buying that.
“Jesus, did I just run out on a hitman?” I asked the empty car aloud.
I pressed down on the gas a little harder, suddenly thinking that putting as much space between myself and that house was a damn good idea. If Pax came after me, I was screwed. And not in the seducing me, ripping off my clothes, sexy kind of way, either. No, as in pour my feet in concrete and dump me in the river.
A shudder ran through my body, unbidden. God, I didn’t want to swim with the fishes.
Just go home, get changed, and call work. Everything’s going to be fine, normal. They won’t try anything because you can call the cops on them.
But as soon as that thought ran through my mind, I realized just how uncomforting that was. Seriously? I could call the cops. Which meant I was a liability. Which meant they’d come after me, right? That was how all of this crap worked!
Suddenly turning that thought around on its head, I tried to reason that they wouldn’t come after me because I didn’t know enough. “I mean, other than knowing that Kato was in an accident, I don’t know anything,” I told the steering wheel, starting to sound a little panicky. Not good. “Sure, I know where they are, but what’s that matter if they’re not doing anything illegal?” I winced because I was pretty sure they were doing something illegal. I just wasn’t sure what. “Okay, um, maybe they’ll just move to a different house? It looks like Pax inherited something from his parents.”
The words fell flat even to my own, willing ears. No, they wouldn’t move. That was complicated and a waste of resources. Instead, the easiest thing to do would be to get rid of the person who could potentially lead the police right to them.
I was so focused on my worries—so positive that Pax was right behind me, blazing after me on his motorcycle like some demon straight from hell—that I didn’t notice the lights in front of me. When I did see them, I thought they were coming from the main road, which was, finally, just up ahead. So I didn’t pay them much attention other than to be vaguely aware of them.
I didn’t notice when they slowed down or when they branched off, two car headlights turning into two inde
pendent, motorcycle lights. I didn’t start noticing them until they split off from the middle of the road and they’re on either side of it. One head’s right for me, and the other closes in until they’ve got me boxed in. My eyes widen and I curse, resisting the urge to jerk the wheel for fear that I’d hit one of them.
They zoom past me quickly, and I breathe a sigh of relief, relaxing my death grip on the wheel. “What the hell was that anyway?” I mutter under my breath, my heart still pounding from the crazy motorcycle stunts. I wondered if they were more of Pax’s boys. He seemed to have a lot of employees running around. Probably doing illegal drug deals or assassinations or whatever.
I glanced in the rearview mirror at the two motorcycles, expecting to see their taillights in the distance. Instead, I saw that they’d turned around and where now facing me again. “What the—?” My question stopped abruptly when I took my eyes from the rearview mirror to stare out the windshield again. That was when I saw the truck.
