by Zoey Parker
“Don’t brag.” I sighed. “I don’t know how to say it, because today was the first time I’ve ever seen anything like what you showed me. I’ve always lived like this. Even when we didn’t have this kind of money, I was able to use my body to make it happen.” I was giving away secrets! What the hell was wrong with me?
“Well, what’s bothering you, then?” He reached across the table and put a comforting hand on mine. “You can talk to me about everything, you know? It doesn’t always have to be snide remarks, challenges, and jokes. It can be serious, too.”
“It’s just a huge jump, and I feel like you’re doing all of this to try to impress me when I’ve used my looks—not even sex, mind you, just my looks—to get this from people since I was a teenager. I wasn’t kidding when I said this afternoon was more impressive than throwing money away on fancy dinners. You know, I’d be happy to let your kitchen staff cook for us again,” I told him.
“Well, we can go if you’d like.” He raised his hand to summon the waiter.
“No, no. I feel better after getting all of that off of my chest. Let’s eat here. I want to try this steak you told me about.” I smiled at him to let him know I meant what I was saying. I hated that we were starting to connect now that I knew the diamond was so close.
I let him order for me, since he seemed to be the steak expert, and I sat back sipping my wine while we waited.
“Hey, is there anywhere to eat where you grew up?” I asked suddenly while he was looking down at his phone.
“Oh, sorry,” he apologized. “I wouldn’t normally do that, but I just got a text from the guys. They’re calling an emergency meeting. I told them I’ll be there after we eat. What were you saying?”
I could have allowed it to make me feel insulted, of course, but there was something very genuine about his love for the MC. Letting it distract him from our conversation and our dinner was actually endearing more than insulting.
“I asked if there were any places to eat in your hometown,” I repeated.
“There used to be.” He narrowed his eyes while he thought about it. “There was this lady named Lois who owned a little restaurant she ran out of her kitchen. She converted the front of her house into a diner.” He laughed and shook his head while he talked. “She basically converted the living room and dining room into a restaurant and built a screened in porch for additional space. Then, she remodeled her kitchen so it could support the restaurant. She converted one bathroom into a guest bathroom, kept her bedroom, and turned her second bedroom into her living room.”
“She lived at work?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said thoughtfully. He took a sip of his wine before continuing. “You know, she might still be around. She’d be in her sixties, I think, or somewhere around there. We’ll have to look her up next time.”
Next time, he said. I wanted to cry, and I figured it must have shown on my face.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, more concerned this time.
“Yeah, I’m fine. You’ve just been so good to me, Gunner, and I’m afraid that all that’s going to have to end soon,” I answered, trying to explain how I felt without giving away why I felt that way. I couldn’t tell him that I was about to steal the Sun Stone and never see him again.
“It doesn’t have to,” he said. “I’m probably going to regret saying this, because I’ve never really let anyone in, but if you want a place to call home that’s not a hotel suite, I’d be happy to fix up your own space in my house.”
“If I stayed there, you know I’d want to stay in your bed,” I told him matter-of-factly.
“But you’d need your own closet space and a bathroom or whatever. We’d have to work something out.” He talked quickly, nervously, and took another sip of his wine.
“I don’t want to put you out, Gunner. You’ve been really good to me, and I’ve never been one to stay in one place too long, so it’s really not anything personal. It’s just probably going to be time soon.” I nodded as I finished.
And I was saved by the steaks arriving.
“Oh, finally, I get to see what this best steak in town is all about,” I joked, changing the subject.
We ate in silence, partly because of the awkward tension between us, and partly because of how flipping amazing the steak was. It was tender, succulent, and juicy. There was so much flavor in it, and it had the perfect texture as I bit into piece after piece.
It made me want to sink my teeth into the man sitting across the table from me. It made me want to put him in my mouth and feel his tender flesh between my teeth and across my tongue.
It was a good thing he had a meeting to go to after dinner, or else I was going to make things so much harder by fucking his brains out on the couch downstairs or in the pool.
As he finished his food, he sat back and downed the rest of his wine.
“Alright,” he said as he got up and dabbed the corners of his mouth with his napkin. “I’m really sorry to have to go like this, but I’ve got to run. The car is outside. You’ll have two drivers with you. I had another one ride my bike out so I could take it to the meeting. Don’t wait up. I’ll be late.”
He kissed me on my forehead, such a delicate, tender gesture it broke my heart again.
“I’ll see you when you get home tonight,” I told him. “I hope everything’s fine with the MC. Maybe you can tell me about it when you get home tonight.”
“I doubt it,” he said as he started to walk away.
“Wake me.” I had to throw that last little bit out there.
If everything worked out, though, I wouldn’t be at the house waiting for him when he got home.
Chapter Twenty-One
Gunner
The text had read, Emergency meeting tonight. Offer on diamond and info on SF.
I had done something I couldn’t remember doing since the day we had started The Immortal Devils, though. I texted back, Dinner with SF, can’t run off, will be there after.
I had never put off the MC for anything, much less for a woman. A piece of ass, really. It wasn’t like she was my old lady or anything like that. She had made that abundantly clear recently, and her talk at dinner about how it was all going to be over soon made me nervous.
Either shit was getting too emotional for her, or she was about to try to pull something. Maybe her boss was going to try to pull something, and she was going to have to get out of the way for it to work.
I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen, but I could feel it. Something big was on the horizon, and I wasn’t really sure I would be able to stop everything before it all came crashing down on me.
I was greeted outside by my driver with my vest and the keys to my bike. I handed him my black suit jacket and tie, and I threw my colors on over my shoulders. I nodded back to the driver standing by the Mercedes, and he walked back to the car. I had my men trained. They didn’t even really have to ever speak to me. They operated with an almost military efficiency.
Sierra had been right, though. My life now was a huge jump from my life growing up. Damn right, it was, I wanted to tell her. I had fought my way up to where I was, sometimes literally, and I didn’t need someone trying to make me feel guilty for enjoying the fact that I could afford really good steaks now, when I couldn’t even afford candy bars as a kid.
I didn’t have time to think about that. I needed to figure out what the guys knew about her and what we had going on with potential buyers for the Sun Stone. I put on my helmet and fired up the bike. She roared as I sped off down the street to the clubhouse.
I rolled up into the old shop and the guys were waiting on me. They shut the bay door behind me and greeted me as I got of the bike.
“What’s going on, brothers?” I asked them. They usually weren’t waiting on me right when I came in.
“We’ve got to talk,” Duncan said in a serious tone.
“When you said you were eating dinner with Sierra, we almost drove out to find you,” Venom added, slapping a ha
nd down on my shoulder and gripping it.
“What’s going on, guys? What am I missing here?” Suddenly, I was concerned. I had been sort of laughing and shrugging off who Sierra possibly was, and it was starting to feel like I should have just run her off as soon as I thought something wasn’t right.
“Let’s go back to the office. Bryce and Luther need to be part of this discussion,” Duncan said.
Talk like that usually indicated that someone was in deep shit, and I didn’t like feeling like that person was me. Still, I took my seat at the head of the table, and everyone else sat on the sides where they usually did. There was no indication I was being kicked down as the head or kicked out altogether.
“Let’s go ahead and get started,” Duncan said before I even had a chance to greet Bryce or Luther. “There are two reasons why I called this meeting. One of those probably could have waited until tomorrow, but the other reason couldn’t wait, especially after you put that reason before the meeting. Now, I understand, Gunner, you were at dinner. Unless someone was dying, I wasn’t going to expect you to jump up and run out, but you were at dinner with the reason I wanted to talk to you.”
My stomach sank.
“I found out who she is and who she works for, and that also tells me why she’s hanging around. After tonight’s meeting, you need to get her out of your house.”
“Okay, but who is she?” I asked. “Let’s get all the information before we start talking crazy.” I didn’t like the way I sounded, defending her, but I didn’t want to jump to conclusions without any information.
“Her name is Sierra Farrow, just like she told you, unless that’s a kind of permanent alias, but I don’t think it is. The weird thing is she usually does use aliases when she’s working, and I’ve run across a few of those, like Ariana DeVille and Lily Hughes,” Duncan explained.
“I’m partial to Lily Hughes.” Venom laughed.
“Anyway, kudos for getting her to use her real name with you. Apparently that is not the norm for her. Also, she works for a black market jewelry dealer who simply goes by Coyote,” he continued.
“Coyote,” I said thoughtfully. “I was trying to think of her name earlier and couldn’t for the life of me. Thank you. Wait, she works for Coyote?”
Duncan nodded.
“That means she’s after the Sun Stone.”
“But you knew that already, right?” Bryce chimed in.
“Yeah, I suspected it, but I didn’t really take it seriously,” I said, growing exasperated. I had all but convinced myself that she had sought me out because of my reputation with the ladies. There were times when I thought she was after the diamond, but I never took it to heart. She’d been too good in bed, and too eager to sleep with me or do whatever else I wanted to do.
But that was the kicker, wasn’t it? She was too eager.
“Man, I’m such a fool,” I said, shaking my head.
“Nope, she’s that good, Gunner,” Duncan said flatly. “She’s got a pretty impressive list of possible marks, so she’s got to be good at getting to people. Plus, she wouldn’t work for Coyote if she wasn’t a badass. You know this.”
I laughed. Coyote was huge. She was a big deal. We had pretty much stayed out of each other’s way all this time because she specialized in jewelry, and we handled money itself for the most part. The Sun Stone was our only real venture into the jewelry market.
“There’s no chance we can get Coyote to buy it, is there?” I joked.
“You know she doesn’t buy a damn thing,” Venom said.
“Yeah, that’s why Sierra is sent to procure pieces for her boss.” I closed my eyes.
“Where is she now?” Luther asked in his heavy voice.
“She’s at the house. I’ve got to get rid of her after this.” I dreaded going home and confronting her. It had to be done, but I didn’t want to do it.
“Alright, we’ll make the rest of this quick,” Duncan said.
“Yeah, what about this buyer?” I asked.
“Wealthy legit jewelry dealer. He’s offered us three billion.” Duncan was very proud of his number.
“Is there a name?” I asked.
“Tommy Price,” Duncan read from a piece of paper in front of him.
“Do we know anything about him? Can we trust him?” I continued to probe.
“Whoa there, buddy.” Venom laughed. “You’re letting this jewelry thief stay in your home, but you want to vet this dealer?”
“Well, my little thief is alone with my security guards, so the diamond isn’t going anywhere. Furthermore, I haven’t spent almost a week banging this jewelry dealer, okay?” I snapped back at him.
“Fair point,” Duncan added. “Fair fucking point. But I’ve verified the guy. He’s legit, and he’s exclusive. He only sells to wealthy European collectors. He said he doesn’t fool around with American buyers because they don’t have any real money. I’ve checked on some of his clients, and no, we’re all practically homeless compared to these guys.”
“Well, damn. Are we going to let it go for three?” I asked.
“Why not?” Luther chimed in unexpectedly. “This Sun Stone brings a lot of trouble with it. I’d like to see it gone.”
“I second that,” Bryce agreed.
“Me, too, honestly,” Venom said. “If we can get rid of it before you have to get rid of Sierra, maybe you can salvage whatever the hell you guys have going on.”
“I doubt it.” I sighed. It seemed pretty much inevitable that I was going to have to run her off as soon as I left the meeting.
“Well, fearless leader, what do you think about the number?” Duncan asked.
“When does he want to make the deal?” I asked. “We need to let this thing go, and three billion is decent.”
Everyone clapped and cheered to hear that we were finally going to make a deal on the diamond.
“I’ll talk to him tomorrow and see what he wants to do about it. You just make sure that girl you got at your house doesn’t snatch it up and run off with it in the meantime. We can’t afford to lose this sale, okay?” Duncan looked at me with a serious, stern look in his eyes.
“Got it.”
“Alright, now go,” Venom said. “We’ve handled business. You need to get back to the house and run that fine piece of thieving ass off.”
“On it.” I couldn’t even laugh. I felt sick to my stomach knowing that I had been fooled by her so easily. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I had known what she was up to the whole time. I just chose to ignore it. Dammit!
“Hey, call us if you need any backup, if your boys at the house can’t handle her,” Duncan called after me as I left the room.
“We don’t mind getting Immortal on her,” Aced added, smacking his fist into his palm.
“I know, guys. Thanks. I’ll let you know what happens.” I hurried out of the room and raised the bay door to get out of the garage.
I pulled out my phone and checked the time. The meeting had somehow taken over an hour. Well, it had been an hour since I left the restaurant. Surely she hadn’t had time to do anything by then.
I hopped on my bike and sped out of the garage towards the house. I was only a few minutes away. Surely everything was alright.
I didn’t have any missed calls or messages from security, which told me that there hadn’t been any emergencies at the house.
I should have known. I should have researched her immediately. I should have asked all the important questions right up front. I should have done so many things differently, like kicking her out of the bed the next morning to send her on her way so that I didn’t have to deal with someone snooping around my house and trying to steal from me.
If Coyote had been willing to buy the diamond, I would have been more than happy to sell it to her to get it off my hands. I knew she could find better buyers than I could anyway. She worked on the black market, where prices went through the roof. People paid ridiculous amounts of money for things that no one else could get them.
The Sun Stone was right up her alley.
Now that I knew she had sent someone to infiltrate my home and take the diamond for her, I was ready to sell it for any amount just to keep her from getting it. I was tempted to tell Duncan to kick the price down to one billion just to get rid of it, but if the guy was ready to buy at three, we needed to make it happen.
I had never heard of Sierra Farrow before meeting her, which really bothered me. Knowing that she worked for Coyote, I knew that she didn’t work small cases. Coyote only dealt with big-ticket items, which meant that Sierra was the nameless thief behind some of the biggest heists in recent history. Anything that I knew Coyote was behind, it was probably Sierra who had actually done the work.
