She knew that Scars had been badly burned and injured saving Keira’s life, and she knew that Zoe was standing by him as he fought back. Jo didn’t know much else yet, but with just those two things, she thought she knew enough in some ways. She knew the important damn stuff: that they were good, strong, loving people. Wolf’s warning that they weren’t into small talk and didn’t suffer fools gladly barely registered – if Scars and Zoe had good hearts, Jo was going to be able to find a way to work with them.
“OK, babe,” Cowboy said as she unlocked the office door, flicked on the lights. “I’ve got to get going back to the ranch. I just stopped by to drop off some groceries for the party tonight. Rebel’s gonna be cooking all day today, I think.”
“Oh, yes. The welcome-back party.”
“Yep. You’re coming, right?”
“Oh.” Jo flushed and tried to hide it by turning and hanging up her coat. “No. No, I don’t think so.”
“How come?”
“Well… I don’t know that it’s appropriate.”
Cowboy cocked his blond head at her, obviously puzzled. “Not appropriate why?”
“Because I’m new here as of yesterday, and I don’t know Zoe or Scars at all.” She went over to the coffee machine and switched it on. “It’s – this kind of thing is really for friends, isn’t it? Or at least people who have history together.”
“Bullshit,” Cowboy said jovially. “It’s for all of us.”
“Oh. Well.” Jo flushed again. “The thing is, nobody’s asked me to – I haven’t been invited.”
“No?”
“Nuh-uh.” Jo smiled and shrugged. “It’s OK.”
“You’re invited now.”
“I – I am?”
“Yep,” Cowboy declared. “I’m inviting you.”
“Can you do that?”
“Why wouldn’t I be able to?”
“Because – shouldn’t I be invited by the person organizing it?”
Cowboy snorted. “You think we got a person running around here with a clipboard organizing the club social events, babe? Nah. Wolf told us when Zee and Scars were getting back, and we all said we’d be there with bells on. Everyone’s pitched in as they can, and everyone’s showing up for a few drinks and some food. It’s hardly a charity ball with a dress code and silent auction and speech from the mayor, you know? Throw on a pair of jeans, have a beer and eat some greasy onion rings.”
Jo laughed again, liking him more and more with every passing minute. “Yeah, OK, I get it. I should get the stick out of my ass, right?”
“That’s exactly what I was saying.” His eyes danced. “Just way more politely ‘cause you are a lady.”
“Gracias.”
“You got it.” He winked and she winked back, and her sass seemed to please him to no end. “I’m off. You have a good day now, and I’ll see you tonight around seven. We can have a beer.”
“Margarita.”
“Hell, yeah. Even better. Gimme tequila in any shape or form and I’m in. I’ll tell Cole to have lots on hand for us.”
“Bye Cowboy. It was good to meet you. Thanks for escorting me to my desk.”
“You know it, girl. My pleasure.”
And so her day began with a sprinkle doughnut and a sexy biker cowboy named Cowboy with a killer smile, which made it a pretty great damn day by anybody’s standards. She had meeting Scars and Zoe to look forward to, she had a party to attend that night. She was going to have a good day and nobody was going to stop her.
Silver? Silver who?
**
Silver met Cowboy in the parking lot as he walked to The Garage, and he was grateful for the distraction and reason to dawdle and delay. He was in a shit mood already, thanks to the nightmares he’d had the night before, and a few minutes’ reprieve before having to enter the same building as Jolene was a relief.
“Hey, man,” Cowboy greeted him. “You’re up early.”
Silver had been awake for the past five hours, since 3 a.m., so this felt like afternoon to him already. He nodded a bit, took a massive gulp of shit takeout coffee and said, “You too. What’s up?”
“Nothing much. Just brought a bunch of groceries to Rebel for the party tonight. The shopping list was as long as my arm, man, I kid you not. The bags took up my whole damn truck.”
Silver cracked a grin at the thought of his VP being back, with fiancée and baby daughter in tow. “He’s gonna outdo himself for Scars and Zoe, isn’t it?”
“I sure as hell hope so. I mean, I brought him shrimp, so make of that what you will.”
“Impressive.”
“Yeah. Hey, speaking of impressive, I just met Jo. Walked her to work, chatted a bit.”
Silver found himself tensing up. “Yeah?”
“Yep. She’s pretty great, huh? Wicked sense of humor and according to Wolf, she’s the first truly experienced accountant we’ve ever had. I asked her if she’d be willing to do some freelance work for me, help me look at the ranch finances.”
Silver didn’t like the sound of that. “Don’t you have an accountant for the ranch?”
“Oh, sure. Two, actually. But a fresh set of eyes is never a bad thing and anyway, the guys I have are basically bookkeepers for the month-to-month stuff and taxes, and Jo is more about future projections and restructuring to expand. I need that.”
“Do you?” Silver spoke through a clenched jaw. “I didn’t know you wanted to do some expansion.”
“‘Course you didn’t, man.” Cowboy sounded amused. “You’ve never asked me a single damn thing about the ranch. Not in seven years.”
Silver ignored the jab. “Did she agree to it?”
“Did who agree to what?”
“Did she agree to freelancing for you?”
“I told Jo to settle in here first and then let me know. The woman has enough on her plate. Seems interested, though, so I think she’ll say yes.”
“Oh. That’s great.” Silver forced the words out.
“Could be,” Cowboy said cheerfully. “And I never say no to spending time with a lovely lady, even if it’s just to stare at rows of numbers over coffee.”
“Lovely?” Silver really didn’t like the sound of that and forced himself to sip his coffee, all casual and uncaring. “You think so?”
“Definitely. I mean, the clothes do her no favors, but I can tell she’s a stunner under them.”
And just like that, Silver remembered Ana’s (Jolene’s, dammit. God, it feels wrong to not call her ‘Ana’, though) golden, curvy body moving under his gaze, under his hands, under his own weight. ‘Stunning’ was the word for her, and he felt the wild urge to pummel his golden-haired brother until he was down on the snowy ground.
“Anyway,” Cowboy was still talking, possibly unfortunately for him. “I’m off. Lots to do around the ranch.”
“OK.”
Silver knew that he was glowering as he watched Cowboy drive away, then he directed his glare at The Garage. So, Jolene was attracting male attention already, huh? According to Cole, the woman had made quite the splash at Satan’s the day before, with the boys making up reasons to go to the bar and meet her. Cole had mentioned to Silver in passing last night that it had been a parade of his brothers meeting the cute new accountant, for the whole of her lunch apparently.
He stalked over to The Garage now, enraged and not understanding why, which just made him more enraged. Forgetting everything that he’d so calmly resolved the night before, his thoughts were a fucking mess. They were a jumble of flashes from his nightmares mixed with flashes of that amazing night with Ana, incoherent accusations mixed with passionate apologies and explanations.
Why the hell did the woman have to be here? Why was she intent on ruining his life? Why wouldn’t she just go away? Surely she couldn’t enjoy being here with him?
But maybe –
just maybe – she was enjoying being here with other people.
His brothers.
Silver felt his breath stop as he imagined Jolene taking up with Cowboy. Or Jinx. Or Rebel. She’d have zero reason not to, of course, if they asked and if she were interested. It wasn’t like she was married, or like The Road Devils had a policy of non-fraternization at work. Look at Scars and Zoe, both working at club businesses and now engaged. And Vixen, an on-again, off-again waitress at Satan’s who’d basically worked her way through pretty much every guy in the MC. She called herself the club whore and there was no doubt that she was right about it: even though Silver had never been with her, he was one of the few. The woman loved bikers and she loved sex – and she didn’t believe in strings.
The point was, if Jolene attracted the interest of one of the guys and they made a move and asked her out, why wouldn’t she say yes? As she’d shown Silver that night over in Nebraska, she was happy to sleep with a guy she barely knew. Not that he thought she was in Vixen’s league, but still… she was open to men.
Was she open enough to date one of his MC brothers right in front of Silver’s face?
And why the hell was the mere notion bothering him so goddamn much? He was the one who was making calls that very morning to get her cute little ass out of there to a new job ASAP. He was the one who’d spent the whole night before drinking whiskey and planning his strategy on how to get her away from him. He was the one who had told her to quit the day before.
He didn’t care about Jolene Angeles. He didn’t want her in his life, in his garage, in his bed.
He wanted her gone.
So – why was he feeling jealous at the thought of the guys being on the receiving end of one of her stunning smiles? He hated the thought of her being alone with Cowboy… the man could charm the panties off a nun with a wink. If he set his mind to winning Jolene, he’d get her, that was a foregone conclusion.
I want her to smile at me that way that she has. I miss her smiling at me like that.
He wanted her to stay.
Christ, he had to get his shit together here, because he was rapidly losing control of it, and he was literally just one day in. He was all over the place with his intentions, motivations, wants. He was waffling badly, changing his mind every other hour; his normal cool head had so utterly deserted him, he wondered if his brain was actually still present and functional.
Years of separating personal and professional, casual sex and actual feelings, Denver and everywhere else in the world, had collapsed on him and he was suffocating. He’d thought himself a serious badass, a fucking tough cookie, a guy in control of his every thought and emotion – but in less than twenty-four hours, he’d been reduced to a jibbering lunatic, careening around at the mercy of his past, a past that had almost finished him then and which he’d thought he’d moved beyond by now.
Last night’s nightmares showed him that the past was fucking present, front and centre, and he knew it was because Jolene was here. Her presence had triggered that hell and if he got dragged back to that dark, awful, soul-destroying place by his subconscious, Silver wasn’t at all sure that he’d make it through this time. Not in one piece.
So no matter how he felt about their night together, or how he felt about her, Jolene had to go. Then and only then would he regain equilibrium and regain control.
Silver Bennett was a man who was always in control. That was how he survived, it was the core of his identity – without it, he didn’t know who he was.
Or rather, he did know: he was that terrified young man in prison, at their mercy, begging for it all to just please stop. He was weak, he was vulnerable, he was a victim.
He was never going to be that person again.
She had to fucking go before it got the best of him, and the sooner the better, because the hell was strong and it was dragging him back. It was much stronger than he was… last night had shown him that.
Silver went to his office and shut the door, not even glancing up at Jolene’s office, certainly not going up there. He had to get calling people who owed him favors – who owed him big ones – and have someone give the woman a job. A good one, a better one, one that was so great that it would make her hand in her notice to Wolf and take off out the door without a backwards look and zero regrets.
He sat at his desk and pulled up his Excel spreadsheet of contacts. He highlighted a few in yellow, then picked up his desk phone. He started at the top of the page, with a woman who’d founded and was the controlling Board member of a huge supermarket chain, one that sprawled across the country. It was always expanding, always modernizing – and surely always looking for help in financial matters.
He dialed Cate’s mobile number, steadied himself to pitch Jolene to her. As hard as it took.
Chapter Ten
Jo glanced up at the knock on her office door and braced herself for who might be standing there as it swung open. She was hoping against hope that it wasn’t Silver Asshole Bennett, and by some miracle, her luck held.
“Hi,” said the man standing in the door, taking up its entire frame with his monster-sized shoulders. “Jolene?”
“Yes,” she said getting to her feet and pushing her hair off her forehead. “Hi…” Her voice trailed off as she waited for him to introduce himself.
The man stepped into the room and right away, she thought about her lipstick not having been applied in about seven hours, because this man was the kind that made a woman want to look her best. Shallow and superficial to be sure, and Jo didn’t give a good goddamn because this man was all kinds of gorgeous in all kinds of ways, all of which worked just fine for her. Skyscraper-tall and -broad with flaming red hair and sparkling blue eyes, a lush red beard and full lips. He looked like a ferocious Nordic viking, and she responded to that unabashedly primal and primitive part of him fiercely.
“Hi,” he repeated. “I’m Viking.”
Jesus Lord. Of course you are. I could have guessed that myself.
“Viking,” she said and then twigged back to some documents and e-mails that she’d read. “You work at the tattoo parlor, right?”
“Yes ma’am,” he confirmed. “And I’ve been sent over by Scars and Zoe to bring you to the party. Their flight back to Denver was a bit delayed and Keira was cranky and needed a nap, so I know you didn’t meet with them today, but they’re at Satan’s now and asking about you. Cowboy told them that he invited you to the party this morning and you said you’d come. Zoe ordered me on over here, and she’s not a woman that you say ‘no’ to all that easy, believe me.”
“Well, sure I’m coming.” Jo felt flustered at the fact that these guys were pretty determined to get her butt over for drinks; she wasn’t used to being wanted and sought out. “But I need to get a bit cleaned up first…”
“Go on then.” Viking gestured at the small bathroom across the room. “I don’t think you can much improve what’s already pretty damn fine but if you think I’m wrong, go on and prove it, doll.”
Stunned at yet another shining example of the MC guys’ utter insouciance about using endearments upon first meetings with unsuspecting females, Jo could only blush, nod and lurch non-elegantly over to the bathroom. She had a change of clothes in there – she always did at work, just in case an important meeting came up halfway through the day and she felt underdressed, or she was her usual gallumphy self and spilled coffee or yogurt down her front – and she wondered briefly if she should get into them. She examined them critically and decided that there was zero need: the skirt and blouse hanging on the back of the door were as unflattering as the pants and blouse that she currently had on her body.
She shrugged at her reflection, yanked her hair out of its messy ponytail. She fluffed a bit, already seeing a slight improvement; her hair loose always kicked things up a small notch. Jo dove into her makeup bag and did a quick refresh of her cheeks and lids and lips, figuring that a sli
ghtly heavy hand would balance out the dark eye bags and stressed skin.
The cosmetics worked their usual magic and she felt a sudden burst of positive energy: she realized that she did, actually, want to meet Scars, Zoe and Keira, and to get a chance to chat with all the guys in one place and a relaxed atmosphere. Hell, it might even be a fun night and why not? It was a party and when was the last time that she’d been to a party? Years and years. And never to a party with a guest list heaving with hot, tattooed, rough bikers.
To hell with Silver. Satan’s was a huge space and she didn’t have to talk to him. She didn’t even have to look at him.
Jo grinned at her reflection, saw a sparkle in her eyes that hadn’t been there a minute before. Yeah. This was going to be fun.
She strolled back out to the office with a swing to her hips now and Viking’s low whistle was all the confirmation that she needed.
“Damn, girl,” he mock-growled. “You’ve proven me wrong in spades, huh?”
“Damn right,” she mock-drawled back. “I like to keep you boys on your toes.”
“Mission accomplished and no goddamn doubt.” He took her coat from the tree next to the door and held it up for her. “Bundle up now, Jo. That wind is whipping down the mountains and it’s bitter. You don’t want to be sick for Christmas.”
She allowed him to help her into her coat, then hurry her across the parking lot as the wind raged around them. His body was like a giant protective barrier inserting itself between her and the wind, physically blocking its howling chill with ease and no surprise because the man was a tank. They reached the bar and he opened the door like it was nothing at all, the power of the approaching storm no match for Viking’s awesome upper body strength. She tumbled into the bar, already grateful for the warmth and music, liking the laughter and happy babble of voices.
“Jo!” Cowboy hurried over to her and somehow managed to unwrap her from her coat, check out her ass, and press a Margarita into her hand all in one fluid motion. “Welcome, darlin’. Now get some tequila down you and then come and meet Scars and Zee. They’ve been asking about you for the past hour.”
The Devil's Silver (The Road Devils MC Book 2) Page 15
