When he rose his voice, so did everyone else. They argued around me, pointing fingers and growing louder. Spit fell to the floor. The dull roar raged into an all-out nightmarish sound. And as the thrumming of the rhythmic anger rattled my ribcage, I formulated a plan in my mind.
It was simple. We didn’t have a choice. If we didn’t do this, Jin Yung would find someone else. We’d be out of the gun-running game, and it would take ages to build up another form of income like the one we’ve had. My men had bills. Debts. Things they needed to pay off without taking a hit to their income stream. But we also had to maintain some source of income, otherwise we’d be shot anyway. Even though continuing to run the guns was risky, at best. I had a feeling we could still do it. If we offered the guns at a discount and only took a small hit to our pockets, we could get our clients to agree to some hinky shit to get their top-of-the-food chain weapons until I could find us another revenue stream.
“Bronx?” I asked.
“What?” he asked.
I shot him a look. “Fix the tone.”
“Sorry. What is it, Stone?” he asked.
“How’s the bar doing?”
“What?”
“How’s the fuckin’ bar doing? I mean, how’s profits? What’d we gross last month?” I asked.
He furrowed his brow. “Seventy-two thousand, one hundred and twenty-four dollars. Give or take some pennies. Why?”
“And how much of that would we be able to pay out as income without compromising the bar?”
“What are you thinking, Stone?” Texas asked.
I held my hand up. “Answer the question, Bronx.”
He shrugged. “Assuming we put back into the bar what we usually do to maintain it and pay staff, technically fifty thousand of that can be theoretically taken as excess money.”
That would only make up a third of what my men were used to bringing in a month.
“What if we opened it to the public?” I asked.
“What?” Bronx asked.
“Fuckin’ hell, stop with the questions and answer mine. You’ve been rattlin’ my ear off for months about it. What happens if we open it to the public?”
“It—we—double the revenue, almost automatically, with how I’ve got the plans drawn up,” he said.
Still, we’d need another revenue stream.
“Okay. Here’s what we’re gonna do. Notch, call up our clients. They’re set up to pick up their guns tonight that are coming in, right?” I asked.
“Yep. Bronx and I are running and distributing all night.”
“Good. Tell them when you see them that we’re running some specials on the next shipment that’s due next week. Tell them they’ll only get the discount if they meet us at a preferred location, though.”
“Uh huh. And what preferred location would this be?” Bronx asked.
“To be determined. Tell them we put everything on hold because the guns that were originally shipped weren’t the right ones. Someone tried to sell us the cheap shit. I honestly don’t care about the damn lie, just sell it and get them to agree to a fifteen percent discount if they meet us at a preferred location of our choosing. That gives us time to scout out an area, set up a decoy storage unit in case that damn detective is on our tail, and sell off this next shipment of guns.”
“We’re going to be hopping around for a while, aren’t we?” Texas asked.
I nodded. “It’s the only way—”
My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out. I saw I had a text message from a burner phone. But I knew who it was. Harry was the only person I knew who was this paranoid about phones. I opened the message and it was a running script. Untangling itself and decrypting itself from whatever software Harry had used to send me this communication.
“Our old pal?” Texas asked.
I ignored his quip and watched the message unfold.
If you don’t do this, Stone, we will go to the police ourselves. We will tell them about all the deals you’ve made with us in exchange for immunity. Don’t make me do that.
My anger consumed me. My vision dripped red as a deafening roar scratched up my throat. The lodge was filled with my war cry as I cocked back, throwing my phone directly at the wall. It wasn’t until the device smashed into a million pieces that I came back down to earth. That I was able to get a hold of my emotions and not plot Harry and Yung’s death in every way imaginable in my mind’s eye.
I came to, panting air through my nose as I bared my teeth.
“So, new phone, then?” Notch asked.
“Get to working. Now!” I exclaimed.
Sixteen
Hayley
“This is Hayley Joanna.”
“You know, you never told me why you use your middle name instead of your last.”
Stone’s voice rolling through my office telephone caused my back to lock up. My nipples to pucker. My hands to tremble. The hold he had over me was an intensity I couldn't explain, and it wiped away the whole of this past week. Seven days. It had been seven days since our time in the bar. Since our time at his place. And finally, I had his voice back in my ear.
“Stone,” I said softly.
“Hello, Hayley,” he said.
“I uh, I use my middle name on my card because it’s a little more distinctive than my last. Helps set me apart.”
“Is it something boring, like ‘Smith’ or ‘Travis?’” he asked.
“No. It’s just got a little more pull in this area. I don’t like living in its shadow, so I use my middle name instead,” I said.
“Well, it’s a beautiful middle name for a beautiful woman.”
I sighed as I turned my chair around. I faced the window, looking out over the darkened trees of the zoo where my office sat. I abandoned my work in a heartbeat to speak with him. To be with him, in any way I could be.
“So, how have you been?” I asked.
“I’d like to see you again tonight,” Stone said.
“Well, are you going to ask me?”
“I just stated my intention. How does it make you feel?”
Like I want to skip right to dessert.
I cleared my throat. “I mean, I’m up for it if you are. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever hear from you, though. It’s been an entire week.”
“I know. Work’s gotten a bit exciting. Pulling some long hours and all that.”
The leather cut on the back of his jacket crossed my mind and I almost had to hold back a snicker.
“Same time as last time?” Stone asked.
“I never said whether or not I wanted to get together.”
“I hear my answer in your voice.”
I giggled. “You really are something, you know that?”
“So are you, Hayley. So are you.”
I closed my eyes and relished his words before I drew in a deep breath.
“Yes, same time. Nine o’clock. But I really need a shower. Could we at least go back to my place for a bit so I can grab one before we go get drinks?” I asked.
“Whatever you want,” Stone said.
He hung up the phone and I sat there, dazed. Confused. Excited. I spun back around and hung up the phone to my office, then tore through my work. My fingers flew across the keyboard and I checked shipments of food and other products. I made one last round to all my animals, charting the food they’d eaten out of their individual buckets. My idea for each of the animals having their own feeding trough was cleared by the zoo, so it was a project I was heading up in the Africa section before we implemented it throughout the rest of the zoo itself.
And for the bigger animals? It was working splendidly.
Work ticked by faster than I could have ever imagined. And when it was time to go, I found Stone sitting where I’d found him last time. In his leather jacket, his black jeans, his dark boots, and his helmet, parked by my car and waiting for me. I smiled as I walked up to him. I threw my arms around him, unable to resist the urge to hug him.
I drew in the heady scent of his a
ftershave before he released me.
“Follow me?” I asked.
“I’ll be right behind you,” he said.
We drove out to my place and he parked beside me. I led him up to the third floor, then pushed open my apartment door with my shoulder. The door stuck, and it was something maintenance had yet to fix. But at least there weren’t too many boxes scattered about. This past week had come with a lot of unpacking and rearranging of things. And while there were a few smaller boxes that still piled themselves in corners, the bulk of my place had been put together.
“Nice,” Stone said.
“Eh, it’s coming along. Give me fifteen minutes to clean myself up and get some clothes on. Then, we can head out to wherever you wish,” I said.
“You don’t just want to stay here?”
I furrowed my brow. “I thought you wanted to go out?”
Stone shrugged. “We don’t have to. I just wanted to see you. Doesn’t matter what we’re eating or drinking. Or doing.”
His eyes fell down my body and I shivered. They raked back up to me, and his beautiful green eyes held a darkness I wanted to explore. His massive body was there for my taking, clad in all black and covered in a luscious shade between tan and creamy that I wanted to devour. My fingers twitched, my knees weakening.
“Well, then let me get a shower first and we can hang out here,” I said.
Stone nodded, and I forced myself to turn around. I forced myself down the small hallway. I forced myself to walk into my bathroom. I stripped down, tossing my uniform into the hamper in the corner. Then, I walked into my bathroom and began my shower.
I stepped into my walk-in, thankful I’d chosen this design just for the damn thing. Because those small tubs with the curtains that stuck to me all the time whenever I tried to wash down didn’t cut it any longer.
The steamy water battered against my skin. I tried to wash myself down as quickly as I could. I scrubbed my hair and conditioned it, hurrying myself along so I could get back to Stone.
In my fury to clean myself down, I hadn’t heard anyone come into the bathroom. Or take off their clothes. Or open the shower door.
It wasn’t until I felt Stone’s hands on my hips that I yelped.
“Ah!”
“It’s just me, Hayley. Just me,” Stone murmured.
He pressed his lips to my naked neck as his strong arms threaded around my waist from behind.
“Stone? You scared me. What the hell?” I asked.
His hands ventured along my stomach, squeezing my excess. My head fell back to his shoulder as his tongue toyed with my ear. The bubbles of my soap fell away from my skin as his hands wiped me down, following the trails of water along my steep valleys and curves.
“I’d never let someone get this close to you. Not if they had to come through me,” he murmured.
His words shivered me. At least until he bit down into my shoulder. I moaned out, piercing the sound of the water battering against my skin. He turned me around in his arms and crashed our lips together. A fierce, passionate kiss that took my breath away. I felt every part of him pressing into me. Every single muscle as he backed me into the shower wall. I slipped my arms around his neck. His hands slid down my sides. His calluses graced my skin, causing me to moan as he fisted my thighs.
“Come here,” he growled.
He hoisted me against the shower wall. I gasped against his lips. His cock stood at attention, my pussy already wet for him. I wrapped my legs around his waist. I locked them, needing to feel more and more of him. Our kisses grew wet and sloppy as our teeth clattered together, and soon I felt him reach down between us.
He pressed the head of his thick dick to my entrance.
He pushed in, inch by inch, filling me as my jaw unhinged with electric ecstasy.
“Stone. Fuck,” I groaned.
His mouth fell to my neck. Our hips connected as my head fell into the shower wall, and his lips devoured me. Attacked me. Nibbled at me and sucked until I rolled my hips against his. Stone’s massive hands pressed into the shower tiles next to my head. He bucked his hips, filling me and emptying me with each stroke of his cock. My nipples puckered harder than I’d ever felt them before. I ground against him, feeling my clit swell with each stroke as he took what he wanted. I clung to him, my nails digging into the meat of his pebbled strength.
Then, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me from the wall.
“I want so much more of you,” he grunted.
His hands fisted my ass as the shower door was thrown open. The steam from the shower blanketed my bathroom with a thick, heavy fog. He walked me into the wall before sliding his cock out of me, leaving me empty and begging for more of him. He took my hands and led me over to the bathroom counter, where he bent me over it and pressed my tits into the damn sink. His hand wrapped itself into my wet hair. His knee knocked my legs open. And when his cock slickened between my pussy folds before inching into me, I quaked for him.
“Stone, yes. Please!”
“Fuckin’ hell, you’re so damn tight for me. All the fuckin’ time.”
He pounded into me. He pressed me into the bathroom counter as he took what he wanted from me. My ass jiggled for his viewing pleasure. His hand tightened in my sopping wet tendrils. I moaned and whimpered out into the room, his cock bulging against my walls. Throbbing. Pulsing. Aching for more. My pussy fluttered around him as I found the strength to push back, swallowing every inch of his dick down.
“That’s it. Take that cock like I know you want it,” Stone hissed.
His hand tugged at my hair, pulling me up from the sink. His cock ripped out of me and he whipped me around, crashing his lips to mine. I scrambled to feel him. Scrambled to jump and wrap my legs around him. He stumbled us out of my bathroom, the water still running as we collapsed onto my bed. He crawled onto my mattress. His eyes held mine as I pushed myself up, my chest panting for air.
“You’re so beautiful, you know that?” Stone asked.
The statement was so soft, I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right. The words were uttered so lowly in his voice I wasn’t sure I’d strung them together correctly. But, as his lips pressed tenderly to mine, my heart stopped. My blood froze. My skin ignited with a fire that warmed me all the way into the marrow of my cold, rotten, lonely bones.
Stone thought I was beautiful.
I slid my toes up the backs of his legs while he slid himself back into my pulsing warmth. We moved together. Rocked together. Rolled together, as my bed shifted with our movements. Stone found my hands, lacing our fingers together and pinning me down. I gasped for the air he afforded me, bucking against him and feeling his cock stretch me to painfully beautiful girths.
“Stone. Yes. You feel—you’re—so incred—”
“Come for me, Hayley. Let me feel you. Pull me over the edge with you. Shit, woman. Your body. The things it does to me.”
He went on and on, and it brought tears to my eyes. My back arched and my toes curled as he pounded against my pussy. Juices slid down my ass crack. Coated his shaft and his balls as they splattered against his skin. My tits bounced and he buried his face into them. Seeking out a home he didn’t know he needed. His cock burst within me, triggering my own orgasm as I spiraled over the edge. His growls and grunts overtook me, muting out the rest of the world as he dug himself as deeply into me as he could get.
“Hayley. Fuckin’ shit, so good to me. Squeeze that—right—fuck!”
“Stone. Stone. Stone. Stone. Don’t stop. I com—I com—I com—”
Stars burst in my vision. Darkness fell over my body. His arousal painted my walls, leaving me breathless and needy for more. I collapsed to my bed. Sweat intermingled with the droplets of water that still hadn’t dried yet. And when he collapsed on top of me, I held him as close as I could get him. I held him to me while his cock stayed sheathed inside my body, warm, comforted, and cradled.
I kissed the shell of his ear and I could have sworn I felt him sigh into my neck.
I didn’t know how long we laid there. I didn’t know how long it took him to roll off my body. I didn’t know how long I laid there with my head on his chest and his arm scooting me closer to him. We tangled ourselves within one another, not giving a care in the world to the mess we’d just made of my bed. And as the shower continued to run in my bathroom, providing us with a soothing background, I finally found the courage to ask the burning question lingering in the back of my mind.
“What does your leather cut on your jacket mean?” I asked.
He tensed, and I knew I’d already fucked up.
“Just a design,” Stone said.
“I mean, what does it mean? Like, is it special to you?”
“It is.”
“Why?”
“Just is,” he said.
I sighed. “Stone, if we’re going to keep doing this, I deserve to know.”
“What some design on a leather jacket means?” he asked.
“No, whether or not I’m dating some sort of a killer.”
He completely unwound himself from me and scooted away. I propped myself up onto my elbow, watching as he turned toward me. His eyes hooked with mine, and I saw each of his walls being thrown up. Slamming closed, one by one, as his eyes slid down my naked body.
“You really are a sexy woman,” he said.
“Don’t change the subject,” I said.
“You gave yourself away the second you called it a leather cut,” he said curtly. His eyes snapped up to mine. “Because no one calls it that unless they know what they’re dealing with.”
I sighed. “Stone, are you part of—”
“What do you think I am?” he asked.
His question gave me pause.
“Do you think I’m a killer?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No. I don’t. But I still need to hear it from you.”
“You don’t trust your own gut?”
“It’s not that.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“I hardly know you.”
“And yet, we’ve shared two very passionate moments together. But you don’t trust me to protect you? To care for you?” he asked.
Stone: The Lost Boys MC #2 Page 10
