Lake: A Steel Paragons MC Novel (The Coast: Book 5)

by Eve R. Hart

  I didn’t want to wonder what Bridget was doing and if she was safe, but I did. As I sat there in my bed, I couldn’t help but think about how crazy she was. I tried my best not to think about the fact that she had slept in my bed and that the odd scent that was swirling around me was hers. For some reason, there was a hint of something familiar in it, but I couldn’t place it. Maybe she’d used my body wash and shit. That could have been it.

  I turned on the TV and tried my best to not think about the woman that had taken up residence in my room.

  A couple of hours later, I was pulling up next to Colby at the entrance of the docks.

  “You and me tonight,” I said with a smile.

  He was a good one. I wasn’t sure if I got a vote yet because this whole thing of me having an officer’s patch was still new. We hadn’t voted on anything since I’d gotten the patch. The patch I was very much proud of.

  When I prospected for the Moon Hill chapter, I never thought I’d get this far. It wasn’t like it was some kind of dream of mine. I just wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself and I kind of just stumbled upon the club randomly.

  One night, I found myself in a diner in the middle of nowhere. I had been on the road for hours with no direction. I was running, and even I knew it then. But there I was, drinking shitty coffee and eating the most amazing pancakes I’d ever had, and in walked a group of men that looked like they were closer than brothers. They had this air about them that screamed something to my soul.

  I watched them like a creepy person from a booth in the corner of the diner.

  Finally, I got the courage up to walk over to them. It was the man with the long hair that smiled at me and gave me a nod like he understood where I was coming from that made me gather the strength to ask if I could take a seat. That man— Bocca, I later learned was his name— slid out a chair and pulled me into their conversation without missing a beat. And later that night, I found myself parking my bike in front of their clubhouse.

  A few months later, I asked if I could prospect after learning all about it and was given the chance a few days later.

  Even though they knew my deepest, darkest secrets, they still welcomed me. I mean, they did only after I’d proven myself. Which I spent nearly a year doing.

  Honestly, it wasn’t as hard for me as I would have imagined. Sure, there was a lot of shit to take. A lot of crap to deal with. But I did it with pride because I wanted in. It wasn’t all that bad. Even as I got my cut with a prospect patch, I felt pride and a strange sense of warmth in it.

  This was where I belonged and that feeling wouldn’t change. I knew that in my heart.

  “You ready for this?” I asked the prospect as I hung my helmet on my handlebars.

  “Yes, sir,” he answered as he dismounted his bike.

  He was a good one. I didn’t know his story yet and I wasn’t sure if that was because Iron didn’t know or he was waiting for Colby to open up and share on his own.

  Truth be told, I hadn’t quite figured Iron out yet either.

  I liked Iron, there was no mistaking that. He was more hands-on than Cal had been back in Moon Hill, but I wasn’t sure if that was because we didn’t have a VP for so long. I was almost waiting now that we had that seat filled for Iron to take a step back. So far, he really hadn’t. He was right there pulling the dirty jobs just like the rest of us were. He took a shift a week watching the docks. He didn’t have to but I admired that he did.

  This chapter was pretty big. It was a group made up of people from all the chapters and a few newbies that had jumped through the hoops just like we all had.

  When the club announced the new chapter I had this calling in my heart. I wanted to help the club grow and when they asked if I wanted to be a part of it, I didn’t hesitate to step up and give it my all. I found myself down here, thrown in with a few people I knew well and some I only sort of knew. The start of things was rough but I had expected it. Now, well… now things were locking into place and I felt like we were where I imagined us to be.

  I had very few complaints and most of those were things I knew I’d just have to get used to. This was a bigger city than Moon Hill and I found myself having to constantly remember that. Down here, there were a lot of toes that we could step on and a lot of other syndicates to keep happy. So far we’d done a good job at keeping the peace, but I was smart enough to know that one slip up could bring the house down.

  The night was unproductive but that was the best kind to have out here. I was bone tired by the time Tripp showed up to relieve me.

  Sure, I didn’t sleep a whole lot but that eventually caught up to me. I could tell now was one of those times. I had plans to skip breakfast and crash hard.

  Only as I pulled up to the clubhouse, I noticed one of our SUVs right behind me. And I knew by the way that Bridget was moving as she hopped out, she was as tired as I was.

  Shit.

  This just wasn’t working out. I kind of had hoped that I could crash in my bed while she was out doing stuff.

  “Hey,” she said with a wide yawn as she made her way over to the stairs.

  “Hey,” I parroted as I fell in step with her. We both shuffled like zombies up the stairs and to my room.

  “Did you get anywhere with your case?” I asked.

  “No,” she replied with a heavy sigh. “I checked the building, sat there all night, and there was nothing.”

  “That sucks.”

  Her head did a sleepy nod as she unlocked the door and stepped in almost like she knew I was going to follow. So I did.

  “I’ll just grab a change of clothes and be out of your way,” I said as I moved to the dresser.

  “You looked tired as fuck,” she stated and I let out a sharp laugh.

  “Yeah. Had a long night too.”

  “You should sleep.”

  “That’s the plan.”

  “Where?” she asked as she flopped back on the bed fully clothed.

  “I’ll crash on one of the couches downstairs.”

  I would try but honestly, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get a wink of sleep down there. Ever since Abigail started making breakfast every morning, it was a full house with everyone coming to get a plate. Which meant it was loud as fuck down there right now.

  “I heard the noise all the way outside, you won’t sleep with all that going on. Don’t be weird, just crash up here.”

  She blindly kicked out of her shoes, not seeming to give a shit where they ended up.

  “Uh,” I said like an idiot.

  “It’s fine. Weirdly enough, I trust you to keep your hands to yourself and not try to grope my tits while I’m sleeping.”

  I was shocked into silence. There were just so many things in what she’d said but I was too tired to try and dissect it all.

  “Come on,” she said patting the bed beside her but her eyes were already closed.

  I went into the bathroom and stripped down. I really needed a shower but it was going to have to wait. When I came back out in a pair of soft sleep pants, I paused for a moment to watch her. Yeah, it was a little creepy.

  “Stop staring at me and lay the fuck down.”

  I let out a soft laugh and shook my head as I moved to the bed. For some reason, I felt the need to crawl in as gingerly as possible.

  I didn’t have a moment to think about how odd this whole thing was because the second my head hit the pillow, I was out.

  I wasn’t a mover when I slept. I pretty much almost always woke up in the same position that I’d gone to sleep in. But I knew the moment I started to drift out of my slumber that I wasn’t on my back with my arm behind my head. And I knew that I was no longer on my side of the bed. I also knew that the warmth that was heating my front wasn’t because the heater was on.

  I was a little terrified to open my eyes.

  “Don’t move, you’re keeping my butt warm.”

  Well, I certainly couldn’t argue with that, right?

  Except that the longer her sce
nt invaded my nose and her soft stomach lightly rose and fell against my palm, the more I started to wake up. And I wasn’t talking about my brain.

  I screwed my eyes closed and tried to think of anything but sex. I wasn’t one of those assholes that used the fact that I hadn’t been laid in a while as an excuse. Besides, it hadn’t been that long. But that wasn’t the point. I didn’t want Bridget to think that I was trying to start anything and I really didn’t want her to get weirded out.

  “You got stiff on me,” she mumbled sleepily and I tried not to tense even more. “What’s up? And more importantly, can you just forget about whatever it is and go back to sleep? If it has anything to do with your boner poking me in the back, we can just ignore it on the account that every dude gets morning wood.”

  I had to stifle a laugh.

  Then she suddenly rolled over, tossing her leg over my hip in the process. The fact that her body now was pressed up against mine was not fucking helping.

  “There, now there is boner room,” she mumbled referring to the space between our hips. The small space. And why did the word boner coming out of her mouth not help the situation at all? “Besides, my tits are cold.”

  And now I was thinking about them and the fact that they were pressed up against my chest.

  No.

  I couldn’t do this.

  I just couldn’t keep my cool right now.

  And it wasn’t like I wanted to jump her bones. I mean, she was cute and… something. She was different, that was for sure. I’d never met another woman like her but it wasn’t a bad thing.

  “Bridget,” I said and it came out strained.

  “Ugh,” she said unhappily. “You’re going to make me get up, aren’t you?”

  This was awkward as hell but more so because she seemed so casual about it.

  My head was spinning and I didn’t know what the fuck to think.

  “I gotta get to work,” I said with a hint of panic in my voice.

  I rolled out of bed, snatched some clean clothes out of the dresser, and locked myself in the bathroom with lightning speed.

  I took the coldest, fastest shower I had in my life. I yanked up my pants angrily and then brushed my teeth the same way.

  Why?

  Well, it wasn’t like I was really angry. More like super frustrated but that was so strange. I mean, I wasn’t super attracted to Bridget. I hardly knew her, to be honest. And even if I did, it wouldn’t matter because she would be leaving when she got her shit all straightened out or whatever.

  Yeah, okay, I didn’t have a problem with casual hook-ups but she somehow seemed to straddle the line between someone you’d be alright with never seeing again and someone you’d maybe, possibly think about spending more time with.

  I was a smart enough guy to know that having sex would either complicate whatever was going on or totally ruin it. I could admit that I wanted to know more about her and that I liked hanging out with her.

  So with that, I decided that I wasn’t going to go there even if it was sort of hanging out there in the air. I think. Okay, I wasn’t sure.

  Bridget really confused the fuck out of me.

  Maybe it was best to keep my distance, fix her car, and send her on her way.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Bridget

  Night two and I had a feeling nothing was going to be different than the night before. This was either the wrong address or something fishy was going on.

  Parking under a street light wasn’t the stealthiest of moves, though I really could have used the light because I felt the need to look over my notes again. Not that I thought I might find something more in there.

  Only thing was, the street lamps were either out or so old the light covers were too dingy and didn’t give off much light. It might have not helped that the windows were tinted pretty dark too.

  The combination of those things left me with no other choice but to use the flashlight on my phone to read over shit. Either way, I had a feeling that I stuck out like a sore thumb. Not that it mattered because it didn’t seem like there was anyone around to take notice.

  The place was dead.

  Like Ghost Town, dead.

  Sitting sideways and hunched over in the driver’s seat, I opened the file.

  “There is nothing here,” I said as I shook my head. “Art is usually better than this.”

  He wasn’t the type to take something and run with it. While being a PI, for the most part, wasn’t all that dangerous, sometimes you found yourself in a pickle especially if you weren’t careful and didn’t do your research.

  One of the first cases on my own, I was on a watch for this man cheating on his wife. A wife that was wealthy and there had been a prenup signed. If he divorced her, he wouldn’t get a dime. If he cheated on her, well, she could divorce him without having to pay out anything. So while he wanted to keep the cash flow and have his cake too, she wanted him to know that she wasn’t stupid.

  I had no idea how the two of them had even gotten together, she was from a good family and work driven. He was, well, not. He had a juvie record. Which, okay, didn’t always mean they were bad. But in this case, he hadn’t changed, he just got smarter on how not to get caught.

  It turned out, he wasn’t cheating. No, he was breaking into people’s homes and stealing their valuables. These people were friends and acquaintances of his wife.

  It ended with him figuring out that I was watching him and he tried to end my life. He really didn’t want to go to jail. And me, well, I had seen the darkness in him even before I started tailing him. All the research I did came in handy. I didn’t go in blind. I ended up fine and even solved the case that the local PD had been chasing their tails on for months.

  Needless to say, she got her divorce and got to keep her money. That was a very satisfied client.

  So I knew it paid to see every angle and dig up every little thing that we could. Art was the same and so that was why it surprised me that the file was so light.

  I didn’t even have the woman’s name that we were working for. Or a phone number. That bugged the crap out of me.

  Which was why I found myself dialing up Art’s number right now.

  “Art,” I said before he could speak. “I was just wondering if I could call this woman and ask her some questions. I feel like there’s nothing going on at the address you gave me and I need to head in a new direction. How old is this information?”

  “You were able to start already?” he asked and if I wasn’t wrong, I would have said he sounded surprised a little.

  “Yeah, I got a car while mine is being worked on.”

  I would have told him more but I just didn’t want to get into it. I realized that it would have been a smart thing to let him know who I’d been hanging out with and where I was staying, but I figured I had good instincts at this point in life, and they were telling me that I wasn’t in danger. And since he wasn’t here to see what I did, I didn’t really want to hear all the words of warning he would sling my way. I couldn’t be mad about it because I knew he only wanted to look out for me.

  He grunted in response not sounding even a little bit happy.

  “What do you need to know? I’ll call her tomorrow and get it for you.”

  I paused. Something tickled in the back of my head and I tried my best to ignore it.

  Art was just like that and I imagined that he wanted to be the one with the line of communication because he had been the one to take the case. It was kind of an old school way of thinking about things but that was what I’d come to expect from the man.

  “Where did this address come from?” I asked.

  There was a pause before he answered.

  “It was the last known address for Ms. Banks. The only one I could find for her adult life so I figured she was still there.”

  “And her parents? I don’t see anything about them in here. Where did the father go to when he took off and Ms. Banks’ mother, who is she?”

  “I thought I put it
in the file I sent with you,” he said and I quickly scanned the documents again, only I knew it wasn’t there because I’d read them multiple times already. Sure enough, I didn’t find what I was asking about. “It must be at the office. I’ll look when I get in tomorrow and call you. Anything else?”

  I could tell that he was ready to get off the phone which frustrated me for some reason right now.

  “Just anything else you can find for me. I feel like this case is a waste of time. There’s like nothing here, Art.”

  I wished I’d been smart enough to look over the information before I took off. I mentally kicked myself for just going with it. Sure, it might have taken me another day to gather everything I needed to feel like I wasn’t chasing my tail, but what was one more day? Especially given that I was doing the same thing only I didn’t have access to all the things I did back home.

  “Yeah,” he grunted but I didn’t take offense to it, it was just him.

  “Call me tomorrow when you find something, please.”

  “Yep,” he replied, then he was gone. I would have expected nothing less from him.

  I tossed the file on top of the dashboard and settled in for a long night.

  I searched the surrounding buildings with my eyes. There were no lights on anywhere. This seemed like some lost part of the city. The buildings were weathered like they’d been here a long time. I could almost see the history in them and it was sad to see the shape they were in. There seemed to be a few offices on the lower levels of a couple of the buildings. I imagined that it was cheap rent and I wondered how they even thrived out here. It was too late at night to see if they were actually still open. If they were, the employees were long gone and home, probably settling into bed only to return here in just a few hours.

  Sometimes I got thrown off by my odd schedule. It was strange to be awake when most people were probably sleeping. Hell, I wished I was in bed. But this was the job, sometimes you had to be out when the shady shit happened. Which, you know, was in the dead of night.