Chapter 6
6
INK
I wasn’t sure what the fuck had come over me, but I’d been smug as shit when I told Cerberus that Annika would be sleeping in my bed tonight. Now, as I guided her over to the stairs, I tossed him another arrogant grin. Then I realized what I was doing and made a mental note to have one of the club’s doctors examine my head.
We made our way upstairs and down the hall until we reached my room. Being an enforcer had its perks when it came to living at the clubhouse. My room was a good size and had its own bathroom. Although it wasn’t permanently mine like the officers, so when I moved out, the spot would go to someone else.
Annika’s gaze was full of open curiosity as she looked around the room. “I wasn’t sure what to expect,” she said with a laugh.
“And?” I pressed as I shut the door behind us.
“I might have thought it would be a little messier,” she admitted with a giggle. “Single guys and all that.”
Laughing, I took her suitcase off the bed and moved it to a small couch in the corner. “Comes from being part of a big family, I suppose. You didn’t put your stuff away. It wasn’t your stuff anymore.”
Annika laughed and plopped down on the end of the bed. “You live here, or it’s just your room?” she queried, watching me open her bag and begin hanging her shit in my closet.
“I live here for now. The officers have what basically equates to an apartment, unless they live somewhere else. Then they still have a permanent room, but it’s more like this one. I haven’t needed more than this. There’s a huge communal kitchen downstairs, and most of the old ladies take turns cooking for the club.” I grinned and winked at Annika. “I do my fair share, though, because I couldn’t leave my mamma’s house without knowing how to make her special dishes. I’d go through withdrawals if I had to wait until I went home for her cooking.”
As I’d hoped, her cheeks bloomed with pink, and her expression turned a little dreamy. “You cook?”
“My lasagna is fucking awesome,” I boasted as I hung up the garment bag she’d brought and shut the closet door. It hit me then that I had no idea when she ate last.
“Are you hungry, baby? I can?—”
She waved off my question and shook her head. “I know I should probably eat, but my stomach is in knots. And honestly, I’m so tired that I could probably go to bed for the whole night even though it’s so early.”
“Listen to your body, dolcezza ,” I encouraged, walking over to my dresser. “You had a fuck ton of emotional shit dropped on you today.” After digging around in the top drawer for a few seconds, I found my smallest T-shirt and yanked it out. It would still be huge on her, but I needed to know she was sleeping in my clothes. “Go put this on, and I’ll let you rest.”
The last thing I wanted to do was tuck her into my bed and leave, but if I stayed, she wouldn’t get any sleep, and I could see the toll the day had taken on her.
“I have—” she started to argue when I handed her my shirt.
“Just go get changed, Annika,” I ordered.
She looked torn between doing as she was told and being stubborn, so I glided the pad of one finger along her jaw and inwardly smiled when she melted.
“Go on, dolcezza .”
Silently, she stood and kicked off her shoes, then padded into the bathroom.
I turned down the bed, and when she came back into the room, all of my good intentions nearly went out the window. But I stuck to my guns and helped her get settled on the mattress.
“Don’t go wandering outside the room without me, okay?” I pointed at her cell. “My number is in your phone. Text me if you need anything.”
“You’re not leaving, are you?” she asked, her tone betraying a hint of vulnerability.
“Just gonna get some work done while you rest. I’ll be right downstairs if you need me.”
“M’kay,” she whispered, her eyelids already drooping.
Steeling myself against the onslaught of temptation I was about to be hit with, I bent over and kissed her on the forehead. Then I grabbed my cut and hot-footed out of there before her delicious scent broke my control.
Once I was in the hallway, I had to take a minute and get myself under control. The last thing I needed right then was shit from my brothers because I was hobbling around due to the steel pipe between my legs.
My phone beeped, and I yanked it out of my pocket, expecting to see Annika’s number, but it was Blaze.
There’d been a hiccup with our current job, and he needed me to fix it.
It wasn’t well known—for good fucking reason—that the MC’s main source of income revolved around making people disappear. Not like mercenaries or assassins, we didn’t kill anyone without cause. But we would end their life in another way, for a healthy fee.
If someone could afford it, we’d erase their identity and help them establish a new life. The MC had kind of fallen into the work after helping out a few people as a favor. King had realized that making people disappear into a new life could be a very lucrative income stream, and several of the patches had abilities that were perfect for operations like this.
King’s specialty was forging documents. Wizard was our computer genius. My gift as an artist came in handy outside the tattoo shop. We also taught the new patch skills that could help if they didn’t come in with any talent, so we never lacked in the necessary areas to complete a job.
It certainly didn't hurt that I had connections with people who were some of the best smugglers in the world. The only reason I’d been willing to use that connection was because King had made it one hundred percent clear that it wasn’t a condition to patch with the Hounds. Even though my being a member made them an ally to the boss, my cousin in New York, King always left the choice of involving The Family up to me. It was just another reason he had my complete trust and loyalty.
Our current job was a less common instance, though. One where we didn’t require a fee because of the circumstances. Sometimes, we jumped in to simply help someone who desperately needed saving. But those situations were a well-guarded secret so we didn’t get a fuck ton of sob stories from people who were trying to screw us over.
After sending Blaze a text that I was on my way, I headed to my studio in the clubhouse. They’d repurposed an office so that we could set up a room that had everything I needed to create whatever was required for each operation. One of the things that made me a unique artist was that my talents crossed over to mixed media. I was every bit as good at digital art as I was at drawing, painting, or tattooing. I could also sculpt and work with metal.
With all of my know-how, if I’d ever wanted to, I would have made incredible counterfeiting plates. It had been one of the reasons The Family had been so loath to let me out of their clutches. Thankfully, Nic wasn’t interested in forcing people to work for him, and family came first to him…without the capital F.
Blaze and Cross were waiting for me when I arrived. “Got the car cleaned,” Cross grunted as I opened the door to my studio. He was the club brother who managed our garage and was seriously fucking talented at scrubbing and chopping vehicles. “King was just finishing up some paperwork before delivering it all to the client.”
“One of his tools busted,” Blaze muttered. “We need you to hand draw it with your heated foil pen.”
I stopped in my tracks and flipped around. “Are you fucking serious? With a foil pen? Do you have any fucking idea how stupid that idea is?” I was shouting by the time I finished.
Blaze winced. “Wow, I owe King a hundred bucks. He nailed your response verbatim.”
Scowling, I ignored his comment and proceeded to explain exactly why this idea was ludicrous. “If I hesitate for even a single second, the machines will catch it as counterfeit. If by some miracle, I managed to finish the design without a hesitation mark, it would have to be perfect. No hesitation and not one mistake? And should the gods of fake identities be with us and those two things actually happened, it wouldn’t matter because I don’t have the right material.”
Cross handed me a bag. “King said this should work.”
I frowned as I opened the bag and took out the contents to examine it. It could work, but damn.
With narrowed eyes, I studied my brothers. “Why isn’t he here asking me himself? Not like him to hide.”
“Cadell is sick,” Blaze explained.
Damn, that meant I couldn’t be pissed that King wasn’t there to yell at. This was one situation where I knew he’d allow me to let him have it because he knew, in the end, I’d give in and try.
“Fine, but tell him he owes me, so the next time I mouth off, it’ll be a freebie.”
Blaze pressed his lips together, clearly trying to hide a grin, tempting me to wring his neck. “Will do,” he muttered. “What do you need to get this done?”
“Get the fuck out of my studio and don’t let anyone disturb me unless it’s Annika, Ash, or someone who has anything useful to tell me about her situation.”
Cross saluted me, and I punched him in the solar plexus. Watching him struggle to breathe made me feel better, so I went about gathering my shit, forgetting all about them.
The only good thing about the situation was that it would take my mind off the gorgeous temptation sleeping in my bed, wearing nothing but my shirt.
Apparently, the angels were on my side because I managed to complete the project on my third attempt.
I sent Blaze a text, hoping it would wake him since it was the middle of the fucking night. Then I decided to grab a snack.
Wizard’s office door was open, so instead of walking by, I paused and glanced inside. He was intensely focused on his computer, but the second I stood in the doorway, he looked over at me.
“Finished it?” he asked, his brow practically in his hairline.
I nodded and scratched my chin, realizing I hadn’t shaved in a couple of days. My chinstrap would soon be a beard if I didn’t take care of that.
“Damn, kid. I’m impressed.”
I snorted. “You and me both.”
“Well, hopefully, the shit Ace and I have been digging up will brighten your day. But I still need some time to connect some dots.”
“Ash won’t be here until early afternoon, brother. Get some sleep.”
“Yeah, I was headed home when I had a thought and just popped in to check it out.”
“And what time was that?”
Wizard glanced at a clock and swore as he hopped up from his seat and started shutting everything down.
“In trouble with the missus?” I teased.
His expression softened in a way that it only ever did when he talked about his old lady. “Nah. She knows I get lost in my shit and loves me anyway.” He shook his head as he shoved his wallet and keys into his pocket. “She’s too fucking good for me. But I’m gonna keep her anyway.”
I stepped back into the hall as he exited the office, then shut and armed the door.
“You really think you’ve found something?” I probed as we walked toward the lounge.
“Probably, but I wanted to be sure before we head down the road.”
Sighing, I clapped him on the back. “I get it. But just know, if I lose my mind while waiting and end up beating the shit outta you, it’s your own damn fault.”
Wizard snickered and turned toward the front door while I went through the swinging door near the bar that took me into the massive kitchen.
When the sun crested on the horizon, I had pancakes, French toast, four kinds of eggs, fried potatoes, grits, Italian sausage, and a fuck ton of other breakfast goodness ready for anyone who wandered in hungry.
After the first few guys stumbled in to eat before work, I trudged into the lounge and passed out on one of the couches for a couple of hours.
When I woke up, I hurried upstairs, worried that Annika was awake and feeling confined to my room all by herself. But she was still asleep, so to avoid climbing into bed with her, I grabbed some clothes and took a very cold shower.
“Good morning.”
Her husky, sleep-warmed voice greeted me when I came back into the bedroom.
I sat down on the edge of the bed and did my best to keep my eyes on her face rather than perusing her body. “Morning, dolcezza . How are you?”
She shrugged. “I’m not really sure, if I’m being honest. The rest did me some good, but I still feel emotionally drained.”
I nodded and cupped her chin with one hand, brushing my thumb over her plump lips. “I get that. How about you take a shower, then we can snag some breakfast. Hopefully, someone will have something that will at least point us in a direction by then.”
A small smile creased her lips, and she closed her eyes with a soft sigh.
Holy fuck . I made a vow to hear her make that sound again while I was buried deep inside her.
“That sounds wonderful,” she told me sweetly, helping to distract me from the very dirty, very graphic images playing like a picture reel in my head.
While she was in the shower, I got dressed and called King to talk with him about the project I’d completed.
Once we were both ready to go, I helped her put on my spare cut. Then I took her hand, and we walked downstairs together.
After we ate breakfast, I showed her my studio, careful to be vague about certain tools and projects. Since we’d gotten up late, it didn’t feel like too long before Ace knocked on my door.
“Ash is here. Meeting with Prez.”
Holding hands again, Annika and I hurried to meet my brothers in King’s office.
Ash was at the conference table on the left side of the room, reading on his tablet, his face a mask of deep contemplation.
“Ash,” I greeted. “This is Annika.”
His head popped up, and he wiped the frustration from his expression as he greeted my girl. “Hey. I’m sorry it took me so long to get here.”
Annika’s face turned bright red, and she sighed. “No, I’m sorry. I had no idea that Matteo was going to drag you from your honeymoon! Your wife must hate me! I’m so sorry.”
Ash grinned. “If we’d stayed, instead of coming back to help, my wife would have kicked my ass. So how about we just call it even and see how I can help?”
I shot him a grateful look as I took a seat across from him and tugged Annika down onto my lap. “Know you just got here, but have you come up with something?”
“Maybe. I think I might know where the loophole is that allowed your uncle to pull that money after you turned eighteen. Only from the checking account, though. Your investments are safe. But I need to do a little research in my law library. I also have a friend looking through some files at the Justice Department because I have a nagging feeling, and I’ve learned not to discount my hunches.”
Annika pressed a hand over her heart. “Thank you.” She sniffed and swiped a finger under one eye. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
Ash nodded absently, his mind already back on the documents he was reading on his tablet. “I think?—”
His words were interrupted when Wizard and Ace marched into the room. “Got something,” Ace announced, his tone packed with frustration.
“Haven’t figured out all the details yet,” Wizard muttered. “But we’re close.”
“To what?” I asked impatiently.
“Looks like Uncle Alec is in debt. Big time . He owes someone a couple of hundred grand, at least.”
“You don’t know who?” asked King.
“The trail is pretty well covered up,” Ace replied. “Followed the money several times before I finally looked close enough in the right places to see a pattern. Then Wizard had to do some magic shit to literally follow the physical trail before I could come up with a theory. The best explanation I can come up with is bets placed by a bookie. Old school, though, the guy must use pen and paper because he’s a fucking ghost.”
“A bookie?” King tapped a finger on the top of his desk, his expression considering. “I might know someone who can help us find a local without a trace.”
As conversation and ideas continued to flow in the room, I turned my attention to Annika. She’d been very quiet, her body resting against me as if she didn’t have the energy to hold herself up.
“Hey, dolcezza ,” I murmured as I rubbed soothing circles on her back. “Doing okay?”
She nodded and finally sat up, giving me a pretty smile. “Yes. I’m overwhelmed, honestly.”
“Overwhelmed?”
“I don’t know how to thank all of you for helping me when you have no reason to.”
I frowned and cupped her face between my hands. “There is nothing to say thank you for, baby. I take care of what’s mine.”