Chapter Five
CHAPTER FIVE
“YOU WORKING TONIGHT?” Spec asked as he sidled over.
Pulse had been nursing the same beer for the past twenty minutes. As typically happened in Florida, the air heated his beer within minutes, and he now had a piss-warm drink to finish. Not that it mattered. Cold or warm, every sip settled in his stomach like battery acid.
“Nope.”
Talia stood across the yard chatting with Curly. They seemed to be lost in a serious discussion, and it didn’t take a genius to know he was the main topic of conversation.
Fuck .
He’d tried so hard to fly under the radar for so long, to not only be the center of attention but to bring the drama to his club. It had his head exploding.
“We gonna stand here like a bunch of assholes, or you gonna talk to me? I’ve been super patient waiting for details, but I’m anxious now.”
Pulse snorted. Patience was the last word anyone would use in association with the club’s enforcer.
“I’m serious.” Spec elbowed him. He’d buzzed his hair that morning, giving him an even more fresh-out-of-the-army look than usual. “You have no idea the things Liv had to do to my body this morning to keep me in bed so I wouldn’t call you at six.”
Another snort. “I highly doubt you took much convincing. Your woman breathes, and you’re hard.”
Spec’s shameless grin and wagging eyebrows had Pulse chuckling.
“Finally, a laugh. Fuck, brother, you’ve been off today.”
“Sorry.” He sipped the beer, wincing as the warm foam coated his tongue.
“I’ll take those details now.”
Pulse shrugged. “Not much to tell. Got arrested. The charges were bullshit. Lawyer got them dropped. You know how it goes.”
“Hmm.”
He could only imagine how much Spec wanted to shake a better explanation out of him.
“Hot, that one, huh?”
“What?” Pulse turned toward Spec, who jerked his chin in Talia’s direction.
“You’ve been staring at the sexy lawyer lady since before I came over.”
What? No, he wasn’t. “I’m not staring. Just thinking about shit.”
“Shit, like her tits in that tight dress? Maybe her ass. She’s got a good one. Squeezable.”
His eyebrow arched. “Liv know you’re checking out other women’s asses?”
Spec threw his head back and laughed. “If it helped get you a woman, she’d be fine with me stuffing one in my trunk and kidnapping her.”
He blinked. “What? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Brother, you have no idea how badly those ol’ ladies want you wifed up.”
“Fuck off. They do not give a shit about that.”
“Oh, I’m serious, man, they do. They are plotting and planning, so watch your back. Maybe I should say watch your ring finger.”
“You’re crazy.”
His gaze drifted back to Talia, and he felt the same stirring in his groin he’d felt the night before. He wasn’t blind. The woman was sexy as hell. She had curves, an ass built for squeezing like Spec said, and a rack he could get lost in for hours. But the confidence she radiated drew his and probably every man’s eye. Talia was a gorgeous, intelligent woman, and she carried herself like she damn well knew it.
Sexy.
If his life hadn’t blown the fuck up last night, he’d be all over that, but he had more important things to think about than his dick. Talia got him out of a sticky situation yesterday, but the DEA wouldn’t give up. They wanted an inside player in the MC, and they wanted it to be him. Despite his former life as an undercover agent, Pulse wasn’t a rat. He’d never willingly hand over his brothers. If the DEA thought he would, they were in for a rude awakening. The only question was how badly they’d fuck up his life as punishment for not playing along.
He’d cut all ties with his former life when he walked away years ago. After four years undercover, he’d had few friends and family connections left outside the agency, but now he had none—no ties to his past. It gave the government little to use as leverage, so they’d threatened to out him to his current MC. If it came to that, he’d leave before they got the chance.
The only way they could possibly manipulate Pulse would be if they went directly after one of his club brothers or their ol’ ladies, but he doubted they’d be stupid enough. They wanted to destroy the club from the inside, not start a war.
“Hey,” Spec said as he nudged Pulse with his beer bottle. “You good?”
“I’m all right. Hardly got any sleep.” He shrugged. “Just feeling off.”
“Look, Pulse, it’s no secret you’re quieter than most of us fuckers and keep to yourself more, but you know we got your back, right?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“No, brother. I mean, we really got you. No matter what the fuck it is. We can handle whatever hell comes our way.”
He cocked his head.” Even if I beat the shit outta some poor working girl?” He’d meant it as a dark way to break the tension, but his stomach twisted with disgust even as he said the words.
Instead of recoiling, Spec nodded once. “Even then.” Then he smirked. “But I know you, Pulse. Even though you’re a private bastard who doesn’t like to share shit, I know you’d never lay a hand on a woman. You’d have never made it far with this club if you were that kind of dickbag.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m just tryna say that you don’t need to keep your distance, Pulse. Whatever you got, we can handle.”
He met Spec’s gaze once again. “How do you know I got something?”
Spec grunted. “Cuz we all do, brother. It’s how we all found each other. We’re a bunch of misfits with truckloads of past trauma.” He slapped Pulse on the shoulder and then ambled off, probably in search of his woman. It had been at least ten minutes since he’d had his mouth on her. He was probably getting the shakes.
He needed to shake off this funk. There were things to be done to protect himself and his club, and he couldn’t get his ass in gear if his head were lodged up it.
“You look about as exhausted as I feel.”
Talia’s voice sliced through his mental fog. A fresh, sweet coconut scent wafted his way. Jesus, she smelled like a damn cocktail. Pulse loved tropical flavors. Everything from pineapple on his pizza to coconut cream pie and even coconut creamer in his coffee, though no one knew that particular tidbit. The last thing he needed was the sexy, too-sharp attorney all up in his space while smelling delicious.
“Did you get any sleep?” Her tight dress hugged her generous tits in the best way. There wasn’t anything revealing about the dress, but he still wondered if her cleavage would hold the same coconut scent if he buried his face there. And if he licked? Would she taste as good as she smelled?
“Pulse?”
He blinked, then scrubbed a hand down his face. “Sorry. What did you ask? Sleep?”
She nodded with a soft smile.
“Uh…” He shrugged. “I caught a few hours but feel like roadkill today.”
“Roadkill,” she said with a chuckle. “That’s a good description.”
He grunted. God, that scent was making it impossible to think. How rude would it be to take a giant step away from her to preserve his sanity? At least she wasn’t wearing those fucking glasses. He couldn’t have stood there if she had them on.
“Are you doing okay?” she asked, setting her empty champagne flute on a nearby table.
“You a therapist as well as a lawyer?”
Her eyes narrowed for a fraction of a second, but then she smirked. “Let’s say I’m full-service. Seriously, though, I’d love to sit down and chat with you at some point. There are some things we should go over. I’m filing a complaint on your behalf with the police department and want to make sure all my I’s are dotted and my T’s crossed before I submit it.”
His eye twitched. “Thanks, but don’t bother. I’d rather forget all about it. I’m not interested in making a big thing of it.”
She frowned. “They arrested you for felony assault without doing a proper investigation, Pulse. That’s bullshit.”
“Maybe, but you got me out of there, so it’s all good.”
Her frown deepened. Instead of detracting from the attractiveness, the pout of her lip made his tingle. Pulse was a picky bastard when it came to women. He didn’t fuck them just because they had a willing pussy. He preferred someone with intelligence and liked to have a real conversation before and often after a good fuck.
That meant he was often alone with his hand as he’d been for too many months now.
“Uh, well…” Talia grimaced. “Curly is the one who asked me to file the complaint, so…”
Right. Of course, he did. Because he was a stellar-fucking-president who always looked out for his club. It also meant he’d have to sell Curly on dropping the complaint, which would never happen. Given his history, the prez sought every opportunity to set the cops straight when they fucked up.
“Look, Pulse…” She placed her hand near his elbow. He had to fight the urge to shiver as a ripple of electricity traveled up his arm from beneath her soft fingers. “I know I just met you last night, and it will take some time to build trust, but I can promise you I’m on your side. I am completely devoted to your club. You are safe with me, as is any information you share, no matter what.”
She spoke with passion and conviction, pressing her free hand to her chest as her thumb stroked the inside of his elbow in an unconscious, soothing motion.
It didn’t soothe.
It only made him clench his teeth against the blood pooling in his groin.
“Why?” he asked, making her blink rapidly.
“What? What do you mean?”
He tilted his head and studied her. Beneath the flawless makeup, he saw the hint of the same fatigue he carried. “Why? Why do you care so much?”
“B-because it’s my job. I’m paid to care, Pulse, and I do my job damn well.”
Her words said one thing, but the brief shadow clouding her gaze said another. This was personal for her, and he wanted to know why. Years working as an investigator gave him an overactive sense of curiosity he rarely got to satisfy. And he wouldn’t get to today either. Talia might have piqued his interest, but he had too much of his own shit to deal with to worry about anyone else’s.
“Right,” he said with a dip of his chin. “I’m going to talk with Curly. I’m really not interested in dragging this out. I want to put last night behind me.”
She pressed her lips together as though pinching off a retort before finally saying, “And if this becomes a pattern? If someone else accuses you of assault?”
The DEA would do that too. They would keep pinning crimes on him until one of them stuck, or he would grow so tired of the game that he relented and gave them what they wanted, which would never happen. He had to come up with a plan to keep his club safe and his life from going to shit. He started over from nothing once and didn’t relish the thought of doing it again, not now that he had his club brothers and their women in his life and a job he loved.
“Then I’ll deal with it.”
“We’ll.” She rested her hands on her hips. The position thrust her tits forward. Damn, they were nice. She seemed oblivious to the fact that every male within viewing distance would be checking her out.
“What?”
“ We’ll deal with it. Not just you. That’s what I’m trying to tell you, Pulse. I’m on your side, in your corner, or however you want to say it. Just keep that in mind. Okay?”
He nodded. Trusting outsiders wasn’t easy. Hell, it wasn’t something he did. And trusting someone with the secrets of his past? That was out of the question. But he said, “Okay. Thanks.”
She nodded once. “Great. I have more people to meet, so I’ll get out of your hair.”
She turned from him, but before she could take a step, he said, “Hey, Talia?”
“Yes?” She spun back.
“Thank you. Don’t think I said that last night. Thanks for getting my ass out of there so fast.”
Her smile transformed her face, erasing the fatigue and lighting her up. “My pleasure,” she said with a nod, then turned and strode across the yard to where Liv and Spec stood wrapped up in each other.
Each step caused her ass to swish in the most enticing way. She had more than enough to overflow his hands. Fuck, it had been a while since he’d grabbed onto a thick ass as he pumped into a woman. Groaning, he stared up at the sky.
He knew what he had to do, and unfortunately, it didn’t involve Talia’s ass. It did involve a very uncomfortable phone call to the one person he’d stayed in contact with from his old life if one text a year counted as in contact.
His brothers were absorbed in conversations with their women and others invited to this grand opening, so he could easily slip out the backyard’s side gate. As soon as he was away from prying eyes and ears, he pulled out his phone and thumbed through his contacts. When he found who he was looking for, he strode away from the house and placed the call.
Two rings, then a gruff voice announced, “I don’t have any details for you.”
“And yet, you knew I’d be calling. Dammit, Birdy.” He nearly ground his teeth to dust as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Two hours ago, Max. I found out two damn hours ago.” Birdy was a hacker Pulse had befriended back in elementary school. They grew up together, and by the time they were in their late teens, Birdy was tall and slender with the delicate bone structure of a bird and had been playing around in government agencies’ computer systems. No one caught him.
Ever.
Birdy knew things that even the president didn’t. He was a paranoid sonofabitch who could bring down the world with all his knowledge. His loyalty to Pulse went back to the moment they met when Pulse saved him from an ass-kicking by the school’s biggest bully. He’d provided invaluable intel when Pulse had been an agent and was the one responsible for crafting Pulse’s new life after he walked away from his former one years ago. They weren’t exactly friends, but Birdy was the only one he could count on outside his club.
“I’m working on it, man. I promise. Something shady is going down, and I don’t like it. I’ll call you the second I have this shit worked out.”
Pulse sighed. It was a long shot to assume Birdy would have been able to tell him exactly what was going on already.
“All right. Thanks.”
“Watch your back, man, okay? Don’t get lazy. Like I said, something shady is going down, and I don’t like it. You seem to be at the center of something ugly.”
Great. If Birdy was worried, then things were worse than he’d feared. “Will do. Same goes for you. Don’t you go getting your ass caught.”
He hung up to the sound of Birdy’s offended snort. It made him want to smile, but his lips wouldn’t obey.
Hopefully, Birdy could figure out what the fuck the DEA was up to and why they wanted Pulse. It was the only way to keep his club safe and him out of a body bag.