18. NYX
AFEW DAYS after our first afternoon together, Giulia was still mad at me.
I wasn’t sure which had pissed her off most.
The fact that I couldn’t tell her about why the Wolves had been on our turf without anyone losing a drop of blood, or the fact that I’d had to leave her at the bar, and she’d had to get a taxi back to the compound.
Rubbing my chin as I eyed her behind the bar, I’d admit that for someone who had no experience there, she fit.
With enemies on our turf, I’d been as useless as a coffee percolator made out of chocolate with the way my mind was focused on business rather than this place. But she’d made it work when I’d left her to deal with most things, as I concentrated on getting security to monitor the Wolves without being spotted.
Because I ran a tight security team, things had flowed like clockwork, and the Wolves had headed back to their side of the border with little fuss.
We’d never been unfriendly with them, never been at war because they ran shit differently than us. Girls weren’t our thing. But going in together on this was a project that Rex wanted, and most of us didn’t.
Sure, we were a democracy, and we ran everything by vote. Somehow, Rex had twisted Maverick, Link, and Storm’s arms, and gotten them on his side, even though it made me cringe to think of having Wolves on our territory.
Sure, we were going to make a boat load of cash, and we were going to be tightening our links with the Five Points over in HK, but sometimes, money wasn’t worth the loss in security.
But I guessed that was my past talking there.
In my absence, Giulia had somehow used that beautiful head of hers, and out of nowhere, we had a staff of two that was going to grow to four in the next couple of weeks as the takings were assessed and finances were assimilated, and she’d gotten a fully stocked bar as well as five different beers in. Beers that weren’t damn bad. I hadn’t expected her to have decent taste, but she’d gone for some great American lagers, then had picked up some fantastic bottled IPOs.
She’d also created some kind of bar snacks menu, and had begun conferring with the diner for them to make that stuff and bring it through.
Sure, it wasn’t rocket science, but I knew that had never been the intention, because the diner was supposed to shut halfway through the bar’s opening hours.
Not anymore.
The line chef was either loving or loathing her, but she was right.
People wanted to eat. And drinkers wanted something to snack on while they were listening to music or watching a game.
Rex, Storm, and Link had been the ones to kit this place out. I hadn’t had any interest in making this shit look fancy. My biggest concern had been whacking them with the best alarm systems and security details that money could buy. It wasn’t like we could use things like CCTV, not when business was bound to go down here, and the last thing we needed was the Feds piggy-backing onto our gear, so motion sensors, alarms, and all that were where I’d taken things.
Especially the strip joint.
It was the first in this particular area, and we had a feeling that even though the clients were going to be upper crust and willing to drop a fortune, they’d be brats and might get handsy from time to time.
Somehow, it was always the rich pricks who couldn’t take no for an answer. So we had more doormen than strippers just to make sure that heads would roll in case some pricks decided to be overconfident.
Still, just because I could take no credit for how damn good this place looked, I could appreciate it as I skulked in a booth and watched the woman behind the bar confer with two servers who were too damn handsome for my liking. They were pretty boys with slicked back hair and way too many white teeth.
They were also more her age than I was.
Of course, I was older than her brothers, who weren’t young, so what that said about me, I didn’t know.
I refused to believe I was ancient, but fuck, I felt it watching pretty boy one try to cozy up to Giulia.
Even as I enjoyed watching her put their flirtations down with smiles that could only be called professional, I was more amused at how they tried to take charge, and that was the only time she’d ever look at me.
Yeah.
When she wanted backup.
Not when she wanted to shimmy up to me, place a hand on my arm like I’d seen some of the other girlfriends do, not even lean up on tiptoe to kiss me to stake a claim—to show the pricks she was taken. Because, duh, she wasn’t, but that didn’t mean I didn’t resent the fact that was the only time she looked to me was for backup on her authority.
Most of the stuff she was doing was supposed to be my job, which left me sitting with my thumbs up my ass for most of the night, as the place went from being busy to busier to busiest.
Only at that point did she ever let me behind the bar, and the bitch of it was, she pulled a better beer than I did, and she had zero experience.
I’d already heard her jokingly tell a few of the patrons the same story about the brewery’s rep having to show her what to do.
“I’d just bet he fucking had.”
“You’d just bet who had what?” Rex asked.
I glanced at my Prez, who’d sidled up to me an hour ago, and who I’d been ignoring ever since.
I drummed my fingers against the table which, of course, was clean. Just like every other table in here, because Giulia ran a tight ship. A part of me had wondered if she was OCD or something, but when the beer line had sprung a leak and she’d been coated in it, she hadn’t started screaming or demanding to use the shower in the strip joint next door.
Fuck, if that hadn’t been torture watching her serve beers with her shirt all transparent...
Yeah, this had been a titty bar for the time it took for her shirt to dry out.
“Nothing.”
“Well, fuck, Nyx, nothing about cuts it. You sulking with me or something? I know you’re not happy about the Wolves?—”
I instantly shot my scowl at him instead of Cody, the fucker behind the bar who kept brushing against Giulia, like he had some kind of internal compass malfunction. The guy needed glasses for how clumsy he was.
“Sulking? Do I look like I have a cunt?”
“No. I didn’t think you had one, but Jesus, you’ve barely talked to me since I got in.”
“Since when do we gossip?”
“We don’t, but more than two words would be great,” he grumbled.
“I’m not mad about the Wolves,” I told him, balling my hands into fists as I watched Giulia laugh at something a guy with a hat that dwarfed his head told her. “I don’t think it’s smart, in fact, I think it’s dumb as shit to get involved with them?—”
“As you’ve already fucking said a thousand times.”
I scowled at him. “Why do you want to talk to me again?”
“I don’t fucking know. Why are you glowering at Giulia anyway? As far as I can see, she’s sorted things out perfectly. Especially since you weren’t around to watch over shit.”
I heard the complaint in his voice and stated, “If you’d told me the Wolves were coming earlier than expected, I’d have been here.”
“If I’d known, Link wouldn’t have been late,” he sniped back.
“And that’s the reason why I hate working with the fuckers. They can’t be trusted.”
“But they’re good at what they do, and with our new distribution up and going, we have the means?—”
“I know.” I grunted. “We don’t need to talk about this shit here.”
He grunted back at me. “You shouldn’t need to tell me that, but damn, man, what’s with the sour fucking face? I feel like your wife or something.”
I flipped him the bird, then I flinched when I heard Giulia’s laugh again.
Was she doing it on purpose?
I had hardly ever heard her laugh back at the compound, but here she was, chuckling all the fucking time.
As far as I knew, we didn’t have nitrous oxide leaking in from the garage, so what had made her sense of humor make an appearance, I didn’t know.
“You got the hots for her or something?”
“Is this grade school?” I countered woodenly, as I grabbed my bottle of Coke and took a deep sip.
“Maybe. Okay, definitely from the way you’re scowling at the servers.” He elbowed me in the side. “Don’t be a prick.”
“Why not? Why shouldn’t I? They’re supposed to be working, not fucking joking all the time. It isn’t comedy hour.”
“Christ, what’s bit you on the ass? I know you’re a miserable fucker but—” He tilted his head to the side, a thought evidently coming to him. “She put out for you?” When I didn’t say anything, just clenched my jaw, he snorted. “I’m surprised she has your balls in a twist, considering I thought her cunt creamed vinegar.”
That had me glaring at him. “Shut up, Rex. Don’t fucking start.”
He cocked a brow at me. “She really does have your balls in a bind.”
“Stop talking about my fucking balls,” I rumbled, aware that his arched brow was a warning.
Rex gave us all a lot of leeway, Mav and me more than most, but we all knew when to back the fuck off. Just because he came across as mellow didn’t mean shit. Rex was as big a bastard as I was. I just had more kills ratcheted up on my scoreboard, and that was because of my past.
I hadn’t been born an evil shit—I’d been made this way.
“She must have been crap in the sack if you’re this mean in the aftermath.”
“She’s not talking to me, hasn’t in over three days,” I told him, really feeling like I was in grade school now.
“Why? What did you do? Give your class ring to someone else?” he mocked.
“No. I was supposed to handle most of the organizational shit for the bar, but I had to leave to handle things with the Wolves. Then, she had to get a taxi back to the MC. Ever since, she won’t get on the back of my fucking bike.”
I hated that I sounded like I was whining, but dammit to hell, I was used to bitches wanting to be on the back of my damn hog, not doing their best to avoid it.
“And you want her there?” This time his arched brow wasn’t in warning, but in consternation.
“Yeah. I do.”
“But you never ride with anyone at your back.”
“Always a first.”
“You have feelings for her? Or the fact that she’s Lizzie’s daughter get you?—”
“Don’t even finish that sentence. Fuck’s sake. I had a crush on her. I was horny and she had massive tits. You telling me you didn’t want to see them in the raw?”
He sniggered into his beer. “Okay, you got me there, but I don’t want to fuck Giulia, and you do.”
“Yeah, well, I like her. She’s different.”
“Different in that she isn’t terrified of you?”
“That might have something to do with it,” I muttered wryly.
“It’s definitely a novelty.”
“Everyone’s scared of you.”
“I wonder why,” I mused, smirking at him.
“Yeah, I wonder,” he replied, dry as the Sahara. “When are you getting your next tattoo?”
“Don’t know.”
“Thought you’d be all over that shit.”
I shrugged, because usually I would be. But this wasn’t ‘usual.’ I had bigger fish to fry than getting inked.
“Think that guy’s coming on to her?”
Rex frowned. “Are you being serious right now?”
I shot him a look. “When am I not serious?”
“Fuck me.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “What are you going to do? Beat the fuck out of anyone who dares approach her?”
“Potentially.”
“Then maybe I need to switch her job. She’d be safe in the garage.”
“Face like that, she’s safe nowhere,” I predicted, aware I sounded grumpy, even more aware that Rex could try as much as he wanted, and he’d never get Giulia to do a damn thing she didn’t want.
Which meant she’d be exiled.
Which meant she’d be on her way to fucking New York.
Goddamn women.
He grunted. “I’m not sure what to do with this information.”
“Which information?”
“That you banged her, and that you want more. You never want more. Not from anyone who isn’t a sweetbutt, and even then, it isn’t really the bitch but the hole you fucking want.”
I frowned at his description, which made me sound like a dick, then I saw the bastard at the bar laugh. He had blond hair, teeth so fucking white they glittered which he bared every time he goddamn smiled, and everything about him screamed that he was from Orange Hills, one of the swankiest subdivisions in the area.
His fucking shoes probably cost more than my bike, and everything had that cloying designer feel to it. From his white shirt to the simple jeans.
The dick screamed money, and I had to wonder if that kind of flash would appeal to Giulia. I didn’t know her that well, after all.
Didn’t know if she went for surface glitter over...
Over, what?
Biker grime?
“Fuck, I think I just grew a pussy,” I said to myself.
“There’s no just about it. You’ve been creaming yourself since you started watching her.”
My nostrils flared at that. “Could you be any more…” I struggled to settle on a word. “Vulgar?”
“Vulgar? Yeah. If I tried.”
Inwardly, I smiled. Outwardly, I flipped him the fucking bird.
“Seriously, Nyx. What the fuck is going on with you?”
“Nothing.”
“Tell that to someone who doesn’t fucking know you,” he scoffed.
Because he did know me, and there was no evading that truth, I simply grunted, stating, “Fuck off.”
“Can’t fuck off. This is the table allotted to me.” He arched a brow at me. “The Prez’s table. That I’m deigning to let you sit at.”
I rolled my eyes. “Want me to fucking bow and scrape my thanks? How about I tug on my forelock?”
“What the fuck is a ‘forelock?’”
Waving my hand at that, I gritted my teeth when I heard Giulia laugh again, then I mumbled, “He is coming on to her.”
“You said it yourself. With her face and those tits, she’s never not going to get come-ons.”
That he hadn’t even looked in the same direction as me told me that he wasn’t interested.
I scowled. “But he’s more insistent than most.”
“What are you going to do? Go and piss on her?” He snickered. “Please do that before I leave. I’d like to see what her reaction is.”
Despite myself, I had to laugh, and of course that about stunned Rex, so that when he sprayed me with beer, I didn’t even have it in me to glower at him.
Fuck, if I was him, and I’d heard me laugh for the first time in years, I’d have spat out my beer too.
?