Chapter 21
After the meeting at the clubhouse, he’d crashed. After six or so hours sleep, he’d hunted down Gizmo and gotten and update on what was going on. Nothing new, but at least he had that.
A little after six, Demon pulled his bike into the carport between Ronnie’s SUV and Gavin’s rental sedan.
He eased it all the way to front so hopefully it would be a little more difficult to spot if someone was driving by, then killed the engine.
After dismounting, he pulled off his helmet and put it in the saddle bag, pulling out the backpack he’d loaded with a few basics and looping it onto one arm before pulling the bags he'd put in the other side ten minutes before and carrying them with him.
At the door, he knocked twice then put the code Ronnie had given him this morning into the keypad and let himself in.
“If you were just going to let yourself in, why knock?” Gavin asked from where he stood in the entry to the kitchen as Demon closed the door and made sure the lock clicked into place.
“I just wanted to let you know I was on my way in.”
“As if the motorcycle vibrating through the whole house as you pull it into the carport wasn’t enough,” Gavin muttered as he shook his head and went back into the kitchen.
Demon frowned, but followed him. Why had he brought food, at Ronnie’s request, if Gavin was cooking? He set the bags full of food on the counter.
“Where is she?” he asked, looking around. Gavin stood at the counter beside the stove chopping something, but Demon couldn’t see what through the other man’s body. Ronnie was no where to be seen.
“She insisted she needed a shower. You need something?” Gavin twisted around to look at Demon.
“I brought a few things, since I’m going to be staying here. I figure you can take days, and I’ll stay here, and awake, to take the night shift. I was just going to ask where to put my bag.”
“I’m going to be here nights too.” Gavin scowled.
“I know, but if you’re shadowing her during the day, which I will point out that you can do a lot easier than I can. At least without blowing my cover. You’ve got to sleep some time.”
Gavin set his knife down, turned around and folded his arms across his chest as he leaned his ass against the counter behind him.
“And you think me incapable of waking if some thing happens?”
“No. Though I have to admit, I don’t know how hard you sleep.
More that if someone’s awake, it will give us more time to react, to either fight back or get her out of here.
But on top of that, if you’re on duty both night and day, it will wear on you.
Staying alert, even in your sleep, is exhausting.
It wouldn’t be long until it took it’s toll.
What happens then? If you’re not on top of your game while she’s out there, doing her thing, then they could get her, or your dad could eliminate you both.
I’m doing this to make sure she’s safe. But you’ll benefit from it too.
” Demon kept his eyes on Gavin as he forced himself to stop talking.
He didn’t need to be picking a fight with Ronnie’s brother. Right now he was the only person she would let help her, well, after this morning they’d talked her into letting Demon help too. Mostly because he’s refused to let her run him off.
After they stared at each other in silence for several long moments. Demon wondered for a moment if they would still be having their stare off when Ronnie got out of the shower and made it out here.
After nearly thirty seconds, Gavin gave in. He shook his head then stood away from the counter.
“Down the hall, last door on the right, the door across from the bathroom. It’s half office, half home gym, there’s no bed, but you can stash your bag in there for now.” He tilted the top of his head toward the hallway on the other side of the wall from where he stood.
Demon nodded, turned, and headed to find the room.
He wanted to drop off his bag. He wanted to see Ronnie, to at least lay eyes on her and make sure for himself that she was okay.
He could wait a few minutes, but hoped she wasn’t one of those women that a shower or anything they called getting ready or changing, took at least an hour, if not two.
He'd dropped off his bag and was on his way back to the kitchen when the door at the very end of the hall opened. He froze, waiting. The soft scent of mint and something else he couldn’t place hit his nose as Ronnie stepped out of the bedroom.
“Oh!” She jumped when she spotted him standing a few inches a way. “You’re back. I didn’t know you were here.”
Demon nodded. “I set the food on the counter, but your brother told me I could drop my bag in here.”
She nodded, still staring up at him. Her gaze dropped to his mouth, and she licked her lips, the pink tip of her tongue peeking out as if trying to tempt him.
“You smell good.” He took a step toward her.
Ronnie didn’t take a step back or move away. In fact, Demon would swear she’d leaned toward him. He kept going, stopping only when they’re chests were millimeters apart.
“Tell me to stop.” He slowly lowered his head, giving her time to protest or move away, but she didn’t.
Demon captured her mouth in a brief, searing kiss.
It was just enough to tell him she’d brushed her teeth along with her shower.
“You taste so good,” he said pulling away.
“Come on, let’s eat while it’s hot.” He motioned for her to precede him toward the kitchen.
As he followed her down the hall and into the kitchen, he couldn’t help the sway of her ass and the way her leggings hugged it like a second skin. His hands ached to grab a handful and squeeze, or pull back and slap one cheek, just so he could watch it jiggle.
His cock twitched and the crotch of his jeans were becoming uncomfortably tight.
It was going to be hell keeping his hands off her.
He forced his gaze up, so he wasn’t watching the way the cheeks of her ass bunched and bounced, only to realize that the tank top she wore, left enough skin uncovered that he would lay good odds she wasn’t wearing a bra.
He forced himself to look away, stopping for a second to let her round the corner, out of his sight.
Demon mentally went through the steps to disassemble, clean, and reassemble an M27 rifle, just the way they’d taught him to do it when he was in the Marines.
He’d done it over and over until he could do it in his sleep.
There had been few instances while overseas he’d been glad for the drills, but now, he used it for an entirely different purpose.
By the time he made it to the kitchen, he would no longer embarrass himself by someone just looking at him, as long as they didn’t look too closely. Damn she was tempting.
Demon caught her scent again as he stepped into the kitchen.
He reminded himself he was here for a reason, and it wasn’t to get his dick wet.
Not that he couldn’t do that, and he could admit to himself he was more than interested, but now was not the time.
Now they had things they needed to discuss, and it wasn’t just the two of them.
He had to keep in mind that her brother was here.
“How was your day?” he asked as he opened the bag he’d set there earlier, and started pulling out boxes.
“Pop dinner, steak fingers,” he read off the side of the box.
“Mine,” Gavin spoke up from where he was still standing at the counter chopping stuff.
Demon set the box on the counter and pushed it toward its owner, then pulled the next box out.
“Gizzards and steak fingers. That’s mine.
” He set the box down and pulled out the last one.
“That means this one should be the steak and shrimp.” He checked the box, making sure it was what it was what it was supposed to be, then set it in front of the stool where Ronnie had sat this morning.
“What are you doing?” He frowned at where Ronnie stood in front of the refrigerator, door open.
“I’m looking for something.”
“What are you looking for?” He moved to stand behind her, thinking maybe he’d spot whatever it was.
“Two things actually. I would swear I had a soda in here, but I can’t find it.”
“Sorry. That was me,” Gavin said, speaking up. “I didn’t know it was your last one I’ll get more. We’re going to need groceries before too long anyway, if we’re feeding three of us.”
Ronnie groaned. “I hate grocery shopping.”
“I have a solution for that, but I’ll tell you about it later,” Demon said. “What else were you looking for?”
“I have a sweet chili sauce that I want to have with my dinner, but I can’t find it.”
“What’s it look like?”
“It’s like this, but a different color because, different flavor.” She touched a bottle of barbeque sauce in one of the shelves on the door. He spent fifteen seconds or so scanning the shelves, and he spotted it, on the top shelf near the back.
“I think I see it. It will be easier for me to grab it.” Demon took a step back so she could move, then stepped in and reached into the fridge to grab the bottle.
“This it?” he asked as he handed it to her.
“It is. Thank you. I have no clue how it got pushed that far back.” She took the bottle with her to the bar, where she slid onto the stool next to her food.
“It happens.”
“What was that about how I can get out of grocery shopping?” Ronnie asked.
Demon went to his seat, opened his dinner, and glanced around for the salt.
“Have you ever considered ordering your groceries?”
“Order them? Do I look like I have that kind of money?”
“That’s the thing. It’s not expensive. If you order for pickup, they do the shopping, then bring it out and load it into your car for you, it’s free in most places. I have a subscription to have it delivered and the only additional cost is a tip for the driver.”
“But how much is the subscription?”
“Not that bad,” Demon said. “It’s a monthly or annual payment, and I’m not sure how much it runs monthly, but if you pay by the year, it works out to about two dollars a week.
” Demon shook his head. “I don’t know about you, but the amount of time I got back by not going inside and hunting down everything I need was worth that.
Especially since I was shopping for the clubhouse. Not small quantities of anything.”
She looked at him with surprise.
“You’re kidding? You shop for your club?”
Demon lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “It was one of my jobs as a prospect,” he said as he popped a gizzard into his mouth and chewed.
They talked about groceries and shopping while they ate.
Gavin finishing what he was doing, prepping food to go into the crockpot in the morning so they wouldn’t have to get take out again, then he joined them.
When they were finished eating, they moved to the living room and shared what each of them had learned during the day.
Much to Demon’s disappointment, it wasn’t much.