Chapter 13 #2
Anyone else and he’d be smirking at the way I stall, surprised, then annoyed.
Not Eli. He studies me, with that look of understanding he affects so well. His bike is parked in the empty space beside my car. I guess he doesn’t need to worry about getting moved on given the lot is mostly empty now.
And the fact he is a biker, in a leather vest, looking like the kind of guy you do not want to tangle with. There is only one reason he is standing here looking at me like I’m some damsel in distress.
“I’m going to kill her.”
Something flashes over his face, but he wipes it away and straightens taking a step closer.
“Don’t go jumping to conclusions,” he says in that seductive southern drawl of his.
It makes my stomach swoop. Then I remember I’m mad. “What does that mean? Tell me you didn’t come here off your own back, Eli.”
“Not that either.”
“Then what?”
“King wants to see you.”
That’s odd. I take out my phone to check, but there are no missed calls. “Why didn’t he call me?”
“I go where they tell me.”
“You could have called too,” I give him a knowing look.
He doesn’t respond to that and we stare at each other in silence. There isn’t another soul in sight. This is the first time I’ve been really alone with him since our night together. Usually we’re around other people.
“I’m really tired,” I say, dropping my phone in my purse. “Do you know what it’s about?”
Eli frowns in a way that says he does, but he doesn’t want to tell me. Excitement swirls through me. What if something has happened King needs me for which will take me away from the office? Harry knows the MC comes first. King made sure of it.
Could this be my way out of Vance’s case? Not if it’s something shit that has happened at the club, I wouldn’t want that, but King does call me in non-violent matters, or brothers being arrested for stupid shit as well.
“Maybe I should call him, see if it can wait until tomorrow. It’s a long way to go tonight.”
“Why are you working so late?”
That makes me wonder how long he has stood out here. “My job isn’t exactly nine to five, case and point,” I sigh. “You never said why you didn’t call, and don’t give me any bullshit excuses.”
The wind picks up, and my hair blows in front of my face. With my hands full I can’t move it but Eli has no such problem, reaching over and gently brushing my hair out of my eyes. I should take a step back, or tell him to stay out of my personal space but I don’t do that.
I’ve always been drawn to Eli. It started off as a crush when I was younger, the hot mechanic aptly nicknamed Handlebar who liked to walk around with his overalls hanging low down on his waist and a grease stained white t-shirt that clung to every ridge and muscle on his body.
He’s only a few years older than me but always looked to me like he’d lived more years than his true age.
All the girls lusted after him, but I would only watch.
He kept to himself a lot of the time, most of his love and attention was given to the machines he worked with.
When I went off to college I forgot about him.
But he was one of the first things that piqued my interest when I got back and started working for the club.
My principles had changed at that point. My work was for the club, I didn’t intend on having a social life here too.
Until that one momentary lapse, at a party before the shit hit the fan with the Kingsmen. I’d been forced to attend a party and only had a few drinks, my plan was to slip away when no one would notice I was gone.
Only Eli caught me trying to sneak out, said it was a bad idea to leave without telling anyone, especially given the clubhouse is out in the middle of nowhere and the brothers on security might get the wrong idea if they saw me sneaking around.
He offered me a quiet place to decompress instead. We talked, he’s a good listener and what woman doesn’t love a guy who listens, takes them seriously and doesn’t try to offer platitudes.
It turned me on and it all lead to one of the best nights of my life.
Every time I look at him, I think about how I snuck out of the room over the garage which he promised wasn’t used by anyone other than him. Sometimes I wonder how he felt when he woke up and I was gone. Whether he was surprised, or upset, or he expected it. Maybe even wanted it.
It was only afterwards I knew he hadn’t wanted me to leave. I’m not sure what he thought would come of it but all I did was push him away, make it obvious I want nothing more to do with him.
All the guilt I felt about that comes rushing back as we stare at each other. His hand is still lingering by my cheek, and he gently tucks my hair behind my ear before lowering it to his side.
“Maybe some of what Rosa said stuck with me.” He finally answers my question.
“I’m not yours to worry about,” I say quietly.
“I know that, Cassie.”
“Why did you really come?” I’m not sure what I’m hoping he’ll say.
“Part of the reason King wants to see you is my fault.”
“What do you mean? Are you in trouble?”
“No, nothing like that. Something happened while I was on a run.”
My brow arches. Brothers don’t share information on MC business. I’m privier than most, given I’m the one who keeps them all out of jail even if its need to know and very limited information.
“I told King you’re working late. If we didn’t head back right away…” he trails off.
“What are you suggesting?”
“That we talk. We were good at that, once.”
The unspoken words swirl around inside my head. From his look, he is thinking the same. We talked for hours, a strange connection grew between us, then we fell into bed and from my side, ruined it.
“What I have to say is delicate and it can’t go beyond us, or King once you get to the compound.”
Suddenly I don’t feel tired anymore. If it’s that much of a secret, the best place for us to talk would be my apartment, but that seems like I’m asking for trouble. I was in a house for five minutes with Mace and ended up bent over a sofa.
“Let’s go up to my office.” I turn before he can see the blush rising in my cheeks as they start to burn at the thought of Mace.
Eli follows me but pauses before we go inside. He is holding the door open for me but looking out into the parking lot, away from my car and his bike.
“Is something wrong?” I ask.
“No, nothing,” he steps forward, so I have to move inside, and he follows me in.
I’m about to ask what he saw when one of the security guards comes over, looking concerned. It doesn’t take long to convince them Handlebar isn’t a threat, but they still eye him and his cut as he follows me to the elevators.
When we get to my office, I close the door over and offer him a drink, then go around my desk, putting the huge piece of furniture between us. His presence seems to take all the air out of the room.
Eli moves like a cat, graceful for someone so large who invokes fear into people who don’t know him, from the way he dresses and the vehicle he chooses to drive.
If people took the time to get to know him, they’d see what I see.
He’s a kind hearted, caring man with a deep-seated emotional wound he keeps close to his chest.
Now and then, when we talked, I could see something in him, some deep and lasting pain that he will never talk about. He has erected a barrier between whatever it was and the person he is now.
I’m not a nurturing personality, not by a long shot but Eli spoke to a part of me I never knew was there. And it’s why I ran from him that night, pushing him away, not wanting to take on any emotional baggage.
The men I bring into my life aren’t complicated. They’re more like what happened with Mace. In fact, being with Mace is something that would be easy to fall into on a casual basis because he doesn’t want anything in return.
Eli wouldn’t ask me to help him through his past, but it’s there, whether he intended me to see it or not.
“Everything okay over there?”
I have to clear my throat a couple of times before responding. My thoughts and his appearance here tonight have triggered something I’m not used to. Instead of trying to figure that out I focus on why he’s here.
“Does King know you’re giving me a heads up about what he wants to tell me?”
“He didn’t tell me not to talk about it.”
“So that means no.”
“King knows everything.”
“He’s not psychic.”
“You sure about that,” he grins, leaning back in the chair, making himself comfortable.
“Yeah, I kind of have thought that in the past. How does he know everything? Does he have spies?”
“That would be telling,” Eli takes a long drink from his water bottle then sets it on the desk. “Truthfully, he wouldn’t have sent me to ask you to come to the compound without knowing I would share some information.”
“Well, color me intrigued. What is this piece of information?”
“Things went sideways on our latest run.”
“With the law?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“True, I would have had to bail you out if it was something like that.”
“We’re too good to get caught.”
“Famous last words.”
He huffs out a little laugh, then his face gets serious. “A long time ago, before I joined the club, I worked at a carnival. We traveled around the country a lot, spending a week maximum in each new city, or town.”
I don’t take my eyes off him as he gets a faraway look in his own. We’ve talked sure, but Eli never elaborated on what his life was like before he joined Devil’s Chaos. It’s surprising to learn he grew up in a carnival, but also kind of not.
“I was eighteen and kept to myself, did what was needed. I watched what went on around me, saw some questionable things for sure,” he gives me another little grin, some kind of attempt to lighten the mood, or what he is about to tell me.
“Talking about this isn’t something I ever thought I would do, especially after I left that life behind.”
“Eli,” I frown and lean forward.
“No need to worry about me, sweetheart. I’m good. It’s other people involved who could get hurt.”