Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Raylan
My vision narrowed as my eyelids lowered farther. I wasn’t sure my glower could get more intense, and if my face pinched any more than it already had, I risked swallowing myself whole.
The guy I’d been glaring daggers at finally felt the vibes I was directing his way. He dragged his attention from where he’d been staring at Lennix’s tits across the bar to me before quickly spinning his stool back around to face forward when he saw the promise of violence written on my face.
“Yeah, that’s right, shit for brains,” I muttered to myself. “Keep your eyes to yourself and we won’t have any problems.”
Havoc stirred and I instinctively brought up a hand to scratch the top of his head as soon as he popped it out of the top of the carrier. Together, we scanned the space for any potential threats. “What do you think, buddy? You sense any of these assholes giving off creeper energy?”
He stretched his little body as long as it would go and let out a groan before shaking himself fully awake. I chose to think of that as a sound of agreement. “Yeah, you’re right. Bet they’re all a bunch of sickos.”
There was no telling what some of the people in this very room got up to when nobody was looking.
And Lennix was right here, day after day, in the middle of it all.
The thought of her being so exposed to any potential danger made me uncomfortably itchy, like my skin was being stretched too tight over my bones.
She had Zeke—who looked like he could crush a pumpkin with his thighs—which was good.
But he was only one guy. He couldn’t be expected to be everywhere at once if something major went down.
Of course, The Tap Room had security and cameras, but the system was outdated—one her father had installed back during his time at Alpha Omega. It should have been replaced years ago.
I made a mental note to talk to Rhodes about getting her some of the top-of-the-line shit that they used on their installs now.
They were pricey as hell, but they were the best on the market.
The best was the only thing worthy of Lennix, and there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t pay to ensure my Chaos’s safety.
One of the pros of living like a college-aged bachelor was I brought in a hell of a lot more than what went out.
I’d saved plenty over the past several years and could more than afford it.
Hell, even if I couldn’t, I would have gladly taken out a loan to cover the cost if that’s what it took.
She spent so many nights here by herself .
. . too many. But none of that would matter if she didn’t start taking her own safety more seriously.
When I went out earlier to have a look around the parking lot, I noticed that Lennix parked her SUV out of the range of the cameras that covered the back lot, so even if she’d let me check her security footage, there wouldn’t have been anything to see.
That was an argument we would definitely be having later today.
I’d been so caught up in making sure there were no potential threats to Lennix—and occasionally spying on her while she had some girl time with Merritt and Rae—that I didn’t feel someone approaching until they spoke.
“That puppy is so cute, I can’t even.”
I cast a distracted glance toward the brunette just as her hand came up to pet Havoc. “I wouldn’t—” I’d only gotten out half my sentence when Havoc bared his little razor fangs and chomped down on the woman’s finger.
She yelped and yanked her hand back, her momentary look of surprise morphing into an angry scowl before she caught herself and pulled it back, pasting a seductive, flirty grin in its place.
“Sorry. He tends to nip first and ask forgiveness later.”
She tossed her hair over her shoulder and rested her palm on her chest to draw attention to her cleavage.
She was good, I’d give her that. Smooth and practiced.
Beautiful. If this had been a couple months ago, I would have eagerly joined in on the little game.
I enjoyed a good flirt as much as the next person—especially when it was leading to something even more fun.
But some kind of internal switch had been flipped, and I couldn’t remember the last time I looked at a woman—who wasn’t Lennix—with any kind of interest. I allowed myself a brief moment to take stock of my body’s reaction, and there wasn’t so much as a stirring.
If my blood didn’t feel like it was electrically charged every time Lennix was nearby, I might have worried that my dick was broken.
But it didn’t seem to have any issues springing to life for her.
“Oh, that’s all right. He’s so cute he can get away with anything. Aren’t you, little guy?” she baby-talked. “Yeah, you’re just the cutest thing ever.”
She didn’t have a very good poker face, because I could read her dislike for animals clear as day as she grimaced at Havoc in a way that was probably meant to be a smile.
To be honest, I wasn’t a real big fan of her touching Lennix’s and my dog, but my mind was too busy with trying to find out who was stalking the addictive pain in my ass to pay her much mind.
This woman was an unwanted distraction, to say the least.
I needed to shut her down in the fastest way that wouldn’t cause any drama, so I did the only thing I could think. “Yeah, he’s great. Especially if you can look past the fleas.”
Her eyes shot up to mine, her hand frozen midair. “Fleas?”
“Yeah, but it’s the worms that are the real problem.”
She jerked back like she’d just been shocked, unable to hide her disgust for another second. “Worms?”
I glanced at her and arched a brow. “That a problem?”
That was a rhetorical question. It absolutely was a problem for this woman. That was why I’d made up the lie in the first place. “Uh . . .” Instead of making up some bullshit excuse, she simply turned on her heel and bolted—not just in the other direction, but out of the bar completely.
“Huh.” I tipped my head down and met Havoc’s big brown eyes. “A draw and a repellant. You’re the ultimate wingman.”
The skin on the back of my neck began to tingle, and, when I followed that feeling, I caught eyes on me coming from Lennix’s table, only it wasn’t her looking at me. It was Rae, and she looked like she wanted to tie me up and rip out my leg hairs, one at a time.
I lifted my hand, giving her a hesitant wave, wondering what I’d done to earn that look.
However, before I could give it much more thought, my focus was pulled when Lennix rose from the table, offering her girls cheek kisses before heading off in the direction of her office.
I moved quickly, heading her off at the mouth of the hallway.
I wasn’t sure when it had happened, but it had become downright impossible to be in the same room as her and not get sucked in by her gravitational pull.
I couldn’t stay away from her. I didn’t want to.
That was something I needed to get control of before I did something in front of Zach that I couldn’t explain.
“Have a good lunch?” I asked, coming up beside her. She’d tried picking up the pace to outrun me, not that it did her a lick of good. Getting in step at her side was easy, given how short her legs were.
From the corner of my eye I caught her bring her hand up and massage at the skin between her brows like she was trying to fight off a headache. She pulled up short in front of her closed office door and spun around to face me. “What do you want, Raylan?”
My brows pulled together. “What do you mean?”
“Why are you here?” she asked, stressing that last word. “Why stick around? Why not go off and do . . . anything else?” She waved her arm in an arching half-circle. “As you can see, I’m perfectly safe here. There’s no reason for you to stand guard.”
My jaw worked side to side as I ground my back molars together while I tried to formulate an answer.
I wasn’t particularly good at emotional stuff.
Despite growing up with three sisters, I could be pretty stunted when it came to feelings and shit.
It was something I’d known about myself for a really long time.
One of the reasons I knew I wasn’t built for a real, lasting relationship.
But I found that, in that very moment, I didn’t want to answer in a way that would lighten the situation or give her some vague non-answer.
For the first time in memory, I wanted to be real with someone. Whether it came back to bite me in the ass or not.
I sucked in a deep breath and swallowed, trying to force down the jagged lump that had formed in my throat. “I’m here . . .” Fuck why was this so goddamn hard?
She stood motionless. Her eyes were swirling with a million different emotions. But as the seconds ticked by and I remained silent, the one that became most prominent was disappointment. And fuck if that didn’t burn like a hot brand melting my skin.
She dropped her head before giving it a shake. “You know what? Just forget it.”
Everything in me coated in a thick layer of panic when she turned around and reached for the knob. Desperation clutched at my chest like a boa constrictor. “I’m here because I can’t stay away from you.” Each of those words shot out of me with the speed and power of a bullet out of a gun.
For a moment it looked like I had managed to freeze her solid with those words. Then she slowly turned her head to look at me. Her eyes were wide and her lips parted in shock. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen her stunned into silence. She was always so loud and full of life and passion.
I knew I was fucking this up, but I didn’t know how the fuck to put everything I was feeling into words.
At least with Havoc in the carrier on my chest I had my hands free to rake them through my hair anxiously.
The silence surrounding us was making me twitchy and agitated, like I had insects crawling around beneath my skin.
The longer she stared without saying a word, the tighter my chest got until I couldn’t stand it for another fucking second.
“Will you say something? Please.” I wasn’t even ashamed at how desperate that last word sounded. “Just say anything.”
“I—” Her throat worked on a swallow, and I watched like a hand was wrapped around my throat, squeezing so tight I couldn’t take a full breath, as her gaze shuttered. I could practically feel her closing down on me, shutting me out, and there wasn’t a goddamn thing I could do about it.
“I can’t do this right now. I’m sorry.” The door to her office closed in my face, sealing me out, before I could even comprehend her response. Leaving me feeling like I’d just been kicked in the gut, knocking the wind right out of me.