Chapter 11 The Second Time
KNUCKLES
I headed Grunt off as he came to look for me. “Is she coming back later?”
“Said ‘her brother’ will be back to gather up the stuff later.”
“She doesn’t have a brother.” I knew that my selfish ass missed a lot of what was going on Cassidy’s life when we were younger, but I knew she didn’t have any fucking siblings to speak of.
“She has a stepbrother and sister. Not sure how old they are.”
“She never had a relationship with them and hated their mom. I doubt very seriously that she’d be working with one of them all these years later.”
Grunt shrugged. “Don’t know anything more than you do on that front, man. Just repeating what she told me before she took off.”
“You going to relay the rest?”
“Why? You were listening in from the security feed,” he announced as he stared at the door behind me.
He wasn’t wrong, but it still rubbed me the wrong way.
Honestly, the fact that he was able to talk to her without all the hostility that she threw my way chapped my ass even if it was thanks to my own stupidity.
“Are you sure she didn’t say anything about her supposed brother? She never had a relationship with the step kids.”
“Maybe things changed,” Grunt snapped. “Or maybe she means a dude she became good friends with while out there in the big ol’ world doing who knows what with who knows who all this time.”
The asshole taunted me with the possibilities.
We were riding close to the edge of thirty.
I wasn’t dumb enough to think Cassidy had remained untouched and kept herself free and single this whole time in the hopes that one day…
I shook that thought off. It was ludicrous.
She was guaranteed to have a past, but I wasn’t sure what I’d do if that past followed her back to Violence, especially if I had to watch as she lived her life with someone else.
And yeah, I knew I had no right to think that considering that was the life I had doomed her to in the beginning if she’d stuck around town after we all graduated.
I was a hypocrite, but there was no way to rewire my brain to adjust for all the ways I’d fucked up when I was younger that led us to where we were now.
After Nell’s epic unveiling of her artwork, I stuck close to the clubhouse specifically in the kitchen.
There was no telling when Cassidy’s supposed brother was going to show up, but I wanted to be there when that happened.
I needed to know for sure if she had someone here and was using “brother” as code for her man so as not to tip me off.
That would be weird as fuck if anyone ever saw them together, though.
“What are you doing hiding out in the kitchen?”
I turned to see Tay-Tay there. Her real name was Taylor Tatum, but we all smooshed the two together affectionately when she showed up looking for work and companionship a few years ago.
Tay-Tay was one of the club girls who hung around, received room and board, and had no qualms about servicing the men of the club or those associated with us if we gave the okay.
She was a blonde, though hers was more of the bottle variety and a little on the dried out and over-processed side.
It was nothing like Cassidy’s corn silk, blonde locks.
She was a poor imitation of the woman I couldn’t get off my mind.
“The better question is what are you doing in here? You usually avoid the kitchen like the plague so no one will put you on dish duty.” I slipped enough humor into my voice that she smiled and moved a little closer.
Maybe that was dumb on my part. The last thing I needed was for Cassidy to come back for her stuff herself and see Tay getting close and personal with me.
I wanted a chance to prove myself to Cass, and having another woman in my space when she was around wouldn’t do me any favors.
“I asked around to see where you ran off to. A few people pointed me in this direction.”
“A few?” I questioned because that seemed strange.
She giggled. “I asked the same question to different people because I didn’t believe you were in the kitchen all by your lonesome. You hate being suckered into helping out in here just as much as I do.”
She had that right. I supposed, to anyone who didn’t know why I was in here, it would seem strange. Still, what I did with my time was none of Tay-Tay’s business.
“I’m waiting on the catering people to come pick their shit up,” I told her.
It was the truth, sort of. “Wanted to make sure nobody swiped anything we’d be held responsible for.
” Her brows bunched together in confusion.
I might have been Sgt. at Arms, but that did not make me the dish police.
“Go on back out there and have a good time celebrating with everyone,” I told her.
“Or,” she dragged the one syllable out suggestively, “I could stay.” She ran a finger over my pecs and caused my body to break out in an involuntary shiver. “And keep you company.”
“Tay, when a club brother tells you to do something, you listen. I didn’t invite you for play time.
You need to get the hell back out of this kitchen now, or we’ll have a conversation with Bigfoot that you won’t like.
” There was a desperate quality to my voice that she clearly noticed as her eyes tracked to the back door before meeting mine again.
“Go!” I demanded. I heard the truck pull up. She needed to get gone and quickly.
Tay-Tay dragged her fucking feet and walked as slow as humanly possible until she turned the corner down the hallway headed toward the bar area of the clubhouse.
Thankfully, whoever backed the truck up the loading area outside took their sweet time getting the angle just right.
Tay was gone before there was a hesitant knock on the door.
I opened it to find a weary-looking Cassidy.
The dark circles under her eyes and way her shoulders sagged led me to believe she’d had a long day and not just because I played a part in it.
This catering gig was for a pretty big spread and she appeared to have handled everything from cooking, baking, and transporting all on her own.
“You look tired,” I said.
“Thanks for stating the obvious. I’ve been going since four this morning to get everything ready for your club’s event.”
“We all appreciated it. Everyone’s in the clubhouse all fat, happy, and thoroughly fucking satisfied after Nell’s unveiling.”
“How was it? I couldn’t see well when I pulled up because it was too dark.”
“We’re going to get lights on it as soon as we get the electrical worked out.
” I grinned. “You’ll have to come back during the day to check it out sometime.
Nell is her own piece of art but the shit she makes - man I am in awe of her abilities.
Asked her to make me something once, but her old man told me I can’t afford her work and he won’t let his wife work for free for club brothers. ”
Cass giggled. “Baffle is a smart man. Happy wife, happy life,” she trilled out. Then she must have remembered who she was talking to, shook it off, and glanced past me. I came to pick everything up.”
“Thought your brother was coming to do that, only last I heard, you don’t have a brother.”
She cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes as if looking for my weakness because we were about to throw down - in her mind, anyway. “Never said he was a brother by blood, though, I guess we have bled for one another.”
“What the fuck?” I asked. I would kill the bastard if he got my Cassidy injured.
“Calm down, it’s probably nothing close to what you’re thinking and not your business besides. Can I get through, so I can load this damn truck and get home to rest?”
“Yeah, sorry, I’ll help you.”
“I don’t need the kind of help you offered earlier.”
“Meant what I said. We’ll get the truck loaded. I want a conversation with you, but even I can see you’re too wiped out for that tonight.”
“Appreciated,” she shot back and I could tell by the hint of sarcasm that she was simply too tired to tell me to fuck all the way off.
When we were just about done loading everything, Cassidy and I manage to wedge ourselves into one area of the boxed truck pretty good. “Didn’t think that one all the way through,” I muttered as I took in our predicament.
“Story of your life,” Cassidy sassed back.
I grinned at her and then took her by surprise when I lifted her by the hips to try to get her over the table that we inadvertently pulled in to block our escape.
Cass put up a bit of fight the minute her feet left the ground and she ended up with ass planted firmly on that table.
I stepped between her legs and stared down into her eyes that looked unimaginably darker in the shadows of the truck.
“This part is on you. I was lifting you over the table, you parked your ass on it instead.”
“I wa-sh-well,” she finally decided to say after cycling through a couple partial words. “If you had used your words and told me the plan, I could have helped instead of hindered.”
“I don’t know, feels like everything turned out for the best the way it is.
” I could tell by the little shiver that shook her shoulders that she heard the drop in my voice just as she could see the heat in my gaze.
If I stepped another half inch closer, she’d be up close and personal with the other physical effect she had on me.
“What are you doing, James?”
“What I started to do earlier,” I said as I leaned in closer and our lips met again.
Her kiss was just as sweet. While a little hesitant at first, she was still more into it than she had been earlier when she slapped me the minute my mouth disengaged hers.
Her leg came up around my thigh and pulled me closer.
I could feel the heat between her legs that echoed the way my needy, achy cock pulsed at her nearness.
“Fuck, Cass,” I hissed against her lips as we ground our bodies together.