Chapter 2
Two
MALAKI
Well, this night has taken a wicked turn.
I sit at one of the penny slots but make no move to wager any money.
How I ended up at a casino watching one of my teammates drink copious amounts of booze while he sweeps all the other gamblers off their feet at the blackjack table is beyond me.
I’m not here for fun.
I’m here as his babysitter, even if he is wholly unaware of that.
I can hear my teammates now: Of course Malaki will keep an eye on Kane…he has nothing better to do.
Just because I’m one of the guys on the team who hasn’t settled down with a wife yet, doesn’t mean I don’t have better things to do. Actually, ninety percent of the team has deemed me the last to settle down, if ever.
Still doesn’t mean I don’t have better things to do, you know?
“If you’re not going to play, can you move?”
I turn and make eye contact with an older woman who has the voice of someone that smokes a pack of cigarettes per hour. She has so many deep wrinkles on her face I’m afraid she may be a witch and cast a spell on me if I don’t move, so I spring up from the seat and usher her to sit.
“Go get ‘em, tiger,” I mutter.
She doesn’t hear me. The bright lights and annoying bells on the slot machine have sucked her in–she’s preoccupied at the moment.
I sigh and swing my attention back to Kane.
He raises his hand to signal for the cocktail waitress.
Great.
With my long legs, I beat her to the punch and arrive at the table before she does.
“Don’t get another drink,” I say in a casual tone.
Kane stiffens before turning to glance at me over his shoulder. “What are you doing here?”
I furrow my brow. “Bro, you invited me.”
At first, I thought he may be joking. But with the confused glaze in his eye, it’s clear that he’s not.
“Shit. You’re worse than I thought,” I mumble.
Where is Daisy?
I texted her at least thirty minutes ago to make his sorry ass leave. One thing I’ve learned about Kane since moving in with him is that he is as hardheaded off the ice as he is on it. He won’t leave just because I ask him to. But he might if she does.
“You’re going to feel like shit tomorrow,” I warn.
Kane puts his back to me again and focuses on the cards laying out in front of him. “At least I don’t look like shit,” he mumbles.
I chuckle. What are we? In grade school?
I’m tempted to start some ‘your mama’ jokes, just to stay with the theme of dishing out childish insults, but sometimes people take it the wrong way since I’m motherless.
Everyone still expects me to weep at the thought of my mother dying, but that’s not how I deal with my emotions.
In fact, I don’t really deal with them at all.
Just as the cocktail waitress makes her way over, I spot Daisy walking through the doors of the casino.
“Thank God,” I mutter.
With Kane left gambling, I make my way over to her.
I’m not sure what’s going on between the two of them, but there’s something brewing. If Daisy can get Kane all out of sorts, she’s the only one able to get him to leave.
She stands in the doorway and scans the casino, our eyes snagging as I get closer to her.
I place a hand over my heart when we close the gap between us. “My hero.”
Daisy laughs quietly but turns serious a second later. “Where is he?”
I inch my chin over to the table that I left Kane at. A groove of worry appears beneath the brim of her hat. She sighs and brushes past me, only to reveal someone standing behind her.
Whoa.
Who is this?
Whoever Daisy was hiding behind her back deserves to be beneath a spotlight at all times.
She is striking, the type of woman that makes you do a double-take. She’s the kind of beautiful that stays with you long after she’s disappeared, which is exactly what she’s trying to do right now.
“Hey,” I jog after her. “Wait up.”
The woman stops and brushes her long, dark hair over her shoulder. Her thick eyelashes flutter, revealing bright specks of gold within her eyes. Damn.
“Are you here with Daisy?” I ask.
It’s an innocent question, one that shouldn’t give her any clue that I have bad intentions.
Bad intentions, as in…how can I get her beneath me for the night?
“Yes.” Even her voice has me sucked in. “I’m her…ride.” She rises to her tiptoes, likely looking over my shoulder to spot Daisy across the large area filled with all sorts of noises that I suddenly can’t hear.
“Are you two friends?” Another innocent question, right? There is no way she knows I’m only asking so I can figure out if there’s a way I can swindle Daisy into bringing this girl around more often.
She glances at me briefly, and I find myself wanting to jump in front of her so she only sees me instead of watching the drama between Kane and Daisy unfold.
“We’re–” She pauses. “Yes, I guess you can consider Daisy and me friends.”
“What does that mean?” I ask.
An annoyed sigh leaves her, and I sort of like that she’s slightly irritated. “I’m her Uber. That's how we met.”
She’s an Uber driver?
I have never had an Uber driver look like this before. If I had, I’d Uber everywhere despite the fact that I have my own car.
“An Uber driver?” I push my hands into my pockets to appear nonchalant. “I’ve never had an Uber driver like you before.”
She eyes me with suspicion. “What is that supposed to mean?”
Her offended tone makes my mouth twitch.
I shrug. “I either get some guy who uses grunts as a form of speaking or one that is so stunned I’m in his backseat that I have to pretend like I’m not who he thinks I am.”
When someone recognizes me, I hurriedly make up a different name and act like I’m not that Malaki Young.
Half the time, it’s for my own protection because I’m afraid they’ll kill us both in a wreck before I make it to my destination.
Once, I convinced a poor college student my name was pronounced Ma-lock-y, and he believed me.
She looks at me like I’m the biggest loser in the world. “And who exactly are you?”
It’s a hit right to my ego.
I place my hand over my heart and act wounded, but my theatrics only last a few seconds. “Shit. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Goddamnit, Kane. I was about to make my new favorite obsession smile, but now I’m headed over to my rather aggravating roommate to stop an altercation before he ends up getting arrested.
“What are you even doing here?” he hisses to Daisy, unaware that I’m walking up to smooth things over.
“I called her.”
Kane glares at me. “You have her number?”
Easy, killer.
Doesn’t he know I don’t want his girl? I mean, there’s a perfectly fine one at my back, watching this entire thing unfold. I glance back, just to make sure Daisy’s Uber driver is still waiting, and she is.
I quickly reach inside my pocket and pull out Kane’s phone. I press it into his chest. “I grabbed her number from your phone. You’ve got that crazy look in your eye that you get on the ice, which is exactly why I called her to come get you to leave.”
Idiot.
“You called her to get me to leave?” He laughs, and I know it’s sarcastic, because Kane rarely laughs at anything. “Yeah, nice try, but I’m not leaving.” He turns to Daisy. “Especially with her.”
These two give me a headache.
Unwilling to deal with Kane’s temper tantrum and their soap opera romance in the making, I dig into my pocket for my keys and toss them to Daisy.
“You get him home. I’ll catch a ride with your Uber…” I turn back to make sure Ms. Uber is still there waiting for me.
She is.
Sure, she may be waiting for Daisy, but I can totally pretend she’s waiting for me.
“Her name is Reese.” Daisy gives me a look. “And you better tip her well, Malaki.”
On the inside, I’m smiling like a fool.
I’ll tip her well, alright…if she’ll let me.