Chapter 22
TWENTY-TWO
HAYLEY
I paced back and forth across the living room of my apartment.
I’d gotten off the phone with Stone twenty minutes ago, and he still hadn’t showed up.
Granted, I didn’t know where the hell in the city he was.
For all I knew, it’d take him an hour to get to my place.
I wrung my hands and raked my fingers through my hair.
I downed water like it was my life’s purpose.
I always got so dehydrated whenever I got nervous.
And I was very nervous about confronting Stone with all this.
I knew it was for his own good. For the club’s good.
But I heard the anger in his voice. I knew what would be going through his mind the second he got to my place.
A heavy knock on my door pulled me from my trance, and I jumped.
“Open this door, Hayley.” His voice growled, but not the pleasant kind of growl I had become addicted to.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I paused in my living room.
Was it smart to open the door? I mean, he sounded angry.
I knew he’d be packing heat. Especially if my father’s file was correct about all the things his club did.
It took me a second to move. To get to the door and rip it open.
But when I did, Stone charged into my place.
“What the—”
“Was it a setup?” he asked.
He whipped around, eyeing me heavily as I closed the door.
My eyes danced along his body. I found his hands balled into fists at his side and his nostrils flaring.
Anger permeated his face, wrinkling his brow and furrowing his eyebrows.
He ground his teeth together. His temples pulsed.
I stared into eyes of heated lava, of a man who had been devoured by whatever his mind had convinced him of along the way.
“What?” I asked.
“You heard me, Hayley. Cough it up. Was it a setup? Did your father make you sleep with me or something to get close to the club?” he asked.
Out of all the things I expected, that wasn’t one of them.
“Wow, you really don’t know me at all, do you?” I asked.
“No, I obviously don’t. You’re the daughter of the man who infiltrated our ranks. Who’s hunting us down like animals! Now, answer my question.”
“Not until you lower your voice in my apartment.”
“I’ll speak to you however I damn well please.”
I rushed in front of him, standing on my tiptoes and looking him square in the face.
“Lower. Your fucking. Voice,” I said curtly.
He puffed air through his nose as I settled back down onto my feet. I took a few steps away from him, trying to put some distance between us. I turned my back to him to give myself some time to gather my thoughts so I could answer his questions appropriately.
“I don’t have a lot of time,” Stone said.
I whipped back around, facing him. “My father didn’t dictate me to sleep with you. No one dictates what I do or don’t do with my body. Let’s get that straight right now.”
His eyes connected with mine before he nodded.
“And another thing, you don’t get to barge into my place because you’re pissed.
Had I put this all together sooner, I would have come to you sooner.
Because I don’t agree with the witch hunt my father has been conducting.
I just didn’t know who he was hunting until this morning.
And I gave you the courtesy of calling. Understand that. ”
He gritted his teeth. “Yeah.”
“Yeah. More like ‘thank you,’ would be appropriate. But I’m not looking for perfection. No, Stone. My father didn’t order me, like some whore, to sleep with you.”
“That wasn’t what I—”
“Shut up!” I exclaimed.
He sighed, his shoulders finally relaxing and his fists unclenching.
“I had no idea about what my father was working on. He never talks about his work. But I know he’s been consumed by something lately.
After going on an undercover operation for almost seven fucking months, I hadn’t seen or heard much from him.
At all. He’s mentioned enough along the way for me to put together that whatever he encountered on that op he ran was fueling his work currently.
And since you wouldn’t give me any information about what you do or who you do it with, I decided to ask my father if he knew anything about The Lost Boys. ”
“You what?” he asked.
“His response to me is what prompted me to start digging. To take a look in his office. I asked him who you guys were, if he knew anything about you. And all he told me to do was stay away before he placed a call to someone on his team. He slipped out onto the porch, I slipped into his office, and the damn file folder on all of you was just sitting on his desk.”
“Did you look in it?” he asked.
I nodded. “That’s when I knew I needed to call you.”
I watched him disarm himself for a second before his eyes grew hard. His fists balled up again and all those walls went flying back up.
“How the hell am I supposed to believe you?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Sounds like a personal problem. But if you need proof, I took pictures on my phone of the papers in the file folder my father has on you and your crew.”
“Let me see it.”
“No.”
“Then, maybe you don’t really have them,” he said.
“The man is still my father, and I still respect his work. I took it for personal purposes—to figure out what the fuck was going on—not so I could hand over information. But here’s what I know.
I know you and your guys run guns and launder money.
I know you do it through a bar you guys own on the outskirts of the city.
I know you work with guys by the name of Texas, Notch, and Bronx. And I know what they look like.”
I watched the man’s face redden with anger.
“I know there are two girls connected to you. Ella and Keva,” I said.
“What?” he asked hotly.
“There’s a great deal of information on you guys in that folder. My father’s been thorough. There are mentions of some guy named Jett. Killed, apparently, or something like that.”
“You don’t understand a damn thing you’re talking about right now,” he growled.
“No, I don’t. But I figured reading the pages in that file were the closest I’d ever get. And maybe I’m weird to assume that after a couple of pity fucks, you’d actually tell me about yourself. So, I suppose you’ve become a weakness to me.”
“Wait, did you say ‘pity fuck?’” he asked.
“Don’t change the subject. You’re going to want the rest of my story.”
“No, you’re not changin’ anything. Did you just accuse me of pity fucking you?”
He grew closer to me. Slowly. Deftly. He moved with grace and loomed over me with a strength that made my heart stop in my chest. I backed all the way into the wall.
I pressed my hands into it. I felt his body heat coming for me as he grew closer, his eyes holding my gaze.
I watched them darken. I watched an angry, frustrated fire ignite behind his eyes.
He stood toe to toe with me as I swallowed hard, looking up into his face.
“Let’s get one fuckin’ thing straight,” he said.
“And—and what’s that?” I asked.
“Out of all the things we’ve done together, never once have I pity fucked you.
You’re better than that, and so am I. I fucked you because I wanted to.
Because your body calls to me. Because you’ve got curves I want to memorize and because my taste for you is insatiable.
I fucked you because I wanted to. Because I needed to.
And I came back for seconds and sure as hell will come back for thirds.
And fourths. And fifths. Until you kick me out of your fuckin’ bed. Is that understood?”
His words pierced through me like lightning. Carved through me like softened butter. It was the most wondrous thing anyone had ever said to me, and I wanted to kiss him. Wrap myself around him. Take him, over and over, and forget this bullshit fight.
“Do you, Hayley Woolf, understand?” Stone asked curtly.
“Yes,” I said breathlessly.
His hand fisted my hair and brought my lips to his.
I collapsed against him, my hands running all over his leather jacket.
I wrapped my arms around him and clung to him, feeling his tongue push between my lips.
He stumbled me back into the wall, pinning me against his strength as our teeth clattered and our lips swelled against one another’s.
And when our foreheads fell together, I gasped for air.
“Tonight is a setup,” I whispered.
His nose nuzzled against mine. “How do you know that?”
“My father’s conversation. After I uh…”
His lips fell to my cheek and my knees weakened.
“After I got done in his office, I heard him talking about a plan. How my father would have ‘them’ right where his team wanted ‘them.’ He told someone on the other end of the line to get set up for tonight. Whatever you’re doing tonight, it’s a setup. You can’t go.”
He gripped my chin before he tilted my eyes up to his.
The shadows on his face danced as I took in his severe green eyes and his beautiful brown hair.
I wanted to strip him down and sit on that face of his.
Ride his lips and feel that stubble against my wet pussy lips.
His hand moved to cup my cheek. His thumb brushed my skin while his eyes danced between mine.
“Why are you telling me any of this?” Stone asked.
I shrugged. “Because I care about you, you idiot.”
He snickered softly and I smiled. I couldn’t explain it, but I felt a connection with him.
And with the kiss he had just graced me with, I knew he felt the same.
We were consistently drawn to one another.
Hooked on one another, even if we couldn’t figure out why.
He grinned down at me before he backed away, and then he leaned against the wall opposite me and sighed.
“I know you have no reason to believe me, but I’m telling you the truth.
I won’t hand over the pictures of the documents I took because that would cross a line I’d never be able to come back from.
Not really. Especially since that man is my father.
But I can’t help but feel that my father is targeting you guys out of a prejudice instead of founded evidence,” I said.
Stone snickered. “What gave you that idea?”
“My mother,” I said softly.
His eyes rose to meet mine and I watched them soften.
“What about your mother?” he asked.
“She, uh… she died. Well, my father’s been telling me she died. I’m not quite sure that’s the case, but that’s a different story for a different day.”
“What do you mean, you think she—”
“Different day, Stone,” I said curtly.
He gritted his teeth together and I grinned.
“Not so fun being in the dark, is it?” I asked.
He chuckled. “Not used to it, no.”
“What my father’s been telling me my entire life is that my mother died because of a collision with a drunk motorist. Some pompous motorcycle douche that ran straight into her car and T-boned her, killing her instantly.
I have reason to believe that something is wrong with that story, but the foundation of prejudice is still the same.
I think my father is targeting motorcycle crews with a deep prejudice against them because of whatever happened with my mother. Death or something else.”
“So, you think your father is…?”
I sighed. “Bending the rules to get what he wants, essentially.”
I went to go move toward him, but his phone rang out in his pocket.
I paused and fell back against the wall as Stone ripped his phone out of his jeans.
He took the call and held his finger up to me then made his way back into the living room.
And of course, I was all ears, trying to figure out what was going on with the phone call.
“Yep. Uh-huh. Look, I told you I had to go out and do something. No, no, tell the guys to stay there. No one moves until I get back and talk to everyone. Why?” Stone asked.
He looked back at me, and I froze. I held my breath, wondering what he was going to say.
“I have reason to believe tonight might be compromised,” he said.
I released the breath I was holding while he finished up his conversation.
He hung up the phone after addressing the person as Texas.
One of the guys. Vice president, if I was remembering the paperwork correctly.
Stone shoved his phone back into his pocket and turned to me, his body a little more relaxed than when he first barged in.
“I have to go. But we will talk later. You have my word on that,” he said.
“Be safe, Stone.”
“I will.”
Before I could catch myself, I strode for him.
I leapt into his arms, wrapping my legs and arms around him.
My lips fell against his in a kiss that prickled the back of my neck.
He held me closely, fisting my ass cheeks and holding me there for him to feel.
I slipped my tongue against his. I raked it along the roof of his mouth.
I pulled a growl from him as I slid my teeth along his lower lip, breaking the kiss with a pop.
“Please, be safe,” I whispered.
He set me down onto my feet before he kissed my cheek.
“You have my word,” he murmured.