Chapter 17 Puck
SEVENTEEN
PUCK
I resisted the urge to follow her inside and decided that it was best to keep a lookout on the perimeter of the building while she tried to drag information out of whatever contact she had found in the rehab center.
I wasn't sure how reliable memories were when it came to drug addicts detoxing and whatnot, but I didn’t have much of a choice other than to trust her.
So, I took off my leather cut, stowed it away, and then perched against my bike to watch.
I fiddled with the beds of my nails whenever someone looked in my general direction, but when I knew I wasn’t being watched, I studied those going in and coming out of Pathways.
Every once in a while, I took a trip up and down the sides of the building, making sure that there were no signs of trouble.
And while I figured the cartel wasn’t stupid enough to try something in such a crowded place, I couldn’t ignore that this was the Banderas Cartel.
They were ruthless to a fault.
The fuck?
Most of the cars coming into and pulling out of the place were rundown and rusted out.
There were a few newer soccer mom vans that pulled in from time to time, but nothing out of the ordinary.
However, when the gleaming, black behemoth of an SUV pulled into a parking space on the other side of the lot, the hairs on the nape of my neck stood on end.
I watched three men in black suits get out.
Fuck, that has to be the cartel.
The men themselves were dressed in all black, as if that wasn’t eye-catching enough.
They buttoned their suit coats and looked around in their black-as-night sunglasses before making their way toward the concrete steps.
Everything in my gut told me to follow them.
Everything in my body screamed that this was my moment.
So, I pushed off my bike and started toward the front doors.
Before my phone buzzed.
“What the fuck do you want?” I growled to myself.
I ripped my phone out of my pocket just as the men in black walked through the front doors. I sighed when I saw it was Stone and I knew I couldn’t ignore his phone call, but I sure as hell wanted to.
I decided to close some distance and raced up the concrete steps before tucking myself away into a corner beside the front doors.
“Yes?” I asked as I picked up the phone.
Stone’s voice sounded gruff. “We just got things wrapped up here at the clubhouse. You’ll be dropping Brigid off at home once you two are done. I’m shooting you her address as well as her personal number. It’ll help you keep tabs on her the way her father wants her to be kept.”
I blinked. “Sounds fair enough to me.”
“Also, you’ll be watching over her the rest of the night, per her father’s stipulations. So, I hope you have a change of clothes with you.”
I almost swallowed my tongue. “You know I’ve always got my go-bag ready.”
“Good man.”
“But can I ask why he wants me to—”
“No, you can’t,” he said flatly. “All I know is that he requested it, and what he wants, he gets.”
I sucked air through my teeth. “Fair enough. I’ll make it happen.”
“Thanks. I’ll check in later this evening. And remember our talk.”
I rolled my eyes. “How can I forget? Our talks are always so memorable.”
Instead of responding, he hung up on me, which gave me time to be royally pissed that I had been put on fucking babysitting duty. But just as he’d said, a text rolled through my phone from an unknown number that held both the number I already had for Brigid as well as her apartment address.
“She’s not gonna like this,” I murmured to myself.
Still, I shoved my phone back into my pocket and made my way inside. I needed to find those men in the suits before they fucked everything up. I didn’t even get past the front desk before a woman with a thick accent rushed to stop me.
“Oh, no, no, no! Sir! You can’t go back there without signing in.”
I kept my head on a swivel. “All right, where do I sign in?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Are you okay? Are you looking for someone in particular?”
I didn’t know the name of her fucking contact, so I had no idea what to say. And when our eyes met, she shook her head.
“Out,” she commanded.
I rolled my eyes. “Ma’am, this is an emergency.”
She folded her arms over her chest. “Really, now? Are you a police officer?”
I groaned. “No.”
“Are you with an ambulance? Did someone call 9-1-1?”
I clicked my tongue. “No, but—”
“Are you with the president? Or someone equally important?”
I snickered. “Okay, okay, I get your point. But can I just ask you one question?”
Her face fell flat. “What?”
“Did three men in all-black suits come in and check in? Because it’s important that I know who they’re here to see.”
She furrowed her brow. “Sir, if three men in all-black suits came into this facility, I’d be doing a little more than checking them in.”
I nodded slowly. “Uh huh.”
The more I gazed around, the more I realized how opulent this place was.
The floors were this beautiful hardwood color and the counter of the circular front desk was a gorgeous white and gold marble.
The artwork on the wall had prices beneath the pictures, and some of the prices ranged into the tens of thousands.
This isn’t a city clinic.
Which meant that three men in black suits would fit in well in this place, despite what this woman had just told me.
“Sir,” she said as she interrupted my thoughts, “if you aren’t here to visit someone and you aren’t going to sign in, you have to get out.”
I took a step back from her. “Right, right. Thank you for your time.”
I made my way outside and back toward my bike where I perched and watched that black SUV.
It stood out from the throng of cars parked in the parking lot and not just because of its color.
The windows were almost fully tinted. The damned thing was massive, almost taking up the entire parking spot it sat in.
Then, after waiting for damn near an hour, Brigid finally reappeared.
And the SUV still sat in the parking spot, unclaimed.
“All right, we can go,” she said as she strutted toward me.
I handed her helmet back to her. “How were things?”
She ripped it from my grip. “Fine.”
I clenched my jaw. I wanted to ask her why the fuck she was being so cold toward me even after knowing that I had every intention of calling her.
I mean, she obviously led a life that was less than pleasing to the public eye.
So, she of all people should’ve understood why I couldn't stay all fucking night with her like some lovesick little puppy she picked up off the side of the goddamn road.
Okay, take some breaths. You’re with her all night.
She snickered as she slid her helmet over her head. “The hell are you trying to breathe through? The stress of sitting out here in the sun?”
I whipped my leg over my bike and put on my own helmet. “Your family finished things at the clubhouse.”
She climbed on behind me. “Great. You can take me back to them, then.”
I cranked up the engine. “Actually, I have explicit instructions from your father to take you back home. He gave me your address and personal cell number.”
She flinched. “He did what?”
I chuckled as I revved my engine. “So, it looks like I would’ve gotten your information no matter how this ended up.”
I backed us out of the parking lot when she didn’t respond and kept my eyes looking out for anyone that might’ve been tasked with following us.
But the further away we got from the rehab without so much as that SUV in sight, the more I relaxed.
Not all the way, of course. I still looked for plain cars, beat-up cars, and pick-up trucks that might’ve tailed us.
And to be safe, I took the long way back to her place while I listened to her sigh dramatically in my ear.
As if that would make me go faster.
“Can you just get me back to—”
I pulled into her complex. “Home sweet home.”
She scoffed. “Took you long enough.”
I parked in front of her apartment, and she got off as quickly as she could. She practically threw my helmet at my chest, forcing me to catch it as she sprinted in her heels toward the steps. I watched as she rushed all the way to the top floor before she peered over the railing.
And as she let herself into her apartment, I heard her door slam closed all the way back down at my bike.
Fucking grand.
I gave her a few minutes of peace before I gathered myself. I stored my helmets away and pulled out my go-bag before I headed up the stairs. I knocked on the door, waiting for her to let me in as she shuffled toward it from the other side.
And when she cracked the door open, she looked even more pissed than when she had left the back of my bike.
“Dad tells me you’re supposed to be staying tonight?” she spat.
I nodded. “Yep.”
She swung the door open. “You’re on the couch.”
I stepped inside and closed the door behind me. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
She paused. “I beg your pardon?”
I closed the door and flipped the lock. “You heard me. What in the absolute hell is wrong with you? Do you not get why I couldn't stay with you last night? Why I couldn’t just stay and wake up with you? Has that not become painfully clear?”
She slowly turned to face me. “First of all, nothing is wrong.”
I dropped my bag and walked toward her. “And second of all, you’re a shit liar. You're pissed that I left before you woke up and that made you feel some kind of way and genuinely, I’m sorry for that. But if you can’t see why I had to do that in order to protect you and my guys, then—”
She puffed her chest out with pride. “I can take care of myself.”
“I don’t doubt that for a second but forgive me if I wanted to protect you anyway. Seems like you don’t give a fuck whether someone cares or not.”
She pointed her finger in my face. “You left without a word. Without a fucking trace. And then I find some creepy ass note in my purse and I’m not supposed to feel like you’re some kind of ultimate stalker?
Especially when my family shows up for a meeting and you’re part of the crew we’re helping?
Do you honestly not see why I’m pissed right now? ”
I threw my hands into the air. “What, you think I knew who you were? That I was targeting you somehow?”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Are you telling me that you didn’t target me?”
My eyes widened. “And why the hell would I do that?”
“Because you're working for the cartel? I mean, your crew already has someone that supposedly has turned their back on the organization they worked in for years. How do I know you’re not the same way? That you’re not some double agent sent into my life to–”
I closed the distance between us. “And how do I know you didn’t seek me out that night?
Huh? It’s not like I wasn’t already at that bar before you and your friend walked in.
How do I know this wasn’t planned by your father?
He seemed to know a hell of a lot about us before we even introduced ourselves.
If anything, it makes you look guiltier than whatever story you concocted in your head about me. ”
She shoved my chest. “I don’t give a shit about what you think. I don’t trust you and that’s that.”
She turned to walk away but I grabbed her arm, whipping her back around.
“Uh, excuse me?” she asked.
I pulled her close against my body. “You don’t get to walk away from me when we’re in the middle of a fight. That isn’t how I operate.”
She glared at me. “You better let me go before I–”
“Before you what? Call Daddy on me? Beat my ass? Try it, I dare you. Try it and see what happens.”
Her nostrils flared with anger. “Spit it out and let me go. I’m tired.”
I dropped her arm and rolled my shoulders back.
“Our club has been in lockdown for a while now. I wasn’t supposed to be out and about in the first place.
I was due back at the clubhouse before midnight, and after waking up by your side, it was early morning.
And what the hell was I supposed to do if I stayed anyway? Make you breakfast?”
She let out a frustrated laugh. “I wasn’t expecting fucking breakfast, you numbskull. But at the very least you could have woken me up to let me know you were leaving instead of sneaking out in the middle of the night like some rebellious teenager.”
I shook my head. “You know now that I had every intention of calling you, but then you showed up at the fucking clubhouse with the contact we were supposed to be meeting, but I’m the one raising question marks? Why don’t you try standing in my shoes for a second?”
“You say that as if your shoes matter.”
I growled as I hovered over her. “If you think for one second I’m going to allow your family to stomp all over mine, you’ve got another fucking think coming.”
She grinned. “Should I tell my father that when I call him to update him on how this afternoon went?”
I dipped my face so close to hers that I felt her glorious breath against my face. “I fucking dare you.”
She gazed into my eyes for a while before she clicked her tongue. “I didn't plan on you, no. And before you ask, I also had no idea that you were part of the crew my family was meeting up with.”
“So, you admit that you’ve got no reason to be upset with me.”
She took a step away from me. “I never said that.”
“Then what do you have to be angry about? Tell me. Enlighten me about why I deserve your wrath.”
She turned her back to me. “I knew it was a mistake.”
My ears perked up. “You knew what was a mistake?”
She walked toward her bedroom. “Sleeping with you. I knew I’d regret it for the rest of my life the second I woke up.”
I snickered. “Guess that makes two of us then.”
She turned around, her eyes boiling with heated anger, and I let a smirk cross my lips as she drew in a deep breath.
“You could never regret me. I’m the best you’ve ever had.”
I chuckled as I lied through my teeth. “Trust me, you weren’t anywhere close.”
She sauntered toward me, wrapping her hand in my white t-shirt. “Then, by all means, let me refresh your memory so you know exactly what you won’t be able to have after tonight.”
And as she pulled me close, crashing her lips to mine, the conversation I had with Stone fell to the wayside.
I gripped her ass cheeks and hoisted her against the wall, forgetting every single reason I shouldn’t.