Chapter 15 West
FIFTEEN
WEST
The second she slid out of bed, my ears perked up. She thought she was slick, but she wasn’t as slick as she figured. It shocked me when she only went into the bathroom instead of slipping out into the hallway or something. But it was then that I realized that I didn’t make it back to my room.
So, I perched myself on my elbows and strained my ears to listen.
I couldn't hear much of what she was saying, but I knew she was on the phone with someone.
And the second her voice rose, I heard the panic-laced tears fill her voice.
I silently slid out of bed and rummaged around for clothes.
But when I realized that my clothes were in the bathroom she had locked herself in, I tugged the sheet off the bed and wrapped it around my waist.
Then, I sat on the edge of the bed facing the bathroom and waited.
I mean, where the hell was she going to go?
She didn’t have anywhere to go without coming out of that bathroom first. There weren’t any windows she could climb out of.
No duct work to crawl through that she’d fit in.
I hated the way she sounded. I wanted to charge in there, take her into my arms, and tell her that everything was going to be okay.
Because I had a feeling that FBI agent had her on the phone.
“Fine, I’ll see you then,” she said curtly.
Yep, definitely the FBI agent.
And the second she cracked the bathroom door open, I cleared my throat. “Don’t panic, it’s okay. I knew you were on the phone with him.”
She didn’t open the door all the way. “West?”
“Were you expecting someone else?”
She didn’t open the door any further. “I’m sorry that I woke you up.”
“You didn’t. I was ready to get up. Now, you want to come out here and talk to me? Or am I going to have to follow you again when you bolt to go meet up with this guy?”
She allowed the door to slowly swing open as her reddened eyes came into view. “He knows who you are.”
I blinked. “Come again?”
She wiped at her mouth for some reason. “He knows who you are. He saw us arguing in the parking lot. He saw your leather cut.”
Shit. “What else did he say?”
I tried to stay as calm as possible. I kept myself seated so she didn’t feel so intimidated by my size. I patted the bed next to me, hoping she’d come sit down. But instead, she leaned against the doorframe and raked her hand through her hair.
“Is that…my shirt?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Sorry.”
My eyes slid down her body. “Don’t ever be sorry. It looks better on you than it ever did on me.”
She smiled softly at that. “Thanks.”
I shrugged. “No thanks needed for the truth.”
Her bloodshot eyes held mine. “So, I’m going to start talking and I don’t want you to interrupt. If you interrupt, I’ll lose my nerve.”
I nodded, but I didn’t speak. She drew in a deep breath before she filled me in on everything.
And I was so damn proud of her for finally opening up to someone who wanted to protect her that I almost cried myself.
“When I was in high school, I got in trouble for hacking the Pentagon’s more secure files.”
I blinked. “Wait, you did what?”
She sighed as she came to sit beside me. “Remember that debacle in the media where they figured out they were hacked because someone changed the home screen to—”
“‘Fuck the government and their secrets’? Yeah, I remember that. That was you?”
She hung her head and picked at the beds of her nails.
“Yeah, that was me. I even got into their email systems and ended up transferring some random emails to an outside server. At least, I thought they were random. Apparently, they contained some pretty serious information on overseas troop movements, and the full force of our legal system came down onto my head when I was only sixteen.”
I whistled lowly. “Hell of a way to introduce yourself to them.”
She lifted her head and closed her eyes.
“So, after tracking me down and realizing I was just some kid in a basement, we struck a deal: I work for them helping with cybercrime for the next eight years, and they wouldn’t bring charges against me.
But that also meant living a tight-laced life.
No crossing into the gray area. Always updating them on my movements.
Giving them unfettered access to my computer and phone and shit like that whenever they suspect something is wrong. ”
I placed my hand on her knee. “I’m really sorry, Chloe.”
She scoffed. “Don’t apologize yet because you don’t owe me one.
That man saw us arguing, West. He’s got a file on you, supposedly.
He knew your name. I’m sure he’s researching the emblem on your leather jacket.
This entire crew is teetering on the brink of trouble because of me, yet no one will let me leave. ”
I squeezed her knee. “So, that’s why you’re trying to leave all the time.”
She sighed heavily. “Yeah, that’s why. I mean, Lexi and Natty are under this roof. I don’t want to compromise them.”
“Does she know what’s going on?”
“I mean, she knows now. She’s the one who caught me leaving the first time to go meet up with Agent Baker.
She’s the one who gave me the keys to the van.
But she didn’t know up until that point.
I keep this part of my life under wraps for a reason.
It’s not pretty, and it’s not something I care to relive, and it’s not a problem I want others wrapped up in.
This Agent Baker? He’s ruthless. He’s a disgusting, misogynistic asshole that sees me as no better than the dirt on the bottom of his shoe.
And anyone who gets wrapped up with him will absolutely suffer the same fate I currently am. ”
I was upset at the predicament we had all been put in, but I couldn’t blame her for it. Like she had once said, everyone had lives before all this shit happened, and those lives didn’t get to be put on hold just because some cartel wanted us dead.
“Well,” I said as I pushed myself to my feet, “sounds like the club needs to help you get out of this.”
Chloe shook her head. “West, no. That wasn’t the point of—”
I turned to face her. “This club always knows how to skirt around the law. We dwell in the gray area. We succeed in it. It’s our passion. Our specialty. And every contract has a loophole. I can have—”
She leapt to her feet. “That doesn’t change the fact that I still have to meet this man at one o’clock today.”
I blinked. “Oh.”
“Yeah. I’m still informing for him. I’m still helping him. I still have a contract to fulfill. And at noon, I have to be out of here so I can go meet him. How the hell am I going to do that with Stone and everyone else breathing down my neck?”
“The only way they’ll allow that is if I go with you. Maybe I can convince Agent Baker to lay off the club or something.”
And to my shock, she actually relented. “Look, you obviously know your skills better than I do. But all I know is that if I miss this meeting, he’s coming after me. He tracks the signal on my cell phone and everything.”
“Wait, he knows where we are?”
She swallowed hard. “I’m so sorry. I never thought I’d ever be caught up in something like this. I never thought that this part of my life would ever put anyone else in danger. I’m so sorry, West.”
“Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh,” I said softly as I wrapped her up in my arms, “it’s okay. I’m going to come with you, I’ll keep an eye on things, and I’ll see what I can work out with the agent. It’s okay. We’ll get you out of this.”
“I just want to live my life. Is that so much to ask?”
She sobbed against my chest, and I wanted to strangle the man. I’d never wanted a Fed dead more in my entire fucking life. I scooped her into my arms, and we crawled back into bed, fading in and out of sleep until around eleven that morning.
Then, we got ready for our afternoon adventure.
“Where the hell are you two going?” Stone asked as we approached the front door.
I ripped it open. “Stone, do you trust me?”
I craned my eyes over my shoulder and watched him nod. “You, sure. Her, not so much.”
“Then, trust me that we’re doing something important.”
Stone crossed his arms over his chest. “And if I demand an answer as to where you guys are going?”
And that was when Chloe got creative. “You want to hear all about my heavy flow periods and how I don’t have feminine products here that work because the pain is—”
Stone waved his hands in the air. “Go, go, go. Good God. So damn dramatic around here.”
I had a smile on my face all the way to the restaurant.
Chloe had thought very well on her feet, and seeing Stone flustered like that despite the fact that he and Hayley were expecting tickled my funny bone.
Damn, some men were so fucking sensitive when it came to feminine issues.
I didn’t see a problem with them at all.
So fucking what? That was how their bodies worked.
Once we pulled into the parking lot of the practically deserted diner, I parked my bike as close as I could to the darkened alleyway beside it.
“He’s over there,” Chloe said as she pointed.
I watched as the suited man got out of the car. He stared us down as he stalked toward us, his hand already approaching his weapon.
“Don’t talk to him until I do,” she whispered as she slid off the back of the bike.
But that idiot made the mistake of drawing his gun. “You want to tell me what the fuck you’re doing bringing someone like him in during a—”
“West, no!” she exclaimed.
I grabbed the man’s wrist and twisted down before sliding the gun out of his hand.
I disarmed it and ejected the magazine, then pulled the slide back so that the extra bullet that was already chambered hit the ground.
I wrapped my fist up in his suit tie and dragged him into the alleyway, slamming him against the wall so hard that he lost his breath.
“West, what the hell are you doing?” Chloe hissed.
I didn’t care, though. He’d drawn a gun on us, and he wasn’t about to get away with it.
“No cameras, so no evidence,” I growled.
The FBI agent gasped for air. “You’ll never get away with this.”
“No,” I said as I pinned him to the wall with my forearm against his throat, “what you won’t get away with is exploiting one of your informants and harassing her because you think her life is yours to control.
She has a contract to inform for you, but we’re going to have our own lawyers take a look over it. Want to know why?”
Chloe stayed silent as the FBI agent glared at me. “Why, you fucking meathead?”
I snarled. “Because one of my best friends was part of one of those contracts before. I know how they go. I know what their deal is. And I know damned good and well that your tracking of Chloe via her GPS and you wanting to search her technology anytime you want is a violation of that contract. We’re going to peg you for it, and when we do, we won’t stop until your job is ours. ”
Fear flooded his eyes. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“I wouldn’t?” I asked as I pressed my knee between his legs, threatening to pop his balls like they were water balloons. “Why don’t you keep pushing her? Keep tracking her. Keep controlling her life from a distance and see what happens.”
“No!” Chloe exclaimed.
I cocked my fist back and punched the guy across his jaw. He crumpled to the ground like a little bitch, and I slammed my steel-toed boot into his ribcage. Chloe grabbed my arm, pulling me away as the man spat blood onto the cracked, stained concrete of the alleyway.
And when he looked up at me, the fear in his eyes was almost intoxicating.
“Come after Chloe and see what happens. I dare you,” I growled. “Unless, of course, you want to make Chloe’s contract disappear altogether.”
“What?” she asked breathlessly.
I held up my finger to her, silencing her in her tracks.
“You want to save your own ass? Save your own career from ruin when we expose what you’ve been doing to her?
Lose her contract. Lose her number. Don’t you ever fucking call her again.
And if you want her help on a job? You can contract out her services hourly. How’s that sound for fair?”
The agent nodded quickly. “I’ll do it. I’ll make it disappear. Just, please, would you stop?”
I grabbed his hair and tilted his face toward mine. “You’ve got three hours to text her visible proof that her contract is done. You don’t get us that proof? We serve you with papers by the end of the day.”
I slammed his head down into the concrete and listened to him groan as Chloe gasped.
I turned and faced her, studying her shocked, wide eyes before they lowered to the agent struggling on the ground to get up.
She teetered on her feet a bit and I gripped her upper arms, steadying her as her gaze fluttered back up to mine.
“It’s—it’s done?” she asked softly.
I peeked down at the agent who still hadn’t gotten up. “I guess we’ll see in a couple of hours. Won’t we, Feddy?”
The agent spat more blood onto the ground. “Two hours, yes. It’ll be done in two hours, I promise.”
“Good,” I glowered.
And as I took Chloe’s hand, tugging her toward my bike, the squealing of tires caught my attention.
A black van pulled up, tossed the two of us inside, and sped off before the pathetic excuse for an FBI agent could even pick up his fucking head to see what the hell had just happened.