Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
GOOSE
Screwing in the last piece of the camera that’s facing the balcony door, I let out a heavy sigh. It took me all fucking day, but every single part of this apartment is now connected to a camera. I will be able to see every fucking square inch of this place, inside and out, from my phone.
“Are you hungry?” Cidney calls out.
Turning my head, I look at her. She’s standing in the kitchen, still wearing her sexy-as-fuck cutoff shorts and oversized tee. I want inside her again. I’m not sure I’ll ever want to not be inside her.
Spending the whole day working around her apartment has not curbed that desire. Seeing her, smelling her, being near her. In fact, I think it might have fueled my desires.
“Sure. You cooking?” I ask.
Moving toward my small bag, I toss in my screwdriver and turn toward the kitchen.
Slowly, I make my way toward her, closing the distance between us.
Being across the room is too far from her.
Hell, an inch away from her is too far. She’s got her back to me, her sexy-as-fuck ass on display, standing at the stove.
“Don’t get excited about it, though,” she warns.
Her head turns as I approach her side. Cidney’s gaze flicks to meet mine, her eyes searching for a moment. She doesn’t say anything immediately, then her breath hitches when I lower my head, my lips brushing against her temple.
“It’s just tacos,” she exhales.
Humming against her skin, I lower my head a little more, touching my lips against the side of her throat. Then I lower a bit more, until my lips find her shoulder, smiling when goose bumps break out all over her flesh.
Sliding my hands around her waist, I gently pull her away from the stove, feeling her back press against my chest and hips. If there weren’t hot-as-fuck meat cooking on the stove, I would bend her over right here and fucking now.
“Goose,” she exhales. “I need to cook.”
I chuckle, lift my head, and reluctantly release her as I take a step backward.
My phone rings in my pocket, breaking the moment completely.
Taking a few more steps back, I dig my phone out of my pocket and slide my thumb against the screen, holding it to my ear as I greet the person on the other end of the line.
But I don’t let him say anything further, at least not until I can get my question out. Because I’m done pussyfooting around. I want to know what the fuck is going on, and I want to know it now.
“You get info?”
Bullet clears his throat. “It’s not Ivy they’re after,” he begins.
I start to ask him who Jeffrey Hagerty is really after, but he continues talking without me having to actually voice my question, as if he anticipated it.
When Bullet continues, I can’t help but wonder what the fuck is actually going on here, because I feel like it’s bigger and more complex than what I can come up with on my own.
“I’m pretty sure this has to do with Cidney’s mother. I don’t know much about her, gonna have to meet with Ivy, but there was a link in the past between her and the head of the Front Mob Family.”
“What the fuck kind of connection?” I growl.
“The head of the family and Cidney’s mother dated. There are pictures of them together, and Ivy’s Dad confirmed it. When she married Ivy’s uncle is about the time there was an issue between the club and them.”
“And before them?” I ask.
I’m fairly certain I have at least an idea of where this is headed. But I want to hear it from him. I don’t want to have to guess. I need confirmed facts and details, and I want Bullet to give them to me sooner rather than later so I know what the fuck I’m dealing with here.
“Things weren’t bad. Weren’t good either, but they weren’t bad. They were comfortable, then shit got really bad until there was a truce around the time Cidney was born.”
Closing my eyes, I clear my throat, trying not to scream at Bullet to spit it the fuck out. Because I’m ready for him just to tell me what the fuck he’s got rolling around inside his damn head.
“I don’t think that Cidney is part of the family, but I do think the leader was very pissed off when she started dating someone involved with the club. I’m going to assume her mom left him, which is a hit to the ego, and we know that makes people do crazy fucking shit.”
I know that if Cidney walked away and went into the arms of a member of another MC, I would lose my fucking mind. I would wage a war. But I’m not sure if my kids would do the same. That seems a little over the top.
“So this Jeffrey is going to get back at the club because his father felt slighted?” I ask.
“I think that’s where the connection is. I’m not sure what the fuck that has to do with why he was pretending to date her in an effort to get inside our operation. There are definitely some missing pieces.”
Instead of responding with no shit, I flick my gaze down to my feet, my brain working through this new information. I’m trying to connect dots, place puzzle pieces, but my brain is having a hard time with this information that seems useful yet also useless at the same time.
“Maybe it’s not a romance aspect,” I murmur, speaking as I attempt to work through this. “Maybe it’s something different…”
“Ivy’s dad said he had no idea. His brother was tight-lipped about it all before he abandoned them, and now he’s dead. So is Cidney’s mom.”
Turning my head, I look over my shoulder at Cidney. She’s got her back to me as she makes us dinner. And that’s when I realize just how important Ivy is to her and how important she is to him. I didn’t even realize that both her parents were dead.
“When you find something out, let me know. I'll try to do some searching on my own, too.”
Thanking Bullet, I end the call, then shove my phone back in my pocket, turning around completely to face her.
Cidney calls out my name, telling me that dinner is ready.
The conversation with Bullet plays on repeat as I make my tacos, then continues to play on a loop as I sit down across from Cidney.
I need to start asking her some questions about her past and her family. I just hope it doesn’t piss her off too much, because I want to fuck her again in a few hours.
CIDNEY
Something is up. I don’t know if there's necessarily anything wrong, but there is definitely something up. I press my lips together and roll them a few times as I lean back in my chair. I can’t even eat. I am so damn nervous about what he’s got working inside his head.
When he dips his chin and tucks into his food, it’s as if I’m not even in the room, except I can’t eat because I can tell the conversation he just had was important, and he’s not telling me a damn thing.
When he takes his last bite, he finally lifts his eyes to meet mine. They flick down to his plate, then slowly lift to meet mine again. “Why aren’t you eating?” he asks.
It almost sounds accusatory, but I’m glad he asked because I’m going to find out just what the hell he’s thinking about that has his face wearing that expression. He leans back slightly, his eyes still focused on mine and nowhere else, when I start to speak.
“You’re thinking about something that you heard on the phone, and it’s bothering me because you seem distracted and maybe even upset?”
I pose it as a question, just so I don’t sound like I’m accusing him of anything or demanding anything from him.
At least I hope that’s the way it comes out.
He stares at me in silence, his face expressionless as he watches me, so I’m not sure how he’s taken what I’ve said.
I wish I could shove all the words back down my throat and forget they ever came out.
“I’m not upset,” he begins slowly. “I wanted to ask you some questions, and I didn’t want to come off like a dick or piss you off.”
Oh god. He’s going to ask me if I had sex with Jeffrey. I just know it, and I don’t want to answer that. Because then I’d have to tell him that while I didn’t have sex with Jeffrey, I did everything else… mouths, fingers, all the things.
And that’s embarrassing, because I was so damn stupid to think that he actually liked me for me, when in reality, he was just using me. Using me to get to the Vicious Reapers for whatever it was he wanted from them.
When he realized I wasn’t in a position to help him, meaning I wasn’t really on the inside with the club, he tried to kill me because I knew more than I should about his group.
At least he thought I did. I don’t know what the hell I know.
I have never figured it out. I’m not sure I ever will, either, and at this point, I don’t think I care.
He almost killed someone I like, someone Ivy loves.
I don’t think it matters why. I think it matters that he did it, and he needs to atone for that.
“There is a connection between the leader of Jeffery’s Front Mob Family and your mother.”
I blink as Goose’s words take me out of my thoughts and bring me back to reality, except I don’t understand them at all.
I don’t get what he’s saying to me, as much as I want to.
I can’t imagine my mother being with anyone involved with the Mob.
Then again, I can’t imagine being involved, either… and yet…
“What is the connection?” I ask even though I’m fairly positive I know the answer.
“Seems they dated, but I don’t know any details. I thought maybe you could fill in some blanks. Is there anything your mom could have mentioned?”
My brows snap together as I think about those words. Shaking my head from side to side, I try to think of anything, but nothing comes to mind. All I know is that she was unhappy and didn’t give much of a shit about me.
“My mom and I didn’t talk about her past. She never mentioned ex-boyfriends. She never mentioned men at all. My father abandoned us when I was young, and she never even talked about him. We weren’t close.”
I’m not sure what I expect Goose to say or do, maybe wear a surprised expression when he hears my words, but he doesn’t. Instead, he nods once, then clears his throat and stands from the table. I watch him walk over to his backpack and take out an iPad.
“We’re going to do some digging, then,” he states.
“Bullet found a connection, talked to your uncle, and he said they dated, but that’s all.
No details. And that’s when shit started getting ugly between the Reapers and the Front Mob Family.
About the time you were born, it all faded away, though we’ve continued to keep our distance from one another, until now. ”
“Do you think…?”
The thought of Jeffery being related to me makes me feel physically nauseous, but I wait for Goose to respond before I become sick everywhere and lose my dinner. Thankfully, when he does, the news is good news.
“No, it doesn’t seem like you’re his kid. Plus, you look way too much like Ivy to be related to another family,” he murmurs. “But there is something aside from bruised egos after twenty-something years. Especially if it doesn’t even involve this Jeffrey guy.”
“I agree,” I say. “But I don’t know anything more than you do. In fact, you know more than me.”
“Let’s get searching, then. Come on,” Goose says, tilting his head to the side to motion toward the sofa.
Instead of cleaning up dinner the way I know I probably should, I make my way toward the sofa and sink down onto the cushion as he sits down beside me. Sitting here close to him, even though I know I should be focused on the task at hand, I’m not.
I want him to kiss me, to throw the iPad down and take me here and now. I want to forget all about that other shit—about Jeffrey, about the Mob, about it all. I want to forget it ever happened. I wish it hadn’t.