Chapter 10
ten
COLE
Once I pulled myself together and washed my hands, I was thirsty as hell.
I walked into the bar from the back and saw Maddox nursing a half-empty bottle of beer.
He had his arm slung over the back of the booth, as if he hadn’t just taken a bullet in that same arm.
The only sign of it was a slice of white bandage poking out from under his T-shirt sleeve.
He looked up as the door shut behind me and tipped his chin my way.
“Scars build character, right?” Maddox said as he followed my gaze to his arm. “Plus, the ladies love a man with a scar and a story to go with it.”
“If you keep decorating yourself with scars, you’re going to end up six feet under before any girl gets to admire ’em,” I said, sitting across from him in the booth.
“Don’t tell me you’re worried about little ol’ me,” he came back with a smile. “Besides, you know how it goes. You get a little scraped up, and suddenly, you’re a magnet for sympathy and attention. Works like a charm.”
“I don’t know if I would call a gunshot to the arm ‘a little scraped up.’ You’re lucky that bullet missed an artery.”
He shrugged and took another swig from the bottle. “Doc said I’d live. Besides, you’ve had worse than this. We both have.”
“Still, we can’t be reckless. The deal was shaky, but you still pushed it through.”
“I didn’t feel like we had much of a choice. It would have looked worse to back out,” Maddox said.
“Backing out would have kept you from getting shot,” I argued, as Ash brought me over my usual. “It doesn’t matter, though. I already warned that client that they’re on thin ice. That kind of backhanded ambush doesn’t get a second chance.”
Maddox nodded once before diverting his gaze. We weren’t going to get all mushy about it, but I needed him to know I had his back.
“I get it. It’s just that…well, it’s starting to feel like we’re running out of safe ground,” Maddox said.
“There is no safe ground. Some ground is smarter, but nothing is safe. I’m not going to let someone in this club die because of someone else’s mistake. We don’t make deals with people who can’t keep their members under control. I’m not risking any of you for that bullshit.”
The front door swung open, and my hand instinctively slipped down to the Glock tucked in my waistband. Old habits died hard. But it was just MacKenna, Maddox’s sister, and I let my hand relax.
Kenna had a look on her face I hadn’t seen before—she was absolutely fuming. The dim light reflected off the mahogany tint in her hair, and her eyes were locked on Maddox as if she didn’t see anyone else in the bar. I was grateful that look wasn’t being directed at me.
“What are you doing here?” she snapped. “You’re supposed to be in bed resting.”
Maddox straightened up a little, sheepishly dropping his arm from the top of the booth. “The beer is way better here.”
Kenna rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “You dumbass! You just got shot. What part of you need to rest do you not understand? Also, why did I have to find out about it from Sally during work instead of from you?”
Both Kenna and Sally worked at HHU and were as close as their brothers were.
“This is resting. Look, I’ll even put my feet up,” he said, turning his body sideways and resting his legs across the other half of the booth.
She shifted her eyes to me. “Are you really going to let him be this stupid?”
I lifted my hands, giving in. “Don’t look at me. He’s a grown man. I can’t stop him from being an idiot if that’s what he wants to be.”
She sighed, but the edges of her eyes softened as she looked back at Maddox. “If you rip those stitches, don’t come crying to me.”
“Come on, Kenny, you don’t need to worry about me,” he said, dropping his feet back to the ground so Kenna could slide into the booth.
She sat down next to him and touched his arm gingerly, grimacing as she did.
“Someone has to care what happens to you,” she responded in a voice much softer than before.
“If I get shot, does that mean you’ll take care of me too?” Gage appeared behind Maddox and Kenna, hanging over the booth, his eyes locked on Kenna. Gage just couldn’t seem to stay away from forbidden fruit… much like Maddox when it came to Sally.
“Get shot and we’ll see,” Kenna snapped at him, rolling her eyes.
Gage chuckled and passed her a drink. “Here, got you your favorite.”
“Like you know my favorite anything,” Kenna snapped.
“Well, I got you a dark and stormy to match your personality… did I get close?” Gage grinned at her.
She took it from him. “I’ll allow it.”
Gage smirked and rounded the booth, sliding in beside me, and opposite the Brooks siblings.
“So, what are we talking about, gang?”
Maddox grunted and got up. “I’m going to go and take that advice to rest,” he said, before shooting Gage a dark look. “Don’t bother my sister.”
“I’m going too. Long day,” I muttered and followed Maddox. I didn’t have the energy to sit and watch Kenna and Gage tear chunks off each other.
I headed back into the shop. I glanced over at the office, the experience with Belle, my mystery woman, front and center in my mind.
Fuck, that had been hot. I wondered if the room would still smell like her cunt.
I hadn’t gotten to taste it. I’ll remedy that next time...
Wait, there isn’t supposed to be a next time, I reminded myself, even while knowing that I wouldn’t be following that little self-imposed rule.
Forbidding myself from going to my office to see if I could get a hint of her scent, I turned to my project bike.
The chain hung limply, and oil dripped into a pan below.
I’d just grabbed a rag and crouched beside the bike to work on the chain when I heard the distinctive click of heels echoing off the metal walls of the shop.
The hair on the back of my neck stood up.
I didn’t need to turn around to know exactly who was walking toward me.
Kiki.
Her perfume hit me before she even uttered a word. It was too floral. Just too damn much. Irritating. Just like her.
“You’ve always looked good with grease on your hands. Not many guys can pull it off the way you do,” Kiki purred, the last echoes of her heels dying away as she reached me.
I didn’t respond, just kept working on the bike.
“Are you still pretending to ignore me, Cole?” Her flirtatious tone shifted to one of irritation.
“I’m not pretending to ignore you,” I answered. “I just don’t have anything to say.”
She circled me like a vulture before leaning against my workbench. “It has been a minute since the two of us hung out.”
“We’ve never hung out, Kiki. I’ve told you enough times, I’m not interested.”
She mock pouted. “Jeez, Cole. You don’t have to act like it’s a chore to have me around.”
In the beginning, I’d had nothing against Kiki. She’d come into The Clutch as someone’s girlfriend, though she’d quickly slept her way through the ranks. She’d hit a ceiling, however, when she’d reached me, Maddox, and Gage. A fact that never failed to infuriate her.
“You said it, not me,” I muttered, standing up and wiping my hands on a rag. “What do you want? I didn’t invite you back here, and its off-limits to anyone who isn’t a Hound.”
She leaned closer to me, clearly trying to have her low-cut top do most of the talking. “But not off-limits to that little jailbait bitch who was back here earlier?”
Ah, so that was the reason for this unwanted visit. Kiki seemed to think that she had dibs on The Clutch and every man in it.
“She’s twenty-one,” I told Kiki. Ronnie had confirmed it.
“Yeah, exactly…” Kiki rolled her eyes and then seemed to get a grip on herself. She changed tactics. “Your problem, Cole, is that you need to let off some steam. I can see it. You’re wound way too tight.”
“Actually, as of about an hour ago, I’m pretty unwound… perfectly relaxed, in fact.” I let Kiki fill in the blanks.
Her expression hardened, and she leveled me with a stare. “Are you serious? With that little Goody Two-shoes?”
I set my wrench down and leaned against a counter, more than ready to be done with this conversation.
“Are you done?” I asked her. “This is boring.” My causal dismissal sent Kiki’s hands into fists.
“Are you serious? Any of the guys in this club would do anything to get with me—”
“Then go and hit up one of them. There’s nothing for you here, and there never will be.”
Kiki turned on her too-high heels and stormed out of the shop, slamming the door on her way out, like a cartoon caricature of a scorned woman.
I heard a chuckle from the other end of the shop and noticed Maddox sitting at the break room table. He had a box of first-aid supplies open in front of him and was attempting to change his bandage himself.
“Did you catch that whole thing?” I asked, sitting opposite him and shooing his big, clumsy hands away from the bandage so I could take over.
“You still have it,” Maddox said, holding his arm out to me when I beckoned.
“Still have what?” I asked, cleaning the wound.
“The classic Bailey bitch shutdown. That was pretty cold,” he replied with a stoic expression as I liberally poured iodine over his wound.
“If I were looking for dating advice, I wouldn’t be coming to you for it,” I said, trying not to smile.
“That’s fair. I have no fucking clue what I’m doing either. We’re like the blind leading the fucking blind.”
That got me to laugh. “True, but at least I’m not starting out being in love with my best friend’s sister.’
Maddox’s dark eyes flickered to mine. “Very funny.”
“Yeah, I’m known for my stand-up,” I sighed.
Maddox watched me fiddle with the bandage before swiftly changing the subject. “So did you talk to the seller?”
“Yeah, I talked to him. Told him we were done doing business with him if he’s going to disrespect us like that.
Told him that if he can’t control his people, then working with him isn’t worth the risk.
He says the guy who got trigger-happy has been dealt with.
He’s giving us a discount on the rest of the deal. ”
“That sounds fair to me. But that isn’t what's really eating at you, is it?” Maddox asked.
“Just juggling everything,” I responded, fully aware I was evading his question. “Everyone has been feeling it. Even Finn is on edge. I can’t pretend I haven’t noticed that you’re on the edge of your seat at all times.”
“I’m just focused,” I said. “All of this is important. I can’t take my eye off it, even for a second.”
I let silence fall between us as we sat in the heavy weight of our conversation. Everything we weren’t saying.
“Maybe you should get out of here for the night,” Maddox finally broke the silence. “Go home, sleep… fucking take some magnesium, I don’t know. Or let’s go down to that pool bar in Lowell we used to hang around. Get into a fistfight or something. I don’t know, just go do something normal.”
I laughed and realized how good it felt to let it out.
“Are you going to stay here and babysit this circus?” I asked. The Hounds were celebrating the deal going down, feeling flush with cash and general merriment.
“Hell, no. I’ll come with you. We can leave the circus to Gage while he flirts with my sister.”
“Do you remember that brawl you started in Lowell?” I asked. “All over a game of nine-ball.”
“Hey, I won that game. That little punk just didn’t want to look like a dumbass in front of his girlfriend.”
“You started taunting him when you sank the winning shot,” I said with a chuckle.
“That was a great shot and deserved the admiration,” he said, smiling. “You nearly got us thrown in jail after you punched the guy.”
“Oh, yeah! I almost forgot about that. How did you get us out of that one?”
“I told the bartender that we were Marines with PTSD just trying to get back into civilian life. He let us out the back before the guy could shake off his concussion,” I recounted, fully laughing at the memory.
“I’ve got to be honest, that does sound pretty damn good,” I continued. “That was the last normal summer we had. Back before dad got pinched. What was that? Nearly a decade ago?”
“Back before you got the crown,” Maddox added. “Do you think about that time much?”
“Probably more than I should. We were just dumb kids back then. Our whole world was about riding hard and drinking for cheap. No deals, no shipments, and no blood on our hands.” No fucking interests on loans that would outlive my entire bloodline.
“You don’t have to hold it all up by yourself. You can take a break sometimes,” Maddox muttered.
A break? It sounded like a pipe dream. There were no breaks when I had deals that could end in fatalities, people I was responsible for, and Finn… I had to make sure Finn didn’t end up like me.
“Sure, I can,” I mumbled, though we both knew it was a lie.
Strangely, I did feel like I’d had a break tonight, for that blissful half hour in my office. With Goldilocks. A break, after so long. It was invigorating.
Maddox stared at me for a long moment, not arguing but also not agreeing with me. In the end, he just nodded before heading out of the shop.