Chapter Twelve
Camila tossed and turned, trying to sleep, and finally giving up.
She didn’t know how long Hammer had been gone when she pushed the blankets back and sat up.
A noise came from somewhere near the door.
Her scalp prickled as she listened, trying to decide if it was something that needed her attention.
When the sound didn’t come again, and there were no other noises, she dismissed it as someone passing by, despite the way her stomach quivered.
Sliding out of bed, she grabbed something to wear from the bag of things they’d bought when Winter and Miranda had taken her out the day before, and went into the restroom.
She stood in front of the sink, brushing her teeth when the door behind her opened, startling her.
She let out a squeak as her eyes went wide and she stared at the man behind her.
Her eyes went first to the tattoos that covered his arms and torso before snaking up his neck.
They made him look even larger, even more intimidating.
Or at least that’s what she imagined as she took him in.
Her face heated when she realized she was staring and dropped her gaze.
“Whoops. Sorry. It was quiet so I thought you’d gone.” Hammer spoke quickly and started to close the door.
“No, wait,” she said around her toothbrush before spitting out the toothpaste and quickly rinsing her mouth.
“I’m sorry. I’ll get out of your way.” Camila rinsed her toothbrush as she spoke and quickly gathered the clothes she’d slept in, holding them in one arm as she slipped past him and into the bedroom.
“You can have the bathroom. I’ll just go see if I can find some coffee. ”
“No problem. And thanks. I’ll take a quick shower then I’ll come find you. I had a couple of ideas that I’d like to talk to you about.”
Camila nodded and headed for where she’d left her shoes.
“All right,” she said, pulling on socks and slipping into her shoes without looking back up at him. She didn’t want to get caught staring again. And she didn’t want him to see how watching him made heat pool low in her belly.
He went into the bathroom, and she let herself out of the bedroom, heading for the common room.
Winter had said there was always coffee on and food in the kitchen for anyone who wanted to help themselves.
Maybe she’d see if there was anything there she could eat.
Not that she knew how to make anything but maybe there would be cereal. How bad could she screw that up?
****
To Camila’s surprise, she needn’t have worried about what there was and if she could prepare it. When she made it to the common room, she found one of the men, one she didn’t think she’d met yet, in the kitchen manning what looked like a large griddle, food over the entire surface.
“You’re the new girl.” The man at the grill said as she stepped into the room.
“I am.”
“Coffee’s in the pot,” he motioned to one of the tall coffee makers like she’d only seen on TV that sat on the counter on the far side of the room from where he worked. “Anything you can’t eat?”
“No. I’m good with anything.”
As she stood wondering what she should do, Winter came in. She picked up a large pan of some kind of bread and carried it out.
“She’s setting things out, then you can help yourself.”
Camila looked around, wondering if she should pitch in and help. She stood back a moment, waiting until Winter returned.
“What can I help with?” Camilla asked.
“All this needs to go out into the other room. Loki will add things to this table as they’re done, and we’ll carry them out. When we’re done, we get to go through the line first.”
“Que?” Granted, she was new here, but she’d never heard of the cook, or any of the help, getting first choice of the food.
“Cooking isn’t anyone’s job. It’s something someone does either because they want food or they want to feed everyone.
It doesn’t come with a lot of advantages,” the man at the grill said, partially turning so his back wasn’t to her, but instead his side so he could glance at her as he kept an eye on what he was doing.
“Getting to eat first is a small reward for doing all the work.”
“True. I guess that would also make it easier for clean-up, since you’ll likely be among the first done.”
“It would, but I don’t do the cleaning. That’s a prospect job,” Loki said.
Winter came back into the room and grabbed a large bowl, turned and carried it out without a word, reminding Camila that she’d offered to help.
I can ask a billion questions later, she thought as she picked up a large bowl and followed Winter into the common room.
They worked for about ten minutes before the man at the gridle, Loki she thought Winter had called him, followed them out of the kitchen carrying the large coffee maker.
He set it on the bar on the opposite end of where they’d lined up all the food, then nodded to Camila.
“You two first. I’ll be right behind you.”
Not knowing what else to do, Camila followed Winter’s example, marveling at how much food was piled on top of the bar. She filled her plate and followed Winter to a table.
“Mind if I join you?”
“Not at all. You like coffee?”
Camila set her plate on the table and sat.
“I do. I was looking for some when I went into the kitchen earlier, then I got distracted.”
“No problem. I’ll bring you a cup.”
“I should get it,” Camila started to push to her feet. “You are not a servant.”
“Don’t worry.” Winter’s hand on her shoulder pushed her back into her seat. “I offered. It’s not like you demanded I fetch it for you. Sit. Eat. I’ll be right back.”
By the time Winter returned, she’d started eating.
“I wasn’t sure how you take it, so I brought both cream and sugar.
” Winter set down two cups, then pulled a handful of sugar packets and little plastic cups of half and half out of somewhere and dropped them on the table between them.
Camila tore open a couple packets of sugar and watched them pour into her cup when movement across the room caught her eye.
Looking up, she saw Hammer headed in their direction.
His hair stood in wet spikes on top of his head, and there were a couple of spots on his torso where his shirt was a little darker than the rest. She suspected he’d rushed getting dressed.
But why? Was there something going on that he’d been in a hurry for?
She turned her attention back to her plate, though she found herself glancing his direction as he headed to the end of the line and picked up a plate.
“He’s a good-looking man,” Winter said from across the table. “While I don’t know him all that well, I’ve never heard of him mistreating women. Do you have feelings for him?”
Camila looked up at the other woman, her eyes wide. How had she known that? Was she that obvious?
“Don’t worry.” Winter laughed. “I only noticed you watching him just now, and given the history, it seems inevitable.”
“I’m not so sure,” Camila said, her head tilted down to her plate. “It’s not like I have anything to offer. No man is going to want anyone as useless as I am.”
“I’m going to let you in on a secret,” Winter whispered, leaning close so no one would overhear her.
“What?” Camila leaned close—she didn’t want to miss a single word.
“These men don’t care. You have the only thing one of them might want, the key will be figuring out which one, and if they’re part of this chapter.”
“What do you mean? I have nothing. Nothing. One set of clothes that I walked out of my childhood home wearing. That is all I have to my name.”
Winter’s secretive smile grew into a grin. “And that’s the beauty of it. If these men want something, they get it. If they want connections, they make them. They don’t barter women to advance themselves. If one of these men says they want you, then that’s exactly what they want. You.”
Camila blinked, not sure what to say. It was something she’d always wanted.
Someone to want her for her, not for what she could do for them or for what connections she brought, or who her family was.
How was it possible that she’d managed to possibly find exactly what she wanted from a situation she never could have predicted.
She bit her lip as she looked at the other woman, then dropped her gaze back to her plate.
So much had happened. So much had changed. She wasn’t sure what to do or how to handle it all.
“Hey, mind if I join you ladies?” Hammer’s voice drew her attention. She turned to watch him approach.
“Not at all. Have a seat.” Winter picked up her phone. “Did you see Bishop on your way down? I sent him a message that food is ready, but I haven’t seen him yet.” She put her phone back down.
“You might want to call him,” Hammer put in, “The last I saw him was in the gym and he had headphones on.”
“Thanks.” She picked up the phone and dialed.
“I figured you would have already eaten,” Hammer said, turning to look at Camila.
“Loki just finished cooking. We helped carry it all out.”
“Then you’ve met more of the club. That’s good. How did you like Loki?”
She lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “He was okay. He didn’t say much.” Why did he want to know what she thought of his friend? Was he trying to find her someone to be with, to protect her, so he could do what he wanted?
Camila might not have been around the Sons of Sin long, but she’d already noticed they were open about things like sex, not bothering with privacy or who might be watching.
Was his need to take care of her, to make sure she didn’t do anything to harm his club, keeping him from taking care of his own needs?
It felt like a band tightened around her chest and the back of her throat burned at the idea that she was keeping him from his own interests.
She hated being a burden, and this was just another way she was imposing on these people who had helped her so much, even if that hadn’t been their intention at the time.
She wanted to be able to help them as much as they’d helped her. But the more she got to know them, all of them, the more she felt like a burden. Like someone no one wanted to deal with, but they didn’t know what else to do with. She hated feeling that way, but what could she do about it?