Chapter 6
BLAZE
M y hands clenched and unclenched as I stared at the closed bathroom door.
The squeak of the faucet as it was turned on, the hiss from the spray of water, the screech of the shower curtain sliding along the bar…every sound made my heart pound harder.
Wet. Naked. Mine.
Fuck!
I had to get the hell outta the room before I barged into the shower and took her up against the wall.
After taking several deep breaths and thinking about anything that would make my dick a little less painful, I stalked over to my dresser and pulled open the top drawer.
My clothes would be huge on her, but they would have to do.
I briefly considered asking to borrow an outfit from Stella, but the idea of Courtney being surrounded by me was too appealing.
I fished out a pair of boxers, found a T-shirt that was snug on me, and tossed them onto the bed. Then I forced my feet to move toward the door where I paused to throw one last look at the bathroom before stalking out.
Knowing I needed to update my brothers, I sent a text to Wizard and a couple of our enforcers as I quickly made my way back downstairs. When I saw King still in the lounge, I jerked my chin in the direction of our offices and kept walking without waiting to see if he followed.
Ace was at his desk as I passed by and rapped my knuckles on his doorjamb. “Prez’s. Now,” I called. “Bring Ash.”
When I got there, I stopped beside King’s desk and faced the door, standing with my feet braced apart and my arms crossed over my chest.
King entered and rounded his desk to take a seat. He was followed into the room by Echo and Ace, who both settled themselves on the couch in the small lounge area on the side of the room, opposite the conference table.
“So…” Echo drawled with a smirk. “Was I right?”
“About what?” I grunted.
“You falling for a wannabe arsonist?” He laughed, and I scowled.
“That’s funny because…?”
Echo looked over at King, his smirk back in place. “Gonna have to tell Stella I was right,” he practically crowed. Then his gaze returned to me, and he tilted his head, studying me. “Gotta say, Blaze claiming a firebug is a little cliché.”
“Shut your mouth, E,” King growled. “Unless you wanna lose that pretty-boy face of yours.”
Echo’s eyes darted from our prez to me, and when he clocked my dark scowl, he pressed his lips together as if suppressing a laugh. One more word and I was gonna do exactly what King had suggested.
When he didn’t say anything else, I focused my attention on the door.
I didn’t want to have to share all this shit more than once, so we all waited in awkward silence until Wizard strolled into the office with Ash—our secretary, who was a lawyer and handled all the MC’s legal shit—and a couple of our enforcers, Rebel and Tomcat.
“I take it you’re going to explain about the warehouse and the woman you brought here?” King asked.
Before I could answer, Echo snorted, and I glared at him. “More like kidnapped.”
King shot him a look, and he shut up, but as he leaned back into the cushions, a grin spread across his face.
“What’s going on?” King asked me.
After I explained the situation, Rebel whistled softly. “Damn. That’s seriously fucked up.”
“No shit,” I grunted. Shifting my gaze to Wizard, I asked, “Was the roommate a client?”
Wizard nodded and opened his laptop, setting it on the conference room table where he’d sat when he showed up. “Yeah. Pulled her file from the skiff room server.”
I scowled and clenched my hands into fists. “Can’t expect everyone who comes to us to be completely clean, I get that. But how the fuck did this bitch slip through our deep dive into her background?”
He tapped a few keys, and his eyes scanned the screen.
“Wasn’t thrilled with her history or the people she associated with, but she was mostly just a random chick with nothing that indicated she might be running from a drug ring.
Claimed to be tryin’ to get away from the ex, and since he has a long list of assault charges, her story was plausible. ”
“Why didn’t we find out where she got the money to pay us?” I muttered.
Ace piped up. “That was my call. I did ask Wizard about Jason since he was obviously in the ranks of this drug ring. When he told me the guy was low on the ladder, I figured the likelihood of her getting anywhere near product or money was extremely low. Still not sure how she could have gotten her hands on either. So I sent it to King for the green light.”
“Do we know where she is?” I asked, frustrated with Ace’s answer even though it made sense.
Wizard tapped some keys on his computer and shook his head. “We used Ink’s connection with the DeLucas to find her a place. I’ll have to get the information from them.”
One of our recent patches was related to a New York crime family run by Nic DeLuca.
They had a branch of The Family in the south, mostly in Georgia, not far from Riverstone.
The connection had turned into a great working relationship since both of our organizations had skills the other lacked but needed.
“She opened her legs for far too many lowlife motherfuckers. Not just gangs or drug pushers, that includes dirty MCs. There were too many risks that she would be recognized in our circles. So The Family erased her through their channels.”
“Get Ink on it,” I ordered, then looked at Ace. “She pay cash?”
“Yeah, but the bills were new and sequential. Wizard and I can follow the money.”
“Do it.”
They both stood and were already throwing theories at each other by the time they walked out the door.
Once they were gone, Ash tapped his fingers on the table impatiently. “Tell me about the warehouse. How much shit was destroyed?”
I winced. “Pretty much everything in the filing rooms on one side of the building.”
“Fuck,” he muttered.
“We have digital duplicates of everything,” King reminded him.
“I know. But being able to hand over paper copies has saved our asses when someone like the IRS has come sniffing around. Kept them off our servers, and the idiots never suspect that the ‘originals’ could have been tampered with.”
King nodded. “Get some prospects to reprint and organize the files.”
“Will do,” Ash agreed. “And we’re still keeping the fire off the record?”
I grunted in affirmation. “Can’t trust the cops we don’t know. Any of them could have their balls in a vise by that organization.”
“I’ll talk to the sheriff,” Tomcat offered.
He was a former Navy pilot and had been in the academy with the county sheriff’s brother.
The officer, Bruce, was a pretty straight arrow, but he respected the fuck out of Tomcat, and they were good friends.
So when Tomcat patched, Bruce did his due diligence and checked us out.
Since it was handy to have law enforcement on your side—sort of—we gave him a little more access than we would give most outsiders.
He fed us information we needed from time to time, and if the circumstances were right, he’d been known to look the other way when we needed him to.
“Thanks.”
Tomcat gave me a chin lift.
“Blaze.”
I looked at King, who was studying his computer screen. “How’d she get in?”
One side of my mouth quirked up. “She picked the lock.”
King glanced up at me with a raised brow. “Picked the lock?”
I nodded, feeling a spark of pride even though I should’ve been pissed that someone had broken into our facility. Courtney was a fascinating tangle of personality types. I had a feeling that even in a whole lifetime with her, I’d never unravel them all.
“Told you we needed more security than that fucking fence and some locks,” Rebel groused. He was in charge of security for the Hounds—a job he was perfect for after being a SEAL specializing in security.
“I signed the check, Rebel,” King murmured as he leaned back in his chair. “The new system is scheduled to be installed next week.”
Rebel snorted. “Little late.”
“So the bill for the warehouse repairs goes to you?”
My eyes narrowed as my head turned in Ace’s direction. His voice was amused, and when I met his eyes, they were full of laughter.
“Yeah,” I muttered, intending to leave it at that.
“Trying to save us on an insurance premium hike?”
“No,” I snapped.
“Oh?” His expression and tone were overly innocent.
King sighed. “Cruisin’ for a bruisin’, jackass.”
“You know why, fucker.”
“Still gonna make you say it.”
I dropped my hands to my sides, both curled into fists, and took a step toward Ace.
“For fuck’s sake, Ace,” King muttered. “Not gonna stop him if he decides to kick your ass.”
“Why are you paying for the damage?” Rebel asked in his usual low, rough tone that matched his perpetual scowl. He seemed genuinely curious, and I had to remind myself that the prez was the only one in the room who understood what I was experiencing.
“Taking care of what’s mine,” I growled before stomping away.