41. 41
41
M alice carried the bags of food that he’d picked up at the grocery store to the door of her building. He’d offered to make the trip to get whatever Bonnie wanted while she unpacked and got settled in. She’d looked at him for a moment, as if considering his offer, then nodded and quickly put together list. She’d thanked him and given him a credit card to pay for the purchases, then kissed him and said she’d be more settled when he returned.
He hit the button to buzz her apartment and waited for her voice to come over the intercom.
“Can I help you?” Bonnie’s voice sounded tinny and strange over the two-way communicator.
“It’s me,” he said back, then realized his own voice may sound as odd to her as hers did to him. “It’s Corey.”
The door buzzed, letting him know she’d hit the button to let him in.
“Be right up,” he said as he opened the door and stepped inside. He waited until he heard the lock click back into place, then took the elevator to Bonnie’s floor.
At Bonnie’s door, he found the door propped open, the dead bolt locked but not in the frame, instead it kept the door from closing and made it so anyone could enter at will. He pushed the door open and carried the bags inside, calling out to her as he let the door fall close again.
“Where are you, sweetness?” he said, setting them on the counter, but being especially careful not to tip over the bag with the carryout he’d picked up for their lunch. He set that bag to one side. He didn’t want the heat from that bag getting to the cold stuff in some of the other bags.
“I’m right here,” Bonnie stepped in from the bedroom. “Did you get everything on the list?”
“I did. And I picked up some lunch for us too.” He opened a bag and started pulling out things that went in the refrigerator. “When’d you do that to the door?” He nodded toward where the door was still propped ajar with the deadbolt.
“When I buzzed you in. I was in the middle of something in the bedroom and didn’t want you to have to wait for me to come open the door.” She went to the door, unlocked the deadbolt, closed the door, and reengaged the lock. “It was just like that until you rang, and I let you up.” She came into the tiny kitchen, started digging through the grocery bags, pulling things out and putting them away. In no time they’d emptied the grocery bags, which she folded and added to a roll she kept on a shelf in the pantry.
“What’s that?” She motioned toward the last bag on the counter, this one a brown paper bag without a logo.
“Our lunch. Time to take a break. Come out on the balcony and eat with me.” He snagged the bag off the counter and carried it with him as he led the way to the sliding door, opened it, waited for her to step through then followed her. Once seated he pulled the food from the bag, handing hers across and setting his on the small table between them long enough to fold up the bag and set it aside. “Oh, before I forget, these are for you too.” He shifted enough to pull his truck keys from his pocket and held them out to her.
Bonnie looked at his open palm, then back at him, a frown creasing her brow.
“I can’t take your truck. You need that.”
“What for?” he asked. She started to speak but he wasn’t finished and continued. “Anything I need to do for the ranch, I can take a ranch truck. And the weather’s nice. If I want to go somewhere I can take my bike. I don’t want you to have to settle for some piece of crap car you can’t trust. This way you can wait until the insurance pays out. Then get a decent car you can rely on without having to rush the process.” Malice set the keys on the table between them then unwrapped his burger and took a bite.
She stared at him for a moment then, shaking her head, unwrapped her own burger and began to eat.
“If I keep your keys, how will you get back to the ranch?” she asked between bites.
“Talon was planning to come into town tonight. He’ll get in touch before he heads out and I’ll hitch a ride with him. I’d like to say I can stay the night, but that leaves me needing a ride in the morning, and I don’t want to get you up to run me back out to the ranch that early.”
Bonnie nodded and continued to eat. He wasn’t sure if she had nothing more to say or just didn’t want to argue until they had finished eating.
“You didn’t say what Talon is planning on doing in town tonight,” she said after they’d finished eating and were both leaning back in their seats, relaxing for a few minutes.
Malice glanced over at her, trying to gauge her mood. He had no intention of lying to her, the question was how to bluntly to phrase the response.
“He’s going out for a drink.”
She watched him for a moment, and he could almost see the gears grinding as she translated what he was saying.
“Is he looking to drink or get laid?” Bonnie asked after a while.
“The latter, I’m sure. It might be that he wants to drink and fight, or maybe dance, but if he just wanted to drink, he could do that at the ranch, and a lot cheaper. Hell, some of the brothers would probably indulge him if what he wanted was to drink and fight.”
She pursed her lips and watched him, and Malice couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in her head.
“I know from some of the things said while I was at the ranch that Talon and Steele are both pretty new. What does he normally do when he ‘goes for a drink’?” She made air quotes with her fingers as she used the words he had.
“He’s usually out to get laid,” he admitted with a shrug.
“And how late does he usually stay out?” Her tone didn’t hold any clues that she was unhappy with the way things had gone. He had no reason not to be entirely honest.
“He’s usually back to the ranch by midnight, sometimes a little later.”
“Does he expect you to go to the bar with him or is he planning to pick you up on his way home from his hook up?”
“We kind of left it open. I didn’t want you to feel like I expected to stay tonight. This is your place, and you probably want me out of here so you can do your own thing again.” Malice did his best to keep what he wanted out of his voice, and it wasn’t going to hang out in a bar and watch his club brother find a woman to hook up with. Not that he blamed the other man. He’d done the same more than a few times, though not in a while.
Malice fought the urge to shift under her scrutiny. He didn’t have anything to hide, and whatever she asked he’d tell her honestly, but not knowing what she was after made him anxious.
“What do you want to do? Do you want to go out with him? I’m sure having me all but move in changed your habits.” She seemed to honestly want to know.
One corner of Malice’s mouth quirked up in a wry half-smile. He knew what he wanted, but Bonnie had made it clear that she was moving back into her apartment, so he didn’t think there would be any talking her into going back to the cabin, at least not tonight. Maybe in a few days. But if she didn’t mind, they could break in her bed.
He refused to think about anyone else who might have been in that bed with her, though he could be reasonably sure the fuckwad hadn’t been one of them. At least not while she’d been in it since she hadn’t known that he knew where she lived.
“I don’t have any interest in playing wingman while he looks for some woman to hook up with. The only saving grace to the whole thing is I know he won’t have more than one drink when he knows he has to drive back out to the ranch.”
“Then I think we can come up with something to fill our time.” Standing, she gave him a sultry smile. “Why don’t you come inside with me?”
“Gladly.” He picked up the keys and the trash from their meal and carried it inside with them, eager to see what she had in mind.