Chapter 9
NINE
JINX
“Is that seriously your first question?” Kyra fights a smile as she fidgets with her coffee cup. “Oh my God, Jinx.”
“I said I wouldn’t judge, and I’m not. I want to show my support by boosting your view count.”
She kicks me under the table, chin ducked to hide her smile.
“What?” I feign ignorance. “You wouldn’t have told me if you didn’t want me to see it.”
“Quite the opposite, actually. I told you, because I hoped you’d realize why I don’t want to talk about it and back off.”
I study the slight curve of her lips. The way her eyes crinkle the slightest bit at the corners. This whole back-and-forth amuses her, and I’d almost place bets on it being a relief that she can talk openly about what she does.
“What made you start?”
She takes a slow breath, fingertips tapping the mug before her.
“We all want the silver bullet. The thing that’ll rocket us toward our financial goals without having to do the hard work.
Well.” Kyra lifts an eyebrow, gaze distant as though she recalls the moment that changed the course of her life.
“When one of my classmates in college told me how much she’d earned in one month alone, it seemed too good to be true.
But then she’d keep showing up with better hair, lashes, makeup, clothes…
a car, and she kept giving receipts. It really did pay off.
” Her gaze lifts to mine. “She cleared her student debt before we’d even graduated. ”
“I can see the allure.”
“I figured nobody ever took much interest in me—I didn’t have a boyfriend to complicate things emotionally—so why not give it a go? Told myself I’d do it for a few months at first. But when I raked in five figures in that third month, it seemed foolish to stop.”
She argues valid points, yet her shoulders curl forward, her face devoid of emotion. She can’t even look me in the eye when she speaks. “You regret it?”
“No.” The answer comes quickly, without need for thought.
“Not at all. I just… I can’t see how I can maintain it here.
Not when it’s against the law now, and my goddamn daddy is the Sheriff.
Besides.” She shrugs. “Do I realistically expect to do it long-term? My body will change as I get older; it’s a game for young women.
My priorities will change. I want to get married and have a family someday.
What I do for income isn’t aligned with that. ”
“Surely the right guy would support what you do?” I’ve seen relationships break down over less, but people’s perceptions are changing. What was once considered utterly taboo is now accepted in most circles.
As long as the law doesn’t find out.
“I think it wouldn’t be fair to my future child if somebody asked them if they know what Mommy does in the playground, you know? If somebody turned me in and Mommy suddenly wore an orange jumpsuit.”
“I don’t think it’s quite that serious.”
She lifts her gaze to mine. “I think it is.”
She has a point, I guess. Kids can be assholes.
Their parents? Even worse. I experienced that judgment firsthand, having a father who was the talk of the town for most of my school years.
“Seems like you’re doing a lot of soul searching.
” I take a healthy swig of my spiked coffee to jar the repetitive thoughts of Kyra online—nude—from my brain.
“I am.” She leans back with a sigh, a weighted silence between us. “What about you? Any grand plans for the future?”
“I take it a day at a time.” Saves falling down a dark hole when I realize I’ll likely be lonely and forgotten in my old age. “Things might be a little shaken up for you, right now, but it’s nice to see you back, Kyra.”
She swallows, hand tightening around her mug. “Thanks.”
“You going to drink that?” I nod toward the cooling beverage.
She runs a hand through the hair falling over her shoulder and smiles. “Yeah. Of course.” The sip seems forced.
“Takes guts to do what you did.”
Her gaze flicks my way.
“I hope you’re still proud of what you achieved.”
The hard lines of her brow soften. “I am. I paid off my tuition, and I came home with enough in the bank to set myself up. Not many people my age could say that.”
“What did you study?”
“Psychology.” She chuckles. “Yeah. It helped.”
I barely manage to open my mouth when a blaze of movement draws my attention.
Chaos strides into the room and promptly pulls out the chair between us, spinning it around to sit on it backward. “How’s the date?”
I roll my eyes at his stir. “Better when you weren’t here.”
“Not that it’s a date,” Kyra states. “Was it?”
“Nah, babe. You’re safe.” I glare at our rude interruption. “Why are you here?”
“Loki’s back from his trip. It’s time for us to sit down.” His gaze slices to Kyra, signaling he doesn’t feel comfortable talking about why in front of a civilian.
The Sheriff’s daughter, no less.
“Can’t it wait half an hour?”
He shakes his head and then rests his chin atop his hands, bracing them on the back of the chair.
Kyra leans back slowly, studying him with slight caution in her pinched brow.
I bump her foot beneath the table to get her attention. “Pick this up again another time?”
“Sure.” She pushes her coffee toward the center of the table. “I’ve got things I should be doing anyway.”
Bet she does. My pulse spikes at the implication—whether she meant it that way or not.
“It was good to catch up.” Kyra rises from her seat.
Chaos and I automatically do the same.
Her head tilts a little as though she didn’t expect such chivalry. “Hope it’s nothing too serious.” She looks from Chaos to me and pauses a moment before adding, “You know where to find me.”
“Likewise.”
Marty’s daughter takes her leave, one hand clutched around the strap of her purse again as she heads for the exit.
A sharp elbow catches my ribs. “She’s so into you.”
“She needs a friend, is all.” My stomach turns. “Not that it matters anyway.” I shake off the crawling feeling and turn to face Chaos. “What’s so important that church can’t wait?”
All traces of humor leave his face, lips set in a firm line as he regards me with stone-cold focus. “Loki spotted the Breed’s convoy leaving town on his way home. Four bikes and a cage. I think they’re more established here already than Matthias let on.”
“How the fuck have we not spotted them until now?
He shrugs, heading for the exit. “Only the riders are patched. The van looks like any other on the road. Maybe they’ve been more subtle until now.”
“Still not happy we didn’t notice.”
“Neither.” He holds the door open for me, nodding polite farewell to Theresa. “I’ve got Darko looking into it, picking through the town surveillance from the past month. I want to know where they’ve been hiding.”
I glance at the street camera across the road—big brother. “Unless they haven’t come this far in. If they’ve stuck to the outskirts, we wouldn’t know unless we were heading out of state like Loki.”
“Perhaps.” Chaos glances down the street. “I don’t trust anyone, though. Not after that fucking doctor was planted here to get at Ness.”
“We’ll get to the bottom of it.”
We always do.