Chapter Eight #2
“What?” She let out a nervous giggle. “No. I mean, yes, he put him in the hospital, but Ricky just grabbed my ass is all. He didn’t try to”—she glanced around and lowered her voice—“you know.”
Rape you? I almost asked, but didn’t. The town of Kearny hadn’t gotten the memo that it wasn’t okay to grope people just because you found them attractive, so I doubted a little grab-ass even registered as assault to most of them. Including Beth, apparently.
I’d served Ricky a few times, and the guy skeeved me out.
My gut was rarely wrong about men like him, and part of me had been waiting for him to say something that crossed a line or try to get handsy with me because I would have loved to teach him a lifelong lesson about boundaries and consent.
The only regret I felt over learning that Jakob had put him in the hospital for grabbing Beth was that Jakob had beaten me to it.
“Anything else I should know?” I asked her.
“No,” came the growling answer.
Beth and I both jumped as Jakob emerged from between two other bikers. I hadn’t seen him coming, because unlike at Gran’s earlier, he blended right into the sea of denim and leather spread out around us.
Beth slapped some bills on the counter and took off with her drink. Smart woman.
Jakob lowered his big frame onto her abandoned stool and rested his elbows on the bar top. “Enjoy your little gossip session?”
I bared my teeth at him in a look that was too cutting to be a grin. “Immensely.”
He opened his mouth to respond, but a hand landed on his shoulder.
“Hey there, you two,” Daniel King boomed.
Great. Just what this situation needed. Another asshole.
“Hey, boss,” Jakob drawled, rising to offer Daniel his seat.
Daniel waved him back down. “I see word finally got out about you.”
If he talked any louder, he’d be shouting. I was right about him wanting to lord this information over everyone else. The fact that he chose this moment to do it made me want to spit in the next drink he ordered.
Jakob nodded in response.
I tried my best not to scowl.
“Krista, can you help me with this keg?” Nina called.
Bless her.
I made my excuses and went over to help.
She was crouched down, hands on the sides of the steel drum.
Sometimes the fixtures could be finicky when you tried to switch out kegs, and both of us had gotten a face full of beer foam on several occasions.
We’d found the risk was mitigated when two people worked together to get the lines reattached.
I crouched down next to her, my leg protesting. “What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing,” she hissed. “You looked like you were about to blow a gasket, and I was just trying to give you an excuse to get away from those two.”
I stared at her. “I would hug you if they couldn’t see me.”
She grinned. “Mental hug received. Now, let’s frown while we pretend to screw around with this for a few minutes.”
I raised my hands and jiggled the lines, dutifully frowning.
She frowned, too, but prettily. “How’s the night going?”
“Like shit,” I said. “But people have been tipping me really well even though my attitude sucks.”
“Perks of screwing a King.”
“Screw. Singular. It won’t happen again,” I told her.
She eyeballed me, her frown replaced by the hint of a smile. “Mm-hmm.”
“Don’t mm-hmm me. I’m serious.”
She glanced over my shoulder, just a quick flick of her dark eyes before they landed back on mine. “Tell that to the psychopath who’s been staring at you all night.”
I stiffened. My leg protested, and I nearly fell over. “I thought he just got here.”
Her lips lifted into a full-blown smile. “Nope. He’s been over at a corner booth with a couple of other enforcers.”
“Oh.”
She butted her shoulder against mine. “When Rob made you laugh earlier, he half stood out of his seat like he was going to come kill him for it.”
Maybe Beth was right about the whole jealousy thing after all.
“I don’t know why,” I said. “We didn’t exactly end things on a good note.”
She frowned. “No?”
I shook my head. “I swear I’ll tell you later. Now help me up. My leg is starting to cramp.”
As predicted, Jimmy slipped out a side door the second we rang the bell for last call.
“Piece of shit,” Nina said.
Our third bartender for the night, a short Black man in his early twenties named Kyle, crossed his arms over his chest and glared as the door banged shut. Being barely old enough to drink and having a baby face made the glare more cute than menacing, but I didn’t have the heart to tell Kyle that.
“One of these days, I’m going to fuck up my cash-out,” he said. “Like short it a grand so that Charley has to get involved and Jimmy will be forced to confess that he bailed early.”
“Don’t,” Nina and I said at the same time.
Kyle frowned at us.
“They’re war buddies,” I told him. “Even though Charley knows Jimmy’s a piece of shit, he’ll still take his side if it’s his word against yours.”
Kyle swore and stalked away.
Nina watched him go. “Kid’s got a lot to learn about the world still.”
I nodded. “Unlike us grizzled old hags.”
She threw a bar towel at me. “Speak for yourself.”
An hour later, she and I sat in her car in the parking lot.
Tonight had been crazy busy, and even though I’d spent half of it pissed off, I couldn’t deny that the energy in the place had been infectious.
I was still riding high off it, like the true extrovert I was, and while I knew a crash was coming, I wasn’t ready to go home just yet.
“What happened with you and Jakob?” Nina asked.
“He made this cryptic comment about Magnolia during our shift yesterday that totally freaked me out,” I told her. “Afterward, he pulled up next to me at a stoplight and had me follow him home. The Kings think someone on staff there is selling drugs in town.”
Her brows shot up. “Only an idiot or a madman would sell drugs in Kearny.”
“Agreed,” I said. “When we got to Jakob’s place, Daniel King was sitting on his couch, and the door was busted like he broke in.”
She leaned back in her seat. “What the hell?”
I filled her in on their strange interaction and then told her about Jakob ordering me to stay the night.
She frowned when I was done. “Think there’s bad blood between the two of them?”
“I have no idea,” I said. “That’s what I thought at first, but then they were all buddy-buddy in the bar tonight.”
“Maybe it’s a private squabble and they’re keeping it from the rest of the club.”
I huffed out a laugh. “They’re doing a good job, then. Those bikers are the worst gossips in town. I doubt they’ll be able to keep their rift a secret for long.”
“So what do you think is going on?” she asked. “Who was watching Jakob’s place if not someone loyal to Daniel?”
“No clue. I just know that something is off there, and it’s going to bother me until I find out what it is.”
She put a hand on my forearm. “Be careful. People who go poking around in Kings business usually come to regret it.”
“Don’t worry,” I told her. “I’m not dumb enough to go poking around. At this point, I’ve resigned myself to being bothered about it indefinitely.”
She lifted her hand from my arm. “So, Daniel left last night and then what?”
“Then Jakob gave me the most intense orgasm of my entire life.”
She let out a shaky breath. “Details or it didn’t happen.”
I told her the details.
People always make a big deal about men and their locker-room talk, but in my experience, women are just as likely to engage in that kind of banter.
We embellish details, wax vainglorious about dick size, and even exaggerate about silly things like the number of positions we attempted, all to make ourselves look like some sort of goddess in the bedroom, with our partners our devoted supplicants of course.
With Jakob, there was no need for embellishment, and as I talked, it was like I relived every glorious, sordid moment of last night. By the time I was done, I was thirsty as fuck and ready for round two even though I was still pissed at the guy.
Nina let out a low whistle. “Goddamn.”
“Yeah. But then he was a complete nightmare today at Gran’s nursing home, so it’ll never happen again.” I gave her a recap of our visit, including why we were there and how we’d convinced Dr. Perez to help us.
Nina’s expression softened. “I’m sorry he said that about your leg.”
“It’s not the fact that he said it but the way that he did.”
She nodded. “I know, but I’m still sorry.”
I sighed. “Thanks.”
She chewed her lip for a second, watching me with a wary expression.
“Out with it,” I said.
“Don’t take this the wrong way or think I’m on his side or anything—I’m not. I’m Team Krista all the way.”
“I know. Now, what is it?”
“Do you think maybe he took your comment about people treating you differently as being ashamed of him? And that’s why he was such a dick to you afterward?”
“The thought had crossed my mind, but it doesn’t excuse his behavior.”
She held her hands up. “I’m not excusing his behavior. I’m just saying, even guys like Jakob have feelings, and he wouldn’t be the first person to lash out when they were hurt.” She sent me a meaningful look.
I wanted to squirm in my seat. Thinking back on it, I had to admit that I could have handled the situation better myself. That comment about him always having to remind people that he was a King hadn’t been said from the best place or in the nicest tone.
“You ever get sick of being right about things all the time?” I asked Nina.
She flashed me a wide grin. “Never.”