Chapter Six
Wolf didn’t like distractions when he worked, or anything that pulled his focus away from the task at hand. He used to conduct team meetings in private rooms, behind closed doors. He preferred a controlled environment.
Tonight however, he chose to have his team meeting at a table in the middle of the clubhouse floor so he could keep a close eye on Jade. There was no reason to, Jade wasn’t in any danger, but still, Wolf liked looking at her every now and then.
Music thumped low in the background, loud conversations and laughter mixed with the scent of alcohol and leather. Wolf tried to ignore the noise and focus on the meeting with his two teammates for the job, although it wasn’t easy.
“Driver?” Wolf asked.
“We’ll use Marco, same reliable guy we used before,” Rafe told him.
Wolf nodded once. “What about security in the area?”
“Light,” Briggs added. “It’s a small shipment. Nothing worth making noise over.”
The job was simple and easy, the sort Wolf preferred. There were no complications, or unnecessary risks.
“Timing stays tight,” Wolf said. “We don’t linger. We don’t improvise. If something feels off, we pull back and reassess.”
Rafe nodded. Briggs seemed to be in agreement, but he looked distracted, which annoyed Wolf. Sure, the job was easy, but at the very least, Briggs should be paying attention. Briggs was looking around the room.
“You got that, Briggs?” Wolf had to ask, keeping the irritation out of his voice.
“Can you explain something to me?” Briggs asked.
Wolf didn’t look up from the mental map he was building. “Explain what?” Wolf asked.
Briggs gestured loosely around them. “This. We’ve got a perfectly good back room,” he continued. “Quiet. Private. No ears where they don’t belong.”
Wolf said nothing.
“Now?” Briggs went on, glancing toward the bar. “You’re running meetings out here all of a sudden. Why’s that?”
Rafe snorted softly under his breath but didn’t add anything. Wolf finally leaned back in his chair, moving his gaze past Rafe and Briggs, and zeroed in on Jade.
Jade moved through the room seamlessly with a tray balanced in one hand, the other steadying it as she weaved between tables. She’d learned fast and had adjusted quickly to her new environment. It had only taken her two weeks, and she looked like she belonged here.
Well, that wasn’t exactly true. He knew Jade still resented being here, but she’d proven time and time again she could hold her own.
She didn’t invite trouble but didn’t run from it either.
Now and then, he’d caught a glimpse of that familiar fire in her eyes, the defiance he’d glimpsed the first time he knocked on her apartment door.
Jade paused at a table, setting down drinks, her expression neutral, controlled.
One of the men said something, Wolf couldn’t hear it over the noise, but she didn’t react beyond a short, clipped response.
Jade appeared professional and yet distant, untouchable almost. That was how it needed to stay.
For a brief moment, her gaze met his, then she looked away, back to business. Wolf had insisted on escorting her back to her apartment after every shift. They even shared a couple more kisses, but it never strayed from that.
Wolf’s attention stayed on her a second longer than it should have. God knew he wanted more, to do dirty things to her that would make her scream out his name, but he held back, because that was the right thing to do.
“Earth to Wolf.” Rafe’s voice cut through.
Wolf snapped his gaze back to the table. “What?” he said.
Rafe smirked faintly. “You listening?”
“I heard you,” Wolf grumbled.
“Yeah?” Briggs said, leaning forward again. “Then answer the question.”
Wolf’s expression didn’t change. “What question? I don’t answer questions that don’t matter.”
Briggs huffed a quiet laugh, and Wolf was tempted for a fraction of a second to punch his lights out. Rafe was fine to work with, but Briggs? Wolf always disliked the guy, because he never took anything seriously, but what could he do? King assigned this team to him, and Wolf wouldn’t argue.
“What’s your deal with that waitress? Jade, right? She’s pretty hot,” Briggs commented. “You fucking her or what?”
Hot? Wolf didn’t like the look Briggs was giving Jade as she bent over a table to wipe it clean.
“We’re not like that,” Wolf said coldly. Rafe knew him long enough to recognize the coldness that appeared in his gaze.
Briggs widened his grin, like he didn’t believe it for a second. Wolf felt Rafe kick Briggs’s leg under the table, but Briggs unwisely ignored him.
“You’ve been driving her home every night,” Briggs pointed out.
Wolf tightened his jaw. “So what? It’s not safe out there that late.”
Briggs let out a low whistle. “Since when do you care about things like that?”
“Since recently,” Wolf said.
Briggs pressed for more, but Wolf didn’t respond, because Briggs had hit a sore point. The truth was, Jade was getting slowly under his skin, but he wasn’t stopping it. He could stop offering to give her a ride back home after every shift, but what if something happened to her?
He thought of the way her lovely and slender arms felt around him on the bike, like she was made for him. The way she leaned into him without thinking. The way she’d impulsively kissed him that first night, and the kisses that followed.
The only reason he didn’t push this thing between them forward was because he knew how this would end. Jade had made it clear—this was temporary for her. And of course, he didn’t want this life for her. Jade was different from the club women.
She didn’t belong here, didn’t belong in this world. And when Callahan finally showed up, or when the debt was cleared, she’d be gone. Back to her life, which would certainly not include him.
Wolf knew that, understood it. Hell, he accepted it even, so he held back when it came to her. Wolf strived to keep things simple.
“All right,” Briggs said, leaning back in his chair like he’d just come to a decision. “If she’s nothing to you...”
Wolf didn’t like the way that sentence started. He was certainly suspicious of the glint in Briggs’s eyes.
“Then I’ll go ahead and ask her out,” Briggs finished.
A wave of indescribable possessiveness filled Wolf at those words. Wolf gritted his teeth as anger flared low in his chest, building until it could burst.
“Don’t,” Wolf warned, tone flat.
Briggs flat-out ignored his warning.
“Relax,” he said. “You just told me she doesn’t mean anything to you.”
Before Wolf could respond, Briggs lifted a hand.
“Hey,” Briggs called out loudly. “Jade.”
Wolf snapped his gaze toward her instantly. Jade turned at the sound of her name, tray balanced in one hand. For a second, she hesitated, like she was weighing whether this was something she could ignore.
Then she walked over, because of course, it was her job. The closer she got, Wolf noticed the dark shadows under her eyes. Sure, she looked much better than the exhausted waif he spoke to when they first met, but still. Was she having trouble sleeping lately? Maybe Jane was keeping her up?
Wolf’s gaze lingered a second too long. She finally stopped at the table.
“What do you need?” she asked. Her voice was even, but her eyes flicked to his for just a moment, brief, almost questioning.
Wolf was too pissed off at Briggs to provide her with an answer. Jade looked at Briggs instead.
“Another round,” Briggs said, pushing his empty glass forward.
Jade nodded, reaching for it.
“And,” Briggs added casually, like it didn’t matter, “you doing anything after your shift?”
Everything inside Wolf went still.
Jade paused slightly. She tightened her fingers around the glass, before straightening again. “Yeah, I’m busy—”
She didn’t get the chance to finish. Wolf shot his hand out, grabbing Briggs hard by the shoulder. That moment, the control he always prided himself on having, finally shattered.
“Don’t,” Wolf said again, lower this time.
Briggs glanced at him, amused rather than concerned. Rafe gave Briggs a panicked look.
“Relax,” Briggs repeated. “Just asking a question.”
“Stay away from her,” Wolf warned, tone sharper.
Briggs only widened his grin like an idiot, like he was really asking for it, or perhaps he was curious to see how far he could push Wolf.
“Or what?” Briggs asked him.
“Or I’ll break that pretty face,” Wolf said. “She’s mine.
Silence slammed down around the table. The noise of the clubhouse didn’t stop, but it shifted. It was as if a ripple moved outward as people started paying attention. Jade went completely still. Her breath caught as she stared at Wolf, but he refused to take his gaze from Briggs.
Briggs blinked once, then let out a low laugh.
“Well, damn,” he said. “That’s new.”
Wolf didn’t move his hand from Briggs’s shoulder or ease the pressure. What would it take for his message to come across?
“You heard me,” Wolf told him.
Briggs leaned back slightly, testing the grip.
“You told me she meant nothing to you,” he said.
Wolf tightened his fingers. “Don’t try me.”
Briggs did the exact opposite. The tension snapped. Briggs moved first, he was fast, but not fast enough. Wolf shoved him back hard, chair scraping violently against the floor as Briggs came up swinging.
The first punch caught Wolf across the jaw. It was a solid hit and pain flared, but Wolf hardly felt it.
He drove forward instead, slamming into Briggs, the table between them tipping, glasses crashing to the ground as bodies collided. Shouts broke out around them. Some bikers made bets, someone else swore and told them to cut it out. Rafe, maybe.
Wolf landed a punch to Briggs’s ribs, then another to his face, the impact snapping Briggs’s head back.
Briggs retaliated immediately, fist slamming into Wolf’s side. They went down hard, hitting the floor in a tangle of limbs and momentum. Wolf came out on top. Briggs might look like a muscle head, but Wolf was trained in martial arts.
He pinned Briggs with one knee, fist drawing back before slamming down again once, then twice. Briggs’s nose cracked under the third hit, blood spilling fast and bright.
“Jesus,” Briggs coughed, laughing through it. “I’ve never seen you like this.”
Wolf grabbed his shirt, hauling him up just enough to slam him back down again.
“Stay away from her,” Wolf repeated. He punctuated each word with force.
Hands grabbed at him then, as they were pulled apart. Rafe, he realized, had gotten hold of him, and another biker had taken Briggs.
“All right, enough!” someone barked.
Wolf resisted for half a second, then let Rafe and another MC brother drag him back. His chest rose and fell hard. He clenched his fists. Briggs sat up slowly, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Walk away, Briggs, or Wolf will really kill you,” someone said, and Briggs wisely did.
Still smiling.
“You’re gone,” he said, shaking his head. “Completely gone.”
Wolf didn’t take his eyes off Briggs until he finally exited the clubhouse.
Around them, the clubhouse buzzed with energy now. He finally noticed Jade, standing only a few feet away, staring at him, the tray still in her hand.
Her gaze locked on him. She looked a little uncertain, then cleared her throat. “My shift’s almost over. Will you give me a ride, Wolf?”
“Yeah,” he answered.
A door banged opened, and King stepped out. Someone must’ve told him about the brawl. King took in the scene, the overturned table, the blood on the floor.
King then looked at Wolf, the disappointment in his eyes crushing Wolf a little. You’re better than this, King’s silent gaze seemed to be telling him.
“Let’s go, Jade,” he told her, and she nodded uncertainly.