He smoothed his hand through his hair. “I’d rather not tell you.”
“Christopher!”
He flinched a second time.
Wait. I narrowed my eyes. “What’s your club name?”
His jaw clenched. “Wraith.”
Wraith.
I screwed a Wraith.
I didn’t even want to know why he got that name.
“Oh my God!” I shoved to my feet, starting to pace. I slept with him, and I wanted to do it again. Who was I? I didn’t even recognize myself with him. One meeting, our food unfinished, and we’d gone at it four times. Four. Times.
I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.
This was…this was ridiculous!
Heckler. My own uncle. I growled, “I’m going to murder my uncle.”
Christopher or Wraith jumped in front of me, his hands up. “You can’t. They can’t know I told you. I don’t—I might’ve gotten more time. I don’t know, but if you call him, then that’s all done for and I don’t know what they’ll want me to do next.”
“Are you kidding me? You want more time?” I hissed.
“Well.” He dropped his hands, frowning. “Yeah.”
“Agh!” I screamed and shoved past him, going to his room and starting to dress.
“Babe.”
“Don’t!” I whipped back to him, one hand in the air and the other holding the sheet in front of me. “You are not my man or my boyfriend. You don’t get to ‘babe’ me.”
I dropped the sheet.
He groaned, raking his hand over his hair. “Fuck.”
I grabbed my clothes, shoving my arms into my top and my legs into my jeans.
I didn’t even remember where any of my stuff went
My phone.
My purse.
I stomped back to the front door,;there were my sandals. I didn’t remember toeing them off, but I must’ve.
“Come on, Kess. Please.”
I was so not listening to him.
Even if he was gorgeous…
And had protected me all year long…
Not happening.
Hell to the no.
But, oh man. How he felt in bed.
How he kissed me.
Slid inside of me.
He’d made me shatter in his arms, and not once or twice. Four times.
That was so not the norm.
I wrenched open the door—
His phone rang, peeling through the air.
I hesitated.
I hated that I hesitated.
He glanced down, then hit accept. “Max.”
I froze.
On the other end of the phone was someone seriously powerful. It shouldn’t have the power to impress me, but I couldn’t help it. I was impressed, and I found myself waiting. I didn’t know why. So yeah, I should go.
I was going.
Now.
Right now.
I was so going.
Damn. I was still here.
And I heard Chris saying, “I might have a situation here.” A pause. “Okay. I’ll take her.”
He hung up, and now I really needed to go.
This time, I was going to do it. Go. Move forward.
Then he said, “Your friend Johnny…”
I frowned. “Yeah?”
He finished, “He’s in trouble.”
10
Wraith
We went on my bike, heading out of Roussou toward Callyspo.
I didn’t really know these guys well. They were a local charter in Frisco, but they asked to meet in Callyspo. There’d been a new setup put in charge. Things got messy a bit ago, so some restructuring was needed. That was before my uncle began to move south. When we rode in, I didn’t stop and plan for Kess. Or for her reaction.
She was off the bike and across the lot, heading toward Johnny in a flash. “You’re an asshole!”
One of the guys caught her, an arm wrapped around her waist. She had enough momentum so she was lifted in the air as her feet kept pedaling. She didn’t care. She was seeing red.
Sauce came over, his jaw hard. “Couldn’t leave your girl behind?”
“She’s Heckler’s niece.”
He turned back. His eyes were now hard. “And you brought her here?”
Yeah. I knew.
I sighed, nodding at her ex-crew member. “So, he knew the old group?”
“Looks like. He approached us, said he had money and a party he could unload everything at four times the normal rate. Some rich kid in Fallen Crest.”
“Is this relationship new?”
“With us, yes. We’ve never worked with him before. I’m assuming his usual supplier was pinched or dried up.”
He was a potential problem. I didn’t like potential problems.
Sauce went back to watching the show.
Johnny was trying to hide in the back of a cage, and Kess kept trying to get free from Rampant, her holder. Her nails were going into his arm, and I barked, “Kess! Hands off my guy.”
Rampant shot me a grin as Kess lifted her hands away, but she went back to screaming at Johnny.
“And why’d you bring her again?”
I was asking myself the same thing. “What’s the plan with him?”
“We were waiting for orders from your uncle. We’re too new. Things are too delicate right now. We don’t want to off someone, have it blow back on another charter, and we knew you were in town.”
He was right. It could get back to me.
I was his age, in his school and the authorities already knew I was here.
Well. Damn.
Sauce read my expression and grunted. “Pretty much.”
“What’d my uncle say?”
“He said to do what you decided.”
I frowned. Why would he do that?
I nodded, taking my phone out. “I gotta make a call.”
That call didn’t help.
“You clean it up how you want. Nothing can come back on us.” That’d been his response, and I didn’t like thinking I needed to be judge, executioner, and cleanup so early into my MC career. I thought I’d have a bit more time, but I was Maxwell Raith’s nephew.
I was named Wraith for a reason too.
Shit.
Shit!
I was eyeing Kess, who had quieted. Rampant wasn’t holding her anymore, but he and another were standing between her and Johnny.
This was my problem.
Johnny was her crew. That meant he’d had her back since they formed, and there was love there. Friendship love. Loyalty love. Family love. Love that was ride or die. But seeing him now, I knew he didn’t feel the same. He was a weasel, and he was on the product. My guess was that he’d been doing it for a while, and so the love that Kess felt for him, not only did he not return it, but he didn’t deserve it.
But he didn’t have anything on us.
I walked over to him. “Who’d you work with before?”
He sneered at me. “Some pig.”
Okay then. That helped with the decision.
I glanced back at Sauce. “Rough him up. Put him in the hospital for an extended stay, and you,” I leaned down and got in his face, “if I get word you’re dealing in Roussou, Fallen Crest, Frisco, or Callyspo, they will end you. Got it? I don’t like you. You’re a piece of shit.”