I rolled my eyes and moved to the large wash basin. “Must be nice.” I hated that saying and hated that it had come out of my mouth. Ugh.
“It is pretty nice, Sunshine. Later in the day is when things get a little busy for me,” he explained.
Oh, well. I turned on the water and held my hand under it until it warmed up. “I should be okay over here if you have anything you could be doing.” Casually hinting that he could leave was not working. I might as well yell at him to leave with the way I was awkwardly suggesting he go. Smooth, I was not.
“Do I make you nervous, Sunshine?”
Not nervous. Well, maybe a little. I shook my head. “No. I just figured you had better things to do than watch me give Cosmo a bath.”
“Figured you’d like some company that actually talks.”
I laughed and shook my head. “That’s one of the appeals of my job. None of these cuties talk back.”
Hero’s phone rang in his pocket. He looked at it and frowned. “You’re in luck, Sunshine. I gotta take this. I’ll be outside if you need me.”
I nodded. Saved by the phone. “I’m good.”
He walked out the front door that Tim had propped open and stood by his bike with his phone to his ear.
Tim moved into the doorway and grimaced. “I hate to say it, but I think you’re going to need a new door.”
I frowned. Shit. I didn’t have the type of funds on me to be putting on a new front door. Hell, my landlord should have been taking care of this, not me. Wasn’t that what I was paying a buttload of rent for?
“Uh, are you sure?”
“Do it,” Hero called.
What the hell? Did he have bionic hearing or something? “Can you just try to fix the lock?”
“Get the new door, Tim, and send your bill to Russ. I talked to him yesterday,” Hero clarified.
Wait, what? He had talked to Russ? Why the hell didn’t I know that?
Hero pressed the phone back to his ear and wandered into the parking lot, talking.
Tim held up his hands and shrugged.
There wasn’t any point in arguing with Tim since he was just doing what he was being paid to do.
“I have a door at my shop that should fit.” Tim reached up and brushed his fingers over the glass. “Not foggy like this one.”
I got it, the door I had was shit.
“I’ll call one of the guys to bring it over while I work on taking this one out.” Tim walked back out the door toward his truck.
I sighed and looked down at Cosmo. “Why does it feel like I have no control over anything going on in my life when that man is around?”
Cosmo whined and licked my hand.
“It’s because he’s good looking, isn’t it? The man fries my brain and I just go along with whatever he says.” That was exactly what was happening. Thankfully, the things he suggested and did were all okay.
I knew I needed a new front door, but I just never seemed to find the time to talk to Russ. Hero had taken care of that for me. He wasn’t the one putting the new door in, but he was the one who was the reason for the new door. I looked over my shoulder out the door and caught a glimpse of Hero pacing back and forth with the phone to his ear. He didn’t look happy, and his brows were furrowed.
“Not good,” I muttered. He had said he didn't have anything going on right now, but it looked like something had sprung up that needed his attention.
He glanced into the shop and caught me red handed staring at him. I whipped my head back around and grabbed the sprayer. I doused Cosmos' head with warm water to look like I wasn’t just ignoring my job and watching Hero. Thankfully, Cosmo loved water and didn’t freak out.
I reached for the puppy soap and managed to look to the side to see if Hero was still looking at me. He had returned to pacing with his back to me.
Lordy. The man wasn’t even in the shop and he was still distracting me.
I hoped this wasn’t going to become my new normal, having him around while I worked, but three days in a row proved to be a pattern.
A pattern I wasn’t too sure if I liked or not.
I glanced once more at him and caught sight of his butt in his tight jeans.
Lord help me, but I was definitely liking it.
*
Chapter Five
Hero
“What in the hell do you mean?” I demanded into the phone.
“One of the girls hasn’t been into work the past two nights, and Luna is on a tear about wanting to go over there to check on her.”
Damn Luna thought she was the mother hen of all of the girls who worked at Sultry Knights, even though most of them were older than her.
“And what exactly does she think she is going to do when she goes over there? Maybe the chick decided she doesn’t want to work anymore. Luna has to get it in her head that these girls are not her friends or daughters she has to take care of. If they can’t punch the damn clock when they are supposed to then they’re done.”
Pie groaned. “You don’t think I’ve tried to tell her that? Damn King for putting me in charge of keeping an eye on Luna. He knows damn well that she doesn’t listen to a word that I say.”
He was right, but Luna needed to get it through her head that Sultry Knights belonged to the club, and she needed to listen to the club about things. “What girl is missing?”
“Bunny.”
I didn’t even know which one of the girls that was. “Does she miss work a lot?”
“Why don’t you just talk to Luna, yeah? I don’t know the answers to your questions.”
The phone was muffled and scratchy, and then, Luna was there. “I can’t believe he called you,” she whined.
“I’m in charge while King is away,” I reminded her.
“But I don’t see what that has to do with me.”
I closed my eyes. “Because you help manage the club that belongs to the Devil’s Knights. The Knights have say in everything you do there, Luna.”
She scoffed, and I imagined she rolled her eyes. Luna was good at that. “I just want to run over to Bunny’s house and make sure she is okay, Hero. I don’t know why you and the club have to have anything to do with that.”
“Luna,” I called, “just take Pie and one of the other guys with you.” Reasoning with Luna was exhausting. She didn’t get the fact that she might be walking into trouble. Most of the girls who worked at the club were on the straight and narrow, and I hoped Bunny was one of those, but you never really knew. Luna may think that she knew her, but she might be a completely different person outside of the club.
“I don’t want to.”
Yeah. That was the type of stubbornness I had to deal with when it came to Luna. No reason why. Just didn’t want to listen. “Do you think I care what you want?”
“You know,” Luna hissed, “King may be a dick sometimes, but I know he has reasoning behind it. You’re just a dick because you want to lord over everyone.”
“You must not want your cushy job of managing the club anymore, Luna, if you think you can talk to me like that.” Making a comfortable ninety grand a year managing a strip club had gone straight to Luna’s head.
“This has nothing to do with my job and everything to do with me wanting to make sure Bunny is okay,” Luna insisted.
I sighed. “Fine, Luna. I get it. Just take Pie and Frost with you. You get eyes on her, find out where she is, and then your ass is back to the club.”
“Yes, father,” Luna grumbled. “I’m not riding on the back of either of their bikes, though,” she argued. “I can drive myself there.”
Of course, she had to have something her way. “I don’t fucking care, Luna. Just make sure they have your back when you knock on her door, you got me?”
“Aye, aye, captain.”
I punched the end button and shoved the phone in my pocket.
The first full day with King gone and I already had to deal with Luna on a tear. I knew she would throw a wrench in my freedom of being prez, but I fi
gured she would have given me a few days before she started throwing her sass and tantrums.
The strip club was only a couple miles down the main road, and I stood facing the clubhouse. I pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and on my first drag, Frost stormed out of the clubhouse.
“Yo!” I called.
His head snapped to me. “What the fuck, man? You volunteer me for babysitting?”
I shrugged. “You were the first one to come to mind.”
“How about your ass comes with? This is complete bullshit.”
None of the guys wanted to have to babysit Luna. She was a pain in the ass who had to throw her sass wherever she went.
I glanced back at Hair of the Dog. Tim was working on taking off the door, and I couldn’t see Reva. She didn’t need me there, but I didn’t want to leave. There was club business going on, and I should be involved. It was going to end up being nothing, but King would have gone if he were here.
Son of a bitch.
“Hold up,” I called to Frost. “Don’t leave without me.” I turned on my heel and headed into Hair of the Dog. Tim moved to the side so I could walk in, and I pushed my sunglasses on top of my head.
“Sunshine,” I called.
Reva jumped and clutched her hand to her chest. “Sweet mother Mary,” she gasped. “I’m gonna need you to stop sneaking up on me, Hero.”
“Sorry,” I chuckled. “Something came up and I gotta take off. You okay here?”
She looked around. “Uh, yeah? I’m here every day by myself, Hero.”
I knew she was normally alone all day, but that didn’t sit right with me. Anything could happen to her and no one would be there to help her.
“New door will be here in an hour,” Tim interrupted. “I’ll be here most of the day taking this one out and putting a new one in.”
I had known Tim since I was thirteen and he was nineteen, and I trusted him. “That’ll be good.”
Reva rolled her eyes. “Uh, I’m completely fine by myself.”
She more than likely was, but a protective urge came over me when it came to her. It was instinctual, and I couldn’t explain it. “Just humor me, Sunshine.”
Reva waved her hand to me and turned back to the dog in the large wash sink. “This is me humoring you. Go do your club stuff, Hero. I’m just hunky-dory right here.”
“Hunky-dory, huh?” I laughed.
She raised her middle finger over her head. “You should know by now I say what I say and most of the time it’s embarrassing or ridiculous.”
That was the damn truth. Though that was one of the things I liked about her. She didn’t have a filter and said what she meant even if it was something she probably shouldn’t say out loud. “I’ll be back later.”
She glanced over her shoulder at me. “I’ll be here. I have a hot date with a Saint Bernard later.”
“You’re gonna wrestle a Saint Bernard into that sink?” I could just imagine Reva trying to wrangle the large dog.
“Sure am,” she called.
“I’ll be back later to see that,” I promised.
She waved me off and turned off the water. “See ya later, Hero.”
I nodded to Tim on my way out, and he had a shit-eating grin on his face.
“She seems like a pistol,” he said quietly.
That was an understatement. “Keep an eye on her while I’m gone.” I slid my sunglasses back over my eyes and strolled over to my bike.
Frost was sitting on his bike next to mine. “This the new place to hang out?” he asked.
I threw my leg over my bike and didn’t answer him.
“I’ve been thinking about getting a dog. Maybe I’ll go on inside and ask the pretty lady what she thinks I should get.”
I cranked up my bike and revved the engine. “Do it and I’ll shoot your nuts off!” I shouted over the roar of the engine.
A goofy smile took over Frost’s face. “Don’t tempt me, brother.” He started his bike and knocked up the kickstand.
“Maybe I’ll just have you go babysit Luna by yourself,” I threatened.
Frost’s smile fell, and he shook his head. “Not cool,” he grumbled.
We pushed our bikes back and roared out of the parking lot of Hair of the Dog. The ride to Sultry Knights was short. I caught sight of the club, and Luna was sitting in her car at the entrance of the driveway with Pie on his bike behind her.
We slowed, and I motioned for Luna to go ahead of us. She was the only one who knew where the hell we were headed. She drove out of the city limits of Rockton and hopped on the backroads that ran along the Buckeye River.
We drove for another ten minutes ‘til we pulled into a driveway that led up to a doublewide trailer.
Luna was out of her car before I killed the engine on my bike.
“Hold the fuck up,” I called to her. Frost and Pie parked next to me, and we were off our bikes. Luna stopped for half a second and then shot up the rickety steps of the trailer.
“Jesus,” Pie mumbled. “Pretty sure these steps aren’t going to hold.”
“Maybe you need to lay off the pie,” Frost chuckled.
Pie grunted. “That ain’t never going to happen, fucker.”
It wasn’t hard to figure out how Pie had gotten his road name. He liked pie and nothing kept him from it. He did have to be in the gym five days of the week to make sure his ass didn’t get too big for his bike, but he didn’t seem to mind working out a lot if it meant he got to eat as much pie as he wanted.
Luna knocked on the door and leaned over the railing of the porch to peer into the window. “I can’t see anything,” she grumbled.
“Because there's about fifteen years of dirt and shit on that window,” Frost grunted. “I’m gonna have to make sure my tetanus shot is up to date after we leave here.”
“Real nice,” Luna muttered. “I could say the same about your bedroom at the club. Last time I walked back there, it smelled like a fucking parakeet had died in there.”
“Uh, how would you know what a dead parakeet smelled like?” I asked.
“Petey,” Luna and Pie replied in unison.
“We only had the fucker for two days, and then we thought he flew away out of a window Luna had left open,” Pie explained.
“I did not leave the window open,” Luna insisted.
“Well, you did, but Petey sure as shit didn’t fly out of the window.” Pie chuckled and shifted his weight on the bottom step. “Luna found him in her fucking panty drawer two weeks later.”
“Say what?” Frost laughed. “How the hell did he get in there and you didn’t know?”
Luna knocked on the door again. “Do we really have to talk about this right now?” she grunted. “Bunny isn’t answering the door.”
“Maybe you locked her in your panty drawer?” Pie suggested.
Frost and I both sputtered with laughter, and the porch creaked precariously beneath us.
“I can’t believe King left you in charge,” she snapped.
“And you think he would leave you in charge, Petey killer?”
Luna tried the front door, and it swung open. She looked over her shoulder at me. “Uh, whoops?”
I sobered up and pushed her to the side. “Stay here until I say.” I looked back at Frost who was at the bottom of the stairs. “Head around the back.”
Luna tried to move around me, but I blocked her from the door. “Let me in, Hero. You really think Bunny wants you barging into her place?”
Pie wrapped his arm around her and held her in place. “Can you just fucking listen for once in your life, Luna?” he growled.
She stopped struggling but glared at him.
I stepped into the trailer. It was eerily quiet. Something wasn’t right. “Bunny,” I called. The floor creaked as I walked, and I put my hand on the grip of my gun. I called her name again but there was no answer.
“The power has been cut,” Frost called from the outside. “The fucking electric box is ripped from the ground and all of the wires ripped of
f.”
Not good.
I walked through the living room where nothing looked out of place. Frost stood at the sliding glass door as I moved into the kitchen. He slid it open and stepped inside. “I can tell you right fucking now, some shit is up.” Frost pulled his gun from the waist of his jeans.
I had to agree. “Everything looks normal, though.”
Frost and I continued to make our way to the back of the trailer. There were three closed doors. The first one we opened was the bathroom, and there was nothing in there. The second one had a desk and a treadmill in the corner. Again, nothing looked out of place.
We stood in front of the last closed door.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Frost muttered.
I didn’t either. Everything seemed in place, but the closer we had gotten to this door, a sense of dread filled the pit of my stomach.
I twisted the handle and pushed open the door.
The smell of death wafted over us, and we both covered our noses. “Fucking shit,” Frost muttered.
A naked woman sprawled across the bed, covered in blood. Her eyes were open wide, and it looked like her jaw had been almost ripped off her face. One of her legs was bent backward and awkwardly tucked underneath her.
“She’s dead, man.”
“Ya think?” I grunted.
Frost made a step into the room.
I grabbed him by the shoulder. “Stop, brother. Ain’t nothing we can fucking do to help her, and we aren’t the cops.” The last thing we needed to do was fuck up the crime scene. We were probably already in some deep shit for coming into the trailer.
We backtracked out of the trailer and closed the front door behind us.
“She’s not in there?” Luna asked. She was standing at the bottom of the stairs with Pie still holding one of her arms.
Frost glanced at me.
We walked down the rickety steps and stood in front of them to block Luna from going in.
“What the fuck is going on?” Luna screeched.
“Make the call,” I told Frost.
Frost pulled out his phone from his pocket and wandered over to the bikes.
“Hero!” Luna yelled. She pulled out of Pie’s grasp and catapulted herself into my chest. “What the hell is going on?” she demanded again.
Passing the Torch (Devil's Knights 2nd Generation Book 1) Page 4