UNDRESSED: Soul Catchers MC

by Zoey Parker

  And I thought I had a reason to be embarrassed. I smile at their open devotion. Feeling Luke’s gaze, I meet his eyes. He’s glowing, his green eyes are radiating, lips tugging with a lazy smirk, brows relaxed.

  “Okay,” I whisper.

  I’d do anything for him in this moment. Anything.

  So after breakfast, we clean up and Russ, Kerry, and Luke wait for me to change out of my alma mater’s cotton t-shirt and sweatpants.

  On returning, dressed and ready to head out, I pause under Luke’s scrutiny of my navy pencil skirt and soft blue loose blouse. When I shrug on the gorgeous coat he got for me from Julie’s boutique, he frowns.

  “You don’t look warm enough. I need to get you a scarf and hat to match,” he says.

  “I already have a hat and scarf. I’ll just grab them and we can get going.”

  This doesn’t impress Luke. He tries to argue, but I flit away to my bedroom. As much as I love the coat and dress he got me from Julie’s, I don’t feel right accepting gifts from him. I don’t like to think about why he insists on buying me things when we’re in a fake relationship.

  When I get back, we troop out, Luke letting the topic slide. He does keep his arm around me all the way down to his car. Russ takes Kerry to his ride.

  # # #

  Luke cranks up the heat and I have to draw my hat off and tug my scarf loose. Luke is right though, the late October wind has a bite to it. I’m glad to be rushed inside by Luke. Kerry and Russ arrive a bit later than us.

  Kerry’s flushed face and bright eyes tells a story as does Russ’ wayward hand on her ass and his inability to drag his eyes off her.

  They’re sizzling so hot, I actually have to back up from their passionate heat.

  “We have to go,” Luke says, pulling me in for a smooch.

  I tiptoe into the kiss, hating when it comes to an end. I feel how hard and warm he is, his erection pushing against my belly when I’m in his arms. I remember he hadn’t found his release when he gave me mine in the apartment. Guilt and amazement entwine at the discovery.

  How is he keeping it together?

  I’m burning up from a kiss. A kiss! I’m hardly twelve again, and as a healthy twenty-seven year-old woman, I’ve had enough kisses in my lifetime to have grown a little control in that area. But I’ve ceded all control to Luke when I get like this.

  Luke grins at my mewling. He smacks another fast kiss on my mouth and then a peck on my nose. “Later, I promise. For now, don’t miss me too much.”

  “I apologize,” Kerry says once the men clear the entrance of the dealership. She sighs, clasping her hands over her chest. “I used to think you were slaving away here, but the way that man looks at you. Like he’s ready to devour you—worship you, it’s understandable. I would probably live out of my office if I had a boss like that.”

  I grin. “Russ seems pretty into you too.”

  “I know, right?” Kerry claps her hands, laughing softly.

  We’re heading into Luke’s office since there’s more room for the two of us there than in my little cubicle. I unlock the door with the keys he’s given me.

  I slip my coat over the back of his chair and draw a second key, this one to his filing cabinet, from my purse. Like the office door, he made me a copy last week when he trained me on how to organize the abundant folders in there.

  Turns out Kerry’s right. Luke and his father are loan sharks, and some of their business is legitimate and some is questionable.

  I don’t question too much, except when I need clarification with numbers and accounts. Luke made it clear the less I know for now, the easier for me in the long run. It hasn’t gotten to a point of contention, so I don’t bring it up. I like our slow, growing trust, and I don’t want to disturb its pace.

  “He’s amazing,” Kerry gushes about Russ. It’s the kind of background noise I need. Girl talk about the men we love.

  The thought freezes my hands. Kerry clues in. I find her stare, my mouth opening for a soft whoosh of air. “I’m in love with him.”

  “Oh, honey.” Pushing out of her seat, Kerry rounds the desk and wraps her arms around me. I sink into her embrace, papers clutched between us. I’m still shocked, wrapping my head around the truth when my friend pulls back, her hands tightening over my arms.

  “You have to tell him.”

  “I do?” I sigh seconds later, adding with a bob of my head, “I do.”

  “Don’t worry. I have a good eye or these things. Luke loves you, too.” Kerry nods.

  I hope to God she’s right.

  A knock on the slightly open door springs both of our gazes to a third party. Detective Art Dayton pushes the door wider, stopping shy of crossing the threshold. His hand lowers from knocking. It’s probably supposed to be disarming, but his smile only makes me tense.

  “Am I interrupting?”

  “Detective,” I say, standing. Very casually I tuck the papers in my hand into a folder, my glance darting to the open file cabinet. Can he seize anything he sees in sight? All I know of my knowledge of law enforcement starts and stops with police crime dramas.

  “Miss Erickson.” Art Dayton is a good-looking man. I imagine if we met in another situation, and he was interested, I would have let him woo me. But I was into Luke now, and Art might look nice on the outside but I get the inkling there’s more to him, something dark lurking under his polished, expensive suit.

  He regards Kerry with a pleasant smile and a nod.

  She greets him, her wide-eyed, suspicious stare skipping to mine.

  I don’t know what Russ has shared with her, but her surprise tells me she knows nothing of the detective’s sniffing around me to get to Luke and his father, Floyd.

  “If it’s not too much of an inconvenience, could I ask for a bit of your time?” Art is smooth. It’s hard to refuse when he’s being so...courteous. Then he looks to Kerry and apologizes. “Alone, if that’s possible.”

  I bob my head at Kerry, smoothing my friend’s ruffled feathers down.

  “It’s fine,” I tell her. Kerry should be as uninvolved in this as possible.

  When she clears the office, Art closes the door after her, and he steps closer to Luke’s desk. “He has you working on a Sunday.” It’s a statement.

  I frown. “No, I chose to work.” Standing, I take the folder in my hands to the file cabinet. Feeling his eyes following me, I say, “But I’m sure that’s not why you’re here, detective.”

  “No. It isn’t.” Art moves to consult the photograph on the wall. He studies the cars in the frames, his voice carrying, filling the room with its booming power. “Miss Erickson, I’ve been stuck on my case. The one concerning the body of one Mr. Derrick Smyth in your workplace’s lot.”

  He reaches out to straighten a frame. “And whenever I’m stuck, I find myself thinking of you.” Art’s eyes cut to mine.

  Controlling my unnerving reaction to his sharp, intent gaze is a proving difficult. I’ve never been interrogated, and without experience I can’t tell if it's happening now, but it sure feels like it.

  Art strides as confidently as Luke. In a lot of ways the two men are alike. They use their natural leadership to puppet players around them. Only Luke doesn’t force that power on me; if I ever became unwilling, he’d back off. I know that, as sure as I now recognize I love Luke Hanley.

  “Miss Erickson—Lily, I’ll be blunt.” He stops shy of touching me, but he’s close enough I have to crane my head up. We’re standing in front of the file cabinets, beside Luke’s desk. “I think you’re a strong woman, working here, surrounded by men, and by a boss who lives in the shadows, toeing the line of right and wrong.”

  I tighten my lips on that.

  Light brown eyes flecked with gold around the large black pupils, Art’s stare drops to my mouth and freezes there. “A man like Luke Hanley doesn’t deserve you. I’d treasure you, every day and night, and you’d want for nothing.”

  Then he touches my cheek, tracing a finger down to my jaw, breaking off
with a sigh, his lips parting on the gentle breeze. “We could be amazing, a beautiful woman like you by my side.”

  When he lowers his head, I turn mine sharply to the side, my heart racing, body leaning from him. Art Dayton takes the rejection silently. But his brows are knotted when I look back. I’ve caught him off guard. He’s unused to woman not falling all over him.

  “Think about it.” His tone is clipped, the honeyed note flavoring his words gone. “I expect you know the smart choice lies with me.”

  Turning, he makes quick work of reaching the other side of Luke’s office. Pulling the door open, Art glances back. “Because, Miss Erickson, I’d hate to have to trample over you too.”

  Kerry runs into the office once he clears it. She closes the door and rushes to my side. I’m still standing, swaying when she touches me. “Sit,” she orders, shoving me in the direction of Luke’s comfy chair.

  When she prods some of the detective’s speech from me, Kerry draws her cell from her purse and holds it out. “Call him. Now. Luke deserves to know.”

  I haven’t even told her the reason Art is hanging around persistently, clinging to Luke and me. She suspected Luke’s loan shark dealings from the rumors in town, and I figure that’s why she thinks the detective dropped in.

  It’s funny she’s protecting Luke when she once believed he was working me to the bone, squeezing every bit of my salary out of me. I know it’s because she cares for me...and I care for Luke.

  Taking the phone from her, I dial Luke’s cell. He picks up on the first ring, thrown off by Kerry’s number. But when he hears my voice, he relaxes. At least he’s relaxed until I blurt, “Art Dayton was here.”

  All hell breaks loose after that.

  Chapter 14

  Luke

  “Let’s kill him.”

  Keith doesn’t beat around the bush.

  When I ask for ideas to deal with Detective Art Dayton, he jumps for the kill. It’s not that simple though. Dayton isn’t Derrick Smyth. He might be as vile, but the man’s a decorated officer, and I don’t need his friends in high places falling all over Potentia to get to me and my family. I had to think about more than my ego here.

  And I’m not the only one Dayton’s affecting. There’s Lily.

  After she called to inform me Dayton had stopped by the office, it took all my willpower to keep from destroying everything in my path to get to her in Potentia.

  But I stayed in St. Louis, in the closed nudie bar’s backroom where Russ and Keith minded the door while I had a talk with Maurice, the lost-and-found owner.

  He’d been avoiding me after I found out he used my loan to start an underground club of sorts, shuttling in his more vulnerable, young dancers and releasing dangerous, wealthy men on them. The idea was to turn out a larger profit from this more depraved clientele.

  I got the information first-hand from a girl Russ saved. The young woman was battered and bruised. Tortured really. She explained how her student visa expired and she wanted to continue to stay in America and study but she had little money. Being the immoral creep he is, Maurice plied her with false promises of funding for her visa. It was more than enough for me to get involved.

  Now the perverted little fuck was in my hands and I was doling out the pain and anger I felt for Dayton on the skinny man’s ribs. Maurice begged for me to let him go, so I finally did, dropping him off at one of the precincts in the city before burning rubber in the direction of Potentia.

  Lily’s not alone in her apartment. Her friend Kerry, who had driven herself and Lily here in my car, answers the door and navigates me to the bedroom. She stays behind in Russ’ embrace. Keith stays in the apartment building’s lobby.

  Lily is lying in bed, atop her comforter, her plump ass clad in tight, dark jeans, her creamy flesh teasing me as her short tee rides up. At my entry, she sits up, her honeyed brown waves tumbling back from her red face.

  Shit. She’s been crying.

  “Did he fucking hurt you?” I grit out once she’s in my arms, warm, soft, and sweet-smelling. My chin rests on her crown as her warm breath puffs out over my chest, her story fueling the fire of righteousness in my gut.

  I’m forcing myself to draw her back, my hands smoothing over her cheeks and my mouth angling over hers. The kiss calms us both, but I still need to make her a promise. “It’s going to stop. Art Dayton isn’t going to talk to you again, you hear?” Her dark brown eyes grow wide with where I know her thoughts are taking her.

  I give a sharp shake. “I’m not going to hurt him, Lily. But he’s also not going to bother you anymore.”

  “Okay,” she says softly, nodding. Her eyes shine with her trust...and worry. God, she’s worried for me when I’m crawling up the walls in fear of her getting involved in this mess of mine. And it is solely mine.

  I dragged her in by suggesting she fake fucking the boss. Turns out nothing has been false about the actual sex.

  That’s all me and her—hot, sweaty, dirty, and liberating.

  I leave Kerry with a message to take care of Lily for me.

  Kerry gives me a sharp look. “I’ve been with that girl for three years. We’ll be fine.” She glances at Russ and nods.

  Which brings us to this moment where I’m considering Keith’s play very seriously, and that scares me more than Dayton harming Lily or turning her against me, making himself out as the good guy here.

  “No,” I shake my head, recalling my oath to Lily. Dayton’s life wasn’t going to end at my hands. Nor would I find a loophole and send Russ and Keith off to pay him a visit. “No killing.” I tell them both firmly.

  Russ folds his arms, leaning back against his ride.

  One of the perks of working with me: I give my men tricked out cars. And the only thing a man needs is his wheels and a fine woman riding shotgun.

  Lucky dogs we are, Russ and I have Kerry and Lily.

  Two innocent women tossed into our sullied hands, and it’s not just car oil staining them. Russ isn’t coy about his kills. Once a U.S. Marine Corporal, and discharged honorably, Russ landed in my father’s employ and I noticed his talent, coaxing him to work for me.

  My father can be stingy with money. I’m generous, so long as I feel it’s deserving and well-rewarded.

  But I have no clue what Keith’s background is, only that Russ trusts him so he’s standing here with us, griping about Dayton.

  “What do we know?”

  “He’s a douche,” Keith huffs. A look from Russ shuts him up, and like a scolded child, Keith ducks his head, eyes narrowing, lips wrinkling. Tall, with a shock of white blond hair, Keith’s barely-there brows furrow. I’m almost worried for Russ, but then I catch sight of his chest piece. If anyone’s unprotected here, it’s me.

  I don’t do guns. I own a couple—one behind a false cushion in the driver’s seat of my Lexus—but I have yet to fire them off. I hope I’ll never have to, though they’re there for a reason. Not all my business deals have gone smoothly, and I’ve dealt with gunfire blazing my way. It keeps a man on edge.

  But now I’m slipping out of my seat from the tension.

  “Found out more about who might have pulled the strings to save Dayton’s ass in the police force.” Russ shares some interesting information about a lieutenant colonel’s wife intervening. She’s also the mayor’s secretary.

  “That high up?” I rub my chin, contemplative. “So, are you implying he’s closer friends with the wife than the lieutenant colonel or, say, the mayor?”

  Russ’ lips twist in a wry smile. “I am.”

  In one way that eases me. If Dayton has screwed a powerful friend’s wife, it says little of his morals, making me not care if his ass is turned out to the streets. Then again, he’s displayed a past tendency to cross the line with women, to use them to get what he wants, so how does Lily fare against him?

  Not good, that’s how.

  Standing taller, I let Keith and Russ in on the plan.

  “We keep watching him for now,” I say.

&n
bsp; Russ is on board, but it’s not what Keith wants to hear.

  “I still think we should shut him up for good.” Keith is sticking to the murder route. Russ scowls his way. I’m giving him a blank look.

  Little brain and lots of brawn—at least he’s somewhat useful.

  “Just stay near. I want you taking separate cars. Two pairs of eyes in two different locations will suit us better. Someone take his house and another the station. We keep this between us for now.” I direct that last part at Keith. Though he hardly looks the chatty type, his mouth has already run off a couple times in front of me. I need to ensure we’re all on the same page.