by Sybil Bartel
Shade reached behind the front seat to fist bump her.
André rubbed a hand over his face. “Madre de Dios.” He glared at Shade. “Don’t encourage her.” He looked back at Kendall. “Who drove you?”
The passenger window on the SUV went down, and Ronan glanced at Kendall before he tipped his chin at André.
André frowned. “I thought you were off today.”
Ronan shrugged.
Kendall held her hand out to me. “Come on, we’re going to go do lady shit.”
“Kendall,” André warned before I could say no. “Barrett just got here.”
Kendall rolled her eyes. “Then it will definitely be a while. Come on, I made us a hair appointment. You’ve had her all night. You can spare her for an hour.” She made a come-here gesture with her hand. “Come on, Shaila. I’m sure Ronan will take good care of us, keep us safe and all that shit.”
Sighing, André turned around in his seat to look at me. “It’s been a long night, chica. Up to you.”
I felt put on the spot.
I didn’t want to go anywhere with Kendall. But I was also hungry and thirsty. I’d waited for hours for André to get up to Tarquin’s house. Then a couple hours after that, the lawyer had shown up and we all drove over to the police station where André had found out Tarquin was being held. Promising to be in touch, the lawyer had walked in like he owned the place. But that was over an hour ago, and now it was well past sunrise, and I was tired like I’d been up for a lifetime instead of one night.
Not in a charitable mood, I glanced at Kendall. “You don’t look like you need a hair appointment.” Her hair looked perfect, like it had the last time I saw her. Everything about her looked perfect. Her clothes, her nails, her shoes. I’d never be as put together as her, and it ate at me every time I saw her, especially knowing she’d lived with Tarquin. I didn’t know if that was the kind of woman Tarquin preferred, one put together and fancy, and my heart sank just thinking about it, because my version of fancy was cowboy boots instead of biker boots.
Kendall smiled, but it wasn’t one of her usual smiles that said she was making fun of someone. This was worse. It held pity. “It’s not for me. Come on. We can get decent coffee too.”
“I’ll take a coffee,” Shade interjected.
“Me too,” André added.
“Then it’s settled.” Kendall stepped back, making room for me to slide out. “We have to get coffee for the men like good little women.”
The thought of one of those coffee drinks like what Braige had brought me made my mouth water. I glanced at André. “Will you call me if he gets out before we’re back?”
André nodded. “Of course.”
Not happy about the situation at all, I got out of the SUV and into the next one as Kendall paused to say something to André at his window.
I glanced at Ronan. “Hey.”
“Hi,” he replied quietly, surprising me with his response.
Kendall got in the front passenger seat and glanced at Ronan. “The place I told you about.”
Nodding, Ronan silently turned the huge vehicle around.
Kendall glanced over her shoulder at me. “Haircut first, then coffee. Good?”
Feeling intimidated, I crossed my arms. “I don’t need a haircut.” I did.
“Just a trim then. You’ll love my lady.”
I’d never had a lady. My whole life I’d cut my own hair, or my mama had done it when she was sober enough. I wasn’t ignorant, I’d seen places where women got their hair cut, and I’d seen the fancy chairs they sat in. I’d just never been in a place like that before, and I didn’t want to go now as I sat in a fancy SUV in my day-old leggings and long-sleeved T-shirt that Tarquin had bought me. Not that I hadn’t gone days wearing the same outfit growing up, but I never did it when I had to walk into a stupid hair salon.
Kendall eyed me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothin’.” I didn’t want to talk to her.
She sighed like everyone around her was stupid and she was just putting up with them. “Trust me, Candle’s been to prison before. He’s not going to do anything stupid to get himself sent back there. Besides, despite his looks, Superman is a good lawyer.”
Prison?
Tarquin had been in jail?
I tried hard not to let my reaction show on my face, because I didn’t want Kendall to know I knew next to nothing about Tarquin’s life outside of the short time we’d spent together. I hated that she knew that about him. I especially hated that she’d just casually dropped the information in front of Ronan. You didn’t broadcast people’s business like that. That was being a gossip, and that was just plain ole bad manners.
Before I had to suffer through any more awkward conversation, Ronan pulled the vehicle up in front of one of those salons I’d seen occasionally when Daddy’d take me for rides. The name was some kinda play on words for scissors, and I immediately hated it.
“Come on, Gwen opened early for us.” Kendall hopped out of the SUV and slammed her door shut.
Ronan glanced over his shoulder, and his haunted eyes met mine.
My stomach twisted with nerves and hunger, and I blurted out my anxiety. “I don’t want to go in there. I never had no one cut my hair. And I’m not good with people.”
“Me either,” he quietly replied before his sharp gaze cut to his side mirror.
My door flung open, and Kendall stood there looking almost excited. “No cold feet, let’s go.”
“I’m in biker boots.” Big-ass clunky ones. “I can’t get cold feet.”
She smirked and, with an eye roll, headed for the salon.
I took my sweet time getting out of the SUV, and as I shut my door, Ronan put his window down. I glanced at him, and in the early morning sunlight, I tried to tell what color his eyes were. They weren’t blue or green or gray. They were more like a silent storm.
Ronan’s gaze cut from my hair to my eyes. “Your hair is pretty how it is.” Quickly looking away, he put the window up.
Shocked still for a moment, I stood there.
“You coming?” Kendall called.
“I think, for now, we’re in the clear.” The superhero lawyer kept pace with me as I jogged down the police station steps.
Ignoring him, I aimed for the black SUV parked in front of the building.
The driver window went down before I had to pound on the tinted glass, and Luna tipped his chin at me.
Looking past Luna and that fuck Shade, I glanced at the empty back seat. “Where is she?”
“With Kendall,” Luna clipped before glancing at the lawyer. “Barrett.”
God-fucking-damn it. “Why the fuck is she with Kendall?”
“Haircut,” Luna answered like that made fucking sense. “Get in.”
I reached for the door, and the lawyer put his hand on my shoulder. “Remember what I said.”
Refraining from laying him out, I glared. “What?” He’d said a lot of shit.
“Keep your head down,” the lawyer warned before glancing at Luna. “They don’t have anything concrete, but if you have any back channels on this, stay on top of it.”
“Copy that.” Luna nodded. “Thanks for coming.”
“Anytime.” The lawyer spared me a glance. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
Barely acknowledging him with a nod, pissed my woman was with Kendall, pissed Luna had allowed it, I got in the SUV and slammed the door.
Luna pulled out and glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “What happened?”
“Feds and cops wanted to know about the Hangman clubhouse.” All fucking night in that goddamn interrogation room, I needed a shower, and I needed my woman.
“And?” Luna pressed.
“And they don’t have shit. All circumstantial.” I didn’t tell him I burnt the fucking place down to the ground. He probably already knew, and I wasn’t stupid enough to open my mouth.
Luna stopped at a light and turned in his seat. “Do I need to call in a favor and
make this go away?”
Staring out the window, I thought about my exit plan. “Take care of yourself.” He had his business and Kendall to worry about. “If I need to disappear, I will.” I glanced at him. “If you hear something, though, give me a heads-up.”
Luna eyed me. “If it comes down to that, you won’t have to run.” He paused as if deciding how much to tell me. “I have a connection.”
“Why the fuck are we having this conversation then?”
He turned back around and drove through the green light. “I don’t want to use that favor unless I absolutely have to. Barrett said the situation’s manageable.”
For him. Luna could claim self-defense if it came out we extracted my woman. I had no such defense against the arson and the last kills. Not that I fucking cared. I needed to call the guy who had gotten me two fake identification packets when I’d gotten out of the Army and had planned on disappearing after I took out Hawkins and Stephens. If he could do it, I’d pay him for a rush job to get something set up for my woman. I wouldn’t force her to come with me if I had to run, but I wouldn’t leave her without that option.
“How far out are we?” I asked Luna.
“Three miles.”
“Either of you got a burner phone?”
Shade smirked and reached in his pocket before handing me a phone.
Taking the cell, I pulled my own out and brought up the one picture I’d taken of my woman last week while she was sleeping. Aiming the burner at my cell, I snapped a picture. “Pull over,” I ordered Luna.
Without comment, Luna took the next corner and pulled to the curb.
“Give me a minute.” I got out of the SUV, shut the door, and used the burner to a call a number I’d memorized years ago.
The cagey-as-fuck hacker answered on the first ring. “Delivery or pickup?”
“Delivery.” If you said pickup, he hung up.
“Address?”
I gave him my address.
“What can I get for you?” he asked warily.
“Fruit and vegetable order. Box. Strawberries if you have them. Delivery today.” F for female. O for full package ID. B for blonde. Strawberries to let him know she wasn’t exactly blonde and delivery today for a rush job.
“Okay.” He paused. “I can do that. The twelve or twenty-eight pound box?”
He had an ID for a twenty-eight-year-old female. That’d work. “Larger size.”
“Fifty dollars, payable on delivery. By noon.”
Fifty grand, pay up front, it’d take him twelve hours. “Thanks.”
He hung up, and I forwarded the picture I’d just taken, then deleted it. Using a secure search engine, I went to the banking site for my offshore account and transferred the funds. Taking the SIM card out of the burner, I dropped it under my heel and ground it to shit. Breaking the phone in half, I tossed it in the bushes and got back in the SUV.
Shade glanced at me. “You owe me a phone.”
“I don’t owe you shit. You should’ve handled the fucking Hangmen when you had the chance.”
“Jesucristo,” Luna muttered as he pulled back on the road.
Shade shrugged. “I did. Just because you didn’t approve of my means, doesn’t mean the job wasn’t done.”
“It wasn’t done.” Fucking asshole. “You left witnesses.”
“None that would talk,” he argued.
“Enough,” Luna clipped as he pulled behind another black Escalade parked in front of one of those women’s haircut places.
My door was open before the vehicle had stopped.
Striding inside, my gaze locked on my woman, I didn’t even spare Kendall the fucking glare she deserved.
Looking uncomfortable as hell, sitting in a chair while another woman brushed her hair, my woman’s green eyes met mine in the mirror, and she jumped up. “Tarquin!”
Like she did in the Glades, like she did in front of Talerco’s, she launched herself at me.
This time, I didn’t fucking hesitate.
Wrapping an arm around her waist and grabbing the back of one of her thighs, I put her leg around me, and she followed suit with the other. Then I laid into Kendall with a look. “Pay the woman. You’re riding back with Luna.” I didn’t wait for a response or acknowledge the gaping hairdresser. Holding my woman, I walked the fuck out and strode to the front Escalade. Yanking the rear door open, I set my woman inside and climbed in after her.
The prick Ronan looked at me from the front seat, but he didn’t say shit.
“My house,” I barked, slamming the door shut and pulling my woman into my side.
My woman’s hand ran down my chest as she looked up at me with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“Stop,” I ordered.
Tears welled, and she ignored my command. “I didn’t mean to fight with you. Are you goin’ to jail? Are you in trouble? I didn’t know what to do, so I called André, because I remembered. I remembered him there that night y’all came for me. And I was—”
“Stop.” Grasping her jaw, I brought my mouth to hers and gave her one last warning. “Stop speaking.”
She pulled her lips between her teeth and averted her gaze.
Her hair, smoother, shinier, was inches shorter, and I fucking hated it. “Don’t cut your hair again.”
Her eyes clouded. “You don’t like it?”
“I like you wild.” Like fire.
Her voice went quiet. “Kendall said you’d like it.”
I bit back anger. “Kendall doesn’t speak for me, and she sure as fuck doesn’t know what I want.”
The cocksucker Ronan shifted in the front seat.
My glare cut to him. “Just drive.”
Fucker tipped his chin.
Shaila turned away from me, and I let it happen.
Tapping my foot, impatient to get the fuck home, I probably should’ve reassured my woman, but I didn’t. I kept my mouth shut until we pulled up to my house. Opening my door, I helped Shaila out before sparing Ronan a glance. “Tell Luna to keep a leash on his woman.”
Bold as fuck, Ronan put his window down. “Tell him yourself.” Then the asshole looked directly at my woman. “Your hair looks nice.”
My reaction was instant.
Reaching through the open window, my hand wrapped around his neck. “What did you just say?”
Fucker didn’t even flinch. “I said,” he enunciated calmly, “her hair looks nice.”
“Tarquin, please.” A small-as-fuck hand landed on my arm.
Ignoring my woman, my nostrils flared. “You look at her again, I will put a bullet between your eyes.”
Speaking quiet as fuck, the asshole boldly held my glare. “I have no intention of taking her from you, but your day will come. All of ours will. Don’t waste the time you have now.” He hit the button to raise the window.
Forced to let go of him or have my arm caught, I let go.
“Tarquin.”
I glared at the SUV as it pulled on to the street. Then I turned on my woman. “You got the keys?”
Still wearing the outfit I bought for her, she fished in her jacket and handed them to me.
I let us inside, then I locked the door behind us. Pulling my T-shirt over my head, I kicked off my boots and dropped my cell and keys on the coffee table.
Looking nervous as fuck, averting her gaze, my woman stood three feet away.
Too damn far.
Taking my belt off, I tossed it on the couch and stepped in front of her.
Her pulse jumped, and she looked down at her boots. “Were you arrested?”
“No.” I pushed her jacket off her shoulders.
She inhaled sharply. “Are you gonna be?”
She didn’t smell like my woman. “Everything they have is circumstantial.” I pulled her jacket down her arms and tossed it aside. “Take your boots off.” She smelled like that fucking hair place.
Already unlaced, she stepped out of them. “Are you still selling this house?”
I stilled. “
You want to keep it?” I wouldn’t want to live anywhere she’d lived with another man, platonic or not. It was the reason I’d put it on the market. I’d thought it’d make her happy.
She shrugged. “It’s the nicest house I’ve ever seen next to Talon’s.”
I ground my teeth at another man’s name coming out of her mouth. “I’ll buy you a better house than his.”
“I don’t need a better one.”
Jesus fucking Christ. “You want to keep this house or not?”
“Do you?” she asked quietly.
Moving sucked, but I didn’t care. Four walls were four walls. “Your choice.”
She inhaled deep. “Thank you. I will think about it and let you know.” Then, submissive as fuck, her head still down, she waited for me to make the next move.
I grasped her chin and brought her face up to mine so I could see her eyes. Then I asked what I really needed to know. “You on birth control?” I’d been thinking about it since I’d come inside her. I’d also wondered since I first laid eyes on her again if she’d had another man’s child in her, but I’d been too fucking angry to ask. Now I wanted to know.
She pulled out of my grasp. “I…” She exhaled and looked back at me with pain in her eyes. “I can’t have babies now, because… you know.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Because of what happened.”
A heavy weight crushed my fucking chest. “How do you know?” Women on the compound had had children after miscarriages. “Have you seen a doctor?”
She shook her head. “You don’t understand.” Color tinted her cheeks. “I ain’t had a period in seven years.”
“You’re underweight.” That was another common problem on the compound. Females that couldn’t be bred because they were malnourished.
She looked away. “Daddy said I couldn’t. He told me you were with a woman who could and I’d be of no use to you.”
Rage took hold, and I picked her up.
Fury crossed his features, he sucked in a breath, and just like that, he picked me up. But not like a man picks up a woman who’s injured.