“You don’t need to say any more. I’ll hit up the couch,” he nodded to the loveseat.
“Um, no. I’m 5 feet 5 inches. I think I can fit that just fine, whereas you’re what? I’m guessing 6 feet 3 inches or more?”
“I’m 6 feet 4 inches and it wouldn’t be the first time I passed out there, so it’s no big deal, really.”
“Whatever. Please, don’t argue. I’ll feel better this way. Besides, I’m liable to have some nightmares considering all the triggers in my life at the moment, so you better get all the good sleep you can right now.”
The rest of the night and the next day proved much less stressful as Tango took me shopping for the things I needed to replace, and we settled into a quiet little routine of splitting bathroom time and dancing around each other like we’d been in each other’s lives forever and not just five days. We had already been sharing a hotel room for three nights, so that was probably why it seemed so familiar sharing a room with him here in the compound too. If I was being honest with myself, I wasn’t sure how I was going to cope when I was able to get a room all to myself. Worse, I didn’t think I wanted to be without Tango, a man I had known less than a week. The connection we felt was just undeniable though.
Chapter 9
Liza
(2 weeks ago)
A knock on the door to the room I shared with Tango was startling, because I hadn’t expected anyone to check up on me. Tango had gone to his tattoo shop, Liquid Lines, earlier. He had some appointments set that he couldn’t reschedule, and while I offered to go he refused. Apparently, it was a security issue to have me outside the compound too much; especially at a tattoo shop considering the last place I’d been spotted was a tattoo convention in Reno.
I understood, even If I didn’t like it very much. I flipped on a robe over my pajamas that consisted of boxer shorts and a tank top since I hadn’t yet replaced everything that I refused to wear after the whores had stolen my things. I had borrowed some sleepwear bottoms from Tango. “Who is it?” I asked as I moved closer to the door.
“Um, it’s me, Amy.” I recognized her voice immediately, and cringed. I honestly didn’t want to be in a room alone with this woman. I still hadn’t figured out the dynamics between her, Whiskey, Tango, and Fox. It seemed like Tango thought one thing was going on while the other three were under the impression that he was part of her reverse harem somehow. It did not leave me with an easy-breezy feeling, nor did the looks I caught her throwing my way once in a while.
I slipped the door open a crack and plastered a polite smile on my face. “Tango isn’t here right now. He went to the shop.”
“I know,” was all she said while she stared me down, waiting for something. I just stood there watching her, watching me. “Are you going to let me in?” She finally snapped the question at me after our minutes-long stare down.
“Um, no,” I stated plainly. Her jaw dropped in surprise and I giggled on the inside at the reaction. She really thought I’d just welcome her into a room that technically wasn’t even mine? No way.
“May I ask why not?” She finally got out, although a bit indignantly.
“Tango isn’t here. This is his space. I wouldn’t feel right inviting you in when I’m not certain how he would feel about you being in his private space.”
“You are in his private space!” She huffed out, as if that meant something.
“He invited me into his room. He’s not here to invite you,” I explained. Not that I should have to, as that seemed like common sense to me.
She was getting frustrated, as evidenced by the uptick in her respiration, and the slight pink tinge to her cheeks and neck. “I don’t understand why you’re being difficult. Tango and I have an intimate relationship, of course I’m always invited into his room.” Her use of the words ‘intimate relationship’ was done in a way to inform me that they had sex. I thought back to him saying he hadn’t had a woman in more than two years, and I wondered now if he meant sexually, or just a relationship. It didn’t matter though, because Amy was clearly suggesting they had more than sex in common.
“Look, Amy, I don’t know you. I don’t know your history. I only know what Tango has confided in me, and that hasn’t been much where you’re concerned. He said the four of you – along with Whiskey and Fox – were friends, and that’s fine. When he’s here, you’re more than welcome to come see him in his room. But when he’s not, you need to wait for him to get back.
“I came to speak to you,” she hissed out between gritted teeth. Yep, clearly frustrated with me.
“You are speaking to me,” I informed her.
She looked over her shoulder down both lengths of the hall. I did as well, and there was only one person there who was doing a horrible job of pretending not to eavesdrop. The sexy blond guy they called Rabbit was watching us curiously with a grin on his face. “I meant in private,” she informed me snarkily.
“Well, give me a moment to get dressed and I can come to your room then. Which is it?” I asked her as she lost her absolute cool.
“Are you retarded or are you trying to piss me off?” Rabbit looked like he was about to jump in and save me with all the glaring he was doing at her now. I just shook my head and smiled at her.
“Well, sweetheart, that is definitely not the way to get me to have a conversation with you. I’m sorry you’re not getting into Tango’s room like you wanted, but again, that’s for him to decide. If respecting someone’s property makes me retarded, then I guess I am. If you truly wanted to speak with me in private, I’m sure there are plenty of other places that conversation can happen, but it will not be in this room.” I stood my ground and she was boiling over, red-faced, and not at all happy that I was maintaining my cool under pressure.
“Tango and I are together,” she stated.
“Does he know that? I thought you were with the other two guys?” I questioned, making her steam a little more with each word I uttered.
“We are all together!” She damn near yelled through still gritted teeth. I honestly felt like she might crack a molar if she kept it up. Also of note, I was beginning to think there was something to that whole red hair and fiery temper stereotype. I noticed that Rabbit was on his phone at this point while continuing to keep watch on what was going on with us in the hallway.
“He already told me you’re all friends, but honey, honestly, I wouldn’t let any of the other guys in here either without his permission. It’s Tango’s room. If he wants guests, he can decide when and who gets in when he’s around to approve it. If what you really want is a conversation with me, then you can be polite and invite me to have a conversation with you. What I do not have to do is indulge you when you’re being a jerk and losing your temper with me for no good reason.”
“What’s going on here?” The man I learned was Whiskey asked as he walked up with Fox quickly following behind him. I didn’t get a chance to speak though, because that was when Rabbit stepped in and hushed Amy as she attempted to shout her side of things at them.
“I’m not sure what your girl is doing here,” he started.
“It’s Tango’s room. She’s allowed to be here if she wants to be,” Whiskey announced.
“No, she’s not. He has a guest staying with him, and when he’s not here to okay it she shouldn’t be coming around demanding entrance.” Both Whiskey and Fox bounced their visual fields between Rabbit, myself, and a still enraged Amy.
“What has you so upset, Ames?” Whiskey asked while Fox kept his eyes glued to me, suspicion filling them to the brim.
“I tried to come here to chat with this woman, but she’s being so difficult. She refused to let me into T’s room. She refused to speak to me privately, and she’s been a horrible, condescending asshole the entire time.” Amy whined to the men in her life as if I had poked holes in her very delicate feelings. Both Whiskey and Fox snapped their attention back to me then, glaring all the while. I just stood there and rolled my eyes at her dramatics.
“No, t
hat is not how shit just went down, and I would know because I’ve been standing in the hall watching since this one,” he pointed at Amy, “knocked on that door.” He then went on to explain exactly what had taken place, and both men were suddenly dropping their gazes to their woman.
“Why does it matter so much that you talk to her in his room? Why not somewhere else?”
“Because, it does!” She stomped her foot. Legitimately stomped it like a toddler while her arms were crossed over her chest in a defensive gesture.
“Why Ames?”
“Because I need to see what’s going on. He’s been so distant since he came back, and now she’s in there. Is he being unfaithful?”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed at that. All of them turned to look at me then. Rabbit was the only one who was trying to contain his own humor at the situation. “Seriously? Is he cheating? You have two men standing right there in front of you that belong to you and you want to know if a third is cheating? That’s rich!” I continued laughing, and they all went back to ignoring me while the two men focused their energy back on Amy.
“Amy, he wasn’t all here before he left for the Expo, you know that. I’m not sure what’s going on with T right now, but I don’t think he was on the same page as the rest of us, sweetheart.” Fox tells her, trying to be kind about it.
“He was, I know he was. We talked all the time.” She had serious crocodile tears welling up in her eyes at this point. Fox moved forward and tucked her into his chest.
“Come on, Amy, Liza isn’t the person you need to be having these chats with. We need to all sit T down and get things straight from him.”
“Why is she here?” I heard her ask as they moved her away from the door, and further down the hall.
“That’s club business,” Whiskey told her.
“Bullshit. If it were just club business she wouldn’t be sleeping in his room. Tell me the truth. Did he go find a woman to bring back? What did I do to make him so angry?”
“Amy…” One of them sighed out. “Let’s talk about this at home, sweetheart.”
“Why isn’t he staying there with us? You guys never told me before…” Her whining was getting on my last nerve, and I was really glad when they got her inside a room toward the other end of the hall and shut the door.
I rolled my eyes once more and glanced at Rabbit who was staring at me with something akin to awe in his eyes. “I just want you to know that the kind of loyalty you just showed for Tango by not letting anyone in his space when he wasn’t around? Well, it won’t go unnoticed around here. That’s for sure. If anyone, including any of those three, bother you again and Tango isn’t around, I want you to call or text me right away, okay?”
“Sure,” I told him as I pulled my phone out and we exchange numbers. “Thanks for having my back with the truth. I have a feeling I would have been facing a lynch mob without your input.”
“No need for thanks, but I do believe you’re right. I’m going over to Ruby’s but I’ll stop in Liquid Lines and let Tango know what went down today, that way he hears it from an impartial third party.”
“Thanks, again,” I told him and then watched as he walked away and took the steps down to the first floor. I turned and marched my butt right back in the room I had been protecting like a fierce momma bear hiding her cub from danger. I have no clue why that woman wanted in this room so badly. I’m guessing it had to do with being nosey since I was in the room, but I hated assuming things so I would wait and talk it over with Tango when he got in.
~ Tango ~
Once Rabbit told me what happened with Liza and Amy at the clubhouse I figured I had better make it a short day. I finished up my last appointment at 2pm and headed back to the clubhouse. Technically, I should have stayed open for walk-ins, but it was my business. I could run it however I felt. When I got back to the clubhouse the commons were already filling with people thanks to the fact that we had visitors from the Cedar Falls Chapter of Aces High in the house. I knew they’d be here a few days, because some of the older members came to meet or get to know Charlie all over again. Her dad had been a member named Brazen, but he took her away from the club at her dying mother’s behest when she was young. She found her way back to the club recently looking for a job and protection when her husband tried to have her killed.
Charlie ended up falling for our Vice President, Rage, and she ended up sticking around long enough to become his Old Lady. She’s a sweet girl who takes shit form no one, kind of like someone else who recently fell into our lives. I was betting Charlie and Liza would get along really well, and hoping to introduce them once the novelty with the Cedar Falls guys wore off.
In the meantime, I had a woman to go find, because I guessed I had some explaining to do. It didn’t take long to find Liza. She was in our room working on something in Photoshop on her laptop. She didn’t have internet access here, because our security setup, and her not being granted access yet, but I had explained to her that if she gave me instructions I could transfer the images from a USB drive to e-mail for her clients from a secure space off site. “Hey, Liza,” I called out to her. She smiled up at me beautifully.
“Hey yourself. I’m almost done with this set of images. I’m going to add the images to the USB drive along with instructions on where to send them and with what message. I really appreciate you working with me to make sure my work doesn’t suffer for having to be in hiding. Some of it I can put off, but I had a few deadlines that can’t be missed, because people are counting on me.”
“I understand that, babe. It’s no problem.” I set my messenger bag down on the chair in the corner and then glanced back over at her again. “Can you pause for a few minutes so we can talk about what happened today?”
“Sure. Give me just a second to save everything as is, and…” her tongue was poked out at the corner of her mouth where it was held in place by teeth that bit gently down on it. I couldn’t help smiling at the picture she made when she was ‘focused’ on something. “Okay, and done.” She closed her laptop, set it aside, and then gave me all of her attention. I moved to sit beside her on the bed where she’d been working.
“So, Rabbit came by and told me what happened. Including the part where Amy tried to be dramatic and claim you hurt her feelings.” He shook his head. “Honestly, that’s not like her at all, so I’m not really sure where that was coming from.”
“It was coming from jealousy and nosiness,” Liza stated with a shrug.
“What?” I questioned.
“She made certain to tell me that the two of you were in an intimate relationship, and that she could come into your room whenever she wanted, but the emphasis was on your intimate relationship.” I don’t know why it bothered me so much that Amy told Liza that. Mostly, because I didn’t see myself as being in any relationship with Amy beyond friendship, and now I was going to have to explain the intricacies of what had gone down between us to Liza. Again, I don’t know why. I just felt compelled to set her straight so she didn’t think I was taken.
I took in a deep breath and let it out before I started. “Amy and I have never been anything more than friends. I’ve wondered, based on things she’s done and said a few times recently, if she thought there was more, but I swear to you, I thought I set her straight.”
“You have clearly been intimate with her though,” Liza stated instead of phrasing it as a question.
At this point I launched into our history from the beginning with Liza only interrupting at the end. “So, let me get this straight, you have only ever received a few blowjobs from Amy during group activities with the other two guys, and somehow that translated into an intimate relationship for her?”
“I guess the fact that I started out being so close to the guys before we met Amy that our oddball friendship factored in. Maybe they assumed I wanted a bigger roll than they were casting me in with their sexcapades. I don’t know, and I suppose that’s something I am going to have to address with them, because what happened to
day won’t be happening again. That was out of line, uncalled for, and I am definitely not comfortable with her just coming into my room whenever she pleases. That’s the whole point in putting a lock on the door. Amy coming to you about things when she should have come to me is my number one concern right now though. Then there’s the demand to get in my room. Amy has never been invited into my room before. Ever. The guys have brought her in here a few times without my permission. They just assumed it would be okay, and generally I left and went to stay in my office at work when that happened. Since Amy moved here they rented a little cabin near town that they all stay in together unless there’s a need for them to be close to the clubhouse.”
“Well, I feel much better about not letting her, or anyone else, into your room today then. I was actually a little worried that you would be mad at me for denying her, but honestly, I had no way of finding out since we haven’t exchanged numbers.”
“I can’t believe I haven’t done that with you yet,” he told me. “Especially since I was the one who got you the burner phone to use while you’re here.” He shook his head. “I blame exhaustion after our trip back. I’m usually more on my game.”
“Oh, so normally, you don’t forget to get the chick’s digits that you spend a few days in hotel rooms with?” I joke.
“Well, when I don’t think she’ll be far from my side it seems unnecessary.” He winked. “I guess, today proved me wrong though.”
“Yeah, but Amy has your number right?”
“She does,” he admits.
“Then she could have called to verify she belonged there, but she didn’t because she knew she had never been in your room before.”
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: Aces High MC (Aces High MC - Dakotas Book 2) Page 8