by Grey, Blair
I grinned at her. “Thanks,” I said, even though I could feel a blush spreading across my cheeks. I had never been too caught up in appearances, and especially not since I’d started as a nurse. Most people I interacted with only ever saw me in scrubs, with my long, dark hair in a messy bun to keep it out of my face. Compliments like that were rare.
“So you’ll come out with me tomorrow?” Rachel pressed.
I laughed and shook my head. “I can’t, sorry.” When she threw a fry at me, I threw it right back. “Is that any example to set for your son?” I teased. But Gavin was caught up in playing with the toy that had come with his meal, hardly paying attention to the two of us.
“Come on, we haven’t gone out in forever,” Rachel said. “How are we going to find you the perfect man if you never have a chance to actually meet any men? And what else are you going to do anyway?”
“Work!” I told her. “I have another night shift tomorrow. To help out with all the disasters who got dressed up and went out to the bars.”
Rachel sighed. “Again?” she asked, sounding disappointed.
I felt bad, almost. She had sounded so excited about the prospect of the two of us going out. “Raincheck,” I promised, holding out my pinky finger.
A slow grin spread across her face as she linked pinkies with mine. “Next time you have an evening off, we are going out,” she declared.
“All right,” I agreed wearily, even though I didn’t really want to go out looking for a man in a bar. What kind of relationship would I start there? I’d probably just end up with some drunken idiot who just wanted to get laid. Then, he’d never call me again, and I’d be right back where I started.
But I didn’t say any of that to Rachel. She looked too pleased with my promise. At least I had a little bit of time to figure out how to get out of it the next time this conversation came up.
5
Marcus
Friday
I frowned down at my phone when I saw it was Ray calling. Had he finally come to the conclusion that it was time to act on the threat that the Unknowns posed? No, that was probably too much to ask. More likely, Cameron had mentioned the incident the previous day. Ray was probably calling to ream me out for the way that I had handled things.
I rolled my eyes but picked up the phone. “I’d like to see you here at headquarters,” Ray said cryptically, giving no indication of what reason he might have. It was a typical Ray power move, leaving everyone else guessing what he was thinking. I no longer got worked up about this kind of stuff.
“Be there in ten,” I told him, hanging up the phone.
When I got there, I knocked on Ray’s office and then entered, dropping into a seat opposite him. “What’s up?” I asked.
Ray stared at me for a moment. Was he hoping to see me squirm? I hadn’t done anything wrong. I kept staring coolly back at him until Ray’s expression became the ghost of a grin. It was a little routine that he and I had had, for as long as I could remember now. Ever since I’d been a cocky little shit of a teenager.
“Cameron told me about yesterday,” Ray said. “About how you treated Lex’s nephew.”
“Just to clarify, I didn’t know that he was Lex’s nephew when I pounded his head into the table,” I said. The last thing I needed was for Ray to think that I had already disobeyed his orders to wait for the signal before going after the Unknowns. If he thought that was what had happened, he’d shorten my leash, keep me watched, and that would make taking that next step even more difficult.
But Ray waved my words away. “Cameron made it clear that neither of you knew what was going on. And that Pete looked to you for help in the situation,” he said. “But he also made it clear that whoever the nephew’s friend was, he was certain that Lex would be coming after you now.”
“He doesn’t know that I’m Red Eyes, or at least I don’t think he does,” I said. I shrugged. “They didn’t seem to have any idea what they were dealing with yesterday. Just some dumb kids.”
“Be that as it may, I’d rather not wait to see what Lex’s next move is,” Ray said.
I blinked, wondering if I had heard him correctly. If I didn’t know better, it sounded like he was suggesting that it was time for Red Eyes to make a move on the Unknowns before we gathered any more information.
Sure enough, when Ray continued, he left no doubt about it. “I want you to take the twins with you,” he said. “I assume you know where the Unknowns’ hideout is?”
“Yeah,” I said. One of my guys had told me that information months ago. It was part of why I’d been raring to go after the fuckers, especially after they’d disrespected us by going through our clubhouse and destroying the place. We should have done the same to them.
Not that their place was anything like ours. Where ours was a proper clubhouse, theirs was definitely a hideout. Hidden up above one of the local businesses, in a place that used to be a yoga studio. It had fallen into disrepair years ago, and half the windows were boarded up. I’d gone by to check it out a couple times, and nothing had changed about it, at least not from what I could see. It was still just a shithole on the edge of the city. They weren’t ready to make their presence known. Not really.
“I want you to take the twins,” Ray repeated, more firmly this time. “The last thing I need is you heading over there by yourself. We don’t know how many people are involved in their gig. You have no idea what you might be walking into. Do you understand me?”
“Yeah, I understand you,” I said. It was a simple enough lie; I did understand him, but it didn’t mean that I was going to listen to him. I had no intention of taking Braxton and Landon over with me. I had no intention of putting myself into a situation where I needed additional muscle as backup.
Besides, they would just hinder me. One person could watch a place without arousing suspicion. Throw three big biker dudes on the sidewalk opposite the place, and people were going to notice. I was already formulating a plan, and it was one that would be easy enough to carry out on my own. I didn’t need the twins, and I didn’t want them either.
But I wasn’t about to tell Ray that. Instead, I let him believe I would do as he said and bring the twins. Otherwise, he might rescind his agreement to let me do what I wanted with the Unknowns. Which would just be a shame now that I already had the beginnings of a plan.
That evening, I waited outside the Unknowns’ hideout. I’d long since figured out that they tended to meet up there on Friday nights before going out to the bars. And that night was no different. I watched them stream out in clumps, a surprising number of people. They had to be letting friends in as well; these couldn’t all be members of their wannabe MC.
As I’d suspected, there was one straggler, the guy who shut the lights off, the last guy to come down the stairs. He paused and fumbled with the keys, locking the place up while the others went on ahead. He’d run to catch up to them in a minute. He wasn’t one of the guys from the previous day, and I didn’t recognize him. But he had the look of one of the guys from the Unknowns. Runty, as far as enforcers went, but with plenty of tattoos and a grizzled face and beard.
But for right now, it was just the two of us. I darted across the street and used my forearm to slam him forward against the door so that his face was pressed tight against the metal. “What’s the plan?” I asked him immediately, not wasting time on establishing who he was or who I was. If his buddies noticed that he was lagging too far behind, they might get curious, and they might come back for him. I planned to be long gone before that could happen.
“What plan?” the dude had the gall to spit.
“With the Unknowns,” I said impatiently. “What’s your next move? What are you fuckers planning?”
I wasn’t expecting the sudden flash of a knife. It had materialized from somewhere, his pocket maybe, a nifty little switchblade. He reached back and managed to drag a long cut down the forearm that wasn’t pressed against his shoulder blades. It hurt, but I immediately went into fight mode, bringing
my knee up between his legs and then sweeping his feet out from under him, effectively sending him sprawling.
I kicked him hard, first in the gut and then in the head, a kick designed to take him out. Just before he dropped off into unconsciousness, though, I leaned down, grabbing the collar of his shirt. “If you know what’s good for you,” I growled, “you’ll tell the others to back off. Leave Red Eyes alone, and don’t fuck with our territory.”
His eyes fluttered shut. I could only hope he had heard me.
To be honest, I was kicking myself. I shouldn’t have lost my temper like that. I should have gotten more out of him. I was never going to be able to run this same plan again; they’d know what could happen now, and they’d be more careful. I should have gotten him to talk about plans.
But I still couldn’t believe the fucker had drawn a knife on me. It was yet another in the string of plays that the Unknowns made that showed their cowardice. They weren’t willing to play by the rules, to throw down for a fair fight. The slimy bastards.
I gave the dude another kick in the gut and then turned and stalked off, slipping into the shadows before he could wake up or his mates could come looking for him. I needed a beer. I needed to regroup and figure out what my next course of action should be.
I should have gotten more out of him. The thought just kept playing over and over in my mind, and my mood grew increasingly sour every time.
When I got back to a better part of town, I finally looked down at the cut on my arm. It was pretty long. Jagged, no doubt because of the angle the guy had come at me from. And it was surprisingly deep. Now that I had turned my attention to it, it stung like fucking fire, and it just made me even angrier. I had to take a couple deep breaths to calm myself down.
Experimentally, I pinched the flesh together. I was still bleeding, and I knew I was going to need it bandaged for sure. What I couldn’t decide was whether I needed stitches.
Probably, I finally decided, sighing. God, if Ray found out what had really happened with this thing, he was going to give me hell. He would already be pissy enough at the fact that I hadn’t brought the twins out with me, and no amount of lying and saying that I was still formulating a plan was going to work. Ray was a difficult guy to lie to, not least of which because he had spies all over the city. He might already know that I had gone to the Unknowns’ hideout tonight. Lying would only make it worse.
It wasn’t like the extra muscle would have helped me at all in that situation, but Ray wouldn’t have seen it that way. I wouldn’t have changed plans, though, and there hadn’t been enough space there for someone else to intercede. I doubted one of the twins would have realized what the man was about to do, either. If I hadn’t realized, they wouldn’t have.
I frowned down at the cut one more time and then turned my feet in the direction of the local hospital. Fuck it—better at least make sure that someone took a look at it. Have them offer a professional opinion on whether it needed stitches or not. The last thing I needed was to bleed out overnight.
When I got to the hospital, it was surprisingly empty. I supposed that made sense when I thought about it; it was still pretty early for things to be kicking off, even if it was a Friday night. I was ushered into a room almost immediately, and I only waited a couple minutes before a nurse came bustling in.
She immediately frowned when she saw the blood on my sleeve. “Got in a fight?” she asked.
I raised an eyebrow at her. “What if I told you a cat did this?”
She rolled her eyes. “Unless by cat, you mean a tiger, you’re a liar,” she said succinctly. “And even if it was a tiger, it’d have to have some serious claws to get you that deep.” She shook her head. “Come on, shirt off.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” I said, leering at her as I pulled my shirt up over my head. But my smirk faltered as the material caught in the partially formed scab. I tore it off, grimacing in pain.
The nurse, Leila according to her nametag, rolled her eyes, but I could see the traces of a smile on her lips. “So do you want to change your story?” she asked as she started stitching me up.
“Trust me; you don’t want to know,” I told her. And she probably didn’t. She looked like the good girl next door. Oh, she was beautiful as all get-out, with that heart-shaped face and those piercing eyes. But I couldn't see much of her body with those scrubs she was wearing, and her hair was drawn up in a tight bun.
But hey, who hasn’t had a nurse fantasy or two in their time?
“So now that you have me shirtless, do you want to…” I trailed off at the look she gave me. I wasn’t usually the kind of guy to be cowed by a woman, especially not a sexy one, but something in her look told me not to finish that sentence. I shrugged the arm she wasn’t fixing up. “Your loss, babe.”
“I doubt it,” she said, but again, I could see that faint smile. Like she didn’t want to feel so pleased that I was flirting with her. Unfortunately, I knew what that probably meant; I’d seen her type before. She probably had a boyfriend.
Rats. I could have used something to make my night a little better. It seemed I was out of luck, though.
6
Leila
Friday
It was only the years of practice that kept my hands steady as I sewed Marcus’s wound shut. Jeez, I didn’t know what it was about him, but the minute I walked into the room, my heart started beating a little faster. It wasn’t like he was the first attractive patient that I’d ever worked on. Nor was he the first one to flirt with me.
But there was something about that careless wave of his brown hair and those laughing blue eyes that had me interested in him. Besides, it wasn’t like his shirt was doing much to hide how muscular he was. He was pretty much sex on a stick. And even though normally, he was the last kind of guy that I would go for, with those tattoos and that cocky attitude of his, I could already feel myself getting turned on by him.
This wasn’t even foreplay.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. No doubt it all came back to Rachel’s insistence that I needed to find a man. She had probably just gotten into my head, and now my body was ready to consider any man I met as the potential next person to warm my bed and give me babies.
My mind, of course, knew that there was a lot more to these things than that. I was at work; I had to stay professional. I couldn’t even give him my number or anything like that.
I could sneak his number from his file, though, my snarky mental voice reminded me. But like I would ever do that. It would be a total breach of his privacy, and besides, he was probably only flirting with me as a way to take his mind off his pain.
And I was sure that he must be in pain. I couldn’t smell any alcohol on his breath, and even though I assumed he’d gotten into some stupid fight at a bar, he seemed altogether too lucid for drink to be numbing him to the gash and the stitches I was carefully putting in.
But other than that grimace when he’d torn his shirt off, there was nothing. He was tough–I had to give him that. This cut definitely hadn’t come from a cat, though.
“I need to write something down on your report,” I finally said. “And something tells me they’re not going to believe me if I say that you required forty stitches after being scratched by an angry feline.”
“What if that’s a euphemism for a woman?” Marcus joked.
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at that. “Nice try, but even the sharpest of fake nails wouldn’t do this to a guy,” I said. “It looks to me like someone jabbed you in a bar fight.”
“You see a lot of guys come in with cuts like that?” Marcus asked, sounding impressed. For a minute, I thought that I must have gotten the truth, but he shook his head. “Wasn’t a bar and wasn’t a fight,” he said. “I just fell. That’s all.”
“Bullshit,” I said. Normally, I tried not to swear around patients, but he was starting to test my patience.
“Oh yeah?” Marcus said, an unmistakable challenge in his voice. “So what do you think it was the
n, doc?”
“First of all, I’m not a doctor, I’m a nurse,” I corrected peevishly. “And I’ve seen cuts like this before. I know it’s a knife wound.”
Marcus whistled appreciatively. “You are one smart lady, aren’t you?”
“Flattery isn’t going to get you into my pants.”
Marcus grinned and shrugged. “You can’t blame a man for trying,” he said. “The sexy nurse—that’s everyone’s porno fantasy, right?”
“I wouldn’t know,” I said, my tone clipped. I didn’t know what it was about him, but he was really getting on my nerves. Almost like he knew exactly what to say to push my buttons. Sexy, arrogant, and obnoxious. I wouldn’t want his number even if it wasn’t a breach of privacy to get it off his file.
Although there was nothing wrong with a little romp between the sheets with someone sexy and arrogant. As long as I could keep him from talking too much, maybe it would be worth it. It had been a while since I’d gotten laid.
I shook those thoughts out of my head. Whoever this guy was, he clearly was mixed up in the kind of shit I didn’t want to deal with. “Whatever life you’re living, you really need to slow down,” I couldn’t help saying.
“Oh I do, do I?” Marcus asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
I shrugged as I finished up the stitches and started applying the bandages. “I’m just saying, this shit’s going to catch up to you. There’s no avoiding it. I’ve seen your type before. You’re a dime a dozen around here on Fridays and Saturdays.”
Marcus stared at me for a long minute. “How’d you get into this nursing stuff anyway?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “I went to school, just like everyone else. And if you say something about how I should have been a hooker instead, I’m going to put you under and stitch up your balls.”