“That threw me for a loop.” He sounded like the man she knew, but there was something in his voice that was distancing. She learned to read people more for how they behaved than what came out of their mouths. He was going to say everything was fine, but deep in her heart, she knew he had one foot out the door.
She could only nod and wait for the boom.
“Is dinner almost ready?” He said it in an almost conversational tone, but the clearing of his throat told her more than what he was saying ever could.
“Yes. I just have to put the garlic bread in the oven.”
“Do you have wine to go with the meal?”
“I wanted to pick something up on the way home, but I forgot to make that one last stop.” She knew this was an out for him, and she had already decided to let him take it. Why was she getting upset about it? She was decisive if she was anything, and her decision had been made. She probably would have to invest in some big girl panties because based on the tantrum she wanted to throw, she didn’t appear to be wearing any.
“I know there is a wine shop a few blocks away. I’ll run over there to pick something up… that will also give me a chance to clear my mind.” He was trying his best to sound upbeat and normal, but she knew it was false. There it was… BOOM. He’d found a way out.
She wanted to believe that he was coming back to have dinner. He could have just said that something came up, but there was doubt swirling around in her head and heart. People became frightened when they learned who she was, and she couldn’t blame them. Lots of people had told her they thought if they made her mad she’d get her father to kill them and their families. Little did they know, she was against most violence and would never be the one to request harm come to someone.
“Okay,” she said so he knew she was fine with the plan. The way it came out sounded foreign because it couldn’t be her voice that sounded that weak and sad.
He had come up behind her and moved his hand to cover the hand that had the spoon in it. Helping her set it down, he turned her so she faced him.
“I just need a few minutes to myself. I’ll be back.” Just the weight of him looking at her was enough to make her want to cry. She had to pull herself together. This is when she wanted to be her daddy’s girl. Tough, rough, and taking no shit from anyone. Did she think her Papa would blink twice if someone didn’t want to be around him? No. And neither should she. That’s the way she should be thinking, but that was not what was happening.
She took a deep breath before responding as she looked up into the face she didn’t know if she’d ever see again. “I know that was a surprise, and I want you to know that if you don’t want to come back… it’s okay. I’m not saying that I want that or that I won’t miss you, but I don’t want you to feel that if you leave I’ll send my father’s people after you.”
“I said I’ll be back.” He said it so fast she wondered if he even heard her words.
She put her hands on both sides of his face and brought him down for a kiss. She just wanted to taste the lips of the man who had brought her so much pleasure… sexually and mentally. This last week had been more fun than she’d ever had with a man, and the fact that she was thinking long term should have been an indication that this conversation needed to be had. Putting it off until tomorrow wasn’t really her thing, but she didn’t want to see the devastation that she knew would cross his face. She ended the kiss before it got out of hand even though she was thinking of having sex one more time too, but that was too needy for even her to think about. One kiss would have to be enough.
“Just in case you go out and decide that it’s not worth it to be involved with me and my family. I wanted one more kiss.” She didn’t need to say that, but it just popped out of her mouth. When she was younger she used to ramble when she was stalling, and she must have had a flash back. She hated that weakness was trying to peek through.
He gave her a quick peck on the lips before he backed up away from her. “What kind of wine did you want me to get?”
“Surprise me,” she said with a smile on her face. At least she could give him that. Maybe when he thought about her, he would think about the good times and the smile she left him with instead of the way he felt when he was scrambling to get away from her. He didn’t even give a response about her trying to ease his mind about her family. He was getting farther and farther away from her, and she knew that was not just in terms of his physical location.
“Will do,” he replied as he walked out the door.
Kelli stared at the door for a few more seconds before she turned off the sauce and shut down the oven. There would be no big meal tonight and just the smell of the sauce was making her stomach turn. Before Carson, she’d loved the peace and quiet of her home, but now the silence was deafening, and she turned on the television just to fill the void. Of course, it would be the news broadcast talking about crime being on the rise. Her family was the direct cause for that effect, and no matter how she tried to ignore it, that detail was going to shape the rest of her life. Silent room be damned she would rather listen to the screaming nothingness than hear about the deeds of her relatives. Doing something other than sitting on the couch may be helpful.
She stood up and walked over to the window to see if she could view him. It had been a few minutes, so she didn’t have high hopes of catching a glimpse of him but she would be wrong. There he was walking down the street toward his bike. After all that time he’d just gotten that far, and then he was going for his bike? Her mind whirled with accusations, but he didn’t owe her anything. Everything outside the window was getting blurry, and she was getting angrier with each drop of water that filled her eyes. That was enough for her; she turned off everything and decided on going to bed early tonight. She could be whoever she wanted in her dreams too; it was just the morning light that would ruin that fantasy.
Chapter Five
Her fucking cousin? Her fucking ‘He’s my best friend” cousin? What the hell? Carson had paced outside back and forth from his bike to her door before he decided that he’d drive to the wine shop and smoke the emergency cigarettes he had stashed in the compartment of his bike. It had been a long time since he’d felt like he really needed one, but having them nearby was almost like a security thing. The drought was over now and the familiar crinkling sound of the paper was almost a comfort because he knew what came next.
Lighting up and filling his lungs with the smoky nicotine was like a salve to his emotions. He knew he shouldn’t have gotten so close to Kelli, but she was beautiful, sweet, and sexy as all hell. How was he supposed to get one taste of a woman like that and walk away without getting his fill? The problem was the more he was with her the more he wanted. Which is why he was still hanging out with her and filling her pussy every chance he got a week later.
His phone rang, and he wondered if it was Kelli. She made his heart hurt the way she looked at him before he left. The sad smile was so forced, he half way wondered why she felt compelled to try, but in truth he knew. She didn’t think he was coming back, and that thought did cross his mind for a few minutes. He was supposed to find out information that would lead him to find the man he now knew was her favorite cousin. His brothers had to do better with the intelligence. They had no idea that Kelli was the daughter of the biggest mafia boss in this area?
“Hello?” He knew he sounded short, and he really didn’t give a fuck right now.
“What the fuck, dude? You’ve been out there a whole week, and your mark is still up and walking around. This is making us look bad.” The leader of the Satan’s Ravens Motorcycle Club wasn’t good at salutations. It was like he never left off when he spoke to you last and was still in the same conversation. His number was always private just like all of his other brothers so when you answered your phone it was a crap shoot on who was going to be on the other line.
“Beast, I’ve been trying to get information from the girl and looking for him during the day.” Carson knew that was the truth, and he also knew
that Beast probably already knew all about it. He’d been trying his best to find the guy, but Argo was like a ghost. When he’d get information about him and went to the place the man was supposed to be, he’d either just left or hadn’t been there. Asking too many questions would probably get him on the wrong side of a gun, so he was trying to lay low. He knew Argo was close to the big boss in the area, and although he didn’t have a problem with him, someone was paying big money to have him meet his maker.
“If you don’t get this situation under control, I’ll be sending down someone else. They may be able to do the job better than you. Well if not better, then at least faster.” Beast had something in his mouth, and it sounded like he was frustrated, and there was no way in the world Carson wanted him to be upset enough to do that.
“I’ll get it done. I’m very close.” Carson was trying to be convincing, but it was hard. He was in a city he didn’t know well, and he was trying to find a man who was familiar with the lay of the land. It was a hard pill to swallow, but he knew he had just found the way to Argo. The plan had always been to use her for information, and he’d been okay with that, but now it was starting to feel personal. He hated that, because personal had no business in this type of situation. He had a job to do, and his reputation was on the line. He’d worked hard to be known as a hard ass who could handle any situation, and in this line of business, a reputation was really all you had.
“Yeah, yeah… that’s what everyone says when they aren’t getting the job done. I may need to get someone down there who’s hungrier than you are.”
Beast always knew the words to say that would spur someone on because that was definitely something that could light a fire under his ass. It was hard to hear what else Beast was saying as Carson could feel his pulse throbbing and hear the soft swooshing of his blood coursing through his veins. He wasn’t sure how he could keep Kelli after she found out that not only had he killed her cousin but that his plan had always been to get information from her so he could track him down, and he had to complete the mission. He’d never been a quitter, and that wasn’t going to start today.
“Nobody is hungrier than me, Beast,” Carson said into the phone.
“Then let me see it. I’d better hear that the deed has been done. This is the only phone call you’ll get about this matter… consider it a courtesy call. The next time you hear from me it will be telling you that someone else completed your mission, and you can bring your slow ass back to the base. Comprende?” Beast’s mouth was no longer full of whatever he’d had in it, but Carson was almost sorry about that because he didn’t want to hear anything else from the man.
“Yeah, I understand just fine.” Carson tried to portray the calm and collected attitude he usually had, but it was difficult.
The phone clicked in Carson’s ear, and he tried not to seethe with anger. This just wasn’t his night. He didn’t have a choice but to pick up the wine he said he was going out to get and return back to Kelli. It wasn’t going to do him any good to think of ways to get out of what he was going to do, so he decided that he was just going to take it as it came.
***
The house was dark when he went back, and he wondered if everything was alright. It hadn’t taken that long to get the wine. He lifted the huge door knocker and let it fall to the brass plate on the wood. It took a few minutes, but he could hear something behind the door. It sounded like it was a scuffle going on, and he thought about drawing his gun. Thank god he was quick about it so he didn’t have to stand here on the ready.
The door opened, and Kelli looked as if she’d been crying, or sleeping. Her eyes had bags under them and were red. She’d either got some bad news as soon as he’d left or she had been crying about him. Either scenario made him want to hurt something. This woman had his emotions all over the map, and that was new for him. He didn’t think he liked it too much, but he wasn’t ready to let Kelli go either.
“Is everything alright?” he asked as she opened the door.
“Yes. I just decided to make it an early night.” She closed up her robe, and he shook his head for the second time that night trying to clear what seemed like cobwebs from his mind.
“I thought you said dinner would be ready in a few minutes. I took a few minutes more than I thought I’d take, but it’s been less than an hour.” He searched the place with his eyes quickly trying to scan for unwelcomed visitors. “Is anyone else here?”
“You mean did I call someone to off you when you got back?” She sounded hurt, and he wasn’t sure what of make of it.
“No, I didn’t mean that.” He went to sit on the couch and watched as she sat beside him. “It’s just the lights were off, and I didn’t know what was happening. Maybe it didn’t come out right because there is just so much going on in my mind.”
“I’m sorry. I saw you walking toward your bike, and thought you were leaving. You told me you were going to walk to clear your head.”
“I was going to walk, but then I got outside and wanted a cigarette. I gave them up a few years ago, but I keep a pack just in case of emergencies.”
“Well, this was an emergency I can imagine.” She sat there staring at him, and he realized that she actually didn’t think he was going to come back.
“Come here,” he said pulling her closer to him and sitting her on his lap. When she was settled in, she took a deep breath in and then turned her face toward his.
“I can’t believe you came back. Dinner is probably ruined, but if you want I can call out for something.” She looked so earnest, and he knew he’d never known a sweeter soul. He couldn’t afford to have her though, so he would just have to be content to know that he’d once known someone of her caliber. Maybe that would keep him warm when he was without her, because that day was coming soon.
“I’ve only been around you for a week. It doesn’t seem like you see a lot of your family or your cousin.” And so it began… she had opened the door, and now he was barreling through. The shitty feelings he had swirling around his brain and heart could go fuck themselves because he had a job to do.
“I don’t like to see my family all that much. I’m the black sheep of the family. I don’t want to be a part of the destruction and crime they involve themselves in. I do go to dinner with them once a month. If you wanted, you could come along. It’s actually tomorrow.” She looked so excited, and he would have loved to go if he were a really here to be a boyfriend, but there was no way he was going to show his face to her father when he was on a mission to kill the man’s relative and junior leader.
“Will your cousin be there?” He had to ask since he didn’t know what he was going to do with the whole Argo slash can I keep my job thing. It was better to have all the information available, and then he could decide the best route to take.
“Most of the time he comes, but I’m not sure about tomorrow. There have been people looking for him or so he thinks, and he’s been laying low for a while.”
“You don’t think people are looking for him?” Carson wondered if she knew how serious her family’s connections were and how many people were probably looking for him. She had no idea that is how they met. He was on a mission to find the man she called her cousin and kill him. Then he needed proof so that his group of biker mercenaries could get paid. It was a dirty, cruel world, and all of the sudden, he wanted to protect her from it.
“I guess they could be.” She didn’t seem like she was too interested in her cousin running, and he wondered if she knew he was running for his life.
Turning her heads, he snuggled into his neck. “I’m kind of tired. I took a sleeping pill so I could relax, and it is really kicking in.”
“Come on, Sleeping Beauty,” he said as he pushed her off his lap and then walked behind her to her room. Getting her settled in her large bed wasn’t hard as she was already dressed and just needed to be tucked back in. When she patted the spot next to her, he took off his clothes and slid in beside her.
“Thanks for coming bac
k,” she said sounding like she was almost asleep. He didn’t have an answer for that, so he just kissed her forehead.
“I know my cousin and dad would love you if they met you.”
She didn’t know how wrong she was. He lay in the dark and thought about how this was going to play out. There was a possibility that the cousin would be at the dinner with Kelli tomorrow, but there was no way he was going to kill him in front of her and his family, but maybe he could follow her to get to the house and then follow his mark home.
Kelli snuggled against him bringing her ass to fit his cock, and he thought about taking her up on what seemed to be her invitation, but he knew she was tired and all of a sudden he was too. What seemed like an open and closed case wasn’t feeling like that now. He had a piece of a plan to get Argo, but after that then what? He didn’t think he’d be able to come back here after offing her cousin even if she didn’t know that he was the person behind the take down.
“Just like I do,” she said sounding like she was already asleep.
CARSON_Satan’s Ravens MC Page 5