Lake: A Steel Paragons MC Novel (The Coast: Book 5)

by Eve R. Hart

  Poor Ellie.

  That girl had been scared out of her mind.

  I’d never forgive myself for that one even if she’d forgiven me.

  Hey, things were crazy back then and I was not only trying to prove myself, but also keep the club safe.

  Bridget, however, reacted very differently from the way Ellie had.

  She came at me with lightning speed and fire in her eyes. She popped me in the eye before I even knew what the fuck was going on.

  It hurt like hell.

  And also made me smile for some strange fucking reason.

  “Hey, brother.”

  I heard Mason’s voice the same moment I felt his hand on my shoulder. I knew he was trying his best not to scare me but I still felt caught off guard. Damn. I had been lost in my head for a minute there and I couldn’t even tell you what I’d been doing to her car. Probably nothing. I bet I was just standing there hunched over and looking like a frozen jackass. Oh well.

  I shrugged as I righted myself and gave him my full attention.

  “Hey, Mason,” I said trying my best not to look like I was out of it. “What’s up?”

  He handed something to B-ry, who I just realized was there was well. B-ry walked around to the passenger’s side of the car, opened the door, and ducked down putting the registration back into the glove compartment, or so I assumed.

  For the first time that I could remember, I felt a little shady about some of the things we did. No, no. I didn’t mean all the outlaw shit, I knew that was shady and illegal as hell. I meant the whole getting Cable to look into people and dig up their darkest secrets and whatnot. Yeah, it had been done to me but I had expected it. Hell, I knew about it and I told them everything they needed to know before they found out themselves. That was just something you did because you couldn’t trust a man with secrets, right? I believed that. While there was some stuff I didn’t like to talk about, I wasn’t the type of person that tried to hide it to the extreme.

  Mason opened his mouth to say something and because I felt on edge, I looked around like Bridget would choose this very moment to reemerge from her extended bathroom break.

  “Something up?” Mason asked because I was sure I was looking shifty as fuck right now.

  “Bridget came down here to see what was up with her car. She’s in the bathroom,” I told my VP straight up because I didn’t want him to think I was trying to hide something. In a flash, I saw it in his eyes that he understood.

  B-ry came back around and stood beside Mason. Then I saw Mouse walking up to join the party.

  “She say anything to you?” Mason asked in a slightly lower tone.

  I kept my eyes on the door that led to the lobby area.

  “Yeah, she told me she was a PI and up here for some case she’s working.”

  I had to be honest, after talking to her, I didn’t feel like she was a threat to the club. I would even go as far as to say that she didn’t have a clue about us when she broke down here. The shock on her face last night when she noticed the patches wasn’t something that was faked or forced.

  “She didn’t say anything about the case but I suspect that is because she wants to protect the client and all that confidentiality stuff.”

  “Makes sense,” Mason said with a nod. “Well, Cable is still looking but I think we got pretty much everything. She wasn’t lying, it looks like she owns her own firm down there in Tampa. Her dad passed away about a year ago and he handed it down to her. From what Cable can tell, there is only one other person working there with her. Not a very big firm.”

  “Yeah, I kind of get the feeling like she’s not rolling in the dough. It seemed like she was nervous about how much it would take to fix this thing.” I jutted my thumb in the direction of her car behind me.

  “Hey, Lake?” Her voice called out over the noise of the garage and I kicked myself for taking my eyes off the door for a second.

  I shot my gaze to her direction. She wasn’t even paying us any mind because her head was down as she looked at some papers in her hands. There was a pen stuck behind her ear and I wondered what the hell she’d gotten into. I wasn’t worried because there wasn’t anything for her to find that would hurt the club. We did our best to run this place as a legitimate business and we weren’t stupid enough to leave incriminating stuff just lying around.

  “Oh, sorry.” She stopped short when she got about three feet from us.

  As if she knew something was up, she stood tall as her eyes raked over Mason, B-ry, and then Mouse.

  Then she turned her eyes on me. There was a terrifying coolness in them. I didn’t want her to think we were talking about her behind her back… even though technically we were.

  “How’d you get my name?” she asked and it sounded more curious than mad.

  “Registration,” B-ry supplied.

  “Ah, smart.” She gave an approving nod. “You have one of those tech gods at your service? Do you know my shoe size yet? If so, then can you go get me a new pair because these just don’t go with every outfit and I might be stuck here a while.”

  We all looked down to her green Chucks. I heard Mouse and B-ry chuckling behind me.

  I couldn’t help the smile that overtook my face.

  And Mason, well, as I looked back over at him, I could tell he was doing his best to try and hide his amusement.

  “Didn’t go that far yet,” Mason answered, his lips twitching slightly.

  “Cool, then that probably means you haven’t figured out what kind of porn I like to watch.” I choked on my spit and blinked at her. She carried on as if nothing was going on. “I was trying to organize all the shit in there but I can’t read what this says.”

  She stepped up next to me and pointed to the paper she was holding.

  I tried, I really did, but I couldn’t read whatever kind of alien writing that was. This was the very reason I gave up on filing shit away recently.

  “Prospect,” I called out looking three cars down.

  He was good with cars and that was just one of the reasons I liked him. But when it came to paperwork, he was the only one that could understand that shit. I started making him tell me the parts he needed so I wouldn’t spend a half hour trying to figure shit out when I was getting an order together.

  “Yes, Lake?”

  “Talk to him, he should be able to tell you,” I said to Bridget. “And you don’t have to do that.” I had no clue why I hadn’t said that to begin with.

  “I know. Have fun talking about me, boys.”

  She turned and walked off without another word.

  “I think I like her,” B-ry said and I didn’t have to look at his face to know he was wearing a cocky smirk.

  “Don’t you already have a woman?” I grumbled under my breath, though I couldn’t tell you where the hell that shit came from.

  “So then, let’s get her sorted out and on her way,” Mase said looking at her car with a grimace. Yep, it was that bad.

  “Yeah,” I said almost disappointedly and turned my attention back to figuring out all the crap I needed to fix.

  “Now I’m curious as hell. What kind of porn does she watch?”

  I shook my head as B-ry’s voice faded while they all walked away.

  “I’m going to get lunch,” Ky said a little while later. I had been lost in my work and hadn’t even realized it was that late. Bridget hadn’t come to talk to me anymore, but a few times I heard her voice in the background talking to the prospect about the papers she was organizing. “You want to go to the diner?”

  “Uh,” I hesitated as my eyes slid over to the door leading to the lobby.

  Ky made some noise then chuckled.

  “Never thought you were into the real kinky stuff. I mean, I’m not judging. But if she’s going to beat you, just make sure to remember your safe word.”

  “You’re such an asshole,” I said shaking my head.

  “Maybe next time, make it someplace less visible.”

  He walked off bef
ore I could get another word in.

  Realizing that I was, in fact, hungry, I cleaned up as best I could.

  “Hey,” I said stepping into the lobby. “You want to… go get some lunch?”

  “Huh?” Her head whipped up like she hadn’t even heard me come in. “What?”

  “Lunch? Food? Want to go eat it?”

  “With you?”

  “Well, yeah,” I answered. “I mean, you know, because if you’re hungry now, I was going to go get something to eat.”

  Why did it look like she had to think about it?

  It was a simple question and I couldn’t understand what was so hard to figure out.

  “Um, no. Thanks though,” she finally answered.

  This woman was kind of odd and really confusing.

  “Okay,” I said drawing the word out. “You want me to get you anything?”

  “Nope,” she said returning her attention to her organizing. I had to say, the place looked much better. I couldn’t believe that I had let it pile up for so long.

  “You’re not going to eat?” I had no clue why I couldn’t just let it go.

  “I’ve got some peanut butter crackers in my car. I’m good.”

  And that was just unacceptable to me. Especially because I’d seen her scarf down the food last night like a person that had forgotten what food was.

  I felt bad. That was the thing that rattled around in my brain as I rode over to the diner.

  It was the excuse I used as I sat briefly with Ky and a few others and ordered my food to-go.

  It was the reason I held onto as I rode my ass back to the garage and hesitated on my plan.

  Yeah, I had no idea what was going on. I blamed it on the fact that I just wasn’t sure about her. Not even a little. While I didn’t think she was out to get me or the club, I had no clue about anything else. She was different, that was for sure. But I couldn’t tell if I liked it or not.

  “You didn’t have to do this,” she said after I set the still hot burger and fries in front of her. She looked up at me and I would have sworn that her eyes softened a little.

  “You didn’t have to do this,” I replied back pointing to all the work she’d done for the shop.

  “Fair point. Thank you.”

  “Come on, there’s a break room in the back.”

  It wasn’t much. A small room that held a tiny round table and three chairs. There was a short counter on the right side that held a microwave and a mini-refrigerator that was mostly full of water and soda. Which I offered to her and she pointed to the red and white can.

  “Sorry about earlier,” I said because I did feel all kinds of wrong about it.

  I wanted to give some sort of explanation but telling her that we were overly cautious seemed to sound a bit more like we were just plain paranoid. Plus, I didn’t want to give her any kind of hint that we sometimes found ourselves in the middle of danger.

  “I get it.” She didn’t sound mad as she took a huge bite of her burger.

  “So, you drove all the way from Tampa in that thing?” I asked completely shocked that her car had made it that far.

  “Yep.” She laughed like she couldn’t believe it either. “I didn’t have much of a choice. Had I known that I would have to drive for over ten hours, I might have turned it down. But then again, I wasn’t the one that took the case.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah, but I offered because Art, my partner, is older and his health isn’t the greatest. Besides, I kind of got the feeling like he didn’t want to do it.”

  “What’s it like being a PI?” I asked. I wanted to keep her talking and not because I was trying to find out information for the club. I genuinely wanted to know more about her and I hoped it came off that way.

  “Oh, it’s great. You know, sit around and wait for people to call and then more sitting after you get a case. Usually outside of seedy motels. Sometimes I get to hang around in bars. Real fun stuff.” She didn’t sound like she hated it though her words kind of made it sound bad. “Sometimes I get to see people doing it, so… yeah, okay, it’s not that great. Most people should just leave their clothes on.”

  I dropped my burger so I could cover my half-full mouth as I laughed uncontrollably. It was all I could do to swallow and not choke.

  “You’re funny,” I said after I took a swig of my soda. “I think I like it.”

  This shocked us both and while I was trying to process what and why I’d just said that, her eyes went wide. I was pretty sure there was a hint of pink in her cheeks, too.

  “Well, you’re not as bad as that first impression made you seem.”

  She didn’t say anything else and I stared at her like I was waiting for something.

  “Okay,” she said with a huff and a dramatic roll of her eyes but her smile was a dead give away that she wasn’t irritated at all. “You’re kind of adorable… and maybe I find myself liking it.”

  Hold up a minute.

  Were we flirting?

  No, I had to be mistaken on that.

  Would I even know what flirting was if it slapped me in the face? I got lost for a moment trying to figure out the answer to that. What was the difference between being really nice and flirting? I mean, she wasn’t batting her eyelashes at me and all that. And I wasn’t trying to… to… get her to like me? Or was I?

  So maybe I kind of wanted her to like me but only in a friendly way. She was tough and pretty cool. I liked that she didn’t seem to bullshit around, but then again, I didn’t know her all that well. There was this feeling I got though, and not like a fluttery-love-stars-in-the-eyes feeling. It was more a poke in the brain that told me she wasn’t the type of person that liked to play games and hide things. Which I thought was pretty awesome.

  Plus, she talked about porn and people getting naked.

  That was shockingly funny to me.

  Clearly, I was still a perverted twelve-year-old boy at heart.

  But really, weren’t all men?

  Anyway.

  “You have this weird look on your face,” she said snapping me out of my strange life ponderings. “Do you have gas?”

  “What?! No!” Well, I didn’t until she said that. “I was just thinking about things.”

  “Oh. Well, maybe you should work on your lost in thought face. I’m going to do the thing that no one has done for you, not even your club buddies, apparently. And that is, let you know that your thinking face makes you look like you’re in pain and in desperate need of a bathroom. It will scare women off.”

  I snorted. I mean, I wasn’t one to brag, but I didn’t have any problem when it came to women.

  “Or men. I don’t judge,” she said with a shrug then took another bite of her burger.

  “No, I don’t like guys.” Did that sound a little defensive? I had no clue why, it wasn’t like I had anything against dudes that liked other dudes. Ky and Chris were one of my favorite couples, for crying out loud.

  Her eyes cut up to mine like she wasn’t buying it.

  “I like ti-uh, boobs.”

  And because I was now thinking about boobs I couldn’t help but glance down at hers. My eyes screwed shut as I shook my head. Shit! I was usually a lot smoother than this.

  “Okay.” She didn’t look impressed at all. “So what’s up with my car?”

  “You really want to know?”

  “No… it doesn’t sound like I do.”

  “Well, like I said, you needed an oil change. There was no oil in there at all. And don’t get me started on your filter. You do know you’re supposed to get one every three thousand miles, right?”

  “I thought that was more of like a suggestion,” she said causing me to grit my teeth. “What else— wait did you say needed? I thought you’d work up some kind of bill for me before you started doing shit.”

  “Yeah, I went ahead and took care of that for you,” I answered like it was no big thing. She looked down and I had a feeling that it had something to do with money and not being able to
pay for it. I wasn’t going to charge her for it and to me, it wasn’t a big deal. I continued on because I didn’t like seeing this look on her at all. “I’m throwing it in for free because I feel bad for her. We’ll work it all out later, don’t worry about it. So, your car overheated and you blew a—”

  “Okay, don’t give me all the mechanic-y talk, I won’t understand a damn thing. Just tell me what has to be fixed in order for me to get around here and then make it home when this is all over. And by that, I mean how much. Also, how long will it take?”

  I let out an exacerbated sigh.

  “I have to call around for parts. Some of them I might even have to go try and dig out of a junkyard. Your car is old but not old enough to where people would consider it a classic. Most of those end up becoming scrap metal.”

  “You take that back. What if she heard you say that?!”

  I smiled.

  “At her age, I don’t think her hearing would be all that good.”

  “True,” she replied. “Go on.”

  “If I were going to fix it,” I started and stared her down. The car wasn’t really worth fixing and I had a good idea that the repairs were going to be out of her price range. She would have been better off scrapping the thing and finding some cheap clunker that was in better condition to get her home. “I would need at least a few days. Probably more like a week. Parts will take a few days to get in and that is if I can order them. And there is just so much… it’s going to take me a while to get it right.”

  She fell back in the chair looking deflated.

  “Honestly, you’re looking at dropping more than what the car is even worth.” I had no idea why I felt the need to add that in there because I was pretty sure she got that with just my tone alone.

  “So you’re telling me that I’m stuck here?”

  “Yeah. Sorry.”

  “Um, is there a cheap place that I can stay nearby?” she asked and then shook her head and stood up. “Never mind. I’ll figure it out. Thanks, Lake.”

  Then she was gone before I could get another word out.

  How did I go from feeling playfully happy to feeling like an asshole that had kicked someone’s puppy in a blink?

  I shoved away from the table determined to fix something. It may not have been her car but I had an idea of how to help her out a little.