It seemed I wasn’t the only one that wanted Hunter happy.
*
I should have expected one of them to strike when the opportunity presented itself.
Roy, who had been sitting at the bar, summoned Hunter over with his chin. I urged Hunter to go to him; I was merely feet away and wasn’t going to go Stage Five Clinger on him the first day here.
He had his back to me, and Roy was talking in his ear about something that made him nod several times. I watched him, not noticing when a large figure slid in next to me, until I heard, “You’re Itani’s girl.”
I whipped my head to the gruff voice, to the young-ish, bearded man sitting next to me. Large and muscled, with a short beard and long black hair.
I knew his name already. Had heard Kyle earlier call out to him to welcome him back, as though he had been gone a while.Miles.
“What?” I said quietly.
His blue eyes stared knowingly at me. “You heard me.”
I didn’t respond for a moment, and then I remembered to be social and friendly. I smiled brightly at him. “You said I’m someone else’s girl?”
He didn’t smile back or appear friendly. “The last time I saw you, you were sitting in the backseat of Loraine Itani’s car, looking like you were going to your death.”
I couldn’t hide my shock. My face fell. “You were next to us. At the red light.”
“Good memory.”
I looked back at Hunter, hoping he would notice this.
“He’s preoccupied,” said Miles, reading my mind. “He won’t save you right now. You’re going to answer my questions.”
My smile was gone now as I looked back at him. I could only force out, “Okay.”
“You belong to Leo Itani, don’t you?” he asked now.
I shook my head. “Not right now.”
“You wanna explain what that means?”
This man had a scary look in his eye as he watched me, like he was waiting for me to slip up. I clasped my hands together, explaining, “I’m with Hunter right now. I left Leo’s this morning. We have—” How was I going to explain this? “It’s an arrangement that we have.”
“What’s this arrangement?”
I felt my face heat now with the probing. This was what I had expected to happen, what I had dreaded, and I didn’t want to talk about it. Not in this crowded bar, to this scary biker. I felt my face tighten. Gone was my friendly demeanour. I was guarded now. “It’s complicated.”
“Well, uncomplicate it,” he demanded swiftly. When I didn’t answer straight away, he pressed in a harder voice, “Explain to me why you left an enemy’s territory to come to ours.”
I felt a flare of anger. “He’s no enemy tome.”
His eyes narrowed, studying me. “Are you using Hunter?”
“No,” I quickly said. “Absolutely not.”
There was a mean edge in his tone when he said, “DidLeo Itanisend you?”
I remained calm, saying firmly, “No.”
“You got through the surveillance room, are you planning on conveying that information to the Itanis when you leave this place?”
I kept shaking my head. “No, no, I’m not—”