Viper nodded. “We’ll devise a signal, so if there’s any trouble, we’ll scrap any plans and come in. We just don’t want to lose our only connection to the main kidnapper unless we have to. I don’t want to burn our only bridge to finding Elizabeth if she isn’t there.”
“You won’t have to. I can take care of myself,” Rory assured Viper.
“You can stay in the bedroom in the basement. Make yourself comfortable during your stay. Just know visitors aren’t allowed upstairs. I also don’t want any of the women, other than Jewell, to know why you’re here. King doesn’t want any connection to you made public, which means the less said, the better, to anyone who isn’t in this room.”
“I can do that,” Rory agreed to Viper’s order.
“Good. Then everyone enjoy what’s left of the night. Jewell, you mind showing Rory where he’ll be sleeping?”
Her jaw tightened, as if she was going to refuse Viper’s request. Instead, she stood up. “You want to grab your suitcase? I’ll wait here.”
Sensing she wanted to say something privately to Viper, Rory left to go outside to get his suitcase from the SUV he had rented. His warm breath hit the cold, creating a vapor cloud. The reaction reminded him of the woman whom he had left inside the club. Her ice-cold behavior didn’t bother him. Rory sensed the passionate woman inside.
Women like her would put him out of business. Jewell was definitely in tune with her sexual needs and wants, which was why it was so easy for her to ignore the spark of attraction between them. He didn’t fit the ideal lover of her fantasies, so she didn’t want to waste any effort on him. She had already decided he couldn’t give her anything that the men inside could give her without the headache of him of not being a Last Rider.
Opening the trunk, he took out his suitcase and the backpack that held his laptop. Closing the hatch, he hiked the backpack onto his shoulder. Nimbly walking up the icy steps, he felt adrenaline coursing through his veins.
God, how he loved a challenge.
Chapter Six
Jewell planted herself in front of Viper before he could escape to his home. “Why do I have to be the one to play babysitter? Let Moon or Nickel do it.”
Viper’s irritation at being delayed showed. “I didn’t ask you to babysit him; just to show him to the bedroom. Moon is guarding the door and parking lot. Puck is waiting for Nickel to replace him so he can go home. And before you ask, Jesus volunteered to clean the kitchen. So, go ahead if you have something you need to take care of. I’ll show him.”
“I can do it. Winter is waiting for you.”
“Jewell, after the holidays, we need to have a talk.”
Her mouth turned into a hard line, conscious of the room emptying out. “We do,” she agreed.
“You really want to move back to Ohio?”
“Yes, I miss being there.”
“Do you miss being in Ohio, or is just too hard to stay here?”
Jewell froze. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Jewell, Reaper is my brother. I would have to be blind not to know where your feelings have always lain where he’s concerned.”
Jewell focused on one of the pictures of the brothers that Winter had hung in the room. The one she was staring at fixedly had Reaper in it. “Does he know?” she asked huskily.
“Reaper has never discussed his feelings for you.”
She flickered her eyes to Viper’s, demanding the truth. “But you discussed my feelings for him.”
“When you wanted to join the club,” Viper admitted.
“Can this day get any shittier?”
“Jewell, there was no way we couldn’t have talked about your feelings for him when you wanted to join the club. I had to take them into consideration as president of The Last Riders.”
Jewell’s pride came to her rescue. “Reaper wasn’t why I wanted to join The Last Riders.”
“Bullshit. I called you out then, and I still say the same thing.”
“It’s true.” Pride had her voice rising. “You made me wait to become a Last Rider until I was twenty-one, while you made everyone else wait until they were just over eighteen. Even Bliss. And we both know she was head-over-heels with Shade.”
“Bliss came to us after living through a nightmare. Her feelings for Shade grew after she was already in the club. You came from a living hell, and your feelings were plain before you became a Last Rider.
“Reaper didn’t want you to join because he was the one who saved you.”
Jewell made a face at the tactful way he had said what had gone down in her past.
“You mean, when he pulled me off the streets?”
“You weren’t living on the streets,” he hedged.
“I was living in a broken-down car, freezing to death in a rest top when Reaper broke the window to check on me.”