“Can’t say I disagree.” Rafe nodded his head over to Ada. “You got things covered here?”
“Yeah, we’re good.”
“All right then.” Rafe gave me a pat on the shoulder. “I’ll leave you to it.”
With that, he went down the steps and got on his bike. I stood there on the porch, watching as he pulled through the gate. Even after he was long gone, I was still standing there—trying to prepare myself to face Remington again. I finally pulled it together to go back in, or so I thought.
The second I walked into that kitchen, I knew I’d gone back in too soon. I was still wound up from my conversation with Rafe. I couldn’t seem to think straight, and it didn’t help matters that Remington was staring a hole through me. She was looking for answers I wasn’t prepared to give. Instead of talking about it, I chose to ignore it altogether and didn’t say a word through dinner. Apparently, that didn’t sit well with Remington.
As soon as the dishes were cleared, she started in on me with one question after the next. I’d already told her that I couldn’t discuss club business, but clearly that didn’t matter. It wasn’t as if I didn’t understand why she wanted to know what was going on with the Michaels guy we’d seen across the street. Anyone would be curious about how it had all played out, but I couldn’t and wouldn’t talk about that with her.
I could’ve ended the conversation there, but then she came at me with her bullshit about the Punishers finishing her off, and I lost it. I started thinking about what it would do to me if something happened to her, and the next thing I knew, I was reaching for her, pulling her against my chest as I planted my mouth on hers.
I should’ve pulled back, forced myself to stop, but I simply didn’t have the strength. She felt too fucking good in my arms for me to let go. When her tongue met mine, it sent a shock straight to my cock, making it difficult to restrain my need for her. I’d never felt anything like it. With a simple touch, she had me twisted in knots, and I wanted nothing more than to stay right there in her arms. Damn. When I finally realized what the fuck I was doing, I forced myself to pull back, freeing her from my hold. As soon as I saw that look in her eyes, I knew I’d fucked up. I had to get the hell out of there, and fast, so without any delay, I headed outside to do another perimeter check.
I’d only been outside a few minutes when my burner started to ring. I grabbed it out of my pocket, and as soon as I saw that it was Viper, I answered, “Tell me you have some good news.”
“Sorry, brother. Just more of the same.” I could hear the frustration in Viper’s voice. “Menace and Hawk have been at it for days. They’ve been able to locate most of the Punishers, but forging a plan to get forty or more members in one location has been problematic at best.”
“I have no doubt. Have you come up with any possibilities?”
“None that are worth mentioning. I’d say we just take them out one by one and be done with it, but with the cops breathing down our backs, we can’t take any chances.”
“They been around again?”
“Just the same old bullshit. They’ve been driving by the clubhouse and Stilettos every hour on the hour, and even followed Country and Hawk home last night.” Viper growled under his breath. “Fucking harassment if you ask me, but not a fucking thing I can do about it right now.”
“Menace find anything more on Detective Mathews?”
“Word is the motherfucker just got promoted to the lead DEA agent.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Serious as a fucking heart attack,” Viper snarled. “Seems he has everyone fooled.”
“Or everyone in that fucking precinct’s on the take.”
“Maybe. Either way, we need to put an end to this shit before it costs us more than it already has.”
“Give me an hour, and I’ll see what I can come up with.”
“I’ll be waiting to hear from you.”
As soon as I hung up the phone, I started towards the main office. When the club first took over the storage lot, we remodeled one of the climate-control units into a full office with an added restroom and small sofa. After the cops came snooping around, I wasn’t ready to let go of McKinney, at least not yet, so I moved him into the office. Every time I did a perimeter check, I’d be sure to stop by and check on him. I didn’t have to worry about him running off or doing anything stupid. Not only did I have him restrained, the guy had nowhere to go—not after he rolled on his crew. So, he was basically waiting out his days in our makeshift office, praying that I would put an end to his misery.