“Why are you watching the store?”
“Because Max is making me waste my time.” At least the biker didn’t try to deny the obvious.
“You’ve got five minutes to leave, or I’m calling the cops. Tell Max to butt out of my life.”
Casey saw a car pulling into the parking lot and went back inside. It didn’t take long to wait on the young couple. After they paid and left, she took out her cell phone, making good on her threat.
She mopped the floor automatically, waiting for the cops to show up and make the biker leave the parking lot. One never came. Just as she was about to call again, the headlight of another bike pulled into the parking lot, and Max soon filled the doorway, staring at her grimly.
Casey quit mopping, her hands tightening on the handle. Whenever she saw Max, he always had that good ol’ boy attitude, but she had always been able to see the lethal menace he successfully hid behind his cheerful façade. Tonight, he made no attempt to hide his anger.
“You called the cops instead of me?” he demanded.
“I gave him plenty of time to leave,” Casey defended her actions.
“He’s not going anywhere until you give this piece of shit job up.”
Casey stiffened angrily, dunking her mop back into the mop water then wringing it out before slamming it back down on the floor, continuing to clean.
“I think it’s funny that you put down a job that pays an honest wage. When’s the last time you held down a job, Max? Not since I’ve known you.” She deliberately let the dirty mop splash against his boots.
Max strode forward, jerking the mop out of her hands. “I work every fucking day.”
“Doing what? Running drugs or making sure someone else gets a free pass in this town?”
Max’s lips tightened at her insult.
She refused to struggle with him over the mop, so folding her arms across her chest, she stared at him angrily.
“Woman, if anyone else talked to me the way you just did, it would be the last words out of their mouth. Don’t think you know everything about me just because your mother can’t keep her big mouth closed.”
“I don’t want to know anything about you, Max. Never did, never will, and I’d like you to return the favor and keep your nose out of mine. Think you can manage that?” Casey snapped.
Max handed her the mop back. “If you want to put your life in danger working here, fine. I don’t know why I gave a damn in the first place. If your own mother doesn’t give a fuck, why should I?” He turned on his heel, angrily pushing open the door and leaving the silence of the store to engulf her hurt emotions.
She watched as he climbed back onto his bike, giving the lone biker a signal before both roared off down the dark street.
Casey refused to feel guilty, not believing for a second that she had hurt his feelings. She had learned long ago not to trust anyone with her safety, and she was smart enough to know never to trust a Predator.
Of course, she wasn’t happy about making him angry with her, either. She needed to draw him closer. On the other hand, she didn’t want him keeping an eye on her movements. With one slip up, she could hurt the very one she was trying to protect.
Chapter 5
Max slammed the empty beer bottle down on the bar counter.
“Give me another one,” Max told Issy, Jackson’s ex-wife. The bastard had been a guard at the prison they had been locked away in last year. Jack had beaten Ice, and once they were on the outside again, Ice had taken revenge by destroying his life. Issy had been one of the instruments that had been used.
She had taken to the club life like she had been born to it, and Max had given her the new nickname. Isla was too formal-sounding for a woman who loved to suck dick as often as she did.
“Save yourself the trouble and give him two,” Jackal said, sitting down on the stool next to him. “What’s up?” Jackal asked.
Max twisted open the beer then took a long drink. “Nothing.”
“Something’s wrong, or you wouldn’t be here drinking; you would be fucking Issy in those tight-assed shorts.”
Max’s eyes ran over the attractive woman as he took another drink of his beer. “I’m not in the mood.”
Jackal choked on his beer. “Since when aren’t you in the mood to fuck? Hell, when you were stabbed, you were discharged from the hospital and fucked half the women before the night was over to make sure your dick still worked.”
“Don’t like to fuck when I’m pissed off.”
“Must be bad to keep you from fucking. Is it CeCe?”
“No, I haven’t seen her since she started dating that professor.”