Jake and I sit across from him now at a desk as he cross-references the Baylor County police database on a second monitor.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Their crew is involved with the casino there,” I note. I’ve seen them in passing before.
“Part of the Wretched Souls MC.” Kai’s eyes move rapidly as he waits for the match in the database.
“Gotcha, fucker.” He grins. “Alexander Ramos.” Kai turnsthe monitor to me and Jake to show us old mugshot photos from Lakeside, the town a few counties over.
“His tats are covered by the collar.” Kai points to his neck.
“Looks like it,” Jake adds from the other side of the desk.
“Now all we need to know is why the fuck a patched member of Wretched Souls is gunning down churchgoers in an Atlanta suburb.”
I nod, looking from the grainy photo to the mugshot to the sketch. It’s definitely him.
“You’re right. It just doesn’t make sense—their crew doesn’t usually head up that way.” I scrub my jaw, trying to put it together.
Kai shuts off the computer, stands and lights a smoke. He takes a long inhale. “We’re close. We’ll find him.” He looks over at Jake then back to me. “We can get Mason in on the hunt. It’ll give him something to focus on besides Nic.”
I nod at him. “Good man. And speaking of Mase, what did you get tonight?” I switch gears.
“Besides your dick sucked,” Jake chuckles, leaning back in his chair.
“Christ,” I mutter. “Spare us.”
“I don’t kiss and tell.” Kai grins on an exhale. “But the chick I talked to, she’s worked at both Lush and Lavish, and she hasn’t seen Gator. Not once in months, so that’s a red flag in itself. She said he used to be there almost nightly.”
“And I talked to Jesse.” Jake mentions the leader of the Savannah K6ers. “We’re good with them. Those guys we took out were stealing from their own crew. When I told him what we found in the house, he realized they were shorting them on the girls’ percentages and what they were selling. He said we did him a favor. He fucking shook my hand and thanked me.” Jake starts to laugh.
I stand. “So we’re good to leave tonight.”
“Yeah, there won’t be any retaliation, but Jesse warned us to let him know next time we’re inhisterritory.” Jake smirks.
I laugh. Fucking rich. “Someone needs to remind him Bleakerisour territory. We have an arrangement. They don’t deal within five blocks of the clinics.”
“Another day brother,” Jake pipes up. “Just let the dust settle on this one and we’ll keep an eye out.”
I nod and make my way out the door to search for Layla. She’s sitting with my mom at a table watching the live band, and she flinches when I kiss her neck, then I feel her body relax.
“It’s been a long-as-fuck day. All I want to do is get you somewhere and get you naked,now,” I whisper in her ear, wrapping my arms around her.
She turns her face up to me, like she has a wicked little plan running through her mind. “Maybe. But it’s only eleven, and I know your back must be tight, so you, Sergeant, are mine first.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Sean
“Be serious!” Layla looks over her shoulder at me and tests my will as she reaches up overhead.
Sun salutations.At fucking midnight. I just learned that term when we got back to her house from the club and she insisted that a yoga session with her to wind down was necessary. It’ll help me sleep, she said. It’ll help loosen the tight muscles in my back. Except she’s standing in front of me in the smallest, tightest black shorts known to man, and it’s actually having the opposite effect. Then add a tiny black bra top and her hair held back off her pretty face with a satin scarf and it’s making my muscles more rigid by the second as I watch her move with grace through her routine. The living room is open and she has candles lit to create what she calls “ambience.”
Surprisingly, as we move through the poses I’m able to pick up most of it with little trouble, and it does actually help loosen me up. Do I do it gracefully? Hell no. But fairly easily, considering she has me doing this in just my boxers—something about letting my energy flow. I’m skeptical of how my being almost naked helps, but at this point I’d probably dowhatever she told me to if it meant watching her move like this in the candlelight.
Layla takes a deep breath as we wind down our practice, arms up over her head again. I follow her, taking in the dove on her shoulder, the curve of her spine, and the bottom of the vines peeking out from her top withJeremiah 29:11scrawled underneath. Even Bible verses inked into her skin are fucking sexy.
She flows through her movements, rolling forward and touching her toes, rising up then dropping back down. The two dimples on either side of her spine become more pronounced when she’s folded forward and I can’t help but marvel at the fucking beauty and grace of her. The contrasting sides of her that I don’t think anyone other than me has ever seen. I know now that she’s outwardly sassy to protect the sweet vulnerability that lives inside, the side she’s afraid to share with most people. And there’s a dark side that lives in her, craving a little pain, craving a little dirty. Just watching her has me desperate for my reward for being such a dutiful student.
“Stop looking at my ass and focus.” She glances back over her shoulder and it tempts me even further. I can’t fucking believe how everything about this woman calls to me. I can barely stand being two feet away from her.
