“Like—” Fuck, I didn’t know. Like a honeyed fucking prayer, but I wasn’t about to admit that aloud. This dude had taken me apart enough as it was. “Never mind. Forget all that. Let’s say I called to reassure you I won’t be late and leave it at that.”
A beat of silence bloomed between us. I wondered if I’d offended him. Then his silky voice returned. “Whatever you want,Cam. I will see you on Thursday.”
The bastard hung up on me again, leaving me to stare at my phone and seriously question my compound wanking rules. Thursday was three days away. If I couldn’t kill the fire Teddy had lit in me by then, I’d be walking into that meeting with a dick like a stone fucking column.
5
Teddy
The premises of Kings Building Ltd was exactly as I expected it to be, even without the help of Google Earth. Tucked off the exit of an A road, it was a large, sprawling complex, and the builder’s merchant Cam had told me about only accounted for the cluster of buildings at the front.
Behind it lay a warehouse-style structure, a breakfast café, and a gated compound that a cursory glance led me to believe was the headquarters for the Rebel Kings Motorcycle Club, the one percenter organisation Cam had failed to mention.
This amused me, though I couldn’t say why. It wasn’t as if Cam owed me a complete inventory of his business interests. Only the ones he needed my help with, which led me to ponder the status of his other financial affairs and what the merchant company was a front for. Not that I cared, but I wasintrigued. Everything about this man intrigued me, from the hidden kindness in his deep-brown eyes to the odd feeling thinking about him gave me in my chest. The alien sensation that fascinated me enough to bring me to this place and seek him out.
I parked my car beside a row of grimy vans and got out, my boots hitting the damp, sandy tarmac the same moment as a tradesman beside me with his dirty trousers and utility belt.
He gave me a strange look.
I ignored him and strode to the main entrance, holding it open for him with a stare that made him shiver. I was good like that—it made people remember me when I wanted them to and forget me when I didn’t.
The man preceded me to the front desk of the builder’s merchant. I let him do whatever he’d come to do while I assessed my surroundings. It wasn’t the usual category of business I frequented, but I recognised a well-oiled machine when I saw one. Staff hard at work with amiable smiles on their faces. This was a place where people liked their boss. They likedCam, because there was no doubt in my mind that he was lord around here.
How could a man who fucked like that be anything else?
The shivery tradesman left with a length of something enormous that he strapped to the roof of his van. I watched him go, then approached the front desk. A woman with dark hair and eyes like Cam’s greeted me, suspicion and confusion already brewing in a gaze that felt more familiar than I could bear.She knows I don’t belong here.
I didn’t even try to smile. “Good morning. I have an appointment with Cam.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed, swallowing up the warmth that was so like Cam.His sister.I couldn’t say why I cared. Or why I noticed she was every bit as beautiful as him, though she did not make my stomach flutter the way her brother did.
“Can I take your name?”
“Teddy Jones. He’s expecting me.”
The woman nodded and signalled for a man nearby to take over her station. Then she disappeared without a word and I took it to mean Cam would find me when she’d tracked him down.
I retreated outside. An enclosed space with all eyes on me was not my favourite environment. It made me tetchy, and I wasn’t a pleasant person to be around when I was irritated. Besides, I liked the outdoors and I liked to watch men work, so Cam’s yard proved as entertaining as I needed it to be.
Enlightening, actually. I observed the comings and goings of the builder’s merchant, men with vans and trucks, clothes grubby from manual labour. It was a brisk trade. A constant footfall. Unless someone was making gargantuan mistakes behind the scenes, it was unlikely the place didn’t turn a healthy profit.
And then there was the rest of it, the steady trickle of men on loud motorcycles rumbling through the side gate and disappearing into the compound. None were Cam, but their tattooed arms and scruffy jaws were enough to let me know I was watching the Rebel Kings come and go. The activity wasn’t as overt as MCs I’d seen elsewhere, but the energy was unmistakable, that quiet flurry of dangerous efficiency.What are they up to, I wonder?
The obvious answer was moving drugs inland and into the cities from the coastal territory they clearly controlled, but Cam didn’t strike me as a man who always chose the obvious path. He’d wound up in my bed, after all.Maybe he has a wife locked up in the compound somewhere.
Possible, but he didn’t strike me as that kind of liar either, unless she knew he liked scouting for cock in dingy Bristol pubs.
Footsteps came up behind me. Knowing it wasn’t Cam, I didn’t turn round. I waited for the woman from the reception desk to step around me, her scowl less prominent than it had been before. “He’s on his way. You can wait in the office if you like. I’ll get you the accounts.”
“They’re on paper?”
“Yes.”
Marvellous.I really was in for an interesting morning even if Cam never showed his face.
I followed his sister to the “office”—a quiet corner of a bigger room where staff were picking and packing orders of goods that were small enough to be handed over the counter. More curious glances filtered in my direction. More suspicion. “They think I am from the local authority, perhaps?”
Cam’s sister almost smiled. “I haven’t asked, but people dressed like you normally means trouble around here, so it’s possible.”
