Tool burst out laughing as Angel headed toward the Firehouse, knowing damn well he had to let the Prez know his sister-in-law had just hit town—and inspectacularfashion.
Tool watched Layla climb back into her car, peeling off into traffic like she had something to prove, nearly cutting off another vehicle in the process.
The deputy, still sitting in his cruiser, glanced over at him. Tool lifted his beer in salute. The cop shook his head, and if Tool wasn’t mistaken, he was stifling a laugh.
He sure hoped the deputy had an extra ticket book.Because something told him this wouldn’t be Layla Bagrov’s last run-in with the law.
“Oh, by the way, Brandi’s the one who put together this girls weekend,” Angel called back to Tool.
He choked on his beer when he heard Angel. What the hell was Brandi doing leaving town without speaking with him first? Pulling out his phone he punched the keys sending her a text.
Tool:What’s this you’re heading out of town?!
Chapter Six
Brandi feltthe vibration of her phone. Smiling at the customer, she waved as the mother and daughter duo left the Coffee Bean. Retrieving her phone she knew before looking it would be Tool.
Brandi:I am. What about it?
Tool: Why haven’t you spoken to me about this?
Brandi stared at Tool’s response and saw red. How dare he think she needed to speak with him about where she went and who she went with. He’d left her alone for years, the only time she saw him was when he dropped off food for her at the clubhouse.
It had been Gypsy who told her she could live there or somewhere else. He along with Lilly and Crow had helped her enroll in college classes online. Lilly and Crow gave her a job and an apartment so she wouldn’t have to remain at the clubhouse.
Brandi:I think you must’ve hit your head; I don’t answer to you. I can go where I want, when I want, and with whom I want. If you want that to change, you know what you need to do. Oh yeah, but I’m too young for you. Get over it, Tool.
Brandi’s fingers trembled as she set her phone down on the counter, her heart hammering against her ribs. Damn him.Damn him for acting like he had some kind of claim on her after all this time. She exhaled sharply, blinking away the sting behind her eyes.
The little bell above The Coffee Bean’s door jingled, snapping her back to the present. She forced a smile for the next customer, ringing them up and handing over their change, but the moment they were gone, she snatched her phone back up. Tool still hadn’t replied.
Coward.
She tossed the phone down again, willing herself not to stare at it. He wasn’t worth it. Not his brooding silences, not his hot-and-cold affection, not the way he’d made her feel like an obligation instead of a choice.
But then, as if her thoughts had summoned him, her phone vibrated again.
Tool:You think it’s that simple?
Her pulse skittered. He was biting back. Good.
Brandi:I think you make it complicated. I think you like keeping me in this in-between place where I’m close enough for you to care, but not close enough for you to do anything about it.
Three dots appeared, then vanished. Appeared again.
Tool:You don’t understand.
Brandi scoffed. That was classic Tool—speaking in riddles, never giving her the full truth.
Brandi:Then explain it to me.
More dots. Then nothing.
She waited. Five minutes. Ten. The anger that had burned so hot began to cool, leaving something heavier in its place.
He wasn’t going to answer.
Her fingers curled around the edges of the counter, jaw tightening as she blinked hard. Fine. Let him ignore her. Let himsit in whatever mess he’d made. She wasn’t going to wait for a man who only wanted her when it was convenient for him.
