“I’ll try.”
Karina leads us to the bar where Luck’s busy handing out drinks.
“Your men need some privacy?” he asks in a teasing voice that oddly makes my sister blush.
Before she finds her tongue to answer, Amy, a club girl I’ve met before, joins Luck behind the bar, bumping him with her hip. “I’ll take care of drinks, Luck,” she says, looking up at him with an adoring smile. He wraps his hand in her ponytail, tilting her head back and leans down to whisper something in her ear.
Next to me, Karina squirms and seems almost…jealous.
I give her a sharp elbow to the side, and she replaces the dark look with a smile.
“Hi!” someone shouts behind us. We turn, forgetting all about Luck and Amy. Karina’s best friend stands behind us with her arms wide open.
“When did you get here?” Karina yelps, jumping down to hug her friend.
Athena’s been cool toward me since we met, so I hang back a few seconds before saying hello.
We’re not talking long before Romeo comes up behind Athena and lures her away. “Those two make less sense than you and your scary boyfriend,” I tease.
Karina rolls her eyes. “He’s not scary.”
“Uh. Yes, he is.”
“Your man’s big, tattooed ass looks just as antisocial.”
“His ass is really more—”
“Eww!” She shoves me to the side. “He’s practically my brother-in-law, I don’t want to know anything about his ass.”
I shove her back and we end up laughing. Shit, I never knew how much I missed not having a sister around growing up.
Even though things are still…awkward between us sometimes, thanks to our idiot father, Karina and I have fun together. I’m going to miss her when she goes back to school next week.
“What’s wrong, Kadence?” she asks, dropping her smile.
“Nothing. I—I’m going to miss you, that’s all.”
“Aww.” She wraps me up in a gentle hug. “I’ll miss you, too. I’ll be back in a couple weeks for winter break. We’ll plan something fun. Just the two of us.”
“Okay.”
Shit, I have no idea what I’ll be doing in a week from now, let alone a month from now.
My eyes land on Blaise, watching me while he’s busy talking to Dante. Both bikers seem to have managed to put their backs to the wall so they can keep tabs on us while they discuss business.
“Should we interrupt?” I ask.
Karina watches them for a minute. “Dante will let me know when they’re done.”
Anger bubbles up inside me. “Doesn’t that ever annoy you?”
“No.” She cocks her head. “Honestly, I’d rather know as little about club business as possible.”
“But doesn’t that bug you?” I persist.
She gestures around the room. “You seem so impressed with the way no one bothers me here. That’s because Dante treats me with respect and makes it clear his brothers need to as well.” She lowers her gaze and plays with the bracelets laddered up her arm. “He doesn’t need to break his oath to the club to show me he cares.”
“I bet he demands to know everything about your life, though.”
