“Have you contacted the authorities? I mean, what’s the wait time? Twenty-four or forty-eight hours? I can never remember which it is.”
“We don’t deal with the police. We handle situations ourselves.” He reached for my hand, and I let him take it. “I want to be with you. For the first time since my accident, I feel good about my life, and it has everything to do with you.”
He melted me on the spot. “I want to be with you, too.”
“What time do you get off tomorrow?”
“I don’t know. I might have to work late again.”
“Lemme pick you up in the morning and I’ll get you after work. We can have a late dinner, and I’ll take you to my bed so you can decide for sure if you want to be with me.”
“That sounds great… Sex in a bed?” I giggled, leaning toward him for a kiss. “What would that be like?”
“Well, we’ll be able to fully discover each other’s body, which for you, mine might disgust you.”
“Don’t be silly. My hands are very knowledgeable, and I like what I feel.” I continued to kiss him.
“But will you like what you see?” he asked in a serious tone. “I’m all scared up, Kel. The club girls were put off, though they didn’t say it. But I could see it in their eyes.”
My heart fractured for him. “Maybe that’s why you struggled to get an erection. Fear of rejection. The oxy didn’t help, but up here probably added to it.” I tapped my finger on his temple.
“I don’t know. Whatever you do, don’t fake it for me.”
“Gideon, I would never. But don’t you forget who I am. Physical beauty only runs skin deep. It’s the heart that means more to me. If you treat me well, and so far, you have, I’m never going to let you go.”
It was like my words were exactly what he needed to hear because he captured my lips and kissed me completely and utterly breathless.
12
GQ
Jefe hit the mallet on the table, a ritual he did to begin church, which was a meeting for the council and whoever the president deemed worthy to attend, Fabio Ferrari, who had an interest in the Kozlov Bratva trafficking women.
I was anxious to get this over and done so I could go pick up Kelly and bring her back to the clubhouse. It’d been three days since I saw her. My plans to take her out to dinner the other day and have fun in my bed never happened. She had to work late. When I picked her up, she was completely exhausted. I felt so bad for her and took her straight home.
The next day, we were going to try again as it was her day off. But that plan blew up in our faces when Jefe sent me along with a crew to do recon on various locations Kozlov could be holding Lucy and perhaps other women. We weren’t any closer to finding them, so Jefe called in some help.
Today was Kelly’s second day off, then she worked the next few days. What I wanted to do was lock her away in my room, but it seemed dark forces were against us.
“How is it that we had that motherfucker in our clutches and he got away?” Jefe’s voice boomed, bouncing off the walls. “It’s been a week since he tried to take Slay’s woman and three days since the took Lucy.”
“It’s insane.” Slay slammed his hand on the table. “My woman is losing her mind. That fucker needs to be found today!”
“Are you sure he’s still in the states?” Fabio asked. “If it were me, I would’ve been gone knowing you were on to me.”
“As far as we know. Our guy, Wolf, has been on this since day one,” Jefe replied. “If he found anything, he’d contact me.”
“Big Daddy is sending a crew up from SoCal to help us search. They’ll arrive tomorrow,” Quino said. “But it’s like Alek just disappeared into thin air.”
“Yeah, and it’s driving me crazy!” Jefe shouted. “My woman and Slay’s shouldn’t be on lockdown. Cass’s sister Makayla is here, and she’s pissing off the club girls.”
I snorted to myself. Letty and Suzy were all up in a tizzy, having other women in their territory. They were so full of themselves. This club was the Kings. Our club. Those chicks were here because we let them be here. They owned nothing on our property but the clothes on their backs.
“Tomorrow, I’ve got three crews going out,” Quino said. He oversaw dividing the men into groups for the searching.
But we couldn’t leave the compound vulnerable either. We needed to have enough guys staying back to protect our clubhouse and loved ones, like Baby Chance and Mama Virgie.
My mind went to Kelly. I was confident she was safe at the hospital, but I felt it was time to put a prospect on her. I would feel better knowing someone was watching her when I couldn’t.
