And when Fangs’s eyes met his, he said out loud what I had been thinking all fucking night. “Because if they’re trying to ambush us, this would be a great time to do it. So, if we go slight in numbers, it’ll give them the impression that we aren’t onto them when we really are. Gives us the upper hand.”
Church dragged on for longer than necessary, but when he dismissed us, I headed straight for my apartment. I lived above a string of abandoned storefronts that covered a nine-thousand-square-foot space, and I loved every inch of it. I had taken my throngs of money and really done the place up. I had panoramic views of the beautiful Twin Bays area and I was within walking distance of some of the finer shops and eateries that had popped up in the past few years. It was luxury living for a fourth of the cost that it would have taken for me to have done the same thing in L.A. or San Diego, and I made sure to enjoy every second of it.
Especially when I turned on the misters in my shower to help my aching muscles relax.
“Oh, yeah. That’s the stuff,” I groaned.
I took a cat nap in the corner of the warm sauna shower before I cleaned myself up. I snagged some breakfast and coffee across the street at the coffee house that had just set up shop, then I headed straight to our clubhouse. I pulled into the sandy parking lot and stared out at the ocean. Our clubhouse sat on the outskirts of town, where people were unlikely to bother us.
But the car parked across the road wasn’t even being inconspicuous while it sat there.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I murmured.
I craned my neck over my shoulder and stared the woman down behind the wheel of the car. I recognized her instantly, too. She sat there, stuffing her face with something that she kept pulling from her lap, her eyes focused on me. Even as our gazes locked, she didn’t move. She didn’t budge. She didn’t attempt to whip her car around and speed away. She didn’t get out of her car to approach me. She just sat there. Chomping away.
Like a fucking creeper.
“All right, time for a talk,” I said as I put my kickstand down.
I walked all the way up to her car and knocked on the driver’s side window. “Morning.”
She cracked her window. “What?”
A grin spread across my lips. “You’re a curious little thing, aren’t you?”
Her eyes danced between my own. “I could say the same about you, coming up and knocking on my window.”
“I’m sure you can’t blame a man for wondering why you’re sitting here staring at our clubhouse. Since I’m assuming you already know what it is, Miss Journalist.”
She blinked. “And?”
I licked my lips. “And leave. This is private property, and you’re trespassing.”
“I already checked the public schematics. You guys don’t own this side of the road.”
Annoyance flushed its way through my veins. “Leave, or I’ll have my men come and make you leave.”
She giggled. “You mean, you can’t make me leave yourself? That’s a bit rough on the ego, don’t you think?”
I knew the only way to make her leave was to satiate her curiosity, so I reached for her car door. I pulled it open before she had a chance to lock it and I reached over her body to unbuckle her seatbelt.
“Hey! Get off me!” she exclaimed.
I grabbed her arm and tugged her out of the car.
“My gummies!” she yelped.
I tossed her out into the middle of the road. “Now, you’re on our property. So, walk, unless you’d like me to call the police.”
“You mean, the police you guys pay off?” she spat.
I ignored her quip. “Go on. Satiate your curiosity. The front door’s always open.”
She peered over her shoulder before looking back at me with a curious and concerned look, and she had every right to be concerned. I didn’t give a shit about her, and the second my brothers knew who the hell she was, they’d give her the ride of her life. I didn’t have a lot of patience, though. If pictures and a few quotes were what she wanted, then we’d give that to her.
You know, before we shot her on site if she tried her bullshit again.
“Fine,” she said as she turned toward the clubhouse. “I think I’ll take you up on your offer.”
