I almost laughed.
He had no idea.
Neither did she. Not yet.
Nancy may have preferred women to men right then, but there was no denying the attraction between us. Her desire for women was natural, but her hatred for men was not. There was a reason she didn’t want a man in her life, and I was determined to find out why and rectify that shit.
“Skate,” I said, changing the subject. “You seen him?”
Skull nodded, happy to move on from the subject of pussy that couldn’t be caught. I wondered whether he would lie to me and tell me he hadn’t seen him. How deep was his loyalty to the club, or was his loyalty to Skate deeper? They’d been friends a real long time, and despite me being a Highwayman nomad, I was still new to this city and new to this club. I was happy when he told me the truth.
“Brother came around here a couple of hours ago. Said someone was on him.”
“ATF,” I confirmed, but Skull shook his head and I frowned. “Then who?”
“No idea. I asked him that and he said it was better I didn’t know. Said his past was catching up to him or something. Never said who it was though. Told him he could crash upstairs for a little bit. When I took Zoe—the blonde from earlier—upstairs, thought we’d end up having some three-way action, but Skate was gone.” His cell rang and he pulled it out of his jeans and answered it, taking a couple of steps away before he spoke. “No you can’t take the rest of the day off.” Skull glanced back at me and smirked. “Fine, take an early lunch or whatever.”
I scowled, thinking about Skate and who he could be running from. That man wasn’t afraid of anything or anyone. Not a lot to be afraid of when you’d had the kind of start in life that he had. Pretty much all the demons in the world couldn’t be worse than those he’d sent back to hell after deciding enough was enough.
So if not ATF, then who?
The club?
I couldn’t see a reason why he would.
And why wouldn’t he go and talk to Vin if there was a problem? Vin treated his brothers like family. He helped them out, no matter what the problem, no questions asked. What could be so bad that Skate wouldn’t go to his president?
And worse, where the fuck had he gone now?
Skull hung up and shoved his cell back into his pocket. “Got our girl spooked,” he laughed. “You got a magic cock I don’t know about?”
I laughed back and shrugged. “That’s what I’ve been told.” I grinned. “What did she say?”
“Asked if you’d gone yet and when I told her you hadn’t she asked for the rest of the day off.” He moved round the counter and started shuffling some papers around. “Maybe I was wrong about her after all.” He looked up through his dark lashes. “Maybe I should give her another shot.”
Anger surged through me and I reached out to grab him but he ducked and burst into loud laughter. “I’m fucking with you, Sketch,” he laughed, clutching his sides. “I’m telling you though, you still ain’t getting in those panties. No matter how magical you think your cock is.”
I grinned and dragged a hand down my beard. “We’ll see.”
“Bet you a hundred bucks you can’t.”
It was my turn to laugh now. “I don’t need your money or a bet to get into her pants.”
“Aaah, so you’re not as confident as you make out then. It’s cool, no worries, brother.”
I shook my head and started to walk toward the door. “Fuck you, Skull. Make it two hundred, and we’ll see who isn’t confident when I’m balls-deep inside of her.” I opened the door and the bell above jingled again. “Because where my cock is concerned, it always gets what it wants.”
~ 9 ~
Skull’s laughter rumbled out behind me as I stepped back into the hot sunshine. “You see her, tell her to get her ass back to work!”
I shook my head and looked down the sidewalk, seeing the ATF car still parked there. I gave them a wave and headed in the direction Nancy had gone not five minutes before.
She needed to learn she couldn’t run from me and whatever it was between us. Sooner or later I was going to have her, and then she’d be the one doing the chasing. I smelled coffee and let my nose do the walking as I guessed where she’d gone.
I opened the door to Rosie’s Coffee Shop at the end of the street. It was barely a five-minute walk from INKslingers, but it felt double that with the sun blasting on my back, the heat penetrating through my black leather cut and making me sweat. Fucking hated weather like this. Too hot to ride my bike and too hot to ride in a cage. The air was still and suffocating and I was glad to get inside the shaded, air-conditioned coffee shop.
I looked around, spotting Nancy with her girlfriend and the little fucker she’d been with at the Laughing Moose when I’d first met her. I couldn’t work out their relationship yet. He looked at her with lovesick puppy eyes, touching her at every opportunity he could and ignoring the glares her girlfriend gave him, yet she continually brushed him off, so his advances clearly weren’t wanted. Yet if what Skull had just said was true, she hated men, and it made no sense to keep this little shit hanging around her.
