“Earth to Wolf.”Rafe’s voice cut through.
Wolf snapped his gaze back to the table.“What?”he said.
Rafe smirked faintly.“You listening?”
“I heard you,” Wolf grumbled.
“Yeah?”Briggs said, leaning forward again.“Then answer the question.”
Wolf’s expression didn’t change.“What question?I don’t answer questions that don’t matter.”
Briggs huffed a quiet laugh, and Wolf was tempted for a fraction of a second to punch his lights out.Rafe was fine to work with, but Briggs?Wolf always disliked the guy, because he never took anything seriously, but what could he do?King assigned this team to him, and Wolf wouldn’t argue.
“What’s your deal with that waitress?Jade, right?She’s pretty hot,” Briggs commented.“You fucking her or what?”
Hot?Wolf didn’t like the look Briggs was giving Jade as she bent over a table to wipe it clean.
“We’re not like that,” Wolf said coldly.Rafe knew him long enough to recognize the coldness that appeared in his gaze.
Briggs widened his grin, like he didn’t believe it for a second.Wolf felt Rafe kick Briggs’s leg under the table, but Briggs unwisely ignored him.
“You’ve been driving her home every night,” Briggs pointed out.
Wolf tightened his jaw.“So what?It’s not safe out there that late.”
Briggs let out a low whistle.“Since when do you care about things like that?”
“Since recently,” Wolf said.
Briggs pressed for more, but Wolf didn’t respond, because Briggs had hit a sore point.The truth was, Jade was getting slowly under his skin, but he wasn’t stopping it.He could stop offering to give her a ride back home after every shift, but what if something happened to her?
He thought of the way her lovely and slender arms felt around him on the bike, like she was made for him.The way she leaned into him without thinking.The way she’d impulsively kissed him that first night, and the kisses that followed.
The only reason he didn’t push this thing between them forward was because he knew how this would end.Jade had made it clear—this was temporary for her.And of course, he didn’t want this life for her.Jade was different from the club women.
She didn’t belong here, didn’t belong in this world.And when Callahan finally showed up, or when the debt was cleared, she’d be gone.Back to her life, which would certainly not include him.
Wolf knew that, understood it.Hell, he accepted it even, so he held back when it came to her.Wolf strived to keep things simple.
“All right,” Briggs said, leaning back in his chair like he’d just come to a decision.“If she’s nothing to you...”
Wolf didn’t like the way that sentence started.He was certainly suspicious of the glint in Briggs’s eyes.
“Then I’ll go ahead and ask her out,” Briggs finished.
A wave of indescribable possessiveness filled Wolf at those words.Wolf gritted his teeth as anger flared low in his chest, building until it could burst.
“Don’t,” Wolf warned, tone flat.
Briggs flat-out ignored his warning.
“Relax,” he said.“You just told me she doesn’t mean anything to you.”
Before Wolf could respond, Briggs lifted a hand.
“Hey,” Briggs called out loudly.“Jade.”
Wolf snapped his gaze toward her instantly.Jade turned at the sound of her name, tray balanced in one hand.For a second, she hesitated, like she was weighing whether this was something she could ignore.
