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But does she now?
“What are you doing here?”
I watch her eyes track over me, then the others in the garage, who all seem to have stopped working to look at her. I narrow my eyes at them all. How dare they look at my girl.
“Back to work,” I bark, and I hear a few snickers, but they do as they’re told. Even King turns and busies himself with something at the sink.
Idiot.
“Can we talk?”
My first reaction is to say no. I don’t want to talk. I want to worship her. Beg her to stay. Get on my knees and kiss her feet in gratitude for letting me look upon her again.
Instead, I clear my throat. “Yeah. Come on.” I walk toward her, and the urge to grab her hand is strong, but I ball my hand into a fist instead.
“Gina,” I say in greeting with a small nod. She winks at me, and I shake my head, not able to stop the smile on my face.
“Always a pleasure to see me, isn’t it?” she says as she steps along Natalie’s other side, and we walk to the clubhouse. The bikes outside tell me a few brothers are here. Not many, but enough.
I hold the door for my girl and her assassin but then glare at the other man. “Wait outside.”
The other two pause, and I see Natalie nod out of the corner of my eye. The man bows low before stepping back. There’s an SUV in the lot that wasn’t there before, no doubt for her, and I can already see it’s filled. I’m not mad that she came with people. I’m actually happy she did. Seeing her take care of herself, even by allowing others to watch over her, makes me proud of her. I know she must feel like it’s a new cage, but at least it’s one she controls.
It always takes my eyes a second to adjust to the lights in the club after coming in from a bright day outside. And when they do, I see who I should have suspected would be here.
“Natalie,” Ruby calls out, not in alarm but in awe. As if she’d never expected to see her ex-roommate again.
“Ruby,” Natalie says with just as much of awe in her voice. It shouldn’t bring a smile to my face, but it does. Because that means she came to see me. Just me. No one else.
Told you I was the selfish type.
“Ah, so you’re the roommate, huh?” Gina says as she grabs a chair and sidles up to Ruby, who sits at a table with Kitten, Billy, and the wedding planner Kitten hired. She looks into the bassinet beside her and pulls back with a face of disgust. “They all smell like that?”
Billy is the only one who smiles and shakes her head. She’s used to the crazy talk from what I know of her former group of people. “Not always.”
Gina seems to be okay with that and moves on. “What are we talking about?”
“Weddings,” Kitten says, as the shock seems to have worn off her and her usual oversharing self comes out. “And dicks. Got one?”
“A dick?” Gina asks with a curious look at each of them.
“Jesus Christ,” I say and shake my head.
“Nah, a man. But if you’ve got a dick too, we won’t judge. But we might want to see it,” Ruby says.
I look at Natalie and see a small smile on her face. She’s used to Ruby and everyone else here. It’s familiar territory, even if she tried not to be a part of it the last time she was here.
Looking at her reminds me that I don’t want to share her. Not right now. “My room should be a good place to talk.”
She nods and turns, knowing where it is.
“Nat,” Ruby starts, and I see Gina grab her hand and keep her seated.
“Let’s let them talk, and you can tell me all about how you thought it was cool to be friendly with Reina over my girl. And depending on what you say, I will decide if you can keep your tongue or not.” The glint of metal catches my eye as she twirls a knife.
“No,” Natalie says but doesn’t look back as she keeps walking away.
I turn at the last minute before going down the hall to my room and see Gina pouting.