Page 17 of Break Away (Riot MC Next Generation #2)

Chapter eleven

Carried Away

Alexandra

After I finished my final, I stood at the corner across from my apartment complex and reached for the carabiner clip holding my keys. Before I unclipped them, it hit me that Rafferty had my apartment key, so I dug my phone out of the side pocket.

Normally, I’d text but I called him instead.

“Hey,” he answered.

“Hi. I’m across the street but wanted to make sure you’re home. If not, I can head over—”

“I’m here. I’ll unlock the door.”

“Cool. See you soon.”

The signal changed and I hurried to the other side of the street. Giddiness welled up inside me, like he was my first crush.

Then again, he was .

At the door, Rafferty opened it before I could. My smile faltered when I took in his face. His beard almost hid it, but I’d been studying oral health for a while. I’d developed a bizarre habit of looking at everyone’s lips, mouths, and jawlines a little more closely.

“How did you get hit in the mouth?” I asked.

Rafferty turned his head a touch, grabbed my hand and pulled me inside. “You’re way too observant, Lex.”

“True. What happened? That looks like it hurts.”

His tongue darted out and touched the area where his lip was swollen. “I paid Brantley a visit at his place. Porter was there and got in a lucky sucker punch.”

I shook my head in confusion. “There’s no such thing as a lucky sucker punch, Raff. How did you get to Brantley’s? I don’t know his address, Ines doesn’t have a physical address book, and I barely recall which streets she took to get to his place on Sunday morning since the sun hadn't risen.”

He shot me a grin that I hadn’t seen since we were teenagers, and now, that panty-melting grin had been perfected. “Will you forget about it, if I say it’s nothing to worry about?”

“No.”

“I didn’t think so. Give me your backpack, and sit down.”

I slipped my arms free of my backpack and set it next to the wall. He watched me settle on the sofa with my foot under my tush.

“Are you tender?”

I was, but it was easing up. “I’m fine. How on earth did you find Brantley and Porter?”

He sat down next to me. “I forgot to lock the door after you left. Porter came inside while I was showering—”

“He did?”

He gave a rueful chuckle. “Yeah, even whipped open the shower curtain since he thought you were behind it.”

My eyes went wide. “You’re shitting me!”

“No.”

He shared about the rest of his morning.

I sank back into the couch. “Half a kilo of cocaine? Are you… And Ines uses, too?”

He dragged a hand down his face. “According to Brantley. I don’t know if I believe him, though.”

My eyes closed and I attempted to process everything he shared. I opened my eyes and focused on him. “Did you try looking for the drugs when you came back?”

“I did a cursory search. I wanted to wait for you to get back before I started rifling through drawers or her closet shelves.”

I nodded. “Do you think Tobias has the drugs?”

He pressed his lips together then stopped with a hiss. “I think it could go either way at this point.”

“You should get some ice on that lip, Raff.”

“I’ll be fine. I’ve suffered much worse.”

I leaned forward. “Where’s the card for Officer Hatcher? We should call him.”

“Are you shitting me?” he asked in an almost mocking tone.

I twisted my hands up. “I’m sure they have a drug-sniffing K-9 that might be able to help us.”

“Sure, until the coke shows up in your bedroom.”

That brought me up short. I twisted my lips to the side. “Well, I guess we should search her room more—”

“No,” he interrupted.

“What do you mean, ‘no’?”

He grabbed my hand and tugged me toward him. “No, first you need to give me a kiss. Then, we can go through her room. But I think we need to go through your room, too. Seeing as there’s three people in the mix here, your room or bathroom might make for the best hiding spot.”

I lifted my hands up. “Or even the kitchen or living room.”

Rafferty shook his head. “Not the living room. I searched earlier, even turned the furniture over and unzipped the cushions to check inside. No drugs. The kitchen is a last resort. Too much happens there. Somebody drops by, they could open the wrong cabinet or something… I don’t know.

It just seems like it wouldn’t be a decent spot.

But if we don’t find anything, we’ll check there last.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

Every time I thought I had pinpointed the exact shade of Rafferty’s brown eyes, I found reasons to doubt myself. Today his eyes had a shine like chocolate chips that had just melted. Tomorrow they would look totally different.

“What are you waiting for, Robertson?” he asked.

I shifted, leaned up, slid my hands along the side of his neck, and ever-so-gently brushed my lips against his.

He wrapped his arms around my waist. “What the hell are you doing, Lex? Kiss me like you mean it.”

“I’m not going to hurt your lip, Raff.”

His chin lowered as he gave me a pointed look. “A split lip is the least of my worries. Kiss your man.”

I stopped myself from widening my eyes, but my whole body froze. Your man . That was fast… then again, we’d known each other our whole lives, so no, it wasn’t fast at all, really.

“Lex,” Rafferty said, breaking into my spiraling thoughts.

“Fine,” I whispered, and planted my lips on his.

He didn’t give me the chance to deepen the kiss. In seconds, he took full control, his tongue dipping between my lips and dancing with mine. My hand glided up his neck and through his hair at the back of his head.

I hadn’t been kissed like this… Well, not since this morning.

I shook my head and Rafferty broke away. “What?”

“Nothing. I, erm, we’re getting carried away.”

He rested his forehead against mine. “No, babe. That’s not carried away.”

Out of nowhere, he pushed forward and I fell to my back, pulling my foot out from under me at the last minute.

I had his weight on me, and I realized how much I loved it.

All that bulk and power. His lips met mine, and he kissed me again.

He ratcheted this kiss up quite a bit compared to the other two.

Clearly he was proving a point.

God, he was stubborn.

Then again, we had that in common.

He slid a hand along my jaw and held my head still while his other hand trailed a path down my side to my hips. I shifted that leg, but he kept his hand where it was.

He kept kissing me and our breathing became labored. Part of me wanted to stop him, but far more of me enjoyed what he was doing.

Gently, he broke the kiss. He lifted his head just an inch. “ That’s getting carried away.”

“Yeah,” I breathed.

My stomach growled.

He sat up. “You haven’t eaten lunch?”

“Not yet. Have you?”

He pulled his phone from his back pocket. “Nope. We’ll Doordash something, that way we can start searching Ines’s room. What do you feel like?”

I sat up and shrugged. “I don’t care. I picked dinner last night, you decide. Anything except seafood.”

He arched his brow. “But you love seafood.”

I nodded. “Yeah, but I’m not in the mood for that today.”

“Do you still hate barbecue?”

My lips tipped up. “I don’t exactly hate it. There’s a 4Rivers here.”

“Done. Cookie or red velvet cupcake?”

I hesitated too long.

“Fuck it, I’ll order both. You want to get started in Ines’s bedroom? We can break when the food gets here.”

I stood. “Sure, but what’s the hurry?”

He glanced up at me from his phone. “The hurry is so that we have more time to fool around - even if I’m not going to fuck you tonight.”

“Why?”

“I don’t intend to hurt you, and I’m pretty sure you lied earlier about being sore, so giving you a little extra time is a good idea.”

“Fine. Make sure you get the sweet barbeque sauce and not the mustard or vinegar based stuff.”

He shot me a dry look. “Lex, it’s me you’re talking to. You think I don’t remember that about you, think again.”

While Rafferty ordered our food, I pulled out all six dresser drawers in Ines’s room and put them on her bed. I squatted down and looked at the inside of her dresser frame in case she (or Brantley) had taped the drugs to the sides of the dresser. No such luck.

Rafferty came into the room and looked impressed. “That’s smart - taking out the drawers. Can your bathroom drawers be removed?”

“I don’t think so.”

He nodded. “I can go through these if you want to go through her bathroom cabinet - or vice versa. From how bitchy Jasmine gets when I move her make-up and shit, I figure it’d be better for you to do that.”

My lips pursed as I tried not to chuckle. “Your sister is far from bitchy, Raff.”

He pulled out a stack of folded t-shirts from one of the drawers. “Have you messed with her foundation and eyeliners and shit?”

I shook my head. “Of course not. I know better.”

“Hardy-har, don’t forget to check the toilet. Or I can handle that if you want.”

By the time I’d finished in the bathroom, our food had been delivered. We ate, and then got back to checking Ines’s room. I helped Raff move her mattress to the hallway so we could check the underside of the box frames.

“Why do you think it’d be in the box frames?”

He looked at me. “Now that I’m a prospect, let’s just say I’ve learned a whole lot more from the brothers, and Roman mentioned some things to me. Like hiding something under a mattress is good, but hiding it dead center is better, and more difficult.”

I narrowed my eyes. “But Roman’s in Biloxi.”

Rafferty nodded. “Yeah, and not long after I started as a prospect, the brothers rode out to Biloxi. Har convinced Volt to leave me there for two weeks. ‘Put me through my paces’, as he put it.”

I grimaced. “Sorry to hear that.”

He shook his head. “Don’t be. It was worth it. Gave me some clarity about the kind of work I want to do, and it helped me rule out moving there.”

“What kind of work do you want to do?”

“I’ve worked a lot of different construction jobs, Lex. Brute has his own general contracting business…I had thoughts of doing something similar. Just not in Mississippi.”

We pulled the box springs off the metal frame and checked the bottoms. No drugs.