Page 4

Rebel

W hen my shift ended last night, I went for a ride on my bike instead of trying to hook up with one of the club girls. Something about getting rejected by Zoe’s awkward friend stung my pride. I’m a righteous man. I work hard, try to do the right thing, and I’m as ripped as any guy in our club. I saw the way her eyes crawled over my body, as though she liked what she saw, so I wondered what I’d done to put her off.

Maybe it was something I said. I wasn’t used to getting judged and found so lacking that a woman wasn’t even willing to have a one-night stand with me. Maybe I’d been hanging around the wrong kind of woman, and she was just a nice woman who didn’t do one-nighters.

Anyway, today was another day. It was Sunday. I didn’t usually set appointments for myself on Sundays because I prospected for the Slayers on the weekend. Today, Forge put me in charge of the grill. We prospects grilled breakfast and dinner seven days a week for whatever brothers were in the clubhouse. I’d stayed the night and got up early this morning and started prepping for breakfast.

I started the coffee, put meat on the grill, and was working on eggs when Storm and Zoe came strolling out of the clubhouse. Zoe immediately went for coffee, but Storm walked over to me. “Zoe’s been looking for her friend. Do you know what happened to her?”

“Yeah, she decided not to stay after all. She said she had work to do today. Don’t worry, she was safe to drive.”

Zoe came over, handed Storm a coffee and took a sip of hers. By the expression on her face, it was clear that it burned her mouth a little. Storm told her, “Benny said your friend left last night because she had work today. Does that ring a bell?”

Zoe frowned, “Yeah, she’s just taken over Livingstone Electrical. Her father got too sick to work and the man he left in charge has been stealing from the company and running it into the ground. She’s gonna fire most of her employees tomorrow and then she’s gonna be shit out of luck if she can’t find replacements.”

Storm’s head swiveled around to stare at me. “Wow, how unfortunate is it that Zoe’s pretty friend is desperate for a good electrician and you’re desperate for someone to take over your office duties. Seems like the two of you are match made in heaven.”

Anxiety twisted in my gut at the thought of being rejected by this woman for a second time. “I don’t know, Prez. She didn’t seem to take a liking to me last night. And I’m not sure I want to work with a woman who rejected me without giving me a chance.”

Zoe snorted a laugh, “You invited her to go to a sex club with you the second you met her. You ought to know that no friend of mine is likely to take a strange man up on an offer like that right out of the gate.”

I brought one hand up to scratch the back of my neck as I thought over her words. “Yeah, I can see where you’re comin’ from with that one. The bottom line is I blew it with her, so I don’t see her wanting to work with me.”

Zoe rolled her eyes and strolled off with her coffee. Storm just looked at me in that disparaging way he sometimes did that made me feel dense. “It’s too early in the morning to deal with your shit, Benny. I’m gonna drink my coffee, eat my breakfast, and spend time with my wife but rest assured, I’m sure as hell going to circle back around later to talk to you about this situation.”

“Sure thing, Prez,” I grumbled as I filled a huge plate of food for him and Zoe to share.

I considered the idea of striking a deal with the lady that didn’t even see fit to tell me her name. It did not seem likely that she’d be interested in working with me or allowing me to work for her.

Memories of my last visit with my grandmother rose in my mind. She was frail and using a walker to get around. The caregiver I hired to take care of her was chasing her around with a protein shake, trying to get her to drink it. I ended up putting it in the blender with a scoop of ice cream and watched her gobble it up. My gran had always loved ice cream so mixing with her Ensure seemed like a no-brainer to me. I really needed to find her a decent caregiver, someone who’d actually think to do that kind of thing.

But decent caregivers cost money. I leaned back against the building, coming to the realization that I really didn’t have a choice. Maybe I would have to figure out a way to work for that woman. When push came to shove, I sure as fuck was not going to put my pride before earning the money I needed to make sure the woman who helped my momma raise me had what she needed in her old age. I decided that by the time Storm circled back around to me, I was going to agree to whatever he suggested. What choice did I really have?

As the morning wore on, I began to see the logic in Storm’s suggestion. Trying to look at the situation optimistically, this might be exactly the opportunity I’d been looking for, one where I could work all the hours under the sun, get caught up with all my bills, and start banking the money I was gonna need to take care of my grandmother as her condition deteriorated. Nursing homes cost big bucks, and I had to make sure I was prepared for that eventuality.

By the time Storm called me to his office, I was ready to step up and make a deal. What I wasn’t expecting was to find the woman from last night sitting in front of his desk in a nice comfy chair. I slowed my steps, suddenly cautious for no real reason at all.

Glancing at her again, I noticed she was wearing a nice pantsuit like Zoe was prone to wear. Her long legs were crossed, and she was wearing pumps with spiked heels. Damn, my cock for noticing those heels. Her long, dark hair was pulled back into a low bun at the nape of her neck giving sexy librarian vibes. She was wearing gold earrings and had her nails polished to match her suit. Fuck, I needed to stop staring at this woman before my cock exploded.

“Come in and have a seat, Benny.” Storm’s voice was nothing short of exasperated.

I walked in and took the seat beside her.

“I’m Lacey Livingstone,” she said as she extended her hand. “I realize I didn’t tell you my name last night.”

“Nice to meet you again, Lacey,” I said as I shook her hand.

She murmured, “Thank you, Storm, for bringing us together to talk this out.”

Storm gestured to me and sighed. “I got him here. It’s up to you to convince him to make a deal with you.”

Lacey pivoted her body so she was facing me. “It’s my understanding from talking to Zoe and Storm that you’re a decent electrician.”

“I’m an out-fucking-standing electrician,” I told her a little too vehemently. “Who do you think your customers get to fix the shit your team fucks up?”

Her eyes flashed to Storm and then back to me. “I didn’t realize our customers were coming to you.”

“There aren’t many electricians in the area with a Master Electrician license. I’ve been doing this for a few years now. I got eight thousand hours of supervised work experience when I did my apprenticeship in the military and sat for the licensing exam. Since I got out of the military, I’ve gotten experience working on commercial as well as residential jobs. Once word got out that I know my shit, of course they started calling me to call me to fix what’s broken.”

“You’re new to this area, right?” she asked.

“I don’t know if you consider me new. I grew up in Griffinsford and like many men from this area, I served in the US Marines until I got sectioned out for medical reasons.”

“What kind of medical issues do you have?”

I glanced at Storm. “With all due respect, ma’am. That’s none of your damn business.”

Her expression registered shock and she immediately rephrased the question. “Is it anything that could impact your ability to perform your job duties.”

“No.” I said, tight-lipped all of a sudden, because she was digging for information, information I considered personal.

“How would you describe your work style?”

I huffed out a laugh. “What the hell? Is that a real question?”

“Yes, there’s no wrong answer. The more I know about your work style, the more I can adapt mine to support you while you’re in the field.”

Nothing she just said made a lick of sense to me, so I deadpanned back, “My work style is I get shit done. Every morning I go through my work orders and do the most important one first then move on to the next until I clear all my work orders for the day. If it takes a couple of hours, that’s fine. If it takes sixteen hours, that’s fine too. Whatever it takes, I get the job done.”

“How do you handle complaints?”

“Don’t know. I’ve never gotten one yet.” Pride surged in my chest as I said that out loud.

“You’ve never had a complaint? None at all?”

“Of fucking course not. If you know how to wire shit and talk with your customers when problems pop up, there shouldn’t be any surprises after the job’s done.”

“What’s your biggest worry about coming to work for me?”

“Lady, I ain’t interested in working for you and if I was, you couldn’t afford me.”

Storm cleared his throat and interjected, “What Benny means to say is that he might accept a collaboration of sorts. He’s having the opposite problem that you’re having, in that he’s good at wiring shit up but not at keeping track of the paperwork, getting his business taxes paid on time, and stuff like that. He needs an office, and you need an electrician. It doesn’t take a fucking rocket scientist to figure out that you two could help each other and in doing so, help yourselves. Does that make sense?”

Lacey nodded like a bobblehead doll. “I’m sure we could work something out.”

“For me, this isn’t anywhere near a done deal,” I told her. “We’d have to work out issues like how to keep you from poaching my clients, what’s the pay gonna look like, whether I’m responsible for sourcing all my supplies and a bunch of other details about how to keep our businesses separate but ensure they’re still functional.”

“Yes, of course. We can work all that out. If we can come to an agreement, when is the soonest you can start?”

“As long as I can still service my own clients, maybe as soon as tomorrow.” Sighing, I told her, “If you want, I could even show up at the office tomorrow to make sure things don’t get out of control when you do those terminations.”

“That would be amazing. Maybe you could come at eight in the morning, and we could hash out the details, take care of the terminations, and grab some lunch.”

“That sounds good. I have a job already scheduled for late afternoon tomorrow. And I probably should tell you that I don’t normally work on the weekends unless it’s an emergency.”

“I understand completely,” she murmured, looking way more hopeful than I felt about us working out a mutual compromise.

When I got to my feet, she extended her hand again and I reluctantly took it. I shook her hand just to be polite. I wasn’t at all sure she was in a position to do what I needed, or that she’d be willing to compensate me properly. Those two points were deal-breakers for me.

She said, “Bring all your paperwork so I can see what I’m up against.”

“Sounds good, you might want to have a proposal sketched out. Expect some changes based on my needs.”

“I get that you’ll want to have your say and that the deal has to work for both of us. We’re smart people. I’m sure we can work out a compromise.”

“Great. I’ll see you in the morning Lacey.”

***

The minute I hit the bar, Zoe came to sit beside me. She slid me a cold beer and I noticed she had one for herself as well. “Since I’ve never had the pleasure of having a good old-fashioned chinwag with the club president’s old lady or had her fetching beers for me, do you mind telling me what this is all about?”

“God, you are the prickliest man I have ever met. I was just wondering how your meeting with Lacey went. If you don’t want to talk, I’ll leave you to your own thoughts.”

“If you must know, I left that meeting with a bad feeling that Lacey has it in her mind that I’m going to end up being her employee, specifically, the little worker bee who is obsessed with the queen bee. If so, she’s barking up the wrong tree.”

“Now why would you think bad of her when you don’t even know her?”

“When was the last time a woman took a chance on me? Do you have any idea?”

She shook her head, clearly confused about why I was being so difficult.

“Let me just say, never. Not once has a lady like yourself and Lacey ever given me a chance, professionally or otherwise. That leads me to believe that she just wants to use me to save the farm, so to speak.”

“Then use her right back,” Zoe told me. “Storm told me about your grandmother. You need money, striking a deal with Lacey could be the way to make a little pile of money to get your own business off the ground. If you had money, you could rent office space and hire a bookkeeper, right?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I need in order to make my business work. If she’s willing to be reasonable, we might be able to work out a mutual compromise.”

“Look Benny, I realize that you don’t know Lacey like I do, but I can vouch for her. She’s good people. I can’t imagine her intentionally screwing you over. She’s really open and easy to talk to. If you have problems, just go to her, and talk it out. You can do that, right?”

“Yeah, I sure the fuck can. If she double-crosses me, I’ll drop her like a hot potato. If that happens, I don’t want it to affect my standing in the club. Remember, you and Storm orchestrated this whole thing, if it goes bad, it’s not on me.”

Zoe just shook her head. “Okay that was my best effort at talking you through your anxieties and clearing up any misconceptions you had about Lacey. You’re on your own from here on out.”

She got up from the table and stalked towards Storm’s office.

My new cat rubbed herself against my leg, so I bent down and picked her up. She rolled over in my arms and looked up at me with her big green eyes. I rubbed her tummy, wondering what was going through her mind right now. Since I stayed at the clubhouse on the weekends, she was okay with me here, but what would happen tomorrow? I didn’t like the idea of leaving her on her own too much while I worked.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lacey walking by. She barely glanced in my direction and kept on walking. Zoe’s friend was all kinds of stuck-up and I didn’t know how to handle her. Being an intelligent man, I knew that it was a ‘me’ problem instead of a ‘her’ problem.

As I looked down at my foster cat, I felt her dig her claws into my jeans. Reaching down to remove her paw, an idea formed in my mind. “Hey Katy Purry, you want some pretty pantsuits to sharpen your claws on?”

Glancing out the window to watch her climb into her car, I decided to beat my fancy-pants boss at her own game. I’d suggest cat care as part of the deal and see just how much Lacey was willing to compromise to get what she wanted from me. Katy would stay in the office during the day, it was a win-win situation. What was the worst that could happen? Her saying no way? If she flat out refused, then maybe I could use that to get a concession I really wanted. Devious, I know, but I wasn’t planning to be totally cutthroat with the poor woman. We both needed this deal. I just planned to inject a little fun into the negotiations.