Page 18

F ang groans as he shifts in his seat. I look over at him and smile. He’s got his wrist resting on the steering wheel as he drives with one hand while the other pulls at his hair.

“You good?”

“I fucking hate riding in a box,” he mutters, making me laugh.

“It’s not that bad.”

He scoffs. “You have no idea. Shit, that’s probably half the reason I didn’t move back to Vegas.”

I turn in my seat to face him. “What do you mean?”

“I transferred down here from the Vegas chapter. I came down when Colt came back when his son was born and he was going through shit with his woman. I hauled both of our bikes down here and then never left.”

“How is Colt?” I ask, talking about Hayes’s cousin.

The corner of Fang’s mouth kicks up. “Dude’s good. Happy to be back in Vegas and away from here.”

I wince thinking about his life here growing up. The guy had it rough and had a lot of expectations set on his shoulders when he was young. “Yeah, I don’t blame him. His girl is from here, though?”

“Shit, our boy played with fire and knocked up another club’s princess and then claimed her.”

“Wait, are you talking about Kaitlyn?” I ask, referring to the Noche Oscura president’s daughter that we went to school with.

Fang nods. “The very one.”

I lean back in my seat and shake my head. “Well, I’ll give him credit for waiting as long as he did. I’m pretty sure they had a crush on each other in high school.”

Fang laughs as he pulls to a stop outside of an apartment complex. “That’s what I’ve heard. Now are you ready to do this?”

“You know it.” I reach into my bag and pull out my taser.

“What are you doing with that, Hellcat?”

“What, this?” I wave it in the air. “I’m going to zap anyone who gets too close.”

“Does your man know you have that?”

Hearing him call Savage my man has a shiver of warmth going through me. Instead of correcting him, I shrug. “I mean, it hasn’t come up.”

“Just make sure you keep that pointed away from me, all right?” He eyes me warily.

“I can do that,” I promise.

“And you have to let me lead. No walking ahead of me.”

“I know what I’m doing, Fang. Now let’s do this,” I say as I open the door to hop out of the truck.

I hear Fang curse but ignore him as I move toward the building.

“You’re shit at listening,” he mutters.

We make our way to the third floor, and Fang scans the hall before stopping in front of the apartment in question.

“Do you want my lock picks?” I whisper.

He opens his mouth to say something but shakes his head as he pulls a set of his own picks from his pocket. Quickly, he unlocks the door and removes his weapon from the holster in the small of his back.

“Wait out here for me,” he whispers before stepping into the apartment quietly.

Fuck that.

Ignoring him, I walk in behind him, shutting the door as quietly as I can behind us. Fang looks over his shoulder and gives me a “what the fuck” look before going back to clearing the apartment. As he heads down the hall, I go into the kitchen.

I cringe when I see that the sink is full of dirty dishes with food stuck on them and trash on the counter.

A man lives here, that’s for sure.

Fang joins me when I open the fridge. Gagging, I slam it shut.

“Anything?” I ask as I cough.

Shit, the property management is going to have to get a new fridge before the next tenant moves in. There’s no cleaning that thing.

“Place is clear. You find anything?”

“Besides the fact that this place is a pigpen?”

“I mean, it’s clear the guy lives here,” Fang says.

“Oh, for sure. I just don’t know if we will find anything else,” I tell him as I exit the kitchen.

On the coffee table, there are papers spread out with beer bottles on top of them.

I go to sit down to start digging through them to see if there is anything worth finding when Fang grabs my arm.

He cringes and nods toward a stain on the couch. “I wouldn’t sit on any surface in this place.”

As I stare at it, my stomach rolls. “Is that…”

“A jizz stain? I can’t be sure, but I think so.”

“We’re going to need one of those hazmat showers when we leave this place,” I mutter.

“Savage isn’t going to be happy with the club expense of replacing our clothes after we burn them,” Fang says, making me chuckle.

He snaps a photo of the table, so we know how to put everything back, and then we move the bottles and get to work.

I start setting the papers into piles. Bills, random loose paper, and receipts.

“I hope this guy owns stock in food delivery services,” Fang says.

“I genuinely don’t know how anyone can afford to spend this much on takeout when you can just cook for yourself,” I say.

Twenty minutes later, the table is put back how we found it and his room is searched.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

“Are we sure this guy knows something?” I ask as Fang shuts the dude’s nightstand drawer.

“I’ve never known Dex to be wrong.”

“Well shit, now what do we do?” I ask as I scan the room.

Fang reaches into his pocket. “Now we place these listening devices around this place. Then we can monitor them.”

I take the bag from his hand. “They are so small.”

“That’s what she said,” he quips, making us smile. “Come on. We’ve been here too long. Let’s get these placed and then bounce before we’re caught.”

I dump half the devices into my palm before handing him back the bag. Ten minutes later, we slip out of the apartment and walk toward the truck like we don’t have a care in the world. As Fang takes off, headed back toward the clubhouse, I watch the mirrors, making sure no one is following us.

“Well, I’m sorry you came out here with me for nothing,” I tell him after a few minutes of silence.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. Besides, who doesn’t love a little B&E?”

“Have you ever thought of being a PI?” I quip, making him laugh.

“I don’t think I could do the stakeouts, so I’ll pass.”

“Yeah, you would hate not being able to ride your bike everywhere. It’s too noisy to be discreet.”

“Now you’re getting it,” he teases. “Now tell me, how do you feel about ice cream?”

“Love the stuff. Why?”

“How about we stop for some on the way home? I think we both earned it.”

“I like the way you think, Fang.”

As soon as I lay eyes on her, I know her afternoon didn’t go how she wanted it to.

“Hey,” I say as she walks toward me.

She ignores me and walks right up to me, wrapping her arms around my waist as she buries her face into my chest.

“Are you okay?” I ask as I run my hand over the back of her head.

She nods and then pulls away. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m going to go take a shower.”

“Okay, I’ll be back there soon.”

I watch her walk down the hall and out of sight before turning back to Fang. “What happened?”

“What happened is Dex sent us into a dumpster fire. That place was disgusting.” Fang cringes.

“That bad?”

“Dude, you’re buying both your girl and me new clothes.”

“Did you find anything at least?”

Fang shakes his head. “Nothing. If I didn’t know better, I would think that he had nothing to do with this bullshit, but Dex wouldn’t do that to us.”

“No, he wouldn’t…” I mutter as I think.

Why is this so much harder than everything else we work on? What makes this different? Phillip got average grades in school. He’s not smart by any means, or at least not smart enough to pull something of this caliber off.

Not unless he was hiding it all along…

“We placed listening devices all over that place, so hopefully we pick something up,” Fang says, bringing me back to the present.

“Cool. Thanks for going with her.”

“Anytime. You got yourself a good one there.”

“Don’t I know it.” I smirk.

“All right, I’m going to go drown myself in soap. You should probably go help wash your woman’s back.”

I go to slap him in the stomach, but he jumps back and laughs before walking away.

I shake my head and smile. That is a pretty good idea but knowing Bailey the way I do, she needs this time to wrap her head around everything, so I make my way into the kitchen. Earlier, I sent one of the prospects out to grab some of her favorite comfort foods, knowing there was a chance that she might need them when she got back.

After warming everything up, I put it all on a pizza tray and take it to my room. Right when I step inside, I hear the blow dryer shut off.

Perfect timing.

I pull my shirt over my head and then sit down and untie my boots before kicking off my pants.

“Dinner and a show? Don’t mind if I do,” Bailey quips as she joins me.

My breath catches when I see her wearing one of my T-shirts and nothing else. I don’t know why, but I find it sexier than any piece of lace could ever be.

“You can have whatever you want,” I tell her.

A beautiful smile crosses her face as she walks toward me and wraps her arms around my waist.

“What is all this?”

“I thought we could have a little date night in.”

Bailey hums. “I like that. Thank you.”

I lean down and kiss her. “You’re welcome. Now get in.”

Pulling away, I pull back the covers and she slips into bed. Once she’s situated, I hand her the tray.

“Did you seriously put our dinner on a pizza pan?” she laughs.

“Hey, you’re lucky we had that,” I tease as I get in next to her.

She grabs a chicken wing and takes a bite. “Fuck, that’s good. Have I ever told you how much I love you?”

“Not today you haven’t,” I tease.

She rolls her eyes and smiles. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Now find us something to watch.” I grab the remote from my nightstand and hand it over.

While eating a chicken wing, she turns on the TV and starts scrolling through the channels.

“Do you have any preferences?”

“You know I don’t,” I say as I grab a wing.

She stops on a random channel, and we eat, not paying any attention to what’s on the screen.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask after a bit.

She shakes her head as she licks her fingers. “No. Honestly, there’s nothing to say. It’s all going to come to a head eventually. We just need to be ready.”

“I agree, we need to watch our backs, though.”

“I know.” She sighs. “I hate not knowing who’s friend or foe.”

“Me too.”

“One good thing did come out of all this, though.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

She looks over at me and eyes me. “It brought us back together.”

Leaning over her, I move the pan off her lap and pull her into my arms. I kiss the top of her head. “I couldn’t agree more.”

Bailey sighs as her body relaxes into mine and she runs her hand along my chest. “Can I ask you a question?”

“You can ask me anything. You know that,” I tell her.

“How did you get these?” she asks, gently touching my scars.

I suck in a breath. “Are you sure you want to know?”

“I mean, you don’t have to tell me.”

I squeeze her hip. “I want to. I just don’t think you will like the story.”

“You got hurt, Hayes. I’m obviously not going to like it, but I still want to know.”

“I was deployed and we were out of the wire. We were patrolling an area we had been in probably a dozen times at that point, but that day was different. As we were driving by a broken-down vehicle that we had just cleared the day before, it blew up. The shrapnel tore into our Humvee, killing it on the spot. Then we took fire from the hillside. We were like sitting fucking ducks.”

She sucks in a breath.

“Long story short. I made it out, but one of my buddies didn’t.”

“I’m so sorry,” she says softly.

“I feel guilty.”

Bailey sits up and looks over at me. “What? Why?”

“Because I was distracted that day. If I had been paying attention…” Before I can even finish my sentence, she’s shaking her head.

“You can’t take that on, Hayes. Were you the one in charge? Were you the one driving?”

“No,” I mutter.

“Then see, it wasn’t on you.”

“I was distracted, though.”

“That doesn’t matter, they made the choice to trust the day-before’s intel. Not you.”

I know she’s right, but that doesn’t help. It’s something that fucking kills me when I think about it. Everything about that day shouldn’t have happened.

“Do you want to talk about what had you so distracted?” she asks, cutting into my thoughts.

I clear my throat. “You.”

A line forms between her eyebrows. “What do you mean I distracted you that day?”

“I got your wedding invite that morning and I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact you were engaged.”

Bailey pales. “Oh god, Hayes…”

“It’s okay. You moved on, which was your right. That doesn’t mean it didn’t kill me, though.”

She sighs and lays back down, holding me tight.

“My relationship with Lance wasn’t like ours,” she says after a few minutes of silence.

“I would hope not.” I tease, even though her confession makes me feel a little better.

“Being with him felt safe and steady, but with you…it’s everything. I’ve always known it was you. I just tried to pretend that I didn’t know it.”

“You don’t have to explain it to me.”

“I’m sorry you got hurt.”

“It’s the consequences of war.”

She rests her chin on my chest and looks me in the eye. “Thank you for coming home for me.”

“Thank you for being here for me to come home to.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”