Page 15

Chapter

Fourteen

Smoke

“ Y ou got eyes on her?” I ask Cub when I pick up his call. I told Rex and Cub to ring me as soon as they’d found a spot to hunker down that gave them a view without being seen.

“Clear as a bell, Prez. Lucky for us, she’s sat next to the window, so we have the perfect view. No sign of him yet.”

The prospects know the score and that Tenley is, for all intents and purposes, working undercover in the hope that she can get the much-needed information we seek on Paddy and the Death Valley Irish. I’ve also clarified that, although unbeknown to her, Tenley’s safety is paramount.

I took some stick for that. You know the usual piss taking ‘you sweet on her’, ‘you got her down as a possible Old Lady’ bullshit, which I quickly annihilated with the simple response that she happened to be the sister (stepsister but the sister thing had more of an impact) of their VP’s woman, which makes her family. With that, and the death stare I gave them was enough to shut the fuckers up.

“Wait,” Cub hisses down the phone. “Here the fucker comes now. He’s just getting out of an old dark green Impala.”

“I didn’t know that Chevy did the Impala in green?” It’s not the most popular car color in any make of car. For some reason, the Americans don’t favor green when it comes to the vehicles.

“Nah, looks like a paint job, it’s like a weird shade, not something that would come off the production line. Bit like the color of shit when you’ve had a bad taco.” Cub chuckles. “Do you want me to grab the registration?”

“Yeah, but only if you get a chance without being seen. Priority is the girl. Don’t take your eyes off her for one minute,” affirming the instructions I’d already pressed on them earlier. “Message me with regular updates. I want to know immediately if anything goes array.”

“Sure thing, Prez.”

The call finished, I drop the phone onto the surface of my desk and tilt back into the high-backed chair. I bring up my booted feet, crossed at the ankles and drop them right beside the discarded phone.

I’m not a nervous person. I tend to take things as they come. It’s why I show little emotion when I’m faced with the shit that’s ‘par for the course’ when running an MC. I’ve not always been void of emotion, and there is one or two people that still get a glimpse of my softer side, but after I lost Violet, I keep it mostly locked inside.

Violet. My love, my world, the mother of my child. The woman who could pull every single emotion possible from me, and I gave them willingly; unbridled and unequivocally. We were both young, and although we’d been privy to things far before we should have; we were strong, kindred and profoundly in love.

The day they took her from me, it ripped my heart from my chest, my ability to breathe stilted. A pain so excruciating had torn at my soul as my emotions spilled from every vein I had, for everyone to see.

From that day on, I swore that only my child was worthy of the same intense emotion I’d shared with Violet.

I miss her every fucking day.

Now, with Tenley, I’m already starting to sense the beginning of a chink in my emotional armor, and she’s the reason behind it.

It scares the fuck out of me.

Tenley

I try to look as if I’m casually reading the laminated menu, that the server handed to me when I’d slid into the booth as I arrived twenty minutes ago.

The place has that old American diner vibe about it with its black and white tiled floor, red leather seated booths and the female servers are dressed in white collared and cuffed, red dresses with white aprons around the waist. Male servers are in black pants and a shirt of similar design. The music playing in the background is from way back, but it gives it that authentic feel. Everything is in keeping with the image they’re trying to portray, from the sepia pictures on the walls, to the napkin dispensers and sugar pourers.

I’d arrived early.

So many times, I’d questioned my sanity about what I was doing, so in the end I’d grabbed my purse, and left my apartment before I had a chance to bale.

I’d noticed him as soon as he’d started to walk across the parking lot, but not wanting to look too keen, I’d focused elsewhere while still keeping him in my peripheral vision.

Dressed in dark indigo, straight-leg jeans, a pale blue top that looks like a Henley and navy, almost black blazer, he looked like he’d stepped off a catwalk not out of an old Chevy that I can only describe as being in an unfortunate shade of green.

He walks with an air of determination and confidence. When he holds the door open for a mother and two kids to enter before him, I get a hint that he has good manners, too.

I wait until he’s nearly at the booth before I lift my head and meet his gaze.

“Oh, hi. I didn’t see you come in.” I lie. “Did you drive?”

“No love, my helicopter is a few blocks down. I walked the rest of the way. Didn’t want to raise too much attention.” Instead of sliding into the booth opposite me, he comes up right beside me. His firm thigh and strong arm butting up against mine. I swallow hard.

“Er… the me nu is quite extensive,” I blurt out, my nerves getting the better of me from his close proximity. I can feel the heat building on my cheeks. “Here, take a look.” I hand over the menu, then try to shuffle further into the booth to put an inch or two distance between us, but I already tucked myself up near the wall, so there’s nowhere to go. “In fact, I need the restroom. If you wouldn’t mind.” I gesture for him to let me out of the confined space.

“Already,” he smirks. “Am I making you so nervous that you need to pee?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” I fire back. “I’ve just had a little too much coffee this morning.”

“Whatever you say, love,” he chuckles while getting to his feet. When I go to move out of the booth, he’s so close that my chest hits his when I stand, and then have to side shuffle to get past him. “Don’t be running out on me now.”

With a quick tut at him like he’s being ridiculous, I search for the restroom sign before flouncing off towards them.

When I get through the door, I let it swing shut before slamming my back against it.

“Damn,” I gush out with a breath before sucking in a few deep, mind-clearing ones to enable me to think straight.

I walk over to the vanity and check my face in the mirror. My face is flushed like I’ve just had a fast and furious sex session, not a close encounter with the hot Irish male kind.

“Get a grip, Ten. You can do this,” I tell my reflection. I stick my hands under the faucet and let the cold water run over my wrists to cool me down. It doesn’t work for everyone, but for me, it usually does.

By the time I’ve nipped into the stall and relieved myself for real, when I go back to wash my hands and dry them on a napkin, the pinkness of my skin has subsided somewhat.

With my hands placed firmly on the door handle, feeling less overwhelmed at what I’m about to do, I breathe in deeply, open the door and step back out to face what could possibly be my undoing.

“Hey, you okay?” Paddy asks as I take the opportunity to slide into the opposite side of the booth so I’m facing him and not almost sitting in his lap.

“Of course,” I offer with a smile. “Did you see this menu? It’s a frozen dessert lover’s dream.”

“I have to agree.” His eyes never leave my face as he speaks. “In my book, it’s never a bad thing when the ice cream options outweigh the mains.”

“Let me guess.” I keep my voice light and fun. “You’re still going to go for the straight vanilla option.”

“Yeah, you’re right but I’m going to live on the edge a little and get three scoops, not two,” he high brows me with a side order of cheeky grin. “And you?”

“Mint cookie crunch sundae.” I tilt my head to one side. “Oh wait, they do a butterscotch pecan sundae too.” I worry my lip with my teeth. “Decisions, decisions.”

“Hey, love,” Paddy raises a hand to hail over the server before reaching over. With a brush of his thumb, he frees my lip from my bite.

She places two glasses in front of us and fills them halfway with water from a jug she’s carrying. “What will it be?” she asks, placing the jug on the table while she gets her pad and pencil from the front pocket of her apron. Her eyes flick between the two of us, but linger more on Paddy. Can’t say I blame her; he is one hell of a good-looking guy, and definitely worth more than a single glance.

“We’ll take a mint and a pecan sundae for the lady here,” he leans a little further towards her and whispers, “She has a bit of an ice cream problem,” like it is some great big secret. “And two scoops of vanilla.”

“I heard that,” I jibe back. “I can’t decide,” I explain to the server, so she doesn’t think that I’m a total pig.

“And there you have it; the problem, so let’s solve it by ordering both and if you can’t quite finish it, then I’m might just give ya a hand.”

“Hey, what I’d do to have a boyfriend that looks like him,” she waves her pencil up and down at Paddy’s seated body, “that wants to take care of your needs and make you happy, Jesus.” She sighs. “Let me tell you, honey, he’s a keeper.”

“What?” I splutter. “He’s not my boy…” I try to put her right, but she’s already halfway back to the counter to put our order in. Probably off in her own little dream world of the perfect man, deeming her totally oblivious to my ramblings.

Paddy bursts out laughing, and immediately I face him, ready to chastise him.

“What are you laughing at?”

“You.” He’s laughing so hard that he can hardly take a breath. “Your face, it’s fucking priceless. ”

“So now I’m a joke, am I?” I grouse back at him. This is not going how I expected this to go. I’m supposed to be trying to build some trust between us, enough that he’d start to open up to me. Not for him to think that I’m nothing but a dumb blonde who he can make an utter fool out of.

I reach for my bag with every intention of leaving when his hand finds mine and halts me from sliding out of the booth.

“You’re no joke, darling,” he corrects me, the humor gone and his face as serious as they come. “You’re fucking amazing.”