Page 4

Abby

I think I might be the first person ever to have soaking wet panties the same night her friend disappears into oblivion.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Ghost stands in the doorway, wide and tall, like a strong Viking who’s come in from battle with news.

I’ve never met the man before, but he starts talking like we’ve known each other forever.

“Tennessee and Red are out looking for the bikers. I think we’ve got a lead.

There’s a hideout on the east side of the mountain by the quarry.

We’re pretty sure that’s where they went.

We should have the girl back in a few hours.

” His brows wrinkle as he stares at me. “You try texting her, or maybe call?”

I tilt my head to the side as though he’s an idiot for mentioning something so basic, though it’s not really that basic at all. “No. I should, though.”

“It’s worth a try. If our guys roll up accusing them of a kidnapping and your friend went out back with them for a good time, then we’re fucked out of luck, kid. Try her cell.”

Rolling my eyes, I pull out my phone and dial her number. “It went straight to voicemail.”

“Okay, send a text.” Ghost might be more demanding than Hank, and Hank is pretty damn demanding.

That said, if trying to call her isn’t the worst idea ever, neither is texting. He’s right. There could’ve been a simple answer to her disappearance.

Me: There are like five bikers looking for you right now. If you’re okay, please let me know ASAP!

I send the text, and say a silent prayer, hoping that she sends me a message back telling me how she followed a strange animal into the woods and she’s currently in the middle of a torrid one-night stand with a wolf shifter. Something tells me that’s not going to happen.

“I’ll let you know if I hear anything.”

Ghost nods and kicks off his boots before tossing himself onto the couch with a grunt. “Your brother know you’re here?”

“No. I was just heading out, anyway.” I glance toward Hank, who’s in the kitchen cleaning up the mess the guys made from earlier. I’m not surprised this place is a disaster. How could five hitmen possibly have time to clean when they’re so busy taking people out and collecting paychecks?

“You’re not going home tonight,” Hank says. “You need to be here so I can keep an eye on you.”

As much as I’ve loved him and his eye on me, my brother will be back soon, and I don’t want to see him.

We haven’t spoken in a year, and I’d like to keep the streak going.

Besides, I’m not sure how much longer I can contain myself around Hank.

His big, rough hands on my back a few minutes ago almost killed me.

“I’m good. It sounds like your men are on their way to grab the bad guys, and I’m sure Maci will be back in her own bed anytime now.”

“Not how it works, Sunny. You know that as well as I do.”

Sunny. I laugh to myself at the thought of that name.

“I haven’t been ‘Sunny’ in years. You realize they called me that because of all the color I wore, right? I’ve been in solid black the last three years straight.”

He grins wide and steps into the living room, his gaze on mine soft but firm. “You’ll always be Sunny to me. That said, I like black too. It’s classic. Besides, the name was never about your clothes. It was about that smile.”

Oh wow, he just said that. I can’t tell right away if it’s an innocuous random comment or if it’s something deeper. If I were betting, I’d say he’s just being nice.

“Thanks,” I manage, blowing out a breath, “but I don’t feel so sunny lately.”

“It’s in there.” Hank steps toward me. “Come on… let’s go get your room fixed up.”

My room?

I could keep fighting to go home but I don’t know how I’d sleep thinking about every creak and crack of the old cabin I’m renting. Besides that, I know Hank well enough to know that he’s not going to let me go tonight. It’s easier to give in now.

He pushes open the last door in a long hallway and steps inside, flicking on the light before opening a closet door.

The room itself is cleaner than the rest of the place, with a queen-sized bed in the center of the room.

To the left is a television on an old, hand-built dresser and an attached bath with shower and toilet.

It’s nice, but there’s no décor whatsoever.

These men really need help making this place a home.

“You can toss this on for the night. I’ll have you out of here before Duke gets up if that’s what you want.

” He hands me a black T-shirt from his closet and stands at the edge of the bed as though he isn’t sure what to say next.

“Oh, and the shower, feel free to use anything you need. Make yourself at home.”

“You think they’ll have Maci back by morning, right?”

“I can wake you up when my guys have her.”

“Or you can stay here with me until then.” I’m not sure what I’m saying or why I’m saying it.

Hank and I haven’t hung out like this since…

ever. We’ve never hung out like this. Sure, I’d help him in my brother’s old garage.

He’d show me how to loosen a bolt or change the oil in a bike, and we’d have dinner together or go to the county fair, but Duke was always in attendance.

Truthfully most of that time was spent listening to their war stories.

All five of the guys in the club were in an infantry together and they’ve got chronicles to last a lifetime, though Duke and Hank were the only two I ever talked to personally.

The rest of the men were spread out all over the country.

When I was younger, I thought the stories were lame, but the older I got, the more I appreciated how those events represented the brotherhood they’d built.

He glances toward me, then away again quickly. It’s a special move of ours that’s been around forever now. He holds his stare with mine as though he wants to devour me, and I wonder if I’m imagining the meaning of his stare in my head.

Surely, I am.

“We could play.” He opens the closet door and pulls out a deck of cards. “You used to like Rummy.”

Rummy. I haven’t played Rummy in years, probably since the last time we played together.

“Sure, but we need some stakes. What does the winner get?”

He laughs and tosses his massive frame sideways onto the creaking bed as he pulls the deck from the little card box that’s decorated with mountains at sunset. “Okay, stakes. Umm… if I win, you have to tell me the truth about what happened to my leather jacket a few years back.”

I stagger in a deep breath and try to hide the grin that’s sneaking onto my face. “What? What makes you think I know what happened to your jacket?”

He narrows his gaze and lifts his brows as though he knows I know. “What do you want if you win?”

My heart slams against my chest. “Jeez… if I win, you have to tell me the truth about something.”

“Something? What’s something?”

I shrug, unable to say the thing that I want the truth about. Hell, I’ll never have the balls to ask him if he likes me, mostly because I already know the answer. “It’s random.”

“Seems dangerous,” he laughs, “but I get high on danger. Let’s do it.”

Grinning, I sit next to him on the bed and take another swig of the warming beer I’d grabbed from the fridge an hour ago. This stuff is nasty.

Hank scuffs his big, rough hand against each card as he tosses them one by one onto the rumpled blankets between us. I take a second to organize them in my hand by suit, then watch him over the top and smirk as he lifts his own.

“You’re a terrible bluffer,” he laughs. “Always have been.”

“Oh yeah?” I roll my eyes and study the card laid out in front of me. Suddenly the stakes are higher than they’d been a moment ago. Everything is real now. Besides, I don’t want to tell him about what happened to his leather jacket. How does he know I had something to do with that?

Hand after hand go on and on with very little talk. We’re both competitive and extremely focused on the game in front of us. That and I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so much tension in my life.

Maybe I’m imagining it. Maybe it’s my own horny way of thinking. My desire to be loved and valued. My desperation to be fucked hard by this massive, hot, masculine man.

That has to be it because there’s no way a guy like Hank would be thinking about me the same way I’m thinking about him.

I hold the last card I needed in my hand, anxious to go out, frantic to hold my secret in forever, but there it is, like a beacon of reality laid out in front of me, the ace of spades… straight to my heart.

“Well, looks like you owe me an explanation.” His gaze sticks on mine as I take another swig of beer. I’m gonna need it.

“What are you talking about? No, let’s do two out of three.”

“Not the deal we made, Sunny. You owe me an explanation. What happened to my leather jacket?”

Considering it’s hanging in my closet next to my latest black dress, I should have a good explanation for him.

“Two out of three. Come on. It’s how all bets are done. Plus, it’s my birthday!”

“No way.” He gathers all the cards in his giant hand and smiles wide and gorgeous.

“I’m certain you know something good now.

Plus, you don’t celebrate your birthday.

I wouldn’t want to insult you.” He grins playfully and my heart does something that feels like a hard slam and a bunch of skipped beats.

How do I tell him that I took the jacket to wear… so I’d feel close to him? That sounds insane. More than insane, that might blend into stalker territory.

I swallow hard and lay back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling fan whirring above us. “Okay… so I was twenty, and I wasn’t thinking straight yet.” I’m stammering like I’ve never completed a sentence in my life.

“That was five years ago, so you weren’t that much younger, but go ahead,” he laughs.

I slap his shoulder playfully. “Shut up and listen.”

He laughs again. “I am caught up. You were so much younger and you…”