Page 117 of Tracking Luxe

It was while he went to hunt down cayenne pepper for her salad in a store closet that Luxe slipped out and took her leave. She wasn’t lying, she wasn’t mad any longer, but she did want a moment to gather her thoughts, to process the emotions this had provoked in her. Maybe she could call Mimi and talk it through.

Nathan wouldn’t be far behind her; the man did love to chase her down. She smiled and expected him very soon.

******

“You know your woman took off?” Asked Preacher as Grinder sauntered back into the main common room. Bikers were everywhere, he didn’t look too closely at what some were doing. There was gambling going on down the far end, music, boozing, weed in the air and a lot of conversation with dicks out and women on those dicks.

Jaw tight he nodded. “Yep. I gave her the minute she needed to sneak out. We had a fight.”

“Not going after her?”

“Yep. Giving her thirty minutes first. And if I don’t fix it I want you to punch me right in the fucking face.”

“Oh, man. I love this fucking night.” Laughed Preacher cracking his big knuckles.

Grinder hated that entire scene that went down between them.Fuck. The women…Dani, it had been nothing, or so he’d thought until he heard himself vomit out the details to his girl. Any other woman he would have walked away and not almost chewed off his leg to make it right between them. Man, his belly was burning, nerve endings rattling to go after her right away, but if there was one thing he’d taken close notice of his Luxe, she came to things in her own time, if he pushed her on this then she’d run much further than JamiefuckingSteele’s apartment.

He didn’t know it had started raining until he watched it trickle down the outside of the ceiling high windows. Was she fine to drive in the rain? Worry choked him. Bracing his forearms on the bar, turning his back to the room, he twisted his head and looked at Preacher who was just grinning like a big dumb idiot. “Don’t even say it.” Grinder warned.

“But this is so much fun for me.”

I miss her. I need her. I made her hurt.

He was running the gauntlet of a maze he’d never been in before, one he felt unsteady with because as sweet as Luxe was, he knew she still didn’t forgive him fully. He’d been in relationships, of course, but nothing like this, nothing that felt so real, so good, so fucking big he was in danger of putting his foot in it hourly.

One ex had called him evil right before smashing his condo up because he’d called it quits after a few months of boredom fucks. The bitch should have been thankful he let her walk away without retribution. He felt nothing then, not like he did now with his gut twisted in all directions.

After twenty minutes he grabbed his keys, left the party behind and went to meet his girl.

She was what mattered most.

Whatever he had to do.

Maybe if he didn’t inadvertently …almost… fall dick first into another woman that would be a good start.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

“I changed his name in my phone to ‘my man’ I suppose it’s official now.” Luxe

Luxe:Don’t get your biker britches in a twist, kidnapper. I’m going to your place. But first I’m buying a bottle of vodka so we can have sloppy drunk sex.

Luxe:And I can wash the taste of any other woman out of your mouth.

Luxe:C U soon. :-*

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

“Something lost is always in the last place you look for it. Some dipshit told me that once.” - Grinder

She wasn’t at Steele’s apartment.

Frowning, frustration landing heavily on his shoulders, Grinder took one last look at the darkened apartment before he climbed back onto his bike and rode home. Expecting to see her car parked outside, he knew right away she wasn’t there.Dammit. Where you at, thief?

Where the fuck was she at two am? He had thoughts of tying his girl down again to keep her in one damn place where he knew she was safe.

A slight niggle of irritation and worry merged together in his gut. He didn’t like not knowing whether she was truly pissed at him or just making him pay by hiding out. Maybe another man would go home and sack out in front of the box before bed, but not Grinder, not until he laid eyes on his girl. Best case scenario he brought her home with him and got her in his sheets. Worse case he got her in his sheets and she pouted for the rest of the night.

The enveloping darkness swallowed up everything and he hated knowing she might be out there somewhere alone in the dark.She’s resourceful, quit your whining.But the worry continued.