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It was a little more than a week since I last saw Nova at the clubhouse. It came as a shock when I saw her for the first time since then, leaving the gym looking freshly showered, when there was no way that she had been there working out beforehand. She had been babysitting for Kip not even twenty minutes ago. My club brother had texted to tell me that he wouldn’t be coming to work out since he had to let his babysitter off the hook, so she could get some studying done.
Something didn’t sit right because there was no way she got off work, got a workout in, and then had time to shower. Instead of going to work out or heading out to the party I’d tried to get Kip to tag along for, I turned my ass around and made my way to his house.
“What the fuck are you doing here? I told you that I don’t have a babysitter. Ash decided to fuck off and go see her mom without taking our kid along.”
“That’s probably for the best. Bitch might get it in her head not to come back or something.” Kip nodded as if my suggestion wasn’t that far out of the realm of possibility. I honestly didn’t see that happening since the ice queen, known as his wife, didn’t really spend a lot of time with their son. That was why he had to hire a babysitter in the first place.
“Saw your babysitter at the gym just now.”
“Yeah? Good for her. She needs a good workout. I’ve been worried about how tired and run-down she looks lately.”
“Then get ready to worry more, not less. She needs a fucking good meal, not a workout man. I don’t think she’s been eating right, and she was leaving the gym when I passed by. Looked freshly showered.”
Kip glanced at the clock on the wall. “That couldn’t have been much of a workout.”
“Are you paying her enough?”
“Fuck, man, I’m paying her more than I should.”
“I think maybe she’s living in her car or something. Seemed a lot like she got off work and went to go take a shower before the gym shut down for the night.”
Kip sat there thoughtful for a few minutes before he started tapping away on his phone.
“You just gonna ask her about it over text?”
He shook his head. “She doesn’t like texting much. I think she only gets a limited number of…” Kip’s eyes came up to meet mine as he realized the girl didn’t even have a decent phone plan.
“You sure you’re paying her enough?”
“Man, she mentioned something about family trouble before. Finances being cut off or some shit. She needed the job to be able to pay tuition and book stuff. What I pay her should more than cover that.”
“What’s with the rapid texts then?” I asked while tipping my head to indicate the phone in his hands.
“One of the prospects, Charmer, came to me a week or so ago. Said he saw her at the gym but thought I should know that she seemed to be there only to take a shower and leave again. I meant to ask her about it, but with the bullshit Ash has been pulling, and the workload increase at the garage, I haven’t had a minute to wrap my head around that shit.”
“Might be time to get to it.” A sick feeling brewed in my gut as I thought about the possibilities. Each one made me feel worse than the last. “If she has money troubles, you need to get to the bottom of that shit before your kid becomes a target.”
“I don’t think she has money troubles with loan sharks, drug dealers, or whatever the hell you’re insinuating.”
“Okay, then she’s living out of her car for a fucking reason. Dirtbag boyfriend who was beating on her, maybe? You see any evidence of that? I thought she was a virgin, but I’ve been wrong before.”
“Nah, pretty sure you’re right on that mark. She’s never mentioned a boyfriend or a social life. In fact, when I hired her, she told me weekends and late nights wouldn’t be an issue because all she did was go to school and study. She’s there for the degree not the partying.”
“Why don’t you have her come to the clubhouse tomorrow, so we can get to the bottom of this bullshit and find out what’s going on with your babysitter before she becomes a problem. If she doesn’t get some decent meals in her soon, she won’t be any good to you or your kid anyway.”
“Yeah, I’ll do that. She only has a morning class tomorrow. I’ll text to let her know to meet us there after class gets out.”
~*~
I didn’t normally have problems sleeping, but after leaving Kip’s house, I couldn’t get his babysitter off my mind. Usually, she was there in my fantasies, but this was different. The girl had me worried about what the fuck was going on in her life. Something was up. Women didn’t volunteer to shower at a gym they weren’t even working out in for no good reason. Thanks to the sleepless night, I was up before the fucking dawn and in the kitchen grabbing coffee.
“Has hell frozen over, and no one told me about it?”
I turned to see Scout standing there with a teasing grin on her face. Once upon a time, she’d been Kip’s girl, before he fucked it all up, lost her, and got stuck with Ash. Now, she was a club girl, but had some weird deal worked out with our president, so that she didn’t have to fuck any of the brothers who had a significant other standing by somewhere.
“How’s it hanging, Scout?” I asked as I took a seat with my mug in hand.
“Could ask you the same. What’s got you up this morning?”
