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"Jesus," I hissed quietly, feeling my heartbeat slam so hard that I felt like I was choking on it. "What's wrong with you?" I whisper-yelled at him, throwing up my hands.
He gave me a small smile and I realized how attractive he actually was. His hair was out of its bun, flowing long and blond and soft-looking around his shoulders. It was dark and I couldn't make out the pleasant deep blue of his eyes, but they were crinkled up slightly with his smile as he reached for something sitting on the surface of his mattress. "Here," he said, holding out a pocket knife, flicking it open to reveal an illegally long, sharp, serrated blade. At my drawn-in brows, he shrugged. "They don't give probates guns. You need to have something to defend yourself. Not being sexist here... we all need something in case..."
Okay, well. Maybe I was wrong about him after all.
With a small smile of my own, I planted my bare foot on his bed beside his thigh, leaning down and rolling up the pant leg of my jeans to reveal the band I had strapped around my left calf with a knife attached. Granted, it wasn't as big and mean-looking as his was, but K assured me it would slice through human flesh like filet mignon. Those were his words, not mine. "Have another in each boot," I added because it was the damn truth. I wasn't walking into a compound full of armed gun runners without something to ensure I stood a chance of fighting out if it came to that.
"Good for you," Duke said, nodding, and I felt a swell of pride inside. I got the impression that Duke wasn't an easy guy to impress, which made his approval all the more rewarding.
"Any tips?" I asked, wanting to engage him.
"Don't fall asleep and don't be a hero. You think you hear or see something, investigate, but don't engage if you don't have to. Get help. You won't impress Repo by getting yourself killed."
At that, I tilted my head a little as I leaned down to slide into my boots and tie them up. "Repo? Shouldn't I be worried about impressing Reign, not Repo?"
Duke shrugged. "Reign has the ultimate say. But he's not here all the time. Repo is and Repo is, for all intents and purposes, in charge of us. So the only way you can impress Reign is to impress Repo."
"Good to know," I said, nodding at him. I didn't need to say thanks for him to know that was what I meant. Along with some self-defense training and the most intense study session of my life about The Henchmen MC and their members, K had drilled it into me that I needed to stop thinking like a chick. He said that if I wanted to get into a boys club, I needed to learn to communicate without having to say much. It wasn't exactly something I excelled in, but I was learning.
"Now get a move on. There should be fresh coffee and you'll want to relieve Renny. He gets cranky when his relief is late."
"Renny? Cranky? I can't imagine that," I said with a small smile as I reached up to settle my sheets back into place.
"Not everyone is who they appear to be, Ace."
I stopped my walk toward the stairs and turned. "Is that a warning?"
"Let's call it a word of advice," he said, jerking his chin at me then falling back into his bed.
With that little nugget to mull over, I made my way into the kitchen that did, indeed, smell like fresh coffee. I found the pot with a sleeve of disposable insulated cups and tops, poured myself a cup, added a sugar, then slipped on the top as I looked over at the clock. I still had twenty minutes. But it was always better to be early than late. Especially if it meant I got to stay on Renny's good side.
"Won't get you far to kiss their asses," a voice said behind me, making me jump on a gasp as I whipped around to find Repo sitting at the table in the corner, hand around a steaming mug of coffee. He was slouched back in the chair, eyelids a little swollen, the skin under his eyes looking purple from lack of sleep. A part of me wondered if he had stayed up to keep an eye on me which I found incredibly insulting. But a bigger part was seriously worried about how I hadn't noticed he was there when I walked in. K would box my ears if he ever found that out. Luckily, I had no plans of telling him.
"I'm not kissing anyone's ass. I'm just an early riser," I said with a chin lift even though it was only mostly true. Yes, I rose early. But early for me was around four-thirty in the morning, not three-thirty. But whatever. He didn't know that.
