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That’s what happened to a girl when she went to bed at three-thirty in the morning and had to be at work by six forty-five. For a hot second, she’d contemplated the glorious idea of calling out, but the money… After losing out on five hundred dollars last night, there was no way in hell she could afford a missed shift. So there she was, sleepwalking her way through the shift and screwing up every other order. And after almost seven hours of work, that added up to a lot of frustration.
Thank God Thunder hadn’t come in at all this shift. She had no interest in him witnessing her humiliation.
“Hey, Ernesto,” she said to the head cook as she pushed into the kitchen. “I goofed on table three. Gonna need a Supreme STAT.”
“Again, mija?” he asked, shaking his spatula at her.
She winced. “Yes, again. I’m so sorry. I promise I’ll get my head in the game.”
With a snort, Ernesto said, “You’re lucky I love you, mija.”
“I know.” She dropped a kiss on the older man’s wrinkled cheek. “You’re the best.” After a quick loop, checking on her tables, and making sure no new patrons had been seated in her section, she dashed back to the kitchen for the omelet.
Just as Ernesto placed the hot plate on her tray, it disappeared. “What?” Mak spun around to see Toni sauntering off. “I’ve got this,” she called over her shoulder.
Mak hurried out of the kitchen after her boss and the diner’s owner. She also happened to be the ol’ lady of the Handlers’ vice president, Zach. Before Mak made it too far, someone grabbed her arm and hauled her behind the counter. Holly, Steph, and Jazz stood there, arms crossed, frowning at her.
“Uh, what’s up, guys?” Mak said, taking a step back. Sometimes these ladies came across a million times tougher than their biker partners.
“What’s up?” Jazz parroted, her eyes narrowing. “Why don’t you tell us what’s up?”
“Seriously,” Holly said, her expression much softer than Jazz’s. “You’ve been seriously off all day. Mixing up orders and stumbling around with bags under your eyes. I swear I caught you fall asleep standing in front of the coffee maker a little while ago.”
Heat rushed to Mak’s face. So much for successfully hiding her extreme fatigue from her coworkers.
“I’m so sorry. I had a late night. That’s all. Didn’t get nearly enough sleep.” She ran a hand through the hair she hadn’t had time to style since she’d grabbed every second of sleep possible before work. “I’ll do better.”
After they’d left the Chrome Disciples clubhouse last night, Thunder had driven her car to her house while Maverick tailed them. Lee didn’t even question her arrival with two men in the middle of the night, he’d been so eager to “go out,” whatever that meant. He’d practically flown out of the house and into his piece of junk car the second her tires rolled into the driveway. Thankfully, the rest of the kids were long asleep, because about five minutes later, Copper, Zach, Screw, and Gumby had shown up and grilled her about every second she’d been in that clubhouse.
Copper made it quite clear she was not to mention the threat against Jazz, or anything about being on CDMC property to any of the ol’ ladies.
And now she had to find a way out of this interrogation.
Her stomach fluttered and not in a good way as all three women’s eyes narrowed. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have sworn they’d choreographed the move.
“Honey, we’re not doing this because we’re worried about the customers and want you to do better. We’re worried about you and want to make sure you don’t need help.” Toni joined them, placing a hand on Mak’s tense shoulder before moving to stand in line with the others.
“Here’s what I know,” Shell said, adding a foot tap to the unhappy posture. “I know my husband woke me up sometime after midnight to tell me he had to run out and take care of something important.” She made air quotes for those last two words. “That is code for club business he can’t or won’t tell me about. I know he was gone for a few hours, and then this morning, I overheard him talking on the phone. Your name was dropped. So was Jazz’s.”
Oh, crap. Mak swallowed hard.
“And so was the Chrome Disciples.”
“Um…” Her face heated until it felt like it might melt right off her body. How the hell was she supposed to get out of this?
“And here’s what I know,” Jazz cut in before Mak could formulate a believable response. “I know my men have been sitting in a booth all morning like two snarling junkyard dogs. I’ve been forbidden to ‘step one goddammed foot’ outside the building and told that if I took the trash out at the end of the day, I’d ‘be sorrier than I’ve ever been in my life.’” She did the air quotes as well, accompanying it with a dramatic eye-roll. “Please, as if either of those men scare me.”
