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“Of course I did. I just wanted to see what you’d do if someone else offered first, since you are supposed to be leaving soon,” Venom admitted with a smirk. Then he went back to his grumpy, serious face. “I want everyone to be vigilant. If anyone or anything seems out of place, we need to know immediately. For those of us who need to work outside of the compound, you will not travel alone. You have until tonight to get your families here. Kicker, do we have enough supplies here to accommodate everyone?”
“For sure, bossman. We stocked up after that last job, since it was close to the beginning of the quarter anyway,” Kicker replied before spitting his tobacco juice into his ever-present beer bottle.
“Get me the inventory. If there’s anything else that we need, we’ll need to make a run to Hy-Vee or Sam’s today,” Venom instructed, and Kicker nodded.
“Anything else?” Venom asked. Everyone shook their heads.
“We haven’t really discussed it, but I’m assuming this means Sabre is staying indefinitely and won’t be heading down to Dallas? Raptor, you sure you and Phoenix still want to leave for Dallas?” Angel was only half joking, and I understood. They were good brothers, and they would be missed. I’d planned to go with them but no way was I going now.
“Yeah, sorry. I know I offered to stay before, but I can’t now. My father is being a pain in the ass. I leave in the morning,” Raptor grumbled.
Phoenix apologetically shrugged. “You already know my answer.”
“I’m staying,” I affirmed.
Venom looked tired but nodded. “Okay, everyone get your families and get your asses back here.”
A couple of days later, we’d returned from the studio, but instead of going to my room, I lurked in the common area because Soleil was sitting out there. The sexual tension between us had been growing until it was off the charts. I obviously liked to punish myself by remaining in close proximity to her.
She hadn’t seemed bothered that the place was packed with family for the past few days, nor did she question it. She seemed to be enjoying the ol’ ladies and the kids. It was a relief that they got along and she was making friends.
In the middle of a conversation with Loralei, Jasmine, Korrie, Laila, and Kira, she laughed. Not just a giggle or a polite chuckle. It was a full head-thrown-back outburst, and it was beautiful. My chest ached with longing.
“You talk to her yet?” Voodoo asked me as he sat next to me at the bar. Reluctantly, I dragged my attention from her to my brother. His giant black German shepherd dropped to the floor near him and huffed a sigh as he laid his big head on his equally large paws.
“No. How the hell do I tell her that? She’s been through a lot lately yet remembers nothing from our joined past. I have no idea where she’s been all this time or what she’s been through since the day we were ripped apart. I can’t just drop a bomb like that on her. ‘Oh, hey, Soleil. Hope you’re sitting down for this because would you believe the reason they can’t find out anything about you is because you were born almost seven hundred years ago?’ I can’t expect her to be okay with that or believe me.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, knowing I needed to figure out a way to explain everything to her, because the trips back and forth to the studio had become damn near tortuous. No way was it my imagination that her hands wandered as she held on.
“Why can’t you? Don’t be a pussy—that’s not you. I’ve never seen you run or hide from anything in the past year plus that I’ve known you.”
The soft hint of perfume hit me right before arms wrapped around me and a chin settled on my shoulder. I immediately knew who it was, and I stiffened because once upon a time, I would’ve welcomed the brief respite from my miserable existence, but now it was like cheating.
“Hey, handsome. I thought for sure you’d come see me at some point during all the BS this week. Surely, you’re not babysitting twenty-four hours a day,” Cookie murmured into my ear.
“Yeah, I, uh, probably won’t be by to see you, Cookie,” I apologized with a wince. Voodoo snorted next to me and sipped his beer.
A loud thunk next to me made me jump.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you,” Soleil said sarcastically with a sneer, stealing my line from the day the fake Dirk had hit on her, before she told the prospect behind the bar that she needed three more beers and a few waters. Ignoring me, she collected the bottles and sauntered back to the women. I watched like a lovestruck idiot as she passed out the beer to the non-pregnant ones, waters to the rest, and sat back down.
“Ohhh, it’s like that,” Cookie observed with a chuckle as she let go of me and moved to the side to sit down. “Buffy isn’t going to like that.”
Buffy was one of our dancers that I hooked up with on occasion. We were by no means exclusive and I’d made that known from day one. She and her sidekick, Shelly, had been with most of the guys at some point or another. Shelly was okay, but she was a follower and Buffy led her around by the nose. Buffy was a straight up patch chaser and had her heart set on becoming an ol’ lady.
That would never happen—not because she was one of the dancers and a club girl, but because she was a manipulative bitch. She’d been friends with one of our former club girls—Reva—and I swear they’d been cut from the same cloth. We kept her around because she was a damn good dancer who pulled in a lot of customers. Well, that and the fact that she was a freak in the sheets. Something I no longer had any interest in.
“Tough shit,” I replied. Cookie pursed her lips in awe shall seelook.
Squirrel approached and looped an arm around her before nuzzling her neck. She scraped her nails slowly through his tousled dark hair, but there was a hollowness in her gaze that I hadn’t noticed before. It was almost as if she was merely going through the motions of being interested in him.
“What’s like that?” Squirrel asked as he teasingly bit her ear.
“Sabre here got bit by the lovebug. Another one bites the dust,” Cookie explained with a chuckle.
“Yeah, because—” he began.
I shot him a warning glare, and he snapped his mouth closed. Cookie wasn’t an idiot. She cocked a perfectly sculpted brow and gave me a questioning smirk. Instead of offering an explanation, I reached for my beer and tipped it up.
“Does she know you’re pining for her?” she murmured conspiratorially.
