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The second he walked into the club he caught the excited vibe. Lobo and Maria were at the bar with four other guys.
Maria turned to him, a bright smile on her face. “You’re just in time.”
“For what?” He watched the others, especially Lobo, looking for any sign they were on to him.
“We just got the call.” She paused.
He’d been in this game too long to get jumpy over a vague statement like that.
Lobo filled in the silence. “Scratch and his wife just had a baby boy.”
Viper smacked his hand down on Lobo’s shoulder.“That’s awesome. Mom and baby are good?” He loved that the members of the MC were so close and celebrated everything together.
He just wished the rest of the time some of them weren’t out killing people for money.
“Everyone is great.” Maria touched his arm. “In fact, we’re taking baby presents to them in just a little while. I can’t wait to hold the little guy in my arms. Will you help me get the bags from the back?”
He’d chipped in to the baby-shower fund a couple weeks ago. “Sure.” He left Lobo and the other four guys celebrating at the bar and followed Maria through the door that led to a hallway and the storeroom, a kitchenette, and the office.
Lobo kept the office locked, but Maria had a key and walked right in. She closed the door behind him and stood with her back to it. “How did it go?”
He didn’t like being backed into the room alone with her. Especially when he wasn’t sure if she just called the shots or liked to get her hands dirty. “You already know.” He pulled out the fifty grand he had in his jacket pocket.
Delight sparkled in her greedy eyes.
Instead of taking the eight she owed him, he kept ten. He needed her to see him as a dominant force she couldn’t push around. Not like the others.
She pouted. “Hey. That’s not what we agreed on.”
“Travel expenses,” he said and waited to see if she balked at it.
“It’s a good thing I like you.” Her sweeping, sultry gaze down his body did nothing for him. Not when he belonged so wholly to Lyric.
Maria snatched the rest of the money from him and dumped it into a large purse, then pulled out a smallnotebook, opened it to a certain page, and used a pen to make a note. “Another one bites the dust.”
So cold. So callous.
It made him appreciate Lyric’s generous heart even more.
It reminded him that he’d been playing this game so long he’d become accustomed to treacherous, selfish cutthroats and he acted like them more often than not in order to play the game. And over the last many years, it felt like he was becoming as heartless as them in his pursuit of justice.
Maria clicked the pen closed and tossed it and the notebook into her bag again.
He made it seem like he wasn’t paying attention and was more interested in the stack of baby clothes and infant toys in the bags on the chair by the desk. “Do you need to wrap this stuff, or what?”
She pulled an extra-large gift bag out and started arranging the items she’d bought inside it. “Why were you at the police station this morning?”
He went perfectly still. “Who says I was?”
She stopped what she was doing and stared at him, a hard look in her eyes. “I know you were there. And so was she.”
He caught the jealous look. “Seems someone tried to run over Lyric.” He left it at that and let Maria fill in the blanks.
The dismissive shrug rubbed him the wrong way. “It wasn’t you?”
“No. I was somewhere else, doing something else, for someone else.”
She knew that, so of course she knew he hadn’t tried to hurt Lyric. Which meant this was more fishing for information about him and Lyric. His gut tightened with dread. He’d been so careful not to let his feelings for her show.
