All Hail - J. Bree Page 0,47

out of my mind until I walk downstairs, a pair of Choo’s on my feet and a matching clutch packed and ready to go. When Aodhan sees me he grins, handing me a coffee in my favorite takeaway cup. It’s not exactly to my taste but it’s a solid first attempt and when I tell him that he grabs my hand, kissing my cheek and leading me back out to his car. He waits with me while I arm the security and then he helps me into the Impala.

It’s still very clean in here and I wonder if he’s doing that for me because he knows just how badly mess and clutter upsets me?

“Is the green a statement today or a coincidence? Don’t break my heart here, Queenie.”

He starts the car with a roar and when I huff, he grins at me, grabbing my hand and kissing the back of it.

Are we dating?

Is that what’s happening here? I would say yes but he didn’t care about me having sex with another man in the back rooms of a gala last night so that kind of feels like mixed signals.

I should just talk to him about what the hell it is that we’re doing, find out for sure what is happening right now, but for once I don’t want to quantify this. I don’t really want to have to face everything that’s going on and for now it isn’t hurting anyone to just enjoy his company. To wake up next to him, to have my sheets smell like him, and to drink slightly sub-par coffee that he made me.

I think I need to call Lips and talk this out, bestie-to-bestie.

I clear my throat carefully and play around on my phone as I answer him. “You slept in my bed, I can wear your color today if I want to.”

We hit the highway and he waits until we’re cruising at a steady clip before he runs a finger down the side seam of my jeans. “Not just my color. The shoes are a little worrying though, I’ll need to kill whoever takes the Jackal’s colors over just to make sure there isn’t any more competition.”

I smile at my phone. “There’s no competition here. I’m not a prize to be won.”

He mumbles nonsense under his breath but I get to texting Lips, keeping her up to date about everything going on.

If Roxas tries to flirt with you, shut him down fast. Don’t mention anything about Atticus because he’ll only get a hard-on about pissing a member of the Twelve off. Harbin is good though, he’ll be solid.

Right.

We’d very briefly encountered Illi’s closest confidants at the biker bar Lips had taken us to back in high school after Ash had fought at the Dive, the night Lips had met with the Viper over his allegiances. We had spoken to them, though Lips had just acknowledged them after Illi had warned them to keep an eye on us in case someone tried to jump us.

They’d come to take out the Jackal and his men too with the rest of the Unseen MC but from what Lips has told me they aren’t the blind followers that the Boar normally fills him MC with. She doesn’t know the specifics of why they don’t fully trust the Boar but it’s something to keep in mind.

Everything about Mounts Bay is a twisted web of betrayals and loyalties.

The only way to be sure you’re not going to be stabbed in the back is by keeping a hell of a lot of tabs, which is why my murder board in the basement of my mansion takes up an entire wall already.

“Do you know Harbin and Roxas?” I murmur and Aodhan grumbles again.

“Illi’s biker friends? Yeah. They’re good guys… loyal as fuck to him and both of them have a reputation of being good men to have at your back. They once took out an entire building of armed bodyguards with Illi and the Wolf. The four of them just walked in and massacred the entire place like it was nothing. Anyone who can keep up with those two is solid in my books.”

I make a note to ask Lips about that rumor later but if I had to guess, my money is on the killing being a part of Odie’s rescue.

Lips would have been fourteen at most.

A shiver runs down my spine, the same one I have every time I think about all of the bad shit that happened to her