I know they’d be happy if he had less responsibility with the club.”
Her dad was more than twenty years older than me, and I knew I wasn’t ready to hand things over anytime soon, but would I be when I was closing in on seventy? Most likely. So why hadn’t Torch done so already? Did he worry about who he’d hand the club to? Venom wasn’t much younger than Torch, so even if he took the President’s spot, how long would it be before he decided he’d had enough too? I’d never stuck my nose into another club’s business, and I didn’t want to start now, but with Lyssa being a Reaper by blood, I felt like I needed to keep an eye on things there.
“Water’s getting cold. We should wash and get out,” I said. “You hungry?”
She nodded and her stomach growled. Her cheeks flushed and I couldn’t help myself. I had to kiss her. She was too damn adorable. I kept it brief so I wouldn’t be tempted to do far more, but I was already getting addicted to her.
As much as I wanted to wash her, and feel her soft hands on me, I knew we’d freeze in here if we played around. I washed myself while she quickly scrubbed her skin. She winced a little as she cleaned between her legs and I made a mental note to take it easy on her. Even though she said she’d taken her own innocence with a vibrator, I was betting it had been a lot smaller than me. She’d probably be sore the rest of the day and maybe tomorrow too.
I dried off and pulled on clean clothes while she did the same. I noticed there wasn’t much in her bag. The Reapers had said something about her being in school. I hadn’t given it a thought before now. If she wanted to continue her education, I wasn’t about to tell her no, but I didn’t like the idea of her being off somewhere without protection. She caught me staring and arched one eyebrow.
“Something you want to say?” she asked.
“Need to get the rest of your things,” I said and motioned to her bag. “That’s not enough.”
“I had to drop my classes when Tony wouldn’t back down and I knew I’d have to leave.” She sat on the edge of the bed. “All my stuff is in a storage unit near the campus. A friend packed for me and left it all there since the university said I needed to be out by a certain day. I wasn’t sticking around long enough to take care of everything when Tony was being all stalker-like. I’d thought about going home and letting my dad send someone for the stuff later, but I ended driving aimlessly in an effort to not need help. I ended up coming here instead.”
“You could always enroll online,” I said. “We may be in the middle of nowhere, but there’s still Wi-Fi.”
“As fancy as your clubhouse is, I wouldn’t expect anything less. I’d heard this place was impressive, but I hadn’t believed it until I saw it for myself. Part of me is curious how the club can afford so much, and yet I know better than to even ask about club business.”
Yep. She was fucking perfect.
“It’s no secret we run a few businesses nearby. Shield has a tech shop where he repairs broken computers or cleans up destruction from viruses. The club gets a cut of the profits since we helped him set it up. Forge has a metalworks place. Again, the club helped him set it up so we get a profit from it. Snake manages the pawn shop the club owns. Nitro manages the strip club, which the club owns. All legit businesses. Prospero invests a chunk of our money and always gets a good return.”
“You expect me to believe everything is one hundred percent legal here?” she asked.
“Nope, but I know you won’t ask what else we’re into. If anyone ever wants to know where the money comes from, any of the things I just mentioned is what you can tell them.” Her stomach growled again. “Time to feed you. You aren’t big enough to go skipping meals. Might blow away with the next gust of wind.”
She rolled her eyes and huffed. “I’m not tiny.”
I patted the top of her head, which barely reached my chest. “Yeah, you are. But I think you’re cute, so it’s okay. I’ll just call you Tinkerbell.”
She