He reacted so naturally to my commands, and so viscerally to my assistance. Did he even realize it? He was so intuitively submissive—and God, I wanted to see how far I could push him.
And as inexperienced as he was, he’d need someone to guide him. Show him the ropes, so to speak. And even if I wanted to do it—which, fuck, I did—I knew it’d bite me in the ass. There was just too much at stake here for Liberty Crew for me to go losing my head over some pretty boy.
We had to keep things professional. Actually, scratch that—I had to keep things professional. And safe. I was setting the tone here, and I had to be responsible, for Heath’s and my sanity both.
“Knock, knock!” trilled a familiar voice from the doorway. Without waiting for a response, Tru stuck his head in the doorway and blinked owlishly. “Mind if I come in?”
“Sure, join us,” Heath said with a smile, brandishing his arm toward the kitchen.
“Thanks for letting me invite him,” I said. “He’s been a pain in the ass recently. Definitely nosy and more than a little jealous that I get to hang out with Hell’s Ankhor and he doesn’t.”
“Lies,” Tru said with a smirk. “I just need a break from getting my ass kicked by Star. Her enforcement training is going, like, scary well.”
Tru had a warm, welcoming energy about him that made even Heath smile back at him openly—which I wasn’t resentful about, at all. Tru was a little shorter than me, built lithe like a dancer, and he wore his long dark brown hair in a neat bun at the top of his head. He was striking to look at, with elegant almond-shaped eyes and a slight upturn to the tip of his nose, high cheekbones, a pointed chin. He was wearing a simple white tank top and jeans, his club leather shrugged off to his elbows, showing off the defined muscle of his shoulders.
Tru always liked to be looked at—admired—and I couldn’t blame him. I would too, if I looked like him.
Tru flashed a charming grin at Heath and extended his hand. “So you’re the Kid.”
“And you’re Tru, I assume,” Heath said.
“Whatever Dare said, don’t trust it.”
“Dare?” Heath asked, glancing at me curiously. “Is that your tag?”
I rolled my eyes. “Truth and Dare. I know, it’s cute.”
Tru swung his arm around my shoulder and squeezed. “Mal gave us those tags way back in the day, and we never could seem to get rid of them.”
“Similar to how I never seem to get rid of you,” I said, and then wrestled Tru into a headlock. Tru squawked and squirmed out of my hold before I had a chance to screw up his carefully tied up hair.
“All right, all right,” Tru said as he smoothed out his hair and clothes. “That’s enough of that. What do you two need help setting up?”
“Put this on,” I said, tossing one of the aprons I’d brought from the bakery to Tru. He shrugged off his leathers before putting it on, leaving him in the thin tank. “You couldn’t even wear a real shirt?”
“I’m trying to make a good impression on the Hell’s Ankhor guys,” Tru said haughtily. “What do you think, Heath?”
Heath bit back a smile. “I think the aprons are a nice touch.”
I handed one to Heath, resisting the urge to slide it over his neck and tie the back straps myself. But I wasn’t going to do that—at least not while Tru was watching with a keenly interested look on his face.
“Oh, nice, are we getting this show on the road?” Siren asked as she ambled in through the front door. She grinned, her narrow eyes flashing as she tossed her club leather on the couch and strode into the kitchen.
“Think so,” I said. “Who else is coming?”
“Me!” Coop said as he barged in behind her. “Gunnar! Get down here!” he hollered up the stairs.
“Blade said he’d stop by, too,” Siren said. “But also not to wait for him.”
“He’s got important presidential things to do?” Heath asked.
“Always,” Coop said with a shrug.
“What?” Gunnar asked as he descended the stairs with Raven on his heels. “What are you yelling about now?”
I chuckled to myself. I like this about Hell’s Ankhor—whenever they were all together, things rapidly descended into a cheerful, affectionate sort of chaos. And I liked to watch Heath warm up around them. Even if he wasn’t as noisy as the rest of them,