“He’s a good guy?” I asked. How could I ask about drugs? About Melvin’s possible connection to Aiden?
“Yeah.” She wiped off her chin. “How about you?”
I swallowed as an idea hit me. Just how much did she know? “Um, yeah. I’m dating Aiden Devlin. He’s one of the Lordes.”
She blinked. “No kidding? You’re dating a Lordes Defender?”
My heart kicked it up, and I forced myself to stay calm. “You’ve heard of Aiden?”
Pink dusted her cheeks. “Yeah. I mean, I’ve been to a couple of parties out at their apartment complex. He’s so hot, but I thought he was dating a redhead.”
Jealousy, totally unwarranted and unwanted, shot through me. “Nope. Not anymore. Just me.” I bit my lip, my brain clicking rapidly. “Is your boyfriend a Lorde?”
She chuckled. “He wishes. But no, he’s just done some business with them.”
“Oh.” I lowered my voice to a whisper. “The drugs?”
She stiffened and moved to my other leg. “A Lordes old lady wouldn’t ask that question.”
Crap. I sucked at this and was losing her. “I know.” Drowning in my own stupidity, I let her pull my foot out to dry. “It’s just that Aiden is pissed and took away my pot, and of course, nobody else will give me any. I knew about you and Randy, and I just thought…” Man, I was full of it. Seriously full of it.
“Oh.” She filed my toenails. “I guess that makes sense, but I’d hate to get Randy in trouble with the Lordes. Those guys don’t mess around.”
Suddenly, I kind of felt like a jerk. She seemed really nice. “Forget it.” Plus, what kind of latitude did I have as a prosecutor? It was okay to investigate, but at some point, it was the police’s job and not mine. “I’m sorry to have made you uncomfortable.”
She shrugged. “You obviously know what we do here for the Lordes. I could get you a couple of joints out of the stash, but you can’t tell your old man.”
The idea of Aiden as an old man was ridiculous, but I’d watched Sons of Anarchy and knew all the lingo. All right. Some of the lingo. “Not in a million years.” Just how involved was Aiden in this drug business? Did he have a drug problem, or was he in it for the money? What did the spa do for the Lordes? There wasn’t a cool way to ask. Although, since she’d used the word ‘stash,’ they must be selling drugs out of the new spa?
She continued the pedicure, and I picked out bright pink polish. What the heck was I going to do with two joints? It was illegal to possess them, but how could I tell her no now? She finished up, and I went to take a shower in the large locker room. There were two joints in my locker when I opened it for my bag, in which I’d tossed jeans and a T-shirt earlier.
Feeling like a criminal, I shoved the marijuana in my purse and put on makeup, meeting Tessa in the lobby. We paid, and I took her to dinner at a local pizza shop, letting her snipe at me about the Brazilian she hadn’t intended to have. By the end of dinner, we were both laughing, although the pot in my purse created a cloud of doubt around me.
Finally, she dropped me at my car, and I headed home. I’d turn the drugs over to Nick the next day and report everything I had learned. He’d promised to help me with Aiden, and I believed him.
Sighing, my head and privates aching, I parked and walked toward my door, stopping short at seeing a large form sprawled on my porch swing.
I gulped.
“Hi, Angel,” Aiden said, his sapphire colored eyes layering through the soft dusk, his voice low and husky with a hint of pissed. “Rumor has it my old lady had a Brazilian today. Wanna show me?”
Chapter 15
My lungs stopped working. They didn’t hitch, and they didn’t stutter. They just up and froze. So did my feet. I stared at him across the stone walkway, acutely aware of the absence of distance between us. My girlhood fantasies about Aiden Devlin hadn’t prepared me for the reality of his focus as a man. He was predatory and did nothing to hide it.
For the first time, I saw him clearly. And I didn’t know a thing about him. Not really. “You’re trespassing,” I said.