could open the door. She pushed inside with her posse, and I do mean pushed. Little bitch shoved me so hard I nearly knocked over the display of antique Russian teacups my mother had lovingly collected. (So far as I knew, she’d never sold a single one of them, but it’d made her happy.)
“Careful,” I warned, and Talia turned on me.
“What did you just say to me?”
“Babe, let’s talk,” Cooper said, catching her arm and pulling her into his body. She squealed, going from aggressive to flirty in an instant.
“You’re all sweaty. It’s sooo disgusting.”
I noted she wasn’t trying to get away. Cooper smiled down at her, a hint of something feral in his eyes. Yeah, okay—whatever smile he’d been giving me, it hadn’t held any of that kind of intensity.
Yours truly was officially chopped liver.
“I was just about to head out and grab a shower,” he told her. “Wanna come with me?”
She pouted. “I can’t. The girls and I need to get fixed up. I’ll see you at the bar, though, right?”
He looked down at her, offering a sexy, indulgent smile. “Can’t wait.”
“Perfect,” she said, reaching around to grab his ass for a quick squeeze. Then she turned and strutted back out without a word to me, her gaggle of girls following like well-trained geese. Sadie gave a little finger wave on the way. The door closed behind them with a cheerful little jingle, and I wondered why the hell I even bothered with Hallies Falls.
I missed Seattle.
So what if it had Brandon? I could drown him in Lake Washington. Problem solved.
“Sorry about that—Talia is a little high-strung,” Cooper said.
“Oh, I know all about her,” I replied, hoping I didn’t sound as catty as I felt. Cooper didn’t seem to notice.
“I’m new to town, but she’s been showing me around,” Cooper continued, stepping over to stand in front of me, hands shoved deep in his front pockets. “I should get going.”
“Of course—don’t let me keep you. What time do you think you’ll be in touch tomorrow?”
“Afternoon work?”
“No problem. Looking forward to hearing from you.”
He nodded and pushed through the door, walking down the street without a second look back. I locked up behind him, wondering why all the hottest guys were douchebags. Not that Cooper had acted like a douche, but he had to be my age or older—late thirties—and Talia was the same age as Sadie. She was also a raging bitch. There was only one reason a man like him would date a girl like that, and it had nothing to do with personality or character.
Cooper Romero might be beautiful, but obviously he was shallow. Suppose it was too much to hope for a man who could fix an air conditioner and have a soul at the same time.
Pity.
CHAPTER TWO
GAGE
“Gonna be a long night,” I told Reese “Picnic” Hayes through the phone. I’d been checking in with my club’s president at least once a day, on the theory that if I didn’t call, he might send someone to save me. Now I was leaning against the side of the diner where I’d parked my bike before going in for lunch. I’d walked over to check out Tinker’s store afterward on a whim. Now I had a job and a cover. Make that a job, a cover, and balls bluer than a Smurf in the dead of winter. “Talia ambushed me with her girlfriends, crawled all over me. Been working all day and I smell like dead squirrel, so I guess that means we’ve hooked her. No other reason I can see a woman comin’ near me right now.”
Picnic laughed. “That was the goal, right?”
“Yeah,” I replied sourly. “You owe me a shitload of beer when I get back, brother. Gonna have to triple-wrap my dick before sticking it in a snatch like that.”
“What’s the problem?” he asked. “I saw her picture—she’s hot, even if she is a bitch. Since when do you care about their personalities?”
Frowning, I glared at my bike. It looked weird without my Reapers whips hanging off the handlebars. I’d stripped off anything that might identify me as a club member. It felt wrong. Everything about this operation was wrong on some level, starting with the fact that I’d been stupid enough to volunteer.
Yes, I’d been sick of managing the Reapers MC’s strip club and I’d wanted a change of pace. But I’d also wanted to leave the crazy bitch-drama behind. Instead it looked like I’d walked right into the queen bitch’s nest.