you?” I asked.
“It’s an unpaid internship. He’s paying the rent for me at this place. I left home with enough cash to keep me in groceries for a little while. But I wasn’t kidding about how badly I needed this job at the Den.”
I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my wallet.
“Torch …”
I handed her what I had on me, just two hundred.
“I can’t take that,” she said.
“Consider it an advance,” I said. “I expect you to work it off.”
I meant it plainly, but the minute the words came out, new heat flared through me. Shit.
A blush crept into her cheeks. Her skin was so damn hot as she took the money from me.
“Thank you,” she said. “I really do appreciate it. You’ve been so nice to me.”
Nice. That was for sure a word I wasn’t used to having applied to me.
“Give me your phone,” I said.
“My phone?”
“Yes. I want to put my contact in it, so I can get you that info with my dealer.”
She bit her lip. “Um ... I’m kind of in between phones right now too. I ... uh ... it’s the real reason why I’m taking this cash. I’m going to head over to the store tomorrow and get a new one.”
“What number did you give Shannon on your application?” I asked.
“I gave her my Uncle George’s office number.”
I didn’t like it. Not only was she facing the prospect of riding a damn bus alone, she had no phone in case of an emergency.
“It’s okay,” she said, interjecting before I could express my anger. “I promise. I’m going to get a new one tomorrow.”
She reached into her apron and pulled out a pen. “Why don’t you just write it down for me, and I’ll text you tomorrow as soon as I get my phone.”
I took the pen. Sydney held out her palm. Dammit if I didn’t have a fantasy about writing it somewhere more intimate. Fuck. It had been almost a throwaway comment I’d made about her wearing the club brand. It was exactly what I dreamt about doing to her.
Taking her. Branding her. Claiming her. Yeah. She was every bit the spoiled little rich girl I knew she was. She admitted as much, and I respected her for having the guts to own up to it. And to try to prove herself. But I also knew it meant she’d never had anyone as rough as me.
Even that thought set my blood racing. I didn’t like the idea of her having anyone else at all.
I wrote my number on her hand.
“Thanks,” she said. “I’ll text you tomorrow.”
“And I’ll give your new number to Shannon. She’ll get you on the schedule next week, for sure. And you don’t have to worry about Lori being a bitch to you anymore. That’s a promise.”
“Torch ... please ... don’t.”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said.
The door opened, and another tenant came out of the building. He looked scared as he recognized my cut. Sydney smiled and gave him a polite wave.
“I’d better go,” she said. “I want to get a shower. My feet are killing me. Then, I plan to sleep like the dead.”
If she’d have invited me in that night, I might have gone. Even though I knew it was a bad idea, the urge to fuck this girl burned through me.
We had rules. She was George Bailey’s niece. She was now a waitress at the club. Bad idea on every front.
But I was feeling bad as hell that night.
Sydney gave me a killer smile as she headed up the steps and went into the building.
I ran a hand through my hair and waited. A minute later, a light came on on the second floor. Good. I would have killed George if he’d put her in a ground unit.
I mounted my bike and started it. The curtains on that second-floor window moved. I could see Sydney’s silhouette through the glass as I peeled out and headed back to the Den.
Chapter Nine
The next morning, I laid it out for Shannon and Lori. I walked in as they were doing clean-ups behind the bar.
Shannon, to her credit, could sense the problem as soon as she saw me walk in. “Hey, Torch,” she said, poking Lori in the arm, so she turned and faced me too.
“You both tried to fuck that girl over,” I said. “Prove me wrong.”
Lori’s face went white. “She wasn’t ... I didn’t …”
“Colt told you to train her. You got some sort of problem with that?”
“Uh