she can hide its ratty appearance from me now that I’ve started taking notice.
“I don’t have a boyfriend. No one is taking my money from me… except my truck, which needs some work.”
Mel tries to walk in but I stop her with a look, waving her the fuck out. Rue and Speck walk out of the office behind her but when they get an eyeful of me they shut the door, wanting nothing to do with whatever is eating my ass.
Smart.
“Do you owe someone? You got family in the hospital or something? You’re not on drugs, I know a tweaker when I see one.”
She pulls a sweatshirt on over the thin cami she had on, wincing and rubbing at her shoulder a little. She’s worked every other night this week thanks to Farrah’s time off, she’s danced her ass off without a fucking word of complaint over the long hours, and there’s no doubt she’s a little fucking sore. Diamond put her on all of next week too.
I hate her dancing here but it sure does make it easier to keep an eye on her.
“Nope. I’m single, sober, and just trying to survive here, Tomi. Is there anything else you need? I’m really just fucking… beat. I have classes early tomorrow and I’ll be dancing tomorrow to cover Farrah. Please just— please let me go home.”
She slings that shitty bag over her shoulder and pushes the wet tendrils of her hair away from her face. Fuck, what is with this fucking lighting making her look so fucking fragile?
I step aside and let her pass, my mind already planning out exactly how I’m going to tail her carefully the whole fucking way back to her place. I’ll run the address and find out who she lives with, where she grew up, fucking every little piece of her life until she’s not such a mystery to me anymore.
I watch the security cameras until I’ve seen her get into a cab and then I dig my keys outta my pocket, ready to get out and follow her home.
My phone ringing in my pocket stops me.
I think about ignoring it, just fucking forgetting all about my responsibilities at the club but the patch weighs heavy over my shoulders and I answer it, cursing under my breath.
“Get your ass to Mugshots. Grab Rue and Speck, be discreet about it.”
King’s voice is rough but the tenseness of his is radiating down the line. “What the fuck has happened now?”
He grunts down the line. “The whole place was just shot up. Glass and bullets fucking everywhere.”
When we walk into Mugshots it really is fucking torn the hell up.
Rue explodes the second he sees the damage. “Fuck. Fuck! Was anyone hurt?”
King stalks over to us from where he was looking over the bullet casings with Hawk, the crunch of glass loud under his boots.
“Coulson was here but he was out the back, managed to get down the back alley and call me without them fucking seeing him. He’s rattled as hell though, I got Hellion to take him back to the clubhouse for some whiskey.”
Jesus.
“Have the cops been here yet? Any witnesses?” I say, staring at the tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage. The club can afford to cover the costs without even feeling the hit but some asshole is costing us green.
King shakes his head. “We’re keeping the cops outta this. The less eyes on us all the better.”
Rue nods at him and leans down to pick up a shell. “They walked in here and shot the place up. They had to have an in… or this is one helluva coincidence and Coulson has a hit out on him we didn’t know about.”
King shakes his head again, his face fucking sour. “Can’t have been a hit. Everyone knows the bar’s empty by three, it was a fucking fluke that Coulson was even here. He was trying to figure out where the missing money has been going.”
More missing fucking money.
What a mess.
Hawk stalks back over to us. “Tomi, get your ass back to the clubhouse and keep watch on your computer shit for what’s going on here. Someone has gotta say or do something after this. Rue, Speck, grab a broom. We need to get this shit cleaned up before anyone notices the fucking bullet holes.”
I give him a jerk of my head and turn on my heel to get my ass outta there, ready to check fucking everything for a clue over who the hell