much these guys lift me up. “Maybe I’ll help you with that.”
He grins. “If your friends are like you, send them my way.”
I smile and squeeze his forearm. “You know how to make a girl feel good about herself. Thank you.”
“Anytime. We need to move you up from a seventy to a hundred. You help keep this place running and we need you happy.”
I think about what he said as I head down the hallway. He’s only half right; I used to help keep this place running. I still help out, but not like I did. And I realise I miss it.
I’m almost at Winter’s office when Maddox, the boy I met here the other day, runs into me as he exits one of the rooms. He’s moving so fast that we hit each other pretty hard.
“Fuck,” he says. “Maybe watch where you’re going next time.”
This kid has some serious attitude, but there’s something about him I’m drawn to. I don’t know what it is, but it’s like I can’t look away from him.
But that attitude needs to go. “I was watching,” I say, my tone making it clear I’m not about to argue that point.
“Yeah, well the bruise you probably just gave me would say otherwise.”
“Maddox,” Winter says, joining us, his eyes boring into Maddox. “Where’s Eloise?”
Maddox holds Winter’s gaze, unaffected by the hardness in my husband’s voice. “Fucked if I know.”
Winter’s nostrils flare. “Well go find her. I need to speak with her.”
“For all I care, she could have fucked off and gone home—”
Winter leans in close to him and practically breathes fire when he says, “Go and find her, and stop giving me your goddam attitude.”
With one last scowl, Maddox turns and walks away from us. He doesn’t move fast and I can tell that pisses Winter off just a much as the way Maddox spoke to him.
I reach for Winter’s arm, drawing his attention to me. “Leave him be.” Winter told me why Maddox and Eloise are at the clubhouse. All I can think is that the boy must be feeling lost and confused over the events of the last couple of days since finding out Eloise isn’t his aunt, as well as being forced to stay somewhere he probably doesn’t want to be.
“He pushes all my damn buttons,” Winter says. “He’s given me nothing but fucking lip since he’s been here.”
It’s so unusual to see Winter this worked up, but then again, he’s tense from club stuff, so maybe that’s why his fuse is shorter.
“He’s a teen, and his whole world has been turned upside down. I’d give you lip, too, if that happened to me.”
Heat flashes in his eyes. “And I’d bend you over if you gave me lip. At least I’d be able to do something with it.”
I move into him, putting my hands on him. “I really need you to bend me over. Like, soon.”
“Fuck, I wish I had time for that now, but I don’t.”
“Maybe tonight?”
Before he can answer me, Ransom calls out, “Winter, you got a minute? Hunt just found something you’ll be interested in.”
“Fuck,” Winter curses under his breath. Then, nodding at Ransom, he says, “Yeah, gimme a minute.”
I drop my hands. “You go. I’m thinking I might spend some time in the kitchen.”
“Here?”
“Yeah. You’ve got men who need food, and I’ve got time to make it. And then maybe you can take me home and whisper dirty things in my ear.”
“I’d fucking like that,” he says before kissing me and leaving to go talk with Ransom and Hunt.
I find a mess in the kitchen. Two of the shelves on the wall have fallen down and it looks like someone started to assemble new ones, but got sidetracked. On top of that, someone has done a big food shop and just dumped all the cans and cartons of long-life milk and juice on the counter in the middle of the room.
I set to work putting the food away and cleaning up. When I get to the shelves, I go in search of the power tools the guys keep in the maintenance cupboard. I’m on my way back to the kitchen when I spy Maddox sitting in the corner of the bar looking bored. Or pissed off. I can’t be sure which, but he certainly doesn’t look happy.
“Hey,” I say, joining him. “You got a minute to help me with something?”
“What is it?” Going by his voice, I’d say he’s pissed off about something rather than bored.