Claimed By The Devil - Joanna Blake Page 0,29
a date.”
“That’s crazy. She’s fucking beautiful.”
“Well, the feeling is mutual, according to the girls.”
He perked up a bit at that. And then he deflated just as fast.
“Maybe I went too fast. She’s new to all this. Fuck, so am I.” He ran his hand through his hair, obviously confused about what to do. He finally looked at me and I saw the pure misery in his eyes. Nick was tormenting himself. This girl had really gotten to him, and good. “I’ve never taken a girl out for breakfast, let alone planned a real date.”
“Maybe it has nothing to do with you,” I offered. “Did you write back?”
He nodded, looking like even more of a sad sack.
“No answer,” he said.
“No answer yet,” I corrected him. “Do you want to go over there? Or we could call the Untouchables. Get them to place her phone.”
“Place it?”
“Figure out where she is, see if anything is going on.”
He nodded, coming out of his haze of misery slightly.
“Cain’s agency?”
“Yeah, or just call Trace.”
“Which makes me look more like a stalker? Showing up or tracing her phone?”
I laughed and pulled the tequila bottle out of his hand.
“Both. But if she’s your woman, all bets are off. Stalk at will.”
He nodded slowly.
“Yeah. She’s mine.”
“So, fucking act like it.”
“That’s a good call. I’ll reach out to them.”
“I’ll wait with you,” I offered, sliding onto a bar stool. Without a word, Drake slid me a ginger ale. Like Jack, I was partial to them these days.
It only took about fifteen minutes for Nick to hear back from our brothers up north. The clubs weren’t the same, but we had a close kinship. We would lay down our lives for their inner crew, and they would do the same for us.
Nick gestured me to follow him into the back. I watched as he put Trace on speakerphone. Nick looked more upset and somehow relieved at the same time.
“It’s her mom, Meg,” he said to me, looking grim. “She’s in the hospital. Trace, Whiskey is on the line.”
“Hey, man. Cain is here too.”
Nobody actually expected the head of the Untouchables MC to say hi. He was a man of few words, to say the least. I thought I heard the faint sound of a grunt.
Hey, it was better than nothing.
“Thanks for doing this,” Nick said quietly.
“No problem. Sorry about your lady,” Trace answered.
Nick nodded. It was clear that he was taking this seriously. Melissa was his, even if their relationship had just started. It was a done deal. We all knew it.
“Tell us what’s up,” I asked, catching that something was seriously wrong from Nick’s expression.
“Melissa is going back and forth to the stables a couple of times a day, presumably to feed the horses.” We nodded. That wasn’t surprising. “But she is sleeping around the clock at the hospital. We accessed the files under her last name. I told you it was her mom. It’s bad, Nick.”
“How bad?” he asked gruffly.
“She’s dying. Cancer.”
“Fuck,” Nick breathed. I knew he cared about Melissa’s mother, too. He’d known the family for years. Now the fact that the girl had gone MIA made perfect sense. She was probably losing her mind, handling the mess all by herself.
“I know you didn’t ask, but I did a little more digging and . . .”
Nick tensed up. Hell, I did too.
“They’re on thin ice with the banks. Might lose Honeycutt Stables. The house, too. Everything was recently transferred to the girl’s name.”
“Okay, man, thanks. Shit.”
“Oh, and Nick, she’s nearly invisible on social media. No boyfriends. A couple of pictures she’s tagged in at horse shows and at the dorms. Nothing racy.”
Nick made a face. I knew he hadn’t asked them to look into her. But Trace was the kind of guy who looked into a rabbit hole and jumped, hoping he’d end up at a damned tea party.
“I could have told you that.”
“Right, well, Cain believes in being thorough.”
“I owe you guys one.”
“Don’t even sweat it. I could do this in my sleep.”
“Let me know how much. If you can.”
“How much?” Trace asked. But I knew. I knew exactly what Nick was asking.
Nick looked at me and I nodded in agreement. We had to know. If Melissa belonged to Nick, then she was one of us. I knew Becky had immediately taken a shine to her as well. It wasn’t just about the girl or the horse, either, although that would be enough to get the Devils to step in. Nick loved that place, too. If we