shoulders slumped, staring longingly out the window.
Good thing she wiped the tears away, or I might have licked them off her cheeks.
I drape my arm deliberately over her shoulders and sit back on the bench casually. When I squeeze her thigh in warning, she puts on a smile that looks physically painful and leans into me.
Rat and Striker are both watching us. “What happened between you two back there?” Rat says with interest, leaning forward with a grin. He looks at Emma. “What did you do this time?”
Striker leans toward us too.
Emma shakes her head.
For once, I agree with her. “Later,” I tell them both.
Striker shrugs and calls the waitress over. The woman sets down two plates of burgers and fries for us, a black coffee for me, and a Coke for Emma. Striker thanks her with a smirk. She goes red in the face and scurries off.
As soon as the waitress is gone, Striker looks out the window, seeming lost in thought, and doesn’t touch what’s left of his fries. His burger is only half eaten.
Everything about his behavior is off. Striker usually scarfs down anything you put in front of him, and normally he would be hounding me for every detail on what Emma did to cause the tension between us.
“What’s eating you, man?” I ask him, dipping a fry in the ketchup that came with the food.
“Nothin’, I’m good.” He picks up his coffee and drinks half of it down.
I watch him for a second, not buying it. For some reason, he looks at Emma, and his face turns white. He gives a hard swallow.
Rat furrows his brow, drawing back toward the window. “You don’t look so good, Strike. You’re not gonna ralf on me, are ya?”
Striker thumps down his cup. The saucer cracks. “I’m gonna go check on my ride.” He pushes to his feet and stalks off. I watch him trudge across the lot toward the garage, even though it’s going to take at least another hour to fix his bike.
“What’s that about?” I ask Rat.
“I have no idea,” Rat says, sounding as worried as me as he watches him leave over his shoulder. “He’s probably just pissed about his bike. He loves that thing.”
But I can tell Rat isn’t convinced of that any more than I am.
I turn my attention from my best friend to a different complication—the woman eating halfheartedly at my side.
Over the next half hour while we eat, she snatches fleeing glances at me. I can see it in her eyes; she’s still trying to figure out why I’m keeping her alive.
I wish I knew the answer.
But I can also see something else in her eyes when she searches mine, looking for the mercy she won’t find—fear of what’s going to happen to her when I decide to deal with her for going against me by taking that wallet.
I run my fingers through the thick dark curls that fall across her shoulders. My fingers brush the side of her neck, and she tenses, her neck cording with the effort not to toss her head. The struggle in her makes me smile.
“I can’t wait until I get you to Pops’,” I whisper in her ear, running my fingers along her hand on the table.
She tries to pull her hand away, and I curl my fingers around hers, squeezing in what looks like an affectionate grip, trapping it under mine. She gives the faintest wince.
“You betrayed me, Little Thief. After tonight, you won’t even think about disobeying me again.”
Emma’s head jerks up. Her dark, bottomless eyes widen, her hot little mouth parting. My cock jerks violently.
Her fear is palpable. That fear settles in my belly, a sickeningly satisfying warmth, like a hearty meal to a hungry man. I’ve let her get to me, let her open me up, let myself trust her. It won’t happen again. It can’t if I want to keep her.
Retribution is coming for her tonight, and nothing is going to save her from my wrath.
7
Business to Take Care Of
The ride to Pops’ is a little over an hour away, but with doubling back now and again, it stretches to nearly an hour and a half. Add to that nearly two more hours for the repairs on Striker’s bike, and we don’t reach the clubhouse until almost eight.
The early evening is a rare overcast one, but it’s still thick with smog and hot as fuck. The shirt under my cut sticks to my back, sweat soaking my hair and slicking