“Where you going?” the gruff man asks Kolter.
“Gonna take her home, then go deal with some business at the club.”
The man scoffs and shakes his head. “I know all about your business at the club. Been on the phone with a detective for the last hour keeping them off our fucking ass.”
Kolter’s brow furrows. “What? How? It’s been cleaned up. It was taken care of. Ace?” Kolter says, turning to his friend.
Ace nods. “I oversaw it myself.”
“What you dipshits didn’t oversee is the fucking busboy across the street. Saw a body loaded up into a car and our guys follow said car.”
Kolter’s expression turns stoic. His next words are tight, his voice low. “Does he know?”
“No, not yet.”
The man’s eyes move to mine slowly before he shakes his head and looks back to Kolter. “Care to explain?”
He nods. “I’m gonna run her home, then I’ll be back.”
“That’s not what I fucking said. Now,” he demands, pushing past us and stomping through the bar to the back.
“Fuck,” Kolter curses under his breath. “I gotta handle this. Ace, will you take her home?”
“Of course. Hi,” he greets me, smiling gently like he’s worried he’s going to frighten me.
He’s not as tattooed as all the others, just a scattering of ink on his arms, and definitely not as old either, probably in between Kolter’s age and mine. He has mousy brown hair, a thick matching beard and a single eyebrow piercing.
“Hi,” I say softly.
Kolter drops his mouth to my ear, placing a gentle, unnoticeable kiss there. “He’ll get you home safe. I’ll come by tonight for dinner. Wait for me there.”
I frown and nod, but before I can ask any more questions, he’s gone, following the older man’s path into the back.
“Shall we?” Ace asks, holding the front door open for me.
I look around the bar for a moment. Most everyone is back to focusing on whatever they were doing before Kolter and I appeared, but Star and Brick wave goodbye. Well, Brick puts his hand up and Star winks at me, but same thing.
“Sure,” I say carefully then follow this motorcycle club member that I’ve never really met before, hoping Kolter is a decent judge of character and I don’t end up sleeping with the fishes. Or is that a mob thing? I don’t really know how all this gang stuff works quite yet.
Chapter Eighteen
Kolter
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Bones snarls the instant I shut the door behind me.
I don’t answer. He doesn’t actually want an excuse.
“Do you have any idea how incredibly stupid you were? Not only did you kill a civilian in the middle of a crowded club—our club—but instead of handling the mess yourself, you skipped away with that fucking girl and called in your buddies to clean things up?” he shouts, pacing back and forth beside the large meeting table.
“Leave her out of this,” I say stiffly.
Bones’ footsteps freeze in place, then he slowly turns to face me, head cocked to one side, his eyes narrowed. “What?”
“The girl. Leave her out of this. This is between you and me,” I say, forcing a steadiness into my voice as I lift my chin.
Bones is the VP of our club, my dad’s right-hand man. He’s been running product and taking out enemies since before I was born. He lives and breathes for the club, which means when someone fucks up, like I just did, he’ll burn down the fucking world to see them rectify what they’ve done. That’s all fine—I’ve prepared myself; I’ve accepted it—but he won’t speak ever aboutNaomi disrespectfully. In fact, I don’t want her name or even a reference to her anywhere near his mouth.
His eyes rake over me for several moments, like he’s trying to see something—or maybe hoping he doesn’t see something? Either way, he looks pissed off.