Outcasts MC (Complete Series), page 18
Well, I couldn’t imagine being interested in a guy who didn’t like coffee. This was my whole life; to not be able to share that with him would be too weird.
I leaned against the counter as the coffee brewed, watching Kane as he looked around the place. “It’s really peaceful in here when there are no other customers,” he said.
“That’s one word for it,” I agreed. I shrugged. “Normally, I at least have some music on, but we were just about to get out of here when you showed up.”
Kane looked contrite. “Sorry to keep you, then,” he said.
I grinned at him. “If I didn’t want you here, you wouldn’t still be here,” I said, the words spilling out of my mouth without conscious direction from my brain.
“Glad that you want me here, then,” Kane said, smiling right back at me. He cocked his head to the side. “So you don’t like it when the place is empty like this, though? Too quiet for you?”
I shrugged. “It’s partly that it’s quiet. But it’s partly just that I like when there are people in here. You know, I like to see all our regulars and meet the new customers and chat with everyone.”
“Like me?” Kane asked. “You’re just getting to know the new customer?”
I could feel a light blush spread across my pale cheeks. “Not exactly,” I admitted. But fortunately, the coffee finished brewing just then, and I had an excuse not to continue. I finished making his coffee and handed it over to him. He took out his wallet, but I shook my head. “Addison’s already counting the drawer,” I told him. “We’re really closed for the day. I couldn’t take your money even if I wanted to.”
Kane laughed. “You know, if you give me too many free coffees, I’m going to be obligated to buy you dinner sometime.”
“Good,” I said, a bit of a challenge in my voice now.
Kane’s eyes twinkled in amusement, but he still didn’t ask me out or ask for my number. I wondered what exactly it was that he wasn’t getting here. But on the other hand, it was kind of nice to know that he wasn’t trying to pressure me. Building the excitement, really.
“So will I get to see you tomorrow?” he asked, taking a sip of his coffee.
“Shop’s closed on the weekends, actually,” I told him.
Was that a hint of disappointment I detected on his face? I had to wonder. But whatever it was, it was there and gone in just another moment. “Well, I guess I’ll see you next week, then,” he said smoothly. “Brea.” He held up his coffee. “Thanks for making this for me, even if I made you late getting out of here.”
“Anytime,” I said, embarrassed to find I was breathless with the anticipation of the next time I would see him.
He nodded at me and sauntered out, and was it just me or was he swaying those hips a little more than he needed to? Self-satisfaction or intending to draw my attention to his good-looking ass? Maybe a little bit of both. Maybe neither.
I shook my head, jolting a little as Addison cleared her throat behind me.
“So who exactly is that?” she asked, a knowing smirk on her face.
“Just a guy. A customer. He was in here yesterday; you must have seen him,” I said, feeling unaccountably flustered.
“I must have?” Addison asked, and her grin widening. “And why is that?”
I rolled my eyes. “Come on; you’re not blind. He’s good-looking, isn’t he?”
“He is,” Addison agreed. “And I can also tell that he’s pretty interested in you. Are you guys a thing?”
“No!” I said immediately. “I don’t know. He’s just come in for coffee a couple times. I guess I’ll see him next week.”
Addison laughed. “You like him, don’t you?” she asked. “No, don’t even bother to answer that; it’s written all over your face.” She shook her head. “I’m glad for you. It’s about time.”
“I barely even know him,” I protested.
“Sometimes, you don’t have to know a guy to know that you like him,” Addison said sagely. “Love at first sight and all of that.”
“It’s not love,” I grumbled.
“Well, whatever it is, you’d better make sure that Dad doesn’t find out about him,” Addison said. “The poor guy. Dad’ll find out everything there is to know about him. Probably even what he weighed at birth and, like, which Spice Girl he thought was sexiest.”
I snorted. But there was no chance of me telling Dad about him. The less Dad knew about my life, the better, as far as I was concerned. Especially because, like Addison had said, he didn’t seem to know where the limits came. Kane seemed nice, and I didn’t want to scare him off.
Not that he seemed like the kind of guy who would be easily scared off. I shivered a little, thinking of those brooding eyes and the glimpse of tattoos that I’d seen at the edges of his sleeves. He was tall and broad and muscular, and he looked like he wasn’t the kind of guy to shy away from anything. That was part of the allure; I had to admit.
I just hoped I had enough time to find out the rest of who he was. I hoped he’d be in there to see me again on Monday.
Suddenly, Addison snapped her fingers. “So that’s why you got all dressed up today!” she exclaimed.
“It was not,” I lied, but I knew I was fighting a losing battle.
7
Kane
I didn’t want to appear overly eager, but I decided that, come Monday, I did want to show I had learned from last week’s mistake. Instead of showing up late to the club meeting, instead of even showing up right on time, I showed up a little bit early. I was hoping that Otis would notice and say something about it. But he still didn’t say anything to me, barely even looking in my direction.
I frowned and folded my arms across my chest as I took a seat on one of the couches. I tried not to look like a pouting child, but I was frustrated. It seemed like nothing I could do was ever going to be good enough for him. Like nothing I did was ever going to be the right thing.
Dax dropped down on the couch next to me as we waited for the meeting to start. “Hey, bro,” he said, punching my shoulder lightly. “How're things going with Victor?” I could tell from the expression on his face, one of veiled amusement, that he knew exactly how it was going.
I rolled my eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me that surveillance work is pretty much the most boring work imaginable?” I muttered under my breath.
Dax laughed. “Hey, gotta pay your dues if you want to be part of this business,” he said. “Anyway, Victor’s not so bad to work with. Smart guy.”
“Yeah, he’s great,” I agreed. “But god, the guy we’re following just goes to work for the whole day and then goes home. Nothing else.”
Of course, he had gone to the coffee shop that Brea worked at, and that was the only reason I had met her. But I wasn’t about to mention that little break in routine to my brother.
“Heard the sheriff got after you guys last week, though,” Dax said.
“He didn’t really get us. Just told us that he didn’t want us hanging around outside the DA’s office, or else he was going to cite us for loitering.” I shrugged. “We’ve still been trailing the guy, we’ve just been a lot more discreet about it. We’re not just sitting around together in a car.”
It had actually been a little more like what I would have pictured as surveillance. You know, the kinds of tactics you see in movies, I guess. On Friday, Victor had helped me disguise myself as a new intern and coached me on how to go undetected in the building. We hadn’t learned anything interesting, just that the attorney was in meetings all day and that I would make a terrible office worker. That evening, Victor strategically bumped into the attorney as he was leaving the office, slipping a bug into his bag full of case files so we could overhear his conversations as long as the bag was nearby.
With all that going on, though, I nearly hadn’t made it over to the coffee shop to see Brea before she closed up for the night. Well, I hadn’t made it before she closed up for the night. I could tell that they were most of the way through the cleaning process before I burst through the door, but she was nice enough to hang out for a bit and make me coffee all the same.
She was interested in me. I still wanted to play things carefully, build some excitement, not put too much pressure on this. I had a lot of things that I was juggling at the moment with work with the club, so it was as much for me as it was for her.
So as much as I wanted to ask her to get a drink with me that night (because fuck, she looked good in that green dress of hers), I told myself to wait. See her again on Monday. Let her spend the weekend thinking about me.
Over the weekend, the surveillance business had been easier since the attorney had spent the majority of his time away from his office and we had planted the bug. Not that he said anything interesting still, but listening in gave us something to do while we were lurking in the shadows watching him and watching out for the sheriff.
Dax made a face, but before he could respond, Otis started the meeting. “As I’m sure all of you have heard at this point, the sheriff is really pushing the MC,” he said, looking around at everyone. “And that means we need to keep out of trouble right now. I know that a lot of you don’t believe we’re up to anything illegal, but remember that the sheriff is looking for the slightest infraction to put us behind bars. Quasi-legal isn’t going to cut it at the moment.”
“So, what, he needs another bribe?” Xander asked sarcastically. “He’s getting a little greedy, but we can afford it, can’t we?”
Otis shook his head, though. “I don’t think he’s looking for another bribe, and in fact, I think trying something like that right now might give him one more reason to lock us up. If he’s cracking down on corruption in the city, the last thing he wants is it getting traced back to him.”
“So what are we going to do?” Victor asked.
“For now, lay low,” Otis said with a shrug.
“I have a client that I need to go collect from,” Logan piped up. He was the guy who went to clients after someone like Dax or Xander did their duties as protectors. Sometimes, his job was as simple as showing up and taking the cash. Other times, things got a little uglier. Like Victor and I had talked about, there were some guys who just didn’t want to pay up, especially if they didn’t feel like we had done anything for them.
Otis shook his head. “For right now, don’t worry about it,” he said. “If it becomes violent, the sheriff will find a way to pin us, and that’s the last thing that we need.” He paused, looking around at each of us. “I don’t like it any more than the rest of you, but until we come up with a better plan, this is the one we have to work with. The sheriff is not the kind of man we want to be on the wrong side of. But hopefully, this will all blow over when he doesn’t get us for anything.”
I looked around the room to see how the other guys were taking it. They all seemed to be nodding along. I wanted to protest, personally. What the hell kind of MC quits all activity when the sheriff starts poking around? There had to be some way to get around that. Some way we could be extra careful but keep up with business as normal.
Otherwise, what the hell was stopping other clubs from moving in on our territory? Doing nothing, letting the sheriff have total control of the situation, had to show everyone else that we were weak, that our territory was theirs for the taking.
I didn’t know how to say that to Otis, though. I was already on thin ice with him, as he had said. I could at least realize that confronting him in the middle of the meeting, in front of everyone in the club, wasn’t the smartest move I could make.
But it was frustrating all the same. And what now? Were we going to do nothing until this blew over? I had just gotten my foot in the door with the club; I hated the idea of not having any sort of job this week. I’d even take surveillance again if it meant I got to do something.
Be careful what you wish for, apparently.
After the meeting, Victor jerked his head toward Otis’s office, and I followed him in there. “Victor, good,” Otis said, again not making any note of the fact that I was there as well. This time, I did roll my eyes, but he didn’t appear to notice that, either. “How are things looking with the attorney?”
“I think he’s legitimately worried,” Victor said, dropping into a seat across from Otis. “Actually, I think the person the attorney needs protection from is the sheriff. His latest win has ruffled a lot of feathers, and I think the sheriff is about ready to be done with him.”
I gaped at Victor. He hadn’t mentioned any of this to me before. It made sense, of course, but I wondered again if there was something he had seen that I had missed. I hadn’t heard anything in any of the conversations we’d listened to that would make me think that the attorney was worried about anything, let alone that the sheriff might have it out for him.
Otis was nodding, though. “I had a feeling that might be the case with him,” he said. “But it’s always better to be safe rather than sorry.” He paused. “It does put us in a tricky situation, though, with the sheriff already interested in what we’re up to at the moment.”
“It’d be hard to put a protector on the attorney right now, you mean,” Victor said, nodding as well.
“Exactly,” Otis said. “In light of the pressure being put on us at the moment, I think the best plan would be for the two of you to continue following him for the next week, make sure that nothing fishy happens, and then we’ll agree to the contract after that, once we see how things are with the sheriff.”
“You think he’s going to be willing to wait another week before getting protection from us?” Victor asked doubtfully.
“He wouldn’t have a choice,” I said, and both their heads swiveled toward me. “If he needs protection from the sheriff, he can’t go to the police, and there’s no one else in town he could go to for help. Unless you think he might go to the Savages, but they don’t have the level of tact that the attorney needs in such a delicate matter. The attorney doesn’t want the sheriff dead; that would raise too many questions.”
My voice got stronger as I continued to think out loud, my confidence bolstered by Victor n0odding along with everything I said. And was that a faint glimmer of approval on Otis’s face? But no, I must be imagining what I wanted to see there. Still, he didn’t disagree with me.
“You’re right,” he said, and inside, I was celebrating that as a huge win. He turned back to Victor, but I didn’t even mind this time. “As Kane said, he has no choice. He either waits, or he deals with this all on his own.”
“Makes sense,” Victor said. He glanced over at me. “I guess we’ll head back to the attorney’s office, then.”
“Sounds good,” I said, already getting to my feet. But there was something else I wanted to do first.
I caught Victor’s arm as we walked toward the office. “Is it okay if I catch up with you in a bit?” I asked him. “There’s something I have to take care of.”
Victor’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t ask any questions. For a moment, I wondered if the reason Otis had finally let me into the club was general knowledge. Weeks ago now, I had tangled with one of the Savages in an alleyway and ended up killing the guy. I had covered my tracks, showing responsibility that Otis had appreciated. But maybe Victor thought I had caused some sort of trouble again.
Really, I just wanted to swing by the coffee shop before we got caught up in surveillance again. I didn’t want Brea to think I wasn’t going to show up. And I’d waited all weekend without seeing her, after all. I was excited to get over there.
Whatever Victor was thinking, he nodded at me. “Yeah, sure, meet me there when you can. See you soon.”
I wondered if he would have been so agreeable about it if he knew what I was really up to, but I put those thoughts out of my head. He wasn’t going to find out that I was just meeting a girl because I wasn’t stupid enough to tell him that. I nodded to myself and set off for the coffee shop, already thinking through the complex order I’d spent the weekend memorizing.
8
Brea
I looked up as the bells over the door of the coffee shop tinkled, indicating a customer coming or going. A broad grin spread across my face as I saw who it was, but I rolled my eyes teasingly all the same. “Not you again,” I grumbled.
Kane laughed and came over to the counter, hopping up onto what I was quickly coming to think of as his stool. He had come in to see me every day that week, sometimes staying for only a minute or two and sometimes sticking around to chat for a while. Sometimes, he ordered coffee for just himself; other times, he ordered two coffees, one for his coworker as he told me.
I still didn’t know what he did for a job, but I did know I was starting to look forward to having Kane in the shop every day.
Today, he had timed it perfectly for when I didn’t have any customers, meaning that I didn’t have to feel guilty about chatting with him. And Addison was on her lunch break, so maybe I wouldn’t have to deal with her teasing me over the fact that he was there again. But: “Do you have to get right back to work?” I asked worriedly.
“Nah, I’ve got a little time,” Kane told me easily.
I grinned. Good. “So, what do I have to concoct for you today?” I asked him. His orders this week had gotten more and more complex, involving things like steaming the milk at a certain temperature, adding a certain amount of cold water at the end, and so on. It gave me a funny, fluttery feeling in my chest to know he was studying all of this coffee jargon just for me. I’d been so worried that he might not like coffee at all, but he was proving to me that even if he didn’t like coffee, he wanted to be a part of that part of my life.
He was interested in me. I was sure of it. So why the hell hadn’t he asked for my number yet?
At first, I had thought I must be reading the whole situation wrong. Maybe he wasn’t interested. Maybe it was just what I had initially thought, and he had just started work in the area and needed a place to go to take his breaks. Maybe he was just a generally flirtatious kind of guy. But Addison insisted that he seemed interested in me, and I trusted her on that. Besides, we were definitely flirting, Kane and me. Every single day. He seemed genuinely happy to see me behind the counter each time too.
