Ultimate MC (Romance Collection), page 32
I guess it was better that he met me here, in public, than anywhere else. Jeez, what would I even do if he showed up at my doorstep or something like that? The rational part of me wanted to believe I would slam the door in his face, but there was a part of me that knew just how hard it would be to do that.
Victor and I had grown up together, and we were remarkably similar in a lot of ways. I didn’t remember now if he had gotten me into computers and hacking or if it was the other way around, but I definitely remembered where things had ended. He had gotten himself sent to juvie for that stupid stunt, hacking into government files. The national security system. Whatever it was.
It wasn’t even like he really had a reason to do it anyway. It was all just something to do because he was bored. Because he wanted to prove to himself that he could.
Or maybe because he wanted to prove it to me.
Either way, I hadn’t wanted anything to do with him when he told me that that was what he was planning on doing. The last thing I needed was the government coming down on my ass. And that was still the case. I didn’t want to know what Victor had been up to since getting out of juvie. The less we interacted, the safer my business was going to be. The safer my life was going to be. I didn’t even want him checking up on me anymore, as I had made clear to him as soon as he got out, even though I knew he felt almost like he was my big brother and needed to make sure I was safe.
I couldn’t just ignore him right now, though, as much as I might wish I could. I knew he wasn’t just here for a bagel, either. I turned back around, trying to think of something to say to him. But the words wouldn’t come.
God, why did he have to be so infuriatingly good-looking? He definitely wasn’t the guy you pictured when you thought about hackers. Then again, I guess with all my tattoos, I wasn’t exactly the girl that you’d picture as a hacker, either. More like a punk princess, maybe.
Victor’s dark hair was a little longer than it had been the last time I’d seen him, shaggy and hanging down around his ears, carelessly swept out of his deep brown eyes. He grinned easily at me, like we were still just the best of friends and there was no reason why he shouldn’t be there.
“What are you doing here?” I finally managed.
Victor’s eyes danced with amusement, like he knew exactly how I was feeling right now. Probably did, the bastard. He was always way too good at reading me. I was like an open book as far as he was concerned. No one, not even Lacey, had ever understood me so well.
It was part of why I hated seeing him here now. It had been hard to cut him out of my life, even though I knew it was the only thing I could possibly do in the situation. Every time he came back, even if it was just for one quick conversation, it felt like I had to start all over again with expunging him from my life.
“I just happened to be in town and looking for a good bagel,” Victor quipped. I didn’t believe it for a second. He knew where I worked. There was no way this was just a coincidence.
I should have changed jobs when I had the chance. Although I knew that if Victor really wanted to find me, he was going to always be able to. No matter how careful I was about my personal information or what kinds of protections I set around my digital self, Victor was always going to be able to find me.
He was my kryptonite, I supposed.
And even though I knew that it was probably safest that we had whatever conversation we were going to have here, in front of all these people, so that if anything bad came of it, I could have some sort of proof that I wasn’t involved in whatever he was involved in, I suddenly also knew I couldn’t do this here.
I untied my apron, hanging it up. “I’ll be back in an hour,” I called over to Lacey.
She frowned at me. “John just said that he wants to see you doing more around here while you’re on shift,” she reminded me.
I shook my head but didn’t respond to that. Let John finally fire me, then. If I had to, I was calling this a personal emergency. It wasn’t that far from the truth, to be honest.
I caught Victor’s arm and dragged him outside and around to the back alley. There, I turned on him, my hands on my hips. “What are you really doing here?” I asked him, eyes narrowed.
Victor was still grinning at me, but I could see the edge of caution there. He wanted something, and he was hoping I would actually hear him out. I knew that because I could still read him nearly as easily as he could read me.
“I just wanted to check on you,” he had the gall to tell me.
“Oh please, I’m not fifteen anymore,” I scoffed. “And besides, I’m a hell of a lot safer when I’m not seen around you.”
“Don’t you miss me, though?” Victor asked teasingly.
I rolled my eyes. “Cut the crap,” I told him, folding my arms across my chest. It was like a physical barrier between the two of us. I just wished it felt more solid.
Victor shrugged. “I need to borrow your computer,” he said simply.
I stared at him for a moment. No, gaped at him. Borrow my computer? How stupid did he think I was? No, that had to be another joke. He wasn’t there because he wanted a bagel, he wasn’t there because he wanted to check up on me, and he definitely wasn’t there because he wanted to borrow my computer. Was he?
“Oh fuck off,” I told him as he continued to stare expectantly at me. I suddenly realized he was serious. “The last time you borrowed my computer, you hacked into the national security system!” I exploded, trying to keep my voice down. You never knew who might be listening in, after all. It had taken me enough time to clear my name the first time, when he had been sent to juvie. They had all been convinced that because it was my computer, I must have at least known what he was planning to do.
God, I’d been so lucky for stereotypes, that time. Usually, I hated the fact that dudes underestimated me in the hacking world because I was a female. But being a female was probably what had gotten me out of trouble when Victor was sent to juvie. No one believed I could have done just what he had done, or that he and I had been working together on all the other myriad projects they’d pegged him with.
Still, I’d been damned lucky. And I wasn’t exactly willing to try my luck again.
“Get the fuck out of here,” I said to Victor, shaking my head. “I don’t even do any of that stuff anymore.”
It was a stupid lie, and Victor, of course, saw right through me. “You cut the crap,” he said. “We both know there’s no way you’re slaving away at a minimum-wage job cleaning tables and serving bagels. You’re too smart for that. You’ve got something going on the side, and this is just to make your tax documents look more legitimate.”
I scowled at him, glancing furtively around even though I knew I wasn’t going to see anyone listening in, not back here. But all the same. “Could you maybe not bandy it about for anyone to hear?” I hissed.
Victor just laughed, the infuriating man that he was.
“You’re not borrowing my computer,” I said to him, shaking my head. “Not a chance in hell. You’d have to steal it first, and there’s no way you’re getting through my lock codes to actually use the thing.”
“Fair enough,” Victor said. “Just thought I’d ask.” He paused. “Well, at least let me take you out to dinner to catch up,” he finally said, and I could tell from the way he was looking at me that “catching up” would include a lot more than just words. He looked hungry and dangerous. He definitely wasn’t the young man I had known before he went into juvie. He might have seemed like the same man on the surface, but I knew him well enough to know that a lot more had changed than just the broadening of his shoulders.
I shivered a little in excitement. He and I had fooled around a little bit when we were younger. How could we not, when we were together practically all the time? But we had never actually gone all the way. I could only imagine what it would be like, with all those years of frustrated feelings between us.
I couldn’t let myself go down that path, though, not even in my head. Victor was dangerous, and he knew me too well. If I was going to survive anything with him around, I was going to need to keep my wits about me.
Victor laughed as I continued to hesitate, and I tried not to let him see what that sound did to me. “Come on, Britt, it’s just dinner,” he said. “I promise, I won’t talk shop. Unless you want to.” He lowered his voice, leaning in, his eyes twinkling. “I bet you’d think some of my work is pretty sexy, actually. I’ve refined my techniques in recent years. I’m a lot subtler now.”
I groaned, pushing at his shoulder. “You’re terrible,” I told him. “There’s nothing sexy about a hack like you.” If only that were true.
Before I could say anything else, though, John stormed over toward us. “This is just the kind of thing I’m talking about!” he said, throwing his hands in the air. “You are still on the clock, and yet here I find you in the alley with your boyfriend!”
I gave him a cool look. “I was just taking out the trash, and this guy came up and started talking to me,” I lied. And there was nothing John could do to prove otherwise. I could see the way he was purpling with rage, though, and I decided to take pity on him. “All right, all right, I’m headed back inside,” I told him.
It got me out of the conversation with Victor anyway. But there was something about the way he had asked to use my computer that intrigued me. He wouldn’t need a computer like mine unless he was working on something really big. And I was pretty sure he had learned his lesson the first time around. He wouldn’t just be messing around this time.
No, there had to be a reason for it. And I wanted to know what it was.
So as I slipped past him to go back inside, I muttered under my breath, “I get done here at five. You can take me to dinner then.”
I didn’t have to look back at him to know he was grinning at me. He probably knew all along that there was no way I was going to not go to dinner with him. The prick.
“John was furious when he came back in here,” Lacey whispered as I grabbed my apron.
I made a face. “Yeah, he didn’t seem too happy when he came to herd me back in,” I said. I glanced toward the windows, and sure enough, there was John, watching me through the glass. I wanted to go out there and say something to him about scaring off the customers like that.
Or maybe I should just flip him the bird and be done with it.
Instead, I grabbed a rag and started scrubbing down everything in sight behind the counter. It helped me take my mind off Victor. Or at least, I could pretend it did.
Lacey wasn’t about to let it go, though. “Who was that guy anyway? What did he want?” I could hear the worry in her voice. Again, that strong imagination of hers was probably getting the better of her.
I shook my head. “He’s just trouble,” I told her. “Nothing more than trouble.”
And wasn’t that the truth.
Chapter 7
Victor
I headed back to the clubhouse on Wednesday after talking to Brittany. I had suspected she might be reluctant to lend me her computer again after the stunt I had pulled last time. I had never expected her to get into trouble when I had done it. She hadn’t known anything about what I was planning on doing. Sure, we’d worked together on some smaller projects before that, but hacking the national security system had been something I had done all on my own.
I’d never meant for her to get into trouble. I was still relieved she hadn’t ended up in juvie with me, even though I had to wonder how things might have been different for the two of us if she’d been locked up as well. Hell, maybe Otis would have her in the club as well. Would Brittany have agreed to join? Who knew. But I could picture her on a motorcycle, and fuck if that image wasn’t sexy.
There was a limit to what I could do without the added processing power of Britt’s best device, but I resolved to see if there was anything I could do on my own computer rather than packing it in for the day. I was pretty sure I could get Brittany to consent to lending me the computer at some point, if not right away. But I didn’t know how long that might take, and I knew we needed information sooner rather than later.
At least she’d agreed to go to dinner with me. I had a feeling that would win her over. She was nothing if not curious. She would want to know why I wanted to borrow her computer, mark my words. Of course, she wouldn’t come right out and ask me; instead, she’d pretend like she wasn’t interested at all, like the last thing she wanted was to talk shop with me.
But we’d both see right through each other. We knew each other too well.
“Hey, how did things go with your friend?” Logan asked a little while later, dropping into the seat next to me.
I shrugged, still plugging away at something on the computer for a moment. Finally, I looked over at him. “She’s meeting me for dinner to discuss things,” I told him. It wasn’t entirely true, or at least, I was taking the gamble on thinking she would be willing to discuss the things I wanted her to discuss with me. But in any case, I was feeling reasonably confident, and Logan didn’t need to know the whole truth of who Brittany was or why she might not want to have anything more to do with me.
I couldn’t really blame her for that. But there was no one else I could ask for a favor like this.
“Was just wondering how things were going with tracking down my guy,” Logan said quietly. “Any luck there, or are you too busy with this whole business here?”
“Honestly, I haven’t really had a chance to look into it,” I admitted. The conversation I’d been expecting, then. No surprise. “I promise I’ll put the number in the system tomorrow. I just have a few more things I want to try on this representative’s files first. Feels like I could be getting closer.”
It didn’t really feel like that. It was just as frustrating as ever. And I was starting to worry that I was leaving my digital fingerprints all over everything, which would never do. I really needed a stronger computer for this sort of delicate work. I was being as careful as I possibly could be, but I was afraid that careful might not be good enough.
But I couldn’t give it up, and I didn’t want to admit that I was getting nowhere right now. It wasn’t just my pride, either; it was the fact that Otis and the club needed me to do this. I had to find some way to make a breakthrough. Even if that meant somehow convincing Brittany that she needed to let me borrow her computer to once again go after the government.
“So it’s a she that you’re meeting for dinner, huh?” Logan asked after a minute, and I swore his normally neutral expression was one step closer to an amused grin.
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not like that,” I told him.
“Where are you taking her for dinner?” Logan countered.
“Look, I messed up the last time I was with her. Really messed up. Almost got her put in prison. There’s no going back from something like that.” But for a moment, I thought about it. I’d known Brittany forever, and I’d always sort of thought, in the back of my mind, that she and I might be meant for each other. We were just so similar, but not too similar that things between us were boring.
It just meant she understood me better than anyone else. Even the guys of the MC, after all these years of knowing some of them, didn’t know me the way Brittany knew me. Even if it had been a year or more since the last time I’d seen her. I still couldn’t believe it had been so long since I’d even swung by to check up on her, but she’d made it clear that she didn’t appreciate me coming around.
She had definitely grown up from the kid I had once known, though. I had to admit, she was sexy, not just the girl next door anymore. I guessed she probably had been sexy for a while, but I was seeing her with new eyes after so long without seeing her. There was something about that wicked grin of hers that made me want to pick her up, throw her over my shoulder, and haul her off to bed. Or maybe it was the dark, spiraling tattoos swirling along her arms and disappearing beneath the rolled-up sleeves of her button-down shirt.
Something about her just got me hot. Sure, we had fooled around before, and that might have had something to do with it. But I was sure there was something more to it too.
Like maybe the fact that it had been a while since I had fucked anyone. I just seemed to be in one of those stages in my life where I couldn’t seem to pull anyone, no matter what line I tried. It didn’t bother me; I knew these things always turned around eventually. But maybe my attraction to Brittany was just that: physical attraction, raw, carnal desire born from too much time without.
It had to be. I couldn’t let a romp between the sheets screw up my relationship with Brittany even more. I needed that computer; there was no way around it.
Logan wasn’t about to give it up, though. “I don’t know, just sounds to me like you have your work cut out for you,” Logan said easily, giving me a flippant grin.
I rolled my eyes. “Since when do you care about my love life anyway?” I asked him.
But that was the wrong thing to say, and I knew it the minute the words were out of my mouth. Logan had always been more closed off than the rest of the members of the club. The fact that he was finally starting to open up and almost be friendly with me was something I didn’t want to mess up. Unfortunately, I probably just had.
Logan shrugged and got to his feet. “Guess you know better than to come to me for love advice,” he said gruffly. “Let me know if you get anywhere with my project.” He was out of there before I could say anything else. I winced, thinking about going after him, but I knew it wasn’t likely to do any good.
No, better to turn my attention back to the project at hand. I didn’t get anywhere over the whole afternoon, though.
I felt weird dropping by Brittany’s work again, I decided later in the afternoon. I could tell that she and her boss weren’t on the best terms to begin with, so maybe she didn’t care, but the last thing I wanted was for him to see me around there again, decide that she was slacking, and fire her. I could only imagine how pissed she might get at me if I caused her to lose her job. Even if I was sure she didn’t need the work, I didn’t need to give her another reason to want me out of her life as quickly as possible.
