She swallowed hard. “I’ll…get going. Leave you to business.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” he growled. “You came on my bike. You leave on my bike. For now, you stay in my room until I get everything sorted.”
Lana’s eyes narrowed at his cold, abrupt tone and her stomach clenched. This had definitely been a mistake and he clearly thought the same. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why had she even thought of trusting him again? When would she ever learn? No one wanted her. She was flawed. Fundamentally damaged. Better off alone.
“I’m not a prisoner. If I want to leave, I’ll leave.”
“Babe, there is nowhere to go from here. Taxis won’t come to Hades. We are miles from the nearest bus stop. No one will give you a lift without my say-so.”
“What about Kickstand?”
He spun around and a pained expression crossed his face, but it was so fleeting she could have imagined it. “You want to leave that bad?”
She tightened her lips into a thin line and nodded. “Yeah, I want to leave. This was…a mistake. I just got caught up playing your old lady.”
He stilled and exhaled a long, slow breath. For several moments he studied her and then his face tightened. “Probably right. I’ll tell Kickstand to take you.”
Her heart sank to the floor. But what had she expected? Protests? Declarations? Begging? Not James.
She followed him out of the room and down the narrow stairway to the main floor. James took Ryder and Kickstand aside for a hushed conversation. As Lana waited, her stomach a queasy knot of confusion, Portia sauntered over to her with a cold smile on her face.
“You sure keep busy.” Her thin nasal tone set Lana’s already frayed nerves on edge. “First you’re after Rex, then Ice. You gonna fuck Ryder too? Who’s next on your list? Bones? Diesel? Kickstand? You angling to be the next mama? Because I’m warning you, there is only one mama in this club and that’s me.”
Drowning in a sea of self-hatred and self-pity, Lana almost forgot she had to keep up the act as Ice’s old lady. Still, having no desire to be the woman who slaked the sexual needs of any club member without discrimination, she was able to answer honestly, “Um. No. I’m a one-man kinda woman.”
“Didn’t seem like that to me when you were hiding in Rex’s locker. Every woman here wants a piece of Rexy, but he’s mine.”
The hair on the back of Lana’s neck stood on end. She glanced back over her shoulder and spotted James and Ryder heading their way. Time to change the topic of conversation.
“I like your…uh…dress.” She flashed Portia a desperate smile. “I can’t wear white. It washes me right out, but it highlights your tan.”
Portia’s eyes narrowed and she pulled out Lana’s lipstick camera just as James and Ryder joined them. “Might look better if I added a little color.”
Damn. Had she opened it? Did she know? Heart thundering, Lana shrugged her shoulders. “You might not want to use it. I have…a…cold. Bad cold. You wouldn’t want to get sick. I’ll bet Rex likes his girls…healthy.”
James snorted a laugh. Ryder gave her a curious glance. Portia’s lips curled into a positively evil smile and she placed the lipstick camera between her fingers and started to pull.
“Give me that.” James reached for the gold tube and Portia let it drop. Lana’s hand flew to her mouth as her most expensive piece of surveillance equipment hit the floor with a crack. James quickly snatched it up. He stared at the camera and then shot Lana a glance that made her wince.
Gripping her forearm, he dragged her away from Ryder and Portia and into a quiet hallway. “This yours?” He pulled open the camera and Lana nodded.
“Same piece of equipment I confiscated from you the first time we met?”
Heart pounding, Lana shrugged. “Actually, you never gave that one back. This one is new.”
James’s jaw tightened and he backed her up to the wall. This time it wasn’t arousal that made her pulse race, but fear.
“You promised you wouldn’t go near him without me.”
“I didn’t have time,” she said, striving for a calm she didn’t feel. “I saw him meet Portia at the door. I overheard him saying he was taking her to his office. I didn’t have time to find you. I just had time to…take up a covert surveillance position before they got there. Unfortunately, I was discovered.”
James inspected the camera and then slapped it into her waiting palm. “Did you get your pictures?”
Lana looked at the battered and dented gold tube in her hand. “I got some pictures but I don’t know if they survived the two falls.”