“Hey, Missy, come give me a dance,” Jax said to a pretty brunette dancer.
“Hi, Jax.” She smiled as she looked across the room.
“How’ve you been?”
“Okay. Can I catch you the next time? I have a customer waiting. You know, I need the big tip he gives me. Rent’s due, and I’m short this month.”
“He can wait. I’ll give you a bigger tip,” Jax said as he stared at her tits.
Hawk said, “Go on to your customer.”
Missy threw Hawk a relieved look. “Thanks. See you around, Jax.” She walked across the room to a corner table.
“What the fuck did you do that for?” Jax sniped.
“This is a business, not a whorehouse. If you wanna fuck one of the dancers, then do it after hours, not on the Insurgents’ clock, got it?”
Jax mumbled something under his breath. Standing up, Hawk said, “I’m gonna find Emma to talk to her about the books. Don’t bother the dancers while they’re working.”
As Hawk walked toward the office, he passed the table Missy sat at with her customer. He jerked his head back when he saw Luke give Missy money for a lap dance. Fuckin’ suit is her big-tipper. What the fuck is he doing here? Hawk realized that if pansy-ass was there with his tongue hanging out for Missy, then Cara must have sent him packing. All of a sudden, the darkness that had been hanging over him since his encounter with Cara lifted.
Entering the office, he looked back at Missy. Her pussy was inches from Luke’s face, and he had his hand in his pants, rubbing his dick. Hawk turned away in disgust. There’s no way Cara wants that fuckin’ suit. She’s too proud to admit she wants me. I’ll give her some space, but I’m not letting her outta my life. No fuckin’ way.
Hawk closed the office door.
Chapter Eighteen
Looking at her ransacked office in disbelief, Cara asked, “What happened?”
“I don’t know. I just got here,” Asher said.
Glancing around the room, Cara noticed files strewn over the floor in the reception area and in her office. “Someone broke in. Have the computers and printers been stolen?”
“No, nothing expensive is missing,” Asher said.
“It seems like whoever did this was looking for something, but what? What do I have that anyone wants? What a mess,” Cara said.
“Maybe it’s a warning.”
“You think? That asshole already came by and ‘warned’ me. Why would he trash my office?”
“Probably to see if you had any files on the case. He’s also a fucking psycho, so I don’t think he needs a reason to do stuff to you.”
Cara picked up some of the papers. “We might as well get this mess cleaned up. It’s going to take us hours to get the documents in the right files. Damn, like I need this crap. The last few days have been totally shitty.”
“You didn’t have a good weekend? How was the charity ball?” Asher asked while sorting through the papers.
“It was a disaster. Hawk was one of the speakers there. I couldn’t believe it. Boys Hope helped him out when he was a teenager on the streets. He never mentioned to me who helped him out.”
“How did Luke like his competition?” Asher asked with a twinkle in his eye.
“It was a fiasco.”
“I hope you chose Hawk.”
“You, too? Are you and Sherrie conspiring against me? What’s wrong with Luke?”
“If I have to tell you, then you’re more clueless than I thought. So, Sherrie thinks you belong with Hawk?”
“Her libido is always in overdrive, so yeah, she would pick Hawk. He’s got the whole physical package, you know?”
“You’re the only one who can decide who is best for you.” Pausing, Asher put his arms on Cara’s shoulders, looked at her intently, and said in a low voice, “You need to call Hawk and tell him what’s going on with these Deadly Devils.”
“Deadly Demons.”
“The operative word here is Deadly. Your biker guy knows this world, and you don’t. You need to let him in on this. This isn’t small stuff, Cara.”
“I know, but I’m out of the whole thing. I’m done with it. Once Viper sees that I’m finished with anything biker, he’ll get bored and move on. The last thing I’d do is call Hawk.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing.” Kneeling, Asher scooped up pages of documents.
“I do.” The truth was she was in over her head, and she had some vicious outlaw biker fixated on her. Her instinct told her to lay low for a while. “I may take a few days off next week.”
“You should do it now,” Asher said.
“I can’t. I have the Morrison trial starting tomorrow, remember?”
“With all this outlaw biker junk, who can remember anything?”
“Let’s get through this week. I know this will all pass.”
They worked most of the day putting all the files back together, and by the end of the afternoon, Cara was exhausted.
There was a chill in the late October air as Cara walked to her car. Wisps of smoke curled around the town like ghostly fingers while streams of it drifted from the chimneys of the houses dotting the hills around the town center. The thick scent of hickory permeated the town, and the streetlights lining Main Street cast eerie reflections in the dark, misty night.
As Cara approached her car, footsteps echoed behind her. She paused. The footsteps paused. She took a few steps. The footsteps took a few steps. As the hair lifted on the nape of her neck and arms, iciness weaved throughout her body, making her muscles tighten and her nerves jump. Stopping in the parking lot with a few steps to go until she reached her car, she froze while her heart pounded and her pulse raced. Behind her, a shuffled step scraped the asphalt. She sucked in her breath as she willed herself to move, but she couldn’t. Small sparks reflected on the mist-coated pavement, then the sliver of a flickering flame danced against the wind. Lighter fluid invaded her nose, and she swore she felt the heat from the narrow flame. Cold sweat poured down her back as she swallowed hard, heaving her body forward in an unexpected burst of energy.
Clicking on her car’s keyless entry and remote-start buttons at the same moment, her door unlocked and her engine sprang to life. With stinging eyes and pumping adrenaline, she leapt to her car door and flung it open. From the corner of her eye, she saw a shadowy figure stretching out a thin arm toward her. Yelling, she threw herself into the driver’s seat, but before she could close the door, a strong hand yanked her hair and pulled her backward. With a force she didn’t know she possessed, she shoved the hand away from her, slammed the car door, and floored the gas pedal.
As her car surged forward, a macabre scream bounced off her car windows, and a deep, creepy voice screamed, “Bitch!” Rubbing her aching scalp, she glanced in her rear view mirror and observed the silhouette of a tall man holding a cigarette in his hand, its tip glowing in the night. Shuddering and her teeth chattering, she exited the parking lot.
Driving around for a long time, she debated whether she should go home since she lived alone and had no doubt Viper knew her address. Not wanting to involve her parents, she dialed Eric’s phone number.
“Hey, Eric, it’s me.”
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing. Why?”
“Come on, Cara, I can hear it in your voice. Something’s wrong.”
“Can I come over?”
“Sure, you don’t need to ask.”
Fifteen minutes later, Cara found herself curled up on Eric’s couch in front of a spitting fire, sipping hot tea. Eric stared at her.
“Are you going to tell me what this is all about?” he asked.
Cara told Eric about her ransacked office and her scare earlier that night.
“Are you sure whoever was following you was part of this biker gang? I mean, you do have a lot of shady people for clients. Maybe it was one of them?”
“I don’t think so. I know it was Viper. The way he grabbed my hair and his damn fingernail cutting me, it felt like the time he did that crap to me at the office. The guy following me was also tall and lanky, like Viper, and he had a cigarette. No, I’m sure it was that asshole.” Cara shuddered as she thought of what could have happened if she hadn’t made it to her car.
“I told you to drop all this fucking shit.”
“I did. I’m not involved with any of it anymore. I just looked into it because the sister of one of the murder victims came and pleaded for me to help her find out what happened to her sister. I’ve moved on, really.”
“Good. I’m sure this biker guy, what’s his name, will lose interest in you,” Eric reassured her.
“I don’t know. I kind of doubt it. I don’t know what to do. Asher told me I should tell Hawk.”
“Fuck no! Why the hell would you go to him? You’re done with his case, so move on. He’s not of our class. He’s scum.”
“He’s not scum. He’s intelligent, and I’m pretty sure he’d know how to handle this thing with Viper. How did you know I was done with his case?”
“You told me.”
“No, I didn’t tell you. I’m positive I didn’t tell you.”
“Then I must have heard it from the other judges. You know, we do talk about each other’s cases. Anyway, what difference does it make? The point is, you’ve got yourself mixed up with a bunch of trash, and the sooner you stay away from all of them the better you’ll be. You should be concentrating on Luke. He’s a real nice guy.”