King(17)

“Go home, King.” When Shade went out the door as quietly as he’d entered, King went out after him, but he was already gone. He found Henry lying on the kitchen floor, just coming to.

“What in the fuck happened?” he asked as King helped him to his feet.

Damn, I’m getting old, he thought as he felt his body’s aches and pains under Henry’s staggering weight. “Shade.”

“Damn, I didn’t even hear him.”

“I didn’t either until he talked.”

“I think you’re biting off more than you can chew with him, Boss.” Henry’s cautionary words weren’t a deterrent, but he wasn’t stupid either. He hadn’t lived this long being stupid.

“Next time, I’ll be more careful.”

“If you’re not, I don’t think either of us will be alive to regret it.”





Chapter 8




Penni tossed her magazine down on the couch between them. “Let’s go out to dinner. I’m bored sitting around the apartment.”

Evie looked at Shade’s sister in amusement. “We’ve only been back two days.”

She shrugged. “I know, but I want to go out.” She leaned forward, looking at her with her pleading blue eyes. “Please, Evie… please.”

Evie playfully shoved her off the couch. “Okay, okay. Jeez.”

The women grabbed their jackets before going out the door. Penni’s apartment was close to several of the higher-end restaurants, but they chose a restaurant that was more laid back, deciding to sit outside at one of the small tables.

They were discussing how much Penni was looking forward to going back to work the next week when a dark car pulled up to the restaurant across the street. Evie recognized the man getting out of the driver’s side door.

Henry walked around the front of the car, opening the back door. King came out, reaching his hand back in for the beautiful woman sliding out of the car with a seductive smile aimed at an elegant King dressed in an expensive dark suit. King’s arm circled the woman’s waist as he escorted her inside the expensive restaurant.

The woman’s pale-pink ice dress moved fluidly against her body as she walked. The dress was stunning, the flowing silk ending just below her knees with a row of ruffles. Evie had last worn ruffles when she was five-years-old. On King’s date, they looked flirty and enticing. She was everything Evie had turned her back on years ago.

Evie took a long drink of her beer.

“Something wrong?” Penni asked at her sudden silence.

“No. You ready to go?” Evie paid the check.

Walking back to the apartment building, she listened to Penni’s enthusiasm, which brought back her own reflections of how long it had been since she had felt the same about her own job.

She loved being around The Last Riders. She even enjoyed the laid-back lifestyle of working in the factory. However, she was a NP and that was being ignored. She was going to use the time she was in Queen City to come to some hard decisions she had been avoiding.

* * *

“She’s here.”

King sat at his table doing paperwork. At Henry’s words, his eyes went to the doorway, seeing Evie walking through as if she went to a strip show every Saturday night.

He had wondered when she would show up. She had been in Queen City for over a week. Jackal had told him she and Penni had driven there from Treepoint while he had flown home. He had been confident she would show up at his strip club; how else was she supposed to find out what she needed to know?

Shade would want to know if Lily was in danger. How else would he do that other than to send someone in to find out? The sexy woman was the perfect one, too. His son-in-law was a smart bastard.

King had no intention of getting Lily hurt. In fact, he had decided to get out of the business, but the man he wanted to take over was proving resistant. Until he came around, King was unable to move on. He had fought for years to reach the position he was in, yet now, he couldn’t give it away fast enough.

“Tell Jackal I have another job for him. I want him to get Evie’s background. I have a feeling I’m going to need all the help I can get.” Henry moved away to follow his order while King looked Evie over as she took a seat not far from the stage, and one of his girls took her drink order.

Women would often come in to watch the shows, usually with their boyfriends or husbands, wanting them to get horny enough to climb into bed together. I doubt Evie has that problem, he thought cynically. She sat at the table confidently, ignoring the admiring gazes of the rowdy men sitting around her.

King lit a cigar, studying her as she drank her drink and watched Sherri on the stage. She even whistled a couple of times, yelling encouragement when Sherri almost tripped as she finished her spin before she had regained her equilibrium.