Sometime during the night, I’d laid down completely, Cooper’s knife hugged against my chest. I wasn’t sure my death drip on the hilt came from high levels of paranoia or the fact I missed him. Either way, it helped drag me into sleep’s oblivion.
****
Sunlight seeped behind my eyelids, effectively ruining the only sliver of sleep I’d been able to find all night. Without opening my eyes, I brushed my hair out of my face and wiped the drool off my lips.
“I’ve never heard a woman snore so loud before.”
I bolted upright. Every sense in my body searched for the knife I’d gone to sleep with. When I couldn’t locate it, I settled my gaze on the man standing above me. It took a few seconds to clear my blurry vision, but when I did, my breath hitched. “What—What are you doing here?”
Cooper gave me a closed-lipped smile. He ran a hand through his wind-blown dark hair. “I’ve been thinking—”
“That you wouldn’t be able to go back?” I checked my face for more drool and pushed myself off the hard floor.
“No.” He dragged the word out on his perfect lips and experienced tongue. “That you won’t be able to fight them on your own.”
His statement pulled me up short, making my body tense in all the places the floor had made sore. I felt the blood drain from my face and turn my stomach. “I don’t want to fight them. I want to get away from them. And you know what...” I shoved my hand down my shirt through the collar.
“What are you doing?” His velvety voice drifted over me like his kisses had two nights before. Nobody had been able to turn me on with just the sound of their voice.
I pulled the money out from my bra and presented it to him. “A thousand dollars. That’s all I have left. If I go up against my club, they’ll kill me.” I dropped my hand, exhaustion from lack of sleep, looking over my shoulder, and life in general taking over. “To be honest, I’d rather have the money than a gravestone.”
“You want to look over your shoulder for the rest of your life?” Cooper stepped in closer, too close, his intoxicating scent of peppermint and man enveloping me. It clouded my senses, made me dizzy with lust.
“At least I’d be alive.” The last of my grogginess wore off with his expression.
“Cherry.”
I loved the way Cooper said my name, his husky voice crawling over me, but I enjoyed his hands on my upper arms even more. He made sure to avoid the healing bullet wound, which I silently thanked him for. I’d been recreating our one-night stand in my mind since it’d happened and his touch promised a rematch. With images like that in my mind’s eye, I couldn’t think clearly. I didn’t want to see the irritation in his eyes and I forced my gaze toward the floor like a stubborn child. I gritted my teeth in frustration and against my better judgment, took a leap of faith. “What do you get out of this?”
He dropped his hands. I don’t know if he sensed my apprehension or if he figured out his touch was making my brain go all fuzzy. His broad shoulders rose with a deep inhale. “Vasquez sided with the Outriggers against club vote. We take down your club, Vasquez goes with them.”
“And you get the president’s chair,” I finished for him.
“Yes.”
“Have you considered just outright killing him? I mean, you’re the VP after all. Doesn’t matter how he’s forced out.” I didn’t normally condone the act of murder, but in extreme circumstances, such as saving my life, killing a man warranted consideration.
“I want the seat fair and square. Besides, if the club found out I’d killed a member of my own crew, they’d put a bullet in my head.”
“And how do you propose we take down the Outriggers?” I never thought I’d betray my club, not even when undercover cops and ATF agents came knocking. Turns out, I didn’t need that much of a push, just the right motivation. Cooper, however, needed to give me more reason than just some power play.
“That’s where you come in.” His brown eyes danced with mischief and suddenly he fisted my leather cut to pull me in close. His breath tickled the sensitive skin beneath my jaw as I looked up at him and I shivered with the contact. “You’re an Outrigger. You were privy to certain information. Exchanges. Meetings. Allies and the like.”
“I’m still the low woman on the totem pole, Cooper.”
Confusion pulled his brows together and added a couple wrinkles between them. “What do you mean?”
I pressed my palms against his muscular chest and stepped out of his hold. If I wanted to make a logical and clear decision concerning my club, I needed the ability to think. “I mean I’m the last member sworn in. I don’t get the memos as much as you might want to believe.”