“I see, leave me to deal with it all alone, huh? I thought we were pals.” I got up and made my way toward the door, opening the curtain to see Audrey standing on the other side, the early morning sunlight streaming onto the porch lighting up the red highlights in her hair.
What the hell did she want?
I opened the door wide to her saccharine sweet smile.
“Can I help you?”
“Came lookin’ for you, Lala. Wanna talk.”
“Why?” I asked, not budging from the opening.
“We ain’t always gotten along the best, and since it seems like you’re Cullen’s old lady, I thought it was time I try and move past that.”
She was just club ass, and that was the truth. There wasn’t much to work out.
“Seriously?”
“We’re both around the club a lot, saw you there just the other day. I’m tired of avoiding you, avoiding the club.”
I couldn’t lie, if I saw her I usually ducked out of there myself.
“You have a point.”
“Let me in? I brought pie.” she held up the picnic basket that was dangling by her hip. “Piece of pie and coffee for breakfast, come on, you can’t say no to that.”
Maybe she really was trying. I stepped back from the door and let her in, trying not to look at her suspiciously. It was morning, but I had no idea what time.
“Why’d you come by so early?” I asked, reaching up into the cabinet and pulling out a couple of plates and mugs.
“I knew that Cullen would already be over at the garage. Wanted a chance to talk to you alone.” She pulled out a pie pan, unveiled what looked to be a blueberry pie and cut it into it, pulling out a piece for each of us and placing them on the plate.
It only took me a few minutes to get the coffee going, so I sat down across from her.
“What is this really about, Audrey?”
“I was never with Cullen, not really. I mean, yeah, we fucked a couple times, but I knew he didn’t want me. It was just easy to hang on to what I thought was a thing.” She seemed wistful as she said it, not really looking at me, but away, like she was in a memory.
I nodded, numb to this information. I knew they’d had a thing going on, but that was after I left.
His life. His business.
“Club’s done a lot for me,” she added. “Took me in, you know?’
“I do. I’m there myself.” I scooped put a piece of pie from my plate and tasted it. Damn, this pie was really good. Sweet with just the right amount of tart. “Wow, Audrey, I didn’t know you could bake.”
“Yeah, Do it for most of the girls back at the club. I’m kind of a mother hen. Kind of the club mother, really. Bones says it’s why he chose me.”
“Chose you?” Bones? Fear pricked at the back of my neck but I ignored it. Of course she was fucking Bones. She was club property, and that meant that she wouldn’t say no to any of the men if they asked.
“To be his main lady. Ain’t his ol’ lady, though. Not yet. Gotta do this one last thing for him.”
Bones’ ol’ lady? Bones was the last person in the club I trusted, and I had unknowingly let in a girl who was volatile enough to believe that he would settle down with her. He already had a woman. What was happening?
That wasn’t who Bones was. I knew that soon as I looked at him.
But that wasn’t what concerned me most.
He’d told her that she needed to interact with me. That she needed to get involved with me.
“What, you mean make up with me? Consider that water under the bridge. It was a million years ago.” I waved her off, taking another bite of pie. “Aren’t you going to have some?”
I noticed she wasn’t eating.
“Oh, I will, but the ride over upset my stomach. In a little bit.” She smiled.
Maybe she was thinking things up, and if I could assure her that it was all fine, she’d leave. “It’s fine, Audrey, as long as you don’t come after what’s mine.”
“See, that’s the thing, Lala. It’s all mine, and you’re coming around here messing with it. Bones don’t like that much. I don’t want to disappoint him.”
“What? What do you mean disa—” Each word she said after that was a blur, just a jumble of syllables that seemed to slow and then speed up until I was so tired that all I could do was lay my head down on the table and close my eyes.
Cullen
“Fuck.” The clubhouse was empty. No one except for some club whores and the normal bar flies. Dried up nomads and a couple of our guys who weren’t involved in executive decision making.
Everyone else was either passed out in a club bunk, or they were at their own homes.