Fight(14)

“You want me to fight Harlan?”

“I’m offering you a chance to get a little closer to the MC,” Stoney said. “After all, we’re all in this together, right? Someone is going to have to take care of Winter short term and long term. It’s only a matter of time before you’re gone, right Tripp?”

His words were cool but intensely threatening. I knew how to play cool though. I once had my best friend die in my f*cking hands. Trust me, I knew how to play cool.

“That’s fine by me,” I said. “I’d like to know everything you know so far. And what I can do to help. If someone is coming for Winter, I want to be ready.”

Stoney waved a hand. “Nothing to worry about. Anyone steps foot in this town, we’ll have them. My guys are everywhere.”

“Drunk at the bar?”

“That’s only some. We work in shifts.” Stoney stood up. “I’ll organize a little gathering. The MC could use some cash. Now, can I trust you to knock Harlan out again?”

Stoney smiled and winked.

“You’re going to bet against your own member to win cash?” I asked.

“Hey,” Stoney said. “I go where the business is.” He then grabbed my wrist and lifted my right hand. “Then again, this is too fresh on your knuckles. This isn’t from skin and bones, Tripp.” Stoney’s eyes locked with mine. “This is from punching a wall. Stone wall, right? What happened? Winter shake that little ass of hers too close? You f*cking see those tits yet, Tripp? My f*cking God… they could make a blind man hard…”

I felt my left hand tightening up into a ball. I wanted to attack. I wanted to rip this guy’s throat out.

But I held off. Showing restraint was definitely not my strong suit, but I managed.

“I’m here to protect her,” I said. “Nothing else.”

I walked to the door and Stoney whistled for me.

I paused, looking back at him.

“Watch yourself, Tripp. Aldo and I go back a long time. The Red Aces have ties you can’t imagine. I know why you’re here. I know what happened. I know how fragile your life actually is. You get too close. You poke around.” Stoney nodded to Rocky’s empty chair.

A silent warning.

I left the room and felt a chill run through my body.

If I was a detective or a betting man, my suspicion was really f*cked.

I started to believe the MC took out their own guy.



~



I thought about holding Winter’s hand. Then I thought about driving the car off the road. There was no way in hell I could hold her damn hand. Even if she was shaking. Even if she kept turning her head to hide the fact that there were tears in her eyes.

It didn’t matter.

The lines were pretty clear now.

Something about the Red Aces MC stuck with me. Maybe not the entire club, but the President was a piece of shit.

Then again, I knew nothing of Winter and what she was hiding. For all I knew, she and Rocky were involved with something or someone and it came back to bite them in the ass.

“I’m going to ask something,” I finally said. “I’m the one protecting you and you cannot f*ck with me.”

“Okay,” Winter said weakly.

“Did you have anything to do with Rocky’s death?”

There was silence.

Winter looked at me. “Directly or indirectly?”

“You know what I mean.”

“You think I killed him?”

“Answer my question.”

“What did Stoney say to you?”

“He made it pretty clear about something,” I said. “He seemed to describe you perfectly.”

Yeah, maybe I was testing Winter a little. Pushing her away from me, pushing her out of her comfort zone. She moved away from me, pushing against the car door. I thought she was going to try and bolt.

“He described me,” she said. “They all could. They all looked at me. Because of who I was.”

“Was?”

Winter stared forward. Her cheeks flushed. “Fine. I was a stripper, Tripp, okay? That’s how I met Rocky. That’s how I met the MC. I was a stripper.”

Now I was the one in shock.

Winter seemed too taken back and shy to take off her clothes. My eyes instantly moved up and down her body. My hands gripped tighter on the wheel. Thankfully we were on a straight road with no traffic, but I was playing a dangerous game by not paying attention to the road.

But… f*ck the road.

I couldn’t stop picturing it now.

I had seen Winter in a towel already. The way her cleavage poured from the towel. Her hips pressing to the sides. The curve of her ass. Fuck, the way her hair was curly when wet.

And the whole MC was able to see that? They all paid for that?

Fuck me, I was completely jealous of everyone who ever saw Winter.

“I see you looking at me now,” she whispered. “Just like they all do. Is that what you want then? You think it’s unfair? You want to see me naked, Tripp?”

Yes. Yes, I f*cking do.

I swallowed hard.

Winter grabbed the bottom of her shirt and lifted. I saw her bare stomach, a little roll of skin, hiding her belly button, driving me goddamn mad, because it meant she wasn’t obsessed with being supermodel thin or some fake bullshit.