Unattainable (Undeniable, #3)(43)

“This is infinitely unfair,” Tegen whispered, trailing off as she stared up at him with those seriously sexy eyes of hers. Glancing down, she stubbed her cigarette out on the table ashtray and gestured with her hand for another.

He tossed her the pack and watched as she placed a fresh cigarette between her trembling lips and, with shaking hands, lit it up.

“What’s unfair?” he asked.

Snorting, she shook her head. “You,” she said. “You are un-f*cking-fair.”

Cage watched her take another drag off her smoke, ash it, take another drag.

Crossing the kitchen, he took the seat opposite her, reached across the table, and slid the cigarette out from between her fingers. Tegen watched him bring it up to his mouth and take a drag. Handing it back, he smiled at her.

“Spend the weekend with me,” he said quietly. “You say I don’t know you anymore, then spend the f*ckin’ weekend with me, Teacup, and show me who the f*ck you are now.”

Staring at him, she shook her head. “Why?” she whispered. “Why does it even matter to you?”

“I don’t know,” he answered truthfully. “It just does.”

“I can’t just leave my mom all alone,” she said, but judging by the look on her face she’d already made her decision.

“Then let’s go pick her up,” he suggested. “And we’ll go out for lunch.”

Tegen’s mouth dropped open. “What? Like on a f*cking date or something?”

Uh. Cage thought about that for a split second. Was this like a date? He wouldn’t know; he’d never been on a date. He wasn’t sure whether showing up for someone’s lunch break to get a blow job counted or not.

Whatever.

He shrugged. “Sure. Why the f*ck not?”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN


Dirty stared at his reflection in the mirror. Stared and stared and stared. He didn’t even recognize himself. Without his full beard or his hair, he looked…

Well, he didn’t look anything like he’d thought he’d look. He’d expected to see the teenage boy he’d been. The face his foster mother had loved, the face she’d made sure to never harm even when his body had been fair game. The face she’d called beautiful. Angelic.

That face was gone. He blew out a breath of relief.

Time hadn’t been kind to him. He may have taken a good ten years off his looks by shaving his head and his face, but it did nothing to hide the lines around his eyes and mouth or the tired look in his eyes.

He wasn’t ugly. But he was no longer beautiful. In fact, he liked what he saw. He was just…him. A man.

Hearing his cell phone ringing in the other room, Dirty hurriedly slipped into his leathers and exited the bathroom. He snatched the phone off his bed.

“Wat up, Prez?”

“We got a problem.”

So? They always had a problem.

“What?”

“One of the grunts heard over the police scanner that Ellie’s been reported as missin’. Had one of our contacts look into it and it turns out motherf*ckin’ Mooresville wrote up a report sayin’ he’d seen Ellie at Hank’s place, and next thing he knew he found her f*ckin’ purse in the alleyway by the bar. Then the f*ckin’ * took it one step further, went to her parents’ place, told ’em she’d come back home, told ’em about her job interview, told ’em everything.”

Dirty’s jaw locked. “What’s his game? Why the f*ck would he want her found after what happened?”

“Fuck if I know,” Deuce said. “Only thing I could think of is he knows we got her. And he wants to use her as leverage or some shit tryin’ to milk us dry. Either that or he’s gonna come for her, take her out, and try to pin it on us.”

Fuck, he hated that f*cker.

“What’s the plan?”

“You’re not gonna stand a chance if Mooresville decides to storm your place with his boys,” Deuce growled. “So cover her the f*ck up, put her on the back of your bike, and get her fat ass to the club. We’re goin’ on lockdown. This motherf*cker thinks he can f*ck with my club, he’s about to get a heavy f*ckin’ dose of motherf*ckin’ reality.”

Deuce hung up.

Dirty frowned at his phone. Ellie’s ass wasn’t that fat. But he was less concerned with how Deuce felt about Ellie’s ass than he was about Ellie being on the back of his bike. Behind him. Where he couldn’t see her.

Worse. She’d be touching him. Not just touching him, her whole damn body would be pressed up against him. He’d never let anyone ride bitch before. He couldn’t stand it, the thought of not being able to control what was happening behind him; the thought of someone being able to restrain him, push him down, and do whatever they wanted to do to him.

“Dirty?”

Startled, he spun around and found Ellie standing in his bedroom doorway. Her eyes grew wide, giving her a bug-eyed appearance, and her lips parted.

“Dirty?” she repeated, sounding shocked.

He said nothing, just watched her take him in, his shaved head, his facial hair gone. He’d actually gone so far as to put on a clean white T-shirt. He’d figured if he were going to be clean, he might as well take that last step. His leathers, however, were still filthy and he had no immediate plans to rectify that.