Smoke and Steel (Wild West MC #2)(62)

“So you know about that?” he asked.

“About what?” I asked back.

“That the club sells pot.”

“Yes. Marcy told me.”

Like my sister, Marcy imbibed, so did Kyra, so she knew.

He made no reply and that felt strange so I looked at him.

“I don’t have an issue with weed, Core.”

“I don’t want to fuck your girl over.”

Now I was confused.

“Sorry?”

“But it turned out right.”

“What are you talking about?”

“She came to a store. After I tried not to go there with you, she tried to light a fire under me. She came to one of our dispensaries and got a message to me that you were meeting your ex, also your dad, and then, babe, she shared about how your dad took away your dog.”

With the specter of Tigger invoked, automatically, I looked out the side window.

Though, that explained how he knew I was having dinner with dad. I just assumed Andy had told Archie, Archie had shared with Jagger, and in the course of biker communion, Jagger had let it slip directly or indirectly, and the info found its way to Core.

“Don’t be pissed at her, Hellen. I would have found some reason to come back to you, but she gave me the opening.”

I said nothing.

“She knew we were into each other and she just wanted to get my head out of my ass.”

Now we were here.

Good, because I wanted to be here.

“Why was your head in your ass?”

It was his turn to say nothing.

I looked to him.

“Core?”

“Later, babe. This is good. We have a day planned. I leave tomorrow. We’ll get into it later.”

“Is it because I’m younger than you?”

“We already had that conversation.”

“Is it because you’re a biker and I’m…not?”

His lips tipped up at that. “No.”

“Is it—?”

He glanced at me, reached out, took my hand and held it firmly before looking at the road and saying even more firmly and maybe a bit irritably, “Later.”

I considered pulling my hand away and pushing it.

Something wasn’t right and I didn’t want to wait until later to discuss it.

But I thought about barbeque chicken last night, and how Core wasn’t wrong, his mother’s cornbread was the bomb.

I then thought about loading Nanook up and taking him for a walk in a park, and how that was a fun thing to do after dinner.

I also thought about learning that maybe some public places weren’t out of the question for pups, because after the walk, we got ice cream, sat outside and ate it, and Nanook got a pup cup.

I thought about Core’s bedroom, which was just as personality-less as the rest of his house, but his king-size bed was super comfy and the spring in his mattress gave a new meaning to life.

And Core going down on me was just life.

I thought about watching Nanook when Core was out of town and him wanting me there when he got back.

I thought about the fact that everything he’d said and done shared what he’d asserted yesterday evening.

That he wanted to see where things could go with me.

I wanted the same.

So today wasn’t our last day together until the end of time, and today didn’t need to be about putting him on the spot to share what he didn’t want to share right now.

We were new.

We had a lot to learn about each other.

We had time.

I could let it go and wait.

And I would blissfully go on for quite a while, falling in love with a man not realizing how bad a decision that would turn out to be.





16





HE WAS HOME





Core





The house was huge, a modern structure, lots of windows, on a steep hill overlooking the lights of LA.

It was also a tactical nightmare, especially considering its security system set a wide perimeter, which meant Core and the men with him were hunkered down in some scrub seventy yards from the structure, and once they knew they were a go, they’d have a steep climb.

There were five guys inside, the whole LA crew, which was a boon.

Core had seven men with him.

The lights flickered in the house. Easily, this could be misinterpreted as a glitch from those inside.

It was not a glitch.

It was the first indication they were good to go.

He had his earbuds in his ears and was waiting for confirmation from The Nerd of what the flicker actually was, the security system was down, when one of the men with him bolted out of the brush toward the house and right into the security perimeter.

This would alert the men inside if it was not yet deactivated.

Terrific.

So these motherfuckers were gung ho.

Core cursed under his breath as the others took that cue and headed up the slope.

He went after them as the automated voice in his ear said, “You’re a go.”

At least there was that.

He ate the distance with his long legs, passing everyone who took off before him.

The guy who went prematurely hit their rendezvous point at the corner of the house, one of the only areas that didn’t have windows, and as they’d planned, he stopped.