Wild Fire (Chaos #6.5)(19)

“What?” he whispered back.

“He gives her money. She’s got, I don’t know, four, five guys on the hook that come and go depending on who’s up next to give her a loan and who needs a break from her asking. She says she’ll pay it back. Ask your brother. But I’ll bet she hasn’t paid back a dime.”

Dutch could not believe his ears.

But champagne tastes, he knew Carolyn had those, she didn’t hide it, tricked out the way she always was.

What he couldn’t believe was that Jag was falling for that shit.

“And I’m worried,” she went on, “because the other guys are just guys. But he’s a biker. And pardon me for thinking it, but I’ll bet, woman or not, good guy biker or not, you don’t fuck over a biker. And for years, she’s been fucking over your brother. I don’t think he’s too dumb to get it. I think he likes her and thinks he’s helping her out. But it’s gonna get old and then he’s gonna wonder where his money is going. Which is to designer shoes, handbags, Dior makeup palettes and a nasty little relationship she’s got going with cocaine. And depending on how much he’s given her, who knows what his reaction will be.”

Cocaine?

He didn’t get into that.

He got into something else.

“Jagger would never hurt a woman,” Dutch said through his teeth.

“There are different ways to hurt people and the vast majority of them do not involve physical pain,” she fired back. “Of all the guys she’s taking for a ride, I think the only one she genuinely likes is your brother. So yes, when Carolyn hooked up with Jagger, I did a deep dive into MC culture and Chaos. She’s my sister, and she’s messed up, but I love her, so excuse me, because you might be you, and Chaos might be Chaos, but even you can’t stand there and deny hardcore MCs are what I think they are. Yours might be a different kind of hardcore, but Chaos is hardcore, and you know it. But I didn’t, until I met you. So I got worried. And maybe I developed an attitude about bikers. She’s my sister and she’s screwing up her life in a number of ways. Sue me.”

“Georgi—”

“And,” she cut him off, “you’re right. I’m off the kids beat. I talked to my editor and she agreed it was time I explored new horizons. She said I have talent, and she wants to see me stretch myself. So thank you for that, because that was a load off. We’re going to try a few things, see where I land in the New Evolution of Georgiana Traylor, Ace Reporter. And the crime beat was discussed and it’s an option. But I am not using a seventeen-year-old’s heartbreak to further my career. And just you thinking that, Dutch, says it all about what you think of me.”

On that, she whirled again and headed to the back door.

He was faster, and taller, so even though she got it partly open, he reached over her shoulder, palm flat to the door, and he slammed it shut.

“I’m leaving, Dutch,” she told the door.

He felt pressure on it against his palm and knew she was trying to open it, so he leaned into it.

And her.

She smelled like cherries and almonds.

Christ.

“I fucked up,” he said softly to the back of her head.

“Agreed.”

“Babe, let go of the door. We’ll go back inside and talk this out.”

“No, thank you.”

“Okay, let go of the door, let’s go back inside so I can apologize for being such a colossal dick.”

“You know, I thought you were mad at me because you were being protective.”

Again, not what he expected to hear.

“What?” he asked.

“When you dragged me here. I thought you were mad because you thought I was putting myself in danger and you’re an alpha biker guy who’d get ticked because some woman was somewhere she shouldn’t be, even though he was at the same place for the same reason. And I thought…insanely…that wasn’t annoying. It was cute and kind of sweet.”

At the end of that, she let out a little huh puff of air that stated plain she felt all kinds of fool he turned out not to be cute or sweet.

Fucking fuck.

“Georg—”

“Let me go.”

“We need to talk.”

“I did it for you.”

She turned her head, tipped it back, giving him big, brown, wounded eyes, and goddamn it.

He barely knew this woman.

And she was unraveling him.

“I was such a bitch to you it made you be mean to me and I’m not sure that’s you so I wanted to do something that would make you think I wasn’t a bitch and—”

“Baby, come inside with me so we can talk.”

“—you thought I was there to get a story and—”

“Please, Georgie.”

“—I’ve got some stuff. I talked to my source at the DPD and he’s getting me more and I’ll deal with that and—”

“Christ, Georgie, please.”

“—I’ll give it to Carolyn when I get it and she can give it to you and then I’m out and you never have to see me again.”

He told her what she needed to know. “I’m not holding this door shut, darlin’, because I don’t ever wanna see you again.”

She just stared up at him.