Jacked Up (Bowen Boys #4)(33)

“Can I tempt you? I make a mean mojito and you look like you need one,” Paige said, the bottle of white rum in her hands.

Jack didn’t need a mojito; he needed a whole bunch of them, but he shook his head. He’d seen the results of Paige’s mojitos many times. Besides, he was still supposed to drive. Elle had some sort of unplug session or low-key jam or whatever the f*ck she’d called it after working at Rosita’s.

If this was what Elle understood by keeping things to a minimum, he didn’t dare speculate what her normal day was like. Crazy running from one place to another until she crumpled exhausted into bed, he bet.

Not that she wasn’t enjoying putting him through the wringer, because she so obviously was. Like the twerking shit this morning. Man, oh man, that had been f*cking torture.

“Hard day?” Paige asked with a smirk. “Wednesday is twerking day.”

She was trying not to laugh.

“If it is any consolation, she goes out of her way to bug you. Most guys only get indifference. Or mild interest at best. You must be doing something right.”

How sick was it that Paige’s statement felt good?

It was past twelve and the last customer had left five minutes ago, so when the front door opened, Jack turned immediately.

In came an almost seven-foot, two-hundred-fifty-pound Japanese American guy with Yakuza-looking tattoos coming out of the T-shirt collar and peeking from the leather jacket sleeve.

Kai.

“What are you doing here?” Jack asked in a growl.

“Came for Elle. Is she around?”

“She went upstairs to get ready,” Paige offered.

“Right. I’ll wait.”

Fantastic; this day couldn’t get better.

Kai and Jack went back a long way, but there was no love lost between them. They had their brushes when both had been young and stupid and Kai was doing something much more dangerous than tattooing people. And far more illegal.

He admired how Kai had managed to change his life and extricate himself from his family, but that didn’t mean he liked Kai. He didn’t. And that he had had some kind of relationship with Elle, or maybe still had, didn’t help matters in the slightest.

Paige noticed the tension in the air and without even trying to make small talk, she got busy clearing the counter. Clever girl.

“Okay, I’m ready.”

Elle came from the back looking like Jack’s wet dream come true except for those annoying braids running along her scalp, now up on a bun. One a.m. and dressed to kill with some sort of vintage dress that gave her a pinup vibe. As if staring at her in her sexy-as-f*ck Rosita’s uniform hadn’t been bad enough. Or the twerking shit he’d been forced to endure, with Elle clad in tight, barely there shorts. Although by now anything on her made his cock hurt.

“Hi, Kai,” she said walking straight to him and hugging him. “What are you doing here? Weren’t we meeting at the club?”

“Hello, beautiful. I thought I’d pass by to pick you up.”

“Oh, great. Let’s go then.” She turned to Jack and whispered, “You see? Beautiful, not pet. Beautiful. That’s how you treat a woman.”

“I heard, pet,” he answered curtly.

Kai motioned toward Jack. “I didn’t know you already had a date.”

“Him, you mean? Not a date.”

He hated the camaraderie between Kai and Elle. Totally f*cking hated it.

“You in trouble of some kind?” Kai asked, looking at him and then at Elle. The motherf*cker had always been very perceptive.

“We hooked up,” Jack stated, taking her by her neck and silencing her with a kiss he’d been dying to give to her for the whole day. Once he released her mouth, he stared at her, daring Elle to deny his statement.

“Such a joker my Borg,” she said, patting his cheek harder than necessary. “You don’t like parties. You could stay and I go with Kai. I’m sure I’ll be perfectly safe with him.”

“I don’t think so,” he answered. “Let’s get moving.”

The faster they got there, the faster it would be over.

Elle pursed her lips but addressed Paige, “Can you take care of closing up?”

“Sure. Go have fun.”

“Great,” Elle said heading to the door.

She was breathtaking from the front. From the back she was even better, the dress hugging all her curves. Fuck, she had a great ass, and f*ck, she knew how to move it. Just the right amount of sashay to look classy and sexy. Jack was an ass man through and through. Unfortunately, so was Kai, who was glancing at it appreciatively.

Elle reached the door and held it open. “Gentlemen.”

Jack grabbed the coat from her arm and wrapped it around her. “Go,” he ordered, holding the door himself.

“Cute hairdo,” Kai complimented her on their way to the car.

Elle turned to Jack, her eyebrows lifted, a conceited expression on her face. “Isn’t it? I thought so too.”

“I’m parked there,” Kai said, pointing to the right. “See you at the club.”

“I can ride with Kai,” Elle said to Jack. “He doesn’t mind me fiddling with his radio.”

“Get in, pet,” he growled, unlocking the doors with the remote. He didn’t want her fiddling with anything of Kai’s. Not a single thing. Not even the damn radio.