“Are we going to do this now?” Day asks.
I turn to Day and shake my head. “There’s only one hotel he’ll be staying at. The Noir Valley Nights. He’ll not be straying far.” I glance to the hotel. The largest building in Noir Valley. Not in height but in width, taking up the corner of the main street and four floors high. “Sally works there. We can ask her which room he’s in. Then move someone in a room close by.” I glance over to TJ who is strolling out of garage carrying a bottle of oil and I raise my eyebrow ss he reaches us.
TJ smiles as he waves the oil at me. “You can never be short of oil.”
I shake my head at him. My lips in a half twist. “How long has he been in there,” I nod towards the vacant office.
“Long enough to sign a lease.”
“Are you sure?”
TJ nods, “watched him myself.”
“Shit.”
Day’s eyebrow rises and as I look over to him, I find Leon watching me. “What are you going to do about Mia?” He asks.
My smile deepens as I wink at the biker, “I can always keep her in bed.”
The other bikers chuckle. “And who’ll cover for you when you’re supposed to be working?” asks Bastian.
“Neat and Sink owe me. If not one of them, Mia can always hold my hand.”
“Did she sign the NDA.” Day’s voice loses its teasing. His eyes searching my face and I nod.
“Yep.” I smile. “It just needs a witness.” I pull the NDA from my pocket. Leon takes it from me, signs it in the street, then hands it to Day, who glances over it, then slips it into his own pocket.
“Good.” Day looks at me. “You think you can keep her on the riverboat?”
I glance at TJ and shrug. “I doubt it. But if TJ keeps tabs on Delaney. He shouldn’t be able to get to her.”
TJ blinks, then frowns, “why me.”
“Because you found him, and he doesn’t know you.”
“You don’t think as a black man, I’ll stand out.”
I smile as I shake my head. “Nope. But there’s another empty office above Bert’s Barbers. The perfect place to set up your new business.” TJ glances towards the barbers. His gaze on the offices above the family run store. “Take Mal with you. Then it’ll look legit, and Delaney shouldn’t think otherwise.”
TJ’s brown eyes bore into me. “Why Mal and not Candy or Patch? Or one of the other women.”
“Because you’re there to work not play around.” The wit dripping from Bastian has everyone smiling.
“I like it,” Day said. His gaze also on the building. “We’ll put Tick in the hotel at night to keep an eye on Delaney.”
“And I don’t get a say in this.” TJ asks as he watches Day. All humor fading from his face.
Day slaps TJ on his back as he shakes his head. “No. You wanted the dating agency. You can run it from here. That way, it’s kept separate from the casino.”
As I had my attention on the office Delaney was renting, I was able to see when he left the building. As he pauses at the main door, he turns his head in our direction and our eyes clash. With a tilt of his head, he turns away to talk to the man standing next to him, then climbs into the Spider. As the car comes towards us, it slows down.
Delaney winds the passenger window down. “Alex.” My body turns cold as I nod at the man responsible for my personal hell. If I recognize Delaney. Delaney is going to recognize me, especially if he knows where I live and is in cahoots with Jono. After the car disappear down the road, I turn back to my brothers.
“I guess war was just declared,” said Day.
I nod. My mind already on Mia and how I am going to protect her.
The cabin is empty when I return to Demon’s Lair, and I take a beer from the mini fridge beside the bed and go for a shower. Although my body still hums with unsated lust, I neither masturbate nor have a cold shower, but quickly wash myself before setting off to find my woman. When I find her, she is in the casino talking to Patch.
“Mia.”
She turns but does not smile. “I’m just checking the stock with Patch.”
“She can do that without you.”
“Alex.”
I tilt my head. “Mia.”
Her lips firm and with a deep sigh she hands the clipboard to the club whore, then follows me to the corner of the casino where I pull a couple of chairs off one of the tables. If Mia is going to have a meltdown, she’ll not do it here in front of the brothers and whores.
“What do you want to talk about, Alex?”
I study the woman I’m falling in love with. In the five years since our night, she has grown. She was beautiful and gangly then. All arms and legs. Now she is grace and lust wrapped in one body.
“Couldn’t I just want to spend five minutes with you?”
Mia
