“How do you know that won’t happen again? You’re going to be working together now.”
“It just won’t. He told me as much.”
“I’m sure he said that when you first got here too, didn’t he? Look how that turned out. You’re playing a dangerous game here, Kas.”
“I know. None of this was meant to happen. I was just… lonely. He’s so sweet and… hot. I know it was wrong, but I needed it, the distraction.”
“I can’t tell you what to do and what not to do in this situation. Really I’ve no clue how you’re dealing with it all, but I won’t allow you to come between Zach and Spike, or the others. They’ve all been friends too long to have things ripped apart by you.” Her warning sends pain through my chest. I don’t have any intentions of ruining anything for either Spike or Zach.
Her warning comes from nowhere, but I feel its seriousness right down to my toes.
“I have no intentions of hurting them. Spike’s done more for me in the past few days than anyone ever has in my life. I guess I just got a little carried away with myself.”
“I won’t lie to Zach. If he asks me about this, I will tell him the truth. But that being said, I’m not going to go out of my way to hurt him, either. So, if you say it was a one-time thing and really mean it, then I’ll let it go. Just make sure it was, or you need to be honest. Those boys are my family now, and I won’t have anyone hurting them.”
“It’s not going to happen again,” I say, although even thinking the words feels wrong. I might want him back in my bed, I might want to feel his touch burning against my skin, to feel his body working mine to ecstasy, but I know I can’t—we can’t. Not now Zach knows, and not now he’s offered me a job. It would be the ultimate fuck-you to my brother when all he’s tried to do since I ambushed him and told him who I am, is help me.
“Okay,” she says, nodding before leaning forward and swiping a cupcake of her own.
“I don’t need a babysitter, you know? I am actually capable of following orders and staying put.”
“I’m not babysitting, I’m keeping you company.”
“Bullshit,” I say with a laugh. “They all think I’m a flight risk. Well, contrary to popular belief, I don’t actually want to walk out that door and be swiped by that arsehole.”
“Do you think it’ll be over once he’s been paid off?” she asks. And if that isn’t the million-dollar question. “I’ve seen enough films to know it’s often not that simple.”
“We can only hope, right? What else are we going to do, take them all out with the guys’ tattoo guns? Hardly.”
Biff snorts a laugh, but I can see the concern in her eyes.
“I didn’t want to bring any of you into this. It’s why I’d never told Zach. The thought of putting you all in danger because of me terrifies me.”
“We’re family, Kas. Danger or not, we’re all in this together.”
“You won’t be saying that if he swipes you and uses you as bait.”
“I’ll be fine,” she says, sounding way too confident. There’s no way she can appreciate what Jet and his guys are capable of—she’s grown up with wealth and privilege. The idea of London’s dark underworld is like a myth to the people she grew up around. They all stick their noses in the air and pretend that the drug rings, the fighting, the gangs, the MCs don’t exist. But I know differently. I see the evidence, the violence, the death that happens at the hands of all of them. It is very, very real, and equally as terrifying.
Biff ends up hanging out with me for a few hours before she makes her excuses and heads back to the studio and the guys.
As much as I appreciated her visit, I couldn’t shift the feeling that Zach was trying to mollycoddle me. I’m the last person who needs treating like a child. I’m not sure I ever really was one, and I’m certainly not now.
Once she leaves, my notebook that she left on the coffee table taunts me until I pick it up. I find an abandoned pen inside a magazine beside it and lose myself in putting ink on paper. I don’t think about what I’m drawing, I just let my hand move and forget about the world around me for a while. It’s a similar feeling to what Spike gave me last night, although that one came with a hell of a lot more pleasure instead of a stiff neck.
My muscles pull uncomfortably from where I’ve been sitting hunched over for God knows how long when the sound of a key pushing into the lock startles me.
My breath catches as I wait for Spike to emerge. I haven’t seen him since he sent me away from his bedroom this morning, so I have no idea what kind of mood he might be in or if he even knows about the fact that he’s my new mentor.
“I brought pizza,” is the only thing he says as he walks inside, his voice flat, cold even, totally unlike anything I’m used to from him. I swallow down my apprehension and follow his movement as he walks to the kitchen.
He doesn’t once look up at me, instead just focusing on what he’s doing.
He drops two boxes on the counter, along with his keys, before going for the fridge for a beer.
Much to my disappointment, he doesn’t get one for me. I’ve been craving something all evening, but I didn’t want to just help myself to his stuff, so I stuck with a glass of water.
“Here,” he grunts, holding out the boxes and waiting for me to take the top one. “I took a guess. I hope you like it.”
“It’s pizza, what’s not to like?”
He shrugs, but that’s
