What the fuck was Cipher doing here? I walked toward him, my hands clearly visible so he wasn’t put on edge, not sure what he was doing at Kobe’s new address.
The windows were tinted so dark that I thought I saw movement inside, but I wasn’t one hundred percent positive. Approaching on the driver’s side, I waited for him to roll down the window and acknowledge me, but he didn’t, so I knocked.
“What are you doing here?” he asked at the same time I asked, “Ready for a break?”
“What? I thought JB was going to relieve me,” Cipher said.
“He is, I’m just here visiting my girl and was wondering what you were doing here.”
“Dante sent me, we’ve got a tail on Lucy, the other Sasha’s waitress too. Someone ratted us out to the cops and Dante wants their head. Until he is sure it wasn’t your woman then she’s got a tail.” Cipher let out a long yawn. “This is as boring as it gets. I’ve been staring at this house for a couple of hours, and she’s done nothing, no one has visited except for you. Some girl lives there too, she is hot. You gotta have Allie introduce me.”
“Okay, I’ll mention it.” I glanced up in time to see the blinds in the window move. Maybe Kobe knew she was being watched. Good, she needed to be alert. “So, how long you gotta be here?”
“Until JB comes or Dante calls the watch off.” Cipher tilted his head and cracked his neck.
“I can’t imagine why he would be suspicious of Allie. Fuck, she hasn’t been around the clubhouse except for once and that was after the oxy deal went wrong.”
“I know. I get following Lucy, she’s always at Sasha’s or the clubhouse. Even Missy or one of the other props...” I cringed at his word, props, it was what the gang called the women they deemed club property.
A subtle cough had me turning my head.
“Baby, you’re here.” I held out my left arm, and Kobe walked into it. There was something so intoxicating about the way she fit against me. “You know Cipher?”
“Hey.” She gave Cipher a head nod. “Whatcha doing out here?”
“Oh, Cipher just met me here, we had something to talk about.”
Cipher rolled his eyes. “He’s lying. Dante just wants to confirm that you are legit, you ain’t no snitch.”
“Oh. Okay. You get thirsty or something, come knock on the door. I only go to three places, here, Sasha’s, and Steel gym.”
“Thanks.” Cipher leaned back in his seat. “You two go on, I got to get some sleep.”
I laughed, obviously Kobe was doing a good job of not raising any suspicions.
Stepping back from the car, I lowered my hand to the curve of Kobe’s back and escorted her away. We didn’t say a single word until we were safely inside the house.
“Hey,” I said as I slid my hand into my front hoodie pockets. “I’m worried about you.”
“Are you now?” she asked. Kobe folded her arms and leaned back against the doorjamb to what looked to be the kitchen behind her. “Thank God, I’m none of your concern, huh?”
“What makes you say that? You’ve always been my concern.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I thought people who had a one night stand, returned to normal life afterward with no lingering connections.” Kobe rolled her eyes.
“I guess they do but we weren’t a one night stand?”
“Oh really? You mean having sex and then you sneaking out wasn’t your way of saying that what we had was a one night stand?”
“I had to go meet Dante, I’m sorry.” I shifted my weight uncomfortably. My eyes dropped down to my boots. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t there when you woke up.”
“Gee, you say the sweetest things,” she said with a click of her tongue. She wasn’t making this easy for me.
“Nice house, whose is it?”
“Ridley’s, she’s a friend of mine from the gym.”
“Nice flowers.” I gave a chin nod in the direction of a vase full of roses that sat on a narrow long table. “Fancy woodwork.” I leaned forward and rested one hand on the doorframe above Kobe’s head.
“So, you came here to discuss Ridley’s flowers and taste in trim?” she said as her eyes wandered up the doorframe.
“No, I came here to see you. I went by your apartment last night, but you weren’t there and then today I showed up at your apartment and all of your personal shit was gone.”
Kobe let out a laugh. “You broke into my apartment?”
“Uh-huh. I was worried. Then I come here and see Cipher outside.”
“Yeah, he’s been out here since before I woke up this morning.”
“How do you know that?”
“Umm let’s see, when I woke up he was here that meant he got here before I woke.”
“Stop with the sarcasm. Why don’t you seem more shocked that Cipher was here? I mean, how did he know where to find you when I had no clue?”
“Sasha called me, she said she needed my new address for Dante. Obviously, he had sent someone to my old apartment, so I gave it to her. I figured they were doing their check up on me.”
“Check up on you?”
“Yeah, right after I started working for Sasha, I started seeing DT Coyotes outside my apartment and saw them occasionally on my way into work. I figured they were checking me out.”
I wanted to smile at the fact that Kobe had caught on and knew she was being watched but in all truthfulness, this was no smiling matter. Dante was dangerous, a killer, and I wanted Kobe far from him.
Kobe’s lips pursed. “So now, care to tell me why you’re here?”
“Things were fucking crazy last night,” I said after a pause and ran my fingers through my hair. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay. When I didn’t hear anything and you weren’t home, well, I started to fear the worst.”
“What was the worst?” she asked straightening her white tank top that fit snugly around her small waist.
