Page 2 of Property of Fire

Heat’s mouth goes from the lip curl to him outright grinning. “I’ll keep being a pain in your ass until you finally tell me what the fuck is going on with you. Even then, I’m your big brother, it’s my right to do what I please.”

“Whatever.” I roll my eyes while reaching for a stack of applications I need him to get Boot to look over. “These are the applicants for the waitressing positions I need filled. I’m two down. Also, I need a new bartender soon. Lively is moving at the end of the month, which means I’ve got to have her replacement hired and make sure they know what they’re doing before she goes.”

“I’ll get Boot to run these for you and get them back,” Heat says, taking them.

“Thank you,” I say just as someone knocks on the door.

Heat calls out, and it opens to show Fire and Pyro standing there.

Seeing Fire, as it always does, makes me go wobbly at the knees. He has to be the most gorgeous man I’ve ever laid eyes on. I’ve crushed on him pretty much since I was a little girl. Fire has been one of my brother’s best friends for as long as I can remember. He’s also Heat’s Sergeant at Arms for the club. I don’t know exactly what he does, but my brother doesn’t go anywhere without him at his back—him or Pyro. The two of them are usually with him, or Brimstone, Heat’s VP. Brimstone is one of Heat’s other best friends. They’re close like brothers. All of them are if you want the truth.

“What’s up?” Heat asks, getting to his feet, blocking my view of Fire.

This would be a good thing if it weren’t for the fact I could still hear his voice. What the sound of his voice does to me is something just as good as the sight of him. That deep baritone is soothing, and I could listen to it all day long.

As a kid, I’d listen to him while he lectured me about listening to my brother and stop doing stupid shit. I might have listened to him, but I didn’t pay attention to what he was saying exactly. It was all about that voice of his. I was enchanted by it.

“We’re headin’back to the clubhouse. You ready to go, or you stickin’ around here awhile longer?” Fire voice sends a shiver all the way up and down my spine.

“I’m headin’ back to the clubhouse, gotta get these applications to Boot,” Heat answers and looks back at me. “This conversation isn’t over with.”

“It never is, Heat, but I’ll repeat, it’s none of your business.”

Heat glares at me one last time and shakes his head. Thankfully, what he doesn’t do is argue with me further. He moves toward his brothers, and before they step back to let him pass, I make brief eye contact with Fire.

It’s brief, but still, it was enough to cause my insides to start fluttering and heating. I want nothing more than to have him make that heat he causes inside my body to burn bright.

Only that will never happen. He won’t touch me because I’m who I am. To him, I’ll never be more than just Heat’s little sister.

TWO

FIRE

“You ever gonna letup on Evelin?” Pyro asks, stepping outside the bar into the heat of the day. It’s barely noon, and the day is already set to be hot as hell.

The heat doesn’t bother me as it does some people, but I’m sure to hear some of my brothers bitch about it.

“Nope,” Heat answers, moving directly to his bike and storing the papers Evelin gave him, eyes coming to me. “She’s hiding something, and I’m sick of her thinking she can keep shit from me.”

“Want me to talk to her?” Not that she’d actually tell me anything. I’ve tried that already. When she was a kid, I could get her to tell me shit when she refused to tell anyone else, but since coming back from college, a college she dropped out of, she’s been tight-lipped.

I don’t know what’s with her, but whatever it is, it’s pissing Heat off to the point he’s doing shit like going to the bar to get in her face about it rather than wait for her to come to him. Can’t say my Prez has always been levelheaded. Honestly, he can be pretty hot-headed when he wants to. Hence his road name.

“No,” Heat grunts and straddles his bike. “She’s become more stubborn now than she’s ever been. Evelin isn’t going to do anything she doesn’t want to do. Even Herja has tried getting her to talk and she’s just not doing it.”

Interesting. She’s not talking to her mom, who can get anyone to talk if she wants to, so whatever it is, it’s big. It’s also something that will stay in the back of Heat’s mind until he knows whatever the hell is going on with his little sister. If there’s one thing to know about the other man, it’s that he’s one protective SOB.

Then again, when it comes to Evelin, those within the club are all protective of her. Seeing Heat get worked up about her stirs the rest of us.

For me, though, I try not to let it get to me. Because I know she’s the one woman in this world that I can’t have. She’s off-limits and will always be off-limits to me. It’s why I keep my distance for the most part. It’s not easy. She’s beautiful. Far more than any I’ve ever seen. Doesn’t matter if she’s got makeup on or not. Evelin walks into a room, and there’s no way I can’t not look at her.

I just have to remember she’s not a woman I can go there with. The club’s got a strict rule about going for someone like her. If a member, prospect, or even a hang-around touches a club princess in any way that isn’t approved of by the girl’s father, or in Evelin’s case, her brother, then that said member is in for a world of hurting. He could end up wishing for death, depending on the punishment. No one wants to go through that shit.

Not when I know Heat has a preference for a whip that has spikes on the ends. That whip had been a gift to him by his mother. Herja doesn’t play around when it comes to any type of weaponry. Being that she was once a Valkyrie, she makes it her business to keep up with the latest and best weaponry you can get.

If she could, she’d help design and create alongside the club when it comes to what we do. Heat, however, won’t let her. He claims she’ll take over everything, and that’s something he’s not about.

When it comes to what the club does, it’s not her place or any woman’s to jump into what we’re doing. Especially considering the designs and creations of the weapons we make ourselves are done strictly through me, I don’t want her or anyone in my business. I handle making the designs for the guns we now print to be able to be undetected from others sensing them. I’d even done the same with ammo.

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