Page 69 of Knockout Queen

She nods. “Of course. I’ll put your other clothes in a bag for you.” She brushes past me to pick up my discarded clothes, almost sneering at my lack of fashion taste, I’m sure.

We head to the front of the shop where she bags my clothes and then rings me up. “On Johnny’s credit?”

I shake my head and pull the bag of clothes over to me. Johnny took some cash out for me and slipped it into my hand when we got to the parking lot. “I’m paying cash today,” I tell her, not trying to give anything away. I don’t want to tell her I’m not Johnny’s, but I also don’t want her to know I’m still with him either. Not if we want everyone to believe this plot we’ve come up with.

The change gives me a decent amount left over for tonight. I don’t know how long I’ll have to stay at the club before Gregory makes contact. Or should I say hopefully makes contact? This is all kind of contingent on Gregory still wanting me to enact his revenge on the Crew. I might just be being optimistic, but I think it’s going to work perfectly.

I say goodbye to Lynette and head outside. Oscar nearly has a heart attack when he sees me. “Fucking Christ,” he says. His lips part, and I wish I could take a picture of his lust-induced stare right now. “We should’ve kept your car because the only thing I want to do is get you in the backseat.”

I walk up to him, recovering from the heels Lynette slipped in at the last minute after she reminded me I couldn’t wear sneakers with the outfit I was buying. “Don’t lose focus, Drego.”

“You tell yourself that when you’re looking like heaven.” He finally tracks his gaze to my face. “They’re all going to lose their minds.” He glances around the streets. There’s only one guy a few doors down, lips dragging on a cigarette, but he’s completely oblivious to us.

Thankfully, Lynette’s shop is only a few blocks from Oscar’s apartment, so we head back there. There aren’t as many people on the streets as there usually are, and I wonder if it has anything to do with The Ring being taken out not too long ago. It’s possible everyone is lying low. If they were smart, they’d be doing just that.

Oscar opens up the door to his apartment, and I climb the stairs in heels. When I get to the top, I fling the shoes off, and I accidentally kick them right at someone. When I glance up to see who it is, I gasp. “Finn? What the fuck?”

He stands from the couch where the rest of my guys are and heads toward me. “Fucking hell, girl.” He encloses his arms around me, and I breathe into his shoulder. It’s so nice to see him. Them, actually. Jax is right behind him, but he’s not giving me a smile like Finn is. “I was so worried about you.” He backs away, keeping me at arm’s length. “Now I see you looking like this?”

“Watch it,” Johnny warns.

Finn ignores him, giving me a saucy wink.

“What the hell are you guys doing here?” I gaze at the two of them and immediately notice something is off. Well, maybe not off exactly. It’s just that I’m used to seeing Jax and Finn in workout clothes, but tonight, they’re dressed in more casual wear. Nice jeans and tight shirts that show off their muscles.

“We hear you’re in need of our services,” Finn says, giving me a mock bow.

I glance in the living room where Oscar’s now joined the rest of my guys. “What’s going on?”

Brawler stands. “I didn’t want you going in there completely alone, so I talked Johnny and Mag into seeing if we could get Jax and Finn to help.”

That’s why he rode in their car back to the Heights.

I groan, not loving the idea of Jax and Finn being involved in any of this. Jax is going to have a fucking coronary. That’s all I know.

“Before you say anything, don’t worry about it, Princess,” Finn says.

Oscar rolls his eyes, but the fact that they’re jealous of my trainers at all is hilarious to me.

“We want to help. Well, one of us wants to help. The other just wants to make sure I’m not getting myself into anything.”

“Oh, so you’re talking for me now?”

“You know you don’t want to fucking be here,” Finn throws back at his brother.

Jax’s jaw tenses. “That’s not exactly what’s happening,” he says carefully.

“You don’t have to explain anything to me,” I tell him. I absolutely fucking get it. No one wants to get mixed up in Crew business. Least of all them. They shouldn’t either.

Damn. I’m really going to miss these guys when we leave the Heights. I’ll have to find new trainers, and fuck, I’ll just miss them.

“You don’t need to look so hurt,” Jax snaps. “It’s not personal.”

“Obviously,” I bite back, shaking my thoughts off. We can’t let Jax and Finn in on what we’re doing, otherwise, they’ll be in too deep. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if something happened to one of them. “I’m glad you guys are here. I missed you, too, but you really don’t have to come if you don’t want to. You both know I can take care of myself, which I thought is what I explained to Brawler.”

“They’re just a contingency plan,” Johnny says, sticking up for Brawler. “It’s a good idea. They’re not going in there with you either, but they’re going to keep an eye on you from the inside, which we won’t be able to do.”

I don’t want to admit it, but it actually is a good idea. But it’s not if it’s at the expense of one of them. I turn to Jax and Finn. “Be careful.”

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