Page 25 of Thor
I shrugged.“It’s a risk, sure.But life is a risk, so we just gotta do the best we can.You want a flower shop, you make it happen.”
Her eyes sparkled, and the corner of her mouth quirked up in a ghost of a smile.“You know, sometimes you sound so wise it’s hard to believe you’re a biker.”
“Bikers are fucking brilliant!”I paused.“At least, when we’re not busy getting knifed in an alley.”
She laughed then, a light tinkling sound that I loved to hear.
“And you could get a roommate.”I waggled my brows suggestively.
She snorted.“Yeah.I could look into that.I think one of the medics at the hospital is looking for a place.”
“Like fuck you’ll take some asshole of a medic as a roommate!”I grabbed her around the waist, ignoring the twinge as my stitches pulled tight.“The only guy you’ll be giving a key to is me.”
“Jealous much?”She grinned as I pulled her in tight against me.“And Timmy is a nice guy, not an asshole.”
“Well, he can be a nice guy somewhere else.”
“So, if I need a roommate, you’d be willing to cough up some cash?”She leaned back in my arms, batting her eyelashes.
Me paying for things had been a bit of an issue between us from the word go.I had money.More than I needed.I saw no reason why I shouldn’t spend it on her.Janet, on the other hand, seemed to see it as some kind of trap.Like I expected some fucking return on my investment.I knew I was old-fashioned, but in my world, if you took a woman out on a date, you picked up the tab.To hell with this whole going Dutch thing.I wasn’t Dutch, and I wasn’t a pussy-assed, new age wimp.“You know it, babe.Just say the word.”
She wrinkled her nose.“I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves.I’d love to live here, and the flower shop would be a dream come true, but we’re not at the live-together stage yet.”
I shrugged.“So, you say.You want the shop, it’s yours.The rest is just details.”
She shook her head.“It can’t be that easy.There’s leases and legal things, and the club hasn’t even bought it yet.They can’t give me something they don’t own.”
“Technicalities.”I lowered my head to devour her lips.I’d never get tired of kissing this woman.She tasted like sunshine and goodness and second chances.
She parted her lips, and I deepened the kiss, sliding my hands up her back.Oh yeah, this was going to be our first love nest and now was as good a time as any to baptize it.
* * *
“Looks like the attack on you was a one-off.”
The attack had been almost two weeks ago, and Ace sat behind his desk, his fingers steepled on the polished oak in front of him.Shadow sprawled in a chair off to the left and Rattler was perched on a chair to my right.As president of Riptide, Ace had called me in to talk about the attack and let me in on what they’d managed to find on the perpetrators so far.Shadow and Rattler had been tasked with digging up whatever they could on the assholes and liaising with the cops assigned to the case.At least I’d been cleared of a murder charge.
I frowned.“One-off?Felt like an ambush to me, and those are usually targeted.”
“Either you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, or the perps mistook you for someone else.”Rattler shrugged.“The second guy swears he wasn’t in contact with the people who ordered the hit.He was just brought in as muscle.Given his previous encounters with them, the cops think he’s telling the truth.He’s not the brightest bulb in the lamp.The girl was smart enough not to let her face get caught by the camera so they haven’t made any advances in finding her.It was definitely a setup, but it looks like you might have taken the bait before the intended target.”
Lucky me.“I don’t suppose you know who the intended target was?”
Shadow spoke up.“That’s the strange part.Can’t find any chatter on the web, dark or otherwise, about a botched hit or a dead assassin.Whoever is involved is either not in the dark web world or has enough money and sense to make things go away.”
That was not comforting.Enough money and sense meant mafia or cartel.I didn’t think I was important enough for either though, so maybe I was overthinking this.
“Really, the only thing we care about is that the intended target likely wasn’t you.”Ace shifted position, leaning forward.“That place was crowded.There’s no way to tell who was there that night and supposed to notice and follow the perps outside.And honestly, we don’t care.No point in poking our nose into something that doesn’t affect us.We’re just concerned with your safety.”
“So, I should just forget about it?”Sounded like a plan to me, except for the nasty scar.That damn thing was ugly as sin.
“Always good to be cautious, but I don’t think you have much to worry about.”Shadow pursed his lips.“It’s been a while now and nothing else has happened.If this were mafia or cartel out to kill you, they’d have taken another shot at it by now.”
Rattler nodded.“True.If this was a targeted hit, the guy left alive would have made a second attempt right way, most likely at the hospital.”
“You had two of the prospects guarding my room,” I pointed out.“Even the nurses had a hard time getting into my room to change bandages.”
“True, but when you got out, a drive-by shooting could have been arranged.They would know you were Riptide and could have staked out the club compound with a sniper or waited for you to leave and followed you to finish you off.Lots of options for a second chance at you.”
