Page 56 of Snake

With a guarded expression, but her back straight and her head high, she was scanning the room. She landed on Cox and froze. For whole seconds, they stared at each other, and Cox watched a frown creep over her brow, deepen, and then swipe away so quickly it was like she’d intentionally erased it. She turned away abruptly.

Kalina shifted on his lap, and he remembered she was there. Had that silent little drama enacted on Autumn’s face been about Kalina? On his lap? The urge to set her away hit him so quickly and with such force he almost acted on it before he got hold of himself.

“What’s she doin’ here?” Kalina sneered. “She think she’s entitled, just because she bought a piece of property?”

Izzy answered, “I hate that snooty bitch. I bet her cooze is cold and dry like the North Pole.”

“The North Pole can’t be dry, Iz,” Kalina returned. “All that snow is frozen water.”

“Actually, it’s an arctic desert. I saw a documentary about it.”

Cox heard all that, felt some irritation with the girls for talking shit about Autumn, but he ignored the talk and the irritation. He was much more interested in the dynamic between Autumn and the suit she’d come in with.

Badger and Double A were talking with them now. There were too many people and too much distance between Cox and that foursome to hear what was being said, but the body language was screaming. Badger and Dub were, rightfully, assertive, making themselves as big as possible to ward off any potential threat. Every other patch in the room was focused there as well, standing or seated, ready to roll if they were needed. The suit was wearing that megawatt smile, acting like he was the guest of honor. Cox figured it was probably how he acted everywhere. Autumn stood beside him, confident and as tall as she could make herself, clearly trying to manage the situation.

What really had Cox’s attention was the dynamic between Autumn and the suit. Suit kept putting his hand on her—her shoulder, her arm, her back, the small of her back, and every time, Autumn shifted subtly, escaping the touch. She didn’t want that contact, but she didn’t want to make a scene over it. And Suit was exploiting that reluctance obnoxiously.

Autumn had not shown herself to be shy about her boundaries, but she was being careful now.

Suit was her boss. He was making moves Autumn didn’t want made, and he had power over her that kept her subdued.

Cox fucking hated bullying assholes like that.

He stood up so fast he dumped Kalina into the chair; he’d forgotten her again.

Darwin stood, too. “What? What do you see?”

Before he could think to answer, or even fully realize what was going on in his head, Len and Dom came up, and Darwin redirected his curiosity to them. Len and Dom had been up at the bar, near the entrance.

“What’s goin’ on?” Darwin asked. Also curious, Cox forced his attention to stick with his brothers.

“We got an idea,” Len said and immediately shifted his attention to Kalina and Izzy. “This is an ask, not an order, dolls. How’d one of ya feel about distracting our new friend?”

The girls turned to each other. It looked like a silent conversation started, but Cox was not fluent in chick mindmeld, so he had no idea. He returned his focus to Len. “Who is he?”

Dom grinned. “Chase Isley. His family owns MWGP. He’s the president.”

So Cox was right—that handsy piece of shit was Autumn’s boss.

“What does ‘distract’ mean?” Izzy asked, and Cox focused on the girls again—after a quick check on Autumn. Her boss was too wrapped up in whatever he was saying to Badger to be pestering her at the moment.

Dom answered Izzy’s question. “It means as much as you’re willing it to mean.” Positioning himself between the seated women, he crouched and continued, “What we’re thinkin’: get him as drunk as he’ll get, let him focus on one or both of you, take him as far down the primrose path as you’re comfortable to go, but what I’d love is if we got him into the back room.”

“You want leverage,” Cox observed. The back room was an unclaimed bedroom. The patches each had a small room in the dorm where they could sleep off a rough drunk or fuck a club girl—or anybody else they wanted to fuck. Occasionally, patches lived in the clubhouse for a while, too. And when they had a prospect, the prospect lived on site. But they always kept the back room free.

Because Dom had hidden cameras set up in it.

“I do want leverage,” Dom confirmed. “That guy’s been here less than ten minutes, and I can already tell you he is slimy as fuck. I don’t trust him farther’n I can see him. I don’t know if we’ll need to sideline him, but I’d love to have the ammo if we do. Iz? Kal? You up for it?”

“I’m no whore, Dom,” Kalina said at once. “If you’re asking, my answer’s no. If you’re ordering, my answer’s fuck off.”

“Heard,” Dom said, unflapped by Kalina’s characteristically confrontational response. One of the reasons Cox favored her among the club girls was that she hated people almost as much as he did.

Izzy, on the other hand, said, “I was a whore, and that guy looks clean and kinda cute, so fuck it. Sure, I’ll do him. But as a whore, I wanna know what’s in it for me—and it better be somethin’ more than a thank you.”

Dom turned to Len, who shrugged. “You’re the club officer, my brother, not me. I cut that flash off years ago.”

“Does Badge know about this?” Darwin asked.

---