Page 61 of The Devil's Conflict

“When the hell did you do that?” Eden demands, shocked. “I thought I knew all about your escapades, but I think you left out that one.”

Sadie waves that off. “It was only a one-night thing, and more just because we were both curious about what would happen. And he was a young-looking fifty-four. But enough about me, I want to know what’s going on with Sniper and Thea.”

“We are not done talking about this,” Eden warns her.

“Yes, Mother, now hush,” Sadie drawls sarcastically.

All eyes are back on me. “Well, we’re going to give a relationship a try,” I say uncertainly, shrugging my shoulders.

“So you finally managed to convince him, huh?” Izzy asks.

I shake my head. “More like the other way around. I am not all that certain we will work.”

“How could you not?” Rose asks. “You come from similar working backgrounds, and you know each other already. I mean, sure, you had your rough start at the beginning, but that happens. Now you know what buttons to push when he really pisses you off.”

I chuckle. “Calling him old certainly seems to do that.”

“Age is just a number like they say,” Eden reminds me. She ignores Sadie when she gives her a pointed look. “Honestly, Sniper keeps himself in really good shape, so I don’t think you have to worry about him croaking on you. I mean, if Bullet hasn’t croaked with all the stuff Rose does to him and the shit around here, Sniper certainly won’t.”

There’s a round of laughter, including from Rose, and I can’t help but grin. “He’s definitely in shape,” I agree. “But I like to needle him because I know it irritates him, but I also secretly think he likes it.”

“You mean like he enjoys proving you wrong?” Syn asks. I nod.

“Oh, that’s no surprise.” Rose scoffs. “I love to tell Bullet he can’t do things just so he tries to prove me wrong. Thea, you’ll figure out pretty quick that the men around here, their egos are too big for their britches. At least when it comes to being right and with the women they love.”

“So what about Sniper makes you hesitant?” Sadie suddenly asks bluntly, making me look at her sharply. I give her a questioning look. “You said that Sniper had to persuade you to give him a shot, and you seem like someone that makes up her mind pretty quickly, so you must have had a good reason not to give in. And as much as I get the whole poking at his ego, or him being good in bed, there’s more to it, isn’t there?”

It’s such an abrupt change in topic that at first I don’t reply as I try to gather my thoughts. How do I tell them I didn’t want to until he told me what was going on around here? I told Sniper I wouldn’t stick my nose in, and I have no idea how much these ladies know, so I probably shouldn’t be blabbing either. So I stick with, “I wasn’t sure about the MC life. I don’t know anything about it. What I knew was because of Sons of Anarchy, though I know it’s probably wildly inaccurate, and because Theo wanted to Prospect and work for the club. And that also means things could get messy if we don’t work out, because now that I have a job with the security business, my job could be on the line.”

“That wouldn’t happen,” Rose assures me gently, patting my arm in comfort. “Not only because they’re good and fair men, but because they don’t do messy. Shadow and Viper hired you, and if you’re good at your job, and I know you are, they will keep things separate. They might have to figure out the jobs you go on so that you don’t cross paths with Sniper. But, at the same time, I know they would help you find a new job if you didn’t want to stay. Not because they want you out, but because it’s what you want. I’ve seen them do it for other people that worked for themin the past that didn’t want to be associated with the MC, so it’s not just a you thing.”

That eases some of the worry inside me, more than what Sniper promised me. Men like to say a lot of things, but even now I can’t trust it one hundred percent. Maybe in time I’ll get there, but hearing it from Rose does make me feel a little better.

“And being in an MC environment is going to be an adjustment,” Syn points out. “There are rules and things that don’t really align themselves with the way of modern thinking, and for a lot of us that’s hard. Namely, that they still think we’re in the fifties and they don’t want us to worry our pretty little heads. Let them run the show, earn the money, and be happy to be barefoot and pregnant at home.”

Sage scoffs. “No, that’s what Stone wants for you. And that’s mostly because you are pregnant and he doesn’t want the dogs to chomp on him when you eventually get all moody and yell at him.”

That earns a few more chuckles.

“I think the biggest thing is, does Sniper make you happy?” Rose asks.

“I mean, for the most part, but again, we don’t know much about each other. It’s not like we’ve been dating and decided to go steady. A few weeks ago, we couldn’t even be around each other without fighting. But I suppose even when he was my superior officer, we had chemistry. We just didn’t dare act on it. Well, that and he felt I was too young for him.”

“You’re what, again, ten years younger?” Sage asks. I nod. “That’s nothing. Now, if you were eighteen and he was twenty-eight, then sure, I’d get that. But you’re thirty-two. It’s a far cry from robbing the cradle.”

“When we first met, I was twenty-two and he was thirty-two. And that is a larger difference when you’re that young. I really was just a kid and not done growing up, and he was a man thathad already been through and seen things I didn’t know were out there. Still didn’t stop me or any of the other women in the squads from drooling over him though,” I grin, reminiscing.

“I’ve seen some pictures of him back then.” Rose grins wickedly. “I’d be slipping and sliding from all the drool coming out of my mouth, that’s for sure.”

“There was a time that one of the other women in my training group happened to see him up ahead where he and some of his team were working out shirtless. She tripped over her own two feet, smashed her face onto the ground, and busted her nose pretty good. We all covered for her that someone left something in the pathway, and everyone seemed to believe it, but she didn’t ever live that down. Especially not when she had to be around him and the other superiors and they liked to ask her about her face and how she was feeling.”

“Poor girl,” Izzy says sympathetically. “Nothing worse when you embarrass yourself in front of your crush. What did Sniper do?”

“He helped her up and had one of the other guys send her to the medic bay. Then he ordered the rest of us to get back to our laps. He was always the hard-ass. Even to the point that I got myself in trouble with him. I was scrubbing toilets for weeks with a toothbrush. He somehow figured out that I hated cleaning the bathrooms. Probably because we had to share a communal one.”

They all laugh. “Yeah, that sounds like Sniper. He once had a Prospect doing the exact same thing to every bathroom in this place,” Rose recalls fondly. “The Prospect was an ass anyway so as far as I’m concerned maybe it taught him some respect. Though he left not long after so maybe not. But now you have to tell us what you did to make him do that to you.” They all lean in excitedly.

Somehow, my grin widens even further as I recall that day. “I was already in a pissy mood because one of the other women that bunked with me had used up the last of my favorite lotion, and that shit was expensive. So I had to use another kind, it irritated my skin something fierce within a couple of hours. So I wasn’t in the most chipper of moods, and someone in our squad pissed off the CO because they weren’t putting any effort into the task we were doing. So the CO made us run laps, despite the fact that we had done a five mile run that morning. Add in the skin issues and I was not a happy camper.

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