Page 5 of Mensa's Match

Mensa

Mensa parked his bikebehind the Riot MC clubhouse, swung off, and climbed the steps to the back door. He wanted to kick his own ass. A tall gin and tonic might help him take the edge off his shame. He didn’t threaten women, so it surprised him when he’d threatened Whitney. Her insinuating he was anything like his Uncle Jack sure as hell hadn’t helped matters.

She ticked all his boxes for what hedidn’twant in a woman.

He’d convinced himself that she was hiding something. His conviction was so strong some of his brothers threatened to make him a tin-foil hat.

Inside the clubhouse, he went behind the bar in the common room.

“You got that look again,” Finn said, putting away a cue stick, moving to the bar, and settling on a stool.

“I don’t have a look,” Mensa muttered.

“When you’re stewing about Whitney, you do.”

Mensa kept his reaction in check by pouring gin over the ice cubes in his glass. “Not stewing. Just wondering how she fooled you and most of the other brothers.”

“She’s still pretty new to Biloxi. I got no reason to distrust her.”

“Her twin brother is an FBI agent, and that only came to light because of the investigation into my uncle.”

Finn shrugged a shoulder. “Since your uncle was abusing his power – he had that coming.”

Mensa added a splash of tonic and shook his head. “Not what I mean. She’s hiding something, and I’ll bet she’s part of the FBI, too. She lied to Riley—”

“Lied about what? They only discussed Riley’s dad once – assuming Whitney was in on the investigation.”

Mensa swallowed a sip of his drink. “How do you know they only talked about Uncle Jack once?”

Finn went behind the bar and grabbed a bottle of beer. “I asked Riley, because of how dead-set you are against Whitney.”

“Yeah. Bet Whitney’s a master at steering the conversation.”

Finn returned to his stool and took a swig of his beer. “You’re losing it, Mensa. She’s not from here and she’s helping her Aunt Nadia.”

“My gut says she could have been investigating the club.”

“So what if she was?” Block asked, sauntering to the bar and sitting next to Finn.

Har was a pace behind Block and nodded. “We got nothing to hide.”

Finn set his beer down. “Except Riley says Whitney’s between jobs… so she isn’t investigating shit.”

There it was, the thing that should have had them all on alert.Anyone who was ‘between jobs’ wouldn’t hang in Biloxi. They’dbe fighting tooth and nail to get back on the job or finding another opportunity to make money.

He didn’t buy the excuse of taking care of her aunt either. Nadia was as fit as a fiddle, as far as Mensa knew. Taking care of her sounded like a cover – and a bad one at that.

Sandy bustled into the common room from the kitchen. “You better hope she sticks around, otherwise you boys are gonna be in a lurch when you need new patches stitched. Or when one of you decides to take an ol’ lady… you’ll have to special order a cut from out of town.”

“She’s officially hanging it up?” Block asked.

Sandy grabbed a lemon from a small fridge behind the bar and turned to Block. “Her arthritis is gettin’ worse, and she wants to travel.”

Finn caught Mensa’s gaze. “You got nothing to say to that?”

Mensa swallowed some of his cocktail. “No, because that’s the first true statement I’ve heard.” He arched his brows. “And none of that pertains to Whitney.”

Sandy strode back to the kitchen.

---