Page 10 of The Devil's Ice

She reached the other waitresses, saw their puzzlement. She set her still-full tray down without any explanation, without a single word. It wasn’t until she started walking towards the staffroom that Melanie and Julianne opened their mouths.

“Hey!” Mel called after her. “Where the hell are you going?”

Vixen didn’t even break her stride. “For a break. I’mwayoverdue one.”

“But,” Julianne protested. “We’re getting slammed out here, and I’m on my own.”

Vixen opened the staff room door, then turned and faced them, her dark eyes narrowed. “Then go get that lazy bitch Cara out of the bathroom. Get her to do her fucking job.”

She stepped into the small room, shut the door behind her. She half expected Melanie to come charging in after her, and she braced for an escalation of the confrontation, but nobody followed her. Vixen turned on the kettle for a cup of green tea, and as it boiled away happily, she finally relaxed. She also started to reflect on what the actual hell had just happened.

Well. Notwhathad happened… butwhyit had.

Oh, Jesus. Come on, youknowwhy.

So it was when Vixen was sitting on the sofa in the bar staffroom, sipping her tea, that she finally admitted the truth to herself:

Smiling and flirting with tall, dark and sexy out there had felt so wrong because it had felt like cheating. Vixen could be accused of being a lot of crappy things, but a cheat wasn’t one of them.

And if it had felt like cheating, thenthatmeant that she felt committed to someone.

So, there it was… she felt like she was involved with Ice, and not just for steamy, mind-blowing sex in bar back rooms, either. She cared about Ice, and liked him, and wanted to be with him andjusthim, and even though they weren’t speaking, just thethoughtof even kissing another man felt like she was cheating on him.

No, they’d never declared anything, and they sure as hell weren’t official or formal – and somehownoneof that mattered. Despite his cruelty two weeks before, she still felt tied to him, and truthfully, she was as hurt and angry as she wasbecauseshe had come to have feelings for him. She’d thought well of him as a personandas a man… probably better than he deserved, based on his recent behavior.

So. In her mind and heart, Vixen waswithhim. Only him.

Goddammit.

Fucking, fucking Ice.

Chapter Four

Ice stood alone at the bar, watching Scars and Zoe dancing. Keira was held between them, and the little family of three looked so utterly happy, so alight with love and trust and care, that Ice felt himself smiling faintly at the sight. OK, yeah,hemight be a prick when it came to relationships, butScarshad it all figured out. Even Ice could be happy about that much.

He downed the rest of his Coke, then glanced around the restaurant, deliberately not catching anyone’s eye; he was a silent and brooding bastard at the best of times, and he’d been even more so since he’d told Wolf to fuck himself and stormed out of the last club meeting. That had been two weeks ago now, and his MC brothersstilldidn’t seem to know what to do around him.

Sliding his cold gaze to the floor-to-ceiling windows, he found himself admiring the incredible landscape, even softening a bit at its shining beauty. He’d never been to Open Skies Ranch before, though of course he’d heard of it, and he had to admit that it was a truly gorgeous place for a wedding, and a honeymoon. Scars and Zoe would be staying for the weekend, alone for just for a couple of days, and then it was back to normal life on Monday.

Ice’s heart sank at that. Normally, he’d be thrilled to get back to work as the official bouncer at Satan’s Bar – it paid him a good salary, and when combined with his private personal training clients, he earned more than enough to support his life – but instead he was dreading everything that was coming after this weekend.

“Hey, man.”

Ice jumped a bit at the voice behind him, shocked that Wolf had actually managed to sneak up without him noticing, while he stood staring out the window. It was the clearest sign that Ice wasn’t at anythinglikehis best: he was distracted to the point of carelessness, and right now, he needed to be sharp and smart.

With a sigh of impatience at the seemingly never-ending list of his own shortcomings and failings, Ice turned to look at his President. “Wolf.”

The man standing there was as tall as Ice, just as strong and broad, just as hardened. Wolf Connor was also one of the toughest sons-of-bitches that Ice had ever known – what the man lacked in formal education, he more than made up for in street smarts, and Ice had come to respect the brain under that mop of permanently-tousled dark hair.

Wolf’s wolf-gray eyes bore into Ice now seeing below the surface, looking all the way into Ice’s soul, and as always, Ice knew that the other man was seeing far more than he was letting on. Wolf’s instincts were definitely primal, and he was rarely wrong when it came to making calls based on human behavior…. and despite knowing all ofthat, Icestilldidn’t trust or support Wolf’s decision to gallivant off to Utah all alone.

“We need to talk,” Wolf said in his usual ‘cut-through-the-bullshit’ tone. They might be standing in the middle of a wedding reception, but Wolf wasn’t going to be making small talk about any ofthat, despite the bride being his oldest friend and the groom being his right-hand man in the MC. “Outside.”

Ice nodded, followed his President. When they stepped out into the November chill, they paused for a few seconds despite themselves, struck yet again by the incredible views. No matter how long they lived in Denver, or how many times they looked at the mountains, their awe at the scale and size of the Rockies never, ever abated.

“So.” Wolf said, narrowing his eyes at his chief Enforcer. “We need to sort out shit between us, and we need to fuckin’ do itnow. I’m leavin’ day after tomorrow for Utah, and I’d prefer to do that with you and me on the same page.”

“But –” Ice began to protest, but Wolf cut him off.

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