Page 370 of Hate Mates

“No, seriously, I had no idea you had a boner for her. I mean, it’s not like you fucked her up against a wall last night… right?” Thatfucker. I clenched my fists, as I leaned forward and glared at him through the screen.

“You better not be fucking spying on me, cunt. That’s what I’m here to do for the Pres, and I don’t need you getting into my business.”

“For the record, you know I have access to all the cameras, and you know that I’m keeping an eye on shit too, especially since you’ve had so many deliveries lately, and we wouldn’t want anything happening to them. Are you getting shitty with me for doing my job?”

Was I? Jesus, why was I losing my shit at Ice anyway? He was right, he was being my extra eyes, for when I wasn’t at my screens, and I wasn’t last night, because I was welcoming the guys back. Or I should have been.

“Yeah, sorry. I’m in a bad mood, ignore me.”

“Wish I could have ignored your naked ass last night, or the fucking flashbacks I keep getting of it.”

I cut the fucker off, and closed the chat window, fully intending to ignore him if he tried calling back. Heknew. He’d seen me with her, which meant that I had to be more careful if I wanted to be with her again. A cop. The last person a guy like me should be going anywhere near.

Wait. Be with her again? That’s not happening, fuck no.

I nuked some leftover lasagne from dinner, and ate it for lunch, while I tried to work out where my focus should be, because it clearly wasn’t on my job, either of them, and speakingof, I really should check in with my actual boss. He didn’t like not being kept in the loop, and I was overdue for a check in. I dialled on speaker while I ate, even though I knew he wouldn’t like being disrespected like that.

“Ah Tesio, you finally remembered who you work for.” Smug bastard, but it’d never really bothered me until I had a taste of biker life, had it?

“Afternoon, boss. Just checking in, but there’s nothing much to report. Pretty dead here lately.”

Don Rossi stayed quiet, because that was his thing, waiting for me to do all the work and brief him on shit, but I was struggling with a conflict of interest here. My loyalty was to him, of course it was, but when it came to the club, and the things I’d update Reacher on, I didn’t feel that I should be sharing that info with Rossi too.

“Uh… I got arrested, but it was all resolved.”

“Yes, of course I heard that. She can be eliminated, in fact, that’s probably the best course of action, so that she stays out of our business, and theirs.” How the hell I didn’t jump in and yell at him, in protection of that goddamned woman, I had no idea, but that wasn’t the way to approach things with the Don.

“Actually, she’s no threat here. She’ll move on soon enough, because there’s nothing here she can use against us. Killing her would only attract more heat right now.”

Silence again. Oh joy, how I’d missed these chats.

“I’ll keep you posted, of course, but for now, I’d say there’s no need to waste resources on her, unless we decide to use her to our advantage. Otherwise, all is good here, just keeping an eye, as you sent me to do.”

More silence. Fuck me, man, give mesomething.

“So uh, any new instructions for me, or shall I just keep doing what I’m doing?”

Finally he responded. “No change to your situation for now. I’m afraid you’ll need to keep slumming it there, until Reacher confirms if they’re comfortable with whatever leadership they put in place.” Thank fuck for that.

An alarm went off on my tech kit, and I turned to see mayhem breaking loose. Oh fucking great.

“I should go, boss. Sounds like I’m needed. Never a dull moment here.” Fuck, I’d pretty much just spent the last few minutes saying the opposite.

“The cop?”

“Nah, bikers being bikers. I’ll update again soon.”

“Understood.” I was already moving back to my screens, switching cameras to see what had drawn a crowd. Fucking hell.Again?

Jamie

I didn’t want to go back there, hell no, not after what happened last night. Never mind the fact that I’d experienced the best sex I’d ever had, but with the way things had ended, I really didn’t want to see Grease again, not yet, not until I’d dealt with my feelings over him, and our little dalliance.

“Fucking hell, copper, why you riding us like this?” A biker named Stag demanded, getting way too close to me. If it’d been Grease, I would have probably felt safe, but I didn’t know this man, and he was intimidating me.

“I just needed to… I left… Is Grease here?” Screw it. The sad fact was that I couldn’t just go and look for my phone, so I needed him to help me find it. It must have fallen from my pocket in all the frantic shagging last night. I hadn’t realiseduntil I got home, and then I’d had to wait until a reasonable time to check back in, in uniform, of course. Unfortunately, this time I was partnerless, because he was tied up in a training session.

“Seems like you like it here, copper. Maybe you should stay. I could show you my bike. It’s real nice, pretty sturdy for uh,riding, if you get my meaning.”

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