Page 38 of Rook

Despite the killer back rub, pain was still radiating from my lower back, down my ass and the back of my leg.

Maybe I would have to give Coach’s yoga a try, see if some stretching might help ease the pain until I could fix the sleep situation.

I climbed out of the tub, realizing I hadn’t grabbed anything fresh to wear. Not willing to put on the pajamas with my fluids on them, I wrapped a towel low on my hips after brushing my teeth and hair, then made my way out of the bathroom.

Tessa had taken the opportunity to change too. She stood in the kitchen in a pair of gray leggings that clung in all the right ways and a simple black tee.

“Let me put—oh,” she trailed off when she turned and saw me.

Tessa’s gaze immediately dipped from my face, going down, taking in all of my exposed skin.

I’d like to claim I didn’t take some pleasure in the way she swallowed hard as her gaze followed the cuts of my Adonis belt.

But I absolutely did.

“Yeah, babe.”

“Yeah… what?” she asked, head whipping back up, brows pinched.

“Yeah, I’ll take the patch,” I said, fighting to keep my lips from curving up.

I shouldn’t have enjoyed her reaction so much. Life would be a lot easier if the attraction was one-sided, if I didn’t have to worry that she had desire or feelings as well.

“Oh, right. Yeah. Here,” she said, picking up a little package off the counter. “Turn.”

I did, and she put the patch on my back, then pressed it down with a fingertip before moving several feet away.

“I’m, uh, done in the bedroom if you want to go get changed.”

With that, I did, the little patch warming up the whole way and, yeah, actually relieving some of the pain.

“So… what do you do all day?” Tessa asked when I came back out.

“I’m usually down in the studio,” I told her.

“On the computer?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Do you still do, like, freelance hacking?”

“Not really, no. I do some work for our club or the other clubs here and there.”

“Can I ask what kind of work?”

“Mostly background checks for prospects. I do a really deep dive, making sure there is no trace of them in shady places on the dark web or anything like that. Baby mamas they haven’t disclosed, connections to other crews they don’t want anyone to know about.”

“Are there a lot of sister chapters?”

“There’s the mother chapter in Navesink Bank. That’s Jersey,” I told her at her blank look. “The next club was opened in Golden Glades, Florida. Then there’s us. And there’s a new one in Texas now too. But we haven’t crossed paths with them much yet. That president already had his own crew in mind to patch-in, so he hasn’t needed me yet.

“Besides, most of my work is for this club. Since we’re still in the growing stage.”

“Yeah, you’re a pretty small crew.”

“Slash is really selective. It’s important that we all get along. And everything is a little more complicated because a bunch of us end up being on parole.”

“Do all of you come from the prison?”

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