Page 3 of Stripping Keys
Of course, he wouldn’t let me forget it. West keeps a running tally of those who owe him. Just as I do, it’s why we make the perfect team. We’re the same, yet different, all the same. West is a few years older than me, and we started working together when he recruited me for the team we sometimes work within. Mostly, the two of us stay freelance. It’s better that way.
The team is some of the elite, and if it gets out that we were somehow connected to it,Calyx would have our asses. He keeps the secrets within the team, and that’s the way it needs to stay. To make things worse, Calyx has been around the club thanks to his long-lost daughter.
This whole situation is a disaster in the making, and it’s all going to get a whole lot worse. All because I have to go back to the club to give them intel they won’t believe is coming from me. They all hate me for the way I treated my sister while I was there the last time. Going back now, they’ll question me and my reasons. They won’t trust anything I say. It’s why I’ll need West with me. Let him be the one to tell them the news.
“You might want to reach out to Calyx first before we go,” I suggest with a sigh. “He’s not going to be pleased if he’s there and we just show up.”
West nods. “You’re right. He’ll be livid beyond measure. It’s a good thing he’s my godfather, he won’t kill me. Though, he might take some skin off both our asses if we don’t fill him in on where we’re heading. He wasn’t pleased when he found out you up and left the clubhouse the last time to go digging in the bowels of the underground with some of the slimeballs that you were rubbing shoulders with.”
“It got the job done, didn’t it?” I snap, not wanting to think about how I’ve spent the last month and a half. I didn’t like slumming it with sleazebags. It’s not my idea of a good time. Still, it was worth it to find out what I discovered.
Now, it’s just a matter of getting the intel to those who need to know before it’s too late or without anyone finding out where it came from.Or better yet, having those who need it believe the ones bringing them what they need to know.
I haven’t spoken to my parents, let alone my siblings, since I left. They all called me, texted, left voicemails, none of which I’ve responded to. West did text back and spoke with my brother a few times. I don’t know exactly what he told him, but it seemed to appease Marshall for the most part.
“You said my parents were staying at my grandma’s place, right?” I ask, a plan forming in my head, starting to, at least.
“Yeah, Marshall said they decided to move back to town.” West’s answer leaves me feeling a sense of dread.
If the folks are moving back to town, it means Marshall will eventually. They’ll expect me to follow suit. That’s not something I can do. If I do, it puts me close to Keys again, and I’ll end up doing something I’ll regret in the end.
I might have made the first move on him. I can’t deny I want him. He’s sinfully the sexiest man I’ve ever seen. The way hewears those jeans without a shirt. Better yet, the way he sat at his desk in his room, looking all geeky and muscular at the same time.
He’s totally my type, and I’d go for it in a heartbeat. I nearly did. Until he said what he said. Telling me to strip the bitch and show him the real me. Like he knows I’m hiding who I really am.
At least he hadn’t outed my secrets to the rest of the club. My secrets are mine to share, and I’m not about to let him tell anyone.
I hope he realizes that when I show back up out of the blue. Maybe taking West with me will be a good distraction and keep my needs for Keys at bay.
West and I aren’t anything but platonic, and it’ll always stay that way. Besides, West would more go for Keys than he would for me. Only Calyx and I know this about West. It’s not something he’s ready to let out of the bag. It’s a truth only West can share and only when he’s ready for the world to know.
Just as the world doesn’t need to know mine, not until I decide when they need to know. There are only two people in this world who know the darkest secrets I hold close, and it’s going to stay that way. They won’t spill them any more than I’d do theirs. Not that I know any of Calyx’s secrets he doesn’t want me to.
CHAPTER TWO
KEYS
“Keys.”
I lift my head from the inside of the engine I was working on. I started remodeling this car a month ago, and it’s already come a long way since I started it.
I needed a way to get out from behind my computer screens, and this was the best way to do it. It works both my mind and body at the same time.
If I sat too long, my mind seemed to always wander to a certain green-eyed beauty that haunts me more now than she did before. The only difference is now I know what she looks like, whereas before I didn’t.
“Yeah,” I call out, seeing Griz and Blow coming my way. It’s not the first time one or two of my brothers had come up to me in the past few weeks to ask me if I was good. But considering Blow and Griz were coming together, my gut was telling me something was up.
“You good?” Blow asks, watching me closely.
“Yeah, just been working on this beaut,” I answer and jerk my chin toward the car itself. “What do you think of the work so far?”
“She’s lookin’ good,” Griz grunts, appraising the work I’ve done so far. “You’ve worked your ass on it.”
“Feels good to get out from behind the screens and work on this,” I tell him with a shrug. “There something you two need?” I need to get to the reason they’re at the garage and not somewhere else.
“Yeah, need you at the clubhouse. Got a call that we’re needed for a meeting this afternoon at the clubhouse.”
“By whom?” I ask, not waiting for Blow to finish giving me more info than he’s given already. The only ones who are able to call a meeting within the club are members of said club. No one outside it calls a meet without speaking to Blow first.
