Page 119 of Whips and Chains
I eyed X outside, leaning against his van. He waved to me, but he was stiff, and didn’t make a move to come inside. His attention was focused on Whip and Levi.
X and Whip had been gone all day. Which I couldn’t argue with, even though it had made me feel sick for hours wondering where they were, and if they were okay. They had lives of theirown and didn’t report to me, but last I’d heard from them, they were off burying a body.
“Is something wrong?”
Whip shook his head and cleared his throat. “No. Just want Levi’s advice on something.”
I didn’t want to pry into something that Whip clearly didn’t want to give me details on. We weren’t married. I wasn’t privy to every conversation they had.
They were allowed to have conversations without me.
I leaned in, grateful for the noise of the bar that drowned out individual conversations unless you were standing right next to the person. “Can X come inside then? I really want to talk to you all about the ‘making me bait’ plan. I’ve been thinking about it all day, since we all agreed it was a good idea.”
Whip leaned over the bar top and kissed me. His hand found the back of my neck, holding me in place, his tongue pressing at the seam of my lips.
Instantly, all words fled my brain, and I was kissing him back, my relief that he was standing right here in front of me after being gone all day too great to do anything else.
I was dizzy and slightly breathless when he let me go.
“Hold that thought, sweetheart,” he murmured. “I can’t stay right now, but I’ll come back at the end of your shift. Okay?”
I nodded, pressing my finger against my lips. “Sure.”
Whip gave Levi another look and jerked his head toward the door.
X was positively twitchy out by the van. I was suddenly concerned, more than suspicious.
Levi clearly noticed as well. “Will you be okay for a bit, Vi? Aloha and Fang are here if you need anything.”
I waved my hand in a shooing motion. “I’ll be fine. Go.”
He took one last swallow of his drink and set it down.
I slowly picked it up and rinsed it in the sink, watching Levi and Whip head back outside to X. The three of them stood in front of the van, X and Whip doing a lot of talking, and Levi’s expression changing from neutral to strained almost instantly.
“That doesn’t look good,” Bliss commented idly from beside me, where she was cutting up limes.
“No, it doesn’t,” I agreed.
Both of us stared as Whip yanked open the passenger door on the van and Levi hauled himself inside, Whip and X following.
Bliss raised an eyebrow as they peeled away from the curb with a spin of tires.
“I guess they’re in a hurry to get somewhere,” I muttered.
Bliss put the knife down. “Or they’re in a hurry to get away from the conversation you were trying to have with them.” She raised her shoulder in a half shrug. “Sorry. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop. Scythe told me about what you’re planning though.”
“No, it’s fine. I shouldn’t have been trying to have a conversation like that in the middle of a bar while I was on shift.” I stared at the empty space where X’s van had been moments before. “It’s just they seem to be trying really hard to avoid talking to me about it. Whip and X were conveniently gone all day, even though what they were doing shouldn’t have taken that long. And that’s the second time they’ve distracted me with affection when I was trying to talk to them.” I frowned, disappointed in myself for letting them bamboozle me with hot kisses and promises of delayed gratification.
Bliss gave a little laugh. “Ah yeah. The ‘distract her with an orgasm’ technique. I know it well. War has definitely used that one on me a time or two.”
I smiled at her, so grateful to have another woman who could actually relate to the weirdness my life had become. I had barely scratched the surface on everything Bliss had been through, butshe was where I wanted to end up. Happy. Successful. With men and children who loved her.
It didn’t seem like too much to hope for, and yet it felt so very far away.
Bliss leaned her ample hip on the edge of the sink. “You know they’re never going to let you offer yourself up as bait though, don’t you?”
I paused, my hand midway to the dishwasher. “No. We talked about it last night. We all agreed it was the only way.” I pulled her a few steps away, toward Nash’s office behind the bar. “There’re people after them. Me. The same people who are responsible for Toby’s death.”
