Page 102 of Ace of Spades
How had she known? He turned in a circle, eyeing the bikers, all standing silent as they looked back at him. “As of this moment, Aces and Eights is for sale.” When no one moved, he waved a hand in the air. “Go do whatever it was you were doing and stop looking at me.”
As soon as they wandered off, he looked up at the camera. “Love you,” he mouthed.
Although he rarely drank during business hours, he was making an exception tonight. As he headed for the bar, a body barreled into him.
“Say it ain’t so, Ace. You boys gotta make up. You can’t be selling out.”
Nate peered down at the little man who had his nose dug into thevof Nate’s ribcage. “Dammit, Spider, you’re blubbering all over my shirt.” He pried Spider’s arms from around his back, frowning at the tears rolling down Spider’s face.
He sighed. “Stop crying, and I’ll buy you a beer.” That seemed to do the trick, and he followed Spider to the bar. Strangely, he was going to miss the little man. He’d have to make sure that Rand and Josh kept an eye out for him.
Truthfully, as much as he was looking forward to more normal hours, he was going to miss this place, even the biker clubs that gave them so much trouble. But Rothmire was right, it was time to move on.
“Spider cried like a baby,” Nate said. Even though it was three in the morning, they were all sitting on Nate’s balcony. His brothers and their wives had been waiting for him and Taylor to come home after closing Aces & Eights for the night.
Alex laughed. “I knew he would. He loves us, especially me.”
That was true, Alex was Spider’s favorite Gentry brother. “I’ll spread the word next week that I found buyers.”
Taylor, sitting next to him, squeezed his hand. “It’s going to be hard for you guys, letting it go.”
Yeah, it was. He was afraid he wasn’t going to enjoy his new job nearly as much as working undercover. “We’ll survive. Any progress on finding our mother and sister?” he asked Court.
“I’m running a program now, looking for any records of a woman named Wanda who gave birth to a daughter the year our sister wouldhave been born. Even if our mother changed her last name, I’m hoping she kept Wanda. If not, then it’s going to be harder to find them.”
“But we will,” Alex said. “In the meantime, I need my beautiful wife to tuck me into bed. I’m wiped out from beating you two up tonight.”
Nate scoffed. “Like hell you did. I whipped your ass.”
“Did not.”
“Did too. And shut it, Alex, if you don’t want your new boss to put you on desk duty.”
Alex looked at Court. “Can we still beat him up when we’re off duty? ’Cause if we can’t, that’s not gonna work for me.”
“Come on, Ninja Man,” Madison said, pulling Alex up with her. “Let’s get you to bed before you get fired.”
“Nah, he wouldn’t fire me. He loves me too much.” He bent and kissed Nate on the cheek.
“Dude, stop kissing me. Stop hugging me.” Swallowing a grin, Nate scrubbed at his face where Alex had kissed him.
“Make me,” Alex said, laughing as he walked out, his arm around Madison’s shoulder.
Court rolled his eyes. “Baby brother ain’t right in the head. We’re out of here, too. At least tomorrow’s Sunday, and we don’t have to do anything but sleep all day.” He waggled his eyebrows at Lauren. “Well, maybe not sleep the entire day away, but we are spending it in bed.”
“TMI,” Nate muttered.
Alone with Taylor finally, he stretched out his legs, patting his thigh. “Come here, tiger.” After she was curled up on his lap with her head resting on his shoulder, he wrapped his arms around her.
“Tired?”
“Strangely, no. Why? You got something in mind?” She licked his neck.
“I have a few ideas. The question is, do you want me to show you here or in our bed?”
“Why don’t we start here and see where we end up?”
“I like how you think.” He tilted his head and looked into those beautiful blue eyes, already turning dark with desire.
“I love you, Taylor.”
She straddled him. “Why don’t you show me how much?”
“I can do that.” He tugged on her T-shirt. “But I can do it even better if you’re naked.”
“Ah, you need inspiration for this love business?”
“Yes, but you’re all the inspiration I need. That I’ll ever need.”
And no truer words had ever been said by him.
