Her fucking cousin? Her fucking ‘He’s my best friend” cousin? What the hell? Carson had paced outside back and forth from his bike to her door before he decided that he’d drive to the wine shop and smoke the emergency cigarettes he had stashed in the compartment of his bike. It had been a long time since he’d felt like he really needed one, but having them nearby was almost like a security thing. The drought was over now and the familiar crinkling sound of the paper was almost a comfort because he knew what came next.

 

Lighting up and filling his lungs with the smoky nicotine was like a salve to his emotions. He knew he shouldn’t have gotten so close to Kelli, but she was beautiful, sweet, and sexy as all hell. How was he supposed to get one taste of a woman like that and walk away without getting his fill? The problem was the more he was with her the more he wanted. Which is why he was still hanging out with her and filling her pussy every chance he got a week later.

 

His phone rang, and he wondered if it was Kelli. She made his heart hurt the way she looked at him before he left. The sad smile was so forced, he half way wondered why she felt compelled to try, but in truth he knew. She didn’t think he was coming back, and that thought did cross his mind for a few minutes. He was supposed to find out information that would lead him to find the man he now knew was her favorite cousin. His brothers had to do better with the intelligence. They had no idea that Kelli was the daughter of the biggest mafia boss in this area?

 

“Hello?” He knew he sounded short, and he really didn’t give a fuck right now.

 

“What the fuck, dude? You’ve been out there a whole week, and your mark is still up and walking around. This is making us look bad.” The leader of the Satan’s Ravens Motorcycle Club wasn’t good at salutations. It was like he never left off when he spoke to you last and was still in the same conversation. His number was always private just like all of his other brothers so when you answered your phone it was a crap shoot on who was going to be on the other line.

 

“Beast, I’ve been trying to get information from the girl and looking for him during the day.” Carson knew that was the truth, and he also knew that Beast probably already knew all about it. He’d been trying his best to find the guy, but Argo was like a ghost. When he’d get information about him and went to the place the man was supposed to be, he’d either just left or hadn’t been there. Asking too many questions would probably get him on the wrong side of a gun, so he was trying to lay low. He knew Argo was close to the big boss in the area, and although he didn’t have a problem with him, someone was paying big money to have him meet his maker.

 

“If you don’t get this situation under control, I’ll be sending down someone else. They may be able to do the job better than you. Well if not better, then at least faster.” Beast had something in his mouth, and it sounded like he was frustrated, and there was no way in the world Carson wanted him to be upset enough to do that.

 

“I’ll get it done. I’m very close.” Carson was trying to be convincing, but it was hard. He was in a city he didn’t know well, and he was trying to find a man who was familiar with the lay of the land. It was a hard pill to swallow, but he knew he had just found the way to Argo. The plan had always been to use her for information, and he’d been okay with that, but now it was starting to feel personal. He hated that, because personal had no business in this type of situation. He had a job to do, and his reputation was on the line. He’d worked hard to be known as a hard ass who could handle any situation, and in this line of business, a reputation was really all you had.

 

“Yeah, yeah… that’s what everyone says when they aren’t getting the job done. I may need to get someone down there who’s hungrier than you are.”

 

Beast always knew the words to say that would spur someone on because that was definitely something that could light a fire under his ass. It was hard to hear what else Beast was saying as Carson could feel his pulse throbbing and hear the soft swooshing of his blood coursing through his veins. He wasn’t sure how he could keep Kelli after she found out that not only had he killed her cousin but that his plan had always been to get information from her so he could track him down, and he had to complete the mission. He’d never been a quitter, and that wasn’t going to start today.

 

“Nobody is hungrier than me, Beast,” Carson said into the phone.

 

“Then let me see it. I’d better hear that the deed has been done. This is the only phone call you’ll get about this matter… consider it a courtesy call. The next time you hear from me it will be telling you that someone else completed your mission, and you can bring your slow ass back to the base. Comprende?” Beast’s mouth was no longer full of whatever he’d had in it, but Carson was almost sorry about that because he didn’t want to hear anything else from the man.

 

“Yeah, I understand just fine.” Carson tried to portray the calm and collected attitude he usually had, but it was difficult.

 

The phone clicked in Carson’s ear, and he tried not to seethe with anger. This just wasn’t his night. He didn’t have a choice but to pick up the wine he said he was going out to get and return back to Kelli. It wasn’t going to do him any good to think of ways to get out of what he was going to do, so he decided that he was just going to take it as it came.

 

***

 

The house was dark when he went back, and he wondered if everything was alright. It hadn’t taken that long to get the wine. He lifted the huge door knocker and let it fall to the brass plate on the wood. It took a few minutes, but he could hear something behind the door. It sounded like it was a scuffle going on, and he thought about drawing his gun. Thank god he was quick about it so he didn’t have to stand here on the ready.

 

The door opened, and Kelli looked as if she’d been crying, or sleeping. Her eyes had bags under them and were red. She’d either got some bad news as soon as he’d left or she had been crying about him. Either scenario made him want to hurt something. This woman had his emotions all over the map, and that was new for him. He didn’t think he liked it too much, but he wasn’t ready to let Kelli go either.

 

“Is everything alright?” he asked as she opened the door.

 

“Yes. I just decided to make it an early night.” She closed up her robe, and he shook his head for the second time that night trying to clear what seemed like cobwebs from his mind.

 

“I thought you said dinner would be ready in a few minutes. I took a few minutes more than I thought I’d take, but it’s been less than an hour.” He searched the place with his eyes quickly trying to scan for unwelcomed visitors. “Is anyone else here?”

 

“You mean did I call someone to off you when you got back?” She sounded hurt, and he wasn’t sure what of make of it.

 

“No, I didn’t mean that.” He went to sit on the couch and watched as she sat beside him. “It’s just the lights were off, and I didn’t know what was happening. Maybe it didn’t come out right because there is just so much going on in my mind.”

 

“I’m sorry. I saw you walking toward your bike, and thought you were leaving. You told me you were going to walk to clear your head.”

 

“I was going to walk, but then I got outside and wanted a cigarette. I gave them up a few years ago, but I keep a pack just in case of emergencies.”

 

“Well, this was an emergency I can imagine.” She sat there staring at him, and he realized that she actually didn’t think he was going to come back.

 

“Come here,” he said pulling her closer to him and sitting her on his lap. When she was settled in, she took a deep breath in and then turned her face toward his.

 

“I can’t believe you came back. Dinner is probably ruined, but if you want I can call out for something.” She looked so earnest, and he knew he’d never known a sweeter soul. He couldn’t afford to have her though, so he would just have to be content to know that he’d once known someone of her caliber. Maybe that would keep him warm when he was without her, because that day was coming soon.

 

“I’ve only been around you for a week. It doesn’t seem like you see a lot of your family or your cousin.” And so it began… she had opened the door, and now he was barreling through. The shitty feelings he had swirling around his brain and heart could go fuck themselves because he had a job to do.

 

“I don’t like to see my family all that much. I’m the black sheep of the family. I don’t want to be a part of the destruction and crime they involve themselves in. I do go to dinner with them once a month. If you wanted, you could come along. It’s actually tomorrow.” She looked so excited, and he would have loved to go if he were a really here to be a boyfriend, but there was no way he was going to show his face to her father when he was on a mission to kill the man’s relative and junior leader.

 

“Will your cousin be there?” He had to ask since he didn’t know what he was going to do with the whole Argo slash can I keep my job thing. It was better to have all the information available, and then he could decide the best route to take.

 

“Most of the time he comes, but I’m not sure about tomorrow. There have been people looking for him or so he thinks, and he’s been laying low for a while.”

 

“You don’t think people are looking for him?” Carson wondered if she knew how serious her family’s connections were and how many people were probably looking for him. She had no idea that is how they met. He was on a mission to find the man she called her cousin and kill him. Then he needed proof so that his group of biker mercenaries could get paid. It was a dirty, cruel world, and all of the sudden, he wanted to protect her from it.

 

“I guess they could be.” She didn’t seem like she was too interested in her cousin running, and he wondered if she knew he was running for his life.

 

Turning her heads, he snuggled into his neck. “I’m kind of tired. I took a sleeping pill so I could relax, and it is really kicking in.”

 

“Come on, Sleeping Beauty,” he said as he pushed her off his lap and then walked behind her to her room. Getting her settled in her large bed wasn’t hard as she was already dressed and just needed to be tucked back in. When she patted the spot next to her, he took off his clothes and slid in beside her.

 

“Thanks for coming back,” she said sounding like she was almost asleep. He didn’t have an answer for that, so he just kissed her forehead.

 

“I know my cousin and dad would love you if they met you.”

 

She didn’t know how wrong she was. He lay in the dark and thought about how this was going to play out. There was a possibility that the cousin would be at the dinner with Kelli tomorrow, but there was no way he was going to kill him in front of her and his family, but maybe he could follow her to get to the house and then follow his mark home.

 

Kelli snuggled against him bringing her ass to fit his cock, and he thought about taking her up on what seemed to be her invitation, but he knew she was tired and all of a sudden he was too. What seemed like an open and closed case wasn’t feeling like that now. He had a piece of a plan to get Argo, but after that then what? He didn’t think he’d be able to come back here after offing her cousin even if she didn’t know that he was the person behind the take down.

 

“Just like I do,” she said sounding like she was already asleep.

 

With an extra squeeze and a kiss to the top of her head, he did his best to level his breathing. The one thing he’d been chasing his entire life was acceptance, and here it was wrapped up in one sweet hearted package and he couldn’t even accept it.

 

“Damn,” he whispered into the dark room, and that word hung in the air like cloud full of poison.