Melissa tries to shake off the cold shoulder that Hawk has just given her and walks purposefully towards Wes—who is still trying to pretend that he hasn’t been trying to eavesdrop on their conversation while fiddling needlessly with tools in the toolbox. Wes throws her a slightly panicked look, as she approaches him, probably wondering if she’s about to call his bluff.
“Easy, Wes. I just want to talk.” Melissa keeps her voice low and her expression as calming as she can make it. She wants to put him at ease, not get his back up even more than it already is.
“What about?” His voice is barely above a whisper, and his gaze skirts around her to focus on Hawk, checking that he’s not paying attention to their little tête à tête.
“I just thought I’d see how you were holding up.” Melissa shrugs casually, leaning against the worktop next to Wes, invading his space.
He looks at her differently, as she edges towards him, as if he’s not trusting what it is that he’s seeing. “The other night at the bar, you didn’t seem to much care about how I was doing. What’s changed? What’s the catch?” He frowns at her, making sure he keeps his voice low so as not to attract unwanted attention.
Melissa shrugs, struggling to remain the look of indifference that she’s working and not grab Wes by his grease-stained overalls to shake some damn sense into him. “No catch. I just had some time to think about what you’d said. And I realized that you were right.” The words taste bitter in her mouth, but she knows they’re a necessity to gain his trust. Melissa leans even further towards him, just enough so that her loose hair falls between them, brushing against his arm. It’s pure manipulation, but Melissa has no intention of feeling bad about it. “I want to help you.” She hopes that her blue eyes don’t show the lie that she’s telling,
Wes gives her a long look, like he’s sizing her up or at least weighing up whether he should believe her or not. Melissa keeps her eyes trained on his, raising a teasing eyebrow. She has to swallow hard, as the expression on his face changes from suspicious to lascivious in one fell swoop.
“Nothing like a little trouble in paradise to make you question your life choices.” Wes gives a meaningful look behind her to where Hawk is buried under the hood of the car.
Melissa doesn’t bother to correct him. If he wants to believe that she and Hawk are on the outs and that’s the reason she wants to get back at the club, then let him. It’s as good a reason as any that she could come up with. But she can’t say that she doesn’t want to slap the self-satisfied smirk off of his face.
She smiles, hoping that it will go some way to cover the bitterness of the taste in her mouth. “I thought that we could compare notes. I’m sure I have a few things that might be…interesting to you.” She arches an eyebrow at him suggestively and is rewarded by Wes puffing his chest out like a proud peacock, before his expression turns guarded again.
“How do I know you wouldn’t just steal my notes and try to write your own article with all my hard work?” Wes crosses his arms over his chest and assesses her, as if he could tell just by looking at her.
Melissa struggles not to roll her eyes at Wes’s sense of completely overinflated sense of self-importance. Of course, he would think that she would try to profit from his work. It was exactly the kind of thing that he would do, never mind that Melissa would never dream of behaving like that.
“I don’t know, Wes. I guess you’ll just have to trust me.” She flutters her eyelashes at him, something that under any other circumstances would give her the heebie jeebies.
His grin spreads across his face, before he remembers where he is and looks around to check that there’s no one within hearing distance. “Alright, I’ll see you at the bar tomorrow night.”
Melissa gulps, remembering Josh’s words. She had to keep Wes away from the shop and away from the bar as best she could. At least in the body shop, Hawk and Josh were around to head off any potential problems at the pass, but the bar was open season. The rest of the Kings didn’t know that there was a reporter they had to worry about, which made everything far more complicated.
“I was thinking somewhere a little more private. How about my place?” Melissa bites her lip, trying not to dwell on how she would explain this to Hawk.
Wes shuffles a little closer to her, his eyes heated, and Melissa has to stop herself from stepping away from him. “That sounds good, Melissa, really good.” He smiles in a way that makes her toes curl. “But I think we should meet at the bar.” He reads the disappointment in her face as disappointment that there won’t be an opportunity for them to re-live old times. “Don’t worry, there will be plenty of time for some fun after.” He winks at her, and Melissa swallows hard, knowing exactly what Wes’s idea of fun comprises.
“After what?” She pouts prettily, figuring that flirting with him and playing to his ego is the best way to get the information she needs.
Wes leans in again, even closer to her this time, and his look turns serious. “I’ve heard there’s a deal going down. Drugs.”
Melissa licks her lips, wishing that she’d paid more attention in drama class. “Oh? Do you know when?”
She just manages to stop herself from breathing a sigh of relief, as he shakes his head. “All I know is that it’s happening soon. And when it does, I intend to be ready.”
“You have a source?” Melissa tries to come off casual, as if it were just a throwaway question, but she needn’t have bothered; Wes is already too busy enjoying the fact that he’s back in the position he loves, imparting his intelligence to the less fortunate.
“No. None of the Kings will turn on their club. You know that, Melissa.” He shakes his head at her as if she were an idiot. She bites down on the retort that’s on the tip of her tongue. “But I’ve overheard a few things here and there. It’s nothing concrete, but it’s enough to go on, and then when I have photographic proof of the deal, I won’t need any sources.”
Melissa blinks at him in shock. “You’re planning to take pictures? How are you going to get away with that? Don’t you think someone will notice?”
Wes shrugs, as if that were merely a minor hiccup in the plan. “If someone does, then I’ll deal with it.”
Melissa doesn’t bother to point out that Wes is about as capable of dealing with an angry group of Caged Kings as he is of wrestling a crocodile. Besides, she has seen that determined expression on his face before, when he’d told her that he was going to show his family that he didn’t need them and could make something of himself on his own. There was no way that he was going to back out of this, even if it meant hurting everyone around him and potentially even himself.
“Alright, well then, I guess I’ll be your wingman.” Melissa smiles winningly. The only thing that she can do at this point is make the best of a bad situation. At least if she’s with Wes at the bar, then she can go some way towards helping the situation. Having him either at the shop or at the bar on his own are just not viable options.
Wes reaches out to touch her shoulder, but she moves away before he can make contact. He frowns at her and seems about to say something before she shakes her head and nods towards where Hawk is. Understanding slowly dawns on him. “Good thinking, Melissa. We don’t want to arouse any suspicion that we’re an item.” The thought makes Melissa shudder; she struggles to maintain her smiling façade. “You know, Ownes is still sweet on you. I’m sure you could work your charms on him, and he’d tell you everything we need to know for this story. Hell, I bet he knows more about this deal than anyone. The other riders seem to trust him, even though he’s not really one of them.” The jealousy on Wes’s face is clear for anyone to see, and it turns his handsome face bitter.
Of course, Melissa thinks, it makes sense. Wes is jealous of Hawk. He represents everything that Wes isn’t. He’s a self-made man; he’s liked and respected by everyone around him; he’s tough but fair. He’s the man that every other man wants to be and the man that women want.
“You want me to seduce him to make him talk?” Melissa raises an eyebrow at Wes, thinking just how different he is to Hawk. Whereas Hawk wanted to do everything in his power to stop her from using herself to save the Kings, Wes wanted her to do that very thing just for the sake of his story, to see his name in print.
Wes shrugs, as if what he were asking her were no big deal. “Is that a problem?” Of course he wouldn’t think it was, Melissa thinks to herself. Wes treats people like commodities. To him I’m just a trophy that he can pass around to whomever he pleases.
Melissa stops short of explaining to him exactly how and why it was a problem. He needs to believe that she’s on his side, and anything she can do to make him believe that will only strengthen her case. In the long run, she’s doing this for the Kings, and she’s doing this for Hawk. She repeats the mantra to herself as she forces a smile at Wes and flicks her hair, a move she’s learned from Ali. “I’ll go see what I can do.”
She catches Wes’s look of appreciation before she turns around, fully intending to debrief Hawk on what just went down between her and her ex, but she stops short when she sees Felicia where Hawk should be. Felicia shrugs as if she can read the expression on Melissa’s face.
“Where’d he go?” Melissa keeps her voice low, conscious that Wes’s eyes might as well be laser beams boring into her back.
“He said he couldn’t watch the two of you, that he had some stuff to do.” Felicia’s voice is full of concern for her friend.
Melissa winces at the knowledge that her talking to Wes must have hurt him, even if it was something that they both knew was just a means to an end. If the situation were reversed, she couldn’t honestly say that she would act any differently.
“I’ll go talk to him.” Melissa moves as if to head towards the stairs, but Felicia’s hand on her arm stops her.
“He’s not here, Melissa. He grabbed the bike and took off.” She makes a gesture as if to say ‘Don’t shoot the messenger.’
“I don’t understand him, Felicia.” Melissa puts her head in her hands. “He blows hot and cold like there’s no tomorrow. Why would he run off without even waiting to hear what I have to say?”
Felicia gives her a pointed look. “I don’t know, Melissa, who would possibly do that?” She rolls her eyes.
Melissa cringes at the knowledge that Hawk has told Felicia what happened between them the night before. It makes her wonder just how much Felicia knows about what’s going on between them.
“Well, I guess I need to call a taxi.” Melissa doesn’t even bother to entertain the idea of driving away in her own car, not after the warning that Hawk had given her in the early hours of that morning.
Felicia waves away the cell phone that Melissa pulls out. “I’ll drive you; it’s on my way.”
“To where?” Melissa gives her a suspicious look.
“Somewhere.” Felicia shrugs, closing the door on Melissa’s enquiring mind.
Melissa glances back as she leaves The Shop to see Wes trying to butter Josh up and Josh doing his best not to punch Wes in the face. She would laugh if it weren’t all so serious.