Chapter Five

Jag

My hand was balled into a fist as I pounded on the door again. “It’s real cute you thought you could get rid of me so easily, Vivi.” Why in the hell did I make this long ass drive anyway? She clearly wasn’t going to tell me the truth and I didn’t have the time or energy to deal with this bullshit.

“Go away!” Her voice came from deeper inside the camper now, which meant she was comfortable.

“Come on, Vivi. You came all the way to Vegas to get a look at my pretty face, get your ass out here and let’s catch up.” I walked away from the camper, toward two chairs set up to look at the stars. She was stubborn as hell but the girl I remembered just needed to cool down and she would be okay.

When the door opened I grinned to myself. When she dropped into the chair beside me with a bag of pretzels in one hand and a bottle of root beer in the other, my smile grew bigger.

“Why did you come here, Jeremiah?”

“Call me Jag.”

She popped a pretzel stick into her mouth. “Why?”

“Because I’m sexy as hell and as smooth and stealthy as a jaguar.” She laughed at the answer, shaking her head. When she looked at me I could still see disbelief shining in her eyes. “I can’t believe we’re here like this. You and your root beer and pretzels.”

She sucked in a breath and pointed at me. “Don’t do that.”

“Fine.” I held my hands up defensively but I couldn’t stop smiling and it ruined the effect. “What are you up to these days?”

“Cyber security, what else?”

“Right, but how’d it all come about? Christ, woman it’s called a conversation.” It was never this hard to start a conversation with Vivi. Maybe she was one of those people who felt more comfortable hiding behind a computer screen. I hoped so because the alternative was that life had fucked her over and she didn’t open up to anyone. At all.

“I did a few of those tech competitions with the fat paychecks and placed in the top three, which sent all the government and corporate scum suckers to my front door to offer me money to break their systems. One contract turned into two and so on and so forth.” She said it all so nonchalantly, like it wasn’t a big damn deal when it was.

“Damn. That’s great.”

“I guess. What about you? From soldier to outlaw biker?”

I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Sure, she was hot as fuck, but it wasn’t that. Well, it wasn’t just that. It was surreal, sitting under the stars with the girl who’d been my best friend growing up. “Not so much an outlaw. Our businesses are all legal. Mostly.”

She laughed and that sound was like a kick in the gut. We may have never met in real life but her laugh was bliss. “It’s good to see you Jeremiah.”

“Your laugh has saved my life on plenty of occasions, Genevieve.” It was a stupid thing to say and based on her shocked look, I’d probably freaked her the fuck out.

“Don’t call me that. And I’m glad you didn’t get yourself killed over there.”

“Gee thanks Vivi.” And just like that I was the blushing teenager again.

“So, how’d you end up a…what’s it called again? A Reckless Bastard?”

This was it, the real test of the strength of our old friendship. Did I tell her the truth or did I give her the bullshit answer people wanted to hear when they asked personal questions? “Honestly? I kind of fell into it.”

She laughed because it sounded crazy as hell. I knew that. “I spent most of my military career doing covert shit I can’t talk about. Ever. It was a hard way to live but I found a bright spot and her name was Kendall. We fell in love in that fucking hellhole. She was a medic assigned to the unit and we had eighteen months together before she got killed when an RPG took down the chopper.”

“Oh shit, Jeremiah. I’m sorry.” Her face didn’t hold the same phony sympathy I was used to seeing, probably because she knew it was one more loss for me.

“Anyway I was fucked up when I was discharged. Spending days in Silicon Valley, going where the government dispatched me to offer my expertise on the latest war tech and I spent my nights drinking. One night there was this big motherfucker getting drunker than me. He looked worse than me, too, and some guys were giving him shit.”

“Jeremiah to the rescue?”

“Something like that,” I grinned at her. “He could’ve fucked them up if he wanted to, but he was punishing himself, I could tell. So I intervened before anyone got really hurt. That big fucker was Gunner, our VP.” Me and Gunnar, we saved each other from our grief and in the process became brothers. “Lasso came to retrieve him a few days later and the rest is history.”

She smiled and swigged on her root beer. “I’m glad you have them, then.”

“What about you, who do you have now?” It wasn’t the slickest way to ask if she was seeing anyone but then, I never claimed to be slick.

“I have me and that’s all I need.”

“Dammit, Vivi. Come on, just talk to me. You’re here now, just say what you have to say.”

She stood angrily. “I didn’t realize it was such a problem that I tracked you down, Jag. Believe me when I say I won’t be making that mistake again.” She bent over to pick up the discarded bottle, giving me another long look at her ass.

“I didn’t mean it like that, girl.”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about me. It was just a temporary bout of insanity, that’s all. Take care of yourself.” She turned away quickly, this time but she held herself tall. Strong. Dignified.

“I’m sorry, Vivi. I want to help you if I can.”

“You can’t. But thanks.”

This was getting damned frustrating. “Then why in the hell did you track me down if you didn’t want my help? Or don’t even want to talk to me?”

She sighed and turned around inside the doorway of the camper, her pose highlighting her body magnificently. “I thought maybe you could help me, Jeremiah. But we’re different people now, a fact that only occurred to me after I got here.” Another annoyed sigh exploded out of her and she raked a hand through her wild blue hair. “I’m sorry I interrupted your life.”

She disappeared inside the camper and she didn’t come back out again, effectively dismissing me.

“You could have offered me a root beer!” I tossed back at her as I walked toward my bike.

I would go, for tonight. But this wasn’t over. She needed my help and she would get it.