It had been three days since Charlie showed up on my doorstep. I wasn’t sure if we’d progressed far in our relationship, but the fact she’d agreed for me to take her ice skating had to be a good thing. Tenille had told me that ice skating was the one thing Charlie loved to do the most, and watching her out there on the rink blew me away. She was fucking good at it. It killed me that I’d missed out on all the steps she’d had to take to get to this point in her life. I wouldn’t miss any more.

“Do you know them?”

I followed Charlie’s gaze to Monroe and Bree. “Not really.”

She’d just taken her skates off and tied the laces together before sliding her shoes on. “What does that mean?”

“I’ve met Monroe a few times, but we don’t really know each other.” I watched as Monroe bent to pick up Bree’s skates, and spent a good few moments appreciating her ass. She had curves in all the right places, and my hand itched to touch that ass.

“You call her by her surname?”

“No, it’s her name.”

“Cool name. I’ve never heard it before.”

Monroe put her arm around Bree’s waist in an effort to help her walk, and I had the sudden urge to ensure they made it out to their car safely. Turning to Charlie, I said, “You ready to go?”

She nodded and grabbed her stuff. “Yeah.”

I headed in Monroe’s direction, meeting her just as she started struggling with Bree’s bag as well as the other stuff she carried. Reaching for it, I said, “Here, let me take it.”

She hit me with a look of relief and passed me the bag. “Thank you.”

Charlie and I followed Monroe and Bree out to Monroe’s car. It was pitch-black outside, which pissed me off. The skating rink owner should have made sure the outside lights were switched on. I’d be having words with them about that.

I lit the torch up on my phone and angled it in the direction we walked. Monroe stopped when she came to a red Mazda. “This is us,” she said as she unlocked the car and walked Bree around to help her into the passenger side.

My attention caught on one of her back windows. Moving to it, I confirmed what I thought and said, “Someone’s smashed your window.”

Her head popped up and she eyed me with disbelief. “Motherfucker.”

My thoughts, too. I dialled a number and put my phone to my ear. When the call was answered, I said, “I’m gonna text you an address. Can you send Roach over to replace a car window for me?”

“Sure thing, man.”

“Appreciate it.” I ended the call and texted him the address and car details. It wasn’t until she spoke that I realised Monroe had moved so she stood next to me.

“Ah, you know I’m quite capable of organising stuff on my own, right?” She sounded pissy. Kinda like she sounded the night I’d asked her to move her car out of Nitro’s driveway.

“You’d be waiting for hours if you called someone. My guy’ll be here within half an hour.”

“Okay, so while I am thankful about that, I’d actually really rather you ask me first before you start organising shit for me.”

“I don’t see what the problem is here. You needed help, I organised it.”

The car park lights turned on, and I took in her widened eyes and her annoyed expression. She was definitely pissed at me, but I failed to understand why. It was a no-brainer that I’d call for Roach when I knew he could get here fast.

She placed her hand on her hip. “What if I’d had someone I knew who could come and do it?”

I frowned. “Do you?”

Exhaling in frustration, she said, “No, but that’s not the point! You don’t get it, do you?”

Charlie stepped in at that point. “He really doesn’t. Aiden sees everything in black and white from what I can work out.”

Something Charlie said caused Monroe to falter. Shifting her attention between Charlie and me, she finally settled it on me and said, “I like that.”

Jesus this woman confused the fuck out of me sometimes. “What?” She’d just given me hell for doing exactly what Charlie said I did, and now she was telling me she liked it. I wondered if she was this confusing to everyone she met or just to me.

“Aiden. I like your name.”

I stared at her for a long quiet moment. No one had called me Aiden in fourteen years. Not until Tenille and Charlie came back into my life. It was a part of me that I’d left behind all those years ago, and it felt strange for someone other than my family to utter it. I did have to admit, though, that it sounded good rolling off her tongue.

Before I had a chance to respond, Charlie’s phone lit up with a few texts that came in one after the other, causing her to swear after she read them. “That fucking asshole!”

“Boy troubles?” Monroe asked, completely shifting gears from our conversation to give all her attention to Charlie. How women managed to do that was beyond me.

Charlie met her gaze and nodded. “It’s our anniversary today, and he promised me he’d Facetime tonight, but my friend just sent me photos of him drunk at a party. And that’s after he blew me off yesterday to hang with his friends instead.”

“Oh honey, you need to let him know that he’s going to have to up his game or else you’re out of there.”

“No,” I said forcefully. “She needs to end it with him.” The little shit needed to be wiped from her memory as far as I was concerned. He was lucky I didn’t live in Melbourne.

Monroe gave me a look that even I could decipher as meaning keep out of this. Taking Charlie’s arm, she pulled her close. “Okay, he’s going to call you tomorrow all apologetic. I recommend you be icy to him. Let him know he fucked up. Then he’s going to try to make things right. The trick here is to accept his apology, but make it clear that there’s no way you’ll ever accept this again. You may need to stay icy for a little while, but then again, you don’t want to drag that out too long, because then that just makes you bitchy. And no guy is going to put up with bitchy for very long. But girl, what you need to be prepared for is this—if he screws up again, you need to stick to your guns and ditch his ass.” At Charlie’s look of horror, Monroe raised her brows and added, “Life is too short to put up with shit from a man, honey. There are a lot of other guys out there who would kill to have you by their side. Don’t settle for less than the best.”

“Or,” I said, “you could just tell him where to go now and save a lot of time and effort.”

They both stared at me as if I was talking out of my ass and then turned back to each other and ignored what I said. When Bree hobbled around the car to join them, I said, “You wanna get off that ankle and rest it.” She also ignored me and started talking boy shit with Monroe and Charlie.

I spent the next half hour checking in with King about club shit that was going down and waiting for Roach while doing my best to drown out the conversation taking place between the three girls. I tried to interrupt at one point to ask Monroe if anything was missing from her car, but she quickly shook her head and continued on with the boy talk.

I caught bits and pieces of what she told Charlie, and while I was on board with the ball-breaking advice she seemed to be giving, I wondered how the hell anyone survived dating her. She’d be hard fucking work with all her demands.

* * *

Tenille texted me early the next morning. Shit was going down at home with Craig, so she wouldn’t make it to Sydney that afternoon. Charlie gave the impression she didn’t care, but I saw the disappointment cross her face for a split second when she heard the news. My kid was a fucking pro at acting unaffected by family stuff, but I could see her mask. In the few days she’d been with me, not much had changed between us, but because I knew she hid her real feelings, I tolerated the attitude she still flung at me. Mostly. Every now and then, I pushed back, and it was in those moments when she let me that I knew we’d eventually find each other.

Tenille had organised for Charlie to keep up with her schoolwork via email, and I made sure she was up and getting ready to do it before I left home each day. That morning had been a struggle because she wanted to sleep instead. We’d argued for a good half hour about it. Once I was convinced she’d stay up and get on to it, I left for the clubhouse. King was still hunting the Italian who supposedly had something to do with Jacko’s murder, and he’d told me the day before that he wanted me, Devil, and Nitro with him when he paid a visit to Salvatore Ricci, one of Storm’s enemies. Salvatore had been out of town for a few days and was scheduled to arrive home in a few hours. King’s plan was to catch him when he least suspected it, and he figured that would be when Salvatore made a stop to visit his mistress on his way home.

I was surprised to hear Monroe’s voice when I entered the clubhouse. Making my way inside, I found her talking with King who seemed mildly amused by something she said.

His eyes met mine and he grinned. Motioning towards me, he said, “Here he is. You can give him the cash yourself.”

She spun around to face me. Closing the distance between us, she thrust an envelope at me. “Here’s what I owe you for the car window.”

I frowned as I glanced down at the envelope. “You don’t owe me anything.”

“Yeah, I do. Well, I owe your friend so you can give it to him.”

I held the envelope out to her and jerked my chin at it. “He doesn’t want your cash, sugar.”

She held her hands up and shook her head. “I don’t care. I don’t take things for free, Aiden.”

King’s brows lifted and he hit me with a questioning look. “Aiden?” Looking back at Monroe, he added, “You two on a first name basis, sugar?”

She looked at him. “We’re not on anything. And I really need to get to work.” Taking the envelope off me, she forced it into King’s hands. “Maybe you can sort this out for me.” With that, she stalked out of the clubhouse, leaving me staring after her and King watching me with interest.

“What?” I barked when I turned to him.

Nodding in the direction Monroe left, he said, “You tapping that, brother? ’Cause if you’re not, I’ve gotta get me a piece.”

“No, have at it,” I barked again. This whole conversation pissed me the fuck off. “But be prepared because she’s a fucking handful.” As much as I tried to ignore it, the fucking thought of him going anywhere near Monroe irritated me.

His grin grew. “I’ll leave her for you. Besides, I’ve got enough of a handful at home. I don’t need any more women trying to break my fucking balls at the moment.”

“Jen’s still giving you hell?”

His mouth flattened. “When does that woman not give me hell? I’ve slept here for the last few nights so I could get some fucking peace.”

I’d never understand their relationship. It wasn’t like King to let anyone control him, and yet there he was changing his life because of her.

He passed me the envelope of cash. “The plan for today has changed. Salvatore’s trip has been extended a day. I’m gonna take care of some other shit that’s come up. I want you and Nitro to visit that guy Fox told you about. He’s finally home. Do whatever the fuck it takes to get an address for Marx. I want a fucking face-to-face with the motherfucker.”

Marx had been eluding us at every turn, and King was reaching crazy levels of fucked off about it. I nodded. “Will do.” I didn’t intend to leave that asshole until I had what King needed.