Roderick
They weren't exactly early risers.
Actually, they weren't even remotely early risers.
In fact, I had been up for over an hour before there was any kind of stirring, a stumble, things falling, then a door opening, the scrape of slippers on hard floor before Astrid appeared in the hallway.
Her hair was bed messy, her eye mascara under her eyes, her oversized bright pink pajama pants twisted so that the drawstring was over by her hip instead of her belly.
"Good morning," I said, trying to hold back the smile when the woman fucking growled at me on her path to the coffee pot.
Camden was next, likely woken up by Astrid's less than graceful exit of the bedroom down the same hall as his.
He almost rushed outward, pulling to a stop when he saw that one of his girls was just safely guzzling down her too hot coffee.
"Liv isn't up yet," I supplied to what seemed to be a questioning look in his eyes.
"She doesn't sleep well," Astrid supplied, the coffee seeming to help her shake off her grumpy mood. "She can't fall asleep some nights. Can't stay asleep others. She usually doesn't show her face before ten most days since she doesn't get to sleep until after four in the morning. This is good," she added, saluting me with her coffee. "Perfect level of kick-your-ass for the morning. I'm off to work," she added, grabbing her laptop, then making her way back to the couch.
Camden came over, making himself coffee, giving me a hard look, then moving back to the bathroom, coming out a few minutes later showered and dressed, grabbing his wallet and keys and heading out.
"You're going to want to wake her up," Astrid said a few minutes later. "If you want to make your meeting at ten," she added, making my head turn to the stove clock, seeing it was well past nine already.
"I think maybe you..."
"I'm all settled in here. You're standing up," she told me, and I'd swear she was trying to hide a smirk.
Figuring it couldn't do any real harm to knock on the woman's locked door, I went to do just that.
Knock.
Then call.
"Sometimes you need to like shake her leg or something," Astrid oh, so helpfully informed me from her position on the couch.
Feeling very much like I was not supposed to be doing such a thing, my hand reached for the knob, surprised when it turned in my hand, pushed soundlessly open.
Her room was much like the rest of the loft - not overly homey, somewhat cluttered, but not exactly unclean.
Her bed was the dominant feature, king-sized, stacked with blankets and pillows despite giving me two of hers to sleep on.
I knew they were hers because they smelled like her. Like lavender and vanilla.
It had been fucking distracting all night.
There was something undeniably intimate about bedding that smelled like a woman.
And if I were being completely honest, I wouldn't mind sharing more than just her pillows with her.
Attraction was such a simple thing - looks and chemistry.
So I didn't need to analyze it, obsess about it. We were simply two attractive people who would likely have a good time in bed. So of course that was on my mind occasionally.
"Livvy?" I called again, voice a bit tentative as I took a few steps in, nearly falling on my face over a pair of boots she'd left in the middle of her floor.
Fuck surveillance systems.
There was no better home protection than a woman and her scattered accessories. Any man who had ever gotten his ankle caught in the handle loops of a purse knew what I was saying. They felt like a goddamn snare, like it was impossible to get away.
"We have to get going soon," I added, taking a few steps closer to the bed where all I could see was a giant pile of blankets, no actual human being at all.
My hand reached up for a light cream blanket, the material faux fur, impossibly soft in my hand, dragging it down a bit to reveal the silky soft-looking strands of Liv's hair that was half covering her face.
Somehow knowing it wasn't my place, my hand still managed to rise, gently brushing it back behind her ear to reveal her face, lashes closed lightly onto the slightly purple circles under her eyes.
Eyes that blinked slowly open at my touch, softly fighting off sleep.
"Roderick? " Her voice was softer than usual.
"I knocked and called," I told her, dropping my hand to my side, having to curl my fingers into a fist. "Astrid suggested sometimes you have to be shaken awake."
"Did she now?" Liv asked, flipping onto her back, slowly dragging herself up to a sitting position, making the blankets pool at her waist
The room was cold. In fact, the whole loft was. And her top was doing nothing to hide that fact. It took more strength than it should have to keep my eyes on her face.
"It's nine-forty," I explained. "We have to get going soon. I made coffee."
Liv's hand rose, running through her hair, her face almost looking disappointed. Maybe it was just tired. Or maybe a mix of the two. Disappointed because she hadn't slept and was still tired.
"Alright. I will be ready in five. Then I can caffeinate, and we can get going. I have the distinct feeling that this is going to be a complete waste of time."
"You never know."
"Ugh."
"What?"
"Nothing worse than an optimist first thing in the morning," she grumbled, planting her head in a pillow for a long second before moving to untangle herself from what seemed like a dozen blankets.
Chuckling, I moved back toward the door. "See you in five," I called, moving out to the kitchen to pour her a coffee, putting in some of the creamer she liked.
"Did you have to shake her? Crawl in bed and wake her up?" Astrid asked, looking over, eyes having lost all their sleep, twinkling with mischief.
"You are nothing but trouble there, cariña," I told her, toasting her with my mug for it.
"Figured me out already, huh?"
"Why would you want me and Liv to hook up?"
"Why not?"
"That's not an answer."
"I think you two could have some fun. That's all. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Do you always meddle in her love life?"
"What love life?" she shot back, snorting. "Liv is..."
"Liv is what?" Liv asked as she walked in, her hair pulled back, no makeup, but changed into jeans, brown chunky heel boots, and an oversized oatmeal-colored sweater.
"A very quick, very efficient dresser in the morning," she supplied as I handed Liv her mug of coffee.
"I know you're lying, but it is too early to care," Liv declared, chugging down half her coffee in just a couple seconds. "You ready?" she asked, looking at me, waiting for my nod. "Save a donut for me, please."
"Right. Like anyone else likes your bland flavorless crap," Astrid called waving a hand out at us as she used the other to scroll on her laptop.
"She looks hard at work," Liv said as we moved into the elevator, "but she's probably on Instagram looking at pictures of hamsters."
"Hamsters?"
"She is obsessed."
"Why doesn't she have one then?"
"We travel a lot."
"Hamsters are pretty portable pets, no?"
"Not when you have to go internationally," Liv shot back, and she had a point.
We were lucky, The Henchmen.
Our contacts were old, trusted, and did the traveling part for us. The furthest we would have to go would be to one of the coasts. Maybe, once in a blue moon, over the Mexican border. But long gone were the days of having to head to Russia or South America or some shit.
But, it seemed, Liv and her team were still firmly seated in those days.
I didn't envy them that.
First, because it was tedious, never knowing when you might be home or not. Second, because it was dangerous. Incredibly dangerous. Even more so for them, relative unknowns, only three of them against untold others.
"Are you that far off from being able to slow down a bit?"
"Well, if someone's organization didn't snap up every available supplier on this coast..."
"Hey, I just follow orders. Can't hate on me."
"I only hate on you guys when I am on a boat and puking my guts up to try to get to a new contact. Otherwise, I imagine there had to be some dues paying on your - or your president's - part at some point. We all have to fight our way up."
That was true enough.
Granted, Reign had all the contacts, but we'd been forced to pay some dues in the prospect period, but within The Henchmen MC was not the only place in my life that I had needed to claw my way up.
We made it back to the sub shop with two minutes to spare, getting a bit of the runaround until Liv started to throw her attitude around, getting us a name, date, and location.
"No guarantees," Liv scoffed as she shoved the note into her front pocket. "He wants us to travel all the way to fucking Virginia on an off chance with no guarantees."
"It's better than anything else we have right now."
"Have you ever even heard of him?"
"No," I admitted. "But he is just a collector, not some big player."
"True," she admitted, unlocking the door to her building. "But I don't understand why we can't just talk to him over the phone."
"It's illegal," I reminded her. "A lot of people who aren't in the lifestyle get paranoid about phones."
"Stupid TV shows making it sound like everyone has their own personal agent assigned to their personal cell phone," she grumbled, tearing out of the elevator and into the apartment. "We have to go to freaking Virginia," she announced as soon as the door to the loft was opened.
Cam's brows drew together.
Astrid looked up from her laptop.
"Ugh. Why can't it ever be like South Beach or something?"
"Does everyone still have bags packed?" Liv asked, already in work mode. "It's a six hour and twenty-five-minute drive. Which is better than usual, but we should get a move on now. We can get rooms, some rest, then meet this guy in the morning."
"Hey, just a thought," Astrid called, calm, but there was something about her voice that drew my attention to her face, seeing mischief there again. "Maybe only the two of you should go. Leave us here to work on some other leads if they pop up. It's not smart right now for us to put all our eggs in one basket, as the saying goes. We are on a time crunch, you know."
"And why would it be me and Roderick to go?" Liv asked, brow raised, seeming to pick up on the dancing of her friend's eyes as well.
"You and Cam would never leave me with a strange man. I might get ideas and start... toying around with him or something."
I got the impression that the toying she was talking about was not the toying it sounded like, but I couldn't seem to understand the undertone, the implication that those around me clearly grasped immediately.
"Well then you and I could go."
"Don't you think Eddie would have given this new contact your descriptions? Just for safety purposes?" Astrid shot back. "What's the big deal? Is there some reason you don't want to go with Roderick? Alone. In a hotel. In a sort of high-risk situation where all the juices get flowing and..."
"Fine," Liv cut her off. "Roderick and I will go. But I need you guys on your game then. Like you said, this could be a dead end. I need you guys to keep trying."
"I was the one to suggest it," Astrid said in a way that implied duh.
"Do you need to run this by your boss?" Liv asked, looking over at me, pointedly avoiding Cam who was clearly trying to catch her eyes.
"I have free rein until my time runs out."
"And that SUV you have parked outside..."
"At our disposal," I agreed.
"Good. Then give me five minutes to pack. Cam, I know, but come on," she told him, walking toward her room with her angry friend in tow.
"Don't you just hate it when Mommy and Daddy fight?" Astrid asked, shaking her head.
"Camden doesn't trust me."
"In his defense, he genuinely doesn't trust anyone. At least not of the male persuasion."
"You're his girls. And I am going to assume he has reasons not to trust men around you," I added , not prying per se, but it never hurt to get a little information whenever you could.
"Find me a single woman who doesn't have reason to distrust men," she shot back, tone guarded. "One woman who doesn't jump at shadows when walking alone or have that gut-drop sensation when a guy on a first date gets pushy. Cam can't protect us from it all."
"No. But he can damn sure try."
"You have sisters, huh?"
"Yeah. How did you know?"
"Because you understand Camden. I guess it is because you have sisters, and know that over-protective feeling. How do you protect your sisters from so far away?"
"They live not far from me. And when I'm away, they know they have the whole MC should they need them."
Astrid said nothing to that, everything about her tensing up, making me wonder what I had said that had been so wrong.
With nothing else to do, I fetched the sleeve of paper travel mugs I'd found when I had been cleaning up the night before, brewing a new pot of coffee, and pouring us each a cup, putting on the tops, waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
I wasn't sure how the two managed to communicate, but that must have been what they were doing since Liv came out in a huff, her heels stomping harder against the floor than they needed to, a bag slung over her shoulder.
"Cam wants you to know that if anything happens to me, he will personally hunt you to the ends of this Earth then slice you up piece by piece. Right, Cam?" she asked, giving the man a look that screamed Are you happy now?
"I know how you feel about these girls. I won't let anything happen to her," I promised him, letting the conviction slip into my words.
"There. All the manly chest-bumping is done. Let's hit the road. I will call you as soon as we stop. Come on. Before Cam changes his mind."
"You shouldn't be mad at him," I told her, voice soft as we walked down the street toward my SUV. "He's just looking out for you."
"I'm not mad at him. He's just... he forgets that I handled myself before he came into the picture too. It's sweet, but borderline insulting that he thinks he is the only one who can protect me."
"Has he been with you a long time?"
"Ah, I guess I was Astrid's age when he... joined up. Six years or so."
"That's a long time for him to be allowed to be your champion. Then to suddenly tell him you don't need him."
"I do need him. Just not to give me the disapproving eyes when I decide to go out of town for a day."
"Well, at least you don't have to worry about Astrid while you're gone."
"She is actually really good at what she does. She just hides her competence behind all that attitude of hers. If this ends up being fruitless, I'm sure she will have something by the time we are back." She fell into her seat, clicking her belt then letting out a long sigh, leaning back against the headrest. "I'm really starting to regret stealing from you."
I turned over the car, flicking on the heat and the seat warmers, watching as she brought up the directions, placing her phone in the cradle attached to one of the vents.
And as I looked over at it, catching a glance at her while I did so, I was pretty sure that I was finally starting not to regret being stolen from.
Despite the cut on my arm that was both burning and itching, like it was somehow infected but healing at the same time.
Despite losing the respect of Reign.
Despite the never-ending shit I would likely get from all my brothers from here until eternity.
Despite this wild goose chase that might not end up solving anything.
I was not regretting it.
Because I likely never would have come in contact with them.
With her.
And that would have been a damn shame.