Kitt

At the end of my first week working at the body shop, I’d grown into a rhythm. Brenna Thompson was an efficient boss. She was clear with her expectations and patient if I had questions. As I got to know the ins and outs of Benny’s Bike Shop, I came to appreciate how much she really brought to the table. She’d built an online parts business that brought in far more revenue than the garage itself.

“This is amazing,” I said as I helped her sort invoices. “You’ve got a global customer base. I had no idea.”

Brenna smiled. “Doesn’t look like it if you just judge us by the sign out front, huh?”

She had a good-natured tone, but I felt kind of like a jerk for making assumptions. Gunn walked in from the back followed by three other patched members of the club. I was slowly beginning to learn their names, though I’d yet to meet Sly himself. Gunn was followed by Angel, Ford, and the guy they called Tiny, though he was anything but.

“Don’t let Brenna work you too hard,” Tiny said. He had a deep, booming voice and he was always smiling. Still, from a distance and if you didn’t know him, he probably scared the hell out of most people.

“And you don’t work hard enough,” Ford said, slugging Tiny in the shoulder. The two of them went at it, until Tiny had Ford in a headlock. The whole building shook as they staggered together, crashing into the opposite wall. Brenna rolled her eyes. Gunn came over to her and slipped his arms around her waist.

“Don’t you start,” she said. “You boys have been driving me crazy all afternoon. You need a caper. Something to keep you out of my hair for a few hours.”

Gunn nipped at her ear. I looked quickly away. They shared little intimate moments like that throughout the day that made me blush. Tiny and Ford finished their tussle, with Ford getting the worst of it. Angel leaned against the wall near my desk, shaking his head.

“You settling in okay?” he asked me.

“What? Oh. Yes.”

“Sorry,” he said. “I know we’re probably a lot to take in for somebody like you.”

“Like me?”

Angel shrugged. I could see how he got his particular road name. He was a beautiful specimen of a man with piercing eyes and a devastating smile. Brenna told me the girls who hung around the bar when it was still in business gave him the name. It suited him.

“You’re a quiet one,” he said.

“Oh. Am I? I just ... like you said ... I’m just trying to take it all in.” It was more than that. In the few days since I started working here, I’d been struck by the way the members of the club treated each other. Switch called them brothers. A family. I was starting to feel what he meant. They were big and loud and as far as I could tell, they were all in each other’s business. It was overwhelming.

I’d never had anything like that in my life. I’d gone from foster home to foster home until I aged out and tried to make a home for myself. Nothing ever really fit though.

“You still living at the Hansen?” he asked.

“For now. Yeah.”

“You should talk to Scarlett,” Brenna said. “She should be back any minute. She could hook you up with a real estate agent if you’re looking for something more permanent.”

“Like a house? Oh, I couldn’t afford that.” She might as well have asked me if I’d traveled to outer space. I’d never had a house of my own either. I’d lived in a series of apartments and cheap motels ever since I turned eighteen. Three years later and I could barely fathom it. Home buying was what normal people did.

“Not much in the way of apartment living in Green Bluff,” Angel said. “But there’s plenty to rent. Brenna’s right. Talk to Scarlett. She knows everything about everything.”

“Somebody talking about me?” The front door opened and an Amazon warrior woman walked in.

“Scarlett!” Brenna said, beaming. “You’re just in time. These clowns have been driving me to drink. Any word on how soon the Den will be finished so they can go back to bugging Mo?”

Scarlett might just be the tallest woman I’d ever seen. In her heels, she had to be a good foot taller than my five foot three. She had thick, brown hair that hung all the way to her waist. She was stunning and all eyes in the room went straight to her. The door opened behind her and a shadow fell across the door.

My heart went straight to my throat as the man that had to be Sly Cullinan walked in behind her. He put a protective arm around her waist. She put a hand up, touching his cheek.

“We’ve got to head out to Redding in a few minutes,” Sly said. He was handsome, tanned, with golden-blond hair and a cleft in his chin. In his mid-forties, he had deep crow’s feet when he smiled. Rough hands. Broad shoulders. I tried to imagine what he might have looked like as a young man in his twenties.

“Who do we have here?” Sly asked, noticing me.

“Stray cat,” Angel said, laughing. “Switch brought her home. She’s been helping out in the office to give Brenna a bit of a break.”

Scarlett stayed still as a statue, her eyes boring into mine. Sly stepped around her and extended his hand. I couldn’t breathe.

He took my hand. He was real. He was standing right in front of me, smiling. I didn’t know how to feel. Part of me wanted to scream and rail and accuse him of all the things I already knew he was guilty of. Part of me wanted to fall apart. Part of me wanted to run and hide. Instead, I just smiled back, trying to keep my breath even.

“What’s your name, honey?” he said. His words stung me, gutted me. He didn’t recognize me. I don’t know why he would. And yet, another part of me hated him that he didn’t. Couldn’t he see it in my eyes the way I saw it in his?

“Katrina,” I said. I don’t know why I gave him my full name. It mattered somehow. “But everyone just calls me Kitt.”

“Kitt,” he said. “Kitty cat. Stray cat, huh?”

“Yeah. I guess so.”

“Well, you just do whatever Brenna tells you. She’s kind of a dynamo around here. If she’s agreed to take you under her wing, you must be going places.”

Scarlett still hadn’t said anything to me. She was wary, standing almost in the shadows. Watching. Judging, perhaps. Finally, she stepped forward and found a smile. She shook my hand. But where Sly’s was warm, Scarlett was cold. Something Switch said popped in my head. Scarlett was protective of Sly. I could see it. The woman was in full threat-assessment mode. I had to be very careful.

“She’s been great,” I said, turning back to Sly. “Really great. Everyone has.”

I still couldn’t find my breath. My heart was about to pound right out of my chest. When the door opened a third time and Switch walked in, I nearly crumpled into a heap.

He jerked his chin at Sly but he was looking straight at me. He narrowed his eyes, sensing something wrong with me. There was a weird tension in the room and I knew I was the cause of it. I had to pull it together and fast.

“You manage to get the word out?” Sly asked, turning to Switch.

“Yeah,” Switch answered. “Just waiting on Big John. He’s about ten minutes out.”

Sly nodded. “Let’s get out of the girls’ faces,” he said. “Somebody needs to make some money around here.”

There was levity in his tone, but I could sense something else there as well. Switch told me things had been complicated with the club. I’d done some checking about the Wolf Den. He said it was a fire, but the police were still investigating. The blaze had been started by a homemade bomb. And yet, here I was, diving in with both feet, taking a job at Benny’s. Paulie was right. Maybe I’d lost my mind.

The rest of the club members filed out. Only Switch stayed behind. I could still feel Scarlett’s eyes on me. She went into the back office though. I could see her from the interior window as she picked up the phone.

“You okay?” Switch asked, his voice not much more than a whisper. He put a hand in the middle of my back and rubbed it up and down. It was an overly familiar gesture, but it sent heat shooting through me.

“Yeah,” I said. “Just ... I want to do a good job.”

“You will. Just be yourself. Don’t let these assholes scare you off. And if anyone gives you shit, you come to me, okay? I mean anyone.”

We were alone. The rest of the men had retreated to the garage. Brenna was in the stock room and Scarlett was a wall away from us. My emotions felt so raw and exposed. And all I’d done was have a ten-second exchange with Sly Cullinan. I’d been thinking about the moment I would finally meet him for months. Really, years, only I’d just recently learned his name. Now it had happened. It was real.

“Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked Switch.

He jerked his head back a little; the question shocked him. “You’re not used to people being nice to you, are you?”

I bit my lip. It was dangerous to let a man like Switch Madison in. He said he would protect me. God, I’d heard that kind of promise so many times before. I knew better than to trust it.

“No,” I answered plainly.

My answer seemed to affect him deeply. His eyes went dark. He straightened his shoulders. “Kitt …”

“It’s okay,” I said. “I’m okay. I’m just being silly. I shouldn’t keep you.”

“Kitt,” he said again, lowering his voice. “I meant what I said. Believe it.”

I nodded.

“How late does Brenna have you working?”

“What?” My brain was jumbled. I was still shell-shocked from seeing Sly for the first time. My heart raced from being so close to Switch, having the intensity of his gaze light a fire inside of me.

“I’d like to finish our conversation,” he said. “Dinner, maybe.”

“I shouldn’t. Brenna said …”

Switch smiled. “She warn you about me, did she?”

Crap. I’d said too much. “Uh ... kinda.”

“Well, hopefully you’re the kind of person who knows how to judge for yourself. Don’t take other people’s word for it. I want to get to know you, Kitt. I’ve gotta feeling you’re worth it.”

If that was a line, it had to rank as one of the world’s best. Either that, or it was just that he’d caught me in a moment of emotional weakness. Whatever it was, I found myself nodding yes.

“Tomorrow night then,” he said. “I’ll pick you up at the Hansen. Wear something you can ride in. I’ll show you the real Green Bluff.”

I smoothed the hair away from my face. “I’d like that.”

“You coming or what?” Dex McLain poked his head in. Switch straightened. He shot me a sexy-as-hell wink, then went to join the rest of the crew.

After that, my heart finally settled back into my chest. I had a few moments alone to sort through invoices and set up some service appointments. It was good work. It kept me busy and my mind off the new men in my life. I knew I shouldn’t have said yes to Switch. I should have just gone in and confronted Sly Cullinan with my truth once and for all. Then I should have jumped on the nearest bus back to Topeka.

About an hour later, Scarlett Cullinan gave me another reason to do just that.

It happened in the break room. When Brenna came back, I took my lunch and sat at the table. When Scarlett first came in, I thought she was just there to grab a drink from the fridge. She did that, then she turned a chair backward and sat right in front of me.

“Hi,” I said. “I just ... you know ... thanks again for giving me a chance to …”

“Cut the shit,” she said, her voice low and threatening.

“Excuse me?”

Scarlett smiled but her eyes stayed cold. “Just so we’re clear,” she said. “You do a good job for the club, you keep your nose out of other people’s business, you’ll do just fine here. But those are my boys in there. You do anything to cross them or me, I’ll know about it.”

“I won’t. I mean ... I understand. I’m just here to do my job.” I realized at that moment that if Scarlett Cullinan had a superpower, it had to be mind reading. I felt as if she could see right through my lie.

“Right,” she said. “I saw the way you looked at Sly. You need to understand who I am.”

My mouth dropped open. Good God. She thought I was making eyes at her man. My stomach flipped and I almost lost my lunch.

“You’re Sly’s wife. I swear I’m not looking to …”

She put a hand up. “Save it. As long as we’re clear. Are we?”

I nodded.

Then Scarlett flashed a killer smile. “Perfect,” she said, rising. My eyes went up and up. “But for the time being, I’ve got my eye on you, honey.”

Humming to herself, she left the room and I crashed my head to the table.