Burning Desires (Blue Bandits MC Book 4) (27 page)

Burner listened to the hissing voice talking to someone with his face buried in the pillow pretending to be asleep because he didn’t want to deal with the person in the room with him. He’d been having a perfect dream about Kelsey.  He had finally slept for more than an hour since walking out of her life and then
she
woke him. It made him want to tell her to get the fuck out but he couldn’t.

“Unbelievable, Greta, he even took his damned pants off to sleep. I can’t believe he’s in her apartment sleeping in her bed after I told him to leave her alone,” Hanna hissed then paused, obviously listening to her sister. “Oh please, he wouldn’t dare. I can handle him anyway. I just can’t believe he’s here and I bet he thought he would wait her out because she’d have to come home eventually.”

Burner listened to Hanna talking with his eyes shut and his body loose so she didn’t catch on that he was only pretending to be asleep. He hadn’t meant to come here again last night but somehow for the last three nights he’d ended up in Kelsey’s bed. That first night when he’d left the bar he’d driven for hours, then determined to see her he’d come here looking for a clue as to her whereabouts, only he hadn’t found a single damned clue and left in a rage. The next night he’d found himself here with his face buried in her pillows just to smell her and he’d fallen asleep for an hour. He woke at around eight in the morning that day when Reaper had called him to ask him to go out and talk to his contacts about the Headhunters.

That’s what he had been doing all day today, working his contacts, and rather than heading back to the clubhouse he’d come straight here instead. Just to bury his face in her pillow so that he could smell her honey and apples scent because it soothed him. Even he knew he shouldn’t be here but he couldn’t seem to help it. He just missed her so damned much that it was like a constant ache inside his chest.

“I’m going to fix this. He can’t come here and sleep in her bed. It’s not right, damn it. It’s her place and him being here isn’t going to help her get over him if she decides to come back and finds him here.” Her voice trailed off again and he strained to hear what the muffled voice on the phone was saying. “We have to handle it, Greta. What––no, I came to water her plants like I always do when she’s away. No, I had no idea until I saw the bike in the drive that he was even here. I still can’t fathom why he would sleep here other than to wait on her.” Hanna didn’t speak for another long moment before she replied sharply, “No, Greta. I don’t care if she is mad, I’m handling it. Hold on a second.”

Burner didn’t know what she was planning but he listened hard, wondering if pretending to sleep was a good idea with her threatening to remove him from Kelsey’s place. He couldn’t hear anything and wondered what was happening. Where was Hanna and what was she up to? Burner was about to crack his eyes open when he was suddenly drowned by ice-cold water that was dumped on his head.

“What the fuck?” he roared as he sat up sputtering with ice falling off his chest as he did.

“Get the fuck out of my sister’s bed, you pervert!” Hanna screeched, jumping back from the bed and holding the pot out in front of her like a barrier.

It was obvious that she’d just used it to pour water over his head. Burner couldn’t believe that she had dumped freezing cold water on him. She hadn’t been satisfied it was cold enough from the tap apparently so she’d added ice to make it colder. He felt a shiver run over him as he tried to use the covers to dry himself but they were almost as soaked as he was and it didn’t help much.

“What the hell? Did you just dump cold water on me?” he demanded.

“No, you idiot, the roof is leaking! Of course, I dumped water on you, moron. You’re in my sister’s apartment and you have no right to be. Give me the key and get the hell out, you bastard,” Hanna screamed.

Burner could hear yelling coming from the phone. It was sitting on the edge of the dresser near where he was standing and he pointed to it.

“You might want to pick that up before she has a fucking heart attack. I just crashed here because it was closer than the clubhouse last night and I was tired. Geez,” Burner lied, because he had actually driven right by the clubhouse to come here but he wasn’t about to tell her that.

“Fine, whatever.” Hanna rolled her eyes and he knew that she wasn’t buying it for a second. “Just get out and leave the key too. This isn’t a hotel so don’t let me find you here again.”

“Whatever,” Burner grumbled. Grabbing his pants off the floor where he’d tossed them last night, he pulled them on. He lifted his wallet and keys off the dresser, shoving them into his back pocket. He heard Hanna telling Greta to relax, he was leaving.

“Greta, she wouldn’t want him here and I am sure this would be considered him going out of bounds so she can’t get mad at me.” Hanna looked at him, her eyes narrowing before she grunted, “I thought you were leaving.
Get out!”

“I am, damn it.” Burner turned away stomping towards the door, his head hurting. He was still fucking cold because his hair was still wet. His shirt was over one shoulder and he snagged his cut off the table in the living room as he went by it on his way to the front door.

“Wait, where’s the key, asshole? Like I said, this isn’t a hotel.” Hanna came after him screeching.

Fuck, he’d hoped she would be too distracted to notice he’d taken it with him. He paused, debating what to do. If he left the key he’d have to break in tonight when he came back but if he didn’t she’d be watching this place and he really didn’t want another ice bath. With a sigh, he dug out the keys pulling the little kitten key chain off his key ring and tossing it onto the table near the door.

“I said I would. Fuck, you don’t have to be such a shrew. I just needed a place to crash for a little bit. I don’t need you bitching me out when I was up all night,” Burner muttered.

“I don’t care that you were up all night, this is my sister’s apartment and you used it like a hotel! Just leave and don’t let me catch you here again,” Hanna yelled.

Burner didn’t wait for her to say anything else. He needed to get back to the clubhouse to change before he headed out to talk to another one of his contacts anyway. He stomped out of the apartment and climbed on his bike, glad it wasn’t winter or he’d be freezing his nuts off right about now. Roaring away, he knew that despite the nasty ice bath he would be sleeping in Kelsey’s bed tonight; having her scent surrounding him was worth it.

Chapter Twenty-one

“I spoke with Blade last night and he says he has information for Death and wants to meet with him. I don’t know what he’s doing but I have a feeling it’s about us taking out Hacker the other day,” Burner told Reaper as they sat in the office at Ink Bandits with Iron, Pansy, Lock, Animal, Rebel and Bull.

“I agree they’re up to something. There has been a lot of movement and squabbling since we took him out. They’ve not been taking any women in the past week, which is good, but they’re still fighting over who’s going to lead them. I’ve heard that the bodies are piling up from one of my contacts. It seems something big is going down.” Animal rubbed the back of his neck looking tired. He’d just gotten back after two weeks on the road with Iron and Pansy.

Animal had worked his contacts trying to get information on what was going on with the Headhunters since they took out their president. Burner was also working his own informants, but he was sticking close to home at Reaper’s insistence. Burner was glad Reaper was worried if he got too far from the club he’d implode because it kept him close to Kelsey’s bed, where he’d spent every night for the past week sleeping.

Thankfully, he hadn’t received any more ice baths from Hanna. He was sure it would happen; she’d talked about watering the plants the morning she’d drenched him so he would bet it wouldn’t be too long before he got another one. Not that it mattered, he’d still break in and sleep there because he couldn’t sleep at all if he wasn’t in her bed. Not that he slept much without her in it with him but at least some was better than none.

“I can’t see how it’s been several weeks and they still haven’t figured out who is going to lead them. Their club was already in a shit storm if their infrastructure was that fucked up. They should have held church and had a new president by the end of the week. Fucking idiots,” Rebel muttered, shaking his head at the lack of organization in the Headhunters MC. Burner knew he was unaware that half the club was a group of jacked up Juice junkies who didn’t know their ass from a hole in the ground. Animal let out a snort over Rebel’s assessment because he was more familiar with the way their club worked.

“They’re a bunch of idiots, what don’t you get? Not to mention half of them are out of their tiny little minds on Juice,” Animal grumbled, staring at Rebel.

Reaper grunted from his position behind the desk, his hands steepled and his look thoughtful. Burner knew that look and it made him a little nervous. He shifted in the chair he was in trying to get comfortable as he watched him.

“Why would he tell you that he has information for Death but not give it to you?” Reaper suddenly asked him. Burner shrugged; he’d asked himself the same question but he couldn’t predict what the man was doing.

“It seems a little odd to me,” Pansy muttered, a frown pulling his brows together as he stood against the wall with his arms crossed.

“Definitely,” Iron agreed.

“I could try to see if he’ll meet with me instead,” Burner offered. “If he refuses, we would have a better idea of what he’s up to. If it’s a trap of some sort then he wouldn’t agree to meet with anyone except Death.”

“No, let’s have Death contact him. He’s good at predicting what someone wants by their tone. He might also be able to get Blade to react badly and that would clue us in to his mindset over this too,” Reaper finally said after a silent pause.

“Should we try to see what the other Headhunters know about it?” Bull asked.

“I think letting Death and Max handle this one is a good idea because we have enough on our plate with the druggings at the clubs and those fucking Jackals moving in on us. Max should make sure Death doesn’t go anywhere to meet him alone,” Reaper muttered, his hand running down his face.

They were discussing the Jackals a few minutes later when Reaper’s office door opened and Sarah walked inside without knocking, her eyes panicked and her cheeks flushed.

“Reaper I nee–shit, I didn’t realize you were having a meeting,” she said, her cheeks flooding with more redness as she began to turn around to walk out. Reaper jumped up and jerked her into his arms making her let out a startled gasp.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded, his eyes narrowed on her face as she looked up at him.

“It’s nothing. Really,” Sarah whispered glancing around at the men in the room.

“Nope, not buying it. What the fuck is wrong?” he asked again, now glaring at her.

“I––this isn’t a conversation I want to have with an audience, Reaper,” Sarah said, her hands resting on his chest as she gazed up at him.

“Everyone out, now,” Reaper commanded, and they all began to file out of the office but Reaper called out, “Burner, don’t leave, I need to talk to you before you do.”

Burner nodded wondering what was going on with Sarah but he headed into the front of the shop, sitting down on the couch they had for customers. His eyes kept straying to the door of the office and he worried that something was wrong.

“What do you suppose that’s all about?” Bull asked, jerking his thumb in the direction of the office.

“No clue, but I sure as hell hope it’s nothing serious because as he said earlier, we have enough shit to deal with right now.” Burner leaned his head back into the wall looking up at the ceiling.

“That’s the damned truth,” Bull muttered. “Well I’m out of here, I have to get to the Blue Bird for my shift. You coming, Lock?” he yelled to Lock who was talking to Flame nearby.

“Yeah,” Lock called back and the two men left. Burner glanced back at the closed office door still wanting to know what was going on in there. He hoped nothing was wrong because Sarah and Reaper were family and he didn’t think he could take it if they were having trouble.

He was just beginning to think that they were going to be in that office forever when the door opened and Sarah walked out looking flushed still but this time with a bright smile on her face and a glow in her eyes. Reaper followed her out, a grin splitting his face as he took her arm and guided her towards the front.

“Reaper, you don’t have to take me home, I can drive myself,” Sarah said, looking at him over her shoulder.

“I want to, baby,” he told her, his hands going to her hips as they neared where he was sitting. “You,” he grunted at Burner. “Have a prospect bring my bike home and you be at the house at six for dinner.”

Burner raised his brow but nodded, wondering what the heck this was all about but the happiness rolling off the couple made the worry he’d been feeling for the last twenty minutes disappear. Sarah was about to walk out of the building but Reaper pulled her back jerking a jacket off the rack by the door.