Head Above Water (Nightshade MC Book 4) (13 page)

A sound from outside caught her attention, the low grumble of a motorcycle engine. She got to her feet, left her office and walked into the shop. It wasn't just one engine she was hearing. There were four bikes coming down the street, from a distance, and in the near dark, she couldn't tell who was riding. As they grew closer, she recognized Monroe first. Buster, Train and Caesar were the other riders. They passed the shop by without stopping.

Relief rolled through her. If he was riding, he was okay. Some of the worry inside of her eased with the knowledge he was still breathing, enough that she thought she'd be able to sleep. Drea grabbed something to wear and one of the fluffy throw blankets she'd thought would sell. They hadn't, really, but they were nice and warm.

By the time that Drea changed and settled in, she was too tired to do anything but shut her eyes. Sleep came quickly, deeply and when her phone rang, the sound startled her enough that she rolled right off the couch. She grabbed the phone, saw the restricted number on the screen, and was immediately awake. “Hello.”

“Hello, Drea. Did I wake you?” Alton had to have known that he had. He was trying to throw her off guard; it was sort of his thing.“So, I hear that Frankie is doing his level best to sabotage your business.”

“Of course he is, he's Frankie. Nothing I can't handle.”

“If that changes, I expect to be kept in the loop.”

“You'll be the first to know,” she told him, the nerves in her stomach settling down some.

“Make sure of that,” Alton replied. “The terms of our agreement are very specific, Drea. Technically, we could have taken steps once you removed Frankie from the business, since it wasn't part of our arrangement, but you were respectful, you came to us.”

“I appreciate the consideration,” Drea said, wondering if Alton got off on having the upper hand over her or anyone else. Not that it mattered, but he seemed to take a distinct pleasure in the situation.

“Like you said, he's Frankie. He'd have only been a stone around your neck. Oh, don't forget, payment is nearly due.” With that Alton ended the conversation, not waiting for her response.

The nerves inside of Drea roared back to life as she set the phone down on her desk. “Don't worry,” she said to the empty room. “I haven't forgotten.”

<#<#<#<#

After a third cup of coffee, Drea couldn't stop herself from yawning. She'd never gone back to sleep after Alton's call. Instead, she'd gone ahead and sent the first payment, a full day before schedule, but she considered it a way to show she was serious. A high pitched, supposedly pleasure-filled scream made her nearly drop the mug. She was going to soundproof the warehouse because even a floor below the fucking, it was all that she could hear. She scribbled herself a note so that she couldn't forget.

After she'd sent the payment, she spent some time trying to figure out more ways to earn with GP. The more she earned, the faster she could make the payments. The first thing that came to her mind was adding a live section on the website, finding people who would want to perform  live and maybe even on demand. The second was fetish films; apparently there was big money in fetish. Around dawn, when she'd done enough research to make her feel like she needed brain bleach, she'd decided to start with adding on a live section and leaving the fetish for later.

“Excuse me, Drea?” The voice behind her made her turn. Casey was the assistant who'd come along with the two-man team shooting the movies in the upstairs room. “I was just wondering if you want to use some of your stock for the next sets. You've got some awesome stuff out there.”

“Sure, take whatever you think will work. There's also the back room stock,” Drea reminded her. She sighed as another round of screaming started from upstairs. “How do you listen to that all day?”

“She's worse than most,” Casey admitted. “It's true what they say, you can get used to anything. I have my earbuds in a lot, that helps. I'll keep track of what I grab. I should go and get set up for the next round.”

“I've got some things to do in the office. Let me know if you need anything.” From the office, she could monitor what was going on upstairs, thanks to the newly installed cameras. It was staring at the cameras that had given her the idea of live shows in the first place.

“Will do,” Casey replied. She headed towards the front of the shop.

Drea turned to head back into her office with the intention of finding her earbuds and emailing the guy who ran their website to see what she'd need to do to make live streaming happen. She also needed to find some women willing to perform. Maybe she'd go and talk to some of the dancers at the club by the casinos. The sound of a motorcycle engine stopped her in her tracks.

She walked to the front window, watched Monroe pull up. He parked, dismounted and took off his helmet. Even from a distance, the bruises on his face were obvious. When he took a step, she noticed was limping. Whatever had happened the night before, it was bad.

Drea went to the door, unlocked it and stepped outside. Monroe smiled as he saw her, started to move faster even though it had to hurt him. She opened her mouth to speak, but didn't get the chance. He grabbed her as soon as they were close enough, pulled her to him. His mouth covered hers. The kiss was almost brutal, the force of it sent heat down to her toes. She moaned against his mouth, pushed her body against his in an open invitation.

“Hey, hon.” He grinned as he broke the kiss. “I missed you, too. And don't worry about me, it's not as bad as it looks.”

“Are you okay?” Drea bit back any other question that she might have and focused on him.

“I feel like I should be asking you that. Why do you look so tired and wired at the same time?” He frowned at her.

“Not a lot of sleep and lots of coffee, that's how. I'm fine. It's just been busy.” Drea brushed off his concern. “Do you want to come inside? I've got an ice pack. You should probably use it.”

“Probably,” he agreed. “Am I messing up your day? You're dressed for meetings again.”

“You're not messing up my day.” All of the pressing things she needed to do no longer mattered. She'd work twice, or three times, as hard tomorrow to be able to spend time with Monroe right now. Despite his words, she didn't think he was fine. “Come on inside. Don't mind the noise, though.”

“What noise?”

“They're filming upstairs. I need to get the warehouse soundproofed, or I might go crazy.”

“Filming? You're making movies already?”

“The first ones were shot yesterday,” Drea answered. “Today, they're filming more. It was supposed to be next week, but the directors had a cancellation. It's a lot noisier than I expected. You guys do soundproofing, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good. I've got the contract inside, I didn't know who to give it to, so I figured I'd wait until I saw you,” Drea explained, but the change in his demeanor was obvious. He'd taken his hands off of her as soon as she mentioned the filming. Now, he took a step back from her.

“We're the best choice for the job. The contracts go to Caroline. She's the one who sets the schedules and all. If you've got some jeans inside, we can go and take it to her now, or I can go and drop it off to her and meet you back at your place.”

“I've got jeans inside. Come in, I'll change and then we can go.” Drea held out her hand to him. If he didn't take it, she'd know that the sinking feeling in her stomach wasn't just paranoia. She didn't realize she was holding her breath until he reached out and linked their fingers together.

Casey was in the shop, humming to herself as she did a little dance to the music she must have been listening to. The screaming orgasms from upstairs had stopped. “Who's that?”

“Casey. She's the assistant to the directors.” Drea explained. “She can't hear us. Earbuds are her defense against the screaming.

“Where'd you find these guys?” Monroe asked.

“Frankie heard of them first, actually. Maybe the one good thing he did. I had them checked out, they're legit. Apparently up and coming in the business. They're actually really nice guys,” Drea explained. She looked over as Casey gasped, obviously having just realized she wasn't alone.

“Hey, Drea and Drea's friend,” she said with an embarrassed smile after she'd yanked her earbuds out. “I'll be out of your way in two shakes, I've just got to grab a couple of more things.”

“This is Monroe. Monroe, this is Casey.”

“Nice to meet you, Casey,” Monroe replied. “And actually, we'll be out of your way as soon as Drea changes.”

“I'll be back before you're done, so that I can lock up and take a look at the footage,” Drea told her. “If I'm not back, call me when you start wrapping up.” Jealousy sparked to life as she saw the way that Casey was looking at Monroe, not that she could blame her.

“Will do,” Casey said as she shifted the bundle of clothes in her hands. “It was nice to meet you, Monroe.”

“Same here,” Monroe replied. He squeezed Drea's hand and started for the office. “She seems nice,” he said when they were inside with the door closed. “You stayed here last night, didn't you?”

“What gave me away?” Drea crossed the room to several boxes of clothes she'd ordered online but kept forgetting to take home.

“I can still see the outline of your head on the pillow, and I rode past pretty late last night and your car was still here.” Monroe let out a hiss of pain as he sat down.

“You're more hurt than I can see, aren't you?” Drea abandoned the search for clothes and turned to him. All the signs that he was in pain were there, he was pale and sweaty with his hands clenched into fists. Maybe the reason he'd moved away from her outside hadn't been the conversation but the way that she'd had her hands on him.

“Don't look at me like that, hon. I'm told you that I'm fine, just a little banged up. Come here and see for yourself.” He settled back against the couch as she sat down. Her hands trembled as she reached out to lift his shirt.

Drea gasped at the sight of the bandage along his side. There was blood against the stark white material. “A little banged up, my ass. You're bleeding.” She shot to her feet, crossed to her small closet and grabbed her first aid kit.

“Aren't you going to ask what happened?”

“I hadn't planned on it. I figure that it was something to do with club business,” she said as she sat. Carefully, she reached out and removed the gauze and tape. The wound was about five inches long and jagged. The stitches holding it together were tiny and neat but there would most definitely be a scar.

“It was,” he confirmed. “Did I pull a stitch?”

“No. It looks like they're all okay. The blood is from a part that wasn't stitched.”

“Yeah, Jillian couldn't get it all. She tried some glue but that didn't hold.”

“Jillian stitched you up?” Drea focused on that fact instead of the blood oozing from his wounds. Blood normally didn't bother her, this blood did because it was Monroe's blood.

“Yeah, she's our unofficial medic.”

“I'd have never guessed that,” Drea answered. She thought that she knew Jillian pretty well but obviously the woman ran deeper than what was on the surface. “This might sting a little.” She opened the antiseptic wipe with fingers that trembled.

“Hey,” Monroe said softly. “You okay?”

“I'm fine,” Drea's voice cracked and revealed her lie, but she continued to clean the wound. Monroe didn't make a sound of pain or flinch. Instead, he just stared at her. “What are you looking at me like that for?”

“You're not fine,” he observed.

“You're hurt,” she said as if that should explain it all. And it did explain it all, for her at least. Earlier she'd thought that she was falling for Monroe, but the truth was, she'd already fallen. Only time would tell if that made her a fool.

“I told you, I'm okay. It looks worse than it is.”

“You were slashed, Monroe. You've got a dozen freaking stitches.” Drea decided she'd cleaned the wound enough. Jillian had done a really good job. “I've just got to put the bandage on now. Are you sure that I'm not hurting you?”

“No, baby, you're not hurting me.” He leaned back against the couch. “So, what else did I miss the past couple days?”

“I made my first payment to the lender,” Drea replied. “There were some concerns on their part about Frankie no longer being involved. Hopefully, I've eased their minds some.”

“Has Frankie given you any trouble?”

“He tried to steal talent from me, but I managed to put out that fire.” Drea opened the gauze and held it against his skin. He flinched at that and drew in a sharp breath when she put the tape on and patted it down. “Sorry. I'm sorry.”

“It's fine. How did Frankie try to steal your talent?”

Drea gave him the quick version, explained everything that she'd had to do the day before in order to keep the ball rolling in the right direction. She didn't miss how his eyes narrowed in anger. If she were Frankie, she wouldn't want to meet Monroe in a dark alley or anywhere else. “I doubt that I've seen the last of him but I can handle him.”

“If he bothers you again, I want you to call me. I don't care what time it is or what I'm doing. And that's not me saying you can't handle yourself. This is me saying that you don't have to do it alone. You're not alone. Okay?”