Wanted: County Knights MC (15 page)

              I took a deep breath, better to pull off the band-aid with one yank. “That guy last night, the one who jumped you? He was a club member. I went to see Sam today, turns out he’s been asked as a favor to convince you to turn down that internship. Said as long as you do, nothing else happens.”

              “The car accident?”

              “He didn’t know anything about that. I’m guessing the guy came to him after the car accident didn’t work to scare you off. Your apartment isn’t safe for you right now. Not until I figure out who this guy is who’s asking for favors. I might need to pull a few favors of my own, but until I do that, you stay with me. In my house. In my bed. Got it?”

              She nodded, and I couldn’t keep myself from kissing those lips when they were so damn close to me. “Yeah, I got it,” she whispered when I pulled away.

              “Tomorrow I want you to tell me about this internship. Why the hell is it so important that you not have it, and why does that asshat at school want it so bad.” I swooped down and hoisted her into my arms. “Right now I want to take you back to my bed and get you good and tired before I tuck you in.”

              “My book.” She pointed to the text that laid open on the pillows.

              “You can read it after breakfast.” I left her clothes where they were on the nightstand and walked down the hall toward my bed. Her arms wrapped round my neck, and she rested her head against my chest as I carried her off. The little sigh I heard from her made me smile.

***

              “Yeah, I got it. Great. Thanks, Belby.” I clicked off the call and tucked my phone back into my jeans pocket. Anna slept like the dead up in my bed, and I didn’t want to wake her. After checking her calendar on her phone I realized she didn’t have a class until after lunch, so I was going to let her sleep in. The garage would have to get along without me for a day, but I knew Jerry wouldn’t mind. If Tracie showed up for another oil change, I wouldn’t be there to cock block him.

              “Jackson, did you see my phone?” Anna sauntered into the kitchen still wearing only a t-shirt. Her hair mussed up around her head, and rubbing her eyes with heel of her palms. The sun in the kitchen could be bright as hell in the morning, and I hadn’t drawn the blinds down.

              “It’s on the counter by the coffee, charging.” I walked up to her and slid my hands around her waist, pulling her to me for a kiss. She tried to turn away, declaring she had morning breath, to which I cupped her chin and took the kiss I wanted. “I talked with Belby. No one is working your accident except for him. Whoever called you isn’t a cop. He’s gonna stop by campus today, he’ll meet us after your class and see who shows up. You aren’t going to talk to the guy, but we want to know who it is.”

              She pulled out of my arms and went to the coffee maker, where a pot just finished brewing. I could see the tension in her shoulders and readied myself for another argument. I swore the woman swung from moods like an ape in the jungle. “I want to meet him. Maybe I can find out who sent him, wat they really want.” She opened cabinets until she found the coffee mugs and went to pouring herself a cup of coffee.

              “No. Belby just wants to get a look at him, he’ll talk to him if he thinks it’s necessary, or I will, but you will not go near him.”

              Her shoulders slumped as she spooned sugar into her coffee. “I won’t hide.” The spoon clanked against the cup as she shook off the excess coffee.

              “You’ll stay a safe distance from him.”

              “I didn’t bring any extra clothes. I need to stop at my apartment.” She carried her cup out of the kitchen, right past me, and headed back upstairs. I knew her well enough to know that just because she didn’t argue with me didn’t mean she wasn’t going to do whatever the hell she wanted to do. 

              Three hours later, Belby and I stood outside her economics class waiting for the lecture to finish up. The empty hallway felt creepy.

              “You know this guy might just walk right up to her and snatch her. He probably doesn’t want to talk at all.”

              “I’m aware of that. I told her she’s not to go anywhere after class except right out here to meet us.”

              “Oh, you did, did you? You told her what to do?”

I ignored the smirk on his lips and looked at the time on my phone again. Just a few more minutes.

              “She’ll listen.”

              “Mmmmhmmm…I’m sure she will. From what you’ve told me of her, she’s got her own mind. And if she is of the frame of mind to want to know what this guy wants, she may just sneak out that second door as everyone piles out this one and head down to where they are supposed to meet.”

              My ears perked up at that suggestion just as the door swung open and students began to file out of the lecture hall. I tried to move through them, to get to the second door, but there were too many. Finally, I shoved my way through just in time to see Anna ducking down the stairwell at the other end of the hall.

              “Couldn’t have tipped me off to that ten minutes ago?” I barked at Belby as we both made our way down the hall to follow her disobedient ass. Any regret I may have held on to for giving her that belting the night before washed away when I saw her approach a man in the lobby. 

              The guy wore a long leather coat, and considering the heat outside, it put me even more on edge. From the stairs I could make out his cropped hair and a jagged scar running down the side of his right cheek.

              “There they are!” I started to dart down the stairs faster, but Belby grabbed me on the landing.

              “Wait. She’s talking to him. Just let her finish, if he does anything we’ll go in. There’s a shit load of people in here, I don’t’ think he wants to attack her. Not here.”

              “I’m going to beat her ass,” I promised myself, earning a chuckle from Belby.

              “I’d say she earned it.” He pointed to the guy who looked like he was becoming more agitated was the conversation went on. She shook her head and took a step back from him. The guy’s jaw clenched, as well as his fists, but he didn’t make a move to grab her.

              “If we could get closer, we’d be able to hear him. Do you know this guy?” I didn’t move my eyes from the asshole and Anna.

              “No, doesn’t look familiar, but she doesn’t look all that scared of him. Maybe she does.”

              She did look calm, annoyed, but not frightened. Her eyes had been full of terror when Jonnie attacked her, but this guy, who glared down at her so hard his scar turned white, didn’t seem to be fazing her that much.

              After what felt like hours Anna finally waved her hand at the guy, dismissing him. She was dismissing him! I watched as the big guy, towering over her by at least two feet, pointed at her and said one more thing before turning around and walking out of the building.

              “Aren’t you going to go chase him?” I gave Belby a shove.

              “Nope. She’s going to tell who he was.” He nodded toward Anna, who looked around the lobby and finally locked her sight on us. Her usually pale skin paled even more when her eyes met mine. A week. That woman wasn’t going to sit on her ass for a week once I got her alone.

              I ran down the rest of the stairs, keeping my eyes on her. She started to back away but I yelled from across the lobby. “Not one step, Anna. Not a single one!” Ignoring Belby’s chuckle from behind me, I made my way through the crowd, who now had set their eyes on us.

              “Hey, Jackson.” She threw on an easy smile, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. She hadn’t dislocated it like the doctor had worried about, but it still gave her some tenderness when she had her damn pack hanging from it. I ignored her wince of pain, she’d be doing a lot more of that by the end of the day.

              “Anna.”

              “Hi, Anna. My name is Detective Belby.” He put on his brightest smile, the one he reserved for witnesses when he wanted to put them at ease in order to extract exactly what he needed from them.

              “Nice to meet you.” She grinned back at him. “I didn’t see you in the hall, I thought maybe we were supposed to meet down here.” Her eyes settled on Belby, not looking at me at all. As though that would somehow keep the fact that she was lying from me. When she didn’t suck in that lip of hers, she avoided eye contact. The woman didn’t understand how well I knew her.

              “Quite all right.” Belby nodded. “We saw you talking with someone, was he the man who contacted you?” Belby stepped in front of me and gestured to a group of seats off to the side of the lobby.

              Anna started walking with him to the lounge area, still keeping me out of her sight. “Uh, yeah.” She settled down in a chair, slipping her bag from her shoulder and keeping it between her feet. “I must have misunderstood him on the phone. He wasn’t a cop. Insurance guy. Needed to ask a few questions to process my claim.”

              Except I knew for a damn fact she hadn’t filed a claim. Belby just nodded. “What sort of questions?”

              “How fast was I going, what direction was the other guy going, that sort of stuff. Really he could have done it over the phone, but I guess he was in the area.”

              “Hmmm, yeah, pretty standard stuff. He looked a little annoyed by what you were telling him, what was that about?” I let Belby do his thing, asking her questions, taking in her lies without stepping in, only because he knew what he was doing. I’d been on the other side of this conversation, sat where Anna sat, and knew he’d get what he wanted. My inserting myself would only delay things. Besides, if I called her on her lies, she’d clam up, and I needed to find out why she was laying and what the fuck she was hiding.

              I listened as Belby continued to casually ask questions that weren’t responded to with any honesty on her part. He knew she was lying, but he continued to press her. Finally, I couldn’t stand anymore of it.

              “I need to get back to the garage, and Anna’s shift starts soon. I’ll drop her off at the shelter. If you need to ask her anything more, just let me know and I’ll bring her to the station.” Without looking at her, I grabbed her bag and swung it over my shoulder.

              “I think I have what I need.” He stood up from the chair he had been lounging in then snapped his fingers. “Oh. I almost forgot! I got a lead on that partial plate Jerry gave me. Seems to belong to a Mr. Drake Belvidere, an eighty-two-year-old man. He dropped that car off for repair to a shop the morning of the accident. Apparently, the car was stolen from the lot while the crew had been out to lunch.”

              “What shop?” 

              “Chicago Reapers and Auto Repair.” He raised both eyebrows at me. “Sound familiar?”

              Sound familiar? They were the clubs rivals. Both clubs owned garages, not a big deal, except Chicago Reapers moved into the County Knights neighborhood to set up shop, taking away business.  Sam didn’t take kindly to it, and the two clubs fought off and on over the years. Why the hell would they be out to get Anna? And, if they were the ones going to my club for help, why the hell didn’t prez just toss them out on their asses?

              “Yeah, rings a bell or two.” I nodded, looking over at Anna who was suddenly very interested in her cell phone.

              “Thought it might.” He winked. “I need to get back to the office, run this agent’s name through the system.” He turned to Anna, who looked a bit panicked at his statement. “Just to be sure he’s on the up and up, you see. Just standard.” He assured her with a pat on the arm. “I’ll let you get to work. Jackson, I’ll be in touch.”

              With that, he walked away, giving me a knowing look and a gesture that meant to tell me to go easy on her. Belby knew everything about me, hell he’d investigated me so goddamn thoroughly, it was no wonder he’d found out so damn much. The one thing about me he said had fallen in his lap that entertained him on his long nights in the office was my personal preferences when it came to my women. He didn’t try to persuade me to go the chocolate and roses route with them, instead he made damn sure I knew to keep things consensual.