A Perfect Chance (14 page)

My pussy contracted in anticipation. He'd heard it all. It finally appeared as though my words had stopped flowing; all I could manage was a nod. Pulling back, he planted his lips hard against mine, but before it escalated into a satisfying kiss, he stepped back.

The groan escaping from my lips made him chuckle. "Let's get out of here." My voice was unsteady and needy. I couldn’t wait to get back and have him between my legs. That morning we'd had the awkward discussion of contraception. Well, I found it awkward; he didn't seem at all embarrassed. Since I was already on the pill and he hadn't had unprotected sex for four years, I eagerly awaited being able to ride him bare for the first time and every time after that.

Closing his eyes, Mace shook his head once. "I need ten minutes. I need to talk to Diesel." I nodded despite my frustration, expecting Mace to head off in my brother's direction. He surprised me by calling Diesel's name and indicating that he should come over. "What?" he asked when he looked down at me.

"Do you not need to talk to him in private or something?"

Stepping forward once more, he placed a hand on my cheek. "We don't do secrets, right?"

I shook my head and leaned into his palm, a smile lifting my lips. I took the moment to read him. While in the past I'd struggled doing so, I was getting much better at understanding Mace's tells. He looked exhausted, but calm, with no hidden levels of anger bubbling under the surface. Considering he'd just returned to collect me after meeting with Nox, I was as amazed as I was relieved. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it definitely wasn't the composed Mace before me.

"Come on, let's head to a table." He clasped my hands and pulled me to stand. Walking hand in hand to a table in the corner of the room, it was impossible to keep the tingling warmth from my stomach, or to ignore the increased pounding of my heart. I was a sucker for good old-fashioned hand-holding. I had no idea why exactly, but I found holding hands deeply personal. The feel of his strong hand holding mine was something real and solid, possessive and protective. And I fucking loved it. Maybe it was the simplicity of the action? It could have also been to do with the lack of touch, of human contact since uni. That could have possibly been why the normalcy sent me in a tailspin of giddy feeling and a craving to crawl up his body and make out with him.

Hell, who was I kidding. The booze made me horny as hell.

Squeezing my hand lightly when we sat, Mace kept his palm securely in my own, resting on my lap. I looked across at him and he chuckled.

"Do I dare ask how much you've had to drink?"

I grinned back. "Hey, I’m just impressed I walked across the room without falling on my arse." But since the rush of adrenaline at seeing Mace, I was feeling remarkably sober.

A glass appeared in front of me, drawing my attention away from Mace and to my brother. "Drink this," Diesel all but grunted. "You need some water in your system, else who knows what you're likely to share."

Cheeks heating, I took hold of the glass and took a long drink. Mace’s expression was bemused. "Do I dare ask?"

I shook my head, trying not to spill my water, and threw Cole a squinty-eyed frown when he laughed loudly. Once Diesel, Cole, and Kid were sitting around the table with us, I glanced at Mace in expectation.

Not one to preamble, he said, "I need a couple of your newest recruits, relatively unknown guys in town, to tail someone for me. Should be just a week or two. Can you do that?"

I glanced at Diesel, waiting for his response. He simply nodded and indicated Mace to continue.

"Nox gave me a name of the guy who gave up the intel. He gave me O'Leary."

I closed my eyes, knowing the name and understanding what a hit this would be for Mace. My fingers tightened against his hand.

"You believe him?" Cole asked.

"At the moment, it doesn't matter. He dropped his name for a reason, and I need to figure out why."

"Thought about going and talking to this O'Leary guy yourself first?" Diesel questioned.

"I will, but not first. I need your guys to be on his arse for the next couple of weeks first." He rubbed his free hand over his face before saying, "I can't even begin to let it be true that it's him. Not yet."

"O'Leary was Mace's second in command in his team," I interrupted.

All eyes landed on me, and Diesel nodded once more before he focused on Mace. "Anything I need to get my guys to look for in particular, anything to warrant an immediate call to you?"

I glanced at Mace, watching his jaw tic. Apparently, he wasn't as calm as I'd earlier thought. "Any meets with McKenny or any of Riots, I need to know."

Diesel raised his brow at McKenny's name. "McKenny and Riots? Now that's a fucking explosive combination."

"Who's McKenny?" I asked.

Mace lifted our joined hands to his mouth and planted a kiss on the back of my hand. "A bastard who seems desperate to get into my space and screw shit up."

My brows shot up. That effectively told me nothing. I knew it was a long shot, but I had to ask. "Any reason why you're not going to the cops with this? How about Enfield? You can trust him, right?" It wasn't exactly unheard of, working with the police. Hell, that was how we'd first met Mace when he was in the force and Diesel was helping him take down piece-of-shit biker gangs posing as clubs.

"Not on this one, babe. At least not yet. I've yet to figure out why Nox gave O'Leary up in the first place. It's not like I can secure a deal or anything for him. And until I can work out his game plan and O'Leary's involvement, it's best this one stays quiet."

It made sense. I didn't like it at all, but I understood his logic and need to keep this close.

Mace glanced around the guys. "If McKenny is connected to Riots, you know this shit will get a whole heap more personal, right?" He sounded almost eager when he spoke, as though the news wasn’t exactly new to him.

That was information I'd file away for later. I had no idea why anything McKenny-related was personal, and to be honest, it scared the crap out of me. While Mace was in security, it was rare anything he dealt with or worked on touched his life. I'd asked him about it and there seemed to be nothing of consequence. It was also a reason why I'd been pleased he was no longer a police officer. The thought of him heading to work and not coming back to me made me sick to the stomach. All of the talk about Riots, who were dangerous and a law unto themselves, and this McKenny guy was enough to send my heart rate spiking.

I focused on my lap and our joined hands, breathing out long, calming breaths as discreetly as possible while counting in my head. I barely registered the conversation going on around me. While I knew they were speaking, I couldn't distinguish individual words.
One, two, three, four.
I forced my eyes open, not willing to close them and become lost.
Five, six, seven.
I stared hard at Mace's thumb, watching as it shifted and he started to draw small circles on my skin.
Eight, nine, ten.
My breathing, while not even, calmed a little as I focused on the mesmerising patterns he drew against me.

His breath against my ear made me jump. "You ready for that spanking?"

My head lifted in surprise, almost taking out Mace's nose in the process. My gaze caught his immediately.

"You with me?"

Holy shit, how in the hell did he do that? While I was winning, his intervention dragged me out of my head immediately, or at least sent my thoughts spiralling in another direction. I nodded and bit my bottom lip, wanting to throw my arms around him, letting him know how fucking perfect he was. Instead, I held back and nodded before glancing at Diesel. Concern washed my brother's features, but it didn't last long as I grinned at him. It was genuine and big. He glanced at Mace and me before standing, leaning over the table, and planting a kiss on my head.

When he stood, he looked down at me, looking torn, bemused, and slightly pale. "Yes, I have. Definitely get one." He nodded and walked away, leaving me to catch my jaw as it dropped open and I stared at Cole. He looked at me and then burst out in laughter.

As he stood, a deep laugh still spilling forth, he threw me a wink. "He's right. Definitely get one."

I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me whole. For the love of God, why did these men say such shit to me? Mace's hand clamped behind the back of my neck, and I angled to look at him.

"Something I need to know?"

Then I grinned, my own laugh breaking free. "Not right now, no." I continued smiling as Mace led me out. The guys had always taken too much delight in winding me up and embarrassing me, but that had stopped in recent years. This had been the first time they had done so since I left uni. The realisation constricted my heart. I leaned closer to Mace's side, happiness a welcome sensation.

It looked like I would be shopping for a cock ring as soon as possible.

Chapter Thirteen

MACE

Earlier

When I'd seen the smug look on Nox's face, it had taken every ounce of willpower I had not to vault over the table and rip his throat out. Somehow, I'd reined in my pulsating anger and sat opposite him. I just wanted to get it over and done with as quickly as possible, reach the bottom of this pile of shit, and head home to Lena.

After fifteen minutes of him talking crap about inconsequential bullshit, I finally broke, demanding he spit out whatever the fuck he wanted to say to me. I knew someone would be listening to the conversation, and that didn't exactly sit well, but protocol was protocol and there was nothing I could do about it.

He'd pulled a piece of paper out of his pants and pushed it over to me. The scrunched-up paper held the two words “O'Leary” and “McKenny.” Tearing the piece of paper up, I put the torn fragments in my pocket, my brain working overtime. O'Leary had been one of my own. I'd trusted him as my second. Yeah, some bastard had spread the intel about our raid into the wind, but the thought of it being O'Leary didn't feel right. McKenny's name made me pause for a different reason.

Since my first run-in with the smarmy fucker a few years back, and more recently with the whole shitstorm surrounding my dad, not once had there been a link between Riots and McKenny. While I hadn't been looking for a link, there was no way I would have missed any connection. Not only that, I didn't even know McKenny back then. It was only four years or so earlier that his name raised alarms and I'd opened an investigation on him. But my chat with him in the diner had planted a seed, one that Nox had just fertilised.

"You got anything else to say?" He'd given me the names, but I still had no clue as to why he had.

"Not at the moment." He grinned, a full, sardonic grin that I wanted to wipe off his face with my fist.

I stood, wanting to get the hell out of there. Nothing good would come from spending too long in the presence of scum. At the door, I knocked twice but didn't turn back when Nox called my name.

"I hear you've got a new piece."

I froze but refused to bite.

"She as good as Abigail? 'Cause you know, I've met the lovely Lena. Heard she's a bit of a whack job."

Clenching my jaw, I gripped the door handle and pulled hard as soon as I heard the lock release. In the open doorway, I turned, my stare fixed on him, my eyes stern. "You know what I heard?" His grin stayed in place, seemingly unimpressed. "Heard you were a virgin in here." His eyes twitched slightly, his only tell that he was thrown by my words. "That can end tonight, fucker." I backed out, pulling the door closed, and headed towards the security door.

Fuck.
I could make it happen too. The temptation was there, beckoning me to destroy a part of Nox. As the first security gate beeped, I relaxed my aching jaw, and continued to pick up my belongings so I could get the fuck out of there before I changed my mind and turned back.

Once on my bike, I summoned calm to wash over me. While I didn't have a lot to go on, the two names were a start. Even if they ended up being bullshit, Nox had given them to me for a reason. I just had to work out what that was.

Knowing it was a long drive back to the club where I'd pick up Lena, I hoped it was enough for me to settle my nerves and my anger, but just ten kilometres out, the thought of Nox, or anyone, getting to Lena continued to surface. Glancing at my watch, I saw it was eight. Smiling, I signalled and headed south towards the one place where I would get my shit together enough to not worry about Lena watching me struggle.

#######

I stroked baby Abi's cheek as soon as I'd placed her down in her cot. I'd managed to get in a quick cuddle before her bedtime, which effectively helped to centre me and ease out the tension I was holding on to. Looking down at her sleeping form, I wondered what it would be like to reach the point of having my own kids one day. Lena would look fucking hot round and pregnant with our baby. The thought didn't even make me flinch. Now that I had her in my life for real, rather than lusting after her from afar and convincing myself I was bad news for her, I had no doubt she was the one.

"Love you, princess." I placed a kiss on her cheek before heading out to the kitchen. Liam was loading the dishwasher while Jo sat at the table, her legs up on the chair in front of her, nursing a glass of wine.

"Thank you," Jo said, offering me a smile.

"All good. I just needed my fix before I headed home."

"Rough day?" Liam asked as he closed the dishwasher door and switched it on.

"You could say that," I admitted. "I went to see Nox."

Liam walked past me, removed Jo's feet to sit, and repositioned them on his lap. "Shit. What did you go and do that for?"

I sighed and headed over to the fridge to grab a beer. Cracking one open, I took a long pull before resting against the workbench and facing Liam and Jo. "He's trying to work out some deal for a prison change and wanted to see me as part of that deal." I didn't even consider holding anything back from either of them. As a family, we'd been through so much together that I'd since learned—courtesy of Jo giving me no choice but to accept my past and face my present—that not sharing anything that potentially impacted them was not okay.