Page 9 of Raff
“Two women with two breasts makes four,” Hail said, shrugging as he hopped to his feet.
He was a good addition to the club. Fresh out of prison, he was always up for a party, a trip to the pub, the pool hall, the diner—anything.
He was carefree, confident, chill, but scrappy. Saint told me they’d been at some bar out of town, and he’d heard some fuck say something horrific to some random woman there, then he got up, walked over, and broke half the teeth in his mouth.
Slash had always been a fan of having a few loose cannons in the club. With adding Saint, who was a former leader, so he was calmer and more calculated, and Syn, who was more apt to take orders than show initiative, it was about time he found someone with a reckless streak. Since I couldn’t be around all the time.
“Hey, Cat,” I said, stroking my hand down the cat’s back when he jumped on the arm of my chair. “I hate to break it to you, but there are going to be girls here tonight again. I know, I know,” I said when he let out a grumble. “But I’m gonna need you to keep your claws to yourself. The ladies, they don’t like to get all naked and fun when they have big slash marks up and down their arms.”
With a flick of his tail, the cat jumped down from the chair and made his way over toward his fancy cat tree Coach had made him.
“You coming?” Saint asked as bad-influence-Hail lined up four shots and demanded Syn do them with him.
“Yeah, I’ll catch up in a few,” I told him as the shot glasses clanked down on the table. “Save something pretty for me.”
“Making no promises,” Hail said as he went to the door.
I watched them make their way outside, walking past the door, then down the road.
Things had been pretty much nonstop since I got back to Shady Valley. I barely had a few minutes to myself to think. After so much time on my own with nothing to do but think, it had been a little jarring of a change.
And I really needed to do a little thinking.
About Lula.
And the way she bold-faced lied right to my face.
She was good at it, I’d give her that. But I’d spent way too much time watching the woman. I knew her micro-expressions. And she was full of them at the bar. Maybe because I caught her so off-guard. Clearly, she hadn’t planned on being seen in Florida.
But why?
What was she up to?
Why would she tell everyone she was at a spa? When her nails didn’t have color, let alone gel? And her lashes weren’t done anymore. She didn’t even have her hair done.
That was not a woman who spent several days being rubbed and scrubbed and slathered with creams and salves.
So.
Where was she? Aside from at the hotel?
Why was she keeping it secret?
What was she involved in?
Clearly, it had nothing to do with mafia business, or there would be no need to lie to me. We were allies with the Murphy crew. If she was there for them, she would just shrug and say Cillian needed something from her.
What then?
I couldn’t seem to shake the circling thoughts. They hung above me like a cloud as I forced myself to head upstairs for a quick shower. And they were right there, dizzying andundeniable, as I walked into the dark night, the moon missing, just a sky full of stars and the lights of our little town.
I’d just reached the main drag when I saw a flash of white as a car made its way down that little makeshift road frequented by teens looking for a way to sneak around behind the cops’ (and their parents’) backs.
This was a town of several very rich people. But I was only aware of one who drove a white BMW.
And the thing was, she was heading in the exact opposite direction of her luxury condo.
In fact, she was heading away from the town as a whole, over toward the gas station, prison, and—
