Kain, p.3
Kain, page 3
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she’d laugh.
I pulled up to the restaurant, eager to see my friend. Though I had just seen her on Saturday, I was eager to hear about how her job was going and what she had been doing. I was tired from the night before, so it was nice to have days when she would do a lot of the talking, and I could just sit and listen.
And as a hairdresser, she certainly liked to talk. She always had the greatest gossip from around town – something I never had. Since I spent most of my time either in Denver or at home, it was nice to hear what the latest was.
Tesla was already inside waiting for me, and her face broke into a broad grin when I walked through the door.
“I was wondering if you got lost,” she teased.
“No, just got caught up in traffic, that’s all,” I said with a smile. “I’m glad you made it.”
“It’s been a hectic day here, too,” she said with a sigh. “But I’m done at the salon for the day and glad to be. Ready to relax and have a bite to eat before I tackle this afternoon.”
“Big plans?” I asked.
“Hopper has this new business thing he’s trying to work out, and I’m going to look over what he’s got down on paper. Kain’s going to be helping him with the project at some point, too, so you should probably take my advice and come over.”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “I’m not going to do that.”
“You should. You might be surprised at what happens,” she encouraged me.
“You’re just hungry,” I told her. “You aren’t thinking straight.”
She laughed and the two of us headed over to the salad bar. Though he was lenient in most ways Bruno, my boss, was strict about our bodies. He wanted us all to look as he described ‘perfect’, so we had to watch what we ate. I would have cheat days every now and then, but this wasn’t one of those days.
After building salads and paying, we found ourselves a seat near the back of the restaurant.
“So, what’s the latest around town?” I asked. “Anything juicy?”
“You know, the usual. Mostly I got to hear about how this woman is sick of her neighbor’s cat today. I had to give her not only a bleach and color, but also a perm. She was in the chair most of the morning, and damn, did she have a lot to say about this cat,” Tesla shook her head.
I laughed. “That bad?”
“Evidently. I tried to give her advice on what I would do, but she was so worked up about what was going on she wasn’t listening to any of the ways she could fix it,” Tesla shoved a bite of her salad in her mouth and shrugged. “I basically just sat there and listened to what she had to say the entire time.”
“Sometimes that’s all you can do,” I agreed.
“How was your night?” Tesla asked.
“The usual. Nothing too exciting happened. Made some money, went home and crashed into bed,” I said with a shrug. “Pretty standard Sunday for me.”
“No crazy guy needing to be tossed out by the bouncers or anything?” Tesla teased.
“You’re going to have to go to Peter Pan’s if you want to see shit like that,” I said with a laugh. “That’s where all the crazy shit goes down.”
“You aren’t the first person to tell me that,” Tesla joined in my laughter, and we continued to chat. It was good to reconnect with her. Even though we saw each other often throughout the week, it was nice to have her to myself every now and then.
I did see her with Hopper much of the time, and though I liked the guy, I preferred it when it was just the two of us. It reminded me of when we first moved in together. Sure, she was more than ten years older than me, but she still seemed to be able to relate to me where I was in my life.
It was as though she didn’t forget what it was like to be in her early twenties, and she wanted to support me through all the crazy shit that I went through on a daily – and nightly – basis.
At the same time, I could relate to her on much of what she said. She was in a committed relationship, which I never had been, but she was still so much like me it was almost as though we were sisters. We just got each other in ways I never had with anyone else.
By the time we were done with our lunch, we had thoroughly caught up on each other’s lives. I knew she was busy that afternoon, and I was eager to get home and just relax. I didn’t like being out in public for very long. Not in this small town anyway.
And I wasn’t in the mood to drive over to Denver to do nothing but walk through the mall and look at the things on display. I didn’t have the money to really go crazy shopping since I used a lot of it for rent and bills, and I wasn’t in the mood to be out and about.
There were days when I liked to go window shopping, but they were few and far between. I was tired much of the time since I worked nights and often stayed up for a while after I got home from work, so it was nice to take some time to just relax and not be bothered by anyone.
We cleared our trays and set them on the return rack, then we headed for the door.
And that’s when it happened. I was just walking around the corner talking to Tesla, my head turned and my attention entirely on her, when I ran into Kain.
Literally.
He caught me from falling to the ground, but in the process he dropped the tray of food he had been carrying. Everything in his hands hit the floor, including the drink. It was an instant mess, but I felt bad about the fact I had just made him lose his lunch.
“I’m so sorry!” I said quickly. “Here, let me help you clean it up, and let me buy you anything you like!”
I felt terrible, and I hoped he’d accept my apology. But instead, he looked at his watch rather than me.
“Fuck!” he said. Without another word he turned and walked out the door, leaving me dumbfounded trying to clean up the mess I’d caused.
“Asshole,” I muttered under my breath as I grabbed more napkins to try to clean up some of the spilled iced tea. Tesla, who had seen the entire thing, had knelt down to help me clean up some of the spilled food. Employees were already getting the things they’d need to mop up the spill as well.
“He’s got to meet with Hopper this afternoon,” Tesla said. “I’m sure he’s under a tight schedule and probably a lot of stress.”
“It’s fine,” I said with a shake of my head. I brushed off my shoulders trying to show her that I really didn’t care about the way that he treated me. “I’m used to gorgeous men being complete assholes. It’s my job to take care of men like that.”
“He’s not really that way,” Tesla tried again, but I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. I was the one he had snubbed, not her, and I wasn’t going to debate with her whether he was an asshole or not.
He could have at least acknowledged my existence.
“I don’t care,” I said again. “I shouldn’t have been watching where I was going.”
“Thank you, Ladies,” a man with a mob bucket said. “We’ll take it from here.”
“Sorry about that,” Tesla said as the two of us rose.
“Accidents happen,” he said.
“Yeah they do,” I replied. The two of us headed out of the restaurant and I gave Tesla a hug. “Thanks for meeting me for lunch.”
“Thanks for meeting me,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve got to get going. Do you have plans this afternoon?”
“I have a date with my couch,” I said with a shrug. “If you want to call that having plans.”
“It sounds like more fun than what I’m going to do,” she said with a laugh. “I’m going over paperwork. If you want to stop by, you know where I live.”
“Do you really think that would be a good idea after what just happened?” I asked incredulously.
“I think you might be surprised,” Tesla said before she headed toward her car.
“I doubt that,” I muttered to myself.
“I highly doubt that.”
Chapter 5
Kain
I read through the spreadsheet before I printed it. I wanted to make sure everything I had down was correct before I showed it to Hopper and filed it with the other business transactions we were working on.
Monday and Tuesday had become the days I worked for Hopper in the back office at the clubhouse. It was rare for me to ever be in that office. At least, it had been before I took on this job.
Hopper had given me the title of VP. I never in a million years would have thought I would come in second place in the club. That was a coveted position, and much of the time non-existent. A president could select a man he felt would be right for the job, or, more often, his son would be chosen.
Of course, when the president stepped down or could no longer lead the club it was still up for debate on what the final decision would be, but I still had a lot of power within the ranks of the MC now, and I didn’t quite know what to do with myself.
So, I ignored the title and threw myself into my work. It was far easier to focus on that than anything else – like the fact I was feeling agitated and tense lately. I didn’t know if it was because of the three jobs I was working, or the fact that I hadn’t been able to get Sloan out of my head since that lap dance.
It was rare for me to ever give a woman a second thought. But there was something about her that I found intriguing. Captivating even. I wanted to get to know her, and that was a ludicrous thought for me.
I was happy with how much progress I had made in the business side of things for the club. There was a lot of raw material for me to work with, it was just a matter of deciding where we were going to put the money.
We had to know exactly where all the money was coming from, as well as where it was all going. There were expenses to be considered, as well as potential damages. Though we weren’t involved in the gun or drug trade like so many other MCs, we still could potentially face damages.
Hell, not long before Hopper had paid for one of the MC members to get fitted for a custom prosthetic arm after he lost his in a terrible accident. It was money out of his own pocket, but if I could channel the money within the club differently, it wouldn’t have had to be.
With all the organization I was doing, we were going to have extra money that could be used for charity rides and donations to various organizations. Not to mention the parts we’d need to fix up the Harleys when they broke down.
A lot of the members of the MC worked normal jobs and didn’t have a lot of money, so it was hard for them to keep up with the cost of the upkeep for the Harleys when they did break down. And with any vehicle, it was only a matter of time before they broke down.
Then, I thought there had to be a way to organize more money coming in – a way to get money that could be used for the good of the club coming from individuals who didn’t necessarily need it.
The best solution I could think of was to tithe the wealthier members of the MC. I knew most of the guys – if not all the guys – working at Randy’s bar in Denver didn’t need the money. They were working there for something to do, out of courtesy for Randy and the community, and to score points with Raf.
The only reason Raf wanted the job in the first place was to get a position working with Callie – the girl he somehow managed to convince to be his girlfriend. If they were to all donate at least a portion of what they were making to the MC, we could easily have the money to take care of all the expenses and donations that I had written on paper already.
After I finished double checking the spreadsheets, I printed them out and stapled them in a neat fashion, making them easy to navigate and read. Hopper would enjoy the flow of the paper as well as the suggestions I had in place. I knew he would be.
The more I worked in the office, the more I realized how much I really did enjoy business. There was a reason I had gone into it in the first place. Well, tried to go into it. I had chosen it not just for the potential wealth it would bring down the road when I was younger, but because I truly did enjoy knowing how money worked.
I was good at finances, which was why I still had much of the money that was left to me by my parents. Now, I was going to use those skills for the good of the MC. I might not like the fact that I was drawing on my degree, but that didn’t change the fact that I was good at it.
And I would do anything to help the club.
I set the pile of papers on the table and sat down, taking a deep breath of satisfaction. It was good to be done with that finally, and I was starving. It was the second day in a row that I hadn’t eaten lunch, and I realized that was becoming a pattern for me on the days that I worked for Hopper.
Then again, I couldn’t blame myself for missing lunch the day before.
Of course, I couldn’t exactly blame Sloan, either. It wasn’t her fault we had come around the corner at the exact same time, and she did offer to pay for a new meal for me. She had been really apologetic about the whole thing, it was me who had to get out of there and get back to work.
I had a meeting with Hopper, and Tesla was supposed to meet with us later. I had to have the sheets ready for when Tesla arrived, and though she was with Sloan at the time, I didn’t have the time to sit down and eat when there were still sheets to be made.
If I was perfectly honest with myself, it wasn’t the lost food that had me so agitated about what happened the day before. No, it was more than that. It was the fact that Sloan was in Derby.
I thought she lived in Denver, so why the Hell was she in Derby? And what was she doing with Tesla?
As the Den Mother, I knew better than to question who she was hanging out with or talking to – that was her business, and nothing that I had to concern myself with, but she clearly knew who Sloan was, and the two of them seemed pretty comfortable with each other.
I wished there was a way I could ask Tesla about it.
But, I was forced to keep my mouth shut. It was probably for the best, anyway. There wasn’t any need for me to be asking about a stripper I couldn’t get out of my mind. I might not be looking for anything, but I knew for sure she wasn’t.
Strippers did what they did for money, and that was it. I didn’t know a damn thing about Sloan’s personal life. For all I knew, she might well have a boyfriend or husband even. She was a stripper, and often they treated it as nothing more than a job.
Still, the woman was hot as hell, and I wanted to do more than just have her writhing and rubbing on my lap. I wanted to feel what it was like to be inside her. I wanted to hear her moan, not in the way she did when she was getting a hundred bucks for it, but to genuinely moan because of what I was doing to her.
Hell, I wanted to make her scream my name – she never did that when she was working with a client. At least, she didn’t do it because she wanted to. It was all a game to her. A way to make money and provide for herself and God only knew who else.
I sure didn’t.
Come on. You have to get this girl out of your head. Do you really think it would be a good idea to go against your style and try to have something with her? Strippers are all the same, and you aren’t cut out to have a relationship anyway.
That’s now how you roll, and you shouldn’t change that now for a pair of perky tits and blue eyes. Just focus on the present and do what feels good right now. That’s all that really matters, right? You’ve been living life that way for years, and look how far you’ve come.
“Yeah, I’ve come real far alright,” I said out loud, answering my thoughts vocally. I knew it was stupid to be daydreaming about a stripper, and I decided the problem was the fact that I had too much stress in my life. I was tense, and I needed a way to get rid of that tension.
I needed to get laid. Laid by some chick who just wanted to spend the night or even just a few hours getting sweaty and feeling good, then leaving it at that.
I decided the best thing to do would be to head up to Randy’s bar in Denver and see if I could pick up any girls up there. Callie was in that bar, and Raf had gotten lucky with her, who was to say that I couldn’t find some other pretty girl who was just looking for a hot biker to spend a few hours with?
Chicks loved bikers, and I loved tits. So, why not give it a shot?
If anything, it would be a great way for me to get my mind off Sloan. And that would be the best benefit of all.
“It’d be a great way to get rid of some of this tension you’ve got going on, bud,” I said to myself as I grabbed my vest. I slung it over my shoulders and grabbed the papers from the desk.
Whatever I was going to do to get rid of some of this tension and forget about Sloan would have to wait. Right now I had more important things to do.
I had to find Hopper.
Chapter 6
Sloan
“Come on, you piece of shit! Come on!” I squeezed the steering wheel of my car harder, hoping that somehow might magically help me make it all the way to work. I was just outside Denver and trying to make it to my shift on time, but my unreliable vehicle was once again breaking down.
It choked and stalled before finally dying on me. I was able to use what little momentum I had left from being on the interstate to pull off to the side and turn on my hazard lights, but I knew it was hopeless.
As I got out of the car and opened the hood, a billow of smoke came out. I dodged out of the way, not wanting to smell like smoke for the customers that night. There wasn’t enough perfume in the world that could cover that smell, and I was sure it would dock some of the tips I’d get if I were to dance on a customer smelling like exhaust.
“Wonderful,” I said as I looked at the overheated engine. “Now it looks like I’m not going to make it in to work at all.”
I was glad I wasn’t in my work outfit. There was a dressing room at the club where we could all change into our costumes. Mine was in my backpack I carried when I was working.
I was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, my hair down and blowing in the wind. It wasn’t a hot day, but it was warm, and I really didn’t want to walk the final ten miles it would be to get to work. Even the nearest gas station was at least five miles up the highway.
