Barely Undercover (7 page)

A grin spread across Jackie’s face. “You’d think after going out with you for almost six months he would know he was pretty much waving a red flag in front of a bull by telling you how it is.”

“Actually, we never talked that much when we were dating. He was always busy, and I was busy, and when we got together we usually had wild sex and then went to sleep, and then one of us would have to leave to go to work in the morning.”

“Sounds rough. Where can I get some of that?” Jackie’s eyes dimmed for a heartbeat, and then she looked away.

Lana immediately regretted bringing up James. Although Jackie always had men panting after her and took a fair number to her bed, she couldn’t sustain a relationship. Something had happened to her during her years on the streets that made her run whenever she thought things were getting too serious. Lana had tried to drag it out of her, but Jackie had always kept that vault firmly closed, hiding it, like her other secrets, behind her infectious exuberance and outgoing personality.

Lana handed over the chip bowl and rolled her eyes as Jackie nibbled on a crumb. “We don’t have to talk about him. I mean, you must be sick—”

“So you told him you were going?” Jackie cut her off with an admonishing eyebrow, and then licked her lips as if she’d just eaten a family pack of chips instead of a fingernail-size morsel.

Lana shrugged. “Of course I did…for Angel’s sake.”

Jackie snorted. “Sure. For Angel’s sake. Even if I did buy that line, what’s the problem? Go to the barbeque. Get the pictures. Stare at Heartless Bastard’s leather-clad ass. Case closed. Move on.”

“I don’t think I can do it.” Lana’s voice dropped to a hoarse rasp. “I haven’t been in a biker clubhouse since I escaped from Levi. After I cooled off this morning, I almost had a panic attack. What if someone recognizes me? What if I freeze up? What if my heart explodes from terror?”

Jackie sat up and squeezed her hand. “I can’t even imagine what you went through. Bad enough that Levi abused you, but to let the other bikers beat you…” She choked on her words. “I don’t know if a person can ever really recover from that. But I do know you haven’t really dealt with it. If you had, you wouldn’t still be jumping at every shadow, wondering if one day he’ll come for you. And you wouldn’t mistrust every man who shows an interest in you.”

Lana cringed. Jackie was right. She still shuddered when she heard a certain timbre of voice, and froze when she heard the roar of a motorcycle. She had dated since James, but the minute her dates expressed an interest beyond a casual fling, she broke it off. James had been the only person who had ever made her feel safe.

Grabbing a whole chip, Jackie continued. “I never told you this, but after we hooked up and you pulled me off the street and I pulled your sorry depressed ass out of the ice cream tub, I went back to the area in East Van where I used to hang out. I walked down the streets. I talked to the people I used to know. I sat in the place where I used to beg. I found the people who used to harass me and I showed them the new me. I faced it down.”

“Jackie…” Lana’s voice broke.

Jackie swallowed and shook her head, cutting Lana off. “After that day, I wasn’t worried I would wake up one morning and find myself there. I could see I’d changed. Maybe going into the clubhouse will do the same for you. Think of it as…therapy.”

Lana snorted her derision. “I was outside the clubhouse with James wrapped around me and his tongue halfway down my throat. Can’t get much closer to a biker than that. Do I look healed to you?” She stuffed a handful of chips in her mouth then washed them down with diet soda and an Oreo chaser.

Jackie’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “First time you’ve used his name since I’ve known you. I was beginning to think maybe his momma had christened him Heartless Bastard.”

“Slap me next time I slip up. I don’t want to start thinking of him as anything but the heartbreaker he is.”

A heavy thud on the door rattled the windows. Lana shot out of her seat and shared a wide-eyed glance with Jackie.

“Were you expecting anyone?” Jackie twisted her long black braid around her finger, her trademark stress move.

Lana shook her head. “Except for an enraged Heartless Bastard, no one. Go look through the peephole. If it is him, I don’t want him to know I’m here.”

Jackie walked across the room and peered through the tiny security window. “It’s a biker. He’s facing the other way. Dang nasty patch. Three evil-looking dogs.”

Heart pounding, Lana ran to the window, almost overwhelmed with the need to escape. She opened the catch and pushed against the glass. “Describe him.”

“Tall. Broad shoulders. Longish hair. Kinda like a rock star. Very sweet tight ass,” Jackie whispered. “Oh. He’s turned around. Sweet mother of hotness. He’s got the rough, grizzled thing going, but he’s one hell of a looker. Blue, blue eyes. One of them is staring right at me.”

“Lana. Open up.” The rough edge to James’s voice sent a shiver down Lana’s spine.

“It’s him,” Lana rasped. “Heartless Bastard. Get over here and help me with the window. If he comes in, he’ll find a way to stop me from going to the barbeque, but once I’m there he’ll just have to roll with it.” She tugged on the window. “Damn. It’s stuck.”

Jackie looked back over her shoulder and gave Lana an exasperated toss of her hair. “Just be quiet and I’ll tell him you’re not here.”

“Who is it?” Jackie yelled.

“I need to speak to Lana.”

Jackie giggled. Lana shot her a glare. “Don’t laugh. You’re not supposed to know who he is. A strange biker is at the door. Do you laugh or threaten to call the police?”

“I can’t help it,” she snorted. “It’s like a bad movie. Your ex is at the door and you’re trying to escape through the window. Who does that? Come on. Pull up those big girl panties and tell him where to go.”

“Just tell him I’m not here.”

Jackie took a deep breath. “She says she’s not here.”

“Jackie!”

“Sorry. I can’t think straight,” Jackie whispered. “I’m running on a junk food high after that chip.” She turned back to the door and yelled, “I mean she doesn’t live here anymore. She moved after some two-bit loser ripped out her heart.”

“That’s good. That’s exactly how I felt.” Lana pounded her fist on the window, but it wouldn’t budge. “Tell him I also felt betrayed.”

Shaking her head, Jackie called out, “It was the worst kind of betrayal. She never recovered. Last anyone heard she was living on the streets.”

“Too much.” Lana made a chopping motion with her hand to silence her friend.

“Lana, open the fucking door.”

“Bad language. Just like you said.” Jackie gave her a wicked grin. “He’s a feisty one, and in that badass jacket… You sure you don’t want him to come in?”

Lana frowned. “How many weekends did you sit here with me, eating ice cream and watching B-rated sci-fi movies? You know what he did to me. How could you even suggest I let him in? And how will I face down my fears if he stops me from going to the clubhouse?”

Jackie gave her an apologetic shrug. “I only met you after you guys split up. I never got to meet him. But after hearing what happened in the field and seeing your cheeks all flushed, I’m thinking you should let him in to talk. He looks anxious, not angry. I don’t think he came here to hurt you. Maybe he’s worried you’ll go to the clubhouse alone. Do you think he’ll go away?”

Lana gave a bitter laugh. “Ironically, except for walking out on me, he’s not the going-away, giving-up type. But he’s not coming in. I don’t want to see him.”

“You should.” Jackie’s face softened. “If only to get it all out, once and for all. Then you can move on, whether to the barbeque or another guy. At the very least, all the things you wanted to say won’t be burning a hole in your gut.”

“Babe. Last time. Open the fucking door or I’ll break it down.”

Jackie’s eyes widened. “He’s like the big, bad wolf. Would he really break down the door? I thought he was a cop. Aren’t they all about restraint and obeying the law?”

Lana sighed. “Not when it comes to me. For some reason, I make him overreact. And he is a man of his word. So the answer to your question is yes, if he’s pushed enough, he will break down the door.”

“I’d like to see that,” Jackie mused.

“Well, I wouldn’t.” Lana’s hands found her hips. “I don’t have the money to pay for—
”

Crash.
The door flew open, smashing against the cupboard before it dropped to the floor. James stormed into the apartment, his leathers creaking as he strode over the splintered wood. Jackie raced to the kitchen and then peeked around the corner and whistled her appreciation.

Lana tried to hold his gaze, but her eyes wouldn’t stay fixed on his face. She drank in the smooth planes and ridges under his snug black T-shirt as he stalked across the floor. Her eyes skimmed past the belt just resting on his lean hips and then down over his long, powerful legs rippling with muscles beneath his black denims. Well over six feet tall and powerfully built, his physical presence had always been intimidating, but with the leather biker jacket hanging off his shoulders, he was sex personified.

She dragged her eyes away and looked at the pile of lumber on the floor. “You broke it,” she said lightly, as if they were discussing a china vase and not a heavy, three-inch-thick safety door with a
Guaranteed Impenetrable
sticker on the back.

James’s eyes focused on her like laser beams. “I wanted to come in.”

His answer was oddly comforting. Two years later and he was still incontrovertibly direct.

“Most people would take the closed door as a refusal and not an invitation.”

He kicked aside a few splinters. “I took it as a challenge.”

Everything below Lana’s waist tightened. “Like when you saw Rex with me in the club?”

James stopped in front of her, so close she could feel the heat radiate off his body. “That was a disaster waiting to happen. You’re lucky I arrived when I did.”

“Lucky,” she whispered, although she didn’t know why. The part of her that wanted him gone didn’t think she was lucky at all. Life would have been easier if she’d never seen him again.

He studied her for a long moment, then looked away, hands clenched, jaw twitching. “I’m glad to see you listened to me for once. I was worried you’d already be on your way to the clubhouse.”

“I’m still planning to go. Jackie came over to help me decide what would be short and tight enough to wear to a biker barbeque.”

His gaze slid over to Jackie. She batted her long movie-star eyelashes from her vantage point at the kitchen door. He gave her a dazzling smile, all crinkled eyes and boyish charm. Then his gaze returned to Lana and his smile faded.

She shrugged at the question in his eyes. “I would introduce you, but I don’t know what name you go by, and since you’re leaving anyway, it doesn’t matter.”

“Ice.” He nodded at Jackie.

“Jackie.” She cracked a grin. “So you’re the hot undercover cop. I’ve heard a lot about you. Mostly bad things. I’m afraid as Lana’s best friend I have a duty to hate you vicariously for breaking her heart, which is a shame because you’re kind of cute, and the whole kicking down the door thing…” She fanned herself and finished with a light giggle.

Lana glared at her friend and fumed. Jackie never giggled. She laughed, cackled and chuckled, but she never, ever giggled. Cutesy was just not Jackie’s style. Clearly, she had just lost her only ally to James’s panty-melting smile.

“Jackie!”

Jackie had the good grace to blush. “Sorry. I’ll just hustle over to the window and make myself busy looking out on the street.”

“You don’t have to worry about her,” Lana said to James. “Despite her recent demonstration of disloyalty, she would never betray you. She’s a PI too, and we work together. She understands about confidentiality, although she lacks discretion when it comes to my personal life.”

“Maybe I should wait in your bedroom,” Jackie mused. “I can find you something short and tight to wear to the barbeque.” She gave James a wink. Lana had a sudden urge to smack her over the head with the bag of Oreos.

James turned his attention back to Lana. “What’s going on, babe? I’ve told you twice now it’s too dangerous to keep pretending you’re my old lady. You’ve always been headstrong but never suicidal.”

“I have a job to do,” she snapped. “It may not be as important as yours. I’m not saving the world or putting hoards of bad guys in jail, but it’s important to me and my client.”

“Angel.”

Lana sucked in a sharp breath. How the hell did he know? She had been very careful not to mention Angel’s name. In the PI business, confidentiality was paramount.

“I can’t disclose my client’s identity. You know that.”

James folded his arms and huffed out a breath. “I know it’s Angel. You were in Carpe Noctem before everyone except Rex. I might have believed it was a coincidence until I saw you outside the clubhouse. Neither the police nor anyone in the underworld would hire a PI. He and Angel are having problems. She’s the type to go behind his back. It’s gotta be her.”

“I can’t…”

Before she could finish, James cut her off. “I need to understand what’s going on, babe. You’ve got yourself in some serious trouble. You know I won’t break your confidence; same way I know you won’t break mine. And I’m the one with the most to lose. If Rex finds out about me, I’m done and I’m not just talking about the assignment.”