Silver and Chrome: A Bad Boy MC Romance (15 page)

I
can’t deny the sense of satisfaction that flows through me now that he’s
finally admitted my worth. As much as I want to be recognized for more than
just being an assistant, there’s no way I’m going to go back to work for Edward
even though I know it means having to prove myself somewhere else all over
again.

“No,
thank you. I’m happy where I am.”

“And
where is that?” he snorts. “Are you cleaning houses? Stripping? If you want to
move up in the world, Evelyn, then you need to work for a real company. I’m
offering you a real job. You won’t get that anywhere else.”

“I
already have a real job. At a big company doing what I was doing with you. Now
let me go, or—”

I’m
cut off as the front door to the club opens, flooding the dim atmosphere with
sunlight that is then blocked by the frame of the big man that steps into the
threshold and the other couple of men that are right behind him. Edward turns
to look as well, and his reaction is the same as mine. “Shit, not this guy again,”
he mutters.

Once
the sunlight is blocked from behind, my eyes adjust and focus properly. I wish
they had stayed obscured. Staring at both of us with a cold, angry stare is
Bash.

CHAPTER
SIXTEEN

BASH

She had one rule. One
fucking rule. Stay the fuck out of this place. And yet here she fucking is. And
with him again, although with the grip he has on her arm, that may not be by
choice. Stonewall is a dangerous man, but so am I. For different reasons.

The
look on Evelyn’s face tells me that she isn’t happy to see me. Good. That means
she remembers that I told her to stay the fuck out of here. So why am I looking
at her? My blood is boiling, and I’m trying not to let it show but I’m
regretting swinging by the copy place and getting Snake, Ripper, and Knox to
follow me back here. Otherwise I could have gotten Evelyn out of here without
notice, but both of them are staring at the couple now, clearly alerted to how
we’re all glaring at each other.

Ripper—now
there’s an entirely different problem. He shouldn’t have been at the copy
place, but there he was, not unlike how Evelyn is where she’s not supposed to
be now. Christ, does everyone just ignore my orders these days?

“Looks
like we have a problem here, boys,” I say as I move toward Stonewall and Evelyn.
First things first, he needs to take his hands off of her. “You come without
your big friends today, little man?”

Edward’s
eyes flick around, as if he’s searching for help but the old men watching TV on
the other side of the bar seem oblivious, and Veronica behind the bar knows how
to keep her eyes to herself when it comes to us. There is fear in Edward’s gaze,
but it’s only there for an instant before he collects himself. Stonewall is not
a man that is used to being intimidated, so I imagine it’s easy for him to
dismiss that feeling knowing that he can usually regain the upper hand.

“My
mistake for assuming you had some sort of job to go to during the day.” Edward
is looking at me as if I should be insulted.

“I
could say the same about you. Fancy suit, but still here in a dive bar
harassing women at three p.m. Speaking of which, how about you remove your hand
from her arm before I snap it the fuck off.” I have been trying to keep the
edge out of my voice, but just watching him continue to grip Evelyn has made it
impossible.

“I
would advise you to keep your own hands to yourself, sir. And mind your own
business, as I said last week. This woman works for me, and we were just
leaving anyway.”

“Oh,
she does, does she?” I raise my eyebrow, but the look on Evelyn’s face tells me
all I need to know.

“Fuck
off, Edward. I told you I already have another job and I’m not at all
interested in coming back to work for you, regardless.” I watch as she yanks
her arm, but his grip remains tight. I can feel my jaw clenching.

“The
lady has made herself clear. Now take your hands off of her before I have to
put my hands on you.”

Edward
is glaring at Evelyn, but as I talk, he shifts his gaze to me. “I would advise
against that. You obviously have no idea who I am.”

I
do, but more importantly, he has no idea who I am. I need to keep it that way,
and yet I don’t know how much longer I can keep from ripping his head off if he
doesn’t take his hands off of Evelyn. “Who you are is a skinny man in a suit,
who needs to let go of this woman and get the fuck out of this bar. Very, very
quickly.” It sounds like there is gravel in my voice, but all I can concentrate
on right now is my clenching fist and not burying it in Stonewall’s face.

“I
don’t take orders from future convicts trying to look tough in leather jackets.
The lady and I have some unfinished business, and I’ll thank you to move along
as our discussions are private.”

I’d
like to think that if shit weren’t going down as it was at the club and the
office, I might have been able to hold myself back, even against Edward’s
annoyingly nasal voice and entitled attitude. As it is, I’m not even aware of
the punch until I see him hit the floor and my arm return to my body. Crap. This
won’t end well. At least he’s no longer holding onto Evelyn. She’s just
standing there in shock, looking back between me and the man on the floor
holding his eye.

“You
hit me!” he exclaims. “I can’t believe you hit me. You have no idea the trouble
you’re in! Evelyn, call the police.”

Evelyn
takes a step back, but makes no move to grab her phone or do anything to help
her former lover. It looks more like she’s getting out of the way in case he
tries to grab her again.

“Fine,
I’ll do it myself,” he says, reaching into his inside pocket and fishing
around.

My
jaw is still clenched, but now my chest is tight as well. There’s no way this
will end well. My secret is done if I get arrested for hitting this prick.

“And
what exactly are you going to tell them?” Evelyn suddenly says.

Edward
has his phone out now, holding on to it with the hand that isn’t still
clutching at his eye. He looks up from the keypad and then struggles to his
feet. “What the hell do you mean, what am I going to tell them? I’m going to
tell them about how this criminal just assaulted me in a bar full of
witnesses.”

“Really?”
Evelyn asks. “So you’re going to lie to them?”

“What?”
he sputters, glaring at his ex-employee. “What are you talking about? You were
standing right here. That’s exactly what happened.”

“Strange,
because from my vantage point, it looked like you threw the first punch. Look,
I think you even cut him over the eye. And then of course you grabbed me after
hitting him. I’ll probably have a bruise from where you were holding me. I
don’t see how he could have done anything different other than defend himself
and me from your attack.”

“What?”
Edward is gaping at her now before he turns to look at me, squinting at the
scar over my eye that I didn’t bother covering up this morning. “That cut is
already half-healed! No one would ever believe… what the fuck?”

His
eyes widen as I use my keys to nick the cut, opening it up again. I feel the
blood trickling down the side of my face.

“You’re
a lunatic,” Edward shrieks, looking around. The old men watching the game are
still watching it. Whether they ever turned to see the commotion or not I don’t
know, but they’re certainly not paying any attention now. Edward looks at the
Soldiers behind me and I hear Snake laugh.

“Pretty
nasty the way you threw that punch with keys in your hand. You could have taken
Bash’s eye out. Maybe he should sue you? Looks like you got some money.”

The
phone in Edward’s hand seems forgotten as he looks around helplessly. “This is
ridiculous,” he finally says. He turns to glare at Evelyn. “That’s it. My offer
is rescinded. Good luck in obscurity.” He looks back at me now, licking his
lips quickly before stepping around me and heading for the door. “I’m sure
suing you would end up costing me more in legal fees than I could ever recover,
even if I was given your entire miserable and worthless life.” With that he
yanks open the door to the bar and disappears. Hopefully for good this time.

“Isn’t
that the same guy we sent packing last weekend?” Snake says, now that Edward is
gone. He’s staring at Evelyn, directing the question to her, not me. “And
aren’t you the same girl he was harassing then, too? Wait a second. You and
Bash snuck off together not too long after that, if I recall?” His head whips
around to me now, his braided beard flapping against his own cheek with the
momentum. Shit, here we go.

I
cast a grimace toward Evelyn and she withers slightly under it. This is exactly
what I was trying to avoid by telling her to stay the fuck away. There’s not
much I can say to explain this one away. There are too many coincidences
happening, and that’s the kind of thing that leads to questions if they aren’t
given a good excuse.

“Yeah,
that’s right.” I nod. “This here is… Eve. She’s my new ol’ lady. She was
meeting me here, but I guess she ran into her stalker again.”

Snake
lets out a surprised sound that seems like a mix between a laugh and a shout. “Ho-lee
shitballs. Knox, you hear that? Bash has finally got himself a girlfriend. Jez
will be so upset.”

“Yeah,
I guess she will,” Knox agrees, his face turning a bit red behind his full
beard. Ripper casts me a sideways glare, as if sizing me up, before granting
Evelyn the same scrutiny. He knows something stinks about this whole thing, but
he’s so goddamn stupid I’m hoping he won’t figure it out.

“Meh,
Jez has someone else keeping her happy lately,” I say, slapping Knox on the
shoulder. “Right, Knox?”

Knox
pulls a cigarette out and slips it between his lips as he shrugs. That man has
it bad for Jez. I’m glad she’s been taking more of an interest in him lately.

“So,
Eve, how is it that you’ve attracted the eye of our fearless leader?”

I
eye Evelyn carefully, worried that she’ll blow everything in surprise. Calling
her my ol’ lady was probably a mistake, but it was the first thing that popped
into my head. Now we have to sell it. But she surprised me with the Edward
turnaround, so who knows? At least she isn’t wearing her fancy work clothes
again. Doesn’t seem like Snake remembers that, which is good. I’m surprised
that Evelyn didn’t dress up for work, even if it is a Saturday.

She
smiles at Snake, and then turns it to me, giving me a wink. “I guess I just
suck a mean cock.”

Everyone
is quiet for a second, and I don’t dare make a move. Suddenly, both Knox and
Snake burst out laughing and I force myself to join in. “I’ll say it again:
ho-lee shit. You’re one lucky son of a bitch, Bash. Where do I find me a chick
that looks like a magazine model, but has a filthy fucking mouth? That’s like
my fucking dream.” He keeps laughing, and then he turns to me with a more
serious expression. “Does she really suck as good as she says, and if so, any
chance this girl is going to work the club like Jez, or are you keeping her all
to yourself?”

“She’s
mine for now, so hands the fuck off,” I say. “And as for her oral skills, yes. In
fact, take care of things out here. All this talk of sucking cock has made me
want to take Eve back to my office for a bit.”

I
smile at Snake and then put my hand on Evelyn’s back, guiding her not so gently
toward the door to the back offices. She and I have a lot to discuss, and we
need privacy to do it.

As
soon as we get into my office I slam the door and whirl on her.

“What
the fuck are you doing here? I explicitly told you to avoid this place.”

“I
know, and I’m so sorry. I really am. Edward tricked me—”

“Tricked
you? How the hell does he trick you into coming here? Why the hell would you
agree to meeting here? I thought you weren’t even talking to that fuck anymore?
Why would you ever agree to meet him again in the first place?”

I
can see tears forming in the corners of Evelyn’s eyes as she shakes her head. As
angry as I am, the sight of them releases some of the steam coursing through my
veins as if a valve was opened, but I struggle to ignore it and hang on. Showing
up here was unacceptable.

“You’ve
put me in a really shit place, Evelyn. The two sides of my life are supposed to
be separate. Everything that links them puts me at risk.”

“I
know!”

“And
hell, if Edward did end up suing me, that would have been the end. I couldn’t
hide from it if that happened.”

“I
know! I know. I don’t think he’s going to sue you, though… I think he’s done
here.”

“Yeah.
That was quick thinking, turning it around like that. Still, we shouldn’t even
be in this position.”

My
anger is faltering, but I don’t want it to. Evelyn put me in a very dangerous
position and I’m starting to wonder again whether bringing her in to all of
this was a mistake. Was I thinking with the wrong head when I hired her? I’ve
kept myself from having relationships for so long just so that I could avoid
making mistakes like this. Emotion makes people do stupid things, and I have
enough trouble keeping a lid on my anger and rage—I don’t need to add love, or
even lust, into the mix. Why the hell is she meeting with that asshole again,
anyway? Being tricked sounds like bullshit to me. Maybe she wanted to be
fooled. Maybe she still has some feelings for him. Maybe I should have let him
pull her away and out of my life for good. The thought of that brings my rage
back to the surface, though.