White Heat (Lost Kings MC #5) (9 page)

“Sit back down.” I point at the couch.

I pull one of the chairs in front of her—keeping a safe distance—and pin her with a hard stare. “Why?”

“Why what?”

I turn to Wrath and Z. “Did you show it to her?”

Before either of them answer, Lexi sobs out a miserable. “Yes.”

“Did you like seeing yourself on video, Lexi?”

Her scared doe eyes peek up at me, full of confusion. “What? N-No,” she finally stammers out.

“Well, someone sent that to my fiancée. How do you think she felt watching it?”

She bursts into tears. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t send it though. I’ve met her. She’s nice. I wouldn’t do something like that, I swear.”

“Why did you even have it?”

“I don’t know,” she wails. Behind me Wrath sighs, long and loud to let me know how annoyed he is to be here. Just for that I’m gonna make him stay until closing.

“It was stupid. I must have hit record by accident, later when I realized what it was I just kept it, then I forgot about it.”

Unbelievable how something so stupid could cause so much trouble.

Suddenly, Lexi’s tears vanish and she points an accusatory finger in Z’s direction. “I told him!”

I turn and raise an eyebrow at Z. “Told him what?” I ask.

Z shrugs. “She told me her phone got stolen a couple days before Hope received the video.”

“Yeah, settin’ up her alibi,” Wrath grumbles.

Lexi shoots him a vicious glare. “I’ve always been nice to you. Why are you being such a dick?”

I hold up a hand, so Wrath keeps his mouth shut. “Simmer down. Tell me what happened.”

“After that
new girl
,” she spits the word out like venom, “got here, Gabriella, shit started going missing. You know we’ve never had problems like that here, Rock. All the girls get along for the most part. Shit, we hardly ever use our lockers. We all trust each other. Then Gabriella shows up and iPods go missing, money, cell phones. We tried telling Z but—”

“I just figured they were upset about the new competition,” Z finishes.

Lexi’s always been a bit…hysterical and dramatic. But never a liar or troublemaker. If she’d come to me with her complaint, I would have taken it seriously. Although, given the awkward way Gabriella ended up working for us, I don’t know that the outcome would have been any different.

“Okay, Lexi. Say I believe your story. Why would Gabriella send the video to Hope? How does she even know who my ol’lady is?”

She chews on her lip and redirects her gaze to her feet. “Well…when she first got here, she kept asking about you. Where you were, why you didn’t work here anymore. Stuff like that. And, um, I might have told her it was because you were getting married. But I never told her your girl’s name. I don’t even
know
her last name and I certainly don’t have her number.”

Easy enough to figure out once you start asking questions. Especially if it was Vipers doing the asking.

“You get a new phone?”

“Yeah, and you guys really should reimburse me for it since it’s your fault my old one got stolen.”

Ignoring that, I ask. “Where is it?”

“In my locker.”

“Good. Keep it there and tell the rest of the girls the same thing. Anyone gets caught with their phone out of the dressing room, they’re fired.” I turn to make sure Z’s absorbing this information.

“Got it,” he says.

I give Lexi a critical eye. What she did was stupid, but I believe her story. The fact that Gabriella was so concerned about me from day one is unnerving. Fucking Vipers, always up to something.

“All right. Go on,” I stand and motion for Lexi to do the same.

“Are you still firing me?” she squeals.

“No.” Behind me Wrath curses and Lexi sticks her tongue out at him. “Hey!” I snap my fingers in front of her face to draw her attention away from Wrath. “Razor thin ice you’re standing on, Lexi. Behave. Act like a professional.”

She straightens up and marches to the door. “I’ll be professional. And I
won’t
be fucking anyone I work for ever again,” she snaps as she opens the door.

“Good plan,” I call out.

“What the fuck, Rock?” Wrath shouts as soon as the door shuts.

“You want to be involved here even less than I do, so why are you sticking your nose in this anyway?” I’m not yelling. But somewhere in the neighborhood of it.

“Uh, excuse me, but that’s the little bitch responsible for making Hope throw the fuck up the other day, or did you forget?”

I actually look around for a hidden camera or some shit, because I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

“Are you trying to say you’re more worried about my girl than I am?” I ask in a controlled tone. I’m furious enough to consider planting my fist in his face but also sort of amused.

To my astonishment, he closes his mouth and sits back against the desk. “No.”

Z’s still ping-ponging between the two of us. “Can we focus on the bigger problem here?” Z puts his hands up. “I’m upset about Hope seeing that shit too, but she handled it fine. Our bigger problem is the Vipers. Why the fuck did they plant Gabby here? Why’s she so concerned about you? And how’d she know who to send the video to?”

Christ, Z’s acting more presidential than I am.

“You’re right, brother,” I answer.

“We can’t fire Gabriella. We should keep closer tabs on her,” Wrath suggests.

Z shakes his head. “Don’t look at me.”

“No, you dick.” Wrath nods at me. “The kid I told you about from the gym, Twitch? He’s a stealthy little fucker. Be a good way to see if he’s prospect material.”

“All right. Have Hoot check in with him though. I don’t want him going into Viper territory alone.”

“Got it.”

“Are we done here? Because I’d rather not leave Hope out there any longer.”

The two asses laugh. “She’s here? Fuck, I hope she’s not up on stage,” Wrath jokes.

“I hope she is,” Z answers but drops his smirk when he sees my face. “Still not in a joking mood, prez?”

“Not about Hope. Never about her.”

My first fifteen minutes hanging out with Willow aren’t too bad. She presents herself as a bit of an airhead to any of the men who come up to the bar. But when we’re alone she’s got a fantastic, biting wit, cracking jokes about everything and anyone in sight.

The only way to describe my next ten minutes is awkward. While Willow’s busy washing glasses, I swivel my stool around to watch the girls on stage. Somehow it’s not as vulgar as I expected. These girls shed their clothes in a graceful, almost artistic way, that’s hard not to appreciate.

It also makes me never, ever want to get naked in front of Rock again. But we’ll save the
Diary of Hope’s Body Image Issues
for another time.

Between songs, I spot a short brunette stalking toward the bar. She’s dressed in street clothes, but seems so at ease, I assume she works here.

“Everything okay?” Willow asks, when the girl sits next to me.

“Yeah, I guess.” Now that her back’s to the rest of the club, her face loses some of the cheekiness she strutted out here with. She looks familiar and by her expression, she might cry any minute.

Willow sets another water in front of me and takes my empty away. “Lex, have you met Rock’s woman? This is Hope.”

For a second I can’t draw in any air. Blood rushes through my ears drowning out everything around us.

Luckily for me, Lexi seems to have a similar reaction. Her cheeks redden, mouth opens, but no words come out.

“Hi,” I finally manage. What am I supposed to say? Thanks for the engagement present, and by the way, if you so much as look at my man, I’ll kill you? Because that’s rattling around in my head somewhere.

“I’m sorry!” she blurts out.

So I guess she knows I know who she is. Awesome.

“All three of them just reamed me out—and not in the fun way,” she moans. “I’m so sorry. I swear to God, I didn’t send it to you.”

I’m still not sure what to say to her.

Wait a second, all three of them,
what
?

As I’m about to ask she jerks her head to the side. “Oh, fuck that. I’m not in the mood to get yelled at again.” She scoots off the stool and throws me another apologetic look. “Congratulations on your engagement,” she says before running away.

I don’t have to tip my head up to know it’s my favorite trio of scary bikers encircling me.

“Are you okay? What’d she say to you?” Wrath asks, earning a scowl from Rock.

“Nothing,” I answer. All three of their faces are screwed into slightly different forms of unhappiness. Z’s—indifference, Wrath’s—irritation, Rock’s—exasperation.

“How can three of the horniest men I’ve ever met be so miserable in a strip club?” I blurt out. The tension drains from Wrath and Z as they burst out laughing. Rock just looks more strained even though he flashes a tight smile my way.

“You okay, Baby Doll? I’m done here. We can go.”

“I’m fine.” I wag my finger at all three of them. “Did you three really gang up on that poor girl and question her?”

Guilty faces all around.

“Do you guys have any idea how intimidating the three of you are?”

“That’s the point,” Z says.

I shake my head at them. “You guys are begging for a sexual harassment law suit. You should hire a female manager.”

When they finish laughing at me, Z turns his impish eyes my way. “You applying for the job, Hope?”

“Uh, no.”

Wrath pats my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Cinderella, no one’s suing us.”

I’m still laughing after Hope and Rock take off.

Z smirks at me. “Can you believe that girl? Worried about us harassing the chick who made a sex tape with her man?”

“She’s so square it hurts sometimes.”

Z cracks up at that. “Man, I love the girl. But if I were Rock, I might’ve choked her by now.”

“Apparently he enjoys the challenge.”

Eventually we stop laughing at Rock’s predicament. Z lifts his chin. “You can go. With Butch and Jim here and Dex coming in, I got more than enough coverage. Murph’s supposed to stop in later too.”

“To work or fuck around?”

“Probably both.” He snickers. “Nah, he’s clearing some stuff out of the basement and bringing it up to the property.”

“You want me to help?”

“It’s not what you think. Just old bike parts and shit.”

“Okay. Then, yeah, I need to stop by Furious and talk to Twitch.”

“Sounds good.”

He gives me a fist bump and I’m free from stripper hell.

Don’t get me wrong, the money the MC rakes in from Crystal Ball pays a lot of bills, but I’ve paid my dues and spent enough time there over the years.

My gym’s a short ride from Crystal Ball and I find a nice surprise waiting for me in the parking lot. Trinity’s Jeep. She mentioned stopping by to take some photos of Jake. At the time, I said sure, because I figured there was no way in hell Jake would say yes to something like that.

Well aren’t I in for a surprise. Trinity and Jake are in one of the training rings. He’s shirtless making all sorts of goofy poses for my girl.

“Hey, angel.” I plant a kiss on the back of Trinity’s neck, startling her. The smile that lights up her face when she turns around guts me.

She throws her arms around my neck, whacking me with her camera in the process, but any twinge of jealousy that was creepin’ up disappears. “Are you surprised to see me?” she asks.

“A little. Happy though.” I lift my chin at Jake. “Trin do your hair and makeup?”

He throws up two middle fingers. “Don’t be jealous ‘cause your girl thinks I’m cover material and you’re not.”

My gaze drops to Trinity, and I let out a snicker. “Kept my secret, huh?”

“Yup.”

“Seen Twitch?”

“Not yet. It’s early for him, isn’t it?” she asks as she’s bending over to put her camera away. I should be professional, but I own the fucking gym, so I help myself to a squeeze of Trinity’s ass. She jumps and squeals.

“Jesus Christ, get a room,” Jake bitches as he approaches us. “You done with me Trinity?”

“I think so. We got a lot of good stuff.”

“Cool. Let me know how it turns out.” He taps my arm on his way to the locker room. Before I have a chance to talk to Trinity, I get interrupted. Then I’m dealing with members until my kids show up for class. I set Twitch up to talk with Z about following Gabriella. Kid just needed to hear the word “stripper” to sign on to that gig.