The Biker's Fate Chapter 145

Mack

AFTER DROPPING DARIEN home, I walked into the Dogs of Fire compound and stalled. In the main room, I found no less than a dozen women, including Dani and her high-class friends, sitting around giggling with club women, some kind of fruity drink in front of each of them.

"Hey, Mack," Susie called.

Susie was the club president's old lady and, knock me over with a fucking feather, I never thought I'd see the day she'd be laughing with the likes of Dani and her designer-clad friends.

"Ladies."

Kim rose to her feet and made her way to me. "Hey."

I smiled and pulled her in for a hug. "Hey, babe."

"A few of us want to come to Blush next week," she whispered.

I glanced at the women and grabbed Kim's hand, pulling her toward the kitchen. "No fuckin' way."

Kim dropped her beautiful head back and laughed. "Kidding!"

"I'm thinkin' I might ban you, Kim."

She gasped. "You wouldn't."

"Don't push me."

"Heard you had a really cute, really sweet visitor recently. One you can't resist." Kim gave me a small, knowing smile. "Remember who introduced you."

"Okay, babe, we're done with this conversation."

"Love you, honey." She giggled, kissing my cheek, and walked back to the group.

Dani grinned and called, "Austin's in his office hiding, Mack."

I nodded. "I'm gonna join him."

That comment elicited a mass of giggles as I high-tailed it out of the room. I stopped in my office first, partly to grab a file and partly to take a minute to compartmentalize Kim's observation. Fuck! I hated that she knew me so well. Hated that I'd let her in, but that was Kim. She pushed until you either told her to fuck off or just went with it, and I loved her too much to tell her to fuck off, so I was stuck with one highly observant, highly annoying woman.

I reached for the folder I wanted to get Booker's feedback on, and dislodged the picture of Darien I kept hidden on my desk. I shook my head. God, she was beautiful. I ran a finger gently over her cheek and then covered the photo again and headed to Booker's office. I knocked on Booker's door and pushed it open when bid.

Booker grinned. "You saw?"

"What the fuck's goin' on?"

"Book club."

I frowned. "Come again?"

Booker linked his fingers behind his head and laughed. "Swear to Christ, brother. It's fuckin' book club."

I sat in one of Booker's chairs and set the file on his desk. "You're sayin' Dani brought together fuckin' club women and her ladies and they're readin' the same book?"

"That's exactly what I'm sayin'."

"And this book is...?"

"I don't know the name of it; it's some kind of romance, but who the fuck cares? Some Fox person wrote it," he said. "Dani's been... ah... how do you say...?"

"Yeah, got the picture," I cut in.

"Anyway, it's pretty popular apparently, and my girl's lovin' it." Booker smiled. "Which means, I'm lovin' it."

"Stop talking," I demanded. "Just show me what you got on the Kozlovs."

Booker chuckled again and slid a file toward me.

I read everything over and scowled. "Shit. It's worse than we thought."

"Yeah," Booker said. "It is."

I realized my day had just been shot to hell and so had my plans for seeing Darien later. I shook my head and Booker and I got down to business.

Darien

Thursday after work, I walked into my apartment just as my phone rang. It was Mack. "Hey."

"Hey. You wanna grab dinner?"

"Yeah, that sounds great." I was actually exhausted, but I hadn't seen him all week and I missed him like crazy.

"Okay, see you in a few." He hung up and I did a quick freshen up and changed into something cuter than my scrubs. I also slapped on a little makeup to try to hide the bags under my eyes. Mack arrived twenty minutes later, and I opened the door to the best kiss I'd had since last time I saw him.

"God, I missed you," he said between kisses.

I smiled against his lips. "Me too. I thought you had stuff to do tonight."

"Case got pushed back, so I'm taking tonight off to take my girl out."

"And me?" He gave my bottom a smack and I grinned. "I like that plan."

"Serratto good?" he asked.

"Yes!" I exclaimed. "Their happy hour rocks."

"I know. Ready?"

"I'll just grab my purse." I locked up and took his hand, heading down to the car.

The restaurant was located in the Pearl and it was packed. Lucky for us, Mack had connections in town and we were shown to a table right away. We ordered and our server brought us drinks while we waited for our food.

"How's your week been?" I asked.

"Shitty." He took a sip of his beer and frowned.

"I'm sorry." I squeezed his hand. "I hate that you can't talk to me about it."

"Me too, babe." He smiled. "What about you?"

"Oh, me? Well, I also had a shitty week, but I got home tonight to find out that my book is number one on Amazon."

"Yeah?"

I nodded, trying not to squee in excitement. "Yes. I hope this means traction for more royalties. I'd like to justify doing this for a living... quit the dirty day job."

"You'll do it, baby. I have no doubt."

"Says the man who doesn't even know the title of my book."

"I don't need to know the title to know the woman who wrote it is talented and beautiful, right?"

I giggled. "Even when you're admitting you won't read it, you still have a way of making me feel special."

He smiled. "You are special, honey, but no, I'm not readin' some romance book, even written by you. Not my jam."

I shrugged. "Fair enough."

"You really okay with it?" he asked.

"Yes." I chuckled. "I get it. If you were some hip-hop singer, I'd bail on concerts... it's kind of the same thing."

He laughed. "Even Eminem?"

"Ohmigod, if you were Eminem, we'd be off somewhere amazing in a private jet, so that would be different." I buttered a piece of bread and waved it at him. "F.Y.I., if there's a private jet involved, I'd listen to hip-hop."

"Good to know."

I sipped my wine. "Do I get you this weekend?"

"Depends. There's a club get together."

"For Blush?"

He shook his head. "Dogs. Pig roast on Saturday night."

"So, do you want me to come?"

"Sure."

"You really want me at a club thing?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Isn't that kind of a big deal?" I asked. "For us, I mean?"

Mack smiled. "Yeah, it is. You not ready?"

"I'm very ready, but are you?"

"I invited you, didn't I?"

"You didn't actually," I pointed out.

The server arrived with our food and Mack sat back and studied me. I hated when he stared at me like he could see into my soul. It disconcerted me and made me feel like I'd done something wrong.

"Where's this coming from, Darien?" he asked once the server left.

"What?"

"Babe, don't be obtuse. Does it really matter that I didn't give you a formal invitation embossed in gold for a club party?"

"I just don't want you to feel pressured into inviting me to something if you don't want to. We're getting to know each other, but we haven't defined the relationship so to speak, so I want you to know you have an out."

"Fuck me," he whispered. He looked pissed.

"You're mad?"

"Yeah, babe, I'm mad. Let's eat and we'll hash it out somewhere I can yell."

I pushed my plate away. "I'm not really hungry anymore."

Mack waved his hand toward the server and he returned to the table. "Everything all right?"

"We've got to go." He handed him his credit card. "Can you run this and grab us a couple of boxes."

"Right away."

"We're really leaving?" I asked.

"You gonna eat?"

I shook my head.

"Then we're really leaving. You and I obviously need to have a conversation."

Now I was really confused, but I wasn't going to make a scene in the middle of my favorite restaurant, so I stayed silent until we got back into the car.