Hadley (The Club Girl Diaries Book 3) (8 page)

My heart sank at the sound of Leo’s voice.

Slider’s eyes pleaded with me to cover for him. He needed his brothers to think he was okay, just the regular old Slider, cracking jokes and fucking.

I slumped. “Hold on a second,” I called back, rushing to brush the tears from my eyes.

I tugged my shirt over my head and tossed it across the room, so I was only in my bra. “Undo your pants,” I whispered to Slider who quickly worked his jeans open as I moved to the door and flicked the lock. I took a deep breath as I pulled it open and forced an awkward smile.

Leo had his hands hooked above the door frame, it made him seem that much taller, and his biceps bulge against his T-shirt.

He looked down at me, his eyes narrowing as he ran them over my face. “What’s wrong?”

I tried to laugh and shook my head. “Nothing. I’m fine.”

“Sorry, brother,” Slider said as he stepped out from behind the door, working to do up his pants. Leo stepped to the side as Slider made his way past. “I’ll let you get back to the party, Hadley.”

He patted Leo on the back before walking off down the hallway. I tried to keep my head up, but my chin hung low, and I looked up at Leo through my eyelashes. His gaze steeled, I thought I even caught a flash of disappointment or sadness in his eyes.

“You been crying?” he asked, his voice tense and rough.

“No,” I answered quickly. “Did you need me?”

“Not anymore.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out my panties from earlier that day. He held them out to me, and I reluctantly took them.

I swallowed his words cutting through me like a knife. “Thanks.”

He lifted his chin before turning and heading back down the hall. I leaned against the doorframe, watching him leave. He stopped at the end and I heard an excited squeal, “Leo! We’re doing shots, come on, I’ll be your glass,” Kaylene called to him from somewhere inside the bustling room.

His head turned to the side, the portrait of his strong jawline and face silhouetted in the light. For a second, I thought he might come back. I wished he would.

“Bring the tequila!” he shouted, followed by a loud cheer.

Then he was gone.

I looked down at the panties I held in my hand.

I don’t want to see him get hurt.

I heard Harmony’s voice in my head.

It wasn’t just him, though. We were both going to get hurt if shit carried on like this.

Because the way he just looked at me, I never wanted to see again.

I scrubbed at my face as I walked down the stairs.

My head pounded, a night of ten too many unsuccessful tequila shots. No matter how much I drank, I still couldn’t erase Hadley from my mind. She had me twisted into so many knots, I couldn’t even begin to untangle myself.

Watching Kev run his hands all over her seemed dirty. It fucked with my head, made me angry. I’d never seen one of the girls like that before, and they were constantly rubbing up against the men. But after I’d touched her, after I’d had her to myself, seeing someone else with her seemed wrong. I hated it. Watching Harmony step in and take her away had calmed the storm that was raging in me and I’d cooled off. But if she hadn’t, and he’d gone much further, I wasn’t sure if I would have been able to control what would have happened.

I’d gone to find her last night, intent on talking with her. I needed to know more about her. I already knew what my mind and body were telling me. She was bordering on perfect—Old Lady material. And I was bordering on insane if I caught one more of my brothers touching something I so badly wanted to keep to myself.

But it wasn’t as simple as just claiming her and seeing where things led. I had Macy to think about, and Carly too.

And Kim.

I guess a part of me was glad when Slider stepped out of her room. I was walking in there considering whether I was ready to open my heart to someone new. Was I ready to let someone in, to not only my life, but Macy’s too?

The more I thought about it, Carly was right. Macy needed someone stable in her life, a mother figure, someone who could show her the things that made me feel awkward as fuck when it came to girls. But at the same time, I didn’t want her to forget Kim. I wanted her to know how beautiful and kind-hearted her mom was.

Kim had been the only girl I’d ever loved.

She had been my world since I was a teenager.

Trying to replace her seemed wrong.

But being with Hadley seemed so fucking right.

I was a goddamn mess.

Watching Slider with his pants open and her stripped off hurt me more than I’d ever expected it to. But I guess it was a reminder that I just wasn’t fucking ready, and maybe a club girl wasn’t what I needed.

Even that though stabbed a sharp pain through me, but for now, I just needed to try and put some distance between us. And hope that what I was feeling was just lust. Yet here I was, standing outside her room once again. Op had told me to make sure she got to church so I was following orders.

I knocked hard and waited, hearing a rustling behind the door. I swore in my mind, hoping I wasn’t about to find a repeat of last night. The lock clicked, which made my stomach turn since the locks were only meant to be used if they had someone inside, and a brother didn’t want to be disturbed. But when the door pushed open it was only her. Her face was flushed and her hair wet, she’d just climbed out of the shower.

“I just need to pull my hair back,” she said softly as she rushed back into the bathroom.

I stepped inside her room, looking around. I even considered checking under the bed, but even I knew that was fucking ridiculous.

“How come the door was locked?” I called out.

I was met with silence and thought maybe she hadn’t heard me.

“I wasn’t feeling well last night. I know, I’m supposed to have an open door and all that. But I figured the girls from X-Rated were here and stuff, so maybe no one would miss me.” She came out with her hair pulled to the side in a plait.

She looked good.

I fucking hated it.

“We’re you crying last night?”

“I told you I wasn’t,” she replied, attempting to slip past me out the door.

I grabbed her arm. “And I still don’t believe you.”

She stilled, looking down at where I held her. “Can we just go and do this. I’m not especially looking forward to rehashing shit about my husband.”

I didn’t let her go. I didn’t want to.

Her skin was warm, and from the way she hung her head, I could tell that there was something going on. I wanted to hold her there, force her to explain. But then I remembered. No. I needed distance before I got too involved. I released her, and she was instantly gone, leaving me standing inside her bedroom. Confused and frustrated.

I filed into church with my brothers. Hadley was standing behind Optimus, her arms wrapped around a man that wasn’t one of ours. Skins.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her face a lot brighter than a few minutes ago.

I took my seat at the table beside Op, observing their interaction.

“Judge thought it best I come down and help explain what’s been going on.”

“Didn’t trust me to give them all the info?” She smirked.

He held his hands up and laughed. “Not trust you to omit things and try and handle them yourself? Where would you get that idea?”

Optimus took his seat and banged his fist on the table, drawing everyone’s attention. He moved his chair to the side so that everyone could see Skins and Hadley standing up front.

“All right. Skins has come in from Arkansas to join us today. And Kit and Tally will be joining us too,” he explained gesturing to Skins and to the Troy prez and vice prez who were standing back against the wall. “We need more information about what’s going on since the problem seems to have followed Hadley to the clubhouse.”

He gestured to the package on the table that had been dropped off yesterday. It was still unopened.

“You want to open it first?” Skins asked.

Hadley looked nervous, shuffling her feet as Blizzard pulled out a pocket knife and sliced at the tape that covered the small box. He ripped it open and dumped the contents onto the wooden table. There wasn’t much inside. A white daisy dropped out followed by a fluttering piece of paper. Optimus held up the daisy, it was missing a few petals. He raised his eyebrows at Hadley, who cleared her throat before she began to explain.

“Simon proposed to me in a daisy field. Nothing extravagant but it was beautiful,” she murmured. “On the weeks leading up to our wedding, he would leave daisies lying around the house, each with a note. She loves me, she loves me not.”

We all listened intently as she talked.

“On our wedding day, was when the last petal came off. He made it part of our ceremony. A daisy with one single petal. He made me pull it off in front of all our guests and he yelled, ‘She loves me.’” Her hands reached out and plucked the note off the table. “She loves me not.” She read out loud.

Her body shuddered and I clenched my fists, annoyed that I couldn’t comfort her.

I cleared my throat. “Okay, so it’s safe to say he’s counting down to something, just like he did with your wedding.”

She nodded.

“But what?” Kev asked from down the table.

“Who is this guy?” Blizzard asked, reclining in his chair.

Skins looked to Hadley as if giving her the opportunity to explain. She shook her head so he took the lead. “Simon joined the club fresh out of training. He had skills. Judge was happy to have him on the team.”

“What kind of skills?” Kit interrupted.

Skins looked to him. “Reading people. You could be staring him dead in the eye, and he would catch the smallest twitch, the tiniest movement. Getting a lie past him was practically impossible.”

“That’s insane,” Tally commented, leaning forward curiously.

“Exactly, but that’s what made him so perfect,” Skins continued. “Taking him to meets with other clubs or gangs, he could tell us if there was something going down, or if they were going to screw us over. It kept us safe.”

“Okay, so fast forward. What the hell happened?” Optimus prompted.

“He was sent away for a while to make connections with a street gang in Las Vegas, The Shadow Syndicate. They were looking to trade with us and get us to back them. They had plans to take over the city,” Skins explained. “What was meant to be a week trip, turned into a month, then six months. He said they’d opened their arms to him, and every day they were allowing him further and further inside the gang as he earned their trust.”

“He wasn’t earning their trust,” Hadley cut in. “They were dealing cocaine and meth and dope and every day more and more money was coming in. It pulled him under.” She screwed up her nose in disgust.

Skins reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder, offering her silent support. “When he came back, he tried talking the club into taking profits from the deals they made, instead of handing it all over to the government. But none of us were in this for money. We fight every day to try and make some kind of dent in the bullshit here. People trafficking women, getting kids hooked on drugs, eradicating the gun trade in hopes that it will mean one less innocent person dead at the end of the day.”

I nodded. The club had strict beliefs on all these things. Members didn’t take hard drugs, we respected women and treated them right—even our club girls—and the guns we had were only used for protection, never to hurt innocent people.

“So he just walked away?” Blizzard asked.

Skins shook his head. “Not exactly. He went higher, explaining to them about how he had earned the gang’s trust, and could work from the inside to bring down other gangs in the area. Using the bad guys against the bad guys.”

“That’s a solid strategy,” Optimus said, his eyebrows raised. “He takes them down and steals their connections. More money for him, less competition.”

“You thought about slipping them an anonymous message and outing him?” one of the boys asked.

Skins shook his head. “We out him, it comes back on us.”

We all sat silently for a minute, trying to process this clusterfuck of information. “Okay, so why’s he coming back for Hadley. Why now?”

Hadley shrugged, but Skins body tightened. She noticed and narrowed her eyes. “What’s going on?”

He cleared his throat but avoided her eyes, instead looking straight at Optimus. “We just got word that he’s taken over. The leader and his two main men were killed in a bar fight a few weeks ago, and Simon has been appointed their new head.”