Under Locke (35 page)

The pause it took for him to respond made me steel my spine for whatever was going to spill out of his mouth. "Iris," he said in a low, low voice. "Meet me at Mayhem." His tone was way too controlled. Crap!

"I should get back to Pins, I've been gone awhile."

I could hear him breathing over the phone. "No. See me at Mayhem."

Before I got a chance to argue with him anymore, he hung up. Hung up on me. That dick. Shit! No!

The realization that they had no idea I'd driven all the way to San Antonio was right on the front of my thoughts. I was going to need to do some serious speeding to remotely save my ass because there was no way in hell I was going to tell him where I'd gone if he'd gotten that pissed off over me leaving to begin with.

Unfortunately, I sped. The speeding caused me to get to Mayhem a lot quicker than I liked, even though I knew that I still hadn't gotten back fast enough to really play off being nearby.

The lot for the bar was packed for it being a weeknight, then again, I probably shouldn't be surprised. I highly doubted most of the people inside cared whether they drank during the work week or not. I'd barely stepped into Mayhem after flashing my license at the bouncer, when I caught sight of the blonde I'd seen Dex with back at the body shop so long ago. She was sitting at the bar, right next to a Widow by the patches on his heavily weathered vest.

Well, I guess Son wasn't kidding about the girl getting around.

I didn't see Dex anywhere but that didn't exactly ease my nerves. I mean, he couldn't kill me with so many witnesses around.

"Have you seen Dex?" I asked the first bartender that walked by me.

The lady tipped her head up. "Upstairs, sugar."

Sheeeit.

It felt like I'd just been doomed to participate in a Death March. God. Sucking in another breath, I reminded myself that Dex wouldn't do anything to me. He wouldn't. Except maybe rip me a new butthole with his mouth. Well, with his words.

The same WMC member that had come into Pins when I'd first gotten the job—the one with the beer belly—stood at the bottom of the stairway that I'm sure was about to lead to hell. He cocked an eyebrow at me . "Sonny's sis?"

I nodded.

A smirk
inched
across his face. "All the way up," was the only thing he said.

I will not gag. I will not gag. I will not gag.

"Thanks," I muttered, making my way up the first, and then the second flight
of
stairs. Despite the loud music blaring from the main floor, I could hear the deep rumble of voices coming from the third floor.

The doorway led to a large room with two loveseats and a futon closest to the door facing no particular direction. Just behind the
seating
on the far side of the wall, three desks took up the remaining space.

And seated at the desk in the corner, surrounded by Luther and two other Widows, was Dex.

Dex who was staring at me like he was plotting my murder.

I did the only thing a logical person who feared for her safety—kind of—would do. I
pretended like nothing happened by flashing the most fake grin in the natural world.

He stared at me, the tick in his jaw was noticeable even so far away.

Dex's gaze didn't waver for a second. "Get your ass over here, Ritz," he demanded in a cool voice.

Nothing was going to happen. Nothing.

My feet moved on their own with no regard to the fate they were leading us to. "Hi."

Did I get a "hi" back? Nope. Four faces stared back at me, completely unemotional.

I stopped just next to the member I recognized from the day Dex had shown up with Trip after Sonny's disappearance. He happened to be the only one who didn't look like I'd stomped all over his sand castle.

"Baby." Dex sat back in his chair, crossing those long, heavily tattooed arms over his chest.

I swallowed.

"Where you been?" He enunciated his words a little too carefully.

Well, there was no way in friggin' hell they were going to get the truth out of me, and in retrospect, what I blurted out my mouth really wasn't any better. At all. "I went to go buy some tampons." That wasn't so bad, but the rest...? "And then I had to run over to Sonny's house to change my pants since I bled all over them."

Kill me. Kill. Me.

Tampons. Bleeding on myself. Sonny's place.

Dex leaned forward over the desk, his elbows coming down hard on the surface. I could see the movement of his tongue sweeping over his teeth beneath his closed mouth. And then his jaw locked. "You went to Son's?" His lips peeled back to reveal
a
line of straight white teeth. "By yourself?"

I'd crapped all over that explanation, hadn't I? It wasn't like I could backtrack, dang it. "Yes," I tried to tell him as securely as I could.

He blinked, shifting his eyes to Luther's looming frame just to his side before returning to me. He blinked again, reaching up with one hand to run his thumb and index finger down the sides of his mouth. The pause was pregnant and heavy.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the member I didn't recognize shaking his head.

"You dumb little shit."

Uhh, what?

The muscles in Dex's biceps popped as he gritted his teeth, talking to me. Me! A dumb little shit?

"You know your pa owes the Reapers twenty?"

Why, yes, yes, I did but I couldn't tell him that and regardless, it didn't seem like he wanted an answer because he kept talking.

"What the fuck do you think they'll do to you, Ritz?" I think he may have gnashed his teeth. "They beat the shit out of Son back before they decided to up the debt. What the fuck do you think they'll do if they get you?" he asked in a louder voice than I'd ever heard him use. His features were too tight, too pissed off. "Huh? You can't be that fuckin' stupid, can you?"

Holy crap.

Something nasty knotted in my chest and all of a sudden, I couldn't bear to look at him.

"Iris!" he yelled at me. Yelled! "This isn't a fuckin' joke. You can't run around town doin' whatever the hell you want. Nobody has time to babysit you all day, do you understand me?"

Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry.

It took me a second to realize that I was blinking a lot. Blinking while I looked up at the ceiling instead of my boss' face.

"Iris," he grunted, his tone still holding the slightly hysterical note that relayed the extent of his anger. "Do. You. Understand?"

I didn't have it in me to answer him with words, so I had to settle for a nod. A nod I directed at the ceiling, while I had to tell myself that I wouldn't cry in front of him—them.

I mean, I get that he had a point. And I completely understood that he was watching out for me. But seriously? Was this the way he was going to go about
it
?

Just like my mess of an explanation came out of my mouth, so did the small amount of pride I still managed to have after getting yelled at.

It also might have also been just a little childish but I was too hurt and humiliated to care. "I didn't think it mattered after I got left alone all night and day, Charlie." By Charlie I really meant Dick.

He opened his mouth just a fraction before closing it. His dark blue eyes narrowed. "Get back to the damn shop," he snapped.

This jerk was going to get punched in the nuts. If I wasn't stuck staying with him, he'd get punched in the nuts and I'd put dish detergent into his food. Dex had a point. Of that there wasn't a doubt, but making a point didn't mean you have to be a complete ass
wipe
.

Plus, hadn't Sonny told me that Dex needed someone to tell him when he was being a dick? Sure, I'd done worse but that wasn't the point. He didn't know that, and he never would if this was any indication of how he handled stuff.

So fuck him. I sucked in a deep breath to ward off the tears that were right there and forced a smile on my face. It was ugly and unnatural but at that point, I didn't care. The guy was a man of his word. He'd put up with me until Sonny got back.

I think.

Smiling that creepy smile, I curtsied, staring straight into those dark eyes. "Whatever you want, your majesty."

Luther snickered just barely.

But Dex? Dex just stared right back.

"You gonna let her talk to you like that, man?" the Widow I didn't recognize asked.

Those blue eyes swung directly from me to the man. Dex looked at the man even more aggressively than he had me. "I don't remember askin' for your opinion, shit for brains, so shut the fuck up."

If I wasn't so mad and hurt, I'd probably get a kick out of his words, but I was.

The man made a noise in his throat. "D—"

I coughed and took a step back. "I'm going back to the shop," I told them in a quiet voice, watching Dex as he kept his gaze steady on his MC brother.

"Text me when you're headin' home later," he grunted, still not tearing his attention away from the man.

I looked over at Luther to see him watching the two younger men.

Whatever.

I didn't bother saying anything else before turning around and heading toward the door. I jogged down the stairs as fast as I could because all of a sudden, I felt like crying all over again.

Chapter Twenty

The look on Slim's face when I pushed through the door of Pins said way too much.

If he
were
prone to biting his fingernails, I think he would have been in the process of doing it. Instead, he smiled apologetically, lines creasing his forehead. "You okay?"

I tilted my head down and looked at him with wide eyes, rounding the reception desk to drop my purse on the floor. By some miracle, I'd managed not to cry.

No sooner had I gotten into the car had I realized that I couldn't exactly burst into tears at how upset and embarrassed I was. It made sense that Dex would be mad. I understood that. I really did. The problem was that he'd ripped me a new one, and the fact that it'd been done in public just made it worse—a heck of a lot worse. It was clear I was an inconvenience, but was it necessary to put things like I was a stupid child?

My chest hurt and I'd started hiccupping like crazy while I drove the two blocks down to Pins.

But screw it, I wasn't going to do it. I wasn't going to cry for no reason.

All right, there was a reason but that was beside the point. Deep down, I knew what I'd done was beyond
foolish
. If anyone
had
found out, I could only imagine what kind of shit storm The Dick would
ha
ve raised. Hell, Sonny would
hav
e probably found out and I truly doubted he had any issues with actually knocking some sense into me.

So I'd be taking that little tidbit to the grave with me from the looks of it.

"I'm fine," I told him but the reality was that my voice seemed higher than normal. Obviously, I wasn't completely fine.

The last thing I wanted was to see any of the Widows anytime soon, especially Dex. Which didn't exactly work since I was staying with the guy. Damn it.