Repo (The Henchmen MC Book 4) (6 page)

I coughed awkwardly, not sure what the hell was wrong with me. "Um... anything else?" I asked, shifting my feet slightly. How was it that I was somehow more at ease with Reign than I was around Repo? That made no sense whatsoever.

Repo shrugged a shoulder. "How was your first patrol?"

"Uneventful," I said, leaving out the fact that it was quite literally the most boring eight hours of my entire life.

Somehow reading between my words, Repo smirked. "Yeah, I remember those days." Then suddenly he pushed off the car, taking a big step in my direction, surprising me enough to forget to take a step back and therefore allowing him to be all up in my personal space. There was barely a breath of air between us, his beer hanging down at his side actually touching my thigh over my jeans. His hand moved out, brushing the sensitive pad underneath my eye. "Might want to remember sunblock next time," he said as I felt a shiver work its way up my spine at the light, sweet contact.

"Ah, yeah," I mumbled, looking up into his deep blue eyes and feeling a heaviness settling on my chest.

And through the heat and the pressure of trying to fit in and the ever-present worry about what could happen to me at any moment if
they
found me or The Henchmen found me out, I felt another realization dawn on me- Repo was trouble.

First, because he was in charge of me.

Second, because he was attractive and I wasn't exactly unaffected.

Third, because he was definitely willing to take me to bed.

Normally having a really hot, somewhat alpha badass you were attracted to who wanted to take you to his bed would be a good thing. But for me, yeah, it was another major complication. If he decided to act on his attraction, I was in for some deep shit. Because I would have to turn him down. And turning him down would bruise his ego. And bruising his ego could be enough for him to want to kick me out.

Shit. Shitshitshit.

"Maze," Repo's voice called in a way that was almost... soft. When my eyes found his again, he exhaled a little heavily. "Relax. That's not a line I'm crossing."

I swallowed hard. "It's not a line I'd
let
you cross," I countered, but a part of me was pretty sure it was bluster.

"So we understand each other," he said, taking a step back. I was getting ready to step away when he quirked a brow. "Did I say you could leave?"

I felt myself jerk at the chastisement, biting my tongue to keep from lashing out. "No," I said, my tone clipped.

"Right. Because you're going to keep your ass right here and hand me tools."

"Hand you tools?" I repeated, my tone a little dumbfounded.

"Yeah, probie," he said, his tone going so dead that I felt a sliver of cool rush through me. "Forget your place already?"

My place.

Nope. I definitely didn't forget that.

And I got the distinct impression that if I ever did so, for even a second, someone would be right there to remind me.

Four

Maze

For the next week, Repo decided to tick off me and, by extension, all of my fellow probates, by switching up patrol rounds daily with no notice. One day I was working the early morning shift, then I was informed only minutes after completing it that, surprise, I was pulling the afternoon one. With Fox. The next day, I had the overnight with Duke. The next, I was back on my early morning. Then the overnight with Renny. I was getting the impression that the overnight was too important to The Henchmen to screw with it. For whatever reason, Reign, Cash, Wolf, and Repo trusted Duke and Renny more than the rest of us and therefore always wanted one of them on the shift.

By my ninth day, I was sick.

Literally sick.

Over a week of a weird sleep schedule and being out in the unyielding heat or rain at any given time with no protection from the elements, I woke up from a short sleep to start my early morning patrol to realize that every single inch of my body was sore. I groaned as I rolled off my bunk, not realizing how weak my muscles were and collapsing into Duke's bed, my hand slamming down hard on his stomach.

He flew awake on a grunt, hand automatically moving to my throat before his eyes focused and released me. "What the fuck?" he whisper-yelled at me as I pushed myself up.

"Sorry, I... my legs gave out," I admitted, each word like swallowing glass to my sore throat.

"You sick?" he asked, taking in the croaking weirdness of my voice.

"No. Nope," I said, shaking my head and ignoring the dizziness brought on by the motion and my clogged sinuses.

"Billy, don't be a hero," he said, moving to follow me out of his bed. "I'll take your..."

"No," I snapped, wincing at how loud the word came out. It was loud enough to make Moose's snores stop as he rolled around in bed. "It's fine. I got it," I objected, biting my cheeks to keep from groaning as I bent to tie my boots.

"Ace, come on," Duke said, reaching out as I straightened and putting a hand at the side of my neck. "You're burning up..."

"I'm fine. Go back to sleep. Sorry I woke you."

With that, I made my way up to the stairs, cringing when each step made me feel like I used to at twelve, lying in bed with growing pains bad enough to prevent me from walking.

It was okay. I just had to make it a couple of hours and then I could take a handful of medicine and crash. Plenty of people had to do worse jobs feeling a whole lot shittier than I did right then.

I grabbed a bottle of water from the kitchen and made my way outside to find Renny. "Violet, you look like hell," he said as I approached at my grandma pace.

"Gee thanks," I grumbled, taking the Maglite and waving him away.

"You sure you..."

"I'm fine!" I snapped, my voice echoing across the empty night.

I wasn't exactly fun when I was sick. It wasn't that I liked to wallow in it, but I damn sure never forced myself to go into work when I felt like I was going to pass out at any moment. I always would just hole up in bed with orange juice and a heating pad and wait it out.

"Alright," Renny said, holding up his hands and nodding. "I get it. You're as capable as all of us. But don't forget, Maze, you don't have to make yourself sick to prove a point either." With that, he walked away and left me to drown in my misery as I walked the grounds.

I was pretty sure I finished my first round. See, I say pretty sure because at one point, I sat down to give my screaming leg muscles five minutes of rest... and then I must have either fallen asleep or passed out.

Because the next thing I knew, I felt a cool hand touching the side of my face and a annoyingly smooth voice calling my name over and over. My eyelids felt weighted and I had to struggle to force them open. It was still dark out. I noticed that first. All around, it was still pitch black out. There was a hand underneath my head and another rested at the side of my face. And those hands belonged to Repo. He was kneeling down beside me on the ground, his brows drawn together and his mouth in a firm line. "Hey honey," he said when he noticed I was awake. "Scared the shit out of me," he admitted.

"Shit," I gasped, trying to push myself up, realizing what had happened. I had fallen asleep while on duty. Fuck. There was no way...

"Easy," Repo demanded in a soft voice, his hand landing in the center of my chest and pushing me back down on the ground. "It's alright."

"How long..." I started to ask, my heart slamming in my chest so hard that I felt nauseated.

"Not long. Duke told me you were sick. Then Renny came in and said you looked dead on your feet. Figured I should check on you. Good thing I did. You were out fucking cold. What were you thinking?"

"I had a job to do," I objected, moving to push myself to a sitting position, my arms shaking under the pressure.

"If you can't take care of yourself, you can't take care of the compound. Part of being a good member is knowing when you should lean on one of your brothers, Maze."

I noticed movement from behind Repo and reached for the Maglite beside my body, lifting it by the light end to strike with the heavy side if need be. But then Duke came into view, holding up his hands palms-out. I felt my eyes lowering at him in accusation and he shrugged a shoulder. "Sorry, Ace. There's no way you should be out here when you couldn't even get out of your bunk. It's not a chick thing. If it was any of the guys, I'd have gone to Repo too." Somehow I doubted that and I felt my eyes rolling at him. "So fucking stubborn," Duke said, shaking his head, but smiling like he approved as he reached down, snagged the Maglite, and moved off to do his rounds.

"Come on, honey," Repo said, slipping an arm across my back and moving to bring us both to our feet. To my absolute horror, I had to give him almost all of my weight, my own body completely giving up on me.

Now, I was pretty sure I made it to the back door to the compound.

I say 'pretty sure' because I remember seeing the back door. And then all I saw was the back of my eyelids.

The next time I woke up, I was in a bed.

There wasn't much I noticed aside from the fact that my ears were so clogged that I could barely hear anything, my sinuses were painful they were so full, my throat felt like I swallowed acid, everything hurt from the neck down, and I was both a ball of sweat and so cold that my teeth were chattering.

But I did notice this one other thing. The bed I was in, it wasn't my own.

The room itself was not mine.

I knew this because
my
room was a cold, damp, dark basement that always smelled like laundry detergent and men's feet. This room, while windowless like the rest of the compound, wasn't cold, damp, or dark. The walls had black and white wallpaper of a foggy forest, making it seem cozy and relaxing. There was a white dresser with a giant television across from the bed I was in and a door to the side where I could make out a shower stall. The bed itself was huge and covered in white sheets and a fluffy white comforter which I was tucked tightly into... and had dampened with my sweat.

As I was looking around with curious eyes, the door to the hall opened and in walked Repo with a tray in his hands. His eyes landed on me and he gave me a tight smile as he skirted around the bed and put the tray down near my shoulders as he sat down by my hip. His hand moved out, pressing into my sweaty forehead and I wanted to swat him away, but my arms were trapped under the blankets and it was too cold to pull them out. "Heya honey," he said, shaking his head slightly. "Still burning up. Open," he said, reaching for two pills off the tray along with the glass of orange juice and bringing them to my lips. "Come on, Maze," he begged quietly, tiredly, as if maybe not-so-conscious me had been giving him trouble. I opened my mouth and the pills slipped inside as his hand went behind my neck to angle my head up so he could bring the juice to my lips. Swallowing felt awful, but I knew better than to try to refuse medicine that might help. "How ya feeling?"

I made a whimpering sound as he placed the glass back on the tray and pulled out a thermometer. "Open up," he demanded, slipping it beneath my tongue and I closed my mouth around it. "You've been sleeping for almost sixteen hours," he told me as we listened to the thermometer bleep out the passing seconds. I felt my eyes bug and he shook his head. "Relax. Reign was in here. He's not mad you're out of commission for a while," he said, pulling out the thermometer and cursing. "Fuck," he growled, tossing it on the tray and suddenly reaching for the comforter and ripping it off me.

"Cold," I cried out, trying to grab it and cover myself up again with achy arms.

"I know honey," he said, reaching for me and hauling me off the bed against his chest. He stood, taking me with him, as he went into the bathroom. He turned on the light with his shoulder, revealing an average-sized bathroom that boasted a simple vanity, the shower stall I had mentioned earlier, the pre-requisite toilet, and a soaking tub. Before I could even ask what he was doing, he sat down on the bath platform, reached out to turn on the water, then sat me beside him. His hands went to the hem of my tee and before I could register his intention, he pulled it up and off me. My mind may have been a little sluggish, but I was present enough to squeal and reach up to cover my bra. "Sorry, Maze. No room for modesty. We need to get this fever down," he said, his hands going to my button and zip and making short work of them.

"Repo..." I said, my head shaking at him as I felt a mortified blush creep up on my cheeks. Not only was it bad enough that I was being stripped by my boss, but I had on a hideous cream-colored bra and my panties totally had little red and pink hearts all over them.

Seeing the blush, his face softened as he stood, kicking off his shoes, reaching for his shirt and discarding it. "Let's even it up then, yeah?" he asked as he went for his button and zip, then stepped out of his pant legs, leaving him in a pair of dark blue boxer briefs. He leaned down, his arm going around my back and picking me up a couple inches so he could drag my pants down. My breath caught at the contact, my eyes going to his face as the flip-flop feeling moved through my belly. Hearing my indrawn breath, his eyes found mine as his fingers dragged the material down my thighs. He took a deep, slow breath and looked deliberately away.