Shades of Love (Mad Jackals Brotherhood MC Book 3) (6 page)

Mia’s cellphone buzzes insistently. She ignores it. Whatever it is, this is more important. She turns her attention back to Amanda until the vibrating phone interrupts her again and she knows it must be Eli.

“I’m sorry. I have to get this.” She throws Amanda an apologetic look, nudging the tissues towards her again and picking up the call in one smooth motion. “Eli.”

“Where the fuck have you been? I’ve been calling and calling!” His voice is loud and angry in her ear.

Mia turns around so her back is to Amanda; the last thing this woman needs is to overhear Mia’s problems with men in addition to dealing with her own. “I’m in the middle of an appointment, Eli, with a client. I can’t just go running to pick up the phone whenever you decide to call.” She doesn’t temper her tone; she figures that if he hasn’t tried to, she doesn’t need to bother.

“A client,
sure
. You mean one of those basket cases who are more important to you than I am.” His voice is whiny in her ear.

“Is that why you called, Eli? To tell me what you think of my work, because if it is, I really do have to go.” She swallows her angle as she flashes an apologetic smile over her shoulder at Amanda who is watching her back with a shocked expression. Mia wonders if she can hear what Eli’s saying.
“I called to check that you were all right. But now I’m wondering why I bothered! Is he there? Is that why you didn’t answer before, because you’re with him? Are you fucking him in your office?” Eli’s voice has reached a bellow and he’s virtually spitting with rage.

“What the hell is the matter with you, Eli?” She looks at the cellphone in her hand as if it had grown a head. “I’ll talk to you once you’ve calmed down and you’re ready to have a conversation like a rational human being.” She ends the call and switches it to silent so it won’t disturb them when he inevitably calls again. She takes a deep breath and turns around to face Amanda.

“Sorry about that.” She avoids Amanda’s eyes, acutely aware that she’s probably heard everything about their dysfunctional relationship or ex-relationship, whatever it was.

“He sounded angry.” Amanda chews her bottom lip as she watches Mia.

“He’s a little upset at the moment.” Mia stops short of rolling her eyes at her own understatement.

“Because you’re in love with Ray.” Amanda says the words as if she’s finishing Mia’s sentence.

“What?” Mia looks at her shocked.

“It’s okay, Mia. You don’t have to say anything. I’m pretty good at reading people. When your boyfriend is beating you up it pays to be able to tell what’s going through his head when he walks through the door. Sometimes it can be the difference between getting hit and not. You pick things up quickly.” She shrugs as if it were that simple and Mia feels her heart clench again. “Did that guy ever hit you?” Amanda nods towards the phone sitting on Mia’s desk.

“Eli?” The idea is so ridiculous it’s not even worth thinking about. “Of course not. He’s not like that.”

Amanda nods in understanding, looking wise beyond her years. “That’s what I used to say about Jonah.” She leaves it at that, not pushing the point.

Mia stares at her, still trying to process everything they’ve talked about. She shakes herself, getting the idea of Eli’s raging temper out of her head. “Now, we still have to deal with your problem. Jonah may not know you’re here, but I’m not going to take that chance.”

“What are you going to do?” Amanda looks almost scared and Mia wonders if she’ll ever get the chance to act like other girls her age, if she’ll ever finish high school, if she’ll ever have a healthy relationship with a man who’s kind to her.

“I’m going to call someone who’ll be able to help.” Mia grabs her phone, ignoring the mounting number of missed calls from Eli’s cell and hits speed-dial.

“Mia.” Cassie’s voice in her ear is clipped, almost formal.

Mia doesn’t think anything of it; sometimes her friend automatically answers her phone in her professional lawyer mode. “Cassie, hi. I know you’re probably busy but this is kind of urgent. Do you have a minute?”

“What do you need?” Mia breathes a sigh of relief as Cassie gives her the answer she was hoping for. She summarizes the conversation she’s just had with Amanda and hears Cassie give a low whistle.

“One restraining order coming up. I’m going to need a full name and a last known address of this Jonah psycho.” The distaste in Cassie’s voice is palpable; Mia knows the feeling.

“I’ll email them to you right now. What about Amanda? I was wondering if you could talk to your new cop friend…” Mia doesn’t finish the sentence, knowing she’s being beyond cheeky, but a woman’s life might be at stake. She wasn’t too proud to be a little cheeky when she had to be.

“I’ll see what he can do. I might need to get a little creative. Where’s Amanda now?” Cassie’s speaking fast, her mouth struggling to catch up with the speed her brain is firing at.

“She’s with me. I want to keep her at the shelter until we know she’s safe.” Mia gives Amanda an encouraging smile and she returns a weak one.

“Okay, I’m going to see if we can get a squad car sent over to the shelter while we wait for the restraining order to come through. That should keep any homicidal biker assholes away.” Cassie shushes someone in the background and Mia’s ears prick up.

“Are you with someone?” She bites her lip, hoping she hasn’t just gotten her friend in trouble with her boss.

“No.” The monosyllabic response is completely out of character but Mia lets it go figuring her friend must be busier than she’s letting on.

“Thanks, Cass. I really appreciate it and so does Amanda.” Mia looks at the clock on her wall, figuring she’ll need to stay late to make sure Amanda’s all settled for the night.

“Don’t thank me, Mia. You know it just makes me mad.” Mia smiles into the phone at her friend’s standard response.

“Hey, are you around tonight. Can we maybe get a drink?” After her argument with Eli, the last thing Mia wants to do is go back to his place and she could use the wise words of her best friend, even though she knows what she’s going to say.:
get the hell out of there, Mia
. Right now it doesn’t like such a bad idea.

“Tonight, I can’t, honey. I’m sorry but, hold on…” Mia hears a noise like Cassie covering the mouthpiece of her cell and a muffled conversation. “Actually, yes. That’d be great. See you at my place in a couple of hours?”

“Sure.” Mia frowns into the cell. “Cass, you’re sounding a little weird? Are you okay?”

“Sure, Mia. I’m fine. I’m just sort of tied up with something at the moment. Don’t forget to send me those details on Amanda’s ex-waste of space.”

Cassie clicks off the call and Mia is left staring at her cell wondering what’s going on with her best friend. She shrugs, knowing she’ll find out in a couple of hours over margaritas and pizza – dinner of champions. She plasters a smile on her face and turns around to fill Amanda in on the plan to keep her safe.

Chapter Seven

“’Homicidal biker assholes’?” Ray looks at her with a question in his eyes and a smile on his lips.

“I was improvising! Besides, no need to get snippy; I wasn’t talking about you.” Cassie gives him a pointed look before firing off an email to her boss explaining why she’s about to be out of her office for the rest of the day chasing down a restraining order.

“Thanks. I appreciate that you’re not tarring all of us with the same brush.” He shifts uncomfortably in the leather armchair of Cassie’s office that probably costs more than all the money that’s stashed in the bag next to him.

Cassie shrugs magnanimously, giving him an appraising look. “Are you sure about this, Ray? This is the way you want to go with it all?” She leans back in her chair, trying to figure him out. “You don’t want to go to the cops with this directly? This is more than collateral, you know? It’s about a hundred prosecutable felonies.”

“I’m sure. This only goes outside of this office if something happens to me or to Mia. I’m trusting you to do the right thing here, Cassie.” His voice is level, confident, more than he really feels. He’s never been very good at trusting people; he hasn’t had all that much practice with it. “Thank you for agreeing to see me, for listening to what I had to say. I know you didn’t have to. I’m guessing after everything Mia has probably told you about me, I wasn’t high on your list of favorite people.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, handsome. I did it for Mia, not for you.” She starts gathering her notes and stuffing as many files as she can into her bag. “She deserves to be happy, more than anyone I know. And you seem to do that for her.” She shrugs as if it’s no big deal.

“What about Eli? You’re not a fan?” Ray raises an eyebrow at her in a way that would totally seem sexy to her if he weren’t the love of the life of her best friend.

“For the record, I’ve
never
been a fan of that creep. He always used to hang around Mia, like a bad smell.” She shivers involuntarily. “I mean the guy is cute, no question, but he’s batting way out of his league with Mia.” She stops abruptly. “I mean he
was
batting out of his league. He never was the sharpest tool in the box, but he definitely has an A in Asswipe Studies!” She smiles as Ray allows himself a laugh, the first since he’s walked into her office. “I wasn’t a fan before you told me what he’d done. Now I think you can say he’s officially crossed off my Christmas list. Or he would be if I had time to write one.” She barks a laugh as she mentally goes over everything she needs to get done in the next few hours. “Are you going to tell Mia?”

“Don’t you think I should? She shouldn’t be hanging around that guy; he’s bad news, dangerous.” Ray releases the arms of the chair that he realizes he’s gripping with white knuckles.

“Funny, that’s what he says about you.” She gives him that meaningful glare of hers again and Ray understands why this woman is so formidable in a courtroom.

“Well if I’m the kettle, he’s definitely the pot.” Ray shakes his head. “Well, I guess I should get going. You’ll see this gets there?” He nods towards the bag of cash at his feet.

“You can trust me, even though I’m a lawyer.” She gives an impish grin that’s in complete contrast to the polished professionalism she exudes in her expensive suit.

Ray nods at her in acceptance of her words and starts to head out of the door. “Hey, aren’t you forgetting something?” Her voice stops him in his tracks. “Don’t you want me to write down my address? I’m unlisted.” She gives him a curious look and he can’t get rid of the feeling that she’s sizing him up, probably because that’s exactly what she’s doing.

“That’s okay. I already know where you live.” He winks at her wickedly and for a split second Cassie worries that she’s completely misjudged this man. But she’s seen the footage from some of the tapes he’d dragged in here. She’d seen what bad guys looked like and Ray was definitely not one of them.

“You know that’s kind of creepy, right?” She frowns at him.

“You’re Mia’s best friend and I’ve made it my business to keep her safe these past few years. Did you really think I hadn’t kept tabs on you, counselor?” Ray lifts an eyebrow at her, heading towards the door again.

Dammit, she hates it when men always want to have the last word. “You know Mia’s going to kill me when she figures out what I’ve done, right?” Cassie chews the inside of her cheek, a little afraid of her five-foot-four-inch hellion of a best friend. The woman was tiny but Cassie was under no misapprehensions that Mia could totally take her.

“If you’re having second thoughts, just say the word, Cassie. I don’t want to cause any problems between the two of you. You guys have an amazing friendship and I don’t want to jeopardize that.” Ray looks at her with a challenge in his eyes and dammit if he didn’t look all noble and sincere. It isn’t hard to figure out why Mia had fallen hard for this guy.

She sighs theatrically to cover the fact that he’s won her over. “Just do me a favor, Ray. Don’t screw it up.”

He breaks out in a grin and gives her a mock salute before grabbing hold of the handle on the glass door to her office.

“And don’t have sex in my bed!” She says the words so loudly she gets a few curious looks from the bank of assistants outside her door.

Ray doesn’t even break his stride, heading purposefully for the elevators as all the women turn their heads to completely unsubtly check him out. Cassie sinks back down into her chair as she watches him go, praying that Mia isn’t going to hate her for what she’s just done. “They’re so going to have sex in my bed,” she mumbles to herself before she picks up the phone to call in the first of her favors.