Unruly (25 page)

I
WAS STILL GRINNING WHEN
A
LAMO DROPPED ME OFF ON
campus. My happiness didn't fade by the time class was over either. It wasn't simply that I'd ended my dry spell or even that I'd been with the man who'd been filling my mind when I let myself relax. It was that we
clicked
. There was something almost magical when two people fit so well.

“Did something happen?” Aubrey asked. She had waited for me after class.

I started at her question. I never quite bought into the idea that people could tell by looking if a person had recently been . . . satisfied. On the other hand, I still felt like I was doing an imitation of the Cheshire cat. I was
happy
. Casually I asked, “Like what?”

She shrugged and peered at me as if she could find clues. I didn't have the heart to tell her that she wasn't going to have any luck with intimidation. Between my mother and Echo, I'd had “the look” from the best. Aubrey was a sweetie, but she wasn't intimidating—at least not to me.

After a moment or two of trying to stare me down, she said, “You tell me. Noah took off when I said I was waiting for you. I know you two have had your issues, but I thought you were getting along.”

I was so startled by her remarks that I simply blinked at her. My mind was so full of what had happened with Alamo that I'd set aside the other bits. The conflict with Noah wasn't
forgotten
, but it wasn't at the top of my mind. I considered not getting into it, but she'd been indoctrinated enough between her job at Wolves & Whiskey and dating Killer that I figured I could—and should—be blunt. “Noah told everyone I was under his protection. Idiot boy is the last president's kid and liable to be the next in line now that Killer's left. People think . . .” I looked at her to be sure she realized exactly what conclusion they would arrive at.

Aubrey's lips parted on a sound of surprise so low that I heard nothing. I saw it, however, and was glad that she wasn't offended. I'd hate to lose her friendship, but I knew that she counted Noah as a friend too. I felt horrible a heartbeat later when she thought about what she knew, what she'd seen when Noah had been with her at the same time as I was.

“You're not, though. Together with Noah, I mean . . . Right? When he and I were flirting, when he kissed me—”

“No.” I cut her off before she could let that wave of guilt pull her under. She'd done nothing wrong. “What Noah Dash and I had ended before you moved here.”

“How much before?” she asked softly as we walked through the hall toward the exit of the building.

“Enough that you can take your worry and guilt and shelve it,” I assured her. I had become very fond of Aubrey over the months that I'd known her, but she was a little too sweet sometimes. It was probably for the best that Killer was walking away from the club. This life wasn't going to suit a woman like her, especially because Killer was far from fringe. He'd been in the thick of everything, and that would mean either lying to her or asking her to change. I was proud of him for choosing to be the one who made changes.

“Honest,” I stressed, “Dash is my past. I thought we both knew that. He's always been out there wetting his wick worse than . . .”

“Worse than Killer was before he met me?” she finished in a joking tone. To my relief she bumped her shoulder into me. “I know Zion wasn't celibate before me. There was a reason he was called Ladykiller, right? I know.” She shrugged, seeming so much calmer and confident than she'd been when I'd first met her. “That was before me. Now? He's
mine
.”

I laughed at the edge of venom that had crept into her voice. She had grown at least a bit of an attitude being with Killer. It looked good on her. Worrying about my drama with Noah wasn't what either of us needed. I'd rather think about Alamo, and Aubrey had plenty on her plate with Killer about to ship out to boot camp.

“So what's the plans for Killer's going-away party?”

“Echo and Zion are . . . negotiating. Echo wants a blowout. Zion wants them not to make a fuss.” Aubrey shoved the door open with more force than strictly necessary. She wasn't in a proper snit, but she sounded like she wasn't too far from it. “The two of them! I swear they're absurd since Zion got shot and Echo agreed to him leaving the club. You'd think it was a wedding reception the way they try to draw me into it. I'm not the one going away
or
the father of him, but I'm stuck in the middle. Grandma Maureen won't tolerate it, though. She kicked them out halfway into dinner last night because they started bickering again, told them that they'd sort it out by tonight or
we
were deciding.”

She paused awkwardly and glanced sideways at me. We were almost to the lot, and I figured she was headed over to the bar for work. She had continued on as a bartender even after getting with Killer. Most of the barmaids had a rule that they couldn't date a Wolf and still work there, but with Killer's leaving the club, that rule wasn't quite as applicable, I guessed.

I could hear in her voice that there was more she wanted to say. That tentative tone of hers had me debating between having mercy on her and forcing her to get there on her own, but she was also glancing at her phone semi-subtly. Either she was running late or had another stop before work. So I prompted, “Spill.”

She let out her breath in a big whoosh and, in a tumble of words, blurted, “There's a party at the bar tomorrow. Gran and I planned it, not huge, but not ignoring it either. Since Zion and Echo couldn't agree, we took over.”

I couldn't help it. I laughed. “That's why you wanted me to keep tomorrow open? Sneaky thing. I thought you wanted a girls' night or a favor.”

“You'll come, right? Even with you and Noah fighting, you'll come?”

I nodded. “I wouldn't miss it. Killer's family.”

“He'll be glad you're there. At least he will when he realizes there's a party. Right now he's clueless. Echo is too.
Technically
, people aren't supposed to keep secrets from Echo . . . and I wasn't sure they would, so we've had to be a little stealthy. Mike knows, and Uncle Karl knows. Alamo too.”

My ears perked up at that. “Alamo?”

“And Hershey and Big Eddie . . . and Noah. So far, Grandma Maureen just told the ‘cubs' because they're all as scared of her as they are of Echo.” Aubrey preened a little. The fact that her grandmother was the former—and renewed—love of the club president amused her. She'd gotten to see a side of Echo that very few people did. Noah and Killer had, of course. I had too.

None of that meant that Echo would hesitate to pull a trigger or order it done. Echo wasn't a house pet, no matter how much of his sweet side Aubrey had seen the past few months. He was ruthless, but he was ruthless for the good of the club. They were his family, and a Wolf would kill or bleed for family. I'd grown up knowing that, and I took comfort in it.

It was why I wasn't sure I could ever leave Williamsville. It was also why I knew I could do so if I decided to go. The club would look after Mama.

“So, party . . . ?”

“At the bar.” She squirmed a little more.

“Spit it out, girl.”

“Echo says you sing,” she half said, half asked.

I tensed.

“Do you sing?” Aubrey pressed.

I used to sing at club parties. My father and I both did. Now that I was singing in Memphis again, I should've expected this request. I hadn't. I'd been so caught up in my personal dramas and my own slow return to singing that I hadn't thought about needing to sing for Wolves again. It wasn't that I didn't want to either. I just hadn't thought I was ready. Sometimes, however, being part of Echo's family meant that decisions were out of my hands.

As calmly as I could, I asked, “Echo brought it up?”

She nodded. “He was telling me that you had a beautiful voice, and that it was a shame that you didn't ever sing at the bar.”

I nodded. There really wasn't another option before me. Echo spoke, and the rest of us obeyed.

“I know he's hoping that you'll sing, but he didn't want me to ask until right before the party. He might not know
when
it is now that Gran and I did this, but he'd said before that we'd ask you the day before the party. I guess he wanted you to not to have time to change your mind,” she explained.

Sometimes I wanted to teach her to read between the lines, but I liked her for who she was, and I thought that between Killer and her grandmother
and
Echo, she'd be just fine. She wasn't stupid or even naïve. She simply didn't translate biker words and acts to regular ones. I smiled and said, “If Echo wants me there, I'll be there,
and
I'll be singing.”

“Oh good! I was worried that you'd say no.”

The relief in her expression was too much for me. I didn't want to take away her sweetness, but I had to point out the truth that was seemingly obvious to everyone but her. Gently I said, “No one tells Eddie Echo no, Aubrey. He wants me to sing. I sing. It wasn't a request. It never is with him.”

“Oh.” She frowned, and I felt a little bad as I watched her think over the situation. After a moment, she let out a groan. “How does he seem so nice when really he was giving you an order? He was, wasn't he? I was
delivering
his order.”

I gave her a one-armed hug. “He
is
nice to the people under his wing. We're all there. You more than most. Between your grandmother and Zion, you're loved by the two people
he
loves.”

Aubrey sighed again. “I know, but . . . I'm sorry. I can tell him I don't want you to sing or—”

“I'll be there, Aubrey. I'll sing for Killer. It's all good,” I promised her.

Then I shooed her into the mammoth car she drove and waved her off. I didn't want her to linger longer, as I'd just noticed two guys staring at us. As Aubrey left, I glanced surreptitiously at them. They weren't looking at her quickly disappearing car, but at me.

Seeing unfamiliar faces wasn't entirely unheard of on the Williamsville Community College campus. There was always a mix of regulars like Noah and me who were taking their own sweet time to complete a degree and those who seemed to take only a class or two and then vanish. Seeing two strangers eyeing
me
, however, was atypical. Because I was the daughter of a Southern Wolf and had been a friend of other Wolves (or their kids) my whole life, people tended to give me a wide berth. If I had been a different kind of girl, I might think it was simple attraction, but I'd realized years ago that everyone attracts a
type
. There might be exceptions, but as a rule, women attracted men who had things in common with them. Maybe it was as simple as the way we responded to them, some signal we gave out unconsciously. Did I look back a little longer when bikers turned their gazes my way? Did I smile a little warmer for a man in worn jeans or a well-made leather vest? Did I take an extra breath at the sight of a good-looking tattoo? I went through a stage a few years ago when I tried to pay attention to it for a while—determined not to attract another man like the ones I'd dated so far, hoping to meet someone totally unexpected—but I'd never been able to figure out much of a pattern beyond the basic truth that we all have types whether we want to or not.

Khakis? Button-ups? They weren't the sort of men who looked my way very long—and I didn't do anything to suggest they should. Whatever reason these two had for watching me, it wasn't something good.

Chapter 24

A
LAMO WASN
'
T GOING TO START DIGGING POSTHOLES
for a white picket fence or anything, but he was feeling pretty good about the way things were turning out with Ellen. They'd still need to deal with the Dash factor. Larger than that, Alamo would need to decide if he could handle staying around, stepping up into Killer's role for the club, knowing that eventually it would be Dash he'd have as a president. Could he take orders from him? Would Dash be able to treat him fairly? Obviously he'd made progress in that direction because he'd been willing to trust Alamo to keep a watch over Echo, Aubrey, and her grandmother at the hospital, but that was a special situation. There was no way to determine if they could sort things out long-term.

For now he'd stay in Tennessee, but he wasn't about to start trying to figure out anything beyond the next year or two. What he could say for certain was that things were good for him here
right now
. That much he knew. Less than a year ago, he'd been forced to leave North Carolina because of trouble that he hadn't exactly
started
, but he'd certainly answered to the point of explosion. Despite the things he'd lost by leaving North Carolina, in moving to a new state he'd somehow ended up with a respected position and, potentially, a woman worth keeping.