I can’t stop the evil grin that forms on my lips as I glance over
at Felicity. “Don’t worry about us.” This is going to be fun.
Felicity doesn’t think that we need to take any one else with us and I agree. Between the two of us, we’ll get our point across to that sick cow. Just because we don’t need any other women to help, I still want to play things safe. I jumped out of Felicity’s Jeep as soon as she pulls into the parking lot of Razor’s Ink Shop.
The open sign is off, but I know Spider’s inside. It’s a Saturday morning. At least one of Angel’s Halo’s guys would be in today to get some ink. Although Razor, who was an original, owns the Shop, Spider runs it. He’s the only one I let do my ink, and over the last year he’d become like another brother to me. I feel like I’m as close to him as I am to Felicity.
I tap twice before trying the handle and find the door unlocked, which is exactly what I expected. Only an idiot would try anything with Spider. “Hey!” I call out when I see the front room is empty. “Are you busy?”
“Depends on your definition of busy.” A gruff voice comes from the hall leading to the more private rooms, where discreetly placed tattoos have to be handled. Spider pokes his head around the corner, his eyes narrowing on me. “What you want, kid?”
I lean against the front counter where his computer is already booting up. “I need you for about an hour. Can you come with me and Flick?”
Those black eyes of his narrow even more as he walks toward me. I grin at the monster as he takes his time. I’m not really sure why the club calls him Spider. He only got the Black Widow tattoo on his neck five years ago, and he’s been in the club for at least six. Not many people know that his real name is James or that he has a weakness for Snickers. No one wants to know those things.
All they care about is that he’s a scary looking motherfucker and can destroy you with the flick of his wrist. He’d taken over as enforcer when Bash had left the year before, and no one wants to deal with him any more than they want to deal with Bash, so there’s mostly peace within the club. I let my eyes take all of him in.
Spider’s only twenty-four but he looks older than Jet who’s thirty-one. He’s got a shaved head and ties a bandana around it. The bull ring draws my eyes to the crookedness of his nose. It’s been broken at least twice and has never been set properly. His goatee is dark brown and hides the dimple in his chin. He’s wearing a shirt with this rock band that we all like on it. As tight as that shirt is over his hard chest, I always snicker at the thought of him hulking out, which he can do in the blink of an eye, and destroying the shirt. Old jeans hang off his narrow hips. His size fifteen boots stomp toward me.
“Someone touch you, Rave?” he asks as he comes closer. “Do I need to take care of someone?”
The rule that no one touches Raven Hannigan is the one rule that Spider makes sure is enforced. Jet had made sure of that. That doesn’t mean I hadn’t tried to tempt him when I was on the rebound. “No, no. I have to take care of something for Hawk and I was hoping you could come with me and Flick.”
“Sure. I’ve always got time for you.”
It takes us twenty minutes to get to Gracie’s apartment just a block from the university. Spider leads the way up two flights of stairs and knocks on the door, keeping his spider tattoo turned away from the peep hole as we wait for Janice to answer the door. The tattoo is the scariest part of Spider. No one could see it and not know that he’s a very dangerous man. So he keeps the pretty boy side of his face to the hole, and I know that Janice won’t be able to resist opening the door for that.
I glance at Felicity who already has her phone out, ready to record what’s about to go down. Janice isn’t going to like it when the tables are turned and someone records her being humiliated.
The door opens and a breathless Janice stares up at Spider, her cow eyes eating him up. He steps back and I stick my head around his wide shoulders. “Hi there,” I greet with a smile that’s pure evil. She squeaks in surprise at my sudden appearance. “Are you Janice?”
“Um … yeah …” She looks hesitantly up at my friend and then back at me. “Do I know you?”
Felicity sticks her head around Spider next. “Nope, but you’re about to know her a lot better.” She scrunches her nose up in a way that’s so cute and belies every evil thought flashing in her mind right now.
I step around Spider and pat his hard chest. Sadly, I don’t get butterflies in my stomach when I touch him like that. My panties don’t melt when I smell his unique male scent. I haven’t been able to feel anything since I decided to use Spider as my rebound sex slave after Bash left me. Something I tried, but couldn’t go through with. The only reason I wanted to use him was because I knew it would hurt Bash the most if I went from him to his best friend—Spider. He’s my friend too and has only ever been my friend. He cares about me as deeply as if I’m a sister, so I’m not even sure if he could have gone through with it if I’d been able to.
So I know he’ll do anything I ask him to. “You stand guard, Spider.” I take another step closer to Janice, pushing her back into the little apartment. “I get to have all the fun this time.”
Bash
My mouth tightens when I saw the video Felicity messaged me. It should amuse me. Should have me laughing my head off as I show it to Hawk, who sits like a storm cloud beside me as we downed another beer in what Raven calls the Originals’ booth.
Instead of a smile, my lips twist in rage as I watch the beginning of Felicity’s video again and again. All I can see is Raven’s graceful, long-fingered hand touch Spider’s chest. I keep repeating those five seconds over and over. See the hand that had once touched me so lovingly, with such passion … Touching. Fucking. Spider.
“Would you like some glass to chomp on while you crush your phone, my brother?”
My head barely lifts and I glare at Raider, who has set another bottle of beer down in front of me. “Why would your sister take Spider and not one of you?”
Amusement fills his green eyes, and I want to punch Raider’s pretty boy face so bad that my hands squeeze into fists. When I feel my phone give out just a little in my left hand. I realize I will destroy it and toss my phone onto the table beside me. “Spider isn’t anything to worry about, Bash.”
“Does that mean there is someone that I do need to worry about?”
Raider shrugs. “I’m not the one you should ask. Fuck, I didn’t have a clue that we should have been worried about you for months, man. If you want to know so bad, talk to Raven.”
Hawk reaches for my phone and hits play. The screams of a girl I have never met fill the quietness of the bar, and some of the storm that surrounds him starts to disperse. He grins for the first time today. “Well, you tell her to do something and she gets thorough, doesn’t she.”
“That’s Raven.” Raider drops down across from us, and we both watch Hawk closely. “What do you want to do about the frat house?”