“What, you think I can’t help with the bar’s books, or something?” she asked challengingly, her eyes narrowed on him.
Before he could reply, Blake beat him to it. “Can you hack?”
Lily swallowed hard, her eyes darting around. “Yes.”
Her voice wavered a little as she spoke, but the honesty in her tone rang clear as a doorbell. He instantly shook his head again at Blake as the other man
studied her contemplatively.
“No, Blake. Don’t. Besides, she was leaving tonight. Weren’t you, Lily?”
Her lips tightened. “Nope. Sure wasn’t. I’m available to help.”
“Blake—”
“It wouldn’t be dangerous,” Blake replied before looking back at her. “It would mean leaving with Noah to do surveillance. You up for that?”
That time, her look at Noah was a little smug. “Sure am.”
“It’s settled, then. Y’all can leave in the morning.”
Noah glared at Blake and then started walking toward Lily, taking pleasure in how her eyes widened nervously. “If you guys will excuse us, Lily and I need to talk.”
As he passed her, he wrapped his hand around her wrist to tug her along behind him. He stumbled for a second as a spark shot through him at the contact, but he forced himself to ignore it as he started moving again.
When they got to the end of the hallway where the back stairs were located, he let her go and turned toward her. She touched her wrist and rubbed gently, her brow furrowed. He knew he hadn’t hurt her—he’d taken care to keep his grip loose. She could have easily pulled away if she wanted.
So maybe that meant she’d felt the same spark he had. Fuck. If she had, that wasn’t good. It might have made his heart leap at the thought that she was as attracted to him as he was to her, but it couldn’t go anywhere between them. It really didn’t change anything.
His lion gave a little hum inside him, and Noah nearly jumped out of his skin. His cat rarely made noise inside him—and even more rarely spoke. He raised his hand and rubbed at his chest again, almost unconsciously. What he wouldn’t give if his cat would do shit like that more often.
“Are you okay?”
He raised his eyes at Lily’s words, dropping his hand when he saw she was watching him. “I’m fine. But what the hell were you thinking? You need to go tell Blake you changed your mind. You can’t do this.”
“The hell I can’t. And what were you thinking when you lied to me about the meeting? Bar business, my ass.”
“What I do with my life now isn’t your business.”
“I’m making it my business.”
“Why?”
Hesitating, she bit down on her lip before sighing. “Because I think Brandon would want me to. He’d want me to make sure you were okay.”
“Not at the expense of your own safety. I knew him well enough to know he’d want to kill me himself if you were in danger because of me.”
“So you are in danger. What have you gotten yourself into, Noah? You know what, it doesn’t matter. You can just walk away. Leave with me, now, and put this life behind you.”
Blowing a breath out, he pulled his ballcap off and repositioned it, shaking his head. He glanced up and saw Blake and Tarun watching him closely and nearly cursed. Fiddling with his hat was what he did when he was frustrated or unsettled, and it was a dead giveaway that something bothered him when he did it.
And now Blake and Tarun knew Lily unsettled him. Great.
“It’s not what you think it is, Lily. We’re not doing anything illegal. Yeah, there’s more to the MC than just the bar, but it’s not what you’re thinking.”
“I heard you guys talking about missions, intel, and people getting hurt, Noah—” her eyes widened as she broke off, and her next words were breathed out quietly. “Wait, are you guys, like, law enforcement? Undercover or something?”
She just gave him the perfect explanation. It was close enough to the truth to satisfy her and maybe then, she’d give up on trying to help or getting him to leave with her.