Tatum
Tatum woke earlythe next day and smiled at the big biker who was practically wrapped around her body. He was warm and sexy as sin, snoring next to her, his arm protectively wrapped over her breasts.
Her cell phone buzzed from her purse and she cursed, realizing that she had work and she promised Jack that she’d open the boutique today. “Shit,” she whispered to herself.
“What’s wrong?” Ryder grumbled.
“I have to get ready for work,” she said. “It’s probably late.” Ryder rolled over and grabbed his cell from the nightstand.
“Nope,” he said, holding the phone up for her to see, “it’s only seven.”
Her cell started buzzing again, as if on cue. “Well, someone needs to tell the person blowing up my phone that it’s too damn early to be calling me.” She slipped from the bed and dug through her purse to find her phone. “It’s Jackson,” she whispered.
“Just answer it, Honey,” Ryder ordered. “You’re going to have to talk to your brother at some point, Tatum.”
“I don’t see why it has to be at seven in the morning,” she mumbled. Ryder chuckled and she knew he wasn’t going to give her any leeway on talking to her brother. “Fine,” she grumbled. Tatum answered her phone and put it on speaker, knowing that Ryder would ask her a million questions otherwise.
“Tatum?” Jackson said into the phone.
“Yeah—I’m here,” she said. “It’s seven in the morning, Jackson.”
He laughed into his end of the line and she rolled her eyes. What was it about the men in her life that they were constantly laughing at her, “Laughing at me will only piss me off, Jackson.”
“Well, we wouldn’t want that now, would we,” he teased. Her older brother was always pushing her limits and him calling to laugh at her at the break of dawn got on her last nerve. “Tell me you’re okay, Sis,” Jackson demanded.
“Of course I am,” she insisted, looking over at the bed where Ryder laid watching her. “Why would you call to ask me that at seven in the morning?”
“To check on you, Sis. Are you with Ryder?” he asked. Tatum could hear the disdain in her brother’s voice and she thought about ending the call but she also knew he’d just call her back or worse, show up at Ryder’s front door.
“I’m here with her, man,” Ryder shouted so Jackson would be able to hear him. “What’s up?” Ryder sat on the edge of the bed and she crossed the room to sit next to him.
“I got a call from one of my guys on the inside at the Dragons,” Jackson said. “Ryder knows this already—I have a couple of guys I put on the inside of the Dragons, to help bring down the trafficking ring that they’re involved in with the Anarchy Kings.”
“Human trafficking?” Tatum breathed.
“Yeah,” Jackson said. Ryder wrapped an arm around her body as if trying to protect her from what her brother was about to tell her.
“Savage Hell had a run in a few years back with the Dragons taking Savage’s oldest daughter. They were going to auction her off and I went in with Cillian to get her out of there and well, that made me a few enemies,” Jackson said.
“What about that guy you said you had working undercover for you? The one in charge—I think you said his name is Outkast. Is he still working for you?” she asked, trying to put all of the pieces together.
“He was working for me when I was on the force. He’s been undercover for a while now and he’s damn good at his job. He’s also pretty damn convincing. He’s been MIA. No one knows where he is and I can’t get in touch with him. Even if I could, he won’t be able to stop the Anarchy Kings from coming after me and everyone close to me. Outkast told me a while ago that he thinks they found out that I was a detective and now, they want revenge.”
“Fuck,” Ryder shouted. “So, your intel was right and they’re coming for Tatum too?”
“We’re going on my source’s guess here, but yes,” Jackson breathed. “I take it you already filled her in?”
“He did,” Tatum said. “After our date, Ryder told me everything.”
“What the hell?” Jackson barked into the other end of the phone. Tatum giggled, getting the reaction she was hoping for from him.
Ryder pointed an accusing finger at her, “You’re evil,” he assessed.
“You have no idea,” she whispered.
“So, you two are dating now?” Jackson asked.
“Well, if that’s what you want to call it, sure,” Tatum teased.