Reese smirked. “That’s what this is? You’re stringing me along now? I’ll leave the goddamn room and tell Levi to send the guys down to visit Jefferson and the girls. Then go to each one of their apartments and houses. Oh, I can think of a handful of guys that would love to tear through a stripper’s dresser drawers.”
“Fuck you, Reese,” Josie said. “Don’t threaten me.”
“Don’t mess with me, Josie.”
“I’m not. You were jealous.”
“Who is pregnant?”
“Steph,” Josie said, feeling uneasy as she said it.
“What? Steph? Lasz’s stepsister?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s only eighteen.”
“I know.”
“Fuck,” Reese said.
He backed up a few steps and Josie caught his wrists. “Wait.”
“What?”
“I don’t know what to do, Reese. Okay? Steph’s pregnant. I have to help her. And now that crap happening at the club. I feel like I’m drowning a little.”
“You know how to swim, sweetheart.”
“Right,” Josie said. She let Reese go. “Sorry. Let me just get my bag and I’ll go.”
She took a step and Reese shot his hand out, touching her waist. It made her jump as a raging fire ignited instantly throughout her entire body. Some places on her body were more sensitive than others though.
“Don’t leave,” he said. “Or if you go, I’m coming with you. To talk to Steph. Figure this out.”
“What about the drugs?”
“We can handle that next. Family first, sweetheart. I promised Lasz I would look after Steph if something happened to him and I didn’t do that.”
“Neither did I, I guess,” Josie said, feeling her heart twist a little.
Reese inched closer again and slipped his hand around to the small of her back. For a few seconds, he pulled her close, so their bodies touched.
Reese lowered his mouth down to her ear.“You were right, sweetheart. Thinking you were pregnant by someone else made me jealous. But don’t tell anyone I said that.”
* * *
Something about lettingReese into her apartment made Josie really uneasy. It was a mix of worry and the feeling of butterflies in the pit of her stomach. It was kind of dumb to feel the way she did, but she couldn’t help it. There he was, stepping through the open door, wearing his leather cut, taking his black sunglasses off his face, running a hand through his messy blonde-brown hair, his dark eyes looking as wicked as ever.
She watched the way he looked around the apartment. It wasn’t fancy, but it wasn’t some dive place on the north side of town either. That’s where a lot of the drug activity had been for a long time. Right up until the MC overtook the issue from the police and drove the stuff right out of town.
“Hey, Steph?” Josie called out.
From the living room Steph appeared, wearing a dark red hoodie, her hair pulled back, her face looking tired and pale. She was in PJ bottoms that had fruits on them, her bare feet shuffling along the carpet.
When she saw Reese, she stopped, her eyes going wide.
“Hey, kid,” Reese said.