“Nope. It was all kinds of awesome, though.”
“Don’t worry, there’s more where that came from…later.” He nuzzled my neck, peppering it was kisses.
I sat up. “Wait, what time is it?”
“Twelve fourteen. I checked the clock in your bathroom. Happy New Year, Lina.”
“And look what we were doing when the clock struck twelve.” I wiggled around to face him. “Guess what we’ll be doing this year?”
“What we’ll be doing forever if I have my way,” he said, his eyelids hanging heavy over his eyes. “Forever, Lina.”
Those words settled over me, seeped into my skin and filtered into my bones. Yeah, we were destined. Just had to get over the last few hurdles.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Hunter
“Hey, Bill, what’d you need?” I asked, sitting in the leather chair facing his massive desk. It wasn’t my night to work, but he’d called me in for a chat, which was strange considering it was Valentine’s Day.
“How’s it going with Jenna?” he asked dragging his thick fingers through his graying brown hair. His light blue eyes were always a little dim, but today, they had a spark…an energy.
“Fine. I figured you’d be getting her progress reports. Is there something going on?”
“I am, but I thought I’d check with you. You seem to be straightening up around here nicely.”
I nodded. No major fights inside the club in a couple of months. Things had been going well with Lina, hell, she was almost to the campus. With only a few more months until graduation, we’d make it there in time.
And Dad was last seen more than seven hundred miles away from here, hopefully following a dead-end trail into a military-sized trap. Damn psycho wouldn’t relent. But Marshal seemed confident they’d get him this time and was working closely with Dad’s former sergeant.
“So, what’s up?” I asked. “Everything okay, Bill?”
He glanced around as he stood. “Just wanted to check in. You good?”
“Yeah,” I stood, thoroughly confused. “You sure you are?”
He huffed and lumbered around his desk. “Look, kid. I wanted to let you know…You’re doing good. Keep it up.” He patted me on my back, and none too gently either. “I know you’re going to college to get your fancy degree in that criminal psycho stuff.” He grinned and wheezed out a coughing laugh. “But you do good work here.”
“Thanks. I—”
“Still need to work on that interrupting, though. Let an old man finish a thought, would ya? They don’t stick around in our old mucky brains for very long. You do good around here. And…well, I need a new Cooler here. You’re a great bouncer, man, but you got the skills to be more.”
I knew the two Coolers we had here pretty well. They were bad asses and could knock you to your knees with a glare, but they didn’t. They headed trouble off before us Bouncers needed to come in and clean some clocks.
Most of the time, anyway. If they got involved, something big was going down.
“I thought Drey would be up next for Cooler?”
“He’s like a son to me, you too, boy, but some people aren’t meant to be anything more than a bouncer. Drey’s got that covered, you’re meant to be more.”
“Wow. Not sure what to say.”
“Think about it. It’s quite a bit more pay, higher percentage of tips, but you’ve never really been interested in the money, have you?”
I shrugged. It’d always been more than the money. It was about keeping people safe, making up for what I’d done, all the pain I’d caused Issie’s family. Hell, pretty much every penny I brought in doing this gig went to their family.
Anonymously, of course.
“That’s why you’re going to be a great Cooler.” He grabbed my shoulder and turned me toward the door. “Just had to get that anger bit under control.”