“What if that guy injures your employee worse next time? Because of what you did tonight?”
Dex growled and flicked the blinker on, taking a turn way too fast. “Then next time, I’ll kill him.”
The deathly calm tone of his voice left no doubt he meant it.
“You’re a brave kid,” he said after a few more miles. “Honorable too.”
“How so?”
“Well,” he drawled, “you could’ve taken the car keys and driven off. Sold it for parts.”
“I couldn’t do that to Juliet. You're her family.”
He roared with laughter. “But if I was a stranger?”
“I wouldn’t have gotten in your car in the first place. Stranger danger.”
He smirked. “How’s work going?”
“All right.”
“Ulfric treat you fairly?”
It seemed like an odd question. Weren’t he and Ulfric friends? Why wouldn’t he treat me fairly?
“He runs a different motorcycle club, but the clubs are friendly to each other,” Dex said as if he’d read my mind.
That didn’t exactly clear things up. “What does that mean?”
“You really don’t know anything about MCs? Figured you woulda run into at least one or two MC brats in the system. A kid with a father in a club.”
“I tend to stick to myself as much as possible.”
“Hmm.” My answer seemed to disappoint him.
“Hard to trust people you barely know,” I added. Not that I owed him any explanation.
“Yeah, I get that.” He drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. “I can’t speak for every MC, but mine’s a brotherhood. I’d die for any one of them and they’d do the same for me.”
I couldn’t think of anyone—except Juliet—I felt that strongly about. I’d protect Pip, but I don’t know if I’d be willing to die for him.
“So why’re you hiding tonight’s adventures from your brothers, then?”
“I’m not hiding shit.” He laughed again. “My president’s more than okay with what just went down. He would’ve done it himself, but he had other business to attend to.”
“Busy beating up the neighborhood drug dealer?”
“Not tonight.”
There wasn’t a lot more to say. He’d given me plenty to think about.
As promised, before I got out of the car, he handed over a wad of cash.
In a few short hours, the direction of my life had been steered onto an entirely new path.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Juliet
School was finally out for the summer.
Mrs. Shields had returned from her trip, which meant I needed another way to keep myself out of the house for as many hours a day as possible.
As Roman predicted, my “interview” at Jericho Two consisted of a brief meeting with Uncle Dex’s friend where he asked me a few questions before handing over a pile of papers to fill out. His way of saying I was hired.
“Ice cream shop closes right after the second movie starts,” Ulfric explained. “You’ll be responsible for wiping everything down and cleaning out the machine with the flavor of the day. I’ll handle the registers in the morning.”
That suited me fine, I didn’t want to be responsible for counting the money.
He glanced at the open doorway. “I understand you’re Roman’s girl. I can trust you two to behave, right?”
My cheeks heated. He wasn’t asking in a creepy way, more in the way a father who actually cared about his daughter might warn.
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m kidding, sweetheart,” he said in his deep, rumbly voice. “Just don’t do anything to get your uncle pissed at me.”
I’m pretty sure Dex suspected how close Roman and I were. We didn’t discuss it, but he’d gone out of his way to help Roman find this job. According to Roman, Dex also threw other side jobs at him. Although when I asked him for details he refused to elaborate.
Either way, I appreciated this opportunity, and I had no intentions of squandering it.
After my very first shift, Roman and I climbed into Mrs. Shields’ car together.
“She’s still letting you borrow her car?” he asked.
“Just to go to work. She said she doesn’t drive at night and she didn’t want me taking the bus.” I still felt guilty about using her car and wasn’t sure how Uncle Jared would tolerate this newfound independence of mine.
“She’s a really nice woman.” Roman cranked down the window on his side and stared into the night.
“She is. I want to do something to thank her, but I haven’t decided what yet.”
“I’ll help you figure out something.” He glanced around the car. “We could take it to get it detailed.”
“It’s not that dirty.”
“Maybe some of those hanging flower baskets she likes for the front porch.”
“Oh, that’s a great idea! I can run over and water them in the mornings for her.”
“Perfect.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek. “I’ll help you pick them out this weekend.”
It would’ve made more sense to drop Roman off first, but he wouldn’t allow it. I parked the car in Mrs. Shields’ driveway and he walked me home, refusing to leave until I was safely inside. Then, he’d walk home by himself.