Rough Stuff (The Untouchables MC 3)

All those sleepless, aching nights had been for nothing. Watching her from a distance. Looking, and wanting, but never touching.

Despite my best efforts, it was well-known that I had a thing for Kelly. Plus, she hung with club girls like Cassandra and Michelle. Shit, she was practically in the club herself.

She was definitely in the crosshairs.

“What’s the status?”

Vice and Hunter exchanged a look. I gritted my teeth, knowing it was going to be one of those reports. Obviously, some monkey had made a move on her. No one in this town would dare, but she was in college part-time. We couldn’t threaten all of Southern California.

“The last few days, she’s been quiet. Classes, mostly. And her new job.”

I grunted. Kelly was waiting tables at a diner called Early Bird that catered to old people. The place opened close to dawn and shut down at eight PM. I’d done extensive recon. She was safe there with my guys keeping an eye on it, though I worried when she worked an early shift.

Late nights and early mornings. Those were the times the killer liked to strike.

I folded my arms and waited. Mason cleared his throat and muttered something about getting going soon. But he didn’t get up.

Nobody moved an inch.

“Some creep followed her to her car last night.”

“When?”

“After her psych class.”

“Student?”

“He’s the . . . uh, the TA.”

“Elaborate.”

“A TA is a teaching assistant, usually a graduate student.”

I sliced a look at Vice and he stopped talking.

“I know what a fucking TA is.”

Hunter took a puff of his cigar.

“I followed him home last night. Vice followed Kelly. He lives alone in an apartment not far from campus. I’ve got a guy on him now. Loner. So far, all Trace has dug up is porn.”

Trace was a club member who specialized in the dark web. He made the average hacker look like they belonged in a fucking knitting circle. He did more for the club that anyone but wasn’t at the clubhouse all that much. He preferred his ‘dungeon,’ which is what he called the subterranean room in his house that was hermetically sealed and filled with more electronics than Best Buy. Plus, he worked for me at my security firm where he had even more high-tech shit. No one else was allowed to touch it.

Trace could have been an engineer. A gazillionaire. Instead, he’d dropped out of MIT and indulged in his love of booze, bikes, and babes, all while maintaining his own corner of the dark web. He was brilliant. Too brilliant to be mainstream. He was also a pain in the ass.

“He lives alone and watches porn. Great.”

Mason cracked a smile at that.

“Well, no, not just porn. Dark stuff. Couple of Cam girls blocked him. Apparently, he’s got a reputation as a bad apple. Obsessive type. Trace is still digging.”

“Did she see him?”

He shook his head.

“She has no idea. I don’t think she’s aware of the . . . attention she gets.”

I snorted. That was an understatement. Kelly had no damn idea how fine she was. From observation and the little bit of time we’d spent together, I’d already gathered that. She just thought of herself as any other girl.

Of course, she was anything but ordinary.

I watched her. A lot. I knew that little girl inside and out. Of course, she barely knew me. It didn’t matter. She was mine.

Vice leaned in.

“Okay. We ramp up security. It’s not like this guy is going to cut out her eyeballs, but he’s definitely bad news.”

I flinched. So did Mason. We were both extremely even-keeled except when it came to our women. Threaten the women we cared about and we went nuts. We would kill anyone who tried to harm them or even thought about harming them. I didn’t even like hearing about what the killer was doing to people out loud.

Not when it was Kelly’s face I imagined. Kelly’s eyes.

I usually wasn’t superstitious, but I wanted to smack Vice for even putting it into words.

Nobody was touching Kelly. Not on my watch and not on my club’s watch.

I reminded myself that she was covered. Her backup had backup. Three lines you had to cross to get to her. Me. My guys. And her brother, Connor.

Pain in the ass though he might be, the man was smart and very protective of his little sister. He’d threatened to dismember me several times.

Well, one body part, in particular.

I snorted. Con didn’t scare me. This TA creep didn’t scare me either, though I was irritated as fuck about the latest Kelly situation. I’d seen things overseas that would turn your hair white. Done things too. Walked through gore after bombs went off. Held a dying soldier in my arms as we tried to put him back together. Very little on God’s green earth could scare me even a little.