“What’s your other name?”
“Other?”
“Other than Angel.”
This time I did laugh. He was high as a kite. But it was kind of sweet.
“Why do you care?”
“I want to put you in my phone right.”
I looked over and he had my phone in one hand and his phone in the other. He was texting himself from my phone.
Shit!
My eyes got wide. If he saw Jacey…
But he didn’t. She wasn’t my screensaver anymore. I had emailed all my photos to myself and deleted them when I started working for the mob. I couldn’t risk someone seeing her. Someone like Sal would be more than happy to use her against me.
Plus, Lucky was D.R.U.N.K. He wasn’t a dick though. I could tell. A lot of guys got nasty when they drank. He was crossing boundaries left and right, though.
I didn’t really know how to deal with him. I didn’t want to kick him out. He was making me laugh. And I had run him over with my car, after all.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital? Get checked out?”
“No, Angel. But thank you for worrying about me. You’re a sweetheart.”
I sighed and shook my head. He was staring at me again. I could feel it. I forced myself to be firm and businesslike.
“Where am I dropping you off?”
“I’m crashing on the other side of town. Past the train station.”
“Okay. I don’t live that far from there.”
He was staring at me with a faint smile when I glanced over.
“That’s nice.”
“What?”
“That you will be close to me when I go to sleep tonight.”
I shook my head at that backwards logic. It was pretty stupid, but he really was very cute. Not just his looks. His attitude was adorable. He shouldn’t be, drunk as he was, but somehow he was.
Still, I felt like a school teacher trying to reason with a slow-witted child.
“It’s morning.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“I can’t go to sleep yet anyway. But okay.”
“Why not?”
I gave him a look that clearly said ‘drop it’ but he just smiled at me. He really did have pretty eyes…
Ugh, snap out of it, Kirsten. You’ll never see him again, anyway.
But I knew I’d never forget the look in his eyes. It might be the booze talking but the man had a crush on me, for the moment anyway. A big one.
He started riffling through my glove box.
“What are you doing? Stop that!”
“Kirsten Emerson,” he read off my registration. I groaned as he read my address out loud to himself. Twice. Then he frowned, the dreamy expression lifting from his eyes. “That’s not a good neighborhood.”
“That’s none of your business!”
He won’t remember once he sobers up, I reasoned to myself. It’s not like he’s going to show up unannounced, anyway. I was sure a guy like him had girls crawling all over him. There’s no way he was hard up enough to stalk a dealer at a scummy gambling den.
“Angels belong in Heaven, Angel.”
I laughed, shaking my head. He really was consistent, I had to give him that.
“Why were you walking? Don’t you have a car?”
“Motorcycle.”
“Okay. So why were you walking?”
“I don’t drink and drive, Angel.”
I exhaled, hoping he’d already forgotten my name. He was really hammered.
“Well, that’s good. Why don’t you just not drink then?”
“I love alcohol,” he took my hand and kissed it. I looked at the red light and back at him. “But not as much as I love you.”
And then he passed out.
“Get up!”
I cursed, staring at the big, gorgeous, unconscious man in my car. I couldn’t leave him here and I couldn’t go see my kid, either.
What the heck am I supposed to do now?
I was about to pour water on his face when he opened his eyes.
“You’re still here.”
“No, you are still here. And I need to drop you off. Now.”
“Okay. I’m at the SOS clubhouse.”
I stared at him. Of course, he was a biker. Of course, he was! And I’d been trying to convince myself that maybe he was worth seeing again.
“You live there?”
He stretched and nodded.
“Yeah. I just got back from my last deployment.” He scratched his chin and I stared, momentarily fascinated by his scruff. It was sexy. “Well, a while ago.”
Snap out of it, Kirsten!
Okay a biker and a military man. Maybe one cancelled the other one out. Not that it mattered. The Margarellis owned me and would for the foreseeable future. And my kid was my only priority, other than not pissing off the mob.
There wasn’t room for a guy in that scenario.
“Okay, I know where that is.”
It wasn’t far. I drove him over to the massive compound surrounded by a very intimidating fence. A couple of guys stood outside. They looked at my car with zero interest. They perked right up when Lucky hung out the window and waved at them. The next thing I knew the chain link gate was sliding open in front of my car.