Atonement (Angel's Halo MC 5)

No, that wouldn’t have been why he was so upset about not knowing where I had been all night. Even if he did know about my big mistake, his reaction would have been different. I doubted it would have been solely pointed at me. If anything, he was most likely to kill his brother and hide the body, then pretend like nothing had happened.

I wasn’t blind. I knew my best friend had done bad things. None of that mattered, though. Except, I didn’t want him to kill Raider. Even with my dissolutions where that particular Hannigan was concerned, I still found that I couldn’t completely turn off a lifetime of love.

When I had gotten up that morning to go in for the lunch shift at Aggie’s, he had offered to take me to work. Colt Hannigan, the man who would rather walk than drive a cage, had wanted to drive my little Honda to the diner for me.

I couldn’t help wondering what had gone down on the run he had been on. Maybe he had hit his head, and that was why he was acting even more overprotective than usual.

I didn’t know, and I hadn’t had the time to find out, so I had laughed at how neurotic he had been acting and kissed him on the cheek on my way out the door. Then the diner had been crowded with MC brothers. That wasn’t an unusual thing, but no sooner had one group of brothers left did two more show up. They all sat close to the front doors or the windows, none of them saying much as they had eaten their food and watched people coming and going.

It was almost like they had been waiting on someone.

Or something.

I didn’t like it. Just watching them had made me nervous, and I didn’t need more crap on my already overflowing plate right then.

There had still been MC guys at the diner when I had left several hours after what should have been the end of my shift. I would have stayed longer, would have closed the place for Aggie, but she had taken one look at my face and demanded I go home and rest.

If only.

I didn’t have time to rest. Not when Topaz was enjoying the new flow of guys through Paradise City that the mysterious Luna was bringing in practically by the bus load.

I danced three sets, and never any private dances for any of the guys, although they had begged for them. It was their begging that kept Topaz rubbing her hands in glee every night I worked, which was every night the club was open.

Keeping me an enigma to the guys who came back every night, hoping to tempt me into something as little as speaking to them, was making Paradise City the hottest spot in not only Trinity County, but three others as well.

She was raking in the money just as fast as I was scooping up the ones, fives, and even twenties that some of the more determined customers stuck into the tops of my boots.

Some of the other girls loved the crowd I was bringing in, getting the tips from the private dances I kept refusing. My popularity wasn’t exactly a good thing for everyone at the club, though. Some of the other girls were not happy that I had shown up out of the blue and suddenly had the place packed with customers every night, that guys chanted “Luna” over and over again until I took the stage. Kelli said the ones who weren’t happy with me were only jealous, something that was alien to me, because who would be jealous of little ol’ me?

The week before, I had gotten my first glimpse of just how determined the crowd could become just to touch me when two guys, sitting at one of the closer tables with a group of college-aged guys, had actually tried to charge the stage.

With the new popularity of the club, Topaz had hired a few more bouncers and bartenders. One of them was stationed right beside the stage whenever I was out there. When the college boys had tried to jump on stage, Porter had tackled them both to the ground. Another bouncer had come running, almost as if out of thin air, and had used his Taser on the guys before helping Porter drag them out.

So far that night, I had already done two sets. I was dog-tired, but I still had one more to go.

There were still a few girls in front of me on the roster before I would be called to the stage again. I took the time to try to relax back in the dressing room. My feet were killing me after being on them all day, and then putting them into a pair of boots that had six-inch heels and could only be classified as a torture device.

I had set up my vanity station right beside Kelli’s, where I dropped down onto my little ottoman, thankful for the bottle of water my roommate handed over. Uncapping the fresh bottle, I took a slow, thirsty swallow before replacing the cap and pressing the coolness to one side of my neck then the other.

“Did you eat dinner?” she demanded as she watched me closely for a few uninterrupted moments.

I still had the lacey veil covering my face, not daring to reveal who I was even then. I wasn’t in any hurry to speed up the process of having Colt freak the fuck out and having to give up my lucrative second job.

“I had a sandwich at work before I came over here,” I told her. It wasn’t a complete lie. I’d had half a sandwich at Aggie’s.

Okay, so it had been a slice of bread, lightly toasted. But it had been buttered, so that totally counted.

It was also the only thing I had eaten the entire day.

As if she could see what I was thinking, Kelli muttered a harsh curse under her breath then pulled out a small back of peanut butter crackers from one of her vanity drawers. “Eat these. You don’t want to pass out on stage.”

Blowing out a frustrated sigh, I took one from the pack she was so insistent on me taking and carefully nibbled on one corner of the cracker so I didn’t have to remove my mask. I wasn’t hungry, but I knew better than to tell her that. She would only yell at me.

Again.

I had no appetite, but she didn’t seem to care. All she saw was that I had lost weight, something I was actually liking. My body was looking leaner, and while I was actually enjoying this new shape, I knew she was constantly worrying. She meant well and was only trying to look out for me, but she was turning into a bit of a nag.

All around us, the others were getting ready for their sets, when they suddenly stiffened. Half a second later, the reason walked into the dressing room.