He needed to end it and right-the-fuck away. For so many reasons. She was a cop’s daughter. Didn’t get much further from MC life than that. Even a fuck buddy situation wouldn’t work. She’d be around the MC all the time. How would she ever except the upcoming war given her background? No, he really needed to end it.
But as he looked down at her face softened by sleep, he knew he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. Not until he fucked her out of his system at the very least. Something about her called to him in the most basic and animalistic way.
Looked like he was still the same selfish bastard who’d gotten a fifteen-year-old girl raped and murdered.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
AS IT HAD been the other two times Stephanie ate there, the diner was packed, and Toni, Shell, and the rest of the staff bustled around at top speed. She sipped her cappuccino and stared out the front window at the parking lot. A few cars, a lot of bikes, and a truck or two filled the space.
Mav’s bike wasn’t one of them and he wasn’t in the diner with some of his brothers. No, he was out on “club business” doing God knew what. She’d asked but was given a scowl and a “club business is not for women” BS speech. Shell and Toni had exchanged a few pointed and worried looks in the ten minutes Steph had been there, but whether they had any more information about the club business than she did was still left to be determined.
Not that she had any right to know anything. Toni was Zach’s ol’ lady and a fixture in his life. Shell had grown up in the club, and from what Steph had heard, she had some strange push/pull relationship with Copper where they were head over heels for each other, but neither ever made a move.
No, she was just the lying FBI agent who fucked Maverick and couldn’t think about much of anything but getting back into bed with him. Or, at least, that’s all she’d been thinking about right up until he’d given her that club business line and dropped her at the diner. Now, the investigator in her couldn’t help but obsess about what he was doing.
Was it legal?
Did it have to do with the Gray Dragons?
Did it have to do with the missing girls?
How could she find out what it was?
Was it something she was going to have to report?
Was it something she would report?
That last question was the one that had her staring at a bunch of cars rather than facing reality. Because way down deep in her gut, she feared she would continue to try to protect Maverick and his club no matter the cost to her career, or freedom.
And that was as foolish as it was illegal.
Illegal. God, she was the daughter of a decorated police commissioner, a dirty police commissioner doing time for the very thing she was considering. Did the apple really fall that close to the tree? The thought made her sick. Just two months ago, she’d been so staunch in her opinions, and all it had taken was one man to upend her entire belief system.
She was so much weaker than she’d ever imagined.
“Stephanie! I am so glad to see you.” Wearing a huge smile, Shell slipped into the booth next to Steph and gathered her in a tight hug. “You look fantastic. How’re you feeling?”
Shell’s sweetness and what appeared to be genuine happiness to see Steph had her returning the embrace with a laugh. “Considering how bad I looked the last time you saw me, I’m not sure that’s a compliment.”
Shell laughed as well and leaned her head back on the booth. “You know what I mean. You look good in general, not compared to anything.”
“Thanks. And I’m feeling pretty good.” Having nightmares about going to prison, or at least I was until Maverick fucked them right out of my brain then held me all night. Yeah, she wouldn’t be uttering those words aloud.
“So, are you just visiting? How long are you here for?”
Oh, I’m here until I can feed the FBI enough information to arrest your entire family and the men you love. “I’m not sure yet. Indefinitely, I suppose. I just…needed a change and somehow ended up here.” God, how did agents do this undercover thing? Of course, they usually weren’t smitten with one of the people they investigated. And they weren’t questioning everything they’d ever believed in. And they weren’t half convinced the group being investigated wasn’t nearly as depraved as believed.
“Well, we are so glad to have you. We’ll have to hang out soon, beyond my fifteen-minute break at work I mean.” There was just genuine goodness about Shell that couldn’t be overlooked.
“I’d love that. How’s Beth doing?”
“Lord save me.” Shell rolled her eyes. “Ever heard of the expression threenager?”