“Babe?” I question, and she still doesn’t look up when she greets me back.

“Hey, good ride?”

Well… Shit. How to answer that? Turns out, I don’t need to because my silence causes her to look up. Her eyes immediately travel to the blood all over my gloves. She’s not shocked; she just slowly shuts her laptop, picks it up, and motions for me to follow her. I’m a bit lost for words here. What the f**k is she thinkin?

We make our way to her room, and she tosses her laptop onto her bed and flips on her bathroom light. Okay, what the f**k is she doing? She’s bending down underneath the sink and comes back up with a first aid box and what looks to be a bathroom trash bag. She starts ripping them apart and laying them on the floor in a giant square. After she’s satisfied, she opens the first aid box, and I’m about to tell her I’m not hurt, that it’s not my blood, but she pulls out a pair of rubber gloves and puts them on.

She turns back to me, takes off my blood covered gloves, and tosses them onto the trash bags. She proceeds to do this with my jacket, cut, and the rest of my clothes. By the time she’s done, I’m standing in front of her completely naked. “Get in the shower Mason.”

Not gonna argue with the woman. I climb in, turn on the hot water, and lean against the shower wall. Instead of looking at me, she’s rolling the trash bags over my clothes and picking them up. “I’m guessing Berry knows what to do with this shit? I don’t know the first thing about cleanin blood outta leather.”

I bite back my smile. “Yeah, Ma can do it.”

She curses. “I’m bringing up bleach, and you will use it.”

I’m not arguing with her because I wanna sleep in bed with her, and I have a feelin if I try and fight her on this I’m gonna be sleepin in my own bed tonight. “Yes, ma’am.” I grin at her.

“Mason,” she snaps.

I don’t get to say anything else because she stomps off with my bloody murder clothes in her arms.

Chapter 29

Storm

Two weeks later…

Everything has been going good between Mason and me. Things have also been quiet, and the guys finally let us go back and forth between the compound and Club Sated. Winter is still raving pissed about what happened to Tatiana, so she’s called Shadow down and wants me to sit with her. I guess she’s trying to give me something to listen to… hell I don’t know. I’m just so horny and bored. I’m about to blow this popsicle stand and hunt down Mason to have my way with him. It’s been over two weeks, and the doctor said if the bleeding stopped, it was my call when I was ready again. He said two to six weeks is the average healing time. Guess what? It’s been two weeks, and I want Mason.

“Winter… c’mon already,” I whine.

She looks up from her paperwork and frowns. “What the hell is with you?”

I throw my head back on the couch, and she tosses her papers down and laughs at me.

“Not funny. Mason was gone with Mace when I woke up; he also went to bed after me last night. I need to find Mason,” I growl. “And I’m finally not sore a.n.y.w.h.e.r.e.” I stress the word.

“Oh…”

Yeah, oh, dammit!

“Shadow, perfect timing. Storm’s restless today.” She grins, and I look over to see a very confused Shadow. Always f**kin sneaking up on people.

“Winter, what’s goin on?”

Good choice of words dude. She says nothing, and when he sits down beside her, she hands him the papers. He skims over them, looks up at her, and then looks back down to skim again.

“I see what you want to do… but what the f**k does that have to do with me?” He finally says.

“I want you to do the screening phase. You don’t have to manage the damn place. I have Storm for that.”

Wait. What?

“Look Shadow. This shit wouldn’t have happened to Tatiana if that damn club paid attention to its members. It’s no secret that I’m playing monopoly in this town. It was bound to happen eventually. This just forces me to do it sooner. It’ll practically be your club. You’ll be the man who screens the members. They don’t abide by the rules then you boot their asses out. You can help me make this club the way it needs to be to steal clients from the other club. Worst case scenario, you have a new playground.” She giggles at her own joke then throws her hands up. “I don’t know shit about that world. I need you, plain and simple Shadow.”

More businesses? Another club?

“I’m in.” He drops the paperwork, stands, and walks off.

“Fuckin awesome!”

Glad she’s excited. “When were you gonna tell me I had another club I was gonna be managing soon?”

She clucks for a moment. “Just now. Oh, don’t get your panties in a twist bitch. You know damn well you’re gonna wanna stay busy.”

I hate that she’s right about that. I get way too damn bored. “What about finishing my degree?”

She shrugs. “You don’t need it to work for me. But if you want it for your own validation, switch to online classes or something. Or continue going to your classes. I don’t care. You only go two nights a week anyways.”

I’m not even in school right now because of all this shit.

“Angel… whatcha doin?”

Yay, he probably knows where Mason is.

“Braxxon, where’s ZZ?”

He looks at me, studying me. I hate when these f**kers do that. “He’s over at the old clubhouse playing pool with Mace.”