Neil (The Uncompromising Series Book 2) (7 page)

Me: No. Where does that asshole live?

I stared at the screen and the three dots started flashing almost immediately.

André: Where r u?

No way was I telling André shit.

Me: Neil’s address?

André: What’s going on?

Me: Nothing

André: Ur lying

Fuck this.

Me: Never mind

I tossed my cell back in my purse and was already dreading work tomorrow because André wouldn’t drop this easily.

“Ariel!” Davie pounded on the door. “Get the hell out here, you’re up!”

I caught my reflection in the mirror. Tits spilling out of my top, my ass cheeks hanging out of the bottom of the skirt, I made a decision. “Eat shit, Davie.”

I yanked the skirt off and shimmied into a pair of skinny jeans. Stuffing the bills in my pocket, I grabbed my bag and opened the door.

“Finally—” Davie glanced at my legs. “No you don’t. You’re up. Right now. Take that shit off.”

“I got my period.” I shoved past him.

His voice went high like it always did when he was pissed. “I don’t fucking care. Use a tampon like every other girl and get the hell back out there.”

“Cramps,” I muttered. “Put me back on the schedule tomorrow.” Seven bills was more than I’d make on any night unless I worked the back room, and no way was I going there. The same held true for keeping Viking’s money.

“Fuck your cramps. This is about your boyfriend and I’m not catering to your social calendar.” Davie scrambled after me like a rat. “You wanna fuck him, do it off the clock!”

I gave him the finger over my shoulder and pushed out the same exit Viking had taken.

“Ariel, if you walk out that—”

The door slammed shut and I exhaled. The pissy little shit was too afraid of the alley that ran behind the club to follow me. He was too stupid to realize his biggest threats back here were rats and the girls looking to make an extra buck sucking dick without having to pay him a cut.

I stepped over a puddle, skirted a pile of trash and reached in my bag for my keys. My fingers closed over the cold metal as headlights flashed and a large engine came barreling down the alley.

My heart rate kicked into overdrive. I switched my weight to my toes and scurried to my car as a familiar SUV pulled up beside me and blocked me in.

The driver door opened. “
Chica
.”

Goddamn it. “I don’t know if I should ask why you’re here or how you got here so fast.”

“I was on a job a few blocks over when Christensen texted me.” André’s golden-brown eyes scanned my top and he frowned. “I thought you quit.” He inclined his head at the club. “Why you back here?”

“None of your business.” Fucking Viking.

His black hair cropped close like he was still in the Marines, he crossed his muscular arms and looked menacing as hell. “I pay you enough. You don’t need to do this.”

“Did I complain?” He paid me too much for what I did. Answering phones wasn’t exactly worth twenty bucks an hour.

“Answer my question.”

I scowled and matched his stance. “What’d Neil say to you?”

His frown deepened. “I told you to stay away from him. He’s not the commitment type.”

“You think I went looking for him?”
What the hell?
“He showed up here.”

André exhaled like he was fighting for patience. “Listen—”

“No,
you listen
. You and your stupid friend need to butt out of my life. So either give me his address so I can return his money or back off.”

André’s eyes narrowed. “What money?”

I grabbed the bills out of my pocket and slapped them against André’s chest, practically weeping at the loss of money that was never mine. “Tell him to keep his fucking money.”

Unlike Neil, André’s hand curled around the bills. “What the hell is this?” He glanced at the money. “He
paid
you?” Anger like I’d never seen before twisted his features.

“I didn’t fuck him.” I don’t even know why I was explaining myself to him, except that he signed my paychecks.

Spanish cascaded out his mouth, rapid-fire.

“And I don’t speak Spanish.” Cursing didn’t count.

His jaw clenched and he spit words out in a sharp staccato. “Tell me what he paid you for.
Right now
.”

Screw this. “Nothing.” I turned toward my car and opened the door. I had one leg in when André grabbed the door.

“Did he hurt you?” he demanded.

I slid behind the wheel. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” I yanked my door shut and turned the key. When the engine cranked over, I said a silent prayer of thanks that the old beast didn’t pick tonight to take a dump all over me.

André slapped the roof. “We’re not done talking.”

Oh, I was done all right. Done and tired. I was too young to feel this old and too old to be putting up with this overprotective bullshit. I rolled my window down. “This conversation is over.”

André braced his hands on the window frame and leaned down. “I mean it,
chica
. If he hurt you, he’s gonna suffer.”

André had been overprotective of me since the first day I’d started working for him. I was the only female employee at Luna and Associates and if I was being completely honest, André’s overprotective nature was kinda flattering at first. He’d warned off all the other guys in front of me and none of them messed with me except to flirt when he wasn’t around. Not that it mattered, I wouldn’t do that shit on the job even if I was looking for a man, which I wasn’t.

But the past few weeks, him telling me to stay away from his friends, making vague references to Viking, telling me I didn’t need to be mixed up with any player assholes, the whole thing had gone too far. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was crushing on me but he’d never once flirted with me. “I can take care of myself, André.”

“Look.” He sighed. “I know you can, but your
madre
’s moved up north, you got no
familia
here, you’re a single mother and you’re all alone. You and I both know I wouldn’t deserve to call myself a Luna if I let it slide that you had no one looking out for you.”

He was right. Although we both grew up in the same neighborhood, I’d never met him until this year. But that didn’t mean I didn’t know who he or his family was. The Lunas were well respected in the community. André’s father had kept all of his kids out of gangs and there were half a dozen local businesses with the Luna name behind them. Then André had gone off and become a war hero. Starting his own security firm after the Marines had been a natural extension for him.

I reined in my temper and acknowledged the sentiment for what it was. “I appreciate it, you know I do.”

“Christ.” He shook his head. “Here comes the but.”

“I need to stand on my own.” It was as close to the truth as I was willing to tell him.

André studied me for a second and not for the first time I wished there could’ve been more between us than boss and employee. Chiseled features, hardworking, protective, he even had an infectious laugh, but André didn’t cross lines and instinct told me I had a second strike being a single mom.

He leveled me with a look. “Is this about Jason?”

Taken off guard, I tried not to show my surprise. “How do you know about that?” Several people had told me my ex had gotten mixed up with south Florida’s most notorious motorcycle gang, the Lone Coasters.

“You know I know everything that goes on in my neighborhood. Is Jason prospecting for the LCs going to be a problem for you?”

My ex wasn’t from his neighborhood. He wasn’t even from Miami. But apparently André had been keeping tabs on him anyway. He’d also inadvertently confirmed the rumors I’d heard. I wished I could say I was surprised by my ex’s actions, but it was just another disappointment in a list so long, I’d lost count. “I have nothing to do with the LCs, you know that.” Unless they came in to the strip club. Which they did, often, but Jason had never been with them.

André narrowed his eyes. “So he’s not asking you for money?”

“No.” And that should’ve been a red flag. Jason had never gone more than two months without asking me for something.

“Then why are you stripping again?”

Shit. I’d talked myself into a hole. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m saving for a new car.” Among other things.

“Use a company vehicle.”

“I don’t need handouts.”

André looked at me like he knew I was full of shit but he didn’t call me out on it. “Fine, but you know the second Jason finds out you’re stripping again, he’s gonna come sniffing around looking for a handout.”

“I’m not stupid.”

“I get that you don’t want my help, I respect that, but you’ve got options. That’s all I’m saying.” He pushed off the car. “You change your mind, offer still stands.”

I barely nodded and threw the gear shift into reverse.

But André wasn’t finished. “I meant what I said about Christensen. You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. Jason doesn’t hold a candle to him.”

M
Y EYES BLURRY FROM NOT
enough sleep, I stared at my new phone. Viking hadn’t even put his name in, only his initials.
NC
. Like he was that important, or like he didn’t want anyone to know I had his number. Maybe he was just lazy. I made an un-ladylike sound. Neil Christensen wasn’t lazy or self-important. He and his northern Florida area code were simply unattainable, unless you wanted groceries. And really good coffee, the expensive kind I never bought. I tossed the phone on the kitchen table and picked up my mug. It was the best damn cup of coffee I’d ever made myself. Viking had even bought me real cream. Not the cheap creamer that was half milk, but honest-to-God heavy cream. I took another sip and scowled at my phone. I needed to delete his number.

Sighing, I glanced at the clock and stood. “Come on, baby. Mama has to go to work.”

Lying on his stomach, playing with the Matchbox cars that had also been in the grocery bags Viking brought over, Conner glanced up at me. “No.”

“Yes.” I put my hands on my hips for emphasis but I was trying not to smile.

Conner rolled to his back like a puppy and held a car up. “Park?”

“After work.” I was picking up his diaper bag when I heard a key scrape in the lock. I squeezed my eyes shut and pinched the bridge of my nose. There was only one other person who had a key to my place, and in that moment, I hated André for being right last night.

The front door opened a couple inches then caught on the chain.

“Babe, it’s me. Open up!”

At least I’d remembered the security chain last night. Not that I was entirely sure it would’ve stopped someone like Viking, but it stopped my ex. I undid the chain and opened the door to the only man I’d ever loved.

A smile, wide and brilliant, spread across Jason’s face like a sunrise. “Hey, beautiful.”

“Daddy!” Conner threw himself at Jason’s legs, his smile an exact replica of his father’s.

My ex scooped him up. “Hey, little man. You taking care of Mama?”

Conner grinned. “Yes!”

“Good man.” Jason hugged him then set him down. “Give me a minute. I missed seeing your gorgeous mama.” Jason’s smile faltered as he took in the sight of me. “She gets prettier every time I see her,” he said softly.

He looked different than the Jason I’d first met years ago. His brown curly hair was still messy, but shorter. His huge blue eyes lit up with his smile but now there were lines in the corners. His arms, always ripped, were now bigger and his boyish features, while still charming, were now rough around the edges. My heart took a hit like it did every time I saw him. “We talked about the key, Jason.”

“I know, baby.” He stepped forward and pulled me into his arms. Wrapping his entire body around me, he sank his face into my neck and breathed me in like I was his everything. Jason Tanner didn’t hug—he made you feel like you were his. “God, I missed you, beautiful.”

He smelled like home and memories and everything I’d ever wanted… laced with cheap perfume and sex. The part of my heart that would always love him hurt. “How’s Marissa?”

He pulled back just enough and bent his knees so he was eye level with me. It was his special move and I used to love it. “Don’t be like that.” He tucked my hair behind my ear then pressed his forehead to mine. “You know I love you. Only you, baby.”

“Uh-huh.” Right. That’s why he’d cheated on me every chance he got. I pulled back. “I’m late for work. What’s up?”

He let me go but he threaded my fingers through his and rubbed his thumb across the back of my hand. “Why does something have to be up? Can’t I just come to see you and Conner?” His smile used to make my knees weak. Now it just made me sad.

“You could, but you haven’t. It’s been two months.” I tried not to sound bitter.

He tugged a strand of my hair and grinned. “I’ve got something for you.” He reached into his pocket, pulled out some cash and offered it to me like he was giving me a plate of gold.

Already shaking my head, I stepped back. “I’m not having this conversation with you again.”

Hurt clouded his expression. “It’s legit, baby. I’ve been working. Come on, I know you need it.” He took my hand, placed the money on my palm then curled my fingers around it. “Buy Conner something.”