Revive (Storm MC #3) (29 page)

I rolled my eyes.  “That biker dude from this morning might look hot, but he’s an asshole.  If he ever comes back in here, he’s all yours.”

“Thanks, but first I’m having this one.”  He shoved me out of the way as he fell over himself to get to the guy the moment he pushed through the door.  “Why hello, gorgeous.  To what do we owe the pleasure?”  His voice practically purred the words and I stifled a laugh.  I realised now that I’d actually met this man before; at Madison’s wedding a few weeks ago.  I couldn’t remember his name though.

The guy flashed Bobby a huge smile and then blessed me with one as well.  He reached out to shake Bobby’s hand and said, “Hi, man.”

Bobby just about melted on the spot.  Goodness, this was too funny.  The guy was obviously not gay but Bobby was so over the top confident that he always thought he had a shot with every man he met.  “Lovely to meet you.  I’m Bobby, and your name is?”

“Nash,” he answered, and then looked at me, “And you must be Roxie.”

That’s right; Nash. “Yes, I’m Roxie.  Let me guess, Madison sent you?”

His chuckle filtered through the room drawing my clients’ attention, and they ogled him and all his gorgeous muscles.  “Pretty obvious, huh?”

“Yeah, and the answer is still no.”

“Sweet thing, it should be a no brainer for you.  You’ve got a problem that we can help you with.  You obviously need some help figuring out who keeps breaking in and that kind of work is my specialty.”

I sighed.  “You guys just don’t get it.  I don’t want any help with this; I’m quite capable of handling my own shit.”

He considered that for a moment.  “Why are you resisting this?  You and Madison have become good friends over the past few months; she just wants to help out a friend.  There’s no hidden agenda here, babe.”

“I know.  But let’s just say that I have my reasons, and leave it at that.”

Bobby decided to wade into the conversation at that point.  “I vote we let Nash help you on this one, sweetie.”

I scowled at him.  “Shut it, Bobby.  You just want an excuse to perv on Nash.”

“You know me too well.  Please tell him yes,” he pleaded.

Nash chuckled and jerked his thumb at Bobby.  “You should listen to your friend here.”

“You’re not hearing me.  I’ve said no and that’s the end of it.  And please tell Madison not to send anymore men.”  I considered that for a moment.  “No, scratch that, I’ll tell her myself.”

The smile that had touched Nash’s lips a moment ago gave way to a perplexed look.  “I swear to God, I will never figure women out.  One minute you’re screaming for our attention when you feel you’re not getting it and then when we fuckin’ offer it, you slam the door in our face.” 

I shrugged.  “What can I say?  We’re a law unto ourselves.  Plus we’ve gotta keep you men guessing; shit gets boring otherwise.”

He shook his head.  “Some days I’d just like shit to be boring, babe.”

“Yeah well today’s not your lucky day, hot stuff.”

“You send me away, it might be your last chance at Storm helping you.  You good with that?”

“I’m more than good with that.”

He assessed me for a moment longer before saying, “Okay, we’re done here.”  And with that, he turned and sauntered out, leaving Bobby open mouthed and stunned.  He sent me a foul look.  “Why the hell didn’t you say yes?”

“Bobby, the last thing we need is those bossy bikers in our business.  Like I said, I’ve got my reasons and for the moment it’s best not to involve them.”

“And what if you decide in the future that you do want them, what then?  I don’t think they’ll be back; your chance is gone.”

I had to smile at his naivety.  I cocked my head to the side and asked, “Do you really think that if I begged Madison for help later on that she wouldn’t be able to convince her husband to step in and help?”

Understanding dawned on his face.  “I see your point.”

“Right, so can we please get back to work now?  I’ve got a date with a bar stool in about an hour and I don’t want to be late.”

***

T
wo days later, I was on my way to work when Madison called me.  “How’s my favourite hairdresser?” she asked.

“Tired and grumpy.”

Her laugh tinkled softly through the phone.  “You’re always tired and grumpy in the morning, Roxie.”

“Yeah, well who the hell wants to be out of bed so bloody early?  Not me, babe.”

“Maybe you should have gone into a different line of work; something you could do at night.”

“Perhaps I should ask your brother for a job at the strip club,” I muttered.  It was way too early to be engaging in conversation.

“Oh God no.  You’d suck at that.”

“Are you saying I couldn’t shake my thing as well as the other chicks he’s got working there?”

Laughing again, she said, “I’ve seen you shake your thing and you could definitely keep up with those girls.  No, what I meant was that you wouldn’t put up with the dirty men and the way they stare and try to touch.  You’d be trying to punch them; you’d be bad for business, hon.”

I yawned and scrubbed my hand over my face.  She was right; there was no way I’d put up with men pulling that shit on me.  Hell, I couldn’t even understand how Harlow worked the bar in that joint.  “You’ve got a point,” I agreed before asking, “Why are you calling me so early?”

“I’m just checking in with you to see if you’ve changed your mind on Nash helping you work out who keeps breaking in and trashing your shop.  Plus I need to reschedule my appointment.”

“I haven’t changed my mind and as for your appointment, I’m not at the shop yet so can you just text me what you want to change it to and I’ll sort that out once I get there.”

“Bloody hell, woman.  Why do you have to be so damn stubborn?”

I was just about to answer her when I rounded the corner to my shop and discovered to my extreme anger that someone had smashed my window yet again.

“Motherfucker,” I snapped.  “Sorry Madison, I’ve gotta go,” I said and ended the call.  I took in the mess before me.  Broken glass every-fucking- where and graffiti on the one window they hadn’t smashed.

Whore
.

Shit.  That didn’t quite fit with the message he’d left me the other day and now I was left wondering if my theory was right.

“Mean something to you?” a deep voice rumbled from behind me and I jumped in shock.  I’d thought I was alone.

I spun to face whoever was there and sucked in a breath at the sight in front of me.  He was tall.  He had muscles trying to shove their way out of the fitted black tee he’d covered them with.  His hair was black, thick and slightly wavy so that it fell across his eyes.  And good, fucking gracious, the scruff on his face just about made my legs collapse under me. 

“Who are you?” I breathed out.

He whipped his sunglasses off to reveal an intense set of green eyes.  Without answering me, he pulled his phone out of his jeans and strode over to the window with the graffiti, and took a photo.  He then returned to where I was and began taking photos of the rest of the mess.

I grabbed for his arm and hit rock hard muscle on his bicep.  “I asked you a question,” I said, annoyed at being ignored. 

He stopped taking photos and focused those gorgeous eyes on me.  There was a flicker of something there; I wasn’t sure what though.  It was like an untamed energy; something definitely swirled beneath the surface of this man and it unsettled me while at the same time unleashed butterflies in the pit of my stomach.  And damn, for the first time in a very long time, I was unsure of myself. 

“I’m Liam,” he stated as if that answered any and all questions I might have.

I raised my eyebrows.  “Care to elaborate?”

His eyes shifted between mine, and it appeared that he was carefully scrutinising everything in front of him; the shop, the mess and me.  Most definitely me.  And it unnerved me even more than he already had.  Eventually, he spoke, “Zane sent me to help you with your security issues.”

I threw my hands up in the air.  “And who the hell is Zane?”

His phone rang at that moment.  “Yeah,” he answered it.  He listened to whatever the person on the other end said and then he replied, “I’ve got Roxie in front of me and they’ve smashed her windows again.  I’m just about to take a look inside.”  He listened some more and then said, “Later, man.”  His phone was shoved back in his jeans and then he stepped around me and entered my shop through the broken window.

I swivelled around to see what he was doing.  My patience was wearing thin; who the hell did he think he was just waltzing in like this without giving me any answers as to who he was?  Stepping through the window, I followed him and repeated my question, “Who is Zane?”

He didn’t answer; instead he turned his head to look at me, gestured at the inside of the shop and instructed, “Don’t touch anything before I take some more photos of the inside.”  He then turned back around and kept walking.

“For the love of God, tell me who the hell Zane is!” I yelled, having reached the end of my tether.

He came to a halt and laid his gaze on me again.  His energy rippled through the air and filled the room.  It hit me hard and caused that fluttery sensation in my stomach again. 
Damn.
  That was the last thing I wanted to feel for this exasperating man.

“Zane is my boss.  He runs Stone Security and we were called in on this job by Scott Cole.  Any other questions you have while we’re at it?”

“Those bloody bikers,” I muttered under my breath.

He stood still, assessing me and waiting to see if I had anything else to say.  When I didn’t say anything else, he continued, “We’re good to go?”

Oh hell no, we were so far from good to go it wasn’t funny.  “No, we’re not.  I never asked for you to be given this job so you can just leave now before we go any further.”  I crossed my arms in front of me and waited for him to go.

He quirked a brow at me.  “So you’re going to just keep letting this shit happen then?  This is what, your fourth break in this month?  Seems to me that you could do with the help, sweetheart.” 

There was that damn energy of his again, radiating out from him.  It was confusing my senses and I couldn’t think straight. 

Before I could say anything he spoke again, “I hate to break it to you but this doesn’t look like a random break in to me.  Given that it keeps happening and that they aren’t stealing anything.  And that graffiti?  That’s the first time they’ve done that, isn’t it?”

I hesitated for a moment.  I really didn’t want to admit my suspicions to him.  “Yes, that’s the first time they’ve graffitied the building.”

He nodded.  “Right, so this is escalating and I’m taking over the investigation.  No ifs or buts because this shit can quickly turn nasty from here on out.” 

He resumed poking around while I stood like a stunned idiot and just let him take over.  I decided I needed coffee to deal with this; he could go jump if he thought I wasn’t touching the kettle.  It was way too early for this shit and I needed sustenance.

––––––––

Chapter 2 

R
oxie

“Holy shit on a stick, your girl Madison is well connected,” Bobby said as he gazed lustfully at Liam.  He’d arrived at work ten minutes ago and had hardly taken his eyes off the man ever since.

I thrust the broom at him.  “Stop eye fucking him and go and make yourself useful.  We’ve got glass that needs to be swept up.”

A devious grin spread across his face as he took the broom from me.  “Yes ma’am.”

I watched him go, wondering what the hell he was up to.  Bobby operated from one angle only; do anything and everything to get the guy in bed.  The look he’d just given me told me he was up to no good.  Oh well, it was Liam’s problem now, not mine.  And maybe, if Bobby annoyed the shit out of him, he would pack up and leave.

My other hairdresser, Tahlia, breezed in just as Bobby began his little performance for Liam.  She gawked at him as she walked through the shop and managed to hold in her laughter until she reached the back room where I was.

“Oh my God, Bobby has no shame,” she said, as she shook her head in disbelief.

I eyed him, and she was right.  He’d turned his task of sweeping up glass into a kind of dance and was sashaying his way around the shop, bending and shaking his ass in front of Liam as he went.  Liam seemed oblivious to it though which I needed to rectify if my plan of Bobby scaring him off was going to have any chance at success.

“I think you’ve got an admirer,” I pointed out as I made my way to where he was.

He’d been engrossed with something on his phone but looked up at me as soon as I spoke.  “Sorry?”

I nodded my head in Bobby’s direction.  “You’ve inspired him.”

Liam’s gaze followed mine and he spent a moment watching Bobby as he gyrated his hips and puckered his lips in a kissing motion.  Not an ounce of surprise registered on Liam’s face before he turned back to me and murmured, “Perhaps some of his enthusiasm for me could rub off on you.”

Well, holy fuck, now I was the one who was surprised.  And not only at what he’d said but also at the shot of desire that coursed through me.  But I stood my ground; this man would not get to me.  “The only enthusiasm I’m feeling is for you to go back to your boss and tell him that I’ve got this situation under control.”

“It looks like we’ve got some work to do on your enthusiasm levels then, sweetheart, because this situation is not under control and I’m not leaving.”

His tone was commanding; the kind you didn’t dare mess with, but I wasn’t one to be messed with either.  I was just about to tell him exactly where to go when Bobby interrupted.

“Oh my, I do love a bossy man,” he sighed, while taking a break from sweeping. He ogled Liam instead.  “I, for one, am glad you’re not leaving, Mr. Bend-Me-Over-And-F -”

“Bobby!” I hissed, “For once in your life, zip that mouth.”  Bobby and I commenced non-verbal communication; the type where we said what had to be said with our eyes and flicks of our head.  After two years of working together, we had this down pat and knew exactly what the other was saying. 

After our quick dialogue, Bobby turned in a huff and stomped out to the back room.  I gave my attention back to Liam who was now casually leaning against the front counter, feet crossed at the ankles and chin in hand.  His amused eyes were focused solely on me.