Page 20 of Rune
“Won’t need to, if you’ll cooperate.”
“Why does the why matter? I did it.”
“Because I need to know if you’re involved with anyone else.”
“I’m not. I was working on my own.”
“And I’m just supposed to trust you?”
“What do I have to gain from lying about that?”
“Protecting someone else. You’ve already made it clear you want to protect people you care about.”
“I have no one left to care about other than my sister,” she countered. The words were just sharp enough to ring true. “Why didn’t you let your club kill me last night?”
“I wanted answers. Wasn’t gonna get ‘em if you were bleeding out on the floor.” I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth when her whole body tightened. Making sure I took any bite out of my voice, I asked, “Did you really think you were going to walk into an outlaw biker clubhouse, shoot one of us dead, and walk away?”
She said nothing to that, just shifted in her seat, making my fingers move from her rib area to tease under her breast, the touch making her breath catch before I could move it away again.
“You could have shot me while I was running the beach in the early morning. No one would have seen. You’d probably have gotten away with it.”
“I didn’t even know what you looked like,” she admitted.
“Then how’d you find me?”
“There’s not a lot of men named Rune in the United States. Six hundred twenty-three, actually.”
The way she said that made it sound like she’d tracked down every last one of us until she found the one she was looking for.
That took dedication, commitment,motivation.
“Did you know it was a biker clubhouse when you showed up?”
“I saw the bikes. I assumed.”
“But you didn’t know who we are and what we do?”
“What do you mean ‘what you do’?”
“Christ, baby,” I sighed, shaking my head. “You had time to research over six hundred names, but didn’t think looking into a one-percenters club was worth your time?”
“One-percenters?”
Reasonably sure this was not some threat against the club, if she didn’t even know who we were, I slid my arm away from her and raked that hand down my face instead.
“Carmen, what the fuck did you get yourself into?”
She hadn’t moved right away. But at those words, she lurched to the other side of the couch, turning to face me fully.
“I didn’t getmyselfinto anything. This is all on you and your—”
“Can you get Hammy some cold water?” Sofia called from the back of the house. “It’s too hot out here for her.”
“Yep! On it!” Carmen injected some false cheeriness into her voice as she shot her sister a smile before she disappeared again. Then, turning back to me, she shot me a look she probably thought was threatening, but I could see the fear around the edges. “If you’re not here to kill me, get the fuck out of my house.”
CHAPTER SIX
Carmen
