Prowler: Forsaken Ones MC (10 page)

Felicity

The mood definitely changed after Hawk started asking me about my work at lunch. I wasn’t really that dishonest with my answer. I felt like I told him enough that I wasn’t lying, but I could tell it wasn’t enough to put him at ease. I couldn’t come right out and tell him that all of this was just a job, that he was just a job, and that my boss wanted me to work him until I had the Golden Diamond in hand.

I had told him that I procured valuable artwork, jewelry, and antiques for my employer. Really, Kleo just wanted jewelry, but I had to list the others so it seemed less obvious. On the way back to his house, I got a text from Kleo. Since he knew a little bit about my work, I didn’t feel quite so self-conscious about checking my phone. If anything, I felt like it would make what I told him seem more legitimate.

Check your email
, the text said.
The emails were decoded. You might be surprised.

I quickly texted her back,
As soon as I’m somewhere private.

“Work?” Hawk asked, breaking the thick, awkward silence between us. His voice was heavy with accusation.

“Yep, just letting me know I’ve got an email with information on my next assignment,” I told him.

“I guess that means you’ll be moving on, then?” His words came out as a question, as if he were asking me rather than making an observation.

“Not necessarily.” I tried to keep a light tone, to both lighten the mood and make myself feel less guilty about what I was doing. I didn’t like that this conversation felt like a break-up, but if there was information pertaining to the location of the Golden Diamond in my email, it meant we didn’t have much time left together.

“That’s another thing,” he said suddenly. “Where’s your place? Where do you live?”

“I don’t have one.” I sighed.

“What do you mean
you don’t have one
?” I could tell he was getting annoyed with me.

It was silly. We weren’t dating. We had just been sleeping together for a few days. I had been allowing him to use me to pleasure himself while I waited to hear back from my boss about what was in those emails. Yes, it was time to move on, for many reasons. One of those reasons was the way he was acting about everything in the car on the way back to his mansion. Unfortunately, if I did have information waiting on me to tell me where the diamond was, I was going to need to stay on his good side to make my job easier.

I had to find a way to bring him back around.

“With my work, I usually just stay in hotels,” I told him. “I’ve never really been one to settle down. When it’s time to go work another job, I usually just pack up my clothes and go. I’ll get a suite nearby for a few nights or something, and I’ll stay there until I’m finished working. Then, the piece I picked up for my boss gets shipped back, and I move on down the road to the next job.” As I finished my explanation, I realized I had essentially told him that I was only with him on work. I wasn’t surprised when he followed up with another question.

“So are you on a job right now? Am I your job?”

“No, I’m home now, sort of. This is where I call home, so I got a room here after finishing a nearby job. You are not work. You are my pleasure.” I let my voice grow more seductive as I finished, hoping he would buy it and not keep thinking that I was trying to work him over for something I probably wasn’t even supposed to know he had.

“Are you going to have to leave for your next assignment?” He rephrased his question from before and asked with a more pleasant tone.

“I don’t know yet. I’ll check my email when we get back to your place, if you don’t mind. If it’s local, I don’t have to leave.” I knew my job was local; I was already on it.

“Well, if you do have to go…” He paused like he couldn’t bring himself to finish what he was saying.

“If I do have to go, we’re going to have to have a lot of sex before I leave,” I finished for him. The air in the car was starting to let up already. The crisis had been temporarily averted.

“Yes, exactly.” He laughed. “There are a lot of things I’d like to do to you still, so we’ll have to do as many of those things as we can before you have to leave.”

“I agree.” I reached over and placed my hand on his leg. Work wasn’t supposed to feel this way, and normally, it didn’t. Normally, everything was relatively simple. I turned on my mark, teased the hell out of them, and got what I needed. Then, I would create a situation where we would fight, and I would storm off. I rarely had to sleep with anyone.

Most marks were nothing like Hawk, though, and I never—
never
—developed feelings for my marks. Not that I had feelings for Hawk or anything, but I could tell that he was upset by the idea that I would probably be leaving soon. I was concerned for Hawk’s well-being. I was fine. No feelings here.

Soon, we were pulling up the drive to his house and pulling around by the front door. We were greeted by his staff as they opened the doors to let us both out.

“I’m going to go check in with my boss,” I told him as I started towards the house without.

“That’s fine. I’ve got some business to handle, too,” he told me.

“Okay, I’ll find you when I’m finished.” I gave him a warm smile as I walked through the door and headed to the back patio. I wanted privacy, but I also wanted to be able to see where he was while I was checking my email.

I pulled out my phone and watched through the window as he took the hallway towards his office. I didn’t like the looks of that, especially after our conversation in the car, but I couldn’t allow myself to be bothered by it either. The sooner I knew where that diamond was, the sooner I could cut whatever was going on between us short and get the hell out of here.

I pulled up my email. Sure enough, there was a new message from Kleo.

I’ve included the text from all of the emails you sent me, just in case there is anything else you need to know, but they do tell you where the diamond is and how to find it. IT’S IN THE HOUSE
, she explained.

“Of course it is,” I replied to the screen on my phone. Why hadn’t I realized that already? Hawk was just confident enough to pull something like that. And he probably never thought anyone would figure it out. I continued reading Kleo’s email.

I managed to get a copy of the floorplan for his house. In the email where he mentions the location of the vault where he’s keeping the diamond, he fails to mention how to get down there to the cellar. Apparently there is a hidden panel in one of the walls that opens a door to the cellar. You’ll see it on the plans. I’ve attached a copy. If you’ve been through the house, you’ve probably passed it a hundred times or more.

I
had
been through the house several times. I hadn’t noticed any strange panels or anything like that. I looked up in the windows to see if Hawk was watching me. Satisfied that no one was watching what I was doing, I tapped on the attachment and opened the floorplan of the house. I then saved it to my phone and closed everything.

I wished I hadn’t just read that email, especially after the way things had felt all morning and in the car on the way back from lunch. Hawk was the first person to make me question what I was doing for a living. I was starting to realize that it really wasn’t a living at all. I had avoided attachments because they got in the way of work, and after spending so much time so close to someone else who had done the same thing, I found myself wishing I could find a compromise.

I wouldn’t be able to find that compromise with someone I was stealing from, though. That much I knew without a doubt.

I put my phone back in my purse and walked inside. I needed to find a way to reconnect with Hawk before he realized that he actually was my current job, if he didn’t already know it for certain.

Before following him to his office, I went upstairs to change clothes. I knew how I would do it, how I would work my way further in. Luckily, when he sent his staff out to purchase clothes for me, they came back with a pair of jeans. I pulled them on, imagining that the hugging sensation of the fabric was Hawk’s hands running up my legs and over my ass.

Oh yes, we were definitely going to have to have more sex before all of this was over. It was going to be a shame to have to get someone who could please me so well to run me off, but with the money we were going to make off that diamond, I could
buy
a lover as good as Hawk. At least I told myself that.

I looked through the shirts he had bought for me, looking for something appropriate for getting on the back of his bike. The only thing that even came close was a slinky black tank top.

“This will have to do,” I said as I took off the blouse I had worn out to lunch and pulled the tank top over my shoulders.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My clothes looked so natural. Normally I wore professional clothes or something to sneak around in. I rarely wore anything that was just
normal
. It felt good. I looked like I belonged in some of the older photographs I had seen of Hawk and the other members of the MC.

“And for good measure, let’s take this off,” I told my reflection as I reached around behind my back and unclasped my bra. I pulled it off under my tank top and tossed it into the bedroom. I turned around and looked at myself again.

I liked the way my top rested on my uncovered breasts, the way it held their shape instead of the bra’s shape. I touched myself and ran my hands up and down over my shirt, getting my nipples hard for Hawk.

“Oh yeah, he’ll love that.” I smiled at my reflection. When I asked him to take me out on his bike and showed up looking like I did right then, he would forget all about our strained conversations at lunch and on the way home.

I still wasn’t sure if I was even going to go through with stealing the diamond for Kleo. I knew that at the end of the day my loyalty rested with her, but I was still pretty torn over having to ditch someone who was taking such good care of me for someone who simply made sure I made as much money as I could.

In the meantime, it was time to reach out to Hawk’s biker side.

Hawk

“Her name is Felicity Tarren,” I told Rex over the phone while I looked out the window of my office.

“Tarren,” he repeated. “It doesn’t ring any bells, but I’ll have someone look into it. What are you thinking?”

“I think you guys were right. She told me she works for a collector who has her
procure
—her word, not mine—valuable art, jewelry, and other items.” I watched her from the window while I talked. She didn’t look like she was checking in with her boss. She looked like she was reading the email she had told me about. I should have taken the opportunity to look through her phone when I had it.

“So she helps her boss
buy
them?”

“I asked her that, but she sort of dodged the idea of purchasing them. She made it sound like she doesn’t use very legitimate means to get these items. I’m thinking she’s trying to find the Golden Diamond for her boss, and they’re going to try to steal it from me.” She glanced up at the house a few times while she worked on her phone, obviously checking to see if anyone was watching her. I was fairly certain she’d been sent to get the diamond now.

“Sounds to me like you need to either kick her out or tie her up for a while,” Rex suggested. He wasn’t laughing.

“I’ve tied her up already,” I joked.

“Oh, I bet you have, but you might want to look into something more permanent, Hawk.”

“No, I’m pretty certain she’s not going to find it,” I insisted. “She’s been here
how
long, and she still hasn’t found it.”

“When was the last time you saw it?” he asked, sending a chill up my spine. It had been a couple of days since the last time I went downstairs to look at it, but no one had said anything yet. I was fairly certain it was still there.

“Trust me, she hasn’t found it. She’s still here.”

“You don’t know that for certain, though, do you?” he argued.

Watching Felicity study her phone and watch the house for anyone spying on her, I realized I didn’t know for certain that she hadn’t found it, but I wasn’t about to admit that to Rex.

“Just find out what you can about her,” I told him. “We’ll meet tonight to discuss what needs to happen next with all this diamond business.”

“On it, boss. See you then.” He disconnected the line and left me standing there with my phone in my hand as Felicity came back inside. The time I had been dreading seemed to be upon us. I was going to have to admit that she was really after the diamond and not just after a good time or someone to take care of her.

To make matters worse, I realized I needed to do something about it. I had known all along that something wasn’t right, and I was finally starting to figure out what it was. I slid my phone back into my pocket.

A knock came at my door just as it opened. I looked up, unable to say anything as Felicity’s beautiful red hair and green eyes popped through the opening.

“Hey,” she said cheerily.

“Hey, yourself.” I shared her smile, unable to force myself to continue being paranoid or upset about what I was piecing together.

She stepped into my office in a loose, slinky black tank top and tight, form-fitting jeans that hugged her lines perfectly. She wasn’t wearing a bra under her top. I could see the shape of her tits perfectly, and her nipples were poking out against the fabric. I wanted to grab her and put her against my door.

My friendly smile turned to a knowing smirk as I realized she’d been using sex to distract me, just as I’d been using it to subdue her and slow her down. Our little game was certainly amusing. However, it seemed to be getting complicated. There was no way she would actually reach the diamond even if she found the vault, so I wasn’t
too
worried about it. I was just worried about how to handle the situation we were in.

“What are you all dressed down for?” I nodded to indicate what she was wearing before I forced myself to look away and shuffle papers on my desk in an effort to look busy.

“I was thinking we could go on a ride,” she answered.

“A ride?” I didn’t look up. I continued stacking and restacking papers.

“Yeah. I know you still ride, despite all the work you put into your wealthy appearance. I know that deep down you’re still a biker, just as you’ve always been.” Her voice was so devious and tempting. It dripped with suggestion, as if just the idea of getting on the back of my motorcycle was enough to make her wet.

I wanted to go around the desk and bend her over it again. I wanted to shove everything on the floor and stab her with my hardening cock until she couldn’t walk anymore. I wanted to remind her she belonged to me. I wished I had made a rule that we couldn’t handle any business while we were together. I made a note of it, reminding myself to use it if I did this with someone else in the future.

“Well, that’s a separate part of my life,” I explained, looking into her eyes.

“It doesn’t have to be,” she pouted.

I sighed. I never stood a chance against this woman. I reached across the desk and pulled her to me. We shared a long, tender kiss. There was something sad about it, which I found odd. If all of this was just work, was she sad that it would be over soon? Was I? Better yet, was I ready to admit that I was going to miss her once it was all said and done? The answer was I wasn’t ready to admit anything.

“You’re right. We should go for a ride. Come upstairs with me while I get changed.” I didn’t want her to stay down in my office alone while I went to change clothes. I didn’t know how much she already knew, but I didn’t want to risk letting her learn more.

I walked up behind her, watching how her jeans hugged her ass the whole way up the stairs. Her body was hypnotic and entrancing. Every time I looked at her, I wanted to throw her down and get inside her. I wanted to hear the way she breathed when I touched her. I wanted to feel her body underneath me.

I wondered if sex was really the only reason I was playing nice and letting her stay despite the fact that I was pretty sure she was working against me with another local boss. She didn’t look like she worked with any small-time jewelry thief either. Felicity Tarren’s boss had to be someone with some status in the underworld. I didn’t know anyone who fit the description right off the top of my head.

I resisted her as we reached my bedroom, but I changed into my riding clothes with the closet door open so I could keep an eye on her. She sat on the bed with her legs crossed, watching me, adoring my body with her emerald eyes.

Once I changed into my jeans, a t-shirt, my colors, and my boots, I stepped out of the closet and cut off the light behind me.

“Ready to ride?” I asked her.

“Baby, I was born ready,” she said playfully.

Her beauty was disarming. I couldn’t stay focused on what was wrong with our situation. I could only focus on her gorgeous body and her beautiful smile. She was good. She was definitely a professional. And I was hooked. But I wondered if she was, too, even just a little bit.

She hopped up from the bed and walked downstairs in front of me. We walked down the hallway past my office to the garage where I kept my bike. I handed her a helmet and grabbed my own.

“You ever ridden before?”

“Honestly? No, I haven’t,” she admitted.

“I find that hard to believe. You’re probably never going to want to get off the bike, knowing you,” I joked with her.

She slid onto the bike behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist.

“Whatever you do, don’t let go,” I said with a smirk.

Her arms gripped me tighter and I felt her legs spread wide along mine. She leaned forward against me, pressing her chest against my back. I appreciated that she was reaching out to me to get further into my life, but I also knew she was only doing it for a job. That knowledge created a strange mixture of emotions in me.

If Felicity hadn’t found the diamond yet, there was still time to distract her from her goal and make her abandon her work for me. Knowing how physical she was, and how much she craved pleasure, I figured giving her a ride on the back of my bike would get me just a little closer to achieving that level of distraction.

I fired up the engine and walked the bike out of the garage, into the afternoon sun. I realized I probably should have told her to wear sunscreen so she wouldn’t burn, but I figured she could use a reminder of the ride for a few days afterwards.

I revved up the engine a few times before letting her go.

“You ready?” I shouted over the bike.

“Yeah, let’s go,” she shouted back, and I felt her arms tighten again.

Having her pressed against me made the ride so much better than it would have been otherwise. I didn’t take the bike out much these days except for when it was for the MC. We would occasionally go riding together, or I would drive it to meetings. Every once in a while we had a job to do that required us to take our bikes out.

We had just been moving away from the biker image over the last few years. We had all become wealthy as The Forsaken Ones, and with that wealth had come a change in lifestyle. We were still the MC, and we were still known as bikers, but our business had grown so far beyond what we had done as just another motorcycle club or biker gang.

As one percenters, we definitely qualified as a biker gang, but as successful businessmen, we ran a motorcycle club. The difference was merely superficial, but the terms meant different things to different people. We had recognized that early on and used those differences when we needed to.

One of the great things about being on the back of the bike, whether for business or for pleasure, was that none of that mattered for a little while. For a time, no matter how brief, it was just us. Just us and the road. It felt natural to be back on the road with my old lady riding behind me.

I felt free. On the road there was no diamond. There was no other underworld boss trying to steal it from me by using a gorgeous redhead to seduce me while she looked for it. There were no concerns about the woman riding behind me with her arms wrapped tightly around my waist, other than making sure she was still there. There were no
arrangements
like the one Felicity and I had made. No, as long as we were on the bike together, we were together.

I turned away from town so we could stay on less travelled roads. If it was her first time, we were going to make it special. We were going out to my favorite scenic route so she could see the beautiful land surrounding the city.

This was what it was about. It was about making my own rules and following my own path. I figured that was something Felicity could understand. I also figured that when we got back, she would want us to forge our own path together and stop working against each other.