“I’m fine,” he said softly and there was a tenderness in his eyes as he smiled at me. It was so strange to see right now. This man was clearly not who I thought he was. Only I didn’t have the first clue what he’d been hiding from me all this time. But if the FBI were involved, it couldn't have been anything good.
That was the moment the other man stepped out and decided to make himself known. I let out a small gasp as my eyes went over Ray’s shoulder to take him in. After all, I had to act as if I didn’t know anyone else was there. He was tall and big, the kind of man that would make for a good bodyguard. And by the way he was going for the gun on his hip, I assumed that was what he was.
“I didn’t know you had a meeting. I’m sorry I interrupted,” I said with a little flutter of my lashes up at Ray.
Ray’s eyes went hard for a second as he half-turned to the other man.
“This is Glen. He’s here to watch you and make sure nothing happens to you.”
I blinked at his words.
“Wh-why would I need someone to make sure nothing happens to me?” I asked dumbly. It seemed that Glen was as taken off-guard by Ray’s statement as I was. And he looked none too happy about what his boss had said.
“There was an issue at one of my clubs tonight. Someone came in and tried to shoot me. Fortunately, I wasn’t hit, but someone else was.” He wiped his hand through the air as if to indicate that was where the blood had come from.
The lies rolled so easily off his tongue that I almost believed him. If I hadn’t overheard what I had a few moments ago, I just might have bought it.
“Are they okay?” I asked doing my best to sound concerned.
I wanted to vomit for many reasons. Playing this part was making me sick. And knowing this man was not who I thought he was made me even sicker.
“Yes, he is fine. In the hospital and will make a full recovery.”
“And what about you? Is someone trying to kill you?”
“I don’t know yet. But don’t worry, I will figure it out. I’m sure it’s nothing to be concerned with but your safety is too important to me.”
“I understand,” I said with a nod.
“Why don’t you go lay down and I’m going to get a shower. Okay?” His voice was soft and soothing as he tried to brush it off like it was nothing.
I nodded, doing my best to push the shaky feeling away. Then I went to the bedroom and crawled under the covers. My eyes closed though I knew I wouldn’t be sleeping any time soon. And they stayed that way when I heard Ray enter the room. He didn’t try to talk to me or touch me. Instead, he headed directly for the shower, the water starting up a moment after I heard the door close.
My mind spun out of control. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t seen some kind of sign or something that gave me a hint that things weren’t what they seemed with him. Me, of all people. I’d been around a lot of fucked up and shady shit in my lifetime. This was something I shouldn’t have missed. He was good— really fucking good— if he had me fooled.
Now, I just had to be better. Because I couldn’t even give him one reason to have any kind of doubt in me. He had to think that I had no clue about anything. That I hadn’t heard part of his conversation. And if he started to push, I needed to show him that I could handle the things that he was really into.
Whatever that was.
I knew it wasn’t simply owning and running a bunch of businesses. Yep, how I hadn’t seen it before now was kind of blowing my mind. I wasn’t an idiot, not when it came to things like this. However, it was clear that I’d gotten a little rusty and began to let my guard slip.
What was it he could be into?
Guns?
Drugs?
Human trafficking?
Maybe he smuggled in exotic animals. That wasn’t that bad.
Okay, I couldn’t even try to believe that one. I’d seen the documentaries on that sort of thing, and I was one of those people who valued animal life the same as human life. The number of animals that actually made it into the country was significantly less than the amount they had started with and not to mention the traumatic things those poor animals had to go through.
Really, my mind knew that no matter what the answer was to the question it wouldn’t make it any better.
I supposed it made me a bit of a hypocrite. The Steel Paragons MC ran guns. I knew this though it was never told to me outright. I could throw out a bunch of different things to try and justify it. And that right there should have told me that maybe it wasn’t as shocking as I’d made it in my head.
I’d seen the softness in Ray’s eyes when he looked at me. He did care, that was something he couldn’t hide. Just like the feeling that crawled down my spine as I thought of him touching me now was something I couldn’t hide. I couldn’t ignore. Oh, yeah, I was smart enough to realize that too.
