“So,” Kelly says, crossing her arms and studying me, “you have a good time last night?”
I meet her gaze gamely. Kelly is a spitfire, but I’m none too timid myself. “I did,” I reply.
“You and Brooks were getting awfully cozy,” Kassie remarks, “did you guys...?”
“No,” I cut her off, “we didn’t. I passed out at some point, and Brooks kept me company until morning.”
“But you did hook up, right?” Kelly presses.
“There may have been a little hooking up,” I allow, remembering the moment we kissed beneath the sprawling sky. The moment I tasted him for the first time. “But nothing past a little friendly making out, I promise.”
“Hey, you don’t have to answer to us,” Kassie says, elbowing Kelly. “What you do after hours is your business. We can’t exactly caution you to stay away from bad boy bikers, can we? I’m sure Brooks is a good guy, in the end. I mean, Declan vouches for him.”
“I was hoping to set you up with Tyke,” Kelly sighs. “Guess I’m not the best matchmaker. Though there is a new girl at the Devil’s Playpen who might go for him...”
“You’re a crazy person,” Kassie says, rolling her eyes.
“Takes one to know one,” Kelly returns. “But anyway, Keira, if you want Brooks, you should go for it. Trust me, biker sex can be—”
“Can you please not try to scare our new employee away before her first week is up?” Kassie cuts in.
“Actually, I’m kind of curious,” I admit. “I mean, I imagine the sex is incredible. But beyond that, how did you guys find yourselves shacked up with the VPs of two of Vegas’s most influential MC’s?”
“Did some research about the subject, huh?” Kassie teases.
“You caught me,” I demur, kicking myself for showing my hand. Luckily, the girls don’t seem to notice. “Guess I’m just curious about the life, is all.”
“Let me put it this way,” Kelly says, leaning toward me over the table, “falling in love with a guy like Leo, or Declan—even Brooks—it realigns your whole world. The way you think about everything flips on its head. Even the way you think of yourself. Being loved, desired, by a man that powerful makes you feel like a goddamn goddess. I highly recommend it, actually.”
I look between Kassie and Kelly, relieved that their reservations about Brooks seem to have lifted. They seem to really want me to fall for him. Or at least let him take me for a ride. Jesus, there really must be something to this whole bad boy thing if they endorse it so wholeheartedly.
“Doesn’t it ever bother you, though?” I ask carefully. “The fact that your old men aren’t exactly on the right side of the law?”
“Here’s the thing about the law, Keira;” Kassie says, shaking her blonde hair off her shoulders, “there may be two sides, by that’s doesn’t mean there’s necessarily a right one.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Law enforcement, the police, the government,” Kassie goes on, waving her hand dismissively, “they all claim to have some moral high ground. But what gives them the right to impose their morality on the rest of us? Especially when most of the time, it’s only their own best interests they’re looking out for.”
“How many laws that exist in this country actually serve to protect those who need protecting?” Kelly goes on. “The fundamental rules that govern this country were put in place two hundred years ago. Since then, lawmakers, and law enforcers, have been more concerned with protecting rich people’s rights and property than anything else.”
“Don’t you think that’s a bit of a generalization?” I ask, bristling at the implication that what I do as an FBI agent is morally corrupt.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Kassie shrugs. “All I’m saying is that morality isn’t black and white. And anyone who claims otherwise, the government included, is lying. Dante’s Nine and the Devil’s Wraiths have broken the laws of the land more times than anyone can count, and they’ve paid the price each time. But no threat of punishment is going to keep them from living the way they feel is honest. They protect their brothers and families, they don’t go out of their way to hurt anyone, and they’re fierce about their honor and their beliefs. And I’ve come to admire that immensely.”
“But people still do get hurt, don’t they?” I say softly, my baby brother’s face swimming up in my mind’s eye. “There are innocent people who get hurt when people don’t follow the law, aren’t there?”
“There are innocent people who get hurt when this country legally goes to war, too,” Kelly says. “There are innocent people wrongly killed by the law, by the government. It’s an imperfect system, Keira. The MC life just preaches living fully and protecting your own before the system can screw you over for good.”
For the first time, I find myself considering Brandon’s death in another light. A stray bullet hit him during a shootout between the cops and a local gang. But what if the bullet itself came from one of the cop’s guns, rather than a gang member’s? Would that change anything?
No. I can’t start thinking like this. Not now.
“Sorry, that was a little much,” Kelly says, noticing my pensive expression.
“It’s fine,” I tell her, snapping out of it. “Just...a lot to think about.”
“Remember,” Kelly smiles, “throwing yourself into the MC life is not a requirement of this job. We just don’t want you to write it off without considering—”
“Why don’t we just get back to the task at hand?” Kassie suggests. “Kelly and I have to head out and meet a potential investor this afternoon. Will you be OK working here on your own for a while, Keira?”
Jackpot. A little alone time to snoop around the CrowdedNest files is just what I need.
“Sure,” I reply, “that’s no problem at all. Just let me know what you need to me do.”
“If you could just familiarize yourself with our SEO and marketing strategies today, that would be incredibly helpful,” Kassie goes on, “You should be able to access everything you need through our shared internet connection. We’ve authorized your computer. We’ll be gone for the rest of the day, so feel free to ship off when you’re finished. We trust you.”