“Is she okay?” I asked, full of sudden panic. “Have you seen Kit?”
“She’s fine,” he said. “Down in the kitchen with Kelsey. They’re making breakfast for all the stragglers. I guess they hit it off last night—now they’re building some kind of unholy alliance.”
I shuddered.
“Just what the world needs. Did I really ask you to fu—have sex with me last night?”
“Yup,” he said, looking smug. “I’m on board with that now, by the way. You were just way too out of it last night for us to have any fun.”
“Wow, what a prince,” I muttered. “You won’t screw a drunk girl. Were you class president, too?”
He laughed.
“Trust me, it wouldn’t have been fun for either of us. I’m not into necrophilia. You were so out of it I kept getting nervous and checking to make sure you hadn’t stopped breathing.”
“Ewww.”
“Hey, not my fault. I was sober, remember? You’re the one who poured those shots down your throat.”
Oh, I remembered that part. Vividly.
“I feel like something died inside me.”
“That would be your liver,” he said helpfully, reaching down to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “I’m gonna go check on Clutch, and then we’ll talk. Make yourself comfortable. Bathroom’s across the hall. Oh, and Em?”
“Yeah?”
“Last night was a game changer, so far as I’m concerned. I gave you your space, let you go. But you came back, so now you’re fair game. I’m done being the nice guy.”
I eyed him suspiciously, then pulled the covers up and over my head. I wasn’t ready to think about this. I heard him leave the room. Damn it. Why didn’t he have blackout curtains in here? After a while, the door opened again.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “I’ll get up. I was just drifting . . .”
“Don’t worry about it,” a voice said. Not Hunter’s, but one I knew way too well. I peeked out and over the covers.
Skid.
“What are you doing?” I asked, eyes darting nervously. He closed the door behind him and clicked the lock, loudly and deliberately. Then he leaned back against the door with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
“We need to talk,” he said, his voice cold.
“You can’t hurt me,” I said quickly, hoping it was true. “Hunter will be pissed as hell if you try to do anything.”
He gave a harsh laugh.
“I don’t care about you enough to hurt you,” he said. “What happened before? That’s behind us. You were defending yourself and I was trying to save my brother from a f**king Reaper lunatic. We’ll call it even and let it go, at least as far as you’re concerned. This is something else.”
I cocked my head, not sure whether to believe him. Not that I had many options. I mean, I guess I could scream for Hunter. But Skid wasn’t making a move at me and now I was curious.
“What?”
“You need to leave Hunter alone. You have no idea how much you’re f**king up his life. I want you to get up, take your sister, and go away.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Why would I do that?” I asked, even though until that moment I’d half planned to take off anyway. But I really didn’t like being told what to do.
“Do you give even the slightest shit about him?” Skid asked, meeting my gaze without a hint of trickery. “If you do, you need to end this. It’s a game for you, but it’s going to destroy him. You’re like a virus in his head, eating him up and burning him out. How much do you know about his background?”
“I know he was in foster care . . .” I said, not wanting to admit how little he’d told me.
“He has nobody,” Skid said with careful emphasis. “It’s him, Kelsey, and the Devil’s Jacks. We’re his family, his work, his home. Everything. At this rate, he’ll be running this club some day—a functional club, without all the bullshit we’ve been fighting our way through these past few years. A relationship with you ends all that. He’d have to step back. We’d let him stay in the club, but if he’s with a Reaper, he won’t be trusted.”
I stared at him.
“That’s totally unfair—and it doesn’t make sense. You guys planned for him to get together with me in the first place. I’m the glue to hold the truce together or some such bullshit. How come it’s all changed?”
Skid snorted.
“Yeah, that was fine when he didn’t give a damn about you,” he said. “But it’s pretty obvious it’s deeper than that now. He talked club business with you—I know he did, so don’t bother denying it. And if he told you shit once, he’ll do it again. We can’t have our national sergeant at arms sharing secrets with Picnic Hayes’s daughter. He starts sleeping with you, it’s over for him and that’s a fact.”
I lay back, thinking. Wow.
“He’s really going to be a national officer?” I asked. “That’s . . . Isn’t he too young?”
“Things are changing for the Jacks. He’s one of the men behind those changes. We’ll have elections soon and that’s how it’s gonna play out. Unless you f**k it up for him.”
“Crap,” I muttered. I sat up, carefully holding the sheet in place. “You do realize that I have no idea what’s going on with him and me? I’m not even sure there’s an us at this point.”