It was a busy area, just a few blocks from the police station. They couldn't risk coming back to make sure they'd hit their target.
Still, I didn't move for a long moment, paranoia keeping me stubbornly in place.
"They're gone," Sass said, snapping me out of my thoughts, making me look down to find her looking up at me.
Her eyes were wide, all tiredness wiped away with the surge of adrenaline.
I became too aware of several things at once.
Her soft curves under my harder lines.
Her heavy breathing, making her breasts press against my chest.
Just how close her lips were, how perfect they were, how easy it would be to close the distance, seal my lips to hers.
I could see the moment her thoughts aligned with mine, making those lips part a bit more, making those green eyes get a bit more heavy-lidded.
It was the sirens that snapped me out of it.
Cops coming to check shit out, question witnesses.
We didn't want to be connected to this.
"We got to go," I said, jumping up, reaching down to drag her onto her feet.
We climbed into the bike and peeled off in a blur. I wasn't sure I took a deep breath until we were halfway across town with no cops following.
"Drive around," Sass yelled in my ear. "Make sure they didn't have anyone watching me," she added as we pulled away from the red light.
So that was what I did.
I drove around erratically for twenty minutes before deciding it was safe to head back to the clubhouse.
"Is there somewhere I can stash that car?" Sass asked as soon as she was off the bike. "They know it."
"We can park it in the garage next door," I told her. "Give me the keys, and I'll have Seeley do it while you take a shower and get some sleep."
She looked like she was going to object, but I cut her off.
"You are going to be useless if you don't get some rest," I reminded her, watching as the truth of that settled down on her, making her shoulders slump, her head nod in reluctant agreement.
"Okay," she agreed as I led her back inside.
"Make that car disappear," I told Seeley, tossing the keys, watching him snatch them out of the air.
"Permanently?" he asked, looking at me, and I looked at Sass.
"I stole it," she admitted. "Permanently might be a good idea. But I have a couple things in it."
"I'll handle it," Seeley said.
I didn't need to give him any further instructions. The kid's past was a bit of a mystery to me, but clearly, he'd been through some shit to come to us knowing the things he did.
For example, he wouldn't just grab Saskia's stuff out of the stolen car. He would then clean it so there wasn't a fingerprint or hair anywhere to be found. And then he would get it crushed, make it disappear in some junkyard somewhere.
And he would be back before dinner.
I don't know where he came from, but if there were any more of him, those were the kinds of men we needed to flesh the club out some more.
"So?" Huck asked as we moved inside, looking over his wife's shoulder, situated behind her on the couch, giving her a back rub.
"Let me get Sass settled, and I will explain," I told him.
His gaze slid to Saskia, likely taking in the exhaustion branded all over her before it came back to me. He gave me a nod. "Alright," he said as I led Sass toward the stairs.
"Here," I called, waving toward my room. "I'll lend you something to wear after you take a shower until Seeley brings your shit back," I told her, rummaging through my drawers. "The shower is through there," I directed her, waving toward the door, watching as she moved through the door a bit numbly, reaching inside to turn on the water, turning to look at herself in the mirror.
Moving inward, I put the clothes on the counter, grabbed a towel and washcloth.
"Hey," I said when she just stood there, staring through herself. "Sass," I tried again, reaching out, fingers sliding down her jaw, watching the shock and something else, something I wanted to call pleasure, but wouldn't let myself, cross her eyes before my fingers snagged her chin, making her turn to face me. "It's going to be alright," I told her.
"You don't know that," she said, shaking her head, losing the battle with herself again, her lower lip trembling. "We could all end up riddled with bullet holes when all this is said and done."
"Where's that headstrong girl I'd once seen jab a crowbar into some asshole's throat when he dared to tell her she couldn't win a race?" I asked.
"She was young and stupid," Sass said, shaking her head.
"She was strong and fearless," I countered.
"Yeah, well, look where that got her."
There was no reasoning with someone who was going on two days without sleep. Exhaustion magnified even the smallest of problems until they felt insurmountable.
"I once got a really good piece of advice from someone," I declared. "She told me that everything is figureoutable," I told her, watching as the edges of her lips twitched, knowing I was talking about what she'd told me when I'd confessed to her how hopeless my status in the country felt, how I didn't see any solutions to it.
"Che..."
"It's figureoutable," I cut her off. "Take your shower. Get some sleep. We'll talk in the morning," I told her, moving out of the bathroom, closing the door behind me, stopping to take a few breaths before I went downstairs to find the men gathered already—sans Seeley and Teddy—waiting to be filled in.
"She's a wheelman," I launched into it, getting an impressed nod from McCoy.
By the time I got to the part about the Triad, a muscle was ticking in Huck's jaw. "Only a woman would get us into issues with the Triad."
"We don't know it's the Triad," I reminded him. "All we know is she couldn't deliver their package to them. But when she tried to find them, they were nowhere to be seen."
"Sounds more like they set her up," McCoy said, shaking his head. "But why? It would be different if she worked for the enemy or something. But she's freelance."
"Yeah, I don't know. There's more questions than answers at this point," I said. "After she gets some rest, I am going to go to Arty. See if he can get anything off the security cameras on the street today, or pick up any chatter online about who might be on the lookout for Sass."
"Does she have any idea what was in the package?" Huck asked.
"She'd be a shitty wheelman if she looked," McCoy said.
"She doesn't know. She said the bag was lighter than she expected. But she has no idea what it was."
"Alright. We will stay hands-off for right now," Huck said. "We still need to deal with the Chechens right now. But if shit starts getting rough, let us know. We can all step in if we need to."
"I appreciate it," I said, moving to stand.
"Hey Che," Huck called.
"Yeah?"
"She's pretty."
"Yeah," I agreed. There was no denying that.
"You sure it's just a green card marriage?"
"She was just a kid," I insisted.
"Yeah, well, she's not exactly a kid anymore," he reminded me. And I really needed not to think about that.