Maybe I just needed to buy everyone a fucking duffle bag for when we needed to go on a run or something so we would all have one when it came time.
I rolled up the driveway to Mitzy’s and parked in front of the porch.
Mitzy’s house was surprising. It sat outside of town, on a backroad most people didn’t know about, at the end of a gravel driveway. The two-story, white farmhouse had a large porch on the front, a two-car detached garage, and a utility shed that stood behind it.
Not Mitzy at all. At least, not the Mitzy I knew.
I grabbed my duffle bag and slung it over my shoulder. After climbing onto the porch, I knocked on her front door and waited for her to swing it open with some sass pouring out of her mouth.
As crazy as it may have seemed, there was something sexy about Mitzy being a bitch and throwing attitude at me. Call me a glutton for punishment, but I was into it.
It could also be I wanted to be the one who worked that attitude out of her.
She didn’t come to the door, so I grabbed the key from out under the front mat. It had been about four hours since I dropped her off, and I figured she had probably passed out.
As much as I wanted to look around and check out her house, I first wanted to get eyes on Mitzy. By the time I made it to the last bedroom, my blood was boiling.
I stalked down the stairs and out to the garage.
“SON OF A BITCH!”
Mitzy was gone, and so was her car.
*
Chapter Four
That man…
Mitzy
“Can I get a bottle of water, Minnie?”
Minnie smiled wide and crouched down in front of the fridge. She grabbed a bottle and set it in front of me. “Are you sure you should be here? You haven’t even been out of the hospital a day.”
I waved my hand at her and twisted off the top of the bottle. “I’m more than fine. I took a two-hour nap when I got home, and now, I’m good to go.”
“I just was surprised to see you walk in because the last I heard was you were taking a couple of days off to rest.”
I rolled my eyes and took a long drink. “Who did you hear that from?” I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and twisted the cap back on the bottle.
“Monk called right when I got here to let me know.”
Of course, it had been Monk to make that decision for me. “Well, I’m here and I’ll be here for the rest of the week.” I couldn’t take a couple of days off with no notice. I had taken days off before, but I had done it after making sure someone would cover for me and I had completed anything only I could do.
I had to write up the schedule for next week, and I also needed to take inventory of the bar because I had to place my booze order in the morning.
No one could do either of those things for me.
“Just take it easy, yeah? We don’t want you to land back in the hospital again.”
Minnie was sweet to worry about me, but I was fine.
“I’ll be in my office. Holler if you need anything, yeah?”
Minnie nodded. “Will do, boss lady.”
I rolled my eyes at the lame nickname. One time two years ago, Barracuda had called me “boss lady,” and it had stuck with the girls who still worked here. Minnie was one of them.
I made my way back to my office and sat in my chair.
Even though it wasn’t that long ago, it felt like it had been a lifetime since I last sat in this chair. That was fucking trippy.
I made my way through half of the schedule when shouting came from the front of the house. I wasn’t even out of my chair before Monk was in my doorway looking pissed as fuck.
“What in the fuck are you doing here?” he roared.
I reared back. “Excuse me?”
“What are you doing here? Are you hellbent on hurting yourself even more?” he demanded.
Excuse me? I rolled my eyes. “I’m hardly hurting myself by working on the schedule and taking inventory of the bar.”
He shook his head. “You aren’t doing anything besides getting on the back of my bike and getting your ass back in bed.”
It was cute how Monk thought he could tell me what I was and wasn’t going to do. “I have things to do here, Monk. You can run back to the clubhouse and let me do my job.”
He slammed the door shut behind him and stalked to my desk. Standing over me, he laid his hands flat on my papers and leaned down. “You can use this bitch attitude of yours with your girls from the club, and hell, with whoever else you want to, but you’re not going to act this way with me. You got lots of fucking demons and baggage, Mitzy, but I know this is all a fucking act with you. If you push everyone away, you don’t have to worry about being hurt again, right?”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “I think this conversation is meant for people who actually know each other, Monk. From where I’m sitting, that is not you and me. I could count on my fingers the number of times you and I have actually had a conversation before today.” I leaned toward him. “You only know what I want you to know.”
“So you’re saying I need to get to know you, huh?” He grabbed a chair and plopped down on it. “I can get behind that fucking wall you’ve got up.”
Nope. That was not what I was saying at all. “No.” No.
“No, what?”
I rolled my eyes. “No, I don’t want you to get to know me.” I didn’t want anyone to get to know me. I was content with the way my life was. Everyone thought I was a bitch, and they kept their distance. Perfect.
He kicked out his feet in front of him and rested his hands on his head. “Well, that’s tough shit for you because I’ve got a duffle bag in your spare bedroom at your house that says differently.”
“You were in my house?” I demanded. Who in the hell did Monk think he was?
“I saw you grab it from under the mat today, babe. And even if I hadn’t seen you do that, it would have taken five seconds to find the fucking thing.”
“I’ll move it when I get home.”
He laughed and shook his head. “It’s not there anymore.”
“What do you mean it’s not there anymore?”
“You really think I would put it back?” He shook his head. “That’s my key now, babe. I’ll be needing it.”
“You will not be keeping it. You will give it back to me.”
Monk scoffed. “I’m going to do that as much as you listened to me when I told you to stay home.”
“You never told me to stay home,” I snapped. Again, not like I would have listened to him. “And I’m a grown woman who can do whatever the hell I want to.”
“Look, Mitzy, it’s gonna be a whole hell of a lot easier if you just accept the fact I’m gonna be around until we get this shit figured out.”
“There is no shit to figure out, Monk. I don’t know why you think you need to barge in like some knight in shining armor to save me.” I laid my hand on the desk. “I don’t need saving.”
“I’m here to keep you safe so you don’t need saving.”
This man was infuriating. “I can also keep myself safe.”
“You keeping yourself safe is overdosing and ending up in the emergency room?”