Corrupting Cinderella (9 page)

Although entertaining, the Inga incident depressed the hell out of me. Dex and Z carried her kicking and screaming outside, where she was tossed into the club’s van and driven home by a prospect.

Lovely.

Rock hasn’t returned yet.

Trinity seems embarrassed or uneasy, and it bothers me because I think that’s my doing. Disapproval must be rolling off me in waves, but I can’t stop it. She keeps telling me this sort of stuff “almost never” happens here.

It’s that “almost” part that bugs me.

Trinity, Teller, and Murphy are laughing and joking around when Rock comes storming down the hall. He throws himself on the couch next to me and scrubs his hands over his face.

“Jesus Christ, that was disgusting.”

“Now you know why we were outside, prez,” Wrath says, giving Trinity a pointed look. She straightens up and away from Teller.

The front door slams open, and a girl who can’t be more than sixteen storms in. Good grief, if this is another “club girl,” I’m heading home.

“Marcel!” she howls.

Everyone around me breaks into laughter. Well, except Teller. He’s livid. He rockets off the couch and grabs the girl by her shoulders. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Oh, hell, no. There’s no way this girl is legal.

“Grams is driving me nuts! It’s barely nine o’clock, and she expects me to be in bed on a Saturday night. What. The. Fuck,” she yells dramatically.

Ah, this must be the little sister, Heidi.

Teller leads her over with an arm around her shoulder. She brightens when she sees Rock.

“Hi, Uncle Rock,” she says.

“Hey, Heidi-girl. How’d you find your way up here?”

She rolls her eyes. “I’m sixteen, not stupid.”

Rock tilts his head, waiting for her to continue. She lets out a dramatic sigh. “My boyfriend, Axel, brought me. He wants to prospect for you guys. He’s eighteen. I thought you could talk to him,” she adds with a hopeful lilt to her voice.

At the word “boyfriend,” Murphy’s head snaps up. He shoots an angry glare at Teller, who shrugs his shoulders.

“Hey, Heidi-bug,” Murphy calls.

“Don’t call me
bug
, Blake,” she snaps back.

Trying to regain control over the situation, Rock snaps his fingers in front of Heidi. “Heidi, we don’t allow prospects up here for the first year.”

“Oh.”

She finally takes in her surroundings. Noticing Rock’s hand on my knee, she locks her gaze on me. “Who are you?”

“Heidi, this is my girlfriend, Hope.”

“Oh, wow. That’s so cool. Uncle Rock’s never had a girlfriend before.”

I’m kind of charmed by this little hellraiser. “Hi, Heidi. Teller told me all about you last night.”

Her angry gaze bores into her brother. Whoops.

“No, honey, all nice things. He was bragging about how smart you are and that you’re full of moxie, which I see is totally true.”

“What the fuck is that?”

Teller elbows her in the ribs. “Uh, sorry,” she apologizes.

I smile. “It’s someone spunky. You know, full of energy and courage.”

“Oh, I like that. That’s a way better road name than
bug
,” she spits at Murphy.

“Love you too, bugaboo,” he responds with a grin.

Z comes out of the office looking a little green. He brightens when he spots, Heidi. “Hey, Bug.”

“Goddammit,” she grumbles under her breath.

Rock motions his VP over. “Hey, do me a favor.”

“Gee, prez. I barely finished the last disgusting favor you asked me to do,” he says with a healthy dose of irritation.

Rock levels a questioning stare at him, and Z drops the attitude. “What do you need?”

“Heidi brought her boyfriend up. He’s interested in becoming a prospect.”

“What’s his name?”

“Axel,” Heidi says while bouncing up and down on her toes.

“At least he won’t need a road name,” Z jokes.

One corner of Rock’s mouth lifts in a wry smile. “Will you go have a chat with him? Make sure he’s not a little punk?”

“He’s not, Uncle Rock, I swear,” Heidi pleads.

She turns and follows Z out. Teller trots behind her, looking up at the ceiling and muttering.

“She’s fun,” I joke.

“Well, at least in two more years she’ll be Murphy’s problem,” Wrath says with a snort.

“Fuck that, man. I’m just like another big brother to her,” Murphy protests.

Rock leans back with a lazy grin. “Please—she’s been trying to take that ride since she was twelve.”

“Nah. She’s like the kid sister I never wanted.”

Frankly, I’m a little disgusted at the way they’re discussing this girl. “She’s a kid,” I say.

“Yeah, which is why when she’s
eighteen
, Murphy will sack up and put them both out of each other’s misery,” Wrath challenges.

I sit up. “Are you serious? Murphy has to be what, ten years older than her?”

“Eight,” Murphy says quietly.

“Sorry.”

He flashes a grin at me and strokes his chin. “It’s the beard.”

“Hope, I think you’re misunderstanding,” Trinity offers.

“What am I missing?”

Trinity looks at the guys. “They’re not saying she
has
to be with Murphy. Or like she’s promised to him or anything like that. Is that what you’re thinking?”

“Well, yeah.” I flick my gaze at Wrath, and he rolls his eyes at me.

“She’s had a crush on him forever. You must have had a crush on an older guy when you were a kid, right?” she asks.

I nod even though Rock is watching me with narrowed eyes.

She pats Murphy’s knee, which makes Wrath narrow
his
eyes. “Although Murph will deny it, he’s sweet on her too. But he won’t do anything about it while she’s underage.”

“The age of consent is actually seventeen in New York,” I say absently.

Wrath snorts in disgust. Trinity shakes her head like I’m dense.

“What if she’s still with Axel?” I ask.

Murphy shrugs. “They’re more worked up about this than I am. You met her, right? She’s a pain in the ass. Not interested.”

Wrath reaches over and smacks Murphy on the back of the head. “Keep telling yourself that, buddy.”

Shaking my head from this bizarre conversation, I excuse myself to run to the bathroom. With Inga’s exit, things seem to have calmed down. There’s music coming out of the champagne room, but I don’t have to go past it to get to where I want, so I ignore it.

When I return, tense, angry voices hit me as I’m about to turn the corner. I pause to listen, praying no one will come up behind me.

“You can’t have your ol’ lady questioning the club like that, brother.” It’s Wrath. What the fuck is his problem with me now?

“Simmer down, asshole.” That’s Rock, and I smile at his no-bullshit tone.

“It’s your fucking fault. Why you always gotta hassle me about Heidi?” Murphy grumbles loud enough for me to catch.

“Wyatt, look at it this way. Heidi is club family. After meeting her for five seconds, Hope was ready to stand up to
your
scary ass in defense of her. Sounds like perfect ol’ lady material to me.”

Why, thank you, Trinity.

“Thanks, Trin,” Rock says, echoing my thoughts.

Wrath must be considering their words. I wait, holding my breath. I know how close he and Rock are. I shouldn’t give a shit about his “seal of approval” but I do.

“I guess. She kept her cool when Cookie got up in her face last night too. And with Inga this morning. I almost pissed myself.”

“You should probably talk—”

I choose that moment to walk back into the room, and everyone falls silent for a second.

Rock stands up.

“I’ve had enough drama for one night. Wrath, tell Z I’ll talk to him about Axel in the morning. Someone make sure Heidi gets home. She can’t stay here.”

Murphy stands and squeezes my shoulder on his way out. “Night, Hope.”

Surprised, I turn my head, watching him walk out the door.

At least someone here likes me.

CHAPTER SIX

Even though she’s pissed about it, Hope agreed to take Teller’s case. She’s been spending more time at Adam’s office, which annoys me less than it used to. I offered to set her up in an office near Crystal Ball, but I don’t think she took me seriously, because she laughed in my face.

All this means is that I end up riding downtown more often to take her out to lunch or bring her dinner when she’s working late. Lately, I sense she has a bit of the guilts for getting involved in Teller’s family drama. With that in mind, I drop by to take her to a late lunch, because I doubt she’s bothered to eat yet.

The only person I find in the office is Adam.

“Where’s my girl?”

Adam’s entire body jerks. “God dammit. Can you make some noise so I know you’re here? You scared the shit out of me.”

“Christ, I’m not exactly fucking tiny. Maybe you should get your ears checked.”

His lips quirk into a brief grin before he ducks his head back down to his computer screen. “She’s out. Said she had a client interview.”

“Where?”

One shrug later, Hope’s buddy is dangerously close to an ass-kicking. I’ve never liked this idea of her going to her clients’ houses. Seems awfully unsafe to me.

I snap my fingers in front of Adam. “Where. Is. She?”

“Dude, chill. I’ll pull up her calendar.” Adam gets busy tapping his way into her calendar. “We have access to each other’s stuff just in case,” he tells me as I wait. I guess he’s worried I’ll think it’s weird. But it makes sense, and right now, I’m thankful for it.

He points at the screen. “Here. She’s drafting a will and is doing the client intake.”

I fight the urge to unhinge his jaw with my fist. “I don’t care
what
she’s doing.
Where
is she doing it?”

“749 Mason Ave,” he answers with a frown.

Fuck me. That’s a bad area of Empire. “Jesus. You let her go down there alone?”

Adam looks at me as if I’ve got a few screws loose. “Uh, she’s an independent girl, Rock. One does not tell Hope what to do if one wants to live to see the next day.”

We’ll see about that.

On my way out, I send her a quick text.

Dropped by to take you to lunch. Where you at?

I didn’t plan to wait for a response. Just revved up my bike and pointed it toward Mason Street.

Mason is one of those narrow, one-way streets downtown Empire has in abundance. I find Hope’s car easily enough. But no sign of her. I park right next to her car, so there’s no way she can leave without me knowing about it.

I scan the street and spot 749 a few doors down from the closed-down shell of the old bar we used to hang out at before we moved the MC out into the wilderness. Still no sign of Hope.

Checking my phone, I see she hasn’t responded. A boulder of worry settles in my gut as I stride over to 749 and push open the door.

And run smack into a very frustrated Hope.

Thank fuck.

“Rock! What on earth are you doing here?”

I’m beyond pissed that I apparently drove down here for nothing. Mrs. Kohn didn’t answer her door. The neighborhood is a lot sketchier than I thought it would be, so my nerves are jangling.

Then, bam! There’s Rock, looking almost as pissed as I feel. On closer inspection, his pulse is pounding in his neck, body tense, eyes narrowed. Definitely furious and not in a mood to joke around.

He takes me by the elbow and leads me to my car.

“What are you doing down here by yourself?”

A chill settles over me, and a sliver of resentment works into my chest. I’m thirty-fucking-three years old. A professional. I don’t need to ask his permission before doing my damn job.