I am avoiding Eva. I know it's immature of me but I seriously cannot handle the sheer amount of emotion I feel when standing in the same room as her. I fumble over myself and I can't stop staring which is embarrassing even before the fuckers pick on me for hours about it afterwards.
Good thing is I can hide in my office for hours without anyone questioning it, either that or take a ride to the warehouses to do 'checks'. I'm not really doing checks, I'm just going for a smoke and hiding like the child I am. After Diedre, I really don't want to feel like this, even if it feels completely different.
"Mac!" I jolt out of my daydream and spin in my chair to see Bear stood in my doorway, he looks pissed. "I've been calling you forever." I'm not going to argue with him on it, when he's in a bad mood, he is impossible. I've known him since he was little and he was a fucker then too. "Can you come into the lounge please?"
I heave myself out of my chair, my chest hurting at the movement, and follow him out. I take my seat that has been reserved for me for a long ass time and I settle quickly. "Where are the women?" Bear asks, getting even angrier. People are going to die today, I think. I hope it's not me, I'm not in the mood.
I'll go tomorrow.
"Pink room." Boulder doesn't even look up from his phone to reply to Prez, who then storms over to the door and bangs on it hard enough to rattle the doorframe.
"Jeez, calm down." Lexie is the only one willing to talk back as the women stream out, taking their seats either next to or on their men. I find myself deflating slightly at the lack of Eva but also feel slightly relieved that I have avoided the hazing for this evening.
"Where's Evangeline?" Bear is at the end of his tether at this point and I'm grateful that his gun is still holstered because if that comes out we're all fucked. Mainly me because I can't move very quickly without ripping my chest back open so either way, I die.
"Probably working, I don't keep constant tabs on her." Riley replies, now occupying all of Boulder's attention.
"Fucking get her here now, please." Riley raises her hands in surrender and clicks some random button from her pocket. Within minutes, loud revs sound outside as Eva comes racing in. Eva then walks in wearing a fucking ballgown, like an entire dress bejewelled and everything. She looks stunning, like my chest hurts for a whole other reason kind of stunning.
"You said this was an emergency, Riley. That's what the button is for." Eva rolls her eyes and tidies her dress, revealing one of her slender legs and sliding her dagger back in its holster.
Is it hot in here? My mouth is dry.
"It is an emergency. If Bear gets any angrier then I'm gonna need you to protect me, where were you anyway?"
"Working some contacts. What is it, Bear? You look ready to explode." He points at Romeo, who pulls up some video from one of our hotels a few miles away. It doesn't really look like much to me, just a few security guys following a small guy wearing a suit.
"Who the fuck is that? Romeo searched for him but the bastard hasn't turned up anywhere."
"He's about as threatening as a pompom, darling. Don't worry about it."
"You didn't answer my question, Evangeline." Bear takes a tone with her that none of the women appreciate. Riley moves to get involved but Eva raises her hand to stop her and cocks her eyebrow.
"I understand your frustration, Bear, I didn't mean to stress you further." Bear takes a deep breath and sits down again, Eva has a way of calming people and Bear is not immune to it. "His name is Francesco, he's just a businessman. He is completely clean and is in town to discuss buying property on the late Blossom estate. He will cause you no issues."
"I'm sorry for snapping, it's just been too quiet for too long." The assassins don't count then? I mean that was literally weeks ago and a few months before that his kid was nicked. It says something about the club when a few weeks of silence is worse than a few weeks of action.
"You should take advantage of the quiet. When there's a break in the war, you don't wait in the trenches for the next bomb, you call your family and tell them you love them. Take the time, Bear, you have it now." She winks and leaves again, allowing breath back into my chest and my heart to go back to normal.
"She confuses me, anyone else?" Bear asks after a few minutes of stunned silence. We all agree with him. She has this quiet power and never ending wisdom, a calming aura and a loving personality yet she thrives in war and conflict. It's frightening. "Good, it's not just me. How you feeling, Mac?"
"Fuck off."
--------
If one more person tells me they don't want to guard the warehouses, I'm going to put their head through my fucking desk. The whole club is based entirely on our warehouses full of product but apparently that means nothing to these dickheads, meaning I had to pick up a fucking night shift.
I grumble in frustration as I throw a pack together to get me through the night. What's the point in being in charge if no one listens to you? I'm going to have to change the whole fucking rota again and now I'm including everyone, I give no fucks if they go on runs they can do a shift or two a week.
The only people that will be exempt from it are Runner and Rubble, they have to work at the gym and Runner deals with all of our weapons. The rest of them can do their fucking jobs, I'm pissed now and that's their fault. I storm out the front of the building, avoiding all the fucking knuckleheads and viciously tie my pack to the back of my bike.
"Where are you going all wound up?" I turn around to see Eva leant on Boulder's bike with an amused smile on her face. I swear I heard her ask the question but I can't do words or sentences when she's around, I open my mouth to answer but literally nothing comes out. "Mac? Are you okay?"
"Uhm, yeah, yeah. I'm good, just gotta go and uhm, guard the warehouse. Yep, that's uhm what I'm doing." Could I sound any more illiterate? I just want to facepalm so hard, I don't even know how I pulled any woman before this.
"Are you going on your own?"
"Yep, idiots, the lot of them." That was almost a sentence. Almost being the key word but at least it's better than intelligible babble.
"You're going to guard a five hundred square foot building on your own?" I nod, thankful for her ability to converse without sounding like an idiot. This is going to be a very one sided thing, I can already predict that. "Do you want company?"
Fuck.
YOU ARE READING
Mac (Riders of Apollo #8)
Romantika"Are you going to kiss me or are you just gonna stare?" As if he needed the encouragement, he slams his mouth down on mine in a frenzy, his hands moving from the counter to my thighs and pressing himself against me completely. I try and overcome hi...
