The Girl
1644 Words
Chapter Three
Cole did not tell her to move again.
That, somehow, was worse.
Mara sat with her hands wrapped around the coffee mug Tessa had given her, though she had not taken a sip. The room had settled back into motion after the ex left, but only on the surface. Underneath it, everything stayed taut. Watchful. Ready.
Cole stood at the end of the bar with the warrant in his hand, reading it again like the words might change if he looked long enough.
They didn’t.
Mara watched him over the rim of her mug and tried not to feel as if the floor had shifted beneath her and failed to mention it.
At last, Cole looked up. “That bastard didn’t bring this himself.”
Mara blinked. “What?”
“He wanted us to see it,” he said. “That means he’s got backup.”
Tessa let out a quiet breath. “You think he came here to flex?”
Cole’s mouth hardened. “I think he came here to put pressure on all of us before we had a chance to decide what to do with her.”
Mara’s stomach turned over. “Decide what to do with me?”
No one answered immediately.
That silence was answer enough.
Cole set the warrant down and leaned one hand on the bar. “You’re not leaving on your own tonight.”
Mara’s eyes flashed. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
She set the mug down harder than she meant to. “You don’t get to just decide that.”
His gaze remained level. “I do when the man after you just walked into my clubhouse with a piece of paper and a grin that told me he thinks he’s winning.”
Mara stood so fast the stool legs scraped hard against the floor. A few heads turned.
“I am not a prisoner.”
“No one said you were.”
“It sounds a lot like it.”
Cole looked at her for a long beat. “Then stop acting like you’ve got somewhere safer to go.”
That hit too close.
Too accurate.
Mara hated that he had said it aloud in front of everyone, hated more that he was right.
Tessa came around from behind the bar with the careful ease of someone who had seen tempers flare before and knew exactly when to step near and when to stay out of the blast radius.
“You can argue later,” she said. “Right now, he’s right.”
Mara looked at her in disbelief. “You too?”
Tessa crossed her arms. “Honey, the minute a man comes in here with a warrant and a smile that smug, he’s not coming to negotiate.”
Cole’s jaw ticked once. “Someone tipped him off.”
That stopped Mara cold.
“What do you mean?”
Cole looked at her then, and there was no softness in it at all. Just the blunt force of an unpleasant truth. “I mean he knew you were here before he walked through the door.”
Mara felt the blood drain from her face.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No, he couldn’t have.”
But even as she said it, she knew the shape of the fear was wrong. Not impossible. Just unwelcome.
Because if he knew where she was, then someone had told him.
Or worse, someone had been watching.
One of the brothers at the back—scar through the eyebrow, same man who’d been staring at her before—pushed away from the wall and spoke without looking directly at her.
“Could’ve followed her.”
Cole turned his head a fraction. “Maybe.”
Tessa’s expression sharpened. “Or maybe he had help.”
Mara looked between them. “Whose side are you on?”
Tessa blinked, then gave her a dry look. “Right now? The side that doesn’t get anyone killed.”
The words landed hard enough to shut Mara up.
Cole folded his arms. “Name of the ex.”
Mara’s mouth tightened. “Derek Shaw.”
Cole repeated it once, low. “Derek Shaw.”
Mara hated how little he seemed surprised.
“You really do know him,” she said.
“I know the type,” he answered.
“That’s not the same thing,” she snapped.
“No,” Cole said. “It’s not.”
The room stayed quiet around them, but Mara could feel the men listening. Listening and filing away every piece of this, every detail of her problem, deciding whether she was trouble or target or both.
She swallowed hard. “What happens now?”
Cole’s eyes remained on hers for another second before sliding away to the man near the door. “Now we find out who else knows she’s here.”
Mara wrapped her arms around herself, though the room wasn’t cold. “And after that?”
Cole looked back at her. “After that, you stay where I can see you.”
Her temper flared. “You do realize how that sounds.”
“Like a man trying to keep you alive,” he said.
“That’s not the same thing as giving me a choice.”
His expression didn’t change, but the air between them did. She had said the wrong thing in just the right way.
Cole moved closer, not threatening, not gentle either. Just enough to make her aware of him in the way the whole room already was.
“You think choice is what kept you safe before?” he asked quietly.
Mara stared at him.
That was too close to the bone. Too precise.
Because choice was what had gotten her here. Choice was what had told her to run, keep driving, trust no one, sleep in the car for two nights and eat gas station crackers because they were cheap and no one could track cheap.
And still here she was.
Her voice came out smaller than she intended. “You don’t know me.”
Cole’s gaze held hers. “No. But I know enough.”
She hated that her throat tightened.
Tessa cleared her throat from behind the bar, mercifully dragging the room back toward breathing. “Cole. If she stays, she needs a room.”
One of the brothers gave a low whistle. Not crude. Just surprised.
Cole didn’t react to it. “She’ll take one upstairs.”
Mara looked at him sharply. “I said I’m not staying like I’m some package you’re putting away.”
Cole’s eyes moved over her, quick and unreadable. “You’re staying because the ex knows where you are and he’s bold enough to come in here waving paper around. If I let you drive out tonight, he’ll follow you.”
Mara’s chest tightened.
She hated that she knew he was right.
Cole reached for the warrant and folded it once, twice, then slipped it into his back pocket. “You got anything in the car worth keeping?”
“Not much.”
“Then one of my men will bring it in.”
“I can get it myself.”
“No,” he said again, and the single word carried enough weight that even the men near the wall looked at him. “You can’t.”
Heat rose in her face. Anger, humiliation, fear. “You don’t know what I can do.”
Cole’s eyes fixed on hers. “Maybe not. But I know what he can do if he gets you alone.”
Silence.
Mara felt it in the back of her neck, in the pit of her stomach, in the ugly little place fear had settled and refused to move.
At last she looked away first.
Cole saw that too.
“Rook,” he said without turning.
The young prospect who’d been hovering near the wall straightened immediately. “Yeah, Prez?”
“Bring her bag up. Then check her car.”
Rook nodded once and headed out.
Mara frowned. “Check it for what?”
Cole didn’t answer right away. His expression stayed level, but something in it had shifted again—cold, focused, dangerous.
“For signs he followed you,” he said.
Her heartbeat stumbled.
Tessa frowned. “You think he already made a move?”
“I think he’s been making one,” Cole said.
Nobody spoke after that.
The club seemed to compress around the words, everyone understanding just enough to go quiet.
Mara stood there with her hands clenched at her sides and tried not to let the fear show. She was failing at it badly. She could feel it in the tremor under her skin, in the weakness at the back of her knees.
Cole noticed.
Of course he did.
He set a hand on the bar, not touching her, but close enough that she felt the heat of it. “Breathe.”
She shot him a glare. “Don’t tell me that either.”
A flicker passed through his eyes then—something almost like amusement.
Not quite. Not enough.
But it softened the edge of the moment just a fraction.
Mara hated that it worked.
Before she could think of a sharper reply, a sharp rap came at the front door. Once. Then again.
Every man in the room moved at once.
The kind of movement that didn’t look like panic if you didn’t know what panic looked like.
Cole’s head lifted.
Tessa muttered, “Well, hell again.”
The room went still.
Then the knock came a third time.
And a voice called through the wood, clear enough to make Mara’s blood turn to ice.
“Blackwater,” it said. “Open up. We need to talk about the girl.”
Mara’s eyes flew to Cole’s.
He was already moving.
- Writer
