Chapter 4

“What the hell did you do?!!!” Marla asked her, walking out of her office and towards the conference room with Liana.

“Nothing, I swear. I just presented. I guess they didn’t like my suggestions much.”

Marla stopped and turned to her very slowly. “Suggestions? You…you made suggestions?”

“Well, yeah, I added some things to the things they liked and…”

“Why did you do that??? Are you trying to make them pissed on purpose?” Marla continued towards the meeting room, where the men were.

“They said they wanted something to attract younger people, so I did that? How else do they expect younger people if they want me to work strictly with their preferences.”

Marla groaned after hearing Liana. “Just don’t say anything when we get there.”

“Yeah, I know. They don’t even want to hear me…” Liana lowered her voice when they bumped into the men walking out of the meeting room.

“Mr. Marlowe…” Marla smiled broadly, but he didn’t smile back.

“Our prospect here thinks your design was okay,” Cain looked at Liana as he spoke. “He said it could really meet the target we’re reaching for. So we’d like to work with that.”

“Oh really?” Marla chuckled. “Well, that’s good. Liana is very good at what she does, that’s why I asked her to work with you.”

“Run through the extra details and let Jay know how much it’ll cost. You’ll be dealing with him much for now.”

“Okay.” Marla nodded.

Cain walked past Marla, then Liana without another word. But Liana decided to run after him.

“Why Jay and not you?” She asked, but Cain’s face just squeezed with confusion. He turned to Jay, and then back to her.

“What?”

She cleared her throat. “I’m asking why I’m working with Jay and not you. I thought you were in charge.”

Cain ran his eyes through her from her mini heels to her ponytail, then he chuckled. “Let’s leave.” He said simply to his people and walked out.

***

Later.

Liana’s apartment.

Liana didn’t remember how she got home. Carrie just found her sitting on the couch with her knees pulled to her chest, shoes still on as she sulked.

“Aww. Someone had a bad day at work.” She went to comfort Liana.

“He was awful,” Liana said.

Carrie folded her arms. “He was exactly what I said he was, wasn’t he?”

“He didn’t yell,” Liana started. “He didn’t insult me, at least not directly. He just…made me feel stupid while I stood there. And he did it so calmly and then later goes on about how his prospect thought my suggestion was good.”

Carrie puffed out a breath. “Oh. Well, that’s a new approach.”

“I tried to talk to him after too,” she said. “Just… casually. It was kind of a stupid attempt at shooting my shot.”

Carrie’s brow lifted. “And?”

“He looked through me,” Liana said. “Like I was… background noise or something. He just looked me from my toes up and chuckled and left. Mind you, it was in front of the receptionist too.”

Carrie rubbed her face with an I-told-you-so chuckle. “…Yeah. You don’t do that. I thought I told you how I think things run there now. He’s not going to dig you. They pretty much avoid women now because their rivals use it to get to them.”

She paused and contemplated if to tell Liana, then she made the decision to tell her. “I’ve slept with one of their prospects once. Well, recently actually.”

Liana sat up. “What? You? With all the warnings you have about them?”

“He was niceeee,” Carrie emphasized even if she said it quietly with a shrug. “Kinder than the rest, I think. He made me laugh and wasn’t scary like I thought.”

She picked at the couch seam like a kid. “But then he never called back.”

Liana became invested. “Why?”

Carrie swallowed. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I think it’s their code thing.”

“What thing?”

Carrie hesitated but leaned in. “Apparently, they don’t get to have women around them unless they are…I don’t know, realllllyyyy, really sure about wanting them past friendship and sex.”

Liana wiped her face. “So wives?”

“Yes, wives! You get it now. Although, it’s not confirmed,” Carrie made sure to add. “It’s still just rumors after all… between me and a couple other girls who’ve… been around them.”

Liana stared down at her hands. Cain’s calm face flashed through her mind. His sharp jaw and effortlessly handsome face. And then came his voice. His deep, firm voice.

Her chest ached, but not from fear; just from something stupid, and probably dangerous. She was thinking of a crazy idea. She was going to get him to like her, one way or another.

***

Cain was standing at the edge of a bridge when he took out a stick of cigar from the pack with his teeth and searched his pockets for a lighter. The president of the Steel Saints MC, Vic, joined him.

“I thought you quit smoking?” He asked, not looking at him and admiring the water beneath them as the wind messed with both their hair.

“Well, it’s pretty hard to quit when you’ve got the cops trying to jail your ass for both the shit you did and the shit you didn’t.” He chuckled.

Vic smirked with a light chuckle following after, “So we’re not cleared with the cops for the delivery we got to carry out this weekend?”

“I’ll take care of it.” Cain tried to assure him, but he didn’t take it.

“You said that to me and the boys two days ago.”

“I said I’ll handle it, okay?”

“Who’s the officer giving you trouble?” Vic inquired and heard Cain sigh.

“Her name’s Ryan, she’s the new chief of police assigned to the department so she’s quite patriotic, doesn’t let anything go past her.”

“They changed Reggie? Fuck…” Vic ran his fingers through his hair. Now he knew why Cain was having a hard time with it. Reggie was their inside guy at the police department and he was replaced.

“I thought I just had to find something or someone she likes and try to use it against her, but she’s got nothing on her.”

“What? She’s a clean slate?”

“Yep. No bad history to use against her, so she’s either a saint who has nothing bad on her, or a devil who wiped her shit clean before being transferred here.”

“Well, we’ll find that out. I’ll call Rick and see if he can do anything. We have to before she shits on us.” Vic sighed after. “Hand me a stick,” He requested and Cain chuckled while taking out his pack of cigarettes.