Chapter 3

"Life keeps throwing me stones.

And I keep finding the diamonds."

–Ana Claudia Antunes

Jameson

There was little in this world that I hated more than seeing someone mistreat a person who was weaker than they were. Especially when I couldn't do a damned thing about it.

Sitting on a barstool in Bayou's near the back of the smoky bar, I watched Declan O'Malley twist the arm of his latest lady friend behind her back and laugh as she cried out in pain.

"Why so glum, Jameson?" Felix Woolf slapped me hard on the back as he stepped up beside me to order another round of shots for his crew, which filled the entire back room of the bar. I was pretty sure the moment we stepped foot in the dark place, everyone else left out of fear.

I glanced over at Felix and grunted. "Just horny as fuck," I joked. That did the trick. Felix laughed and slapped me hard on the back again. I knew the man had a twisted sense of humor, and sex always made the guy laugh for some reason.

I'd be trying to worm my way into the organization without spooking Felix Woolf for almost a year now. A very long year in which I'd kept the guy off my scent.

Felix Woolf was one of the leaders of the Swamp Reapers Motorcycle Club. The Swamp Reapers had added me to their official ranks after a very long initiation phase that involved, well, more than I wanted to think about at the moment.

Declan O'Malley was a long-standing member of the Reapers and one I wanted to beat the living shit out of one day. The man was a snake. Hell, most of the Reapers were. But Declan was a special kind of snake, the kind that liked to toss around women. His latest victim, Evelyn, worked at Bayou Brews and Blues.

The pretty brunette didn't deserve to be jerked around like this. No woman did. Still, there wasn't anything I could do without catching the attention of either Felix or his right-hand man, Ben Blackwood.

Both men were my real targets.

The other dozen or so members of the Reapers were just collateral damage, as far as I was concerned. Sure, they did the bidding of Felix or Ben. Anytime either man told them to jump, they did so without question.

"Lay off it," Felix barked at Declan when he'd grabbed Evelyn, causing her to drop a tray of beer that she'd been delivering to the group playing pool in the back. "You can fuck with her later on your own damn time. Right now, she's got a job to do keeping us hydrated."

Declan narrowed his eyes slightly at Felix, but then went and sulked in the corner like a kicked dog. The man had zero backbone when it came to dealing with Felix or Ben but sure as hell knew how to throw his weight around with everyone else.

It was my opinion that Declan was trying to weasel his way up the chain of command. He was nothing more than a kiss-ass and a bully. I was pretty sure that both Felix and Ben knew it.

"So…" Felix leaned against the bar as he downed the shot of whiskey he'd just gotten. "Which one are you thinking of fucking?"

I shrugged, trying to play it cool. "Almost anyone. I mean, it's been"—I pretended to count on my fingers—"hours." Felix laughed again. In truth, the last time I'd been with anyone was three goddamned years ago.

My number-one rule was to never mix business with pleasure. I might play a bad guy but there was no way I'd shack up with anyone while lying about who and what I was.

"You know Izzy has had her eyes on you for a while now." Felix nodded to the pretty blonde woman leaning over the pool table.

As if the woman knew we were talking about her, she glanced up and licked her lips at me. Isabella Sinclair, or Izzy to everyone in the Reapers, was not technically a member of the gang since they didn't allow women to join. But she was a staple, along with Nadia Monroe and a few others who came and went. Most of them stuck close to the men they associated with.

Izzy's bright blonde hair currently had hot pink highlights at the ends of the long tresses and was braided back on one side tight to her head. She was covered in tattoos, like most of the people in the bar, including myself.

To be honest, she wouldn't have been my type even if I was free to play. For the whole time that I'd been stuck in Gemsville, Louisiana, Izzy had done everything she could to get my attention.

"Not my type," I told Felix.

The man laughed. "If you're as fucking horny as you claim, does it matter?"

"I don't see you fucking Nadia, and everyone knows she's been boning for you," I pointed out.

Felix sighed and then motioned for another shot. He held up two fingers and waited. When the bartender set two shots down on the bar, Felix handed me one and tapped my glass. "I'll stay out of your sex life if you stay the fuck out of mine."

"Agreed," I said before downing the shot.

After that, Felix disappeared into some dark corner while I continued to nurse the warm beer I'd been given moments after entering the bar with the rest of the gang.

What in the hell had I done to deserve to be shoved in some backwater hellhole? Two years ago I'd been in the heart of Las Vegas, and before that, I had been in LA for a year or two. That had been my first DEA gig as an undercover special agent in narcotics. That job had lifted me to the heights that I am now—senior special agent. That first sting in LA, I took down fourteen dealers, seven smugglers and runners, and three mules. Unfortunately, the kingpin coordinating more than two million dollars of cocaine and other narcotics slipping through the country had escaped my grasp. So I followed the money and ended up in Las Vegas.

It had taken me a year to snag three more runners and more than two dozen dealers, most of whom had doubled as pimps, and one smuggler who became a victim of human trafficking in the end.

After that bust, I continued to follow the trail and ended up in a small mud pit in a state I knew shit-all about. Louisiana. From my knowledge of geography, the state was only good for Mardi Gras and hurricanes. Hell, I had never even seen a real-life gator until I'd had to catch three of them as part of my initiation into the gang.

The Louisiana accent wasn't hard for me to slip into just as long as I remembered to talk slowly. Besides, I'd been around this bunch long enough that I swore it was rubbing off on me for real. The slower pace of life was a little harder for me to adjust to. Everything in Vegas and LA had moved at light speed compared to the South.

Now, even my Supervisory Special Agent, Jasmine Thompson, joked with me whenever we connected that the South had rubbed off on me.

Though the last time I'd contacted my SSA was a little over two months before.

Hearing more glasses shatter, I glanced over in time to see a feisty long-haired brunette shove Declan up against the wall. The woman moved like lightning. Fast, hard, and with such efficiency, Declan never stood a chance.

"Try that again and you'll be missing a hand," the woman said smoothly.

The fact that she had the man pinned up against the wall had me smiling and, oddly, hornier than I'd been in a while.

Standing up, I made my way slowly towards the pair as I quickly assessed the woman. Five foot eight, maybe one-hundred-thirty sexy pounds, long straight dark hair with a natural tint of auburn. She was wearing black jeans that fit her firm body perfectly and a white button-up shirt covered by a leather jacket that had seen many years of wear. The worn leather-heeled boots she wore probably gave her a couple extra inches.

Declan was trying to break free of the woman's hold. Trying and, from the looks of it, failing.

Even though Declan had almost half a foot on the woman, they probably weighed the same amount since Declan was a skinny son of a bitch.

"Now, listen up," she continued, her tone deadly serious. "If I catch you laying so much as a finger on any woman in my town again…"—with a calculated shift of her body, she pressed her knee against Declan's groin, and he winced in pain—"it won't just be your ego that's shattered."

I was less than five feet from her when Felix gripped Declan's shoulder and yanked him free of the woman's hold.

To my surprise, instead of berating the woman for harming one of his men, Felix pulled Declan away and hauled him out the back door.

I didn't know why Felix decided to retreat, but I was thankful, as I wanted to get a few moments alone with the woman.

"I'm impressed," I said, getting the brunette's attention.

She jerked her gaze towards me. Her dark eyes scanned me from head to toe before she turned away without a word and headed towards the bar.

Being a stupid, horny fool, I followed.

"Not really into talking?" I joked.

She stopped a few feet from the bar and narrowed her eyes at me. Damn, she was hot. Okay, so maybe the few years of celibacy had finally caught up with me.

"Do I know you?" she asked as she slightly tilted her head. "What's your name?"

I smiled. The smile I knew that women liked. The kind that said, no, but if you wanted to know me…

Less than a heartbeat later, she turned away and continued to march towards the bar. I caught up with her right as she ordered a ginger ale.

Then, for some reason, my brain finally caught up with the rest of me. Shit. She's a cop. I should have sniffed it out first thing. If I hadn't been so damned horny and impressed by her pinning that asshole Declan to the wall, I would have spotted it right away.

Hell. Even just talking to her, I could blow everything.

I glanced around the dark bar. Luckily, every single one of the Reapers had followed Felix and Declan outside in retreat.

Deciding to cut my losses, I turned to join them, only to have her grip my arm. Firmly.

"I didn't say you could go," she said smoothly, her voice laced with the natural rhythm of the South. She turned her right shoulder slightly as her eyes ran over me again. "I asked you a question, Yank."

Shit. Double shit. Okay, she was a damned good cop. She'd seen through my fake accent if she knew I was from somewhere up north.

"You do know the North won that war?" I joked and leaned against the bar as I laid on the accent heavy.

Her eyes narrowed. "Thankfully."

"Don't let too many people in these parts hear you say that," I joked.

"You were about to tell me your name?" she motioned with her chin.

I slowly smiled again, stalling, since I oddly enjoyed the look of annoyance in her eyes. "You have to pay the piper first," I said as I wiggled my eyebrows. "A name for a name," I said when she continued to look at me in question.

I held firm. The woman had a look about her. Damn. Where in the hell had she been hiding?

"You're with them." She motioned with her head slightly behind her towards the back door where all of the Reapers had disappeared.

"I am," I said and, for the first time in years, I wished I could drop all pretenses. Damn.

The bartender set the glass of ginger ale down, and the sexy cop picked it up and took a sip. "Do you know Faye Baker?"

I glanced back to where she'd just pinned Declan up against the wall.

"Does this have to do with you going all Rambo on Declan?" I asked, trying to be charming.

Her eyes narrowed, then she leaned closer to me.

God, she smelled like leather and sin. It was too dark and smoky in the bar to see the proper color of her eyes but I just bet they were like bourbon when the sunlight hit them. Her face was something I could spend hours exploring. Even with the all-business look that she was currently giving me, she was sexy as hell.

"I see right through you, you know," she whispered, then she set her drink down on the bar and walked away.

Damn.

I froze.

What in the hell did that mean?

Did that mean she knew who I was? What I was doing there? No. No fucking way.

Before I knew what I was doing, I stormed after her. When I caught up with her, she was asking a waitress about Faye.

I knew most of the waitresses in the place. After all, it was one of the only places in town that the gang hung out at. Faye Baker was a petite waitress with jet-black hair who stood her ground and had a backbone. She had earned the respect of most of the gang, which meant she made big tips when we were in the bar.

She was also a close friend of Evelyn's.

The girl pointed towards the back corner where Faye had been last. The moment the cop turned to head towards the back, I positioned myself so that she would bump solidly into me. However, she was quick enough on her feet to skirt around me.

"I don't play games." She tossed it over her shoulder. I barely heard it over the loud music that was pumping out of the speakers.

When had the place grown so crowded with people other than the Reapers? I suppose I'd been too preoccupied to notice the switch-out of clientele.

We were a few feet from the back when I grabbed her arm, stopping her from walking out the back door. I wasn't positive the gang had left the premises yet. If they were hanging in the alley and she walked outside, well, I didn't want to think of what might happen.

"You don't want to go out there," I warned.

She broke free of my light hold easily enough and glared at me.

"Rayne!" someone shouted from behind me. Then a mass of blonde hair flew past me and hugged the cop. Rayne. An unusual name. Was that her first name or last?

I watched as the pretty blonde woman hugged the cop. Rayne.

"I didn't think you'd come. Tobias and Charlotte swore that you'd be here, but I reminded them that you didn't do bars." The blonde turned slightly towards me and stilled. Then she shocked me by holding out her hand towards me. "I'm Aria Hartwell, Rayne's BFF. She didn't tell me she was bringing someone tonight."

I watched Rayne's eyes widen a little as she tugged on her friend's hand, no doubt to quiet the woman down. Still, this was my opportunity.

With the gang out of there, I could at least flirt. If Felix or anyone else got wind of the fact that I'd been seen with a cop, I could play dumb and tell them I hadn't known. After all, technically, I still didn't know for sure. But after so many years in the field, I could sniff them out. Besides, I had just made a point to tell Felix I was horny, and Rayne was just what I needed at the moment.

I smiled a full toothy grin as I took Aria's hand in mine. The woman's smile was oddly contagious, but I locked eyes with Rayne as I said, "Jameson Lorenzo. Rayne and I just bumped into one another."