The door opened in front of her, and Veila instinctively went for her knife, but it wasn't under her shirt. Feeling defenseless, she stepped back, widening her stance to fight, when a pissed-off biker entered her house, "Happy?"

He was angry, almost visibly shaking as he slammed her front door and crowded into her personal space.

"Happy, what are you doing here?"

He ignored her question and pushed her further in, "Who the fuck was that just now?"

"That was my friend, Sasha," She blocked him from moving into her house any further, "Why do you have a stick up your ass?"

Happy glared, "Bullshit, that was a man."

She gave him a look that hopefully conveyed how much of an idiot she thought he was, "Yes, that is a man. His name happens to be Sasha."

"Are you fucking him?"

Veila huffed, "Am I fucking you?"

"No."

"Then I don't see why it matters," she crossed her arms over her chest and glared back at him.

He paused and just stared at her for what seemed like forever, "I came to see you tonight. I knew you'd be back today."

Whiplash, she was suffering from whiplash with how quickly he could change shit up, "And?"

He spoke slowly like he was trying to prevent himself from making a mistake, "I was surprised to see you with a man..."

She snorted, "More like ready to kill. I still don't know why you're so angry."

"I," he took a deep breath, looking extremely uncomfortable, "I find you attractive."

Veila laughed at him now, "And that allows you to come into my house and insinuate I'm fucking my friend?"

Happy's eyes widened, and his brows knit together.

Before he could speak, Sasha came down the stairs, half-dressed, with a pistol held up defensively, "Boss, what's happening?"

Happy held up both hands and gave her a confused and frustrated look, "Boss?"

"You don't get to ask questions," She shot at him, annoyed. To Sasha, she sighed, "Put it away and go to bed."

He ignored her and kept the gun pointed at Happy. Eyeing Happy's leather cut, he grinned as he backed Happy to the door silently, "Leave."

Happy glanced at Veila before backing out of the house, hands raised. He didn't want to get shot, and he didn't want to fuck anything else up with her.

Anger built with her again, "Fucking hell, Sasha. What are you doing?"

"Kicking out the gangbanger trash," he shrugged and locked the front door. Deadbolt and all before turning to face her again.

"Gangbanger?"

He looked at her like she had a few screws loose, "The Sons of Anarchy is a gang."

"No, I thought they were just motorcycle fanatics."

He smiled, "No. They work with the Irish. They're our main competition in the west, working with the Irish too."

"Are you trying to say we're a gang?"

He muttered curses in Russian, "No, we are not a gang. We transport in a gray area. The Sons, however, use force and bribery to do what we do."

"How do you know this?" Veila asked curiously.

"A quick online search and a few background checks. Their vice president has been to prison more times than Gregori."

"Happy?"

Sasha shrugged with a knowing smile, "Don't know."

….

"Yes, just information. Anything you can collect on their organization."

The investigator went on about daily rates and check-in times until, finally, they promised to email with the information they collected at the end of the week.

After last night, the curiosity was killing her. Sasha had only dug into the criminal organizations in California and not much else. They would have to watch out for a few local gangs, the Sons of Anarchy included.

It just sucked that they decided to take such an interest in her, and it was worse that they seemed to be so nice. Well, most of them. It would make business more complicated.

Thoughts and plans swarmed her mind when there was a heavy knock at the door. "Go away," She grumbled, approaching the door.

Looking through the peephole, she couldn't see anything, just blackness. Fear pounded through her veins, and quickly, she grabbed the gun she hid near the door.

With a deep breath, she called out to her visitors, "Who is it?"

"It's Happy."

Yeah, right. "What do you want?"

"Just wanted to talk. You didn't answer last night."

Veila pulled the door open, quickly raised the gun high, and pointed it about chest level at Happy. Behind him was Jax and a few others, all wearing leather cuts.

"You just want to talk, heh?"

Jax smiled sweetly, "We do wanna talk."

She kept her gun raised, "That's why you couldn't just knock like neighbors do?"

An older man stepped forward, rubbing the gray stubble on his chin, "Didn't want you to run away. We can be intimidating."

"What the fuck do you want?"

"Why don't we take this inside?" Jax suggested, pushing through the doorway past her raised gun and into her house.

She backed away into the kitchen, and the men stepped in, grinning. Following after them, she shut the door and lowered her gun, keeping it ready, just in case. Moving to stand behind the counter, she watched while they made themselves comfortable. She felt more in control.

"What do you want?"

"We wanted to know what business you'll be running here," the older man spoke with a smile, but a slight venom was leaking through into his words.

Veila glared at him, "Who are you? We haven't been introduced yet."

With an overly sweet smile, he introduced himself, "I'm Clay. You already know Jax, Happy, and Opie."

They all nodded, "This is Chibs, Bobby, and Tiggs."

"Lovely."

Before she could say anything else, Sasha walked in with a towel around his waist. Veila watched him assess the situation before he moved to stand behind her, eyes hard.

"Who is this?" Clay asked, leaning back in his chair.

"This is Sasha."

His eyes widened slightly, "Ahh, the employee."

Jax stepped forward, attempting to relax the situation, "We just wanted to get to know you better. See if we could help with your budding business."

Sasha moved closer and silently pulled open a drawer, "The business isn't budding. We're opening a new branch, so your 'help' isn't needed," As Sasha pulled back again, he lifted a gun out.

"Well,, seeing as she's the boss, we asked her," Clay jabbed.

"Well, seeing as Sasha works for me, he knows we don't need any help," she sassed back, "We've got people coming down to help, and then we'll be up and running."

Anger pushed her over the edge, "In fact, with how poorly you've been doing, I wouldn't be surprised if our Irish contact had you working for us." Half of what she said wasn't true, or she didn't think it was, but throwing it at them felt good.

Jax looked confused, and so did everyone else, but Clay glared daggers at her, "You're working with the IRA?"

"We're their main contact in New York, transporting from Maine to Florida."

Clay stood up, and the others followed his lead. "I guess we'll be working together." He approached Veila with an outstretched hand. "Truce, neighbor?"

Sucking in her revulsion, she shook his hand, "Truce."

They walked out of the house, sending her mixed looks of respect and anger. Their boots thumped on the hardwood floor, and the only one who didn't leave was Happy. He waited by the door for her.

"Sure you're not fucking the Russian?"

Sasha boomed out a laugh and tightened his hold on his towel, "Fucking her? No way in hell. I've been around long enough to be in her baby pictures."

"Doesn't mean anything," Happy said, sending him a stern look.

"Well, I don't chase women, so there hasn't been any fucking."

Happy was about to fire back but seemed to be lost when the words registered.

"Sasha. Go. Away," She pulled up her gun and held it to Happy's throat, "I can handle myself."

Happy pushed the gun away, and Sasha smiled, "I know you can. Holler if you need anything."

Sasha put his gun back in the drawer and turned to Happy with twinkling eyes. "Be careful, boy, she's got peculiar tastes."

He went back upstairs without another word. Happy watched her silently until the door closed upstairs, "What the fuck was that?"

She shrugged, "Sasha has been with my family for a long time. There has been a time or two he's walked in on me over the years." She shuddered, remembering the explaining she had to do to get her dates out of that.

Eventually, she just stopped bringing them home altogether and made sure to keep that part of her life far, far away from them.

"What did he mean by peculiar tastes and chasing women?"

Raising her brows, she gave him a sly grin, "We're not fucking, so I don't see why it's your business."

Their eyes connected for what seemed like forever. His gaze was intense as they felt each other out. They looked deep into each other's eyes, looking for something that had the tension in the air around them growing thick, and then he rushed her.

Veila felt her back hit the wall as his hips pushed against hers, with his knee spreading her legs apart. Before she could slam the butt of her gun against his skull, he kissed her breath away.

Electricity shot to her pussy as he wrapped a hand around her throat and bit her lip, "We could be."