by LeAnn Ashers
His gaze flits to me and then to Alisha, and it lingers on her for far too fucking long. “Two?” he asks, but his gaze doesn’t leave Alisha.
Does he not fucking see me? He is about to not see at all if he doesn’t take his eyes off her.
Alisha sets her small hand on my forearm. She is smiling up at me.
“Yeah, two,” I tell him.
His gaze finally comes to me, and his eyes widen when he sees my angry expression. “Th-th-this way,” he stutters.
I can’t help but grin. That’s right, fucker. Run away.
We follow him, and I enjoy seeing him so scared. Pussy. His shoulders are hunched over like he’s trying to make himself less noticeable. The fucker shouldn’t have looked at her longer than a passing glance, but he was staring
You don’t stare at a man’s woman, especially in front of the man. More so than a ole lady to the Devils Souls MC.
He sets our menus on the table and literally runs away. Alisha scoots into the booth, and I sit in front of her. I need to look at her gorgeous face. She watches the worker run away and then bursts out laughing.
“Whatcha laughing at, angel?” I ask her.
She wipes her eyes and grins at me. “That man was about to pee his pants at the sight of you. I don’t think you are that scary.”
I glare at her, and she bursts out laughing again.
She stands up, bends over the table, and grips my cheeks between her fingers. “I think you are just a big teddy bear.”
I glare at her harder and a smile slips as her gaze gravitates to my lips.
I move closer until our lips have a small sliver of space between us. She licks her lips and looks me in the eyes before she sets her small hand on my cheek. She gently presses her lips to mine and keeps completely still, Then she tilts her head to the side. I keep completely still, letting her have this moment. She opens her mouth and then moves her lips against mine, and that small control I let her have slips away. I deepen the kiss and slip my tongue into her mouth. She gasps and grips my shirt with her free hand.
Someone coughs and she pulls away. She sits back down and looks at her lap. I place my finger under her chin. I lift her head so she is holding her head up.
The waitress takes her note pad out of her apron. “What do you guys want to drink?”
“Dr. Pepper,” Alisha says.
I tell the waitress I want a beer. I’ll only have one because I’m driving. The waitress walks away, and I pick the menu up. Alisha does the same.
The waitress comes back with our drinks. “You guys ready to order?”
“Yes, please,” Alisha says politely. “I will have a half a rack of ribs, a side salad, and cheese fries for the appetizer.”
I can’t stop the grin on my face. I have that girl trained. Because she has been living with me and I’ve been feeding her, she doesn’t shy away from food, and damn, can she pack it away.
The waitress stares at Alisha in disbelief.
“I will have the ten-ounce steak with a side of shrimp and a baked potato. I will have the wings as a side.” I hand her my menu.
Alisha does the same.
“I will put it right in,” she says and then walks away.
The waitress brings our appetizers out and I dig in. I love food, and I eat a lot of it. I can’t bring myself to care if I gain weight or not. Going without food for so long made me realize how much I love it, and I am going to enjoy it. And one thing about Jordan is, no matter how much I eat, he is constantly trying to shove more food in my face.
Sitting across from him, I can’t help but admire him. He’s so good-looking and at times I still can’t believe he is here in front of me.
I have spent a lot of time with him since he rescued me and I’ve never felt so close and attached to someone in my entire life.
I have also never felt so safe with someone. His presence alone I find comforting. The way he moves, the way he looks at me, the way he touches me. I used to constantly worry if someone was going to bust into my bedroom and do horrible things to me. My father threatened me so many times that that would happen to me by his drug dealer.
I had my first kiss earlier today. I can’t believe it. My first kiss at twenty-one years old, and it was with someone I care about. My Jordan, who is sitting in front of me, staring at me intently. He’s always staring at me.
I want to experience so many things, and when I think of experiencing them, I want to do them with Jordan. After we eat, we’re going to a bar and I’m getting trashed. I’m letting loose, and I’m going to have fun. I’m going to live my life to the fullest now. I want to laugh every single day, I want to play pranks, I want to swim and go skinny-dipping, and I want to go to the mall and go get my hair done. I want to cry tears of joy. I want to fall sleep every single night in Jordan’s arms because that’s the one place I always want to be. I want to get married. I want to have kids. I want to have every single experience there is to have in life. Most of all, I want to love and I want the unconditional love people have in fairytales.
He winks at me like he knows what I’m thinking. Maybe life isn’t that scary at all if he’s in it.
We arrive in front of the bar, which I can tell is a total biker bar because of the lines of bikes outside. Jordan pulls to a stop by six motorcycles that are off by themselves. He climbs off first and then lifts me off the bike.
Tucking me tightly into his side, he wraps his arm around my back and places his hand on my hip. He looks around the parking lot, alert, ready for anything.
“What’s the matter?” I can’t help but ask.
He winks at me, but his grip doesn’t ease up. He taps me on the hip, and I walk forward, not even budging an inch from him. Beside the front door, a group of men stare at us as we walk inside. I look up at Jordan, who is staring at a man in the middle.
“Lane, man, how are you?”
The man who I am assuming is Lane moves forward. He raises his hand for Jordan to take. Jordan puts his hand in his, and Lane looks at me. He’s very good-looking in a rugged kind of way.
“This yours?” Lane asks.
“Sure is.” Jordan taps my hip,
Lane nods.
“How’s your daughter?” Jordan asks next.
A smile breaks across the rugged man’s face. “She’s doing a lot better, man.”
“We are heading inside. See you later.” Jordan nods at him again.
I smile and wave. Lane returns my smile. The two other men beside Lane nod at me.
“He was nice,” I tell Jordan.
He busts out laughing. “Baby, if you only knew,” he tells me and then opens the door to the bar, the conversation halted.
Inside, I’m hit with the smell of smoke and some other unknown things I probably don’t want to know about.
The door slams shut behind us. There are a lot of men dressed in leather and covered in tattoos. There are women around the room who are scantily dressed, their butts hanging out of their clothing and their boobs busting out of their tops.
“Over here, angel.”
I turn my gaze from the women and follow Jordan’s line of sight. A group of men are sitting at a table, wearing the same cut as Jordan. All of them are large, handsome, and rugged-looking like Jordan. They are also very intimidating. There is one woman with them.
We walk over to them, and they are all staring at me. The woman gets up and smiles at me. She is absolutely beautiful. She walks over to me and pulls me into a hug.
“I am so glad you are okay. I’m Chrystal.” She pulls back, and I smile at her. She’s so nice.
“I’m Alisha. It’s nice to meet you.”
Jordan lets my back go and points at the man closest to me. “This is Vinny.”
I gasp at the name. He is one of the men who rescued me. Vinny looks at me in shock as I walk over to him and wrap my arms around his neck.
“Thank you for helping me.”
When I pull back, Vinny smiles at me, his face soft.
Jordan
touches my back, and I look back at him, his face soft with an expression I can’t decipher. “The man next to him is Trey.”
I walk over to him and give him a hug also.
He pats my back. “No biggie, chick.”
The guy next to him is huge. He’s muscular, but his stature is large in general.
“That’s Butch.”
He looks so menacing, even more so than the other guys. I walk over to him, slightly afraid, but I swallow and wrap my arms around his neck. His body stiffens, and then I feel his body shift. He sets his palm on my back. Why do I feel like this is a huge move for him?
“Thank you,” I tell him. I step back and turn around.
Arms wrap around my waist, and then my back is pressed to Jordan’s front. I crane my neck to the side and look at him.
He kisses my cheek. “Fucking sweet.”
I blush and look away from him. Jordan takes me with him as he sits. In his lap, I lean back against him. Everyone is staring at me. Chrystal is openly smiling. I gnaw on my lip, wondering what I should say next.
Vinny stands up. “Does anyone want a drink?”
What do I say? I haven’t ever had a beer before, and I don’t know the names of them.
“Get her a Mike’s,” Jordan orders for me.
Vinny leaves.
I put my mouth next to Jordan’s ear. “Thank you.”
“Alisha, some girls and I are going out for a girls’ night next Friday,” Chrystal says. “Want to come with us?”
I nod. “Yeah, I’m down.”
She winks at me. “I’ll call you in a couple of days.”
“What are you guys doing?” Jordan asks.
I straighten in his lap, wanting to know myself.
Chrystal laughs like she has an inside joke. “Well, if I told you, then it wouldn’t be a girls’ night, would it?”
I laugh along with her, and Jordan runs his hand up and down my leg. I shudder, and butterflies swarm in my belly.
“Here, darlin’.”
A drink is set in front of me and I take it. “Thank you.”
Vinny passes the drinks around. His hand touches Trey’s forearm. They look into each other’s eyes, and my eyes widen. I open my mouth to ask Jordan, but he beats me to the punch.
“Shh.”
It’s none of my business anyway, but I’m curious. I really can’t see them as being gay, but who am I to judge? To each their own, and if they are happy, then that’s what matters. I have to admit they make a hot couple.
Vinny looks like a Viking. He’s at least six-five or more. He has scruff on his face, and his eyes are light brown, like the color of honey. Trey is all dark. Dark hair, brown eyes. And he’s tall too, but not as tall as Vinny. Trey looks like a badass, and he gives off that vibe. Butch is just scary. He’s built like freaking truck and looks like he can easily break me in half.
I guess Jordan seems scary too, but because I know him, I know he’s not that way. He is really close in height to Vinny, but Jordan carries himself in a way that makes you want to run for the hills. When we walked into the bar, everyone moved out of his way as if just touching him could get them killed.
Kyle is a whole different kind of scary. He’s silent, but I can tell that, when he speaks, you listen. He has this deadly calm about him that I would hate to unleash.
I take a sip of my drink and look at it in surprise. It’s not bad at all. I take another long drink.
“Two more businesses open this week. The hair salon and the bar,” Kyle interrupts the silence.
“I will go out there tomorrow to make sure all of the technology and security is up to date,” Jordan tells him.
Alisha is at pure ease with my brothers and my president’s woman. Chrystal immediately liked her and invited her out which made me happy. Chrystal doesn’t do shit like that if she doesn’t like you. She is tough as shit, and that is something you have to be if you are a president’s woman.
“I’m going to the bathroom,” Alisha says and climbs off my lap. She sets her drink on the table and walks across the room, ignoring the bikers staring at her and her cut. It doesn’t fucking faze her at all.
“I like her, Techy,” Chrystal says.
I flash her a grin. I like her too. Who wouldn’t? She’s fucking sweet and way too innocent for someone like me, but I’m a selfish fuck. She’s mine. Nothing will change that. She was mine the minute her face popped up on my screen while I was tracking scum down.
I turn around in my chair and stare in the direction of the bathroom. This bar is owned by us, but there are multiple different biker’s club members here tonight. Some I haven’t ever met. Lane is here, and he’s our closest ally.
When Alisha leaves the bathroom, a big biker with a potbelly stumbled in her direction.
Hell no.
I stand up and march over, ready to beat someone’s head into the ground.
“What’s someone so innocent doing here?” he says to Alisha. My Alisha.
The guy is sweating like a pig. His white T-shirt is stained yellow from sweat and probably shit.
“Back away,” Alisha says sternly, and I feel proud of her.
The guy lifts his nasty, grubby hand toward her face, and I grab his hand. The guy turns to me.
Fear is what I see.
His face whitens, and I twist his wrist, breaking it. He falls to the floor, crying in pain.
Jordan just broke that man’s hand for attempting to touch my cheek. I gasp and stare at the guy in disbelief. Jordan tucks me into his side. I take a step back and hit something.
Behind me, a man equally as dirty as the man on the floor. I jump in Jordan’s arms, and he spins me around. He pushes me against his back so he is facing the man, his arm wrapped around my back, holding me to him.
Then I start to freak out. I grip his cut. No way am I letting him go.
“Back the fuck off,” Jordan roars.
Then chairs scoot across the floor. I let Jordan go so I can see what in the world is happening. Butch is standing directly beside me to my right. Trey is beside Jordan. Vinny is behind me, and farther to the left is Kyle. He is walking toward us with Chrystal tucked into his side. He stands beside Jordan, and Chrystal stands beside me.
“How many are there in front of us?” I ask her and try to peer over Jordan, but he pushes me behind him. I roll my eyes.
“Just twenty or so,” she says, waving her arm like this is normal.
But my mind is stuck on twenty.
Twenty bikers against five. I start to panic because I don’t want Jordan to get hurt.
“Honey, these guys could take twenty guys with their arms tied behind their backs. Butch and Kyle are SEALs, Vinny and Trey are trained, and Jordan is Special Forces. Nobody can touch us.” She smiles reassuringly, but I can’t get over it—twenty bikers.
“You’re in my bar. You leave or face the consequences,” Kyle threatens the bikers.
Far too many men chuckle.
“Man, if you knew what was good for you, you would run. These men aren’t someone you fuck with, a voice I don’t recognize hollers throughout the room.
“That fucker.” Jordan stiffens, and I put my hands on his hips.
“Broke a member of my club’s hand. We can’t let shit like that pass,” a member of the other club says.
“He tried to touch an enforcer’s woman. She has her property patch on,” Kyle says in a menacing voice, and chills move up my spine.
“That shit means nothing.” The man who I assume is their president laughs. “Let me see the little shit that caused this ruckus.”
All of the men in front of us start laughing, and I take a tighter hold on Jordan’s hips.
I feel heat at my back and look behind me. Vinny has moved in closer and looks ready to fight. Oh my gosh, what is happening?
“Dead man,” Butch mutters, and I jolt.
It’s so much worse than I thought. Chrystal is shaking her head, and when she catches me looking, she purses her lips.
&n
bsp; “These men are stupid fucks. They must want to get their faces pounded in.”
I look at her in horror. How can she be so calm? I know that these men can take care of themselves, but I don’t want Jordan hurt. I don’t want any of these men hurt.
“Surround the women!” Kyle yells.
And that sets everything into motion. Chrystal grabs my hand. Vinny steps up behind us, and Butch moves in beside me close. Trey moves in next to Chrystal. Our men in front of us. They are closing us in.
Uh oh.
“Aww, look at them trying to protect their women,” the man cackles.
I shiver at the sound. He sounds evil.
“Do you want to die?” Kyle says to the man.
The room goes silent. My heart is pounding out of my chest; I can feel it in my throat.
“What do you guys do? Pass them around?”
I hear someone walking, and I hold tighter to Jordan’s hips. He rests his hands on top of mine. I have a bad feeling that what’s going to happen next won’t be any good.
“Must be good pussy for you to protect it like that.” He cackles again.
Then Jordan has the man by the neck, a gun to his head. He is face-to-face with the man. “You will die. You might not know when, but it will happen.”
The man laughs again, but I can see the slight fear in his eyes. The men standing behind him are all staring at Chrystal and me. I back up, taking Chrystal with me. An arm wraps around my back. I look down at the hand on my waist and then up to Vinny. His other hand is on the other side of Chrystal.
Butch is standing closer to me. I can feel the rage coming off him. These men don’t play around. Even though they are nice to me, they are deadly. For some reason, I’m not scared.
Jordan grinds the gun against the man’s head.
“You will pay for this,” the president of the sleazeballs says.
“War,” Kyle states.
My entire body freezes. Chrystal gasps, and I know now that this is as bad as I thought it was. Butch moves closer to me, and Trey does the same thing to Chrystal.
