by Zoey Parker
Just then, Onyx came in. “It was like shooting fish in a barrel,” he said, laughing. “I couldn’t take advantage of them anymore.”
“You’re a sweet guy,” I said with a smile. Then my mood fell again, and my face with it. “She told you what happened?”
“Miss Erica Quentin, as she introduced herself?” Onyx chuckled, sitting across from the desk and putting his feet up. “Yeah. She told me everything. But her version was a little…slurred.”
I rolled my eyes and told him what happened, according to what she said, and then what went down when I got there. “I brought her here. I didn’t know what else to do. When he came to, I know he had to go back to his own HQ. I hated the thought of leaving her out there. Besides, when she pulls the memory card, who knows what we’ll find? She might be worth a lot to the club.”
“You’re so full of shit, it’s pathetic,” Onyx said. He had a way of cutting through bullshit in a few words.
“What?”
“You heard me. You’re full of it. I know you mean what you’re saying, because it’s what you’re telling yourself. But it’s not the full story. I’ve known you too long.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re into her.”
“Cut the shit.”
“You cut the shit,” he challenged. “There’s nothing wrong with being into her. She’s cute—she might even be hot, if she tried. What’s wrong with that?”
I rolled my eyes. “Now’s not the time, that’s what’s wrong. I have too much focus on.”
He yawned. “If you say so.” He wasn’t normally like this, picking at me, trying to break me down. His smile told me he was joking, though, so I was willing to let it go.
“Think what you want. But try to tell me she’s not valuable.”
“Oh, she’s valuable. Like you said, she probably got something good on that camera. I wanna know who got killed, too. But I saw the way you looked at her.” He grinned. “Your damsel in distress thing is—”
I heard voices shouting outside the door, in the lounge. I wondered if a hand of poker had led to a fight.
But no. Angelo was there. He’d been out that night, and from the way he looked, he’d seen something that shook him to the core.
“What is it?”
“Wolves.” He was panting for breath. “Three of ’em. On their bikes, about a block from here. Watching. Could have been more in the other direction. I was in such a hurry to get in here, I didn’t wanna take the chance of checking.”
“Shit.” I mulled it over, thought about the options. “Get yourself a drink. I’m glad you made it back safe.” I turned to Onyx, sitting on a stool at the bar. His face was unreadable as always. “What do you think?”
“You’re the boss,” he said, sounding cool and calm. We could have been talking about the toppings to order on a pizza. I could always count on him being able to keep his head. “It’s your call. I’ll back you, whatever you wanna do.”
“They’re not gonna like it.”
“It’s for their own good,” he said. It was amazing the way I knew he knew what I was saying without having to say it out loud. I nodded, then turned to the rest of the room.
“Is everyone here?” I looked at Onyx. He got up to take a head count.
“What are you going to do?” Brett asked. I felt Erica’s bleary eyes on me.
“We’re gonna go into lockdown.”
Brett snapped to attention, getting the other girls together. She knew what to do in this situation. The girls made sure the beds had fresh sheets and pillows, and that the bathrooms were stocked, then they came back down to check the kitchen situation.
Brett and Onyx returned to me at the same time.
“We have plenty of food to last us up to three days,” she reported. “And all the rooms upstairs are ready.”
“All the guys are here,” Onyx confirmed.
I nodded. “Get them all out here.” He rounded everyone up, and soon two dozen people surrounded me. Including Erica, still sitting at the bar with a bewildered look on her face.
I couldn’t worry about her at the moment. I looked over the group.
“Guys, we’re in lockdown,” I said. “Call your women, let them know you won’t be home tonight. If they have a problem with it, they can talk to me. Meanwhile, bedrooms and facilities are stocked and ready, kitchen’s in good shape, and you know we have plenty of booze. We’re in good shape here. It’s safer for us to stay put while the Wolves are watching so closely. I don’t want anyone in or out for any reason, unless I’m with them. Understood?”
Everyone nodded.
Everyone except Erica. Well, she knew she wasn’t going anywhere, so I didn’t care much if she agreed or not.
###
It was a tense night. Maybe we all saw this coming after what happened with our guys. It was part of the process, the ongoing war between our clubs. I wouldn’t lose another one of my men.
“How’s it going?” Axel asked me, hours later. I had been watching the ongoing card game. I knew my guys well enough to know they could play all night.
“I’d feel better if I’d been able to give the family members a chance to get here,” I said. “But I don’t trust the Wolves to let civilians through.”
“Nah, man, you can’t trust them with anything.” I saw him look behind me, to where I knew Erica still sat. The camera was forgotten, sitting on the bar. I decided to give her a break on it, for now. She needed to cut loose a little.
“What do you think about her?” he asked. I didn’t need to question who he meant.
“What do you mean, what do I think?”
He rolled his eyes at me. “Answering a question with a question. Textbook evasion, my friend.”
I laughed. “You sound like a therapist.”
“Yeah, well, when you’ve been through as much of it as I have…” he trailed off, and I felt like an ass. Sometimes I forgot about all the shit he went through when he was a kid. My childhood was bleak—dead Dad, Mom died a few years later when she couldn’t take it anymore, brothers and sisters split up among family members—but Axel had been through hell.
“What I think of her is she’s a pain in the ass. She’s not worth the trouble she brought on us.” I felt Axel’s eyes on me, and I took a long drink from my beer before I couldn’t take it anymore. “What?” I asked.
“Is that why you can’t look at her right now?” he asked. “You’re deliberately keeping your back turned to her. Is that why?”
“Because I can’t fucking stand her? Yes. Okay? Yes. She’s a pain in my ass, and I can’t wait until she’s out of here. I’m tired of having to look after her.”
“Who says you have to do that?”
“Are you fucking serious?” I glanced over my shoulder, to where she and Brett were getting good and drunk together. “She can’t handle herself. She was in the fucking badlands, taking pictures. Give me a break. Who does that?”
“Photographers.”
“Female ones? Alone? At night? She probably doesn’t even weigh more than a hundred pounds. Maybe a buck fifteen, tops. And she’s gonna defend herself?” I rolled my eyes.
“Okay, so she’s naïve, and she took a risky chance.” Then he grinned. “But she’s cute as hell, isn’t she?”
I shrugged like it didn’t matter. “Lots of cute chicks in the world, my friend. More than enough to go around.”
“I don’t think Frankie agrees with you. He’s sure standing close to her right now.”
I whirled around, ready to tell Frankie to keep his fucking hands to himself. Of course, there was no Frankie. Just Erica and Brett. I couldn’t even look at Axel.
“Oh, sorry. I guess I was seeing things.” He walked over to the bar, shaking his head. I turned away. Damn smartass.
By three that morning, everyone was more or less ready to call it a night. The girls cleaned up the mess of bottles and glasses and ashtrays while my guys stumbled upstairs to claim an empty bed.
“Where’s Erica?” I realized I hadn�
�t seen her for at least two hours. My blood pressure shot up immediately. Did she sneak out when I wasn’t looking?
I walked into the office, where she was asleep on the floor. I didn’t know when she crawled off, but she was definitely out cold. I nudged her with my toe.
“Hey. Hey, Erica. Get up.”
She grumbled, pushing my foot away.
“I mean it. I can’t let you sleep on the floor all night.”
No response.
I looked down at her, and something about the way she looked as she slept stirred something in me. It was like I had never seen anything so beautiful before, and I didn’t know what to do with how I felt. It was like a tightening in my chest. I wanted to have her, to take her and make her mine. But I wanted to hold her and protect her and keep her safe from the world. She was so brave, and beautiful, and smart. And weak and fragile and naïve, like Axel said. She would keep walking into dangerous situations if I wasn’t there to warn her first.
I got down on one knee, sliding one arm under her shoulders and the other under her knees. When I lifted, it felt like I was carrying a feather.
She was right there, her face right below mine. I wouldn’t have to lean far to kiss her. Just a little bit. Her mouth was pouty, begging to be kissed and sucked on.
But I wasn’t that guy. Not while she was passed out.
“You are too fucking tempting,” I muttered.
She mumbled something I couldn’t make out.
Instead of kissing her, I left the office with her in my arms. Brett was coming out of the poker room, and I saw a lot of things go across her face. Finally, she smiled.
“Taking her upstairs?” she asked.
I nodded. “Help me with her?” I asked. “I don’t think she’ll wanna wear this stuff tomorrow if she slept in it. There has to be something in my room she can wear.”
“Your room?” I heard the question under the question, and I nodded.
“Yeah. I’ll sleep somewhere else. Maybe down here.” I pretended not to see how relieved Brett looked. I would have to do something about that, about the way she felt. I didn’t have it in me at the moment.
I climbed the stairs with Erica and laid her across my bed. She was still out cold. I took off her shoes, and took a look under her sweatshirt to see whether she was wearing anything underneath. I saw a t-shirt, so I sat her up and helped her out of the hoodie. She looked much smaller without it.
Brett came in, and I stood. “She’s all yours,” I said. I took one more look at the girl on the bed and wished I was spending the night with her. Maybe if she hadn’t gotten bombed, it would have happened. Or maybe not. She might have slapped the shit out of me if I tried to touch her.
“Good night,” I said, prepared to go downstairs to sleep on the couch. Brett’s voice stopped me.
“Why don’t you go down the hall to my room? You can bunk with me tonight.”
Fuck. I hadn’t considered that. She was putting me on the spot. I turned to look at her.
“Don’t worry. I don’t expect anything,” she said. “I promise. I hate to think of you sleeping on the couch is all.” She turned her back. “I’ll be finished in a little while. I hope you’re there when I get there.”
I closed the door behind me to give them a little privacy, and looked down the hall. What the hell? I thought. Even if something did happen, it wasn’t like I was attached to anyone else.
I deserved a little relief after the week I’d had.
Chapter Nine
Erica
I woke up the next morning with a fuzzy head and a furry tongue. What the hell had I drunk? It could only be a hangover.
Wait—where the hell was I?
I sat straight up in the bed, and immediately regretted it as soon as it felt like my head was about to fall off. I winced, holding it in my hands for fear of it rolling across the floor.
What happened? Where was I?
I looked around the room. It was a bedroom, for sure, but one for a man. I couldn’t have explained exactly how I knew, but I did. This was a man’s room.
But the bed was empty, except for me. The other pillow hadn’t been slept on. I thanked God for that. The last thing I needed was to drunkenly hook up with…
…oh, sweet Jesus. A member of a biker gang.
Where was Vince? How had I ended up in this bed? Was I still in the clubhouse?
I swung my legs out of bed ever so carefully. I was afraid the slightest jar would shatter me in a million pieces. The sun was too bright, stabbing my brain. I felt dizzy. Was my drink spiked? No. I just drank way too much was all. I remembered Brett pouring me drink after drink at the bar.
But then what happened? I hadn’t gotten the camera open. I must have passed out. Terrific. Talk about asking for trouble. Passing out in the middle of a biker gang’s clubhouse.
I remembered what the girls said the night before, about Vince protecting me. Maybe he had protected me again.
I stepped into the hallway. There were rows of closed doors on either side. I must have been the first one awake, I guessed. I went to the bathroom, surprisingly clean considering where I was, and took the dangerous walk down the stairs. My head throbbed dangerously with every step. I would have to find some aspirin. Or maybe a sledgehammer to knock myself out until it was all over.
I heard noises coming from the office. Vince? My heartbeat quickened, and I asked myself why.
It wasn’t Vince, I discovered as I entered the room. It was Onyx.
“Good morning.” I felt embarrassed. The sight of his face was still a shock to me.
“Hey,” he said. Did he look guilty? I didn’t see why. It was his office, or practically. He then looked me up and down, and I realized I was only in an oversized t-shirt. It came down to my knees, so it covered more than some dresses, but it was fairly sheer. And I was braless.
He had the good manners to avert his eyes. “You tied one on pretty good last night. My buddy was worried about you.”
“Vince?”
“Who else?” He snickered. “He took you upstairs. I guess he didn’t sleep with you, though, or else you wouldn’t sound so surprised.”
“I was alone,” I said.
He snickered again. “That’s my boy. Mr. Nice Guy.” I couldn’t decide if he admired Vince for being a nice guy, or if he was making fun in a way. His tone was cryptic, as were his words. I was starting to think that was the sort of person he was. Hard to crack. Like his scars had scarred his heart, too. He had a very thick, protective layer around himself. No one could come in. Except for his best friend.
“It’s so quiet here,” I said. “So different from last night.”
“Yeah, you’ll see a lot of unhappy people around here this morning. That’s usually how it works. They party hard and regret it in the morning. Maybe not the best idea right now.”
“Do you guys go on lockdown often?”
He shook his head. “No, but it was bound to happen after the shit that went down last week. When we lost three of our men.”
I nodded gently, still cautious of my aching head. “I heard a little bit about that. Just that you lost members. I’m sorry to hear that.”
He nodded in response. “It’s been a rough week. Vince has a lot on his mind right now.” His words were so heavy, they nearly broke my back. He was telling me to stay away from Vince. As though there was anything happening between us. I wanted to protest and defend myself, but decided against it. That would make it look like he was right. Best to let it go, I thought.
“I understand,” I said, quiet.
“I hope you do.” He glanced at me again, for the first time since noticing my state of undress.
I decided it would be best to get the hell back upstairs and put some clothes on before the rest of the guys woke up and ogled me. I didn’t think they’d all have the class Onyx did.
I wondered what gave him the idea about Vince and me. We had barely spoken to each other in his presence. Then I remembered the way the two of them went
into the office and closed the door. I was deep into my third vodka by that point, but I knew they were in there for a long time. The fourth vodka was being polished off by the time they came back out. What had Vince been saying about me?
I stood at the top of the stairs again, looking down the hall. Which room was his? Who was he with?
