A similar group was forming behind the guy opposite Benny.
This didn’t look good.
“Man, your boy’s just a sore loser,” the guy said. “Don’t start a war because you let a little bitch into your crew.”
The guys around him chuckled.
“Man, you’re lucky I don’t just slit your throat right now,” Tyler threatened, pulling out a knife from his back pocket. This suddenly became entirely too real. He couldn’t be serious.
I gaped. Oh my god.
I had to do something before someone got hurt.
“Tyler,” I yelled, wanting to draw his attention away from the other guy. I didn’t know what else to do, but knew something had to be done. Tension was rippling through the groups of men like a wall of glass was about to shatter.
Tyler turned, looking in my direction. His gaze was feral, but he smiled a charming smile all the same.
“A lesson in priorities, men,” Tyler said with a chuckle, shooting the room glances. “When a hot girl tells you not to fight, you better listen. Sort this one out yourself, Benny.”
Well, it had worked at least.
Tyler strode towards me, grinning like the king of the jungle. He slinked up to the bar and his hand landed squarely on my hip to pull me closer to him, too low for comfort, and dangerously close to having me smash a bar glass over his head.
Watching his immediate transition from fighter to aggressively creepy was staggering.
“So, what’s my prize for not cracking that guy’s skull open with a pool stick?” Tyler asked, his eyes drifting lazily down my body. He smirked, clearly liking what he saw and what he thought he was going to get to do with it.
“Your prize is you don’t go to jail tonight,” I spat, flicking my eyes in irritation. The alcohol let me feel a little brazen. I was so over this night I was damn near ready to start a fight of my own with him.
Tyler’s gaze sharpened.
“And what else?” He asked, eyebrow raised with knowing intention. He smiled, and wrapped his arm completely around my waist a little tighter, leading us towards the back of the bar.
I bristled, but figured at least this way there would be less of a scene to make with me shutting him down. Assuming the guy didn’t go get in some bar brawl afterwards. He certainly seemed the type and definitely lacked the self-control.
“Look,” I said, as we got towards the back. It was quieter here. “I’m not going to hook up with you, so you should probably go try and find another lay for the night, okay?”
I patted him on the shoulder sympathetically and turned away.
“C’mon now,” Tyler said, pulling me towards him by my hips. I froze as my back hit his chest. “I know you didn’t stop me from that fight for nothing.”
“Violence freaks me out,” I replied, dryly, pushing him away. The fact that he thought I wanted him so bad I didn’t have time for him to fight was profoundly absurd. “And I didn’t come here to watch a dog fight. Have a good night, Tyler.” I gave him a smile and walked towards the bathroom. I was going to pee, and then we were leaving.
The alcohol was definitely hitting, I realized, as I swayed in the direction of the bathroom. Or maybe it was the way my heart was still racing from that potential fight, from the sight of that god-awful knife gleaming with morbid intent.
“Alright,” Tyler’s voice said quietly in my ear. I stiffened. “I know you’re a good girl, so you can stop playing hard to get.”
I felt his hands wrap around my hips again, and it took all I had not to drive the butt of my palm into his nose.
“Tyler,” I hissed, pushing at his hands as they guided my back against the wall. “Let me go!”
“Hush now,” Tyler said, grinning at me again. “I promise I won’t tell anyone how easy you made it for me. I’ll be sure to tell them that you are a good girl, but you couldn’t possibly resist.”
He laughed, a sharp and mocking noise.
His facial hair brushed roughly against my cheek as he slid his face against mine for a kiss. Finding my strength, I continued to push back against him, thrashing as his lips met mine.
Mmm, he murmured, grinding against me.
“Get off!” I said, through gritted teeth as he continued to kiss me, harnessing the anger to stave off the fear slowly blooming within my chest.
Not knowing what else to do, I opened my mouth and brought my teeth down tightly around his bottom lip, biting down hard.
Tyler yelled in response, hands gripping my wrists as he slammed me into the wall.
I cried out, my ears ringing from the blow. His mouth crashed into mine, greedily and gracelessly. I writhed, pinned by his hands and his hips pressed into mine.
For the first time, true fear flooded my veins before I could stop it. He was physically not going to let me leave. I was trapped, and he wasn’t going to stop.
“Let her go, Tyler,” a sharp male voice said from behind his body.
Thank god.
I don’t know if I’ve ever felt so relieved. I continued to squirm in Tyler’s grasp, wanting to make it clear that I wanted no part of this for whoever had actually intervened. He tightened his grip, his hands like vices on my arms and I hissed.
“This doesn’t concern you, Ryder,” Tyler growled, not even turning to face the newcomer. His body remained pressed against mine.
As Ryder circled to where I could see him, I realized it was the dark-haired, leather-clad guy I had been staring at all night. I was already grateful that anybody was stepping in, but this was an unexpected development.
It really worked with the movie image.
Tyler didn’t really seem like he planned on stopping, even now. He held me, as tightly as before, as if he would continue his conquest even with this guy standing right there.
“Get off of me,” I snarled as I began thrashing harder.
“Look, Tyler,” Ryder replied, voice low. “I know you’re a piece of shit, but surely you’re above raping girls by the bathroom?”
The condescension in this guy’s voice was thick. And a little hot.
“If I’m that bad, then why is one of your boys starting fights with my crew by cheating at pool? Tyler demanded, finally deigning to look over his shoulder.
This Ryder guy was clearly the other leader. Great.
“I can handle my own. Can’t say the same for you,” Ryder responded, words coming out calm and lethal. “Now let the girl go.”
It was a command.
“This little cock-tease is going to get exactly what she deserves, don’t you worry,” Tyler replied, grinning down at me. “She said she’d fuck me if I didn’t kill your little cheater, you know.”
“I fucking did not!” I yelled, struggling against him again even harder. The nerve he had, claiming I wanted it even as I physically fought against his grasp.
Tyler shot me a threatening look that turned my blood to ice in my veins. I froze. He looked like he had when he’d had the knife in his hand.
I stopped struggling completely.
“Look, man,” Ryder said. “I’m not really looking for a fight tonight, but I swear to fucking god if you don’t let that girl go, I’m going to make sure that you don't get back up after I’m done hitting you.” His body was taut, his hands curling into fists.
I felt my stomach flip, despite the circumstances. I didn’t want to be here, I wanted to get out of here as soon as physically possible, but Ryder’s threat was… affecting me.
This Ryder guy was seriously hot.
Clearly Haley was running around with the wrong group of biker boys. If it were him who had me pinned against this wall right now, I definitely wouldn’t be objecting. If anything, I would have been asking him to do it. It would have been he and I in one of these corners rather than Haley and James.
“Ryder, I’m not in the mood for your bullshit,” Tyler said, shooting him a glare, maintaining his grip on my wrists. “Unless you are really looking for a fight, I would advise that you leave me and my conquest alone.”
&n
bsp; “Hey!” I yelled, beginning to thrash again. I was no one’s conquest. How could one dude be so fucking awful?
“Alright,” Ryder said, rolling up his sleeves. “We’re fighting.”
Tyler’s face darkened, but after a moment he released me, shooting me a threatening look.
Cracking his neck and knuckles, Tyler turned to face Ryder.
I backed into the corner, hoping to put some distance between them and me. I did not want to be caught in the middle of this fight.
Not when Tyler had that knife just waiting on his pocket.
Two
Ryder
Tyler, piece of shit that he was, approached me, ready to fight. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he was ready to kill. I’m sure he was riding the adrenaline of assaulting another clueless girl at this seedy little bar. It seemed to be a favorite pastime of his. I wondered if he even knew what it felt like to have a girl willingly submit to him.
“Tyler, stop!” the girl shrieked. I noted her features, dark hair, slender, more than pretty, before redirecting my gaze back to Tyler. How did she end up in a place like this? She looked like she belonged at some brightly colored bar in the city, not a dump like this.
“Shut up, tease,” Tyler growled in response to her, and I felt my jaw go rigid.
The chances of me killing him tonight were steadily increasing. The fact that he was yelling at this girl after what he had just been about to do to her had me ready to just knock him out and snap his neck.
I didn’t want to fight, but this guy was a blight on humanity.
Tyler’s gaze was locked onto me as he moved in my direction. I widened my stance, shifting his weight back and forth on my legs. Grounding myself would help me knock this little fuck down that much faster. I wanted to make sure he never thought of touching a girl like that again.
“You know, I’m getting really sick of you getting between me and the things that I want, Ryder,” Tyler said, flipping the blade out on his knife.
I smiled. This was going to be so satisfying.
“If you knew how to get the things that you wanted, you wouldn’t have to watch me continue to take them from you,” I replied, giving Tyler a smug grin. I knew it would set him off the deep end.
I wanted him angry. The angrier he was, the more likely he was to lose what little control he had. Once he lost it and went for the first strike, I’d knock his ass out. And probably worse.
Well, definitely worse.
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” Tyler said, menacingly. “I’ve played nice. I’ve let you get away with constantly being in my way with your sad excuse for a gang. I’m done. This ends tonight.”
Tyler brought the knife back in a full arc and swept forward with it, right towards my chest, but I moved too quickly for him to connect. I jumped to the side, found my ground again and threw my weight, elbow first, into his torso. He reeled back, giving me the chance to strike again. I took the chance and got the satisfaction of hearing a distinct crack as my fist collided with Tyler’s ribs for a second time.
God, I had waited so long to do this. Finally having an excuse to beat the shit out of this little shit was giving me a major adrenaline high. The satisfaction of my actions was almost overwhelming.
I watched in shock as Tyler crumpled to the ground. This was easier than I thought. I had honestly expected a little more fight from him, but this was just pathetic. His face contorted with pain and rage. Tyler looked enraged, but it was already too late for that. He had already lost and we both knew it, but I wasn’t even close to done. Once I got the taste for violence, I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. I needed to make sure he stopped doing shit like this to people.
“Come on, Tyler,” I said, venom all but dripping from my lips. I wasn’t even winded, and Tyler was already busted up on the ground. I wanted more fight out of him. I wanted him provoked. “Surely someone, somewhere taught you manners at some point. You should know better than to behave like this.”
“Fuck you, Ryder,” Tyler spat, grimacing and struggling to stand. He was looking like he had taken quite a beating already.
The deafening thud of my fist colliding with Tyler’s face came in response to his words.
“Now that’s not polite, is it?” I asked, condescendingly. My blood was boiling. I wanted him humiliated. I wanted his submission. I wanted to watch him break. “You know, we’ve been enemies for a long time, Tyler, and I’ve always shown you respect, whether I thought you deserved it or not. You could treat me with civility. Then again, I wouldn’t expect a rapist to understand the concept of respect.”
“She wanted it,” Tyler said, blood trickling from his lower lip in an endless stream as he laughed. “She was practically begging for it, flashing her tits around and smiling at me like a slut.”
My blood damn near vaporized.
I punched Tyler again. His eye immediately began to swell purple and red. Good. I wanted more. I wanted so much more.
The sight of his bloodied lip and swollen eye were enough to awaken the living darkness within my psyche, and I unleashed on him. I couldn’t shake the image of Tyler pressed against that girl, or the fear in her eyes as she realized that he wasn’t backing off. It egged me on, compelling me to keep at him. With Tyler on the ground, this was going to be a massacre.
Thud.
His nose began to bleed.
Thud.
His lip began to bleed anew.
Thud. Thud.
Tyler was unconscious.
Thud.
“Stop!” the girl shrieked, as if from very far away.
Something about her voice pierced me long enough to clear my mind, long enough to quell the beast within. For the first time, I realized what I was doing.
The next thud of my fist colliding with Tyler’s face never came, even though everything within my mind compelled me to keep hitting until he stopped moving.
Tyler didn’t move. He was unconscious and covered in a pool of his own blood. The sight of it brought such satisfaction to the beast within.
There was something primal that responded to my victory over Tyler. It wasn’t as if I had gone into this wanting to hurt him, but now that I had it felt like the greatest thing I had ever done. I’d fought guys before, but no one deserved it quite like Tyler did.
Even though I was sure I looked like a lunatic, I couldn’t stop the thunderous feelings of triumph that rolled through me in response to what I had done.
Crouched over him, I was panting. My chest heaved aggressively, my muscles tensed as I forced my body to physically stop fighting.
Beating someone into submission never failed to make me feel like a god, and right now I was absolutely riding the high of the adrenaline that was pouring through my system.
After another moment had passed, I drew a breath and looked up, finally coming to. Reality began to soften as my senses dulled ever so slightly.
Tyler didn’t look like he was going to get back up. I did damn good work.
For the first time, the sound of the bar around me hit. I looked up, falling back from the roaring in my mind long enough to realize that my boys were fighting Tyler’s now. My fight with Tyler had started a full-on brawl throughout the bar.
Shit.
I needed to back them up. I took stock of my body. My knuckles were sore and bloody but I couldn’t be sure how much of the blood was mine and how much was Tyler’s. Though, judging by his appearance, a fair majority of it had come from him. This had barely winded me from effort. If anything, the cravings for violence had made me more breathless than anything. I had more than enough fight in me to put the rest of his dogs down.
I got as far as the doorway before it hit me as I went to continue swinging: I might have just killed Tyler.
I couldn’t be here when the cops showed up or I was going to get arrested and my boys would be left to deal with the aftermath of my actions alone. I couldn’t do that to them. I needed to get out of here.
Looking down, I took in
the sight of Tyler’s motionless body again. I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing.
The sound of the girl gagging came from behind me.
I turned to her, taking in the sight of her and all of the fear in her eyes as she looked from me to Tyler. It was obvious that she was horrified, but all things considered she seemed to be holding it together reasonably well. She looked scared, but she also looked alert and ready to start swinging if anyone were to go against her.
Regardless of how impressed I was with her fight, I couldn’t help but frown when I realized that she had actually witnessed the entire thing and I didn’t know her well enough to trust her to not go to the cops with it.
Witnesses were a serious problem if I was going to try to lay low.
Two men from deeper in the bar began drifting towards her as they fought.
I stepped back, moving towards her. The last thing I needed was to have some girl get hit in one of these fights before the cops arrived. I didn’t just rescue her from getting attacked so she could get punched in her pretty little face. I looked around for a way out of the bar. I needed to go and this witness was coming with me.
As I stared at her cowering frame, watching her eyes widen as the men neared her, I couldn’t help but imagine what she might look like quivering underneath me.
“Come with me,” I said, from her left. Her frightened eyes looked up at me, clearly reflecting that she had in no way missed the fact that I had maybe-killed Tyler.
“I can’t,” she said, eyes wide. Babbling. It was cute. Too bad she didn’t have a choice. Even though I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do by any stretch of moral standing, I also knew I couldn’t just leave her here to describe me to the cops.
“I wasn’t asking,” I said in response, grabbing her wrist firmly and guiding her through the crowd of drunken fighters.
She let me lead her through the crowd, submitting to my command. Smart girl. She was probably in shock, or it was just starting to hit. Hopefully my beating down her assailant had calmed her down enough for her to trust me long enough to get her away from here before the cops arrived.
Midnight Ryde: A Bad Boy MC Romance Page 2
