Lake: A Steel Paragons MC Novel (The Coast: Book 5)

by Eve R. Hart

  Was that a smile on his face?

  I couldn’t tell with only the light from the street lamp in the middle of the lot.

  “You had a gun aimed at my head,” I said staring at him like I couldn’t believe he would have expected something else to happen.

  “I didn’t know what you were,” he said defensively.

  “A girl, trying to get some fucking sleep in her broke down car,” I said back. Yeah, okay, I didn’t really expect him to know that seeing as I had been buried under some blankets.

  “Damn, Lake. Keep it up and I think the hottie is gonna punch you again.”

  I looked over at the guy that had said that and gave a little nod.

  I could barely make out his lanky frame and blonde hair in the darkness but I could tell that his voice sounded like it was on the younger side.

  “Hey, baby,” he said then winked at me. “You don’t have a place to stay, I have a nice and comfy bed I can share.”

  I gaped at him.

  “Yeah, girl. You heard me right. I don’t mind if you want to beat me a little.”

  “Sketch,” the older one snapped humorously making the young guy straighten a little. “Go the fuck back to the bar.”

  Without another word, he headed off.

  With a nod from the older one, the rest of the men in the background headed off leaving me with just him and the guy I punched. Lake, that was what he called the guy.

  “You okay, brother?”

  “Yeah,” Lake said as he finally tucked his gun away.

  “You alright, darlin’? Why are you out here in your car?”

  “My car died— right here, actually. My phone is also dead and I have no idea where to go around here,” I said letting the pet name slide for now.

  “Hmmm.”

  That was when I heard my dad whispering in my ear.

  No, not literally.

  As I looked over the older man, I noticed the leather cut that held far too many patches for me to look at right this second. And there was my dad’s voice telling me to shut my yap.

  I was fucked. More fucked than I thought I was a few moments ago. I knew better than to mess with motorcycle clubs. True, not all of them were gun-toting criminals that would kill anyone that looked at them funny. That said, the gun-toting part had already been confirmed and I really hoped the rest didn’t apply here.

  “And you just happened to end up here?”

  I didn’t dare take my eyes off of this man now. One patch said Iron and right under it said President. I figured that if maybe I showed enough respect, he’d let me go. But then again, it might have been a little late for that.

  “I came into town from the bridge and my car started smoking. I couldn’t see a damn thing, so I had planned on finding someplace to pull off when I saw the sign.” I pointed for good measure.

  “Prez,” the Lake guy said in a tone that I couldn’t figure out. It was almost soft.

  “Yep,” the president said though it wasn’t a question like he wanted Lake to keep going. It was as if he knew what Lake was thinking and answering some unsaid question.

  Was I super fucking confused right now?

  You bet your ass I was.

  “You got a name, doll?” Iron asked. Or so I assumed that was his name. Club name? Road name? Ugh, whatever.

  “Doesn’t everyone?” I stared at him pointedly. Yeah, I wasn’t good at reeling it in when I felt like I was in danger.

  To my surprise, the president dropped his crossed arms as his head fell back and he let out a loud bark of a laugh.

  “I think I like you,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’m Iron. In case you haven’t figured it out, this guy is Lake.”

  “Bridget,” I supplied with a short nod but didn’t drop my guard.

  “Listen, our clubhouse is just beyond those trees there. We don’t have any extra beds right now, but Lake here wouldn’t mind giving up his for the night, I’m sure.”

  My eyes shifted to Lake’s and he gave me a tiny nod letting me know that was exactly what he’d been thinking.

  Was it the safest thing?

  Nope.

  Did I not want to freeze to death in my car?

  Yes, that was for damn sure.

  “Fine,” I said and turned to dig around for some clothes and at the last minute pulled something out of my glove compartment. “But just to let you know, I’m carrying too. And mine is so much bigger than yours.” I turned back around and held out my revolver so they could see I wasn’t playing around.

  This earned me another chuckle from Iron while Lake went a little wide-eyed.

  “You don’t give any trouble and we won’t give you none,” Iron said.

  “Yes, sir,” I said showing him some respect so he would know I wasn’t trying to cause problems.

  “Alright. Lake, you got this?”

  “Yep,” Lake said and Iron started walking away. “Come on.”

  He turned and started walking into the darkness. I jogged to catch up with him and soon fell in step beside him. I couldn’t really see where the hell we were going but by the way he took confident strides, I could tell he did.

  “Sorry about your eye,” I finally said.

  I had no clue why I felt the need to fill the silence. Maybe it was because every step we took, the music from the bar faded more and the sounds of the night began to ring louder. It was a bit eerie. Probably didn’t help that this could have been the opening to a horror movie.

  Dumb girl gets herself lost and ends up in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a bunch of deadly men. Which one will get to kill her first?

  Yeah, that made no sense. You can only kill someone once. Hey, sometimes my head came up with some random shit, okay?

  “It’s fine,” he said and I would have sworn he was a little embarrassed.

  Finally, a big motel came into view. This was not what I had been expecting.

  “Whoa,” I breathed out. I mean it wasn’t like some great place or anything but it definitely wasn’t some crumbling down warehouse like I envisioned in my head.

  “Not a bad place to call home,” Lake said as he walked up to what I assumed was the main part of the building. What I would have guessed would have been where you checked in had this been a real motel. Only as we stepped inside, I could see that it had been transformed into a bar area. Like a lounge. A very manly lounge.

  “You hungry?” he asked snapping me out of my daze.

  “Uh.” I was, but I thought that I shouldn’t press my luck anymore for the day.

  “There’s some leftover baked ziti. I’ll heat it up for you.”

  He continued to walk and I just kept following like a lost puppy.

  We went through a hall and turned a corner into a huge room that was like an open kitchen and eating area.

  “Hey, Abigail,” Lake said and a woman turned around, abandoning the rag she was using to clean the counters.

  “Oh, hey, Lake,” she said sweetly.

  Was it me, or did her cheeks seem to get a tinge of pink to them?

  I mean, I guess this Lake guy was kind of cute. In that young boy band kind of way. Okay, so like a rugged boy band. Whatever. I was tired and not making any sense at all. Honestly, he was only like two or three inches taller than me, which given that I was five-seven, didn’t make him all that short, I guess. But to me, he kind of was. And while his arms were defined, they weren’t all budging and veiny and giving me that take me up against the wall vibe.

  Now that I got a really good look at him, I noticed the splattering of freckles over the bridge of his nose. They were faint but stuck out against his slightly pale skin.

  He cut his eyes over to me and his brows furrowed almost in a way that said ‘what the fuck are you staring at’ and that was when I saw what color they were. The outer rim was a deep blue, like a sapphire, that faded to a light gray the closer it closed in on his pupil.

  Just as quickly as he had looked at me, he turned his attention back to the woman.
r />   “You know you don’t—”

  “Have to do that,” she finished for him with a dramatic roll of her eyes. “I know. But I really don’t mind.”

  “Well, thank you.”

  “Don’t mention it. Oh, hi.” She sounded surprised like she’d just noticed me standing there. But then again it seemed like she was having a little bit of trouble giving Lake eye contact so maybe with me standing right next to him, she hadn’t.

  “Hi,” I said as politely as I could muster at the moment.

  So maybe I wasn’t the best with people. Truth was, I hated pleasantries and wasting time. I was a get-to-the-point kind of gal. I don’t give a shit about the weather or how your sick cat is doing. Just let me know when its dead so I can mark it off my Christmas list.

  Wow.

  Okay.

  That was way too harsh, even for me.

  Damn this night had me stressed out and grumpy. And maybe there was a little bit of fear there too. I did wake to a gun aimed at me not even like fifteen minutes ago. That wasn’t something you just shook off even if I handled the situation like a badass bitch.

  Maybe the bitch part was still lingering around.

  “Well, I’ll just get out of here,” she said picking up the abandoned rag and draping it over the edge of the sink. “Goodni— oh, my, God. What happened to your eye?”

  I snorted because I just couldn’t help it. I leaned forward so I could get a look at the eye in question. I may have winced because it was all red and bloodshot and already starting to blacken.

  “Oh, well, Bridget here—”

  “Was about to get attacked by a snake. It was huge.” I held up my hands to help with the insane lie. “Lake here noticed and dove for the thing before it had a chance to strike. Unfortunately in the process, he smacked his pretty face on a rock. More like a boulder. Yeah. But he wrestled that snake and saved the day.”

  I was never good at coming up with something on the spot like that. My imagination was shit when it came to that kind of thing and I knew there was no way anyone would believe the lies I had weaved. It seemed that I was only good at making up stories when I was alone and kept them in my head.

  “O-oh, um, okay,” she said as her brows pulled together in confusion and she tilted her head a little to the side.

  I looked over at Lake, who was wearing a what the hell are you talking about?! expression. I shrugged. Hey, I was trying to help. I imagined that he probably wasn’t all that excited to share that it was a girl that had beat him up.

  “Bridget punched me,” he said with a little shake of his head as he turned his attention back to Abigail.

  “Or that.” I gave another little shrug and walked off in the direction of the huge, stainless steel refrigerator in the corner. I opened the freezer and pulled out a bag of peas, surprised that there was actually some in there.

  “Let me get you—”

  “I got it,” I said cutting Abigail off and breaking up the clumps in the bag. I wasn’t trying to be rude, but it came out that way.

  “The fuck! Ouch!” Lake said with a jerk as I slapped the bag against his face.

  “Stop being a baby and hold that. You said there were leftovers?”

  “In the fridge. Can’t miss it.” Lake walked over to the closest table and plopped down in one of the chairs. I noticed he didn’t take his good eye off of me and I wondered if it was because he didn’t trust me or was terrified to look away for fear that I’d get his other eye.

  “Okay, then. Goodnight,” Abigail said then all but ran out of the room like her ass was on fire.

  I hoped I wasn’t stepping on any toes. And I honestly wasn’t trying to come off like a bitch, I was just tired, hungry, and agitated about life right now. I figured I’d apologize to her later. If there was a later.

  I rooted around until I found the leftovers and a plate to put them on with no help from him. I was so hungry that I didn’t bother heating it up.

  I took the seat next to him at the end of the table.

  “I’m sorry,” I said killing the silence that lingered between us while I practically inhaled half of my food. “Let me see.”

  He said nothing as I pulled the bag away from his eye and softly ran my finger around the socket to make sure I hadn’t hurt him worse than I thought.

  “I didn’t break anything,” I said cutting my focus up to look into his eyes.

  “It hurts but I’m not mad,” he said as he blinked then winced.

  “Well, you shouldn’t be anyway. You did point a gun at me.”

  “Fair enough.” He got up and put the peas back into the freezer, then picked up my plate and took it to the sink.

  I said nothing as he rinsed it off and placed it into the dishwasher. I felt awkward for so many reasons. One of them being that I could have done that myself, and I really should have. But it was too late now.

  “Come on. I’ll take you to my room.”

  For some reason, I felt like those words should have sounded a lot sexier than they did, but the tone he used was way too casual. I imagined that if the situation were different it might have. But then again, this Lake guy didn’t exactly strike me as the smooth talker type.

  But whatever. That wasn’t the point.

  Wordlessly, I got up, grabbed my stuff and followed him back outside where he took a set of stairs to the left. He unlocked a door and stepped inside, turning on the light in the middle of the process.

  The room itself wasn’t bad. It felt a little weird being in his space, almost like I was a stranger setting foot into someones home for the first time. As I looked around, that feeling became stronger, because I got the sense that this wasn’t just a crash pad for him. This place looked well lived in and not in a messy way. It was actually pretty tidy except for the pair of boxers in the middle of the floor and the three empty beer bottles sitting on the table next to the bed.

  I shuffled inside and set my stuff on top of the small desk in the corner while he rushed in and snatched up the boxers on the way to the closet on the far side of the room. He dropped the boxers in a basket full of dirty clothes before reaching up and pulling down what I assumed was a clean set of folded sheets.

  “I can do that,” I said snapping to attention and crossing the room.

  “No, really, it’s okay. Tomorrow is Thursday, the day I usually change my sheets anyway.” He pulled the pillowcase off and I rounded the bed to do the other one. “There’s a bathroom and clean towels are in the in the top of the closet.”

  “Thanks,” I said. There was a beat of silence. “This is weird. Right?”

  “A little, I guess.” He shrugged but didn’t stop stripping the bed. “I mean, it’s clear that you can take care of yourself, but if it’s a choice between you sleeping in your car or sleeping in my room, I’d rather you be here.”

  His eyes looked up to me after he spoke. I swallowed hard for some unknown reason.

  “Well, thank you.” I gave him a small smile. “Wait, where are you going to sleep?”

  “I’ll go down to the lounge.”

  I didn’t miss how he skipped over the sleeping part. I maybe thought a beat too long about that.

  Somehow I had helped him remake the bed with the clean sheets completely moving on autopilot.

  “The door locks, but you don’t have anything to worry about with us. I’ll look at your car in the morning and see what’s going on with it.”

  I nodded because I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  “Sweet dreams, Bridget,” he said softly then he was gone, closing the door behind him without me saying anything else.

  This night had been strange but I was too tired to over analyze it. Besides, I needed sleep if I was going to be on my A-game tomorrow. There was other shit that needed my attention more than randomly crashing at a biker clubhouse.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Bridget

  The knock at the door had me knifing up with alertness as my heart jumped into my throat. It took me a moment t
o recall the past night’s events and remember where I was.

  “Hold on,” I called out as I jumped out of the bed and snatched up my pants. Hopping up and down, I tried to get them up my legs as quickly as possible. “Who is it?” At least I remembered to ask before just throwing the door open.

  “Lake,” he called out softly from the other side of the door.

  “Hey,” I said a little uncoolly as I opened the door while trying to tame the rat’s nest that had become my hair.

  “Morning,” he said and I sensed a tiredness in his voice. “I forgot to get your keys last night.”

  “Oh, yeah. That would probably be a big help. Well, maybe. She might not start for you.”

  I moved back as I waved him in, which felt strange because it was his room and all.

  “I brought you some coffee. Figured it was the least I could do for waking you up so early,” he said and set the steaming cup on the table next to the bed, then proceeded to pull a bunch of sugar packets out of his pocket. “There’s some milk in the fridge.” He pointed to a small cube fridge on the other side of the room. “Or there’s a shit ton of different creamers down in the kitchen. I wasn’t sure what you liked so…”

  “Milk will work. Thanks.”

  I didn’t know why I couldn’t turn and face him. He didn’t have to do that and I was being a bit rude. But in all honesty, it threw me. I’d never had anyone bring me coffee before. Not even my dad, but mostly because he didn’t drink it and probably never realized how addicted to the stuff I was.

  I found my keys and hesitantly crossed the room before placing them in his outstretched hand.

  “I, um,” I paused, hating that I might not have enough to actually get the thing fixed and also not wanting him to know just how fucking broke I was. “Can you just look at it and tell me what’s wrong.”

  He studied me for a beat longer than I was comfortable with.

  “Yeah, no problem. I’ll come find you when I figure it out.”

  “If.”

  “What?”

  “If,” I repeated. “If you figure it out.”

  I wasn’t trying to underestimate his qualifications, I just knew that my car could be difficult and if she didn’t want you to figure it out then you wouldn’t. Who knew, she could have just wanted a break and knew the smoke show would make me pull over.