“No.” I slowly drank my tea as I searched for a way to say it without offending him. “Men who choose to join these types of organizations don’t tend to do much planning for the future.”
“That’s true, but you forget we’re all veterans. Planning has been drilled into us until it’s second nature.” He shrugged. “Some guys don’t live that way because they hate it, but for some of us, it has become a way of life.”
“Okay.”
“That’s it?”
“Yep.” Finally, the waitress arrived with our food, burgers and fries for both of us. I dug in and moaned. “Definitely a sleeper.”
“A what?”
“You know, it looks like the kind of place that will give you food poisoning, but damn this burger is amazing!” It had bacon and avocado on it with smoked Gouda.
“You could still get food poisoning,” he pointed out.
I froze at his words and grinned. “Totally worth it.” We made quick work of our food, but still the sun was sinking in the sky when we walked out to his bike. “You guys have something against actual cars?”
He flashed that damn panty-melting smile again, and not gonna lie, those bad boys melted right off. “Wouldn’t make sense for a motorcycle club to drive minivans, would it?” His lips twitched, and I bumped my hip against his.
“You’re not funny.”
“Yet you’re smiling.” He pushed me up against the pickup beside his bike with his big body shadowing out all other light. “Why is that I wonder,” he brushed a kiss along one side of my jaw, then the other. “Maybe you actually like me,” he whispered before nibbling my ear and kissing his way to my mouth. “Is that it, Minx, you like me?”
r />
He didn’t wait for an answer, just took my mouth in a blistering kiss that made me forget all of my reservations about him. Made me forget that we were in the middle of a parking lot on the side of the freeway. Forget that this man kissing me was a distraction. But dammit, he was deliciously distracting, doing things to my mouth that I felt in my pussy. Moments under his spell and my skin became slick. Slippery. And his hands—big and strong and compelling—never moved from my hips. He pulled back, and I knew I wore a stupid, hazy grin. “I really like doing that.”
He grinned. “Me too,” he responded and stepped back to help me on the bike. In no time, we were eating up the pavement toward Brently. The night air chilled my overheated skin, but a prickle of awareness washed over me, and I didn’t know the cause. I’d learned years ago to listen to that instinct, and I held myself stiff and looked over my shoulder.
Nothing.
Weird. Maybe I imagined it, I thought. It wouldn’t be completely odd for me to feel in danger when no danger existed, but this didn’t feel like that. I looked again, and just as I turned back two sets of lights flipped on. Bike lights. “Cash,”—I patted his shoulder and shouted in his ear— “we have company.”
He took a look of his own and revved the engine, throttling faster down the highway. The roar vibrated my whole body which was still on the edge from that kiss. It was a strange mixture of fear and desire that I wasn’t sure I liked, but seeing as I was pressed tight against the hard body of a former SEAL, there wasn’t much I could do about it. He crossed between cars on all sides, making a serpentine motion down the road to put some distance between us and the bikers giving chase. Five minutes later the lights couldn’t be seen, and he slowed onto the side of the road and turned off the lights. “Shit.”
“I guess you know who that was?”
He nodded as he removed the helmet. “Got a pretty good fucking idea.”
Of course he did. “Club shit?” Lately there had been too much club shit going on for guys who proclaimed to be the good guys.
“Yeah.”
“Okay then. Get me home please.”
He nodded and climbed off the bike and walked away to make a call that lasted maybe twenty seconds, and then we were back on the road. Forty minutes later I closed and triple-locked my door behind me and let out a few calming breaths. My hands shook and my teeth chattered, only a hot tea with a shot of whiskey would do me any good, so I marched to the kitchen on autopilot.
I couldn’t say for sure but I was pretty sure some bad shit was brewing—again—and I had a feeling this time, things would end with a simple club vote.
***
Cash
“Those fuckers tried to run me off the road, and I had Minx on the bike with me!” I fumed, pacing in front of the Church doors where Mick and Roddick waited for me. “They had to have been following me because I only came up on Minx by chance.” I froze. “Unless they were following her.”
Roddick stood, an imposing figure, stood broad with arms crossed and a dark scowl on his face. “No more following them on your own. Teams from here on out.” He stared me down to make sure I heard him.
“Got it.” Goddamn Rocky and Wagman had become a pain in my ass and the club’s. Right about now I wanted to kick my own ass for not voting to get rid of them all. “They’re moving drugs over the border for the Mexican Devils.”