Shakedown (Souls Chapel Revenants MC 8)

“You telling me that you’re going to take it helps me do better,” she admitted. “I don’t do touch well unless I can see it coming. Or initiate it myself. Sorry about that flinch where Briana was concerned.”

She was apologizing for no reason.

And before I could tell her that, she turned the corner and I saw the man that’d been doing the following around the store now standing directly behind the woman.

“I guess I can buy these for myself,” Belle mused as she got into line.

I looked at the underwear.

Honestly, she could probably pull them off easily.

Before I could relay that, she continued to talk.

“I moved here because I liked the peace and quiet, and I liked how close I was to this superstore. I don’t know why they have it out in the middle of nowhere, but I love this place. No joke.”

I’d thought much the same thing about the massive bulk store out in the middle of nowhere. At first, I’d wondered if they’d made a mistake on the placement, because why the hell would they want a big store like this somewhere that was so far from civilization? But then I saw how busy it was, day in and day out, and realized that it was really the only store for about an hour around. It saw more action than the local grocery store at times.

“Souls Chapel is sort of weird, though.” Belle moved until she was practically tucked into my front when one of the kids broke off from standing next to her mother to crowd in close to the candy where Belle was standing.

I saw the man tense, as did Belle.

He wanted to grab the kid and run. I could see that all the way from over here.

My own muscles tensed, my body stiffening impossibly as if readying itself to explode into motion if the man so much as twitched toward the kid.

But the man slowly allowed his muscles to relax, which then caused me to control my breathing in reaction.

My eyes flicked up over the entire line to see Sin standing next to a toy grabber machine.

He had one eye on the grabber and the other on the man in the line.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something pink and sparkly come up with the grabber and drop down into the bin.

Sin bent down, retrieved it, and then handed it to some little girl that’d been staring at him with awe.

She already had two others in her arms.

The line moved quickly, and when the man’s turn came up after the woman and the kids walked away, the man cursed, comically patted his pockets and declared, “Oh, shoot. I forgot my wallet. I’ll be right back.”

Then he too was gone.

I watched as Sin followed him out.

“I’ll be outside, babe,” I said to Belle, absently leaving her behind before she could so much as agree or disagree.

When I arrived outside it was to find Sin walking two paces in front of the woman, behind a row of cars and mostly out of sight, while the mom tried to corral her unruly children into some semblance of control.

The man doing the following had his phone to his ear, and everyone was walking toward a mini-van with two adult stick figures on the window, as well as three small children characters. Next to the mini-van was a white panel van that had my insides tensing in anticipation.

Sin walked up from the opposite end of the lot, taking an immediate right beside the van on the opposite side of the one I could see.

Just as the woman reached the doors of her van, the ones of the other van burst open and men started to pour out.

I came off the curb and started to run, hitting the guy that’d been doing the following with a right hook to the back of his head.

The kids started to scream as one of the attackers caught the oldest and started to pull her away from the mother who’d finally caught on that something wasn’t right.

Sin came out from the side of the van like an avenging angel and took that man in the mouth with a fist.