Unwilling Protector (Steel Vipers MC)

“This him?” I ask when she walks over to where he is and turns to face me.

“Him?” she asks, clearly worried.

She probably should be.

“Your old man you said you had. Is this him?”

“I—”

“Damn straight,” Mickey responds for her. “And I don’t really like you messing with her. Now, you need to move along, or you’ll be doing it in a body bag.”

“You’d shoot a defenseless man who was doing nothing other than talking to a pretty girl?”

“That’s not what I saw. I saw a man trying to rough up one of my dancers and my bouncer.”

“Thought she was your woman?”

“She is, but as owner of this place, I can defend anyone here without much bullshit. You get it?”

“I see. Well, I guess I’ll just be moving along,” I murmur, my gaze locking with Midnight’s.

“That’d be for the best,” Mickey agrees.

“I’ll be seeing you around, Midnight,” I call out, turning around to walk to the parking lot where my bike is.

“Not if I see you first,” she responds, making me chuckle.

Hell yeah, I really like her.

Chapter 8

Drew

Damn that was close. If Mickey had called me Drew in front of Train, I could have been in trouble. I recognized the MC cut he had on the minute I saw him. He’s in my brother’s club. My brother kept insisting that I could trust his club—and maybe I can.

But because of me, my brother is lying in a hospital in a coma.

I can’t risk anyone else. As tempting as Train is, I can’t go there. I can’t even allow myself to think about it. This is my mess. I made the mistake of asking my brother for help and now he’s fighting for his life. I can’t involve anyone else. I just can’t.

“Mickey, I can walk to my car alone.”

“You know the rules. We had this talk before, Drew—or should I call you Cilla?”

I roll my eyes.

“He’s from my brother’s club. The last thing I need to do is bring someone else in to get hurt. If he knew I was Drew, it would have been a disaster,” I grumble. I didn’t realize my brother mentioned my name to the club, but I guess maybe he did. I don’t understand how they knew to look for me here, though. I asked G not to tell anyone. He promised me he wouldn’t if I would just tell him where to come and get me.

I’ve traveled from Texas to here. I thought I would be safe. Charlotte is a big city—at least for me. I’m a country girl. I’ve never been to New York or Los Angeles—anywhere other than small town Texas, I guess. But it feels big. I thought I could at least get lost here.

I was wrong.

“Are you even listening to me, Drew?”

I turn to look at Mickey, having completely spaced. “Of course, I am,” I lie.

“Great, so what did I say?” Damn it.

“You told me I don’t need to be going anywhere alone and I should come stay at your place to be safe.”

“Nice try, sunshine, but no dice.”

Well shit. “Okay, what did you say?” I huff.

“I said you need to start listening,” he says, exasperated.

“Huh, well, since I wasn’t listening, I guess that’s ironic, right?”

“I’m following you to your place and do a walk-through of your apartment.”

“Mickey, no.”

“Drew, yes.”

“Is there any chance that I can talk you out of it?” I ask, knowing it’s fruitless.

“Not a chance in hell,” he says, making me frown.

“See you there,” he says, walking to his bike.

Damn it! If Mickey gets hurt because of me, I won’t survive the guilt. I’m already pushed to the edge about G. “If you get hurt, Mickey Barker, I’m never forgiving you!” I call out. I hear him laughing. It irritates me just enough to flip him off—which makes him laugh harder.

Chapter 9

Train

I’m too far away to hear what they’re talking about—which is annoying since they’re standing way too close for my liking. He’s not touching her, though, and that’s damn good. I should be worrying about my brother, not some dark-haired angel that has my dick in a trance. I can’t seem to stop myself, however.

I want her.

Shit, it goes beyond that. That rocking body, that sassy mouth—I need her. I like everything I know about her. I admit that’s not much since we just met, but having an attraction this strong, this quickly, must mean something. Some men in our club don’t want to settle down, but I’ve always known that it was exactly what I wanted. After watching how Marcum changed when Toi came into his life, I was positive. Still, finding a woman that would fit in my world is not the easiest thing around. Finding a woman I wanted to tie myself to has been even harder. Midnight definitely checks all the boxes for me.

The only thing that worries me is that I’m jealous. I’ve never been jealous in my life and here I am, jealous over a woman I just met, and I’m not even sure she’s with this guy. If they are together, it’s casual. There’s nothing about the way they’re standing that reads overtly sexual. That’s at least encouraging because it means this man is an idiot. For some reason, I follow them when they leave. Even as I recognize that my actions are more than a little creepy, I can’t seem to stop. Luckily, she only lives a few minutes away—as if that makes me following them to her house better somehow. It looks like an apartment above a garage. I imagined Midnight with a small house with flowers and a garage to put her car in. Hell, maybe even a bike. Everything about her screams that she could handle herself on one. This oddly dissatisfying feeling settles in the pit of my gut because this just seems all wrong. Midnight deserves more than that. She’s got too much fire.