Those words came out of his mouth mostly because we now had a whole lot of people at our back.
We were local, and though we were a smaller club, we were known for being a bit hostile and swift with our punishments.
We were also known as the ‘cleaners’ by a few other clubs. Why? Because we cleaned up our messes, and really well. So well, in fact, that there were a lot of rumors going on about us.
Needless to say, we weren’t to be underestimated.
“No reason to fight?” I asked, sounding a whole lot calmer than I felt.
“No,” he said, looking worried now.
I didn’t have to look behind me to know that even more people had shown up to our side.
“Hello, brother,” Easton sang as he held out his hand toward a taller, darker version of himself.
The brother, Trooper, took Easton’s hand and pulled him into a chest bump before letting him go.
I’d known Easton’s brother was part of a motorcycle club, but I hadn’t realized he was part of The Souls Chapel Revenants.
Sure, they’d probably told me when we were taking votes to allow Easton in, but that seemed trivial at the time.
Now, I was wishing I’d paid more attention.
“What’s going on here?” Trooper asked curiously, his eyes going to the man on the ground that still wasn’t moving.
I looked at him, and then at the ringleader, and said, “You might want to get him checked out at the ER. I probably broke his face.”
The ringleader stiffened. “You’ll pay…”
“Your enforcer,” I spat, “didn’t like hearing the word no, and then punched my woman when she told him that she couldn’t fix his bike today. So no, we won’t pay, unless you want to start a war between clubs,” I countered, pissed all over again.
Not to mention my own face was throbbing from where I’d taken the hit to the jaw.
The man opened his mouth and then closed it, as if at a loss for words.
“Here,” Easton said, tossing what I assumed was his phone. “Just look at it.”
The ringleader, out of instinct, caught the phone and watched what was playing on it.
He stiffened as he watched, and I could tell that he wasn’t quite believing what he was seeing.
Which was all right.
Neither had I.
What kind of piece of shit hit a woman like that?
Watching him draw his arm back and let loose with his body weight on her face was the single most debilitating thing I’d watched in a very long time.
The ringleader blew out a breath and then handed his phone back. “We don’t hit women.”
“You might not,” I agreed, still pissed. “But he did.”
“Chad has been having a really hard time of it as of late.” The ringleader swallowed. “I’ll… I’ll take care of it.”
“If any problems arise from her being hit like that, you’ll bet your ass you’ll be taking care of it. While I watch,” I snapped. “In the meantime, his bike is now property of Battle Crows MC. And if we ever see his face again, he won’t like how we handle it.”
Seconds after my declaration, the rest of their group scooped their trash up and left, leaving me with a heaving chest and a need to hit something that was downright frightening. You know, seeing as the reason I was feeling the way I was, was because of a girl that I neither had interest in, and in return didn’t have interest in me.
At least, that was what I was telling myself.
Turning, I found that a decent-sized crowd had gathered.
But it was the girl that was directly behind me, looking up at my face, that said, “You’re bleeding.”
I could feel it running down my neck, so that wasn’t a surprise to me.
What was a surprise was when she pulled out a few napkins from her pocket—leftover from her turkey legs—and walked toward me.
“Come down here and let me look at it,” she instructed.
I would have.
Really, I would have.
Yet… I didn’t submit easily.
And I sure the hell didn’t do it when there were other people around.
I caught her hand before she could place the paper napkins to wherever I was bleeding from and jerked her to me.
She gasped, hitting my chest with a thud, and wrapped her arms around my waist to keep herself from falling to the floor.
“Come on,” I said as I eyed everyone that was now talking to Haggard and the rest of my brothers. “We can go to a place that I know. You can help clean me up there.”
She followed without a word, and we left my brothers behind.
I didn’t miss the knowing look that Price shot me as we slipped away, though. Or the way Jeremiah mouthed ‘condom’ at me as he left.
I only rolled my eyes.
Why?
Because there was no way in hell something like that would ever happen with Coreline King.