I spotted Cade, and by the looks of it he had spotted me a lot earlier, he was wearing sunglasses (fucking bad ass aviators by the way) so I couldn’t gauge his expression, but he looked pissed off. I couldn’t handle that right now though, I was too busy trying to deal with the fact fifteen men who looked like they could snap me in half without batting an eyelid were swiftly approaching our little group. The men in front of me were too familiar. I began to have trouble breathing, my hands shaking, my vision blurring. Do not faint.
I felt a hand on my shoulder, and a concerned voice. “Are you okay Gwen? You look really pale,” Lucy asked looking worried.
Amy interrupted. “She’s fine, just low blood sugar,” she lied smoothly. “Rosie where’s your bathroom, I need to primp, all these men approaching.” She continued sounding casual, only I could hear the edge to her voice. I heard Rosie laugh through the roar in my ears. I didn’t pay much notice; I was too busy focusing on keeping my breath even.
“Straight inside, through the kitchen at the end of the hall, you can’t miss it.”
I felt Amy pull me along, holding me up. “You’re okay Gwennie, everything is fine I’m here.” She cooed quietly in my ear. “Keep walking we’re almost inside.”
I focused on putting one foot in front of the other and struggled to keep from collapsing. We finally reached a bathroom and I fell to the floor as soon as Amy shut the door.
She sat down beside me, stroking my hair. “It’s okay hunny no one is here to hurt you, just breathe.” She spoke calmly, having dealt with me like this after my accident when I could hardly stand being out in public.
I took long, slow breaths and after a couple of minutes I returned to some kind of normal state. “I think I’m okay,” I told her shakily.
Amy smiled at me then stood up extending a hand to me; I grasped it, unsteadily getting to my feet.
I splashed water on my face, completely ruining my makeup, but who gives a shit?
“I’ll go out make an excuse and we can leave okay Gwennie?”
I grabbed her hand. “No,” I said firmly. “Those girls are really lovely and I will not let some fucked up fear stop us from having a good time and making new friends. He cannot take that away from me.” Tears welled in my eyes but I refused to let them fall.
Amy stared at me a beat then smiled, but it was tainted with sadness. “You are one strong bitch Gwennie,” she whispered proudly.
“No I’m not, I’ve got you,” I smiled sadly back. “Now help me fix myself up so we can go back out there.” I tried to sound strong.
After some quick emergency make-up procedures, Amy and I ventured out into the party. The bikers had dispersed, some drinking beers and lounging on chairs, others laughing with each other with arms wrapped around women. We spotted Rosie with none other than Cade who had his arm slung around her shoulder. He had a beautiful woman and was pursuing me? Prick.
“Gwen, Amy!” Rosie yelled. I felt a disturbing amount of male eyes on me. I saw more than a few leather clad men checking Amy out, some old enough to be our fathers. Ew.
“Get your asses over here girls,” Rosie ordered.
Amy half dragged me over to the prick who still had his arm around Rosie. Lucy was still there, talking intently to yet another sexy biker, this one tall with a buzz cut, an awesome goatee and covered in tats. He was attractive, but had a very dangerous vibe coming off him.
“Gwen you have to give me the recipe for your brownies, the boys fricking love them,” she gushed, and one of the guys turned around from the food table.
“Bitch, those brownies are the fucking shit! I think I’m going to marry you,” he smiled cheekily, he was quite young, Hispanic and very attractive, kind of like a bright eyed puppy or something. But a fucking scary puppy, like a pit bull.
I smiled at his compliment, but I wasn’t sure how much I appreciated being referred to as ‘bitch’. I got a pointed look from Amy at the marriage comment, and I couldn’t help but laugh a little.
The man boy approached me, I started to feel a little nervous but stood my ground. He held out his hand, still smiling, “I’m Lucky.”
I shook his hand and replied. “Gwen, and this is my friend Amy.” I gestured to my best friend who held out her hand.
“Wow we hit the fucking jackpot, two knockouts like you ladies coming to town, and you can cook…damn,” he exclaimed.
I couldn’t help but laugh at this guy’s obvious fun loving nature. I felt Cade’s intense stare on me; I glanced at him to see him looking seriously pissed off.
“Omigod, I’m so rude,” Rosie interrupted the little stare-off Cade and I had going on. “You’ve obviously met Lucky, but this is Bull.” She gestured to the scary looking man with Lucy who perked up upon hearing his name, he glanced over and gave us a chin lift.
“Yo,” he grunted.
“And this is my brother Cade.” She gave him a squeeze. I was shocked for a second. Brother? Wow, I was a little quick to judge.
Cade released Rosie. “We’ve met,” he barked before grabbing my arm and dragging me towards the house.
“What the fuck Cade?” I heard Rosie’s voice behind us, but we seemed to be moving at lightening speed because all of a sudden we were inside someone’s bedroom. Cade locked the door behind him.
I was a bit shell shocked and out of it from my episode earlier, so I didn’t really take the opportunity to struggle, but I finally found my tongue, “What the fuck…”
Cade advanced on me and backed me into a wall. His arms came up on either side of me, boxing me in.
“What are you doing here?” he whispered menacingly, he seemed seriously pissed. Maybe someone stole his wallet chain.