I watched Luke take me in, then glare at Dwayne, who had just got off the phone.
“What happened?” His face was a mask of concern. His eyes darted around looking for threats, they settled on Dwayne again for a second before he put his gun away.
“Well, I got a delivery,” I began, feeling aware of the amount of people around. “Um, and it contained insects of the eight legged variety. Not at all like the delivery of shoes I was expecting,” I answered, giggling at the ridiculousness of it all.
Luke hissed. “The Spiders.” He returned his glare to Dwayne, who ignored him. He started running his arms up my own, eyes searching.
I tried to pull them away, but he caught my wrist. “What are you doing?” I asked angrily, in any other situation I wouldn’t mind being felt up by a hot guy, if I wasn’t madly in love with another hot guy that was. Luke stepped closer, looking like he was going to get between us.
Dwayne didn’t glance up. “Looking for bites,” he grunted.
My stomach dropped. I didn’t think of that. Were tarantulas poisonous? Did my first aid kit have anti venom? I didn’t think so.
“Bites,” Luke repeated quietly.
The roar of Harleys, and what looked like the whole club, approaching drowned out any further conversation. Cade all but threw his bike on the sidewalk, sprinting over to our little huddle. His eyes darkened seeing Luke, but his concern for me obviously trumped a macho man showdown. Cade pushed both Dwayne and Luke out of the way and grabbed me, inspecting me as if he was expecting stab wounds. He seemed satisfied with my lack of bleeding because he drew me into his shoulder.
“What the fuck happened?” he barked at Dwayne as the rest of the club approached.
Dwayne’s jaw got tight. “Heard Gwen scream, went in and she was covered in fucking tarantulas.”
I heard some of the men curse behind me and felt the air turn electric.
“Was just looking for bites when you arrived,” Dwayne continued, and I heard a sharp indrawn breath from Cade. He roughly pulled me to arm’s length, running his hands up my arms as Dwayne had been doing before.
“You feel a sting anywhere baby?” His eyes didn’t leave my body and his voice was laced with barely restrained fury.
I shook myself out of my mental fog and took stock of my body. I felt like I was about to throw up and I could still feel them in my hair, but no pain.
“No, no sting,” I answered quietly, shivering. “Are you sure you got them all Dwayne?” I ran my hands through my hair quickly, hoping not to encounter any creepy crawlies.
“You’re good babe,” he grunted.
Luke appeared in front of me, eyeing the bikers with distaste. I noticed that a couple more cops had joined the party, standing slightly back, hands on their weapons.
“Gwen, do you want to come down to the station? Make a statement?” he asked firmly, eyes on me. I opened my mouth to answer but Cade bet me to it.
“That’s not happening, she’s on the back of my bike. I’ll take her somewhere to keep her safe.” Cade’s arms settled around me, and I felt safe already.
“She will be safer at a police station than anywhere else in this town,” Luke bit out, not looking at Cade. “Gwen?” he questioned expectantly.
I suddenly felt a lot of eyes on me. The men were waiting for me to answer and reality hit me, what I said would determine if my loyalty lay with the club, if I trusted them to deal with the problem.
I cleared my throat uncertainly. “Thank you for your concern, Luke, but I’m okay. I just need to get away from here,” I said quietly, feeling Cade’s body relax a fraction.
Luke’s gaze turned thunderous. “Gwen you can’t be serious. Do you realize a dangerous gang just made a serious threat against you? You are in danger, we can protect you,” his voice raised and I could tell he was finding it hard to keep control.
“We are more than capable of protecting Gwen,” Cade answered for me in a low voice.
Luke raised a furious eyebrow “Just like you protected Laurie?” His voice was filled with venom.
I gasped at the cruelty in his voice and his callousness for bringing up Laurie. I felt the anger of every member humming in the air, and everything happened at once. Bull, who had been standing back, rushed forward, gaze murderous, reaching for Luke. Cade pushed me out of the way before grabbing onto Bull, along with Brock and Dwayne they were barely able to keep him restrained, his eyes were feral.
Steg stepped forward calmly, standing toe to toe with Luke who had his weapon out, as did the other officers who had approached. “No need for the weapon, deputy,” his voice was soft, but dangerous.
Luke glared at Steg. “Your boy was about to assault an officer,” he stated coldly.
“No assault here, but if you mention that girl one more time there will be, and your little boys playing dress-up will be able to do fuck all to help you.” Steg’s stare was filled with promise, and I was unable to take my eyes away.
Holy shit, this was intense. Lucky appeared beside me and he loosely draped his arm around my shoulders. His usually carefree face was distorted in anger.
“Did you just threaten an officer, Steg?” Luke spat out his name like it tasted bad.
Steg regarded him like he was shit on his shoe. “Nope I just made a promise to a jumped up asshole. Now there is no crime here, Gwen has refused to make a statement so I suggest you fuck off deputy, before I have a word to the sheriff about your conduct.”
Luke glowered at Steg with a look of pure hate before holstering his weapon and gesturing for the others to do the same. He then directed a hard look at me.
“I hope you know what you’ve gotten yourself into Gwen,” he told me softly, looking disappointed, before he turned and strode away.