Riot (Predators MC 1)

“Oh.”

She hadn’t asked her mother what had happened to the men at the prison, not wanting to upset her, and she hadn’t asked others because it would have given them the opportunity to ask questions for themselves. She hadn’t wanted her answers printed in the tabloids, which had been begging for an interview.

“Dax, obviously the men have been out for a while and have made no attempt to contact me, nor will they. Let the security team go. I need to get back to normal. The longer they’re here, the more I’ll get used to it. I have to be able to live on my own,” she tried to explain her feelings to her brother. She was afraid she would become dependent on someone else for her safety.

“I don’t suppose you could give a little and just keep them on during the nights?”

“No.”

If you gave Dax an inch, he took a mile.

“I’ll tell them to pull back,” he conceded.

“Thanks. I love you, big brother.”

“I love you, too. Goodnight.”

Grace was about to hang up then changed her mind. “Dax?”

“Yes?” He gave a grumpy sigh.

“Since they’re already here for the night…”

“I’ll wait until morning to make the call.”

“Goodnight.”

Grace lay back down, turning her light off. This was the time of day she dreaded the most, even with Bear and Daisy. She heard every sound. Sometimes, she even imagined she heard Winston’s footsteps coming down the hallway. She and Simone had waited in fear for the sound. She rolled over, curling into a ball.

Ice was back home in his biker club, surrounded by the men he called his brothers. He gained strength from having them close. Maybe she needed to take a lesson from him and start letting others into her life. Maybe then she could quit hearing those footsteps.

Chapter 14

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” CeCe asked.

“I’m sure. Go ahead and have some fun. I don’t expect you to sit here with me all night,” Grace told her.

“You wouldn’t be sitting here if you would accept one of the invitations to dance.”

“I will when the right one asks.” Grace had no intention of dancing with the few men who’d had the courage to approach her. One even sat down next to her in an attempt to draw her attention. Disgusted when he had picked his nose and winked at another woman passing their table, she asked him to leave.

It had been a terrible idea coming out with CeCe to the local hangout. She would give CeCe fifteen more minutes, then she had every intention of making an excuse to leave.

Grace watched CeCe and her pick-up move toward the dance floor while a couple at the next table argued. The young woman was angry with her fiancé over spending time with his mother the evening before.

“If I knew you were such a mama’s boy, I would never have started dating you to begin with.”

For several minutes, Grace was forced to listen to her berate and belittle the man who tried to soothe her anger repeatedly by apologizing.

Finally, the woman got up and left him sitting at the table alone, telling him she was going to the restroom. Grace had to bite her lip to keep from telling him to make a run for it while he had the chance. Instead, she watched the others on the dance floor.

When a chair next to her was pulled out, her head turned and she met ice-blue eyes staring back at her. She didn’t know if she should be frightened he was here. He was thinner than she remembered and his hair was cut close to his head showed a healing gash. The new haircut made him appear even meaner and more dangerous.

“Hello, Grace.”

“Ice, what... What are you doing here?” She looked wildly toward the dance floor for CeCe, but she had disappeared. She searched the room and found her talking at the bar with a different man. She also saw Max and Jackal at the other end, both standing casually, drinking beers.

Ice shrugged. “Would you believe I was in the neighborhood and stopped in for a beer?”

She licked her suddenly dry lips. “Were you?”

A smile tugged at his sensual lips. “No.”

“Oh.”

“How have you been?”

“Good. You?”

“Good,” he repeated her brief answer, his eyes sliding over her body in the royal-blue dress. “You look beautiful tonight.”

“Thank you. My brother told me you got out.”

“You told your brother about me?” He reached out, tugging the passing waitress’s skirt. “Honey, bring me a beer.”

The woman had initially looked angry at his familiarity, but when she got a good look at Ice, her frosty expression warmed, and she smiled seductively back at him.

“Sure thing, sugar.”

Grace mentally noted he had called her honey. So he routinely uses affectionate terms to address women, she thought.

“Only that you were the one to take me hostage,” Grace told him, taking a sip of her drink. “He wanted to let me know the man responsible for holding me hostage was out of prison.”