Duke (The Henchmen MC 5)

"You sure? I can get my Julia Child or Betty Crocker on," Renny said, flipping a pancake in an invisible pan.

"I'm sure you look lovely in an apron," I allowed. "But, really, I'm fine."

"I look lovely in everything. Or nothing at all," he said with an eyebrow wiggle that made me chuckle despite the severity of the situation I found myself in. "But if you're sure," Renny said, still giving me a lazy grin. He looked over toward Duke, the grin falling. "Then we have church in ten," he said and Duke nodded.

"We'll be down the hall," Duke told me. "You need anything, holler."

"I think I am just going to drink my coffee and lay back down," I lied, giving them a smile. "But thanks."

He gave me a chin jerk and moved into the hall, but didn't move away because, I think, Renny was still in the room.

"I'll check on you later, blondie," Renny told me, giving me a wink that, on anyone else, would have been creepy. But because he did it with that lazy grin, it was sweet.

"Okay," I said with a smile as he moved into the hall and Duke closed the door.

Then I was alone.

And while I did drink my coffee, I sure as hell didn't plan on sleeping.FIVEPennyI woke up to something slamming down, not so far removed from my little ordeal to not have my heart shoot up into my throat as my tummy dropped to my feet simultaneously as I tried to shoot up in bed. Tried. Because I had aching ribs and stitches in my back. I managed to get halfway to a seated position, balanced on my palms, before a small shriek of pain stopped me.

I hadn't meant to fall asleep.

Really, I hadn't thought it was possible.

I was in a strange place full of strange men, only a few of whom I had met, and I had been... kidnapped and beat up and stitched and interrogated. Things were weird as hell. I shouldn't have been able to have my mind rest enough to pass out.

But whatever 'church' was lasted an insanely long time and all there was in the room was a TV. I flipped around, finding that I didn't know any of the channels in the area, and getting frustrated and leaving the stupid shopping network on.

What can I say, when they are advertising freaking pots and pans for three and a half hours, it was as good as a handful of sleep medicine.

I had left the light on so my eyes didn't need to adjust to see what the slamming was.

Duke had dropped a cot down against the wall to the opposite side of the bed as the one I was sleeping on. He turned at the sound of my pained shriek, looking apologetic as it was possible for a big, burly man to look.

"Fuck, sorry," he said, shaking his head. "Didn't mean to wake you. Hands were full," he explained.

And then I realized they were. He had come in with the cot under one because the other one was holding up a tray positively piled with food.

"Hungry much?" I asked, smiling.

"For you," he explained, moving toward the bed, half-sitting down and putting the tray between us. "No idea what you eat, so I got a bit of everything."

And he had.

There was what looked like a BLT with fries, a grilled cheese sandwich, a plain bagel with egg and cheese, a whole apple and banana, an avocado, a bag of chips, a bottle of water, and a premixed cold coffee drink.

"You... went out to get food for me?" I asked, my voice a little in awe of that. I guess I had been taking care of myself for so long I almost kind of forgot what it was like to have another person do anything, even something as small as fetch food, for you.

It was nice.

I liked it more than I should have.

"You gotta eat," he said, playing it off. But from the looks of it, he had needed to hit multiple places to get such an array of food.

"Sure," I said with a small smile as I reached for the coffee drink, finding it was mocha flavor and saying a silent 'thank you' to the universe for pushing him in that direction. "But I figured you guys would throw a hunk of red meat at me and call it a day."

To that, his lips twitched and the skin beside his eyes crinkled a little. It was way too attractive. "That high an opinion of us, huh?"

"Well, when you think 'biker' you generally don't think culinary experts."

"I'll make sure that shit doesn't get back to Repo."

"Repo?" I asked, taking a long swig and it took everything in my aching body not to moan as the milky sugary chocolate mix coated my tastebuds.