"Not at all," he said, tone, body language, everything about him wholly unconcerned with the threat in the biker's voice as he started pulling me. "Let me just take my new girl with me. She's pretty, right?" he asked, seeming completely unaware - or simply not caring - about the look of death Virgin was shooting him.
"Yeah, she's pretty. She also isn't yours," Virgin clipped with a pointed brow raise.
Maybe West looked contrite.
Maybe he looked worried.
I wouldn't know.
Because my silly brain could only focus on the fact that he had called me pretty.
"Well, that's just not fair," West declared, giving my hand a squeeze before dropping it. "He gets to have that concrete jaw and the pretty girl? And me, I have to grow a beard and go home alone? Nice meeting you, pretty girl," he added, giving me a wink before turning away, easily going over to a group of three women, integrating himself in their conversation with the ease that made me wonder if he had sisters. Or was just that sure of himself.
"Yeah, that's about the look all the women have been giving him tonight," Virgin said with a nod as he looked at me. "Like he's a cute new puppy dog. But that puppy dog could rip a grown man's throat out," he added.
"Oh, well, now you're just making him even more appealing," Thad decided. "Who doesn't like a bad boy?"
"Hey Thad," Virgin greeted him as though they were old friends. "If you guys are here, I'm assuming you got the job."
"I did," I told him, not even trying to hide the smile. "Thanks to you in a way." At Thad's eyebrow raise, I shrugged. "He told me she might be hiring and gave me a ride."
"Oh he did, now, did he?" Thad asked in a tone that let me know I was going to hear it later. "Well, good. I am going to go get myself a drink. You two... have fun," he said with an utterly ridiculous eyebrow wiggle.
"Brought backup, huh?"
"He wouldn't have let me come into a biker compound alone. He has a knife in his umbrella."
Virgin's lips quirked up, teasing at those white teeth before his hand rubbed across his face, wiping the smile away. "Sounds like a good brother."
"The best," I agreed.
"Can I get you a drink? Food?"
"Food," I agreed, realizing I hadn't had a chance to eat much all day save for the samples of dishes Abby insisted on just so I got to know the menu by taste as well as ingredient and prep.
Virgin led me through the door I had - correctly - guessed was the kitchen. It was a medium-sized space full of masculine energy, nothing frilly on the windows, no cutesy hand towels hanging off the stove front. Everything was stark and economical. Which made sense, I guess.
Food was spread out across the counters.
Very familiar food.
"Did you order all this from Abby's?" I asked, suddenly feeling bad for her. It had to have taken forever to get it all done. There was enough here to feed an army. Mac n' cheese. Chicken wings. Mozzarella sticks. Sliders. Loaded potato skins. It was endless.
"She's used to us by now. If it's not pizza, it's Abby's. This is Freddie," Virgin said to a duo of women - one a pretty blonde, the other a delicate-faced brunette. "That's Penny and Bethany. They belong to Duke and Lazarus."
"Belong," I mused, testing the word out, finding it odd, foreign, too possessive to feel comfortable.
"Old ladies, not fuck buddies," he clarified. "Guys around here seem to shack up fast."
"Because the women in this town are top-notch," the woman who had been sitting on the big bearded man's lap said, coming up behind Virgin. She peeked around his arm, giving me a once-over. I'd hate to play this woman in poker, because whether she found me wanting or not was a complete mystery. "Has Lo met her yet?"
"Don't start shit, Janie," Virgin demanded, but there was a softness in his voice, an affection for the woman.
"Me? Start shit? No way," she said, devious smile in place as she moved over to join Penny and Bethany who had decided to keep their distance. Shy, I decided, in Penny's case. And maybe a bit standoffish in Bethany's.
"Go on. Load up," Virgin invited, passing me a plate, leaving me out of the loop. It was ridiculous to feel like the last kid chosen in Red Rover, but that was how I felt as I started picking out food, feeling Virgin at my side as he loaded up his plate as well.
I spent the next hour meeting enough people to ensure I would forget all of them save for the first few I was introduced to in the kitchen. Thaddeus was always somewhere in my periphery as Virgin asked some basic questions, seemed to accept my veiled answers.