Dead Man Walking (The Fallen Men 6)

No Brett.

Unease turned my stomach.

Would he really abandon me?

I sighed, rubbing my forehead as I headed out onto the back deck for fresh air. My phone was burning a hole against my hip where I’d slipped it in the waistband of my panties beneath my dress.

I wanted to go home.

I wanted someone to pick me up––Loulou or Cressida or Harleigh Rose because they’d understand or, more, Zeus, Bat, or Wrath because they’d punch Brett in the face for leaving me alone.

But it felt babyish to return to my comfort zone, however strange that comfort zone might have been.

I was there to experience what it might feel like to be normal for a change.

My eyes closed as I leaned back against the stucco exterior of the house, the walls thrumming with the bass of the music from inside.

“That’s a rip!” someone shouted from deeper around the side of the house.

My eyes popped open.

“You’re jacking the fucking prices, asshole,” the same voice said again, the words accompanied by the thwack of a something hitting flesh.

“You got a problem with the price, get your shit from someone else,” another person offered with faux benevolence.

A person I recognized as Brett.

My skin prickled as adrenaline rushed through me.

Brett was dealing drugs.

Brett.

Slicked back hair, pattern button-up, and pressed khakis Brett was selling drugs in the backyard of a uni party in Entrance, BC.

Suddenly, impactfully like a punch to the solar plexes, I liked him a hell of a lot more than I did a moment before.

Because this? Dealing drugs in Entrance, the hometown of The Fallen MC’s mother chapter?

That was just about as dangerous as it got.

My heart thumped loudly against my ribs, knocking to get out. I took a deep breath to settle my excitement and carefully walked to the end of the porch so I could peek over the railing at the men in the shadows.

Brett had the angry buyer pressed up to the wall with his hand shoved into his chest. His face, usually placid and pleasant, was ragged with fury.

I shivered, and it wasn’t because of the cold autumn air against my bare skin.

“It’s not me jacking shit, dude. I look like a chemist to you? I’m just the middleman. You wanna high like nothing else, you know this is the place to get it,” Brett taunted. “So take it or leave. I got a girl inside waiting for me, and if I don’t get laid tonight because I left her waiting too long, that’s on you, Owen.”

I arched a brow reflexively at his arrogance. This was our first date, so there was no way I was going to sleep with him. No way I was even going to do more than kiss him. But his arrogance reminded me of The Fallen, those bikers with all that swagger, and again, I found myself intrigued by him.

Brett was becoming a worse man and a sexier prospect by the second.

“Fine,” Owen muttered petulantly. “Give me a quarter ounce.”

“Brett,” I called out sweetly, leaning over the railing so that my hair went swinging over my shoulders, clouds of silver curls and wings behind my head. “I think it’s time you took me home.”

I almost laughed at the look of shock on his face, the way it paralyzed him for a precious moment.

Owen used the time to wiggle out of his hold and slink away into the dark.

I sighed when Brett just blinked at me, obviously searching for a way to play off the entire situation. With a little hop, I swung up onto the railing and jumped over it, my skirt catching on the wind so he caught a sight of my white, silk panties.

He swallowed hard when I looked up at him after I landed lightly in the grass and made my way over.

“You aren’t very discreet,” I said softly, almost kindly because I did feel badly for him in a strange way, and also because it amused me that I’d thrown him so off balance.

“I need the money,” he explained, a pugnacious frown settling into his features. “I’ve got a full course load and no time to work.”

I shrugged lightly. “I’m a full-time student, I volunteer at First Light Church, and I work.”

“You’ve got your daddy’s money,” he pointed out, hoping to cut me with the reference to my deplorable deceased father.

I smiled prettily at him, leaning in close up on my tiptoes because I was short even in heels, and he was taller. “Brett? You mention his name again, I’ll show you why I wore this costume to be ironic, okay?”

Confusion played over his face like shadows.

I laughed, pulling away enough to grab his hand and tug him toward the street. “You know, I didn’t think I’d have much fun tonight, but this was great.”

Brett shook his head. “You’re the weirdest girl I’ve ever met. You’re not like…angry that I deal? Most chicks get their panties in a wad over it.”