I ignore him and turn away. As I pass a table with four other bikers, I pick up their empties and head for the trash can. Raider is right behind me getting the beers before I can even touch them. “Go sit down, Rave. We got this for a few minutes.”
If he thinks I’m returning to the Originals’ booth he’s crazy, but I am tired and my stomach’s starting to protest. I haven’t eaten since dinner the night before and am running on empty. I go into the office and open the fridge since there’s always some kind of leftovers sitting around.
Pulling out pasta salad that my friend Felicity had brought me last night on her way home from classes, I find a clean fork and dig in.
Chapter 3
Bash
I lift my half-empty beer to my lips and chug the last of it. When it’s empty, except for the suds, I slam the bottle onto the table. I wonder what the fuck I’m doing here—and not for the first time—only to wonder what the fuck I’d been thinking to leave in the first place.
The answer to the former is simple. I’m back because the Angel’s Halo Motorcycle Club need a new president. I know the reason—the who, what, where, and when of what had gone down leading up to this need for change. It’s not fair, there’s no justice in any of it, but then that’s life and I’m used to it fucking up my plans.
I’d left the MC a year ago, knowing it wasn’t what I wanted, determined to go legit and make a real life for myself. Now, to the cackling amusement of fate, I’m back, and at twenty-eight, the youngest president of Angel’s Halo.
Lucky fucking me!
“Here, boy,” Uncle Jack hands me the open bottle of Jack Daniels, not even bothering to offer a glass. I don’t need nor want it.
Taking a deep pull from the bottle, I swallow a mouthful before wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. My eyes go to Hawk then Raider. “Go make her come the fuck out here,” I command.
Hawk raises a brow at me. “You ever known anyone that could make Rave do anything?”
That only makes me glare at him. “Yeah. Me.”
Raider snorts. “Then you go make her come the fuck out here.”
If the guy hadn’t been like a brother to me, if I didn’t love and respect him as much as I do, I’d have cracked the bottle over his head. Instead I just sit there staring him down. That’s the thing about the Hannigan’s. They don’t back down, even under my deadly glare. If anything, Raider looks amused as he swallows a shot of Patron.
It figures Raider and Hawk would be amused by my silent torment. They probably think I deserved it. Fuck, they’re probably right.
There’s one absolute rule in Hannigan’s, just as there’s only one real rule in Angel’s Halo: Don’t touch Raven Hannigan. It’ll only make you a dead man. In our world that’s the holiest of rules. There had only been one man to dare to break that rule.
Me.
I’d faced the consequences of my actions, survived the beating Jet dished out, even relished every fucking broken bone he’d given me. And then, when Jet had said that Raven was mine, I walked away.
Not just from her, but from Angel’s Halo. From my whole life. Everything I knew and thought I wanted. And I didn’t look back.
The only thing I’ve ever regretted about leaving is that I didn’t take Raven with me.
Muttering a curse, I tip the bottle of Jack Daniels up to my lips and suck down a few mouthfuls before slamming it on the table. “I’ll wait for her to come to me.”
“Going to be waiting a while,” Hawk assures me. “Maybe you forgot what Raven is like, Bash.” He lifts a hand and starts counting off his baby sister’s qualities on his fingers. “She doesn’t play well with others. She doesn’t give in. She …” My glare has him chuckling but lowering his hand. “Just trying to refresh your mind, man.”
There’s no need for a refresher. I haven’t forgotten one thing about Raven Hannigan.
Not one damned thing.
Just as I’m starting to give in, ready to go find her, Raven walks out of the back office with a cellphone to her ear. I turned my gaze on her, watching the way her jean clad hips move making my dick hard. The Hannigan’s T-shirt she’s wearing stretches tightly over her perfect C-cup breasts, the black bra underneath teasing me, arousing me as if she wore nothing at all.
She stops mid-step, her eyes narrowing at what the person on the other end of the phone is saying before she laughs. I watch her lips for her reply, realize that she’s talking to her best friend, Felicity Bolton, and relax a little. Just the thought of another guy putting that kind of smile on my girl’s face makes me murderous.
At the booth everyone else carries on with a conversation that I’m supposed to be listening to. I don’t care if I miss it or not. My heart throbs in my chest, my dick swelling with each passing second as I continue to watch Raven talk to Felicity while she grabbed up the stray empty bottles and glasses.
“... okay. See you a little later. Be careful.” Raven pockets her iPhone as she nears the Originals’ booth. “Alright, you old fuckers, I’m heading out in a few. You need anything else before I go?”
“You aren’t going to help us close?” Raider asks.