Present Day…
I hated Saturday nights at Hannigans’.
I had only been working at the bar for two weeks now, but in the two Saturdays that I had worked I decided that they were the worst days of the week. When I had to work them, they were the worst days of my life.
I carried a tray of brown beer bottles to the back of the bar where seven bikers were standing around playing pool, while seven sheep rubbed themselves all over the men to the beat of the slutty rhythm of the rock music pounding through the bar. I tried to keep a neutral expression on my face as I handed out beers to the bikers.
They knew I was under Bash’s protection, but there was no rule that it was hands off. So while the bikers would keep their hands to themselves, the looks I’d been getting from the sheep was not a good sign. They didn’t like me for a mixture of reasons. One being that the Angel’s Halo MC’s sheep were loyal to Raven Hannigan and considered me a home wrecker in some way. I would admit that while Raven and I weren’t BFFs we weren’t enemies either.
I liked to think we had come a long way in the month since I’d moved into the Hannigan house with Lexa. Raven and I got along well enough even though I knew she still had misgivings about the time Bash and I had lived under the same roof. Now that I was working as a waitress at her family’s bar we got along a little better. I did it to have something to do, but also to try and relieve some of the mounting stress that was pushing down on Raven more and more with each passing day.
It had been two weeks since Flick had run away. Raven wasn’t taking it well. She blamed herself and she was beating herself up over it. The entire Hannigan clan was taking it pretty bad though. Including Jet who was in San Quintin and was the most powerless of them all.
Once everyone had their beers I walked away without saying a word. That was how I got through my nights the easiest. Keeping my mouth shut. I didn’t have to ask people what they wanted to drink, they normally just yelled it out or went to the bar to order and I would take it to them. On my way back to the bar I picked up as many empty bottles as I could so I could dump them once I got back to the bar where Colt and Raider Hannigan were busy mixing drinks and taking care of the customers seated on stools in front of the bar top.
There were ol’ ladies and a few sheep sitting at the bar, having just sat down because they hadn’t been there when I had gone to the back just a few minutes ago. I paid them no attention as I stepped behind the bar with Colt and Raider and started hand washing dirty glasses that were in the sink. Keeping busy made the nights go by faster and kept my mind from wandering.
As I dried the shot glasses and placed them in their designated spots, I saw that Raider was already chatting up a new conquest even though he had already taken some chick into the bathroom not forty minutes ago. I rolled my eyes at him when he glanced my way and he smirked. It only made me roll my eyes again, causing him to laugh.
Colt accidently bumped into my shoulder and I turned to apologize to him but he just grabbed my arm and guided me to the side, winking as he reached for a bottle of whisky. I had heard that Colt was the most like Jet in personality and looks, and I could honestly understand what Felicity must have felt when she fell for Jet if Colt was anything to go by. Charming, bad ass when he needed to be, and a mixture of sweet and arrogant all at the same time. I was immune to his charm just as I was immune to nearly all things male, but I could still get what all the fuss was about.
It was nearly midnight, two hours before closing, when Bash walked in. He didn’t normally come in on Saturdays unless Raven was working. Mostly he stayed glued to her side, watching her as if she would break at any second. It was kind of cute.
Bash wasn’t alone though and I had to grit my teeth to keep from cursing when I saw Spider walk in behind his best friend. I really couldn’t understand those two and their fucked up friendship. One day they were fighting, hating each other’s guts. The next they were best friends again. It was a wonder neither had whiplash the way they went back and forth so quickly.
Colt sat an unopened bottle of Patrón down on my empty tray along with two shot glasses and a salt shaker. Placing a bowl of sliced limes on it he picked up the tray and handed it over to me. “It’s their usual,” he said when I just raised a brow at him. “Spider’s favorite, actually. Beware. He has a pissed off look on his face. Normally Raven is the only one who will deal with him like that. Be careful.”
It really was a night for rolling my eyes. “I’m not scared of James Masterson.”
Colt raised a brow at that and turned his head to study me curiously. “I don’t think there is a person with balls big enough to call him James to his face. Good luck with that.”
Shaking my head I stepped around Colt and headed toward the back booth that everyone seemed to call the Original’s booth. Very few of the Originals came in on Saturday nights whereas they all came in on Fridays. I’d learned quickly that they didn’t like having ol’ ladies and sheep in the bar on Friday nights. They only let Raven serve them or one of the other Hannigans. I could understand why, since it looked like Hannigans’ was their chapel and Friday nights were when they held their official church meetings. Even if Angel’s Halo had their own warehouse that I assumed was much like The Red Dragons’ compound had been before it had been shot all to hell.
I had to weave my way through the masses of people to get to the back booth. The bar was fairly big and the layout was spacious. The pool tables in the back, the bar in the front, with about five booths and thirty or more tables with at least five chairs to each table in between. This was the only real bar for miles. Sometimes locals that weren’t ass
ociated with the MC came in, but I had noticed that they were the ones that looked a lot scarier and much braver than your usual Creswell Springs resident. Also a few college students came in from time to time, mostly females looking for a walk on the wild side.
When I reached the Original’s booth, Bash and Spider stopped talking abruptly making me wonder what they had been talking about. I felt like I was a mindless teenager with the amount of times I was rolling my eyes tonight. Placing the Patrón and everything else on the table in front of them I picked up the tray. Instead of turning to leave as I was sure they thought I was going to do I just stood there, putting a hand on one hip and frowning down at them. “So, what ya talking about?”
I saw Bash’s lips twitch with amusement. Having lived in the same house with me for fifteen months he had grown to know me fairly well. We were friends—hell, he had been my only real friend. Ever. “Club business.”
“Oh yeah? So shouldn’t you be talking to the club about it too? Or is this a president-enforcer-only chitchat?”
Spider grabbed the bottle of Patrón and poured two shots. He tossed them both back without so much as a flinch and I found my eyes locked on the sight of his throat as it moved up and down with each swallow. A knee nudged my leg and I shook my head, clearing it of the stupid desire-filled fog before anyone other than Bash noticed. No way did I want Spider to know he still affected me so completely.
It wasn’t smart to let the big man know that I’d been fighting with myself for the last month. From the day I had set eyes on him again I’d been one mass of aching female flesh. My body didn’t seem to comprehend what my mind constantly screamed at me on a daily basis. Spider had cheated on me, shredded my heart into a million pieces. And I wasn’t going to be one of those stupid girls who took her man cheating with a grain of salt and no more than a bat of an eyelash. It had been one of the things that had ended my parents’ marriage. Duke had cheated with club whores over and over again on top of a shitload of other things club related until Clara had had enough.
I was just happy to have learned early what Spider was really like—which I assumed was how all bikers were.
“It’s just a small matter.” Bash making light of whatever they had been talking about only made me more curious but I let it go. For now. I’d caught a few words of their conversation: Raven, Hannigans’, Hawk and frat boy had been the only things I had made sense of.
The frat boy I could only assume was the guy who had tried to assault Gracie Morgan at a party a month ago. Hawk was out for blood when it came to the guy as it was obvious to any and every one that he and Gracie cared about each other. I had no idea what the two had to do with Raven or even Hannigans’ but I wasn’t likely to get anything out of Bash anytime soon.
I sat down at the booth with them. My feet were starting to hurt and I hadn’t really taken much of a break all night. When neither man spoke I reached for the dish of pretzels I had set out earlier. The ones at the Original’s booth were the only ones I would eat because they hadn’t been touched by a hundred hands tonight. Gross.
Spider tossed back another shot, not bothering with the salt and limes. After a moment Bash poured himself a shot then offered me one. I shook my head. I wasn’t a big fan of drinking and I had no tolerance for it. One shot was all it was going to take for me to start acting stupid.
“Go away, Willa. It’s what you do best.”