Not a Role Model (Battle Crows MC 4)

“Any word yet?” I grumbled, leaning forward to take a small sip of my second margarita.

I’d finished the first in the first hour, and after I’d asked Ethel for ‘word’ the fiftieth time, she’d ordered me another drink because I wasn’t ‘happy’ enough.

She had a point.

“No.” She paused. “They are bringing our food out, though.”

Finally!

“That only took forever,” I complained.

“Did it?”

I blinked, surprised to find that Keir was standing in front of our table, staring at me with amusement.

“We ordered it at least an hour ago,” I admitted.

He grinned with amusement.

“That’s because I didn’t know that you’d had pizza ordered to my club,” he answered. “Had I known, I would’ve put the front door on the lookout for it. They dropped it off twenty minutes ago, I just had no clue who had the balls to order food to a club.”

“That would be me,” I grumbled. “Why don’t y’all serve food? That’s insane.”

“This is a club,” he reminded me in amusement. “Not a bar.”

The pizza was placed down in front of us, and even cold, it was still really good.

It felt like dinner was hours ago, and I was downright starving.

“Ethel, would you like to dance?” Keir asked my friend.

“No,” she answered. “Someone has to keep an eye on this one.”

I batted my eyelashes at Keir.

“Someone really does,” I admitted. “I’m a lightweight. When I drink the rest of this margarita, I’m going to have a really hard time staying upright on this stool.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “Do you have a man?”

I failed to see what that had anything to do with anything.

“She does.” Ethel paused. “But they got into a spat this morning, and she’s not sure if he’ll show up or not.”

I wasn’t aware of telling Keir the entire story—and when I say entire story, I mean from the beginning when Tide pushed me down in the hallway of fourth grade and became my forever bully—but apparently, I did.

When I was finished, I’d eaten five pieces of pizza, finished my margarita, and taken off my shoes and set them carefully on the small table next to the now-closed pizza box.

And Keir sat there for the longest time and looked at me curiously as if I was a precious little bug that he wanted to know more about.

CHAPTER 21

Tonight, I’m drinking until I’m someone else’s problem

-text from Coreline to Tide

TIDE

By the time that I got to the club—after calling around to every club within a ten-mile radius on my way down to my bike—I finally found her at the new one. Electric Cowboy, owned by none other than Keir Daniels.

Keir Daniels who, from rumors, wasn’t the nicest of people.

Keir was, for lack of a better word, ex-Mafia.

And putting that ex in front of it didn’t actually take away facts. Nobody left the Mafia.

Not even him.

So he might be down here in little ol’ Intercourse, Texas acting like he wasn’t still a part of an organized criminal organization, but that didn’t negate the fact that he was someone of power. That, if he wanted to, he could raise this little town with nary a word.

Keir made me nervous.

Always had.

But I took satisfaction in the knowledge that I made Keir just as nervous.

I jerked my head at the bouncer as I bypassed the line, and he stepped in front of me as if to block my way.

“I’m here for five minutes to grab my girl,” I said tightly. “You can either step out of the way nicely and on your own accord, or I can make you.”

I could see it in his eyes.

He didn’t think I could make him.

But the smile on my face, and the seriousness in my eyes, must’ve been enough of a deterrent to step aside.

“You have five minutes, or I’ll come looking for you,” he grumbled.

“Hey, what the fuck?” I heard called as I passed the small group that was waiting behind a pair of velvet ropes. “We’ve been here for over an hour waiting for someone to come out because you said you were at fire code capacity.”

I ignored the cry of outrage from a woman who sounded more than a little annoying and all but stomped my way into the club.

Almost instantaneously, I was bombarded with the sound of country music.

And not even the good kind. The kind that sounded like pop, and couldn’t pass for country music ten years ago, kind of garbage.

Hands clenching at my side, I looked around to find the man that I’d gotten into contact with. Keir said that my girl was here, eating pizza in his VIP area, talking about me nonstop.

I found the VIP area but didn’t see Coreline.

That changed as I rounded the corner and gave Keir a head nod the moment I spotted him.

That’s when my eyes went to the ass that was sitting atop a stool.