Belle
The rider didn’t move, didn’t lift the visor of his helmet, and didn’t speak.
He just sat there staring at them as if weighing something invisible between them all.
The quiet felt as though it dragged on for hours, not just seconds, until the doors behind them slammed open.
Savage strode out, followed by Bolt and Ryder, the club’s pilot.
They were all moving with that same coiled readiness she recognized from a dozen nights working the bar.
It was the kind where a man didn’t have to speak for her to know a line was about to be drawn.
The rider finally killed the engine, and Bell’s breath caught. Please don’t let it be—she couldn’t finish that thought. But the way he tilted his head, the slow, taunting lift of his hand to his visor—yeah, it was him—Shane.
He was trouble wrapped in leather and bad decisions. The ex she’d once thought she could fix, and God, that made her feel like an idiot. He was the man who’d taught her in one ugly lesson that some people weren’t broken—they were wired wrong from the start.
“Leave?” Shane laughed, the sound scraping across her nerves. “Sweetheart, you don’t get to tell me where I can or can’t go. Last I checked, this was still a free country.”
Savage moved closer, arms crossed. “Parking lot’s not part of your free country, asshole.
You’re trespassing on my property, and you know damn well you’re not welcome here.
” Ryder and Bolt flanked his sides, silent, steady, and dangerous.
For the first time, Shane’s grin faltered.
He straightened in his seat, flicking a look at the patched men surrounding him.
A smart man would turn around, but Shane had never been smart.
His only saving grace was that he wasn’t suicidal either.
His eyes flicked back to Belle. “I heard you were asking about me,” he said.
“That you were curious where I’d been. Thought I’d come save you the trouble and show up.
” Belle’s stomach dropped. She hadn’t said a word about Shane to anyone.
Not one single person. But Shane always had ears in low places.
“I wasn’t asking about you,” she said calmly. “I haven’t thought about you since we broke up.” The lie slid out quietly. Shane’s gaze flicked again to Beast—the big stranger with the storm brewing behind his eyes.
“And who’s this?” Shane sneered. “Your new boyfriend? You move fast, Belle.” The men around them tensed, and she knew that if Shane said much more, he’d end up needing an ambulance to leave the parking lot.
Belle stepped forward, no longer holding Beast back. “He’s none of your business.”
“Everything about you is my business,” Shane muttered, low and ugly.
Beast moved then—slow, controlled, lethal.
“If you have something to say,” he said, voice rumbling like distant thunder, “say it to me.” Shane’s jaw twitched.
His bravado shrank just a fraction in the shadow of Beast’s size and presence.
Then he spat in the gravel and smirked, trying to recover whatever scraps of pride he had left.
“Careful, Belle,” he said, backing up his bike. “You don’t know who you’re letting into your life.”
Belle didn’t flinch. “I know exactly who I let out of it.” Savage took a single step forward, a silent warning.
Shane finally revved the engine sharply, turned the bike, and tore out of the lot.
Only when the sound faded did Belle realize her hand was still on the back of Beast’s jacket.
He looked down at her hand, then back at her, his eyes searching her face like he was trying to read the truth she never told anyone.
“You okay?” Beast asked. Belle nodded. It was another lie, but telling him the truth now would only have her breaking down in tears, and that was the last thing she wanted to do in front of all the bikers.
Savage walked up beside her. “You know he’s not done, right?”
Belle swallowed. “I’m aware.”
Beast’s voice was low and steady. “Why was he here?” Belle’s throat tightened. Not because she didn’t know the answer. But because she did, and she worried that Beast wouldn’t want anything to do with her afterward.
“He came to remind me,” she said softly, “that people like him don’t let go.” Beast stepped closer, angling himself in her eyeline, forcing her to look at him and not the empty road Shane had taken.
“Well,” Beast said, voice edged with something dark and protective, “he’s gonna learn I don’t either.” Belle’s breath stalled, and for the first time in years, she wasn’t sure if she was more terrified or relieved.
She couldn’t believe that her ex had shown up at the bar, but nothing Shane did surprised her anymore.
Belle didn’t want to talk about it, though.
Not again, and not in the middle of the bar, and not with half the club still lingering by the door and the last traces of Shane’s engine echoing in the distance.
But Beast was watching her with those steady, too-perceptive eyes, and Savage wasn’t the type to let danger walk into his territory unanswered.
So Belle drew in a breath, squared her shoulders, and said, “Let’s go inside.”
Savage nodded, “We can use my office.” Beast stayed at her side as they walked back into the bar.
He stayed close enough that she could feel the heat rolling off him.
And he was close enough that she knew he’d stop anyone who so much as looked at her wrong.
Not that the crew would do anything like that since they all seemed to like Belle.
They protected her, but Beast didn’t know that.
He was just protecting her anyway, and that confused the hell out of her.
Inside the office, the door clicked shut, and for the first time since Shane showed up, Belle felt safe.
Savage leaned against the desk with his arms folded across his massive chest. “Talk.” He was always a man of few words, and now was no exception.
Belle let out a shaky breath and leaned against the wall in the corner of the small room, trying to distance herself from the two giant men. She didn’t want to look at either of them—but Beast stepped closer to her, not crowding her, just offering his presence as he had earlier in the parking lot.
“Belle,” he murmured, voice deep but gentle. “What’s going on?”
She looked up at him, her throat tight. “Shane and I broke up about a month ago, and let’s just say that he’s not been too happy about the breakup.”
Savage’s brow lifted. “Thought you said it was a clean break and that he was fine with it.”
“It was,” she said. “For about a week.” Beast’s jaw flexed.
He didn’t say anything, but she felt the shift in him—the silent, simmering anger, and the protective coil tightening.
He had no right to be that way with her.
They hadn’t even known each other for a full twenty-four hours, yet he was hovering over her, protecting her, and for some strange reason, that she couldn’t explain, she allowed it.
Hell, she liked it, not that she’d admit that.
Belle continued, voice barely above a whisper.
“He started showing up everywhere. The grocery store, outside the diner when I’d stop there for dinner, he was even here after my shift ended.
He’d sit in the parking lot for hours and wait for me to come out of the bar.
And every night when I went out to my car, he was there, watching. ”
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” Savage snapped.
“I could have made sure that he left you alone. I could have at least made sure that someone walked you out to your car every night, Belle.” That was exactly why she didn’t tell Savage or anyone else about Shane.
She didn’t want to become a burden to the bikers, who she knew would go out of their way to protect her.
She thought that she could take care of Shane herself, but today had proved her wrong.
Belle’s eyes filled with heat—not tears, but frustration.
She was ashamed that she had ignored the problem and let things get so bad with Shane.
She was afraid, and that was something that she didn’t want to admit.
“I didn’t tell you or anyone else because I thought he’d stop.
I didn’t want to drag the club into something that might just be him acting out because he was mad at me.
I kept silent because I didn’t want to be someone you all had to rescue. ”
Savage muttered a curse and ran a hand over his jaw. “Belle, you work here. That makes you mine to protect. That makes this club and all the members your family. Don’t ever think you’re a burden to me or any of us.” Her throat clenched. She looked away, trying to keep her tears at bay.
Beast stepped closer, his voice low. “Did he ever hurt you?”
Belle shook her head immediately. “No. He never laid a hand on me. He just started following me and asking questions about who I was with and what I was doing. He’d act normally in public, but the moment we were alone, he turned cold and controlling—even verbally abusive.”
Beast’s hands curled into fists at his sides. “He threatened you?”
Her voice dropped. “Not outright. Just enough to make me wonder if he’d snap and do the things that he threatened to do.
I couldn’t take his questioning me and following me anymore, so I broke up with him.
He seemed to be okay with it until a couple of weeks ago.
That’s when I noticed him following me and waiting in the parking lot after I got out of work. ”
Savage cursed again. “And he knew you were working here—so now he’s bringing this shit to my parking lot. I’m betting he’s the reason why you're stuck here waiting for new tires,” Savage said to Beast. Belle finally met Beast’s gaze, and the intensity in his eyes nearly made her step back.
“Belle,” he said quietly, “this isn’t just some ex acting stupid. That man came here to throw down a challenge, and I don’t think that he’s done.” A shiver ran up her spine. Hearing it out loud made the truth harder to swallow.
Savage straightened. “We’ll handle it. I’ll loop Bolt, Ryder, and Banshee in. Nobody bothers you, Belle, without answering to the club.”
Belle exhaled shakily. “Savage, I don’t want—”
“You don’t get a vote,” Savage said bluntly. “This is happening whether you like it or not.” She wanted to tell him that she didn’t like it, not one bit, but she also knew that it wouldn’t matter.
Beast stepped even closer, voice softer than Savage’s but somehow more terrifying. “You’re not dealing with him alone again. Not while I’m here.”
Belle stared at him, heart thudding too fast. “Beast, you’re only stuck here until your tires come in. You don’t owe me anything. And you don’t need to get caught up in my messy life.”
He didn’t blink. “Someone slashed my rig’s tires last night. And if your ex is the kind of asshole who thinks he owns you, then I’d bet money it wasn’t random.”
Savage’s eyes snapped to Belle. “Do you think that he saw you and Beast talking last night?”
Belle swallowed hard. “He—he might’ve. If he were in his usual place in the parking lot yesterday evening, then he might have been able to see the two of us talking at the bar. But I talk to a lot of men around here,” she said. Beast growled something under his breath.
Savage pushed off the desk. “Yeah, but you don’t talk to them the way that you’ve been talking to Beast. If he saw you two talking, then we’re dealing with a jealous, territorial idiot with too much time on his hands and not enough brain cells. Fantastic.”
Belle wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly cold. “This is why I didn’t want to say anything. I didn’t want it to turn into a club problem. Wait, what do you mean that I don’t talk to the other guys the way that I talk to Beast?” she almost whispered.
Savage softened, just a fraction. “Belle. This isn’t on you.
This is on your ex. As for the way that you talk to Beast, I think that's something for the two of you to figure out. I’m going to check on the bar.
You should take the night off and make sure that you let someone walk you to your car before you just leave out of here.
” Savage left the office, leaving her alone with Beast, and she wondered why he was still staring her down the way that he was.
Beast reached out, hesitated for half a second, then laid a gentle hand on her arm—warm, grounding, and steady. “You’re safe,” he said. “I’ll make damn sure of it.” Her breath shook as she exhaled. She believed him, and that terrified her almost as much as Shane did.