Chapter Fourteen
Bishop leaned back in his chair and watched as Winter finished devouring her burger.
From the way she had stopped talking and devoted all her energy to eating once the food arrived, he determined she must have been hungrier than he’d thought.
Or maybe she was a stress eater? He wasn’t sure but he liked that she wasn’t afraid to eat real food in front of him.
While he hadn’t dated in longer than he cared to remember, that was part of what had made him decide he was through with that racket—women who hid so much of themselves that you had no clue who you were seeing, even months into the relationship.
It didn’t seem to matter if it was salads for dinner or ordering the most expensive items and picking at them. Acting how they thought he wanted them to behave, sweet to his face and venomous when he wasn’t looking, hitting on his brothers when he wasn’t in the room.
It had been the last one that made him swear off dating. If he wanted to fuck fender fluff, he could do that any time, and without the hassle of trying to keep someone else happy in a relationship.
But being with Winter didn’t feel like that.
She didn’t put on a hard-ass facade, or maybe she did, but he hadn’t seen it crack yet.
But that was part of it. It didn’t feel like a facade.
It seemed like this was who she was. She’d been raised with an MC, so she wasn’t trying to be something she wasn’t and she knew enough about the men and the lifestyle to not need someone holding her hand all the time.
He liked that. He liked that she wasn’t afraid of him, or at least if she was, she didn’t let it show.
She didn’t seem to hesitate when she got in his face or told him what she thought.
While that might irritate some of his brothers, he liked it.
He loved that she knew him well enough, even after so short an acquaintance, that she didn’t hesitate to tell him what she thought.
That was something half his brothers wouldn’t do.
And yet it didn’t faze this girl. But she’d also been smart enough to know when she was in over her head and to ask for help.
He had already finished his burger and was absently munching on his fries while he watched her.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked between bites.
“Not much, why?”
“You look like you’re considering something serious.”
He lifted one shoulder and let it fall.
“I was thinking about you, actually. He leaned forward, resting his folded arms on the table in front of him.
“Oh? What about me?”
“Several things.”
She watched him, still eating. He was going to have to tell her something, but how would she react? Maybe he could ask about her instead, maybe distract her from the question.
“Why didn’t you hesitate to let us move you into the clubhouse?”
She stared at him a moment.
“Raven told me you were okay. I know what that means.”
“What?”
“That as long as I’m there, you’ll treat me like one of your own.”
“But what if we don’t treat our own women well?”
“Then he wouldn’t have told me you were okay.”
Bishop lifted his brow and stared at her, waiting for more.
She popped the last bite of the burger into her mouth and chewed.
He almost smiled at how carefree she looked.
As if she hadn’t been chased, albeit stealthily, through a street festival a few hours before.
As if she hadn’t been stalked for the last several weeks.
As if her world hadn’t just been turned on its nose.
She picked up one of the sweet-potato fries off her plate and pointed it at him.
“Look. I know Raven’s not perfect, no one is.
But I also know that all I have to do is call him and tell him I need help and he’ll have someone he trusts here to pick me up.
It might take a few hours, but if it’s an emergency, he’ll find someone who can get to me fast, even if he has to make a creative call to the boys in blue. ”
Bishop didn’t bother trying to keep the surprise off his face.
“He would send in the law?”
She shrugged. “If that was the only way to get to me quick, you bet your ass. He might not be on best terms with the locals, and he actively avoids the feds, but then, who doesn’t?
But if it meant he’d get to me in minutes or an hour, rather than many hours or even days, you bet your ass he’d call them. ”
Bishop leaned back and took her in. She picked up her drink and took a sip, then ate a couple more fries.
He wasn’t going to be able to intimidate her into talking.
That was yet another point in her favor.
Those points were adding up fast. Now he was impatient to get her on the back of his bike again.
He liked feeling her tits pressed against his back.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered under his breath as he spotted who’d just walked into the store. It was the fuckwad that had been following Winter. Hammer still had her phone, or at least Bishop thought he did, so how had he tracked her here?
“What?”
“Did Hammer or Bulldog give you your phone back?”
Winter looked at him with wide eyes as she shook her head. “No. They still have it.”
“Do you know what part of town that fucker lives in?”
She frowned and blinked a couple of times.
“Give me a second. He never said outright, but there were a few comments. I got the impression he lived over on the northwest side, somewhere like Sun City or Surprise, but I can’t be sure.
It was just the impression I got.” She kept her attention on him, as if she didn’t want to see the fuckwad, or possibly, she didn’t want him to see her.
“Any reason you can think of for him to be on this side of town?”
She shook her head, then pushed the plate away. Apparently, Kevin’s appearance had killed her appetite. Not that he blamed her. He hated that and added it to the list of reasons he would make the fuckwad pay. Painfully.