Chapter 6
Chapter Six
SAGE
After the meeting, I scrambled to my office and put in a call to Danika, asking if she wanted to meet up for drinks. I’d heard The Tap Room had a live band playing, and I was in the mood to celebrate.
Jerkface Xander Caine wasn’t going to ruin my mood. I was living in a terrific town, I was making friends, I had a job I totally dug so far, and bonus, I was getting to work one of the cases with my own “team” and everything.
After years of swallowing shit, things were finally looking up, and I had every intention of basking in that for as long as it lasted.
Hell, I was riding so high even the missed calls I had on my cell from John couldn’t bring my down. I deleted them like all the rest and went about my day, doing what I’d been doing for months: pretending he didn’t exist.
I went home and changed from Working Sage into Chilling-at-the-Bar Sage, trading in my work jeans for a different pair with a high waist and a ton of strategically placed rips on the thighs and knees. I coupled them with a pair of fishnet stockings you could see through the wide tears.
My long-sleeved top fit tight and hung off both shoulders, making a strapless bra necessary, and the hem hit about an inch from the waistband of my pants, showing a tiny bit of skin at my belly.
I finished the outfit off with my signature motorcycle boots and a ton of silver and leather on my wrists, choosing to keep my neck and ears bare.
I’d hit the roots of my hair with a volumizing spray, touched up my makeup, and headed out the door.
Danika was already at the bar by the time I got there, having commandeered a table by the dance floor. Spotting me the moment I came through the doors, she waved me over and stood when I got close.
“I’m so glad you called,” she said, pulling me into a quick hug. “I needed a night out.”
We separated and took our seats. “Then it was a stroke of good fortune all around, because tonight we’re celebrating, and the first round’s on me.”
“No way in hell I’m turning that down, but what exactly are we celebrating?”
I told her about the meeting earlier that day and how I was going to get out from behind the desk—for one day at least—and work an actual case. As I talked, a waitress wearing an awesome shirt that read “I’d Tap That All Day” came by to take our drink order.
“That’s so cool!” Danika exclaimed when I finished my story. “You’re gonna be like a spy, babe. Going undercover to take a bad guy down.”
“Well, in a way. But yeah, I’m stoked.”
Our drinks were placed on the table as I heard someone call my name from behind me. “Sage?”
I turned to see Eden coming in my direction and smiled brightly. “Hey, girl. Twice in one day, lucky coincidence.”
“Definitely. Now I can introduce you to my girls.” She motioned back to the bevy of gorgeous women standing close behind her. “Guys, this is Sage. The one who just started working at Alpha Omega.”
I gave them a big wave. “Hey, there.”
The tall, stunning blonde with killer long legs let her mouth drop open. “No way! This is her? But she’s so little and cute!”
My head tilted to the side in confusion. “Um, I’m not sure what’s happening, but . . . thanks?”
Eden let out a little laugh. “This is Gypsy. I told her about you and Xander going head to head, specifically the Paul Bunyan remark. She thought it was hilarious.”
“Ah, now it makes sense.” I turned back to Gypsy and smiled. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Let’s get the introductions out of the way so we can get on with our night,” Eden continued, waving to the rest of her friends. “Like I said, this is Gypsy. She’s engaged to Marco. The one with the black hair is Rory. She’s with Cord, and this is her place.”
I turned to the pretty woman dressed like a badass rocker hippy. “So I’m taking it the shirts the waitresses are wearing were your idea?”
She laughed and nodded. “Yeah. It was my idea, but they help me come up with some of the sayings.”
“Smart marketing, sister.”
Eden pointed next to the redheaded woman with amazing teal eyes and a noticeable baby bump and the brunette, who rounded out her crew. “And this is Nona and Tempie. They’re both with cops who are just as hotheaded as the guys you work with, so they get it.”
“Nice to meet you all. You guys know Dani?” I asked, introducing my friend even though I was sure they already knew her. As it turned out, they did, seeing as she ran the best coffee shop in the world.
After introductions were done and I invited them to hang around, they grabbed the empty table next to ours and joined us.
“So, is this a girls’ night out to get a break from the testosterone overload I can only imagine you guys deal with at home?”
“In a way,” Gypsy answered, tilting her head toward the bar.
I looked over and saw Linc, Cord, Marco, Bryce, and West hanging at the bar with two other insanely hot guys I didn’t recognize but assumed belonged to Tempie and Nona.
“We tend to get a little rowdy when we drink, so they tag along to make sure we don’t get into trouble, but they keep their distance. ”
Nona patted her pregnant belly affectionately. “For the time being, I’m here to live vicariously through these four.”
“Please,” Tempie said with a roll of her eyes. “Drinking or not, you can still get into all kinds of trouble.”
Lifting my glass in the air, I nodded to Nona and declared, “My kind of woman.” I let my attention wander back toward the bar, curiosity tugging at me and making me ask, “Xander didn’t want to come out with the guys?”
“He doesn’t come out with us often,” Gypsy replied with a shrug. “I asked Marco about it once; he said as far as he knew, Xander likes to hit up Rebels instead of here.”
“Rebels?”
“Another bar outside of town,” Rory answered. “Totally different scene.”
Not wanting to come off like I was digging for information on the Bearded Bastard, I let the conversation drop. But I still found myself thinking back to him. Whether I wanted to or not, I couldn’t help but wonder what a typical Friday night in the life of Xander Caine looked like.
The waitress reappeared a short while later, chatting with Rory before taking everyone else’s orders. When she started to turn away I reached out and grabbed her arm.
“Hey. You see that really tall hot guy at the bar?”
She glanced over her shoulder before turning back to me with a raised brow. “Which one?”
“The one with the black hair, lightly tanned skin, and pale green eyes?”
She looked back over, a slow smile creeping across his face. “Oh, yeah. I see him all right.”
“Do me a favor, will you? Put our drinks on his tab. When he closes out, tell him Sage said thanks.”
I gave her a wink and she took off, laughing as she moved to the bar.
“Oh, honey,” Tempie said, pulling my attention her way, “I like you.”
Lifting my beer to my lips, I took a long, soothing sip before saying, “Just wait ’til I have a few more of these in me. Then it’ll be love.”
I wasn’t buzzed or drunk, but I was feeling pretty damn good as Dani, Gypsy, and I danced to the band’s kick-ass cover of Foghat’s “Slow Ride”.
The dance-a-thon started when “Carry On, Wayward Son” started and all my cool flew out the window.
I grabbed hands and dragged bodies to the dance floor.
As one song turned into another, Eden, Tempie, and Rory eventually bowed out.
Nona stayed benched, claiming if she tried to dance, she’d likely pee herself. So that left me with Dani and Gypsy.
I used to love to dance. I could go all night, easily. But when John and I got together, he said he couldn’t stand the way other men watched me, so, stupidly thinking his jealousy was sweet, I’d stopped.
But now, with these awesome women and this great music, I felt like I’d just reclaimed another part of myself I’d allowed him to take away, bringing me that much closer to whole.
I could’ve stayed on that floor until the bar closed down, but the band had to take a break, so I let Dani and my newest of five new friends, Gypsy, lead me back to our tables.
“Check it out, ladies,” I heard a snide, nasally voice speak as we passed a table of four women. “Looks like biker trash has moved to town. There goes the neighborhood.”
I stopped and turned slowly to look at who’d just spoken those hateful words.
What I saw when I took in the woman who’d just insulted me—not knowing a damn thing about me—was a pathetic, weak little girl who threw her ugliness around because her shitty life held so little to be desired that she had to get her kicks somewhere.
In other words, she was a nobody. And by the way her friends snickered at her uninspired insult, they were just as bad as her.
“Careful, Sue Ellen,” Dani said, her tone laced with warning. “Not sure Lincoln Sheppard would take too kindly to you insulting one of his own.”
Her eyes went big at that, and I turned to Dani to ask, “What’s Linc got to do with her?”
It was Gypsy who answered. “She wasn’t happy when he didn’t want a repeat of the one and only time they ever hooked up.
When he made a move on Eden about a second after she came to town, Sue Ellen here didn’t like it too much.
She and her friend tried giving Eden shit, and he put a stop to that so fast heads spun. ”
“Ah,” I said, a smile cracking my face. “I gotcha. Soft, sweet and warm trumped frigid bitch. Makes sense.”
“Excuse me?” Sue Ellen snapped, her eyes narrowing into hateful slits.
“What about that didn’t you get?” I asked, turning back to her and cocking my head.
“The first time you saw me in your life was exactly thirty seconds ago, and the very first words out of your mouth were an insult. That makes you a cold, nasty bitch.” I leaned in closer.
“Frigid. My guess, Linc’s not the first dude who didn’t come back for seconds, and instead of seeing that you’re the problem and doing something to remedy that, you turn all that self-loathing outward and put it on everyone else.
You wanna call me biker trash to your friends who are just as lame as you?
Go for it. In the meantime, I’ll sit back and enjoy the fact I’ve surrounded myself with good, decent people, and that every guy I’ve ever been with has come back begging for more. ”
With that, I turned and walked away.
“You were wrong about something, honey,” Tempie said to me the moment we reached the table.
“Yeah? What’s that?”
She cast her gaze to the ugly woman I’d just told off, telling me she’d heard the whole exchange. “More booze is totally unnecessary. I already love you.”
I threw my head back on a loud, full belly laugh that the rest of the members of my new tribe joined in on.
Approximately ten seconds after that, I completely forgot that Sue Ellen even existed.
Fifteen seconds after that, I heard someone bellow my name from across the bar. I whipped around to find Bryce glaring at me with those pale eyes as he lifted a hand with a long piece of paper in it. Looked like he’d closed his tab.
A second after that, my table burst into laughter all over again.
Xander
I didn’t know why I told the guys I’d meet up with them at The Tap Room.
I could count on one hand the number of times I’d been there.
The rare times I went to a bar, it was Rebels, and it was for the sole purpose of picking up a woman I could bury myself inside in the hopes of finding that small bit of relief from the darkness.
I didn’t pick up women at The Tap Room. Ever.
So why I was currently parking my bike in one of the spots in front and to the side of the building at that very moment was beyond me.
My boots thudded against the wooden planks of the walkway as I made my way past the windows, showing a raucous crowd dancing to the music the band was playing, and toward the doors. But something from the corner of my eye caught my attention and made me stop.
Through the glass, I saw her. Arms raised, hips moving, a huge, beautiful smile on her face. A swath of skin showed between the waist of her jeans and the hem of her shirt, and my fingers itched to go in there and find out if it felt as soft as it looked.
Sage was a goddamn vision as she danced with abandon, and as it always seemed lately, I battled against going hard right there on the sidewalk.
It was bad enough I had to see her every day, but there was no way in hell I could handle this.
Turning on my boots, I stomped back to my bike, climbed on, started her up, and took off.
I could have gone to Rebels. Or hit the gym back at the office until I wore myself the fuck out. If I’d been smart, I would have done something to try and beat down the fire that had been building in my blood the past five days.
But I didn’t do either of those things. Instead, I went home to suffer in the dark silence alone.