Chapter 4
Chapter Four
The party was in full swing in the yard. Eva peered out the door of her shop and looked at the bonfire flaring high in the center of the compound. The Brothers were drinking and yelling and doing all the wild shit they usually did during parties.
The women were there too. Hell, during parties like this, it wasn’t unusual to find a biker with a woman wrapped around him as he pressed her against a wall and fucked her out in the open.
Eva blinked and shook her head and wondered yet again how Heather could have gotten involved with Brandon Cox in the first place.
Heather had been a good girl, a cheerleader and a regular Sunday school attendee—and then she’d changed after high school, said she’d met a man and she was in love.
The first time she’d come home on the back of Brandon’s bike, Mama had been horrified. So had Eva.
Eva had been seventeen to Heather’s twenty then, and she’d been so na?ve. A man covered in tattoos, bearded, packing heat, and looking meaner than a cornered snake had not been what she’d expected her sister to fall for. Eva hadn’t liked Brandon on sight.
Unfortunately, she’d been right. She fisted the curtain and dropped it. She didn’t need to see what was going on. Earlier, when Brandon had come for Jake, they’d strode into the yard and mounted up. Twenty-something Brothers had roared out of the compound, and she’d known they were up to no good.
Her gut had twisted at the idea of Jake being involved. But why did she even care? He’d been in the military and he’d returned. If he came back to the Brothers of Sin, knowing what they were, he was no better than them.
But there’d been that moment when he’d said she seemed familiar.
He’d rattled her. She couldn’t afford to get rattled.
She was finally inside after years of work—first to change her life and grow her art in a direction she’d never considered before, then to get into this biker life and make it seem like she fit in.
She did not fit in. These people horrified her, but she would do anything to prove Brandon had murdered Heather. When her sister’s body was found on Christmas day seven years ago, the back of her head bashed in and bruises all over her skin, Eva had expected Brandon would be arrested soon after.
And he had been, but it hadn’t stuck. He’d had an alibi, but she had no doubt the Brothers had lied for him. They stuck together no matter what.
Had Jake lied for him too?
She hated the thought, and yet it was entirely possible. Just because she’d had a crush on him in high school didn’t make him a good guy. If anything, he was the most dangerous of them all. Because she’d known him before, and she’d liked him.
She wouldn’t allow any sentimentality to change her plans.
There was a knock on her door and her heart throbbed faster. She went over to the door and shifted the blind. Her belly tightened. Jake Ryan filled her view.
Probably here to hit on her. So many of the Brothers had tried before Brandon made it known she was his. Apparently, Jake Ryan hadn’t gotten the message yet.
Eva unlocked the door against her better judgement and opened it a crack. “What do you want? Shop’s closed for the night.”
He held up a plate with a BBQ pork sandwich and coleslaw on it. “Thought you might want something to eat.”
Her gaze slid behind him, scanning the crowd. “Brandon won’t like it if I let you in.”
“Brandon’s fucking his old lady in his room. He won’t know.” Jake threw a look over his shoulder. “They’re too drunk and happy to run tell him. Promise.”
Eva bit her lip. She shouldn’t do it. It was too risky. But that pork smelled good, and she was hungry.
Before she could talk herself out of it, she opened the door and he slipped inside. She closed it quickly, locked it, and turned around. Her heart stuttered in her chest.
Jake Ryan was big, muscled, and he took up all the oxygen in the room. She dragged in a breath, willed herself to stay calm and cool. She wouldn’t show fear.
She couldn’t.
So why had she taken the risk and let him in? It was stupid, and the gift of food wasn’t a good enough excuse. Jake was a Brother, no matter that he’d once been nice. He was the enemy, same as the rest of them.
He’d been part of the Brothers of Sin when Heather was killed. That didn’t automatically mean he knew anything… but what if he did? What if he’d been involved somehow?
She couldn’t think like that and keep her cool. She walked over and took the plate from him. He let it go without attempting to drag her in for a kiss or a feel.
“Thanks,” she said as she sat on one of the stools by her drawing table. Then she took a bite of pork, smoke and barbecue sauce exploding on her tongue. She might have moaned a little bit.
“You could have come out and got some, you know. There’s plenty.”
He was grinning at her. Yeah, she’d moaned.
She sniffed and stared him down. “I don’t mix with the Brothers when they’re partying. Less chance of any misunderstandings.”
He frowned. “Meaning they’re likely to forget your rules when they’re drunk, huh?”
“Exactly.”
“Yet you let me in. What if I forget your rules?”
She reached under the table and pulled out a loaded .45. It’d been her dad’s, but he’d passed years ago. “I think I can handle one on one.”
He laughed, and she tried not to like the sound. “You’d be surprised, Eva. But the truth is you’re safe with me. I’m not one of them.”
Her heart tripped, her spork hovering in midair. “What does that mean?”
He sat in the client’s chair and kicked his legs back, crossing them at the ankles. He smelled vaguely of leather and woodsmoke. For the first time, she realized he looked almost clean-cut compared to the men outside her door.
His hair was short, still cut in a military style. And he didn’t sport many tattoos. Certainly nothing on his hands, which she knew was likely due to military rules. Maybe he’d want them now. Maybe he’d want to cover his whole body in tattoos, catch up to the rest of the Brothers.
He had the beginnings of a beard, but the scruff was sexy.
She kind of hoped he kept it that way instead of letting it grow longer.
But she didn’t really care. Jake Ryan wasn’t her type anymore, if he ever had been.
He wasn’t safe, and she intended to find a safe man when she finally had her life back.
If she got her life back.
He watched her closely. She forced herself to chew slowly, swallow, while he took his time answering.
“What it means, babe, is that I’m here because I was sent.”
Her stomach tightened as she stared at him. “Sent for what?”
He pointed at her, and everything inside her froze solid. “I was sent for you.”