Chapter 18 Pete #2
“Who?” Wren asks, her slightly red eyes looking up at me.
“You,” I say, pressing my finger to the tip of her nose. She tries to follow in until her eyes cross, then she shakes her head.
“I’ve always wanted to try alcohol, but I don’t want to get sick,” she says worriedly.
“Don’t have any more, and drink lots of water. You should be okay,” Sly tells her.
“I’ll get some,” Dex says, exiting the booth and heading for the bar.
Jagger signs something that I half miss, but Wren seems to understand as she nods her head. “I feel fine. Great actually!”
The door bangs open, and the whole bar seems to grow quiet. I lean forward to take a look and see a bunch of bikers standing in the entrance, their gaze sweeping over the room until it lands on the table of bikers beside us. The moment they see them, their eyes narrow and fists clench.
“We need to get out of here,” Sly says, seeing the same thing as me, that there’s some sort of turf war going on here. We climb out of the booth, and fate must be on our side for once because Jack is standing up at the same time. Spotting us, he says, “Good timing, I’m all done, here you go.”
He passes them to Jagger, who’s the closest, and scans through them, nodding in approval before he slides them into his pocket.
“Let’s go,” Sly says to us. “Thank you, Jack.”
“My pleasure,” he says, hurrying away as we head toward where Dex is standing at the bar, closer to the exit, and hopefully out of the line of fire if something goes down between these bikers.
Wren suddenly trips over thin air, and I wrap an arm around her waist, catching her before her knees hit the ground. “Whoops!” she says with a giggle.
I can’t help but laugh seeing her so tipsy. I didn’t mean to get her this drunk; I just wanted the sign language lesson to stop. I may have given her a little too much.
“I’m gonna wipe that smirk right off your face when we get out of here,” Sly warns me as he grips Wren’s free arm for additional support.
We both eye the bikers and see the moment all hell breaks loose. The big guy, still standing at the entrance, barrels toward the group sitting, but upon seeing him move, they all stand quickly, their chairs flying back, several blocking our path.
Jagger tries to kick them out of the way, but it slows our pace as an all-out brawl starts between the two groups that appear to be biker rivals.
A chair flies overhead in our direction, and I pull Wren against me, arching myself over her and placing my back to the incoming chair. It hits me hard, and I grunt as I hear it smash into pieces upon impact.
“Motherfuckers,” I hiss before a grin of excitement crosses my face. I stand up and grab Jagger’s arm. “Take Wren,” I say, and he doesn’t hesitate to scoop her up and try to remove her from the scene.
“Pete, don’t—” Sly starts, but I ignore him as I lay my eyes on the big guy who threw the chair at my girl, whether he meant to hit her or not. My grin widens as the need to cause a little mayhem fuels my body as I jump into the fray.
I sucker punch him in the face, as his attention was on a rival biker, but he quickly turns to me when he realizes I’m the bigger threat. I jab him in the side, then slide under his right hook, peppering a quick jab at his kidney from behind.
“Who the fuck are you?” he asks, turning to face me as I bounce on my toes.
I grin, wiggling my eyebrows as I tell him, “Your worst nightmare.”
“I don’t have time for this,” he says as he reaches behind his back. I glimpse the black handle of his gun right before something huge barrels into him from the side, his gun flying across the room and out of sight.
I grin down as Dex starts hammering punch after punch into the guy. When he slumps unconscious, I yell his name, knowing better than to touch him when he’s in Hulk mode. “Dex!”
He stops with a fist cocked and looks over his shoulder at me, eyes filled with anger and teeth bared.
“Let’s go, Wren’s waiting.”
Instantly, his face transforms to resemble a little boy who’s lost his puppy. “Wren? Where?” he asks, pushing himself up and not giving another look at the man covered in blood below him.
I spin around when I hear a grunt and find Sly choking someone out from behind, with an arm around his throat. The biker has a knife raised as if to stab me in the back. I watch with surprise as he goes slack in Sly’s grip, then he lets him drop to the floor like the sack of shit he is.
“Well, fuck, Sylvester. I didn’t think you had it in you!”
“Hey, thanks for the assist, but we had that handled,” the blue-haired biker calls as we start to head toward the exit.
“Sure you did,” I say, glancing around to make sure Dex and Sly are still with me.
Realizing Wren is alone, with only Jagger for protection, I sprint outside and let out a breath of relief when I see her slow-dancing with him beside our SUV, a huge smile plastered on her face.
“What are you doing, silly girl?” I ask as I jog up to them.
“Dancing!” she says happily.
“There’s not even any music playing.”
“There is in here,” she whispers, tapping her head like it’s some sort of secret. Jagger smiles down at her in amusement as the other two catch up.
“Let’s get out of here,” Sly says, and we quickly climb into the SUV, Wren sandwiched between Jagger and me.
Everyone’s quiet for a few minutes until Sly suddenly bursts out in anger. “What the fuck were you thinking? Jumping into someone else’s fight like that, Pete?”
“What’s the big deal? It was fun.”
“You put Wren in danger.”
“Fuck off. I made sure Jagger had her.”
“We should all be making sure to protect her, not jumping in headfirst to fights that aren’t ours.”
“He threw a chair at her!” I grit out through my teeth, my amusement at the fight turning to anger as Sly questions my need to protect her.
“You fought him for me?” Wren asks, her big blue eyes staring up at me with something akin to affection.
I wrap my arm around her and pull her closer, my knuckle tilting her chin up toward me. “Of course, angel. I’d fight the world to keep you safe.”
“That’s so romantic,” she says with a sigh, and I grin at her openness. Wanting to finally seize my moment with her, I lean my face toward hers, but Jagger’s palm against my forehead stops me.
I frown at him in annoyance. He points at her, then holds his hand up, his thumb and pinky extended as he tips his hand back and forth.
“I don’t understand,” I say, shaking my head.
“He’s saying she’s drunk,” Sly offers from the front seat.
“Oh.” I look back down at her wide eyes, still staring at me in the same adoring way. “Ohhhh. Shit. Sorry, angel, later.”
“What’s later?” she whispers as she leans her head against my chest.
“Drink this,” I say, ignoring her question as I take the bottle of water Dex passes back and open it, pressing the tip to her lips. She tilts her head, drinking eagerly and trustingly.
Fuck, this little angel has me wrapped around her little finger. The way she trusts me to take care of her, to avenge her, to make sure she’s treated properly. It warms a heart I thought long ago was incapable of love.
My best friend, Francis, was the only person I ever cared about.
I knew he had started drug running for someone else, and it would get him in trouble, but he wouldn’t listen.
And when he was taken out by a hit-and-run right in front of me, I didn’t think I’d ever let anyone else get close to me again.
It was why I kept my cellmates at a distance. I don’t want to feel the grief when they get themselves killed. I frown as I think about Sly saving my skin back there. Why did he do that? If he let the biker kill me, it’d be one less person between him and Wren.
Dex did the same thing; he saved me from getting shot. Would I have done the same thing in their shoes? Or would I have taken Wren and run?
I’m not sure of the answer. But now that they’ve saved me, I owe them one. Just one. After the debt is paid, we’re even. Then the only person whose back I need to watch is Wren’s.