Chapter 4
“No, no, no…” What the fuck was happening?
Toni Anderson’s eyes frantically flicked between her dashboard and the mountain road in front of her, illuminated by only her headlights.
She’d been driving along just fine, maybe speeding a bit more than she should have because she hated being late, and then there was a grinding noise, followed by a high-pitched whine, and now the buttons in her car were dancing like they were at a nightclub. What the hell did ATL mean?
Her Lexus ES suddenly jolted forward, making her seatbelt pull tight between her breasts.
Crap. On the steep terrain leading from her house, she was not okay, but there wasn’t a pull-off area for another half mile.
Could she make it? Was it better to ride the brakes down or stop now?
What was safer? If a car came speeding around the bend while she was stationary in her car, they could ram right into her without ever seeing her.
Crap. Fuck.
This was what she got for trying to have a social life.
Then again, at thirty-one, and the only people she hung out with were professional colleagues, she couldn’t really call it a “social life”.
Susie was the exception. A few years older than her, Susie was a small-business attorney who had taken Toni under her wing when she first moved back to town after law school.
They both sent clients each other’s way, and tried to help out where they could.
Since Toni’s specialty was criminal defense, they didn’t consider the other competition, and had created a nice friendship over the years.
Susie was more outgoing than Toni, constantly trying to drag her out.
At least, clubs and bars weren’t her scene, or she’d never be able to convince Toni to go.
Instead, Susie had dragged her kicking and screaming to book clubs, knitting circles, a cooking class, basket weaving, local carnivals, and in one case, an improv performance.
Even Toni could admit that the experiences were good for her, but she really was just more comfortable as a homebody.
She could turn off her introverted personality long enough to stand in front of a courtroom, but then afterwards, needed her Me Time to decompress.
Going out and being social just added to the noise in her head.
And being a small-town attorney meant her days were spent in a courtroom, dealing with arraignments, bail hearings, plea hearings, motion hearings, preliminary hearings, and trials.
It was an act, nothing more. Just like drama club or choir in high school.
Half the time she forgot she even had an office, she was so rarely there.
Some of the best days for her were when she got called in as counsel or an advisor, and never had to say the words “Your Honor!”.
Even as introverted as she was, there was no replacing the need for human contact.
She’d tried dating, but damn, why were men such assholes?
She would love to find a man like Susie’s husband, quiet, dependable, predictable.
Unfortunately, Toni was fairly certain Susie had found the last one of those on the planet.
She’d given up dating completely about seven months ago after a coworker asked her out, they slept together, and then he ghosted her.
It wasn’t like Toni was that needy of a person.
She had a good job, was financially stable, owned her own house and car—which was currently chugging along at a snail’s pace towards the mountain pull-off.
What was so wrong with Toni that guys never wanted that second date?
Per Susie, it wasn’t that there was anything wrong with Toni.
Men were just intimidated by her success and independence.
Well, that was all fine and dandy, but it didn’t solve her loneliness problem.
So against her better judgement, Toni had gotten home tonight after a long-ass day in court defending a man who was no doubt guilty, and instead of ditching her bra and throwing on a pair of sweatpants, she was dressed to the nines and on her way to Girls’ Night.
Toni didn’t know exactly what that meant, because she’d never been to a girls’ night in her life, but she assumed it meant wine.
And after today, that was all the incentive she needed to get into her little black dress and heels.
At the shoulder pull-off, Toni let out a long sigh of relief.
At least here, someone would have to aim for her car if they were to hit it.
Toni loved the seclusion of her mountain home, but this road was notorious for accidents.
Until the bridge splitting the two sides of town had been modified two summers ago, that had been the most dangerous place in town to drive in bad weather.
Now, it was the road that led to her house.
But she loved her home. It was quaint, and she had a giant fireplace that was perfect for curling up with a good book. She even remodeled the outdoor garage into two-story apartment for her parents to move into. And best of all, there wasn’t a neighbor in sight.
Getting her phone out of her purse, Toni let out a sigh of relief when she saw she had service. It rang twice before Susie picked up.
“Something’s wrong with my car,” Toni said in lieu of a greeting. “It made a weird noise and then jolted forward. I barely made it to the side of the road.”
Susie paused. “Did a new book just release?”
Toni frowned. “Huh?”
“Did you just download a new book and that’s why you’re faking your car not working so you can get out of Girls’ Night?”
“I wish,” Toni grumbled. “Here.” She grabbed a quick picture of herself all dolled up and sent it to Susie. “See?”
“Oooh. I approve of the cleavage.”
Toni snorted. “Look, I’m going to have to call someone. I just wanted to let you know I was going to be late.”
“Stay in your car and keep your doors locked,” Susie said sternly. “And I want updates every ten minutes that some serial killer hasn’t stumbled across you and dragged you off into the woods.”
“I have my mace and my gun,” Toni reminded her, but appreciating the concern. “Let me see what’s going on, and then I’ll get you an update.”
After hanging up with Susie, she pulled up a quick search.
She knew that the Via Daemonia had an auto garage with a tow truck, but it was on the other side of town.
Easily thirty to forty minutes from her.
She hoped she’d be able to find something closer.
Maybe it was a quick fix that required a penis to inherently possess the know-how.
But several minutes later resulted in nothing. The club’s garage really was her only option.
Toni wasn’t as familiar with the club as Susie was.
They’d only called on her services twice, once when their VP Lucky had been falsely arrested by the town’s new sheriff, and again when their former president Steel had been accused of murdering his adopted son’s biological mother.
Neither had gone to trial, but it wasn’t like they kept her on retainer.
In her heart of hearts, she did not think the club were bad men.
There were, however, rumors, and in her line of work, rumors rarely were pure fiction.
Having no other choice, Toni made the call.
* * *
Ranger blinked in wonder at the brunette who exited her broken-down vehicle upon his arrival.
Despite the fact that he was driving a tow truck and clearly here for her, he would have much preferred she stayed in the safety of her cage.
But if she had, he wouldn’t have gotten the incredible view illuminated by his headlights.
It had been nearly an hour since the garage had gotten the distress call, but it must have been the night for vehicles breaking, because he was already on another tow at the time.
Not wanting a woman to wait alone on the side of the road for him, Ranger had sent two prospects up to guard her until he could arrive.
In the weeks he’d been working at the garage, Ranger had slowly found his rhythm.
He attended his daily meetings with Cross, went to Church meetings, had his sessions with Dr. Rutenberg, helped around the house, took his mom grocery shopping, and did everything and anything he could to stay busy.
True to their warnings, he had good and bad days.
He struggled, got agitated, craved a poison he knew he shouldn’t…
but he was surviving. Minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.
Today wasn’t necessarily a bad day—he’d certainly had worse—but it also wasn’t a good day either.
There was a constant itch, like a nagging at the base of his skull.
He was twitchy, and despite that he’d only been attending one meeting a day for the past three weeks, had called Cross around noon that he needed another.
Rather than getting annoyed with him for disrupting his day or for thinking him weak, Cross had commended Ranger for acknowledging his needs and had driven with him to the extra meeting.
Ranger lifted his chin as the two motorcycles drove away from the broken down vehicle and the sexy woman who was holding her hand up to her eyes against his headlights.
Ranger flipped on the overhead lights and turned off the headlights so the area was still bright enough for them to see but not directly in her face.
Exiting the tow truck, he grabbed his work gloves and shoved them into his right pocket.
Though the VDMC logo was on both doors, Ranger was not wearing his cut.
He had a pair of gray coveralls on and his work boots—and literally nothing else.
He’d gotten oil all over him on the last tow, and thankfully found a pair of spare coveralls that he could throw on quickly before heading back out.
The material wasn’t the greatest and his balls were pissed he was going commando in such a loose pair of pants, but at least he wasn’t soaked in engine oil.