Chapter Twelve
CHAPTER TWELVE
DELILAH
T he noise of the bar swallowed me whole as I stepped back inside, the warmth and chaos clashing against the cold, raw reminder of what had just happened in the alley. My heels clicked against the floorboards, but I barely heard it over the pounding music and bursts of laughter.
I hated him.
Hated the way he could unravel me with a look. Hated how my body betrayed me every single time he got too close. And most of all, I hated that I couldn’t hate him enough to stop myself.
“Delilah!” Lucy’s voice cut through the noise, drawing my attention to the corner table where she sat with Dani, Leah, and Caleb.
I straightened, forcing a neutral expression as I made my way over. Caleb raised a brow when I slid into the empty chair, his sharp, amused gaze locking on me like he already knew too much.
“Where the hell have you been?” Dani asked, leaning forward with a look that was half-concern, half-curiosity.
“I needed some air,” I said quickly, grabbing a half-empty water glass on the table just to have something to hold onto.
Lucy smirked, her chin propped on her hand as she studied me. “Air, huh? That what they’re calling it these days?”
My stomach dropped.
Leah tilted her head, her eyes narrowing. “We saw you.”
I froze, my grip tightening on the glass. “Saw me what?”
“With him.” Caleb’s tone was casual, but the knowing edge made my chest tighten. “Ryder Kane. You walked out with him, didn’t you?”
The heat rushed to my face, my brain scrambling for a response that wouldn’t make things worse. “I?—”
Dani’s mouth fell open as the realization hit her. “Oh my god. You fucked him, didn’t you?”
“Keep your voice down,” I hissed, leaning forward as if I could somehow keep the entire bar from hearing her.
Lucy burst out laughing, tossing her dark hair over her shoulder. “You actually did it? You screwed Ryder Kane behind the bar? You’re braver than I thought, Del.”
“It’s not like that,” I snapped, but the words sounded weak even to me.
Leah’s face hardened, her arms crossing over her chest. “Del, what the hell are you thinking? After everything you’ve been through—everything with Axel, the Vipers—you’re seriously messing around with a Crimson Reaper now?”
I glared at her. “It’s none of your business.”
“Actually, it is,” Leah shot back, her voice low but sharp. “You’re my friend, and I don’t want to see you get dragged into this shit again. Ryder Kane isn’t a normal guy, Del. He’s dangerous.”
“You don’t know him,” I countered, my voice rising despite my best effort to keep calm.
“And you do?” Leah pressed, her brows shooting up. “What exactly do you think this is, Del? Some kind of forbidden romance? Because newsflash: guys like him don’t do happily ever after.”
“Can we not?” Dani cut in, waving her hand to diffuse the tension. “Del’s a big girl. If she wants to screw around with the VP of the Reapers, that’s on her.”
“Dani—” Leah started, but Caleb interrupted with a low chuckle.
“You two do realize she’s sitting right here, right?” he said, leaning back in his chair. “And besides, I doubt Del needs a lecture. She already looks like she regrets the hell out of it.”
I shot him a glare, but the amusement in his green eyes only deepened. “Not helping, Caleb.”
“Wasn’t trying to,” he said, raising his beer in mock salute.
Lucy leaned in, her eyes glittering with mischief. “So, was it worth it?”
I groaned, dropping my head into my hands. “Oh my god, stop.”
“Seriously, though,” Lucy persisted. “I mean, he’s hot, but is he, like, that hot?”
“Lucy!”
She shrugged, completely unrepentant. “What? I’m curious!”
“Okay, enough,” I said, cutting her off. My voice was sharper than I intended, but I didn’t care. “This isn’t a thing. It’s not anything. It was a mistake, and it won’t happen again.”
Lucy smirked but didn’t push further. Caleb exchanged a look with Leah, who shook her head like she was done trying to argue with me.
Dani nudged my shoulder gently. “For what it’s worth, we’re not judging. Just... be careful, okay? Ryder Kane isn’t exactly the kind of guy who plays nice.”
“I know,” I said softly, more to myself than anyone else.
But even as I said it, I could feel his presence like a shadow at my back. When I glanced toward the corner booth, Ryder’s sharp, unrelenting gaze was locked on me.
Watching.
Waiting.
And no matter how much I told myself to look away, I couldn’t.
The tension from our earlier conversation slowly eased as the drinks started flowing. Caleb flagged down a server, ordering a round of shots that hit the table with a satisfying clink. Lucy grinned as she raised her glass, her energy infectious.
“To bad decisions and good friends,” she said with a wink, her eyes darting toward me.
“Speak for yourself,” I muttered, but I clinked my shot glass against theirs anyway. The tequila burned going down, but it did its job, loosening the knot in my chest little by little.
The music shifted to something deeper and sultry, the heavy bassline thrumming through the bar like a heartbeat. Leah groaned as Lucy grabbed her arm, already dragging her toward the dance floor.
“Come on!” Lucy called over her shoulder, her grin wide and unrelenting. “No excuses, Del. You too.”
I hesitated, glancing toward the corner booth where Ryder was still sitting. His crew was deep in conversation, but his eyes hadn’t left me once. I could feel his gaze like a weight, heavy and smoldering, daring me to look back.
Fine.
If he wanted to watch, I’d give him something to look at.
With a smirk tugging at my lips, I grabbed Caleb’s hand and pulled him toward the dance floor. “Let’s go.”
His brows shot up in surprise, but he followed, his grin widening as we joined the throng of bodies moving to the beat. Lucy whooped as I stepped into the center, the rhythm of the music already taking over.
The lights flashed in sync with the bass, casting the dance floor in alternating waves of shadow and color. I let myself move, the music pulsing through my veins as I swayed to the beat. Caleb matched my energy, spinning me once before pulling me back with an exaggerated flair that made me laugh.
Lucy and Leah danced nearby, their laughter blending with the music as they pulled each other into playful spins. Even Dani had loosened up, swaying to the rhythm with a drink in hand.
But my focus wasn’t on them.
It was on him.
I could feel Ryder’s gaze burning into me from across the room, the weight of it making my movements bolder and sharper. I let my hands trail up my sides, the hem of my dress riding just a little higher as I twisted to the music. My hair fell over my shoulders, catching the light as I threw him a glance over my shoulder.
He was still watching.
Ryder’s jaw was tight, his whiskey glass gripped in one hand as the other rested on the back of the booth. The women draped around him were saying something, but he wasn’t listening. His focus was entirely on me.
Good.
Caleb spun me again, his hand lingering a second too long on my waist as he leaned in to say something I didn’t catch. It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was the way Ryder’s expression darkened, his eyes narrowing as I leaned closer to Caleb, my smile deliberately coy.
Lucy caught on quickly, her laughter ringing out as she leaned toward Leah. “Oh, she’s doing this on purpose,” she whispered loudly enough for me to hear.
“Damn right I am,” I muttered under my breath, letting my hips sway a little more deliberately.
The music shifted, the tempo increasing as the crowd around us grew wilder. Caleb grabbed my hand, spinning me one last time before stepping back, giving me space to move freely. The room blurred around me as I let go, my body moving in perfect sync with the beat.
For a moment, I forgot about Ryder, Axel, about everything else. It was just me and the music, the rush of adrenaline coursing through me as the bassline vibrated through the floor.
But when I finally stopped, catching my breath, my eyes found him again.
The lights strobed across the dance floor, shadows and colors blending in a chaotic rhythm that matched the pounding of my heart. The heavy bass reverberated through my chest, but it wasn’t the music that had me on edge. It was him.
Ryder.
He wasn’t sitting anymore, wasn’t lounging in that corner booth like he owned the place. No, he was moving, cutting a path through the crowd with the kind of purpose that demanded attention. His broad shoulders and towering frame were impossible to miss, and even in the chaos of the bar, people stepped aside instinctively, their gazes flicking between him and the dance floor.
Between him and me.
I told myself to look away, to focus on Caleb, who was saying something I didn’t catch, or Lucy, who was sipping her drink with a knowing smirk. But I couldn’t. My attention was locked on Ryder like he’d tethered me to him with an invisible chain. The heat in his gaze burned through the distance, making my pulse quicken, and my breath catch.
By the time he reached me, I was rooted in place. The adrenaline coursing through my veins made me feel alive and exposed all at once.
“Having fun?” Ryder’s voice was low, gravelly, and intimate. It was meant only for me, despite the sea of bodies around us. Before I could respond, his hand slid around my waist, his grip firm and possessive, as he pulled me back against him.
The heat of his body pressed into mine, and I could feel every inch of him—solid, unyielding, and infuriatingly familiar. My breath hitched, a shiver rippling down my spine as his lips brushed against my ear.
“What are you doing?” I hissed, my voice sharp, though it lacked the strength I wanted it to carry.
His smirk was practically tangible as he leaned in closer, his breath hot against my neck. “Making sure you don’t forget.”
Forget? As if I could. My body was still humming from the way he’d had me earlier, the raw heat of it still simmering beneath my skin. But this—this was too much. Too public. Too... him.
“Let go of me,” I demanded, though my voice wavered, betraying the battle raging inside me.
“Not yet,” he murmured, his grip tightening just enough to remind me who was in control. “Not until I’ve made myself clear.”
The words sent a rush of anger—and something far more dangerous—through me. I turned my head slightly, just enough to glare at him. “You’ve made yourself plenty clear, Ryder.”
“Oh, I don’t think I have,” he said, his voice dropping lower, darker. His hand splayed across my stomach, anchoring me to him as we swayed to the music. “You walked out of that alley thinking you could put distance between us, kitten? That’s not how this works.”
My skin burned where he touched me, the memory of his hands on me, his mouth on me, flashing through my mind like a match striking against flint. I hated that my body responded, hated that my resolve felt like it was crumbling under his dominance.
“Let go,” I repeated, my voice sharper now, though it still trembled.
He laughed softly, the sound dark and mocking. “You can tell me to let go all you want, but your body’s saying something else.” His lips brushed my ear, the heat of him almost too much. “It’s saying you’re mine.”
That word lit something inside me—a spark of fury that cut through the haze of his presence. I planted my heel into his foot, hard enough to make him grunt, though he didn’t release me.
“Keep telling yourself that,” I shot back, my voice venomous. “But I’ll never be yours, Ryder.”
His smirk didn’t falter, if anything, it grew darker, more dangerous. He leaned in one last time, his voice a low growl against my ear. “We’ll see, kitten.”
And then, as suddenly as he’d grabbed me, he let me go. The absence of his touch was jarring, leaving a cold void where his heat had been. I turned to face him, my chest heaving, but he was already stepping back, his smirk still firmly in place.
“Enjoy your night,” he said, his tone dripping with arrogance. And just like that, he disappeared into the crowd, leaving me standing there, the taste of his words lingering like poison.
Lucy appeared at my side a moment later, her eyes wide with curiosity. “What the hell was that?” she asked, her gaze darting toward the direction Ryder had gone.
“Nothing,” I said, my voice tight as I grabbed my drink and downed it in one go. “Just Ryder being Ryder.”
“Uh-huh,” Lucy said, her tone skeptical. “Well, whatever it was, it looked intense.”
I forced a laugh, but it came out hollow. “He’s all bark.”
Lucy raised an eyebrow but didn’t push further, instead grabbing my hand and dragging me toward the dance floor. “Come on. Let’s show him what he’s missing.”
The music surged around us as we moved, the crowd swallowing us whole. I let Lucy pull me into the rhythm, my body moving on autopilot as I tried to shake off the weight of Ryder’s presence.
But I knew better.
He was watching. I could feel it like a brand against my skin.
And maybe—just maybe—I wanted him to.
The music pulsed around us, the rhythm sinking into my bones as Lucy dragged me even deeper into the dance floor. Caleb followed, a lopsided grin on his face as he tried to keep up with her energy. I threw back the last of my drink, the burn of tequila settling warm in my stomach, and let myself get swept up in the moment.
Lucy twirled, her laughter loud and infectious, and I couldn’t help but join her. The tension from earlier—the frustration, the heat from Ryder—started to loosen its grip. Caleb leaned down to say something over the music, and I laughed even though I barely heard him. The night felt charged and electric, and for a fleeting moment, I let myself enjoy it.
The drinks kept flowing, Lucy ordering rounds like we had no responsibilities, and I let her. Caleb stayed clear of the alcohol, sipping soda as he watched over us like a big brother. The more I danced, the lighter I felt, even if it was an illusion. My movements grew bolder and sharper, and I caught more than one pair of eyes watching me from the sidelines.
But none of them burned like his.
I didn’t have to look to know Ryder’s gaze was still on me. I could feel it, a weight that settled over me even in the middle of the crowd. So I let the music take over, swaying my hips and tossing my hair like I didn’t have a care in the world. Lucy cheered me on, spinning in circles until she nearly tripped into Caleb, who caught her with a laugh.
“Keep her upright, will you?” I teased, my voice light but breathless.
“You’re not much better, Dee,” Caleb shot back, his grin widening. “You two are a handful.”
Lucy wrapped her arms around his neck, swaying dramatically. “You love us,” she declared, her words slurring slightly.
I shook my head, laughing, and let my gaze sweep the bar one more time. Ryder was gone. At least I didn’t see him. The weight of his presence had lifted, but it left something behind, like a shadow I couldn’t quite shake.
“Time to go,” Caleb said a little while later, gently prying Lucy’s arms off him as she giggled. “Before you both end up passed out on this floor.”
“Buzzkill,” Lucy muttered, but she didn’t argue.
I nodded the edges of the night blurring in a way that told me Caleb was right. My body was buzzing, my limbs pleasantly heavy, but I wasn’t out of control. Not yet.
The drive was quiet, the hum of the car and the soft murmur of the radio lulling Lucy into a half-asleep state in the backseat. Caleb’s hands were steady on the wheel, his sober focus grounding. I stared out the window, watching the city lights blur into the dark stretch of road that led to my house.
When we finally pulled into the driveway, the sight waiting for us made my stomach drop.
The Crimson Reapers.
Their bikes were lined up like sentries, the chrome gleaming under the porch light. My house loomed behind them, dark and imposing, but it was the figures standing on the front steps that stole the breath from my lungs.
Ryder.
And he wasn’t alone.
Torch leaned against the railing, his arms crossed over his broad chest, a cigarette dangling from his lips. Chains was a shadowy figure near the door, his face unreadable as his sharp gaze locked onto the car. Smoke and the others lingered near the bikes; their postures relaxed but undeniably ready for anything.
“What the hell?” Caleb muttered, his grip tightening on the wheel.
I swallowed hard, my throat dry. “Stay here.”
“Like hell,” Caleb said, his tone firm. “I’m not letting you deal with that alone.”
I turned to him, forcing as much steadiness into my voice as I could muster. “It’s fine. Just... get Lucy home, okay? I’ll handle this.”
He hesitated, his jaw tightening, but he nodded. “Call me if you need anything.”
I climbed out of the car, my heels crunching against the gravel as I shut the door behind me. The sound seemed to echo in the stillness, the weight of their stares pressing down on me as I walked toward the house.
Ryder was the first to move, stepping off the porch with that same deliberate, commanding energy he always carried. His eyes locked onto mine, and the heat in his gaze sent a shiver down my spine.
"Kitten," Ryder drawled, his voice low and dripping with that infuriating mix of arrogance and danger. He leaned casually against the porch railing, but the look in his eyes wasn’t casual at all. It was sharp, cutting through the night like a blade. His broad shoulders caught the faint glow of the porch light, and he was every bit the predator I’d been trying to avoid.
“What are you doing here, Ryder?” I asked, stopping just short of the steps. My voice was steady, but my heart was anything but.
Torch, standing next to him, let out a low chuckle as he flicked a cigarette onto the gravel. "She’s asking like you need a reason, brother."
“I’m not asking you, Torch,” I snapped, my eyes locked on Ryder.
Ryder stepped down from the porch, his boots crunching against the gravel as he closed the distance between us. He moved like he owned the world—or at least this moment—and when he was close enough, his hand shot out, wrapping firmly around my wrist. Not enough to hurt, but enough to make his point clear.
“You think you can walk out of my bar with him,” he said, his voice low and full of restrained heat, “after what happened between us, and I’m just going to let it slide?”
I wrenched my arm back, glaring up at him. “What happened between us doesn’t give you the right to show up here like this. You don’t own me, Ryder.”
His smirk was slow and deliberate, his grip tightening slightly before he let go. “Wrong,” he said, his voice dropping to a dangerous growl. “You’re mine until I say otherwise. And if anyone has a problem with that, they’ll find out what happens when someone questions it.”
My breath hitched while anger and something else—something dangerous and raw—churning in my chest. “You’re unbelievable,” I snapped, stepping back to put some space between us. “You think you can just walk in here and?—”
“And remind you who you belong to?” Ryder interrupted, his smirk turning razor-sharp. He closed the distance I’d tried to put between us, his presence overwhelming as he loomed over me. “Damn right, I can.”
Caleb’s voice cut through the tension. “Delilah, everything okay?”
Ryder’s attention shifted, his head turning slightly toward Caleb, who was still standing near the car. The look Ryder gave him was enough to make my stomach twist.
“Why don’t you head out, pretty boy,” Ryder said, his voice deceptively calm but loaded with menace. “This conversation doesn’t involve you.”
Caleb hesitated, his gaze flicking to me for confirmation.
“It’s fine,” I said quickly, my voice firmer than I felt. “Go inside. I’ll handle this.”
Caleb nodded, but not before shooting Ryder a warning glance that was as futile as it was brave. He disappeared inside, the door shutting softly behind him.
“You’ve got your little friends worried,” Ryder said, turning back to me. “Cute.”
I glared at him, my chest tight with frustration. “You need to leave.”
“Not until you understand something,” Ryder said, his tone hardening. “What happened between us? That wasn’t a one-time thing. You don’t get to pretend it didn’t happen, and you sure as hell don’t get to walk out with another man and act like it didn’t mean anything.”
“It didn’t,” I lied, the words sharper than I intended.
Ryder’s jaw ticked, and for a moment, I thought he might snap. But instead, he leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “Say that again, kitten. Say it didn’t mean anything, and I’ll show you just how wrong you are.”
The heat between us was suffocating, the tension so thick it felt like the air itself was about to snap. My heart hammered in my chest, a mix of anger, fear, and something I didn’t want to name.
“You’re out of your mind,” I said, my voice trembling despite my best efforts.
“Maybe,” Ryder said, his smirk returning. “But I’ll make this simple. You’re mine, Delilah until I say otherwise. And anyone who wants to test that?” He shrugged, his smirk turning deadly. “They’ll find out exactly what that means.”
Without another word, Ryder turned on his heel, heading back toward the porch where Torch and the other Reapers waited. The roar of their bikes filled the night as they pulled out of the driveway, leaving me standing in the gravel, my fists clenched and my chest heaving.
I watched until the taillights disappeared, the weight of his words pressing down on me like a lead blanket.
And deep down, no matter how much I hated him in that moment I still wanted him.