Chapter 4
Sammy
It doesn’t take me long to start thinking we’ve made a mistake.
I might be tough, and Cameron might be one of the biggest guys in town, but there are more bikers than I realized, and they’re all roughly twice as tall as I am.
Of course, that doesn’t stop me.
Cam and I move through the crowd, swinging madly as we go.
He hits high, catching faces and necks, while I aim much lower, using my feet and knees to take out the ankles around us.
When I see a biker turn and swing for Cameron, I rush his midsection, grabbing on and refusing to let go even as he flails around, roaring at me.
I tighten my hold and bare my teeth, ready to bite him right in the stomach, but he twists and shoves me before I can, and I go flying.
Only to be caught by someone else.
“Samantha, what the fuck are you doing here, girl?” a familiar voice asks.
I look up to see Mars, his rough-hewn good looks focused on the men around us, and squirm, trying to get down.
“Helping. Obviously,” I mutter as I turn back toward the fight. Now that I’m looking, I can see our own men sprinkled through the crowd. Dutch and Orion are taking on three men, their knives out and their expressions angry, and beyond that I can see Casino holding another man in a headlock.
What the fuck is going on here? Our bikers never brawl in town like this, and I don’t even know the men they’re fighting with. These are strangers and they’re... attacking our gang of bikers?
Why?
I’m about to ask Mars, but when I turn and look for him again, he’s disappeared.
I guess he decided he had more important things to do than asking what I’m doing here.
I grin at that and turn back to the fight, ready to wade back in, but then catch sight of Bear and remember why we got out of the truck in the first place.
He’s on his own, of course, and three men are taking turns hitting him. He’s got a black eye already and his hat has disappeared, ground into the dirt somewhere. He keeps reaching for his gun but not getting to it, and as I watch, another man hits him in the face.
Shit.
He’s getting his ass kicked and none of Mars’ gang are paying enough attention to save him.
I don’t like the guy and would happily send him packing–especially after he showed up acting like he had a right to tell us how to live our lives, after having been gone for years–but I don’t want to watch him die.
If he’s dead, it’ll be a lot harder to kick him out of town. And I really want to be there when he’s forced to leave. The man has barely been home three months and has been nothing but trouble since he arrived. He started trying to arrest Cameron and me on his first day in town.
Of course, he’s failed. Because this town likes us better than it likes him.
“Cameron!” I shout over my shoulder. I don’t know where he is or whether he’s still in the fight, but one of the only things I can count on in life is him always hearing me when I call. No matter how much distance lies between us.
Sure enough, he appears seconds later, his chest heaving and his face flushed, and when I look up at him I see that he’s escaped almost unscathed.
He’s got one long scratch down his cheek and a slightly puffy lip, but nothing else mars his clean-cut features and his tall, lithe frame is still straight and true.
When he turns to me, his eyes are laughing.
“Oh my God, are you enjoying this?” I snap, shocked. Cameron has spent most of our life being the shyest kid in the class and twice as artsy as anyone else. Yeah, he’s tall and strongly built, but he doesn’t like violence.
Or so I thought.
He tries to clear his face, but fails miserably. “No,” he lies.
“Liar.”
This catches a grin from him, and despite myself, I grin back. I don’t want to be in this fucking fight–don’t even know why we’re fighting–but seeing Cameron free and laughing, his adrenaline rushing and his color so high...
I will never stop loving that.
Moments later, though, he’s turned his eyes to Bear–his father–and grown hard as a diamond.
“Let’s go,” he mutters.
I reach back and grab Orion, the only biker close enough, and follow Cam, ready to save Bear from yet another mess–probably of his own making
When we arrive at the scene of Bear’s fight, another man has joined in and they’ve got Bear on the ground. One of the guys is kicking him while another punches him in the face, and I can see we only have seconds before he’s out cold.
Orion, Cameron, and I move like we’ve already got a plan, the three of us striding into the fight with our fists up and our eyes on the men in question.
Orion pulls a knife from somewhere and Cameron has come up with a bat, and between the three of us, we must look like some sort of ragtag gang of misfits.
That doesn’t make us any less dangerous, though.
Orion grabs the guy hitting Bear and turns and throws him in Cameron’s direction.
Cam lines up and swings, catching the guy in the face, and he goes down, body limp and broken.
I watch him fall and then run for the man bent over Bear, jumping on his back and sinking my teeth into his neck.
He roars and throws me off, but Cameron is there to catch me, and Orion kicks the guy in the face, sending him to the ground as well.
The third guy takes one look at the men I’m with and decides to run–smart–and the fourth guy also takes one of Orion’s knees to the face.
I rush to Bear, get his arm around my shoulders, and pull him up, staggering under the weight until Cameron takes his other arm.
We manage to get him to his feet and stumble toward the sidewalk, both of us knowing without speaking that we need to get to the alley between the buildings, where we can get Bear out of sight.
He may be sheriff but that doesn’t make him safe. Better to let Mars, Dutch, and Orion deal with whatever’s going on out there while we hide the man those bikers were attacking.
By the time we get to the alley, Bear is stumbling on his own, and within seconds of us getting him to shelter, he shakes us off and staggers forward without us, as though he got here of his own power.
Like we didn’t wade into a fight that wasn’t ours to try to save his sorry ass.
Typical.
The man has been nothing but arrogant since he got back to town. I should have known better than to think he’d change just because we rescued him from a fight.
He rounds on us and glances from me to Cameron, and I’m struck once again by how much his son looks like him.
Bear has the same dark, unruly hair and those wide, sharp cheekbones.
His chin is slightly rounder than Cameron’s, making him look somehow softer, and instead of dark charcoal, his eyes are a bright, twinkling blue.
He’s taller than Cameron, and broader, but I can see the resemblance there, as well. Wide shoulders tapering down to narrow hips, and hands large enough to nearly wrap around my waist.
When I drag my eyes back up to his face, I find him staring back at me. Watching me take him in. Observing me while I run my eyes up and down his body, cataloguing every inch of him and wondering what made him the way he is.
His lips twitch in a smirk at whatever he’s thinking, and I feel it over every inch of my skin. The cocky slide of that grin, like he knows something I don’t, and then the white-hot heat of his eyes as they rake down my own body, returning the favor.
I narrow my own eyes, furious at both him and the reaction he’s bringing about in my body.
He might look like Cameron, but the two are nothing alike. Bear is cocky and arrogant, every inch the asshole, while Cameron is quiet, brilliant, and loyal.
I may have dragged Cam into a fight to save his father, but as far as I’m concerned, Bear could never hold a candle to his son.
“What?” I snap.
Bear shrugs, looking like he wasn’t just getting his ass handed to him.
“Just didn’t expect to get up this morning and see you mixing it up with the local biker gang.
” Then his smile falls and he turns deadly serious.
“Though I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
You seem to specialize in making trouble. ”
That’s the other thing I don’t like about Bear.
One minute he’s joking and laughing, and the next he’s flipped on you and turned cold. Hard. Dangerous.
And yet.
And yet, he’s related to Cameron, and no matter how much we hate him, that makes him blood—which makes him ours.
He deserted us both when we were fourteen—and that’s just the most recent example—and has been harassing us since the day he got back to town, acting like he has a right to tell us where to go and who to see.
But he’s still family.
And around here, that means something.
Especially when the only real family you’ve ever had killed herself when she got tired of dealing with you.
Bear is still glaring at me when he steps forward, so I see the moment of realization slide across his face when his knee gives out.
I dart toward him just in time to catch him before he goes down…
and only then do I realize that this is the second time in five minutes I have my arms around this man.
A man who has never done anything to help me.
I nearly drop him right then and there, but when I look over at him, he’s far too close, his face nearly pressed against mine. His eyes are smoking hot, his lips close enough that I can feel his breath on my face.
And I shouldn’t feel anything, because this man has done more bad than good in my life.
He’s deserted me more times than I can count and can’t speak to me without lying.
But the smell of him, the feel of him breathing on my face and the rock-hard muscles under my fingers, makes the rest of the world go suddenly blurry. Like nothing around us exists.
“Second time you’ve caught me in five minutes,” he says quietly.
I jump and check my memory. Did I say that out loud rather than in my head? I could have sworn I was quiet, but if I was…
How did he know exactly what I was thinking?
“Well, I can’t exactly let you fall,” I say, forcing my voice to be steady. Louder than it should be.
More aggressive.
I can hear that I sound defensive, and I hate it, but I can’t take it back now.
He lets a slow, breathy laugh past his lips, and his eyes narrow slightly. “Why not?”
Cool, Sammy. Be cool.
“You’re family,” I say quietly. “You belong to us. Even if I hate you.”
And it doesn’t mean anything. Not really. Family is just family, and it’s not even really true. He and I aren’t related. We barely know each other.
But the way his eyes soften and grow three shades brighter makes me think that it means more to him than I intended.
Which isn’t okay.
I stand him back up and wrench myself away, desperate to stop touching him, and come up against another body directly behind me.
I whirl in the arms of that body and see Cameron, who has of course been watching this whole time, and looks both disgusted and confused.
He shoots one dark, bone-searing look at Bear, sneers, and then turns and tows me away from the scene, muttering to himself.
But of course we can’t get away without any repercussions.
Not when it comes to Bear.
“Cameron,” his voice snaps from behind us. “Samantha. You’re moving into my house this week. You get into too much trouble in this town. The place is buzzing with rumors about you two, and I’m tired of hearing it. I want you both where I can keep an eye on you. No arguments.”
Cameron pauses, every muscle in his body stiffening, but seals his lips shut and keeps walking.
And I go with him.
I’ve already told my stepfather too much this morning. I can’t afford another interaction with him.
Not until I get the last one out of my head.