Chapter 2
Nora
At the door of Tipsy Spirits, I hold out my cell phone with my California digital driver’s license showing on the screen.
The bouncer reaches out and tilts my phone from side to side, verifying the digital hologram is active.
This is a dude who takes his job seriously and I can respect that, right up until his hand moves from my phone to my shoulder and he gives me a little shove through the door.
I elbow his hand away and take a couple of steps forward to join Lena and Kassy.
He mumbles a gruff apology and moves on to the next person.
Kassy’s eyes are wide, but Lena looks at me proudly. “You go, girl. Don’t let any man put his hands on you without permission.”
I roll my eyes, nervously glancing over my shoulder. “Let’s not make a big deal out of nothing. The last thing in the world I want is to draw a bunch of unnecessary attention to myself tonight.” Looking around the bar, I realize it’s a miracle that I’m even here.
“I see an open booth,” Kassy says, pointing. “It’s in the back corner. Let’s grab it before someone else gets to it first,” she adds, already moving.
We weave past a high-top with three guys drinking draft beer. One of them is slightly older and handsome. I avert my eyes because I’m here to have a girls’ night, not drool over hot guys.
The booth turns out to be perfect for us. It’s back to the wall and slightly elevated, giving us a bird’s eye view of the room. I wait for my friends to slide in and then take the outside seat, where I can get up without climbing over anyone.
A server comes by. Lena and Kassy order frozen margaritas with sugar on the rim. I order a bottle of beer.
“A bottle?” Lena asks. “I know you like being able to keep your hand over the top so nobody can slip anything into your drink.” She says it lightly.
I don’t care for her talking about my personal life out loud.
She doesn’t know what she’s talking about either.
My choice isn’t always from safety, I like to drink from a bottle so I can put my thumb over the end and pretend to drink.
It’s my secret technique to avoid getting drunk when I’m among drinkers.
Which, when I’m around my father and his friends, is a regular occurrence.
“If so, it’s not your concern,” I tell her mildly.
“Now don’t be that way, girl. I’m just pointing out that you don’t have to be quite that on guard tonight.”
I shoot back, glancing around. “It pays to be careful.”
“Nobody in this bar will be slipping anything into your drink,” she tells me with a confident grin. “Do you want to know why?”
I finally loosen up a bit, shooting her a faint smile. “Because you’ve got eagle eyes, right?”
“Yes, that’s true. But also because your father is in South Dakota. They’re twelve hundred miles away. Him and your brothers and every last one of the Hyenas. They are going to be gone all weekend.”
“I know that. But men are men wherever we go. Like I said before, it pays to be vigilant.”
“Well, when you’re used to living around assholes, every man’s suspect, I guess.”
I don’t know why I’m getting mad at my best friend.
She’s just saying what we both know is true.
My father took his whole one percent club to Sturgis this morning.
Watching them ride out, high on some victory against a rival club, was a relief.
I’ve got the entire weekend to myself with no one looking over my shoulder.
“You’re right. It’s nineteen hours each way. He probably won’t even be in cell range for half of it.”
“For once in your entire life, Nora Rivers, there’s not a single person in this building who’s gonna report back to your family. Most of the community hates the Hyenas and actively avoids them.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s the reason I don’t want people knowing who my father is.
” Taking a sip of my beer, I think it over.
Lena’s right, no one here knows who I am.
More importantly, no one cares. Here, I’m just another girl who goes to bars to get stupid drunk with her friends.
Because that’s what I plan on doing tonight.
Kicking my heels and living for a change.
Kassy finally chimes in, “Lena’s right. It’s time to live a little, my friend. If not now, when?”
“So, here’s the plan,” Lena says, gesturing for us to lean in closer.
“We are gonna do every single thing you’ve never been allowed to do.
We’re gonna drink, dance, shoot pool, and flirt our asses off with hot guys.
Then I’m gonna take you to that tattoo place down the street and we are getting matching ink. How does that sound?”
I laugh. “Ambitious.”
Kassy nods enthusiastically. “I’m all in.”
“We are absolutely not getting matching tattoos,” I tell them.
“Why not? Your dad’s an outlaw biker now. He’d probably love it.”
“That’s not how it works. Bikers are serious about their ink. Every piece is supposed to mean something.”
“Fine. Then we’ll make up something cool.” She lifts her margarita. “To us getting wild while no one’s around to pull us back from the ledge.”
“To one night where I’m nobody’s daughter,” I say.
I lift my bottle and we toast to that.
Lena’s expression softens, because under all the rowdiness she understands what tonight means for me.
Kassy goes ramrod straight in her seat as a server slides three drinks off a tray and onto the table in front of us and walks away before we can pay.
“Oh my God!” she says a little too loud. “Those three hot guys are looking at us.” I don’t think Kassy even understands the concept of subtle, like at all.
I glance over and discover she’s referring to the three men at the high-top we passed earlier.
Two are exactly what you’d expect from men who send drinks to women in a bar.
They’re handsome, casually dressed, and have big, easy grins.
I quickly realize the drinks are their way of reaching out to us, and they’re eager to see how their gesture lands.
One has dark hair, a beard, and looks like he works out.
The second one has sandy brown hair and is leaner.
He looks like an underwear model. Both of them are eyeing Lena and Kassy.
My friends are used to clubbing, so they’re dressed to capture the male gaze.
Me? I’m wearing black jeans and a t-shirt, like always.
It doesn’t matter to me that they’re overlooking me in favor of my friends. Neither of them is my type, anyway. It’s the third man I noticed earlier who ticks all the boxes for me. But he’s not looking at us at all.
He’s bigger than the other two, and he’s ripped. His dark hair grazes his shoulders, and he’s got a neatly trimmed beard. Like me, he’s wearing dark jeans and a black T-shirt. The only difference is my shirt skims loosely over my body and his is stretched tight around his bulging muscles.
If I didn’t know better, I would think he was their bodyguard.
The other two men are confident, outgoing, and friendly, but the slightly older one has a serious expression on his handsome face.
He’s busy scanning the room, and every now and then his gaze goes to the entrance like he’s expecting trouble to come marching in.
He’s doing the thumb thing with his beer bottle. Not like I do though. Instead of fake drinking it, he’s sipping it, making it look like he’s drinking while barely taking any in. I’ve never once seen a stranger as reluctant to drink as I am. It throws me for a loop.
“The bearded one’s mine,” Lena announces, claiming him from afar. “Kassy, you can have the pretty one.”
“That suits me just fine,” she practically purrs. “But what about the big one?” Kassy says.
Lena turns to look at me. “Do you think you can handle him, Nora?”
“He’s not interested,” I say.
“He’s gorgeous though,” she exclaims. “You’ve got to at least try to talk him up.”
“He’s not even looking in our direction. He’s surveying the room and looking at the exits.” I take a sip of my beer, a real one, just like the big stranger. “Trust me. That’s not a man who came here to meet anybody. I think he might be their bodyguard or something. He seems like he’s working.”
“They’re rich enough to have a bodyguard!” Lena squeals gleefully.
When the two of them begin whispering together, I roll my eyes, unable to keep the smile off my face for anything.
Which is the exact moment all three of the men stand up. The two in front eagerly, already smiling. The bearded one says something that makes the sandy-haired one laugh. It makes me wonder if they’re calling dibs on my friends the way Lena and Kassy did a moment ago.
The big one saunters along behind them, wearing mostly a blank expression.
The bearded one leans both hands on our table and grins at Lena. “Hello, beautiful. I’m Andy.” Just then the music switches to a slow song. “Do you want to dance?”
“Yes,” Lena says. “I’m always up for a little fun.”
Andy holds out his hand, and she slides her hand in his. When they walk off, the sandy-haired one steps up. His smile is white enough to light up the room, and it’s directed at Kassy.
“My name’s Ed.”
“I’m Kassy,” she replies with a spectacular smile of her own.
“How about you? You wanna dance?”
“It’s a shame to waste a slow song,” she replies warmly.
Ed leans over and whispers something in Kassy’s ear that I can’t quite hear. She giggles like a schoolgirl and is out of her seat and walking off with him in the blink of an eye.
And that leaves the big guy standing at the end of the table staring after his friends.
He turns to me. “I’m gonna be real honest with you. It’s been a shit day and I can’t dance to save my life.”
A laugh bubbles up before I can suppress it.
“From the way you’ve been monitoring the room and keeping your eye on the exits, I thought you might be working security tonight.”
“No. I’ve been on the lookout for those bikers with the hyenas on their patch. Wherever they go, trouble follows.”
Sitting back in my seat, I respond carefully, although my heart is racing. “You sound like someone who’s had a run-in with them.”