Chapter 15 Rowan
ROWAN
I’d never seen Tex like that before.
Not that I knew him much to begin with. But seeing him up there, under the flashing lights on stage, I didn’t see the biker that scared me anymore. I saw someone more.
The whole bar had quietened the moment he started playing, conversations softening into murmurs as the first low chords filled the room.
His voice carried easily over the crowd, rough, steady, and somehow softer than I expected from a man who looked like he could, and would, snap bones with his bare hands.
I stood swaying, my drink forgotten in my hand.
Watching him.
Listening to him.
And suddenly everything inside me felt too big to hold.
The music wrapped around the room like something warm, and for a moment the noise of the bar faded away and all I could see was him—his fingers moving over the strings, his head tilted slightly toward the microphone, the faint crease between his brows when he hit a certain note.
My chest tightened and emotion crept up unexpectedly.
He was good, really good, and I couldn’t stop the smile from rising to my face.
Where the hell had this man come from?
There was a sadness to his singing. A deepness that whispered of hidden pain and maybe loneliness. His voice stirred something inside me and a chill ran down my spine, crawling across the skin on my arms.
I was feeling things I hadn’t felt before. Things I didn’t want to put a name to.
Because naming it would mean admitting that something was slowly happening between us.
When his final song ended, the bar erupted into applause and for a second, I just stood there, silent, mesmerized by everything him. Then I realized everyone else was cheering and I put my bottle down and lifted my hands and started clapping too, louder than anyone else.
“Woo!” I shouted.
Tex looked up from the stage and our eyes met again, like magnets that couldn’t look away from the other, and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
He turned to talk to a man who came on stage, shaking his hand as he placed the guitar to one side. The jukebox began to play again, music filling the bar with one of my favorite songs, and yet nothing compared to the music Tex had just made.
Beside me, my friend Mark shook his head and I jumped, surprised because I hadn’t noticed him come over.
“You’ve got it bad,” he muttered.
I shot him a look. “Got what bad?”
“It. You know what I’m talking about. Don’t be coy.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t start.”
Mark grabbed my elbow gently and pulled me a few steps away from the stage, lowering his voice.
“Rowan, come on, what are you doing with him?”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“You shouldn’t be getting involved with those guys. You know their reputation. You know they’re dangerous. The whole town knows what they’re like.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“The Kings,” he said quietly. “Everyone in town knows who they are. What they are.”
I crossed my arms, feeling like I needed to defend them, even though it wasn’t that long ago that I would have agreed with him. But I knew them now. They were helping me—protecting me. They weren’t what I had thought they would be like at all.
“And what exactly are they?” I said with a roll of my eyes.
“Dangerous.” His voice was serious now. “They bring trouble wherever they go, and a woman like you can do better than a man like him.”
I shook my head. “You don’t know them, or him. Not like I do.”
I thought back to how much they had done for me since this whole thing had started. How they could have just left me to the cartel but hadn’t.
“I know enough,” Mark insisted. “And I don’t know what you’re doing with them, but it can’t be anything good.”
Something inside me snapped. “You don’t know anything about my life right now, Mark,” I said sharply.
“I haven’t seen you in years, and then suddenly you’re everywhere.
Every time I turn around, there you are, giving me advice like you think I need it.
Well, let me tell you something, Mark. I’ve managed well enough on my own for a long time, and I don’t need a man giving me advice on how to keep safe! ”
His expression softened a little. “Row—”
“No,” I cut him off. “You don’t get to judge me, or my decisions.” I grabbed my jacket from the back of the chair. “I’m going outside to get some air.”
Before he could answer, I pushed away from him and through the door, stepping out into the cool night air.
The music from inside thumped faintly through the walls as I walked toward the edge of the parking lot and tried to breathe.
Anger and worry surged inside me, partly because I knew Mark was right, but partly because for some unknown reason I hated the thought that he was not just judging me, but judging Tex too.
Tex was a good man. No matter what anyone said, or anyone thought. He was good, despite the bad things he might have done in life. He’d been right when he said that things weren’t always black and white. Things weren’t simple, and someone could do bad things but still be a good person.
That small realization made my heart soften a little, forgiveness for what my parents had done seeping into me.
“Rowan!” Mark had followed me out. “Rowan, wait, come on.”
His hand closed around my arm again, stopping me, but I jerked it back immediately.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Will you just listen for a second?”
“I’ve heard enough, thank you. I don’t want to talk to you right now so just go back inside.”
He stepped in front of me, frustration flashing across his face. He was a handsome man—I knew that, and yet he was nothing compared to Tex. His jaw was too rounded, his eyes not deep enough, his broad shoulders not broad enough. Tex had ruined all other men for me, and I hadn’t even kissed him.
“Rowan,” Mark continued, “’m trying to help you.”
“By insulting my friends?”
“Those guys aren’t your friends,” he said. “They’re bikers. They deal drugs, they start fights—”
“You’re being ridiculous.”
“No, you’re being blind.”
Anger flared hot in my chest. “Why do you even care?”
Mark hesitated and then his voice dropped lower. “Because maybe I think you should be with someone else. Someone better—someone like me.”
I blinked. “What?”
“I would be good to you,” he said quickly. “I would treat you right, like you deserve. I could sure as shit treat you better than some asshole biker who’ll just use you and throw you back like used garbage.”
My stomach twisted. “Mark…”
“You’ve been leading me on all night,” he continued, his voice rising. “Laughing at my jokes, flirting with me—”
“I was trying to be nice!” I scoffed. “Your jokes weren’t even funny.”
“Well maybe I want something more than nice. I deserve something more than nice. And you should give it up for me, because I’ll be good to you—I can be good for you.”
“Give it up for you?” I gasped, in shock that he’d even say something like that to me. “I hope you’re joking.”
The bar door opened behind us, but I didn’t notice at first. I was so shocked by his words—that a man would think in such a way—that I was momentarily stunned into silence.
I felt sick to my stomach, hating that he had been thinking of me that way all night, and knowing deep down that Tex would never think of me like that.
To Tex, I was someone important that he wanted to protect but not smother.
He respected me and what I wanted. To Mark, I was just a piece of meat, yet he truly didn’t see it that way.
He thought I owed him. That he deserved me.
Mark thought he was the real man in this situation, that he was being polite, and that Tex was a piece of shit, and yet it was completely the other way around.
“Maybe, I’m just not rough enough for you,” Mark continued bitterly. “I guess if that’s your type, then maybe I could try to be that for you. Maybe I could get a little rough and you would see what you’re missing with me.”
Before I could respond, Mark was grabbed and pulled backwards, a fist quickly slamming into his face.
The crack echoed across the parking lot and he stumbled backward with a shout of pain, his hands grabbing at his face.
Tex grabbed Mark’s shirt and drove another punch straight into his stomach and Mark doubled over, gasping.
“You ever lay a fucking hand on her again, and I will kill you,” Tex growled out.
“Tex, stop!” I shouted.
But Tex looked furious. Really furious.
He yanked Mark upright and drove his knee straight into his face. Blood splattered the gravel and Mark groaned and collapsed to one knee.
“And just so you know, I’m only not killing you now because she doesn’t want me to,” he added.
The bar door burst open as the other bikers spilled outside. Moose and a few of the others leaned against the wall watching and laughing.
“You’re a goddamned piece of shit, and you’re going to ruin her,” Mark slurred between bloody teeth as he got back up.
“Don’t you dare talk about him like that,” he yelled.
I wasn’t sure how it happened but the next thing I knew, I was rearing back and punching Mark in the face too. I yelped as pain spiraled through my hand and yet I felt satisfied when he stumbled back from the hit.
“That’s a hell of a right hook!” someone called.
“Fucking bitch,” Mark slurred, swaying on his feet.
Tex grabbed the front of Marks shirt and glared down at him. “And don’t you dare fuckin’ talk about her like that.” And then he slammed his fist into Mark’s nose hard enough that even I heard the crunch as it broke.
Moose and some of the other bikers were laughing and cheering behind us and I turned and I spun toward them. “This isn’t funny,” I shouted. “Stop him!”
They shook their heads like it was the best entertainment they’d had all week and continued laughing.
Behind me Mark was swinging wildly at Tex. Tex glared down at him, easily catching the punches Mark threw, before shoving him backwards.
“You should’ve stayed down,” Tex growled.
Mark wiped blood from his mouth and spat onto the gravel at their feet.
“You think she wants a guy like you?” Mark sneered. “She’s a dick tease. Been leading me on all night, fluttering her lashes, thinking she’s hot shit. But if she wants someone rough—”
Tex’s expression turned deadly and my chest tightened.
He stepped forward and slammed his forehead straight into Mark’s.
The headbutt cracked loudly, and Mark dropped instantly, flat on his back. Completely out cold.
Silence fell over the parking lot.
Tex stood there breathing hard for a moment before taking a step toward Mark. He stood over him and spat on to the ground beside his head.
“That’s because she is hot shit, motherfucker.”
Then he turned away.
His eyes found mine immediately, and before I could react he crossed the distance between us, grabbed my waist, and pulled my body flush against his.
My breath caught.
His hands were warm and solid against my sides. I stared up at him, my mouth slightly open, my chest rising and falling too fast. Way too fast.
I couldn’t breathe.
The world was spinning.
Something electric ran between us as Tex’s gaze locked onto mine. His look was dark and intense. Like he was fighting something inside himself.
And suddenly the air between us felt impossibly thin.
Like the slightest whisper of something would break through it and change everything either of us had ever known.