Chapter One #2
That kind of beauty didn’t let you just walk past without shooting your shot.
She wasn’t really dressed for a party in black jeans, a black tee, and black sneakers. But I had a cousin who went full-on goth anytime she left her farm. So you just never knew with women.
“Party’s out back, baby,” I said, working up to shoot her the double-dimple smile that never let me down, until I realized she was shaking.
Sure, the guys kept the club at near subzero temperatures, but she’d just come in from outside, and it was hot as balls out there.
“You okay?” I asked.
“I’m looking for Rune,” she said, voice shaking as much as her body, but she was all honey-sweet sounding.
“It’s your lucky day then. You found me.”
This time, the smile started to spread.
Only to falter and fall as her hand shoved into the crossbody bag she had on… and came back out with a gun.
No safety.
Finger already on the trigger.
That shaky fucking finger.
“Whoa,” I said, voice deceptively calm as adrenaline slipped into my bloodstream and coursed down every limb, making my insides jittery and ready to move.
My hands rose slightly to my sides, fingers spread, as I wondered just how close I was to one of the guns or knives we kept stashed all around the clubhouse.
Five feet? Six? Too far.
I didn’t believe for a second that this woman knew a damn thing about aim, but this close… it didn’t really matter.
My best bet was to calm her ass down. At least enough for her arms to drop a few inches.
“I don’t think you want to do that,” I said, shaking my head. Everything about her body screamed that this wasn’t like her, that she felt pushed to this.
“You’re wrong,” she said, but her eyes were darting like a squirrel in a roadway.
“Could be,” I agreed, waiting for her to glance back at the noise in the backyard so I could take half a step forward. “Wouldn’t be the first time.” Out front, bikes idled.
Someone was coming.
And if that door burst open, she could panic.
Panic and a shaky trigger finger weren’t a healthy combination. For me. And not for her, either, if someone walked in on her shooting my ass dead.
Over the sounds of the party, I could swear I heard the crunch of footsteps on the front path. Then, with their distinct deep voices, Dezi and Pagan.
Fuck.
I had half a minute to get myself out of this.
Luckily, there was a squeal out back—the blonde hitting the water again, no doubt.
I didn’t stop to think.
I charged forward, grabbed her hand on the gun, twisted both inward and against her own chest as my other arm went around her, crushing her to my chest.
There was a second of struggle.
“Fuckin’ play along,” I hissed as the door flew open.
And there was Dezi, the psychopath, and Perish, the man who could be mistaken for a brick wall in the right light.
“Oh, we interrupting something?” Perish asked, smile devilish.
In my arm, the woman was stiff as a board, too scared even to tremble anymore. Against my arm, I could feel the frantic thud of her heart.
“Nope, nothing to see here,” I said, keeping the woman against me so they wouldn’t see the gun. “You guys here to party?”
“I left my donuts in the glass room,” Dezi said, already making his way toward the basement to get them.
He left Perish, moving from foot to foot.
“You’re here to water the fucking lawn, aren’t you?”
“It’s been hot. Put a lot of work into it. Don’t want it to dry up.”
“Don’t you have a woman at home you’d rather be with?”
“That I do. But—”
“How about I water the lawn?” I asked. “I’m not in a partying mood.”
Perish mulled that. “But don’t overwater it.”
“I won’t. I’ve done it before when you were laid up, remember?”
“True. Alright. You won’t forget?”
“I won’t forget.”
Dezi came running up the stairs, pausing to shoot us all a guilty look. “I’d offer you guys some, but there’s only six left.” Only. A snort of laughter escaped me, despite the woman and her gun still pressed to my chest.
“Enjoy your donuts, man,” I said as he made his way out the door. “I’ll do the lawn in… half an hour. Hour, max.”
Perish slid to the woman, then to me, a wicked smirk tugging at my lips. “Only an hour?”
With that, he was gone too.
I waited, still holding the wannabe shooter, until I heard the bikes rumble to life, then peel away.
Only then did I rip the gun out of her hand and tuck it into my own back waistband.
Without her weapon, she stumbled backward, eyes round, looking more than a little ashen.
“Alright, baby, you gonna tell me why you wanna kill me?”
I should have anticipated it. Really, I should have. And made moves to make it impossible.
But I didn’t.
One second, she was standing in front of me looking ready to pass out.
The next, she was turning and hauling ass out of the clubhouse.
I followed her to the door, but she was already sprinting toward the gates. She probably parked her car somewhere down the street.
Sure, Navesink Bank was a hotbed of criminal activity. But someone would take issue with me chasing a woman down the street, call the police, create a whole problem for me.
So I stayed right there in the doorway, watching as a set of lights flashed on somewhere down the road, then listened to the screech of tires as she peeled off.
Things had just started to get a little boring around here.
Leave it to a woman to shake shit up and make it interesting again…