Chapter Four #2
She looked at me then, really looked at me, her eyes searching mine for something. Sincerity, maybe? Whatever she found made her shoulders drop a fraction of an inch.
“You don’t even know what you’re offering, Sully.” She accepted the fresh drink and some ice wrapped in a cloth from Mike, nodding her thanks. She winced slightly as she pressed the ice pack to her cheek. “You don’t know what kind of trouble follows me.”
“I will if you tell me.”
She sighed, running a finger along the edge of her glass.
“You’re persistent, I’ll give you that.” A reluctant smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, pulling at her split lip.
She winced, then dabbed at it with a napkin.
“Fine. Short version? I pissed off some very bad people by existing, and they’d prefer I didn’t.
The bruises?” She gestured vaguely at her face.
“Just a friendly reminder of what happens when they catch up with me.”
The casual way she said it, like being hunted was just another Tuesday, made something in my chest constrict painfully. “And the long version?”
She opened her mouth to answer, but her eyes suddenly fixed on something over my shoulder, her body going rigid with tension. The smirk vanished, replaced by a coldness I hadn’t seen before.
“Looks like you’re about to get it,” she said, her voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “Because my trouble just walked through the door.”
I spun around to follow Darby’s gaze just as the door slammed open.
Six men pushed inside, scanning the crowd with purpose.
The bulges beneath their jackets told me they were armed.
One of them zeroed in on Darby and alerted the others.
The leader, a tall man with a jagged scar across his throat, pointed directly at her and the pack began to move as one toward us.
“Shit,” Darby muttered under her breath. Her hand disappeared into her jacket, emerging with a set of brass knuckles she slipped on with practiced ease.
I didn’t think, just moved. In one fluid motion, I positioned myself between Darby and the approaching men.
I heard the scrape of a bar stool behind me as Darby stood, felt her heat at my back.
I thought I saw Knight moving toward us but didn’t want to take my focus from the six guys in front of us.
“You don’t have to do this, Sully,” she said, her voice low and urgent. “This isn’t your fight.”
“It is now,” I replied, not taking my eyes off the approaching threat.
A shadow materialized at Darby’s other side. I was right. Knight, his tattooed face impassive, had put himself in a position to defend Darby’s other side.
The lead man stopped a few feet away, his lips curling into something that might have been a smile on a human face.
On him, it looked like an animal baring its teeth.
“Darby Miles,” he said, her name sounding like a curse in his mouth.
“You know we’re not passin’ up on the fortune your daddy’ll pay to get you back. ”
“You honestly think my daddy wanted you to smack me around? Or, you know, try to rape me?”
Red flags all around, but now wasn’t the time.
“Honey, your daddy don’t care what shape you come back in as long as he gets you home. Besides, we’ll swear we found you in whatever condition you end up.”
“Go fuck yourself, Jenkins,” Darby shot back, stepping out from behind me despite my attempt to keep her shielded.
“I mean, he ain’t officially offered a reward for you but the whole of Nashville knows he’s lookin’ for you. Maybe, just to guarantee us a reward, we hold you for ransom. He’ll pay then.”
I guess that was one taunt too many because Darby let loose, striking first. She launched herself past me with a feral snarl.
Her brass-knuckled fist connected with Jenkins’ jaw with a sickening crack before anyone could draw a weapon.
He staggered back, blood spraying from his mouth, and then chaos erupted.
The bar exploded into violence. Two men rushed me, one swinging a chain, the other reaching for what was definitely a gun.
I caught Chain Man’s wrist mid-swing, twisting until something snapped beneath my grip.
His scream was cut short when my fist crashed into his throat.
I used his momentum to swing him into Gun Man, sending them both crashing into a nearby table that splintered beneath their weight.
Knight moved behind us on my blind side. I heard and recognized his grunts, having been in more than one bar fight beside the man over the weeks.
And Darby? Christ, Darby fought like nothing I’d ever seen.
She was just as savage as any one of my brothers.
She’d grabbed a beer bottle, smashing it against the edge of a table to create a jagged weapon that she wielded with terrifying expertise.
She slashed at Jenkins’ face, opening a long cut across his cheek before dancing away from his counterattack.
I barely had time to register the shock on the man’s face before Gun Man was up again, this time with his weapon drawn.
I lunged forward, grabbing his wrist and forcing it upward just as he pulled the trigger.
The shot blasted into the ceiling, raining plaster and dust. I drove my knee into his groin, then slammed his head against a nearby pole hard enough to cause him to crumple at my feet.
Glass shattered somewhere to my left. I turned to see Knight disarm another attacker, the man’s switchblade clattering across the floor as Knight dislocated his shoulder.
The bar had emptied of regular patrons, chairs overturned in their haste to escape the violence.
Only Mike remained, shotgun in hand, though he seemed content to let us handle the situation as long as no one threatened him or his bar too badly.
The third man charged me with hate in his eyes. I sidestepped, letting him barrel past, then grabbed the back of his jacket and used his momentum to slam him into the solid oak of the bar.
“Behind you!” Knight called out.
I whipped around to see a fourth man rushing Darby from behind, switchblade gleaming.
She was occupied with Jenkins, unaware of the threat at her back.
I moved without thinking, tackling the guy around the waist and driving him to the floor.
We rolled across broken glass and spilled beer, my fists finding his face again and again until he stopped struggling.
When I looked up, Darby had Jenkins pinned against the pool table, her forearm across his throat. But the fifth man, one I’d lost track of in the chaos, blindsided her with a vicious punch to her already bruised ribs. I heard her pained gasp as she doubled over, momentarily vulnerable.
Something primal roared to life inside me. I was across the room before I realized it, grabbing the man by his collar and slamming his head repeatedly into the thick wooden support next to a booth.
I turned back to Darby just in time to see her recover from the hit to her ribs.
Despite the pain evident in her tight features, she grabbed a pool cue from the rack and swung it like a baseball bat into Jenkins’ midsection.
As he folded, she brought her knee up into his descending face.
Blood erupted from his shattered nose, painting her jeans with crimson droplets.
Jenkins struggled to his feet, blood streaming down his face, and reached inside his jacket. I moved to intercept, but Darby was faster. She slammed her brass-knuckled fist into his temple. He didn’t get up. The last man standing took one look at his fallen comrades, then turned to run.
“Well, I guess I’m calling it a night,” Mike said as he shut and locked the door. He surveyed the damage, which wasn’t as bad as it could have been but was bad enough.
“I’ll get Knuckles to pitch in to help pay for damages,” Knight told Mike.
“Darby’s one of us and we take care of our own.
That means she comes in here alone, you let one of us know and you watch over her while she’s here.
” I raised my eyebrow at Knight. I hadn’t officially claimed Darby and, more importantly, she hadn’t let me.
My brother just grinned at me. “Being proactive, brother. Lookin’ out for my family. ”
Darby bent double suddenly, one arm wrapped protectively around her ribs, the other braced against the bar for support. I was at her side instantly, one hand arm going around her to help support her if she needed.
“Where’s the worst of it?” I asked.
She straightened with visible effort, her breathing shallow but controlled. Her eyes met mine.
“I’ve had worse,” she said, wiping blood from her split lip with the back of her hand. “You’re not bad in a fight, Sully.”
“Not bad yourself.”
“I doubt they came alone.” Knight looked pointedly at Darby and raised his eyebrows. “Darby Miles? You’re in trouble, little girl.”
She winced. “Do we really have time for this now?”
I glanced at Knight before shaking my head, even before the other man said anything. “No. We don’t. But we will definitely continue this conversation when we get to the clubhouse.”
“Am I allowed in a place like that? Because while I’m not opposed to wild sex, now ain’t the fuckin’ time.”
Knight snorted at Darby’s comment, but his face quickly turned serious as he pulled out his phone.
“We need to get you both out of here. More will come looking for their friends when they don’t report back.
” He pressed a few buttons, then held the phone to his ear.
“Tiny? Need you at Throttle. Bring the cage.” He paused, listening.
“And get someone to bring Sully’s bike back home.
We’ve got an injured woman and six assholes who just tried to grab her.
” Another pause. “One’s still conscious and he’ll be our guest for the foreseeable future. ”
“Whoa,” I said, surprised, glancing over at Knight. “We’re taking one of these fuckers with us?”