Chapter 22
Ricochet
Istopped my bike in the parking lot of the little restaurant I liked to eat breakfast at. That was all it served and it was a little Mom and Pop shop where they knew all their regulars by name. It was always busy, but the owners were friends and Sue always made room for us.
The last thing I’d meant to happen this morning was to give Jordan that much of a look into club life.
I let out a humorless laugh and wondered what she must think.
Butcher and Toxic were a lot for those of us who were used to this life.
There were times Lock swore they’d never settle down.
We were all expecting them to be this crazy until the day they died.
Some of the guys were starting to get married and have kids.
I wondered if Butcher and Toxic were going to be our resident bachelors forever.
I tried to imagine them settling down with wives and kids, but the image just stood up and ran screaming from my mind.
I twisted and held out a hand to help Jordan off the bike. She wasn’t used to climbing on and off and I didn’t want her falling. The smile she shot me made me want to do whatever I needed to in order to see it again. I wanted to go my whole life seeing that smile every day.
Throwing my arm over Jordan’s shoulders, I led her into the restaurant. Sue’s head popped up from where she was doing something in the back. With a little crow of pleasure, she came bustling over.
“I haven’t seen you in a while! Come, come, there’s a seat in the back for you.” She motioned for us to follow her as she showed us where to sit.
“How’s the family, Sue?”
“Good! Added a new grandbaby to the mix.”
“Congratulations,” I told her with a smile. My chuckle was instantaneous when she reached up and patted my cheek. She had to stand on her tiptoes to reach. Sue was the epitome of a grandma.
“I’ll send your waiter right over,” she promised. She paused and gave me a sharp look. “You’ll be coming back more often now, huh?”
“Yes Ma’am,” I told her. With my sunshine by my side, I was hoping to be able to do a lot of things that had seemed impossible before.
“Good, good. Joey!” Sue hustled away, bellowing for the server.
Jordan laughed. “She’s…exuberant.”
“To say the least.”
“Jordan?”
Snapping my head to the side, I saw a young woman standing beside us. She’d been on her way to the bathroom and now she was just staring at us with her mouth hanging open.
“Hi, Mallory,” Jordan said with a grimace. She looked behind the cute petite blonde as though she was expecting someone else. “Is Noah with you?”
Recognizing her brother’s name, my muscles relaxed and I sat back in the booth. Mallory’s gaze kept flicking between us and there was a storm of curiosity there.
“He’s still in the booth,” Mallory motioned across the restaurant. “He’s-”
“Jord?”
My sunshine groaned and gave me an apologetic glance before she focused on her brother as he approached. “Hey, Noah.”
Noah wasn’t paying attention to her because he was staring at me. “Who’s this?”
“Noah.”
I ignored Jordan’s warning tone and stood up, holding out my hand. “I’m Ricochet.”
Jordan scrambled out of the booth too, she and Mallory casting each other uneasy glances.
“Noah, Jordan’s brother.”
“Heard a lot about you.”
“Haven’t heard much about you,” Noah said, taking a small step back so he didn’t have to tip his head back as far to look up at me. He was about five-ten and had the same dark hair as his sister. Instead of her green eyes, his were a dark brown.
At six-three, standing this close, I towered over him. Folding my arms over my chest, I waited. I didn’t mind the attitude. In fact, I respected it. I liked seeing my woman’s family stand up for her so fiercely. It was a good indicator that I would be able to trust him.
“Noah!” Jordan and Mallory snapped at him in unison for his rudeness.
“I told you guys about him a few weeks ago,” Jordan said, her cheeks flushing. She gave me a wan smile, embarrassed to admit she’d been talking about me to her family.
Satisfaction at that knowledge was paramount as I watched the siblings wage a silent war with angry gazes. Gwen and I had done it plenty enough times to be able to read the subtle clues. Jordan was telling him to back off. Noah was telling her no way. Mallory gave me an apologetic smile.
“He’s not what I was expecting,” Noah claimed, not caring that I was standing there listening.
Both women goggled at him, unable to believe he was being this rude.
I just chuckled. I fully understood that my look was a bit rough.
The leather cut with a huge Viking’s head on it, the dirty jeans, the combat boots, the tattoos.
Most people judged a book by its cover. Noah wasn’t completely wrong about me.
I was what most people would think of as a criminal.
We considered ourselves vigilantes, but most of society didn’t make that distinction.
“Just letting you know, nothing will happen to your sister while she’s under my protection,” I told him.
Noah’s stiff posture relaxed a little. “I actually believe that. But how am I supposed to know that you won’t hurt her?” He must have seen how much the question pissed me off. I’d never hurt my sunshine, but he didn’t back down.
“You’ll just have to take my word for it until I can prove it to you.”
“Noah,” Jordan growled his name. “Are we still on for that thing tomorrow?” she asked.
Noah’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.” He cast a quick glance at Mallory, before looking back at his sister with a pleading look. Gone was the man who was willing to grill me to make sure I was good enough for his sister.
“I absolutely will if you don’t stop being a complete asshole to my date.” She stuck her hands on her hips. It was a classic, pissed off woman move.
“I’m just looking out for you.”
“And I appreciate that,” I told him. All three of their shocked gazes fell on me. “I like knowing that if I’m not around she has men in her life that will watch over her.”
A slow smile spread over Noah’s face. “Oh, Mom is going to love him,” he said with a laugh. “You might not be so bad, Ricochet,” he admitted.
“Go away, Noah,” Jordan said, giving him a perturbed look. She gave Mallory a hug, ensuring the other woman knew she had been glad to see her, just not her brother.
Noah ruffled her hair, only laughing and dancing out of the way when she tried to smack at him. “See you later, Sis,” he called.
We watched as they walked back to their table and could hear Mallory asking, “What are you two doing tomorrow?” Noah shot Jordan a glare over his shoulder.
“I’m so sorry about him,” Jordan apologized as we sat back down. People around us were watching us with varying degrees of curiosity.
Ignoring them, I sat across from her. “I meant it. I like how protective he is.”
“He was rude. Mom is going to snatch his hair off his head, talking about how she hadn’t raised him that way.” Amusement sparkled in her eyes.
“So what are you planning with him tomorrow?” I asked, curious what finally made him back down.
“Oh, I’m going ring shopping with him,” she said with a devious smile. “I wouldn’t have really outed him, because that would have ruined the surprise for Mallory. They’ve been together for three years now and we’re all completely in love with her, including him.”
I nodded in understanding. She’d seemed like a sweet girl. Nowhere near as gorgeous as my sunshine, but pretty enough.
We ordered and I sat back in the booth, studying Jordan. “Sorry about this morning. That was a bit more than I planned to expose you to.”
“I think it was Butcher and Toxic who did the exposing,” she quipped.
We both laughed, though I wanted to rip their balls off. They hadn’t meant for my old lady to see their junk, but she’d gotten a first-hand look, and I didn’t care much for that.
We made small talk until the waiter put our plates of food down in front of us. By the time he dropped everything off, my muscles were rigid and I was wound tight.
Jordan frowned as she picked up her fork, sensing the shift in my mood. “What’s wrong?”
“I promised you I’d tell you about myself.” Glancing around to make sure that no one was paying attention, I started in on the last subject I ever wanted to speak about. “I can’t tell you all of it. Not yet. Not because I don’t want to, but because…it’s hard for me to talk about.”
Shoving a bite of eggs into my mouth, I almost wished I’d waited until after we ate to tell her. The food was like ash in my mouth. Setting my fork down, I balled my hands into fists on the bench on either side of my legs. “I was in the military. A Navy Seal.”
Surprise filtered over her face, but she didn’t say anything. Didn’t interrupt. It was like she knew I was barely hanging on and one interruption would cause me to clam up.
“Our team had six guys on it, but Jack and I had grown close. We were brothers. Every mission we watched each other’s backs.
We were on deployment to Afghanistan. We were tasked with finding and capturing a warlord in the northern province.
We were responsible for getting weapons and new recruits to the insurgent fighters in that region. ”
She was watching me with a solemn look on her face, already understanding where this story was going.
“Anyway. We spent a few months kicking down doors and taking prisoners. The intel guys would interrogate them, give us new names and locations, and we’d go out and do it again.”
I ran a hand through my hair, staring down at my plate. The further I got into this, the less I wanted to watch her reactions.
“This warlord was a real snake. We’d always arrive a day or even an hour behind. We must have kicked in two or three dozen doors. It was becoming a normal routine for us. That is, until we finally caught up with the bastard. That’s when it was anything but routine.