Amazon Gentlemen’s Club was busy for a Tuesday night, and it was my first bartending shift to boot. Between taking orders, flipping through the bartending handbook Noah kept under the counter, and running the register, I barely had time to flirt with the security guard.
I took a rare moment to pause and glance at him across the club. Liam wove through the tables, watching patrons and dancers with his stoic poker face. He kept his arms crossed over his wide chest, accentuating the bulge of his biceps and the tattoos inked into his skin. He caught me watching him and flashed a smile that made my stomach flutter. Even after a month, I still couldn’t believe that he was my boyfriend. But our relationship was more than that, now.
He was my boyfriend, and I was his old lady.
A thud on the bar jerked me out of my trance. A man pushed his empty tumbler toward me. “Give me another.”
And I was back into the swing of things. After pulling his beer, I got a flood of orders. Just as I finished pouring a round of shots, I felt an imposing presence behind me.
“How’s it going?” Noah asked in his deep, neutral tone.
“G-good. I think,” I said clumsily.
“You having any trouble keeping up with orders? Buddy’s Sports Bar never gets slammed like this.”
“It’s different, but I’m managing pretty well.”
“Good.”
I breathed a sigh of relief when Noah finally left to attend to his other duties. As Amazon’s owner and my new boss, he was intimidating. As the Skull Kings motorcycle club’s president, he was downright frightening.
Liam, my own Skull King, sauntered up to the bar. “Can I buy you a drink?”
My shoulders drooped. There was just something about Noah that unnerved me. “I could really use one, actually.”
Liam hopped over the bar to my side.
“Hey!” I said.
“Relax. I work here.”
“Shouldn’t you be keeping an eye on the customers?”
Liam began examining the liquor bottles. “I think Logan can manage for just ten minutes.”
I searched the club for Logan. He was the newest Skull King and acted like everybody’s annoying little brother. I found him licking a shot off of a dancer’s ass.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure he can.”
Liam plunked two shot glasses onto the bar and mixed some tequila and ice in a shaker. His movements were quick and graceful, and I was reminded of our nights back at the clubhouse. Whenever we had the place to ourselves, a couple tequila shots never failed to get the both of us wild and hot.
“What are you thinking about?” Liam asked when he caught me licking my lips.
I scanned the club to see if Noah was anywhere nearby before I pulled him close by the front of his shirt. “I’m thinking about that day when you bent me over the pool table and fucked me from behind,” I whispered.
Liam’s eyes went black as his pupils dilated. “Damn.” He passed a chilled shot into my hands.
I stared into his eyes, imagining him on top of me. My gaze fell to his lips, plushy and soft. They’d been pressed against every inch of my body, yet I still couldn’t get enough. I felt my blood surge, thrumming through the thin veins in my arms.
“Let’s go find an empty dressing room,” I said.
Liam grabbed my hand and clamped it to the front of his jeans. I squeezed the hardness I felt down there.
“What’s wrong with right here?” he whispered.
A shiver slid up my spine as he moved his hands to the tops of my thighs, pressing into the seam between my legs. His fingers slipped past the hem of my shorts, digging themselves toward my heat. My breath caught in my chest when they plunged past my panties, brushing against my wet slit.
“This is my first day,” I said. I gripped Liam’s neck and pushed my forehead against his. Panic rose in my chest, excitement not far behind. My heart was beating double-time, spurred by Liam’s deft fingers working their way up my shorts coupled with the thrill of getting caught.
Liam lifted his free hand, tipping his shot glass in my direction. “That’s what liquid courage is for.”
I grinned, lifting my own glass to clink against his. We were poised to take our shots. Our mouths floated closer together.
A shrill scream cut our fun short. The tequila wobbled in my glass and sloshed down my arm as I jerked, startled. Liam’s hand fell away from my body. Suddenly, everyone was out of their seats, looking for the source of the noise, and it quickly became apparent where it had come from. A dancer who I only knew as Diamond emerged from the women’s restroom, white as a ghost.
“She’s dead!”
I turned her words over in my mind, letting the meaning behind them catch up to what I’d just heard. Noah shouldered his way through the crowd, and Liam quickly left my side and followed.
I steadied myself on the bar, my heart racing. Something about the atmosphere was unsettling, the way the music played to silence, the blank, frightened stares, everything a strip club wasn’t supposed to be.
Diamond fell to the side as Noah and Liam disappeared into the restroom. An entire verse of the song ticked by before they came back out. Noah’s face was even colder than usual.
“Aspen,” he said, surprising me. “Call the sheriff.”
Police tape blocked off the restroom. I was glad for it; earlier, I’d walked past the doorway and caught sight of the dead girl’s foot, a clear stiletto heel still hooked on her toes. Something about the color of her told me that there was no life in that body, no blood circulating under skin, driven by a ticking heart. It left a sour feeling in my stomach.
Sheriff’s deputies kept crisscrossing the room, taking photos, collecting evidence, and interviewing the staff. The one who’d been talking to Diamond added some finishing statements to his notes and motioned for me next.
My mouth went dry. It was finally my turn, and I had nothing to say because I’d been too busy with Liam.
The deputy flipped to a fresh page in his pocket notebook. Hamilton, read the name badge pinned to his uniform.
“Full name?” he said sternly.
“Aspen Whitaker,” I said weakly.
“And where were you when the body was dis—”
“BLAARGH!”
The chicken salad and iced tea I’d eaten for lunch came spraying out of my mouth in an acidic, chunky rain, speckling part of Officer Hamilton’s polished shoes and pant legs. Despite my vision going black and shadowy, I was mortified.
“Oh my god. I am so sorry,” I said as I swayed from light-headedness.
But rather than angry, Officer Hamilton looked concerned. He dragged over a chair and forced me into it. “Somebody get this young woman some water!” He sank down to his knees. “Are you all right, Miss Whitaker?”
“I think I might pass out.”
Officer Hamilton planted his hand on my shoulder, and its heaviness kept my grounded in the present. I blinked away the blackness encroaching into my vision. Officer Hamilton’s face swam before my eyes, slicked blonde hair and ice blue eyes. His encouraging, Ken doll smile.
“You okay, baby?”
I started at the sound of Liam’s voice. Officer Hamilton turned around to see Liam standing behind him.
“I’m fine. Thank you.” I accepted the water bottle he passed to me.
Officer Hamilton stood up and straightened out his uniform. He gave Liam a curt nod. “Long time no see.”
“My old lady needs to rest.”
“I was just taking her statement—”
“She was busy tending the bar. She has nothing else to say.”
Officer Hamilton flashed a tight-lipped smile. His eyes lazily rose to the ceiling, cracked from the time a dancer had to shoot a gun to break up a fight. The conspicuous bullet hole was still singed in a ring of black soot.
“I see.”
* * *
The few customers who’d been allowed to stay behind to give statements were finally ushered out, and Liam and I began going around the club, straightening out tables and collecting beer bottles.
A deputy grabbed my arm and raised her hand to Liam to stop us. “Don’t touch anything.”
“What?” I said.
“Just do what she says,” Noah said as he walked by, glowering.
Liam dropped the chair he’d been holding, letting it fall back on its side the way he’d found it. I froze, unsure of what to do, until the deputy fixed me with her dark gaze. I sighed and dropped my empty beer bottles onto the closest table.
“What’s happening?” Liam asked Noah as we filed out of the club.
“They’re shutting us down,” Noah said. “Because the girl OD’d, they want to make sure we’re not running some sort of drug den.”
“What?” Liam screeched.
Noah ran a broad hand over his beard. “We’ll talk about it later.”
The parking lot, washed in red and blue lights, was empty except for the squad cars and the Skull Kings’ Harleys parked near the curb. Officer Hamilton stood on the sidewalk, talking into a radio. Liam spotted him immediately and marched right up to him.
“What the fuck, Hamilton?”
“Hey—”
I rushed up to the two men and grabbed Liam’s wrist. “Don’t.”
“Stay out of this,” Liam said, jerking out of my grip.
I winced inwardly, stung by his sharp tone.
Officer Hamilton raised his hands. “I’m just doing my job, man.”
“This business is legit—”
“If it is, then you have nothing to worry about, do you?”
Liam’s face purpled with rage, but whatever words he planned on speaking died on his lips when Noah approached his side.
“Let it go. I’ll deal with it,” Noah said.
Liam calmed himself down, and I felt a tingle of resentment at the fact that it had been Noah’s stern words rather than my gentle touch that had done it.
As Liam stalked off to cool down, I was left stranded in the middle of the parking lot. Officer Hamilton looked too busy to notice me as he scribbled some more in his notebook, but then he tore the page out and handed it to me.
“That’s my personal number, in case you need anything,” he said.
I didn’t look at it until after he walked away. The handwriting was surprisingly neat for a man, each curve and square carefully shaped to form his cell phone number and his first name: Josh.
Now that the club was shut down, I was temporarily out of a job. But I couldn’t stomach the thought of going back to Buddy’s. I remembered passing a row of restaurants on the edge of the interstate when I first came into town. Mostly diners and dive bars catering to motorists just passing through, they were grimy but saw decent traffic. With Liam holed away in the clubhouse, still fuming over the sheriff’s office taking over Amazon, I had a whole free day to check out each joint.
The Four Corners Café looked like it used to be a fast food burger place with its vinyl booths and grease-stained ceilings. I promptly paid for my coffee and left. I had a decent lunch at the Gaslight Grill, but I didn’t take very well to the leering busboy. My next stop, a pizza restaurant, wasn’t even hiring.
I drove along the cracked asphalt roads, resigned to the fact that I would just have to wait until Amazon could open again. Then I saw it: a huge neon sign flanked by a ‘60s throwback chevron. The R&R Diner. On a whim, I steered into the parking lot and walked in. What did I have to lose?
A waitress in a starched uniform greeted me. “Table for one?”
I followed her to a corner booth and declined the menu. “Just coffee, please.”
The waitress frowned. “Coffee’s bad for you on an empty stomach. How ‘bout a slice of cherry pie with that?”
I shrugged. “Sure.”
She whirled away in a haze of powdery lavender perfume, heels clicking all the way across the restaurant. I sat back and surveyed the interior. It had a cheesy vintage theme, the décor comprised of chrome, vinyl records, and black-and-white photographs of girls in poodle skirts and bouffant hairdos. A jukebox in the corner played some Billie Holiday. Basically the R&R Diner was everything that Amazon wasn’t: quiet, kitschy, family-friendly. But for some reason, I was itching for something a little different.
I was about to ask the waitress for an application when a movement near the door caught my eye. At first, the man who walked in struck me as unfamiliar, yet my stomach clenched in a way that made me feel like he was bad news. And then, I finally knew that I recognized him, I was just used to seeing him in a leather jacket with red sleeves.
Ryan, a youngish, burly guy with a shaved head, was the leader of the Scorpions. Liam didn’t consider them to be an actual motorcycle club, namely because they didn’t ride Harleys, but they were the Skull Kings’ rivals all the same. The crew usually sported leather jackets with red sleeves, but today Ryan wore a plain navy blue tee shirt and jeans. He scanned the restaurant before taking a seat at the counter.
I grabbed a newspaper off of the next table and ducked behind it. I haven’t gotten my pie yet. Should I just leave? I wondered. As I stared hard into the black print of the newspaper, trying to make up my mind, I heard the bell on the door jingle. Another customer had just walked in. When I took a peek over the edge of the newspaper, I saw that this person was making his way to join Ryan at the counter.
I was shocked to see that I also recognized him, and even more shocked to see him greeting Ryan like a brother. Like Ryan, he had decided to walk in without his MC colors. But unlike Ryan, he wasn’t a Scorpion.
He was a Skull King.
My hand flew inside my purse. My first impulse was to call Liam, but my fingertip froze as it hovered over the keypad. I’m jumping to conclusions, I told myself, even after my heart jumped up to pound in my throat. There has to be an explanation for this. Maybe it’s somebody else.
I slipped my phone out of my purse anyway, but not to call Liam. I was confused, especially since it hadn’t even been a full twenty-four hours since the sheriff’s office forced Noah to shut down his club. I didn’t know how, but it just couldn’t be a coincidence.
All I knew for sure was that I couldn’t process this without Liam. If I was going to go to the Skull Kings with this info, I needed proof. I licked my finger, poked a hole through the newspaper, and trained my phone’s camera lens through it, waiting for the perfect shot.
I pulled up to the converted warehouse that served as the Skull Kings’ clubhouse. I counted the bikes in the parking lot, concluding that everybody was there. Without the strip club, they had nothing else to do, including me. My job hunt had still left me without a job, but I came back with something else.
I’d decided on my way over that I should talk to Liam and Noah first, before confronting the rest of the club. My opening line was an easy one. Can I talk to you guys for a second? I rehearsed it a few times in my mind as I walked up to the door. But just as I raised my fist to knock, a few shouts and a bang coming from inside dissolved all of my thoughts.
Without knocking, I opened the door and poked my head in.
“—be damned if I let that smug asshole keep me from doing my job.”
I recognized Liam’s voice immediately. He stood by the bar, gesturing wildly while standing in between a few toppled stools. I could easily imagine him knocking them down in a rage, and I supposed that was where the banging sound had come from.
“Liam?” I said.
Several heads turned to look at me. Liam’s expression softened slightly.
I cleared my throat. “Can I talk to you for a second? And Noah?” I looked around the clubhouse. “Where is he?”
Eddie raised his hand from his seat on a leather couch. “He drove down to the capital this morning. Had to renew his business license or something.”
“Oh.” I turned my gaze to Liam, whose expression remained carefully neutral. “Well, this should only take a minute.”
“This isn’t exactly a good time,” Liam said.
“We were discussing what to do about the club,” Eddie explained.
“And I say we should carry on as usual,” Liam finished, his tone steely and cold.
I scanned the faces of the other Skull Kings. Then, I looked back at Liam and raised my eyebrows, trying to convey the weight of my message. “Liam, I really need to talk—”
“You know what? I’m calling an emergency church,” Liam said exasperatedly. He was addressing his brothers as a whole, but the sharp edge of his voice told me that his words were meant for me, and what he was saying was, No women allowed.
“I guess I’ll see you later,” I said dejectedly.
Liam bisected the lounge area and opened the door to the back room. Logan was the last to pass through it. He cast one apologetic look at me over his shoulder before closing the door behind himself.
* * *
“You did the right thing coming to me.”
“Thanks...Josh.” It felt strange to call him by his first name. I hoped it would get easier eventually.
No! a voice piped up in the back of my head. I’m not supposed to hope anything.
As if in defiance toward my own conscience, I peeked through my eyelashes at Josh. He’d agreed to meet me within twenty minutes of the text I’d sent him after Liam called the church. A part of me had flinched when he responded, the same part that recognized the special disdain Liam harbored for Josh. But the rest of me felt vindicated when Josh took one look at the picture I’d snapped on my phone and confirmed my suspicions with two simple words:
“Well, shit.”
I trusted Liam, but he wasn’t exactly thinking clearly. There was just something about Josh that set him off.
What could it be? I wondered as I watched him from across the table, the same exact one I’d been sitting at when I caught the illicit Skull King-Scorpion rendezvous. Josh was young and pleasant to look at, I had to admit, with his chiseled cheekbones and toothpaste ad smile. He had longish dirty blonde hair that he kept combed back off of his forehead. I blushed when he caught me staring at his face and cast my eyes down onto his hands.
“So tell me about these two guys,” Josh said as he streamed creamer into his coffee.
I closed my eyes and inhaled. “Well,” I began, “the bald one is Ryan. He’s a Scorpion. They’re wannabe bikers, mostly young yuppie kids who want to feel like bad asses.”
Josh quirked an eyebrow, looking amused.
Color rose in my cheeks as I realized how Liam-like I sounded. “And,” I continued quickly, “they have drug connections. The Skull Kings forced them out of Canyon City when they tried to set up shop here. The two clubs haven’t gotten along since.”
Josh nodded, his hands folded neatly together. It bothered me that he wasn’t taking notes in his notepad, like he’d been doing last night at the club. He was in his uniform, so didn’t that mean he was on the clock? I felt a flare of irritation.
“Uh-huh. And who’s the other guy?” Josh asked.
His face rose to the surface of my mind, but I still couldn’t believe it until I said his name aloud. “Logan.”
Josh frowned. “Logan Schmitt?”
“I don’t know his last name, actually.”
“Let me see that picture again.”
I handed him the phone across the table.
“Gotta be Schmitty,” he muttered under his breath as he scrolled to my camera roll. His brow furrowed as he squinted at the picture. “I’m positive it’s him.” He handed the phone back to me. “The kid’s harmless.”
My mouth fell open. Did you hear anything I just said? I was tempted to say. I flailed to explain my thoughts. “The Skull Kings chased the Scorpions out of town when they tried to move in with hard drugs. They’ve never gotten along, yet here’s Logan and Ryan meeting at that lunch counter without their colors, incognito.” After a second, I added for good measure, “I bet the dead stripper was one of their customers. Logan was working security that night.” And maybe it wasn’t an accident that she died on Skull Kings’ premises.
Josh sighed. He folded his hands just in front of his steaming stoneware mug. “Listen, Aspen. You’re new in town, correct?”
I nodded.
“And you’ve only been seeing Liam Olsen...for what, a month?”
Reluctantly, I nodded again.
“I’m not trying to invalidate what you’ve seen of the Scorpions or anything like that. But isn’t it strange that the club is blaming another motorcycle club that isn’t even from here? Isn’t it strange that Noah owns Amazon, that his security staff are all Skull Kings, that he’s had a shooting and a death at his strip club, and he’s not taking responsibility for any of it?”
“But—”
“Liam was there, too. He was also working security, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah, but...” My voice dropped half an octave. “He was...occupied.” I coughed and thought I saw a flicker in Josh’s placid expression.
“All I’m saying is that you’ve only heard good things about the Skull Kings.” Josh leaned close. “But how many other friends do you have in this town?”
I chewed on my lip. Apparently satisfied, Josh sat back and took a long sip of his coffee.
“What now, then?” I asked. I’d told him about Logan meeting up with Ryan. I’d told him everything I knew about the Scorpions. Somehow, the dots seemed to connect, pointing the finger at the Scorpions and Logan, but Josh was connecting them in different ways.
“I’ll keep this meeting in mind, but I’ll follow my department’s protocol in regards to the official investigation. In the meantime, I suggest you tell Liam everything you told me. Just don’t tell him we saw each other today.”
I stared, shocked into silence. Whatever I expected him to say, that wasn’t it. “Wouldn’t it hinder your investigation if the Skull Kings found out what Logan did? What if they try to exact some sort of biker justice?”
Josh drew his mug to his lips. His green eyes glinted mischievously. “That’s exactly what I’m counting on.”
My skin buzzed with apprehension on the whole drive home. I braked and turned without really noticing my surroundings, my mind filled with the sound of Josh’s voice.
You’ve only heard good things about the Skull Kings, but how many other friends do you have in this town?
I gripped my steering wheel. There were the other old ladies, the “Skull Princesses.” They counted, right? Probably not. I bit my cheek. There was Carmen, but we’d fallen out of touch ever since I quit working at Buddy’s.
Damn, I thought. But Josh was wrong. He didn’t know the Skull Kings like I did, and he certainly didn’t know Liam. At the same time, he was only trying to help, wasn’t he? I recalled him sitting across from me in his uniform, his smile confident but kind, his gentle way of nudging me toward his opinion. He thought that there was more to the Skull Kings than I knew, and I was convinced that Logan and the Scorpions were in cahoots. One of us was bound to be right.
I did trust his opinion for now, and the last thing he’d said to me was to tell Liam everything I’d seen. My conviction rolled over and over as I closed the distance between my car and my apartment. A vignette unfolded in my imagination of me calling Liam to come over, sitting us down on the couch, taking his hand, and showing him my evidence. I could just see it now, Liam’s conflicted expression, hurt and angry. I dreaded and anticipated it at the same time, the I told you so already crouched in the back of my mouth.
But all my bravado dissolved when I pulled into my apartment parking space, only to find Liam’s Harley parked on the sidewalk right in front of it. He was standing near my front door, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets. He perked up when he saw me, and the corner of his mouth rose into a half-smile.
I carefully arranged my face into something passably happy, as if Liam could tell, just by looking at me, that I’d been thinking about Josh. “Hey,” I said softly as I approached.
“Hey,” Liam echoed. He scratched the back of his head. “I’m sorry about earlier.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“We were having a thing before you got there,” he said, talking about his Skull King brothers. “Nobody was taking my side when you showed up. I was just in a shitty mood all around.”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “Come on. Let’s talk inside.”
My feet carried me to the kitchen as Liam collapsed onto the couch.
“I’m just so fed up, you know?” he began immediately. “Sure, I feel bad that the stripper died, but we didn’t put that needle in her arm. I’m so tired of the sheriff’s department treating us like a bunch of criminals.”
My interest piqued. “It’s happened before?”
Liam’s arm rose over the back of the couch, dismissing my question with a wave. “Yeah, once or twice. Some noise complaints, disturbing the peace, things like that. Most of our troubles happened when the Scorpions tried dealing in Canyon City. The deputies thought it was us.”
“That’s not what—” I swallowed my words. I’d almost said, That’s not what Josh said.
“Whatever, though,” Liam continued. “Fuck them. Fuck Hamilton.”
I put a kettle on the stove, boiling water for tea. “What’s your issue with Officer Hamilton? It seems like you guys have some history,” I said in a carefully measured tone.
Liam scoffed. “We were in the same grade and rolled with different crews. That’s all.”
“I see.” It seemed like there was a lot more to that story, but for now I had to figure out how to break the news about Logan. “Well, I’m glad you came over,” I began, “because—”
Liam suddenly jumped up. “Let’s go for a ride,” he said, crossing my apartment in three strides. He looped an arm around my waist and tugged me close. I felt his voice rumbling in the middle of my chest. “You and me.”
“Wait—” I said, but it was already beginning. At the mere mention of riding, Liam was getting hard, his growing erection pressing through his jeans and into my fleshy thighs. I looked up into his eyes, surprised.
“How about it?” he said, his voice dropping into a growl. “We’ll take the interstate out into the canyons. Let the seat rumble against your pussy the whole way. Get you nice and wet.”
My lower lip trembled as my breaths grew ragged and short. Liam grabbed my chin and tilted my mouth up to meet his. His kiss was rough, and I felt every ounce of frustration in the pressure he forced behind it.
I tried to pull away. Liam yanked me back, pushing his mouth more forcefully against mine. His tongue jammed itself between my teeth, choking me. I fought to keep the issue of Logan and the Scorpions in the front of my mind, but it was getting progressively harder, especially with Liam grinding himself against me. I didn’t even need the vibrating seat of his Harley to get me wet.
It can wait, I finally told myself.
I pulled off my top. Liam’s hands immediately snaked around my back to unhook my bra. His chest heaved as I slipped my hands into his shirt, feeling along the ridges of his muscles. My fingertips brushed down his abs and hooked into the waistband of his jeans. In a few swift movements, I had him unbuttoned and unzipped, and we pushed our pants down to our ankles at the same time.
“Come here, baby,” Liam whispered.
Our bodies fell together, comfortingly familiar. He put me on my back on the linoleum floor. His weight crushed my breasts as he came down on top of me.
“Liam!” I gasped as his teeth sank into my shoulder.
He jerked his hips, groping toward my pussy. His breaths were short and frantic, and I got the sense that all rational thought was gone, leaving the mind of an animal in Liam’s body, driven only by the instinct to fuck. His face was slack, lost in pleasure. When he plunged his cock into my body, there was more pain there than I could handle.
My spine curved up at the bruising force. Liam lowered his head to my chest and bit my nipple, making me hiss in pain. He began thrusting, pounding, hammering away at me. It seemed like he was taking all of his frustrations out on me, and he probably was. I tried to relax, but my muscles kept clenching against him, making me into a tight hole to penetrate over and over again. I gritted my teeth, biting back my yelps of pain.
Just get through this and tell him, I told myself.
Red spots burned in the insides of my eyelids with each stroke of Liam’s cock. Then, my mind conjured an image of Josh in his uniform, fingers moving slowly over the brass buttons. My lips parted.
“Oh,” I moaned.
Finally, Liam jerked himself out of me. He kissed me hard, crushing my lips against my teeth, as he came. I felt it spraying across my stomach, sticky and hot. A thin sheen of sweat glistened on his back and shoulders.
We got dressed silently. I kept eyeing the floor somewhat guiltily. Thinking about Josh when Liam fucked me made me feel dirty, but it left my skin tingling all over. I was afraid of how good it made me feel.
Liam’s cheeks were flushed red. There was color in his eyes again. He seemed back to normal. “So, how about that ride?” he asked with a shy smile.
I put a hand on his arm. My gaze flickered to the kitchen table where I’d dropped my purse. My cell phone with the incriminating picture was tucked inside.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you...”
The clock ticked languidly, fluidly, each second passing as if it were fighting through a sea of molasses. I counted each one in my head. One. Two. Three. All the way to sixty. It had been eighteen minutes since Liam had left for the clubhouse. He’d called another impromptu church today, and every member knew what the meeting was for except for Logan.
My heart pinged in my chest, and my stomach gurgled with sick fear. It had been like that since yesterday, when I finally showed Liam the picture of Logan sitting down with Ryan.
“He’ll have to answer to his brothers,” he’d said, a muscle working in his jaw. “But most likely, we’ll have to do an Alex on him.”
An “Alex” was when a guy got his tattoo burned off with chemicals. We’d done it to my ex-boyfriend, Alex, hence the name. The tattoo of my name on his forearm was now, presumably, one large shiny, pitted scar.
It was twenty minutes past, now. Surely, Liam was at the clubhouse with the other brothers, waiting for Logan to arrive. Or perhaps Logan was already there. It would be over for him in just a few moments. He’d have the Skull Kings tattoo burned off of his back and banished from Canyon City, his penance for betraying the MC. It was just the way things worked. The rules were complicated and strange, but universally understood by all prospects when they first joined the club, including Logan.
So why did I feel so sick? The gurgling in my stomach persisted. Something just wasn’t settling right, and a few more seconds ticked by before I figured out what it was.
My latest conversation with Josh Hamilton filtered thinly through my mind.
“What if they try to exact some sort of biker justice?”
Josh drew his mug to his lips. His green eyes glinted mischievously. “That’s exactly what I’m counting on.
Had Josh expected this? Had he been “counting” on this? For the past few days, I’d kept revisiting the moment I saw Logan clasping hands with Ryan, the man who tried to abduct me from the parking lot of my old work, who invited my abusive ex-boyfriend to town, who was all around bad news. But at this very moment, all I could see was the young, awkward, and lanky bouncer of Amazon Gentleman’s Club, flirting with everybody, his face never without a crooked, good-natured smile.
No, it just didn’t sit right with me at all. I wished I’d spoken to Noah and Liam about this, but with Noah still out of town...
I still had the next best thing. I had Noah’s old lady, Shayna, on speed dial now. It took all of three seconds to call her.
“Hey, sweetie,” she answered on the second ring. “What’s up?” There was a lot of busy noise coming from her end.
“Something’s happened,” I said gravely.
“What is it? Did something happen with the club?”
I wasn’t sure if she meant Amazon or the MC itself, but I said, “Yes,” anyway. I explained everything that had happened, beginning with Logan’s meeting with Ryan and ending with Liam leaving for the clubhouse just twenty minutes before the call. I even included everything Josh had told me. I listened for Shayna’s next words after I finally finished, but they never came. The sudden silence was alarming, and when she finally spoke, I knew exactly why.
After talking briefly with Noah, I hung up and dialed the next best person I knew.
I told Josh there was no time to explain. “How soon can you pick me up?”
“Ten minutes.”
I waited for him outside, tapping my foot. Unbound energy surged inside of me, half from nerves over what the Skull Kings were up to at the clubhouse, and half from the anxiety I felt over getting a ride from Josh.
It’s just a ride, I told myself. I’d sit in the back if I had to. The prospect of being within touching distance of him made my face flood with heat.
Finally, a CCSO cruiser turned the corner and slid to a smooth stop right in front of me. Josh got out and opened the passenger side door.
“So what exactly is going on?” he asked as I buckled myself into the seat.
I exhaled loudly. “Noah’s known all along about Logan meeting with Ryan.”
“He’s the president, right?”
“Yeah, and he asked Logan to do it. I have no clue why, or why the rest of the MC didn’t know, but basically they’re about to...” I gulped. “They’re about to kick him out of the club.”
Josh frowned. “Why do you sound so grave?”
“Each member has Skull Kings ink. It’s part of getting inducted. Well, if you’re no longer a member, you have no right to wear the ink. So they forcefully remove it for you.”
Josh’s hands jerked the wheel. “Jesus Christ.”
He didn’t even know the half of it. I’d seen the removal method only once before. Back then, I’d had no choice; it was the only way to scare my ex-boyfriend out of town. When Liam, Shayna, and the other old ladies presented me with the caustic powder, I hadn’t even questioned it. Simple chemistry, they’d said.
I suppressed a shudder. For Alex, it had been a few inches on his forearm. For Logan, it was a huge back piece. I tried calling Liam for the tenth time, and it kicked me straight to voice mail.
“We should probably step on it,” I said, trying to keep the shrill panic out of my voice.
Josh nodded wordlessly. The engine punched the air with its growl as we accelerated down the street. His hand hovered near the passenger side armrest, then closed over my cold, shaking fingers.
* * *
Josh parked diagonally across two parking spots, and I bolted out of the passenger seat before he could cut the engine. A cool breeze rustled my hair as I stared at the edifice of the clubhouse. Bikes crowded before it, parked in chillingly neat, parallel lines. I crunched through the gravel, my heart beating in my throat.
Don’t let it be too late.
The air was unnaturally silent as I approached the door. There was no screaming. I hoped it was a good sign. I wrenched the door open.
The first thing I noticed was all the space. Every scrap of furniture had been pushed against the walls, leaving a wide open area in the middle of the room. Skull Kings were arranged in a crooked circle. A lumpy mass was at the center of it.
My legs twitched into action. Logan.
He was crumpled on the floor, red welts all over his body. They would be bruises by tomorrow.
Liam broke through the circle. “What are you doing here?” It was a tone I’d never heard before.
I froze in place.
Liam took two steps toward me. A vein twitched in his forehead, which reddened quickly with suppressed rage. There was a plastic water bottle in his hand filled with the white powder I’d used on Alex. The cap was off.
I raised my hands. “Liam, if I ever busted in on a Skull Kings meeting like this, you’d know that it’s for a good reason.”
Liam glowered. “And what reason...” His words faltered, and his eyes flashed as they passed over my shoulder.
I turned around just in time to see Josh stomping loudly through the door. His eyebrows rose as he took in the sight of the room and its occupants. Several Skull Kings grunted in surprise. Liam just stood there, shaking.
“Liam, please. I tried calling you. Noah told me that he knows all about Logan meeting with the Scorpions. He said they planned it.”
It seemed to take several moments for his mind to process what I’d just said. His brow furrowed in confusion, but the twist of anger never left his lips. He shook his head and jerked his chin toward Josh, who’d joined me at my side.
“Well, what the fuck does he have anything to do with all of this?”
Josh stepped forward. “I was asked to help stop you guys.”
Liam scoffed, but his eyes never left mine. I detected so many layers inside them: betrayal, hurt, indignation. For a moment, I wondered if it would’ve been better to show up alone.
Logan stirred on the floor, moaning. He turned his face up to the ceiling, revealing a cracked lower lip. Seeing him like that woke me back up.
“Call Noah if you want,” I said, squaring my shoulders.
Liam’s mouth fell open and closed. He seemed to be at a loss.
“I told you we should’ve waited for Noah, man,” Eddie said softly.
Liam clenched his fists, and his forearms bulged. “We’ll call this off. Eddie, you can call Noah and see what’s going on.” He ran his fingers through his dark hair, casting his frown toward the floor. “You can leave.”
Josh hesitated on his way out the door.
“Both of you.”
Liam turned away without looking at me, and it was like taking a knife to the gut. I felt a strong urge to reach out for him, to hold him. You love me, I wanted to whisper. I tried to draw him back with my eyes, but he disappeared into a crowd of his Skull Kings brothers, as if I wasn’t even there at all.
I felt a firm hand close over my elbow. Josh leaned close, tugging gently at me. His eyes were pointed at the Skull Kings, but his mouth was perched near my ear. “Come on.”
My limbs felt dead as I climbed back into Josh’s cruiser. I wanted to jump back out and run into Liam’s arms. Instinct told me that of all the things, leaving with him was the worst thing I could do. But my mind kept spinning back to the look on Liam’s face when he saw Josh walk in beside me. It was a look I’d never seen before. Hatred.
After that, all I wanted to do was get far, far away.
“I’m sorry, Aspen. I’m sure he’ll calm down once he talks to Noah.”
I turned toward the window, hugging myself. “Just take me home.”
Josh was stony silent for a few seconds. Then, he turned the key in the ignition and drove us away from the clubhouse.
I was beginning to feel a little guilty. “Thanks,” I added to break the silence.
“You didn’t deserve that, you know.”
“Deserve what?”
“The way he treated you.”
I shrugged. “Maybe I did. Things work differently in the club. Different rules. I bet I broke about fifty of them walking into the clubhouse.”
“There’s no rules against seriously injuring a fellow member?”
I sighed. Of course there were. And there were rules for when seriously injuring a fellow member was allowed. The hardest part was that none of these rules were written. They just were, and unless you were a brother or an old lady, the code of behavior was hard to navigate.
“Look, I know you love Liam Olsen, but he’s part of something bigger than the two of you. You wanted to save a young man from a horrible fate, and he’s angry at you for it. Doesn’t that tell you that something might be a little fishy?”
“You don’t get it.”
“No, you don’t get it.”
For the first time, Josh sounded firm. I caught a glimpse of what he was like on duty, the real sheriff inside of him. He spoke with alarming authority, almost like Liam.
“Do you have a problem with my boyfriend?” I asked softly.
Josh’s brow softened. Of all the things I could’ve said, I seemed to have found the last thing he expected to hear. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, deep in thought.
“No,” he finally said. “He has a problem with me.”
“Why?”
“It’s a long story.”
* * *
Somehow, I convinced myself to invite Josh inside for tea. He seemed out-of-place on my leather couch with his hands on his knees, looking stiff and uncomfortable in his uniform as he surveyed my sparse décor with polite interest.
I put some water on to boil and found a can of cheap drugstore cookies. Going through the motions reminded me of Liam, who could brew tea like nobody’s business. I took another glance across the kitchen counter toward Josh, appreciating that he was only the second man to set foot in my apartment. My shoulders tensed at the thought. I felt uncomfortable, but why? Was I doing something wrong, or was this just something I’d have to get used to?
“Cream and sugar?”
“No, thank you.”
I perched on the opposite end of the couch, setting the tray on the coffee table. We sat in a brief, uncomfortable silence. He reached for a teacup, and I realized I had no idea why I’d invited him in.
Well. I did have some idea.
Josh unbuttoned the collar of his shirt, and my eye followed the line of bare skin from his throat to the tip of his chest. Ashamed, I looked away. I looked back. I couldn’t help it. There was just something about him. But what was it? He was so different from Liam, with his blonde, All-American looks, nary a hair out of place. He had no tattoos, as far as I knew. While Liam was the brooding bad boy, Josh was absolutely the complete opposite.
And maybe that’s why I find him so appealing.
“So, how did you and Liam hook up?” he asked conversationally.
“He was one of my regulars when I worked at Buddy’s. It kind of blossomed from there.” There had been so much more that happened, like my old boss harassing me, thwarting an assault by the Scorpions, and the whole fiasco with my ex. But all that was a story for another time.
Josh nodded, sipping. “I see. Well, it’s too bad you didn’t start your food service career at Big Daddy’s Grill down the street. I probably would’ve gotten to you first.”
I felt a blush creeping up my neck. “Well...” I struggled to find the right thing to say. “I’m very happy with Liam.”
“Sure looks like it. That’s why I’m sitting here instead of him, right?”
“He’s just going through some stuff.” The moment it came out of my mouth, I realized how pathetic it sounded.
Josh reached over to take my hand for the second time that day. I had to admit that it was comforting as well as exciting. My pulse had fluttered the first time Liam held my hand, but now my skin knew every groove of his palm, every whorl of his fingerprints. Holding Josh’s strange hand and lacing his foreign fingers through my own gave my pulse a little jumpstart. I was feeling those butterflies all over again.
“What do you see in him, exactly?” he asked, his eyes gleaming with curiosity. “You’re a nice girl, not at all like the other biker girlfriends.”
I bristled. “Now, wait a second...” He said the phrase “biker girlfriends” like it was a dirty word. They weren’t just girlfriends, they were old ladies, and that meant something.
My hand dropped out of Josh’s grip. He raised his eyebrows.
“What do I see in Liam?” I began. “Well, he takes good care of me. He’s great in bed. He respects me.” Everything I said was true. Liam definitely respected me, but was I respecting him? That’s why I’m sitting here instead of him, Josh’s words echoed through my mind.
“And I love him,” I finally said with a sigh.
“I see.”
“You’re welcome to stay here if you want,” I said, gesturing to his tea. “But I think I should go.”
Josh mirrored my movements, rising slowly to his feet. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to find Liam.”
“Can I drive you?”
I gave Josh a look. “Really?”
His shoulders fell dejectedly. “You know what? Never mind.”
I drove past Liam’s apartment, disappointed to find that his Harley wasn’t parked in its spot. I crossed over the railroad tracks toward the clubhouse, only to discover that all the Skull Kings’ bikes had cleared out.
Where is everybody? I wondered. I parked at a gas station, tapping my steering wheel. Think. Think. I knew Liam better than anybody, better than Liam himself, sometimes. I closed my eyes, imagining him just after I left on Josh’s arm, whipping around to return his brothers’ stares of disbelief. My gut was telling me that Liam would’ve been on my trail. He would’ve wanted to talk things out. I knew it wasn’t right, though, or else he would’ve showed up at my door.
And with a gasp, I realized why.
Josh’s cruiser. It was more than conspicuous as far as cars went, and it had been parked right in front of my apartment. I shifted my car into drive and accelerated back on the road, my heart racing. I still didn’t know where the hell he was, but I just had to find him.
“Stupid bitch,” I muttered to myself.
The town scrolled past my windows, apartment buildings, strip malls, and the cracked asphalt landscape of the interstate. I drove through the shadow of R&R Diner’s giant neon chevron and let it fall behind me, reduced to the size of a fingernail in my rearview mirror. I followed the interstate out into the canyons.
My grip tightened on the steering wheel as I scanned the horizon for a Harley, but it was a smooth and uninterrupted as flowing sand. The pink sun was beginning to dip behind the mountains, turning them purple, and I realized I’d have to turn back soon.
Or not.
Thanks for visiting beautiful Canyon City! proclaimed a sign.
I could just keep driving until my tank ran out of gas, start a different life in whatever town I happened to be in at the time. No more motorcycle clubs with complicated codes of behavior, no more sexy, flirtatious sheriff’s deputies, no more predatory bosses.
My foot pressed into the pedal, almost on its own accord. My engine gave a roar, and my car lunged forward. The town was just a speckle of lights, now. In a few moments, I’d be too far away to even be able to see it. The farther along I drove, the faster my heart buzzed in a shrill sort of exhilaration, not unlike the feeling I got holding Josh’s hand in my living room.
And then, I saw it.
A dot shimmering on the road, too large to be an animal and too small to be car. It approached me with frightening speed, level with my car for only a brief second before rushing past, but that one second had been enough. I recognized the driver, but it wasn’t Liam. Noah’s bearded frown was immediately recognizable beneath his goggles. Shayna rode behind him, arms wrapped around her man’s thick waist, dark hair whipping like a flag in the wind.
They rode past me without seeing me, pointing their trajectory back into town like a compass. Canyon City was a mess, and here they were driving back into the thick of it, intent on fixing things up. And here I was, running away.
I braked and reversed.
I waited at home, elbow-deep in bleach as I cleaned the kitchen for something to do. I’d called Shayna, who told me that the guys were in church and probably wouldn’t emerge for hours. Cell phones weren’t allowed, so I left Liam a text, hoping he’d see it when he turned his back on.
It had taken me a little over half an hour to think of the right thing to say. I’d assumed he knew that Josh had been over, but I didn’t know that for sure. I’d assumed that he was angry at me, and although it was probable, I also didn’t know that for sure. Eventually, I was able to condense all of my fears, anxieties, and apprehension into one simple phrase.
Can we talk?
An engine growled outside my door. My heart gave a leap, and I hurried to the window. It was only a tow truck.
I sighed.
* * *
“Aspen?”
There was a hand on my shoulder shaking me awake. I lifted my cheek off of my fist and opened my eyes. “Huh?”
Liam’s face hovered in front of mine, bent with concern. “Babe, did you fall asleep out here?”
I sat upright. My muscles were tight and sore. I’d fallen asleep on the couch, my body bent into a comma over the armrest. “What time is it?”
“It’s about eleven p.m. I brought you some dinner in case you were hungry.” Liam lifted a grease-stained paper bag. It smelled like barbacoa and fresh tortillas from the carniceria.
We got plates out of the cupboard and set them up on the coffee table. I tried to catch Liam’s eyes as he poured some iced tea into two tall glasses, but he kept angling his face away from me. I wasn’t sure if it was on purpose or not.
“What did Noah have to say?” I finally asked.
Liam sat down in front of his plate, staring at his food but not eating. “Remember when I told you the sheriff’s office thought the Skull Kings were dealing drugs in town?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, so did the Feds.”
I dropped my fork. “What?’
Liam sighed. “It was around the same time that Logan started petitioning to join the MC. It’s kind of obvious, now that I think about it. But back then, he seemed like just another snot-nosed prospect.”
My stomach rolled into a hard, nervous knot. “What exactly are you telling me, Liam?”
His shoulders dropped, and he raised his hand to his forehead. “Logan is an undercover FBI agent. He got assigned to the Skull Kings because that’s where the U.S. government thought the drugs were coming from. He was already initiated by the time he realized the truth, so it was too late to join the Scorpions. He’s been playing double agent against them, pretending to be their rat while he built his case.”
“Holy shit.”
“Tell me about it.”
We sat together in silence. Then, a strange realization needled into my thoughts. My mouth went dry instantly. I licked my lips. “Josh Hamilton knew,” I said softly.
Liam raised his eyebrows. “Of course he did. The sheriff’s office and the FBI are working together.”
I gripped my steak knife tight, my hand shaking. I could feel heat flooding up my neck and into my face.
“Aspen, are you okay?” Liam rose from his chair and reached for my arm.
I shook my head. “I was so stupid,” I muttered. “He knew the whole time. He was just using me.”
Liam’s groping hand stopped in mid-air and fell to his side. He drew in a long, ragged breath. “Aspen. What are you talking about?” His voice was steady but edged with fear.
“It’s not what you think,” I said quickly. I explained how I’d met with Josh at the R&R, how he’d played dumb and let me believe that Logan was a traitor, even encouraging me to tell the club. “But why would he do that?” I asked, directing the question more to myself than to Liam.
Liam sighed. “To get back at me.”
I looked at him in shock. To my surprise, Liam’s face broke out into a grin, the first one I’d seen in days.
“Remember when I told you we went to school together?” he asked. “Senior year of high school was when I started getting invited to Skull Kings hangouts. I also started dating this girl at the time, Charlotte. Of course, Hamilton was studying for the police academy, and he became obsessed with law enforcement and all that shit. He took it upon himself to warn every girl in town to stay away from me, because I was a gang-banger or something.”
I shook my head. “Wow. So what happened to Charlotte?”
“Charlotte was actually pretty cool. He tried to wedge himself between us, but she knew Hammie was nothing but a scumbag. She lured him into an empty lot, and we jumped him.”
My jaw fell open. “Did you really?”
The grin faded from Liam’s face. “At least he learned his lesson early. The Skull Kings are tough but fair. We don’t mess with anybody unless they mess with us first.”
“Well, it seems that history has a way of repeating itself.” I had to explain myself at Liam’s confused expression. “I invited him over after I came to stop you guys at the clubhouse.”
“I know,” Liam answered, confirming my suspicions.
I raised my eyebrows. “Aren’t you mad, though? Are you going to...I don’t know, jump him again?”
Liam snorted. “No.” He reached out and cupped my cheek in his broad, dry hand. “I know you, Aspen, and I know that you can handle whatever scheme Josh Hamilton tries to pull on you.”
My eyes burned. I closed them gratefully. “It’s crazy. You trusted me to be alone with him when I didn’t even trust myself. I feel like a shitty girlfriend.”
I sensed Liam shaking his head. “It’s what happened at the end that matters. What happened right before you chased him out of this place?”
“I told him I loved you.”
I opened my eyes. Liam’s hand was still on my cheek. It fell to my shoulder, and his fingers dug themselves under the collar of my shirt.
“I love you, too,” he whispered.
It was almost like the first time again when we kissed, butterflies and all. His lips scorched my skin. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him into me. We could’ve been one single person as we moved together, making our slow way to the bedroom.
He lifted me onto the bed. Our hands moved frantically as we undressed each other, the two of us dying and hungry to fall into each other’s bodies. Finally, he slid his hard cock into me, tight, wet, and aching. My lips found his in the dark. We kissed fiercely.
“I love you, Aspen,” he said again.
I lifted my hips up to meet his, thrust for thrust. I could feel a vein in his cock ticking inside of me, his heartbeat in the space between my legs. There was something ethereal and beautiful about me holding him down there. He was inside of my body, alive and fragile.
I grazed my teeth over his shoulders, dug my fingers into his back. Mine, a voice in my head whispered. Mine, all mine. I marked him with my lips, sucking his skin gently between my teeth. He groaned as he slid on top of me, pumping himself into me, cutting me open. The room grew thick with the smell of sex, our mingling sweat, our cries.
Liam gave a few more quick thrusts before he froze. He jerked himself out. Veins traced up his thick, red neck as he came, spilling himself on my stomach. I watched my breasts heave, my belly fall up and down as I panted.
“God, Aspen. What are you doing to me?” Liam said as he collapsed. His body fell onto the bed beside mine, shifting the mattress and the sheets. He threw an arm over his eyes and tilted his face to the side, hiding half of his face as he smiled.
I balanced myself on my side. Liam’s sticky cum slid down my skin to stain the sheets, but I didn’t care. I let it pool there as I grazed my fingernails idly over Liam’s naked arm. His breaths grew steady and even as he fell asleep. Meanwhile, I continued to touch his arm, tracing the tattoos that had grown so familiar to me. I could probably draw them with my eyes closed at this point.
I felt a heavy sense of belonging fall over me. I could see my future coming together before my eyes, each day comfortingly symmetrical, safe in its sameness. I imagined myself trapped under Liam’s body, every day in this very room. Liam was all mine, and he was the only man I ever had to worry about. The thought left me feeling full and satisfied.
I arranged myself on my back and linked my elbow through Liam’s before closing my eyes. I fell asleep easily, feeling like I was home for the first time in a while.
Oil dripped off of the burgers and into the grill. Sparks flew as the fatty drops ignited against the flames.
“Shit!” Shayna cried, flapping her oven mitt against the smoke.
I pried the spatula out of her hand. “I’ll take over,” I said.
“Good girl,” Shayna said. She swatted my butt playfully as she floated away to oversee the hanging of a banner against the clubhouse garage. “Higher! On the left! No, the left!”
I flipped burgers and ignored the guilt that soured the pit of my stomach. The sign had been Shayna’s idea. I didn’t have to look up to read what it said. The words were burned into my mind: Get Well Soon, Logan!
His beating had landed him in the hospital. Obviously, he couldn’t rat out his fellow members. The story he gave was that he was jumped by some strange guys wearing leather jackets with red sleeves. Somehow, the confusion over his betrayal had led to everything tied up in a neat little bow, with the Scorpions in deep heat over Logan’s supposed assault. They were pointing fingers at each other, spilling beans about drug running, grand larceny, money laundering, anything to cut a deal with the D.A. And not surprisingly, the center of all the finger pointing was Ryan. I felt justifiably smug anytime I thought about him sitting in his holding cell, waiting for his day in court.
Then, I thought of Logan, battered and broken in the emergency room. It was my fault for showing Liam that photo, for letting Josh manipulate me. He’d known what the club was going to do to Logan and thought it would scare me away. It only left me paralyzed with guilt.
Shayna’s minivan pulled in, driven by Noah with Liam in the passenger seat. Logan remained hidden behind tinted glass in the back. I hastily retrieved a paper plate and slid a juicy burger patty onto some soft buns.
“Thanks, babe. I’m starved,” Liam said as he crossed the lot.
I jerked the plate out of his reach. “It’s not for you.” I turned my gaze onto Logan. He hobbled toward his welcome back barbeque on crutches, smiling carefully. One eye was still swollen shut.
I hurried over to meet him. “Hungry? I made this special.”
Logan examined the burger. “Medium rare, huh? My favorite.”
I helped him settle into a picnic table. “I’m sorry,” I said immediately. “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have been sticking my nose into your business.”
Logan shrugged and winced. He rubbed his shoulder, squeezing out the pain he apparently felt there. “You did what any good old lady would’ve done. I don’t blame you. This kind of stuff comes with the job.”
I sat down beside him. “So what now? The Scorpions are pretty much dissolved. Your job’s finished.”
Logan chewed thoughtfully on his burger. “The case isn’t over, yet. And outside the MC and the sheriff’s department, nobody knows I’m an undercover agent. I’ll probably stick around, ride it out. So long as nobody blows my cover or anything.” He winked.
“I promise I won’t blow your cover,” I said.
“We’ll see about that. In the meantime, you can make things right with me, starting with a nice cold beer.”
“I’m on it.”
I crossed paths with Liam on the way back from the keg. His face fell when he reached for the beer in my hand, only to watch me jerk it out of his reach again.
“Let me guess. Logan?”
“Yeah.”
Liam smiled with his lips closed. “Make sure he knows that at the end of the day, you’re my woman,” he said loudly for the whole yard to hear.
Laughter floated through the air. Liam and I shared a smile. I managed to serve Logan his beer before he was swarmed by the other old ladies, and he was back in his old element, grinning wickedly from the middle of a den of women.
I pulled Liam toward the keg. “Let your woman pull you a drink,” I said.
Liam shook his head. “Not yet.” He turned his gaze to the sky, painted in evening shades of pink and orange. “I want to take us on a ride, first.”
We promised everybody we’d be back within the hour. I straddled the seat behind Liam, touching my pelvis to the base of his back. The bike sputtered and roared as we turned away from the clubhouse.
I squeezed myself into Liam’s back, letting the wild scent of his hair blow back into my nostrils. A couple months ago, I’d been lonely and single, perched precariously on the tail end of an abusive relationship. And now, here I was, wrapped in leather, smelling of tequila and smoke, happy as a clam.
Liam’s Harley was as far from a noble steed as you could get, but he was the Prince Charming at the end of this strange fairy tale, riding me into the sunset.