5

Micah

I should have called Pepper the moment I brought Dolly back here. I knew that, yet I still hadn’t called her. Mostly because I wasn’t ready for the drama that was gonna ensue when I did. My sister was a hothead, and when she found out that her timid little best friend had been dating the man who had stolen a hundred grand of arsenal from us while using Pepper as a distraction five years ago, she was gonna lose her shit. Keeping Pepper from going after Canyon Acree herself would be a full-time job. She had her own reasons for hating him.

I finished pouring myself a glass of whiskey, then turned to look at Dolly Dixon standing in the center of the room, watching me. She wasn’t pitching a fit like she had earlier. She’d gone quiet on me. Those eyes of hers were wide. And, fuck, how did someone built like that look so damn innocent at the same time? Because she was slow. I had to remember that she was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I had to be gentle with her. She’d been a sassy little fireball earlier, but I doubted she’d take the information I had well.

“How long have you been seeing Canyon?” I asked her, walking over to take a seat on one of the leather recliners.

Dolly didn’t speak or move, so I motioned for her to have a seat on the sofa that was behind her. She glanced back at it, then took her time doing as I’d suggested. Those legs of hers might be short, but, damn, they were nice. I allowed myself the enjoyment of watching her cross her legs as she sat back.

When my gaze finally made it to her face again, I raised my eyebrows in question. “Well?” I urged.

She held her shoulders back and clasped her hands tightly in her lap. The hot pink of her nail polish made the corner of my lips curl. She had always been a prissy thing. Nothing like my wild-ass sister. They were thick as thieves and complete opposites.

“ ’Bout two months now,” she replied in her thick Southern drawl.

“And you kept that from Pepper for that long?” I asked, surprised.

Her dainty shoulders lifted and fell, drawing my attention to her tits for a moment. “Pepper’s been busy with getting the bar ready. I doubt she wants to hear about my dating life. She has more important issues.”

I took a drink from my glass. Dolly dropped her gaze to her hands and shifted in her seat, as if she wanted nothing more than to bolt from this room. Most women did everything they could to be near me, yet this one seemed to want to get away from me. My ego was slightly bruised. The Dolly I remembered used to look at me with a worshipful gaze, as if I were the only thing in the world. It had been amusing. I missed that. Then again, if she were looking at me that way now, I might end up fucking her against the desk. Tugging that skirt up and ripping her panties off. Getting a look at that round ass before I…

As that image started to take form in my head, I shook it off. I would not go there. She’d already been taken advantage of by Canyon. He’d pay for that too. Once I had my money. My hand fisted as I thought about the things he’d most likely done to her. Motherfucking bastard.

“When can I go home?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. I need more details. Canyon isn’t a good man, Tink. He’s a criminal. He’s fucking dangerous. He was using you. That much I do know. But I need to know why and what he was after.”

Her entire body tensed, and a flash of anger brightened those amber pools as she glared at me. “He wasn’t using me. We were fine until you came along,” she snapped at me with a fiery look in her eyes.

I almost didn’t recognize her. I wanted to chuckle, but I feared it would upset her more, so I held it back.

Leaning forward, I stared at her with my elbows resting on my knees. “Canyon is the vice president of the Crowns. A motorcycle club that is known for their dealings in drugs and illegal arms. They are lowlifes, and this stint in prison he did wasn’t his first. Did you know all of that?”

I knew she hadn’t by the way her face paled. That heart-shaped pink mouth of hers fell slightly open, and suddenly, all I wanted to do was see those lips wrapped around my cock.

“That can’t be,” she whispered. “He’s always been so sweet and polite. We went on dates, and he bought me flowers.”

Even as she defended him, I could see in her expression that she believed me. She was arguing these facts with herself more than anything. Trying to make sense of the man she had thought she knew and the one he had turned out to be.

“And how did he react when he found out you knew me? He hurt you. He wasn’t protecting you with a room full of men and their guns drawn. Was he? His first concern wasn’t you.”

She shook her head, but said nothing. What could she say? Poor girl. I wasn’t sure if he’d been using her to get to me or not, but my gut told me he had. It was too close to be a coincidence. I knew Dolly well enough to know she was loyal to my sister. She hadn’t known about Pepper’s brief relationship with Canyon five years ago. Pepper had been sixteen, and Canyon had been twenty-one. He’d just taken over as vice president of the Crowns. But she hadn’t known any of that. In two weeks’ time, he had taken her virginity and found a way to break into our arsenal holdings.

“How did you meet Canyon?” I asked her, hoping that would shed some light on this. Give me the proof I needed.

She blinked several times, as if struggling to pull her thoughts together. Hell, she even made the doe-eyed thing look sexy as hell. I’d missed her growing-up transformation. Although I had known it was coming for her one day. It had been obvious when she was a young teen. What had once made her appear awkward and steered boys away now drew men’s attention. Teenage boys wanted fast and easy. They didn’t know what to do with someone like Dolly, who needed to be taught. Most women built like her with a face like an angel weren’t so timid and in need of saving. Dolly Dixon might as well have a sign on her head that said she needed someone to take care of her.

“At a coffee shop near campus. On my way to apply for a job at the library one morning, I stopped in to get an espresso, and he was in front of me in line. He turned and struck up a conversation, then bought my drink and a muffin for me.”

Canyon Acree didn’t get coffee at college coffee shops. He had been there for a reason, and the idea that he’d been stalking Dolly to learn her schedule infuriated me. Telling her that right now wouldn’t go well. I could sense it. She needed Pepper here to explain this all to her. I would rattle her—or worse, make her cry.

“And he got your number?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “No. I don’t give out my number to strangers. Not even ones who look as handsome as Canyon,” she replied.

“That’s good to know. But how did you start dating him then?”

She sighed. “Two weeks later, I was on my way home from my job at Barnes & Noble, and my car got a flat. It was late, and I was trying to find my AAA card to call them when a motorcycle pulled up behind me. It was Canyon. He changed my tire for me, and we talked. Then, he followed me home to make sure I got there safely. It was real sweet,” she said with a small smile on her lips.

The fucker had probably been the one to puncture her damn tire. There wasn’t anything sweet about it. But I bit my tongue and let her continue.

“I invited him in for a cup of tea, but he said he’d just wait until I got inside. Then, he told me not to invite strangers into my apartment. Ever again. It was then he asked for my number, and I handed it over. He’d been nothing but chivalrous. He called me the next day and asked if I’d like to go to dinner. Then”—she shrugged—“we hit it off.”

He hadn’t even been slick about it. If Pepper hadn’t been so damn consumed with opening her bar, she’d have seen the signs that Dolly had been dating and stopped this. Fuck, this woman needed a keeper. She was a walking target.

Did the fact that he had shown up to save the day when she had a flat tire not register with her at all? And how many bikers with leather vests and tattoos did she see in her campus coffee shop? None. Fucking none. That was how many.

“You’re gonna need to stay here until I know Canyon isn’t going to come after you. He doesn’t trust you, and the man is dangerous. Even if he treated you a different way, the truth is, he is not a good man. The only way I can keep you safe is to put you up in the guest room upstairs. I just need a couple of days. That’s all.”

Those eyes were wide again with concern. “I can’t go home?”

I shook my head. “No. Unless you want me sleeping on your sofa.”

She was thinking that one over. There was no way in hell that was happening. I could not sleep in the same apartment as this woman and not end up fucking her. The club gave me enough distraction.

“I would prefer that, I think. I need to check on Mrs. Mildred. She will be needing to pay her bills, and I have to write her checks for her. She can’t remember how to do that correctly and gets it all messed up. Last time she tried, she paid her garbage bill twice and forgot her electricity. They cut it off on her, and she thought it was a power outage. She went two days without it, without AC, in the Florida heat. That apartment was like an oven.” She paused to take a breath, then started on again. “And who will make sure Harold eats if I don’t stop by and bring him a good meal? No one ever checks on him, and his arthritis is getting bad.” She shot up to her feet then, wringing her hands. “And Jeremy needs help with his art project. He has to make a replica of the Eiffel Tower, and I promised I’d be home tonight or tomorrow afternoon to help him.”

What the fucking hell?

“I can’t stay here. I need to go home. Now. I want to go home!” Her eyes began to water as I watched her build herself up into a panic.

“I’ve already told you, it isn’t safe. If you go home, Canyon will come looking for you there.”

She threw her hands up in clear frustration. “And if you are right and he is a bad guy, then that puts Mrs. Mildred in danger and Jeremy! His dad doesn’t come home most nights until way after midnight, and even then, he’s three sheets to the wind! He’s just a kid. I have to be there. I have to make sure no one is hurt.”

I set my drink down and stood up. “Listen, I can send men to watch your apartment. Make sure everything is—”

“NO! I need to make sure they are okay. I’m not staying here.” Her voice cracked then. “Please, Micah. Please let me go home.”

Dammit all to hell.