“My name’s Ginger. I was out in the woods last night because I had a disagreement with my brother and needed some fresh air.” Glaring at Six, I dared him not to believe me. The guy named Bear might seem like the bigger threat due to his size, but there was something about the way Six looked at me that warned me not to underestimate him.
“Fresh air, that’s a good one. So, you decided to go for a run down the mountain without a coat?” Six crossed his arms over his chest. His biceps bulged.
“I tripped and slid down the side of the hill.” Shrugging, I lifted the coffee mug and tried to ward off the shivers that threatened by taking another sip.
“You’re cold. Put this on.” Six slid the flannel shirt from his shoulders and tossed it across the table.
“I don’t want your shirt.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Put it on, or I’ll do it for you.”
I knew men like him. They thought because they wore a patch on the back of their leather jacket that women would fall all over themselves to do their bidding. That might be his experience with other women, but he was wrong about me. Still, I was smart enough to know which battles to pick, and pulling on his smelly shirt wasn’t one of them. I gently slid my arms into the sleeves and awkwardly pulled it up to cover my shoulders.
“That’s a good girl.” He had the nerve to wink at me. Like we were two people who’d met over a cup of coffee at the local cafe instead of him being an asshole with big dick energy who got off on ordering women around. “What’s your connection to Savage Bones?”
My face burned. I didn’t want to be associated with the Savage Bones any more than I wanted another hole in my ass, but I’d been marked. Thanks to my brother’s association with the club, they thought they owned me. If Six had half the brains I thought he did, he’d know better than to try and hide me away.
When I didn’t answer, he reached across the table and roughly cupped my chin in one of his huge hands. “Are you one of their old ladies?”
I tried to swallow around the lump of disgust rising in my throat. That’s exactly what I was, though I hadn’t willingly agreed to the arrangement. My brother had taken it upon himself to make the deal with one of the officers of the Savage Bones Club, hoping it would earn him some bonus points. He’d sold my soul to pave his own way into the tight inner circle. I hoped he’d rot in hell for what he’d done.
Six turned my face toward the light. With one eye swollen shut, I couldn’t see him very well, but I could have sworn his eyes softened. He looked at me with a flash of tenderness before the cold, flat armor slid back into place. “Whoever did that to you should get a taste of his own medicine,” he growled. “I’ll make sure it happens, too, if you tell me where they are and what they’re up to.”
I was tempted. I could even picture the look on my brother’s face when he opened the door of the cabin where he’d been holed up and found Six, Bear, and a handful of members of the Mustang Mountain Riders standing on the other side. But then what? The best chance I had of getting far away from Montana would be by being useful.
“Come on, Ginger. Don’t you want whoever did this to you to get what they deserve?” His voice deepened, rubbing along my nerve endings.
“If I give you what you want, what happens to me?”
“What do you want?”
“I want out,” I whispered. Not just out of Montana, but out of the paralyzing grip of the club. They looked at me as a piece of property—theirs to do with whatever they saw fit. And their idea of “fit” differed from mine. I’d met women who’d been beaten to within an inch of their lives for showing the slightest sign of disrespect. My brother had promised me I’d be looked after. The more I resisted him pulling me into the club, the harder he tried.
Six held my gaze—his warm brown eyes filling with sympathy. “You have my word I’ll keep you safe from them.”
I’d been warned about the Mustang Mountain Riders for most of my life. But my gut told me I could trust the brooding biker, and my gut hadn’t steered me wrong yet.
“Your shoulder looks bad.” Six’s chin jerked up. “What happened there?”
I closed my eye in a long blink, hoping that if I kept it closed long enough, I’d wake up and everything would be back to normal.
“The tattoo looks fresh,” Bear added. “Do you need to put something on it?”
“No. It would be okay with me if it didn’t heal all the way.” I glanced down at the ugly snake covering the top half of my breast. I’d been branded like a fucking head of cattle. Maybe they hadn’t used a branding iron, but the snake tattoo meant the same thing—I was property.
“I’m going to make another batch of eggs.” Bear got up from the table, leaving Six and me sitting there alone.
“Let me help you, Ginger.” Six reached for my hand. His thumb slid back and forth over my knuckles.
A glimmer of heat sparked deep in my belly as the rough pad of his thumb slowly skimmed over my hand. It would be so easy to lean into him and take comfort from the strength he offered. But I wasn’t about to trade one evil for another. If I could trust him and his MC brothers to get me far away from here, I’d give them what they wanted. That would mean putting my brother in danger, but wasn’t that what he’d done to me?
I looked up at Six. Tears stung the backs of my eyelids. I wouldn’t cry. Not in front of him. “Get me out, and I’ll tell you everything I know.”
He held my gaze, his deep brown eyes staring straight into my soul. “Where do you want to go? I’d love to take you up on your offer, but we both know if they think you crossed them, they’ll never stop looking for you. You’ll never be safe unless you help me destroy them.”
The intensity in his eyes was too much. I had to look away. Six pulled his hand back, and I felt the loss of his warmth like a cloud had just passed in front of the sun’s golden rays.
“The longer you wait, the more time you’re giving them to make plans against us.” He leaned back in his chair and ran a hand through his thick hair. “You might not have any warm fuzzy feelings about the club, but think about the innocent people in town who’ve been affected by the Savage Bones trying to move in. They’ve been terrorizing the town for the past couple of months.”
