“You’ve got a dove inked into your skin. How much do you really know about them?” he asks.
I blink and look up at him, not understanding why we’re talking about this when I just told him to leave. He rests his hand on the bar, the one with his own, larger dove.
“When they find each other, they don’t just bond for the night, sonah,” he says before turning to leave without another word. I follow him, walking briskly.
“How long do they bond for?” I ask behind him.
He just turns and smirks at me over his shoulder, like he knows something I don’t.
“I mean it,” I call after him, trying to sound as tough as I can while he pushes through the glass doors into the now cloudless night. The moment he’s out of the door I lock it much more violently than warranted and let out a frustrated huff. The click of the deadbolt echoes through the glass foyer.
I mutter obscenities under my breath as I move back toward the bar to finish up, turning when I get there and leaning back on it, blowing out a breath. I’m not there for more than a second before Chantel and Amber are at my side.
“Whaaaaatwas that?” Chantel asks, pulling out a bottle and pouring us all a shot.
I put my head in my hands and groan. “Thatwas a mistake. Five minutes of thinking with my pussy and now he says he’ll ‘see me tomorrow.’ I don’t know what to do.”
Chantel hands me a shot glass. “I do,” she snorts.
I look at her expectantly. She looks from me to Amber as she hands Amber hers. “Give whatever that mountain of a man wants a try, and enjoy every single second.” Chantel laughs. “It’s not the end of the world.”
They both laugh harder and knock back their shots.
“I’ve been to a party or two at the Hounds of Hell clubhouse. They get up to some pretty crazy shit, and to be honest I think I may have hooked up with one of them a couple years ago. I was pretty drunk but I just remember it washot.” Chantel nudges me. “You could have some fun with him. It’s a distraction from your constant routine of work and school, and it’s not like you’re a prude. You’d like it, I’m sure.”
I look toward the door, shaking my head. Remembering where he comes from, who he most likely is at his core. The police sketch released of my parents’ killer fills my mind. I remember the tattoos, the distinctive leather vest. Sure, it wasn’t unequivocally a Hounds of Hell vest on the killer, but it was someone just like him, wasn’t it?
“Earth to Lay?” Chantel says, snapping her fingers. “Oh my God, this is why you were late coming back from break!” She whistles.
Oh God.
This night just needs to be done. I want to go home, have a hot shower and then fall into bed because I have a 10 a.m. class tomorrow on campus and then I have another full shift here after that. I also have to ride the bus both ways, since my mom’s old Lincoln died on me a couple weeks ago. The very last thing Ineed is a persistent outlaw showing up here tomorrow night and distracting me like this again.
I run through what happened tonight and calm myself down as we continue to close up, feeling like I might be gaining some clarity now that I’m away from his gaze.
Thismustjust be his game. I want nothing to do with his world and I’ll make that clear over and over if I have to. Yes, he played right into fantasies I hadn’t even fully admitted to myself yet. But men do this sort of thing every day, so why can’t I? It’s no big deal. I don’t owe him anything. I’ll just stay clear if I ever see him again, which I probably won’t.
“Stop worrying about it,” Chantel calls with a laugh from the other side of the bar, surely taking in the way my brow is knotted as I work. She knows me pretty well after only a few months. I look up at her and she shrugs. “He probably moved on the moment he left. Men like that don’t have a long attention span.”
“Yeah.” I nod. She’s right. He’s just fucking with me because he can. He’ll forget all about me.
By the time I head out and climb into Chantel’s car for the ride home she offered me, Ialmosthave myself convinced.
CHAPTER NINE
Sean
“At least she’s getting out of the house again. Before you know it, she’ll be back at school, one day at a time.” I grip Mason’s shoulder beside me in our club meeting—our service.
We’re seated in the chapel room at the clubhouse. It’s a large space that houses a heavy walnut table, big enough to seat twenty-five. An intricate metal replica of our cut hangs on the wall, an homage to where we came from. Wolfe’s grandad Ira designed the insignia with his own hand. The deadly wolf skull with a snake slithering through. A reminder:Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.
The room is sparsely furnished, just the table with ashtrays on it and in the far corner a fully stocked liquor cabinet. This is our safe space, the place we can speak freely about anything and everything. Business or personal.
“She’ll get past this. We’ll find and fucking gut whoever did this to her, but in the meantime, she’s got the family, and her therapy right?” I ask.
Mason nods. “Yeah, seems like it’s helping.”
The entire table offers similar support after my words. Itwasn’t much more than three months ago that his youngest, now seventeen-year-old, sister was assaulted by a man who had lured her through a social media app. She thought he was a college student, one she had developed feelings for. He covered his face, drugged her, raped her and recorded it, stating on the video that she’d consented, that she’dbeggedfor it. She hadn’t. Fucking disgusting. The videos were released online with the man fucking her, his middle finger raised to the camera. It was taken down, but the whole thing has come close to ruining her life. And the police keep saying she’s just another statistic. They haven’t been able to figure out who did it. Butweknow it’s a personal retaliation targeted at our club. We know it was a Disciples of Sin member because of a tattoo on the guy’s wrist in the video.
