Chapter One
Several Months AfterHarlow’s Wedding
“Andrew seems like a nice boy.”
Larissa Adams smiled at her father’s rather veiled interest.“Yeah, he’s nice.”
“He kept coming to see you in the hospital,” Jonah said.
“Dad, stop, okay?”
“What?He was worried.As you know, we were all worried.”
Larissa took a deep breath, but she wasn’t angry at her father.She knew he was worried about her.Ever since she had gotten hit by stray bullets a few months ago, he’d been worried.For a short time, he hadn’t wanted her to go to work, and had even asked her to consider her position around the Hell’s Bastards MC.She was aware of Smokey paying him a visit, but she didn’t know what went down between the two.
She understood why her father was afraid.She’d been working, minding her own business, when the chaos had started, and it hadn’t even been directed at her, but at Hailey’s Beauty Parlor.They’d been the target.Not her.She had gotten hit by stray bullets.
The trouble was, Larissa loved her job working for Ava.With Ava on maternity leave, Larissa had total control over what happened at the shop.Larissa knew she was different.It wasn’t even intentional.She’d changed.
Not many people knew what happened at the shop.
The shop had already been open when the bullets started to rain down.Andrew had been at the shop.He’d been asking her for a date and requesting they make their friendship something deeper.
George, or as he preferred to be called, Big Dick, had entered the shop and heard what Andrew said.He’d snorted.She heard it.She was not a woman who disliked people often, however, Big Dick was not exactly known for being nice.
“You know you’re not wanted here, right?The guys have had enough of your prissy fucking attitude.You think you’re better than us.The women don’t want you either, judging them because they want a good, hard fuck, and it doesn’t mean they have to be attached to a man.They’re not looking for forever, or rainbows, or fucking butterflies.Why don’t you take your holier-than-thou attitude and fuck off?”
The last time she had tried to be nice to George, because she refused to call him Big Dick, he’d just verbally attacked her.It was fine, she could take it.He didn’t like her.She knew in town there were a lot of people who were not fans of her.They didn’t like her smiling demeanor, nor the fact she was constantly wearing dresses or skirts.However, there were people that did like her as well.It didn’t matter.
She’d ignored George and had been about to accept Andrew’s dating proposal, when the bullets rang out.What shocked her was even as she got hit by the stray bullets, it was George who had jumped behind the counter and covered her.Andrew ran.
As George had pulled out a gun and started to retaliate, Andrew had run away.He’d looked at her, and she saw the fear in his eyes as he stared at her and then ran.He hadn’t stayed to help George or get her to the hospital.
She knew George had struggled with his decision.His sister had been attacked, but he’d not gone to the beauty parlor, he’d picked her up, gotten her into a car, and to the hospital.No one had asked how she got to the hospital, and she didn’t tell anyone.After she came out of surgery and was laid in that hospital bed, all she could see was Andrew, running away.He didn’t get hit.
Andrew came to the hospital as if he’d not even been in the shop when it happened.He brought her flowers.In front of her father, the nurses, and doctors, he acted like a concerned boyfriend.The moment the doors were closed, he begged her not to say anything.So, she hadn’t.
But there was no way she was ever going to be with him.Every time she looked at him, all she saw was him running away.He took one look back at her, and she was about to ask him to help, but he ran before she could even form the word on her lips.Instead, a guy who hated her guts had saved her.
George had pushed her down out of the way of the bullets, then protected her.When he realized she had gotten hit, he didn’t even hesitate.No expletive or complaint.He just picked her up like she weighed nothing and carried her out to a waiting car.She didn’t even know whose car it was.For all she knew, it could have been stolen.He got her to the hospital moments before Hailey had arrived.She’d been the one in surgery.
She’d been hit by three bullets—one to the abdomen, another to the shoulder, and as the impact hit her, it had also gone into her thigh.It was a miracle no major arteries were damaged.She had fully recovered and been home for quite some time now.All that remained were the few scars she saw every time she got naked.
“I know you were worried, Dad,” she said, pulling out of her thoughts.She pulled the pin out of her hair to let the long, brown curls fall around her.
“You’re a good girl,” he said.
She offered him a smile.“I know, but they’re my friends.Ava, Abriana, Harlow, Hailey, and even Raven, they’re all my friends, and I wouldn’t miss being with them for the world.”They were celebrating the news that Harlow was pregnant.
Sure, going to the only bar in town, Ryan’s Place, didn’t exactly seem ideal to celebrate, but they served more than alcohol, and Harlow was going to have a soda.It would be nice to just get out and have a girls’ night.
“Raven is going to be there?”
Her father had a soft spot for Raven.She knew it wasn’t romantic.Raven was married with twin daughters, and her life was devoted to the Hell’s Bastards MC, but when she needed time and space, she had come to them.
“Yes, of course.Who do you think invited me?”Larissa asked.
Sometimes it felt like a passing thought for the group to invite her.She was not MC material, and after spending a short time being employed by Smokey at the MC clubhouse to clean it, she knew she was nothing like the women that hung around the club.
