It was Jessa, and she was there with Roni. And I knew why Brody was flipping out. For one, he had a massive hard-on for Jessa Mayes, which he tried to hide from Jesseandme. But since I was pretty sure he was also head-over-heels in love with her, would never actually touch her and would probably die before hurting her, I let it slide. I didn’t tattle on him to Jesse. But I did help him bounce her ass out of parties like this one—which was filled with bikers and other people none of us wanted Jessa anywherenear.
I followed Brody right up behindher.
“What. The. Fuck,” was all he said, loud enough for her to hear it over the band; Dirty was onstage, and hopefully Jesse would never have to know his little sister washere.
She turned around and put on a forced half-smile. She wasn’t any happier to see us than we were to seeher.
“Hey, Brody,” shesaid.
“The fuck are you doing here?” hegrowled.
“You’ve got five minutes,” I said, looming over her. The quickest way to diffuse the situation—and Brody’s ticking time-bomb temper—was to get her the fuck out ofhere.
“Five minutes until what?” she asked, as if she didn’t fuckingknow.
“’Til I bounce your ass out of here,” I said. “Say your hellos and goodbyes and let’s getgoing.”
Roni had lingered, listening in, but now she flipped her hair, giving me a bored look. “I’m gone,” she told Jessa. “Call you later, ’kay?” Then she smiled at me. “Later,jailor.”
“Keep an eye on that one,” Brody said, bumping my arm as Roni headed off through thecrowd.
“Why?”
“’Cause she’s sixteen. She gets to drinking, bounce her asshome.”
I snarled my irritation and glared at Jessa so she knew I was pissed—though that never did much to scare her away, anyway—then stalked off afterRoni.
“Good luck with that!” I heard Jessa call after me. Whatever. Forget minutes; fivesecondsand Brody was gonna have her out thedoor.
I didn’t love it, but I did what he asked me to. Because he was right. Roni was Jessa’s friend, and Jesse was gonna lose it if she got shit-faced at this party and ended up underneath some asshole. He was already worried enough about Jessa. None of us needed her or her underage friends at these parties. Least of allme.
I’d been in charge of any kind of security we needed as the band gradually got bigger, but managing Jessa’s safety was becoming a fucking headache. One way or another, that girl was growing up, and Jesse was gonna have to get used toit.
Still, I followed Roni through thecrowd.
She was wearing a black strapless shirt, super tight, with push-up cups. It was velvet, looked like no underage girl should legally be allowed to wear it, and fuck if I knew what it was called—a corset? Her jeans were skin-tight, low-cut on the hips, with a line of sparkly rhinestones right up the crack of her ass. They kept catching the light, snagging my eyes, like a g-string winking at me in thedark.
She ignored me, at first, but she knew I was there. When she stopped to watch the band, I came up beside her. She pretended not tonotice.
“Piper’s not here,” I toldher.
She gazed up at me, with the put-on innocence of a stripper doing a nun routine. “Who?”
“Piper,” I said. “My brother. You’re here for him,no?”
“I’m here for Dirty,” she said sweetly, blinking up at me. “But I’ll hang out with you, if youwant.”
Like I’d asked her to hang out withme.
She said itsosweetly I could almost buy the innocent act. Maybe. If I’d never met her before, or overheard all that shit about her sexual bucketlist.
But since I knew that if Piper was around he’d be her first choice, I was not falling forit.
“I mean, unless you want to leave,” she said, turning toward me. She shifted her hips so her tits jiggled in the cups of her velvet jail-bait top. “You wanna take me for a ride on yourbike?”
I was nineteen years old. My dad and my brother were patched members of an MC. I’d been riding motorcycles all my damn life. And I worked with a rock band. Which meant I met womenall the time, and I’d definitely had a lot of them ask for a ride on mybike.
I’dneverhad a woman—or for that matter, a girl—ask for a ride on my bike with that muchinnuendo.
