Page 35 of Coveted By Cupid

Hopefully, it’s not symbolic.

Oaks greets me as soon as I park my truck, handing me my leather cut. “Figured you’d want to show up to your own party dressed appropriately.”

“Thanks,” I say, slipping on my leather and breathing a little sigh of relief to be back in my armor.

We make our way to the front door when I ask, “What’s the mood inside?”

“It’s…interesting,” Oaks answers.

I pause outside the door, looking at my VP with a raised eyebrow. “Interesting? What the hell does that mean?”

He shakes his head. “You need to see it to understand.”

Heading inside, I halt as soon as I cross the threshold.

The Mercy Ravens aren’t acting as if they’re in enemy territory. A few are playing darts on the far wall with some of my men. Another handful are drinking at the bar, chatting with some of our crew members. One guy with a shaved head, covered in tattoos, performs karaoke on the stage by the front window while members of both crews laugh at him singing Madonna’s Like a Virgin.

Confused as hell, I slowly turn back to my VP, mouthing, What the fuck?

“I told you it was interesting. You had to see it for yourself. They’re a pretty chill for a pack of mercenaries,” Oaks says, pointing ahead to a table in the middle of the restaurant where the man I recognize as Atlas sits with another from his crew, sipping bourbon and watching sport highlights from the Colorado Rockies game earlier today on the TVs above the bar. “Atlas and his VP are waiting on us.”

Squaring my shoulders, I weave between tables to reach our guests while Oaks heads to the bar to get us some drinks. Atlas senses my approach. He turns his mean mug in my direction, assessing me.

“Atlas,” I say in a stiff greeting, taking the seat across from him. “This is a surprise, having you and your crew randomly drop in.”

The giant biker sips his bourbon, setting the drink on the table in front of him. “No more surprising than finding you alone in my town without an entourage and chasing after a young woman.”

“Not chasing. More like pursuing,” I correct him, leaning back into my chair and eyeing the giant brute the way he does me.

Atlas doesn’t seem to care that I’m glaring at him as hard as he’s glaring at me. “Why were you after her?”

“Right to business, I see.”

Fine by me. I want to get this shit over with sooner rather than later.

I take my cell out of my pocket, pulling up the picture I took of me and Vanessa in her apartment earlier, and slide my cell across the table to Atlas. He picks it up, studying the picture, raising an eyebrow when he recognizes her as the same woman I was following this afternoon on his turf.

“She’s my woman,” I say, a smile creeping into my voice and unable to hide my pride for landing such a fine woman. “Her name’s Vanessa. She’s a CSU graduate student, studying to be an addiction counselor.”

Atlas shows his VP—a man whose name patch reads Gauge—the image. He nods, confirming it was the same woman from earlier in the day.

Oaks returns to the table with our drinks as Atlas hands me my cell back, his brows pulling together.

“Why was she acting like she had no clue who you were when we met today?”

I chuckle to myself, spinning my drink glass on the table as I recall my first encounter with my little baddie on wheels. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Try me.”

Knowing this is the only way I can travel between here and Vanessa’s without this MC breathing down mine and my crew’s necks, I explain how I met Vanessa, the flirting, the road race, and finally connecting at her place without the private details.

Atlas and Gauge exchange a knowing look, as if they understand my circumstance all too well, before looking back at me.

“Are you claiming her, or is this temporary?” Atlas asks, his voice losing its edge of hostility. “I want to know how often I should expect you in my city.”

“She’s my ole lady,” I say breezily.

Oaks chokes on his beer, nearly spilling the frosted stein when he sets it down to catch his breath. He looks at me like I’ve grown a third head, probably brainstorming a list of questions to ask me later regarding my new relationship.