Devil's Girl: Dust Bowl Devils MC (5 page)

I was curious to see if our music taste similarities extended to other genres. "Do you like Type O Negative?"

"Mmhmm. I saw them live once." His other hand brushed my hip and just rested there - a feather-light touch that could be suggesting nothing, or could be hinting at everything.

I turned to him again. "No way! I'm totally jealous. Was it mind-blowing?"

He smiled that half-grin that had made me so stupid the night before. "It was. Aren't you too young to be into them?"

All my charm, my flirting skills, my girly wiles abandoned me. My voice even dropped am octave as my whole act melted away. I bounced on my toes as I spoke. "Good music knows no age," I said. "When did you see them? They don’t let me play them in here, they shout until Irish skips it. Jerks don’t know the good stuff when they hear it. It’s like they’re afraid a little goth music will make them want to go home and dye their hair and dress crazy and worship Satan."
What the fuck stop rambling dummy!
But his grin only broadened as the words poured from my mouth. It made me tingle between my legs. I
really
wanted to kiss him.

I thought maybe he felt the same. He leaned in even closer as he spoke. "Well, hail Satan. How did you get into them?"

I started to tell him it was my father, but my throat caught.
Don’t want to think about that
. He must have caught the moment on my face because he looked back at the screen as he said, "Sorry. Pick another?"

"Naw. We have enough lined up for now." I leaned back against the wall next to the screen, just touching his arm with my shoulder. "Who else do you listen to?"

He wasn't paying attention to my words, but he was looking at my lips. A little thrill ran through me, and I had to resist laughing at myself. The prospect of a kiss hadn't given me butterflies since middle school, but there I was, blushing again, nearly trembling with excitement. I stood on my toes as he leaned in -

The front door swung open with a bang. "Theo!" Bill had returned, with Jester at his heels. They scanned the room before spotting him with me. "Hands off the bitches. We've got news." They blew past us and through the door into the back rooms. Without so much as a shrug, Theo disappeared with them.

So much for that
. I hoisted myself up onto a stool with a heavy sigh. "What was that about?" I asked.

Irish wagged a finger at me. "Not your business." Then his expression softened. "He ain't gonna be around long, so don't get too attached."

I grinned. "What's the matter, Irish? Jealous of his pretty face?" He flipped me the middle finger as he slid me a beer. I was grateful for the cold drink - I really needed to cool down.

◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙◙

The rest of the evening was dull. Jester eventually reappeared from the back room, though Bill and Theo didn't follow. Dawn was all over him as soon as he appeared and shot me a victorious look when, not long after, he led her towards the back rooms. As if I give half a damn about that humorless stick in the mud. "Can you give her a ride home later?" I called after them.

"Fuck no," Jester replied without slowing. Dammit. That girl's gonna need to find a cheap old car.

I ended up begging the kitchen to give me something to do to pass the time. The fry cook sent me back out to the bar to wash glasses for Irish. He ain't too busy to do it himself, I thought, but I tucked a rag into my shorts and got to work anyway. "Just so I'm sure you won't charge me for the beer," I assured him when he tried to thank me.

"Wanna fool around after my shift?" he asked with a mischievous grin. I liked the young Prospect well enough and normally would have been right on that offer.
No way I’m gonna fuck the fucking Prospect while the new girl’s back there with the President’s son.
It wasn’t only that, though. It was Theo - not only because I still thought I had a chance with him, either. I didn’t want him to know what I was doing. I didn’t want to fuck my way around the club right under his nose.

I shrugged. “Another time. Gotta drive Dawn home.”

“Suit yourself.”

The bar was nearly empty by the time Dawn reappeared looking smug and disheveled and very out of it. Only the most dedicated drunks were still glued to their seats. I kept my comments to myself and asked, “Ready to go?”

She wobbled and grabbed the bar for support.
Fucking Jester.
“Yeah,” she giggled. Rolling my eyes, I led her outside by the hand. We stopped on the building’s little porch for a moment and enjoyed the fresh air after breathing beer and cigarettes all night.

“Jester’s nice.” She phrased it more like a question than a statement.

“Not really. You shouldn’t be taking anything while you’re working, you know. Honestly you shouldn’t be taking anything Jester gives you, period.”

“’gainst the rules?”

“No. Just bad form. Try not to fall down.” The gravel was rough enough to walk in on heels as it was, and we took our time picking our way around the back. Dawn wobbled and stumbled, but with my support managed to remain upright.

“Evening, ladies.” I got a little chill at the sound of the unfamiliar voice.

“Evening!” I said brightly. I expected to see a drunk shuffle out from between the cars - someone accidentally left behind by his friends, or too drunk to drive home just yet and waiting it off. But the man that stepped out was definitely a biker, in a black cut and black boots. He was somewhere on the older side of forty, not drunk, and
not
a Dust Bowl Devil.

“Can I help you?” I asked, putting my hands on my hips. “You lost?” He shook his head and stepped closer. I placed myself between him and Dawn. “You’d better get out of here, buddy. We ain’t alone, and those guys don’t take kindly to strange bikers around here.”

“I’ll bet.” He lunged for me.
Why oh why don’t I carry a weapon like a smart girl should?
I dodged instinctively, jostling Dawn and accidentally knocking her to the ground. His hand wrapped around my upper arm in a bruising grip, and nearly yanking my shoulder from its socket, he dragged me back between a car and a van.
Don’t get inside, don’t get inside.
I screamed. Dawn screamed. He clamped a hand over my mouth, but her high-pitched wail carried on piercing the night air.

Using the hand clamped across my mouth, he slammed my head back against the side of the van at my side and said, “Hold still or you’ll lose an eye.” I froze. He released my arm and pulled out a pocketknife. My knees went weak and I nearly fell down, but he held me where I was. “Cut it out.”

“We’re here!” Dawn screamed. Someone must have appeared. The man’s eyes flickered briefly towards the bar. Then, quick as a flash, he flicked the knife just below my eye. I gasped at the sting. Hot liquid dripped down my cheek.
Blood. He fucking cut me!

Then he hurled me to the ground and took off.

Another big pair of hands were on me a minute later. I screamed and tried to slap them away.
No more!
“Hey, calm down, you’re okay.”
Theo.
I scrambled to my feet, straightening my shirt as I stood. Tears rolled down my cheeks -
stupid, stupid!
- and I wiped them and some of the blood away before finally looking up at him. He cursed under his breath and held my face, inspecting the cut beneath my eye. “Can you see?”

“I’m fine.”

“It looks shallow.” His grip tightened and his eyes became fierce. I tried to shrink away. “What the fuck were you doing out here?” The gravel behind him shifted and he shouted over his shoulder, “Don’t you get up yet, you stay where you are.”

My eyes narrowed. “Don’t yell at her, she didn’t do anything.” Dawn got up anyway and beat on Theo’s shoulder uselessly with her tiny fists.

“Let her go!”

He held her back easily with one hand, keeping his deep brown eyes locked on mine. “Do you have any idea what could have happened?”

I was captivated by his eyes. He still held my chin in one hand and his fingers were warm against my skin. Despite the sting below my eye, my racing heart, Dawn’s shrieks, I longed to turn in to his touch, to kiss his hand. My pulse’s rhythm changed, from one of fear to one of desire. I settled for laying a hand on his wrist. “I’m sorry,” I said, not quite sure what I was apologizing for.

His grip softened. “Apologize to your friend for leading her into danger.”

“I’m sorry, Dawn.” The girl finally stopped struggling against his grip. His thumb gently traced my jaw before he released me - a touch so gentle I might have just imagined it. But my breath caught and my heart stuttered. It couldn’t have just been in my head. Then he released Dawn’s arm and took her by one hand. He held mine with the other.

“Bill needs to see this.”

“What?” Though I protested, I let him lead me back inside. “It’s barely a scratch. I just want to go home.”

“It’s not just a ‘scratch.’ It’s a warning.”

Bill was furious. I swear I could see steam coming out of his ears. "Who the fuck does this guy think he is?" He only barely examined my face and didn't ask how I was - his main concern was the insult to his club. Still, it felt good to see him get so angry, good to know they would go after this guy so it wouldn't happen again. He wasn't concerned about me personally, but I was part of the club circle, and an injury to me would not go unanswered.

"Go on home," he said as he disappeared into the back room. Probably to call the cavalry. Theo followed, but not before cursing out Irish.

"You let these girls walk out of here alone at night again and I'll rip your fucking jaw off, got it?"

Turning a little pale, Irish nodded.

"That was graphic," I said after Theo made his exit.

Irish mumbled, "Let's go," and walked us out to my truck. "Why don't you park out front?" he asked, "At least until they deal with that guy."

I assured him I would think about it.

I took the next night off. Nella was back on duty, so she gave Dawn a lift in my place. Part of me wanted to go - Dawn having the bar to herself for a night would go straight to her head. She'd be insufferable.
I've got to stop. I'm just being territorial.
So I stayed home with a tub of ice cream and watched tv and checked myself out in the mirror repeatedly, stressed out over the thought that I might have a scar. It didn't need stitches, but would probably leave a mark anyway.
The bastard
. My arm was covered in bruises where he'd grabbed me, too.

So when Bill surprised me by knocking on my door the next morning, the first thing I blurted was, "You found the guy?"

"Not yet." He squinted at my face. "Doesn't look too bad."

"No." I touched the shallow cut - now nothing more than a thin red scab that would be gone in no time. "It was just scary. I thought he was gonna put me in a car and take off. Why'd he do this?"

"A warning to the club," Bill said. "And a damn insult, pulling that shit right in our parking lot. Don't you worry about it, though. You just concern yourself with thanking Theo."

Oh, so that's what he's here about
. "Do you want to come in?" I asked. I didn't especially want him in my home, messy as it was, but it felt rude to keep him in the doorway.

"No. This will be quick. I want you back at the bar this afternoon. You owe him a thanks for saving your hide. And try to cheer up the sour bastard while you're at it. We want to keep good relations with the PA chapter and I'll be damned if he goes back home and says we didn't show him a good time. Understand?"

"Yeah. I got it."

"Make sure the new girl pays him a visit, too." That made me grin. The club president had come to me with official club business, not her. She was still secondary; I was still on top.

"I'll be picking her up myself."

"Good girl." His face softened for just a moment and he touched my face, just below the cut, giving it another glance. "Glad you're okay, Ivy."

"Thanks," I mumbled as he walked away.
I guess lazy time is over
.

I texted Dawn that I would be picking her up that afternoon, then showered and prepared to face the world again. Once I covered the mark with a little concealer, it was barely visible.