Retribution: A Motorcycle Club Romance (6 page)

Eva nodded, and scrambled to shut the
back door that was still open to the drifting, quiet meadow. She clicked both
the locks and returned to the bar room. Charlie finally began to move and
react, talking to himself in speedy, curse-studded sentences as he paced behind
the bar. Will put his hands on his waist and walked slowly back toward the bar,
looking suddenly out of breath and tired. He reached to drain the tiny bit of
beer left in the stein he had just used to break some guy’s arm. Even from a
distance, Eva could see the blood on his knuckles.

She looked up at Will’s face, and he
met her eyes. Her knees felt suddenly weak.

I guess he’s not with
them…

~
SIX ~

As he put the stein back down on the bar, Will saw the
faint stains of blood left over from where bone had pierced skin when he broke
that motherfucker’s arm. He looked at his hand, fascinated to see that it was still.
No matter how righteous the violence, he typically got the adrenaline shakes,
even if they didn’t bother him. But not now. He didn’t feel his heart rate jump
at all the entire fight.

Not sure that’s a good
thing,
he thought.

Will came out of his battle haze and
remembered he wasn’t alone in the room. The young guy who’d introduced himself
as Charlie raved around behind the bar like a robot whose circuits had been
splashed with water. In his stress, Will could hear a clipped accent from the
city on Charlie’s voice as he rambled. “What the fuck was that?! You have got
to be fucking kidding me. What the hell am I supposed to be, some gladiator?
I’m running a bar!”

And then there was the girl, Eva.
Well,
girl
wasn’t quite the right word—the soft curves of her thin body
gave her away as a grown woman, but she had a delicate air, like a doll. She
was attractive in a way that Will hadn’t seen in a long while, surrounded as he
was by women with edge and coldness. She stood in the doorway that separated
the bar from the employee areas, frozen in fright, staring at him with her
mouth hanging half-open. At her feet lay the book she had been reading, pages
crushed and haphazard.

Will stepped toward her wordlessly,
watching her big brown eyes get wider as he approached. He bent in front of her
and picked up the book, straightening the pages between the cover before he
offered it to her.

Eva stared up at him like she
couldn’t process what he wanted. Her soft brown hair fell in waves that framed
her pale, heart-shaped face. He couldn’t help but stare at her full, pouty lips
as they quivered, trying to find words. An unmistakable bolt of lust raced down
his spine and hardened his dick just a little.

He held the book closer to her and
she finally looked down and took it in nervous, shaking hands, holding it to
her chest like a shield. When her gaze lifted back to him again, she wore a
confused, but soft, expression.

“You all right?” he asked.

Will saw redness flush across Eva’s
cheeks, saw her pupils dilate when he spoke. It excited him. “Y-Yeah, I’m fine,”
she finally responded, voice cracking.

Will nodded at her, and held her gaze
a few minutes more. He could feel the growing heat in his veins and turned away
before he could get too distracted by it.

“What the holy fuck is going on?”
said Charlie, hands on his hips. He had come out from behind the bar and stood
now in the middle of the room. “Who the shit are you, and what just happened?”

Will came toward him and was
impressed to see that Charlie didn’t back away. “Mr. Murdock, that was
racketeering.”

“What the fuck is this, some Scorsese
movie? I’ve seen more criminal behavior in the week we’ve been in this shit
town than I have my whole life in the city!” said Charlie, arms still waving
excitedly as he spoke.

“You said you were taking over for
Owen—looks like there’s some stuff he failed to mention before you showed,”
said Will as he stretched the fingers in his right hand. Already they throbbed
with ache and pain, knuckle wounds once again torn open and bleeding down his
arm.

“Fuck you,” said Charlie. “He’s our
uncle, he didn’t set us up to get killed by gangsters. Our aunt is dying, he
moved with her to hospice care. We’re just trying to help out.”

“Well, I can tell you, it’s bad form
to just come into a new joint and start wrecking the place,” said Will,
gesturing to the spilled beer from the farmer’s table. “Violence attracts
attention. Money is a better lubricant.”

“Your point being?”

“This isn’t their first time here.
Maybe your uncle made some enemies before he left—”

From behind came Eva’s voice. “No,
this isn’t their first time here. I’ve met them before.”

When Will turned around, he saw her
walking up to them, her flowery sundress swishing around her thin legs. She
held a bar towel out to him, giving a knowing nod to his bloody knuckles. Will
could see the fear from before was all but gone, her eyes lit up by adrenaline.
He took the towel from her and wiped the blood off his arm and hand.

“When did you meet them before?” he
asked.

Eva licked her lips and put her hands
on her delicate waist. Will felt a distracting twitch in his nether regions.
“They came into the bar earlier. They asked for the owner, and I was the only
one here, so I told them it was me. They didn’t like that answer, so they…” She
paused and looked down, gathering some composure before she continued. “The one
whose arm you snapped got a little touchy and left some vague threats. He said
the real owner better be here when they return.”

Will felt anger rise in his blood at
her words. He raised an eyebrow and turned back to Charlie. “You sure they
didn’t know your uncle?”

“No,” said Eva. “They didn’t. It was
clear they didn’t know who they were looking for, only that it wasn’t a woman.
They couldn’t have met Owen.”

“What makes you say that?” said Will.
He was impressed with how this girl seemed to know what she was talking about,
despite being clearly in over her head. His tone may have given that away,
because she immediately blushed and looked self-conscious at his question.

“By the questions they asked. People
betray their prejudices that way, if you know what to look for.”

Before he could stop himself, Will
felt a smile tugging at his mouth. Eva returned it for just a moment before she
cleared her throat and walked away, back behind the bar, busying herself with
something.

“Look, who the fuck are you, anyway?
How the hell did you do that to those guys?” said Charlie, pointing at the
door.

Will paused.
Fuck, who
am
I?
he thought. Before he let them make their cowardly escape, he twisted the
literal broken arm of the one in the bun until he told Will what he wanted to
know.
Those fuckers came from the Ramirez cartel.
Right now, all those
men knew about Will was confined to the injuries he’d dealt them. But if they
found out he was a Black Dog, they could use it as leverage to amend the truce
to their favor, or even start a turf war.

But if they really were cartel men,
they were breaking the truce, too. Howlett and LeBeau were strictly off-limits to
them, at least when it came to anything more than temporary transport and
storage of goods. Hassling a bar owner to no doubt start laundering money or
running drugs from his business was not a gray area—it was a clear violation.
He could call Henry right now and potentially have the MC behind this problem.

What makes you think
Henry will suddenly change his tune on diplomacy? He has a treaty now to back
up the idea—illusion, clearly—of peace. He’s not going to listen. You might as
well bury both these kids out back right now.

“Hey, asshole, I’m talking to you.”

Will shook out of his thoughts and
looked at Charlie. “I’m Will Bowers. I live around here.”

“And how the fuck did you learn to
fight like that? Military?”

“Right,” said Will with a lying nod.
“Lucky break for you guys.”

“Lucky, yeah, that’s the word in my
mind for sure,” said Charlie with bitter fire.

“It is lucky, because I’m going to
keep you both alive and with a bar that isn’t reduced to a steaming pile of
rubble.”

“What the hell are you talking
about?”

“Those men will be back, or if not
them, others like them. They might take a bit of time to try and figure out
what just happened, but once they feel prepared, they’ll hit again. And next
time, they won’t be so easy to push out the door.”

Charlie shook his head and released a
deep breath. “Christ. We have to go to the cops.”

“Cops clean up crimes, they don’t
prevent them,” said Will.
Plus, our cops will probably just call Henry,
putting us right back on the path to Armageddon.
“We have to stop them
ourselves.”

“
We
?”

Will gave Charlie a withering look.
He turned toward Eva behind the bar, halfway through a pint of beer and trying
to gather herself. He raised a hand at her. “I’m sorry, which one of you is the
secret kung-fu master that’s going to fight them off next time?”

“So, what then, you’re just gonna
stay here and wait for them to come back? Let me guess what that’s gonna cost
me,” said Charlie. He lifted an angry finger at Will. “You’re probably a part
of it, aren’t you? These guys hassle me, and then you come in and offer
security, take all my money, and probably let them burn the place down anyway,
is that it?”

Charlie couldn’t know what his words
meant, but that didn’t stop Will from stalking over to him like an angry
predator. Charlie took a half-step back in surprise. Even though the muscles in
his chest and arms from years of obvious hard labor could probably have dealt
Will quite a bit of trouble in a fight, Charlie didn’t seem aware of his own
strength, not in that way. He didn’t even raise his fists up.

“I’m
not
with them,” said Will
quietly. “And I don’t want a dime of your fucking money. I’m not offering you
long-term anything. I’m just going to shut down this rabid dog problem you’re
having.”

Charlie searched his face, likely trying
to tell whether Will was being honest or not, but this kid didn’t have the
skills for it. It didn’t matter, anyway; he wasn’t lying. “Why should we
believe you?”

“Because I’ve seen it before,” said
Will. His ears filled with the sudden faraway roar of fire. He swallowed. “And
I don’t want to see it again.”

Charlie paused, and turned back to
look at his sister, as if he wanted her input. Eva looked at them both from
behind a glass of beer as she drank, but didn’t say anything. Her eyes were
wide like a scared animal.

Charlie said, “Fine. Help us.”

~
SEVEN ~

Well, you wanted adventure, girly… now you’ve got it.

As Eva watched the conversation
between her brother and Will unfold, she felt less and less like she was still
inside her dull, melancholy life, and it both excited and frightened her. She
hadn’t seen Charlie so rattled in a very long time; he hadn’t even noticed that
he had spilled an entire shot of whiskey down the front of his crisp white
t-shirt yet.

And she had never seen anyone like
Will.

“Close the bar up for the day,” said
Will. “We need to make some plans. Undistracted.”

“I can’t believe I’m agreeing to
this,” said Charlie, shaking his head. “I’ll make up some note for the door.”
He lumbered off toward the small alcove in back that served as Owen’s makeshift
office.

Will watched him go, then turned and
looked straight at Eva. She held his gaze a moment, simply because she couldn’t
help it. Then she turned away and finished the half-pint she had poured herself
in three deep swallows.

Will walked up to the bar. “Mind
pouring me one?” He lowered himself back into the seat he’d been in before.

Eva nodded and tried not to look at
him. Maybe it was her frightened brain trying to find a distraction, but once
she started looking at Will’s gorgeous face, she never wanted to tear her eyes
away. She lifted a clean glass and pulled the draught handle, watching the beer
intently until she placed it in front of the intense man sitting across from
her.

He wrapped huge, scruff, scar-covered
hands around the cold glass. His knuckles still trickled blood.
I cannot
believe this is the type of man who’s revving my engine…
Eva thought as her
gaze wandered up his muscled forearms and shoulders until it landed on his
face. Will stared down into his beer glass, unaware she watched.

Not knowing what else to do with
herself, Eva poured another beer in her own glass. She took two big drinks.
“Thanks… for, uh, for helping with those men,” she said.

The way Will looked up at her so
suddenly, Eva was sure she had interrupted some thought. “Didn’t have a choice,
really. Some dogs need to be put down.”

The coldness in his voice gave Eva an
honest shiver. “Does that mean you’re going to kill them when they come back?”

Will fell silent a moment, and Eva’s
heart nearly stopped.
Christ. What have we gotten ourselves into?

“Only if it comes to that,” said
Will. But something in his eyes had a different answer when he looked up at
her.

Eva swallowed hard, her throat tight.
She licked her lips and saw Will’s gaze focus on her mouth as he watched. He
stared at her lips and almost unconsciously ran a tongue over his own.
How
can I be so turned on and so terrified at the same time?

A distracting silence fell between
them. Eva heard the office phone ring in the back room, and then stop ringing.
She cleared her throat. “So, have you… I guess you do this a lot?” asked Eva
gently.

“Do what? Save strangers from thugs?
Yeah, I’m a regular Batman,” he said with a bitter laugh. He took a drink.

“Well, it doesn’t seem like the first
fight you’ve been in, is all.”

“And it won’t be the last,” he said. His
eyes went heavy when he said it, staring down at the bar.

Sure is a warm and fuzzy
guy
. “Are you from around here?”

Will looked up at her, right into her
eyes with his own deep brown ones, which served to send a jolt of heat right
from her neck all the way down to her thighs. “Eva, was it?”

 “Yes.”

“Eva,” he said, holding her gaze,
speaking deliberately. “I’m not the kind of fucking guy you chat up with small
talk and try to wiggle inside by being friendly, okay?” His expression became
some mockery of a smile, like sarcasm incarnate. “Ten minutes ago I was
snapping a man’s arm a few feet from where you read a book without a care in
the world. Do you try to pet dogs that have just gotten out of a fighting pit,
too?”

Eva’s face flushed with embarrassed
anger. She felt emotion rising up from deep in her chest, that same vengeful
feeling she used to get when boys from outside the neighborhood would try to
mess with her walking home from school. Her Pa used to tell her it was their
Irish fire—and Eva felt it burning now. “Christ, aren’t you a real tough guy? Breaking
a man’s arm isn’t enough, you’ve gotta be a bastard to a woman who hasn’t done
a thing to you, too?”

Will gave her an eye roll and drank
his beer. “A tough guy’s what you need, lady, not a cuddly teddy bear. So why
don’t you just fuck off and let me do what you need me here to do in peace?”

Eva bit her lip as if it would hold
back the tide of furious words building in her throat.
Has there ever been a
single man in all the world that has ever been a grown-up?
she thought as
she drained the rest of her glass in a huff. She slammed it empty back down on
the counter hard enough that Will’s gaze flickered up to her.

“Some dogs need to be put down, all right,”
she muttered, as she swiped her book from where she’d left it on the counter
and walked away from Will. She nearly bumped into Charlie coming in from the
back with a roll of tape and his makeshift handwritten sign.

Charlie made a surprised sound, and then
frowned. “Where are you going?”

“I’m fucking off,” said Eva in a dark
tone, trying to move around him. She could feel Will’s eyes on her back, and it
made heat rise in her body—this time more of the angry type.

“What?” said Charlie, confused.

“I’m going to the house,” said Eva
impatiently. “Just leave me alone.” She pushed past him.

“Keep your phone on you. I want to be
able to check in!” Charlie called as she weaved out the back door and into the
meadow.

Eva didn’t reply as she stalked
through the forest meadow, completely ignoring the view in a way she hadn’t
before. She stormed up the porch stairs, made a beeline for the kitchen and a
bottle of iced tea, and then holed up in her borrowed master bedroom. After lying
on the cool sheets for a few minutes, watching the curtains dance in the
breeze, Eva felt her anger mostly dying. Every minute, Will’s hurtful words
pulsed less and less loudly in her mind.

What the hell is that
guy’s problem? I didn’t do a single thing to deserve being talked to like that.
Why would he risk himself to help us in a lethal situation and then turn around
and treat me like shit afterwards?

Eva was so tired of men. She felt
like they were an alien species she couldn’t comprehend. Sure, she had grown up
a little shy and socially isolated, but she was a smart woman, totally capable
of overcoming those things to find friends, boyfriends, and eventually, a
husband. The friends, she kept and kept well. But the men never seemed to
follow the same rules. Laura always told her it was because men were
intimidated by her, and the thought always made Eva howl with laughter. But
Laura held the line, insisting it was Eva’s brains and fire that caused her
trouble.
Weak men are afraid of strong women
, she would say.

But she never felt like Rick had been
afraid of her. No, quite the opposite—in her mind, Rick loomed like a monster who
had never been afraid of anything. She was the one who had been afraid. The man
who proposed to her was strong, sweet, and supportive. The man he became when
he was finally her husband was none of those things. Rick kept her tired and
frightened, alienated her from her friends and family, and even made it hard
for her to hold down a job with his incessant and jealous fits when she had to
work late. When she lost that job, the net only drew in tighter, and Rick had
kept her from finding employment, insisting she remain in the apartment as a
housewife. Under his full control, Rick tormented Eva psychologically and
emotionally until she couldn’t sleep or eat, until she felt like time had lost
meaning and she had already died.

Laura was the only friend who refused
to let Rick push her away. She never ignored a call or text from Eva, and
frequently risked herself to try and intervene. Like many abused women, Eva
resisted help for years, refusing to see the truth of her life and too afraid
to fix it when she did. But after Rick cut off her ability to communicate with
the outside world by destroying her phone and laptop, Eva finally realized the
danger she was in. Laura and Charlie had worked together to establish an escape
for her. Eva would never forget the looks on their faces when they saw her
after months of no visits under Rick’s control: malnourished, exhausted,
bruised, utterly spent. She had never seen Laura look so frightened before or
since.

Eva hated that she understood what a
trapped animal felt like, that she would never be able to fully shake off the
darkness which Rick had shown her existed. For months after she left him, Eva
couldn’t even stand to walk by pet stores, because the urge to compulsively
rescue every single animal there would overwhelm her until she was crying in a
puddle of fabric on the sidewalk.

She spent the last two and a half
years with Charlie, trying to heal. And her misunderstanding of men was not
confined to her romantic entanglements; Eva had never quite understood her big
brother, either. Smart, sweet, attractive, and driven, Charlie had nonetheless
never shown much interest in any of the sort of connections Eva enjoyed so
much. A few girlfriends in his early twenties fizzled out unceremoniously, and
then he just seemed to stop caring about it altogether. In a lot of ways, he
reminded her of their pa and his deep work ethic, only taken to a greater
extreme.

Living with Charlie was basically
like living by herself, with an occasional man stopping by to leave empty milk
cartons in the fridge and piles of dirty clothes on the bathroom floor. If he
wasn’t at work, he was working on his own projects. Eva still felt a bit
isolated, but never for long, and never like she felt before. It might have
been lonely, but Charlie’s place was stable, quiet, and peaceful. He made
enough money that he didn’t care when she went back to work. She lost herself
in the pages of her books, still too tender to rejoin the world at full
strength, but longing for connections regardless. Connecting with book
characters had never been difficult for her.

And then Uncle Owen had called, and
led to this: Eva, lying on some strange lumpy mattress, trying to figure out
why she couldn’t stop thinking about the handsome, rude stranger who had just
saved her life and then bit her head off.
Remember when life felt
monotonous, like, a week ago?
she thought to herself with a sarcastic laugh.

Eva sighed and reached for her phone
on the night table with the ugly doilies. She texted Laura to see what she was
doing; she told her developments had unfolded. Eva’s phone started ringing not
ten seconds after she sent the text.

“Developments!” said Laura as soon as
Eva answered. “I figured something good must have happened when you had to hang
up on me like that.”

“I’m not sure if ‘good’ is the word,”
said Eva. “But it’s not boring.”

“Should I get popcorn?”

Eva laughed. “No, just shut up and
listen. So, you’re not going to believe this, but our bar just got… like…
hassled.
”

“What, like, by some Fifties biker
gang in leather jackets? Did you chase them away with a broom?” said Laura.

“Seriously, they were shoving
customers out the door and threatening them.”

“Holy shit, Ev! Are you guys okay?”

“Yeah, we’re fine. But there’s this
guy… this other guy…”

She heard Laura’s laugh through the
phone speaker. “Oh, I can already tell this guy is gonna be good.”

“He just
kicked the shit
out
of them,” said Eva. “Remember that one time we were at Morningside Park with
the Cicero brothers, and Tony kept prodding at that skinny nerd from Ms.
Locusta’s class?”