“Aw, come on, baby,” she whispers, leaning down so far that her mouth brushes the shell of my ear. I shudder in revulsion. How the fuck did I ever find this woman attractive? “Let’s go upstairs. I think we’ll need a little privacy.”
My restraint snaps and I stand up before turning to face her. “What the fuck makes you think I want to go upstairs with you?”
“Sawyer,” she whispers, blushing as the guys all start looking in our direction. Funny how she finally uses my real name now that she wants something from me. “I know you got all my messages and I’m sorry for the way things went down but let’s go upstairs and fix this.”
“I don’t want to fix this, Tawny. I broke up with you, remember?”
She places her hand on my chest and I glance down at it. “Well, maybe I can change your mind.”
“No.” I laugh, lifting my bottle of beer to my lips. “You can’t.”
Her hand starts dragging down the front of my body and I choke on my drink as I grab it and push it away as I shake my head.
“Don’t ever do that again.”
“I know you love my mouth,” she whispers, taking a step toward me and leaning in to kiss my neck. “And all the things I can do with it.”
I dodge her advance and slip out of her grasp as I finish off my beer. Fuck this shit. No more trying to be nice. No more letting her down easy because I’m not going to risk losing Juliette just to protect Tawny’s feelings, especially when she can’t take a hint. She spins around to face me and smirks. A few chuckles ring out behind me as she starts stalking toward me and I back up like a cornered animal.
“We don’t have to be anything more than we were before. We can just go back to being fuck buddies. Isn’t that what you want?”
I shake my head as my back hits the bar. “No. The only thing I want from you is to leave me the hell alone.”
“You don’t mean that. I know you have to be getting lonely, baby.”
“I met someone else,” I snap and she screeches to a halt, staring at me with wide eyes. I can feel every set of eyes in the room on me.
“What?”
“You heard me - I met someone else and it’s serious.”
She starts to shake as rage stains her cheeks. “You cheated on me?”
“No. I met her in Miami,” I say and her color quickly returns to normal as she laughs. Storm nudges my arm and I glance over at him.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
He nods and as I turn back to Tawny, I catch sight of Smith and Chance sitting at one of the other tables, laughing as they watch the scene unfold. Motherfuckers.
“How serious could it be if you just met her?” Tawny asks. “We have history.”
I shake my head. The last thing I want is Tawny and our history but I have a feeling nothing short of marriage will deter her. Sucking in a breath, I cross my arms over my chest and say the first thing that comes to mind.
“I’m claiming her.”
Tawny gasps, taking a step back. “What?”
“I’m fucking claiming her,” I say louder, surprised by how right it feels. “Y’all heard me, right? Juliette Shaw is my old lady.”
“You son of a bitch,” she hisses, charging at me. Storm and Kodiak step in front of me, blocking her path as Blaze stomps into the room with his phone in his hand.
“Moose, Kodiak, and Storm, get over to Peyton’s house now. Something is going down.”
The three of us jump up and Tawny stumbles back as we push past her to get to the door.
“Seriously?” She calls after us but she’s the last of my priorities, now or ever. We rush out to our bikes, working like a well oiled machine as the roar of bikes fills the air and we peel out of the parking lot. Peyton’s house is about three miles from the clubhouse but to get there, you have to go through a busy part of town so we stick to backroads and perform some less than legal maneuvers as we weave through traffic.
When we pull up in front of Peyton’s house, everything looks normal which only increases my unease as I scan the neighborhood. As we climb off our bikes, the front door opens and a small little thing with mousy blonde hair steps out of the house with a suitcase in her hand. She has bruises all over her face and arms as well as a nasty cut down the middle of her lip. Kodiak glances at me with a questioning expression and I shrug.
“Peyton?” Storm calls and she nods as she steps out onto the sidewalk. “Where’s your boyfriend?”
She points over her shoulder. “Sleeping.”
We all exchange a glance.
“I think we’re going to need a little more explanation,” I tell her and she sighs as she glances back at the house. The door is still wide open and I wonder if the motion sensor is just continually going off in there while we stand around outside.
“I’m happy to do that but can we not do it here? Also, I’m really hungry.”
Storm nods, taking control as he steps forward. “Yeah. Have you ever ridden a bike before?”
She shakes her head.
“Okay. Let me show you the basics.”
As Storm leads her down to his bike and explains what to do, I take her bag and secure it to the back of my bike as Kodiak closes the front door. Once we’re all ready, Storm turns to us.
“Let’s take her to that restaurant we passed on the way here.”
I nod. He climbs on his bike and helps Peyton get on behind him before pulling away from the curb. As I follow them, I check my mirrors obsessively to make sure we’re not being followed. The whole situation is weird. From everything we’ve heard, her boyfriend is super obsessive so why is he just missing all of the sudden? I mean, I don't want to accuse her of anything but you got to wonder if he's really lying dead on the kitchen floor or something. It wouldn’t be the first time one of these women snapped and did something crazy after years of torture and abuse.
Folks turn to look at us as we pull into the parking lot of the restaurant Storm suggested, their gazes bouncing from each one of us to Peyton’s battered face before turning back to us with disgust. You’d think after years of doing this work in Baton Rouge, people would know what it meant when they saw a Devil with a woman who had been knocked around but they always just assume we had something to do with it. Sometimes I wonder if we’ll ever get to a place where we can lose our old reputation and be known as a beacon of good in this town but maybe that’s too much to ask.
“I don’t want to hang out here for long,” Storm murmurs to me as we climb off our bikes and I nod, scanning the street again.
“Agreed.”
Storm guides Peyton into the restaurant with Kodiak and me guarding his back. We bypass the hostess stand and walk over to the booth all the way in the corner. He lets Peyton slide onto the seat closest to the door before sitting next to her and Kodiak and I sit across from them, watching the door. A flustered waitress rushes up to our table and pastes a smile on her face.
“Hi. Can I get y’all anything to drink?”
Storm nods to Peyton. “Go ahead and order whatever you want. To go.”
Nodding, she looks up at the waitress and orders a root beer, a cheeseburger, and fries. The waitress looks to each of us, silently asking if we want anything and we all shake our heads. The faster we can get out of here the better.