As I stepped forward, the heavy wooden door shut with a bang behind me and drew the eyes of the people sitting closest to me. I saw a couple of looks of recognition, and some people purposely looking away. I nodded and touched the tip of my finger to the brim of my hat in a fairly polite greeting. These people weren’t my friends. No one in this town had tried to help my brother when he needed it the most, and I would never forget that. Unlike the Lawton kids, I’d left Loveless in the rearview mirror and planned on never looking back. All of my worst memories were here. So was the one person I wanted more than anything but knew I could never have.
Under the dim bar lights, I met Kody’s gaze across the room. She looked pale. Her wild mane of multicolored blond hair was messier than usual, and she appeared to be swaying slightly every time she let go of her hold on the bar. Her eyes narrowed, and at first I thought she was giving me a dirty look, but the next instant her entire body lurched and she toppled over, listing to the side and disappearing behind the wide, long bar.
My heart stopped for a split second and I had to bite my tongue to stop from screaming her name. I often found myself in dangerous, deadly situations due to my job, but I couldn’t recall a single instance when I had been as terrified as I was in that moment Kody went down.
I heard the biker shout her name and was vaguely aware of him kicking back his bar stool as he jumped to his feet. I was moving before I had time to weigh whether it was a good idea. Kody didn’t like when I was in her space. She’d told me she hated me and ordered me to leave her alone on more than one occasion, but none of that stopped me from reaching the bar in record time. It didn’t slow me down when I planted a hand near the biker’s empty drink and vaulted over the top of the bar.
I landed on the floor in front of Kody, ignoring the shouts and commotion coming from all directions. I waved off the bartender hovering uncertainly behind Kody and quietly asked, “Are you okay, Kody?”
The answer was obvious when, instead of biting my head off, her big, bright-green eyes flooded with tears and her shoulders started to shake with silent sobs. Having people burst into tears as I was talking to them was a pretty common occurrence considering my line of work. I’d developed a natural immunity to tears of all kinds. But not to Kody’s. Hearing her breath catch and watching her eyelashes get spiky and damp as she struggled to hold the tears back made my heart twist painfully in my chest.
“Is there someplace quiet I can take her for a few minutes?” I asked the question over Kody’s head as the bartender pointed to a set of stairs that led to what I assumed used to be the hayloft when the building was an actual barn.
“Her office is up there.” The bartender twisted a white towel between his hands and muttered, “Is she going to be all right?”
Kody gave her head a shake, but a sob broke free. Before she could fight me, or push me away, I reached for her, wrapping her up in my arms and lifting her off the scarred, battered floor.
“She’ll be fine. It’s been a rough few days.” I was responding to the bartender, but I was also telling Kody she would be okay. I was sure she’d heard it from her family and the people who loved her, but I wanted her to hear it from me as well. She would be fine even if I had to move heaven and earth to make it happen.
I stood, Kody clutched in my arms, her wet face turned toward my shoulder. I was getting ready to move toward the stairs when I heard a thump and was suddenly face-to-face with a pissed-off biker.
Shot was an inch or two shorter than I was, but he was bulkier. If it came to throwing fists there was no guarantee I would be the victor. And I figured the badge I carried would do little to deter the man if he felt I was standing in his way.
“Put her down. I’ll take care of her.” His voice was low and void of any kind of accent. His eyes were dark and unwavering. A tic jumped in his cheek, indicating he didn’t like my being close to Kody any more than I liked his easy familiarity with her.
I lifted an eyebrow and regarded him from under the brim of my Stetson. The guy was fearless, I’d give him that. But he didn’t know me, or the history I had with the difficult woman in my arms. If he did, he would’ve known the only way I was handing her off to anyone else was if they pried her out of my grasp as I lay dying.
“Move.” I inclined my chin and narrowed my eyes. “If you don’t get out of my way I’ll arrest you and the rest of your minions for interfering with an active investigation.”
It was a stretch, but I wasn’t above playing dirty if I had to.
The biker let out a snort and took a threatening step toward me. “Did you just call my brothers ‘minions’?” The words were bitten out on a growl, and the rising tension could be felt throughout the bar.
The bartender cleared his throat and shifted uneasily behind the biker. “Umm…guys…take it down a notch. This place can get out of hand when Kody’s not on her game. If you start something while she’s out of it, the troublemakers might burn the place to the ground, and that would piss her off even more.”
I wasn’t about to hand Kody over to the tattooed thug, and it was obvious he wasn’t going to let me get past him without a fight. I was weighing my options, trying to find a solution that would lead to the least amount of bloodshed—and property damage—when Kody suddenly let out a loud sniff and lifted her head from where it had been tucked next to the side of my neck.
Eyes the color of a ripe Granny Smith apple gazed up at me. They were partly questioning, with a good dose of desperation clouding them. She sniffed loudly and turned her head to look at the angry biker.
“Back down, Shot. I’m not in the mood to bail you and your crew out of jail tonight.” Her voice sounded strained, and her words were slightly slurred. Her gaze shot up to mine but flickered away just as quickly. “Put me down, Hill. You’re both overreacting.”
The biker and I growled in protest almost simultaneously, but we both complied with her wishes. I didn’t want to let her go. It was the closest we’d been in years, and I reveled in the way she seemed to fit perfectly in my arms. Every single place where we touched felt like it was alive with an electric kind of fire. My skin sizzled and my heart raced. Letting go of her was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do, so I held on just a little bit longer, until she squirmed to be put down.
I gently put Kody back on her feet, keeping a hand low on her spine as she swayed slightly, leaning against me for balance. Shot took a step to the side and crossed his arms over his chest as he continued to glare at both of us. I ignored the big biker’s ire because a sudden chill skated across my skin where it had lost contact with Kody. There was a void, a consuming emptiness that only she could fill. Too bad she had zero interest in the spot inside my heart reserved solely for her.
“Shut the bar down early, Trouble. Go home and take a day off. You can’t keep going this way, and you know it.” The effortless way the other man issued the concerned commands had my back teeth grinding together so hard I was worried they might crack.
Kody weakly waved a hand in his direction and heaved a deep sigh. “Don’t worry about me. I already have two older brothers who think they can order me around. I don’t need another. Be good, and keep your boys in line. I’m sure Agent Gamble is here for business and nothing else, right?”