CHAPTER ONE
B-ry
It was just another day of running around doing bullshit errands for the club. I wasn’t really annoyed and I truthfully didn’t mind doing this stuff. I had just woken up in a shit mood for some reason and couldn’t seem to shake it. It seemed like every little thing was getting under my skin. Maybe I needed to eat. Or a nice ice cold beer. I’d been walking around all day like something crawled up my ass and I swore if one more person asked me what was wrong, I was going to punch someone. For some reason, it felt like there was something just beyond the horizon. And not something good. But I couldn’t even begin to think of what it might be.
Things had been going pretty smoothly for the club. I really didn’t have anything to complain about. That said, I wasn’t about to drop my guard. I was too smart for that shit. I’d been around long enough to see how things could go wrong and I was determined not to let anything happen on my watch.
I was on my way back from the garage and the humid heat from summer in the south was sweltering. I already had sweat soaking through my shirt from the short walk to the clubhouse. I knew it would take a while to get used to living on the coast, but damn, I couldn’t see how people could get used to this. I shrugged it off as I thought of grabbing an ice cold beer.
Yep, that was where I was headed when a silver BMW came barreling down the narrow path. I stopped, moved back a couple of inches so not to get clipped by the side rearview mirror, and tried my best to see who was inside. A flash of blonde passed by and that was about all I got. Well, I could also tell that it was a woman. Huge movie star like sunglasses covered half of her damn face.
Who the hell was this chick driving her fancy-ass car down the dirt path to the clubhouse? She was definitely going way too fast.
She didn’t slow down as she passed and didn’t even give a glance over at me. I knew it wasn’t like she didn’t see me.
I tried my hardest to not let the B-word slip from my lips, but come on. Fancy as fuck car, platinum blonde hair that was clearly not natural, and not one ounce of concern for my safety, well that only said one thing to me.
“This should be fun,” I mumbled as I jogged after the car.
I didn’t know who this chick was or what she was doing here, but I sure as hell was going to be the first one to find out. No one fucked with my club or my brothers. As Enforcer, I was the one to make sure of that. I was there to lay down the law and at times, keep the brothers in line. Sometimes things would get out of hand, it was to be expected, but I always did my best to keep things around here as calm as possible.
“Can I help you?” I asked the moment she opened her door.
One leg popped out and a heeled shoe planted itself into the dry, dirt lot. The heel so high and thin I was worried that it would pierce right through the dirt and Miss I Got Money would go tumbling to the ground. That was the reason I stepped up closer so that I could catch her when she fell.
But to my surprise, the woman planted her other foot on the ground and stood with the kind of grace I didn’t think existed in real life. Her delicate ankles didn’t wobble. Her knees didn’t look like they were going to give out. But strangely, mine did. Like for some reason, my body felt the need to bow down to this chick.
My eyes raked up her long, thin legs. They looked so smooth and so soft that I practically had to hold back thoughts of running my fingers over them to see how they felt. My gaze danced over her modest dress that flared at the waist and flowed down to right below her knees. She was built like a twig with okay sized tits. Enough for me to cup and play with. Her neck was long. Her chin jutted almost in defiance, which had me smirking a little. Her face held delicate features. Well, from what I could tell anyway, because half of it seemed to be covered by those ridiculous looking sunglasses. Ones that she hadn’t even made a move to take off.
Yeah, that B-word was still right there on the tip of my tongue.
Though I couldn’t see her expression, I could feel the disdain for me coming off her in waves. This fucking chick thought she was better than me. I hated that shit. She didn’t know me. Just because I walked around wearing a leather cut and rode a motorcycle didn’t mean I was scum. Or maybe it was the tattoos that covered both of my arms. Either way, I didn’t think I was such a bad guy.
Her arms crossed over her chest and her hip jutted slightly to the left.
“I’m looking for Brand,” she said and her voice was sweet but had a hidden edge to it.
Now, why the hell would this woman be here looking for him?
Things just got interesting.
“You have a name?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest much like she had.
“Laurel,” she said and there was something in her tone that said I should have known that.
The name did nothing to me. If I knew who she was it didn’t register. But whatever. I gave a small shrug and held back an aggravated sigh. There was just something about her that rubbed me the wrong way. And by the way I could feel her laser-eyes on me even though they were covered by those damn sunglasses, I did the same thing to her.
“I’ll go find him for you,” I said still eyeing her like I would be able to figure out the answers I was looking for.
I popped into the clubhouse and found Brand right away. No surprise he was there hanging out with Chris. After I told him that some chick was looking for him, I followed the two of them back outside. I not only needed to make sure everything was alright being I didn’t know this person, but I was curious as all hell too.
I could tell that Brand didn’t recognize her and there had been nothing there when I’d told him her name. There was also something a little off with him. It was like his head wasn’t really right there at the moment. I wouldn’t doubt that it had something to do with his new shop helper that he’d hired a while back. Cami, that was her name. Dude was head over heels for that girl and I wondered why I hadn’t seen her around recently.
Once we stepped outside, I hung back a little. Laurel had her hand up trying to shade her already covered eyes from the sun. That huge fucking ring she had on her finger was like a slap in the face. I mean, like really. How could she even hold her hand up with a rock that size weighing it down? I kept my eye roll to myself. I almost pitied the dude that had given it to her, but then I imagined that he was probably just like her—stick a mile long and shoved all the way up his ass.
Wow.
What the hell?
