“It’s not just about looks,” Laurel argues. “Have you seen him with the kids?”
“Kids?” I turn my head to her.
“They hold a kids’ group at the church, I’ve seen him entertaining them,” she shrugs.
“I hope you have kids,” I say.
“Oh, God, of course. I’m not some creeper who goes to check out the priest,” she widens her eyes.
“Liar,” Raven shakes her head. “Marisol got wise to the ones who were showing up with their friends under the guise of knowing one of the kids. She chases them out.”
“She chases us all out,” Laurel laughs. “We only get to see him when we collect the kids. He is so good with them. That is why it’s a shame. He’d make a great dad.”
The front door opens, and the man from the church earlier comes in. His face is tight, and he doesn’t spare anyone a glance, heading straight for the bar.
I let out a yelp when Dana grabs my forearm, squeezing tight enough to hurt.
“What?” I wonder if she hurt herself or spilled her drink or something. But no, she is staring at the guy as he makes his way between tables to the bar.
“That’s him,” Katrina whispers. “Stryker.”
“Oh God, he is so…” Dana trails off, biting her bottom lip. Her cheeks are flushed, and not from the alcohol.
Oh no, she’s crushing onhim. From what I’ve seen, there is something inside him that would damage a girl like Dana.
I like to think I’ve got a hard shell and absolutely have a hard heart. The biker I dated back in LA didn’t evoke any real romantic feelings, not by a long shot, but it still hurts finding out a guy you’re spending time with is screwing other girls. The difference with me is, I didn’t dwell on it.
Dana’s infatuation with Stryker is a problem, if the way she is staring at him is anything to go by. I don’t know her well enough to offer any advice.
And then everything goes haywire insideme, because Rebel comes in behind Stryker, looking all kinds of broody and pissed off and just, urgh, too good-looking for both our goods.
People sit up and take note when he comes in, especially another group of women near the bar. One of his men goes over, and they have a brief word before the man returns to his group.
He’s something in this MC. I’ve not asked, because that would give away something I’m not prepared to admit.
Raven sees where I’m looking, gives me a narrow-eyed stare, then gets up to serve the new arrivals.
“They’re all officers,” Katrina leans in to tell me. “Rebel, the angry-looking one, is her brother.”
“We’ve met,” I say.
“Oh, how did that go?” Laurel laughs.
“About as well as you are imagining.”
“Rebel is a handful, that’s for sure,” Katrina adds in a way that suggests she knows more about him.
Despite wanting to ask, I keep my mouth shut.
“He always looks like he smells something bad,” Dana says.
“And Stryker always looks like he is on the verge of snapping someone in half,” Katrina laughs.
“He can snap me in half any day,” she sucks her straw between her bright red lips.
Stryker isn’t paying attention to anyone but the drink he is staring into, as if the answers to his problems might be down there. He doesn’t seem the type to get shit-faced drunk. I’ve been around people like that before.
In my contemplation of Stryker and memories of the past, I don’t notice Rebel’s attention is on me. He looks pissed as hell when I catch his eye. I’m not sure if it’s what he’s got going on right now or that I was staring at the guy beside him.
