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Chloe walked away for a while and I knew I should have been walking around mingling, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I felt insecure and even a little scared. I’d been thrown into this situation without so much as a warning. I was still trying to ground myself and figure out what I was supposed to be doing.
A hand on my hip suddenly brought me out of my trance. I spun around, hand raised and ready to slap whoever was touching me out of pure instinct. As I turned, my eyes settled on the face of the man who I’d gotten sick on only a few hours prior. I gasped, quickly dropping my hand.
“Ryder?”
He offered me a charming smiled and I could have melted. “Who told you my name?”
“I asked Chloe and she told me,” I whispered, almost breathless.
He chuckled and nodded. “I’m flattered you had enough interest to ask. I’m sorry if I startled you just now.,” he hummed.
I suddenly felt weak in the knees and I couldn’t stop the nervous laughter that was bubbling up from my throat. This man made me feel like a babbling high school girl. I didn’t stand a chance against him. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled.
“You play pool?” he asked.
A grin came across my face and suddenly I felt confident again. This was my element. "I've been playing pool since I was old enough to see over the table," I said with a smirk.
He whistled and walked over to the wall, pulling a cue down and handing it to me. "You want to go, then?"
I took the cue, the smile never falling from my lips. "Hell yeah!"
Ryder was a pretty good player. He handled the stick the way I imagined he handled his women. His movements were controlled and graceful, something I didn’t really expect from a biker. Everything he did had an air of sensuality to it, and it made me shiver. I kept my eyes on him, watching his every move. I never wanted to take my eyes off him.
Ryder definitely knew his way around a pool table, but as good as he was, I was better. I loved pool; it was how I'd earned my money as a child. I would take on all the gruff men who thought they were better than me, take then down a notch, and rob them blind at the same time.
I won the first two games and when the third came around he paused and sighed, looking at me and shaking his head.
"Alright. Let's make the last game interesting,” he offered mischievously.
I looked at him and cocked a brow, scoffing a little. "You want to make a bet? After you lost twice?" I asked, clicking my tongue. "Seems like a dumb move."
"Hear me out."
"I'm all ears,” I said.
"If you win, I'll cover your bar tab for a month."
I hummed and rubbed my chin. "Alright. You got me interested."
"But if I win, you let me take you out for a Coke.”
I cocked a brow and leaned on my stick, looking him up and down. A small crowd had gathered around us and were watching us intently, waiting for my answer. It felt like a rash thing to do, given that I was just rescued by Ryder after being beat up by someone I referred to as my boyfriend. But I suppose that it would be pretty obvious that I would no longer want anything to do with that guy anyway. Finally, I grinned and offered my hand.
"You're on!"
We shook on it and the crowd cheered. It was the first time that guilt worked its way into my chest and squeezed my heart. Without being asked, these people were welcoming me into their lives. They treated me like one of them, even though I'd been sent here to destroy everything they'd worked so hard to build.
I'm not sure if it was that thought that threw my focus, or the fact that I kind of wanted to lose. A date with this man sounded heavenly, but even though I wanted a date, I wasn’t going to let myself lose on purpose. Not a chance. I had way too much pride for that.
As the game went on, however, Ryder started to let his true colors shine. Either I was really distracted or he’d been holding back the first two games. When all of the balls were pocketed, I was left stunned and gaping at him. Had that really just happened? He leaned on the pool table and offered me a little grin.
“Looks like you owe me a date,” he said in a way that made my toes tingle.
Chapter Seven
As the next few days passed, I found myself wandering from the house of the kindly elderly woman who had taken me in. It wasn’t that I was ungrateful, but I found myself really drawn to Chloe. My stand-offish nature had made it hard for me to make friends growing up, but Chloe was such an easy person to talk to. Besides, she liked to talk, which made getting information from her easy.
For the sake of my mom and the few others I loved from back home, my plans to sabotage Damien’s group were still on. However, my attempts were halfhearted. I needed to continue to gather information. Fang was going to expect the something soon.
