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“Give me your jacket,” Owen ordered. Maverick immediately removed his leather jacket and handed it over to him. “Thanks,” he murmured as he balled it up and put it under the woman’s head.
“Who would have done this?” Maverick asked. Owen looked around the room to find the guys watching them and shook his head.
“I’m not sure,” Owen said. “I didn’t see anyone follow her in.” He had been watching too. He didn’t take his eyes off the door after the sexy red head disappeared into the bathroom. He looked around the small room and noticed that the bathroom window was open and was big enough to possibly fit a person through it—a smaller person, not one of the hulking guys standing around them.
“Her purse is missing,” Owen said, looking around. “She picked it up, paid her bar tab, and then walked back here to the bathroom. Did someone knock her out just to rob her?”
“Don’t know, but I think that we should look around outside, just in case someone used that window to escape,” Mav said, as if reading Owen’s earlier thoughts.
“Agreed. I’ll stay here with her, and you take a couple of guys you can trust to look around outside,” Owen ordered. When it came to things like this, Maverick usually let him take the lead. It was his military training that had gotten them both out of a good deal of scrapes. Owen was used to calling the shots when the odds were against him and from the way things looked for the pretty red head, she’d need someone to call the shots until she could get back on her feet. He might be crazy for thinking about doing it, but he was going to stick by her until she told him to get lost again. It was the least he could do for the pretty woman who blew him off at the bar and if it won him brownie points, he’d take them.
Tilly
Matilda Newton wasn’t sure how she had ended up at a biker bar, surrounded by big, bearded, tattooed men who didn’t want to seem to take no for an answer. She was determined to try to put her bad day behind her and find a way out of the mess she had gotten herself into. She just never imagined that the little dive bar she picked to hide away, and think, would be a biker bar.
She sat in the corner hoping that everyone would leave her alone, but being one of the only single women in the place garnered her some unwanted attention that she couldn’t seem to shake. When she had to spell it out for the hot biker that she wasn’t interested in him buying her a beer, he seemed a bit hurt. That wasn’t Tilly’s intention, but she had already politely turned him down once. She just wanted to be left alone until she could figure out what to do with the hard drive that she had swiped off her boss’s desk. Apparently, it was important enough to Nate that he called her about twenty-five times since she had left the office, threatening to come after her if she didn’t give it back to him. His threats grew darker and more menacing and the messages longer as time passed, and she worried that he’d make good on every one of them if she didn’t give the drive back to him.
She knew that Nate was doing something illegal, and now, she was sure of it. Tilly was also sure that the information that she’d need to bring him down was on the hard drive that he kept under lock and key in his desk. He was foolish enough to leave the key on the desk when he ran to lunch and Tilly snooped, against her better judgment. Now, she had her boss and who knew who else chasing after her and the one thing she was sure of was she couldn’t go home. She was sure that if she did, she’d find Nate waiting for her there and he’d be ready to make good on his threats.
Her only hope at getting out of there was going to be to pay her tab, tell they biker sitting next to her to fuck off, and regroup in the bathroom. Then, she’d be able to figure out where to go next and who she could trust. Honestly, she had no one to turn to, and that made her feel desperate and alone. She almost wanted to take the biker up on his offer of a drink and then, ask him to take her someplace safe, but that would give him the wrong idea. She needed a safe place to land that didn’t involve his bed for the night because she was sure that would be what he wanted in return for helping her out.
She spent about five minutes in the mirror, trying to talk herself into going home with the sexy biker when a shadow in the corner caught her eye. It was a man—at least she thought it was. He had a slight build, and she was sure that he had gotten in through the window somehow.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he breathed as he stepped out of the shadows. “I just want the drive,” he said.
“Nate,” she breathed. “How did you get in here? How did you know that I was here?”
“I knew that sooner or later, you’d get up to no good and do some snooping, so I put a tracker on your car. I saw you sitting at the bar drinking and assumed that at some point, you’d need to use the ladies’ room, so I climbed in through the window.”
“You’ve been tracking me?” she spat. She knew that he was a weasel, but she had no idea that he’s stoop to such lows.
“Yes, and now, all I want is the hard drive,” he said, stepping toward her with his hand out.
“I don’t have it. I ditched it someplace for safe keeping on my way here,” she lied.
His smile was mean, “You do know that I can trace your path here, right? You didn’t make any stops, which means it’s on you or in that purse you’re clutching for dear life.” He nodded to her purse, and she hugged it to her chest.
“You can’t take this,” she said. “It has sentimental value,” she lied. She had just purchased it on a whim about two weeks ago.
“Again, with the lies,” he tisked. “You really are the worst liar, Tilly. Just give me the fucking drive and this can all be over.”
“If you come one step closer, I’ll scream. There are a lot of big, bad ass bikers out there and I’m sure that they’ll come in here to my rescue. One even asked to buy me a drink, so I’m sure that you won’t be able to just leave here unscathed.” She wasn’t sure of anything, but she was hoping that was what would end up happening. Hell, for all she knew, the sexy-as-sin biker had given up on her and left while she was in the bathroom.
“Go ahead and scream, Tilly,” he said. “I’ll have what I want from you and be out of here before they can even find your body.” He took another step in her direction, pulling a gun from his jacket pocket. Tilly couldn’t help the screech that escaped her lips. She let it out with all her might and when he realized what had happened, Nate hit her in the temple with the butt of the gun, knocking her to the ground. The last thing Tilly remembered as her world went dark was Nate taking her purse out of her hands as he laughed at her.
“Should have just given me the fucking hard drive, Tilly,” he breathed on his way out of the bathroom window. Nate disappeared into the night as she closed her eyes, giving into the darkness.
* * *
Tilly woke up to two men arguing about who was going to get to keep her and she knew that had to be wrong. Why would anyone be arguing about who was going to get to keep her? She opened her eyes and groaned as they adjusted to the light. Her head was throbbing, and she was sure that had everything to do with her boss hitting her with the handle of his gun. It could have been worse—he could have used the gun correctly and shot her. She was thankful that wasn’t the case.
“Where am I?” she asked blinking up at the two men who were standing over her.
“Take it easy—you’re in the hospital.” She looked up at the man standing over her and recognized him from the bar.
“You were the guy I turned down at the bar,” she whispered. Her voice sounded hoarse, and she tried to sit up. “Can I get some water?” The guy standing on the other side of her laughed and helped her take a sip of the water cup that was sitting on the table next to him.
“I’m not the guy you turned down,” he said. “You turned down my little brother there though, so I’d say that your memory is working just fine.” She hadn’t turned the big, grizzly-looking guy down, but she would have. He was bigger than his brother and covered in tattoos. He wasn’t bad looking at all, but just not her type. She liked the guys she went out with a little cleaner cut. In fact, the one she turned down was her type, not that she’d admit that to either of them.
