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Prologue
Two weeks earlier
Finley looked across the room for someone she knew to join her uncomfortable situation. She wasn’t without skills, being a prior active-duty Marine, but she hated to make a scene when she didn’t have to. She prided herself on creating an exit without mess. Tonight might not be one of those times.
Looking at the hall where the bathrooms were located, Finley wished she’d gone with the two women who’d sat on either side of her. They were acquaintances she’d met at one of Ivy’s yoga classes. Yoga helped with her shoulder and strengthening her core without putting too much stress on the sometimes-cranky joint.
The women, Karleen and Linda, were being harassed, and it was obvious to Finley when she entered the bar that no one was coming to their rescue. So she joined the fray and changed the man’s mind.
“Hey, Karleen, Linda. Sorry, I’m late. Walk with me to the bar, and let’s get some food to go with our beverages tonight. I hear they have some craft beers that sound interesting.” The relief on the women’s faces was unmistakable. Finley looked back over at the man bothering the two women and smiled. “Sorry, I’m going to steal the ladies away. Have a good night.”
“Hey, we were chatting. Go on and get your food and drinks. I’ll watch out for these two until you get back.”
Finley firmed her tone. “I want them to help me decide which craft beer to try. It’s a girl thing.” She had the women start with her again.
He grabbed the back of Finley’s shirt. “Hey, I don’t put up with bitchy women.”
“Good, because I don’t put up with men being dicks.” She twisted and kneed him in the jewels, and when he let go, she led her new friends to the bar.
The bartender nodded in her direction and then proceeded to fill their order. Now, the two women had gone to the bathroom to regroup, and one not-unattractive man moved to sit on Karleen’s vacated bar stool next to Finley. He wasn’t ripped like most other men in her sphere, nor did he seem to carry himself as confidently as the men in her life, but she didn’t feel the need to roll her eyes.
“Hey, I saw what you did over there,” he said.
“Did you?” she replied. Her sixth sense perked up, and her gut began bubbling as another man sat on the other side of her on Linda’s vacated stool. Where were those ladies?
The new man spoke. “You’re kinda hot with that fast move you did back there.”
“Look, he was harassing and wouldn’t take the wordno. So I stopped him. That’s it. Now, if you will excuse me...”
Finley tried to get up from the stool when each man touched the thigh closest to them and squeezed. She put her weight back onto the padded seat and immediately felt a man behind her.
“Hey, tough stuff, remember me?” said a voice behind her. The jackass. He must have finally gotten his breath. So they were all ganging up on her. Wusses. She calculated the best course of action and then put it into play.
She placed her hands on the bar top as though she were reaching for her beer and made her calculated move. She suddenly threw her fisted hands back into the faces of the menflanking her and threw her head back hard. She caught the original idiot’s mouth and chin, and she hoped some of his nose. He yelped like the wimp he was. She slipped off the stool, sliding between the men, and backed away from the trio, trying to reassess what she should do next.
The entry door opened, and another trio of men surrounded her before she processed things. Men she knew. The heart pound that she was feeling began to slow. Levi, Cash, and Mark stood, larger than life, between Finley and the men she wounded. There was a pride in what she had done when necessary but a relief that she had backup.
Mark spoke. “Gentlemen, it appears that you have met your match. This woman is no longer in your sights for anything, ever. Understood?”
They mumbled something like agreement as they pulled themselves together.
Cash spoke first. “You okay, darlin’?”
“I’ good.” She watched the men slink away to a table far in the rear of the place. “But I’m done here.”
“Hang out with us for a few while we get a beer. It’s been a long week,” said Cash. Levi slipped his arm around her waist and leaned in. “You sure you’ good?”
She nodded. Mark grabbed Finley’s glass and ordered three more beers. He pointed to a table that they all headed toward. “I need to check on Karleen and Linda. They’ve been gone a long time.”
“Want me to come with you?” asked Levi.
“In the ladies?”
“Won’t bother me. Do you want me there?”
She kissed his concerned lips. “Nope.” She’d never done that spontaneously before. It was a little possessive and a little ballsy. She needed that control tonight.
The bathroom was empty. They must have slipped out the back for safety. She hoped she hadn’t been set up. As she quickly remembered their faces when dealing with the man’s aggressiveness, she was sure it wasn’t. They were just frightened. It was unlike the similar experience she had had while stationed overseas. She shook that memory from her mind. She’d come out on top then, too, but barely, and she had no backup. She preferred the illusion of backup, even if she hadn’t needed it.
