AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nodded, swallowing hard. I still couldn’t find my tongue to speak after watching that display of masculine aggression. On top of that, Crow’s raspy voice and gentle concern made my brain hopelessly scrambled.
“What the hell are you doing here anyway?” Crow demanded.
I pointed to the table where Amy and Hannah sat, watching with wide eyes.
“Birthday party with my friends.”
Crow frowned and a muscle in his jaw twitched.
“I’m going to take a wild guess and say that your father has no idea where you are right now.”
“I’m twenty-one. I don’t have a curfew anymore.”
“Jesus Christ,” Crow muttered with a sigh. “It’s a safety issue, Dani.”
I clamped my mouth shut at the chastisement, feeling my cheeks burn. I wasn’t a child. I didn’t deserve to be scolded. And maybe, deep down, I knew the scolding hurt more because of the fact it came from Crow. It only reiterated that he was old enough to be my dad and he saw me as nothing more than a stupid little girl who couldn’t take care of herself.
“I’m taking you home,” Crow said, tugging on my elbow.
Irritated now, I pulled my arm away from him.
“No. I already made plans with my friends and I’m sticking to my promise.”
Crow let his hand drop to his side. I knew he could have practically thrown me over his shoulder and wrestled me out the door with ease. He could drag me home and deposit me on my father’s doorstep and I wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing to stop him.
Instead, Crow beckoned to Amy and Hannah with two fingers in acome heregesture. Clutching each other, they made their way through the crowd that was beginning to buzz back to the normal level of noise again now that the fight was over. Amy’s eyes were glazed and she looked wobbly on her hot pink wedge heels. Hannah kept a firm grip on Amy’s hand with an arm locked around Amy’s waist to hold her steady.
“Please tell me one of you is the designated driver tonight,” Crow said.
“That would be me,” Hannah squeaked.
Crow looked them over and shook his head with a sigh.
“It’s a bit rough in this neck of the woods for you, isn’t it?”
Amy didn’t look chagrined at all. “It’s exciting though.”
Then her knees buckled. Crow’s hand shot out and he caught Amy by the shoulder. She swayed on her feet, her head bobbing forward with the threat of unconsciousness. Scooping her up into his arms, Crow nodded toward the door.
“Let’s go.”
Hannah didn’t give me a chance to protest and herded me out the door. When we reached the car, Crow carefully laid Amy into the backseat. I wanted to be mad at him for talking to me like a child, but seeing him handle Amy so gently made my resentment begin to thaw.
Crow’s clear, gray-eyed gaze met mine for a brief moment. Then he took a step back and let me climb into the car beside Amy. He exchanged a quick word with Hannah, but they spoke too quietly for me to overhear anything.
A few minutes later, when we turned into the parking lot of my apartment building, a motorcycle’s single headlight blazed by us. It was too dark to tell who the rider was, but I didn’t need to see his face to know it was Crow.
Chapter Three
Crow
I woke up with a blistering headache. Sighing, I scrubbed my hands over my face and pushed myself up to sit on the edge of the bed. I’d crashed at the clubhouse last night, finding comfort in the presence of my club brothers after being around Dani. I usually spent most nights at the clubhouse anyway. At home in my trailer, it was too quiet and empty. But as long as long as my brothers were around, there was always something going on and I appreciated having their company around right now.
Watching that scrawny boy grabbing at Dani made me see red. It had taken every ounce of willpower not to put an end to the little pervert on the spot.
I could have done it, too. A punch to the throat would have left him gasping and incapacitated. While he struggled to breathe, it would take two seconds to snap his neck and he would be nothing more than a limp body on the floor.
I frowned and shook my head. I might be good at killing but I didn’t like it. Never got any easier. And it bothered me now that I could think of killing a kid who was probably barely out of his teen years.
