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“How doyouknow that?”
Mack back-pedaled. “It’s hard not to. She’s plastered everywhere.”
“Her boyfriend is some hot-shot prick,” Diablo said. “Harvard graduate. Heir to a billion-dollar gig in New York that his daddy built for him so he never had to get his soft, prissy little hands dirty.”
Brewer spoke up.
“Didn’t realize you boys were such gossips.”
“We’re just doing a background check and looking out for our boy,” Diablo replied. “You know he has a white knight complex. Saving all the girls and falling in love with them at the drop of a hat.”
“You should bring her by the clubhouse, Axel,” Mack said. “Introduce us. With the way you two were making out, she’s practically part of the family already.”
“Not gonna happen,” I replied.
Even if I wanted Beth to meet my club, I wasn’t sure that I would ever hear from her again anyway. I saw her house. I heard the disdain in her mother’s voice when she caught Beth with me on the motorcycle.
And if Beth really was such a popular model, what were the chances that she would remember me? She probably had dozens of men to choose from, eager to step into the now-vacant position of boyfriend. Why would she dump a rich Harvard graduate for a biker in a dusty little town?
Maybe I was nothing more than a brief escape for her. An excuse to get away from her stuck-up, pretentious ex-boyfriend.
When I popped the cap off my beer, I glanced up and saw Brewer’s dark gaze on me. As the President, he always seemed to have his finger on the pulse of everyone, making sure we weren’t getting ourselves too deep into trouble. And he had the uncanny ability to tell when we weren’t sharing the whole truth.
Using his boot, Brewer nudged out the chair across from him as a silent invitation to sit. Mack and Diablo were pestering each other, and I was grateful that they’d moved on so quickly from hounding me about Beth.
I accepted the seat opposite Brewer and set my beer on the table.
“Ignore Mack and Diablo,” he said. “They’re being dumbasses. As usual.”
I breathed a soft laugh. Brewer paused, punctuated by the softflick-swishas he moved his cards around.
“You like this girl, don’t you?” he added.
I sighed, fiddling with my beer bottle.
“It’s complicated. She comes from a very different world and…” I trailed off, leaning back in my chair. “I have to stop wearing my heart on my sleeve, Brewer.”
He shook his head, sweeping his cards off the table and shuffling them.
“That’s what makes you a good man, Axel.”
I snorted. “Diablo would call me a sap.”
“I wouldn’t put much stock in what Diablo has to say. He’s been a Prospect for three years running. It should have taken him a year to be initiated into the Alpha Riders. He’s hot-headed, impetuous, and doesn’t know when to keep his goddamn mouth shut. He still has a lot to learn.”
“Are you talking about me?” Diablo called from across the room.
“Don’t worry,” I called back. “It’s nothing flattering.”
“Is that what your girlfriend said when she got a glimpse in your pants?”
“See what I mean?” Brewer muttered under his breath, low enough for my ears alone. “He’s always talkin’ smack. Doesn’t know when to knock it off, either.”
I clenched my fists, steeling my resolve against the knee-jerk instinct to defend myself, to protest and insist thatshe’s not my girlfriend.If I said anything more, it would only add fuel to the fire.
Brewer tapped his deck of cards on the table, pushed his chair back with a scrape of wood against wood, and rose to his feet. He was an imposing man—thick chest, thick arms, with more scars than I could count, patched bullet holes in his kut, and a death stare that would make any man piss himself with fear.
So, when Brewer turned around and fixed Diablo with a disapproving look, Diablo swallowed hard.
