Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 60360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Chapter 8
Caleb stepped into the relative dark of Maria’s bar. The crowd was the usual mix of bikers, cowboys, ex-servicemen, and roughnecks. He spotted his friends at a table across the room. Daisy was serving tonight and Easy was keeping a watchful eye on her, much like Shooter used to do with Slick. Daisy was swamped so Caleb headed straight for the bar to get a cold one from the source. The regular, Milo, shot him a grin.
“What’s shaking?” the old-timer asked him.
“Not much,” Caleb replied. He didn’t bother to place an order. Maria knew what he wanted.
The woman sitting on the next stool over turned to look at him. She had long, dark hair, dark eyes, and ruby-red lips. Caleb wasn’t interested, but he was appreciative—especially since she had on a black cotton blouse and she’d obviously miscounted the number of buttons it had. He could see straight down into her ample cleavage. His cock stirred, but he ignored it, having just scratched that itch the previous evening.
She grinned at him, but he merely nodded and directed his attention to Maria as she set a bottle down in front of him. “Thanks, Maria,” he intoned as he swept the beer off the counter. “Send Daisy over with another one when she gets a chance.”
“Will do.”
Caleb left the bar and headed for the table. Tex and Vegas were playing a game of nine-ball. Easy was alone with his back up against the wall.
“Rough crowd tonight?” he asked, easing into a chair.
“Little rowdy,” Easy grumbled. “And a couple of handsy drunks.”
The younger man nodded to indicate a hefty, blond man in a flannel shirt, more flab than muscle. He was grinning from ear to ear and leaning in toward Daisy—a little too close to Daisy—as she gathered his empty glasses. Easy started to rise from his chair. Caleb put his hand out.
“I got it,” he said, pushing back his own chair. “No one needs to go to the hospital.”
Easy was fiercely protective of Daisy, as were all the Burnout men. Caleb could admire it, but couldn’t risk it himself. He kept everything channeled into his patrols. Acting as unofficial bouncer at Maria’s was no different. It took every bit of Army discipline he had to keep himself under control. If he ever cared for a woman the way his brothers cared for theirs… well, he preferred not to think about the damage it would cause. Caleb had grown up knowing something inside him was on a hair trigger. It was best to aim it at people who deserved to feel the brunt of it. He sidled up to the blond lumberjack who was arguing with Daisy about another round.
“You’ve had enough,” Caleb told him.
The large man’s head swiveled in his direction. “I’m a paying customer,” he insisted. “And I want to pay for another drink.”
The man’s eyes were focused, his speech loose but not slurred. He wasn’t quite drunk off his ass, but he’d bought the ticket and was on his way there. Another drink and he might become a real problem rather than just a nuisance.
“Forget it,” Caleb said and gestured for Daisy to walk away. She gave him a thank-you smile and headed back to the bar. “You’re done for the night,” Caleb informed the man and waited, watching him closely to see if he’d get his back up about it.
He grumbled and glared, but didn’t argue. Caleb nodded to himself and returned to his table where Daisy had left him a second beer.
“Thanks,” Easy said.
“Any time,” Caleb replied.
The crowd remained thick. The place was slammed even for a Saturday night. Caleb kept one eye on the bikers, the other on the cowboys, and his ears tuned for any tones that sounded less jovial and more adversarial. There was a game of darts that might get ugly and a round of pool that was getting intense. Caleb kept his focus on the darts. Let Tex handle losing to his girlfriend—again—in any way he saw fit. When they’d first met, Caleb had seriously considered beating the shit out of the man after learning his ideas about women and sex. Tex liked them submissive and made no secret of it. Caleb had too much experience with assholes who needed to prove themselves to accept the man’s word that he’d never hurt a female. It had required Shooter’s intervention to thaw the ice between the two men. As disinterested as Caleb was about Tex’s private life, he no longer disapproved. Abby looked as happy as any woman Caleb had known, and he was content that his brother was a good man for all his proclivities.
Caleb scanned the dance floor again and saw nothing and no one of interest. His sweeping gaze halted at the bar, though. Apparently the lumberjack had tried to circumvent Daisy and get another round from Maria herself, who had tended bar enough years to know that he was quickly approaching his limit. Caleb saw the sharp shake of her head and took in the lumberjack’s disappointed expression. He tried again, to no avail, then washed his hands of it all, instead turning his head to focus on the pretty little brunette who was seated next to Milo.