Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 117494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
My phone lit up.
Unknown: Where are you?
No need to guess who that was.
Me: A place called Manny’s.
Unknown: I’m coming for you.
Well. The bad news was coming for me.
I hit call on my phone.
“Daugh-ter. How’s it hanging? You still in California? You know where else you could road trip? To see your old man, that’s where. And by old man, I’m talking your pops. Myself. Yours truly. Oh, and the Old Gents got back together. We’re thinking of doing a reunion tour.”
I had no clue how to respond to that.
Some days my dad could make me speechless. Tonight was one of those nights.
16
KALI
My phone lit up again twenty minutes later.
Shane: I’m outside. Can’t come in. You gotta come to me.
I frowned, but okay then. My tab was already paid, so I slipped off the stool.
Aly and Harper didn’t notice, both engrossed in their own conversations. Aly was flirting with Brandon, and well, Harper was too. Kinda. I got the vibe that Brandon was straight, but he was cool. He rolled with the little winks Harper sent his way.
I went back out through the door I’d entered.
Just a few feet away was Shane. He had his motorcycle pulled all the way up, and he was locked in a stare-off with the bouncer. Two other Red Demons were beside him, but they were sitting back, waiting. Watching.
I could feel the tension as soon as I stepped outside. I maneuvered around the bouncer, who turned and fixed me with a disapproving look.
“You don’t have to go with them.”
I opened my mouth, not knowing what to say.
Shane beat me to it. “She’s mine.”
My mouth closed with a snap. I faintly registered the other Red Demons sharing a look as Shane turned his eyes my way.
He sat up and held out a helmet. “Plans changed. We gotta go.”
I frowned. “About my sister?”
He didn’t answer, just held out the helmet.
The bouncer reached out, touching my arm.
“Don’t,” Shane clipped.
I blinked and froze.
He hadn’t moved a muscle, but the other two had. Guns now pointed at the bouncer, and neither guy looked scared to use them.
The bouncer went rigid, but said under his breath, “This won’t slide.”
“You have hands on mine.”
I flushed. He said it before, but what the fuck?
I mean, I knew. I’d watched the shows and a fair number of documentaries about the biker lifestyle after Gloves told me Shane was in, but hearing him say that? WTF?
I pulled my arm away.
The bouncer wasn’t looking at me. He wasn’t even looking at the guns. He was staring right at Shane. Ghost. He was looking at Ghost.
I felt the frost when he said, “She wasn’t acting like she was yours inside.”
I stilled, hearing his implication.
I shot him a look, but again, he was only focused on Shane.
I turned, locking eyes with Shane too. “I don’t know what’s all going on here, but that’s a lie.”
Shane was locked down, his jaw clenched. “Take the helmet, Kali.”
I frowned. “My friends are insi—”
“We’ll get ’em home,” the bouncer interrupted. “Don’t need more of you lost to those guys.”
If he’d been someone I gave a damn about, that would’ve hurt. He wasn’t, so he was starting to piss me off.
I moved to Shane’s side and took the helmet, pulling it on. Shane indicated the seat behind him.
I looked back at the bouncer. “You’re a dick.” Then I swung a leg up and climbed on.
My irritation blocked out the fact that I was getting on a motorcycle, and not just any motorcycle. Shane’s bike was the real deal, and then there was the fact that I was behind Shane.
Shane King.
Shane King.
Images of us flashed in my head, from the motel room, as he’d pinned me against the wall. As he’d moved in. As he’d lifted me up and begun grinding into me.
My throat was dry.
He walked the bike back before taking off, and I pressed forward into him, my arms locked tight.
He was solid, pure muscle. He’d called me all woman before. He was all man.
Foley was a boy.
I never thought that before. He’d been my height, my weight, and a pretty boy. White. Not that the way someone looks makes them a boy versus a man, but there was something about Shane. Something Foley didn’t have.
I’d thought Foley was cute when we first met. He’d been charming, but there’d been a feel of authenticity to him—that’s what I fell for, not his charm. Not his quick wit or quick grin. I fell for the side to him that had been real, but now, riding behind Shane and having been in his arms just once, I knew Foley had been nothing but a boy.
Shane never had time for the athletes in school. Even at their age, there’d been an otherworldly feel to Shane. He knew things, had seen things, been through things. He was still going through things, and it had made him who he was. I’d felt it even then. And Connor wasn’t popular, but Shane hadn’t cared.