Saving Mia (4 page)

“I-what…no I.” She stuttered unsure how to handle the man who was surrounding her with his male heat and the scent of leather and man.  Feeling stalked by this man whose eyes watched her like a wolf she remembered from a movie she’d seen once. It had been looking at an elk that it wanted to eat, so she was a bit concerned by the predatory look. She knew that the man wanted her. She was sheltered but she had had sex before. It was apparent that the man was filled with an untamed sexuality that made her body feel liquid, and her breaths come in little pants. She wasn’t sure how to handle a man with such raw untamed sexual prowess.

“Such pretty lips, Mia.” He murmured startling her.

“We should go outside with the others.” Mia managed to get out in a breathless whisper. She wanted to push him away, but she was afraid that touching him would make him pounce.

“Ummm….not quite yet, beauty.” Ratchet told her. He was going to at least get a kiss from those sexy lips before he left this warehouse. He leaned forward intending to do just that, but his lips were a mere breath away when they heard shouting outside. Ratchet snapped to attention. His body moving to the door before he thought about what he was doing. It was instinct to move into danger, but what surprised him was the protective feeling that rose in his chest.

“Stay behind me.” He growled at Mia as he headed for the door to see what was going on.

Mia was breathlessly anticipating the man’s kiss when suddenly the lazy predatory was replaced by a warrior. He demanded that she stay behind him as he moved towards the door and Mia was shocked at her own reaction to the man. She’d been about to let a perfect stranger kiss her. What the hell was wrong with her? It was indecent for her to allow him such privileges. She knew that had he not been distracted by the commotion outside, she would have allowed it though. That worried her. She couldn’t afford to mess this job up when she had just started the position.

Only for some reason, the scruffy biker, with his days worth of stubble and his tanned male chest covered in muscles and a leather vest, made her feel breathless and needy. Finally managing to get her hormones under control she followed Ratchet to the door after a moment. She paused to straighten her hair and her blouse. Then exited into the midday sunlight behind him.

Ratchet stood a few feet from the door watching the scene that was unfolding near one of the walls. A man was on the ground and Hilconn and Thomas were beating him with stunner sticks. Letting out a gasp Mia moved to stop them. Only Ratchet’s hand shot out and caught her before she could move past him.

“Let me go!” She hissed at him angrily, tugging at her arm.

“Not happening, Mia.” Ratchet replied harshly.

“I need to stop them. Now let me go! You can’t stop me from doing my job.” She told him still trying to pull away from him.

“I can, actually.” Ratchet told her. His hand moving up her arm as he moved her away from the scene playing out on the other side of the yard.

“You have no right to touch me. And you certainly don’t have the right to stop me from doing my job. Let me go or I will call them over to beat you instead!” She coldly told the man. Although she knew that she’d never do what she threatened. She couldn’t stomach the idea of him being beaten with stunner sticks. She didn’t like violence very much.

“Go ahead, beauty. Only know that if you do you’ll be killing those men. I will handle the situation with extreme violence. Nobody fucks with a Devil.” Ratchet told her matter of factly.

“Please, I have to stop this.” Mia resorted to begging realizing that her threats weren’t working.

“Shh…beauty. Tiny will handle it.”

That was when she saw the man who’d come into her office was pointing a gun at Hilconn’s head as he demanded that he stop beating the man. Hilconn being the coward he was stopped. Mia sighed in relief. Two of the devil’s moved to help the man up. Mia tried to move closer then but Ratchet’s firm grip on her arm wouldn’t allow it.

“Mia.” Ratchet said in a tone that made her lift her eyes to his. When those chocolate brown eyes met his. He felt like she’d caressed his cock. Fuck, what the hell was wrong with him? He wondered.

“Don’t try to stop them if they do that again.” He demanded gruffly trying to figure out what about her made him almost drown in desire. She wasn’t the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, and she certainly wasn’t wearing anything that should make him this horny.

Mia peered at his green eyes that seemed to pierce her soul and said what he wanted to hear. Even knowing that she would do whatever she had to do if this happened again. She wasn’t going to allow them to beat someone to death.

“Okay.” She said rather than argue with him. He’d never know. She likely wouldn’t see him again for a while anyway.

“I mean it, Mia,” Ratchet snarled moving in closer to her aggressively. “You could get hurt.”

“I said okay, didn’t I?” Mia told him with a little growl of disapproval at his tone. 

“Yeah. Only I know enough women to know that you’re just telling me what I want to hear. So I say again. Don’t try to stop it if it happens again, Mia.” Ratchet commanded.

Mia glared at him. Who was this man, and what made him think he had the right to demand anything from her? She wanted to ask him that question but because she didn’t want to argue with him she simply looked at him with narrowed eyes.

Ratchet’s hand lifted to caress her cheek gently. Then he said in a soft voice that made her melt a bit. “I will not be happy if something happens to you, beauty.”

Ratchet couldn’t understand what made him feel almost feral at the thought of something bad happening to her, but it was true. He wanted to bundle her onto his bike and take her back to the farm where she’d be safe. Not that he wanted to keep her. Hell no. He didn’t need an old lady, but he wasn’t keen on leaving her here where she might get hurt either. He pulled his hands back trying to let her go.

Sexual frustration was making him crazy, he decided. He so didn’t need this bullshit. He should go back home fuck a sweetbutt and forget about this woman. With her button up shirts that covered every inch of her except for a tiny patch of skin revealed at her neck where the top button was undone. That bit of skin made him want to undo more of those buttons. To kiss every inch of her as it was revealed.

Fuck. Yep, he needed to get laid if he was having fantasies about a tiny millimeter of skin. Stepping back a few inches trying to force himself to walk away he heard the crunch of gravel under boots. Turning he saw Tiny and Rock walking to them with the little dipshit behind them. Fuck, he really hoped that asshat didn’t fuck with him in the mood he was in.

“Is there a problem here, Hilmia?” The little weasel demanded.

Hilmia? He wondered why if that was her name she’d told him it was Mia. Maybe she didn’t feel he was worthy of her name, he thought. Clenching his teeth. Fuck, he was off his game today. He glared at her as she shook her head looking rattled.

“No, we were just discussing lowering the price for the damaged goods.” Ratchet said feeling the need to protect her even as he wanted to demand the reason she hadn’t given him her real name.

“Were ya now?” Tiny asked looking at him in surprise. Tiny knew as well as he did that if there was damaged goods in those crates then the Red Devils were not the ones responsible. They always checked the shipments before they left, every single crate. Because they knew that it would be like this every time they brought food to the plant the idiots had tried this bullshit with rotten food. 

Rock glanced at him with a raised brow. Silently asking him what he was up to. He only shook his head and stared at Mia again. He liked that name better than Hilmia anyway and he definitely liked that the little prick didn’t call her by the shortened version of her name, he thought savagely.

He glanced at Tiny seeing that the man was watching him in that weird way he had that always unnerved him. He glanced away from the other man back at Mia before saying.

“Seems there are some bad apples in the crates somehow. So we were discussing the discount. I told her the most we’d give off was a thousand credits. She wants two. Told her it wasn’t happening.” Ratchet told them. Seeing that Mia looked shocked. He almost smiled at the startled look on her face when she met his eyes with her own. He knew that his irrational need to protect this woman was going to cost him a shit ton of credits, but he wasn’t able to stop his mouth from moving.

“You don’t say. Bad apples, huh.” Tiny said looking from him to Mia in a move that made him look like a fucking chicken.

Ratchet wanted to hit the bastard upside his head, but refrained.

“Yep.” He gritted out.

“Well then. Suppose that will have to be brought up at church.” Tiny said, making Ratchet nod. Yeah, he was going to have to pay the fucking credits back. He’d already known that before the man had mentioned it.

“Yeah, Hilmia and I discussed it and now we are giving them that thousand credit discount. We finally came to an agreement. Didn’t we?”

Mia watched Ratchet. She was so surprised that the man had agreed to give her credits off the food they’d brought that she stood dumbfounded for a moment. Then she realized that she needed to say something. She also realized when she gawked at the hard muscular biker that he wasn’t just asking about the credits. He was asking about the agreement that she stay out of any future issues with the other two men nearly beating a man to death.

Nodding her head as she answered them, feeling a bit stalked still from the look in the Ratchet’s eyes. “Yes.” She managed to squeak out.

“Well then. Guess you need some of this back then.” The man who’d gotten the payment earlier shook the bag that she’d given him when they’d arrived with the goods. “Let’s conduct this business in the office then.”

She followed him in the direction of the office. She nervously considered Hilconn who was walking beside her with a sour expression on his face that didn’t bode well for her she suspected. She glanced over her shoulder one last time before they entered the office to see Ratchet watching her with a hungry expression that frightened her quite a bit.

Ratchet watched Mia following Tiny back to the office with the little weasel beside her anger eating him up inside. He wanted to jerk her back and demand the reason she hadn’t given him her full name. To kiss her until she was soft and pliant against him.

“What’s up with the discount?” Rock asked. “You’re gonna have to pay that shit you know.” He turned glowering at Rock.

“Mind your own fucking business. There were rotten apples in a few crates. Might be that dickhead who’s fucking with the equipment. And I fucking know I will have to fucking pay it. It helped her out. She looks good with this negotiation a better price from us when no one ever has. She’s a hell of a lot less shitty than the other people who’ve ran this freak show.” Ratchet grumbled.

“True. Just don’t get your game. You know that shit was fine. We checked it before we left.” Rock stood looking at him.

“I don’t have a fucking game asshole. I was trying to keep her from getting hurt with those stupid fucks who were beating that man.” Ratchet told him grimly.

“Yeah, that was fucked up. The guy didn’t even do anything. He was standing near the fence watching. Then those two told him to leave, and before he could they started beating him with those pansy assed stunner sticks. Stupid fucks. I think he just wanted to see what was going on. Bet ya a hundred credits that guy was from the Slums like our Molly.” Rock told him his eyes burning in his rage that the man had been beaten for nothing.

They weren’t into bullshit like that. Not that any one of them wouldn’t have fucked up someone who threatened their club. But not a single one of them would ever do that shit for no fucking reason. Ratchet nodded at him as Tick walked up asking. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing we’re waiting on Tiny.” Ratchet told him glaring at Rock. He didn’t need him telling Tick about his idiotic need to protect a woman he didn’t even know. Besides the man would find out soon enough. There was no way they weren’t going to bring this up in church next week. Fuck, he was a fucking idiot, Ratchet thought angrily.

He needed to quit being an idiot. Tiny came out of the office and motioned for them to get a move on. He only shrugged at Tick who was looking at him with a questioning expression. Then moving to his bike he tried not to look at the office door to see if Mia would reappear. He didn’t want to see her again he told himself sternly.

But even as this thought swirled inside his head he turned looking in that direction. Seeing Mia standing near the doorway looking at them leaving, his dick twitched letting him know that thought was total bullshit. He turned back to his bike climbing on. Two minutes latter they were roaring away.

Mia watched the bikers leaving from the doorway of her office. She felt strangely saddened when the biker gang flew out of the gates behind the truck that had delivered the goods. She watched Ratchet fading into the distance until Hilconn spoke.

“So what did you do to get the little bastards to give you a better price?” Hilconn asked with a suggestive smile on his face.

“Nothing. I just showed him the crates.” She snapped not liking his implication.

“Huh, funny how that never worked before.” Hilconn was still smirking snidely.

“I think that those dickheads gave it to her cause she’s a woman. Those jerks are always freaking out about women. Remember when you tried to talk to that chick they used to bring with them.” Thomas said chuckling. Hilconn moved over to him and the two began talking about how hot the woman had been. Mia would bet all her saved credits that he had been a dick as usual and that was why Ratchet and his club had objected to their talking to her.

Mia headed back into her office a little pissed at herself for the way she’d reacted to Ratchet. She had even forgotten to speak to the man who’d entered her office a second time without Hilconn hovering nearby about getting extra crates when he’d entered to return the thousand credits. It might have been her shock at the discount.

She’d been told by the man who’d been here until she was promoted that they were to try and get the bikers to offer them a better price but it was not likely to happen. The Red Devils never gave discounts. Like in the past twenty years had never given a discount and yet today Ratchet had given one, to her.

She sat down at the metal desk in the small office and dove back into the paperwork she needed to get done today. She needed it to transfer the food to the different places it needed to go. An hour later she was still thinking about the way Ratchet had eyed her as if he wanted to devour her in one bite. She shivered in what she told herself was revulsion, but she suspected was desire.