ShiftinDirty-ElizaGayle (3 page)

With his body pumped from the fight he looked like solid muscle underneath a snug fitting shirt. His arms were huge and covered with a sweep of light brown hair. His hands she remembered, as not long ago one had been grabbing tight onto her hip—the memory sent her heart pounding all over again.

She tried not to look down and see the lean hips and long legs. Or notice that his thighs looked as powerful as the rest of him despite being covered in jeans. Unlike the rest of the men in the bar he didn’t have a vest with patches covering the front and back, although he did have on black motorcycle boots. But it was the trickles of sweat running down the side of his face and disappearing at the edge of his shirt that held her gaze captive. She had to stop herself from offering him a towel to wipe down.
 

For the first time since returning to Sweetwater she thought about getting laid.
 

By him.
 

She sighed. He was so out of her league.

One of the older guys from the original group approached her. “Don’t take none of what my jackass brother said serious, darlin. He’s got some shit going on that has nothing to do with you and his trying to drink it off didn’t go so good. Only made him stupid as far as I can see.”

She sucked in a breath and let it back out nice and slow. There was no need to blast someone who was trying to be nice. “You don’t have to apologize. I’m sure I’ll hear worse. Luckily, I’ve got a pretty thick skin.”

He grabbed her hand and stilled her. “You shouldn’t have to hear worse, darlin.”

From the corner of her eyes she caught hot guy biker watching her with a strange look on his face. He looked pissed off.
 

“Seriously,” she said. “I’m used to it.”

“No, I’m serious. I didn’t already have an old lady, I’d put you on the back of my bike so fast all these other assholes wouldn’t know what hit them.”

She thawed a little from his words. “Thanks, your—uh—girl—old lady, is lucky to have someone so kind.”

He started laughing. Not the nice easy laugh of someone slightly amused. He broke out into a big hearted, chest heaving laugh. “Now that’s a word I don’t think anyone has used for me.” He swiped his face. “But I’ll take it. Now let me get the rest of these boys out of here so you can get back to enjoying your test.” He winked, pressing a big wad of bills into her hand. “That should cover the bill and your tip.”

“Uh—” She looked down, uncertain how much money he’d given her. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do. Should she start counting the money and make sure it matched the bill? That seemed the right thing to do. But he’d been so kind and implied he liked the way she looked.
 

Screw it. She reached forward and wrapped her arms briefly around his shoulders. “Thank you,” she whispered.

He gave her one last smile before he turned away, herding the rest of the men with him as he went. A couple of them stopped next to the hottie and exchanged words. She couldn’t hear what they said, but they’re body language said it all. This wasn’t over.
 

He too fished his wallet from his back pocket and laid down bills on the table next to his glass. She kind of hated to see him go. The way he reached out and touched her earlier caught her off guard, but with a few minutes to think it through she might have revisited the situation and outright asked him why he did it.

Now she’d never know.

When all the men were settled and gone she approached the carelessly placed tables and began straightening the area.
 

“Don’t let those idiots shake you up too bad. This kind of thing happens. Tomorrow, after they get the crap out of their system, they’ll be back and all will be forgotten.”

Sienna sat down and faced Mae, pulling the wad of money back out of her apron. “Why would you want them back if you know this kind of thing will eventually happen again.”

“This is a biker bar, babe. If I can’t handle tussles like this on a semi-regular basis I might as well pack up, sell the bar and move down to Florida with the rest of the people my age.”

She made a horrible face at her last words. Kinda looked like she’d been forced to suck an old lemon.
 

“I take it Florida is not your dream?”

“Oh God no,” she said. “You couldn’t pay me to live down there.”

She continued to talk but Sienna’s attention was drawn to the bills in her hand. When she finally unfolded them and started counting she realized that they overpaid by more than a hundred dollars.

“Holy shit.”

Mae looked up. “What? You surprised to hear someone like me talking about old retired farts sitting around waiting to die in hell?”

“What? No. Those guys, the ones I waited on all day, overpaid their bill by a lot.”

The older woman shrugged. “So? They fucked up starting trouble in here with a new girl. Call it a bonus for the shit they pulled.”

She shook her head. “I can’t take this much. It’s not right.”

Mae looked at her as if she was crazy. Maybe she was. She certainly needed every dime she could obtain. But that didn’t change the fact that she couldn’t accept this much. It didn’t feel right.

Her potential new boss sighed. “You can probably still find Thumper out back if you really want to give it back.”

“Thumper?”
 

“Yeah. The biker who paid you goes by Thumper.”

“What the heck kind of name is Thumper?” she asked.
 

Mae shook her head. “Don’t ask me. I ain’t a biker chick in any way shape or form. I just serve drinks and threaten to shoot them when I need to keep them in line. Those MC’s come in here all the time and just when you think you’ve heard it all, someone will come up with another ridiculous nickname that only makes sense to them.”

“MC?”

“Honey, what kind of sheltered life have you been living? MC. Motorcycle Club. They’re everywhere these days. Especially round here.” She leaned closer, leveling her hard eyes on Sienna. “You sure you want to work here? You just don’t seem like the type.”

“The type who likes money you mean?”

Mae laughed. “You must not like it that much if you’re going to go give it back.”

Which reminded her, she needed to try and catch Thumper. Not that she planned to call him that to his face. He looked nothing like the cute, fuzzy cartoon bunny with a big paw he couldn’t keep still. Although he was good looking in his own goofy kind of way.

She shoved the chair back and headed for the door.

“Hey. Be careful. If Thumper’s too close to the fight, then you hightail it back in here and wait till he returns another day. I don’t need that kind of liability.”

She hated to keep repeating everything that Mae said with a question, but the woman kept talking to her like she already knew the situation.
 

“Uhm—fight?”

“Oh girlie. You are too damn green for me. Did you really think they all just gave in and went home? Did you hear a single motorcycle rev up after they walked out?

Now that she thought about it she guessed she didn’t.
 

“That was just a temporary reprieve. I’ll lay odds that your boy is out back getting his ass handed to him for standing up for you.”

Her boy?
 

Jesus H. She did feel a little like Alice after falling down the rabbit hole. This was a whole different world she didn’t understand at all.
 

She looked at the door and then back to Mae, who’d pulled out a cigarette and placed it between her lips. She had so many questions, but trying to get answers from Mae exhausted her. She wanted to know, she needed to go outside and find out for herself.
 

Sienna pulled the door open and walked out. She had half a mind to get in her car and just leave. So far everyone she’d met here seemed more than a little crazy. And as she expected, she really had no business being around a bunch of bikers. She glanced at the row of bikes, admiring all the different shapes and sizes. Some were skinny and low to the ground, while others were wide and tall. It seemed every biker had a different preference as no two looked all that similar. So why couldn’t they be open to women the same way they were their bikes? Why did everyone for that matter have to be so obsessed with skinny bitches?
 

Sienna blew out a breath. She had to get over this. Recent events may have hurt her feelings, but that didn’t mean she had to let them get to her. Screw her ex and screw some dirty biker who knew absolutely nothing about her.
 

Several shouts in the distance drew her away from the bikes and around the other side of the building. As she got close she noticed more of those strange animal sounding growls she heard in the bar. The backside of the building was surrounded by trees with a small clearing that probably allowed for overflow parking.
 

Right now she couldn’t see a thing past the tight ring of guys blocking her view. However she had no trouble hearing the sounds of the fight despite their shouting as the sickening thud of a fist hitting flesh and bone hit her.
 

“What’s happening?” she yelled, trying to push her way past a couple of the guys so she could see.

A couple of them laughed and one tried to grab her back before she got too close, but she wiggled out of his grasp. The sounds coming from the fight were scary and she had to see what was happening.

She broke through the thick wall of bodies in time to see her hot biker dude throwing his opponent across the ring. By some freak of luck he landed on his feet instead of crashing to the ground.
 

But what happened next she couldn’t comprehend. Fur sprouted all over the man’s body as bones popped and his clothes were ripped from his body as he transformed into an animal.

A very large wolf specifically.

Sienna scrambled several steps back and fell on her ass.
 

What the hell?

Adrenaline coursed through her as she tried to dash out of the way. She had no idea what was happening around her, only that she had to get away as fast as possible.
 

When hands grabbed her around the waist and hauled her into the air, she screamed and fought as hard as she could.
 

“Stop fighting. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Somewhere in the back of her brain, beyond the rushing of fear and her overactive heartbeat, she recognized the hottie’s voice at her ear. Not that she cared anymore. She twisted hard desperate to yank free from his hold. His grip only tightened, making it impossible for her to move.
 

“Let me go,” she screamed.

“No. I let you go you won’t live another five minutes is that what you want?”

She jerked her head to the side, trying to see his face. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I don’t have time to explain right now. Just stay still and let me handle this.”

“I just wanted to give Thumper his money back. I gotta go back to work.” Her brain still wasn’t soaking in exactly what had happened.
 

A moment later she found herself on the ground next to a bike that the super hot biker was hiking his leg over and flipping a switch. The bike rumbled to life.
 

“Get on.” He growled.
 

“What? No way.”

“Goddamn it, woman. If you want to live you will get your ass on this bike.”

“I—can’t”

“You can.” He grabbed her waist and pulled her toward the rear. “Now.”

She looked behind her and saw a few of the men from the fight bearing down on them. She had to make a decision right that second. Go with the one who kinda frightened her less or stand her ground against a whole pack and hope that what she’d seen was some sort of figment in her imagination.”

Shit.

She swung her leg over the seat and grabbed his waist.
 

“Hang on tight.”

The words no sooner left his mouth than they took off across the gravel parking lot, kicking up dirt and rocks behind them. She twisted and looked behind her and saw the rest of the bikers were also jumping onto their bikes and the one who—she couldn’t even say it—was scrambling into a pair of jeans that had appeared from nowhere.

Hottie turned onto the paved road and sped up. It dawned on her that neither of them were wearing helmets and that at this speed they could easily end up as road kill if they weren’t careful. That was here, thinking about safety, even in the middle of a life or death crisis.

Still, this whole situation was out of control. She had no business on the back of a bike with a stranger going who knew where. But her brain kept going back to what she’d seen behind the bar and it couldn’t process. It simply wasn’t possible that a man turned into an animal. That’s the kind of stuff she saw only on television or read in books.

No way.

Nu-uh.

Simply not possible.

A shiver worked up her spine and she tightened her arms around the man in front of her as she squeezed her eyes shut. They were going so fast her stomach was starting to object. She needed a calming distraction pronto.
 

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