Ryder Page 3

  “You missed a lot on the inside this time!” Jett said as he clapped his hand on my back.

  “I could say the same about what you missed on the inside,” I shot back with a laugh. “I mean, there was a lot going on in there, I’m telling you.”

  “I believe it, but are you going to just sit there and hint at it, or are you going to tell us straight what you heard?” Blade asked. “You know we’re all dying to find out what’s been going on.”

  “I’ll get to that,” I told them. “But first, there’s been someone on my mind for the past two months, and I want to know how she’s doing.”

  A groan washed over the table, and several of my companions rolled their eyes.

  “Don’t go there,” Blade said with a shake of his head. “Do you really want to bring up her again?”

  “You know I’m not going to give up on this,” I told him. “I’m not going to forget about her.”

  “You need to let it go,” Jett replied with a shake of his head. “Like, seriously.”

  “I can’t,” I told him. “I want to know how she is!”

  “That was years ago!” Trak cut in, but before I had the chance to tell him where to shove his opinion, Roman piped up.

  “Well, if you’re going to drool over this girl, despite all the great advice to just let it go, then I suggest you go over to Clarence’s and see her there,” he said.

  “She’s working another bar?” I asked in surprise.

  “She doesn’t want anything to do with us,” he said with a shrug. “And since we’re never there, I guess you could say she doesn’t have to worry about it.”

  I sighed. I hadn’t been able to get Taylor off my mind. Not ever, but it was only getting worse the older I got. I wanted her in my life. No, I needed her. I knew she would be mine. I knew she was the one for me.

  Ever since that night when I’d left her at the hotel, I knew she was meant to be mine. She might not know it, and she might be running from that fact even now, but that didn’t change the truth. I would have her, and nothing would stop me from that.

  She was destined to be mine forever – that was something I’d decided a long time ago, and I was sticking with my guns on that one. I would be hers, and she would be mine.

  I’d known it for years, the MC knew how I felt about her, and there was a part of me that even suspected she, too, might know how I felt. But, she never admitted she would be with me, and no one else in the MC seemed to think it was a possibility, either.

  But, I knew it. I would make it happen. Taylor was destined to be with me.

  She just didn’t know it yet.

  Chapter 5

  Taylor

  The chime of the door informed me I had new customers before I turned around. It had been a slower night at Clarence’s, and I was glad for the chance to make more tips. Ultimately, it’s what I wanted. The money I made by the hour really didn’t do much, and my savings jar was looking pathetically close to how it looked the night before.

  I liked to see progress. Each day, I wanted to see a little more money folded and neatly stacked with the rest. But, I could only add more money to the jar if I had money to spare, and that meant I had to make better tips.

  Clarence’s wasn’t a biker bar by any means. That was the reason I’d chosen it. I was good at slinging drinks, that was for sure, and when tips were good, they were really good. But, most of the time, we weren’t nearly as busy as the other bars in town.

  I knew Echo Mori was exceptionally busy, and if I wanted to make a lot more money on a nightly basis, I should try getting a job there. But, I also knew that was one of the biggest hubs for bikers in town. Not only was it the place many liked to frequent, but the fact it was the clubhouse for the Steel Wings was enough to make me not want to go near it.

  Over the years, I’d thought less and less of the MC, hoping I’d not have to deal with any of them for the rest of my life. Though there had been a time in my life when I thought I liked them, I knew the truth – and the fact of the matter was that I didn’t like any MC.

  It didn’t matter who they were or who they served, I wanted nothing to do with them, and that was final.

  I’d pushed as many memories and feelings out of my head as possible, and I planned on keeping things that way. It’s what I wanted, after all, and that’s how I would do things. I wasn’t going to get caught up in thinking about the past or what might have been.

  I was far too interested in the future and what was coming next. Really, that’s what I cared about more than anything: getting the Hell out of here.

  “Hello, pretty thing,” a somewhat familiar voice said.

  I cringed before even looking. “I’ll be right with you,” I said.

  “Take your time, the view from back here is great,” he cooed. The man who’d come in with him jeered, and my cheeks flushed. They were staring at my ass. I knew they were. Normally, I would anticipate getting some good tips out of that, but right now, I just wanted the two of them to leave.

  If I recognized their voice, that meant they were likely men I didn’t want anything to do with. I quickly finished with the glasses and put them up in the rack above my head, and then I turned to them. “What can I get for you?”

  “I’d like a taste of you,” the man said. Once again, his friend encouraged him. I wasn’t in the mood, but I couldn’t ignore the fact my heart skipped a beat when I saw the vests and the emblems. These men were bikers, and they were part of my father’s MC.

  “Not happening,” I replied as I grabbed two beer glasses. “I’m guessing you want what’s on tap?”

  “How well you know us,” he laughed. “It’s almost like you’re close.”

  “I’m not,” I replied. “Anything else?”

  “Oh, come on now, you don’t have to be like that, do you?”

  A knot formed in the pit of my stomach, and I wanted to tell him to get the Hell out of the lobby. But, I didn’t want to cause a scene. These were the kinds of men who would thrive on a scene.

  “I need to get to work,” I told him. “If you’d like to stick with the drinks, I’ll take your card and open your tab or close it right now, whichever you like.”

  “I’d sure like to get my hands on you, that’s what I’d like,” he continued.

  “I’m not going to put up with that sort of behavior.” The words were tight and shrill, almost as though they were coming from someone else. My heart raced in my chest, and the knot in my stomach tightened. I wanted help, but there wasn’t anyone to come to my rescue. Unless the two of them actually did something, there wasn’t much of a chance the bouncer would step in.

  Even if this wasn’t a biker bar, it was a known fact bikers weren’t the kind of guys to get involved with, and I knew he would avoid any trouble he could, even if it meant I would be harassed at the counter. After all, the owner of the bar felt anyone who agreed to work the bar knew what they were getting themselves into.

  Especially if they were women and attractive on top of it. It wasn’t unusual for the men to get a little pushy, and I was one of the only women in the bar who didn’t care for the attention.

  But, I had to put up with it from most.

  I bit my tongue.

  “You need to relax, honey,” the man cooed. “It seems to me you’re getting a little excited, and I don’t like being talked to that way.”

  “Then maybe you should find another bar,” I snapped. He could threaten me all he wanted. I wasn’t going to let him talk to me that way.

  “I go where I want, and I do what I want. You think just because you’re the president’s daughter I’m going to treat you any different than any other bitch?” he laughed, and his friend joined in. My stomach churned.

  “I expect you to treat me with respect,” I snapped. “I’m not part of your little gang, and I’m never going to be. I don’t give a rat’s ass who my father is, or who you think you are, for that matter. Get out of my bar if you’re not going to treat me with respect.”

&nb
sp; The two exchanged a glance, and then they looked back at me. “Seems to me you need someone to teach you a lesson. It’s not very nice to talk to us like that, and I don’t think either one of us appreciate it.”

  “I don’t care!” My chest was tight, and I feared I’d burst into tears. They were scaring me, and I was getting angry. I wanted them to just leave me alone, but it didn’t seem that would happen. I looked around the bar for the bouncer, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

  For all I knew, he could have just seen what was going on and left me to handle it. That was just the sort of thing he’d do to keep from getting in trouble with these guys himself, leaving me to deal with the consequences.

  If that’s how it was going to go down, then I would fight them. I wasn’t going to stand there and let them treat me like an object, I didn’t care who they were. But, the truth was I was scared of what would happen when I did fight back.

  These weren’t the kind of men who would respect a woman for any reason. They would take what they wanted, and if I wasn’t giving it to them willingly, then they would just force me to hand it over.

  “You’ll care,” the man said. “You’ll care a lot. In fact, if you want tonight to be easy on you, then you better drop the attitude and start playing along. Someone as pretty as you doesn’t need to have that sort of attitude. Especially, when you’re talking to us.”

  “Fuck you!” I snapped.

  “Alright, that’s it, you sheep!” He took a step forward, and my blood boiled. I wanted to scream, though the fear that built in me nearly paralyzed me for a moment.

  I knew what a sheep was, and I wasn’t thrilled about being called one. There were plenty of women who would throw themselves at the MC day and night. They would love to get in with one of those men, even if they knew they would just be fucked and left the next day.

  It was a culture all in and of itself, and they were part of it. So much of the MC would just share these girls, passing them back and forth among themselves until one of them got pregnant.

  If I had stayed in the MC, I knew I would be part of that same label. They didn’t care who my father was. All they cared about was satisfying their own lust and getting what they wanted. If that meant taking it by force, then that’s what they were going to do.

  I would have been passed from man to man, not even lovers – I would have been used as a tool to satisfy them. Sure, I might have gotten a husband in the mix, but that didn’t mean they would have stopped sharing me. I would have just been the tool they needed to carry the next generation of biker, and I would have to play the part until that happened.

  It made me sick to my stomach to think about it, and now, knowing they still thought of me that way made me want to throw the bottle of beer at them. I would kick and scream and get them the hell out of the bar if I had to. And I would do it alone.

  But, it would cost me my job, and I didn’t want to risk losing that. I had to get out of this town for good. And the only way that would happen would be with a paycheck. With the MC everywhere, it was hard to get any sort of job where I didn’t have to deal with them.

  I knew it, they knew it, and they were going to take full advantage of that fact. What I wanted didn’t matter in the situation, and I braced myself for the fight I was about to have.

  But then, someone did come to my rescue.

  “You boys looking for trouble?”

  The man walked over from the side of the bar. I hadn’t seen him in the heat of the conversation, but both men turned and sized him up, clearly surprised he had the guts to confront them.

  “Not trouble, actually,” the first man spoke. “We’re looking for a good time.”

  “I’d suggest you look somewhere else. This lady doesn’t care for your attention,” the man replied coolly.

  “She likes it more than she lets on,” the first man said. “She’s a sheep.”

  “Why don’t you get out of here before I have to bring in some of my friends to help emphasize my message,” the man who’d come to my rescue said as he opened his jacket slightly. I didn’t see what the two men on the other side of the bar saw, but they exchanged a glance before huffing toward the door.

  “You might’ve won this round,” my attacker said over his shoulder. “But we’ll be back, and we’re not going to be alone when we are.”

  “I look forward to it,” my hero said.

  They walked out the door and he turned to me, causing my heart to skip a beat and my mouth to go dry all at the same time. I suddenly realized I knew this man, and he knew me – well.

  Almost as though he’d stepped right out of my past, Ryder was standing right there in front of me, and I wasn’t sure what to do about it. I didn’t want anything to do with him, that was for sure, but I couldn’t deny his oozing sexiness. In fact, there was something about him now that was sultry and mysterious, something that was so appealing, I could hardly take my eyes off him.

  His smile brought me right back to the moment, and a flutter ran through me.

  What the Hell was I supposed to do now? I wondered.

  Chapter 6

  Ryder

  “What do you want?” Taylor asked as she turned her attention from the door and back to me.

  “You looked like they were bothering you, so I thought I’d step in and see if I could offer any help,” I replied.

  “I had it under control,” she snapped.

  “Not from where I was standing,” I smirked.

  “Then maybe you should find another bar,” she said.

  “While I’m here, I might as well get a beer,” I told her. “You know what I like.”

  She glared at me for moment before turning to get the drink. I was right. She knew what I always ordered, and she may as well get it for me or have to deal with me standing there longer.

  “Why are you even here?” she asked. “Don’t you and your friends hang out at Echo Mori?”

  “I wanted to check up on you; it’s been a while and I figured I’d stop by to see how you’re doing,” I told her.

  “I’m fine,” she snapped.

  “You don’t look fine, but I’m not going to argue with that,” I said with a smile.

  “That’s rude.” She set the beer on the counter, and I shrugged.

  “I just meant those men were crowding you a little close, wouldn’t you say?” I sipped the foaming beer, and she rolled her eyes.

  “That’s the life I live. You sign up to be hit on when you work a bar,” she spat. “I’d think you’d know that.”

  “That’s not what it looked like to me.” I sat down and she rolled her eyes. “In fact, it seemed to me that you were getting a little agitated there.”

  “I can take care of myself. Believe me.”

  “You say that, but…” I let the words hang in the air, and she grew visibly more defensive.

  “Yes, I say that, but nothing!” she spat. “I can take care of myself, and I don’t need you in here keeping an eye on me as you said. That’s stalking, you know that?”

  “Coming in to order a drink and happening to save you from harassment is not the same thing as stalking,” I told her coolly. She was still defensive, but I found it nearly impossible not to laugh at her. That was one thing I’d loved about Taylor for as long as I knew her. She got so riled up, and it was fun to see her so fierce.

  She would fit in as the old lady of someone in an MC, I had to admit. Of course, that someone would be me. I knew for years she and I would end up together, and I wasn’t going to change my mind about that. She was the woman I loved, there was no denying that.

  But she didn’t see things that way. Not yet anyway. I was sure with time she would come around to see things from my point of view, and I would be more than happy to be there for her when that happened.

  Even if she did tell me it wasn’t ever going to happen between us, I knew she wasn’t thinking properly. Of course, it was. I knew it was just a matter of time before it did, and I was willing to wait. She could resist
all she wanted, but that didn’t change my point of view on the situation.

  I would continue to be myself toward her, and that was the end of that.

  “You have plenty of other places you could just stop in for a drink. The fact you come here when you know I’m working tells me you’re here for a reason – and that’s not to get the beer. I’m not stupid, Ryder, I know you came in to see me,” Taylor said. “And if I tell the owner you’re harassing me, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.”

  “Tell the owner whatever you like,” I said. “You know as well as I do he’s not going to do shit about it.”

  She bristled, but she didn’t argue with me. She couldn’t. That was another thing she knew. I was right. He wasn’t going to do a damn thing to anyone in an MC. He knew what it was like dealing with the repercussions that came from pissing off an MC, and he didn’t want to have to deal with that.

  Sure, the cops could get involved, he could even go to other MCs and see if they would do anything on his behalf, but God knew we could do a lot of damage to his life before he was able to get it taken care of. If it meant letting go one of the people who worked for him rather than dealing with the consequences of an MC, then that’s what he would do.

  Of course, I wasn’t going to hurt her. Quite the opposite in fact. When I saw those men harassing her at the bar, I went into a primal, protective mode that overran everything. I wasn’t going to let anyone come near her no matter what. There was no way in Hell I would stand by and watch her being harassed by anyone, that was for damn sure.

  I didn’t care who it was.

  In fact, it wasn’t just the harassment that got me all worked up when I saw those men on her. It was the fact they were hitting on her, implying she’d want to sleep with either of them – or worse than that, that she should be expected to sleep with them.