It has taken a month of scoping out Nicole’s cell phone, and following leads from the greyhound station to find Dani. The bitch knows how to hide her tracks. The surveillance videos at the bus stop don’t even look like her. She hides her hair under a hat, she wears big, loose clothing, and she never, not once, looks at a security camera. It’s like she instinctively knows where they are. That says a lot, and what it says doesn’t make me happy. My woman has some deep, dark shit to tell me about, and we’ll get there. Right now, I’m too overwhelmed with finally having her in my arms. I had almost given up hope it would happen. I thought it was over when I didn’t hear from her after that first week she left. The silence was deafening. Still, I couldn’t fully give up, and now, I’m here with her.

It’s been so long since I’ve had her in my arms, so long since I could take in her scent, touch her, breathe her in, and just hold her. I can’t let her get away from me again. She turns completely in my arms, our lips never fully breaking apart. Then, my arms are full of her, my mouth is full of her tongue, my hands are full of her ass, and I use that to pull her hard against me—so tight, even air can’t get between us. God, I’ve missed her.

Eventually, we’re forced to break apart to give our lungs oxygen. We pull away from each other’s lips slowly. That’s when I get it. Those eyes. The eyes that have haunted me the last few weeks, look up at me. They’re dark, intense, and liquid with emotion. I need this woman. I need that look on her face every fucking day.

“I’ve missed you, Hellcat,” I tell her before I can stop myself. Her forehead crinkles, and I know she’s thinking about what she should say or do to stop this. It won’t work. There’s no stopping this, and no matter what she says, I can tell she wants this as much as I do. I press my lips against the crease on her brow and just continue holding her.

“What you did was wrong.”

I don’t argue…I can’t argue.

“I am not a Twinkie! I won’t be shared with your crew, Zander. I won’t be talked about with your crew.”

“I was a drunken, fucked-up, fool, Hellcat. I didn’t mean the shit my mouth was spewing. It won’t happen again.”

“I don’t think we should happen, I mean it was only supposed to be for sex anyway and…”

I imprison her chin in my hands and pull enough until she looks up at me.

“I. Was. A. Fool. Gunner said something that pissed my whiskey-soaked brain off, and I said shit without even meaning it. I don’t think of you like that, Dani. I told you, you are mine. Mine, Hellcat, and I sure as fuck ain’t sharing you with no-fucking body.” I lay it bare. I owe her this. I just hope I get through to her. When she doesn’t respond, I say again, “You’re mine, Hellcat.”

“And who are you exactly?” A man asks from behind Dani. I look up at him and take him in. Overgrown muscles, a too pretty face and much too cocky. He needs to step back from my woman immediately. I move my hand up to Dani’s side, pull her into my side, and facing the asshole. He’s not getting near her.

“What’s it to you?” I ask, ready to take him down.

“Zander…”

“I asked you a question, pretty boy. Is there some reason you’re interrupting me and my girl?”

“Your girl?”

“Ra…” I squeeze Dani, before she can say anything. I got this. The sooner I take care of him the sooner I get her and hell, I need to get her, and soon.

“That’s right. My girl.”

“Weird she hasn’t mentioned you in the month she’s been living with me.”

Heat hits me and anger fills my body. What the fuck? What the ever-loving fuck? She left me and moved in with some Arnold Schwarzenegger wanna-be, with a pretty face. I look at Dani and she’s staring at the other guy and she looks like she could spit fire at him, so I relax, marginally.

“You’re not helping, Ray,” she says, and I sneer. Ray; pussy-ass sounding name.

“Not trying to help Kitten, just wondering why you’re making out with some man in the middle of the bar.”

Kitten? Fuck that shit, right there.

“Who the hell is this Ray, Hellcat? Explain fast, before I end his ass right here.”

Ray looks away from Dani and back to me. He takes me in and that’s fine. I want him to, because I’m about to beat his ass down. He needs to see the motherfucker that is about to make him bloody.

“Jesus, you said Nicole got mixed up and attached herself to a biker Kitten, you didn’t say you had done the same thing.”

Hand to God, if this motherfucker doesn’t stop calling my woman Kitten, I’m going to make sure he doesn’t have a voice to use. That way he won’t be able to say anything ever again. That’s probably the thing to do really because his voice is annoying as hell.

“I’m not mixed up with a biker, Zander and I are…”

“Fucking like rabbits,” I interject before she can say anything that might piss me off even a tenth more than I already am.

She lands a hard elbow into my side and I grunt, pulling away to rub the spot her blow landed.

“What the fuck is that for?”

“Because you’re pissing me off!” she says.

“Well join the fucking crowd. It doesn’t quite fill me with rainbows and little pink ponies to find out my woman has been living with another man.”

“I haven’t been…little pink ponies?” She stops mid-sentence to ask, looking exasperated, and sexy as hell.

“Yeah those damn…”

“I know what they are, I’m just…I have no words.”

“So, this is the guy you’ve been mooning over for the last month?” I look up to see yet another pretty boy standing in front of us, although this one has way-less muscles and is shorter—more Dani’s size than me or the terminator-wanna-be.

“Jesus, Nic told me you were living with two men, I guess I should have listened,” I grumble taking my hand away from her, and raking it over my face, then massaging the tension in my neck. How the fuck do I handle this? I need to take her ass back home and to tan her hide. Hell, maybe I should lock her in my room until the only cock she can ever think about is mine. That idea definitely has merit. I look up when I hear a table being scooted beside us. Hellcat has another bottle in her hand, and she’s aiming it at my head. Arnold has his arms around her and is pulling her away from me. Now, I should be grateful, but I kind of want to rip his arms off his body and beat him to death with them.

“What the hell you coming after me for? You’re the one sleeping with two men! After you yanked my cock out in the middle my club, woke Junior up to play and then poured an expensive bottle of Jack on it and left my heart broken.” Okay, by this time I’m poking her like she was an angry bear more than anything else. It’s fucking fun to watch her, and I’m a sadistic S.O.B.

The twins, and I mean that in the form of the bad Arnold and Danny Devito movie from way back when, freeze and look at me like I have three heads, and then back at Dani (who tries to fly at me again), and then they do the strangest thing. The tall dude kisses Dani on top of the head and whispers something in her ear. The smaller one, hugs her and then they look at me. I expected shit to be thrown so I could finally beat them down. Instead, I get an invitation.

“Come on up to the bar and we’ll get you a drink on the house,” the smaller one says.

I turn to look at Dani, trying to figure out what her mood is, and where her head is at when she just shrugs and walks towards the bar. I look at her buddies and they basically do the same, except Arnold slaps me hard, a little too hard, on the back, then we follow her. At least I’m not the only one chasing after her, but I am going to make sure I’m the only son of a bitch who catches her. Ever.