Sarah held onto Nicole’s hand, and led her to the main door. As they stepped past all the men and women loitering on the steps, they made a concerted effort to not make eye contact with any of them.

Sarah didn’t know why, but she could sense they were aggressive. They were all on alert, as if they were waiting for an intruder, and they were watching Sarah and Nicole as if they were the ones with something to hide.

Sarah ignored their wandering eyes, and when she pushed open the main door and felt the gush of hot air rush out and smack her full in the face, she gasped and instinctively squinted her eyes.

There was a dense fog of smoke hanging heavy in the air, and it was illuminated by interior spotlights, which, much like the front, were a deep red and gave the place the kind of atmosphere that made it feel like it was on fire. Sarah moved forward slowly, and could see shadows of people up ahead, that’s all they appeared to be as they merged into the smoke, but there were so many of them, and they were all grinding and bumping against each other as heavy rock music blared over the speakers.

Nicole gave Sarah’s hand a reassuring squeeze, and Sarah moved to the side, trying to get to the edge of the room so they could get their bearings and figure out where they needed to be.

“It’s crazy in here,” Sarah called to Nicole. “It’s completely rammed. Look at everyone, it’s like they’re in the middle of a goddam orgy.”

Nicole’s eyes were wide as she was watching the dark, writhing bodies appear and disappear on the leather couches scattered around the outside of the room, as the spotlights rose and fell, lighting and un-lighting each area.

“Come on,” Sarah said as she pulled Nicole forward, suddenly aware that Nicole was clearly regretting her decision to come here.

“I can’t believe Ranger hangs out here,” she hissed into Sarah’s ear. “I mean, what the actual fuck, this place is crazy.”

“It’s just work to him, Nic,” Sarah reassured her. “I can’t imagine any of this interests him in the slightest.”

She managed to catch a glimpse of a bar through the smoke and the ever changing lights, and she pulled Nicole quickly toward it.

When they reached it, the two girls looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief as they managed to pull up two tall stools and get themselves seated up at the counter.

“Get me something strong,” Nicole laughed nervously. “I feel all self-conscious.”

“Don’t be silly,” Sarah laughed, but she still raised her hand and motioned for the girl who was serving to come and take their order.

She requested two shooters and two beers, and the girls sat and drank them slowly as they took in the rest of the scene around them.

Now that they had become accustomed to the light and the smoke in there, nothing seemed as bewildering as it had before. Sure, there were horny couples attacking each other on the couches, and most of the men and women looked as if they would murder you for looking at them funny, but it was just a bar at the end of it all.

Sarah found herself nodding her head to the music, and when Ranger came over and kissed Nicole, she found herself looking lustily at some of the men in the room. Imagining what it would be like to experience life with an outlaw.

Her mind was wandering, and she knew her eyes were glazing over, but she didn’t mind. A lot of her wanted to submit to the fantasies she had been having of late, and she suddenly remembered the intensities of her dream as she looked at the smoke and the red lights, and how the inside of the bar looked like a different world.

“Lost in thought…?” the voice came from behind her, and it sent a shiver up her spine, even before she saw him.

She knew it was him, even though she had only spoken to him twice. He had the kind of voice you could never forget, and now he was right there next to her, and it was making her tremble.

She let her head turn slightly to the side and she glanced at him over her shoulder.

Snake.

He was standing right there behind her, with his hands tucked into the pockets of his low slung, ripped jeans, and he was wearing a tight, muscle-revealing t-shirt.

Sarah gulped.

She smiled.

“Hi,” she said, trying not to sound too ditzy, even though her mind was swimming and she was rapidly forgetting how to function like the highly educated woman she was.

“When Ranger said you and Nicole were coming down here, I thought he was joking,” Snake said with a sneer as he moved around the side of Sarah’s chair and looked down at her with a wicked grin. “Not after yesterday, anyway.”

He held a toothpick between his teeth, and when he rolled it in his fingers she couldn’t help but stare at the tattoos on his knuckles, and the open, venomous jaws of a snake that was working and twisting its way up his arm from his wrist.

“Nice tattoo,” she said, changing the subject. “Is that why you’ve got the nickname?”

He looked down at her with his dark, menacing eyes, and he licked his lips.

“No, sweetheart,” he said with amusement. “I’ve got that name for a much more exciting reason.”

He let the playfulness shine through his eyes, and Sarah felt her cheeks blush red.

Did he mean what she thought he meant?

She tried not to let her gaze wander down to the bulge in his pants. It would be so obvious that she thought he was hot if she fell for a trick like that, and yet, she found herself doing it anyway, before she looked quickly away.

“You’re not biting at my bait…” he said as he leaned in next to her. “I said I didn’t think I’d see you down here.”

“Well, this isn’t Tanner’s,” Sarah said cockily. “Why shouldn’t we come here?”

Snake smirked and shrugged his shoulders.

“You’re not my keeper,” she said with raised eyebrows. “I’m surprised you care…”

She let that hang between them, and then she felt herself smirk. She had called him out on his interest, and now he was going to have to respond.

“I don’t,” he said as he gave her a sympathetic smile.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes.

“Why have you come over then?” she asked, feeling mischievous.

Snake dismissed her question, and he nodded behind the bar to the girl who was serving. Sarah watched as the server nodded back and moved straight to a particular bottle of whiskey, before she cracked two ice cubes into a glass, poured some of the dark, brown liquid, and passed it to Snake, all in a matter of seconds.

“You call the shots around here then?” she asked him.

“We all do,” he smiled.

Sarah turned to see Nicole and Ranger slipping down from their seats.

“Do you mind?” Nicole asked. “We’re just going to chat in the office…”

Sarah felt her jaw sag a little, the last thing she wanted was to be left in a place like The Bleeding Bullet on her own.

“Wedding stuff,” Nicole whispered so that only Sarah could hear, and she could see the importance etched on her face.

“Okay,” Sarah said with reluctance. “No worries.”

As her brother and Nicole moved away into the crowds, she turned back to the bar and was glad to see that Snake was still standing there nonchalantly. She turned her chair slightly so she was facing him, and she spun her drink in her hands.

“Have you been instructed to watch over me tonight too?” she asked.

Snake looked down at her with a raised eyebrow and shook his head.

“Not like I was yesterday,” he said. “But I said to Ranger I’d hang around if he needed to steal Nicole. We understand places like this can be a little… intimidating.”

“I’m not intimidated,” Sarah said boastfully. “In fact, I like it.”

Snake threw his head back and laughed, before he looked down at her again and smiled.

“You’re not fooling anyone, kid,” he said.

She tried not to blush again, but the fact he had just called her kid let her know exactly what he thought of her. And it made her blood boil.

“Kid?” she couldn’t help but snap.

“You know what I mean,” he said as he looked out into the crowd. “You’re my best friend’s kid sister, that’s all.”

“I’m also about to graduate and become a lawyer,” she said spitefully. “I’m twenty-two, not twelve.”

He held his hands up in mercy and tried not to laugh.

“No need to be so tetchy,” he said. “It was a throw-away comment, one I use on most of the women in my life.”

“Ha, and I can only assume there are plenty of those,” Sarah said with a snort. “Why am I not surprised.”

Snake grinned and leaned in close to her.

“You really don’t like me, do you?” his eyes were glinting, and feeling him so close to her was making her heart race.

She could smell the dark, musky scents of his cologne and the lingering smell of motor oil. Mixed together, they were completely arousing, and it made her bite her lip and close her eyes to brace herself.

“I didn’t say that,” she whispered.

Snake grinned.

“I’m just playing with you,” he said. “What do you expect, it’s what we were like when we were kids, why wouldn’t we be like it now?”

Sarah looked up at him with shock, as if he had just slapped her in the face.

“When we were kids?” she asked with confusion.

“Sure,” Snake said with a wry smile. “I knew you didn’t remember me.”

Sarah turned her body to fully face him now and stared into his face. He was looking at her with so much amusement, she had no idea where all of this was going, but the more she looked into his deep eyes, the more she felt the twinges of recognition.

She felt the rush of a memory come back to her.

She could clearly see in her mind’s eye her brother and his best friend riding bikes out front on their lawn, when Sarah could only have been around eight, and they would have been thirteen. She scratched her head.

“No way,” she said with a laugh and wide smile.

Snake nodded his head.

She couldn’t believe she hadn’t recognized him before, but there he was, her brother’s best friend from childhood. All those years later, muscled up, bearded, covered in tattoos and hot as hell.

She shook her head in disbelief.

“Of course, I remember you now,” she said. “You practically lived at our house.”

Snake lifted his finger to his lips and said “Shush,” with a half laugh.

“Your brother and I were both very different people then,” he said.

“Man, you’re telling me,” Sarah said as she sipped her drink. “I never would have put two and two together, you look so… so different.”

“Life changes us all in different ways,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. “I’ve been in The Forsaken Riders a lot longer than your brother.” He lifted his whiskey to his lips and took a long sip. “I’m the reason he got made in the first place.”

Sarah cast her mind back to what she could remember about Ranger and the way he had gotten involved with the outlaws. All she had truly known was that it was an old friend who had helped him find his feet, and now that old friend was standing right there in front of her, in the version of Snake.

“Your name, remind me…” She rubbed her temples as she tried to remember what he had gone by back then, but Snake just shook his head and tapped her lightly on the arm.

“Old ghosts,” he said. “We don’t raise them here.”

He smiled at her apologetically, but somehow, she already understood. She had heard Ranger discuss that once they left their old lives behind, they ceased to be that person altogether. Snake had taken a new name, a new life and a new identity. It only made sense that he would never want to remember the old him.

“Okay,” she smiled.

He nodded and took another sip of his drink. Sarah was feeling more and more at ease around him by the minute. And to learn that she had known him all those years ago made her mouth twitch into an unrelenting smile.

“I still can’t believe it’s you,” she said as she grinned. “I never would have known.”

“Well, imagine the shock I got when you and Nicole wandered into Tanner’s a few months back. I had to come straight over to make sure I hadn’t imagined the whole thing.”

“Do I look different?” she asked with excitement.

“Hell yes,” he said. “You’ve grown up. I can’t have seen you since you were, I don’t know, nine or ten?”

Sarah smiled. She couldn’t remember, but one thing was certain, plenty of years, and a lot of changes had happened since.

“And now you’re Snake, and I’m Sarah the lawyer. Who would have thought it?” she smiled.

“And we’re both about to play important roles in our best friend’s wedding,” he said with a grin.

Sarah looked up at him and let her eyes widen.

“Are we…?” she asked suspiciously.

“Well yes, you’re the bridesmaid…” Snake said, before he took a sip of his drink and paused for a moment. “And I’m the best man.”

Sarah’s world started spinning.

Had she just heard him correctly?

She couldn’t help but burst into laughter. This had to be some kind of crazy mistake, or joke, or set up…

“Seriously?” she asked with a raised eyebrow and a look of distrust.

Snake held up his hands, as if he couldn’t believe she had just questioned his integrity.

“Seriously,” he said. “I can’t believe you didn’t know.”

“Looks like I’m the last to learn a lot around here,” she said with a roll of her eyes and a pout.

Snake laughed and mimicked her expression.

“Poor little Sarah,” he teased.

“Now it’s your turn to shush,” she said playfully as she nudged him on the shoulder.

Snake smiled and looked down at the glass she was cradling.

“You’re running dry,” he said as he raised his hand and motioned for the bar girl to come over and serve them.

She arrived with a look of intrigue but also one of annoyance on her face, and she only gave her attention to Snake, she didn’t even acknowledge that Sarah was there.

“Don’t you want your usual?” she asked Snake with a flirtatious smile.

“I want a drink for my friend here,” he said as he looked toward Sarah. “What are you having?”

Sarah didn’t fancy slugging another beer, and the shooter to calm her nerves had done exactly that, so she wasn’t wanting another. She bit her lip and studied the myriad of bottles that were decorating the shelves on the wall behind the bar. She had no idea. She had spent the past four years of her life avoiding things like that, just so she got the most out of her studies.

“Erm,” she said as she tried to pick something.

The bar girl tutted and crossed her arms over her chest. She clearly had time for Snake and all of the other bikers, but she didn’t have time for Sarah.

“No need to be rude, Mona,” Snake said as he glared at her. 

The girl straightened up and gave a weak smile as if she were embarrassed.

“This is Sarah, Ranger’s sister,” Snake said sternly as he glowered at her, clearly unimpressed with her lack of hospitality.

“Oh,” the girl said as she plastered a beaming smile across her face. “I didn’t realize, I thought you were, I thought…” She looked around nervously and stared at all the other women in the bar. They were all scantily dressed and draped around various men.

Sarah felt her face burn bright.

“You thought I was one of them?” she asked with a look of shock.

Mona, the bar girl, looked as if she wanted the whole world to swallow her up.

“No, no,” she shook her head and looked at her with pleading eyes. “It’s just, we don’t get any other women in here,” she said with panic. “I just assumed.”

Snake was having a hard time keeping his amusement to himself, and he was clearly loving causing trouble between the two women. Sarah stared up at him and slapped him on the shoulder.

“You love setting people up, don’t you?” she said with a frown. “Don’t worry, Mona, I can see where you’re coming from,” Sarah smiled at her sympathetically. Mona seemed to relax instantly, and she too shot an angry glance in Snake’s direction.

“So, what can I get you, Sarah?” she asked with a much more genuine smile.

“Well, I’m pretty new to all this,” Sarah admitted. “But I think I’ll have a vodka soda, surely that can’t be too wild, can it?”

“Not at all,” Snake smiled as he looked down at her affectionately.

And she didn’t know exactly how or when, but Sarah could sense that something between her and him had changed for the better.