For about the twentieth time, Jacinda peered out the motel room window. There was nothing out there except half a dozen cars—two aging minivans, a beater pickup, and three late-model compacts—and Apollo’s Harley, parked a few doors down.

She felt him come up behind her. “Staring out the window isn’t going to make them get here sooner. It’s not noon yet.”

“I need to take a walk or something.” She turned away from the window and stepped out of his reach.

“You know I can’t let you do that. We need to stay put.”

Not because of her concussion; she was through the danger zone for that. She had a moderate headache and a slightly carsick feeling, but she wasn’t at risk of dropping into a coma, she didn’t think. Her chest ached, Deputy Tom falling on her had smooshed her pretty flat, but the pain was no more than when she’d had bronchitis in high school—less, in fact, because she wasn’t constantly straining her ribs with a cough.

Apollo had taken good care of her through the night and morning, but her health wasn’t why he wouldn’t let her outside.

She was a prisoner. Until the Bulls said otherwise. And what ‘otherwise’ would they say? Would it be ‘You’re free to go,’ or ‘Any last words?’

Probably, she should have felt threatened for being kept in this room, under guard, and she’d tried to build up outrage about it, but it stalled out every time her eyes met Apollo’s. He was so clearly worried for her, and felt so clearly guilty, that she couldn’t be mad at him. She was worried, and she felt threatened, but not by him.

She just wanted it to be over.

Each minute that she waited added another pound of pressure. The room wasn’t big enough to pace in, especially not with Apollo standing there like a sentry, so she sat cross-legged on the bed and picked at her nail polish. She never let her manicure get so rugged. One of her few vanities, and luxuries, was a nice mani-pedi.

Apollo came and sat on the other bed. “They’re not bad guys. They just need to be sure the club is safe. You tell them the truth, and don’t ask questions, and this is going to be okay.”

“Tell me about them. Who am I facing?” All morning, she’d been afraid to ask, but it would be better if she were prepared to face two more men like Ox, who was basically an angry Titan.

“Delaney—our president—he’s older, in his sixties, I guess. He’s direct, but he’s not going to try to scare you. He’ll be nice. Rad’s the SAA. You know what that is?”

“Sergeant at Arms. In charge of protection.”

He nodded. “Yeah. Close enough. He’s intense, but with Delaney and Ox here, he’s third in command, so he probably won’t say much. Delaney’ll ask you some questions, that’s it. Then this is over for you.”

“And for you?”

“They’ve got more questions for me. It’ll be fine.”

No, it wouldn’t be fine. It couldn’t be. At least two people were dead, maybe more; she didn’t know what had happened to Kathleen Riggs, but since she’d shot at the Great Plains Riders’ president, she probably hadn’t had a great night. There was some kind of deal going on with the Riders and the Bulls, and Jacinda had interrupted it in some way. Apollo wouldn’t talk at all about that, so it remained mysterious, and Jacinda didn’t like mysteries she couldn’t solve.

Neither did her father. She’d spoken to him and her mother, each of them on an extension at the house, and they’d peppered her with a hundred questions. Since her story was primarily true, they hadn’t found the gaps they’d been digging for, and the call had ended with them reluctantly agreeing to stay in Tulsa and wait a day or so for her to come home.

They wanted to meet ‘Neil,’ though.

“Are you in trouble because of me?” she asked Apollo.

He smiled and moved to her bed, setting his hand on her thigh. “It’s not your fault, and the trouble won’t last. We just need to convince them that this was all unintentional, and since that’s true, they’ll believe it.”

“I hope so.”

Harley engines roared outside, and they both turned and stared at the door. Apollo got up. “Okay. I’m gonna go out and talk to them, and then I’ll bring them in.” He squeezed her hand. “Relax, baby. It’ll be fine.”

He pulled on his kutte, and she watched him go out into the sunlight. When the door closed between them and she was alone, then she began to panic. She ran to the bathroom, momentarily worried she’d puke.

The feeling passed, and she washed her hands and face, just for something to do besides stare at the door and wait. Drying her face, she caught sight of her reflection. Sheesh, she looked like hell. She’d had a shower after her talk with her folks, but without a hair dryer, she’d had to let her thick mop air dry. Now it looked like straw. Without makeup, her complexion seemed sallow, except for the livid bruise hanging like an angry sun at the corner of her forehead.

Her mouth was okay, though; it didn’t look like Colleen’s bonus slap would bruise at all.

Dropping the stiff, thin hand towel to the counter, she narrowed her glance and really stared into the mirror, past her reflection and into her head. What if they didn’t believe her? Would they kill her? She took a breath and looked hard at that possibility. Even now, she’d observed nothing about the Bulls in Nebraska, except that there were four of them here. The only piece of information that could be incriminating was that Apollo and Ox had shown up at the barn. But they’d done nothing wrong that Jacinda had seen, and they’d shown no sign of why they were in Nebraska. She knew nothing, and she had no qualms about covering up their presence in that barn, because they’d done nothing wrong.

Obviously, the reason they were in Nebraska was something wrong, but she didn’t know anything about it and, as normally nosy and curious as she was, she was content not to know.

Actually, as long as she was taking hard looks at things, that was worth taking a hard look at. Why didn’t she want to know? She always wanted to know everything. Mysteries were her life’s mission. But this one wouldn’t stick. She kept trying to be suspicious, to see the Bulls as the threat they certainly were, to sort out the puzzle she stood in the middle of, but her brain kept setting it aside. Why didn’t she care that there was some big dark secret looming right over her head?

Apollo. That was why. She didn’t want to hurt him. More than that, she didn’t want that secret to rear up its horned head and stand between them. He was a Brazen Bull. They were outlaws, everybody knew that. They’d had a fairly positive, ‘Robin Hoody’ kind of reputation until recently, but everybody knew they were outlaws. After the last year, though, that positive reputation had taken a hard hit. They were no longer guys who crossed the line every now and then. Now they were guys who burned the line down, and anybody near it.

But that was reputation. Rumor. Suspicion. In fact, none of them had been arrested on a single charge last year. Jacinda liked Apollo enough to let rumor slide. She’d seen that he was a decent guy. He’d proved that to her. But if she knew for a fact that he was also a killer, could she be with him?

How could she? What would that make her?

No, she would not ask the question. She did not want to know.

Because she did want to know him.

The door swung open, and Jacinda jumped and spun around, feeling oddly guilty—and dizzy. Apollo came in first, sending her a warm smile she was sure was intended to encourage her. She tried to smile back, but her lips quivered when she tried, so she gave it up.

An older man with longish, dark, greying hair and a heavily grey goatee followed. He was a few inches shorter and noticeably narrower than Apollo. Delaney, that would be. The club president. He didn’t send her a smile or any kind of expression at all.

Behind him came a man about as tall and almost as broad as Apollo. His hair was dark, undercut and flopping over his forehead. A thick but short beard and a heavy brow. His face was...some might think it handsome, but she didn’t. Older than Apollo and younger than Delaney, he had the permanent creases of a man who scowled a lot. That was Rad. The flash on his kutte read Radical. Okay.

Ox came in last, towering over the others. He ducked his buzzed head and turned his gargantuan shoulders to get through the door. When he was through, he closed it.

Jacinda was alone in a motel room with four Brazen Bulls, only one of whom looked friendly.

They all stared at her, and she stared back, trying to decide what attitude to take in this situation. Should she be composed and direct, on the job, or would that make them more suspicious? Should she act helpless and scared—she was actually a bit of both—and hope to activate their chivalry, or would it shorten their patience?

Unable to decide, she went with her real self, which was more like her PI persona, though not quite as forceful. “Hi,” she said. She’d had that whole inner debate in about a second and a half, so the silence hadn’t become awkward quite yet. She stepped away from the sink and into the room.

Apollo came to her and put his hand on her back. “Jacinda Durham, this is Delaney, Rad, and you’ve met Ox.”

Ox nodded. Rad glared. Delaney came forward and held out his hand. “Hi, sweetheart. I guess we got some things to clear up.”

She shook with him. “I guess so.”

He looked around the room. “Not much in the way of seating. You mind taking that bed? I’ll sit here, and we’ll get to know each other.” He indicated the bed she’d spent the night on, and after she’d sat, he sat on Apollo’s bed, facing her.

Ox and Apollo took the chairs at the table by the window. Rad stood by the door, his arms crossed over his chest, looking like a mastiff on duty.

“Let’s start with some easy stuff. How long’ve you been a private investigator?”

“Nine years.”

“I know it’s not a nice thing to ask a lady, but how old are you?”

“I’m not a lady, so I don’t mind. I’m thirty.”

“You got your license at twenty-one?” Rad asked from his glowering corner.

She turned her head—it still hurt to do that—and looked at him as she answered. “Yeah.” To Delaney, she decided to add some detail he hadn’t yet asked for. “I worked in my dad’s office from high school. I watched the work he did and wanted to do it, too.”

Delaney’s expression indicated that he thought that made sense. “You or your dad ever look into the Brazen Bulls?”

“No.”

“Anybody ever ask you to?”

“No. Mostly, we do insurance claim investigations and divorce stuff.”

“And bounty hunting,” Ox added.

“Sometimes, yeah. It’s not our meal ticket. My dad’s friends with the guy who owns Redbud Bail Bonds.”

Delaney nodded. “Avery Walcott. Yeah, I know him. Decent guy.”

That felt like a sliver of an in, and Jacinda pushed at it gently. “Yeah, he is. He and my dad went to high school together. They played football.”

“Your dad’s a jock, huh?”

She laughed. “He was the kicker.”

Several male voices laughed at that. Jacinda didn’t turn to see if that chorus included Rad, but she didn’t think so. “Anyway, Avery’s got a hunter on staff, but when his hunter is out and he has another jumper, he contracts out the job. We get one maybe every few months, if that.”

“And one of Avery’s jobs brought you up here.”

“Yeah.”

“How’d you meet Apollo?”

If Delaney meant to shake her up with the change of topic, it didn’t work. She rolled with the flow. “Saturday night. I went to Donovan’s with a friend. Apollo bought me a drink.”

“Fucking guys you just met, that’s a thing you do a lot?”

“D!” Apollo protested, rising off his chair. “C’mon!”

“Sit, brother,” Rad snarled from the corner. Apollo sat.

Honestly, that question threw Jacinda, just a bit. Not enough to knock her off her beam, but still. It hurt. And it was hypocritical as fuck, considering that the Bulls kept a roster of women for meaningless sex and threw parties specifically so they could catch fresh pussy.

Not the time to have that argument, however. Keeping her composure, she shaped her face into an ironic smirk. “It’s not. But have you seen him?”

She got a true smile and a chuckle out of the president for that. “He’s not my type, but the ladies do seem to love him.”

Jacinda noted the shrewd probe in his retort, but it didn’t affect her. Of course Apollo banged a lot of women, and of course they all threw themselves at him. It wasn’t like she hadn’t assumed as much while he’d still been sitting across the bar at Donovan’s. The guy was a one-in-a-million kind of gorgeous.

“We had a one-night thing, then went on with our lives. I got the job on Sunday night, left Monday morning, was on the Riggs’ property with the deputy a little after one that afternoon. Yesterday.”

“Tell me about that.”

She told him the same story she’d told Deputy Temple, and Apollo, and Ox. All the details that were true. For Delaney, as for Apollo and Ox, she added in the Bulls, what little she knew—that Apollo had shown up and shielded her, and then she’d passed out.

Delaney let her talk, nodding occasionally as her story apparently lined up with his expectations. When she was done, he squared his hands on his thighs and leaned in. Jacinda studied his hands—rugged and aged, with six rings, three on each hand. Most were heavy, ornate things, a mix of silver and gold. On his left ring finger was a wide, smooth, solid gold band.

What kind of woman married a man like these, she wondered.

“Here’s the thing that’s got me hung up, Jacinda. You say you just met Apollo on Saturday night. Monday afternoon, he’s throwing himself in a pit of radioactive trouble to protect you. I get chivalry and protecting innocents, I respect it, but this is life or death shit here. You think that sounds like a one-night stand? It doesn’t to me. I’m trying to figure out how you got him so caught up if it was.”

She glanced at Apollo. He leaned forward, his expression unreadable, but his blue eyes blazing with concern and focus.

“Don’t look at him, sweetheart. Eyes on me. I asked the question.”

She returned her regard to Delaney. “I don’t know the answer.”

“I need one. Was it a just one-night stand for you?”

Jesus Christ. What did he want? Was she supposed to declare her love for Apollo while she sat on trial, a captive in this stupid motel room?

“No, it wasn’t just a one-night stand. But don’t ask what it was, because I don’t know. I met him three days ago. I don’t know what it is. But I’m not ready to accept his marriage proposal. Or call you Dad.”

Again, she’d made Delaney laugh. “Okay. Okay. The Bulls don’t necessarily have a problem with you being a PI. We have a problem being investigated—privately or otherwise. Our business is our business, and we keep it close. We keep it out of everybody’s way who’s not already in it. Can you respect that?”

A half-dozen rejoinders came into Jacinda’s head, challenges she could make to his assertion that they kept their business out of people’s way. But she prudently left them all locked inside her head. “I can.”

“That’s good to know.” He looked at the other Bulls. “Anybody else got something to ask her?” When no one did, Delaney stood up. “We need to talk, then we’ll let you know.”

‘Let her know’ what? She knew better than to ask.

All four Bulls left the room, and she was alone again. Waiting. For her sentence?

She stood and went to the window. There was another Bull on the sidewalk, just outside the door; she hadn’t seen him before. Apollo and the others weren’t out there; they must have gone into another room. The Bull out there was probably guarding her.

Stepping back before he saw her, she paced the small room, replaying her ‘conversation’ with Delaney over in her mind, trying to cull clues from it. Had she convinced him? Did he believe her? She didn’t know.

They’d taken her gun, and she had no idea where it was, but she wasn’t just going to meekly stand around while they decided she was too great a risk. They might kill her, but she wouldn’t make it easy.

But wait. Would they kill her? Apollo had let her call her folks. They knew she was in Nebraska. They didn’t know about the Bulls, but they knew about him. Hell, he’d introduced himself. He’d given them his real name.

Stunned, Jacinda sat down at the end of her bed and added everything up. He’d put himself in all kinds of trouble for her. More than what he’d done in the Riggs’ barn. She couldn’t imagine that his club would have let her call home and talk the way she had, in so much detail. She couldn’t believe they’d be happy to know her parents knew Apollo’s name.

He’d connected himself, and thus his whole club, to her well-being.

The risk would be greater for them to hurt her than to let her go. He’d guaranteed her safety.

In order for that to be true, however, he’d have to tell his ‘brothers’ what he’d done.

Would they hurt him?

She jumped up again and went to the door. When she tore it open, the unfamiliar Bull, a slight blond guy that she might have been able to take, stepped into the doorway, blocking it. “Sorry, hon. Can’t let you leave.”

“Who are you? Where’s Apollo?”

With a bland customer-service kind of smile, he pushed her back into the room and closed the door. She almost kicked the door in frustration, then remembered that her feet were bare.

If she fought, Apollo would get hurt. She didn’t need to fight; he’d made her safe.

A few minutes later, the door opened, and Apollo came in. The color was high on his cheeks and washed out everywhere else, but he gave her that reassuring smile. He seemed to have a repertoire of canned pleasant smiles: encouraging, charming, abashed, naughty. Already she was able to tell when his expression was genuine and when it was designed to be something in particular. The designed ones were always the same.

“It’s okay,” he said and took her hand. “They believe you. You’re okay.”

“Are you okay?”

His canned smile faltered into something more real, and less reassuring. “Yeah, sure. I’m good.”

“Apollo...”

“It’s fine, I promise. And you’re clear. If you think you can drive tomorrow, I’ll follow you home, and you can put this shit behind you.” His smile faded more. “You can forget you ever heard of the Bulls.”

That wasn’t what she wanted at all. Through all this mess, one thing had been a steady, stable truth: she liked this man. She trusted him. He’d been a sturdy support. In twenty-four hours, he’d saved her more than once.

“I don’t want to forget.” She stepped close and set her hands on his hips. “What we talked about this morning, what I said to Delaney a few minutes ago, that was real. It wasn’t a one-night stand.” She smiled up at him. “I mean, it was, then. But when I left the Osage, I knew it was more. That’s why I left, I think. It scared me, how much I didn’t want to go. And now, after all this, I want to see what there could be between us.”

He tucked her hair behind her ear and lightly skimmed his fingertips over the bruise at her temple. “Jacinda, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“Don’t you want it?” She was sure he did.

“What you do, what I do, it’s complicated. I mean, the Bulls have friends in law enforcement all around Tulsa, but that’s because we know what to say and when to say it. We know what not to say and what not to ask. I don’t know how that works in a relationship like this.”

“I’m not law enforcement.” Moreover, not everything she and her father did was strictly legal. They tried to keep their white hats on, but they worked in the grey zone a lot of the time. What she had trouble with was people getting hurt who didn’t deserve it.

“You’re LEO-adjacent, and I’m on the wrong side of the tracks.”

This was a man she’d liked before all this. She’d known him to be decent, and gorgeous, and fantastic in bed. Now, he’d put himself at risk for her, more than once, proving himself to be honorable, too. It didn’t matter who the Brazen Bulls were. He was a Brazen Bull, and he’d made her safe. Jacinda thought she could keep a boundary between her professional and personal lives and let him keep his club secrets. At least long enough to see if there was something real growing between them.

It felt real.

“Don’t you want it?” she asked again. All his reasoning made her more sure that he did.

His eyes moved back and forth and up and down, scanning her face. “I want it.” He cupped his big hands around her face, licked his lips, and kissed her.

His mouth was tender—soothing, not seeking, caressing, not claiming. Her nerves under his touch tingled, sending radiant pleasure sparkling throughout her body, making her forget the ache in her head and the cramp in her chest, making her forget her worries about his club, making her care only about this one thing, this touch.

Just as she opened her mouth and let her back sway, he pulled up. The smile he shone down at her was genuine and beautiful. “Sorry, beautiful. I have to go.”

Already halfway to euphoria, her body and mind fought the U-turn. “What? Where?”

He didn’t tell her, so it was Bulls business. This, apparently, was how things would go, if something grew between them. “I’ll be gone for a few hours, probably. If you’re still around when I get back, I’ll take you out for some dinner.”

“If I’m still around? What?” Her aroused mind couldn’t keep up.

“I told you, baby. You’re clear. If you want to go, you can. Nobody’ll stop you.”

“I’m not supposed to drive until tomorrow.”

His grin didn’t falter. “That why you’re staying?”

“No. I’ll be here. Dinner sounds good.”

With a quick peck on her lips, he was gone.

––––––––

~oOo~

––––––––

Chuckling into their kiss, Apollo grabbed Jacinda’s hands and pulled them out of his jeans before she could get hold of his cock. “I’m not gonna fuck you tonight, baby. Definitely not on my bike. Not tonight.”

All revved up and ready after a nice steak dinner and this little make-out interlude, tucked in a quiet glen off the highway under a starry sky, Jacinda rested back against his handlebars with a pout. Her ribs complained, but she told them to shut the fuck up. “Why not?”

He brushed his fingers over her bruised face. “Concussion, remember? And strained ribs. No strenuous activity for a week, the doc said.”

She plucked at his fly and offered up a sultry grin. “It doesn’t have to be strenuous. It could be gentle.”

He caught her hand again, this time twisting his fingers with hers. “When I make you come, won’t be anything gentle about it. You know that.”

He’d growled the words, leaning close, letting them brush over her lips as he said them.

“Tease.”

“One week, baby. Then I will fuck you in every direction.” He eased her off the bike and held out his arm so she could mount behind him. “C’mon. Let’s go back and get some sleep. I gotta get you back to your folks in the morning.”

––––––––

~oOo~

––––––––

True to his word, he didn’t fuck her that night, or allow himself to be fucked. But he slept with her, tucking her body tightly into the curve of his own, offering his arm as a pillow, holding her snugly with his other.

Jacinda lay awake for a long time, listening to the calm rhythms of his rest. It had been a very long time since she’d spent a night like this with a man. A decade.

The last man had turned her trust inside out and made it a weapon to hurt her.

She hadn’t trusted again in all the years since. Not until now. The man sleeping behind her, she trusted.

An outlaw. She trusted an outlaw.

She hoped that wasn’t as crazy as it seemed.