The waitress came back and smiled at me with sympathy in her eyes. “I saw y’all ride in here. My boyfriend makes me ride on his bike, too, and he never understands about my hair. I have an extra ponytail holder if you need it.”
I nodded eagerly. “I think I’ll go to the bathroom and try to get cleaned up some. Thanks so much.”
“Do you know what you want to eat, yet?”
“Steak, medium rare, and apple pie.”
She laughed. “I’ll bring you something delicious. Jake, the cook, is amazing.”
I ventured to the other side of the restaurant and into the bathroom. It was small and smelled like lemon scented cleaner. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and groaned. I was a mess. I tugged my hair into a messy bun on top of my head and then washed my face as best as I could in the small sink.
I ended up with black smudges around my eyes, but it was still better than the blue eyeshadow I’d had on. I washed my hands and then hurried back to the table, my hungry stomach leading the way.
Jackson was back at the table when I got back, his face looking even more annoyed. “You didn’t order my burger.”
I smiled as I sat down. “You were rude to me. Didn’t see how doing you a favor was appropriate.”
“I saved your life.”
“You saved my virtue.”
“That was gone a long time ago.”
I rolled my eyes. “Consider it born again.”
He leaned forward and stared at me with his haunting eyes. “There’s no way you were just working with the Wolves. They don’t have women just working for them.”
“King protected me.”
Something flashed in his eyes and he leaned back at the waitress brought our drinks. He waited until she was gone again to speak. “You were King’s girl?”
I bit my lip and then pulled my milkshake towards me. I took a long pull from it, sucking hard to get the thick stuff through the straw. As soon as the first taste hit me, I groaned and relaxed into the seat. “God, this is good. You should get one.”
“Answer my question.”
I ignored him and grinned at the waitress as she came over with two plates. “You’re my favorite person in the world right now.”
I looked down at the steak with a heaping pile of twice baked potatoes and fried green tomatoes. My stomach rumbled and I shoved a tomato into my mouth. The taste exploded over my tongue and I closed my eyes and moaned.
“You like?”
I looked up at her and nodded. “Amazing. You did good.”
She laughed and patted my shoulder. “I’ll bring the pie when you’re ready. With ice cream?”
I gave her an embarrassed look and nodded again. “Why not?”
Jackson tore into his burger and fries with the same intensity he seemed to do everything. He kept his eyes on me, assessing me. “You were King’s girl?”
I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Not his girl. Not like that. He took me in when I was fifteen and let me stay. He protected me and gave me a home.”
“Some home.”
I shrugged. “It was better than where I’d been.”
His eyebrows raised. “With your drugged-out daddy?”
Old bitterness threatened to swallow the new, calm me and throw me up with the few bites of food I’d eaten. “Jackson, thank you for saving me. Thank you for paying for this meal, because I have no money. Hell, thank you for not commenting on the state of my hair earlier. I appreciate it. I’m not going to talk about my dad, though. I have no interest in talking about anything, really. I just want to enjoy my food.”
“You’re not the same foul-mouthed little girl you used to be.” He tilted his head slightly. “At least you’re pretending not to be.”
I shoved a bite of steak into my mouth and my toes curled in my shoes. I wanted to find the kitchen and kiss the man hiding back there. “This is a really good steak.”
Jackson finished his burger and then just sat there in silence, looking around. When his alert eyes landed on something behind me, I turned to see what it was.
A man just as tall as Jackson strolled up, his stride purposeful and the annoyance on his face almost exactly like Jackson’s. He slid into the booth next to Jackson and stared at me through a mismatched pair of eyes. One bright blue and the other honey brown, he was almost alarming to look at because he was so good looking. For all of Jackson’s rough edges and beard, this man seemed smoother and just all around cleaner.
I looked back at Jackson and studied him. He didn’t look dirty. He definitely didn’t smell dirty. There was just something about him that felt a little dark and dirty.
The new guy was also wearing a shirt that had a patch in the upper right corner that read Sheriff’s Department.
My body stilled as my heart rate kicked up. I’d never learned to appreciate cops. Never had the chance with the places I’d been raised. There were no lectures on turning to the cops if I was ever in danger from my parents. With my dad’s drug addiction and my mom’s propensity for fighting, I was taught at a young age to never involve the cops. The cops meant that bad things were going to happen. Dad would be locked up for a few months at a time and while he was gone, Mom’s boyfriends moved in. They were somehow even worse than Dad. While homeless and then at the MC, cops hadn’t been a welcome sight, either.
The same way it did every time a cop was near, my mind raced with things that could go wrong. I’d stabbed two men in just over a week. With the vision of myself locked up again, I slid to the edge of the booth, ready to run.
The guy’s long leg came up and his boot connected with the other side of my seat, blocking me in. “You’re not in trouble. I’m not here to arrest you or any shit like that. We just want to talk.”
Jackson muttered under his breath but I could still hear the words. “Speak for yourself. I think she should be locked up. I’m sure she left trouble somewhere.”
“Ignore him. He’s perpetually cranky.” He smiled at me, revealing a set of pretty white teeth that, for some reason, reminded me of an alligator. He was pretty, but I had no doubt that he would snap me in half if he had to. “I’m Thad Brooks. Jackson mentioned that you had some trouble tonight. Care to tell me what happened?”
I looked down at my food and sighed. “Can it wait until I’m finished eating?”
Jackson leaned back in the seat, looking ridiculously cramped. “Sure. Take your time, princess.”
Thad cut his eyes at the bastard next to him. “Cut her a little slack, would you?”
I scarfed the rest of my food, sad to find that it’d lost the moan-inducing quality with the thoughts rambling through my head. As soon as I pushed the plate away, the waitress appeared with my apple pie.
She took a drink order from Thad and handed Jackson another beer. I got my groove back with the pie and moaned as I took my first bite.
Jackson growled and snatched the pie away from me. “Time’s up. Talk.”
I glared at him and snatched the plate out of his hands faster than he could stop me. “Be an asshole all you want, but don’t touch my pie.”
“Ah, there she is. You had me actually wondering if you’d somehow managed to groom the demon out of you, but that look proves that you’re still the same hellion you always were.”
I ignored him and finished my pie in a few bites. It was delicious and the homemade crust made me yearn for a kitchen and a surface to make dough on. I clenched my fists under the table and looked at Thad. “What do you want to know?”
“Walk me through what happened tonight.”
I glanced around quickly and then blew out a breath. “The president of the Wolves MC traded me to the president of the Bay MC. I don’t know what for, he just kept saying that it was a lot. Raptor, the Wolves’ president, made me up like some slutty doll and then took me to the bar. Stone, the Bay’s president, tried to…initiate…me into his club, but I fought. Then, Jackson came in.”
“Human trafficking?” Thad looked to Jackson. “Crimson doesn’t have anything on the Wolves being involved in that.”
“Not trafficking, in the normal sense.” I grabbed my milkshake and stared down into it. “I’ve been with the Wolves since I was fifteen. When King was killed two months ago, Raptor took over and decided he didn’t like the way I’d been treated for so long. He hates me. King never made me initiate into the club and he never let any of the brothers touch me. They all hated me, I guess.”
I closed my eyes for a second and then shrugged off the fear. “Stone wanted me for some reason. I guess in King’s drive to keep me safe, he made it more dangerous for me. Stone wanted me just because he said I’d been King’s. I’m just some possession for him. I lost all my freedoms and Raptor has been having me watched and guarded constantly. Then, tonight, he took me to the bar to trade me to Stone. He was even willing to pay one percent of whatever he’s getting so that he and the other brothers could join in the fun.”
“Are you okay? We can take you to the hospital if you need.”
I shook my head. “No, I’m fine. They didn’t hurt me.”
“There are bruises on your face.”
I reached up and touched them. They were faint, barely even there after a week of healing. “I tried to escape. Raptor wasn’t too fond of it, especially when I dug my nails into his eyes.”
Thad grinned. “Good for you.”
Jackson sighed heavily and shook his head. “I’ve got to go. You know I wasn’t even supposed to stop at the bar. I just got a bad fucking feeling. I’ve got to get back to the Devils. Tank thinks I was out scouting for women. It doesn’t take this fucking long to find one and get my rocks off. I don’t get back soon and he’s going to get suspicious.”
Thad nodded and looked back at me. “Let me take you to the station. You can file a report and get someone looking into the Wolves.”
I laughed. “No, thanks. I’ve got zero interest in pressing charges against them. I just want to get away. And I’ll be doing that now, if you don’t mind.”
He moved his foot but leaned forward and touched my arm. “If you need help again, find Crimson Security. We can help.”
I looked at the name on his shirt again and shook my head. He seemed nice, but I didn’t trust it. Cops always wanted something. I had no idea what Crimson Security was, but it was clearly connected to the cops. They’d want me to roll over on whatever I knew about the Wolves, which would just put an even bigger target on my back. I’d seen what Wolves did to snitches.
“I appreciate the help and the dinner and the offer. Really. I’m not interested in knowing what happens if Raptor catches me and finds out I went to the cops. This was bad enough. I’m gone.”
Thad stood up and handed me a card. “Just in case.”
Jackson threw a wad of cash on the table and then strolled towards the exit. “Need a ride, get one with Thad. I’ve got places to be.”
I resisted the urge to flip him off and turned to Thad. “He’s always been this pleasant, you know.”
His eyes widened and a slow smile turned into face into something even more stunning. “You know Jackson?”
I nodded. “We grew up in the same neighborhood.”
Jackson, who’d been just about to push through the door, turned and glared at me. “Don’t. Keep your mouth shut about that shit.”
Finding it impossible to fight the sassiness that needed to escape my mouth, I gave in. “Don’t keep my mouth shut about that shit? So I should keep talking?”
He snarled and then slammed out of the diner, leaving everyone in the place staring after him. I just shrugged. I was used to him being a jerk.