Chapter 1

If you pour two beers into one glass and no one sees you, then it’s just one beer.

-Pro tip

Tobias

I shouldn’t be doing this.

I really, really shouldn’t be doing this.

But I was going to do it.

I was doing it even though I knew it was a really bad idea.

I lay there on my back, wondering, yet again, if I should go in there and, again, berating myself for even considering it.

She wouldn’t want me there. Hell, she hasn’t wanted me there for the last eight months, yet I had been. I was that annoying man who followed her around like a goddamned puppy.

But I just couldn’t watch her sit on her ass and hide from life any longer.

I’d let my sister do that. I watched as she withered and died inside, and that was exactly what I was watching happen to Audrey Morrison, my club member’s sister.

It was a little over nine months ago when I first became acquainted with the little she-devil.

And, again, I wasn’t sure why the hell I was here when she wanted absolutely nothing to do with me.

***

Nine months earlier

“Who are you?”

Audrey looked nothing like Ghost, the brother who asked me to get his sister out of a sticky situation involving their parents.

She was wearing Viking-style braids.

They started at the side of each temple, wrapping around her head over her ears before disappearing into a messy bun that was situated on the top of her head.

She had brown hair with copper highlights, and her eyes…my God, there were no words to describe them.

They were the same color as her brother’s—a deep olive green—but on her face, they looked absolutely captivating.

Those eyes, though…they were shrewd. Calculating. Watchful.

I had a feeling that they didn’t miss a single thing.

“I’m Fender.”

She stared at me. “I’m not expecting a Fender.”

She tried to slam the door in my face, and I caught it with the tip of my steel-toed boot.

“My club brothers call me Fender. My actual name is Tobias.”

She glared down at my boot, then back up at me.

“You should’ve started with that,” she informed me. “What do you want?”

I gritted my teeth.

She was like a rabid badger.

“I’m here to bring you to Gho…uh, Mina,” I answered.

She caught the slip, but chose not to say anything.

“How much am I allowed to bring?” she asked.

I looked at the house beyond her and found nearly the entire place packed.

What my attention focused on, however, were the stacks of suitcases.

“I can probably fit all of your suitcases in my truck,” I said. “But the rest of it is going to have to wait until I have more time and help.”

She pinched her lips closed, and then shrugged. “We’ll get it done before we leave. I don’t trust anyone with my stuff.”

She threw the door open wide and headed deeper into the house.

While her back was turned, I chose to study her body.

She was definitely sexy. But she gave off an unmistakable ‘don’t fuck with me’ vibe, and I could practically see the anger coming off of her at being stuck with me. I got the distinct impression that it was more than that, though. I got the feeling that she didn’t want anyone getting close to her.

She was five foot even at most, with the type of body that my mother referred to as ‘baby haver.’ Or women who were made to have babies.

Curvy hips that could carry and birth a baby, large breasts that could definitely sustain a child, and shapely thighs made for a child to sit and cuddle on.

My mother was a pediatric nurse and a doula, or a birthing coach, who had helped hundreds of women deliver their babies over the last thirty years. She knew her stuff, and this was one of the things I’d heard her talk about constantly.

My father, brothers and I had dealt with a lot of baby talk over the course of our lives, and now that one of my brothers was an OB/GYN, and a few of my brothers had children, I heard more than I wanted to hear about it.

“Are you going to help me with these bags, or are you going to watch while I get all of them myself?”

I looked up to find Audrey loaded down with bags. The only thing remaining was a small backpack on the floor.

I walked forward and retrieved it. “You look like you have it.”

She huffed in annoyance.

“You’re such a typical asshole man.”

And then she walked out of the house without a backwards glance.

I started to chuckle as I followed her out.

Passing her, I walked to the truck and opened the door, tossing the backpack on the back seat before walking to the tailgate and lowering it.

The moment she reached me and dropped the suitcases, I picked up the bags with ease, placing them in the bed of my truck before flipping the tailgate closed.

“You made that look easy,” she huffed. “Take me to get some more boxes.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, glancing quickly around to ascertain that we were alone.

She sighed. “Thanks.”

It was the longest two days I’d ever experienced.

On the plus side, we got all her crap packed and moved. The downside? I lost my heart.

***

I, Tobias Roscoe Hail, known as Fender to my fellow asshole club members, was a dumbass.

Getting out of my truck, I walked to the front door with hurried steps.

I didn’t even get a knock in before the door was wrenched open and Audrey was staring at me with an accusing glare on her face. “What are you doing here?”

I held my grin in check. If she saw it, she’d narrow those fucking eyes and then my dick would start to fill with blood.

There was just something about the woman’s anger that really got my crank turning.

“I’m here to ask if you wanted to go to a concealed carry class,” I said by way of explanation.

Her mouth pursed. “Why would I want to do that?”

I didn’t answer with the obvious, ‘you are a scared rabbit who won’t even leave your brother’s house’, but chose to say, “You need to learn to protect yourself,” instead. “And I’m holding the class.”

She grunted. “How much does it cost?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I think it’s free.”

It wasn’t free. I’d already paid for her, in a way. Technically, as an instructor, I wasn’t allowed to hold ‘free’ classes.

But she didn’t need to know that I shelled out a hundred bucks to hold her spot. That was my next argument I would try if she said no. But she surprised me by nodding. “Okay.”

Too easy.

Way too easy.

But I’d take it.

“Do you have a gun?” I asked.

She tilted her head like I’d just asked her a question in a foreign language.

Sure, I knew other languages, but I didn’t ask her anything too crazy.

“You’re serious?” she asked me.

I nodded once.

She shrugged.

I faltered. “Have you ever shot a gun?”

She shrugged again.

I started to get a bad feeling about this.

“Come on,” I gestured. “Make sure you bring your ID.”

She did, picking up a purse that looked like it was five sizes too big for her body.

“You got a jacket?”

She stopped, turned around, and grabbed a large, puffy, pink monstrosity.

I held my tongue.

“Where is this at?” she asked.

I gestured to my truck. “My place.”

Her brows rose. “You bring people to your house to teach them to shoot stuff?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

She pursed her lips.

“Who are you?”

I grinned.

“Let’s go,” I said, conveniently not answering her.