Her heart was beating fast, and she barely dared breathe. The girl was still watching her with menace, and behind her, the heavy footsteps were approaching at an alarming rate.

Somewhere inside of her, Sarah’s life was flashing before her eyes.

She had been so foolish to wander into Tanners as if it was the most natural thing in the world. This place was a notorious strip club, and her brother was about to get married. What if he had fallen out with all the other bikers? What if there was a feud she knew nothing about, and she had just stepped into the center of it and made herself vulnerable?

She closed her eyes and cringed, waiting for a blow that never came.

When she finally became aware that the footsteps had stopped and the girl in front of her was smiling like a Cheshire Cat, Sarah got the nerve to take a deep breath and turn around.

She kept her eyes fixated on the floor, but when she spun around slowly, and saw the big, heavy, steel capped boots of the man standing in front of her, she instantly felt a wave of relief.

She would know those boots anywhere.

It was her brother…

“Ranger!” she gasped as she looked up and saw him standing there with a look of amusement spread across his face. “What the hell!”

She looked from him to the bar girl, and back again, and then they both seemed to double over in laughter.

“Your face,” the girl laughed as she clutched her sides. “You looked so terrified.”

Ranger threw his head back and laughed, and Sarah reached out and slapped him on the shoulder.

“Are you kidding me?” she panted. “What the hell was that? I thought maybe I’d just stepped into the middle of some kind of gang war.”

She held her palm over her heart and could feel it hammering away beneath it. She was still shaken, and her breathing was still fast and nervous.

The girl bent down and opened up the refrigerator and pulled out an ice cold crystal glass and a bottle of whiskey before she poured an inch into the bottom and handed it over to Sarah.

“I’m sorry,” she smiled genuinely. “But your bro couldn’t help himself.”

Sarah took the whiskey from her outstretched hand, held it to her lips and had a sip to calm her nerves.

She had never been so worked up in her life.

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist wandering in here,” Ranger said with a wicked grin as he pulled out a tall barstool and sat down at the counter. “And we wanted to play with you.”

“Sorry,” the bar girl said again with a shrug.

“I didn’t know what the hell was going on,” Sarah said as she took another sip and rested the glass down on top of the counter. “I thought I was about to be smuggled into the back and used for ransom or something.”

Ranger began to laugh, and he reached out and wrapped an arm around her reassuringly.

“You shouldn’t ever just come in here without telling me first,” he said sternly. “And I believe I told you that last time you turned up unannounced.”

Sarah felt her face burn red.

She was always getting into trouble. And Ranger was right, he had told her to stay away from all the club houses and bars of The Forsaken Riders unless he told her specifically that she could go.

“Sorry,” she said moodily.

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist,” he laughed as he tapped his temple. “I’m always one step ahead.”

“You could have given me a heart attack,” she said as she turned her attention back to the girl waiting behind the bar. “And how did you know it was me?” she asked nervously.

“Ranger told me his kid sister would be coming in today,” she shrugged. “We don’t get a lot of girls wandering in here unless the work for us… He told me to play with you once you got here, to make it sound as if he wasn’t around and that I was sending someone out to get you.”

Sarah flashed an angry look at her brother.

“As soon as Nicole spoke to you last night I knew you’d be straight home,” he smiled smugly. “And I guess it looks as if I was right.”

Sarah nodded her head and admitted defeat.

She had fallen right into his trap.

She sipped the whiskey and drained the glass and then sat down next to Ranger and sighed.

“So, congratulations are in order,” she said quietly as she looked behind her to check that there was no on else in on their conversation. The girl who was serving behind the bar had moved away and was chatting to some other customers, so, for the first time, Sarah and her brother were alone to talk freely.

“They most certainly are,” he smiled warmly.

He lifted a bottle of beer to his lips and took a sip, and then he leaned against the bar and looked across at his sister.

“How has the club taken it?” she asked.

Ranger shrugged and raised his eyebrows.

“What can they say?” he said. “I think there’s much more pressing matters at hand. Plus, it’s not like none of the elders ever went and got hitched, is it?”

Sarah shrugged, she didn’t know the ins and outs when it came to an outlaw’s policy and values. All she knew was that her brother was about to tie the knot, and she was pretty darned excited about it.

Even if it had taken her completely by surprise and was going to be to her best friend.

“Am I okay here then?” she asked as she motioned around the room.

Ranger nodded his head slowly but then he moved closer to her.

“With it being a quiet day, sure,” he said. “But I don’t want you or Nicole coming around here again.”

  There was an ominous tone to his voice, and Sarah couldn’t help but wonder what on earth was going on behind closed doors.

“Okay,” she said with a nod.

And she knew she meant it. After she had found herself there and completely unnerved, she knew she had gotten it well out of her system to be hanging around the biker’s dens.

“I’ll be right back,” Ranger said as he slipped down from the stool and reached into his pocket for his cell phone. He held it up to his ear and spoke into it as he moved away into the darkness of the corner of the room, and Sarah turned back to look at the girl who was working behind the bar.

She smiled sheepishly, and walked over to see her.

“Sorry about that,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “I’m not usually into pranking a sister, don’t worry…” she trailed off and Sarah could tell she was genuinely embarrassed.

“It’s fine,” Sarah smiled. “I’m used to my brother trying to scare the hell out of me. And he’s right, he would have known I would come blazing in here today without a care in the world, when he’s warned me plenty of times to stay away.”

“I’m sure it’s only because he’ll be worried about you,” she said as she leaned over the bar and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Things haven’t been so great around here…” she paused as if she wasn’t sure whether she should continue. “There’s been talk of closing down Tanners for good.”

Sarah felt her eyes widen, and she was about to ask why, when the girl went to open her mouth to speak again, but quickly closed it when her eyes landed on someone behind Sarah, in the corner of the room.

“I didn’t say that,” she whispered nervously, before she began to move away and went back to the other side of the bar and began to clean away dirty glasses.

Sarah was becoming more and more aware that she had walked right in on a tough day down at Tanners, and that something big was clearly going on with the bikers there. She sat and stared dead ahead, waiting for Ranger to rejoin her, and assuming it had been him that the bar girl had noticed reenter the room, when she felt a heavy hand weigh down on her shoulder.

She turned her head to the side and looked up, expecting to be greeted by the familiarity of her brother, but she was shocked to see that it wasn’t him at all.

It was someone else entirely.

Her mouth sagged open a little, and her heart did a flutter in her chest.

The man standing in front of her was as tall as a skyscraper, his muscles were ripped and defined and burst out of the arms of his t-shirt, his eyes were intense and alluring, and his smile was so wicked she felt as if it could trap her and never let her go.

She cleared her throat and tried not to look so startled. But it was hard when this stranger had taken her so completely by surprise.

He smiled at her as if they were old friends, and then he moved around to where Ranger had been sitting and sat down. Sarah couldn’t take her eyes off him. She looked him over and took him in. He was menacing to look at, and he was clearly a biker, but it was as if he had just been placed there by some divine force.

He had an aura around him that was charming and alarming, and every time their eyes met, Sarah felt a jiggle in her belly that got stronger by the minute.

“I…” she managed to say, before she looked behind her to check to see if Ranger was there, as if her new companion had gone and sat with the wrong person.

He smiled and reached up to rub his heavily tattooed knuckles across the wiry beard on his chin, before he looked up at her again and fixed in on her eyes.

“Can I help you?” Sarah asked, almost with a stammer.

The man cocked his head to one side and narrowed his eyelids, before his face burst into a smile.

“You don’t recognize me,” he said with amusement. It was a statement, not a question.

Sarah shrugged slightly and found herself looking behind herself again, just wishing her brother would materialize from out of the dark corners of the strip club.

She could feel herself blushing.

This man was so fucking gorgeous. She was pretty sure she would remember if she had met him before.

“I’m sorry,” she managed to croak. “I don’t think we’ve ever…”

She was about to continue when he held his hand up to silence her.

“It’s the beard,” he said as he traced his fingers over it again. “I didn’t have it the last time you were here…”

He trailed off and looked into the distance.

Sarah tried to cast her mind back to when she and Nicole had come to Tanners a few months before, when they were looking for Ranger. Now that she thought about it, there had been another biker there that day. One who had appeared and disappeared as quickly as he had arrived.

“Snake,” he said strongly, as he held out his hand.

There was a little flash of recognition somewhere inside her. The name certainly rang a bell way in the depths of her memory.

“Sarah,” she whispered as she held out her hand to shake his.

“I know who you are, babe,” he grinned. “You’re Ranger’s kid sister.”

He took her hand in his, and her whole body quivered at his touch. She looked away and tried not to react, as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a packet of cigarettes before he clamped one between his teeth and lit it with the flick of a silver lighter.

“I think we met the last time I was here…?” she tried, as she noticed the look of amusement flash over the bar girl’s face as she watched them out of the corner of her eye.

Snake nodded his head slowly, before he exhaled, and a plume of smoke billowed out into the air around them.

“Very good,” he smiled. “Albeit briefly.”

Sarah tried to recall the details, but it was all too much of a blur. She remembered she had met someone who was hot, but she had been so distracted in her quest to set her brother and Nicole up, she had been in all of a fluster.

She let her eyes travel up him again, and she took in the details of him.

He was incredibly good looking, and even hidden behind the beard, she could make out the sexy chisel of his jaw and cheekbones. His eyes were dark and had a depth to them that was intoxicating, and his hands were so big and masculine, they made her bones shake just by looking at them.

He was sexy as hell, but she knew she shouldn’t be looking at him that way.

He was a biker.

Her brother’s friend.

She shook her head and cleared her throat before she slipped down from the stool and looked over her shoulder, as she willed Ranger to come back into view.

“It was nice to meet you properly this time,” she smiled at Snake, trying not to look too embarrassed or fazed by him.

He didn’t say a word, but kept his eyes locked on her, as if he was either trying to figure her out, or willing her to disappear. He had the kind of demeanor that was impossible to deconstruct.

Did he want her?

Or did he hate the sight of her?

She started to fidget nervously.

“Your brother’s out the back on a call,” he said as if he could read her mind. “He won’t be back in for a while. He asked me to come and sit out here to make sure you didn’t get into any trouble.”

He reached out and clicked his knuckles so loudly it made Sarah wince.

“This isn’t the kind of place for a girl like you,” he said sternly.

And Sarah felt her cheeks blush red again.

She scratched the back of her neck and fidgeted with the strap on her purse.

“I better get going,” she stammered as she took a step backward and moved toward the main door of the club.

Snake sighed and heaved himself down from the barstool as he began to follow after her. Sarah waved to the girl behind the bar, and just wished she had kept on driving.

Already being back in her hometown was causing more drama than she had bargained for.

When they reached the exit and Sarah pushed the door open and the desert sun hit her head on, she squinted and turned back to Snake who was watching her from the doorway. He crossed his arms over his chest and held the cigarette clamped between his lips.

He scowled at her as the smoke drifted out around his eyes.

“I didn’t need to be seen out,” she said cockily.

“I had orders,” he shrugged. “You shouldn’t be coming around here, Sarah,” he said.

She felt herself becoming embarrassed again and just wanted the ground to open and swallow her whole.

“Okay, I get it,” she said as she raised her arms. “I fucked up. And now I know for next time… Sarah isn’t welcome at the big bad biker’s club. Okay?”

Snake’s lips twitched into a smile and he reached up to pull the smoking cigarette from his mouth, before he tossed it onto the ground.

“People are just looking out for you,” he said sincerely. “There’s a lot going on around here, and the likes of me and your brother are trying to keep people we care about out of the crossfire.”

He raised his eyebrows and leaned back against the doorframe.

“Can you tell Ranger I’ve gone,” she asked with a hint of attitude. “I’ll be going to stay with our parents, and tell him not to worry, I won’t be coming around here again anytime soon.”

Snake raised his head and considered her as she walked backward.

“Nice to see you again, Sarah,” he said with a glint in his eye.

“I wish I could say the same,” Sarah said cockily as she turned her back on him and made her way back to her car.

When she opened the driver’s door and slid in behind the wheel, she finally took a breath and closed her eyes.

Now she remembered why she didn’t make a habit of returning home to Slate Springs…

Because it was all kinds of fucked up.