Absentminded Angel(Divine Creek Ranch 20)(88)

Aggression tore through the festive atmosphere as the attention of the entire club was turned to the fight, which by now included at least ten men. In the midst of the brawl, several frightened women were trapped against the wooden bar with no way to escape and trying to shield themselves from being hit or injured.

Over the screaming, she could hear the men shouting at each other, and behind her she could hear Lucy speaking. “What got them all riled up?”

She didn’t know her all that well, but Presley Ann recognized Charlotta’s voice when she said, “Bet me there’s a woman at the center of that pissing contest.”

Camilla chuckled and said, “Well, at least our overprotective Neanderthals can’t blame it on us. We weren’t having a girl’s dance or anything.”

Charlotta snorted and said, “Maybe not, but we were planning on it.”

“Oh, yeah. Totally,” Camilla said. Presley Ann turned back in time to catch the two women fist bumping each other. “Now that they’ve released all that testosterone we can dance without the guys worrying.”

Rachel Wolf snorted from the back of the group and said, “Wish it worked that way. Those assholes should’ve taken their fight, whether it’s over a woman or not, outside instead of breaking up our party.”

“Oh, please,” Charlotta said with a snort. “You’re just hoping your man releases some of that testosterone on you tonight.”

A few minutes later, after the fight had been broken up and the responsible parties ejected from the club, Hank, Travis, Jesse, and Barry returned to the tables. “Nika, we couldn’t find them. It’s possible that they may have changed their minds about coming in when the fight broke out, since they’d want to steer clear of law enforcement.”

Veronica looked at Jesse and Barry, who shrugged, but still had frowns on their faces. Jesse said, “If they show their faces in Divine, you can bet we’ll be happy to help Hank and Travis deal with them. But Hank’s right, they’d make themselves scarce if there was a chance the law was being called to break up the fight.”

Veronica nodded and then shrugged as her men went to her and hugged her. Hank said, “They’d have to be insane to show up in this town, knowing how many men are gunning for their asses, besides several branches of law enforcement.”

Veronica giggled and said, “They’ve never struck me as being overwhelmed with intelligence.”

Travis took out his phone and said, “I’ll let Deke know that we had a sighting. Maybe he can give us an update on the investigation.”

The waitress delivered a round of drinks to the table. As it turned out, Ethan and Ben had decided to do that for all the tables in proximity to the bar to apologize for the trouble. Presley Ann nearly choked on her Divine Margarita when she happened to look over at the door and spotted two familiar faces. Two identical familiar faces and that of a tall, rather scary, but also familiar bodyguard, walking in behind them. She grabbed Jared and Kendry but before she could say anything, Kendry said, “On it.”

“Kendry—”

“It’s cool. They called earlier and told me they might be here.”

The bodyguard, Paul, didn’t look happy, but he relaxed as the trio was greeted by Kendry. Presley Ann glanced around and saw curiosity in the eyes of her friends as the three men walked up. They were dressed like bikers, in black leather riding jackets, beat-to-crap jeans, and shitkickers. True had cut off his hair and now sported a crew-cut, and he and Noble had shaved off the scruffy beards and moustaches that had given them both a savage, pirate-like sexiness. A red bandana was tied across Noble’s forehead and he sported very intricate ink around his neck and on his hands, which Presley Ann assumed were well done temporary tattoos. The disguises were very effective but Presley Ann knew they would still attract attention. Women all around the room were staring at them as they joined the group.

Jared shook their hands as if he too had been expecting them and introduced them around to the group.

“Everyone, these are friends of ours from Abilene. He pointed at True and said, “This is ‘Eric’ and his twin brother, ‘Aaron’, and their associate, ‘Richard’…but you can call him Dick.” He gave Paul a big toothy grin when he glared at him. Presley Ann pretended she was licking salt from her lip as she bit it to keep from laughing.

If the shitkicker fits…

Kendry caressed her neck and said, “And of course, guys, you remember our fiancée, Presley Ann.”

Suddenly she was like a deer in the headlights as all three men turned to her. She smiled and nodded as she gave each of them a hug, trying to be cool. The men smiled and nodded as they were greeted by the others and drawn into the conversation. She began to think that maybe their disguises were working.