Wild Ride

Rip sat on a bar stool listening to Wild Card’s latest adventure when he felt someone jab his shoulder. His gaze shot around to a man, slightly swaying, standing behind him in the crowded bar.

“Fuck, it is you.” The guy’s nostrils flared. “You are a fucking asshole, you know that?” His words were slurred, and he was clearly inebriated.

Rip stood up. With his six five frame and broad shoulders he knew he made an intimidating figure. That along with his tattooed arms and black leather vest made most men cringe. He added a fierce scowl, hoping the whole picture would make the guy back off.

His antagonist’s gaze followed Rip’s face upward as he stood¸ and he seemed a little dumbfounded.

A woman clutched at the guy’s arm and tried to pull him back. “Come on, Riley. Just leave it alone.”

But the guy frowned and shook his head, then pulled up his shoulders. “No, I can’t just let him get away with it.”

“Please, Riley.” The woman tugged harder. “He’s a criminal,” she murmured under her breath, clearly hoping Rip wouldn’t hear her words. “You’ll get yourself killed.”

“I don’t care.” He glared at Rip. “You ruined her life.”

“Who?” Rip asked, a knot forming in his stomach.

The guy’s fists clenched at his side. “Marissa. You bastard. You don’t even remember her name, or have you destroyed so many women you just can’t remember?”

The woman pulled on his arm as she gazed at Rip in appeal, then shifted her focus to Raven, who sat on the stool beside him at the bar. “Please, he’s had too much to drink.” She shook her head. “Please don’t hurt him.”

The look of fear in her eyes shook Rip. He’d seen that look all too many times. It was one of the things he’d hated about being undercover as a one percenter. The gang he’d belonged to had been cruel and dangerous. Every time he saw that look, it ate at his soul.

He could feel Raven’s gaze on him from across the bar table. Raven, the woman of his dreams, who had just started riding with him a few weeks ago. Her real name was Hayley, but they’d given her the ride name Raven because of her glossy black hair.

What was she thinking? She was an accountant-turned-biker-chick. She’d had a wild time with him when they’d met at a wedding last month, but things had clicked and a one-night-stand had turned into a relationship Rip would do anything to make last.

But was she ready for this? Was she now thinking she had made a mistake?

Raven stood up and walked to the woman. In her tight jeans with the form-fitting black T-shirt with glittering skulls, she still managed to look classy, yet bad-ass and sexy all at the same time. The expression she turned on the woman was sympathetic.

“Why don’t we just take him outside?” Raven asked the woman.

The woman nodded thankfully, then Raven placed her hand on the guy’s arm. He snatched it away with a glower and Rip tensed. He’d let the guy’s drunken words pass, but if he laid a hand on Raven, Rip would tear the guy’s arm off.

Raven just stepped back, her hands raised. “It’s okay. I think—”

But before she could finish her sentence, a huge man, towering over Rip, approached.

“Hey, guys. We don’t want no trouble. How ‘bout you take it outside?”

Although Rip knew that he, Wild Card, Magic, and Shock could easily take the bouncer, and anyone else who tried to throw them out of here, he knew the guy was just doing his job.

Rip and the others stood up. The bouncer took the drunk guy’s arm and guided him to the door while Rip and the others followed. Raven walked close to the woman and he could see they were talking.

Once outside, the woman took Riley’s arm and guided him away. She glanced back at Raven and sent her a smile.

Raven followed Rip to his bike and pulled her helmet from the back pouch. “So will this be a regular thing now that I’m riding with you?” she asked her eyebrows arched. “Being thrown out of bars?”

He chuckled. The first time he’d met her, he’d been thrown out of a bar, and Raven, who hadn’t even known him, had stood up for him and insisted it wasn’t fair, then found her own ass on the curb right alongside him.

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “I thought that’s what you loved about me. The excitement I brought to your life.”

She grinned. “Too true.” She climbed onto the bike and sat staring at him as he retrieved his helmet. Clearly, she had something on her mind.

“So who’s Marissa?”

He sighed. So they were going to have this conversation.

“Marissa was a woman I dated about a year ago.”