Page 15 of Lamb

With a flourished turn, the girl flicked the card back to me, and her hand whipped out to smack me firmly on the ass. “Hurry up, messenger boy.”

“I like you.” I laughed, already seeing a future where she gave my brothers hell. She wasn’t old lady material, but she had enough fire to make it as a club girl and not get burned.

“Everyone likes me.” She smirked. “Shame you can’t say the same.”

“Your name?”

“Eva.”

“Stick around, Eva.” I waved the card at her. “Might find some other things you’d like here.”

Eva glanced at the bar, her saccharine smile showing the devil inside. “I’m sure I will.”

With the parting words, I let the sea of men and women swarm back around the topless girl as she spun back into the center of their avid attention.

Sauntering back to the bar, I avoided a couple of women beelining toward me and ducked out of their reach before they could get their claws into me and slid back into position down the far end of the bar.

Ronnie’s face was a beautiful shade of red as I pinched the card between two fingers and offered it out. Only benign curiosity filled Jax’s face as he innocently reached for the card. Flames fueled Ronnie’s pretty green eyes, and I snatched it.

“Nuh-uh.” I wagged a finger at him. “This isn’t yours.”

I turned toward Ronnie, the card dancing between my fingertips. “For you.”

It took a few seconds for both Ronnie and Jax to catch up, but the moment it did, the tides quickly changed. Shock changed into a beautiful shade of bright pink on Ronnie’s cheeks as the green anger jumped into Jax’s chest.

“Hey!” Jax snapped, jumping to his feet. “How dare someone hit on my old lady!”

Ronnie reached out and tentatively took the card from my grasp, looking at the little piece of paper like it might bite her. It wouldn’t. But Eva would.

“Don’t take it!” Jax hissed, snatching it out of her hand and shredding it into tiny pieces until it looked like a hamster had built a nest on our bar.

Ronnie ignored his meltdown, her eyes still wide on me. “But I thought it was Jax she was—”

I shook my head. “I just said she wasn’t interested in me. I never said who shewas interestedin.”

All sorts of interesting emotions crossed Ronnie Marsh’s face, some I was sure Jax wouldn’t mind exploring if he took even a moment to process his old lady’s reaction. But as much as he was observant with animals, Jax was short-sighted regarding his own woman. Always had been.

With that thought in mind, I figured I might as well add the final nail to the coffin. With a smirk, I leaned across the bar, protecting my shirt from the tacky surface, and whispered into her ear, “They do say pregnant women glow, after all.”

Ronnie’s neck snapped back from mine. Her eyes were wide, and the pink blush had disappeared. Her hand smacked over her mouth with such speed that you’d have thought she’d spilled the secret herself.

She hadn’t. Not verbally, at least. It’s just that there was no use hiding secrets from me. I always found out.Always.

“What is it?” Jax demanded, almost falling off his stool as he leaned into her space. “What did he say?”

“I’ll call you about that favor sometime.” I bid her farewell, leaving a badgering Jax and a Ronnie stunned into silence.

Sleep tugged at my mind. As much as my brothers liked to joke that I was a robot, I had little strength to repel my biological needs, as and when they came. I got tired, hungry, and horny just like the rest of them.

My wheels cruised down the quiet suburban street, a couple of lights flicking on with the rumble of my engine. Three a.m. was not a strange time for me to be out riding, but if people were bothered, they had little courage to say it to me. Not even an anonymous letter through the door.

The white picket fences blurred by, with their carefully manicured lawns and meticulously tended flower patches.

My house, much like any other house on the street, came into view, and I turned my bike onto its tarmac driveway. I kicked down the stand and cut off the engine, the residential reprieve was loud in the absence of my bike. Not a single car, or pedal bike, traveled the lone wide road. A cricket chirped somewhere in the grass, but otherwise, the night was empty.

I slipped a hand into my riding saddle, pulling out the whiskey I’d longed for back at the bar, and enjoyed the softness of the autumn night breeze before unlocking my door and slipping inside.

The trek through the living room and toward the basement door had a tingle running through me. Excitement, perhaps? Trepidation? I’d longed all day to leave the compound and return to the prize waiting for me beneath the foundation.

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