Page 25 of Hope's Heartlands

He tips his hand under my chin and lifts my head up. “Behind the bar. I want you behind the bar the rest of the night.”

For one brief second, I think he’s going to kiss me. He’s staring at my lips, his nostrils are flared, and he’s taking quick little breaths. I almost lean in. I want his lips on mine so bad, I can already taste him. But the look on his face disappears almost as quickly as it showed up. He steps back from me, dropping his hands.

I put my hand on his chest. I tell myself it’s to push him away, but I think it’s more to hold myself back. If he had kissed me, I would have promised him anything. I wouldn’t have been able to refuse him a thing. But that’s not the case. I straighten myself up away from the wall. “I’m working, Gage. You can’t tell me what to do,” I tell him right before I walk away. I don’t look at him when I say it, because I wonder what strength I really have. It wouldn’t take much from him to sway me, and that scares me more than anything.

Chapter7

Gage

Iwatch as she walks away and it takes everything in me not to storm after her. I want to pick her up, throw her over my shoulder and carry her out of here. I’m used to her independence, but it’s getting harder and harder to deal with seeing men eye her or even worse, put their hands on her. I know I went overboard with the wannabe biker, but I walked up just in time for him to insinuate what he wanted to do to Roxy. I already feel like I’m hanging on by a thread, and it went all through me. I couldn’t control the beat-down I handed him, and even now I don’t regret it. I’m hoping he thinks twice before he says something like that to another woman.

I look around the bar. Ranger must be in his office or somewhere else, but not within earshot. I know that Roxy is definitely not going to listen to me now, so I go to T-Bone, the line cook. All the women at the bar respect him because he’s good at looking out for them. If Roxy’s not going to listen to me, maybe she’ll listen to him.

“I need you to pull Roxy off the floor. Put her behind the bar,” I tell him as I walk through the door to the kitchen.

He holds his spatula up in a wave. “I heard you had your panties in a wad about something. So it’s Roxy, huh?”

I ignore his “panty” comment and try to explain my concern for Roxy. “She’s pregnant,” I say, like that explains it all and he should do what I tell him.

He shrugs his shoulders as if to say, “and?”

I throw my hands up in the air. “She’s pregnant and it’s crazy out there.”

T-Bone rolls his eyes. “Do you even know that woman? If I rolled up out there right now and told her to get behind the bar she’d kick me in the nuts. No doubt about it. No way, Gage. You’re on your own with that one.”

I storm through the kitchen and head to Ranger’s office. He’s sitting behind the desk, watching the monitors. As soon as I walk in, he holds his fist up to me.

I fist bump him. “What’s that for?”

He nods his head to the monitor that he’s been watching. “I saw you.” He does some jabs into the air in front of him. “I saw you take out the trash after he got handsy with Roxy.”

I rub my hand across the back of my neck. The stress of today is getting to me and I feel like it’s never going to end. All I want to do is get Roxy the fuck out of here. I feel almost manic. I have no control right now, and it’s killing me. “Yeah, that’s actually what I want to talk to you about.”

He points to the chair in front of his desk. “Have a seat.”

I sit down and lean forward with my hands on my knees. “I need you to take Roxy off the floor.”

He leans back in his chair, tilting his head to the side, and stares at me. The longer he stares at me, the more ridiculous I know I sound. He smirks at me. “So, uh, I’m assuming you’ve already talked to Roxy about this?”

I shrug my shoulders. “She said no.”

He starts to laugh then. He laughs so hard he’s holding his stomach. When he finally stops, I’m standing up about to walk out the door. But he stops me. “Wait, wait. Gage, c’mon man, I’ve seen you kill a man. You’re the vice president of the Heartlands MC. You can’t get one little woman to do what you want?”

“Whatever, man. Ruby’s got you by the balls so I don’t even want to hear it. Look, Roxy’s pregnant, she don’t need to be out there on the floor,” I tell him. Roxy may not like me telling her boss that she’s pregnant, but I don’t give two shits right now. If him knowing gets her home, then I’m all for it.

Ranger doesn’t look surprised. He must have already heard it through the Ride or Die grapevine. Man, news spreads fast. “She won’t quit. I’m pretty sure this is all she has. The best advice I can give you”—he turns the monitor toward me and points to the screen—“is to join Saint at the bar. Cat wouldn’t quit either, so he sits there all night staring down men who get too close.”

“It’s not like that, Ranger. I’m just looking out for her,” I tell him. But even as I say it, I’m scanning the monitor to see where she’s at. When I don’t spot her, I walk out of the office without another word. This woman is going to be the death of me.

Walking out to the bar, I ask Cat, “Have you seen Roxy?”

She’s busy serving drinks and motions toward the front door.Oh hell.

* * *

Roxy

When the one percenter got up with his eyes on Whitney, I know shit is about to go down, and none of the guys are around. I look around the filled bar and can’t even find Gage. I stand there with my empty tray and watch as the man takes her by the arm, speaks into her ear and then steers her right out the front door.

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