Page 8 of Outlaw

“Stage name, huh?” he asked, moving in closer.

I was going to have to get this over with before he damaged my lungs with the cologne fumes wafting off him.

I ran my tongue over my bottom lip, letting him watch me. Before I could deal the last hand in my story time, the stool on my other side scratched against the floor, and thinking it might be one of the girls I was here with, I did a quick glance.

It wasn’t.

It was another man.

And for a solid second in time, the world stopped. Froze like a drop of water in an Alaskan winter. I didn’t even blink. I did a quick tally of the drinks I’d had. Maybe I’d had one too many.

The dark blue eyes that still appeared in my dreams met mine, but only briefly before lifting to look over my head at Devin. “You can go.” The deep, raspy voice was more mature.

Even with a short beard covering his chiseled jaw and laugh lines in his tanned skin, I knew him. That face was still the same. He was a man now, not just a young guy trying to live in a man’s world. He’d aged all right, but like a fine wine. One I would give my last breath to taste.

Devin said something, but the roaring in my ears as I stared at Linc Shephard drowned out everything else. His eyes dropped back to mine. The interest in that steady gaze caused my heartto race. I’d never seen this look in his eyes before, and wow. It was like a blazing fire that you knew was dangerous, but you couldn’t stop moving closer to it. Mesmerized by the beauty of its devastation.

He shifted slightly, and his arm moved.

“Holy fuck, dude!” Devin exclaimed.

That snapped me from my trance. I blinked. The sound of a glass being dropped onto the ground brought back the rest of the noise that had gone silent at the sight of Linc. Glancing around, I realized life hadn’t stopped because my world had. I stared up at Linc to see his expression had gone from panty-soaking to lethal as his eyes were fixed on something behind me.

“Sir, I’ll have to call security,” Nick said nervously.

I shifted my gaze toward him as he stared in Devin’s direction, wide-eyed. What had Devin done?

“You can call, but they won’t come,” Linc replied. His calm tone was so out of place with the horror on Nick’s face.

“How did you get through security with that?” Nick asked.

With what? I started to turn and look at Devin to figure out what the heck had happened while I was in la-la land, thanks to Linc’s sudden appearance.

“I don’t go through security,” Linc replied.

It wasn’t Devin’s terrified expression or the way his entire body was trembling that I noticed first. It was the gun pointed at his head. I sucked in a breath as my hand flew to my mouth.

What the heck was Linc doing? We were in a casino! He couldn’t go pulling out a gun on people in here. Or…maybe he could.

Two tall men in black suits appeared behind the three of us. Wide shoulders, shaved heads, and intimidating scowls on their faces. Great. Linc had gotten the casino’s security involved. How was he going to get out of this one?

“Is there a problem, Mr. Shephard?” the largest one asked. Hiseyes went from Linc to Devin.

“Escort this one out,” Linc told them as he lowered his gun, then slid it back into the hidden holster under his brown leather jacket.

“Yes, sir,” the man replied.

They moved toward Devin, who was still pale. The fact that he was being kicked out started to sink in, and his anger flared up, giving his skin more color.

“Wait! I didn’t do anything! He pulled a gun on me—”

The guard who had said nothing grabbed Devin’s arm and jerked him up. “Shut up,” he snarled, cutting him off.

They hauled him off, even though he continued to rant and fight against their hold. The wordlawyerwas thrown out, but then they were too far away for me to hear the rest. I turned back around and realized Nick had moved down to help another customer, but there was a new cosmo in front of me and a glass of amber liquid in front of Linc, which I assumed was whiskey.

I looked at our glasses, then back up at him as he lifted his and took a drink. His entire body was completely relaxed as if all that hadn’t just happened.

“What was that?” I asked.

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