Page 108 of Under an Endless Moon

Stores.

The few parties they’d gone to together.

The attention they garnered was something Raven was still trying to figure out how to deal with. How to handle it when her first instinct was to cower and hide.

Haddie sat up onto her elbows and cocked Raven a bawdy grin.

“This is going to be the best weekend ever.”

“What are you thinking? This is the worst idea you’ve ever had.”

And Haddie had suffered more than a few of them. Raven rarely got into trouble, but when she did, it never failed that she was with Haddie.

They were supposed to be watching a movie and then going to sleep. At least that’s what Haddie had told Otto before he’d left onbusiness.

And there they were, slinking through the city under the cover of night.

“Your brother is going to be so pissed,” Raven continued, trying to talk some sense into her best friend.

Okay, Raven’s brother was going to be pissed, too.

Really pissed.

This endeavor was so off limits, so out of bounds, Raven would likely be grounded until she was twenty-seven, and she wouldn’t put it past her brother to try to enforce it.

Raven clomped along a foot behind her, trying to balance on the outrageous heels Haddie had insisted she wear. What made it even worse was she’d pulled a sequined cream-colored miniskirt and a black lacy tank from her bag and had insisted that Raven actually put them on.

She’d never felt so exposed in her life.

Haddie was dressed pretty much the same, though her outfit was red.

“He’ll get over it,” Haddie said with a grin.

They rounded the corner to the sound of heavy music thrumming through the air and the hoots and shouts of inebriated voices.

Apprehension stirred Raven’s conscience into unease. This was a bad idea. A really bad idea.

But Haddie just kept strutting along like it was the best one she’d ever had as they headed toward the bar and the buildings in the back where River’s friends all hung out. Where they had their meetings and dealt their dirty deals. Some of them actually lived there.

Okay, she called them his friends, but she understood what they really were. She knew it from the long row of motorcycles parked at an angle out front and the leather vests they all wore. Knew it from the way the conversations often cut off whenever she came into a room, and the way River and the rest of his crew were always looking over their shoulders.

She hadn’t gotten it at first, too young and naïve to understand, but she knew now.

They were members of a motorcycle club.

The Iron Owls.

And she was pretty sure they didn’t partake in the legal, their illicit activities dangerous. But when she’d finally gotten the courage to confront River about it, he’d promised her he would be fine, and he would never let anything happen to him. Told her not to worry.

She knew it all the way down to her soul that River did it for her. That he’d gotten swept into this life because it was the only way he’d been able to care for a child. Knew the rest of the guys had gotten here because it was the easiest way when you started out on the streets.

Aligning yourself with those who would have your back.

That didn’t mean Raven trusted any of the guys outside of her family, and her feet dragged in dread along the sidewalk while Haddie lifted her chin and sashayed right up to the door, sending the bouncer at the front a megawatt smile.

Raven’s throat thickened. God, this was so dumb and reckless.

The jacked-up, heavily tattooed guy eyed Haddie up and down, gaze lascivious. “You lost?”

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