Page 40 of Old Flame

I didn’t have to look down to know Dolly was scowling up at him for almost referring to Salem as a bitch. My own hand had started to fist. I knew it meant nothing. Just the way we talked, but Salem wasn’t a club slut or one of the girls who worked for us.

“Yes,” I said, trying not to clench my teeth and snarl at him.

“You know her?” he asked. He pressed a kiss to the top of Dolly’s head and winked at her.

He wasn’t taking this seriously enough. There were dead men in Pepper’s fucking bar, and we’d just made the head of a pretty damn big gang our enemy.

“That shit in there,” I said, pointing back at the bar, “Lick killing Hatter, just started a war. You’re aware of that, right?”

Liam would be.

Micah nodded his head once. “Yep. Lick chose to do that. I hadn’t planned on letting them take the woman. I think she’s a friend of Pep’s. I’ve seen her there more than once.” He sighed. “But Hatter pushed Lick’s crazy and got himself popped off. So, we go back to the compound. Lock it all up, get Liam on a call, and make our plans.”

We reached the others, and Pepper ran from behind us, where she’d been walking with Jars and Nina, to Salem. I allowed myself a moment to study her. Reassure myself she was okay. That the blood splattered on her creamy, flawless skin wasn’t hers. Her pale complexion and wide eyes didn’t ease me. If anything, it made the shit pounding in my head worse.

“You know her,” Micah said.

I jerked my gaze off Salem to look back at him.

No use lying about it.

I nodded. “Yeah. She lived with my mom for a few years. Bad home life. She was a student of my mom’s. She was special…to her. There with me when Mom died.” I left out the part that she’d been the air in my goddamn lungs.

Micah swung his gaze over to her. “I didn’t realize that. Then she’s more than just Pep’s friend. She’s important to you too.”

I hadn’t said that. “She was important to my mom.” The words were just there, on the borderline of sounding strangled.

He nodded. “Understood.”

I looked back toward Salem to find her eyes on me. The impulse to go ask her if she was okay was slowly inching its way up my spine, and it was getting harder to slap it the hell down. Especially when those cornflower-blue eyes looked relieved to see me. There was even some fucking color returning to her face.

Fuck.

“Tex!” Nixie cried out my name.

I reluctantly tore my gaze off Salem to see the other woman rushing to me. Tears running down her face, as if she’d been the one inside with the gang and held at gunpoint.

She hurled herself against me, grabbing on to my cut. “Oh God, I was so scared.”

I eased my leather out of her hands. “Easy,” I told her.

“I’m sorry. I’m just so glad you’re back. That was terrifying.”

“She on your bike then?” Micah asked, lifting his chin toward Nixie.

I nodded. I had to take her to Toxic Throttle. She wasn’t in any danger, and she was scheduled for tonight, as were the other girls.

“You taking her to work?”

“Yeah.”

He turned his head toward Lick. “You saved her. You get her to the compound.”

Understanding dawned on me, and I jerked my head toward Salem. She wasn’t looking at me anymore, but then with Nixie wrapped around me like I was the pole she was supposed to dance on tonight, I wasn’t surprised. Pepper was bent down in front of her, putting the heel on her foot. She’d lost it somehow. Probably when Lick was fucking carrying her.

“You good with that?” I heard Micah ask, and I turned back to him.

Was I good with it? Salem on the back of Lick’s bike? No, I wasn’t. She’d only been on the back of one bike that I knew of, and that had been mine. I’d thought she’d be the only female on the back after that first time. There had been more than I could count now.

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