Page 33 of Beware of Dog

Jamie was too rattled to protest when Cass hailed them a cab and gave them an address. Regulating her breathing seemed to occupy all of her thoughts and efforts right up until they stepped off the elevator and were met by Shep waiting with a shoulder resting against the doorjamb of the club apartment.

He looked good. One of the clinging white t-shirts that showed off his physique and a pair of low-slung black sweats. The hem of the shirt had ridden up on the right side when he folded his arms, and she could see the waistband of his boxers and a thin strip of bare skin.

Behind her, the elevator doors closed, and Jamie said, “Oh my God.”

Right. She wasn’t here to admire the scenery.

She reached back and snagged Jamie’s wrist before she could make a break for it. “Jamie, you remember my friend Shep. Shep, Jamie,” she said, towing Jamie along behind her toward the apartment door.

“I could’ve come to get you,” Shep said as they passed him and entered the apartment.

Cass didn’t release Jamie’s wrist until she heard the door shut. “Nonsense, we wouldn’t both fit on the bike.”

He sighed. “That’s not what I meant.”

When she turned around, Shep still had his arms folded, bare feet braced apart on the carpet, stern and ready for an argument.

Jamie, by contrast, looked ready to faint.

Cass’s patience and empathy had grown thin to the point of fraying. She’d tried to be supportive, and understanding, and gentle, but right now, she couldn’t take one more secondof helpless shivering.I’m a bad person, she thought, but she’d reached a wall.

“Jamie.” The snap in her voice grabbed Jamie’s attention, and held it. Cass pointed to the sofa. “Sit down.”

She sat.

“I’m going to tell you something,” Cass said, “and you can’t gasp. Okay? Not at all. Not even a little. You also can’t go spreading it all over campus.”

“Cass,” Shep warned.

She didn’t look at him. Stared down her roommate instead. “Okay?”

Curiosity began to overtake fear. Jamie’s posture relaxed a fraction. “Okay.”

“You know how I’ve told you my family’s huge? And that I have a whole mess of brothers? And they’re bikers?”

“Cass,” Shep said again. “Watch yourself.”

“Uh-huh,” Jamie said.

“All those brothers”—Cass’s breath hitched, a momentary burst of nerves, and a darted glance proved Shep was shaking his head and rolling his eyes, though he made no move to physically stop her from confessing this—“are Lean Dogs.”

Jamie blinked at her. “O…kay?”

Cass had geared herself up for this big confession, and it had never crossed her mind that anyone didn’t know who the Dogs were.

“The Lean Dogs,” she repeated.

“Okay,” Jamie said again, even more confused.

Shep snorted. “Jesus, I’m insulted.”

“Hush.” Cass waved at him. To Jamie: “The Lean DogsMotorcycle Club? They’re bikers. Outlaw bikers.” She stupidly mimed handlebars; twisted an imaginary throttle. “With the…you know. The bikes. And the leather. And the…” She gestured vaguely.

When Jamie looked between the two of them, brow furrowed, Shep turned and pulled his cut down off the coat rack by the door; shrugged it on and turned around so she could see the back: the running black dog and the top and bottom rockers.

“Oh.” Jamie sat up straighter. “The biker gang.”

“Club,” Shep and Cass said in unison, both of them harshly enough to make Jamie shrink back down again.

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