Page 21 of Hot Winter Nights (Bear Mountain Rescue 1)

Dex tried to get his bearing back just as another biker stepped forward with a pool cue raised over his head.

“Ah, hell!”

Allie stopped talking at Hunter’s exclamation and was left alone and dumbfounded as he jumped up and raced across the room. Allie spun around and saw Dex on the ground. One of the men he’d been playing pool with stood over him, a pool stick in his hand. Allie’s gut lurched as she realized he was about to hit Dex with it.

Hunter got there as the man was bringing it down, and grabbed the pool cue out of the biker’s hand. He threw it across the room. Allie hollered a warning as the other biker made a move at Hunter’s back.

And then Dex was on his feet once again.

“Climb behind the bar!” Penny yelled, hopping over it with a baseball bat in hand.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“Squashing this shit,” Penny said, tossing Allie a saucy grin before jumping into the fray.

Suddenly, a chair went whizzing through the air…right toward Allie’s head. She barely had time to duck before it crashed into the bar wall behind her. Landing on the floor, she climbed back to her feet in time to watch Penny hit the biker attacking Hunter with her bat.

The rest of the bar was clearing out, including the woman who’d had her hand buried in Dex’s lap when Allie had first walked in with Hunter. She’d tried not to let it bother her, but still…

Allie saw Dex being thrown over the pool table, the biker looming over him with his hands around Dex’s neck. Hunter and Penny were busy pinning the other guy to the floor.

Allie had no idea what she was about to do, she only knew that she was running. She came up behind the biker and let her foot fly up from behind.…

And it connected, hard, against his testicles.

The guy let out a high-pitched cry as he released Dex and fell to his knees, his back still to her. Allie hopped on one foot and nearly burst into tears as the pain in her foot radiated upward. As it subsided, Dex sat up coughing and wheezing, and their gazes locked. The light in his eyes when he looked at her stirred a warm, fuzzy glow in her chest, and she smiled at him through the pain.

And then the biker turned on her, looking seriously pissed off. “You stupid bitch.”

As he took a step toward her, Allie realized that she should have taken Penny’s advice and hidden behind the bar.

Chapter 13

Dex didn’t think as he launched himself onto the man’s back, slipping his arm around his neck in a choke hold. He’d seen Allie’s look of terror and lost all reason, jerking back hard as the guy clawed at his arm. The biker outweighed him by a good fifty pounds, but as Dex felt him start to go limp, he tossed him away from Allie as if he weighed nothing.

Then Dex was on him, throwing his fists until someone jerked him off the guy. Dex took in the blood oozing from Baldy’s nose and lips, and his muscles relaxed.

“I’m okay, I’m fine.”

Hunter released him and faced him with a look of rage. “What the hell were you thinking? The cops are on their way here and you’re hammered. You can’t drive—”

“I’ll take him home,” Allie said softly.

Dex glanced her way as Hunter tried to argue. “You don’t have to do that.”

“We’re going to the same place. It’s not as if I’m going out of my way or anything.”

They were all standing around, talking about Dex as if he weren’t there, and it was starting to piss him off.

Hunter nodded. “Okay, thanks. Dex, give Allie your keys.”

Dex fished out his keys and handed them to Allie. Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to turn away before Hunter stepped into her, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and said, “Sorry for the way our date ended.”

“It’s all right. I had fun until about ten minutes ago.”

“So, you’re saying getting into a bar fight wasn’t on your bucket list?” Hunter asked jokingly.

“Yeah, not so much.”

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