Page 56 of Savage Wild

“Is that a rule?” Jeanna asked Ryder on a grin.

Whatever Jenna’s feelings about Talon and the blonde, Ryder could tell she was trying to cover them. She was game, he’d give her that. Ryder could only imagine how gooey soft she’d be if she ever really let anyone into the sweet of her world, but she was giving tough a go, and he respected the hell out of that.

She was going after what she needed and not letting anything, even emotion, stand in her way. And he respected that too.

Ryder pulled Jenna to his side and settled his arm around her shoulders. “It is now.”

Deuce poured shots all around, and Ryder reached into a cooler for another beer. He’d pace himself. If Jenna kept this up, no way she could hang on the back of his bike, so he’d have to pour her in his truck to take her home.

Deuce and Tank kept Jenna laughing through the next five shots and rounds of questions. The stories got more outrageous as they drank, and Jenna seemed to forget Talon’s drama and laughed herself silly.

“I see a pretty chica that looks lonely,” Tank said, leaving his shot glass and pulling a bottle of beer from the cooler. “Later,” he said, making his way toward a sweet red head whose friend had just walked into the dark for more privacy with another brother.

With Tank gone, Deuce sobered and leaned in, his eyes fierce. “My turn, girl. What the fuck is going with you and Talon?”

Jenna did a slow blink, “What?”

“Brother,” Ryder started, stepping even closer to Jenna.

“Fair question,” Deuce cut him off. “I’m Gate’s LT, and I have no fucking clue where this woman came from or what Gate’s letting her do here. Interviews for an article? What the fuck is that? Then there’s the bad blood nobody’s talking about. And Gate’s got you batting cleanup. So, yeah, I wanna know what the fuck is going on.”

Jenna swayed, “You got me drunk to askthis?”

“You’re damn right I did,” Deuce spat.

“Fucking dick,” Ryder said, taking Jenna’s arm. “Let’s go, sweet.”

Jenna pulled against Ryder’s hold and looked at Deuce, the laugh that erupted from her holding no humor at all. “You know, you’re just like him. Playing me to get what you want. You didn’t have to do all this,” she said, waving a hand at the bar. “If you’d asked, I would have told you.”

“You’re not telling him shit now,” Ryder growled.

Jenna frowned at Ryder, “He’s doing his job. I get it. He just didn’t have to be an asshole to find out what he wanted to know.”

“Been called worse,” Deuce said. “Way I see things, I’ve got one brother who’s pissed as shit and another brother who’s trying not to think with his cock, and he’s fighting a losing battle with that. So let’s hear it.”

Jenna leaned as far across the bar as Deuce so that they were nose to nose, and Ryder closed in to hear what she had to say.

He’d been trying to fit the puzzle together since his talk with Gate, but he didn’t have all the pieces he needed to fill in the whole picture.

Jenna hissed, anger lacing her words. “Ten years ago, Talon broke into my house with a gunshot wound and a rival gang on his ass. I dug the bullet out and sewed him up. He left the slug with me and told me I had his marker.”

“Shit,” Deuce whispered.

Jenna kept talking, “Haven’t seen him in all this time, and then a few weeks ago, we crossed paths again. I thought he remembered. Hedidn’t. And I mean that in a way that a woman cannot mistake. My job got threatened if I don’t come up with something crazy amazing to publish, so I need information. I tried to trade my bullet to Gate for an interview, no way in hell I’m asking Talon, but Gate told me no. Said to keep my bullet in case one day I really needed it.”

“Gate knows what went down between you and T?” Deuce asked Jenna.

“Yes. My only condition was that he keep Talon away from me. I think that’s where Ryder comes in.”

Deuce shifted his gaze to Ryder. “So you’re a bodyguard instead of a tour guide.”

Ryder shrugged, glaring at his brother whose intentions he understood but at the moment didn’t appreciate.

Jenna didn’t back off. “I don’t know why Talon’s so pissed that I’m here. He has no idea who I am, other than a woman he made to feel incredibly stupid.”

“How in God’s name could he forgetyou?” Deuce asked.

Ryder was wondering the same thing.

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