He stowed it in the saddle bags, and offered me his hands.
“Hop on, Drakina,” he ordered with a wink.
I smiled, took his hand, and ‘hopped on.’
He started the bike up and yelled over his shoulder. “I have a few people I’d like you to meet!”
I leaned forward and gave him a kiss on his shoulder since it was the only thing I could reach.
“Sounds good, Dragon,” I teased.
His eyes were alight with humor as he looked at me over his shoulder.
“Seems fitting, too,” he murmured before he roared out of the parking lot.Chapter 11
95% of the time when I’m smiling, it’s over something I said, not over something you said.-Blythe to BrooklynBlythe
We arrived at an enormous warehouse off the Old East Side twenty minutes later.
Instead of stopping at the front door, like I’d assumed he was going to do, someone opened the massive front door a crack, and Keifer rode straight in.
Since it was daylight, we hadn’t had the light on.
Therefore, when we got inside the large garage, it was pitch black and I couldn’t see a freakin’ thing.
Squeezing Keifer a little more tightly, I waited with bated breath to see what we were going to do next.
When the engine turned off, the noise in the cavernous space was nonexistent, almost making my ears hurt with the lack thereof.
“What’s going on?” I asked quietly.
Or at least tried to.
The whisper echoed off the walls of the garage, and I blinked as I heard a couple of deep chuckles.
Closing my eyes, I willed there to be light when I opened them again and was pleased to see that there was as my eyelids parted.
“Good girl,” Keifer said, patting my leg.
I blinked.
“What?” I asked in confusion.
“I wanted you to light the way. So I told them not to,” he muttered, easing off the bike.
Reluctantly, I let him go, and rose as well as I asked, “Them who?”
Then I saw ‘them.’
Nikolai, I knew.
The other four gigantic men, I didn’t.
All of them were really big guys, so when I say gigantic, I mean big.
All of them were nearly Keifer’s height, and they were all quite muscular, also like Keifer.
What made them differ from Keifer was that they seemed almost meaner.
Less approachable.
And they were all wearing something similar to what Keifer had on.
They must’ve really been a bona fide motorcycle club.
I looked around, half expecting to see club whores like they had on Sons of Anarchy, but I didn’t see a soul.
Five men were staring at me, as if I was an intruder into the space that should only be occupied by people with testicles.
Nikolai was the first to speak.
“Blythe.”
That was it.
That was all he said. One single word, and it had zero inflection, so I couldn’t tell if it was a ‘Hi, Blythe, happy to see you’ or rather a ‘Blythe, I can’t believe you’re here. You suck.’
So, settling for neutral. “Nikolai.”
He didn’t smile, per se, but I could see his eyes sparkle slightly.
The man at his side, a blonde behemoth with a smile that would make a killing on a toothpaste commercial, ordered, “Introduce us.”
Keifer snorted. “From left to right you have Nikolai, Ford, Alaric, Jean Luc and Dorian.”
That was it.
Just names.
And none of them said hi.
Fun shit right here!
So, like the stubborn ass I was, I didn’t say anything either.
Instead, I crossed my arms across my chest, and widened my stance for comfort. Then stared right along with them.
We continued this for a few long moments before Keifer sighed.
“They’re testing you, Blythe,” Keifer explained.
“Hmmm,” I surmised. “That’s cool. Do you think I could go sit down somewhere and read? I have a new book that was delivered to my Kindle today, and since I can see this isn’t going to go any further than this, I’d like to do that now, please.”
He rolled his eyes, and I heard a few deep chuckles from the men, causing me to turn back to them with a scowl.
The blonde that’d spoken earlier had a smirk on his face. “Running already?”
Wanting nothing more than to smack that smirk off his face, I did what any sane girl would do, I walked forward and poked him in the chest.
“Do you have a problem with me?” I snapped.
His eyes widened slightly.
“No,” he said finally.
“Then why are you being so rude?” I asked.
He outright laughed. “I like her, Dragon. She’ll do.”
With that, he left, disappearing out into the back somewhere.
That’s when I saw him.
A man in the shadows.
“Who’s that?” I whispered to Keifer.
Keifer looked to where my eyes were pointing and grimaced.
“That’s Ian. And you aren’t ever to be alone with him, do you understand?” He stated firmly.
I blinked. “Uhh, yeah.”
What the hell?
Was this Ian guy a psycho or something? And if he was, what the hell was he doing here?
“I’ll tell you about it tonight,” he mumbled, standing up tall and firmly at the same time grabbing my hand with his. “I just wanted you to meet the guys, and I needed to pick something up from my office here.”