“Uh-huh.” Mick gave them a quizzical look before refilling Moon’s glass.
Jonas was sharing a glance with Hammer when the sound of the bar door opening had him casually turning his head to see who was entering.
Hearing Hammer choking on his beer, it was hard not to look to make sure his friend was okay, but he was afraid that if he did, the woman walking toward the bar would become nothing more than a figment of his imagination.
“You okay?” Jonas finally asked from the corner of his mouth, still refusing to cast his eyes away from the approaching beauty.
“Yes. Is that …?”
“Yes.”
Jonas tried to appear casual as she took a seat farther down from where Moon was sitting, but he still gave a silent groan.
He and Hammer ran a bounty-hunting business with Killyama. They had been in her life since she was a young child and both considered her more like a daughter than a business partner. When she married Train, one of The Last Riders, they’d met Moon.
Killyama had told them how Moon earned his nickname, and if that confidence she shared with them was true, then he and Hammer didn’t stand a chance with the familiar redhead who was sitting closer to Moon than to them.
His gut twisted when he saw the smile spread across Moon’s face. There was no way Jonas was going to let The Last Rider steal her away from them.
Jonas’s ass was about to slide off the stool when Hammer’s low warning stopped him.
“Chill. She’s not interested.”
Jonas took another look and saw the same disinterest on her face that she had treated them to at the motel.
Remaining seated, he and Hammer watched as the woman ordered a beer.
Jonas took his eyes off her long enough to shoot a questioning glance at Hammer. “Should we make a move?”
“You go ahead. I’ll hold back until you signal for me.”
Jonas made a face at his friend. Hammer always preferred he make the first move.
He almost decided not to make the effort. If Hammer had a spark of interest in the woman, then he’d be the one to make the move and not always leave it up to Jonas. It was the only thing that he worried about when it came to sharing a woman with Hammer—that his friend wouldn’t have the same attraction to the third as he did. That Hammer’d think his feelings weren’t as important as Jonas’s.
“What’s the holdup?” Hammer asked.
“I’m going—”
“Too late.”
Jonas swung his head around to see the redhead carrying her beer toward the solitary man sitting at the table.
“What the fuck?” Jonas couldn’t believe the woman had chosen the drunk over Moon, him, or Hammer.
He snapped his mouth closed, turning back to his beer and taking a drink to ease the ache of disappointment.
“Fuck that!”
Jonas was now the one snorting beer out of his nostrils as he watched Hammer stride across the bar toward the table where the woman was now sitting.
Grinning, Jonas hastily grabbed his beer and Hammer’s, moving to follow him. The way Hammer was now looming over the occupants at the table, it was clear his wish for Hammer to be more involved had been granted.
“Ask and ye shall receive,” Jonas said, laughingly out loud to himself.
“Huh?” The bartender looked at him as if he was crazy as fuck.
“Nothing,” Jonas replied as he watched Hammer take a seat at the table without asking.
This was what he had been waiting for. When his partner set his mind on something, he broke through it, despite the resistance he met. It was how he had earned his nickname in the Army Rangers.
The woman had no idea she was now Hammer’s target.
Jonas plastered a friendly smile on his face, ensuring that, if Hammer wasn’t successful, he was the perfect backup. God, how he loved being a part of a team.
CHAPTER 3
Mika found the bar easily enough. What wasn’t easy was forcing herself out of the car. Her mind was in turmoil on whether she should or shouldn’t.
Just go in and get a beer. If you don’t like it, just leave, she reasoned with herself.
Stroking her confidence up, she shakily got out the car and walked toward the door. Feeling like an idiot for coming up with this plan in the first place, she almost ran back to her car.
“You’re so fucking lame, Mika. Dillion loves me.”
“When I want advice from Dear Abby, I’ll email her.”
“When’s the last time you got laid? Have you ever even been laid?”
“Don’t give me that look. You’re so predictable that even your cat got bored with you and ran away.”
Replaying the last conversation she had with her friend still stung. She hadn’t talked to Julia in three months, and it still hurt, both the argument she had been drawn into when she tried to discuss her friend’s toxic relationship, and Julia’s refusal to text or call her back regardless of the numerous messages she Mika left.
The memory of the argument bolstered her to go inside.
Holding her breath all the way to the bar, she kept her eyes forward, not paying attention to the men inside. She then took a stool situated away from the others and ordered a beer from the bartender who looked like he expected her to ask for directions instead of the beer she requested.
Turning her gaze away from the bartender, Mika glanced briefly at the man sitting closest to her to see whether or not he was a viable option. It only took two seconds to figure that one out.
His come-hither smile was meant to be enticing, but he was too good-looking not to be aware that women found him attractive. Therefore, Mika didn’t buy into the illusion that he was just the good ole boy he was trying to portray.
When her eyes shied away from his, she saw “the men” sitting farther down the bar. She hadn’t even noticed them when entered, too conscious upon realizing she was the lone woman in the room.
Not seeing any prospects that filled her crazy plan, she brightened when she saw the man sitting next to the wall… alone.
“Hey, pretty lady. The name’s Moon. What’s yours?” the good-looki
ng man at the bar asked.
Ignoring him, Mika paid for her beer, then slid off the stool to make her way across the room.
Her pulse quickened when she realized he was drunk. With any luck, if she was successful, whoever he was wouldn’t remember what day of the week it was or that he had bagged a stranger he met at a bar.
“May I join you?”
His blurring eyes had trouble focusing on her. “You want to sit down with me?”
“Yes.”
Mika cringed at the sexual interest he looked over her with.
“Sure, go ahead.”
You have lost your freaking mind, Mika castigated herself but sat down next to him anyway.
“Are you from Treepoint?” she asked before taking a drink of her beer.
“Born and raised.” The cackle of his drunken laughter had her taking another drink, wishing she ordered something stronger.
“My name is … Mary. What’s yours—”
“I hate drinking alone. Mind if I join the party?”
Mika gaped up at the man who she recognized as one of the men she bumped into at the motel. That he wasn’t alone and his buddy was here too, still seated at the bar sent off alarm bells.
Men like them never gave her the time of day. This one was like a high school star quarterback, who only dated the prom queen. She hadn’t even been a member of the queen’s court.
She opened her mouth to refuse when her chosen prospect spoke up.
“Sure. Why not? The more, the merrier.”
Feeling uncomfortable, Mika didn’t look at him as he sat down, trying to keep her attention focused on the prize. Well, not really a prize. More like a booby prize, but she was more than happy with that.
When she finally had sex, she wanted a man who would make her feel confident and sure of herself for the first time, not one who already had her feeling like she would never measure up when the clothes were off. The gorgeous man was undoubtedly used to doing playboy bunnies, not Dear Abbys.