“Fine,” she agreed. “Let me just grab my jacket and bag and I’ll meet you in the kitchen,” she offered.
“Don’t be long,” he ordered.
Harlow looked up at Taz and smiled. “Now I know why you call him, boss, all the time.” Taz barked out his laugh and pulled her in for a quick hug, and Ryker felt about ready to tear the big guy apart.
“All right, enough of that,” he demanded. Harlow pulled free from Taz and fixed her hair over the left side of her face. She always wore it like that and a part of him wondered why. It was almost as if she was hiding that side of her face from him and the rest of the world. She was such a beautiful woman hiding behind her long hair didn’t seem right.
Taz shook his head at Ryker. “Be safe guys,” he said before heading back to the kitchen.
“I’ll be ready to go in just a few minutes,” Harlow offered. Ryker watched as she headed back to his office and a part of him wanted to follow her back, shut the door, and push her down onto his desk. He felt every protective instinct come alive inside of him and at the top of his instincts was his need to make her his.
As soon as she reappeared, Ryker grabbed her jacket from her and helped her on with it. “Thank you,” she said. She looked up at him, her eyes so earnest he wasn’t sure if he should look away or not. “Should I be afraid, Ryker?” she asked. He wanted to tell her no—that he’d have her and wouldn’t let Billows touch her, ever. But he’d be lying to her. She should be afraid because he was. He wasn’t sure if he could keep her safe, but that’s where Ace was going to come in. He knew that his old Prez would lend him the money to pay off Billows. Hell, he should have gone to Ace in the first place, but then, he felt as though he’d be admitting defeat on some level. It was as if he needed to make it on his own. He wanted to make the Smokey Bandits bar profitable, and he thought he could do it without any help, but he was a fool. He’d forgotten what brotherhood was about. His club would have his back, but that was how things worked with the Bandits. He had just forgotten and now, Harlow was paying the price. His only choice was to fix all of this—no matter how much crow he’d have to eat to do so.
“No,” he lied. “I’m going to fix this, Harlow, and you’ll be safe—I swear it.”
* * *
“Are you going to tell me where we are going, or is it a secret?” Harlow asked. She still sounded good and pissed about having to take this road trip with him.
“We’re going to the former Prez’s casino. Ace and his friend Knox own a couple of casinos in the area and I’m hoping that he’ll be willing to lend me the money to pay back Billows.”
“Why didn’t you just go to him in the first place?” she asked. Harlow sounded as though she was accusing him of some kind of wrongdoing.
“I didn’t want to involve him,” Ryker said. “I wanted to do this on my own, you know? He stepped down as the Smokey Bandit Prez and the club practically sat idol for a while. He was such a good leader, and I was hoping to be the same, but when I got the bar, it needed a bit of TLC. The kitchen had to be outfitted since it wasn’t set up for serving food. It was literally just a bar. So, I thought, why not just borrow the money, get everything up to grade for the city inspectors, and I’d have my start.”
“But Billows moved the payoff time frame up, didn’t he?” she asked.
“Yeah, how did you know that?” Ryker questioned.
Harlow shrugged. “My ex had a lapse in judgment, and he borrowed a few thousand from a loan shark in town. He wasn’t working and he didn’t want me to find out that he lost his job and was spending all day at the local bar, so he took out a loan to pay our bills. I thought that everything was fine—until I realized that it wasn’t. A few big guys showed up at our apartment, wanting to know where Craig was. They said that he owed them money and that’s when I started putting the puzzle pieces together.”
“That’s awful,” Ryker said. “Did you confront him about it?”
“I did, but he was so drunk, I couldn’t get a straight answer. I found him down at the bar he liked to hang out at. I thought that he was just going there after work, you know? Apparently, he was spending his mornings and afternoons there too.”
“That’s a shitty way to find out about your husband being unemployed, Harlow,” Ryker said.
“No kidding,” she said. “It was like the whole town knew except me. I was so embarrassed, but not too upset to march down to that bar and make a scene. I asked him who the men were who showed up on our doorstep and he blew me off. Told me that I was overreacting and that they wouldn’t touch him. Problem was, they had no problem taking it out on me.”
“Wait—what?” Ryker asked. “He owed those guys money and they beat you?”
“Ironic, right?” she asked. “Here, I’m in the same position as I was with my loser ex-husband.” It felt like a knife to the gut that she was comparing him to her ex.
“I’m sorry that you’re tied up in my shit. If you weren’t in my office, Billows would have never laid eyes on you, and you wouldn’t be in my mess,” he said. He sounded as though he was defending himself, and maybe he was.
“I know,” she whispered. “This just brings up so many bad memories,” she said. “Those guys who wanted to talk to my ex about the money that he owed, showed back up to my door and this time, they didn’t care if he was home or not. They slapped me around and when they got sick of that, one of them broke my arm. I was in a cast for almost three months.”
“I’m so sorry,” Ryker said.
“It wasn’t your fault,” she breathed. “You know, Craig never said those words to me? It was his fault that I was beaten up and had my arm broken, but he never thought to tell me that he was sorry for causing any of it.”
“That sucks,” Ryker said. “I am sorry, though—for what happened to you and for getting you involved in my mess.”
“You’ve already apologized for that,” she said. “And I appreciate it, but we do need to find a way to fix all of this. Do you think Ace will give you the money to pay off Billows?”
“I do, but I’m going to have to eat some crow to get him to help me out. He’ll be pissed that I didn’t go to him first. I broke the code and he’ll want to know why.”
“Code?” Harlow asked.
“Yeah—our MC code. Brothers help brothers out. I forgot that when I decided to try to go it alone. He’ll want to know why and I’m afraid I’m going to have to swallow my pride and take my lumps.”
“You think he’ll be angry?” she asked.
“Yeah, but Ace is a good guy and he’ll do the right thing in the end,” Ryker said. At least, that was what he was hoping for. Honestly, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get past security. It had been about a year since he’d visited his old friend. He would just hope for the best and say a little prayer that Ace was in his office tonight. If not, their little road trip would be for nothing.