Bradley returns a moment later, slamming a glass with some fruity looking liquid in front of Penny and a bottle in front of me. “I brought you a beer too. Maybe that will lighten up your fucking mood.”
Doubt it.But I still take the beer and down half of it. I really need to calm the fuck down before I do something really stupid. Something that I can’t take back.
Everyone at the table breaks out in conversation. Bradley talks about the chick he banged behind his gym yesterday, and Trick swears he fucked the same chick last week. Maddox talks to Tucker about upgrades he wants to do to his bike, and Bear chimes in about those upgrades only adding unwanted weight.
Maddox occasionally glances my way with a look that says, we’re going to talk about this later, and Penny is sitting next to me stiff as a board, nursing her half-empty drink.
“Soooo,” Bradley says loudly, grabbing the attention of the whole table. “Remember how I told you guys about this new drug coming in? The one that’s tasteless and dissolves in liquid.” He smirks, looking straight at me. I freeze. He fucking wouldn’t. I almost throw the bottle of beer across the room.
“Calm down, fucker.” He laughs. “I didn’t put it in your drink.” His gaze swings over to Penny. “I put it in hers.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I growl, standing up so quickly the chair I was sitting on crashes to the floor behind me.
Bradley rolls his eyes… he rolls his fucking eyes. I’m livid. My mind goes blank, and the next thing I know, I’m across the table with my hands around Bradley’s throat.
“Ryder!” Maddox yells, grabbing my arm and pulling me back. I feel more hands on me, trying to pull me away, but my fingers are wrapped so tightly around my brother’s throat they can’t get me to move.
Bradley’s face turns a reddish-blueish color, and his eyes are bulging out when Maddox’s voice finally gets to me, “Ryder, cut it the fuck out. Just get that chick out of here.”
At the reminder of Penny being here, the fog around my mind slowly lifts, and I release Bradley with a shove. He slumps back into his chair, and I take a step back, taking in the scene in front of me.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
All eyes are on me, glaring at me like I’ve lost my fucking mind, probably because I have. I look down to my right and find Penny still in her chair, her big blue eyes glazed over, the spiked drink still in her hand. I take it from her and slam the glass on the table.
Then, I grab her arm and pull her up to her feet. I don’t know if the drug is already working or if her legs are buckling because I scare her. Either way, she needs my help to walk. I half carry her through the bar, her shorter legs unable to keep up with my long strides.
I head for the front door before remembering that I took the bike to get here. There is no fucking way she’ll be able to hold on. I really don’t want to stay here, but right now it’s my best option. Dragging her through the back of the bar, I take her to my room, the same room I took her to that first night.
Once inside, I lock the door behind us and guide her to the bed. As soon as I let go of her, she flops down like a rag doll.Fuck.
For a moment, I just stand there, looming over her. Her body looks exhausted, and I don’t think she can move much, but her eyes are still open, and they’re fixed on mine. Even through the haze of drugs in her system, her gaze holds an ocean of emotion, and I feel like I’m drowning in their depths. I don’t understand half of them. One, however, stands out… fear. I scare her. She is scared of me, and she has every right to be. Still, there is a part of me that wants to wipe that fear away.
The irony is not lost on me. All this time, I wanted to break her. I wanted her to hate me and fear me. Now that she does, all I want to do is keep her safe.
I undress her limp body. Her breath hitches when I get to her underwear, and her hand comes up as if she is trying to push me away. She is so weak; she wouldn’t be able to fend off a bug right now.
Unclipping the bra, I pull it off her body, and a whimper passes her lips. When I look back up to meet her gaze, I find her on the brink of tears. I leave her panties on and take off my boots. At the last minute, I decide to keep my own clothes on, knowing I won’t be able to keep my dick to myself if I don’t. I crawl onto the bed, pulling the thin blanket over us, and lie down next to her.
Her body trembles when I wrap my arms around her and pull her to my chest. She is stiff at first, but when I do nothing besides hold her, she relaxes a little.
With the door and two walls between us, the bar’s loud music is nothing more than faint background noise. But there are other rooms around us, rooms my brothers use to bang club whores. Sounds from somewhere down the hall keep getting louder. When someone slams the door a few rooms down, Penny shakes and sobs uncontrollably.Fucking Christ.
This will not work. Pulling my phone out, I text Maddox telling him I need a ride to my house. Ten minutes later, someone knocks on my door, freaking Penny out even more.
“Calm down, I’m going to take you home now,” I try to calm her and get up at the same time. She shakes her head and grabs a fist full of my shirt, looking at me like she is in full-on panic mode now.
“Please,” she whimpers, tears rolling down her face.
“Nothing is going to happen to you. You’re safe, I’m taking you back to my house.” She keeps staring at me like she has no idea what I just said. I have to peel her fingers off before I can get to the door.
I find Maddox and Billy, one of our prospects, on the other side. They both look into the room, their eyes lingering on Penny’s curled up body on the bed.
“I can’t get her to calm down. What the fuck did he give her,” I growl. Sitting down on the bed, I pull my boots back on and wrap Penny up in the blanket tightly.
“I don’t fucking know, some kind of new crossbreed. He said Rohypnol is part of it, so she won’t remember shit tomorrow. If that makes you feel better.”
It does, actually, but I’m not about to offer that piece of information.