I don’t see any lions chilling anywhere, so I start climbing as quickly as possible. Eventually getting high enough to reach the top of the wall, I move my body until I’m lying on the ledge looking down on the other side.
Spider shouts for the other brothers to hurry up and climb faster because the cartel guys are catching up.
“This is gonna hurt,” I mutter to the maid and push her off me.
She flies through the air, quickly meeting the hard ground with a yelp. Launching myself off afterward, I try to position how to land somewhat decently since I already know what to expect from earlier. The maid’s obviously scared now as she silently cries, not looking at me but it’s no love lost on my part. She’s lucky I didn’t drop her ass in with the lions on accident.
The brothers start jumping from the wall and as they land we help each other up, waiting until the last one’s over, and then make a run for our bikes. We’re about halfway to our freedom when we hear a surprisingly loud roar. Casting a glance back, while keeping my pace, I watch as a lion rips into one of the Cartel guys who’d just hit the ground. Two men sprint, taking off toward the front of the Compound and the other lion gives chase, eventually jumping on them and brutally attacking as they scream in agony.
“The wall!” I gasp as we reach our rides.
We’d blown a huge fucking hole into the barrier where we’d broken in. At the time, though, we had no idea it led inside a makeshift den. It looks like we unknowingly granted their freedom as well.
Nightmare cocks an eyebrow. “I think those fuckers trying to kill us, unintentionally saved our lives.”
Ex barks, “Sinner, have the bitch ride back with you.” Then he starts his engine with us following suit.
It’s clear by Sinner’s pissed off expression that he’s not happy getting tasked with babysitter duties, but he’s the one who found her after all. I never get a chance to text Princess as we race off in the early morning air. It’s barely seven a.m., and we’ve already been through enough hell for the day.
At least I get to see my woman tonight. She’ll make the eleven-hour ride completely worth it.
It’s been a fewdays since I received the text from Viking letting me know that he was going out of town, so imagine my surprise when my phone rings and of all people, it’s Scot calling me.
Immediately, I spaz out, jumping to conclusions that Viking was dead, and Scot, being the one semi in charge, was calling to tell me about it. Talk about overreacting. Bethany’s baby news has had me on pins and needles, automatically jumping to wild conclusions on everything, even the small stuff.
The poor man barely got three words in before I was peppering him with questions about why and how it happened. Chuckling loudly, he’d ignored my craziness and told me that it would be a cold day in hell when someone was able to kill that rotten bastard.
I’m not one hundred percent sure what Scot meant by that exactly, but it did indicate that Viking was okay. Bethany’s words sunk in a smidge more, suggesting that I do love him. It’s the first time as his Ol’ Lady I guess you’d say, that he’s on a run, so I can’t help the nervousness bubbling up inside.
Scot was nice enough to let me know that they’d all be returning from their trip this evening, and he was hoping Bethany and I would go to the bar early and help the bartender prepare. Of course, I agreed, eager at the chance of possibly seeing Viking early. Plus, I’d get to do something nice for him and his brothers. They’ve been kind to me each time we’ve seen one another, so hopefully, the culinary skills I’ve learned from my mom will further win them over.
It’s much easier for me to keep Viking at some distance if people are around versus being with him alone. I want to be with him a little too much, and that feeling scares me. I refuse to be left home all the time just because I’m an Ol’ Lady. I won’t let him treat me like my dad did with my mother and with how strongly I feel about him already, he could end up doing that if he wanted.
Per Scot’s request, the majority of my day was spent preparing my mom’s potato salad recipe and chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting. I tried to bribe Bethany to come with me, but she had to work and wouldn’t call in sick. I can’t blame her. I’m proud of her for turning me down; she has a kid to think about now.
After the food was finished and I’d taken a shower, I found a cute outfit consisting of a thin tank and jean shorts, then I loaded my car up and headed straight to the bar.
1 Hour later…
Dutifully, I’ve been getting everything set up and ready with the bartender ever since I crossed the threshold. This woman is a workhorse; I’d never guess she could pull this much off with so little notice. I’d think she’d be exhausted from closing the bar down each night and would sleep all day long too. At least that’s what I would do.
That’s probably why she’s been quiet. I hate not knowing her name, but she didn’t mention it earlier, and I don’t want to guess and fuck it up. She hasn’t been rude or anything, but besides asking me to set stuff in certain places or help her move the long table, she hasn’t really spoken to me. I’m too used to having Bethany chatting my ears off when we’re together that being around quiet females gives me too much time to think.
Hopefully, these bikers are starving; otherwise, I don’t know who’s going to eat all this food. So far we’ve got a buffet style table set up full of fried chicken, corn on the cob, potato salad, cupcakes, rolls, grilled chicken and pineapple kabob’s, chips, dip, and banana bread. She had some serious help cooking, or else I need to step up my game when it comes to the kitchen.
“Will you hand me that bucket? I need to fill the ice bins back here.” She points to a gray bucket beside the table. She used it to fill a few large bowls with ice to set under the salads so they’d stay cool.
“Sure.” I place the plastic forks down and grab the bucket.
Handing it over the bar, she smiles friendly and uses both hands to take it from me. “Thanks.”
“No problem,” I respond just as the bar door swings open, letting in a burst of late afternoon sunlight. Normally the place would’ve opened hours ago and been busy with the regulars, but she posted a sign earlier saying the bar’s closed for a private party. The guys have no idea about it either. Scot’s supposed to be calling them later on, once we’re all ready and let them know to come on over. I hope it’s a surprise they’ll be happy about with tons of food and alcohol.
My gaze is instantly glued to the entrance, waiting forhimto cross the threshold because I know when I see him again I won’t be able to breathe. That’s what Viking does to me; he steals my breath away easily with his crazy demands and no-holds-barred way of living. He orders me around like he’s lost his fucking mind and doesn’t think twice about me standing up to him. He doesn’t care about anyone else’s opinions; he does whatever he wants, and it’s fucking liberating.
A rough group of bikers enters the empty bar, and my stomach instantly tenses. I’ve never seen them around here before. My mother made sure I was pretty familiar with the clubs in the Austin area. She wanted to be certain I knew which ones were friendly with the Oath Keepers if there ever came a time that I needed someone else’s help.
Pretty sure that time is now.