Page 7

“Figure I’ll give her some space for a bit.” Hell, his ears werestillringing from the damage she’d done to his melon. Not long ago, he’d rescued Alex and her mate from the bastards who’d captured them. Liam had stormed into their prison, only to discover his Sunshine wasn’t herself. Given all she’d been through, it wasn’t her fault she couldn’t control her new abilities.

“With Alex out of the picture, you planning to stick around?”

Liam stiffened, eyeing his too-eager manager. “Don’t think I’ll be handing the title to this place over to you anytime soon. I wasn’t lying to that prick when I said I was retired. It’s past time I enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet of my own. I’m too fricking old to be driving around the countryside on the back of a bike, sleeping in cheap hotels, stomping through slums, collecting bounties for dirtbags. I’ve grown accustomed to having a comfortable chair under my backside and a bed to sleep in each night.”

When Alex was younger, he’d bought Howlers so he could take fewer jobs and stay close to her, figuring it would be a short-term investment. He never expected he’dlikebeing a bar owner. As far as retirement plans went, a male could do worse. Here at Howlers, he was king of his own castle. His bar, his rules. No one to answer to, no one relying on him and minimal responsibilities. Just the way it should be.

He checked the time on his phone and muttered a curse. The clock was ticking, counting down his last few minutes of freedom. “I better get going. Hand me my bag, will yah?”

Gavin passed him his duffle bag, and Liam slung the strap over his shoulder.

“Looks like you’re planning to be gone a while,” Gavin said. “When can we expect you back, boss?”

“Two weeks.”

“Damn. That’s some date,” Gavin drawled, far too cocky with Liam on a time limit and the bar front between them.

Rather than pop the idiot in the mouth, Liam strode down the hallway, headed for the back door. “Told you, it’s not a date. More like a job.” With benefits. If Gavin figured out Liam had signed up to be the Black Widow’s manwhore, he’d never hear the end of it.

“Thought you were retired,” the demon shouted after him.

“Got a debt to pay first,” Liam hollered back. “When it’s done, I’ll be a free man.”

When Vivian had helped him get Alex out of a jam, she could have asked for anything in return. His bar, his money, his bike. Instead, she’d demanded two weeks of his submission. Whatever the hell that meant. Far as he could tell, he’d signed up to be her sex slave.

For years the gold-digging seductress had wanted a piece of him. If she thought to use his debt to get her hooks into him, she was wrong. Sure, he’d spend the next two weeks screwing her senseless. What man wouldn’t? The former burlesque dancer was gorgeous with her big tits, tiny waist, and rounded ass. But that was as far as his interest in Vivian Laurent went. The second his debt was paid, he’d put her in his rearview so fast it would knock her right off her fancy stilettos. No one, not even Vivian Laurent would keep him in chains. Never again.

Three

“He’s here.”Dove kneeled on the cushioned window seat, her face pressed to the glass. “The guard just stopped him at the gate. And he’s on a motorcycle, a monstrous-looking machine with lots of leather and chrome.” A few seconds ticked by before she added, “Holy crap cakes. He’s getting off his bike, and he’s huge. Like, huge, huge. And he looks mean. Like,really mean.And kind of angry.”

“Dove, darling. Come away from there.” Dove’s narration was doing little to soothe Vivian’s already ragged nerves. She certainly couldn’t afford to appear rattled in front of Liam.

Dove whipped around and flopped onto the cushion. Like Armond, she’d been recruited to assist with operation “shock and awe.” She chewed her bottom lip, her expression tight. “Vivian, are you sure about this? I’m certain I can think of at least a hundred men who would love nothing more than to be your bodyguards.”

“And every one of them would try to hoard that power over me, making demands about where I could go and when. That I cannot allow.”

Dove peered back at her with rounded eyes. “But this one looks as if he might murder you in your sleep.”

Vivian fought a smile. “Liam may appear ruthless, but he’s a man of his word. He would never harm an innocent.” Though Vivian herself was far from innocent these days.

Armond handed her a cosmo before settling next to her on the settee, his own martini resting in his elegant fingers. “This uncultured bar owner is nothing like the vampire aristocrats you tend to prefer. How ever did you meet such a male?”

She sipped from her glass while debating how much to share. With Liam staying in their home for two weeks, she needed to give themsomething.“We met long ago, back in my burlesque days. Liam frequented one of the clubs where I was dancing. Before my time withHim.”

Armond and Dove were but a handful of people who knew the truth about her time with the mage, though she’d left out much of the details, skimming the surface of the abuse she suffered. Others believed she was Alistair’s consort. That he’d spoiled and adored her for decades, only to end up her victim. To the rest of the underworld, the Black Widow was perceived as a greedy and murderous gold-digger. The impoverished burlesque dancer who’d snared a powerful man. Little did they know the nightmare she’d lived.

Armond interrupted the dark path her thoughts had taken. “You’re certainly not the same woman you were back in those days. It stands to reason this Liam character has changed as well. Are you certain he’s trustworthy?”

“Absolutely,” Vivian stated without hesitation. And even if he wasn’t, she had a contingency plan, one guaranteed to keep him from stepping out of line.

Dove abandoned the window seat, settling into one of the wing-backed chairs across from them. “What I’d like to know is how the heck he found himself indebted to you in the first place. Did he gamble himself away in a high-stakes poker game?”

Vivian fought a grin and failed. Liam knew better than to gamble something so precious when he faced her across a table. She was well acquainted with every one of his tells and would have fleeced him in a second.

She ran her finger along the rim of her glass. “Do you remember Alexandra, the sympath we met at the grand opening of Marcus Steele’s casino a few months ago?”

“Yes, of course,” Dove was quick to answer. “How could I forget?”