Page 174 of Beyond the Blue Horizon

“I want to be with you wherever you are. You don’t have to protect me from that part of your life, Theo. I already know.”

If only that was where these reservations were coming from. And still, he was nodding slow. Voice scuffing as he uttered, “Come on, then.”

Joy lit on Scarlett’s face, and she basically skipped to him. She was careful as she swung her leg over and climbed onto the back of his bike. She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her cheek on his shoulder.

And fuck.

He knew he was supposed to feel something.

Something different than what he was feeling.

Something bigger.

Something more profound.

But he was pretty sure as he pulled out onto the street that the only thing he was going to do was destroy this girl more than she’d already been.

Heavy metal blared from the speakers, and raucous voices lifted above it. Owls shouting and laughing uproariously as they guzzled booze directly from bottles where they convened at the dive bar where their MC always hung out.

At a round table in the corner, Theo was surrounded by his crew.

River, Cash, Otto, and Kane.

Trent and Jud Lawson were there, too.

They were the only ones that Theo fully trusted.

Trent was clearly keeping an eye on the degenerates who were quickly sliding into anarchy. Snorting piles of coke from the table or off the tits of pass arounds who strutted about halfnaked. A couple were already bent over tables and were gettin’ fucked from behind.

Theo hated it. Were these bastards too lazy to find a room down the hall? That, or they just needed to be seen. Wagging their dicks out in the open like it made them superior.

Pathetic.

There was a sense in the club of late. The stench of distrust and betrayal clinging to the air. The gut feeling that things were about to go south.

Or maybe it was just that Scarlett was also there. She was sitting on Theo’s lap, twisted and angled to the side as she kept her arms looped around his neck. He had one of his draped around her waist and his palm resting on her thigh, pretending like he wanted it that way. Really, he was wishing that he hadn’t agreed to this.

He wanted to protect her from the corruption that ran rampant in this place, though he knew full well she’d seen and endured plenty during her time on the streets.

But that was the whole point.

Protecting her from it, not dragging her directly into the middle of it.

Theo sipped at his tumbler of whiskey as he stared out through the haze of smoke and dingy light, barely picking up on the conversation happening around him.

“Don’t fuckin’ like what’s going on with Kelp. Something isn’t sittin’ right.” It was basically a growl out of Kane.

Trent grunted as he sent his tumbler sliding across the table in front of him, catching it with one hand before he glided it back to the other.

Antsy and irritated.

“Not sure I’d count any one of these bastards as loyal,” Trent said. “Just waiting for the moment when one tries to drive a knife into my back.”

Air huffed out of River’s nose. “Can feel it every time I walk in the club. Like they’re all waiting on the moment to turn.”

Rage burned out of Trent, and he angled his head toward Scarlett who sat there silent. A clear indication to Theo that she needed to get lost for a minute.

Theo patted her hip. “Why don’t you go grab another drink?”