Page 25 of Cruelest Contract (Storm’s Eye Ranch)

The restrooms are on the other side of the bar. I keep my eyes on Cecilia until she disappears into the ladies’ room. She’s gone for less than ten seconds when the band returns from their break. The dance floor instantly becomes crowded, obscuring my view.

I’m not comfortable with this. She’s not exactly drunk but she’s probably buzzed and there are too many men here. No choice but to move.

I end up parked so close to the door that Cecilia bumps into my chest when she leaves a moment later.

“You scared me,” she gasps and leans against the nearest wall to catch her breath.

“Do you feel sick?” I ask her. “We can leave.”

In fact, I’d prefer if we did.

“No need,” she says and I can’t hear what she says next because of all the cheering when the band finishes a song.

“What?”

“I said, can we get some air?” she shouts into my ear.

After a nod, I quickly check on my brothers.

Tye has moved. Now he’s right in front of the stage with his new lady friend and he’s got his hands all over her. Meanwhile, Fort is getting a lap dance in a dark corner.

Getty happens to look up from the pool table. When he sees me, I gesture that I’m heading for the back exit. He shrugs and returns to his game.

“Much better,” Cecilia says once we’re out in the cool night air. She closes her eyes and tips her face to the sky, inhaling deeply. “Being in there was kind of a sensory overload.”

The only light out here is a single bulb above the back door. The neighboring buildings are all dark. One of the bartenders is out here vaping and talking on the phone. After a hard stare from me, he wraps up his conversation and scuttles back into the building.

Cecilia opens her eyes. “You can say that you told me so.”

There’s nowhere to sit and she doesn’t object when my hands go to her waist. I’m helping her stay on her feet. I’m also taking the best excuse to touch her. The top of her head lines up with my shoulders and she doesn’t pull away when I draw her close.

“Not my style,” I say.

The curve of her hips is driving me insane. Her breath catches when I massage her waist with light pressure. I’m so hard I’m not thinking straight.

“You know what?” She hooks her arms over my shoulders, letting me press even closer. “This is the first time we’ve ever been alone.”

This is both true and deliberate. I’m in real danger of abandoning all that self-control I was bragging about earlier.

She sways slightly, a reminder that she’s been drinking. No matter how much my dick complains, this isn’t the night to move in for the conquest.

“I’m kind of dizzy,” she says and slumps a little. “It sucks. I don’t know why people drink. So much for new experiences.”

Gently, I tip her chin up with one finger. “It’ll pass soon. Just look at me.”

A flare of sudden intensity lights up her eyes. Maybe it’s because we’re so close I can feel her breasts pressing into my chest. Or maybe it’s because she’s very aware that I’m hard enough to drill through steel.

No, there’s another reason. An echo of a memory replays in my mind. I didn’t consciously repeat the words I once said to her a long time ago but I can’t deny the strands connecting us began to weave together on that terrible day.

“Julian,” she whispers.

I can’t get over how natural this feels, holding her. My relationships have always been brief and unemotional. Everyone gets satisfied and what’s promised is delivered. Nothing more. Romance has always been treated as unnecessary, a distraction.

My forehead drops to hers. Her lips are inches away.

The moment ends abruptly when my brothers thunder through the back door. Getty is bleeding from the mouth. Fort is shaking his hand with a grimace. Tye’s shirt is torn and splattered with mystery blood.

“Aw, you two look cute,” Tye says and snaps his fingers. “But some fucker is now missing an eye in there so let’s go before a team of badge-carrying shitheads shows up.”

I don’t even have time to curse. With my arm around Cecilia, we take a shortcut to the truck parked on a neighboring street. By now a siren is wailing in the distance.

Cecilia is still a little dazed when I lift her into the passenger seat and buckle her seatbelt. Explanations will need to wait. The second I’m behind the wheel the truck is flung into drive and we coast down the dark street with the headlights off to avoid attracting attention.

After a detour around the block, I glance down the street where the bar is located. I see flashing lights and people milling around.

“Stay down,” I say to my brothers, not a second too soon as the roar of motorcycles drowns out other noise. Cecilia huddles in the passenger seat, clutching her pink handbag, her eyes wide.

“You stay down too,” I advise her, “just until we’ve made it out of town.”

Half a dozen bikes roar past us and disappear into the night like phantom wraiths.

I’m not surprised to see the Lord Mountain Motorcycle Club patch on the back of their leather cuts.

It’s a good thing they’re heading in the opposite direction because I’m not in the mood to deal with their shit tonight.

I flick the headlights back on once we’re a mile away from the scene. “Tell me you didn’t start a war with the Lords,” I say to my brothers.

The local biker club can be a thorn in our side at times but we’ve always avoided outright conflict with them.

That pack of smugglers and petty thieves are nowhere near our level.

The silent truce between us says that as long as they stay the fuck out of our way, we’ll stay out of theirs.

Dealing with them is a headache I don’t need right now.

“Nah.” Getty’s head pops up in the backseat. “They were just walking in as all hell broke loose.”

After constant glances in the rearview mirror, I’m finally satisfied that nobody is following us. I take a few extra turns to make sure before heading for the road out of town.

“And how did all hell break loose?”

“I’ll explain,” Tye says, and unleashes a barrage of cheerful and vulgar language to tell the story.

The girl he was messing around with turned out to be the fiancée of one of the bartenders.

For all I know, he was the guy I saw vaping in the back alley.

At the sight of Tye’s hand up his girl’s shirt, he flew into a rage with a lot of friends to back him up.

My brothers were quick to join forces and within seconds a full blown brawl was underway.

“All that drama and my dick didn’t even get a play date,” Tye complains with a belch. “Plus my shirt is ruined.”

“That’s my shirt,” Fort points out.

“Huh,” Tye grunts. “Well then your shirt is ruined.”

“At least I got some action,” Fort boasts.

Tye erupts with laughter. “Creaming your pants because you touched a tit isn’t getting action, junior.”

“Fuck you,” is Fort’s grumpy reply.

There’s still no sign we’re being followed and I start to relax. Tye isn’t a liar. By his account, the bartender and his pals started throwing punches first without realizing who they were dealing with.

We’ve got an understanding with the sheriff’s office. No one will be eager to slap cuffs on us just because a few ornery bartenders got their asses kicked. Obviously, we can’t go back to that place anytime soon but so be it.

When I check on Cecilia, she’s rummaging through her purse. Calmly, she extracts a small pack of tissues and offers them to Getty, whose lip is still bleeding.

On one hand, I wish she wasn’t in the middle of this chaotic episode. On the other hand, this is who we are. Let her see it.

“Thanks,” Getty mutters and accepts the pack of tissues.

“You’re welcome,” Cecilia replies, facing forward again. “Does anyone care if I lower the window?”

“Jul, just pull over,” Tye says from the backseat. “I need to piss.”

“Wait a few more miles,” I tell him.

“I need to take a leak too,” Fort says.

I sigh. Sometimes I feel like a cranky dad on a family road trip. This is one of those times.

I pull off the road and bounce a hundred yards over dirt and grass before braking. My brothers dive out of the backseat even before I cut the engine. They make a hell of a racket as they head into the brush and Cecilia looks at me.

“Are you feeling better?” I ask her.

She nods. “That was a little hectic but at least I feel sober now.”

I squint through the windshield, observing how my brothers have scattered. “They can’t have gone far. They’ll be back in a minute.”

She opens the passenger door. “Let’s wait out here.”

The moon is one tiny sliver away from being full and there’s enough light to see even with the truck headlights turned off.

I turn down the tailgate and cover it with a thick wool blanket.

Cecilia immediately takes a seat and modestly arranges her long dress over her legs.

Self-conscious about her scars, she never allows her left leg to show.

Her fingers play with the charm at the end of her necklace as she scans the sky. “I thought I might be able to see it but I guess the time of year isn’t right.”

I take a seat beside her and look up. “What are you looking for?”

“Gemini constellation.” She holds up her necklace and I can barely make out the image on the charm. Twins embracing under a sun and moon. “Gabriel gave this to me years ago. Our eighteenth birthday.”

The way she says her twin brother’s name leaves no doubt that he means the world to her. But that was never really a question anyway. Otherwise she wouldn’t be here.

She releases the pendant and chews her lip. “I’m worried. He promised he’d call but he barely answers my texts. And Angelo is no help. If Gabe is trying to protect me from bad news, I’d rather know the truth.”

“There’s no bad news,” I say, though my opinion of her twin brother plummets even lower.

“Do you really know that for sure?” she blurts and the anxiety in her voice threatens to take me out.

“Yes, I know it for sure,” I assure her. “I promise.”

She exhales with relief. I’m glad she asks no follow up questions.