“You’re lucky I got you out of there. I can’t carry all of you.”
I squirmed in his arms, determined to go back for Annie and the others. I couldn’t leave them! “Let me down.”
An air horn blared long and hard across the air. The kind that made your ears bleed. Everything fell silent in the buzzing echo of that noise. Everyone froze—even Biker Boy.
“Enough!”
My gaze flew to the owner of that gravelly voice. A man stood on top of the bar, a shotgun in one hand and the air horn in the other. “I’m not having my bar trashed tonight! Next person to throw a punch in my bar is gonna eat a bullet!” For emphasis, the owner swung the barrel of his shotgun around the room. “Understood?”
It was like I’d walked into some old Dirty Harry movie. This couldn’t be real.
“Oh, it’s real, sweetheart.” The deep voice rippled through me, leaving gooseflesh in its wake.
Apparently I’d spoken out loud. My gaze snapped back to Biker Boy. His heart thudded strong and steady beneath my palm where it rested on his chest. I jerked my hand away and crossed my arms. “You can put me down. I think everything is under control now.” A quick glance confirmed that Walt and his friends were reclaiming their seats, grumbling and looking like chastised children. The rest of the bar followed suit, righting tables and chairs.
“Sure.” He lowered me to the ground, my body sliding along his in the most disconcerting way.
I quickly put space between us, stepping back and pressing a hand to my neck where my pulse hammered like it wanted to burst from my skin. I inhaled his clean soapy smell. It was nice. Especially in this place where the odors mostly consisted of sweat and smoke.
He clucked his tongue and peered closely at my face. “Oh, you’re gonna have a shiner there.”
With a grimace, I touched my tender eye. “I’ll just get my friends and go.”
“Yeah. That would be a good idea.”
Scowling, I dropped my hand and whirled around. Leaving him behind, I found Annie with an arm wrapped around Noah’s waist. He didn’t look good. The right side of his face was swollen, his eye puffy and sealed shut. His band members didn’t look much better as they clumsily gathered up their instruments.
“Let me help.” I moved to wrap another arm around Noah, but Annie yanked away.
“You’ve done enough.”
“Me?” I pressed a hand to my chest.
“Thanks to you Noah got jumped.”
“Me?” I repeated dumbly.
“Yeah.” Annie’s face scrunched up, looking almost unattractive. “Get your own ride home.”
“Are you serious?” I looked around me. “You can’t leave me alone—”
“It’s not my problem.” She shouldered past me. I gaped at her, watching as she headed for the door. Granted, I knew that Annie wasn’t the nicest girl. I hadn’t liked the way she treated Pepper last fall when Pepper and Reece were first hooking up. I’m sure jealousy had been a factor in her catty remarks, but that was months ago. She’d been decent since. I never would have imagined she’d leave me stranded like this.
So much for a fun night out.
Noah’s band members followed, lugging their instruments and amps. They didn’t even move toward the bar to get paid. Although a guy who drove a Lexus probably wasn’t in this for the money anyway.
I reached a hand out for the drummer—he was my only hope—but he just glared at me with one eye that looked like it was warming up to a nice shade of blue. Clearly they all blamed me. And they were leaving me here. Unbelievable.
I hurried after them, weaving between tables on unsteady legs. Someone bumped into me and I had to grab the surface of a table to keep from falling. The sudden action made my world spin and I squeezed my eyes in one long blink in an attempt to quell the dizziness.
“Hey, watch it,” a woman’s scratchy voice warned.
My gaze lifted toward the door, panicked that they had already left and I’d lost my chance to change their minds. I caught sight of their retreating backs an instant before the doors slammed shut behind them.
With a curse, I pushed after them. By the time I stepped outside, they were already getting into their cars. Sudden cold that had nothing to do with the wintry air swam through my veins. My boots crunched over the snow-packed parking lot.
“Annie!” I shouted just as my foot hit an icy patch and I went down hard. My ass took the brunt of the fall and for once I was glad that it was well padded. I might be petite, but I’d been cursed with a backside that could serve as a flotation device.
Annie heard me. I watched helplessly as she looked back at me before ducking inside the car behind the wheel. Struggling less than gracefully to my feet, I gawked as she started the car and reversed it out of the parking spot. Noah’s Lexus followed, his drummer driving.
I stared after the taillights, my teeth chattering. My jeans were wet from my fall. Looking down, I swatted at my thighs, trying to dust off the white powder.
Snow started to fall softly then. Blinking against the wet flurries, I turned and moved back toward the bar, taking shuffling steps to keep from falling again.
My legs felt heavy, every step a chore, but I forced myself to cross the threshold. It was warmer inside at least—even if it smelled like one giant ashtray.
I stayed near the door, scooting along the wall, trying to be inconspicuous. No easy feat when I’d started a brawl not ten minutes ago. I’m guessing I was on people’s radar.
Teeth still chattering, I fished my phone out of my pocket and punched in Pepper’s name. It rang four times and then went to voice mail. Yanking the phone from my ear, I glared at the lit screen. “C’mon, Pepper.” Damn rabbits. I could guess what they were doing. Instead of leaving a message, I poked at the phone several times with my finger, missing the end button before successfully landing on it.
Pink Floyd piped out of the speakers near the stage and everyone looked livelier than they had half an hour ago. No more of Noah’s best of the ’80s to mellow the mood. It was a miracle they hadn’t been booted out of here before I even spilled beer in some biker’s lap.
I was on the verge of dialing Georgia—if I could hit the right button. She’d been with her boyfriend since she was sixteen, so they probably weren’t having sex. At least certain comments from Georgia led me to believe that they didn’t exactly have a rocking sex life. Harris was such a tool. Sad really. Georgia deserved better. She deserved fun and a guy who worshipped her and that just wasn’t Harris, but somehow I was the only one who saw this.