Twisted Steel: An MC Anthology: Second Edition by Elizabeth Knox (top 5 ebook reader txt) 📕

2 Alice

Never, in my wildest dreams, did I think that I’d end up running into a biker bar in the middle of the night in my pajamas.

Never.

Not once.

Yet, that’s exactly what happened.

All because I wanted to do something crazy and get chicken nuggets in the middle of the night.

That’s how I ended up with a flat tire, being chased by a crazy person, and seriously contemplating running away from my life while I tried to pick up the shattered glass from my rush to get into the building and away from the weirdo who’d followed me the last ten minutes in the dark. Admittedly, if I’d remembered my cell phone, I wouldn’t have ended up in as much trouble as I was.

Someone slammed something, but I didn’t look up to see what it was. Honestly, I was too busy trying not to burst into tears at my own stupidity.

Who needed chicken nuggets at midnight? Apparently me, that’s who. And it was the stupidest decision I’d ever made.

When I heard someone standing next to me, I looked up to see probably the hottest man in the entire universe staring down at me with a strange expression on his face. Deacon James, in the flesh. At least he wouldn’t let anything happen to me. I might not be comfortable, but I’d be safe.

As quickly as I could, I scrambled up, holding the broken frame in my hands.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he snarled when I held it out to him. “Get down!”

I dropped the frame and glass again, this time more afraid of the infamous Deacon James than anything else. He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to the ground, covering my body with his, and the only thing I could do was stare at his fierce expression. I hadn’t seen him in years, not since him and my brother graduated boot camp together.

“Oomph.” I grunted in pain as something dug into the skin on my back. “Hurts.”

His arms kept my head from moving around, but he lifted off my body slightly, making it easier to breathe. My ears were ringing too much to hear anything but the steady thumping of my heart beating in my chest. Deacon’s mouth was moving, and I felt rather than heard him barking orders above my head.

Seconds turned into minutes, but Deacon still didn’t let me up. Unable to do anything else, I wiggled underneath him, trying to move enough to regain feeling in my fingers, but he didn’t budge. His growl, reverberating through my body, was the only thing that stopped me from trying more.

With wide eyes, I looked up at him to see nothing but a grimace staring back. “Stop fuckin’ moving, Alice.” His body pressed back against mine and his thigh moved between my legs, distracting me from what was happening. All I could think about was how close he was, how easy it would be to lean forward and press my lips against his.

His eyes flashed, the emotion in them unreadable, and he shifted again, pressing even harder against my body as something exploded above us.

“Stop. Or I swear to fuckin’ God, I’ll put a bullet in you myself.”

“Bullet?” I had to be hallucinating. He couldn’t have said bullet. “What bullet?”

Silence filled the air around us a moment later, and then Deacon wasn’t trapping me against the floor anymore. When he offered a hand, I reached for it and winced when I felt the sharp stings of glass in my back as I moved. I chanced a quick look around and found the room full of men that could eat me for breakfast and still ask for seconds. The redhead I’d seen when I ran in was nowhere to be seen, either. Unsure of what to do, I turned to face Deacon, wondering if I could even say anything. My throat was too dry to even make a sound, let alone concentrate on what was going on.

“Fuck, Deac.” Riley Stone, one of my brother’s friends from high school groaned from across the room next to the bar. I shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortable with all the eyes on me. More than one whistle filled the air as they took in my haggard appearance, and a flash of heat rose in my chest. “I know you didn’t mean it, but damn. Her back is cut up all to hell. I can see it from here.”

I didn’t need him to say the words, though, because I could feel the blood starting to seep into my pajama top. Instead of crying out in pain like I wanted to, I bit my lip and clenched my eyes closed.

“Raptor,” Deacon barked. “Stop staring and get me a towel or something.” He turned me in his arms, and I fought to keep my back away from him.

“I’m fine,” I bit out with my eyes still clenched shut and my lip trembling. “I just need to borrow a phone.”

“Don’t let her call anyone,” someone called out from across the room. “We don’t know if she’s gonna call the cops. She’s a liability.”

“Shut the fuck up, Tag. Of course she’s gonna call the cops. You clearly don’t know who Alice Ortiz is. Who her family is.” Deacon pulled me gently by the arm toward the bar, where Riley stood with a towel held out. “Thanks, Raptor.” He took the towel and led me down the hall before turning back and staring at the men over his shoulder. “Find out who it was and why.”

Up popped the redhead from behind the bar next to Riley, with a bottle of vodka held out, and I grabbed it from her with a thankful smile.

In the silence left in Deacon’s wake, I knew that he didn’t have to finish the order. There was a reason my big brother didn’t want us going to the Twisted Kings’ bar. We might have grown up with the James family, but now they might as well live on a different planet. Deacon James