At some point I woke to find Ruger’s hand between my legs, slowly stroking me as I drifted. He rolled me to my stomach, spread my legs, and slid into my body gently and carefully. I sighed, the delicious pressure building and exploding with a subtlety I’d never experienced before.

Then he wrapped himself around me again and I drifted back into sleep. I woke up when my cell rang at six the next morning, finding myself alone on my futon, surrounded by his smell. I didn’t recognize the name and the caller hung up. Fucking wrong number.

I rolled to my side and saw the empty pizza box, still sitting on the coffee table.

Damn. What the hell was I supposed to do with a situation like this? Insane. All of it.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“God, I love dancing,” Kimber said, sucking on a cigarette. It was just shy of midnight on Friday, and we stood on the sidewalk outside a club in downtown Spokane. I had a nice buzz going.

“My feet are gonna hurt so bad, but totally worth it,” I agreed, swaying a little. I felt my cheeks flush, which was funny, so I started laughing. Kimber shook her head at me.

“I can’t take you anywhere,” she said gravely. “Lightweight. Where the hell did Em go? I want to check out this guy of hers. I thought the deal was we’d look him over and decide whether he’s worth her time. She’s cheating.”

“No shit. Bitch. I hate her.”

“Yeah, me, too,” Kimber replied, stabbing the air with her smoke for emphasis. “How am I supposed to live the single life vicariously if I don’t get any details?”

I shook my head and shrugged mournfully.

“I’m doing my part. I tell you everything.”

“And don’t think I don’t appreciate it,” she said, tearing up slightly. We gave each other a drunken hug.

We’d hit the first bar around ten, and by ten thirty Em had disappeared to meet her online hottie, Liam. She was supposed to bring him inside to meet us, but they snuck off to a bar down the street instead. I would’ve suspected kidnapping and murder by eleven thirty, when we moved on to the next club, but she’d been sending us regular text messages that made it clear she was enjoying her evening.

Long story short—Liam was gorgeous, we’d get to meet him in a while, she was definitely going to sleep with him, and she was pretty sure he could handle her dad. Apparently Liam was Em’s perfect man.

She promised not to leave the other bar without us, so we called it good.

“Hopefully they’re in some corner booth making out,” I said glumly.

“Not too much,” Kimber said darkly. “If she fucks him before I give my approval, she’s losing her margarita privileges.”

Talking about making out reminded me of Ruger, and thinking of Ruger made me want to drink more. I still couldn’t believe I’d fucked him. Again. I couldn’t shake the man. Thank God we didn’t need to be back in Coeur d’Alene until noon, because I had a lot more alcohol to drink. Kimber’s husband was definitely taking one for the team tonight, watching both kids. I needed to bake him cookies or something …

“Is it creepy that I want to bake for your husband?” I asked her. She burst out laughing and I started laughing, too, and then my phone buzzed.


EM: I want to go back to the hotel. He’s defintely THE ONE

I read it and squeed, handing the phone over to Kimber. She started thumb-typing furiously.


Kimber: Dont u dare! We have to chck him out frist. Ur NOT follwing the plan

EM: Yu’ll meet him in a minut come down to Mick’s and we can head from there. We’ll wait outside

I yanked my phone back and glared at Kimber.

“That’s mine! I get to yell at her first.”

“We can’t yell at her in front of Internet Hottie!” she told me. “That’s a cockblock. We’ll yell at her tomorrow.”

I considered this.

“Okay,” I said. “But I still call dibs on first yelling once we ditch his ass.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Whatever.”

We didn’t see them outside Mick’s. It was a tiny hole-in-the-wall place we almost missed because it was next to a good-sized club with a long line. I texted Em and got no response.

“She’s probably just peeing or something,” Kimber said, eyeing a group of collegey-looking guys standing in a clump on the sidewalk. They eyed her back and she smiled.

“Hey!” I hissed. “Married, remember?”

She laughed.

“I’m just looking, don’t be so uptight. I promise not to touch, okay?”

My phone buzzed.


EM: Heading out

We stood on the sidewalk for another five minutes. Nothing. I started getting a little nervous. I texted again. No reply.

Another ten minutes passed and I’d had enough. This didn’t feel right.

“I’m gonna go check on her,” I told Kimber. She’d lost interest in the college boys when they’d come over and tried to pick us up. They’d been pretty to look at, but not exactly brilliant conversationalists.

She nodded, concern on her face.

“I’ll wait out here,” she said, looking up and down the street. “Just in case they show up.”

“I don’t want you outside by yourself,” I replied. She jerked her chin toward the bouncer at the club next door.

“I’ll be fine,” she said. “Anything happens, I’ll scream for him. Go find our girl.”

“All right,” I said, my voice grim. “But when I find her, we’re kicking her ass. This isn’t cool.”

The place was small and dark—just a tiny, narrow little bar, way rougher than I expected. No wonder the college boys stayed outside. The men in here would crumple them up and throw them away like used … um … something. Straw wrappers? No, something worse. I shook my head, foggy from the booze. Focus. There were more men than women, and most kept their eyes on their drinks. My quickly sinking opinion of Liam went down another notch. What kind of guy took a girl to a place like this?

We shouldn’t have let Em out of our sight, I realized.

I didn’t find her in the main bar so I wandered to the back, where a long hallway led past some grotty-looking bathrooms and an office. It ended with a fire door that had been propped open with a brick.

I texted Kimber.


ME: Any sign of them?

KIMBER: No this is bllshit

ME: Not in bar. I’ll look in the ally then com back

I stepped up to the fire door cautiously. Would Em really go out there with a guy she didn’t know? Except she probably felt like she did know him. They’d been calling each other for a while now. Hell, I’d gone on dates with guys I’d only met a few times. Still … I pushed the door open and peeked outside to find a tall, dark-haired man in faded jeans and motorcycle boots leaning against the side of a battered cargo van.

He smiled at me like a shark and winked.

Oh my God. I recognized him. It was one of the guys from that other club, the Devil’s Jacks. The ones who’d come to my apartment in Seattle.

Hunter.

What was he doing here? Holy shit … Coincidence?

Or were Hunter and Liam the same person?

I opened my mouth to scream when someone shoved me from behind, knocking me out into the alley. I stumbled and nearly fell. Then Hunter’s arms caught me, swooping me up and carrying me toward the back of the van. I shrieked as loud as I could—kicking and fighting as he tossed me in—but the pounding music from the club next door almost guaranteed nobody heard me. Em lay on the floor, arms cuffed behind her back, a bandana gagging her mouth. Her legs were tied tight with what looked like white clothesline.

Hunter climbed in after me, wrestling me down and wrenching away my phone. Within seconds my own mouth was gagged and he’d closed another set of cuffs around my wrists. I lay facedown on the floor, eyes wide and staring at Em, who stared right back at me. I felt someone else climb in and heard a door slam, and the engine roared to life.

Hunter spoke, his voice cool and detached.

“Sorry, girls. Hopefully this won’t get too ugly and you’ll get to go home soon.”

The van started moving.

RUGER

His beer had gotten warm.

For once, there wasn’t a party at the clubhouse or a barbecue or anything happening, which was a fucking shame because all he could think about was Sophie out dancing in Spokane with her slut of a best friend. He should be focusing on his trip to Portland tomorrow, but he really couldn’t bring himself to give a damn.

Jesus, he’d nearly shit his pants when he realized who she was going out with tonight. Kimber’s stage name had been Stormie, and the bitch was famous for having a mouth like a vacuum. Even he’d taken her home one night … It’d been okay, but not worth breaking his no-repeats rule.

Now he wondered if she’d been filling Sophie’s head with stories about him all along. Also explained why she’d been interested in working at The Line—Kimber had made a goddamned fortune there, one of their most popular dancers.

She’d been an even bigger hit in the VIP rooms.

He’d considered simply physically stopping Sophie from going, but figured that would do him more harm than good in the long run. She’d been dodging him since their night in the hayloft and he’d let it go. The first week of a new job was stressful, so he’d given her a break. This ladies’ night thing had caught him off guard. He’d only found out because Noah had a big mouth.

Kid was full of all kinds of useful information.