Page 23 of Gatsby's Starlet
For a moment I seriously considered running for the door anyway—running straight to the car, locking myself inside, and waiting there until Ruby came back. My foot shifted. I was just about to move when a voice cut through the noise.
“Evie.”
I turned. Ruby was coming down the stairs. Her expression was neutral, but something about the tightness around her mouth told me the visit upstairs hadn’t lasted very long.
Kane’s hand dropped from my waist slowly.
Ruby’s eyes flicked to it before settling on his face. “You’re crowding her.”
Kane shrugged. “Just keepin’ her company.”
Ruby looked at me. “You ready to go?”
The relief that rushed through me was so strong my knees almost felt weak. “Yes,” I said quickly.
Kane’s smile faded slightly. “Already?”
Ruby stepped between us. “Drago said that’s enough for tonight.”
Kane watched both of us for a moment, something darker settling behind his eyes as he leaned back against the nearest table. “See you soon, Evie.”
The way he said it made my stomach drop. Because something in his voice told me he wasn’t guessing. He was certain. And as Ruby led me back toward the door, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Kane was going to be trouble.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I ROLLED INTOthe clubhouse yard with Evie atmy back, the engine rumbling low beneath us as the big house came into view through the evening light, and for the first time in my life the thought slipped in that maybe bringing a woman into this world of mine wasn’t quite the simple thing I’d always treated it like. Women had come and gone around the club for years, some staying a night, some hanging around longer, but none of them had ever mattered enough for me to pause and wonder what they’d see when the doors opened and the reality of this place settled in around them.
Evie was a different story.
The bike rolled to a stop beneath the glow of the yard lights and I cut the engine, the sudden quiet letting the music inside the clubhouse push out into the night a little clearer now, bass thumping low through the walls while laughter and voices spilled out across the gravel lot. I swung my leg off first and turned as Evie climbed down behind me, steadying herself with a hand against my shoulder, and for a second I just stood therewatching her the way a man does when something catches his attention harder than it should.
Fuck.
She looked good tonight.
Not just good either, dangerous in that quiet way that made a man start reconsidering decisions, because bringing Evie into a biker clubhouse suddenly felt a little like tossing raw meat into a yard full of wolves and hoping they remembered their manners.
“I’m nervous,” she admitted softly, smoothing her hands down the sides of her jeans as though she could press the feeling flat if she tried hard enough.
I stepped closer before she could talk herself out of being here, taking her hand and lacing my fingers through hers in a grip that was easy enough to look casual but firm enough to say she wasn’t walking into the place alone.
“Nothing to be nervous about,” I told her.
Her eyes drifted back to the clubhouse door, the bass thumping behind it while someone inside shouted loud enough for the sound to carry “It’s not that,” she said after a moment. “I’m just… not really a partying kind of person.”
I huffed out a quiet laugh and gave her hand a small squeeze. “Trust me,” I said. “If this place was half as wild as people imagine it, half these idiots would already be dead.”
That earned a small lift of her brows. “You sure about that?”
I knew exactly what she was picturing—wild parties, drunk bikers tearing the place apart, women everywhere, chaos and bad decisions stacked on top of each other.
And to be fair… the club had been like that once. Before Devil took over.
“Most nights the crazy stuff happens out by the bonfire,” I said, pushing the door open and guiding her inside. “Inside’s just people hanging out.”
The first thing that hit was the noise.
The bar stretched along one wall where Brenda was pouring drinks while Lucy leaned halfway across the counter talking so fast it was a wonder the woman remembered to breathe, and scattered around the room the guys filled their usual spots, some around the pool table, some at the card tables, others leaning against bikes or chairs like the furniture had grown there with them.
