Page 15 of Under Kid’s Protection

With her first beer since the incident nearly gone, could she—no, should she—have another? Her body didn’t have the tolerance it once did. Should she really be testing her limits? “I’m okay,” she said with a smile. “Trying to ease myself back into this.”

He nodded as he reached behind him to retrieve his wallet. The chain connecting it to his belt loops dangled as he opened the billfold and removed some twenties from it. He offered them to his biker friend before sending him toward the bar.

“How is he going to carry all that?” Carrie wondered aloud.

“I’ll help him,” Torch said with a wink as the two men snaked through the crowd.

Carrie grinned at how the men interacted with one another. She couldn’t help but compare it to what she’d seen between Mike and his patched brothers. Things were different with Kid in his club. More stable. Safer.

“I need to get up,” Kelsey announced.

“Oh.” Carrie glanced around. “Am I in your way?”

Kelsey took her hand. “No, but I want to move my body, and Kev is busy. Come dance with me.”

The band had taken a break. However, that didn’t mean there was dead air. “Drop Dead” by Olivia Rodrigo played as Kelsey urged Carrie to her feet. Reluctantly, Carrie went along with her. Going out with friends meant getting off her ass. She couldn’t just hide in the corner. This was a part of being social.

Bracing herself for the inevitable flood of chaotic emotions, Carrie allowed Kelsey to lead her away from the table—from her sanctuary—and to an open area in the middle of the bar. Keeping close to her friend, Carrie raised her arms and swiveled her hips to the beat.

The anxiety didn’t come.

The panic didn’t consume her.

She could breathe.

While not exactly like her life before her gang rape at the hands of a rival biker club, this was pretty damn close. Closing her eyes, she let the beat flow over her and enjoyed a moment of freedom. This was a glimpse of how her existence should be.

As the song switched to Bruno Mars singing “I Just Might,” a hand snaked around her waist. Her eyelids fluttered open, and she expected to see Kelsey.

Carrie’s heart stopped. Frozen in place, she stood wide-eyed, staring at a leering man with a scruffy beard and unkempt hair. His stomach pressed against hers as he yanked her toward him. He smelled like stale cigarettes and cheap beer.

“Hey!” Kelsey shouted, but her voice seemed distant, like she was miles away instead of beside Carrie.

A heavily tattooed fist came into view as it slammed into the stranger’s jaw. The unknown man’s head jerked to the side as he went with the momentum—releasing Carrie.

Stumbling backward, watching the stranger crumple to the ground, Carrie breathed heavily. More hands touched her body, and her eyes welled with tears. Her skin crawled, and her mind wandered to being tossed onto a pool table, stripped of her clothes, and pawed at by dozens of people.

“What the fuck was that for?” the man who had grabbed her asked.

“You don’t touch what’s mine,” Kid sneered before stepping in front of Carrie. “Carrie,” he said as his face came into focus.

“We should get her out of here,” Kelsey said, sounding a lot closer than she had before.

“Yeah,” Kid agreed. “I’ll take her home.”

That was when Carrie realized the person holding her, hugging her, was Kelsey. Not the bikers who had assaulted her. She was safe.

Trying to calm herself, Carrie allowed Kelsey to escort her through the crowd. Kid was in front clearing a path for them. In no time, the cool autumn air of October in Oklahoma greeted her.

“Did you drive together?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Kelsey nodded. “But I can catch a ride with Kev.”

“Wait.” Carrie interrupted their discussion.

Her two friends peered at her as though realizing, for the first time, she could speak.

“What about your bike?” she asked, gesturing to the line of motorcycles against the wall of the building.