Crossroads (Beautiful Biker MC Romance Series) - DD Prince Page 0,110

The only single one there. As usual. Before the boys joined us, the girls had all asked about my dates and Ella seemed to eat up the details with relief. Pippa, I knew was studying to see what was what. Gianna didn’t say or act any way about it. Jenna was good at helping me keep my cover. Pippa looked at me like she was trying to figure out a complicated math problem.

Christian had to have heard about my Friday and Saturday night dates. I was betting that when I went to bed Saturday, Nico went out to where he was and bitched about following me and a cop around all night.

But, maybe he was actually relieved I’d moved on and started dating people. I hadn’t seen him since the night before when I came in. So… maybe. Maybe my plan had failed.

12

Monday Afternoon

I was walking back to The Roadhouse from the dealership, where I’d helped Ella stock some new supplies in the biker gear boutique, when I saw Christian’s brown SUV pull in and heard the tires squeal as it slid sideways to a stop beside me. I was almost to the garage, which sat in the middle of the dealership and The Roadhouse.

His face was red as he got out, got to me, grabbed my face and glared into my eyes. He wasn’t hurting me, but he had very much startled me.

“Get in the fucking truck,” he growled. His chest was rising and falling rapidly.

“Huh?”

Deacon came out of the garage, likely looking because of the squeal of those tires. He looked at us and his expression was serious, maybe even intense, yet he didn’t say anything.

“Why?” My eyes bounced back to Christian.

“If you don’t get in the truck right fucking now, woman, I’ll put you in myself.” He let go of my face and yanked the door wide.

I stood there, dumbfounded.

He bent and hauled me up over his shoulder. I gasped. It triggered memories of that day at the cabin with the duct tape and the Jackals and that fucking van.

“Put me down,” I pleaded.

He didn’t listen. He put me into the passenger seat in his truck.

I was in shock. I was in shock at that manhandling and also that through the windshield I could see my oldest brother standing there, eyes on us with avid attention, his arms folded across his chest.

Why wasn’t he coming over here to get between us? Why wasn’t he spazzing out Deacon-style over seeing me manhandled by someone?

Christian slammed the door and rounded the front. He walked up to my brother, talking to him low, then they did a bro-shake before Christian stalked back to me, stuffing something in his pocket and getting in the driver’s side. Deacon’s expression was hard as stone as he looked at me through the windshield. He turned and went back inside the garage.

I found that a little, or no – a lot, confusing, but didn’t have time to marinate in those thoughts because Christian was reversing the truck.

His face was red; even his ears were red. Eek. He was reminiscent of The Tasmanian Devil right now.

“What’s goin’ on?” I asked.

“Seatbelt.”

I put my seatbelt on. He did, too, and then we were squealing out of there.

My heart was hammering hard. What the heck was happening? What was going on?

“Christian?”

“Shut up.”

My back went straight. “Shut up?”

“I need to cool it. It’s gonna take a fuckin’ minute so do me a favor and just sit there and shut up until I’m ready to fuckin’ talk to you.”

“Uh… how ‘bout no? How about I don’t shut up unless you tell me what the fuck is going on here?”

He took a sharp right onto the soft shoulder of the industrial road. We could see the cab company and courier company down the road, in fact, being just a block away from The Valentine Block.

I saw two motorcycles behind us in the side mirror. What?

Nico and Jesse.

He flicked his hazard lights on.

“Christian?” My eyes moved from the mirror to him.

“You’re gonna sit here and keep quiet until we get where we’re goin’. You get me?”

My scalp prickled.

“Huh? No, Taz. I don’t get you.”

“I need more than a fuckin’ minute to cool off after what I saw today. That added to knowing you went on two fuckin’ dates this weekend.”

I tilted my head.

Oh?

“Two dates. Consecutive. Then I go to work today. The fuckin’ lunchroom… new calendar on the goddamn wall. A guy that works in my department brought it in and fuck…” His