Hammer (Heartlands Motorcycle Club #9) - Dani Wyatt Page 0,2

the curve of that ass and I know right away.

She’s here.

Chapter 2

Robin

I have a habit of humming while I grocery shop, do housework, laundry... pretty much anything really. Out at the store, it usually draws some looks from fellow shoppers and I used to try to control myself. Then I realized, my humming didn’t hurt anyone and if people were honest, it should make them hum along and smile as well.

Today, I had one of my mom’s favorite church hymns stuck in my head. Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow… As I hummed, I could hear her soft voice singing as though she was next to me, like when I was little and would stand between my parents in church.

I miss them bunches, even though they come to visit me every couple months. They still live in Bloomington, Indiana, where I grew up. They’ve even talked about buying a winter place here in Arizona, but my father is still teaching at I.U. and as much as he talks a big game about retiring, he loves his job too much so I’m not betting on that anytime soon.

I settled here in Seneca after I finished my law degree at University of Arizona, because my Uncle Terry, my father’s brother, invited me to come work at his law firm after I passed the bar. His daughter, Emily works at the firm as well and although we were cousins, since I’ve moved here she’s become my best friend as well.

I’ve been practicing with him just under a year, and although taking personal injury cases, divorces and other general cases isn’t my dream job, I’m employed and around family so I count myself lucky.

I have plans for the future that don’t include small town general law, but for now it’s a good way to get myself grounded and some money in the bank for what comes next.

I push the cart toward the cucumbers and start picking them up, inspecting them before shoving the best few into a clear produce bag and knotting it at the top. It’s Saturday afternoon and the store is busy. Elliot’s is the one and only grocery in town unless you drive ten miles out of town to the big box place by the freeway.

It’s dumb, but as I pick through the cucumbers, my thoughts drift somewhere they shouldn’t. Hammer.

He invades my dreams, and I do everything in my power to ignore the pulse he creates down deep in my center, but it’s getting harder and harder. What sort of name is that anyway? I know it’s like a biker name or whatever, but still. When you introduce yourself to someone not of the leather persuasion, wouldn’t you use your given name?

I grit my teeth, trying to shift my thoughts, when a hand darts in front of me into the stack of green phallic vegetables and I feel suddenly crowded.

I dart my eyes sideways just as some random dude grabs the biggest cucumber off the pile and holds it ominously between us as I spin my head and see two other guys that look like they all belong to the same douche-bag frat house.

“Excuse me.” I shift, lowering my eyes and pointing to my cart which is behind one of the guys standing behind me. “Knock yourself out on the cuke’s guys, just let me by.”

The first guy is still holding the cucumber up with a dumb smile, twisting his lips. He’s a good foot taller than me and twice as wide, and instead of turning to give me space he leans forward, nearly touching the end of the vegetable to my lips.

“Just kiss the tip,” he says, and his associates chuckle as I size up the situation.

“You first. Show me how. Bet you’ve had way more experience at tip kissing than me,” I spit back, shoving his hand back toward his chest and pushing my way through toward my cart.

“I doubt it.” He re-doubles as I grab the cart and take a step forward, just as his arm darts out and grabs the metal, stopping me again.

“What the fuck is your deal?” I narrow my eyes, glaring at him, then shooting his two idiot followers with the same daggers.

“My deal?” His manner turns from just obnoxious to sinister as he licks his top teeth with a snapping sound. “My deal is that you were supposed to represent a friend of mine. Lacy Parker? But what happened was you withdrew from her case the day before she was going