Keeping Her - Jordan Marie Page 0,1

in question wasn’t the daughter of Skull, the President of the Devil’s Blaze in Kentucky.

I haven’t had a lot of dealings with the Devil’s Blaze. We’re in Virginia and try to steer clear of the Blaze. We’re not allies and once we take little Gabby here, I think the term mortal enemies will more likely apply.

“We’re sure about this?” I ask Jonesy, hoping like fuck he’ll say no.

“I know you’re against this, Grunt,” he says, frowning, staring at the girl in question.

“Fuck yeah, I am. This is going to get bloody and you know it will. I’m not just talking a little blood either. We’re talking fucking rivers.”

“Yeah,” Jonesy mutters. “There’s no way we’re going to talk Ford out of this shit though. You know that.”

“Let’s watch her for a bit, make contact and tell Ford that we didn’t get the opportunity. If we can delay it a bit---” I shrug, not knowing how to finish it.

“For a man that got the road name Grunt because you hate talking, you’re talking a lot now,” he grumbles.

“When it’s important, I can talk and this bullshit? It’s bad, Jonesy. I’ve got this sinking, fucking feeling in my gut that it’s worse than we know. I just think we need to be cautious.”

“Okay, we’ll scope it out and report back, but you need to know, Grunt. We’re not going to stop this. There’s no way in fucking hell that Ford is going to let this slide.”

“Yeah,” I admit, knowing he’s telling the truth.

“Well let’s go meet this little Gabby chick and see how she likes a real man.”

“Man, she’s like Lyla’s twin. Please tell me you’re not going to flirt with her. Lyla’s like our kid,” I growl.

“She’s not Lyla,” he shrugs, like that makes it alright.

There’s nothing I can say in response to that, so I do what I’m famous for.

I grunt my disapproval, then I follow the asshole over to where the girl is. As we get closer, I’m still amazed at how much this Gabby looks like Lyla. But, it’s the girl that’s with her that catches most of my attention. She’s got this flaming red hair, pale, almost ivory skin that has a sprinkle of freckles over her body. She’s wearing a leather jacket, jeans and a red shirt that shows more cleavage than is decent, but fuck if I’m not enjoying it.

And so is my dick.

2

Jasmine

“Gabby, you have to snap yourself out of it,” I grumble, taking a drink of my vanilla milkshake. My thighs don’t need the shake, but my sanity does.

“I just can’t believe Dom ended things like this.”

“Maybe after things die down—”

“Don’t you dare suggest I wait around for Dom to get his head out of his ass, Jasmine Blake, because if you do—so help me!”

“Cool your tits, chick. I just thought if you love him—”

“I do, but if this is how he wants to treat me, I don’t need him,” she huffs, taking a large, loud, slurp of her coconut milkshake. I wrinkle my nose up at the thought of the taste. I’m a purist when it comes to my ice cream. Give me vanilla, and an occasional chocolate, and I’m good. Every now and then, when I get a wild hair, strawberry is good—but that’s it. It’s boring, but if my family knew how truly boring I was, they’d all have heart attacks. I give them hell; I know I do. I can’t seem to stop myself. It’s not that I don’t love them, it’s not even that they don’t love me. They love me, just as much as I do them. The truth is… just complicated.

“Then get back up on the horse again.”

“The horse? Ever since you dated that cop-slash-cowboy, I don’t understand half of what you say,” Gabby complains.

I shake my head.

“I don’t think you can call what we did dating and in the end, he fucked me over epically—so…”

“Yeah, did you ever tell your parents the real reason you had all those fines and tickets?”

“It wouldn’t have helped matters,” I mutter, not looking her in the eye, choosing instead to stare down at my milkshake. “They have come to expect the worst from me. It’s easier to just let them believe it.”

“Still, he was an asshole. If you told Uncle—”

“Can we let it drop? I get my license back in a couple of months and my community service is almost over. Once all of that is done, Dewayne Lagger will just be a bad decision in a series of bad