Owen

O wen Blaine wasn’t about to let the sexy redhead in the corner go home with anyone else except him. She was the hottest woman he’d seen in a damn long time and the way the other guys seemed to be circling her just plain pissed him off. Even his older brother, Maverick was eyeing her and if he let his brother get to her first, there would be no doubt that Mav would be the one she’d be leaving with tonight. He couldn’t let that happen. The last time he and his brother were involved with the same woman, they both ended up heartbroken, not that Mav ever let on that he was.

“Who’s the hot chick in the corner?” Maverick asked.

“No idea,” admitted. She hadn’t ever been into the Dirty Riders club before. He would have remembered her if she had. “She’s not that hot,” he lied, trying to throw his brother off her scent. From the hungry look in his eyes, Mav wasn’t buying what he was selling.

“You’re a fucking liar,” Mav accused. “I saw the way that you looked at her. Hell, every guy in this fucking place is looking at her. You going to do something about it or is she up for grabs?”

“Up for grabs,” repeated. “Jesus, Mav, you’re an asshole, aren’t you?”

His brother threw back his head and laughed at what had said and he blew out his breath. It could have gone either way with his brother. Either he’d say something that would have Mav pounding on his face or he’d just laugh. was glad that his brother thought that he was being funny because he didn’t have time for stitches tonight.

“Thanks, man,” Maverick said. “So, you gonna go over there and talk to her, or am I? After the deal with both of us dating Amy, I don’t want to have to deal with any of that shit again. You followed her around like a fucking puppy.”

“Did not,” shouted over the music. “You’re an asshole and I’m going over there and talking to her.”

“All right then,” Mav said. “When you strike out, let me know so that I can beat these other fuckers to her.”

“I’m not going to strike out,” insisted. Sure, he probably would, but he was trying to stay positive, even if his brother was most likely going to win the girl. It’s how things usually went when they wanted the same girl. Hell, they even fought over girls back in high school, not that any of them ever paid attention to once Maverick or his twin, Steel, walked into the room. His older twin brothers always got the girls, and he was getting sick of playing second fiddle to them both.

When they weren’t fighting over a woman, things were usually pretty good between them. It had been just the three of them for so long, that had forgotten how life was when their parents were still around. His dad left when he was just a little kid and for a long time, it was just him, Mav, Steel, and their mom. She got cancer when he was a junior in high school and died before he graduated, but Maverick and Steel were there to watch him walk across the stage. They even got him a cake and threw him a little party—just the three of them, to celebrate. Maverick and Steel had become his only family and the three of them had learned how to get along in life together.

Steel joined the Navy at about the same time as had joined the Army. He was a medic and had served two deployments so far. He knew that them both taking off on Maverick wasn’t fair, but he insisted that they follow their own paths. Maverick stayed in town, opening his own bike shop, and whenever and Steel could get home for a visit, they did. The one thing was sure of—if he needed one of his older brothers, they’d be there for him, no questions asked.

He knew that Mav was right—if he didn’t go over and ask the pretty woman out, one of the other guys would, and then, he’d miss out on his chance with her. walked across the bar to where she sat and stared her down. He was willing her to turn around and notice him, but she just kept her eyes on the beer that she had been nursing. He cleared his throat twice before she turned to look over her shoulder at him.

“Can I help you?” she asked. God, he hoped so.

“Um, I saw you sitting here alone and thought that you might let me buy you a drink,” he said.

The woman held up her beer and shook her head. “I already have one,” she said. “I’m good.” She was blowing him off and sure, that was like a kick in the nuts—especially when he looked over to find his older brother laughing at him. There was no way that he was going to give Maverick his chance with her. Not without a fight.

sat down on the barstool next to her and she sighed, picked up her beer and purse from the bar top, and slid down one stool. Ouch—that hurt, but he wasn’t about to let it deter him. Even with Mav’s laughter playing like a record skipping on a record player behind him, he felt some crazy determination to get to know this woman.

“My name’s ,” he said.

“Well, , I’d say that it’s nice to meet you, but that would be a lie. I thought that you’d take the hit to get lost when I turned your drink offer down,” she said.

“I was just trying to be friendly,” he breathed. “Won’t happen again.” The woman nodded and chugged down the last half of her beer. She pulled a ten from her purse and tossed it onto the bar, thanking the bartender, Spade, for the beer and even smiling at the guy. What the fuck?

watched as the pretty woman walked back to the bathroom and disappeared through the door. “You fucking struck out, didn’t you?” Maverick taunted. He sat down on the stool that the pretty little redhead had just vacated and smiled over at him. “You can buy me a beer if it will make you feel better,” Maverick teased.

“You can go fuck yourself,” said under his breath, just loud enough that he knew his brother heard him. His laughter rang out through the bar, garnering them more attention than was hoping for.

“Can you shut the fuck up?” grumbled. “I don’t need every guy in here knowing that I struck out with her.”

“Agreed,” Maverick said, sobering, “I don’t need the competition when I ask her out. Not that any of these assholes are my competition or anything.” Maverick mean mugged a few of the guys who were hanging back by the ladies’ room door, waiting for the pretty redhead to come out.

“Looks like you’re going to have some competition whether you think they are or not,” taunted.

“Yeah, I’m going to have to knock some skulls together,” he said. Maverick stood just as a woman’s scream rang out from the ladies’ room. “What the fuck?” he asked. was about to ask the same thing, but his brother beat him to it. He had a sick feeling that the sexy redhead was in trouble because he hadn’t seen any women go back there in a while. Hell, there weren’t a lot of women at the bar tonight. That’s why the guys were salivating over the hot redhead.

He followed close behind Maverick as they made their way through the crowd of guys who were trying to get a glimpse of what was going on. Mav pushed his way through the ladies’ room door, not bothering to knock, to find the sexy redhead on the floor, blood trickling down from her forehead.

“Don’t move her,” ordered. His Army medic training was kicking in and it helped that he rode for the local ambulance services on weekends to earn some extra cash. “Call 911,” he shouted back to Spade.

“On it,” Spade shouted.

“Give me your jacket,” ordered. Maverick immediately removed his leather jacket and handed it over to him. “Thanks,” he murmured as he balled it up and put it under the woman’s head.

“Who would have done this?” Maverick asked. looked around the room to find the guys watching them and shook his head.

“I’m not sure,” said. “I didn’t see anyone follow her in.” He had been watching too. He didn’t take his eyes off the door after the sexy redhead disappeared into the bathroom. He looked around the small room and noticed that the bathroom window was open and was big enough to possibly fit a person through it—a smaller person, not one of the hulking guys standing around them.

“Her purse is missing,” said, looking around. “She picked it up, paid her bar tab, and then walked back here to the bathroom. Did someone knock her out just to rob her?”

“Don’t know, but I think that we should look around outside, just in case someone used that window to escape,” Mav said, as if reading ’s earlier thoughts.

“Agreed. I’ll stay here with her, and you take a couple of guys you can trust to look around outside,” ordered. When it came to things like this, Maverick usually let him take the lead. It was his military training that had gotten them both out of a good deal of scrapes. was used to calling the shots when the odds were against him and from the way things looked for the pretty redhead, she’d need someone to call the shots until she could get back on her feet. He might be crazy for thinking about doing it, but he was going to stick by her until she told him to get lost again. It was the least he could do for the pretty woman who blew him off at the bar and if it won him brownie points, he’d take them.