Chapter Two

Shadow

My words linger in the air between me and the girl dressed in a startling amount of pink, a color so vibrant, it’s like a burst of confetti in a monochrome world.

She’s quite a sight, one that is both shocking and mesmerizing. Her all-pink ensemble consists of a soft pink sweater paired with a matching skirt and short-heeled pink boots. Jesus Christ, she’s like the human personification of cotton candy, and I tell myself that is why I can’t look away.

In all of my thirty-six years of living, I’ve never seen such a bold display of pink on anyone over the age of four, let alone in a place like this.

And yet, her bold style is not the only thing that catches my eye. The girl is beautiful, distractingly so. Her piercing bright blue eyes stay on me as I study her. Long dark hair flows like a midnight river, framing her face. Everything about her from the arch of her eyebrows to the curve of her lips reflects how soft—how delicate—this girl is.

When a prospect reported to me that someone was loitering outside our gate, I was tempted to send someone else to deal with them, but lately, we’ve been clashing with the lingering members of the Broken Chains, a rival MC we’d taken out a couple months before. So, I thought I better handle it myself just in case. I never expected that our little trespasser would be a five-foot-nothing dressed like a short glass of pink lemonade. This unusual girl stands out like a beacon of allure, and I’m inexplicably drawn to her.

“Don’t call me that!”

Her soft voice cuts through my thoughts, and I arch a single brow when she attempts to glare at me. She can’t possibly expect to be taken seriously looking like that, and despite my original plan to get rid of any trespassers, I decide to indulge her.

As I step through the security gate and close the distance between us, I ask, “Call you what?”

“Little girl,” she hisses. “I will have you know that I am a grown woman.”

“And how old are you?”

“Twenty-two.”

I stare blankly at her. “Okay, I’ll ask again. Are you lost, little girl?”

Her eyes narrow on mine, and I bite back a grin, which is quite a weird feeling. I haven’t been this entertained in years. The club doesn’t provide many sources of entertainment for a hardened man like myself. Well, not until today at least.

“Are you making fun of me?” she demands, stepping up to me, but it’s quite comical considering how much shorter she is. “I will have you know that I’m not afraid of you. I don’t care that you’re built like a mountain, I can easily take you down. You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

“Okay.”

Her eyes flash in horror. “What?”

I lean in close until we are eye-to-eye, and my cock twitches as I inhale her sweet scent. “I would like to see you take me down.”

She opens her mouth, closes it, then opens it again, her eyes wide with disbelief. “Are you really challenging me? To, like, a fight? I should have expected no less from you bike-riding monsters.”

I bite back a chuckle at her words. We’ve been called all sorts of names, but” bike-riding monsters?” Now that’s a new one. It does have a nice to ring it. I bet the boys will love it.

I arch a brow at her words. “So, does that mean you’re not lost?”

“Of course, I am not lost,” she says, folding her arms over her chest. “I’m here for my cousin.”

“You have a relative in the club?”

“No, her name is Sasha Greenwald. She was kidnapped by one of your men, and I am here to ransom her back.”

The name takes me a second to place, and when I do, I have to fight the urge to laugh. Of course, I know Sasha, everyone does. She is all the club members have been talking about for the sole reason that she is related to very powerful men in the city and is now dating one of my brothers. I’ve met the girl, a meek little thing, and quite frankly, her presence didn’t prove as entertaining to me as it did for some of my brothers. This girl, however . . .

“No one kidnapped your cousin. I think you have the wrong idea.”

The pink girl shakes her head. “No. No . . . I have the right idea. My cousin is na?ve and innocent. You see, unlike me, Sasha sees the best in everyone and might overlook the harm of dating a . . . a . . . a criminal.”

“A criminal?”

To her credit, she doesn’t take back her words, but I notice her bravado slip a bit from the way she shuffles her feet. “Yes, a criminal. Now, if you could get her for me, we’ll get back into the taxi and leave.”

“What taxi?”

“The taxi that dropped—” Her words cut off when she turns around to find nothing behind her. She must’ve missed the driver speeding away in a cloud of dust. “Oh, for Christ’s sake!”

“I see,” I drawl, humor curving my lips when I do. It is out of character of me to engage someone this long, but I can’t help myself. Sparing with this pretty girl is the most entertainment I have ever gotten in a while.

“I can’t believe he left me. I offered to pay him triple,” she mutters, chewing at her lips, and I fight the urge to stop the assault on that perfect mouth with my thumb and give her something better to nibble on. My lips, perhaps. Christ, she’s so fucking endearing, and the girl has no idea. “Even so, I am not leaving without my cousin.”

“She’s not here,” I inform her.

“You’re lying. I was told by a credible source that Sasha is dating a man from this club.”

“That part is true,” I tell her. “She is indeed dating a member of the club, but they’re not here.” While some members keep rooms in the main house, most of choose to live elsewhere, and Riot, the man Sasha is with, lives in the city.

“You’re lying. I know she’s in there.”

“She’s not,” I assure her. “But you are more than welcome to come in and check for yourself if you don’t believe me.” Her eyes shift to the gate behind me, and I read the nerves in her expression.

“I thought you didn’t allow outsiders into the club’s compound.”

“We don’t,” I tell her, shrugging my hands into my pockets. “But since you don’t believe that we aren’t holding your cousin here, I’ll make an exception so you can confirm that I am indeed telling you the truth.”

She does it again, chewing at her bottom lip, and I clench my fist to rein in my need. “I don’t want you to think that I am scared of you guys—”

“Of course not. If you’re Sasha’s cousin, we know how powerful your family is.”

She glares at me before shifting her attention back to the gate. I can almost hear the pep talk she is silently giving herself. She’s probably weighing the risks of walking into the lair of us so-called biker monsters and saving her cousin, but she has nothing to worry about. No one from the club would dare harass her. Sasha is Riot’s girl, which makes her family. That alone makes this pink pixie family by extension. We’d never hurt Sasha by hurting her cousin. Even if that was not the case, I would not let anyone touch my little pink princess.

“Okay, I will come with you to take a look,” she says, before quickly adding, “And don’t think you can make me disappear. My family knows where I am, and they will be on you like white on rice if I go missing.”

She doesn’t look at me as she speaks, and I have to wonder if she doesn’t believe her own words. It hardly matters either way. “Of course, princess,” I tell her.

She huffs, nodding for me to go ahead, and I do so, more entertained than I have been in years. Heck, I have never met anyone who radiates such an intriguing mix of innocence and stubbornness the way she does, and fuck if that doesn’t make me want her.

She’s perfect.

I wonder which side of her would shine best in bed. I like her stubbornness as much as I like the innocence I read in her eyes, and that makes me want to explore both.

“Oh my God,” she exclaims from beside me once I have let her into the compound. Her eyes are wide, and her pretty lips part in awe as she looks around our little slice of paradise. “This place is massive. Where do we even start?”

I follow her gaze to the three-story clubhouse, then to auto shop and the series of smaller outbuildings along the property. The entire property is several acres large, but the buildings are arranged in a central clearing surrounded by dense woods. When I first arrived here, I was awed by the place and wondered how a motorcycle club could afford to own such expansive private property, but I soon realized that dealing in weapons and money laundering would bring in more than enough profit to sustain the club.

“We can start wherever you want.”

She better make a decision fast as I can tell from the dark clouds gathering that it’s going to pour soon, and she won’t want to be outside when it starts raining.

“How about your torture room?” she deadpans, staring up at me, and I meet her gaze dead on.

“What torture room?”

“I heard that you have one.” We do, but she doesn’t need to know that. Hell, most of the club members don’t know about it either. Only the senior club officials are privy to that information.

“Who told you that?”

“I can’t reveal my sources.” I raise a single brow and watch with amusement as she gives in with only a look. “The taxi driver’s brother’s best friend’s barber.”

I chuckle, the sound rough and foreign. “Well, your taxi driver’s barber is wrong. We don’t—”

“No, it was his brother’s best friend’s barber.”

“Right.” I muse. “I can show you around, prove to you that we don’t have your cousin on the premises . . .”

A loud crack slices through the air, and the sky lights up seconds before rain cascades down. My pink pixie jumps to my side, eyes wide with terror when the thunder rumbles.

“It’s raining. Why is it raining? The skies were clear earlier,” she says franticly, pressing close against me. I feel her heartbeat racing against me. Fuck, I can feel the soft press of her tits against my side, and it has my cock filling up in my pants in a matter of seconds. Her soft breath blowing softly against my skin isn’t exactly helping with the new situation I am currently in.

“Let’s get you out of the rain,” I say, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and hurrying her into the clubhouse. Inside, I usher her quickly up the stairs and take a left to guide her to the third room down the hall– my room. I close and lock the door behind us, hoping the move doesn’t piss her off, but the last thing I want is for one my nosy-fuck brothers to come barging in.

I watch as she sweeps her damp hair from her face and turns to look at me, suddenly taken aback by her beauty.

Christ, I am too old to be lusting over someone so young. She’s fourteen years younger than me for heaven’s sake. Not to mention the fact that she’s here with genuine concern for her cousin.

I was going to spend more time with her, show her around the club a little, and bask in her entertaining company. Some part of me wants her to focus on something other than her cousin.

I want her to focus . . . on me.

“There is another way you can reach your cousin,” I tell her, my mouth running dry when she pulls her wet sweater over her shoulders to reveal a thin top beneath. This one is white and nearly sheer due to being wet, revealing the outline of her tits and budded nipples.

“There is?” she asks, brushing her fingers through her wet hair now that the sweater is off, completely oblivious to the predator whose fire she’s fueling. “How can I reach her?”

Fuck, I need her to get over this search for her cousin once and for all, so I reach for my cell phone and dial Riot’s number. The man picks up after the second ring. “What, Shadow?”

“Is your girl there with you?”

“Yeah, what’s this about?”

“Put her on.”

“Why?”

So that we can finally move on to far more interesting stuff, but I don’t say that. Not yet.

“Just tell her that her cousin . . .” I turn to the pink girl, and she mouths, “Lisa.” “Tell her that her cousin Lisa wants to speak with her.”

A feminine voice replaces Riot’s much deeper one, and I hand the phone to Lisa, who eyes me suspiciously before finally taking it. I watch as her eyes shine with relief when she hears her cousin’s voice before slowly morphing into something far more interesting.

It seems that underneath the innocence and stubbornness, lies something much darker in my perfect little princess, and now, I can’t wait to find out what it is.

I can’t wait to explore it.