Page 50 of Ride or Die

I hear Kendra snicker behind me, glancing back to see her walking off with her tray loaded full of drinks to deliver to her section. Turning back to Cole, I swallow hard, suddenly awkward for some reason.

“How was your ride?”

“First place.”

I can’t help but smile. “Well, then, let me buy you a drink. Kevin?” I call out to the bartender.

“What’s up, Clara?” Kevin appears.

“Get this man a can of your finest Blue Ribbon.” I slap Cole on his shoulder. His firm, hard shoulder.

Cole chuckles, tipping his hat at Kevin.

“Comin’ right up.” Kevin winks.

“What time you finishin’?” Cole asks me.

I pile the order Kevin just finished making onto my tray. “About an hour.”

Cole nods, rubbing a hand over his chin as he looks down at me from the corner of his eyes. “I’ll wait out back for ya.”

I can’t help but balk. “Cole, you… You really don’t have to.”

Kevin returns with Cole’s beer, interrupting the moment, and Cole shoves a cash note into the tip jar, jutting his chin at the bartender in silent thanks. Turning to me, he steps closer, so close that I’m momentarily stilted, staring up at him and noticing the way his blue eyes seem to darken a touch. It’s not threatening, not in a bad way at least. It’s almost like it’s suddenly hard to breathe, as if he steals all the air, the din of the club fading to a low thrum around us.

“I know I don’thaveto, Clara,” he says lowly, dipping his head down so I can hear him clear, my skin pebbling at the way his warm breath fans against the shell of my ear. “But I ain’t leavin’ without ya.”

Cole steps around me, his hard body brushing against mine almost as if on purpose, causing his scent to wrap around me, rendering me all but useless. It feels like I’m rooted to the floor, barely able to breathe let alone move.

When I do finally come to, I watch him retreat to a table in the back of the club, out of the way, hidden in the shadows. And as he takes a seat, his piercing blue eyes cut through the darkness, finding mine as he tips his head back and takes a swig from his beer. And I don’t know what the hell that was, but I feel it all the way through my body, and… whatever it is, I don’t hate it.

CHAPTER 18

COLE

I’m like a goddamn stalker sitting here in the dark, watching Clara as she moves about the club, serving assholes who don’t know how to keep their goddamn eyes in the respectful zones. I know this is her job, but the way my hand flexes into a fist any time she heads toward the booth of rowdy cowboys I know have been doing some work out at Sunrise Ranch, I need to remember to breathe before I start on a full-on turf war.

Sipping my beer, stretched out in my chair, I try not to make it too obvious, but fuck it. She’s beautiful. Even with all that makeup shit on her pretty face, Clara’s a goddamn dream girl, and she don’t even know it.

When Mama Joy asked me earlier today if there was something going on between me and Clara, I denied it immediately, probably a little too quickly if her quirked brow and sliver of a grin had anything to do with it. I don’t know how, but Mama Joy just knows shit. Don’t matter what it is, she knows. She always does. She’s like a witch or something. But I don’t care. As long as Clara’s happy knowing her kids are safe, Mama Joy can know whatever the fuck she wants to.

My phone shudders and I yank it out of my pocket, jaw clenching when I see the name on the screen because a phone call from Austin at this time of night can only mean one thing.

“Yeah?” I answer, plugging a finger into my left ear to hear better.

“The fuck are you?”

“Don’t matter where I am,” I bite back. “What do you want?”

“Got a… situation,” Austin mutters. “Need your help.”

I throw my head back, knowing I can’t say no to Austin, never have been able to. “You okay?”

“Yep.”

I breathe. “Where you at?”

“Overflow.”