“Cade!”
Stan reached for the money, and Cade slammed his hand over the man’s thick wrist. “Before you take that cash, one thing you need to understand. You. Touching her. Not on.” He squeezed Stan’s wrist and Stan paled. “Looking at her. Thinking what we both know you’re thinking. Also not on.”
“Stop it.” Dawn tugged on Cade’s arm but he was in full-on alpha mode and didn’t flinch.
Sweat beaded on Stan’s brow. “I get it.”
“Make sure you do.”
“I cannot believe you did that.” Dawn’s voice shook so hard she could barely get out her words after Stan scurried away. “How am I supposed to work now? Stan’s going to hate me.”
“He didn’t get that boner in his pants ’cause he hates you.” Cade pulled out his phone and stabbed at the screen. “But I agree, you might want to find a different job. I know his type. He’ll keep pushing unless you push back in a way he understands.”
“You don’t understand.” She glanced back over her shoulder to make sure Stan couldn’t hear. “This is the only restaurant near the school, and Stan lets me go during our busy time so I can see the girls. I don’t just need the job; I need this job. And I have my own way of handling Stan.” Although Cade was right that Stan kept pushing despite her firm rebukes. But she couldn’t go much farther without risking her job, and for all that he was annoying, Stan was harmless.
“Your way of handling Stan means Stan gets to touch something that doesn’t belong to him.” Cade leaned back in the booth, arms folded, legs spread. “Something I want. That causes a problem.”
Dawn’s eyes crinkled in amusement. “For him or for you?”
“For him, since I always get what I want.”
“Cocky.”
Cade licked his lips. “Maybe you should drop a napkin and bend over and pick it up so I can show you just how cocky I can be.”
“Always about sex.”
He reached for her hand and stroked a thumb across her knuckles, sending a wave of heat through the body. “Always about you. What happened last night won’t happen again. I’m gonna protect you and keep you safe.”
Without thinking, she stroked a hand over his hair. So fierce. So passionate. What would it be like to have someone like Cade in her life? An idea stirred at the back of her mind, but she quickly dismissed it. Yes, she liked Cade, but not enough to embrace the biker life that had caused her so much pain.
Reality kicked in and her hand dropped. It would never happen. Wrong life. Wrong world. Entirely the wrong guy.
SIX
I will avenge all wrongs done to me and my club.
SINNER’S TRIBE CREED
Christ. Cade pulled open the door to the Conundrum Sheriff’s Department and steeled himself for a takedown. Damn cops would just love to toss a one-percenter in jail. If the Sinners still had Sheriff Morton on the payroll, he wouldn’t have been concerned, but the idiot had been caught stealing weapons from the evidence room, and that was the end of what had been a damn fine arrangement with the local police.
“Can I help you?” The receptionist glared through a Plexiglas window, her hand hovering over the conspicuous emergency call button at the side of her desk.
Yeah, he needed help. He needed someone to shake him up, slap him around, and tell him to get his sorry ass back to the clubhouse instead of panting after the only woman on the planet who didn’t want him.
What the fuck was he doing here? She’d been joking around when she invited him to go with her to the sheriff’s office, and if she had any sense she’d boot his ass out the minute he showed up, if the cops didn’t throw him in jail first. But dammit, she had no one looking out for her, and the cops wouldn’t be able to help. Conundrum was a biker town. The kind of protection she needed was the kind of protection only a biker could provide. Still, showing up here took things to a whole new level. Maybe she’d think he wanted more than another night with her in bed.
Maybe he did.
“Sir? If there’s nothing you need, perhaps you could step out of line.”
And leave Dawn to the inept fumbling of the local police?
“I’m meeting a friend who’s seeing the deputy sheriff. Dawn…” Christ. He didn’t even know her last name. Par for the course. He usually didn’t care about a woman’s last name when he was buried deep inside her. Or her first name, for that matter. But Dawn wasn’t like the others and he silently berated himself for not making the effort.
“Dawn. No last name.” The receptionist lifted a manicured eyebrow in censure, and Cade scowled.
“Just make the call.”