Five minutes later, accompanied by two suspicious police officers, he walked into the intake area of the sheriff’s office. An assortment of drunks, vagrants, and a few high school girls in cuffs were seated in the waiting area. All the desks were in use, and the air was thick with the stench of unwashed bodies, old cigarettes, and pastrami.
The lead member of his entourage gestured to a desk in the corner where Dawn sat across from a cop with brown hair and the chiseled good looks of those losers on the front of men’s magazines. Cade snorted at the frickin’ gigantic shiny badge on the dude’s blue shirt, but his derision faded when the deputy met Cade’s gaze and then reached over the desk to clasp Dawn’s hand.
A growl escaped Cade’s lips. So that was the game. Bastard thought he could put his hands all over Cade’s girl.
Okay. Technically, she wasn’t his girl. But he’d slept with her, wanted to sleep with her again, and he’d had a good time with her and her kids on Sunday afternoon. Hell, he’d even missed joining Gunner and Sparky at a little pool party with Delilah and the girls from Peelers Strip Club. Now, that was something he would never live down.
His gaze still on Cade, the deputy stroked Dawn’s hand.
How fucking pathetic. Was that his idea of a challenge? Seated at his fucking desk in a collared shirt, patting Dawn’s hand? He’d give anything right now to get the deputy outside in the alley. Pansy ass would go down with one punch. Guaranteed. And the guy was an idiot if he thought he’d rile Cade up enough to risk assaulting a police officer. Not that Cade was afraid of doing time, but he had business to take care of first, and item number one was to get the deputy’s paws off his woman.
“Thought you were done with bikers,” the deputy said, loud enough for Cade to hear. Cade snorted and put more effort into thudding his boots across the tiles and rattling the chain hanging from his belt.
Let the fucking games begin.
Dawn looked over her shoulder, her brow wrinkled in confusion. “I am. He’s just a friend.”
Friend? Ha. He didn’t fuck his female friends. He didn’t give free rein to all the kinky, twisted shit in his brain and have them demanding more. And he certainly didn’t come so many damn times in one night that the sight of blond hair the next day made him instantly hard.
“A biker friend. Same poison. Different color.” The deputy’s face soured when Cade bent down and brushed his lips over Dawn’s unbruised cheek, a direct response to the challenge in the deputy’s eyes.
“Babe.” He stroked her hair for good measure and then sprawled on the empty chair beside her, ignoring the salivating police officers behind him. They knew who he was. And they also knew they had nothing on him. The Sinners kept their illegal activities under the radar, and if someone did get caught, they had a big-shot criminal attorney on retainer.
“Um … this is Cade.” She gave the deputy a weak smile, and then her cheeks flushed and she pulled her hand away. “Cade, this is Deputy Sheriff Doug Benson.”
“Cade.”
“Benson.” He deliberately used the deputy’s last name, not his first name or his title, letting him know with that one small gesture where Benson stood in the hierarchy of things. But just to make sure, Cade lifted his arm and placed it over the back of Dawn’s chair, his hand dangling with deliberate casualness over her shoulder, fingers brushing her bare skin.
Benson’s jaw clenched, and they locked gazes, trying to stare each other down.
“Enough,” Dawn snapped. “Both of you.”
Didn’t see that one coming. His girl had backbone. No doubt about that.
Benson’s eyes glittered, and then his gaze dropped. Cade puffed out his chest and gave a satisfied grunt. Challenge met. Dominance established. Woman claimed.
“What are you doing here, Cade?” Dawn looked up at him and his fingers took advantage of her exposed neck, tickling their way to her ear.
“You invited me the other morning. In the restaurant.”
Dawn’s eyes widened. “It was a joke. I would never, in a million years, have expected you to show up.”
“Shows how little you know me.” He rubbed his knuckles over her cheek, the gesture at once intimate and possessive. “You want me to go, just say the word. But I don’t trust the cops, and Benson here is gonna be able to do dick-all about Mad Dog. I can.”
Benson bristled. “Actually…”
“Am I wrong?” Cade leaned forward and tilted his head to the side. “You suddenly got the balls to take on the Devil’s Brethren?”
“Yes, you are wrong,” Benson said, his expression smug. “The town recently installed CCTV cameras in high-traffic areas. Dawn says she was assaulted in a public place. We may be able to pull some footage and get enough evidence to charge Jimmy … Mad Dog with assault.”
Cade chuckled and leaned back in his seat. “That kind of evidence will disappear so fast you’ll wonder if you even had it in the first place. Evidence rooms aren’t as secure as you think. And even if the evidence doesn’t disappear, strings will be pulled and he’ll be walking out the other door as soon as you hand in the paperwork.”