“Just wondering how many beers Razer and Viper drank before Lucky’s service so they wouldn’t laugh out loud during it.”
“You going to start going to church every Sunday when you and Lily get together?” Train questioned.
“What do you think?” Shade answered.
The table burst out laughing yet quieted when the women and Razer and Viper came in with their wives.
“Was the sermon good?” Shade asked sardonically.
Both men looked suspiciously at the brothers while they tried to hide their smiles. Shade noticed Lily took a seat between Razer and Winter at the end farthest away from him.
The waitress came to take the orders of the new arrivals. It didn’t take long before the food was served. Shade had eaten earlier, but he got a refill of his coffee as the others ate.
When the door to the diner opened, Shade nodded to Viper so he would notice the men coming inside. The table went quiet.
“What’s going on?” Lily looked up from her salad to ask Winter.
“The bikers from last night just came in,” Winter answered.
“Oh.”
The women began talking to cover the silence, but Shade and the men remained quiet as they watched the bikers take a table. There were more of them, they had brought in their own reinforcements.
As the women finished, The Last Riders rose to leave. Shade couldn’t understand why Lily stopped at the cash register, opening her purse to take out some money. He was about to say something when Beth spoke up.
“What are you doing? Razer already took care of the check.”
“I know.” She gave her money to the cashier. “I want to pay for the men’s ticket by the window.”
After the cashier’s mouth dropped open like his own did, she waited for Shade to nod before reaching out to take the cash from Lily.
“Lily, what are you doing?” Beth questioned in a lowered voice.
“Paying back a favor,” Lily said, taking a deep breath.
Then, before he could stop her, she approached the men sitting at the table.
“I wanted to thank you for what you did last night. It could have gotten bad without your help.”
Shade walked to stand behind her as she spoke to the man he knew for a fact was the president of the motorcycle club.
“Anytime, sweet thing.” The man’s hard eyes softened briefly when he looked at Lily, yet they resumed their hardness instantly. Shade’s instincts kicked in, telling him something wasn’t right.
Lily turned to leave, but her attention was caught by one of the men sitting at the table. Reluctantly, Shade had to admire the biker’s ink work. It was some of the best he had seen.
“Hi, I’m Colton.” He put out his hand for Lily to shake.
“Hi, I’m Lily.” She placed her hand in his.
Shade glared at him, letting him know he wasn’t happy with him touching his woman.
“Hi, Lily. That’s Ice.” He nodded toward the blond, telling Lily what Shade already knew.
He had found out who they were before he had lain down to grab an hour’s sleep before getting up to come to the diner.
“The big guy there is Max, and the ugly one next to him is Jackal.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Lily smiled. “I didn’t mean to disturb your lunch. I wanted to thank your friends.”
“I’m sure they enjoyed it, knowing them. Take care, Lily,” Colton said, putting out some strange vibes which Shade picked up on.
“I will,” Lily replied, moving away and almost bumping into Shade.
He ignored her angry attitude at his interference, leading her away from the table and back to The Last Riders who hadn’t moved away from the door.
They waited until she was outside before giving her hell.
“What were you thinking, Lily?” Beth started.
“I was thinking that I would do the polite thing and thank them for helping me out of a difficult situation,” she explained.
“You can’t get friendly with another motorcycle club,” Evie said, taking the words out of Shade’s mouth.
“I don’t know why not.” When several would have opened their mouths, Lily put up her hand. “I wasn’t getting friendly. I was thanking them. I can be friends with anyone I want. I’m friends with Stud.”
Shade lifted a brow at her lame excuse. She was no more friends with Stud than he was.
“They have more in the parking lot,” Shade told Viper.
“I saw,” Viper replied grimly.
“What do you want me to do?” Shade knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to get rid of the women then beat the living hell out of the mother fuckers. It showed disrespect for them to stay in town, wearing their colors. However, Lily and Beth were waiting for Razer.
“You two go ahead. I’ll be there in a few,” Razer told them.
Lily hesitated, moving toward Viper and touching his arm. “Leave them alone, please, Viper. They don’t want trouble, and I approached them.” Her purple eyes pleaded with his president.
“They came inside seeing our bikes were outside,” Viper replied.
“Please, Viper.”