There was loud music and plenty of booze, but there were also kids running around laughing and screaming, stealing cookies and drinking endless lemonade.
It wasn’t all sunshine and light, though. There were lots of big, scary-looking guys surrounded by women wearing a lot less clothing than I was used to seeing. Something told me the whole family-friendly vibe would end once the sun went down. At least Jess made the right call on the boots—the few women I’d seen wearing slutty heels were having a really hard time getting around, given the mixture of cracked concrete, gravel, and grass that blanketed the area.
My boots made me feel strong and tall and capable.
That’s why—when Taz poured me a drink and smiled big at me—I didn’t even notice Painter watching us. I also didn’t notice him after the second drink, which was really more like my . . . well, I’d sort of lost track at the house, to be honest. (Let’s just say I was feeling festive.) That’s also why I completely forgot what London told me about staying in the courtyard. To be fair, I’d pretty much forgotten about everything by then—I’d been drunk before, but never quite like this.
It was fun. No wonder Jessica used to do it so much.
“You want to go for a walk?” Taz asked me after we’d been talking for what felt like forever and no time at all. I looked around, realizing that the sun had started to set. There were a lot fewer kids running around. Someone had lit a bonfire, and the music was louder.
“Sure,” I said, feeling adventurous. Maybe he’d kiss me. That would show Levi Fucking Painter Brooks a thing, now, wouldn’t it? Just because he wasn’t interested in me didn’t mean I wasn’t sexy and fun.
Taz caught my hand, leading me back along the big cement-block wall surrounding the courtyard toward a gate in the back. It was open, but a guy wearing a prospect’s cut stood guard, watching everyone who came and went. I didn’t recognize him, but when he saw me, his eyes widened. Then he whipped out his phone and started texting.
“This is really pretty,” I said, looking over the wide meadow we found on the other side of the wall. Beyond it the ground rose in a steep slope covered with trees, but back here it was just like a park. Gorgeous. There were quite a few tents and even another bonfire.
“We’re camped over there,” Taz said, nodding toward the far end of the meadow. “Let me show you.”
I frowned as his words penetrated my brain fog. My sense of self-preservation kicked in, pointing out quietly but insistently that going off with a strange guy in the dark at a biker party might not be the brightest of moves.
Shit. I really was turning into Jessica.
“Mel, get over here.”
I knew that voice. Turning slowly, I saw Painter standing behind us, arms crossed in front of him.
He didn’t look happy.
? ? ?
In retrospect, my mistake had been letting Kit into the house that afternoon. Truly, from that moment forward the whole day had been fucked, a runaway train careening down the track into a dark void of . . . well, mostly one very angry biker.
Why Painter was pissed, I had no clue.
Wasn’t like he’d spoken to me even once during the damned party. I’d been there for hours, yet the only times I’d seen him he’d been talking up slutty girls wearing painted-on jeans and stamp-sized bikini tops.