What the Outlaw Keeps Read online

  Lexi pushed the door open and slowly stepped inside. It took Marv a moment to notice her, but when he did, his face went from amusement to disbelief before settling on anger.

  “What’s the matter?” he spat. “Come back for more?”

  “Marv,” Lexi stepped forward. “I don’t know what happened last night, but I don’t want to lose my job here, okay?”

  Candy was looking at her hopefully, dark rings of tiredness engulfing her eyes.

  “Well, maybe you should have thought about that before you started acting like such a brat,” he said as he threw his inventory down on the counter. “Walking around in here like you own the place, huh?” he laughed.

  “No,” she shook her head. “It wasn’t that at all. It’s just, I’m having some…some personal problems.”

  “Well, your personal problems aren’t my problems. Leave them at the door, sweetheart,” he sneered.

  Lexi looked from him to Candy and then at the bag at her feet.

  “Well, I just came to get my things, anyway,” she said. “And to ask if I’m still working tonight…”

  Marv ignored her for a moment, and she thought that he was thinking it over before she noticed the big vein on his forehead throbbing with rage. She took a step backwards before he turned on her and lunged forward. He grabbed her by the back of the neck and pulled her towards the front door. Lexi dragged her heels and tried to pull away from him, but he was too strong.

  As he yanked open the doors, the sunlight flooded the darkened room, and it was so bright, it blinded her. Cars and trucks were thundering down the highway, and as Marv hurled her onto the dusty ground for the second time in twenty-four hours, he kicked her lightly in the calf.

  “Are you fucking stupid?” he spat. “I told you the score last night.”

  Lexi shielded her eyes from the sun as she looked up at him with determination in her eyes.

  “Fuck off, Lexi,” he said. “You don’t want to play by my rules, then there’s no job for you here.”

  “You can’t do that!” she said as she got to her feet.

  “Yes,” Marv turned on his heel and laughed. “Yes, I think you’ll find that I can.”

  He disappeared inside for a moment before coming back out into the light and throwing her bag at her. She caught it against her stomach and felt the wind knock out of her.

  “See ya, Lexi,” he said with an evil laugh as he pulled the doors to Red X shut.

  She stood there dumbfounded for a moment before she got angry. And when the anger came, it burst out of her like a demon. She hurled herself at the doors and thumped her fists on it.

  “I’m going to make you pay for this, Marv!” she screamed. “You just wait!”

  There was no sound from inside, and a truck honked its horn as it passed her by. She picked up a rock and hurled it at the flashing red legs before making her way back down the highway. Who knew where she would go…

  She couldn’t face another day at home, and now she didn’t have Red X to escape to. She was going to have to think outside the box and be resourceful. She was going to have to look for something she had never looked for before, and although the day was stretching out blankly before her, she had a pretty good idea of where she could go…

  3.

  She slid into a booth at the diner and pulled out her cell phone. She had a text from Candy asking her if she was okay and what she planned to do now. Lexi wanted nothing more than to text Candy back and tell her she didn’t really have a clue, but she knew it would go straight back to Marv. Now that Lexi was no longer at the club, Candy was going to be his go-to girl, and she would be under his thumb until he got sick of her or didn’t get what he wanted.

  She looked up at the waitress and smiled. She ordered a strong coffee and a plate of pancakes before she turned off her phone and looked out at the dusty roads.

  There’s got to be something I can do in this town that won’t involve selling my soul, she thought. But she wasn’t convinced. If she wanted to make good money, she wasn’t going to earn it as a waitress. She opened the paper and looked at the house listings. There was barely anything in a ten-mile radius and nothing in Slate Springs she could afford. Even though the town was small, the rent seemed unnaturally high, and she had no clue who even owned these houses that were being leased.

  After the waitress served her, she savored her coffee and picked at the pancakes. When she was done, she looked up at the clock and realized it was almost 3:00 pm. The day was passing her by in a weird flash, and she had no clue what she was going to do with herself now that she had no job to go to.

  She ordered another coffee and was about to dive back into the paper when she heard the rumbling of engines coming over the desert. She stopped and looked out of the window and waited for them to come into view. Even as a little girl, she had been fascinated with them, but her mother had always told her to stay away. She said they brought nothing good and only led to trouble.

  The glinting silver caught in the sun and exploded over the horizon. Even though Lexi had spent most of her life scared of the bikers, she was still enthralled every time she saw them in a crowd together. They always pulled her in, even though she tried to resist. When she had worked at Red X, the odd one had come in to see Marv and left him looking worried. A first for a guy like him, so they must have had some power behind them. Lexi had always wondered what they got up to in their clubhouse and what their bar was like on the other side of town, but having grown up there and hearing the stories of how dangerous they were, she had never dared venture that way.

  The metal and growling engines were like a swarm coming over the rise and down the highway. The men on the backs of the bikes were all different, but all had a sexy edge that was impossible to deny… They oozed danger, and it turned her on. Lexi bit her lip as she watched them go past in their convoy, heading back over to the other side of town to do whatever it was they did.

  She thought they had all gone until she heard the rumbling get closer, and she saw that four had broken away from the convoy and were pulling into the diner parking lot. Lexi tensed up as she sipped her coffee and looked around to see if anyone else had noticed, but the other clientele seemed to consist mainly of truckers who didn’t look the slightest bit interested.

  The bikers stopped opposite the windows and one by one got off their rides. Lexi watched them with a strange fascination as they removed their helmets and stretched their broad shoulders.

  She had seen some of the bikers around town on occasion, but they usually stuck to their own side and didn’t seem to come down to Main Street or where Lexi spent the majority of her time… And apart from the odd visit to Red X, they rarely even ventured into the club either. This particular set of men seemed younger than some of the old-time bikers. They were more her age and were all incredibly hot. They wore thick leathers and had tattoos and silver rings dusting their knuckles. Their big masculine hands clamped around cigarettes, and they exhaled plumes of smoke into the sky.

  Lexi found herself licking her lips, and her heart started to race as she watched them. They were all so mean looking, but they radiated sex appeal and danger, and it was driving her wild. She had always done her best to stay away from the bike gang because of what her mother told her about them. She had always seemed to want to instill fear in Lexi, controlling her so that she never got involved with them but had never really told her why. As she sat there then in the diner, though, she couldn’t look away. Ever last inch of them was pulling her in and rousing her curiosity.

  She brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear and found herself smiling as she watched them. Out of the four, she couldn’t immediately distinguish which one she found the most attractive. They moved like a pack, banded together and clad in a leather uniform. But that quickly changed when one of the tallest of the four turned around and locked eyes with her through the window.

  His eyes were so deep and dark, they engulfed her at once and Lexi found herself trying to catch her breath. S
he looked away quickly before steadying herself. Looking back up, she found him standing with his arms folded against his bike and smiling at her. A smile crept across her own face, and she looked back down. She was desperate to keep watching him, but butterflies were pounding her insides and her heart was racing. She breathed in deeply and cast her eyes to the side. He was still leaning against the bike with a cigarette clenched between his teeth, and his dark brown hair was blowing in the light breeze, wisping down around his eyes. His skin was a dark olive, just like Lexi’s, and she watched as he pulled his leather jacket off and exposed his broad, muscular, tanned shoulders. He was unlike any other man she had ever seen before, and with each move, he made his muscles flex under his vest.

  The four of them finished their cigarettes and made their way towards the steps of the diner. All of them walked heavy on their big, black boots, and they thumped up the stairs and swung open the door. The bell tinged as they stepped inside, and Lexi was aware of a few people swiveling on their chairs and looking over their shoulders. One of the waitresses looked at them coyly and sucked the tip of her pen. The four men strode over to the counter and slammed their hands down on the top.

  From her vantage point, Lexi found herself slipping down in her seat and watching their every move. She knew it was wrong and that she shouldn’t be so interested by them, but there was just something so appealing… Maybe it was because she had always been warned away. Now she was up close with some of them properly for the first time, and she couldn’t tear her eyes away.

  The biker who had caught her eye turned and looked at her. Completely embarrassed that he had caught her looking, her heart skipped a beat and she quickly looked down at her menu. Even though she had an empty coffee cup and the remnants of the pancakes on the table in front of her, she tried to hide behind the menu as if she were searching for something else to order.

  When she finally had the nerve to lower it, her eyes met his instantly. He was sitting on a stool high up at the counter facing her and staring at her with a smile on his face. Lexi felt her own smile open up and a small laugh escape her lips.

  “What’s funny?” he said, trying to stifle his own laugh.

  Lexi shook her head and brushed her hair back over her shoulder. For a girl who had—up until that morning—taken her clothes off for a living, she was finding herself incredibly shy around him. He was quite possibly the only man that had ever done that to her. She pushed her coffee cup away and picked up her purse. She had to get out of there. If she didn’t, who knew what might happen.

  When she got to her feet, the biker did too. He walked over to the table and folded his arms across his chest. When she turned and saw them so close to her, her whole body froze.

  “You’re not leaving?” he asked.

  Lexi felt herself blushing. “Well, I’ve…” she couldn’t think of one good thing to say as a reason for her to be going anywhere. What could she possibly tell him? Oh yeah, I need to get back to the spare room at my mom’s house so I can climb into bed and cry myself to sleep… Or: I need to get back to the strip club and beg my pervy boss for my job back yet again…

  Even thinking it made it seem like more of a reality, and she smiled up at him and shook her head.

  “No, I’m not going anywhere,” she said spontaneously. “I’m just running to the little girls’ room.”

  He held up his hands in apology and watched as she walked slowly past the counter and to the back where the restrooms were located. When she was inside, she slammed the door behind her and leaned against the wall.

  Oh my God, she breathed out. He is so fucking hot.

  She ran the tap and looked at herself in the mirror. Her make-up was still perfectly intact despite the heat, and her hair looked just as groomed as it had when she had left the house earlier in the day. She pulled a lipstick out of her jeans pocket and smoothed some on her lips before flushing and opening the door.

  Back in the main area of the diner, she walked back to her table and was relieved to see that the bikers had moved away from the counter and were drinking beers in one of the booths. She sat with her back to them, completely terrified that she would keep catching his eye and making even more of a fool out of herself.

  The bell tinged and Tammy, one of the waitresses and Lexi’s close friend, bounced through the door. She spotted Lexi right away and hurried over to her. She slid into the booth and threw her arms around her.

  “Oh my God,” she panted, “are you okay?”

  Lexi wasn’t surprised that Tammy knew about what happened with Marv already. Slate Springs was probably one of the smallest and most gossip-filled places in the world.

  “Yes,” she nodded, “I’m fine.”

  “What a piece of shit he is.” Tammy smoothed a comforting hand over the side of her head. “I never liked him.”

  “Me neither,” Lexi admitted, “but work is work.”

  Tammy wrapped her arms around her and squeezed her tight.

  “How did you find out, anyway?” Lexi asked.

  “One of the new girls up there came by Dad’s store earlier,” Tammy rambled. “She was all ditzy and blonde, with barely a brain cell and she was jabbering on about how Marv had got rid of one of the best girls at the club, and the more she talked, the more I knew it was you.”

  “Did she say anything else?” Lexi asked, half cringing. She hated the idea of being the talk of the town.

  “No,” Tammy said with a sigh. “Just that she can’t believe it either.”

  “Well, her and me both…” Lexi rubbed her temples. Just talking about the events of the past twenty-four hours was giving her that sickening headache again.

  “What are you gonna do?” Tammy asked her as she got to her feet.

  “No idea,” Lexi shrugged. “I really have no idea…”

  Tammy smiled sympathetically and walked over to the counter as she pulled on her apron. Lexi watched her and wished she had chosen a simpler way of life. Tammy never had any trouble working at the diner, her paycheck was always on time, and her boss wasn’t a sleaze. Now, that was all Lexi wanted.

  “Hey,” the man’s voice came from behind her.

  She turned and looked over her shoulder and was met by his wonderful eyes.

  “You having some trouble?” he smiled and his whole aura pulled her in again. With just a glance, he was wrapping his arms around her and pulling her so close she didn’t think she would ever be able to break free—or want to.

  “No, I’m alright,” she smiled, but she could already feel the tears pricking up behind her eyes.

  She looked down at the table as her vision started to blur. The bikers were all in the corner, laughing and joking and clinking beers, but Lexi was aware that one of them… Him… was coming closer. His boots stomped across the linoleum until his huge frame was looming above her. She let her eyes trail up and trace the perfect lines of his body… the tattoos that covered him, all up his arms, were so intricate and exotic… full of skulls, dancing women, roses, and thorns. He put his hands on the table in front of her and bent down. He was so close, she could feel his hot breath on her skin, and she tingled from the inside out with desire for him. The chemistry between them was electric. She had never felt anything like it before in her entire life.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked with a whisper as his hand moved next to hers. “Just tell me what I can do… I’ll never see a pretty girl cry.”

  She looked up at him and their eyes locked again. She could feel the connection between them intensifying with each passing second. She didn’t even know his name, but she could tell he was a man who was about to change everything…

  4.

  He slid into the booth opposite her and clicked his fingers for Tammy to come and serve them.

  “This woman needs a beer,” he said with a crinkled smile. “On me.”

  Lexi wiped her eyes on the corner of her wrist. Tammy was over his shoulder looking at her concerned, but Lexi smiled and nodded her head.

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sp; “Thanks…that would be great.”

  Tammy nodded and said, “Coming right up,” before making her way back to the counter.

  “So,” he said, splaying his hands across the table, “I’ve never seen you before.”

  Lexi smiled and felt herself relax. “Well then, you haven’t been looking.”

  A smile danced across his lips, and there was something in his eyes that was more than lust… It was pure animalistic need.

  “I’m King,” he said.

  “Lexi,” she held out her hand.

  When their hands locked together and she felt his skin against hers for the first time, her heart thumped hard in her chest. She found it hard to tear herself away, but when she did, he picked up the beer bottle with his big, rough hands, just as Tammy appeared at the booth with one for Lexi.

  King passed it to her and then held his into the middle of the table.

  “To new friends,” he said as he clinked his bottle against hers.

  “To new friends,” Lexi smiled.

  The other bikers at the back of the room were watching them and started wolf whistling. King flipped them the bird, and as they all made their way over to the table, he shook his head and took the ribbing.

  “Don’t worry,” one of them said. “He’s a gentleman.”

  Lexi laughed as she watched them slap him on the shoulder one by one as they went to the door and made their way outside.

  “I’ll be back in an hour,” King called after them.

  The bikers all mounted their rides and started revving their engines. Lexi found herself transfixed with them as they all growled out onto the highway on their powerful machines.

  “You ever ridden a bike before?” King asked her.

  “Never,” Lexi smiled. “But I’d like to give it a go.”

  “Well then, maybe I’ll take you sometime,” he winked.