Monroe, Marla - Brandy's Bikers [The Dirty Dozen 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (3 page)

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Sunday afternoon, she clocked in at the diner and began bussing tables from the noon crowd. Sandy was still seeing to three tables of families. She would be busy for a while, so it was up to Brandy to clean and set up the rest of the room. By the time she had finished, Sandy had the others checked out and was cleaning her tables.

“How was the crowd today?” she asked the other waitress.

“Not as big as usual, but several of them were picky today for some reason.”

“Hope it’s not an omen for the rest of the afternoon and night. I don’t handle picky people too well,” Brandy confessed.

“Hell, you handle everything without batting an eyelash.” Sandy headed for the clock, but stopped and turned around. “I almost forgot. Hal woke up with a stomach virus or something and won’t be in. Jim’s going to fill in. Figured you would want to know.”

“Great, just what I need tonight,” she griped.

Jim was the biggest pervert in town. He hit on anyone and everyone. It didn’t matter if they were too young or too old or too married. She’d had words with him on several occasions and had requested the night shift to get away from him. He just grossed her out with his grabby hands. The owners wouldn’t fire him because he was the only short order cook they had that worked anytime they needed him.

“You’ll be okay. Just ignore him and keep busy.”

“Pray that I
will
be busy, so he’ll stay back in the back and leave me alone. I’d hate to have to bust his balls.” She’d do it, too, if he didn’t keep his hands off of her.

“Good luck. I’m out of here.” Sandy hung her apron on the peg by the back door and clocked out.

Brandy hurried back up front and busied herself cleaning salt and pepper shakers, ketchup bottles, and napkin holders. When the bell over the door rang she looked up and nearly died. It was the two bikers from her dream. What were they doing there so early in the afternoon? It was only three.

“Hi, sit wherever you want. What can I get you to drink?” She tried to sound confident.

“Sweet tea, and pie if you have it.” Kyle took a seat, smiling at her.

“We’ve got lemon, pecan, and apple.”

“I’ll have pecan,” Kyle said.

“Lemon.” West gave her a slow, dangerous-looking smile.

His smile seemed to turn her insides upside down.

She hurried back to the counter and proceeded to fill their tea glasses and cut pie for them. She brought it all back at one time on a tray. She hoped she didn’t end up dumping it all over them. When she made it safely to their table and had delivered her load, she returned to cleaning the counter while stealing glances their way. Once, Kyle caught her and smiled. She felt her face turn hot and red, and ducked in the back to rinse out her cloth.

“Hey there, Brandy girl. What you doing tonight after work?” Jim pushed up against her as she rinsed out the cloth.

She stepped back from him and squeezed out the rag. “I’m busy tonight like always, Jim.”

He grabbed her arm and squeezed a little. “Come on. You know you want a piece of me.”

“Like I want a bullet to the brain, Jim. Let go of me.”

He let go when the bell on the door rang, but he leered at her chest, smacking his lips. Brandy hurried out to see about her next guests. It turned out to be the elderly Sims sisters, there for their Sunday afternoon coffee and pie. She’d almost forgotten about them.

Once she’d taken care of them, she took the tea pitcher over to the two bikers’ table and filled up their glasses again. West suddenly growled and took her wrist, pulling the tea pitcher out of her hand.

“Who did that to you?” he demanded.

“What?” She had no idea what he was talking about.

Kyle touched her arm where Jim had grabbed her. “This. You’ve got a mark on your arm. It wasn’t there earlier.”

“I ran into the cooler door when I was in the back,” she lied.

“It looks more like a handprint to me.” West let go of her arm and stared deep into her eyes.

“Please, no trouble. I’m fine.” She grabbed the tea pitcher and hurried to grab the coffeepot to refill the Sims sisters’ cups.

She tried to calm her racing heart. They hadn’t scared her. She’d been almost afraid of what they might do to Jim, and that was really sad. She’d felt cared about, though. That shook her up almost as much as just being near them did.

They finished their tea and walked up to pay their tab.

“The pie was wonderful. Thanks for cutting such big pieces for us.” Kyle smiled at her and paid for both of them.

West eased up closer to the register and leaned in. “If someone is bothering you, we’ll be happy to convince him to leave you alone.”

“No one is bothering me,” she said a little too high. She couldn’t keep the nervous flutter out of her voice.

“We’ll see you later, Brandy,” Kyle told her, and the two of them walked out of the diner.

She let out a sigh of relief then hurried over to see what the Sims sisters wanted.

“Those two rough-looking men were very kind to worry about you,” Etta, the older one, said.

“We all know how Jim is, and he’s obviously the one working today.” Emma, her sister, nodded her head.

“I’m fine. I can handle Jim.”

“We were just commenting that those two young men seemed really taken by you. Maybe you should primp up some for the next time they come in.” Etta smiled up at her.

“I don’t think they’re my type.”

“Nonsense, anyone who would defend a young lady is a good man. You can’t always go by how they look on the outside. It’s what is on the inside you have to consider.”

Brandy nodded and gave them their tickets. She checked them out as several others wandered into the diner. She was busy the rest of the afternoon and evening. When nine o’clock came, she had already cleaned everything and had the front looking spic and span. She’d been lucky not to have a customer the last fifteen minutes before she locked up for the night. She went to the back of the diner and hollered at Jim.

“I’m leaving now. I’ll lock the door behind me.” She hated the fact that she had to walk to the back to clock out.

“There’s bikers in town. You don’t need to be out by yourself at night. You know what happened to you last time.” Jim liked to rub it in that she’d been attacked.

“I’ll be fine. Night, Jim.” She clocked out and turned around to find him looming over her.

“I’ll walk you home. You don’t need to be out alone. I’ve finished everything up.” He grabbed her arm again.

She jerked her arm loose and went for the back door. She never went out that way because that was where she’d been attacked. It didn’t matter now. All that mattered was getting away from Jim.

She unlocked the deadbolt and hurried through the door before slamming it behind her. She nearly ran toward her house only to have Jim catch up with her.

“You are one crazy lady,” he complained. “Do you know you nearly closed my hand up in that fucking door?”

“Sorry, I’m in a hurry to get home. I want to watch the news on TV.”

He grabbed her arm and began walking with her in a hurried stride. She pulled against him.

“Let me go, Jim. I mean it. I don’t like you touching me.” She pulled against him.

“Just what do you like, anyway, Brandy? Maybe you just don’t like men. You never date.”

“How would you know if I dated or not?” She had a sneaky suspicion she wasn’t going to like his answer.

“I watch you. You don’t have men over, and you don’t go out. I bet you enjoy those toys you get in the mail, don’t you?”

“You’re looking at my mail?” She wrenched her arm away from him and rubbed it.

“You get some interesting packages.”

“Leave me the hell alone, Jim. I mean it.” She started walking off, and he grabbed her around the waist this time.

Suddenly the sounds of running feet reached them and Jim took the opportunity that her lack of attention gave him to wrap his arms around her tighter.

She struggled, getting ready to scream, when someone grabbed Jim from behind and jerked him free of her. Someone else gently held her in their arms as the other man hit Jim twice before letting him drop to the ground.

“Are you okay?” It was Kyle and West.

“Yeah, thanks. I’m fine.”

“What are you doing walking home alone at night?”

“It’s usually safe, and Jim isn’t usually so aggressive. This has never happened before with him.” She shivered and looked at where Jim was slowly getting to his feet, holding his nose.

“I’m going to press charges for hitting me,” he was whining.

“And I’ll tell the sheriff why you got hit.” She wasn’t going to let Kyle and West get into trouble because of her.

“Come on. We’ll walk you the rest of the way home,” West said, taking one of her hands in his.

Kyle took the other and they kept her between them. He squeezed her hand briefly.

“Where do you live?” Kyle asked.

“Just up the street here. It’s not a long walk, and usually Hal is working, so if it’s raining or I’m too tired to walk, he gives me a ride home.” She was babbling. Maybe Jim had upset her worse than she’d thought.

“It’s not safe anywhere for a young woman to be out walking alone at night,” Kyle told her.

“I guess not.” She turned toward her house. “This is it. I really appreciate your help with Jim. If you have any trouble with the sheriff, tell him to come see me. I’ll vouch for you.”

“We shouldn’t have trouble. Come on under the light and let us see how bad you’re hurt.” West walked up the steps to her porch and pulled her gently after him. Kyle followed and they inspected her arms where Jim had held her.

“You’re going to have bruises there. I should have given him more than a broken nose,” West fumed. “Look at those marks.”

“I’m fine, really. I’ve had worse. Thanks again for helping me.”

Before she knew what they were going to do, West leaned in and kissed her.

Chapter Three

He couldn’t help it. She called to him. West leaned in and kissed her. Gentle at first, it grew deeper when she opened to him. He felt Kyle move in to flank her, kissing her neck and along her jaw. She tasted like cotton candy at a fair. He wanted to gorge himself on her, but knew he was rushing things. He gently pulled back and noted that Kyle did the same.

“I–I,” she stuttered.

“I know we’re rushing things, but we want to take you out. Maybe to that steak house you mentioned. Would you let us?” Kyle always talked for them. He seemed to know what to say.

West never knew what to say. He was rough around the edges, and knew it. That might be why they worked so well together, why they were like brothers. He didn’t know, but he let Kyle lead.

“Out? You mean like a date?” she asked, clearly flustered.

“Right. A date,” Kyle said. He ran his finger along the edge of her jaw.

“I don’t know. Um, both of you?”

“Both of us,” West confirmed. He tried to keep his voice smooth, but he knew some of the roughness carried through.