WOLF: An Evil Dead MC Story (The Evil Dead MC Series Book 4) (3 page)

She noticed the men’s eyes touch on Jason, and then slide past him to land on her. None of them welcomed him or smiled. The most he got was a nod, but several, she noticed, shook their heads after he’d past as if he was a loser not worth their time. But it wasn’t so much the looks they gave Jason that worried her as it was the looks they gave her. They were intense, hungry, filled with more than a little interest, and these men didn’t have any problem letting her see it.

She and Jason made it to the bar on the right and sidled up to Marnie, who had a place of honor on one of the few barstools.

Marnie turned when she saw them and Jason leaned down, his head dipping to hear her as she grabbed a handful of his shirt and pulled him close. Whatever she yelled to Jason, Crystal couldn’t hear it over the blasting music. She let her eyes move to the man sitting next to Marnie with his hand on her thigh and his other holding a beer. He was older. Crystal figured he was maybe in his forties, which put him quite a bit older than Marnie, who Crystal knew was only a couple years older than Crystal’s age, which was twenty-two.

She studied him. His dark hair was graying at the temples, but he was still a very attractive man. Power radiated off him, something Crystal knew Marnie was drawn to. Yes, she could see his appeal. But at the same time, Crystal recognized the fact that he could be a dangerous man.

Mack was his name. Crystal had heard Marnie talk about him often enough over the last few weeks. Mack
this
and Mack
that
. That’s all she’d talked about.

Crystal watched him raise his beer bottle, and then pause for a moment with it half way to his mouth as his eyes connected with hers. She felt a chill run over her skin as she looked into those eyes. Yes, he was definitely not someone to mess with. Breaking eyes contact with her, he waved two fingers at the guy behind the bar and then nodded his head toward her and Jason. A moment later, two bottles of beer were being set before them.

Crystal’s eyes connected with his again, and she mouthed the words, “Thank you.”

He winked at her, and then turned and began speaking to the guy next to him.

A couple of hours later, the party was getting wild, Marnie was getting drunk and loud, and Crystal was starting to get a headache. She made her way through the crowd to a filthy bathroom down the hall. She splashed some water on her face and looked in the small cracked mirror above the grimy sink. She was long past ready to go, but she knew Jason wasn’t anywhere near ready to leave yet.

She’d seen a side of him tonight she’d never seen before. And she didn’t like it. She’d also seen the looks the members gave him. And she could see in their expressions that they put up with him because Mack was with his sister. And that was the
only
reason they didn’t run his ass off the property. She was amazed Jason didn’t see it. Maybe he did. Or more likely he was so caught up in thinking he was really something, hanging with the big dogs. And she imagined somewhere in his mind, he may even be entertaining thoughts of actually becoming a member one day. If he did, those thoughts were delusional. This bunch would never really let him in. They’d tolerate him as a hang-around, but he’d never be prospect material. Even she could see that.

Yes, she could read all of that on this very first night she’d come up here.

They’d partied and had a good time tonight, but Crystal had a feeling it would be the last time she’d ever attend one of these parties. Jason had been acting like a know-it-all ass all night. And for the first time, she was embarrassed to be with him.

Slinging her leather shoulder bag on the edge of the sink, she began rummaging through it until she dug out a small bottle of aspirin. She shook out a couple of tablets and popped them in her mouth. Then she cupped her hand under the faucet and brought it to her mouth to chase the pills down.

Twisting the cap back on the bottle, she jammed it back in her bag and took out a lip gloss to quickly swipe some on. When she was through, she checked her look in the mirror, fiddled with her hair a bit and turned toward the door. As she headed down the hall and back into the big room, she immediately knew something was different. Half the guys were shoving out of the front door. Glancing over to the end of the bar, where they’d been standing, she noticed the stools were now empty and there was broken glass all over the floor.

What the hell had happened?

Crystal made her way out the front door as well. She pushed through the crowd and out to the parking lot where she found Jason, Marnie, Mack and half the club.

Marnie was shouting at Mack.

“You’re being an ass.”

Mack was ordering her brother off the property. And according to him, Marnie was welcome to ‘take her bitchy ass with him’.

The next thing Crystal knew, Jason was driving off the lot with Marnie in the rebuilt ’78 black corvette that he and Crystal had arrived in.

As she stood there, staring after the car, she’d wondered how the hell she was going to get home. The asshole had just left her there. And in a way, she was glad.

Turning, she walked back into the clubhouse and returned to the spot they’d been occupying at the end of the bar. She needed to get her jacket, which she’d left there. As she gathered it up, she looked down at the broken glass, where the tussle had obviously started. Grabbing a waste basket from behind the bar, she bent and began picking up the broken pieces, completely embarrassed that she was even connected with those two.

A few moments later, a pair of boots appeared in her peripheral vision. She turned her head, her eyes following up the legs to look up at the man who stood over her. Her eyes took in the leather cut and then his face. Good God, but he was gorgeous. He had dark hair and a beard and the sexiest brown eyes she’d ever seen. He was intimidating as hell with the stern look on his face as he stared down at her a long moment. Then as Crystal knelt there, stupidly mute, the stern look faded and his warm brown eyes crinkled at the corner as he smiled, revealing gorgeous white teeth.

“You don’t have to do that, darlin’. That’s what we’ve got prospects for.” His eyes cut over her head to the man behind the bar, who turned his palms up and shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t have a clue why she was down on her knees.

Before she could respond, Mack appeared at the man’s side, also staring down at her.

She looked up at him and apologized, even though
she
hadn’t done anything wrong. “I’m so sorry. We were guests here. That shouldn’t have happened.”

She wasn’t even sure what she was apologizing for, since she wasn’t even sure what actually
had
happened. She supposed she was just apologizing for Jason being a jerk.

Mack put it more bluntly.

“You’re man’s a dick.”

She nodded. After tonight, she couldn’t help but agree with him. “I’m beginning to see that.”

“Why the hell are you with him?” the other man asked.

“I’m starting to wonder that myself,” she murmured. “It’s becoming apparent he’s just a braggart and a jerk.”

“You’re the only one out of the three that gave a shit enough to apologize. And you didn’t even do anything,” Mack noted.

“I’m so embarrassed they acted like that.”

Mack nodded. “Thanks for caring enough to do that,” he’d lifted his chin to the waste basket in her hand, “but that’s not your responsibility.”

Crystal looked down at the glass remaining on the floor. “Still. I feel bad. Let me at least pick up the glass.”

Mack studied her with a frown, as if he didn’t understand her logic at all. Then he’d shocked her by caring enough to say, “Since your ride left without you, Wolf will take you home.”

Then he’d turned and walked off.

She looked up at the man he’d called Wolf. He nodded to Mack, and then his eyes dropped to her. He offered her his hand. “Come on, darlin’.”

She put her hand in his, and he helped her up, their eyes holding. Then he turned and led her out to his bike.

“What’s your name?” he asked as he handed her his helmet to put on. Up until that point, Crystal had never even been on a bike before. She took the helmet and strapped it on. “Crystal.”

He nodded. “You live with Jason?”

“
I did
. Probably not after tonight.”

“You got a place you can stay tonight? A girlfriend or family?”

She nodded. “A girlfriend.”

He ended up taking her to Jason’s place so she could pack a quick bag. Luckily Jason wasn’t there, so she hadn’t had to run into him. When she came back out, Wolf had glanced around. “You got a car?”

“Yes. Jason’s driving it.”

He whistled and asked in an impressed voice, “That ‘vette’s yours?”

She smiled. “He rebuilt it for me for a birthday present. Jason’s kind of a gearhead.”

Wolf nodded. “He give you the title?”

And Crystal’s stomach had sunk. Actually, he hadn’t. “No.”

He nodded, and then let the subject drop. “Climb on, cupcake.”

He took her to her friend’s apartment.

When he dropped her off, she thought she’d never see him again. But the next morning he pulled up driving her ‘vette. One of his club brothers pulled up behind him in an old pickup truck. When she came outside, Wolf climbed out of the driver’s side.

“That’s a sweet ride, girl.”

She looked at him in amazement as she approached him. He grinned, lifted her hand and dropped the keys and title into them. She looked down at them, dumbfounded. “How did you…?”

He grinned and shrugged. “Green and I can be real persuasive when we need to be.”

She looked down at the title. “He signed it over to me?”

“Yup. There’s a bill of sale in the glove box. It says you paid him a hundred bucks for it. Just take it down to the DMV and get the car put in your name.”

She looked up at him in awe. “Thank you.”

He winked at her.

That’s when Green leaned out the driver’s window of the truck. “Your boyfriend’s a douche, darlin’.”

Wolf looked over the hood at him. “I don’t think he’s her boyfriend anymore, Green.”

“Then hell, come on back to the clubhouse next weekend.” Green grinned at her and waggled his eyebrows.

The next thing she knew, Wolf was backing her against the side of the car, boxing her in. “He’s right. Mack told me to tell you you’re still welcome anytime, darlin’.”

“Oh, did he?” She said breathlessly, more than a little affected by him.

“Tonight’s Fight Night. I’ll pick you up.”

“You’re picking me up?”

He put his hands on the roof of the ‘vette on either side of her. “You got a problem with that?”

Staring up into his eyes, she shook her head. “Nope.”

He grinned and winked. Then his hands slid from the roof, he stepped back and turned and walked back to the truck. Green put it in gear and they pulled out.

And she’d stood there, staring after it, until the truck had disappeared around a corner and was long gone.

Crystal shook the memory away and punched in some songs on the juke box and moved to the closet to get the mop and bucket on wheels. She poured some soap in and filled it with hot water. Then rolled it out and began mopping. Mack and Red Dog began upturning barstools, setting them on the bar top.

When they were finished, Mack called over to her, “I’ll be in my office. Dog and Cole are waiting out front. Hurry up, babe. I want to be out of here by one.”

“I’ve just got the bar area left.”

He nodded and walked off.

She continued mopping and when she was through, she rolled the mop bucket out back where she could dump the water. She took it down the hall and into the big back room to the utility sink in the corner. She dumped out the water, watching the last of it swirl down the drain. When she was finished, she looked around the big back room.

The Evil Dead clubhouse was in an old two story brick manufacturing building. The front contained an open area the club used as their main room. There was an old conference room they used for their meetings and one office that Mack used. On the second floor were the old offices, the doors of each still had the frosted glass on the top half with the black lettering on them proclaiming what each was. Accounting, Engineering, Purchasing, President, Vice President, etc.

Mack, Cole and some of the other members used those rooms as their personal rooms at the club.

But out in back on the first floor was a huge open area that had originally housed the manufacturing machinery. It was all long gone, but the club had a special use for the cavernous space. They held their monthly fight nights here. They had a steel cage and everything. Ultimate fighting. Two guys would climb in the cage and beat the shit out of each other, and the boys would bet on the outcome. It was a popular night and always packed the house.

Crystal shoved the mop and bucket in a corner and wandered over to the cage, leaning her forehead against it. Her mind drifted back to the first time she’d seen Wolf fight. It was the first time she’d seen him with his shirt off and good God, the man was gorgeous. All muscle and beautiful tattooed skin.