Angel's Halo Read online

  Spider’s only twenty-four but he looks older than Jet who’s thirty-one. He’s got a shaved head and ties a bandana around it. The bull ring draws my eyes to the crookedness of his nose. It’s been broken at least twice and has never been set properly. His goatee is dark brown and hides the dimple in his chin. He’s wearing a shirt with this rock band that we all like on it. As tight as that shirt is over his hard chest, I always snicker at the thought of him hulking out, which he can do in the blink of an eye, and destroying the shirt. Old jeans hang off his narrow hips. His size fifteen boots stomp toward me.

  “Someone touch you, Rave?” he asks as he comes closer. “Do I need to take care of someone?”

  The rule that no one touches Raven Hannigan is the one rule that Spider makes sure is enforced. Jet had made sure of that. That doesn’t mean I hadn’t tried to tempt him when I was on the rebound. “No, no. I have to take care of something for Hawk and I was hoping you could come with me and Flick.”

  “Sure. I’ve always got time for you.”

  It takes us twenty minutes to get to Gracie’s apartment just a block from the university. Spider leads the way up two flights of stairs and knocks on the door, keeping his spider tattoo turned away from the peep hole as we wait for Janice to answer the door. The tattoo is the scariest part of Spider. No one could see it and not know that he’s a very dangerous man. So he keeps the pretty boy side of his face to the hole, and I know that Janice won’t be able to resist opening the door for that.

  I glance at Felicity who already has her phone out, ready to record what’s about to go down. Janice isn’t going to like it when the tables are turned and someone records her being humiliated.

  The door opens and a breathless Janice stares up at Spider, her cow eyes eating him up. He steps back and I stick my head around his wide shoulders. “Hi there,” I greet with a smile that’s pure evil. She squeaks in surprise at my sudden appearance. “Are you Janice?”

  “Um … yeah …” She looks hesitantly up at my friend and then back at me. “Do I know you?”

  Felicity sticks her head around Spider next. “Nope, but you’re about to know her a lot better.” She scrunches her nose up in a way that’s so cute and belies every evil thought flashing in her mind right now.

  I step around Spider and pat his hard chest. Sadly, I don’t get butterflies in my stomach when I touch him like that. My panties don’t melt when I smell his unique male scent. I haven’t been able to feel anything since I decided to use Spider as my rebound sex slave after Bash left me. Something I tried, but couldn’t go through with. The only reason I wanted to use him was because I knew it would hurt Bash the most if I went from him to his best friend—Spider. He’s my friend too and has only ever been my friend. He cares about me as deeply as if I’m a sister, so I’m not even sure if he could have gone through with it if I’d been able to.

  So I know he’ll do anything I ask him to. “You stand guard, Spider.” I take another step closer to Janice, pushing her back into the little apartment. “I get to have all the fun this time.”

  Bash

  My mouth tightens when I saw the video Felicity messaged me. It should amuse me. Should have me laughing my head off as I show it to Hawk, who sits like a storm cloud beside me as we downed another beer in what Raven calls the Originals’ booth.

  Instead of a smile, my lips twist in rage as I watch the beginning of Felicity’s video again and again. All I can see is Raven’s graceful, long-fingered hand touch Spider’s chest. I keep repeating those five seconds over and over. See the hand that had once touched me so lovingly, with such passion … Touching. Fucking. Spider.

  “Would you like some glass to chomp on while you crush your phone, my brother?”

  My head barely lifts and I glare at Raider, who has set another bottle of beer down in front of me. “Why would your sister take Spider and not one of you?”

  Amusement fills his green eyes, and I want to punch Raider’s pretty boy face so bad that my hands squeeze into fists. When I feel my phone give out just a little in my left hand. I realize I will destroy it and toss my phone onto the table beside me. “Spider isn’t anything to worry about, Bash.”

  “Does that mean there is someone that I do need to worry about?”

  Raider shrugs. “I’m not the one you should ask. Fuck, I didn’t have a clue that we should have been worried about you for months, man. If you want to know so bad, talk to Raven.”

  Hawk reaches for my phone and hits play. The screams of a girl I have never met fill the quietness of the bar, and some of the storm that surrounds him starts to disperse. He grins for the first time today. “Well, you tell her to do something and she gets thorough, doesn’t she.”

  “That’s Raven.” Raider drops down across from us, and we both watch Hawk closely. “What do you want to do about the frat house?”

  “Burn it to the ground,” he bites out as he continues to watch his sister beat Janice bloody.

  “I’ll call the boys.” Raider says, nodding. “What are you going to do about the girl?”

  My phone lands on the table with a loud thump. “Fuck if I know.”

  The three of us are still sitting there drinking beers an hour later when Felicity walks into the bar. She takes Raider’s beer and downs the rest of the half-full bottle before speaking. “Well, that was fun.”

  “Where’s Raven?” I ask, hoping that she’s just taking her time and will walk in at any second.

  “It’s Saturday,” Raider answers for her. “She’s doing the books for the Originals.”

  “She’s doing Razor’s books right now.” Felicity informs me, peeling at the paper on the empty beer bottle. “Spider had a big back piece to start on so she just went with him.”

  I stand, feeling restless and agitated. I don’t give a fuck what Raider says. Spider is definitely something I should worry about. “I think I need a new back piece,” I tell the three people still sitting at the booth, staring up at me as if I’m insane. Yeah, I probably am. “Raider, you handle the men. We will meet here at midnight and ride over.”

  I don’t give him time to do more than nod before I walk toward the exit. My blood simmers the entire ride over to Razor’s Ink Shop. If I get there and his hands are on her, I will fucking gut that motherfucker!

  There are two hogs parked in the parking lot. One I recognize as Spider’s, the other belongs to a newer Angel’s Halo member. I’m not even sure I remembered the guy’s name. There are thirty-seven active members in the club in Creswell Springs. I can’t be expected to remember everyone’s name.

  I park my bike and walk inside. There’s a flat screen on the back wall in the front room. Rock videos play at a moderate volume which doesn’t drown out the buzzing of the tattoo gun as Spider works on the man’s bare back. I see that the ink piece was a brand. The guy’s putting his girl’s name on his skin. Obviously the chick is going to be his for life. Bikers don’t put just any female’s name on them.

  The sound of the door slamming behind me has Spider lifting his hand and turning in his chair to see who has dared enter his domain unannounced. When he sees me his eyes darken. “Well, if it isn’t the big bad new president.” He turns his back and starts working on the ink again. “What do you want?”

  “She here?”

  “If by she you mean Raven, then yeah. She’s in the back handling the books.” He adds more color to the needle of the tattoo gun and continues with sure, deft strokes. “As you can see, boss man, I’m busy. No free time to damage the goods and all that bullshit that must be like a cancer eating up your sanity.”

  I grit my teeth and move farther into the shop. When I’m a few feet away, I pull up a chair and flip it around. Straddling it, I watch my old friend work magic on the young biker’s back. “She come to you when I left?”

  “None of your fucking business.”

  “She fuck you?”

  Spider’s hand lifts again. “You really want to get into this now, boss man? Because I don’t have a prob
lem making you eat a few teeth.”

  The younger biker doesn’t even move as he listens to us. He knows better than to repeat anything he hears right now.

  “Answer me, James.”

  Spider’s eyes darken even more. No one calls him James anymore. It’s disrespectful and I know I’m being a bastard. Spider has helped me when I didn’t have anywhere else I could turn. He’s four years younger than me, but he’s always been the closest friend that I’ve ever had. I’m not sorry though. The image of Raven’s hands on Spider’s chest flash behind my eyes, and I’m ready to make him swallow a few teeth of his own.

  “Did she touch you like she loves to touch me?” I demand in a voice that’s calm, completely deceptive of the rage boiling in my veins.

  “You are such a bastard, man.” Spider stands, placing his tattoo gun aside carefully. He pulls his black, rubber gloves off and tosses them in a wastebasket beside the table that holds all of his equipment. As he slowly turns to face me, he pops his neck.

  “Did she?”

  “You want the truth?” he grits out in that gruff voice that sounds like he smokes five packs a day, but it’s really his natural tone. I slowly nod, not sure if I’m telling the truth or not. “She was a fucking mess. I saw it. I felt her pain. But she never let herself cry. Not one tear fell from those pretty eyes. One night she got so shitfaced she didn’t know what she was doing. She wanted human contact. Someone to tell her that she was good enough. That someone wasn’t you, so she came to me. Did I fuck her? No. But not because I didn’t want to. Because if there was one drop of what she feels for you in what she feels for me, I would’ve jumped on board faster than it took you to decide to break her heart.”

  Relief rushes through me and my shoulders relax just a little. “So she would rather come to you than her brothers?”

  “We’re friends. I was the shoulder she needed to lean on when the ones she wanted were off fucking her heart up.” He stands there, vibrating with anger. I can see it, know that he hates me just as much as I hate myself. I hadn’t just left him to deal with Raven’s broken heart. I’d left him without a backwards glance too.

  But he’s wrong. I’ve glanced back a million times every day for the past year.

  Chapter 10

  Raven

  I hear his voice and freeze in my chair. Maybe they think I can’t hear them. Maybe they just don’t care. But each word that Spider speaks opens the wounds that I promised myself had been cauterized a long time ago. Humiliation fills me and my stomach clenches in protest. I hate the memories of how I was right after Bash had left me, hate that he still has the power to make me hurt to my bones and even deeper—to my soul.

  Unable to just sit there, I toss my pencil aside and stand. I’m in the back office with the door open so I don’t make much noise as I moved down the hall and enter the front room of the shop. Spider stands with his arms crossed over his massive chest, glaring down at the man that had once been his best friend. Bash just sits straddling his chair as he returns the glare.

  I clear my throat, forcing their gaze to me. Instead of continuing to look at them I glance at Tim instead. “I’m sure Brandie is going to love that surprise. When are you two getting married?”

  Tim offers me a small smile but doesn’t make eye contact. “A few more weeks now.”

  “Well, congratulations. I know she’s excited.”

  “Thanks, Raven.”

  I move toward the front counter where a mini fridge is stocked with Cokes and bottles of water. I pull a water out and take a long swallow before turning back to face the three men. “Well, since the conversation seems to be so entertaining out here, I think I’ll get back to work.”

  Before I disappear down the hall, I glance back over my shoulder to see Spider with an apology in his eyes. I flip him the finger and keep walking. In the back office that no one ever uses except for me, I start working on Razor’s books again. Of all the Originals who I do books for, I hate doing Razor’s the most. Even after spending three solid weeks organizing things so I won’t have to dig and dig and dig to find the things I need each week, it’s a serious headache to find what’s what.

  I know he was standing there before I even raise my head. Bash is a predator that can move quietly so his prey won’t even know he was coming in for the kill. Only he doesn’t understand that I have a sixth sense where he’s concerned and I can feel him. A delicious shiver slithers down my spine while my fingertips tingle so badly I have to clench them into fists to keep from reaching for him.

  My nipples harden as soon as I feel his eyes on my bent head, and I hate my own body for betraying me. Slowly, I lift my head and boldly meet his silver-blue eyes. “Did you get the answers you came for?”

  “Has there been anyone else?” he asks, his eyes not holding the apology that Spider’s offered me. This is the possessive beast that had captured my heart all those years ago. Christ, I’m a masochist when it comes to him.

  I raise a brow and offer him a smile that doesn’t reach my eyes. “Who would be stupid enough to even come running if I happened to crook my finger, Bash? Between you and Jet, every man within a hundred mile radius is too terrified to so much as make eye contact. In case it’s slipped your mind, I don’t go for pussy boys.”

  “Why Spider?”

  “Because I knew it would hurt you the most,” I tell him honestly. “And because he was man enough to give me what I wanted. Only, I wasn’t able to feel anything. I knew after the first kiss that I wasn’t going to be able to go through with it. He bundled me up and took me home.”

  There’s no use in lying to him about any of it. Spider has already told him the majority of it anyway. I was broken when Bash left. For days, I walked around like a zombie, shocked that the man I wanted above anything and everything else had just walked away from everything that he’d ever known just to get away from me.

  Refusing to let myself feel that pain ever again, I turn the tables on him. “Has there been anyone else?”

  “No.” His answer is firm without a single hesitation. There’s no flutter of his lashes, the only sign that he’s lying. Maybe no one else has ever noticed that about Bash, but I did. Just as I notice everything else about him. “There hasn’t been anyone but you since the night you stitched my arm.”

  “If you say so.” I may believe him, but I’m not going to make it easy for him. “I’m busy here, Bash. And once I’m finished I have to get over to the garage and start on Uncle Jack’s. He’s expanded the bike shop and I have a shitload of work that needs my attention before I make it into the bar tonight.” Between Razor and Uncle Jack, my Saturdays are busy. I usually have to make time for the other Originals’ books later in the week.

  “Hawk needs to hire more help.”

  I roll my eyes. “Raider does the hiring. Guess what happens once the new girls find out that he’s got a line of girls.”

  “You end up having to work yourself to death.” He drops down into the chair in front of my desk. When he stretches out crossing his legs in front of him and putting those deadly arms behind his head, I glare at him. “What? You don’t have your car. Spider is busy. Once you’re finished you are going to need a ride over to Uncle Jack’s.”

  “I can call Flick.”

  “I will take you, Raven.” He gives me a smirk that tells me he’s not going anywhere. “Just pretend that I’m not here.”

  Easier said than done! I glare at him for a full minute before forcing my attention on the numbers and invoices. It’s hard to concentrate with him sitting there. The numbers start to blur I’m focusing so hard on them in my attempt to block him out. Muttering a curse, I drop the pencil and glare at him again. “I’m hungry.” I didn’t have breakfast that morning and it’s well past lunch time now. It’s also the only thing I know that will get him up and out of the office.

  He stands. “What would you like?”

  “A steak sandwich from Aggie’s,” I tell him, and my stomach actually growls at the thought of getting one
of her sandwiches. “With onion rings and blue cheese instead of ketchup.”

  “Anything else?”

  I shake my head. “No.” I watch him walk away, relieved to have at least thirty minutes of alone time so I can focus on getting this done.

  By the time Bash returns, forty-five minutes later, I’m nearly finished and starting to get frustrated because my stomach really is making noises I can’t ignore anymore. I smell the delicious aroma that can’t be mistaken as anything other than Aggie’s, and moments later Bash appears in the doorway of the office with my food.

  “Was she crazy busy?” I ask, knowing that on Saturdays Aggie’s is crawling with not only bikers but college kids and the braver of the Creswell Springs’ occupants.

  Bash sits the bag on the corner of the desk, offering me a to-go cup of Aggie’s special sweet tea. He remembers that I’m addicted to her tea. “She was run off her feet, even with six waitresses and three cooks in the back. But when I asked her to make your food, because I know you hate other people touching your stuff, she dropped everything to get it for me.”

  I can’t help but snicker. “You mean Aggie dropped everything for you. She loves you more than anyone else.” I pull out my steak sandwich. It’s loaded with steak, onions, banana and green peppers, mayo, steak sauce, and cheese sauce on freshly baked French bread. I nearly moaned at the heavenly scent. Next comes the onion rings. Double dipped in batter and crispy. A cup of blue cheese dressing follows and I nearly melt.

  “Where’s yours?” I ask around a mouthful of onion rings.

  “Aggie kept shoving plates in front of me while I was waiting on your food. I’m stuffed.” He has a second bag in his hand which he placed carefully on the desk beside my tea. “Dessert.”