Unattainable (Undeniable, #3)(55)
Ellie gave her a sideways glance. “Have they finally calmed down?”
Danny snorted. “Actually, yes. But I think it has more to do with the fact that Kami wants more kids and he doesn’t, so she’s taken to ignoring him entirely.”
“And you?” Ellie asked. “And Ripper? Things are good?”
Danny stopped walking and looked into Ellie’s eyes. “They’re better than good,” she said softly. “I-I’m so happy Ellie. I really, really am.”
Ellie stared at her old friend, feeling the sharp, unwelcome pang of jealousy rear its ugly head. What was wrong with her? First she was having baby envy and now this? Being beaten and nearly raped had seemingly stirred up doubts about her priorities in life, making her wish she’d maybe taken a different path.
No, she would never regret putting school and a career first. But maybe she sort of regretted not going on any dates in college, not really doing much of anything except studying. Her only boyfriend to date, a millionaire with a kink fetish who favored cream-colored cable knit sweaters…and existed only in the pages of a book.
Not that she was into kinky sex…or anything.
“Talkin’ ’bout me, beautiful girl?”
Ripper turned the corner, smiling at his wife and daughter, Dirty and Tap close behind him. But Ellie was only focused on Ripper. The last time she’d seen him, he’d been carting around his usual bottle of tequila and looking miserable. That was definitely not the case anymore. This was an entirely different man standing in front of her; a man whose entire world consisted of two heads of blonde hair, two sets of blue eyes, and dimples as far as the eye could see.
“Maybe,” Danny replied, smiling coyly. “If you’ve stopped being stupid about ZZ.”
Ripper’s smile melted into a soft, yet serious expression. “Yeah, baby,” he said quietly. “I’m good.”
“So f*ckin’ glad you’re both good,” Tap said, pushing past Ripper. “I for one ain’t f*ckin’ good. We’re locked the f*ck up for four more days and all the * inside this motherf*ckin’ club is all taken.”
“Shoulda stayed true to your old lady, brother,” Ripper said as he took Harley out of Danny’s arms and swung the little girl up over his head, setting her down on his shoulders. “Then she’d be locked up with ya instead of married to some f*ckin’ asshat down south.”
Opening his mouth, about to respond, Tap’s eyes landed on Ellie and his mouth abruptly closed. The grin that followed made her skin crawl. It wasn’t that he was a bad-looking man, maybe a little shorter than Ellie liked, but he was fit, clean, his long black hair was well taken care of, but the fact remained that he was old enough to be her father. If not older.
“Forgot about you,” Tap said, stepping forward. Ellie took a quick step back.
“Like big black asses and chocolate *,” Tap continued. “Don’t get enough of it ’round here.”
“Oh my God, Tap!” Danny shouted. “Little ears!”
Tap glanced over just as Dirty stepped forward, immediately dropping his head into Tap’s personal space. “Back the f*ck off her,” Dirty said darkly. “Or the only * you’ll ever be seein’ again is gonna be you cryin’ on the f*ckin’ floor after I drop your ass on it.”
Tap’s eyebrows shot up at the exact moment Ellie’s jaw dropped. She hadn’t grown up around the club life like Danny had, but she’d seen enough, knew enough to know that Deuce’s boys loved one another fiercely, that unless it was their women or their kids in question, they banded together. Them against the world.
Ellie wasn’t anyone’s woman; she wasn’t a biker brat, she wasn’t even friends with Danny anymore, not really, yet Dirty had just threatened Tap. For her.
“Come on, Ellie,” Danny said, sounding irritated. “I’ll find you a room. One of the boys can crash on a couch.”
Ellie yanked her arm back, a knee-jerk reaction out of fear, partially because she was more than jumpy lately and Danny had caught her off guard, but mostly because of Tap’s behavior.
“No,” she said. “Thank you, but I’ll, uh, stay with Dirty.”
“What?” Danny asked, gaping at her. In fact, everyone was gaping at her. Even Dirty.
Why was everyone staring at her as if she’d suddenly lost her mind? She felt safe with Dirty; he’d saved her life, for God’s sake. So what if he had issues? She had plenty of issues herself lately and Dirty, of all people, understood. Whatever had happened to him as a child, he knew exactly how she was feeling, maybe even better than she did.
“You can have the room,” Dirty said as he backed away from Tap. “I’ll sleep up front.”
Ellie didn’t like that idea either. With men like Tap crawling all over the club, she didn’t want to be alone in the middle of the night. In fact, the more she thought about it, she never wanted to be alone anywhere ever again.
God, she felt pathetic. Helpless, powerless. She couldn’t even save her own life.
“You don’t have to,” Ellie said quietly, her eyes focused solely on Dirty. “I would feel…better…if you stayed with me.”
? ? ?
Dirty tried his best to ignore the three shocked sets of eyes burning holes into him as he stared back at Ellie, but there was no ignoring the thundering rattle of his heart trying to pound its way out of his chest.