Move the Sun (Signal Bend #1)(7)

Jimmy was too messed up to speak. Isaac righted a chair, sat him down on it, and nodded for Dan to bring Meg over, too. Once Dan had charge of errant husband and wife, Isaac went to the bar. The rest of his brothers and the other patrons were setting the bar to rights. There was heavy damage this time, though.

Dammit. The Horde coffers weren’t empty, but they weren’t so full they wouldn’t feel the hit.

Tuck was leaning on the bar, considering the scene. Isaac leaned over and put his hand on Tuck’s shoulder. “Sorry, man. We’ll get it straight by tomorrow afternoon.”

The old guy nodded. “I know. Thanks, Ike. Will okay?”

Isaac looked over and saw Will standing, his shirt open and a gauze bandage on his side. Rose had gotten her share of first aid practice over the years. “Seems to be.” He turned back to Tuck. “You know what Jimmy and Will are beefin’ about? That was no friendly disagreement.”

Tuck shook his head slowly. “They came in together, looked normal to me.”

Isaac considered that. Jimmy and his old lady had come in armed. That was a massive transgression, and they knew it. Something was up. He was looking forward to sitting down with the Sullivans tonight.

Havoc had come in, and he and Dan were leading them out.

Now, though, the girl known as Sport was walking up to him, a wry smirk on her face and two beers in her hand. She held one out to him. “This is how you make your fun around here, huh?”

He took the beer and drank half down all at once. “Well, that was more fun than usual, but you know.

Find it where you can.” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “You handled yourself, though. Got a self-defense class in your back pocket?”

She was drinking as he talked, and he watched her throat move again, entranced. When she pulled the bottle away, she was wearing that wry, enigmatic smirk. “Something like that.” She finished the beer and set the bottle on the bar. “Welp, I’m out. Interesting place you got here. Thanks for the Welcome Wagon.” She turned and walked out.

Holy f*ck. Her ass. How had he missed that? He drained his beer and went after her.

She was moving fast and almost at her car when he got outside. “Wait up, Sport!” he called. She reached her car before she turned, crossed her arms, and waited.

When he was standing in front of her, looking down into those sardonic eyes, he said, “Still don’t know your name.”

“I have an idea you will soon enough. Why spoil your fun?” She put her hand on the door handle. Isaac was amped up from the fight and seriously intrigued by this woman. Acting on animal instinct more than anything else, he wrapped his hand around her slight wrist and pulled it away from the handle. She let him, still smirking.

With his other hand on her shoulder, he pushed her back against the Camaro. He leaned in close and murmured, “Something tells me you’re a lot of fun, Sport.” He kissed her.

Though she didn’t kiss him back at first, she didn’t resist, either. Her lips were warm, soft, and supple, and when he pushed his tongue against them, she opened her mouth and let him in. With a pleased growl, he released her wrist and shoulder so that he could cradle her face and kiss her properly.

Her tongue came alive then, undulating against his, and her arms snaked around his neck. He felt her wrapping his braid around her hand, and then she pulled it over his shoulder, bringing him even closer as she sucked his lower lip between her teeth, biting down. He was completely hard, his cock constricted in the leg of his jeans. When he dropped his hands to her hips and brought her tightly against him, she pulled away a bit. She licked her lips and looked up at him, her eyes contemplative.

He smiled. “Ah, Sport. I want to play with you. I got some business I need to take care of tonight, though. Pick this up later?”

“Won’t rule it out.” Damn, he was already growing to love that knowing smile. He kissed her quickly and put her in her car. As he watched her drive away, his smile became a snarl. He was extra pissed at the Sullivans now. They’d f*cked up what would have been a really delightful night.

oOo

Isaac pulled up to the Night Horde clubhouse feeling agitated and angry. He glanced around the lot; looked like he was the last one in. Good. That’s how he liked it. He hated waiting for other people.

The Night Horde no longer ran a business per se, not a strictly legit one, anyway. In the town’s heyday and for some time after that, they’d run a construction company, but there wasn’t anything to build these days. By all appearances, they now were simply a recreational club. Wyatt and Victor had family farms.

Havoc, Dan, and Bart worked at Keyes Implement Repair, fixing tractors, threshers, and the like.

Showdown ran the feed store. Len owned the hardware store. CJ lived off his army pension. Isaac . . . well.

As a club, they earned three ways, the most lucrative of which by far was running protection and enforcement on the local meth pipeline from Crawford County, northeast to St. Louis and into Illinois, and southwest to Springfield, Joplin, and as far as Tulsa. They took a share from both sides of the line. No one in the club liked it, but meth was a way of life in mid-Missouri, and the only way to control it was to, in fact, control it. Help the local cookers get their product to a wider clientele. They ran it out of Signal Bend.

All of it. Out. Let the cities deal with it.

Anyone who tried to keep it local had his mind changed.