Page 4 of Rattler
Apparently, she thought so.I held my hands up.“I just wanted to talk.I’m not going to harm you.”
She didn’t look convinced.“Tim send you?”
I frowned, taking in her battered appearance.“Tim the guy that did that to you?”
She didn’t answer for a moment, and the gun didn’t waver.“Fuck off.”
I had to work at not smiling.The swear words sounded cute coming out of such a tiny thing.“No, I have no fucking idea who Tim is.I just saw you come in and nick that muffin and wondered if maybe you needed a hand.I paid for the muffin, by the way, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
She snorted.“Not high on my list of worries right now.”
“Fair enough.”I gestured at the ground.“Doesn’t look all that comfortable down there.Care to come back into the bakery and we can talk?”
“Why would I want to talk to you?”
I shrugged.“I’m a nice guy.No offense, but it’s pretty obvious you’re running from someone.Maybe I can help.Do you have somewhere to go?I can offer you and your little companion there a ride.”
Her eyes narrowed, and I could see her calculate the odds of me being a serial killer.“I’m looking for the Riptide MC.Do you know where to find them?”
It was my turn to be cautious.“Maybe.What’s your connection to them?”
She took a deep breath.“I had a brother.He was a Navy SEAL, and he always said when he got out he was going to look them up, maybe join them.”Her voice had a slight hitch in it as she continued.“I thought maybe they could help me.He talked about them lots, and they sounded like decent guys.”
Interesting story, just not sure I believed it.“Who’s your brother?”
“None of your business.Do you know where I can find them, or not?”
“Maybe, but that’s not the kind of thing you just blurt out to anyone.For all I know you could be a spy, or a murderer or one of the guy’s exes looking for revenge.I happen to like the Riptide guys.”
She shook her head.“Do I look like a murderer?”
Yeah, with that gun pointed at me, the safety off, it looked like a possibility.Time to quit playing nice guy.I took two steps forward in quick succession and wrapped an arm around her.Grabbing the gun by the barrel, I twisted it out of her hand, making sure to keep the muzzle pointed away from both of us.I flicked the safety back on.“Not anymore.Didn’t that brother of yours tell you not to point a gun at anyone unless you’re willing to use it?”
I still held her against me, and she felt good.Soft in all the right places.My mind flashed to wondering how soft her skin would feel without all these clothes between us.
She glared up at me.“Give it back, and we’ll see who I’m willing to shoot.”
I chuckled, letting her go reluctantly.I tucked the gun into the waistband of my pants.“I’m not that dumb.You might shoot me just to prove your point, and then who’s going to look after the kitten?I’m not really a cat person.Now tell me who your brother is.”
“Was,” she corrected me.
That hit home.More than one of the guys I’d served with hadn’t made it back.“Fair enough.And I promise, if your story makes sense, I will tell you how to find the Riptide compound.”
“Jack.His name was Jack Patterson.”
The hint of tears in her voice hit me right in the gut.And yeah, I’d known Jack.We’d been in the same platoon, although not in the same squad.“I’m sorry.He was a good man.”
“You knew him?”She blinked up at me, and I could tell she was fighting back the urge to break down completely and cry.
“Yeah.He was in my platoon, which is why he knew so much about Riptide.We all talked about what we’d do when we got back stateside.”
She tilted her head, confusion on her face.
I turned around so she could see the colors on the back of my cut.“I told him to look us up when he got out.”
“You’re part of Riptide?”
I pivoted back to face her.“Yeah.I’m the VP.Vice President.”
