Breathing His Air

by Debra Kayn

  “Agreed.” He looked at Tori. “You okay, babe?”

  The anger and testosterone ran thick in the room. Jedman stood off to the side, arms crossed, glaring. Over by the pool table, Taylor stood, nibbling on the tip of her fingernail, barely looking at her since she’d arrived.

  “You should make a report. Let the police deal with them.” She scooted to the edge of her chair. “Or let me leave. Then you won’t have to worry about them. They’ll follow me out of town.”

  “No. Staying. Safe,” Rain bit out, and Tori knew there was no talking to him when he threw out short orders.

  He’d already gone into biker mode. As soon as he’d slipped his leathers on after making love with her this morning, he was all business. She stood, unable to sit still while everyone planned her life.

  “Think about it, Rain. Calling the Lagsturns out will only piss them off more. Right now, their focus is on me, for whatever stupid reason. If you go in there all manly, throwing your big bad self around and trying to order him around the way you do me, it’ll make him even madder. What about Taylor or Gladys? I won’t have you bring them trouble. They don’t deserve it.” She lifted her chin and crossed her arms. “I can handle it. What’s a little harassment from another scary-ass dude? I can handle you, can’t I?”

  A chair scraped in the silence. Jedman moved in beside her and growled. She retreated as Rain stalked toward her, thinking it was a bad decision to try to hide from him. If she wanted them to believe she was tough enough to outrun some psycho on a motorcycle, she’d have to face down Rain when he was in scary mode.

  He stood toe-to-toe with her. She straightened her shoulders. “You don’t scare me.”

  His cheek twitched, and the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkled. Then he laughed through the kiss he gave her. She’d never kissed someone and absorbed his laughter before, and the sensation wasn’t as awkward as she’d thought it would be. In fact, the hum against her lips felt rather pleasant as if they shared a joke. She sagged against him, out of fluff and toughness.

  He cupped the back of her head. “Stop arguing with me. This is how we do it. We take care of our own, and you’re part of the family. Each one of us would lay our life down for you. Understand?”

  She nodded. Family?

  “Nobody’s paying you to watch out for me, right?” she whispered.

  His eyes narrowed, and he said, “No, babe. Stop going into the past. I’m doing it because you’re my woman. We’ve had this discussion, and I’m tired of explaining it to you. You either trust me or not. What’s it gonna be?”

  She gazed around the room. Even though they were having a private discussion, everyone appeared ill at ease, waiting for her to answer their boss. She clutched his vest, raised herself to her tiptoes, and pulled him down to whisper, “I trust you.”

  He grinned and kissed her hard, claiming her with his tongue for all to see. She got over her embarrassment and returned the kiss. When he finished, she curved against his side and let him support her while her legs stopped trembling.

  “Okay, we’re done here. Tori’s on board. Let’s go about our day and be ready for tonight. Six o’clock, everyone comes back.” Rain led her over to the bar.

  Taylor ran up to her and pulled her away from Rain, hugging her. “I knew you were perfect for him.”

  “Me?”

  “Yeah, you. You have all the answers to love, my friend.” Taylor grinned. “You’ve healed Rain. I thought after Crystal, he’d give up on having another woman in his bed. She burned him so bad. I thought he’d grind her in the dirt. She’s such a bitch, and I was stupid. I actually tried to be her friend.”

  She watched Rain walk behind the counter. “I can’t imagine him with her. She’s a bitch.”

  “Be happy she isn’t around anymore and count yourself lucky you won’t have to deal with her.” Taylor’s lip curled.

  “Oh, I’ve met her.”

  “What?” Taylor grabbed her arms. “Spill, chica. And how the hell did you survive?”

  She laughed. “Why does everyone underestimate me?”

  “Well, duh, you’re sweet and you’re always giving everyone advice and helping them.” Taylor shook her head. “Does Rain know you’ve had to deal with Crystal?”

  “Yeah, he was there. She wants him back, and caused a scene at the end of our date that didn’t make Rain too happy. I gave her some friendly advice and sent her on her way. Now that I know the whole story about what she did to Rain and everyone here, I wish I would’ve scratched her eyes out or popped one of her fake boobs.”

  “Oh, girlfriend. You are one of us.” Crystal laughed. “I wish I could’ve seen the look on her face when you went all goody two shoes on her.”

  She slapped Taylor’s arm. “Get out. I am not a prude.”

  “Damn right.” Rain’s arms wound around her from behind her. “She’s no prude.”

  She smiled at Taylor. “See? He’ll turn me into a biker chick yet.”

  Taylor’s mouth came open. No words came out. She laughed. Glad the mood had shifted to a lighter subject, she leaned her head against Rain. “I do want to talk to you about tonight.”

  “End of subject, babe.” He kissed her quick. “I’ve got lunch going for you in the kitchen. Afterward, you’re going with me to check on my businesses.”

  “Do we get to ride the bike?” she asked, hopeful for more time on his motorcycle.

  He chuckled. “No, we’re taking the truck.”

  Over the next hour, she ate lunch by herself as Rain dealt with other problems he needed to see to, and Taylor went back to waiting tables. Her disappointment over taking the truck vanished knowing she’d get to spend the time with Rain, and since they wouldn’t be riding the wind, they’d hear each other talk. The need to know every aspect of his life, how he managed to handle all the businesses he owned, and be a leader in a two-hundred-member biker club fascinated her. She’d never met anyone like him in her travels.

  Sure, she’d met rich people who lived the high life in their Maseratis and Gucci suits, but not one of them wore leather and fought with their hands to keep everyone they loved safe. Along that path, she’d met people who scrounged around for the daily dollar deal coffee — straight black, smaller cup — and would give her the clothes off their back if she asked. Both groups kept things interesting, but she had no idea where a millionaire biker stood in life.

  Especially one who threatened violence as if he’d announced he was buying a pool for the backyard. She rubbed the handle of the fork on the table. In a sense, he was a lot like her. He didn’t fit in a neat little box.

  “Hey, babe, ready?” He leaned over in front of her.

  “Yeah.” She waved to Taylor and Slade. “Let’s go check out the town.”

  “Bozo,” he mumbled, chuckling.

  “I’m starting to believe you had a bad experience at a circus when you were younger.” She slid her fingers into his hand.

  “Nah. No circus. No cheap entertainment. Dad didn’t figure those kinds of things into my childhood.” He shrugged and opened the door. “We do what we have to do.”

  “You’re not bitter about your dad drinking?” She walked beside him out to the truck and climbed in.

  He pulled the seatbelt around her, gave her a kiss, and sighed. “No reason to wish for something different when that’s the best he could do. He fell into the bottle. It’s a sickness, just like your dad, babe. He could no more fix his problems than my parents could … he lost the battle, and unfortunately, you suffered. It doesn’t reflect on you.”

  She watched him in stunned silence as he shut the door, walked around the front of the truck, and climbed into the driver’s seat. The biggest whoosh of confidence filled her veins. He wasn’t giving her something expecting something in return. He was giving her something immense and powerful. A sample o
f what she could have if she let go of the past the way he wanted her to.

  “Tell me about your brother,” she asked.

  He threw his arm across the back of the bench seat and put the truck in reverse. When he pulled out onto the main road, he glanced at her. “Not much to say. He’s two years older than me, and he’s whipped.”

  “Whipped?”

  “He’s married, and even though she plays around on him, he stays.” He rolled down his window and stuck his elbow out.

  “Does he have kids?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. That’s about the only thing he has going for him. He knows she’d make a horrible mother the way she acts, and he won’t have one of his kids brought up without two parents fully parenting.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Derek.”

  She pondered the information. “Does he know she cheats?”

  “Yep.” He glanced over at her. “Damn. You’re trying to figure out how to fix him, aren’t you?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Give it up. He doesn’t want help,” he said.

  “You’ve tried?”

  He nodded. “He doesn’t want to leave. Claims to love her, and believes she’ll stop.”

  “Hm … ”

  She found it hard to believe his brother could be that much different from him, since they grew up together. Rain possessed a strong personality. How he described his brother, Derek would be his polar opposite. “Is that the only thing you don’t like about him?”

  “He’s my brother. I don’t like what he’s allowing Denise to do to him, but it’s his life. As long as he stays with her, he can stay away from me. All he’s doing is hurting himself. If he doesn’t want to take my help, then he can figure it out on his own.”

  “You love him?” She gazed out the window.

  Family dynamics fascinated her. She remembered her parents before things went bad, the horrible period before and during the murder-suicide, and her experience in foster care afterward until she turned eighteen. Those six years taught her no family was perfect. Unfortunately, she’d lived in three families where the kids were the least important thing in her foster parents’ minds.

  “What about you?”

  She turned. “What do you mean?”

  “Family. Who did you stay with after you lost your parents?”

  “I was under the care of the state for six years.” She reached over and held his hand. “But I do have an older half-brother. Ethan’s eleven or twelve years older than me. When Mom left Ethan’s dad — that’s Mom’s first husband — and got married to my dad, Ethan stayed with his father. I’ve only seen him once … I think I was seven or eight. I don’t even know him, really.”

  “He didn’t step up and take care of you?”

  She shook her head. “No. Not that I expected anything from him. I didn’t. He didn’t like my dad, and blamed my mom for divorcing his dad. He refused to have anything to do with my family.”

  “He was a man, though.” Rain pulled into Shift’s Garage.

  Wanting to change the subject, she took off her seatbelt. “So, give me the details. You own Shift’s Garage, the hotel, the bar, right?”

  “Yeah.” He pointed down the street. “See that yellow house up there on the corner of Main Street?”

  “Mm hm.” She took in the small, cottage-style house with the fresh paint and white shutters. A white picket fence lined the postcard-sized yard. A flag hung off the front porch.

  “That’s where I grew up,” he said.

  “It’s adorable.” She meant it, too. Occasionally she’d allow herself to think about settling in some small town, buying a house no bigger than a two bedroom, and trying her hand at domestic living. “Who lives there now?”

  “Slade and his woman rented it — now it’s just him.” He opened the door.

  She hurried around and joined him on the other side. “Slade seems nice.”

  “He’s a good guy. He’s been renting the place from me for the last five or six years.”

  “You own the house?”

  He chuckled. “Don’t sound surprised. I’ve worked hard for everything I’ve bought.”

  “Hang on.” She stopped. “Can I ask you something nosy?”

  He stopped and turned around. “Yeah?”

  “How did you go from struggling to owning half the town?” She shielded her eyes against the sunshine.

  Rain dropped his gaze and stared at the ground in front of her feet. She tilted her head. “If it’s too personal, you don’t — ”

  “Drugs.” He pulled his sunglasses off the top of his head and covered his eyes. “Now, if you’re done asking a million questions, I got business to see to.”

  She blinked, unable to move. Drugs? He hated the Lagsturns for dealing in his territory. How could he …

  Oh, shit. Rain was a drug dealer, and in a street war with Lagsturns. No wonder it wasn’t safe for her to be here.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  While Rain talked to Pete, his head manager at Shift’s Garage, Tori stayed at the door. She kept glancing around at the room, the door, the employees, to Rain, and contemplating if she wanted to run.

  “Send the books over on Friday, and we’ll see about getting a couple new air tools for you.” Rain slapped Pete on the shoulder. “How’s the new generator work for the air compressor?”

  “Hell, that baby is sweet.” Pete rocked back on his heels. “Cut the time on rotations down by a minute and a half. Guys are thrilled about that.”

  “Good.” He lifted his chin and moved away. “Call if you need anything.”

  “Will do, boss.” Pete hitched the top of his coveralls over his shoulders and slid his arms in. “Oh, hey, I’m stopping at the bar later. Got a huge party I’m throwing and promised the guys something … you know?”

  Rain winked. “I got you covered. Got a shipment in yesterday.”

  “Great.” Pete rubbed his hands together and walked off.

  Rain caught Tori’s gaze, and approached her. “Sorry it took so long.”

  She bit her lip and looked away.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” she mumbled.

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her through the waiting room, around the front desk, and into the break room. “Talk.”

  “I have nothing to say.” She clamped her lips together.

  “Bad habit, babe.” Rain pinned her against the wall. “I know one way to get your lips to relax and move.”

  “Rain, don’t — ”

  He captured her lips. She groaned in protest, yet her mouth opened, and she allowed him to hold her against the wall as her body betrayed her mind and she tuned in to him.

  He broke the kiss, keeping his body against her. “Now, tell me what’s got you freaked.”

  “You dealt drugs,” she hissed, pushing against his chest. “How could you!”

  “What?” He laughed.

  “You, Mister-badass-rich-and-famous, bought everything with your drug money.” She shoved him hard enough he stepped away from her. “I’m stuck here because you’re in some stupid drug war with the Lagsturns.”

  “That — ”

  “Please, don’t say anything.” She covered her forehead with the palm of her hand. “I need to think.”

  “About what?”

  “Our situation. I can’t stay here. Taylor was right. I’m a prude. Drugs are stupid, and people who use them or sell them or stick them up their ass to hide them are — Oh, my God — do the Lagsturns think I work for you?”

  “Babe — ”

  “Take me back to my truck.” She walked around him, and he hooked her waist. “I’m serious. I need to get away from here.”

  “You’d leave me?” He raised h
is brows and waited. “Seriously, babe?”

  The disappointment etched into his face stopped her cold. Her stomach rolled, and she frowned. Even though she was connecting Rain to a drug war in which she was now involved, she’d never thought of the repercussions of having a relationship with the leader of the Bantorus.

  “I … ” She swallowed. “Oh, God.”

  He dropped his hand from her. She stared at him, surprised to find she was scared of walking away and hating herself for second-guessing her conviction on what was right and wrong. How could she even think of staying with him?

  Depressed that she’d lower herself to staying with a man who ruined other people’s lives so he could buy himself the rest of the town, she planted her hands on her hips and faced him. “How could you?”

  “Tori.” He growled. “You have no fu — ”

  “There’s a lot of things I could forgive Rain, but that’s not one of them. You might think you’re dealing with adults and giving adults something to ease … whatever they’re trying to escape or seek, but kids end up doing drugs. Kids! People die every day for that habit.” She closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them, she couldn’t look at him. “How could I be so stupid not to see the truth?”

  It was all because he was willing to give her everything she was afraid to dream about on her own, and he forced her to let go of the past when she was with him. She looked away from the hurt, away from the truth. She was falling in love with him, and she couldn’t stop.

  “You know what?” His keys jingled. “Take them. Drive back to the bar, load up your shack, and go.”

  The cold, defeated voice punched her in the stomach. She grabbed the keys from him, whirled around, pushed through the door, and ran across the parking lot. She moved faster to outrun the pain of Rain letting her go. That was what she’d wanted.

  She’d asked every day since he claimed her as his woman to allow her to leave Pitman, to leave him, to leave the terror that came with depending on someone else and taking the chance she’d end up hurting him. And she had hurt him. Not only breaking her heart in the process, but spilling every dark secret she hid inside. Her father was right. The blood that flowed in her veins corrupted everything she touched, and she would do anything to keep Rain safe.