Dannika Dark - Six Months

My heart seized in my chest and a cold sweat touched my brow. Pool balls cracked on my left and a blonde at the bar swiveled in her seat, targeting Reno as her prey. She had on cherry-red pumps and a white pencil skirt. She swung her hips as she made her way toward him and then suddenly turned around as if she were giving him a modeling show. Shifter women turned their backs to men they were interested in. It’s something I started noticing on our trips out, except with the waitresses who always kept that kind of behavior in check.

But Reno paid no attention. His eyes scanned the bar and my throat became as dry as the Sahara Desert. My elbows were glued to the jukebox, and the idiot in the flannel shirt kept yammering on about taking a walk to the parking lot. But I couldn’t take my eyes off the striking man across the bar. Maybe it was the drink, or maybe it was the fact I thought Reno was the sexiest man I’d ever seen, but I got warm and tingly.

Reno reached in his back pocket and pulled out his phone. His eyes swung to Denver at the bar and suddenly shot straight ahead, landing on me. I glanced over at Denver and when he hung up his phone, it all became clear.

“Holy smokes, this is bad,” I murmured.

Stu stepped in front of me and blocked my view. I tried peering around him, but he dodged his head and smiled, trying to make some eye contact.

“You’re hard to get.”

“I’m taken,” I said, looking up to show off my collar again.

“Yeah, which one is the big and bad Maddox?”

“That would be me,” Maddox said in a voice that made my blood run cold. He was wearing his hat, which made him even more menacing because it obscured his eyes.

The Shifter stood up straight and turned his head to look at Maddox, who showed off his mean face. I knew the man to be gentle, but anyone who pissed him off got the jagged edge of the knife.

“See that collar?” Maddox reached for my wrist and gently wrapped his fingers around it. “That says she’s mine .”

“A little young for an old dog like you,” the man taunted.

Maddox looked at him like a predator, tugging me real tight against his left side. “I ain’t no dog, and you should watch your tongue or I might be tempted to cut it out and feed it to you between two slices of bread.”

I grimaced as the Shifter’s eyes darted between us. It didn’t look as though he wanted to take any chances on calling his bluff, so he shook his head and walked away.

“Why do men always have to lay down vicious threats?” I said, still buzzing from my drink.

He stroked his finger across the collar on my neck. “I don’t make threats. I simply state the facts. I want you to come back to the table and sit beside me. I have some business to take care of, so come grace us with your pretty smile.”

It was hard to look pretty when Maddox insisted that I wear heavy makeup. I think he wanted me to look older than I was. He always made sure that when we went to a Breed bar, I had my lashes curled and cheeks blushed.

Maddox had been including me in on meetings I had no business attending. It might have been strategic so I’d need his protection, or maybe he was beginning to trust me. I was more inclined to believe the former.

He led me to the table with a gentle tug. When I froze mid-step, he peered over his shoulder and chuckled.

Maddox had no clue that I knew the man sitting at our table.

Intimately.

“Sorry about that, gentleman. Men can’t seem to help themselves, but she’s as loyal as they come.”

Reno was sitting in the chair in front of us but hadn’t turned around. I smelled his cologne and felt a pang of regret as memories flooded my mind of that wonderful night we’d curled up in my bed, listening to blues while it rained outside. When he casually glanced over his shoulder and looked up at me, it felt as if I’d been stung with quiet judgment. I wanted to tell him I wasn’t sleeping with Maddox, but what did it matter?

“This is my girl, April. Show some manners or I’ll have words with you, Cole. Let’s get down to business,” he said, settling in his chair and kicking mine out on his left.

Thank God for Devil’s Eye or my nerves might have resulted in me flipping the table over. Instead, I coolly sat in my chair with Reno directly across from me, Maddox to my right, and Randall to my left. I kept my hands folded in front of my chin, obscuring my collar.

“I still want to see her ID,” Randall said, snorting into his glass as he took a drink. “I thought you went for the cougars.”

Maddox narrowed his steely eyes and patted my leg, turning his attention to Reno. Little did he notice that every muscle in Reno’s face had turned to marble, and I barely saw his lips because they were so tightly mashed together. He tipped his head at me in a gesture that spoke volumes.

Reno didn’t know me.

At least as far as Maddox and Randall were concerned.

“So what’s your business with me, Cole?”

Reno rested his right arm on the table and lifted two fingers to a waitress named Rosie, signaling he wanted what Maddox was having. “Did you know a human named Charles Langston?”

Oh my God. They were talking about Charlie, my old boss .

Maddox twisted a few hairs on his beard. “Anything’s possible. Want to tell me why you’re askin’?”

“I’m a PI and he’s one of my cases. Langston had payments going into your pocket, and now he’s gone missing.”

“Dead is the word I think you were searching for,” Maddox corrected, leaning back in his chair and putting his arm around me.

I thought I saw Reno flinch, but he kept his eyes locked on Maddox. “What was he paying you for?”

My eyes glazed, and I smiled at Randall who silently chuckled and sipped his drink.

“Charles took out a substantial loan. Sonofabitch died before finishing out his payments, and I got no family to call on for the rest. Ain’t that a bitch?”

I stayed quiet since Maddox didn’t seem aware that I knew Charlie, but I was itching to say something.

“Honey, why don’t you go and make the boys jealous for a little while?”

In other words, get lost.

“I’d rather keep you company,” I insisted, placing my hands on the table.

Maddox brushed a fallen strand of hair away from my neck and tilted up my chin, exposing the collar I’d been desperately trying to hide since I sat down. I jumped at the sound of Reno’s chair scraping against the wood floor. He loomed above the table and spoke aggressively. “I need to get a stronger drink. Get rid of the girl and we’ll talk.”

He looked scary mad. My face flushed from the intensity of his gaze, which wasn’t on my eyes but on the fabric wrapped around my neck, which he hadn’t noticed before. With recognition in his eyes, Reno now understood that I’d left him to become another man’s pet.

“Go on, April. Get.” Maddox yanked my chair back. When it came to business, he didn’t mess around, and the look in his eyes put a fright in me.

Realizing I wasn’t going to win this argument, I left the table.

When Reno entered the bar, he’d been gearing up to fight Maddox for information on Charlie. He’d had no idea he would end up wanting to kill the man because of April. Reno hadn’t seen her since the night she left the house. When Denver gave him a quick ring on his phone and told him to look straight ahead, Reno almost lost his cool.

Seeing that damn choker around her neck had incited an explosive reaction that had him out of his chair, two seconds from pulling out his gun and taking care of Maddox. Buried feelings resurfaced for April—protective and territorial feelings. Maybe a human would have turned the anger on her, but it incited a deep-seated instinct to protect what he loved. That’s when he knew he hadn’t gotten over April.