CHAPTER
ONE
Sawyer
I wince as the phone chimes. It’s early, I know that much. I ignore the ringing and roll over, pulling the comforter over my head.
It rings again. I crack an eye open, about to lean over and throw the damn thing until I hear the ringtone.Goddamn it.
Nova has been meddling with my phone again, the little sneak.
I know this because ‘Baby Got Back’ blares at the loudest decibel. For one, I’m sure I don’t own that song, and second, it’s just like Nova to pull a stunt like this and call me in the middle of the night just for kicks. She’s become a friend. One of my best friends, to be exact.
We flirt, but we’ve crossed no boundaries. That could be because I work for her three older cousins who are all in various stages of utterly terrifying. The Nomad Brothers. Aka, the Dawson family.
Brew and Haze are both bikers with the NOLA Rebels MC, as am I, and Logan just does his own thing—running a bar downtown on Bourbon Street. The Whiskey Straight is a divebar, really, but the clientele like it that way. As long as Logan has that baseball bat handy under the bar and a handful of bikers acting as bouncers, there’s not usually much trouble.
Nova, however? The definition of trouble.
It’s weird being friends with someone you’re attracted to, but crossing that line would mean I’d get my face pummeled in by each of the Nomad Brothers in equal measures. I work in security for them. My primary job is hacking and finding all kinds of new and interesting ways to get information fast. Most of the time it isn’t legal, but there are ways to cover your tracks. They give me free reign to do what needs to be done, and it works well. I even have my own office.
How I got into doing that is a long story.
Right now, I need to stop that damn phone ringing.
I roll closer to the edge of the bed, grab the phone off the nightstand, and then it stops ringing.
A few seconds later, it starts up again.
I swipe the green icon. “Very funny, Princess. I’m wide awake. It’s hilarious now, but you’re gonna be payin’ for this in the mornin’.”
“Sawyer?” Nova sounds weird. Her voice is shaky and muffled, as if she’s been crying.
I sit bolt upright in bed. “Nova? What’s wrong?”
“I-I’m at this party, and things got outta hand, and—can you come get me?”
I’m already propping my phone between my shoulder and my ear as I pull my jeans on. “Where are you? Do not say in a back alley.”
Nova isn’t stupid, but she lands herself in some pretty tight predicaments at the drop of a hat. Keeping her out of trouble has become one of my main jobs as herbestie.
“I had to, a fight broke out at this bar, and then everyone started brawling, and to top it off… I think I saw him.”
“Saw who?” I’m tugging on my shirt and trying to pull on my boots at the same time.
“Him.”
Oh. Her ex.
Bobby.
“Youthinkyou did, or youdid?”
“I’m sure I did, plus something felt off all night.”
“Where are your friends?”
Come to think of it, she has been hanging out with a couple of new girls lately, and clearly they are nowhere to be found if she’s calling me. Or maybe they’re in trouble too?